Sam Simpson

FounderCatalyst

FounderCatalyst is an exciting and disruptive play into the UK legal tech sector, underpinned by our superb technology platform. 

Our mission is to create all of your funding legal paperwork quickly and professionally, with no compromise on quality, at a fixed low price.  

Our aim is to make your fundraising legal journey as simple as possible, whilst managing investor engagement, putting you back in control.

My role in FounderCatalyst is to ensure that our platform and customer service is exemplary, to build industry partnerships and to own and execute our service roadmap.

Founder

Forge Technologies Ltd

Forge Technologies is a digital IT services business focusing on three technology pillars; Future workplace, Cloud optimisation and Network transformation. Forge has no legacy infrastructure that it needs to deliver returns against; no costly office space, external investors or banking covenants and unencumbered from legacy working practices that have to be turned on their head to adapt to new working practices.

Within Forge Technologies, I am responsible for all aspects of commercial and back office services.

Co-Founder and CCO

University of Bristol

Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre (QTEC) is a world-leading incubator for quantum-based technology innovators, its vision is to educate and create the quantum entrepreneurs of the future. I'm mentoring two fantastic entrepreneurs as they develop their businesses.

Visiting Fellow and Mentor

Various Companies

Providing ongoing advice and support to the founders of incredible investees

Angel Investor and Board Advisor

Roc Technologies

I co-founded the business and successfully established the project and professional services delivery functions along with all back-office functions. This included finance, HR, IT, legal and corporate governance & compliance and vendor partnerships & accreditations.

Roc was recognised by the Financial Times as the 17th fastest growing company in Europe in 2017, and was the fastest growing IT Services business in the UK in 2016 according to the Sunday Times Tech Track.

Following a strategic review, I led a corporate finance process which resulted in a leveraged MBO and the acquisition of an IT Services business. At the time Roc had more than 200 people and run rate revenues of £25m. I subsequently exited my shareholding and Directorship as a part of this process.  The exit process was recognised by Business Magazine Thames Valley as Mid-Range Deal of the Year at the Annual Thames Valley Deals Awards 2018, held at the Madejski Stadium in Reading on the 19th April 2018 and subsequently as Tech Deal of the Year 2018 at the Thames Valley Tech Awards.

Founding Director

Daisy Group PLC

During my short period of employment at Daisy I was responsible for stabilising the Professional Services elements of the business following the acquisition of 2e2's managed services business. I also developed a repeatable process for integrating acquisitions.

Director of Project Services

Consolidated five disparate Project Services team into a single consistent directorate. Responsible for more than 150 staff across multiple disciplines and a portfolio of 500+ projects with a value in excess of £200m.
I also supported the sale of the company’s business units and assets to Daisy and O2.

Accountable for all delivery operations including management of a team of 90 technical engineers, consultants, project managers and PMO staff. My team delivered in excess of £110 million of customer solutions per annum.

Operations Director, Unified Communications Business Unit

Delivery of the company’s largest and most complex programme for a high security UK government client. Recruited and led a team of more than 60 technical and project management professionals. Successfully delivered the programme to time and budget.

Technical & Delivery Director

Prime Business Solutions

Management of pre-sales technical support and post sales delivery for IT infrastructure solutions based on Microsoft and Citrix.

Server and Client Line of Business Director

Evotree Limited

Evotree was an early cloud computing and Microsoft/Citrix Integrator startup. I established and managed all technical and operational delivery capability. The company achieved revenues of £1m in the first 6 months and was subsequently integrated into Prime Business Solutions.

Co-Founder and COO

Technical development, management and support in the Education and Insurance sectors.

Various Network and IT Operations Management Roles

You're seeking that all-important funding to catapult you to the next level.

YET despite how motivated you are and how good your business idea is, you may still struggle to…

▫️ Get funding because of the advance assurance needed
▫️ Afford the production of expensive legal paperwork
▫️ Know-how to find those elusive investors.

Simplifying and accelerating the early-stage investment legal journey, FounderCatalyst is the ONLY affordable fixed price method of funding round legals for start-ups.

WHO WE HELP
Pre-incorporation to start-ups in England & Wales that want expert AND affordable help with SEIS & EIS and the legal process and documentation required to complete their funding journey. 

3 WAYS WE HELP
1. Apply for SEIS & EIS advance assurance
2. Produce all legal funding round paperwork and manage investor engagement
3. Introduce start-ups to possible sources of funding.

Enjoy the relief all of the legal paperwork you need in as little as 30 minutes and your investor engagement managed through the process.  

PROOF WE HELP
✅  Complete fixed price service per funding round just £1,495 +vat
✅  99% success rate for advance assurance
✅  Legal paperwork produced in just 30 minutes.

YOUR NEXT STEP
Haven’t yet got your funding legals sorted and you’re determined to give your start-up the best and most affordable chance of success?

Book a chat at https://calendly.com/sam-fc/meet

Thanks for viewing my profile.

Sam

"Founders seeking to raise equity finance - use this service! It’s simple to use, reliable & secure, & provides unrivalled value for money. You're in complete control of your fundraising process & timescales." Jules & Charlie, Founders, The Nue Co

FREE RESOURCES
Because we’re here to help start-ups, we offer the following for free:

✅  SEIS/EIS advance assurance submission
✅  Customised Term Sheet
✅  Template Forecast Models
✅  Founder Collaboration Agreements

Visit: foundercatalyst.com to find out more and access the freebies.

SPECIALITIES: Start-up, Startup, Start Up Funding, Funding Round, Funding, Investment, Investor, Investor Engagement, Angel Investor, SEIS, EIS

This afternoon has been a great reminder of why I love doing what I do at FounderCatalyst.  3x back to back founder calls:

🚚 A founder with an amazing app in the foodie space.  As a passionate home cook, this chat really made me want to get out in the outdoor kitchen this weekend to cook up a feast.

💰 Telling a founder with an amazing luxury brand who thought that she was out of time for SEIS that she's still eligible - her reaction was a treat 👏

🎣 Hooking a customer from a competitor out of the blue always a treat too 🫢

Being a founder is a rollercoaster, but this has been a great end to the week 🎉

Serial Entrepreneur, Board Advisor ▫️ Founder at FounderCatalyst, the ONLY affordable fixed price method of funding round legals for start-ups ▫️ CCO at Forge Technologies

⏳ 48 hours to go - I’m looking forward to joining forces with Ivan Hoo for a live, practical breakdown of one of the biggest early-stage challenges: setting and defending your pre-seed valuation.

Whether you're raising your first round or preparing for investor conversations, this session will give you the frameworks and confidence you need.

Here’s what FounderCatalyst and Hubble will be covering:

✔️ The core principles behind pre-seed valuations — and how equity, control and fundraising strategy really fit together
✔️ The key valuation methodologies founders should understand (and when each actually applies)
✔️ An investor’s perspective on how valuations are assessed in the real world
And from Ivan Hoo (Fractional CFO & Startup Advisor at Hubble):
✔️ A deep dive into the Venture Capital Method (VCM) & comparables
✔️ Practical tactics for negotiating with investors
✔️ A live Q&A to tackle your specific valuation questions

🗓️ 3 December 2025

🕛 12:00 PM (UK Time)

💻 Free to join

👉 Save your spot: https://lnkd.in/eyESfp6x
Hope to see you there!

#StartupValuations #FundraisingTips #FounderCatalyst  #StartupWebinar #InvestorReady  #StartupJourney

👥 Building a Winning Startup Team

Equity, Legal Structures & Advisory Boards
A strong startup team goes far beyond just great people—it’s about setting the right structure, incentives, and agreements from day one.

In this practical session, Sam FounderCatalyst will be covering how to allocate equity and use share schemes effectively, while Patricia Wing (SuLe) will break down the legal and governance must-haves for co-founders, advisors, and NEDs.

What you’ll learn:
✅ How to structure equity for co-founders and advisors
✅ SEIS, share options & funding round considerations
✅ Vesting agreements, legal protections & more
🎤 Plus live Q&A—bring your questions!

📅 09/12/25 @ 12PM (Zoom)

Register here for free:

Open article: Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: How to Attract, Keep, and Reward your Co-Founders, Advisors, NEDs and Employees. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. by us06web.zoom.us

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: How to Attract, Keep, and Reward your Co-Founders, Advisors, NEDs and Employees. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

⏰ 6 days to go!

Next week I’ll be hosting a free live session taking you behind the scenes of what really happens after you’ve defined your funding round — from inviting investors to signing, closing, and completing your raise on the FounderCatalyst platform. 🚀

I’ll also cover the key post-close steps that keep your company and investors aligned, compliant, and ready for growth.

Here’s what we’ll go through:
✅ Inviting & managing investors
✅ Signing and completing your round
✅ Closing actions on FounderCatalyst
✅ Post-close compliance essentials
✅ Live Q&A

🗓️ 17/11/25 | 12:00PM (BST)

💻 Free to attend — final spots available!

👉 Save your place here https://lnkd.in/e35Pkfwk 

#FounderCatalyst #Webinar #StartupFunding #SEIS #EIS #Fundraising #StartupJourney #AngelInvesting

Open article: Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: From investor invites to closing the round: What happens next on FounderCatalyst platform. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. by us06web.zoom.us

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: From investor invites to closing the round: What happens next on FounderCatalyst platform. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

BizCrunch

BizCrunch is a Discovery, Due-Diligence and Deal-Execution Platform for Off-Market Private Equity Acquirers.   BizCrunch powers Acquisition Entrepreneurship and SMB Succession M&A.

SMB M&A is frustrated by inefficient, opaque and time-consuming processes.  BizCrunch is on a mission to make selling and acquiring companies faster, cheaper and easier through digital transformation.

Co-Founder and CEO

Enterprise Insights Ltd

We help scale businesses, and to future-proof leaders, through impactful Executive Coaching programmes. As a dynamic consultancy and coaching company, Enterprise Insights offer a portfolio of transformational services, designed to facilitate British scale-up businesses in achieving sustainable growth, securing capital investment, and embracing perpetual change.

Principal Consultant

ElectrAssure Ltd

ElectrAssure designs, installs and operates electric vehicle charging solutions, chargepoint management systems and site support services, delivering critical infrastructure to support the future of transport.

Non Executive Director

Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation

My role as Chair requires leadership of the Board and ensuring it operates effectively; ensuring the smooth running of Board meetings; promoting good governance; providing supervision and support to the Foundation's CEO where required; and representing the Foundation publicly.   Acting in accordance with the Nolan Principles, I seek to lead in an open-minded, fair and objective manner, to enable the Foundation to operate optimally in delivering on its charitable and commercial mandates for the benefit of the stakeholders of the Garden City.

Chairman Of The Board Of Trustees

I support the Leadership Team in setting, pursuing and achieving the necessary strategic objectives for the Foundation, such as energy-efficient housing, skills and youth employment, regional economic success, ecology and improvement of the public realm.

Trustee and Board Member

Contributing to oversight and strategy at this innovative nonprofit, responsible for maintaining and enhancing the world’s first Garden City.

Governor

Boardroom Advisors: Part-Time CEOs MDs NEDs for Scale-Ups and SME's.

Boardroom Advisors provides experienced, real-world CEOs, MDs, Non-Executive Directors, Chairmen and paid Mentors for Scale-Ups and SMEs on a part-time, PAYG basis.  Their talent pool consists of some of the most successful proven business leaders in the UK.   Available from one day per quarter and at short-notice, with no recruitment fees, no long-term commitments and including interchangeable personnel as your needs change.  You can scale up or down your advisory as needed.  Your Boardroom Advisors function as part of your team, providing you with consulting, direction, and strategy at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire, which makes them perfect for start-ups, scale-ups, small family businesses and SMEs.

Fractional CxO / Advisor

Connectd

As an early investor in Connectd, I have made several Angel Investments via the platform and served in a coaching capacity as this exciting business has achieved impressive growth exceeding £1m ARR.   Supporting Connectd's Transition To Portfolio program, I serve as Mentor to participants seeking to begin working with startups and scale-ups in Advisory and Non-Executive Director roles.

Mentor - Transition to Portfolio

Stratiphy

stratiphy.io is a FinTech robo-advisor, investment-strategy and portfolio-management platform for values-driven investors.  It provides strategies based on financial performance and ESG scoring, and delivers valuable insights for a low monthly subscription.

Advisor

biz4Biz

biz4Biz a not-for-profit company, run by experienced business leaders, that provides a coherent voice for businesses in Hertfordshire.  biz4Biz aims to influence and shape policymaking and encourage investment in Hertfordshire by engaging with local and central government, relevant public sector bodies and local organisations, to promote the county of Hertfordshire as a great place to live and do business.  

Its networking, suite of services, government liaison and charitable involvement operations aim to benefit the residents, commuters, workers and business-owners who all contribute to Hertfordshire life.

Associate

Block Dojo

A startup venture-builder, putting companies and their founders through their paces during an intense 12 week programme, providing seed-funding and development services to build the future of blockchain applications.

Investment Consultant

Startup 2 Standup

StartUp2StandUp is a community of founders, funders, advisors and service-providers who collaborate to provide mutual support on the journey from startup to scale.   I serve as Coach and Facilitator to the weekly founders' surgery sessions and a Pitch-Event Panelist at the community's periodic meet-ups.

StartUp Coach

"The key is not spending time, but investing it."
  -- Stephen Covey.

Having built, acquired, grown, sold and exited companies during my 20+ years in industry, I developed and honed a skillset in leadership and M&A.

Following my exit through sale to a Nordic Nasdaq listed permanent ownership group, I pursued my passion for innovation in the startup ecosystem.   As an Investment Director at a startup incubator, an Angel Investor and a Director of Henley Business Angels, I was privileged to work with many early-stage companies.     With the cycling of the macro market, from growth to value, I returned to my roots in serving buyouts of Small- and Medium-sized Businesses.

I co-founded BizCrunch to digitally transform SMB M&A, aiming to help triple the volume of deals completing in the UK annually, by reducing time, cost and complexity through digital transformation.

Enterprise Insights provides a portfolio of consulting and coaching services, designed to facilitate StartUp and ScaleUp companies in achieving and managing sustainable growth, and in preparing for exit.  

As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Chairman of a Charitable Foundation, and a trusted Mentor/Advisor, I've served high-performing leaders, enabling them to further the success of their teams and organisations.

Gareth Hawkins

Grateful to our BizCrunch users who helped shape this huge update.    You asked for features and stats that help you better refine your proprietary outreach campaigns.    

Our team have over-delivered, with a host of helpful campaign features to further help Searchers get to positive conversations with off-market Sellers, FAST.

ETA/Search // Investor : Acquirer : Founder : NED

We rebuilt our outreach tool from the ground up.

After hundreds of conversations with acquisition entrepreneurs - both inside the BizCrunch community and beyond - today we're shipping Campaigns 2.0.

Here's what's in this mammoth update 👇

New analytics dashboard: 
→ Delivery rate, open rate, click tracking 
→ Unique reply counts and engagement trends over time
→ Full CSV exports for deeper analysis

New workflow tools: 
→ 🔁 Clone campaigns - reuse copy with one click
→ 💾 Save as template - turn winning messaging into reusable playbooks

Deliverability upgrades: 
→ More double-verified emails in our database
→ Infrastructure improvements driving week-over-week performance gains
→ Better inbox placement = more conversations with owners

The result:

Better data. Faster workflows. More emails reaching owners.

For searchers and SMB acquirers running systematic outreach, this is a major step forward.

This is live NOW in your workspace - with some more incredible upgrades coming next week. So stay tuned 👀


#BizCrunch #ETA #OffMarket #Acquisition

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sam Simpson's LinkedIn Performance

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