Nigel Wright

Nigel Wright
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Bio

Nigel Wright is a Chartered Accountant, INSEAD MBA, fractional CFO and corporate finance adviser with deep experience across venture capital, turnaround, due diligence, strategic finance and early-stage investment. He brings a rare combination of financial discipline, commercial imagination and entrepreneurial instinct - helping founders understand not just what the numbers say, but what is really sitting behind them. 

Nigel founded Nigel Wright Corporate Finance in 1990 and has advised companies across strategy, business planning, modelling, profit and cashflow enhancement, fundraising preparation, due diligence, valuation, M&A, exits and turnarounds. Earlier in his career, he co-founded and ran one of the UK’s first BES technology funds - the predecessor to EIS - raising and investing into early technology companies and supporting a number of successful exits. Ex 20 investee Fund Companies 10 -11 trade today. 

His experience spans a wide range of sectors including venture capital, technology, environmental innovation, automotive, leisure, fashion, services, medical instrumentation and manufacturing. He has worked with businesses from concept and early investment through to turnaround, acquisition and exit - often acting as the trusted “consigliere” to founders and CEOs who need someone experienced, independent and commercially sharp alongside them. 

Nigel is especially strong at helping businesses that have lost their way, are unsure which market to pursue, or need to understand the true commercial potential of what they have built. He is not a bookkeeper or routine finance operator - his value is in interpreting the numbers, challenging the assumptions, spotting the risks and opportunities ahead, and helping founders think more clearly about where the business should go next given available resources. 

Focus of 1-2-1 Session

Nigel is best suited to B2B founders and leadership teams who are building something with real commercial substance - particularly in environmental, manufacturing, high-tech or product-led sectors. He can work with pre-revenue or revenue-generating businesses, but is best matched with founders who are serious about the business, open to challenge, and prepared to invest in proper strategic and financial advice. 

A 1:1 with Nigel is a direct, practical session focused on understanding the business beneath the surface. He will typically want to see a pitch deck and forecast in advance, so the conversation can focus on the commercial drivers behind the numbers. 

Typical areas of focus include: 

  • Establishing the current position – cash &creditor balances (now/ six months),  financials (YTD/Fcst) , systems, pipeline sales/margin, organisation, management team. 
  • What is really driving revenue - understanding how the business gets to its sales numbers, what assumptions sit behind them, and whether those assumptions are credible. 
  • Market and customer opportunity - exploring which market segments are genuinely attractive, who the right customer is, and where the strongest use case may sit. 
  • Value proposition and positioning - challenging whether the business is explaining its true value clearly enough, and whether the product could have stronger applications in adjacent markets. 
  • Financial interpretation - looking beyond the spreadsheet to understand margin, cash, risk, timing and what may become a problem two years down the track. 
  • Strategic direction and turnaround thinking - helping founders work out what to stop, what to focus on, and how to move forward when the business has become stuck or unfocused. 
  • Fundraising readiness and deal structure - advising on preparation for investment, business plans, forecasts and investor materials, while being clear that he does not act as a broker. 

Nigel typically engages as a fractional CFO, non-executive director or strategic adviser. He is most valuable as a senior sounding board - someone founders can test ideas with, who will ask difficult questions, interpret the numbers, and bring a network of trusted specialists where additional finance, accounting, HR, systems or legal support is needed.