TJL Management

Lois Cook

Expert Panel

Lois Cook is passionate about working with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them to achieve their potential and sees funding as the major obstacle facing many of them. She founded Angels Den, with Bill Morrow, in 2007 in frustration at the lack of available funds for entrepreneurs who wished to grow their businesses.

Lois and Bill had experienced first hand how hard it was to raise funds using Angel investment groups and wasted almost £15K trying to get funding to start a business. They found the process stuffy, expensive and shrouded in secrecy and vowed to change this.

Describing herself as a business 'idealist', Lois' ambition is to create a lasting improvement in the ease with which businesses can grow, without people putting their houses and families at risk to raise funds. 'Our aim with Angels Den', she explains, 'is to provide a fast, transparent, results-driven service to allow businesses to be funded on merit, rather than how much money your parents had.'

Lois' hands-on and intuitive approach displays her understanding of the difficulty of being an entrepreneur. Asking for money for your brainchild of a business is inherently stressful and she makes sure this discomfort is minimised wherever possible. For example, she created a platform for people to pitch to one Angel at a time when nobody else is listening, knowing that even if they mess up through nerves they can move onto the next person and start again. Angels and entrepreneurs often comment with surprise that, despite their previous fears, they actually enjoyed the pitching process. Every part of Angels Den is in plain English with no funding jargon and people are there to help you at every step of the way, by phone, email or in person.

Lois has always worked with entrepreneurs and SMEs and during her 25 year career has run web forums for small businesses; set up skill sharing groups for SMEs; coached business owners and managers for Business Link; and trained business coaches.

Lois is also passionate about providing flexible employment for her team so that experienced business people who are juggling childcare and other commitments can still find exciting and challenging work and involvement in a team. She is committed to making work a positive experience for herself, team and customers.

Lois has degrees in Physics and Electronics (don't ask!) and in Psychology and is an accredited NLP Coach. She is a great inspiration in being an owner/manager of a meaningful business that is contributing to the growth of small business and economic recovery. Lois can usually be found, tied to her PC, coming up with new ideas and services to help Angels Den reach out to more people.