About Connect

Connect Yorkshire is the driving force behind MyDealMaker. Our dynamic network of sponsors and partners, drawn from the international business community and technology sector, promotes the development of ideas and the exchange of valuable experiences through one-to-one executive support.

Connect has the backing of industry and commerce, the Regional Development Agency and universities, all committed to working together to open doors to raising initial funding through to multi-million pound deals. We are the experts in our field, passionate about priming technology start-ups for investment and helping them make the most of their business opportunities.

The objective of Connect Yorkshire is to realise its mission through the provision of a range of products and services that either train, catalyse, condense or promote the growth of technology companies in the region. Each product or service can be categorised as fulfilling one or more of these objectives.

  1. Investor Readiness Training improves the chance of success or maximises the potential of the current situation i.e. raises the participants game.
  2. Catalysis is focused on reducing the activation barrier for a step change in a company’s development to occur. An intervention like Fast Invest helps reduce the pain associated with finding a key employee, funding their salary, defining an incentive scheme, etc.
  3. Condense is all about timeframes and ensuring that things that are happening, happen as fast as they can. A simple example of this might be providing templates, proformas or facilitating the formation of a consortium of investors to do a deal. It might also be viewed as speeding up the company’s development, e.g. Fast Forward.
  4. Promotion is all about turning up the heat and piling on the pressure to ensure more people are getting connected at any point in time. Networking events and competitions, such as Inv£storQuest and VentureFest Yorkshire, are all about this.

This fits well with the analogy of a ‘chemical reaction’ between companies and resources (mainly, but maybe not exclusively investment) to raise their ‘potential’.

For more information on what we can do to support your company click here.