Kevin R Smith is the founder and CEO of BOOM & Partners, a muti-award winning boutique business advisory firm.  After an initial career working for banks, he has run his own business and finance consultancy firm for 26 years. He is a mentor for the UKs largest Entrepreneur Accelerator programme run by NatWest Bank; Virgin Startups; Prince’s Trust; and Bayes Business School (City of London University).

With a long and varied career in business and finance, he has become increasingly aware of the extra challenges faced by female founders, and the large number of early-stage businesses that have a great story but are missing some vital parts of the jigsaw to allow them to achieve their true potential.  Those missing pieces are inevitably gaps in knowledge or experience in certain areas, or access to the right people. 

He is also a prolific author and a BBC Radio contributor, writing and talking about all aspects of running an early-stage business.  His two most recent books are entitled ‘Growing with Blockchain’ and ‘Start-up to Scale-up : what funders expect at each stage’.

In his normal business life, and in his role as a mentor, he is very well placed to help such businesses achieve their goals and ensure that their businesses grow and prosper.