Simon Acland: Author

Simon Acland

Simon Acland’s two business books, Angels, Dragons and Vultures: How to tame your investors ...and not lose your company, and Elite! The Secret to Exceptional Leadership and Performance, draw on the experience of his twenty-five year career in venture capital.

Follow the links for more information about these books.

About Simon Acland

Simon Acland enjoyed a successful 25 year venture capital career. He was Managing Director of Quester, one of the UK’s most active early stage technology investors, when it was sold in 2007. Quester was honoured with many industry awards, including Venture Capital Investor of the Year, Early Stage/Seed Investor of the Year, Exit of the Year and Biotech Exit of the Year. Simon was a long-standing member of the British Venture Capital Association's Technology Committee, and acted as a Director of the British Business Angels’ Association. He has spoken at many industry conferences, such as SuperReturn, SuperInvestor, Red Herring and the UK Technology and Innovation Growth Forum. He has contributed to many trade journals and publications including Real Deals, the European Venture Capital Journal and Initiative Europe.

Simon started his working life in 1979 at Merchant Bank Kleinwort Benson. He soon found that established businesses bored him, and he joined the management team of a technology start-up which span out of Imperial College, London, to develop control systems for robots, machine tools and other flexible manufacturing systems.

Raising equity funding for that company gave Simon an insight into the arcane world of venture capital, and in 1986 he crossed over to the dark side to join a focused Information Technology Fund managed by the United Bank of Kuwait. In 1988 he joined Quester, and was instrumental in building it from £10 million to £250 million under management.

Simon has acted as Non-executive Director of over 40 companies. He has been involved with many successful trade sales and flotations on the London Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, Easdaq and the Alternative Investment Market; two of the companies he backed entered the FTSE 250. He achieved his outstanding investment track record through the ups and downs of several economic cycles, including the volcanic eruption of the Internet in the late 1990’s and the ashes it left behind after 2000.

Simon is currently a director of two Venture Capital Trusts managed by Triple Point, and of Elektron Technology, an AIM-listed components and instrumentation business. He is a member of the investment committee of the Angel Co-Fund, a government funded vehicle which invests alongside business angel syndicates, and he is a Trustee of the wild flower and fungi conservation charity Plantlife.

Simon has written blogs for Entrepreneur Country, Real Business, Real Deals and Businesszone. He lectures regularly on venture capital at Cass Business School.