The Seedtable Podcast: Recent Episodes
Gonz Sanchez
Welcome to the Seedtable podcast, where we try to make sense of what's going on in European technology by having fascinating conversations with European founders, investors and operators.
Hey everyone, this is your host Gonz, and welcome to another episode of the Seedtable podcast, where we try to make sense of what is going on in European technology.
My guest today is James Clark.
James is a London-based marketer with a somewhat unorthodox job:marketing director for a publicly traded VC fund, Draper Esprit.
Before joining Draper, James worked in the London Stock Exchange as the Head of Tech and Lifesciences, helping entrepreneurs all around Europe successfully launch their IPOs.
And before I get into my usual run-down of the topics we discussed — first, a small disclaimer:
James and I are not a financial advisor, and don’t play one on the internet. What we talk about does not constitute in any way shape or form as financial advice.
And now that that is out of the way—Today’s conversation was absolutely riveting. James and I cover a whole bunch of topics, including: Why James took a marketing job at a VC firm; the importance of having an outsider’s perspective; the key advantages and disadvantages of a publicly traded VC fund; why VCs should look at themselves as businesses, not just investors; how Covid impacted Silicon Valley, and drove investment to Europe; and much much more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
Hey everyone, this is your host Gonz, and welcome to another episode of the Seedtable podcast, where we try to make sense of what is going on in European technology.
My guest today is Pietro Invernizzi.
Pietro is an investor at Stride, the London-based venture capital firm, investing first checks in pre-seed alongside Fred Destin and Harry Stebbings.
Before joining Stride, Pietro entered the startup world 4 years ago through The Family, where he spent most of his time helping founders raise money from top angel investors and VCs. He has also made several angel investments himself.
In today’s conversation, Pietro and I talk about: why Twitter is two social networks and not just one; How to use writing as a decision-making tool; How Pietro evaluates potential investing deals; body language, humility and rabbit holes; Tips & Tricks for people who are thinking about trying to get into VC; Pietro’s advice to pre-seed founders looking to raise their first round; and much much more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
My guest today is Philippe Botteri.
Philippe is a partner at the venture capital firm Accel, and a co-creator of one of my favorite yearly reports on European tech, the Euroscape.
Philippe’s career as an investor is nothing short of breathtaking. From hits like Ui Path to Doctolib, he is one of the most renowned investors in Europe today, so it was an absolute pleasure to sit down with him and talk.
Our conversation is a bit shorter than usual, but don’t worry—Philippe delivers.
In just thirty minutes, we covered a whole bunch of topics: Luck and why everyone creates their own; what made Philippe realize, back in the early 2000s, that Europe was the place to be in for tech investment; The Euroscape report origin, and how it evolved over time; the decentralization of European tech hubs, and why that matters; what Philippe looks for in founders before he invests; and much much more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation, as much as I did.
My guest today is Erika Batista. Erika is the Head of EMEA at On Deck, previously founding team & Director The Family, an incredible connector and one of the kindest humans I know.
I’ve been meaning to get Erika on the podcast for a while and I finally found an excuse. Today we’re doing something different – we’re jamming for an hour on Atomico’s State of European Tech report.
So instead of doing a long intro, we’re going to dive straight into it. Enjoy!
My guest today is Matt Helt.
Matt is a Growth & Development Coach who works with startup founders and other leaders to help them navigate their way back to what really matters, both in their life and their work.
Before that, he was the program director of Techstars Startup Week, where he helped catalyze startup ecosystems in cities and countries around the world.
Matt was introduced to me by my friend Ian Hathaway, and I’m so glad we made this happen. He is one of the most thoughtful people I know, so it was an absolute pleasure to have him on the podcast.
Our conversation revolved around a whole bunch of topics. We covered Matt’s Life story and how he became a coach for founders and leaders; why mental health awareness matters; the dangers of self-medicating when in pain; why Matt calls himself a ‘serial empathizer’; How and why develop a mindfulness practice; Matt’s work running start-up week; and much much more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation, as much as I did.
My guest today is Natalie Novick, a sociologist and quantitative social scientist working on research to understand the social aspects of a startup community.
For the past five years, she has been conducting fieldwork with entrepreneurs and community builders, starting in Santiago, Chile in 2015. Since then, she has lived and worked in 27 different countries and experienced the startup community firsthand.
In this conversation we discuss the global startup ecosystem, startup visas, working with early-stage founders, the role of government in innovation, and much, much more.
Having worked with thousands of entrepreneurs, the European Comission, national governments like Startup Estonia and organizations like Tech.eu and Startup Boost, Natalie has a VERY unique perspective on the European technology so I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
Hey everyone, this is your host Gonz, and welcome to another episode of the Seedtable podcast, where we try to make sense of what is going on in European technology.
Today I’m doing things a bit different and bringing you two guests instead of one: Fabrizio Rinaldi and Francesco Di Lorenzo, founders of Mailbrew; a Milan-based company that compiles all your favorite feeds, writers, and newsletters in a daily email digest.
I’ve been a fan of the Mailbrew team for some time now, so it was an absolute pleasure to sit down with these guys to talk.
We cover absolutely everything: Fabri & Fran’s origin story, and the path that led them to build Mailbrew; Why an obsessive focus on design matters so much; the Italian tech ecosystem, the advantages of running a bootstrapped company; why Fabri & Fran decided to raise money from Earnest Capital and much, much more.
Though our conversation was a bit shorter than my usual episodes, Fabri & Fran absolutely delivered. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Hey everyone, this is your host Gonz, and welcome to another episode of the Seedtable podcast, where we try to make sense of what is going on in european technology.
My guest today is Julian Lehr.
Julian is a friend, a writer and a thinker, currently working as a Startup Partnership Lead at Stripe.
For the past few years, he has been writing incredible essays on the intersection of technology and social norms, with some of my favorites being Signaling as a Service, Proof of Work and Is this real life.
Julian is one of the most intriguing thinkers I know, and this conversation turned out to be even better than I expected.
During the episode, we discuss: The difference between social-media Julian, and real-life Julian; Julian’s writing process; the notion of American entrepreneurs as celebrities, and why in Europe that isn’t the case; Julian’s insightful ‘Signaling Theory’; Why Julian tracks and measures pretty much everything he does on a given day, and much much more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation, as much as I did.
My guest today is Chris Yiu. Chris is the Executive Director of the Technology and Public Policy team at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Chris was previously a general manager at Uber and has held senior roles at a number of public, private and third-sector organisations. His work focuses on improving the dialogue between technology, and those seeking to respond to it with policy and regulation so naturally, this conversation revolves around.
More specifically, Chris and I discuss:
- his decision to leave Uber and go work at the Tony Blair Institute
- the importance of Progress and his new Progressive Agenda,
- why the institutions of the 20th century are fundamentally mismatched to the challenges of the 21st century
- why we should be optimists about government
- his advice for tech people going into Public Policy
- the biggest opportunities in Artifical Intelligence
- his reading habits
...and much, much more.
Chris works on something that's very dear to me: the intersection technology and public policy so I had a ton of fun. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
Links
- Follow Chris on Twitter
- Subscribe to Progress
- Read the new Progressive Agenda
My guest today is Anirudh Pai, host of the Conservative Curious podcast and founder of Dreams of Electric Sheep, a newsletter that covers the intersection of tech, history, and economics.
I'm warning you – this conversation with Ani is anything but typical:
- Ani’s unorthodox career progression.
- How being a child of immigrants shaped Ani’s views
- Why Any is an avid student of history and biographies
- Creation and accumulation of power
- The balance between consuming information and creating meaningful content
- Content moderation and privacy
- Why the ‘one public internet’ is going to disappear
- Journey vs Destination
- Ani’s biggest source of optimism right now.
Ani is a voracious reader, a fascinating thinker, and an extremely fun guest so I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
My guest today is Nicholas Mills. Nick is operator and early-stage investor, currently General Manager for EMEA at CircleCI, where he leads the new London HQ.
Before joining CircleCI, Nick was the Head of Revenue for UK & Ireland at Stripe, and the Head of Sales for EMEA at Facebook so he has an incredible amount of experience to share with us.
Nick is a wonderful guest and in this conversation, we cover absolutely everything:
- Nick’s path to leading the CircleCI London HQ
- His framework for when to leave a job, idea or project
- His work at CircleCI and how they are taking the CI/CD industry by storm
- Nick’s framework for hiring and managing a team and why one-on-one are so important
- What makes the London tech ecosystem unique
- How Nick picks the books he reads and why reading Fiction is important
... and so much more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!
Today's guest is Patrick Samy, co-founder and CEO of Span, a London-based early-stage startup that helps people address lifestyle-related symptoms and conditions such as anxiety, fatigue, and diabetes without medication.
Health and health tech is one of my favorite topics so having Patrick on the podcast was a blast. In today's chat we discuss:
- the very personal story of how Span got started
- going through Entrepreneur First
- Span's plan to change patients lives at scale and how his team is thinking about go-to market
- his decision to raise capital via crowdfunding
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
My guest today is Daniel Metzler. Daniel is the co-founder and CEO of Isar Aerospace, a Munich-based company that develops next generation rockets for sustainable access to space.
Isar Aerospace was founded in 2018 and has been moving extremely fast since then: the debut of Spectrum, their launch vehicle, is scheduled for late 2021. That's a short three years from first design to launch.
I think of Daniel as the bridge between space and earth, both physically (since they are literally building rockets) and intellectually, because he is able to distill the complex world of space technology in a way that anyone can understand.
I was introduced to Daniel by Paul Klemm, Principal at Earlybird Ventures and I'm so glad we made this happen. In this episode we cover:
- Daniel's mental model for space and Isar's origin story
- the future of satellite connectivity,
- the underrated possibilities of going to space,
- why Europe is the perfect place (geo-politically speaking ) to work on space technology,
- how the Isar team is structure to move fast on a brand new field,
- and much, much more.
My guest today is Avi Meir, co-founder and CEO of TravelPerk, a Barcelona-based business travel platform that revolutionizes the way that organizations budget, book, and manage business travels.
Avi's story is fascinating: after doing an MBA in Barcelona he started Hotel Ninja – a hotel management software company – that he then sold to Booking.com.
In 2015, less than a year after his first exit, Avi co-founded TravelPerk and has been on an absolute roll since then. TravelPerk has raised over $130 million in six funding rounds from investors like Spark, Felix Capital, Heartcore and Target Global and is one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in Europe.
Avi is an extremely insightful and entertaining guest, so this episode is full of fun tidbits, random rabbit holes and tactical advice for founders. We cover absolutely everything:
- Why Avi started TravelPerk only 10 months after selling his first company,
- His thoughts on ‘work-life balance’ and ambition,
- How TravelPerk dealt with COVID-19,
- Doing their first acquisition in the middle of a pandemic,
- The importance of family,
- The value of reading and journaling,
...and much, much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
My guest today is Ian Hathaway. Ian is an analyst, strategic advisor, writer, and entrepreneur, and currently leads product development for ecosystem advisory at Techstars, where he works with founders and community leaders around the world to support their path towards building better tech ecosystems.
He is also the co-author of The Startup Community Way, a book on building entrepreneurial ecosystems published in July 2020.
If you know me, then you know I have a rule – I don't read new books. There are so many great ones out there that I haven't read yet that it feels counterproductive to take my chances with something that just came out. But I broke my rule for Ian's book and I couldn't be happier I did.
I was initially introduced to Ian by Nicolas Colin, Director of The Family, to chat about the book and my obsession with building technology ecosystems.
That said, Ian is a fascinating guest so this conversation ended up covering so much more: we start by discussing why artist don't like when people fuck with their art and Ian's writing process, then we go into the book, why startup communities are complex adaptive systems, and why everyone should play positive-sum games. After that we move into Europe's technology ecosytem, underrated hubs and policy suggestions and we wrap up the conversation by talking about coaching and how it changed Ian's life.
If you are as obsessed about writing, entrepreneurship and startup communities as I am, then this conversation won't disappoint. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Today I have with me Moritz Müller-Freitag, COO and co-founder of TwentyBN and let me tell you something: today's conversation was a blast.
TwentyBN, which stands for Twenty Billion Neurons, is a company building human-centric AI technology and bringing seeing and sociable digital assistants to life.
We start by talking about the company's origin story and their first product, a smart virtual fitness trainer, and then we move on to the difference between building a company in Berlin and Toronto, whether innovation in AI is slowing down and his playbook for building deep-tech companies.
But then the conversation warms up and we go into very Seedtable-esque topics like the second-order consequences of regulation, his unique process for picking books, the lessons we both draw from Robert Caro's writing, and much, much more.
Moritz caught my attention on Twitter thanks to his quarantine reading challenge called "The Pandemic Book Club" and his review of a fantastic new book called Disunited Nations and I'm so happy I DM'ed him because I had so much fun. So there's nothing else to say than I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
This is your host Gonz, and today I'm with Federico Travella, CEO and founder of NoviCap, a company that helps business unlock cash stuck in outstanding invoices and improve their cash flow.
NoviCap has offices in Spain, The Netherlands and the UK and they are on track to finance over one billion euros by the end of 2021.
Federico is a geologist by training and before NoviCap, he was a Managing Director at Rocket Internet in Southeast Asia and EVP at Lazada Group.
He has lived in multiple countries and speaks 7 languages so he has a unique perspective on life, technology and business that is reflected in our conversation.
In today's episode we cover absolutely everything:
- Federico’s origin story, including his pivot from geologist to tech entrepreneur
- What he learned during his time at Rocket Internet
- Why Federico started NoviCap, their approach to fundraising and their unique hiring process
- How COVID-19 might impact european tech hubs such as Spain
- The role government should play in fostering entrepreneurship
- The future of Fintech
I was introduced to Federico by a Seedtable reader and I couldn't be happier I got to know him. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
My guest today is Eze Vidra, co-founder and managing partner of Remagine Ventures, an early stage fund investing in ambitious entrepreneurs at the intersection of tech, media, data and commerce.
Previously, he was a General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) Europe and led the fund’s first investment outside of the USand led the fund’s first investment outside of the US. Before joining Google Ventures, Eze was the Head of Google for Entrepreneurs Europe and the founding Head of Campus London, Google’s first physical space for technology startups in London.
On top of that, Eze is a prolific writer. He was been blogging about technology and venture capital at VC Cafe for the past 15 years. In today's episode we cover:
- How growing up as a child of immigrants shaped his worldview
- His three-legged "framework" for building tech ecosystems
- The difference between Europe, the US and Israel
- Starting his fund, Remagine ventures
- Eze's ability to rally people around one purpose, specifically the TechBikers non-profit
- And much, much more
Having spent time in the US, Israel and Europe, Eze has a very distinctive and valuable perspective on technology and innovation so I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
My guest today is Jacob Haddad, CEO of AccuRx, a London-based company working on a platform that brings patients and healthcare teams together.
AccuRx started in 2016, raised a $9m Series A from Atomico and LocalGlobe in 2019 and has grown tremendously since then.
I had Jacob on an earlier episode of the podcast but today's conversation is completely different.
Jacob has a very deliberate approach to running accuRx so this episode is absolutely packed with tactical advise on how to start, build and run a company.
We cover everything:
- the accuRx’s origin and early days.
- how Jacob uses curiosity and first-principles to solve problems
- The importance of optimizing hiring for Values and Culture.
- Why having an obsession with the end-user is key for companies working on an industry such as healthcare.
- the AccuRx product development process and how it evolved over time.
- and much much more.
I hope you learn as much from this conversation as I did.
My guest today is Ferdinand Metzler, co-founder and CEO of Meepl, a Zurich-based company that develops accurate 3D virtual bodies & clothing models.
Ferdinand's story is fascinating. After spending a semester in Hong Kong where he discovered the issues plaguing the fashion industry; he returned home united a small team of engineers and started the development of what would later become the foundation of the meepl 3D body scan technology.
In today's episode we discuss:
- Ferdinand's experience living in Hong Kong and how he views the East vs. West dichotomy
- How he came up with the idea for Meepl
- Why he is bullish on the Zurich tech ecosystem
- How he thinks about culture and hiring
- The impact of COVID on fashion and retail
- and much, much more
We recorded this conversation just when the COVID-19 outbreak started being covered on mainstream media so do keep that in mind as you listen. That said, our conversation is as relevant as ever.
Welcome to the Seedtable podcast. Today we are not trying to make sense of what's going on in European tech, as we usually do.
Today we are doing something much more entertaining – I'm joined by three fantastic newsletter writers – Brett Bivens from Venture Desktop, Packy McCormick from Not Boring and Sid Jha from Sunday Snapshots – to play fantasy M&A.
Should Apple buy Peloton? Should Amazon acquire Doctolib? And most importantly, will the French government let that happen? Should we get Brian Chesky on the phone and push him to merge with Zillow? How dumb would Uber have to be to acquire Lilium?
We try to answer all those questions and much more. We don't really have a name for this. We don't know if we'll ever do it again. But playing bingo with technology companies was incredibly fun. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
🎙️ Listen on Apple Podcasts
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My guest today is Matt Clifford, co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First, which he started with Alice Bentinck back in 2011.
Entrepreneur First is what is known as a Talent Investor – they help extraordinary individuals find a co-founder, develop and idea and raise money from the world's best investors. So far they've enabled more than a thousand people to create over 200 companies, worth a combined $2.4 billion.
On top of running Entrepreneur First, Matt writes Thoughts in Between, one of my favorite newsletters so it goes without saying that I'm very excited about this conversation.
We kick-off with a couple of somewhat weird questions I've been meaning to ask Matt for some time but then we dive straight into it:
- picking and testing locations for Entrepreneur First
- why the talent model investing is as important as ever
- why now is the right time to start a company
- the value of networks
- how to incentivize scenius (or communal genius)
...and much, much more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
🎙️ Listen on Apple Podcasts
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My guest today is Michael Sackler, founder and managing partner at Rooks Nest Ventures, a London-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests at the intersection of technology, media and entertainment.
Before Rooks Nest Ventures, Mike founded and led Rooks Nest Entertainment, a successful production company of indie hit films like My Brother the Devil, The Witch and Obvious Child.
Naturally the conversation starts by breaking down how the film industry works behind the scenes and what was it like to see the rise of Netflix from the sellers side.
Then we move on to their investment thesis and how it has evolved over time, why media infrastructure is one of the biggest opportunities right now, the value of communities and so much more.
Please enjoy this conversation with Michael Sackler.
Useful links
- Rooks Nest Ventures
- Rooks Nest Entertainment
- Supernode
- Podsights (podcasting attribution tool)
- AViD (audio courses)
- 12traits (psychographics for gaming)
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My guest today is James Wise, partner at Balderton, one of Europe's most prolific venture capital firms. James joined Balderton in 2013, where he focuses on health, productivity and security. Since then has led investments in companies like Sophia Genetics, Detectify and Kaia Health.
James is also a trustee at Dot.Everyone, a charity that advocates for responsible approaches to using new technologies, and Demos, Britain's leading independent, cross-party think tank. In 2011 he served as a Specialist Adviser to Parliament.
In today's conversation we cover:
- whether the rate of productivity is slowing down or not
- why startups should tackle bigger problem (and how)
- why power is shifting from cities to regions
- and much more.
I found this conversation fascinating so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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For this episode I'm talking with Brett Bivens. Brett is a venture investor at TechNexus, a Chicago-based venture capital firm. He focuses on Europe and operates out of Paris.
On top of that, he writes Venture Desktop, a weekly newsletter that he describes as "an ongoing exploration of the ideas and trends shaping the innovation economy". We discuss:
- Spotify and the future of audio
- Wellness and the power of incentives
- The future of cities in a post COVID-19 world
- What makes Paris a unique technology hub
- His reading habits
Brett is a fantastic writer, an even better guest and I found this conversation with him extremely insightful. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
🎙️ Listen on Apple Podcasts
🎙️ Listen on Spotify
My guest today is Jacob Haddad, CEO of accuRx, a London-based company working on a platform that brings patients and healthcare teams together.
The accuRx story is fascinating. After struggling with their initial idea right out of Entrepreneur First, they pivoted, captured over 90% of the primary care market in the UK, and raised a round from some of the best funds in Europe, including Atomico and LocalGlobe.
During this conversation we cover:
- Why healthcare is a communication industry and the underlying incentives that drive it
- The non-obvious impact of COVID-19 for health tech
- The early years of accuRx, going through Entrepreneur First and the pivot into messaging
- How they optimize hiring for diversity, their unique culture and their product development process
Jacob and I had this chat a couple of months ago, during the early phases of the lockdown, but it is more relevant than ever. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
🎙️ Listen on Apple Podcasts
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Today's episode is a fascinating conversation with Nicolas Colin. Nicolas is a co-founder and Director of The Family, an investment firm whose mission is to support purpose-driven creators in their efforts to bring value to society. He also publishes European Straits, a weekly newsletter analyzing European technology as an asset class.
Nicolas is a unique thinker and this conversation is a reflection of that. Some of the topics we cover:
- The thesis of his book Hedge (and how it stands today).
- How COVID-19 is accelerating the need for new institutions.
- Why "How Europe can be more like Silicon Valley?" is the wrong question.
- Europe, the United States and China.
- The role of government in innovation and what we can learn from city states.
- And much, much more.
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Today I'm talking with journalist, entrepreneur and investor Turi Munthe. After selling Demotix to Corbis Corporation and spending a few years as a Venture Partner at North Base Media he launched Parlia, the encyclopedia of opinion.
Parlia is one of the most exciting and important projects today. Their platforms allows you to quickly understand all sides of complex questions at a glance, record what you believe on different questions and gain insight into your thinking.
In this conversation, Turi and I discuss:
- Why he started Parlia (and why now)
- The value of opinions vs. facts
- How arguments evolve over time
- How today’s media landscape has impacted public discourse
- And much, much more
You can find more about Parlia (and contribute) at Parlia.com.
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Today I'm talking with Marie Outtier, co-founder and CEO at Aiden.ai a platform that helps marketers optimize their campaigns using artificial intelligence.
Marie started in Aiden in June 2016, raised a total of €2.4 million and 1219 days later sold it to Twitter. In today's episode we cover:
- The similarities between actors and founders.
- Why she started Aiden back in 2016.
- Raising money while being pregnant.
- How to build a great team (and red flags to look for when hiring).
- The importance of having more female founders.
- Being acquired by Twitter.
She is one of the most impressive founders I know so I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
🎙️ Listen on Apple Podcasts
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My guest today is Marcin Szeląg, partner at Innovation Nest, a Krakow-based early-stage seed fund focusing on B2B software companies.
I met Marcin a couple of months ago when we jumped on a Zoom call and proceeded to talk about technology for almost an hour and a half. This podcast tries to be an extension of that conversion and we cover a wide range of topics including:
- Marcin's edge as an investor
- The value of networks in early stage investing
- The future of venture capital
- Why Krakow is a great place to build a company
- Starting (and scaling) startups in secondary tech hubs
I had a lot of fun chatting with Marcin, so I hope you enjoy this conversation.