Two decisions that gate everything else
Every contact below was verified against the organisation’s own pages on 24 Aug 2026 unless marked ⚠. Each entry is a bet: what it costs (mostly an email), what it tells us, and an honest read on the odds it pays off.
- LTA money vs equity money — structural fork. The LTA loan scheme (Route E) only funds not-for-profit structures; Crowdcube, angels and EIS only work for a company limited by shares. We cannot keep both doors open past incorporation. Decide before applying for anything.
- Leasehold opco before EIS. HMRC’s advance assurance looks hard at asset-backed ventures; a freehold-owning company is a likely refusal, a trading operator leasing its premises is the standard pass. South East Angels requires an EIS-qualifying round, so this ordering is critical path for the whole equity side.
The batches — thirteen first bets
Batch 1 hits the four biggest unknowns — finance terms, building availability, SEIF status, real capex — for the price of about seven emails. Everything in Batch 2 either needs those answers or spends real money; Batch 3 needs the earlier dominoes down.
Batch 1 — send this week (cost: five emails, one browser check).
1. Mill Wood Finance — padel asset finance, and it’s local ★ best first call
- Henry Bolland (named padel contact) · 01273 523690 · millwoodfinance.com/padel-court-finance · Rustington, West Sussex
- The only broker that publishes its first-pack list: business plan + cashflow forecast, evidence of own capital, management/padel experience (preferred), security (assets or PGs), repayment from court cashflow. Send the financial overview section and ask two questions: would you fund a new-start on this plan, and at what terms/deposit?
- Read: high likelihood of a substantive answer. Local, padel-specialist, sales-motivated. Their answer is the fastest feasibility test of Route A that exists.
2. Flude — the industrial agent with the best published contact
- Andrew Halfacree, Director, Industrial Agency · 01273 740385 · a.halfacree@flude.com (plus Tom Woodward, 01273 740384)
- Brief: 13,000–20,000 sq ft, 6m+ height over a courts zone (apex counts, not just eaves — pitched roofs are fine), A23/A27 corridor, leasehold, long lease available. Ask what’s on and what’s coming.
- Read: high. Flude’s own director talked up padel demand in the press on the Shoreham scheme — they know the sector wants sheds. Send the same brief to James Bryant at Graves Son & Pilcher (jb@gsp.uk.com, 01273 321123) and SHW Brighton (brighton@shw.co.uk FAO the Industrial & Logistics team, 01273 876200). Three agents = the real availability picture in a week.
- Ask about these specific live listings (found Aug 2026): Unit 24 Panattoni Park Burgess Hill (15,818 sq ft, 8m eaves — closest spec match; SHW/Vail Williams); 59 Victoria Road Burgess Hill (29,829 sq ft, 10m — oversized, subdivision?); Unit 2 York Road Burgess Hill (20,000 sq ft, £9.75/sq ft — GS&P, height unstated); Units 3&5 Lancing Business Park (6.7m high-bay, £10/sq ft — GS&P); Units 3&4 School Close Burgess Hill (£6.75/sq ft, already has Class E consent — Flude’s own listing; height doubtful, view anyway); Unit 3 Ellen Street Portslade (13,011 sq ft, 6.5m — SHW Crawley). Also: Panattoni offers design-and-build at Burgess Hill, and Buckingham Park Lewes takes pre-lets from June 2026 (Oakley: Steven Harvey, steven@oakleyproperty.com, 01273 645772).
- Competitive intel — ✅ RESOLVED 24 Aug 2026 (checked on the planning register): the April press story was the Consort Way scheme, and it is approved (DM/26/0781, permission 14 May 2026): four indoor courts plus a café and social space at Victoria Business Park, applicant Sally Vans Agnew (local family, Capital Hair & Beauty; likely vehicle Foundry Investment Capital Ltd — its SIC codes include “operation of sports facilities”). A discharge-of-conditions application went in 11 Aug 2026, so fit-out is imminent. No second Burgess Hill scheme exists. Also approved: 3 more outdoor courts at Eixo (Jan 2026) and Plumpton Racecourse’s 5-court centre (Aug 2026); one refusal at St Francis Sports & Social Club, Haywards Heath. Business case §3/§4/§10 updated accordingly — mention the Consort Way opening when talking to agents about Burgess Hill units.
3. British Business Bank — South East Investment Fund — ✅ CHECKED 24 AUG 2026, nothing to do yet
- Status: not launched. The page still says “coming soon / summer 2026” (unchanged since March); no fund managers appointed for any product line; no borrower application or expression-of-interest route exists; SMEs can apply only “as soon as the funds launch”. Facts: £350m across the SE + East of England funds; loans £25k–£2m; equity up to £5m.
- No human action. Claude monitors for the launch/manager announcement; the moment managers are named, the Route B1 conversation opens with a named counterparty. (Optional 30-second human task only if wanted: join the BBB Nations & Regions newsletter with your own email.)
4. Tennis Sussex — local intel, hiding in plain sight
- Nicola Barnes (venue liaison) · nicola.barnes@tennissussex.com · office: 07398 145446 — and their office is physically inside The Padel Hub, Haywards Heath (Unit 4 Link 23, RH17 5JS), i.e. the big warehouse venue we already play at.
- Ask for a conversation about padel demand in Sussex, the venue registration route, and who else is circling which sites. County bodies know the planning pipeline gossip before it’s public.
- Read: high, and cheap. Worst case, a friendly coffee at a venue we were going to anyway.
5. Court suppliers — feasibility conversations
- Padel Tech (built Padium; 150+ UK installs): info@padeltech.co.uk · 0131 581 8683. Their form asks planning status / funding status / canopy / court count — have answers ready. Hexa Padel (East Grinstead number — closest): sales@hexapadel.co.uk · 01342 894508.
- Ask both: indicative cost for 4 doubles + 2 singles indoor, and whether they’ll do a site feasibility visit once we have a shortlist (neither advertises free visits — ask).
- Read: high response likelihood (they sell courts), medium information value until we have a building — but their number for our spec tightens the capex table, and installers see every building problem before we do.
The scoreboard
| # | Bet | Cost | What it tells us | Odds of useful signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mill Wood Finance | Is Route A’s asset-finance layer real, at what terms | High | |
| 2 | Flude + GS&P + SHW | 3 emails | Does a building exist | High |
| 3 | SEIF page check | 5 minutes | Is Route B1 open yet, and via whom | Certain |
| 4 | Tennis Sussex | email/coffee | Local pipeline intel, registration route | High |
| 5 | Padel Tech + Hexa | 2 emails | Real capex for our spec | High |
| 6 | Start Up Loans | 4 applications | £100k of the stack, yes/no | High |
| 7 | EIS advance assurance | £499 + VAT | Whether the equity side works at all | Good |
| 8 | South East Angels | form | First £50–150k of equity interest | Medium |
| 9 | Sussex Innovation | £50/month | Network + second angel pool | Medium |
| 10 | Council pre-app | £582–£1,586 | Official planning signal on a real building | High (when timed right) |
| 11 | Crowdcube | fees on success | The £250–350k closer | Good, but sequenced last |
| 12 | LTA loan | form | Route E’s terms, if we fork that way | High, gated on structure |
Batch 1 hits the four biggest unknowns — finance terms, building availability, SEIF status, real capex — for the price of about seven emails. Everything in Batch 2 either needs those answers or spends real money.