Work to nurture firms branches into training

May 14 2008 by Chris Knox, The Journal

A HIGH-PROFILE businessman has bought part of the enterprise company he founded to create better opportunities for the region’s budding entrepreneurs.

Jonathan Gold, who co-founded Newcastle venture capital company NStar in 2003, has bought its training and support arm and plans to use it to increase the opportunities to growing firms from the private sector.

He has left his job as NStar director and his new business, Finance Tree, offers a range of services, including seminars on entrepreneurship, business mentoring and an online business investment readiness tool.

The sale of the training arm, known previously as NStar Finance and Business, is part of a series of changes planned by NStar in the coming months.

NStar, which acts as a venture capital provider and adviser for promising North East firms, is partly publicly funded. Mr Gold believes the new privatised service will be able to tap into a wider pool of investors, including business angels and venture capital funds.

Mr Gold said: “This is an exciting opportunity for us to put into practice what we’re preaching and really make a difference to investment prospects in the region. By creating a new business ourselves we are showing that we have the expertise to hand when it comes to starting up.”

He heads the new business alongside former course director at NStar Peter Hiscocks, who created many of its training programmes, which have helped more than 1,000 businesses start or expand.

The pair, who financed the buy-out with their own funds, first met seven years ago when Jonathan was chief executive of a university spin-out support group at Oxford and Peter was lecturing on business and enterprise at Cambridge, where he continues to work.

Mr Gold said: “A lot of people may think it’s odd that Peter is based in Cambridge while I am based at the business in Newcastle. However, it makes good sense as he is closer to potential investors in London and the South, who we are hoping to draw upon more than the NStar model allowed us to.”

The pair now hope to create their own workforce and are looking to recruit five finance experts. Andrew Mitchell, who co-founded NStar with Mr Gold, said: “Investment readiness training is an essential element in improving access to finance. It’s part of an evolution of NStar’s original mission to grow access to capital in the North East.

“We are happy to see Jonathan and Peter take this project forward and we wish them every success.”