Stephen Allott

Technology executive, community entrepreneur, and policy contributor. Founder, Cambridge Computer Lab Ring.

As an executive, Stephen Allott led Micromuse Inc. from ten people to eight hundred, through a NASDAQ IPO, to a peak market capitalisation of $7.5 billion — the most valuable organically grown UK-origin software company to date. He has chaired thirteen boards, including Redgate Software’s Council of Advisers through its growth from ten to five hundred people and its eventual $1.35 billion exit. He is Venture Partner Emeritus at Seedcamp, whose portfolio of seven hundred and fifty companies includes nine unicorns, among them Revolut. Earlier in his career, he was a strategy consultant at McKinsey, the first in-house lawyer hired by Sun Microsystems outside the United States, and a commercial barrister at Gray’s Inn.

As a speaker and author, he writes about how software businesses are built and how they sell. His three open-source textbooks on Medium — Seedcamp Sales Tales, Chronicles of Craft, and From Science to Growth — have had around thirty-six thousand views. He chairs Tarigo Product Management Training. Read the books or book a talk.

As a policy contributor, he founded the Cambridge Computer Lab Ring in 2002 — the unique graduate association of the University of Cambridge Department of Computer Science and Technology. Its Hall of Fame today lists three hundred and seventy-two companies founded by Computer Lab graduates, recently valued by Beauhurst at around £160 billion. He founded the Hall of Fame Annual Awards in 2005; winners include ARM, DeepMind and Raspberry Pi. He was the first ever Crown Representative for Small and Medium Enterprises in the Cabinet Office, 2011–2015, during which time SME share of central government procurement spend rose from 6.5% to 27%. The argument behind his work on innovation policy lives at fromsciencetogrowth.com.

London, England. stephen@stephenallott.com · LinkedIn · Cambridge Computer Lab