Incubation Ltd About Us

What is Incubation?

Incubation is a specialist business start-up, investment and turn- around boutique run and owned by Colin Wilkinson operating in partnership with an elite group of principals.

Incubation Ltd is the umbrella name for a range of ventures of which each new enterprise stimulates the creation of a new company, but it is not a trading entity in its own right.

Philosophy: We're Not a Consultancy

First and foremost we are not a business consultancy, and it is not our objective to earn money through fee-based work.

Our belief stems from the entrepreneurial standpoint that financial rewards are earned through commercial success, and that is why we rarely charge time-based fees.

Instead, we like to join you on your side of the table and take an equity stake in your business, where together we shoulder responsibility for creating a winning partnership.

We do this through sweat equity, direct investment, acquiring the company, or from successfully finding investment for your business.

In the case of an existing business that is struggling, and possibly even facing insolvency, then our preferred approach is to acquire all or part of the business and take prime responsibility for fixing the underlying problems ourselves.

For the sake of clarity, we do provide a small amount of consultancy for fees (and we are proud that some of our principals are amongst the most highly regarded business consultants in the UK), though this forms a very small part of what we do.

People

Chief Executive – Colin Wilkinson

Colin Wilkinson is an entrepreneur with specialist expertise in sales and marketing, corporate fund raising, and strategic consulting.

He is co-founder of a business that won the UK 2009 Start-up of the Year Award, sponsored by Visa.

He has unstoppable enthusiasm and energy and is a completer-finisher with steely determination. He believes that a sense of humour, humility and humanity in the work place is key.

His career spans a number of key roles:

Business Consultant - Accenture
Amongst many assignments at this global management consultancy was a major systems integration piece at North West Water, and forming part of the team working on the future domestic and international trading strategy of the London Stock Exchange.

Sales & Marketing Director – Eidos plc / then Eidos Technologies Ltd

He became the youngest director of a plc in Britain. Over the period of his employment Eidos plc bought Core Design which released Tomb Raider making it the fastest growing company on the London Stock Exchange, and becoming a FTSE 250 company. Much later it was bought by Square Enix.

MD and Founder – VMC
He founded VMC with broadcaster, Noel Edmonds, and grew the company to become the largest dedicated video conferencing provider in the UK, winning a number of industry plaudits including European Reseller of the Year – ‘Special Award’ by Polycom, the industry’s largest manufacturer.

The company was merged with AVM Impact which now employs over 250 members of staff.

Founder and Managing Director – Creative Experience Company Ltd (Venice)
He raised £1.8m to create a new concept in tourist attractions, a 21st Century Son-et-Lumière, with a show called The Story of Venice. It was one of the longest-running shows of any kind in Italy, described by the New Yorker as “Simply the Best Show in Town.”

Following a severe tourism recession in Europe the business closed its doors in 2008, and was subsequently re-financed and re-launched in 2009. It is now the longest running show in Italian history ...

Co-Founder – Three Sixty Entertainment Ltd
In 2009 he lead the fund raising of £2.75m in 4 months making it amongst the largest angel fund-raising in the UK (during the worst period in financial markets in a generation) and helped launch this major new international entertainment business.

Its 1st production, Peter Pan, was a smash-hit (selling more tickets than Mama Mia in London to become the 2nd best selling show that season), and embarked on a world tour, following a run at the O2.

Between Peter Pan and it's 2nd production, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe the company has turned over in excess of £40m in it's first 4 years of trading.

The business was winner of 2009 UK Start-up of the Year Award, and Innovative Business of the Year award sponsored by Visa. More

Consumer Marketing Manager - Energis plc
He was the 10th employee to join Energis at the inception of this national telecommunications company, owned by the National Grid. Energis became one of the largest companies in the UK (£10bn market cap) at peak. It was eventually acquired by Cable & Wireless, which itself was acquired by Vodaphone.

Other
Colin Regularly takes stakes in young companies and assists them in a number of areas such as fund raising, start-up, preparation for and then sale. One such nascent company is L2P Enterprise Ltd which is a pioneer in providing both the NHS and the private health sector with specialist cloud-based appraisal management systems.

Early Career
Colin Wilkinson started his entrepreneurial career early - whilst still at University - where amongst other ventures he: started and ran a night club for charity, started a cake company that distributed product from Brighton up to Birmingham; ran a 2 venue theatre which played host to 320 shows in 3 weeks at the Edinburgh Fringe, and promoted the internationally renowned virtuoso Violinist Jack Glatzer.

He also met with and interviewed the Dalai Lama for an national newspaper.

Colin Wilkinson is a public speaker and recently appeared as a panelist on the BBC TV Series The Apprentice: You're Fired

About the Principals

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