Randy Stewart Thompson – chairman of Valhalla Private Capital, managing director of Old Kent Road Financial and co-owner of Peterborough United Football Club – has opened up about how best to nurture North America’s startup ecosystem.
Discussing the risk of being seen as a “soul crusher” by entrepreneurs, Randy explained: “If you bring me a really horrible idea, my job is not to be the soul crusher - my job is actually to say ‘I'm not interested, but if I could put you on these steps for the next 90 days…’”
This is achieved through Valhalla’s
Basecamp - an intensive hands-on bootcamp in which entrepreneurs and angel investors can gain expert insight into the startup ecosystem in a bid to “get ahead” in today’s startup ecosystem.
As a result of this approach - which has been finessed through years of pattern recognition (which Randy claims is the company’s “secret tool” - the Valhalla Private Capital CEO maintains that he can help entrepreneurs to gauge whether their business idea “should even be worked on” before they take more serious steps towards their business, such as quitting other jobs in pursuit of startup success.
Randy concluded: “There's a way to be the soul crusher but still give people the move forward, and that goes to what's super important in 2022.”
This viewpoint is maintained by Alan Sugar - British business mogul, chairman of
Amshold
Group (which owns
Amscreen and
Amsprop), founder of Amstrad (which he
sold to Sky for £125 million in 2007) and longstanding host of
The Apprentice,
which is gearing up to release its 16th season to date.
Remarking on his successes, Sugar famously explained: “A good leader is not necessarily the most popular person in their business, but the best ones are liked because they are respected for their clarity and vision.”
Although he is commonly perceived as an intimidating presence on
The Apprentice - in which business heads compete for a chance to work with him - Sugar’s efforts earned him a seat on the Business Council for Britain, as well as a knighthood for his services to business.
Randy has also discussed his
top startup categories for 2022.
Do you have a question about angel investing? Get in touch with Valhalla Private Capital via our
contact page.