Introduction to SWAIN

The South West Angel and Investor Network (SWAIN) connects private investors, or 'Business Angels', with companies looking for investment. SWAIN specialises in helping small and medium sized companies to find equity finance, and assists private investors in the South West to search for investment opportunities in businesses with growth potential.

SWAIN is an independent not-for-profit company supported by the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) and the South West Business Links which specifically addresses the shortage of risk capital available to small and medium sized companies which has become known as the 'equity gap'. SWAIN is focussed on deal sizes ranging from £25,000 to £750,000 and this concentrates our energy on opportunities, which are too small to be considered by the majority of venture capital institutions.

SWAIN is exempt from the provisions of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and therefore acts as a facilitator and not as an investment advisor. All Investors are always strongly recommended to take professional advice before making any investment related decisions.

SWAIN operates throughout the South West region incorporating the counties of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, former-Avon, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

Our introductions are made in a variety of ways:

	We run a series of Introduction Meetings at which up to six companies give short presentations about their business to potential Business Angels.
	We also circulate details of new opportunities to all those Angels on our Network via the SWAIN UPDATE.
	We provide details of the opportunities available on both our website and through our newsletter SWAINEWS.
	We charge modest membership fees to both our Investors and Companies and success fees when investments are made.

In all cases, having made the initial introduction we leave entrepreneurs, investors and their respective advisors to negotiate terms

SWAIN works with external advisors and entrepreneurs to guide their companies through an Investment Readiness process to ensure that the opportunity is presented in an appropriate and attractive way. Prior to Investment Meetings those companies selected to present will often have an opportunity to test their business proposals with a panel of professionals. Typically the panel would include a corporate financier, lawyer, marketeer, banker and/or a venture capitalist.

 The SWAIN Team

Philip Tellwright

Managing Director

Philip Tellwright brings to SWAIN a comprehensive understanding of investment into the small and medium sized firms market. For the past twenty years he has worked in four varied senior financial roles throughout the South West Region and has a proven track as a professional investor, Corporate Finance advisor and, in industry, as a Finance Director.

As an Investment Controller with 3i where he completed over twenty investments, he spent seven years investing in small and medium sized businesses. He was also responsible for the management of a large portfolio of varied Investments across the South West region.

In 1987 he moved to Hazlewoods, a substantial Gloucestershire based accountancy practice to co-ordinate their Corporate Finance activities. As the Director responsible for the Corporate Development arm he advised on numerous finance raising assignments, and was also successful in merger and acquisition activities as well as providing business planning advice.

In 1991 he moved to Devon based Inch's Cider Limited as Finance Director having previously advised the buy-in team on the acquisition of the company, and became an integral part of the team that successfully managed one of the fastest growing businesses in the Region through its most turbulent phase of expansion. Following Inch's (which was sold to H P Bulmer) Philip returned to Bristol to take up a second Finance Director role in a manufacturing environment at Brissco Equipment Limited.

Following Brissco's, Philip joined Business West as leading Business Finance Adviser, during which time he advised on numerous finance raising assignments, including a considerable number of Business Angel investments.

John Caines

Network Chairman

John Caines is a director of several independent companies, an active Angel investor and a qualified business coach. In the latter role he enables clients to achieve their goals, including Management Buy Ins, turnarounds and operational enhancement utilising the experience of his own wide-ranging entrepreneurial career.

Following initial qualification as a Chartered Management Accountant in industry and an MBA from the London Business School he moved to Gloucestershire to be Financial Director of Westbury Homes. Subsequently John founded and led his own businesses in the IT software and services sector.

He developed the largest of his start-up companies, Maxima Information, into a profitable £40 million turnover group employing 500 staff across eight European countries before achieving a successful exit in 2001. He also acquired and turned around Cotswold Collections, a mail-order clothing business where he is still a director. Over the past 10 years he has raised Venture Capital, prepared for an AIM flotation, and completed 6 acquisitions and 5 disposals in U.K. and Europe.

John has frequently spoken about entrepreneurial leadership at industry and business conferences in several European countries and about Business Angel investing at early stage funding events. He is a member of the International Alumni Board of London Business School.

Bruce Colley

Regional Manager (Southern Area)

Bruce Colley has senior management experience in a wide range of organisations covering both the private and the public sector, in defence, the NHS and e-Commerce. With a computing based PhD Bruce also brings to the team a greater depth of understanding of the ICT sector and of knowledge-based businesses.

Bruce has direct experience of the pressures and demands faced by small businesses, having been Technical Director of an award winning marine software company and more recently Managing Director of a successful e-commerce business. He has underpinned his business experience with an MBA and has worked with a number of small to medium sized businesses on a consultancy basis.

Based just outside Newton Abbot, Devon he is well placed to cover the southern four counties of the region.

Brian Dorricott

Regional Manager (Northern Area)

Brian Dorricott brings to SWAIN his experience of starting, running and selling businesses in the security and messaging sectors of the IT industry. 

After completing a Masters in Engineering at Imperial College, he worked for Philips and Logica before setting up two companies: DeeZee Ltd and Gordano Ltd.

DeeZee Ltd provided dial-in security management software used by Internet Service Providers. EasyACS allowed secure dial-up with passwords and one-time codes to be managed with secure "IP tunnels" into corporate networks. Brian was the Architect and Managing Director of DeeZee; sold to CISCO Systems Inc. in 1997.

He was the Founder, Architect and Managing Director of Gordano Ltd from 1994 until 2003 when the company was sold to the existing management team. Gordano scored many firsts: first messaging server for Microsoft's Windows NT platform; first "try-before-buy" commercial software; first product managed by web-console; first to include text messaging and anti-spam & anti-virus options. GMS (formerly NTMail) has been purchased by over 20,000 companies in over 120 countries around the world including Fuiji Film, University of Toronto, IBM, TieRack, Marks & Spencer, Oxfam, Dolby, NASA Space Goddard Center, US Army, Cable & Wireless, NTL and Barclays Bank.

After leaving Gordano, Brian managed his investments and travelled before joining SWAIN as a Regional Manager covering the northern section of the South West. Based just outside Bristol, he is in an excellent position to cover the northern area of the South West.