Fortune Favours The Brave: FTE ’22 Mykonos
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept.”
John F. Kennedy, 12th September 1962
On 30th September 2022 the thirteenth FTE Summit will take place on Mykonos – Follow The Entrepreneur – Investor Summit in Mykonos 2022 (globalftenetwork.com). Since its inception, the FTE has brought capital and opportunity together in order to create value for both investors and entrepreneurs. It is no exaggeration to say that we have achieved this synergy in good times and in bad.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
All are faced with a challenging economic prospect. The impact of the Pandemic, in these terms, is erratic GDP growth and apparently persistent inflation. Governments faced with this prospect are behaving equally erratically. Across the G7, we are seeing an almost unique blend of policies, from expansionary Keynesianism to conservative Monetarism. Corporately, the reinforcement of oligopoly in key sectors such as social media, retailing, automotive OEM, and financial services raises the threat of retrenchment as they seek relative rather than absolute performance. Socially, WFH remains in place and looks set to continue, posing problems for funds and corporates who have based their values on pre-Pandemic infrastructure.
The more these changes occur, the more the solution remains the same: Follow The Entrepreneur.
Coincidence of Needs and Wants
VIP believes that entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of any economy. Optimizing for the system-level win at the micro level aggregates effort, innovation, and growth. We believe that it is a necessary pre-condition for economic growth, providing a significant multiplier effect in terms of investment gains, employment growth, and competitive pressure on inflation.
However, entrepreneurs require a level playing field. Faced with rising borrowing costs, moribund equity capital markets, and the inevitable preference for scale in a proto-recessionary environment, entrepreneurs need the right forms of capital provided by the right forms of investors.
Investors are challenged, equally, by the economic environment. Whether direct or managing for others, investors exist in a comparative framework. Benchmarks will always exist, can move without notice, and are influenced by expectation. Faced with an equity investment, investors will be asked whether they considered peer group comparatives, an interest-bearing risk-free alternative, or staying liquid until the smoke clears.
Bridging the gap between the wants of capital and the needs of opportunity can be achieved: Follow the Entrepreneur.
There is a Tide…
Timing is everything. Managing expectations a close second. VIP has built a reputation for supporting entrepreneurs at all times and managing their expectations accurately. With investors, we have provided access to innovative, timely, and growth-orientated opportunities. Above all, we understand the time value of money from both aspects: the immediate need of the entrepreneur and the desire of the investor to see a prospective return clearly.
At our FTE Summit, this skill will be demonstrated as we bring together, once more, capital and opportunity in an environment designed for informed debate leading to consensus and investment.
We choose to do the hard things, to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.
Fortune Favours the Brave. Follow The Entrepreneur.
Scott Fulton is an economics graduate and a capital markets specialist. From 1988 until 2000, he worked within London’s equity capital market as an Extel rated analyst in the Building and Construction sector for, amongst others, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and ABN Amro. From 2000, Scott moved into financial public relations and investor relations (“FPR” and “IR”). He was the director responsible for IR and M&A at Financial Dynamics (now FTI), Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR), Just Retirement plc (now Just Group) and Asda Burson Marsteller (UAE). On returning from the Gulf in 2015, Scott re-joined investment analysis at Whitman Howard (recently sold to Panmure Gordon) before moving into Proxy Solicitation, specialising in M&A, at Equiniti plc. Through his professional career, Scott has focused on and developed skills in investor relations
