2017 was the first year of trading for KittenCapital.  Set up as my personal investment vehicle I’ve gone through various iterations / developments over the last 12 months as I work out what’s working / what isn’t for the long /mid / short-term.

For certain there’s been a lot of change in 2017, and a lot of learning & adventure as usual.  Two core things I have embraced are *getting my hands dirty* and *learning new sh*t* - which has been fun / interesting / trying in equal proportions.

What has been consistent throughout the year is KittenCapital's (my) vision of:

• Building long-term value
• In ventures that are interesting / have some sense of being *mould-breaking*
• Whist having fun doing it
• & working with awesome / smart / inspiring people a long the way
• && trying to work according to rules (and working out what those rules are)

And with the super sad passing of my old TeamRubber CFO Rick H late in the year, 2017 gave some perspective of the importance of *enjoying the journey* whilst it lasts.  It’s only when you lose what you had that you realise what you had - which is very much the case with Rick who is very much missed.

On a happier note, highlights from 2017 across my various companies (many of which Rick was instrumental in helping grow), include:

> Delib

Delib is - finally - going from strength-to-strength.  Delib, like most companies, moves at the speed of its market, and given its market is *democracy* and *government* you’d expect growth to be slow (which it has been).  That said, even slow markets speed up, and Delib’s has finally hit a roll.

Importantly growth has been strong on both sides of the globe - with our Australian business gathering momentum with a series of significant new business wins - including Isle of Man government, Armagh City Council (Northern Ireland), The Post Office, UK & Australian Civil Aviation Authorities (won separately) and City of Austin (USA).  View more Delib clients here >> 

Delib’s UK business now cover c.60% of Central Government departments and 10% of Local Government - with 100+ government organisations using Delib’s digital democracy tech.  Whilst I’m immensely proud of these figures 60% means there’s 40% still left on the table, and 10% means there’s 90% left.  With the ultimate aim of turning 7 figure SaaS revenues into 8 figure recurring revenues.

The Civic Tech scene is ever growing, and Newspeak House has become its Mecca.  I’ve been trying to carve out as much time as possible to get involved in the wider civic tech scene, and hosted a Ration Club communal dinner (where Andy and I cooked up a mean Spag Bol) at Newspeak House in October, along with the first of our series of Practical Democracy Project events in June.

> AMCO

I’ve been involved with my family company, AMCO Security, since my university days and its been growing nicely over the years.  I started getting more involved in early 2017, with a focus on product, sales & growth.  Like Delib, AMCO is underpinned by a very strong subscription business engine - with 1000’s of homes / businesses across the UK signed up to AMCO’s specialised alarm monitoring service.

In 2017 I took a more hands-on involvement with AMCO, initially focused on marketing & sales, and in the latter half of the year focused on operations and product (including the re-brand of AMCO’s core product as LiveTalk) - realising that selling is important, but good sales needs to be matched with strong operations & good product-market-fit.

To fully get to grips with the family business I spent the summer getting my hands properly dirty, working on site with our engineering team helping install security systems to protect two giant solar panel farms outside Swindon & Newport (Wales). 

> SmartSecurity

SmartSecurity is a spin off from AMCO’s work.  With the realisation that a smart home technologies are chipping away at traditional home security companies like AMCO it was clear that we needed to create a complimentary brand that could cater for the emerging demand for smart security equipment - the likes of Ring, Canary, Nest etc.

Say hello to SmartSecurity.Guide, where you can read about emerging smart security technologies - and SmartSecurity.Store, where you can buy smart security equipment.

SmartSecurity is a *content-as-commerce* business at its heart, creating expert content in its niche - driving knowledge / traffic and ultimately sales via SmartSecurity.Store.

The SmartSecurity.Store play is split into two - with a B2C and B2B proposition.  Ultimately I see the B2B proposition paying the biggest dividends, with a plan to become no.1 in a number of completely un-sexy (but profitable) product categories like ‘alarm batteries’ and Texecom security equipment.

> SuperVu

SuperVu was a further logical vertical spin-off from SmartSecurity.Store.  Once I realised that the world of online consumer sales is hugely commoditised (a point which is fairly obvious in retrospect) I realised the need to spin up a unique hardware brand specialising in smart security devices.

And that’s where SuperVu comes in.  We’ve started life with a small selection of products - all focused on a mix of *security* and *video* - including the DoorVu (a smart doorbell), WifiVu (wifi security camera) and DashVu (Dash Cam).  SuperVu’s ethos is simplicity, in a world of complexity.

SuperVu is still in its early stages - but showing the right signs for an early-stage hardware business.

Product plug ;-) If you're looking for a Smart Doorbell or Wifi Security Camera (to check what's happening in your house when you're out), you can buy our various SuperVu products here >>

> Hackers.Media

After exiting Sharethrough, and working in the media / ad tech world for such a long time launching Hackers.Media was an obvious choice - providing a platform to view the world of media from.

In 2017, Hackers.Media provided a weekly media industry news summary (delivered as a newsletter and via a blog).  Hackers’ main x2 commercial offerings was 1) a European Media data product - providing companies, largely US ad tech companies, with data on the European media scene to aid swift / successful market entry 2) a consultancy service, actively helping media tech businesses manage product and market growth.

Hackers.Media published our annual guide to the biggest media companies in Europe, which provides strong audience and commercial growth for the site.

Separately, doing advisory at a couple of US AdTech businesses (NYC & San Francisco-based), giving advice around product development & market growth strategies.

> Rubber Republic

Rubber Republic has been the business I’ve been involved with for perhaps the longest and the one that this year I perhaps had the least involvement - other than helping with some strategic commercial partnership work.

2017 was a strong year for Rubber Republic both creatively and financially, with the biggest boom to its business being Rubber’s continued relationship with Ebay - creating a series of epic films for them, including creating building a life-sized Tie-Silencer for Star Wars (aka a massive space ship!)

> Sharethrough

My involvement in Sharethrough - having sold VAN to them in 2014 - is now very much passive.  Sharethrough, has seen a good amount of growth in 2017 - even in the turbulent world of adtech - with $250+ million running through its native ad exchange (up 80% on 2016).  

What’s in store for 2018?

Things I’d like to happen in 2018 include:

• focusing & speeding up scale for the more mature businesses in my portfolio (AMCO, Delib & Rubber Republic)
•  finding product market fit for my new ventures (in particular SmartSecurity & SuperVu)
• getting #KittenCamp back on track (as a way of keeping innovation & inspiration alive)
• seeding some new ideas, including: pixel art, fashion theory and conkers ;-)
• finally moving into our new house in Peckham, which has been lovingly crafted by Catherine ;-))
• learning more . . .

I’ll be relieved to finally move into our Peckham house, as for the last 18 months I’ve been working out of a hut at the end of our garden (see the hurricane-style chaos above!) - a hut that has reached near arctic conditions and has had its broadband cut for the last 6.  Roll on the Spring 😉