David Glick On The Business Creativity, Lee McQueen and Venture Capital

David Glick is in the business of creativity. For him, creativity not only delivers strong returns, but benefits to the whole of society.

Glick learned how to value and buy and sell intellectual property while working as an entertainment and media lawyer, doing deals worth typically between $15-50 million.He eventually sold that business to the law firm Mishcon de Reya and later founded a media business with a couple of close industry contacts. That business grew rapidly, listing on the London Stock Exchange before being acquired by DreamWorks. It’s now the DreamWorks Kids division.

“I like that story because I think as an entrepreneur the main thing you want is not to go bust, the second is to have an exit, and the third thing you want is the eventual exit to go really well,” says Glick. “When the acquisition is successful long-term it shows that the business you created was truly valuable to society.”

He then went into partnership in a fashion business, which grew rapidly. That business was Alexander McQueen.

“My partner, Lee McQueen, was really brilliant. A genius. While he was alive we set up a charity to help exceptionally gifted creatives who didn’t have the financial means to follow their creativity.” When McQueen passed away it was left to him and Trino, McQueen’s dear friend and colleague. They continued to grow the business for over two years, before it was acquired by François Henri-Pinault and his Kering Group (owners of Gucci, Yves St Laurent, Balenciaga and other brands).

Glick’s experiences led him to realise that he was good at making money and channelling this revenue generation into companies that would contribute something positive to society. As an angel investor he went on to invest in companies himself, and on behalf of others through a fund. Glick believes that purpose-driven businesses will do much better than those that are only focused on profit. “Edge VC is very much a purpose driven business,” he says.

“Creativity enriches people’s lives through its consumption, not just on an anecdotal basis, but it inspires technological advances and contributes to the overall well-being of society and its self-esteem,” says Glick. He loves that it is a great job creator, which leads him on to his second passion: “One of the great things in life for me is social mobility. I feel that if you don’t have social mobility, then you really don’t have a civilised society. That’s why in some countries you get revolution. I love that the creative economy is a fantastic jobs engine and is creating high quality jobs – jobs with self-esteem,” he adds.

“With the increasing adoption of AI, creative industry jobs are probably the last bastion of humanity,” Glick says. “While creativity respects academic and intellectual brilliance, it also respects talent, hard work, grit and determination”. He believes the creative economy plays a critical role in advancing social mobility by recognising not just academic success, but talent and grit.

Edge is the bridge between the private capital markets and the creative world. According to Glick the creative sector has historically been underserved by the private capital markets, and the conventional tools of venture capital fail to appreciate their true value.

Glick feels the creative economy has an access to finance problem. Edge focuses on two kinds of businesses: those beginning to reach profitability, but needing £1-2 million and those that need £10-20 million to accelerate. He thinks the lazy assumption that the creative industry is risky is hurting the economy. “People are beginning to understand it better but have difficulty understanding intellectual property compared to real property.” He believes the system governing IP needs updating and in this Europe is more forward thinking than in the US.

The pandemic has accelerated a lot of changes, Glick says. As a fund and as a business, Edge is always looking to identify trends and technological advances that are going to impact creativity, then find the businesses that will benefit from that.

During the pandemic, a whole segment of digitally literate people developed who otherwise would not have been regularly ‘present’ online. People in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are now shopping online, gaming online and are using tools like Zoom and Facetime and social media to communicate. These developments were not expected. Technology businesses have always been looking to bring their technology to younger and younger audiences, but now an entirely new market has been created that no one anticipated.

When it comes to Edge’s investment strategy, Glick says he “looks for businesses with management teams that can take the business forward, companies that can become category-defining, with international ambitions. We look for companies that want to succeed not just in the UK but across Europe, the US and globally. Everything we invest in incorporates technology into the business model somewhere. We know our sector like nobody else and we’re very clear on the businesses we want to back. We’re fast and decisive when we identify them. Our relationship with them and their founders really matters.”

Glick is ambitious: “I’d like to build a business that will last. I’d like it to evolve into something as impressive as Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z, offering not just money, but also real expertise to companies. We already do this, we have a fantastic panel of advisers, but I’d like to expand and build on this.”

“Personally, I’d like to help build 25-30 stand-out businesses, 5 exceptional category leaders, 10,000 jobs and about 100 entrepreneur alumni, who go on to start new businesses or to be investors themselves, because I think that would leave a real imprint on the creative world and on society,” he says.

“Then,” he jokes, “I might even be able to retire!”