Tech trailblazer Sherry Coutu CBE has revealed what she looks for in an entrepreneur seeking investment.
A prolific angel investor and entrepreneur, Coutu has been involved in many big-name companies from Zoopla to Raspberry Pi and LinkedIn.
She was on BusinessCloud’s ‘100 female role models’ list and her influence has also been recognised by many other publications and organisations.
“I love watching hundreds of thousands of people – or millions, in the case of LinkedIn, Zoopla, LoveFilm, DueDil and Raspberry Pi – using stuff I’ve been involved with,” she told BusinessCloud.
“It’s a fantastic feeling to meet customers whose lives have been transformed by things you’ve made happen or helped to make happen.”
Coutu clearly has an eye for successful tech ventures – and revealed her approach to investment.
“I look for an entrepreneur who really wants to solve the problem they have identified and who is driven by that,” she said.
“I particularly look for someone filled with curiosity for a solution rather than a solution looking for a problem.
“For me, the person has to be focused on a problem I feel needs to be fixed and where the timing of the window is ‘now’ or ‘soon’.”
She is now curtailing her investment work to focus on educational website Founders4Schools.
“The need is so great and the solution so simple and high impact – it’s irresistible,” she said.
“There aren’t enough hours in a day to do both well, so I felt I could take a sabbatical from investing to get f4s off the ground.”
Sherry tackles tech’s gender bias, highlights her role models and her hopes for the future in the 2017 Q1 edition of BusinessCloud, out in early February.