The people building UK startups: profiles, decisions and lessons.
The near-universal UK standard is four-year vesting with a one-year cliff, meaning a founder or employee who leaves before their first anniversary walks away with none of their equity at all.
Hiring a non-UK national at a scaleup usually means one of two routes: the unsponsored Global Talent visa for recognised leaders in tech, or the employer-sponsored Skilled Worker visa, now raised to graduate-level roles. Here's how each actually works.
A cap table is the master record of who owns what percentage of a company, and because every funding round and eventual exit is priced against it, an inaccurate or out-of-date one can cost a founder real money and real time to fix.
Angel investors and venture capital funds both back early-stage UK companies with equity finance, but they differ in whose money is at risk, how big a cheque they typically write, and what they expect in return.
The Innovator Founder visa is the UK's main route for a non-UK national to build a startup here, and it dropped the old £50,000 minimum investment requirement. Here's how it actually works.
Directors and officers insurance covers the personal legal costs a director can face if a claim is made against them, and investors increasingly require it before they'll fund a round. Here's what it does and doesn't cover.
Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) is HMRC's tax-advantaged share option scheme built specifically for smaller, higher-risk UK companies, and its eligibility limits were substantially widened from April 2026.
An investor board seat is a legal appointment with real voting power, not a courtesy title. Here's what it actually gives an investor, how it differs from an observer seat, and what founders typically negotiate.
Every funding round issues new shares, and issuing new shares reduces everyone else's percentage of the company, so understanding the mechanics of dilution helps you judge whether a round's terms are reasonable.
