Setting up small high-technology companies

A personal case history of the problems of establishing a small high-technology company to manufacture and develop specialised microwave components that had originated in the author´s academic research is presented in the paper. Part-time involvement grew rapidly into full-time commitment and, within three years, to the attraction of venture capital and a major expansion into the USA. The special nature of each stage is outlined, with special mention of the recurrent problem of control of cash flow. Recent Government initiatives have made it easier for small companies, but these potential creators of national wealth deserve more encouragement, and three measures are suggested. The paper is a summary of a lecture given at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Savoy Place, London, on the 22nd March 1983, and the chair was taken by Mr. H. Tomlinson. It was a joint meeting of the Management & Design and the Electronics Division. The lecture was based on one given by the author a year previously at the North Midlands Centre.