Simon is an accomplished business angel, management consultant, professional mentor and non-executive director
He has a highly successful track record in business, and now devotes his time to lecturing, raising funding for SME’s and delivering management consultancy. Funding comes from his own personal resources as well as a wider group of business angels.
Simon is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Programme Director of the MSc Entrepreneurship programme at the UCL School of Management.
Background
Simon Hulme is a serial entrepreneur having built up and sold two significant businesses in the past 25 years. His entrepreneurial history has been written about in Dr Rob Yeung’s book 'The Extra One Per Cent: How small changes make exceptional people’.
At the age of 24 he started his first business, Frame Express, a chain of fast picture framing shops and built this to 16 outlets. In 1989 he sold it to a public company, The Oliver Group Plc.
Simon then started Card Connection in 1992, a greeting card publisher distributing through over 100 franchisees in the UK and Ireland. The business was widely regarded as one of the best-run franchises in the UK, and was in the Top 10 publishers in the greeting card industry. The business was sold to UK Greetings (the British subsidiary of American Greetings Inc) in March 2008.
Since selling Card Connection, Simon has invested in around 40 businesses. He was also a mentor on the highly acclaimed Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme for 3.5 years.
"A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results"
"You win some and lose some. It's part of the game. You have to take it in a very positive way."
"Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude"
"A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug."
Some other Angel Networks
Simon Hulme only co-invests alongside other experienced business angels. This has the added advantage of not only access to more funds, but also greater expertise.
Simon is one of the most active members of the Surrey Investors Club whose members have invested in numerous businesses over the past decade. The Surrey Investors Club also works closely with the Angels 5K Network and other angel networks throughout London and South East.
So if you are looking for funding, get in touch. Simon can either help personally or put you in touch with someone else with experience in your sector. There are not usually any sector limitations, however, Simon does not invest in medical products or devices (but other angels in the networks mentioned do, of course).
London, South, and South East, and are the primary geographical areas of interest.
"I think of entrepreneurship as a way of creating value."
"Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth"
"What is great about entrepreneurship is that entrepreneurs create the tangible from the intangible"
Simon is Programme Director of MSc Entrepreneurship at UCL School of Management, based at Canary Wharf. He also is a Senior Teaching Fellow and lectures in Entrepreneurial Finance.
Simon is a regular speaker / lecturer on business topics, and has spoken at various events at UCL, Kingston University, Surrey University, Westminster University, Brunel University, Academy of National Economy (Moscow), and at various business angel events. Topics have included: