News Story

Fennemore as KMi.com Catalyst

Marc Eisenstadt, Tuesday 23 Mar 2004

SUMMARY: Roger Fennemore or colleague can spend 1-day-per-week assisting &#39KMi.com&#39 operations… IPMO to underwrite first 6mos. consultancy. It took 2 months to have the 5 min. conversation with Alan Bassindale.
[sorry, must be read from bottom to top to appreciate]

—–Original Message—–
From: M.Eisenstadt
Sent: 23 March 2004 14:26
To: Kmi-Management-Board-List
Subject: Fennemore deal update…

…met with Alan Bassindale this morning (re getting Roger Fennemore on board officially for 1-day-ish-per-week to assist with entrepreneurial activities; looks good:
he&#39s agreed to underwrite the first 6 months, in fact, at 10K, to &#39test the waters&#39 5K for first 3 mo; extended if &#39looks promising&#39 so we can set some real targets…
more in person.

————
From: A.Bassindale
Sent: 08 March 2004 10:56
To: M.Eisenstadt
Subject: RE: Followup idea w Fennemore (from VC dinner)

Marc

I am sorry I missed your call I have put 10 March 14.00-14.30 and 23 March 11.00-11.30 on hold in Alans diary please let me know if either are any good.

Thanks.

Sue
Susan Wagstaff
EPA Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Staff)
The Open University
140 Offices 6a
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
Telephone: (01908) 654859

—–Original Message—–
From: M.Eisenstadt
Sent: 20 February 2004 11:30
To: S.J.Wagstaff
Cc: &#39Peter.Scott@open.ac.uk&#39 &#39P.K.Sharpe&#39 A.Bassindale; N.M.Pigott
Subject: RE: Followup idea w Fennemore (from VC dinner)
Importance: High

Sue… I&#39m just back in, hence delayed reply… can we set up a quick meeting to talk about the item below with Alan?
Doesn&#39t need to be long, and given Alan&#39s constraints, I think that *ANY* of myself, Peter Scott, and/or Peter Sharpe can be present at the meeting… i.e. the concept is entirely spelled out already in the emails below, so just needs to be agreed…
many thanks!
-Marc
* Prof. Marc Eisenstadt (Chief Scientist)
* Knowledge Media Institute [http://kmi.open.ac.uk/]
* The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
* +44 (0)1908 65 3149

> —–Original Message—–
> From: N.M.Pigott On Behalf Of A.Bassindale
> Sent: 12 February 2004 15:56
> To: M.Eisenstadt; A.Bassindale
> Cc: &#39Peter.Scott@open.ac.uk&#39 &#39P.K.Sharpe&#39
> Subject: RE: p.s. RE: Followup idea w Fennemore (from VC dinner)
>
> Marc – Alan has asked me to respond to this to say we are
> attracted to the idea and your suggestion of an initial £5K
> commitment seems a good one.
>
> Please could you contact Alan&#39s EPA Sue Wagstaff
> (s.j.wagstaff) to arrange a short meeting with Alan to discuss?
>
> Thanks
>
> Nigel
>
> Nigel Pigott
> Secretary for Research and Staff
> Policy Development Group
> The Open University
> Walton Hall
> Milton Keynes
> MK11 1HY
> UK
> Tel:+44 (0)1908 858626
> Fax:+44 (0)1908 655477
> Internet: www.open.ac.uk
> OU Intranet: http://intranet.open.ac.uk/pdg/rso/
>
> —–Original Message—–
> From: M.Eisenstadt
> Sent: 28 January 2004 13:33
> To: A.Bassindale
> Cc: &#39Peter.Scott@open.ac.uk&#39 &#39P.K.Sharpe&#39
> Subject: p.s. RE: Followup idea w Fennemore (from VC dinner)
> Importance: High
>
> p.s. I forgot to say that this “20K” idea would be for a
> 1-year “relationship” with agreed milestones… common sense
> suggests that there must be a way to test this out
> incrementally on (say) a “5K quarterly” basis to see if
> everyone is happy at the end of the first quarter! We don&#39t
> want to get anywhere near this level of specifity with Roger
> until first talking it through with you first, hence these
> two emails!!!
> Cheers
> -Marc
>
> > —–Original Message—–
> > From: M.Eisenstadt
> > Sent: 28 January 2004 13:12
> > To: A.Bassindale
> > Cc: &#39Peter.Scott@open.ac.uk&#39 &#39P.K.Sharpe&#39
> > Subject: Followup idea w Fennemore (from VC dinner)
> > Importance: High
> >
> > SUMMARY: Next steps for Fennemore or colleague to revitalise
> > entrepreneurial KMi activities?
> >
> > DETAILS:
> >
> > Hi, Alan… at the end of that dinner at the Gourleys&#39 the
> > other evening, you, me and Roger Fennemore had a quick
> > brainstorm about entreprenurial activities related to KMi.
> >
> > We see Roger as potentially promising because, unlike others
> > who have been in this role in the past, he is local, is a big
> > believer in Milton Keynes and the Open University, has an
> > entrepreneurial track record, and comes from a legal background.
> >
> > Roger came over to KMi this morning to chat informally with
> > Peter Scott, Peter Sharpe, and me about &#39next steps&#39 and
> > &#39ways forward&#39. It became clear that ONE possible model for
> > moving forward would be that either Roger, or someone he
> > knows or recommends, could potentially serve as the &#39external
> > moving force that we need, but acting from inside KMi&#39, by
> > having a desk here in KMi and working regularly with us in
> > order to ensure a deeper involvement and to pursue specific
> > business objectives: namely to get our technologies
> > productised and licensed. This needn&#39t be a full-time role,
> > but it would be entirely inappropriate as a &#39volunteer&#39
> > role… there needs to be some real commitment on both sides.
> >
> > Roger said that one possible way to bootstrap into this would
> > be to have someone on a &#39retainer&#39 (i.e. part-time
> > consultancy), with an understanding/agreement that they would
> > also gain a foothold/stake in future income, which of course
> > would be a strong incentive to succeed.
> >
> > After he left, Peter Scott, Peter Sharpe and I felt that
> > something like £20K would be an appropriate sum to &#39get stuck
> > in&#39 to a relationship like this. I should stress that this
> > sum, and indeed this initiative, did not come from Roger, nor
> > is he even necessarily the person who would do the work
> > (though I&#39d say there&#39s about a 70% chance that it would end
> > up being him)!
> >
> > Given the mutually-agreed sense that we need to keep IPMO and
> > KMi well-aligned on this issue, we&#39re wondering whether IPMO
> > could underwrite this activity, which is outside our current
> > risk envelope as a lab!
> >
> > We&#39d be grateful for any thoughts you have on the matter…
> > happy to meet up at short notice to discuss, chat on phone,
> > etc. Incidentally, Roger has just arranged for me to meet up
> > with some major mobile phone entrepreneurs next week to
> > discuss &#39possibilities&#39 for some of our work… just a trial
> > balloon, but a good example of Roger&#39s thinking.
> >
> > Many thanks for your time and interest on this…
> >
> > Cheers
> > -Marc
> > * Prof. Marc Eisenstadt (Chief Scientist)
> > * Knowledge Media Institute [http://kmi.open.ac.uk/]
> > * The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
> > * +44 (0)1908 65 3149
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >