Julie Meyer

In 2017, Meyer was pursued by former suppliers and advisors over unpaid bills. In April 2018, Meyer failed to show up for the first of three hearings in Malta over these alleged unpaid bills, causing the magistrate in charge of the case to ask the Commissioner of Police to locate Meyer within 48 hours. The police failed to do so, and on 9 May and 24 May 2018 Julie Meyer failed to appear for the second and third hearings. On 11 May 2018 the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) suspended the investment services license of Ariadne Capital Malta Limited with immediate effect, highlighting multiple “serious breaches of license conditions”. These breaches included the absence of a Compliance Officer at all times, lack of cooperation with the MFSA, not having established an independent risk management function, and having inadequate resources to manage Alternative Investment Funds. The license suspension means that Ariadne Capital Malta Limited may no longer provide services under Malta’s Investment Services Act.

On 29 January 2018, the Administrator, Leonard Curtis, reported that Ariadne Capital Limited:

By 2018, YouTube had closed the ECTV (aka Julie Meyer) account, stating: “This account has been terminated because we received multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement regarding material the user posted.”

In March 2016, Meyer’s Wikipedia page became the subject of news articles focused on paid editing when a publicity firm named Lansons Communications that Meyer’s company had hired in 2014 allowed an intern to post on their behalf to the entry’s Talk page. The intern had written to request advice on how to update her page. Ariadne filed a £100,000 lawsuit over the issue and later settled and withdrew the suit, paying an undisclosed sum to Lansons.

In 2015 and 2016 Meyer lost a string of high profile Court cases brought by former employees, lawyers, accountants and suppliers which led one High Court Judge to describe Ms Meyer as “not credible.”

In 2012, Meyer was part of an advisory committee led by entrepreneur James Caan called StartUp Loans that was funded with £82.5 million, aimed at reaching young people interested in creating UK startups. In 2015 two Dragons squared up in court after Caan successfully claimed that Meyer had misappropriated £50,000 in funds that should have been directed to helping startups.

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. In 2010 and 2011, she was listed as one of the “1000 Most Influential People in London” by the London Evening Standard. In 2011 Meyer appeared on ComputerWeekly’s “50 most influential people in UK IT” list and was given Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) status for her contributions to entrepreneurship in England.

In 2009, she became a guest on the short-lived online edition of the Dragons’ Den TV series, although controversially it later arose that Meyer had failed to pay some of the investments she’d pledged.

In September 2008, she founded the business networking company EntrepreneurCountry Global as a subsidiary of Ariadne Capital: “a community of entrepreneurs, investors, corporate partners and media” which provides methodology and a marketplace where large, traditional enterprise businesses connect to exchange information for innovation in Europe and the UK. According to Companies House Filings, in 2016 Ariadne Capital sold EntrepreneurCountry Global Limited, with almost ₤3 million accumulated losses, to the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund for ₤4.5 million.

In 2002, Meyer announced the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund which launched in 2012 as a £5.3 million fund.

In August 2000, Meyer founded the investment advisory firm Ariadne Capital, after the Greek princess Ariadne who was known for helping Theseus make his way through a labyrinth.

After completing her M.B.A. Meyer joined NewMedia Investors (later known as NewMedia Spark/Spark Ventures) from 1998 to 1999.

In 1998, Meyer co-founded First Tuesday, a networking forum in an effort to build an online tech community that connected entrepreneurs and investors. Meyer invested £35,000 and held a 22.5% shareholding stake when First Tuesday incorporated in February 2000. Five months later, in July 2000, along with co-founders investment banker Adam Gold, Mark Davies, journalists John Browning and Nick Denton who sold the networking forum First Tuesday to an Israeli company called Yazam for approximately £33 million, including £2 million in cash and remainder in shares. Yazam later sold the company for a large loss.

Meyer has lived in the United Kingdom since July 1998, and is a permanent resident. She lives in Earls Court, London.

In 1988, Meyer graduated from Valparaiso University with a B.A. degree in English Literature. In 1997, she received an M.B.A. from INSEAD (Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires).

In 1988 Meyer moved to Paris. Initially, she taught English to French executives in the tech industry. From 1993 to 1996, she worked at Cunningham Communication in marketing.

Meyer was born in Dearborn, Michigan. She grew up in the Sacramento, California area to father, Delbert “Del” Meyer, a pulmonologist who had a practice in Carmichael, California, and mother Lorna Starck. Meyer’s father also founded Pulmonary Medicine, Infectious Disease and Critical Care Consultants Medical Group Inc. in 1973 and served as Managing Director of the group for ten years, growing it to eight pulmonologists in total.

Julie Marie Meyer MBE (born August 28, 1966) is an American businesswoman and the author of Welcome to Entrepreneur Country. She is the founder and sole director of Ariadne Capital (currently in administration), owner and sole director of the General Partner of the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund, and is the founder and sole director of EntrepreneurCountry Global Limited. Meyer was the co-founder of the networking club First Tuesday (1998-2000). In 2009, she appeared as a Dragon on the short-lived online version of BBC’s Dragons’ Den.