Elevating boards through leadership and capital.
Bespoke search and placement of Chairs, Non-Executive Directors and Trustees — now with a members' platform that connects experience, opportunity, investment and ambition in one place.
Board practice
Three practices, one standard of appointment.
PLC & AIM
Robust independent Chairs and NEDs for FTSE Small Cap and AIM-listed companies.
Private & Growth
Strategic Investing NEDs for early-stage companies.
Governance & Impact
Expert Trustees and Chairs for Investment Trusts, Not-for-Profits and Charities.
NED & Chair search
Bespoke, retained search for board-level appointments.
Investing NED practice
A director who brings capital as well as counsel.
Board skills analysis
Understand the gap before you recruit into it.
Pre and post-search support
Brief definition through to onboarding and first-year review.
Corporate seminars
Board effectiveness and governance sessions for leadership teams.
Member Deal Room
Eligibility-gated access to live investment opportunities.
Live now
Opportunities on the platform
Investing NED — Operations, Sable Robotics
Sable needs an operator who has scaled a hardware deployment business past 100 installations a year, and who will invest alongside the existing syndicate. Warehouse automation retrofits, Series A, £3.1m ARR.
Members onlyNon-Executive Director — Commercial, Trellis Retail Group
Trellis is midway through a buy-and-build and wants a commercially-minded NED with multi-site consumer experience. Multi-site speciality retail, 48 stores, PE-backed.
Members onlySeed — £1.2m, Kestrel Bio
Spin-out from the John Innes Centre with two granted patents. Precision fermentation for speciality proteins, pre-revenue.
Members onlyHow membership works
Reviewed, matched, connected.
Apply
Tell us which of the four you are. Every application is reviewed by the First Flight team.
Build your profile
Structured, searchable, and the basis of every match we make.
Get matched
Briefs and profiles are scored against each other the moment either changes.
Engage
Register interest, access the Deal Room, and track everything through to outcome.
An Investing NED does more than provide counsel — they make a direct financial investment into your company. Members joining the investment side of the platform must meet one of two criteria.
The Investing NED practice
Capital and counsel, from the same person.
High Net Worth Investor
Annual income of £100,000 or more; or net assets of £250,000 or more.
Self-Certified Sophisticated Investor
Any one of: member of a business angel network; previous investment in an unlisted company; worked in private equity; director of a company with £1m+ annual turnover.
In their words
What members and clients say.
They understood the gap on our board better than we did. The Chair they introduced changed how we run the business, not just how we run the meeting.
The Investing NED model was the reason we went with First Flight. Capital and experience arriving in the same conversation is a very different thing.
Three board appointments in six years, all through First Flight. They know what I do and they do not waste my time with the rest.
Join the network where boards, capital and ambition meet.
Membership is reviewed, not automatic. Tell us which of the four you are and we will take it from there.