So, dear reader, the Big Red Car shook the relationship tree of The Wisdom of the Campfire and communicated with some current and past CEO coaching and venture capitalists to get an idea of what is happening in their world, vis a vis the Wutang Flu.
From London in the commercial property world, we hear the voice of a CEO, entrepreneur who founded and runs a business that facilitates big commercial property transactions in the United Kingdom often marrying up institutions and world class, best of breed buyers. Smart, brilliant guy.
He says, since the 29 October 2019 UK general election, “It has been an interesting 6 months from a business perspective. . . . . . Business fell off a cliff. . . . . . in January (2020) everybody saw a post-election window and I had my busiest months on record for the first 2 months of the year.”
“The Covid-19 crisis started to hit economically 2 weeks ago. I have a friend in M&A. All his deals have been pulled over the past 2-3 weeks. Another friend is an executive coach working with corporate leadership teams. Her diary is now empty for the next few months.
“Yesterday things got serious. The government recommended people do not go to bars and restaurants and that everyone work from home if they can and go out as little as possible. Retail has had an awful 12/24 months and we have already had 3 or 4 high profile bankruptcies including Laura Ashley this week. Today they just announced £330B of loan guarantees for all size businesses. They are trying to replicate Mario Draghi’s upfront/whatever it takes action to save the Euro.
“I can see my business will now have a very quiet few months. After that who knows. Pension funds are forced to sell property if investors withdraw funds, so there will always be some volume. Separately, I’m trying to close a pre-seed round for an exciting new business. I followed up with interested investors yesterday to line up a final meeting to show our demo/close funds. 8 emails, 3 replies so far (all positive). I suspect I’ll lose more than a few. We shall see. . . . . . ”
That’s the insider view from London. What do you think?
