Our Story
Growing up in the States, in modest circumstances, I was raised to believe in Winners and Losers. Being a Winner was the goal because it meant fulfillment.
As a kid, I really took this to heart.
I remember once, before a game of Monopoly, I got out the rules and underlined key passages to cite at critical moments during the upcoming game. I devised a strategy, had my weapons at the ready (the rules) and with a bit of luck, I won!
Naturally I carried this approach into my career and I was a success.
I founded, grew, and sold a tech business. But the interesting thing was that, even while “winning,” even while running a successful business, I was never particularly proud. When people asked about my company, quickly I’d steer the conversation to something I was more proud of – my charity work – a place where I had a big positive impact.
A few years ago, I had a bit of a crisis.
Over beers, I was chatting with a friend with a budding music career. Naturally, I was raving about SEIS – an amazingly generous tax break for start-ups. I’d list a benefit and tick off the requirements, only to realise that particular benefit didn’t really apply to him. So I shifted gears to another aspect, and again be snookered. No matter how I looked at it, the scheme was not available to me friend. It struck me then: SEIS wasn’t for him.
This got me thinking. There are many rules and tax benefits I successfully deployed to great effect over the years in my own businesses, but with this new lens, I realized all of them were kind of rigged. All of them were engineered in a certain direction: Money is steered to the people who don’t actually need it!
This really annoyed me!
The innovation money that's out there. It should be going to small businesses with innovative ideas, but it doesn't because of all of these rules and requirements
It feels almost corrupt to subsidise big companies, who frankly are too big and too invested in their current ways to be innovative at all. And yet, they are the recipients of the innovation money.
I love finding ways to win inside a set of rules and requirements. So, until the tax code is entirely rewritten to actually reward innovation, my next business was obvious.
Claridian would help microbusinesses (with 2 to 10 employees), get the rules to work for them.
Utilising my love of the minutia of rules and regulations and given my decades of experience with R&D Tax Credits, I'd help microbusinesses get the government money they require to innovate because they're the ones who really need it.
We’re the ones who are actually innovating!
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Claridian is your Mentor to help you get the recognition and the funding you deserve!