Julie Myerson (born Julie Susan Pike, 2 June 1960) is an English author and critic. As well as writing both fiction and non-fiction books, she is also known for having written a long-running column in The Guardian entitled "Living with Teenagers" based on her own family experiences. She has also appeared regularly as a panellist on the arts programme Newsnight Review.

Education and journalism[link]

She studied English at Bristol University before working for the National Theatre.^[1]

She has written a column for The Independent about her domestic trials including her husband, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Jonathan Myerson, and their children Jacob (known as Jake), Chloe and Raphael. More recently she has written a column for the Financial Times about homes and houses. Myerson is a regular reviewer on the UK arts programme, Newsnight Review, on BBC2.

Fiction[link]

Myerson's novels are usually quite dark in mood tending towards the supernatural.

Her first novel was Sleepwalking (1994), and it was to some degree autobiographical. It deals in part with the suicide of an uncaring and abusive father (Myerson's own father committed suicide). The main character Susan is heavily pregnant and begins an affair. She also feels she is haunted by her father's mother, reliving the neglect that made him abusive.

In The Touch (1996) a group of young people try to help a tramp who preaches fundamentalist Christianity, and who turns violently against them.

In Me and the Fat Man (1999) a waitress takes to earning extra money giving oral sex in a park, though not out of necessity; she gets involved with two other men, friends who have an awkward relationship and a secret between them that turns out to be related to her own birth.

Laura Blundy (2001) is set in the Victorian period, and Julie Myerson tries to bring out the freshness and modernity of the period as it would have appeared at the time.

Something Might Happen (2003) is about a murder in a Suffolk seaside town.

Family controversies[link]

Julie Myerson was the anonymous author of 'Living with Teenagers',^[2] a Guardian column and later book^[3][4] that detailed the lives of a family with three teenage children. The column was stopped after one of the children was identified and was ridiculed at school.^[5] After the Guardian confirmed the author of the series it removed the articles from its website to 'protect their privacy'.

She was at the centre of a media controversy in March 2009 when details of her book 'The Lost Child: a True Story' emerged; commentators criticised Myerson for what Minette Marrin in The Sunday Times, called her "betrayal not just of love and intimacy, but also of motherhood itself".^[6] Tim Lott called the book a "moral failure", adding "Julie has betrayed Jake for her own ambition".^[7] However, some critics took a diametrically opposing view. The Guardian's Mark Lawson, a friend of Julie Myerson, called the book noble, saying that "The elegance and thoughtfulness of this book – and its warning of a fate that may overtake many parents – should not be lost in the extra-literary frenzy.",^[8] while The Observer's Kate Kellaway called the book rash but courageous, writing that Myserson had tried to "write honestly about a nightmarish situation and a subject that never seems to get the attention it deserves."^[9] The book was published in the U.S. in August 2009.^[10]

Myerson stated she may also sell the film rights at some point in the future, "maybe in 20 years."^[11]

Her son described her as "slightly insane" and the publication as "obscene", and declared his intention to change his name to "Jake Karna".^[12] The last name refers to Karna, a Hindu warrior who, in the Mahabharata, is rejected by his mother.

Novels[link]

• Sleepwalking (1994)
• The Touch (1996)
• Me and the Fat Man (1998)
• Laura Blundy (2000)
• Something Might Happen (2003)
• The Story of You (2006)
• Out of Breath (2007)
• Then (2011)

Non-fiction[link]

• Home, The Story of Everyone Who Lived In Our House (2004)
• Not A Games Person (2005)
• Living with Teenagers – 3 kids, 2 parents, 1 Hell of a bumpy ride (2008)
• The Lost Child (2009)

Awards[link]

• 1994 Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (shortlist) for Sleepwalking
• 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (shortlist) for Something Might Happen
• 2005 WH Smith Literary Award (shortlist) for Something Might Happen

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile of Julie Myerson at Contemporary Writers

Julie Meyer is an American-born entrepreneur, investor, business adviser, networking expert, broadcaster, and business commentator. She is the founder and Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital and the Managing Partner of Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Fund (ACE).

She is the founder of Entrepreneur Country and was the co-founder of First Tuesday sold in July 2000 to Yazam, a subsidiary of Jerusalem Global, for $50 million.^[1]

Meyer is also one of the two dragons on the BBC’s Dragons' Den online and is a regular columnist for the business paper City A.M.^[2] and regularly contributes to The Daily Telegraph’s^[3] business pages.

She has won awards including the World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (October 2000) and a place in the Wall Street Journal’s 30 most influential women in Europe. She was also cited as one of INSEAD’s ‘50 alumni who have changed the world’ (2010).

Early life and education[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2010)

Meyer was born in Dearborn, Michigan, but moved to Sacramento, California, when she was one month old. Her father, also an entrepreneur, is a pulmonary doctor who founded Pulmonary Medicine Associates^[4] in Carmichael, CA in the early 1970s; her mother was an assistant to a lawyer.

She received a B.A. in English Literature and Humanities from Valparaiso University^[5] and her M.B.A. from INSEAD in France.^[6]

Meyer is a Lutheran.

Early career[link]

Meyer spent her early 20s in Paris from 1988 to 1993 where she taught English.^[7] She later worked as a consultant for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 3Com and Hewlett Packard.^[8]

From 1993 to 1996, she worked for Andy Cunningham at Cunningham Communications in Boston where she consulted for Motorola on the PowerPC Alliance.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, she took her M.B.A. at INSEAD^[9] and in 1998 she went to London and co-founded the networking forum First Tuesday.

Business ventures[link]

First Tuesday[link]

In 1998, Meyer started working in London for NewMedia Investors (now Spark Ventures) where she helped advise companies including Lastminute.com, WGSN and Arc Cores to build their teams, raise capital and establish themselves internationally.^[10][11]

In October 1998, together with journalists Nick Denton and John Browning and investment banker Adam Gold, Meyer started organising networking events for new media entrepreneurs and business people on the first Tuesday of every month. It then became known as First Tuesday. Under Meyer's direction, First Tuesday expanded into 17 cities across Europe. The Wall Street Journal (Europe edition) covered the international launch to 17 cities on the 7th of September 1999.^{[citation needed]}

Ariadne Capital[link]

After Meyer left First Tuesday, she set up Ariadne Capital in August 2000, an investment and advisory firm based on an ‘Entrepreneurs backing Entrepreneurs’ model, providing investment and advisory services to entrepreneurs in the media (broadcasting, publishing, music, gaming, advertising) and the internet (including mobile internet) sectors. Clients that Ariadne backed in the early years include Espotting (now MIVA), Kashya (later sold to EMC) and Skype (later sold to Ebay^[12]). Most recently Ariadne Capital acted as sole financial advisor to BeatThatQuote.com on its sale to Google.^[13]

Entrepreneur Country[link]

Entrepreneur Country^[14] (founded by Meyer in 2008) is a network of investors, entrepreneurs, corporate organisations and media partners. The group network congregates bi-annually and also gathers online for information exchange, inspiration and to make connections.

Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Fund (ACE)[link]

In September 2009, Meyer announced the first Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Fund (ACE).^[15] She is the managing partner of the fund which will invest in internet and mobile internet companies at the seed stage.

Media career and other work[link]

Dragons' Den (online)[link]

In March 2009 Julie Meyer became a dragon on the online version of BBC’s Dragons' Den where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of potential investors known as ‘dragons’. Joining Meyer on the panel is Shaf Rasul, founder of Edinburgh optical storage distributor E-Net Computers and an investor in property and internet companies.

The production shows online video pitches from entrepreneurs and the subsequent interaction between entrepreneurs and panel judges/investors, £50,000 being the maximum amount of money that the judges can individually invest in any one business. The videos are published weekly and audiences can participate by, for example, rating business plans.^[16]

The show is hosted by BBC Radio 1 breakfast newsreader Dominic Byrne.

Other media work[link]

Meyer appeared as a business commentator on the BBC (on shows including Newsnight, BBC Breakfast and BBC news online^[17][18]) and CNBC. Also, in addition to her column for City A.M., she has contributed to publications such as Bloomberg Businessweek, Computing, FT Digital Business^[19] and Spectator Business.

Julie Meyer has pioneered the understanding and analysis of the industrial framework - 'Ecosystem Economics'TM - previously published in the Sunday Telegraph and the Guardian.^[20][21] This model, which she was the first to apply to the post web 2.0 world, refers to the network-orientation of all business in the next phase of industrial development. The winners, according to Meyer and Ariadne Capital, will be those companies who organise the business model in their ecosystem for all parties in the transaction. Ariadne seeks to accelerate the momentum of fast-growing technology-based businesses. Meyer and Ariadne use "Ecosystem Economics"TM to refer to how to launch and grow new businesses where the alignment of multiple entities in the marketplace are required to ensure success."Ecosystem Economics" is a trademark of Ariadne Capital.

Julie provided comment for the Financial Times on the Davies Report (an inquiry into female representation in the boardroom)^[22] and also on 'Why entrepreneurship is so important'.^[23] She was used by Financial Times as a commentator on the UK Budget 2011, looking at its effect on small and medium businesses.^[24]

Awards and honours[link]

• INSEAD - 50 Alumni who changed the world^[25]
• E&Y – Entrepreneur of the Year (October 2000)^{[citation needed]}
• Wall Street Journal - 30 Most Influential Women in Europe^{[citation needed]}
• World Economic Forum – Global Leader of Tomorrow^{[citation needed]}
• Keynote Speaker at the Women Mean Business Conference and Awards on September 27, 2010^[26]
• Was a judge for The Economist Conferences' Innovation Awards 2010^[27]
• Julie Meyer was selected to be a member of Vince Cable’s Entrepreneurs’ Forum as part of Global Entrepreneurs’ Week 2010^[28]
• Cited as one of the '1000 Most Influential People in London' by the London Evening Standard 2010^[29] and again in 2011^[30]
• Keynote speaker at The Economist Conferences' Big Rethink 2011^[31]
• Announced as Board member at Vestergaard Frandsen in 2011^[32]
• Announced as non-Executive Director of Jellybook, a company for retail investors in social media, in May 2011^[33]
• Announced as judge for National Business Awards 2011 in May of same year^[34]
• Named one of ComputerWeekly's top "50 Most Influential People in UK IT" in October 2011^[35]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ariadne Capital Official website http://www.ariadnecapital.com/
• Cunningham Communications http://www.connectingpointcomm.com/CCI/
• BBC website - Dragons Den: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/
• City AM website: http://www.cityam.com/ http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/julie-meyer
• Ariadne Capital Founding Investors - http://www.ariadnecapital.com/documents/Ariadne_Founding_Investors.pdf
• BBC News - The dragon’s golden rule - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8052336.stm
• Intellectual Property Office - http://www.ipo.gov.uk/search.htm?words=julie+meyer