ACF help Sean develop the tricks of the trade!

Sean Heydon is one of Europe’s foremost close up magicians. He has appeared in venues all over the world.  For twenty years he has kept audiences spellbound with his own unique brand of close up magic.

The world of the magician is undoubtedly mysterious, glamorous and hard work as they constantly look for and create new tricks and illusions to wow and amaze audiences.

But for Sean it was also a business and one with a great deal of potential for development.  By the autumn of 2007 Sean was looking to take his business further. He wanted to expand his increasingly busy agency- booking magicians for a whole range of corporate events and to buy even more props and illusions that he could hire out to fellow magicians.

A chance meeting in a restaurant with one of Advantage Creative Fund’s consultants bought the possibility of financing his ambitions through a venture capital partnership with ACF on to the table.

Sean decided that ACF could be the way forward to develop his business growth and liked the idea of a funding solution with an organization that specifically worked with the creative industries.

Sean met with one of the ACF Investment Managers and together worked out the venture capital funding partnership that would support Sean’s business plan.

For Sean working with ACF has been a very effective partnership:
“I have to admit that I hadn’t given much consideration to venture capital funding to facilitate my expansion plans until I started to talk to ACF.  I found their friendly approach and guidance most helpful in converting my business plan into a clear concise strategy for growth and together we identified how the ACF investment would assist in my plans.

“The investment from ACF has undoubtedly helped me move forward with the development of my agency, prop buying and new website far quicker than if I had tried to fund the development myself.

“I know a lot of smaller companies and particularly those in the creative sector either stay away from venture capital investment or it is simply not on their radar. From my experience with ACF I have seen first hand how it can be a very effective solution to funding business growth.”