Julie Marie MeyerMBE is an American businesswoman and the author of Welcome to Entrepreneur Country. She is the sole director of Viva Investment Partners. She founded Ariadne Capital Limited and Ariadne Capital Malta Limited, and was a co-founder of the networking forum First Tuesday. In 2009, Meyer was a guest on the online edition of the Dragons' Den TV series.
Meyer moved to London in 1998 and worked at NewMedia Investors (later known as Spark Ventures) from 1998 to 1999.[3] In 1998, Meyer co-founded First Tuesday, a networking forum designed to build an online community to connect entrepreneurs and investors, which was sold in 2000.[3][4][5]
In August 2000, Meyer founded the investment advisory firm Ariadne Capital.[3] In 2009, Meyer announced the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund.[6]
In 2009, she was a panelist in the online version of Dragon's Den.[6] In 2010, Meyer was selected as one of 26 business people tasked with advising the British government on its business policies to encourage entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom.[7]
In 2012, as CEO of Ariadne Capital, Meyer was part of an advisory committee led by entrepreneur James Caan called StartUp Loans that was funded with £82.5 million.[8] In 2015, Ariadne Capital was ordered to pay £50,000 after a contract dispute related to StartUp Loans was heard in court.[9] In 2016, Ariadne paid a £64,500.90 judgment as ordered after a contract dispute with a former employee.[10]
In 2014, Ariadne Capital hired the public relations firm Lansons Communications.[11] A Lansons employee contacted Wikipedia and the communication was posted on the Talk page of the Julie Meyer article.[11][12] Ariadne filed a lawsuit against Lansons for more than £100,000 in damages, and Lansons counterclaimed for about £76,000 in unpaid fees.[11] The litigation settled with an undisclosed sum paid to Lansons.[13]
In April 2018, a summons was not successfully served on Meyer in a case in Malta where Meyer claimed to be attempting to pay employees, and her attorney confirmed the money was available and would be paid.[14] By May 2018, the summons continued to not be successfully served on Meyer, and the Malta court indicated the case would continue until Meyer or her co-defendant appeared for a criminal case, regardless of whether the payments were made.[15]
On 11 May 2018 the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) suspended the investment services license of Ariadne Capital Malta Limited with immediate effect, alleging multiple "serious breaches of license conditions".[16][17]
Since 2018, Meyer is sole director of Viva investment Partners AG, a company registered in Switzerland.[18] In February 2022, Meyer was sentenced to a six month suspended sentence by the High Court in the UK, following a judgment of contempt of court for failure to appear in court hearings and follow court orders in a case brought by attorneys Farrer & Co, based on allegations of unpaid fees.[19] Meyer unsuccessfully appealed the suspended sentence.[20][21]
Awards and honours
2000: EY Entrepreneur of the Year - UK winners[22]
Cave, Andrew (1 July 2012). "'Entrepreneurs can lead Britain out of recession': In her new book, Julie Meyer hails a new era of individual capitalism, writes Andrew Cave". The Sunday Telegraph; London (UK) [London (UK)]. p. 8 – via ProQuest.
Moules, Jonathan (14 June 2012). "Taking on the Goliaths of the business world". Financial Times; London (UK) [London (UK)]. p. 14.
Morrissey, Helena (5 May 2013). "Why embracing change means we all can thrive". The Sunday Telegraph; London (UK) [London (UK)]. p. 4.