1. Network and be curious
2. Cover off the risk
3. Listen and change your business model
These are just three of the points that David Cleevely made in this masterclass of a presentation, delivered at Drive Cambridge.
David is an internationally recognised entrepreneur. His expertise has built and directed many companies, including creating over 30 himself.
In Cambridge he is best known for his work with Abcam, Cambridge Network, Cambridge Angels and Raspberry Pi.
Business Weekly described David as, “An intellectual heavyweight who has worked tirelessly to get government to understand what makes academia and business tick.”
This presentation is an understated masterclass in how a truly successful entrepreneur thinks and acts, with lessons, insights and inspiration for everyone, from a new freelancer to an established business owner and everyone in between.
David Cleevely DRIVE Network lessons for small businesses
Just a handful of David’s achievements…
1997 co-founded Cambridge Network with Hermann Hauser, Alec Broers, Nigel Brown, Fred Hallsworth and Anthony Ross.
1998 co-founded biotech company Abcam plc and was chairman until November 2009.
2001 co-founded and became chairman of Cambridge Wireless.
2001 co-founded Cambridge Angels, who have invested over £20m into 40 companies in the Cambridge area.
2004 co-founded the 3g pico base station company, 3WayNetworks, which was sold to Airvana in April 2007.
Between 2005 and 2008 he was Chairman of the Communications Research Network at University of Cambridge, part of the Cambridge–MIT Institute.
2007 co-founded and became the Chairman of the spectrum monitoring company CRFS, which has subsequently carried out the first ever UK-wide spectrum monitoring.
2008 became the Chairman of the scanning ion-conductance microscopy company ionscope.
2009 became the founding chairman for the new Centre for Science and Policy and in 2012 joined forces with Hermann Hauser and Jonathan Milner to launch a seed funding round to create a Science Centre in Cambridge.
2009 joined the board of Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd.
He funded and became chairman of the Bocca di Lupo restaurant in Soho, London in 2008, and of its subsidiary, Gelupo, in 2011. Bocca di Lupo came top in Time Out London’s 50 best restaurants for 2009, was a runner-up in the Observer Food Monthly Awards 2010 and was named by Restaurant Magazine as the 23rd best restaurant in the UK at the National Restaurant Awards 2010.
2013 invested in Cambridge restaurant The Pint Shop (whom we have heard from previously at Drive).
2014 became Chairman of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and of Raspberry Pi Trading.
2015 saw him also join the Digital Economy Council.