Early VC Investing: Nic Brisbourne, Forward Partners & Alex Wilhelm, TechCrunch

About this event

We invited Nic Brisbourne, the founder and CEO of Forward Partners, a VC investment company that recently went public in London. The fireside chat with Nic was moderated by Alex Wilhelm, Senior Editor at TechCrunch. Alex is host of one of the best tech news podcasts: The Equity.

Nic is the founder and CEO of Forward Partners. He has worked in venture capital in London and Silicon Valley for over 20 years. Prior to founding Forward in 2013, he was a founding Partner at leading venture capital firm Draper Esprit. Before entering the venture capital industry he worked as a strategy consultant for Gemini Consulting and at London based startup Operis Group plc.

Outside of Forward he’s a proud husband and father of two teenage kids and a long-time season ticket holder at Chelsea Football Club. He’s developed a keen interest in mindfulness and philosophy that’s proved to be a great asset at home, at work and as a supporter of the aforementioned club.

Right before the fireside chat with Nic and Alex (starts at 6:15pm) we hosted a 15 min discussion about How to Avoid Legal Pitfalls for Startups with Partner at Lewis Silkin, David Willbe, who will be talking with Startup Grind London co-director, Petar Savic.

Speaker

Nic Brisbourne

Forward Partners

CEO

Nic is the founder and CEO of Forward Partners, a VC company that recently went public. He has worked in venture capital in London and Silicon Valley for over 20 years. Prior to founding Forward in 2013, he was a founding Partner at leading venture capital firm Draper Esprit. Before entering the venture capital industry he worked as a strategy consultant for Gemini Consulting and at London based …

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Panelists

David Willbe

Lewis Silkin

Partner

See Bio
Petar Savic

Startup Grind / Supreme Factory

Co-Director / GP

See Bio

David Willbe

Lewis Silkin

David is a partner at Lewis Silkin, advising on the full range of corporate finance transactions, from seed and angel investment rounds to IPOs, sales and acquisitions. His clients are companies, founders, investors and financial institutions at every stage of that journey, and the advice he gives on each transaction benefits from that experience of the types of transactions that the business has been through, and is hoping to get to in the future.

Petar Savic

Startup Grind / Supreme Factory

Petar Savic is an entrepreneur and super-connector with a key interest in acceleration within an Emerging Deep Technologies, bridging the gap between technical, creative and commercial requirements.

Moreover, he is the founder of a London based deep tech VC fund called Supreme Factory connecting the Balkans with the UK and beyond. Co-Director of Startup Grind London, the world’s largest startup community designed to educate, inspire and connect entrepreneurs.

Mentoring at over 20 accelerators, incubators, and corporate innovation programmes like One Tech by Capital Enterprise, P4 by UCL Precision Medicine, NatWest Accelerator, Newable, Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP) by DIT, Kickstart London, Hackney Business, Magic Village London, Acorn Aspirations, Teens in AI, Spark Mostar, Business Incubator Novi Sad, Founders4Schools, Swisscontact, Escape The City, WeWork Labs, Startup Grind, Google for Startups, cLab Ventures, Startup Campus, etc.

Petar is a board member of initiatives such as Serbian Entrepreneurs, European Blockchain HUB, London Tech Advocates Balkans.

He is a Trustee of Primrose HIll Community Association, with a mission to create the first London's smart village. In the local OnTheHill magazine he writes a monthly column about entrepreneurship and supports Primrose Hill entrepreneurs.

Petar is a visiting lecturer at the Imperial College London, and a mentor at the top UK universities including University College London, Russell Group, London Business School, Cambridge Judge School, Queen Mary University of London, Hult Business School...

He was a Marketing and Events coordinator at the UCL Advances, at the time the largest entrepreneurial department in the world, working with more than 400 entrepreneurs and over 500 community events on pro bono bases. He was an Envoy at the Department for International Trade UK working on Western Balkans summit project.

Petar’s previous experience includes more than 15 years as an Head of Digital in corporate, government and culture sectors, with experience in Marketing, Innovation, and emerging deep technologies such as Fintech, Health, Food, Immersive and Digital Media, including the role of Head of Digital at EXIT Festival, the largest music festival in South East Europe.

For the past 6 years he advised some of the best startups and investment funds in the UK.