Julie Meyer

Julie Marie Meyer MBE 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.

Early life and education
Meyer was born in Sacramento, California. In 1988, Meyer graduated from Valparaiso University with a B.A. degree in English Literature and moved to Paris. In 1997, she received an M.B.A. from INSEAD (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires).

Career
Meyer moved to London in 1998 and worked at NewMedia Investors (later known as Spark Ventures) from 1998 to 1999. 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.

In August 2000, Meyer founded the investment advisory firm Ariadne Capital. In 2009, Meyer announced the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs (ACE) Fund, which has since been dissolved.

In 2009, she was a panelist in the online version of Dragon's Den. 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 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. In 2015, Ariadne Capital was ordered to pay £50,000 after a contract dispute related to StartUp Loans was heard in court. In 2016, Ariadne paid a £64,500.90 judgment as ordered after a contract dispute with a former employee.

In 2014, Ariadne Capital hired the public relations firm Lansons Communications. A Lansons employee contacted Wikipedia and the communication was posted on the Talk page of the Julie Meyer article. Ariadne filed a lawsuit against Lansons for more than £100,000 in damages, and Lansons counterclaimed for about £76,000 in unpaid fees. The litigation settled with an undisclosed sum paid to Lansons.

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. 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.

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".

Since 2018, Meyer is sole director of Viva investment Partners AG, a company registered in Switzerland. , managing a UK-registered investment vehicle with negative shareholder equity.

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. Meyer unsuccessfully appealed the suspended sentence.

Awards and honours

 * 2000: EY Entrepreneur of the Year - UK winners
 * 2002: WEF/Global Leaders for Tomorrow
 * 2010: INSEAD (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires), "50 Alumni who Changed the World"
 * 2011: ComputerWeekly's "50 most influential people in UK IT" list
 * 2011: Wired 100
 * 2011: Member of the Order of the British Empire for Services to Entrepreneurship
 * 2020: Bronze Stevie Award from the Stevie Award For Women in Business
 * 2020: Globee CEO World Awards