John Baits was CTO at DN Capital for more than 20 years and a quietly important part of tech and VC in the UK. He recently passed away so I wanted to share a note reflecting on his life and his importance to myself and DN.

In the early days of DN we set out to recruit a CTO to help us scrutinize the tech underpinning the companies we invest in. We filtered down to two hugely qualified CVs and hired John, who had spent more than 20 years in senior roles at IBM as well as having been the CIO of Telstra and CTO of Cable & Wireless, two major telecommunications companies, and had a PhD in Engineering from Leicester University.

John quickly became an integral part of our team at DN. He was contracted to work with us one day per week but John was so passionate about technology that when we were looking at deals with interesting tech he’d practically work with us full time. Alongside this John was a visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

John was the consummate professional and had a razor-sharp intellect. He had an outstanding breadth of knowledge in technology and combined this with a great sense of humour which meant he was a lot of fun to work and spend time with.

He was also a very important advisor, mentor, coach and eventually friend to me. John’s experience, intelligence and wisdom were invaluable to Steve and I in building the firm, through successful periods and challenges. I learned a tremendous amount about business and life from John.

A few years ago at our annual Christmas dinner John announced that he would be retiring from DN, but he actually worked with us for a few more years after this, continuing to share his wisdom and point of view on the tech that our portfolio companies were working on.

John was so much more than our CTO and advisor. He was a true partner to DN and his legacy will live on with the team. He was also a very great friend of mine

The technology industry and the academic community lost a very important man who dedicated so much of his life to technology in this country.

John, we will miss you.

Nenad and the DN Team