Michael leads new investments at Jigsaw. Day-to-day his time is spent building relationships with recruiters and the advisor community, and managing new investments and acquisitions to completion. We sat down over coffee to learn more about Michael, his experience, and what makes him tick.

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Hi Michael, can you tell us about your career to date?

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I’ve always worked in the finance sector, starting my career in the M&A and private equity team at professional services firm RSM. I loved helping business owners through such a significant event in their lives — finding the right buyer to take the business forward, or investment partner to help a business grow. External investment can be the key to unlocking the potential of a business, but owners can rightly be sceptical of investors. We set up Jigsaw to provide an alternative option — a friendly investor with people who have the right experience to take your business to the next stage.

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What excites you about investing in recruitment businesses? 

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We invest on the same terms as the founding team, ensuring we are all perfectly aligned for the long term and that we all have 'skin in the game'. We win when the founders win, and we go through tough times together, too. It’s all about building a profitable, sustainable, cash-generative recruitment business.

We can also provide a great home for a business, helping exiting founders move on to the next stage of their journey. They don’t need to worry that someone will come in and change their business beyond recognition, which is often a hugely reassuring factor for people who are ready to leave but nervous about having everything they’ve worked for dismantled.

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How do you like to work with other businesses?

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It all comes down to vision and alignment. We want to partner with people who have a vision that we believe in. We provide funding and strategic advice and are there for support, but we are not there to run the business because we trust the individuals at the helm to make the right decisions. The best founders want autonomy and have their own vision but would like some guidance to help reach the next level. These are the people we want to talk to.

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What single change would make succeeding in business in the UK easier?

The UK could do with a more positive view of entrepreneurship, in my opinion. As a country, we can be so self-deprecating that sometimes it seeps into our identity, and we dampen our chances a little. Compared to the US, for example, we’re nowhere near as confident, ambitious or outgoing, and I think a cultural shift to give us a bit more self-belief and the ability to shout about our successes would be an incredible thing, along with a greater willingness to believe that success is possible – not just for ourselves but for others, too.

How many times have you heard that someone is taking a professional gamble or starting out on their own and your first thought is all the things that can go wrong? This hesitancy could be costing the country future business leaders.

This is particularly true in recruitment, where the start-up costs can sometimes be as simple as a phone, an internet connection, and a LinkedIn premium licence (although I appreciate this overly simplistic)!

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Who would come to your fantasy dinner party?

This is always such an interesting question! I love meeting and chatting with interesting people, so my fantasy dinner party would probably involve about 100 people – but here are my top picks.

Andrew Wilkinson

Andrew is an investor in “internet businesses”. He launched MetaLab, a design agency that worked with the likes of Apple, Google, and Disney, and leveraged that business to launch Tiny, a now publicly traded holding company of 40+ diverse businesses. Tiny focuses on simple, quick, founder-friendly deals and cuts through the noise of traditional buyers and investors. I love how Andrew has built this business, and I recently read his book “Never Enough”. It would be great to chat with him about his journey and what he has learnt.

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Romesh Ranganathan

I’m hoping Romesh would keep the table laughing and balance out some of my more serious choices! I’ve always been a big fan of League of Their Own and Rob and Romesh Vs, especially the Three Lions special before the World Cup.

Brandon Anderson

I'm a fantasy book nerd, brought on by the boredom of repeat lockdowns during the pandemic, and he is my favourite author. As an accountant, it is wild to me how fantasy fiction authors can create such elaborate worlds and have so much creativity.

Simone Biles

Following the release of her Netflix documentary, my wife and I religiously watched every one of her many events at this summer’s Olympics. She has such an inspiring comeback story, and her famous Biles 2 / double pike vault is absolutely insane. It feels like your eyes are playing tricks on you.

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Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux has met many people throughout his career as a journalist and broadcaster. So, this is a bit of a cheat — almost like using one wish to get ten wishes — I can invite one person to learn about so many!