Ariadne Investor Forum

Ariadne Capital wanted to come together for a little bonding, idea swapping, and engineered connections before we hit the summer to showcase our companies' greatness and to efficiently get some work done for our entrepreneurs. So we hosted our first one day, all-day Investor Forum on the 28th of June at the IOD in London.

We're an unusual investment firm as we are 'all about the entrepreneur'. Most investment firms are about financial engineering rather than company building. Our unfair advantage has always been that the best entrepreneurs know us and want to work with us, and that we are company builders ourselves. Our 42 founding investor members have built some of the world's leading firms and brands - WorldPay, BetFair, Hotmail, SES Astra - and they have the kind of generosity of spirit that can only come from a successful entrepreneur who remembers the help he or she had along the way.

There was something very unique about each of the speakers, panellists and the CEO's of our companies who presented on the 28th of June. They have taken the words of Jerry Garcia to heart: "You don't want to be the best of the best, you want to be the only people who do what you do." Each entrepreneur at the Forum sees the shape of a very specific market opportunity, and is leveraging all of their intellect, energy, capital, and charm to make it happen. They engage Ariadne to accelerate their growth. Catching a train which is going 200 mph an hour, and then accelerating it *is* a tall order but_that's_what_we_do.

Candace Johnson, founder of SES Astra, one of Ariadne's 42 founding investor members, and one of the world's leading telecoms entrepreneurs, always says, and it sums it up perfectly for me and most entrepreneurs when she says:

"Lead, Follow or Get Out Of The Way" ...

Please find the keynotes and panel discussions below by clicking through to the various names, and drop us a line on ariadnejournal@ariadnecapital.com if you'd like to be invited next time.

• Brent Hoberman
• Christina Domecq
• Jack Lang
• Marin Muyser
• Nick Ogden
• Sabeer Bhatia
• Consumer Financial Services Panel
• The Future of Digital Music Panel
• E-Commerce Panel
• The Gaming Panel

Here's to those who press on regardless.

The pioneers.
The leaders.
The survivors.
The big-thinkers.
The innovators.
The action-takers.
The movers.
The shakers.

Their bold vision, leaps of faith, and steely determination have shaped their success.

KODI YAMUDA