Insights

Karan Mehta speaks from experience on how to do unbiased hiring and why everyone wins.

Setting budgets is a cornerstone process of every company, regardless of size. So with no apology for covering the basics, what does best and worst practice looks like?

Your company has three basic choices when it comes to creating a winning Talent pipeline: your own in-house recruiter, an embedded 3rd party...

1. Retain advisers: Above all else, tax and legal advisers should be engaged early on to help you think this through and to understand how to...

Remuneration considerations The US job market is normally cited as setting salary levels above those for similar roles in different geographies....

Tips on conducting a foolproof interview process from remote roles to Benchmarking against competing offers

What insurance policies should you consider? We break down the insurance world into three categories: Mandatory, Sensible, Additional. 1. Mandatory:...

Many founders underestimate how long it will take to establish operations in the US. When planning, many companies found it crucial to have someone...

The companies we back spend a great deal of their time planning their runway and trying not to run out of cash whilst creating big, exciting...

General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) As we edge ever closer to 25 May 2018 when the GDPR becomes enforceable, we have been spending...

Here at Octopus Ventures we back teams because we believe that the people who make up a company are the greatest factor behind its success. When...

Alex Macpherson, Chairperson of Octopus Ventures, with 30 years experience in Venture Capital; Alexander Asseily, Chairperson of Chiaro Technology...

A continuation of Part 1. 1. Calibration Clarity on the remit and responsibilities of the role is the first thing to get right. Why are you making...

Having worked with more than fifty early stage technology businesses over the past decade, there are some clear lessons learnt which I hope to...

What is due diligence and why do investors make so much noise about it? An entrepreneur pitching for investment is in a sales process. Due diligence,...

Prior to joining Octopus as a Venture Partner, Stephen was the CFO of Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) the UK digital media business. Whilst there...

Why have option schemes? At the beginning of the start-up journey there is probably limited cash in the bank. Yet founders want to attract...

Founders are often aware of the need for a ‘share option scheme’. They may be less familiar with how to actually make one happen (see previous...

You have built a high-quality product or service, you have strong traction at home and you have learned from numerous strategies when building...

The importance of IP An e-commerce business, whose strength is largely in its ability to execute sharply with little unique underlying technology,...

  US taxation can be roughly divided into:   Sales Tax Sales tax is a pass-through tax similar to VAT in the UK in that a merchant must collect...

Beyond the basic benefits any US company would provide, there are many and varied ways to attract and maintain the best employees. The diplomacy...

Every year we get thousands of investor decks, both good and bad. Much of the material in a well-produced deck can be used again for sales and...

An introduction to the fundamentals of share capitalisation tables and a range of templates. Share cap tables are not glamorous but they are...