"Angels or Dragons? How to prepare your business for investment"

Funding a business remains one of the most critical issues faced by every startup. Unless you can quickly generate cashflow to either support your vision for the organic growth of the company or convince a bank to lend to a business with no track record, you will invariably find yourself seeking wealthy individuals who are willing to come onboard with both money and expertise.

But who are these business angels? How should you approach them and what can you do to prepare in order to ensure that your company stands out from the crowd?

At the meetup, Dug will run through the various issues involved in preparing your business for investment before handing over to Shahida Imani, COO of AV9 Limited, a digital media business which provides opportunities for music artists to reach international markets. Shahida has been involved in a number of technology businesses over the years and is well-versed in the trials and tribulations of trying to convince investors to buy into a company's vision by parting with their hard-earned cash!

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'Tech Law for Startups' is a monthly meetup for individuals planning, developing and growing high-growth businesses, primarily (but not exclusively) based around new technologies. By providing an open forum for individuals to come along to share their knowledge and experiences, we are building a network of people who can learn and support each other in dealing with business issues.

The meetups are intended to be an informative but light-hearted look at the hurdles, pitfalls and opportunities involved in growing a new business. The format is as follows:

5:30 - 6:00 Registration/beer/networking
6:00 - 7:00 Talk followed by Q&A
7:00 onwards Beer/pizza/networking

The events are free to attend but we do ask that you register beforehand for catering purposes. This particular topic is likely to be popular so please register in good time. In the event that the attendance limit is reached, we will run a waiting list so if you are unable to attend please let us know as soon as possible in order to enable us to release your place to another on the waiting list.

In the meantime, please follow us on twitter (@techlaw4startup) and feel free to suggest any particular topics that you would like covered at an upcoming meetup.

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BIOGRAPHY: SHAHIDA IMANI

Shahida has a wealth of experience, having spent more than 10 years in the Scottish technology arena. A CIMA-qualified accountant, her recent engagements have encompassed the technology, software and renewable energy industries predominantly for emerging venture capital backed companies. She has led the financial management of businesses working closely with the executive management team in some of the most successful Scottish technology companies of recent years, including Optos plc, Voxar Limited and more recently with Mpathy Medical and Lab901. She has extensive experience of the financial, operational and commercial requirements within a business and supporting major strategic initiatives such as securing equity, acquisitions, takeovers, grant funding and global expansion (including Far East Asia and USA), but also ensuring that robust scalable financial systems and processes are in place to support rapidly growing businesses.

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