Speaker 1: The Investor. Peter Cowley has a third book out, The
Speaker 1: Cambridge Entrepreneur and Angel Investor. Is the author of the
Speaker 1: startup bestseller The Handbook Really the Invested Investor. Now he's
Speaker 1: focused not on business but on his personal story, public success,
Speaker 1: private Grief. It charts Peter's struggles through alcoholism, the loss
Speaker 1: of two sons to suicide, and now a terminal cancer
Speaker 1: diagnosis in his final book, one in which he puts
Speaker 1: his business career into perspective. I went to Cambridge to
Speaker 1: meet Peter Cowley for a conversation about his life, the
Speaker 1: VC business and loss. I started by asking him what
Speaker 1: first drew him into.
Speaker 2: His career with the people. I didn't really realize that
Speaker 2: to start with, but once I got involved and started
Speaker 2: to have entrepreneurs were generally about half a generation to
Speaker 2: a generation younger than me. So and nowadays the generation
Speaker 2: to generation and a half. The people's spending time with
Speaker 2: those people the ones a good entrepreneur will listen because
Speaker 2: they have to listen to the market. They have to
Speaker 2: listen to customers, they have to listen to regulators, and
Speaker 2: sometimes they do a listen to investors as well, and
Speaker 2: they certain need to listen to staff. So they are
Speaker 2: passionate and they are willing to learn. So I found
Speaker 2: that spending time with these people was very invigorating and
Speaker 2: of course taught me a lot about things about technology,
Speaker 2: about market and so I just got pulled into this
Speaker 2: spending time with interesting people.
Speaker 1: You've written this new book, which is much more personal.
Speaker 1: Tell us about why you wrote the book, and obviously
Speaker 1: that you've been struck by some of the worst things
Speaker 1: that happen to people.
Speaker 2: Of course, as many people said, seem to have been
Speaker 2: unlucky compared with most people. So the book is called
Speaker 2: public Success, Private Grief. The public success we've just talked about.
Speaker 2: The private grief is now not so private. So I
Speaker 2: lost my brother to cancer when he was twenty one.
Speaker 2: I lost my sister to alcoholism when she was fifty one.
Speaker 2: I lost my first wife, the mother and my children.
Speaker 2: She died of DBT when she was fifty one or
Speaker 2: fifty two. I suffer FM alcoholism, though I've not had
Speaker 2: a drink for nearly twenty four years. Sometime next month,
Speaker 2: I've got late stage cancer. That's what really triggered writing
Speaker 2: the book. I'll tell him about that at the moment.
Speaker 2: But the two things that were really are so painful
Speaker 2: even to talk about, well, to talk about what I
Speaker 2: am doing, of course, is the loss of two children.
Speaker 2: So I had three boys who were two years apart,
Speaker 2: and my middle son died when he was twenty three,
Speaker 2: and my youngest son died who helped her with a
Speaker 2: book project, died when he was thirty four, a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago. Anyway, it is exactly if you've got
Speaker 2: any children, anybody who's listeners has got children, don't go there,
Speaker 2: don't think about it. And then I was diagnosed with
Speaker 2: late stage four non smoking lung cancer. So one in
Speaker 2: five lung cancer sufferers haven't smoked, and unfortunately we're the
Speaker 2: people who don't. Is not detected still quite late, so
Speaker 2: it was all over my body, my brain, well, lots
Speaker 2: of places in the body when he was detected. So
Speaker 2: that happened at the end of twenty one. And then
Speaker 2: Alan died at the end of twenty two. And because
Speaker 2: I've written stuff before, and I'm sure I've helped a
Speaker 2: lot of people, lots of entrepreneurs, a lot of people
Speaker 2: in the charity sector over the time, I just felt
Speaker 2: there was another book in me basically, but not a
Speaker 2: book in the sense of the other two, which are
Speaker 2: business books. A book that is personal, very personal and inspirational.
Speaker 2: Because I don't know, I come from Yorkshire. I've always
Speaker 2: been very direct, almost two direct. I'm sure I've just
Speaker 2: decided to open it all. So I've written a book
Speaker 2: which is basically a memoir.
Speaker 1: What do you hope the messages? Who do you hope
Speaker 1: is going to read the book? And also what do
Speaker 1: you think that people are going to learn from it?
Speaker 1: Because I think the title of the book sort of
Speaker 1: expresses it, you know, very very well. And I think
Speaker 1: that that people listening maybe who are facing these sorts
Speaker 1: of struggles, whatever they may be, what are they going
Speaker 1: to be able to take in terms of inspiration or
Speaker 1: just kind of the will to go on.
Speaker 2: It's just inspiration for getting on with life, not sweating
Speaker 2: the small stuff, as the Americans say, you know, you're asking,
Speaker 2: you know, doing the stuff that might not be might
Speaker 2: not be around tomorrow, to achieve.
Speaker 1: Is it the to do list? I mean, it seems
Speaker 1: so terribly vc to say I'm going to make a
Speaker 1: business plan and I'm going to make the best of
Speaker 1: this awful situation. Is that just the bottom line that's.
Speaker 2: One of it? And I have both what I call
Speaker 2: my bucket list, which we've all heard of, and I
Speaker 2: also have a list and you can.
Speaker 1: Probably imagine might not be able to put that on radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, I also have an effort list. Yes, so this,
Speaker 2: of course it seems that I don't know what to
Speaker 2: do any longer. There are things that I would have
Speaker 2: done before that you know.
Speaker 1: I go on a few of those.
Speaker 2: Well, even things like speaking at events, like mentoring people,
Speaker 2: like talking to entrepreneurs. There's a lot of things I
Speaker 2: just think, No.
Speaker 1: You don't want to do it anymore.
Speaker 2: I've got why not, Well, it's because I haven't got
Speaker 2: that long left. Because unfortunately, because it's stage four, I
Speaker 2: do know that from the research that it's unlikely that
Speaker 2: I live past much past the end of this year.
Speaker 2: Now this is statistical, of course, but you know the
Speaker 2: statistical mean half is already before that date and half afterwards,
Speaker 2: and so something could happen even during twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: So yeah, getting on with things. I mean, there's a
Speaker 2: number of lessons in the book. It isn't just that
Speaker 2: there's a number of business lessons. Even in the book.
Speaker 2: It's not a self help which we did think about doing.
Speaker 2: It's a memoir which has got a description in there
Speaker 2: so that people can read and hopefully work out from
Speaker 2: their own circumstances, which might have to do with something
Speaker 2: else and maybe just business failure. They can maybe even
Speaker 2: from that and the process of the business failing, learn
Speaker 2: how to cope with their own character and not disappear
Speaker 2: into a well of grief.
Speaker 1: I also as a parent myself, it is the horrifying
Speaker 1: bit of losing children is so awful. How you how
Speaker 1: you dealt personally with that in the aftermath.
Speaker 2: We couldn't have had this conversation within three months of
Speaker 2: his death. I just wouldn't have been able to talk
Speaker 2: about it without ending up in not being able to speak.
Speaker 2: In fact, obviously I grieve and miss both sons tremendously.
Speaker 2: But life I need to get on with my life,
Speaker 2: you know, I need to. It bubbles up. Sometimes. It
Speaker 2: hasn't bubbled up during this interview, but he could easily
Speaker 2: have done and whether And part of it, of course,
Speaker 2: is not so much the busyness, but giving back, and
Speaker 2: this book is about that. It's about trying to help
Speaker 2: other people. I haven't really answered your question, but it's
Speaker 2: that's because I don't really know in the end, but
Speaker 2: I'm just not sure how I've coped. You know, there
Speaker 2: isn't a magic one to coping with tragedies. And I
Speaker 2: don't think it's because I'm a cold creature that just
Speaker 2: buries it or ignores it, or my skin shells so sick.
Speaker 2: I think I really have sort of been lucky. I
Speaker 2: had the right assistance at the right time, and I
Speaker 2: had something to redirect my grief and my addiction into,
Speaker 2: which has been positive benefit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of our audience they're very young, and
Speaker 1: they're in the city, and they're in financial services, and
Speaker 1: it's all about making money, and I just I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think you've had experience in that world of trying
Speaker 1: to make it, you know that kind of really the
Speaker 1: drive of trying to build your own business, trying to
Speaker 1: do well. It's not exactly the same, I think as
Speaker 1: being in financial services in the city kind of being
Speaker 1: in VC. But I suppose what would you say to
Speaker 1: those people about the point of it of the money making.
Speaker 2: Yeah, money isn't the bial. We all know that. I mean,
Speaker 2: even that your listeners will know that. In principle. It
Speaker 2: would be really great if they are in the city,
Speaker 2: and they staying there, they get to the point at
Speaker 2: say the age of thirty five, they back out and
Speaker 2: then they use that money and the time for something else,
Speaker 2: you know, going to teaching, help charities with time as
Speaker 2: well as money, etc. I've been obviously, I had customers
Speaker 2: in the city, so I've spent time with people in
Speaker 2: the city. And it is pretty frantic lifestyle. This isn't
Speaker 2: a rehearsal. Life is not rehearsal. We all know that
Speaker 2: that's very hackney, isn't it. Enjoy life in some way
Speaker 2: get the balance right between personal life and work life.
Speaker 2: And I definitely got it wrong.