Cambridge Entrepreneurs: In the Business of Technology [Paperback]

Since then, the number of hi-tech companies in and around Cambridge has grown to around 1,200 and the supply of venture capital and supporting infrastructure and services has made it increasingly possible for businesses to start-up and flourish in the area, particularly in the IT and Life Sciences sectors. It has provided the opportunity for some great businessmen and women to emerge - individuals with true entrepreneurial flair.

Over the past 2 years, journalist Lindy Beveridge has interviewed a selection of Cambridge's most exciting and successful entrepreneurs. These 41 interviews, most of which first appeared in Cambridge's entrepreneurial newspaper Business Weekly, have now been assembled under one title - Cambridge Entrepreneurs: In the business of technology published by Granta Editions.

The profiles include university dons, those who have made their millions and moved on to other projects, serial entrepreneurs, late starters, godfathers and a new wave of recent business founders. All the adventures of entrepreneurs are chronicled here - the honing of innovative ideas, the search for funding, the hectic growth, the discovery of oneself and the addiction to the excitement and challenge of growing a world-class business.

The Cambridge Entrepreneurs include:

Stan Boland, David Chiswell, Peter Dawe, Chris Evans, Paul Kelly, Robin Saxby, Adam Twiss, Alex Van Someren, Mark Bodmer, Stephen Ives, Daniel Roach, John Snyder, Henry Azima, Iain Cubitt, Richard Dixey, Maureen Donnelly, Alastair Riddell, Chris Wade, Charles Cotton, Martin Davies, Daniel Hall, Phil O'Donovan, Ali Pourtaheri, Richard Friend, Andy Hopper, Alan Munro, Greg Winter, Steve Young, David Cleevely, Gordon Edge, Alan Goodman, Hermann Hauser, Walter Herriot, Roger Needham, Pilgrim Beart, Andrew Dames, Caroline Garey, Suzie Gilbert, Jonathan Milner, Melinda Rigby, Davin Yip

Each of these executives has succeeded in creating a concept and set about turning it into a multi-million pound business reality. This book offers a detailed insight into:

What they have achieved and how they did it
What motivated them to succeed and, in some cases, to do it again
The personal qualities and skills that helped them reach and often surpass their goals
Their own reflections on how they came to be what they are today

Who will read Cambridge Entrepreneurs

Anyone planning to start a company and succeed, especially in the hi-tech sector
Business schools and training centres
Conference organisers
Academic departments devoted to Management Studies
All those involved in IT and Life Sciences on an international basis
Anyone associated with companies founded by these entrepreneurs
Local Cambridge business communities
Venture capitalists, bankers and professional advisers
Journalists The international reputation of Cambridge's Silicon Fen remains indented by the recent downturn in technology stocks and fluctuation in the world's leading economies.

As a centre of high-tech entrepreneurship, Cambridge vies on equal terms with Silicon Valley in California and Rote 128 in Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE ENTREPRENEURS profiles 41 of the players in the entrepreneurial game, with the principal focus on how they came to be in business or became involved in other roles.

Are entrepreneurs born or made by their opportunities and interests? How much does the surrounding environment contribute to their motivation and to their chances of success? All around the world, economists and politicians are interested in establishing an entrepreneurial business climate. The dramatis personae in this desirable scenario are the entrepreneurs themselves. In recent years, Cambridge has become the UK's leading centre for entrepreneurial business, especially in the high-tech sector.

In these profiles, a selection of its high-tech entrepreneurs record their observations on their ambitions when they started out in life, tell us how they came to start their business and how they found backing - and reveal what they think about the technologies they are pioneering and the problems of addressing worldwide competition.

Cambridge Entrepreneurs is a must for every business school library, every economics department, and every research facility linked to high technology.

Lindy Beveridge, the author, is an Oxford graduate who has lived in Cambridge since the end of the 1960s. For more than twenty years she has been involved with the local high-tech industry and with the Cambridge Science Park, mainly in the role of public relations consultant.

Published by Granta Editions, an imprint of Book Production Consultants plc with headquarters in Cambridge, and sponsored by HSBC, CAMBRIDGE ENTREPRENEURS should be the inspiration for the entrepreneurs of the 21st Century.