An Introduction To Stewart McClean – North East Regional Director

Written on July 5, 2011 – 9:29 am | by Michael Harris

Stewart currently heads up the Yorkshire & North East Division of Angels Den, the largest Angel Network in Europe.

Running Angels Den is more than a full time position; it’s a calling, a duty that he enjoys. “Seeing young start ups receive their initial funding and getting started in business is what Angels Den is all about.” And Stewart should know having been in the same situation as most of his clients many times before. “I know what it is like to start a company from scratch and literally have no money to fund it. There were times in the past where I needed money so badly I had to pay the staff in office furniture until I could raise enough to pay their actual wages, and I still have some of that furniture in my garage complete with the owner’s name!” Investment can play a major part in any business, especially with start-ups when cashflow is tight and every penny counts.

Stewart found out in the early days that the banks had their own view on a business. You might believe that you have the next killer product/service/app under development, but the bank needs to see proof, and proof usually means sales and sales means cashflow, so why do you need a bank? Tricky isn’t it? The only other option is to convince someone who has ‘available cash’ to invest in you and your business. This is where Stewart found that he had a knack of convincing people to believe in him. He found it very difficult to find these ‘available cash’ people at first, but once he had found them he could usually turn a meeting into money.

His first attempt at raising money didn’t work very well and he was lucky to meet a seasoned investor at that meeting who gave him an excellent tip; “sell yourself Stewart, not your product” was his advice. “If all I wanted was to invest in a product, I could buy something myself and simply sell it on.” This tip stuck firmly in Stewart’s head and he passes this on to everyone he meets who is looking for investment. “The Investors look for synergy, they look for someone who they can relate to and work with” is usually Stewart’s opening line when chatting at his advice clinic. “A product is something that is developed or made over time, but an attraction or connection is usually made in the first ten seconds.” is his next piece of advice.

Stewart has raised over £5 million in investments for himself and companies who he has worked for. In the investment field he is streetwise and has connections upon connections sticking to the old adage that ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’. Stewart says; “If you know one Business Angel, you are only one separation away from five more. Get to know them and that figure grows to twenty five overnight.” This is one of the reasons he got involved with Angels Den. There are more than three thousand, five hundred Business Angels registered with them so it takes the hard work out of building your own connections.

Five facts about Stewart that you should know:

He is very passionate about investments and tries to help everyone who shows commitment and enthusiasm in their own business. He believes that anyone can raise investment; you just need to be talking to the right people at the right time. He can help you do that in many ways, but it isn’t easy and you have to be prepared to go through the bad times to get to the good. “Entrepreneur is not a name you should give yourself; it is an award for achievement given to you by your peers” said Stewart at a recent dinner given to promote start ups in the area. “Experience the good with the bad, then you can truly wear the Entrepreneur’s badge.”
Stewart lived in Malta for three years where he raised £3 million to refurbish one of the islands largest hotels and build its first water park. After learning how to use a computer and CAD he returned to the UK in 1991 and opened a Computer Aided Design training school, Cyba³with assistance from a local grant of £25,000.
Stewart’s company, Cyba³, was the UK’s first 3D animation school for the digital games market. At that time, 80% of the animation jobs were unfilled because of the lack of trained 3D designers and animators. Stewart’s ‘home taught’ CAD skills gave him the idea to learn and train at the same time. Within one year, all of the local games companies that had suddenly sprung up in the digital boom were ordering staff before they were even trained.
Stewart carried Cyba3 forward into a new company, CYBAHOUS Limited, where he had his first taste of Venture Capital funds of £600,000 and developed a brand new Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) solution. It was the first VOIP solution that would allow users to talk to and see other users over the internet. VOIP wasn’t new, but the solution was a ‘many to many’ service which had Skype very worried!
In 2002, after selling CYBAHOUS Limited Stewart started to develop his internet video skills and came up with TComm TV, the first ever Television on a Mobile Phone. Backed by a syndicate of Business Angels to the tune of £300,000 his solution was way ahead of its time. Stewart introduced the solution to O2 who promptly turned it down saying that it wasn’t ready to offer such a service. The solution was eventually launched at the 3G Cannes tradeshow where a Korean company snapped up the service.
Mobile video was soon to become the norm and Stewart worked on various new solutions until he had a request from the cycle division of his local constabulary who wanted to know if he could develop a camera for their helmets that would receive and store data. Stewart went one better and developed another UK first, SurvayaCam; body worn surveillance that could record and transmit video and audio data over GPRS, 3G, WiFi and eventually HSDPA. The UK emergency services were very excited about the development, but again Stewart came up against the same thing; they weren’t ready for it yet! Luckily the Americans were and when Stewart went to Bermuda to raise £250,000 for further development he received an offer of £500,000 and a new partner. The Boca Raton businessmen got an almost immediate yes to their offer and the US beckoned.

From his early days in Malta, through to current climes, Stewart has raised or had a hand in raising more than £20 million. His knowledge is very ‘streetwise’, preferring to be in the presenting role rather than the accounting one. He knows his clients and he know what his Angel colleagues are looking for. To him, it’s just a matter of joining the dots. “SpeedFunding plays a huge part in the way I can be successful in finding funds. It’s a no-nonsense, quick and efficient way for putting two people together. It works for Speed Dating and it works for us.”

Stewart has had two motto’s or hooks attached to his businesses and services; 1/ Developing tomorrow’s technology today and 2/ We help put the pieces together for you. He lived up to the first one through the good and the bad and now helps others by living up to the second one.

His personal website says it all. In a personal testimonial one client said; “I believe in Money Management and Stewart McLean is a ‘Money Manager’; he saves where savings are available and he finds money when funds are available.

You can keep up-to-date with all the SpeedFunding events in the North East here.

Perfect Business!