The CEO and founder of Seedrs has decided to step sideways to allow a new CEO to take charge.
This will free Jeff Lynn up pursue his 'moonshots' according to the platform. It is not possible to do both and he admits that being a CEO is not really his forte - which is honest.
We will have to wait and see if this changes anything. Whilst Seedrs is considerably better than Crowdcube in all areas, they have recently succumbed to some blatant PRinging and not being entirely open about the facts. Hopefully the new CEO, who is the old COO, will correct this.
Adding to their wage bill at the top end doesnt seem very sensible at the moment - with all the uncertainty in the market. But if Jeff couldnt manage it, it maybe for the best in the long run; if there is one. One thing that might concern SHs is that whilst the credentials of the new CEO are good, they are certainly not in start ups or SMEs. So you might ask how is that going to work with a company that focuses almost exclusively on funding these types of businesses? He joined in January 2017 so has had very little experience in this sector. Im not a SH so really it's just an observation.
This seems a bit unfair. The new CEO does appear to have done his time in start-ups and scale ups, and he looked instrumental in building them to exit. He doesn't have much experience in the sector directly, but he's experienced fundraising and investment. It's not THAT complicated to get to grips with.
ReplyDeletesorry I must have missed something - which start ups??
DeleteSeems like a prudent move and one that comes from a lack of ego rather than too much ego.
ReplyDeleteThey could do with also looking for a new nominee which is not controlled as 100% shareholder and havinga single director who is also the chairman. In most of the inevstments on seedrs i have the nominee has performed abymally and if there was a genuine 3rd party arrangement they woudl have been terminated long ago. A clear conflict of interests that do not appear to halp investors and lose any credilibity they have.
ReplyDelete