Julie Meyer
Julie Marie Meyer MBE (born August 28, 1966) is an American businesswoman and the author of Welcome to Entrepreneur Country. She is the CEO and member of the board of Viva Investment Partners (formerly Pelion Pension Advisors SA). She founded Ariadne Capital Limited (in liquidation), Ariadne Capital Malta Limited, and Lattun Limited. Meyer was co-founder of the networking club First Tuesday (1998–2000). In 2009, Meyer became a guest on the short-lived online edition of the "Dragons' Den" TV series, although controversially it later arose that Meyer had failed to pay some of the investments she'd  pledged during the show. In 2010, Meyer was selected as one of 26 business people tasked with advising the British government on its business policies to encourage entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom. In 2011 Meyer appeared on "ComputerWeekly's" "50 most influential people in UK IT" list and was given Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) status for her contributions to entrepreneurship in England. Articles by Meyer have appeared in "The Daily Telegraph", "Forbes", "New Business", and "The Independent". Early life and education. Meyer was born in Dearborn, Michigan. She grew up in the Sacramento , California area to father, Delbert "Del" Meyer, a pulmonologist who had a practice in Carmichael, California, and mother Lorna Starck. Meyer's father also founded Pulmonary Medicine, Infectious Disease and Critical Care Consultants Medical Group Inc. in 1973 and served as Managing Director of the group for ten years, growing it to eight pulmonologists in total. In 1988, Meyer graduated from Valparaiso University with a B.A. degree in English Literature. In 1997, she received an M.B.A. from INSEAD (). Career. In 1988 Meyer moved to Paris. Initially, she taught English to French executives in the tech industry. From 1993 to 1996 , she worked at Cunningham Communication in marketing. After completing her M.B.A. Meyer joined NewMedia Investors (later known as NewMedia Spark/Spark Ventures) from 1998 to 1999. First Tuesday. In 1998, Meyer co-founded First Tuesday, a networking forum in an effort to build an online tech community that connected entrepreneurs and investors. Meyer invested £35,000 and held a 22.5% shareholding stake when First Tuesday incorporated in February 2000. Five months later, in July 2000, along with co-founders investment banker Adam Gold, Mark Davies, journalists John Browning and Nick Denton who sold the networking forum First Tuesday to an  Israeli company called Yazam for approximately £33 million, including £2 million in cash and remainder in shares. Yazam sold the company one year later for a large loss. Board Memberships. According to filings with the commercial register of the Canton of Vaud, Meyer served on the board of directors of the for-profit humanitarian development firm Vestergaard Frandsen until November 2016. In February 2022, Meyer resigned from the boards of Drive Software Solutions and Lattun Limited (formerly Entrepreneur Country Global Limited). Meyer also had a series of board appointments in companies which the Ace Partners I LP had  invested in, including Taggstar UK Limited (dissolved) for 16 months, resigning in March 2016, Clickslide Limited (dissolved) for 8 months, resigning in Sep 2013, Nettworx plc (dissolved) for 13 months, resigning in January 2007. Ariadne Capital - including Ariadne Capital Limited (In Administration). In August 2000, Meyer founded the investment advisory firm Ariadne Capital, after the Greek princess Ariadne who was known for helping Theseus make his way through a labyrinth. In 2002, Meyer announced the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund which launched in 2012 as a £5.3 million fund, now named ACE Partners I LP. In 2008, Meyer founded  the business networking company EntrepreneurCountry Global (now Lattun Limited) as a subsidiary of Ariadne Capital: "a community of entrepreneurs, investors, corporate partners and media" which provides methodology and a marketplace where large, traditional enterprise businesses connect to exchange information for innovation in Europe and the UK. According to Companies House Filings, in 2016 Ariadne Capital sold EntrepreneurCountry Global Limited, with almost £3 million accumulated losses, for a reported £4.5 million, to the ACE Partners I LP (then Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund) which, however, has been dissolved in December 2021. On 29 January 2018, the Administrator, Leonard Curtis , reported that Ariadne Capital Limited: In total there were ten other Ariadne legal entities, in which Meyer remained the controlling person, six of which (in the UK) are now dissolved, and a further three in Malta have not filed documents in years. One was struck off by the registry, and the other one is prevented from being struck off due to outstanding warrants of seizure. Viva Investment Partners. Since 2018 Meyer is the CEO of Viva investment Partners AG (formerly Pelion Pension Advisors SA) in Switzerland. The place of business for ACE Partners I LP has also moved to the  seat of Viva Investment Partners AG, while remaining registered with the UK Companies House. The "Follow the Entrepreneur" brand now appears to be owned by Viva Investment Partners AG, and the Entrepreneurcountry brand, owned by Lattun Limited now too is controlled by Viva Investment Partners AG as the controlling entity of Ariadne Capital Partners GP Limited, which in turn is the general partner of ACE Partners I LP. VIP has direct investments in DRIVE Software Solutions Ltd, VASHI, a luxury jewelry company and Autonomous Data Collection (ADC) Limited. VIP has also invested in SPiCE VC, an Israeli fund investing in  blockchain companies. Other funds include AnD Ventures, which supports Israeli technology startups, and GEM Funds, an American company supporting private investment in Opportunity Zones and real estate. EntrepreneurCountry Global and ECTV. By 2018, YouTube had closed the ECTV (aka Julie Meyer) account, stating: "This account has been terminated because we received multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement regarding material the user posted." Legal Issues. James Caan's Startup Loans. In 2012, Meyer was part of an advisory committee led by entrepreneur James Caan called StartUp Loans that was funded with £82.5 million, aimed at reaching young people interested  in creating UK startups. In 2015 two Dragons squared up in court after Caan successfully claimed that Meyer had misappropriated £50,000 in funds that should have been directed to helping startups. Strings of Unpaid Bills. In 2015 and 2016 Meyer lost a string of high profile Court cases brought by former employees, lawyers, accountants and suppliers which led one High Court Judge to describe Ms Meyer as "not credible." In 2017, Meyer was pursued by former suppliers and advisors over unpaid bills. Loss of Investment Management License. On 11 May 2018 the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) suspended the  investment services license of Ariadne Capital Malta Limited with immediate effect, highlighting multiple "serious breaches of license conditions". These breaches included the absence of a Compliance Officer at all times, lack of cooperation with the MFSA, not having established an independent risk management function, and having inadequate resources to manage Alternative Investment Funds. Viva Investment Partners AG, Ariadne Capital Partners GP Limited, and Ariadne Capital Limited are all not licensed by their respective national regulators. Failures to Appear In Court. In April 2018, Meyer failed to show up for the first of three hearings in Malta over these alleged unpaid  bills, causing the magistrate in charge of the case to ask the Commissioner of Police to locate Meyer within 48 hours. The police failed to do so, and on 9 May and 24 May 2018 Julie Meyer failed to appear for the second and third hearings. Prison Sentence. In February 2022, Meyer was sentenced to six month imprisonment by the High Court in the UK, following a judgment that she was in contempt of court in a case brought by another one of her former lawyers, Farrer & Co, again in relation to unpaid fees. During the case Meyer claimed to  be impecunious. Wikipedia. In March 2016, Meyer's Wikipedia page became the subject of news articles focused on paid editing when a publicity firm named Lansons Communications that Meyer's company had hired in 2014 allowed an intern to post on their behalf to the entry's Talk page. The intern had written to request advice on how to update her page. Ariadne filed a £100,000 lawsuit over the issue and later settled and withdrew the suit, paying an undisclosed sum to Lansons. Personal life. Meyer is a resident of Switzerland, and has lived in the Zurich since October  2018, and is a permanent resident.