The first cheque is the hardest one. Everything after it is proof. I provided the seed capital for the TAP Platform, and watched it grow into a company listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Seed funding is not about the money. It is about being the last believer when nobody else has to be. The founders who make it are rarely the ones with the best plan — they are the ones who keep going when the plan has to change.
A UK listing is a slog: advisers, prospectuses, compliance, questions. What it forces on a company is discipline. You cannot fake your way through a listing process — which is exactly why it matters.
Business stories are about decisions: where the money comes from, what gets built and what happens next.