Early-stage business in London

Despite all the economic doom and gloom of the last few years, something's happening out there.

I attended an Angels in the City event yesterday, ten pitches from hi-tec start-ups seeking funding to take mainly pre-revenue businesses through the next stage of their development.

I'm the wrong generation for most of it - I don't use Twitter, I'm not on Facebook, the thought of using either frankly horrifies me. But rock music horrified my father - didn't stop its onward march, any more than my distaste for new media will impede its progress.

Like so many of my generation, I simply have to accept there's a new world out there that I'll never understand, but which will inevitably generate a wide array of new commercial opportunities. Many will fail, but some won't - and a few of the latter may become stellar success stories. Problem is, when you're as removed from the technology as am I, how do you ever pick the winners?

Several of the pitches were from people with a proven track record of success in tech start-ups - three had created businesses subsequently sold for significant (in one case, $55m) sums. They all had highly credible management teams. But I still have absolutely no idea which might succeed - although I do have an expectation that four of them will fail. I'm left with six that might make it, that could, possibly, be tomorrow's multi-million pound success.

To a degree, it needn't matter. All ten were pitching for SEIS funding. Currently, if you've the right profile, you can't lose - the tax breaks add up to more than the investment you make. London Business Angels are pushing to extend those tax breaks for a further year. If the Chancellor listens, the opportunity to take a de-risked punt will be there for a while longer.