This Much I Know - The Seedcamp Podcast: Recent Episodes
Carlos Espinal
This Much I Know is the podcast from Seedcamp, Europe’s seed fund.
Tune into hear the inside story from startup founders, investors and leading tech voices: the people who’ve built businesses, scaled globally, failed fantastically and learnt massively.
Seedcamp invests early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. Seedcamp provides the infrastructure to fast-track a founder’s vision and create value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support and a global network built upon a decade’s experience backing exceptional talent.
problem of agents that outlive the employees who created them, and why the security tools built to stop hackers simply don't work when it comes to agents.
Eric Ries's The Lean Startup method is undeniably one of the most influential writings published on entrepreneurship in the last decade. It gave a whole generation of founders a new way to build - and made 'pivot' a household word. Now he's tackling an even harder subject: why do so many great companies eventually betray everything they stood for? And what can founders do to stop it?In his new book Incorruptible, Ries argues that governance is the most powerful and most underappreciated force in business. In this conversation with Carlos, they get into why shareholder primacy destroys brands, why the tools to resist that pressure already exist, and why most founders give away the thing that matters most.
We knew Pari Singh was special when he walked into Seedcamp at 21 and told us that he could design rockets faster than anyone in the world.Fast forward nine years, and Flow Engineering is now the operating system for the next generation of physical engineering, relied on by the likes of EV giant Rivian.We sat down with Pari to break down why the industry is at an inflection point, why the biggest threat to legacy manufacturers isn't technology but culture, and why he believes the vast majority of physical engineering work will be automated by AI within the year.We also get into what separates elite engineering teams from average ones, and the single most important characteristic he hires for.
Carlos sat down with founder James Kuht MBE, to discuss what it actually takes to get organisations to adopt AI effectively - and why most still get it wrong.
In the latest episode of This Much I Know, our Managing Partner, Carlos Espinal and Nandan Nayampally, Chief Commercial Officer of Baya Systems (previously at ARM, Amazon and AMD), delve into the geopolitics and innovations within the semiconductor industry.Nandan shares his extensive career journey from AMD to ARM and Amazon, providing valuable insights into the evolution of the semiconductor industry. He also emphasizes the shift towards specialized IP designs and the global distribution of manufacturing.The conversation explores the impact of geopolitical factors on the chip industry, the rise of localized manufacturing, supply chain resilience and the future implications of AI and edge technology. Tune in!Show Notes:Nandan Nayampally - linkedin.com/in/nandannayampallyCarlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalBaya Systems - bayasystems.comSeedcamp - seedcamp.com
In an in-depth conversation with our Managing Partner, Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Miro’s co-founder and CEO, Andrey Khusid shares his incredible founder journey, from starting Realtime Board, his simple idea of bringing whiteboards into browsers, to Miro, now a global organization valued at nearly $20 billion. He reflects on the company’s explosive growth from 200 to 1800 people in just 18 months during 2020-21, the importance of hiring for mindset over experience, and the transition from a product-led growth model to incorporating sales-led strategies. Andrey highlights key moments, cultural shifts, and the impact of leadership on the company’s trajectory. Additionally, he offers insights into maintaining team cohesion, learning from failures, and adapting to the ever-changing business landscape, especially with the advent of AI. Tune into this insightful episode providing an in-depth look at scaling a tech startup globally and the lessons learned along the way.Show Notes:Andrey Khusid - linkedin.com/in/khusidCarlos Eduardo Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalMiro - miro.comSeedcamp - seedcamp.comOverview:00:00 Explosive Growth and Leadership Challenges00:35 Welcome to the Seed Camp Podcast01:18 The Origin Story of Realtime Board03:06 Rebranding to Miro05:49 Balancing Customer Feedback and Product Vision12:20 The Power of Product-Led Growth17:26 Transitioning to a Sales-Led Growth Model22:29 Navigating Enterprise Expansion Challenges22:45 Shifting to an Innovation Workspace23:17 Adapting to Market Changes and Bundling26:03 Embracing AI and Future Prospects27:22 Building a Strong Company Culture30:09 Scaling Challenges and Leadership Insights32:28 Reflecting on Leadership and Growth42:15 The Importance of Founder-Led Companies43:16 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
In the latest episode of “Path to Market,” Natasha and Micah are joined by Fanny Talagrand, Head of EMEA sales for startups and SMBs at Stripe to discuss key sales strategies from startups to enterprises. Drawing from her extensive experience in global tech companies like Google Cloud and Stripe, Fanny emphasizes the importance of understanding user needs and journeys, leveraging user feedback, and the different dynamics between selling to startups versus enterprises. She also provides advice for hiring the first sales reps, highlighting the need for candidates to be smart, driven, and coachable. She stresses the significance of onboarding processes and embedding new hires with users early on. Additionally, she explores how to balance product-led growth with enterprise sales and shares metrics to optimize sales performance.Tune in to learn about:- how to align sales strategies with the needs and journeys of different types of users;- how PLG and enterprise motions can coexist with careful planning and differentiation in user journeys;- why as companies grow, including a sales team becomes vital to extend market reach and support users who require more comprehensive solutions;- and more practical strategies for founders looking to enhance their sales operations and build successful teams.Show Notes:Fanny Talagrand - linkedin.com/in/fanny-talagrand-a51a81bNatasha Lytton – linkedin.com/in/natasha-lyttonMicah Smurthwaite – linkedin.com/in/micah-smurthwaite-2283b49Overview:00:00 Introduction to Path to Market01:17 Meet Fannie Talegrand, Head of EMEA Sales for Startups and SMBs at Stripe02:13 Fannie's Career Journey04:29 Comparing Sales at Google Cloud and Stripe06:58 The Importance of Product and User Feedback13:31 Sales Metrics and Funnel Optimization16:32 Differences in Selling to SMBs vs. Enterprises24:07 Hiring the Right Sales Leader34:29 Onboarding New Sales Hires40:09 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
In a new episode of This Much I Know, Carlos’s guest is Dr Melanie Garson, an associate professor at UCL and expert in cyber policy and geopolitics. Together they discuss critical issues in the current geopolitical and defence systems, including the evisceration of the US civil service, reactive politics, and the role of technology companies as geopolitical actors. Dr Garson emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, stress-tested technology rollouts, and the holistic view of future defence strategies. She highlights the information domain as another critical area, where misinformation and disinformation can proliferate and destabilize, underpinning the need for robust measures to counteract these threats.The conversation explores the strategic role of tech in geopolitics, the evolving nature of warfare, and the potential for innovation and international cooperation within the defence industry. Dr Garson also shares her views on the importance of building secure digital economies and engaging meaningfully with emerging technologies for long-term future defence capabilities.Looking to the future, Dr Garson predicts the emergence of new industry players and the potential for existing companies to re-engage with defence manufacturing. She remains optimistic that the industry will recognize the value of entrepreneurs and facilitate environments where innovation can thrive alongside traditional primes.Show Notes: Dr Melanie Garson linkedin.com/in/melaniegarson/Carlos Espinal linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal/Dr Melanie Garson - profiles.ucl.ac.uk/25481-melanie-garsoninstitute.global/experts/melanie-garson Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Our “Path to Market” series continues with a new episode in which our Director Natasha Lytton and her co-host Micah Smurthwaite, Partner at Pipeline Ventures, delve into the intricacies of go-to-market strategies with seasoned CRO, Tim Bertrand. Tim shares his extensive experience scaling organisations like Acquia, Project 44, and HAProxy, offering actionable insights for founders and sales leaders on building sales teams, effective onboarding practices, the fundamentals of discovery and qualification in sales, and the nuances of pricing strategies for early-stage companies. Tim also discusses the significance of deal reviews and the evolving landscape of sales tactics, emphasizing the value of compelling events and robust qualification processes.The discussion also covers:- the dynamics of building sales teams;- identifying customer pain points;- the significance of practical sales methodologies like MEDDICC and BANT;- fostering cross-functional collaboration;- the role of open-source communities;- and more.Key takeaways:- Understand product intricacies;- Leverage economic buyers in sales cycles; - Align organizational culture with company values for success;- Make the right hire according to the company’s growth stage. Show notes:Tim Bertrand – linkedin.com/in/timbertrandNatasha Lytton – linkedin.com/in/natasha-lyttonMicah Smurthwaite – linkedin.com/in/micah-smurthwaite-2283b49Overview:00:00 Understanding Customer Pain Points00:22 Introduction to Path to Market Podcast01:00 Interview with Tim Bertrand: Scaling Startups01:39 Tim Bertrand's Journey: Acquia to HAProxy05:07 Advice for Founders on Sales Playbooks08:11 Hiring the Right Sales Team16:29 Onboarding Sales Reps: Best Practices18:31 Effective Sales Execution and Discovery23:29 Creating Urgency in Sales23:34 The Role of Compelling Events25:18 Evolving Sales Tactics28:53 Effective Deal Reviews31:03 Pricing Strategies for Startups32:59 Building a Strong Sales Culture35:58 Cross-Functional Collaboration39:17 Open Source Business Models43:05 Sales Methodologies for Founders44:30 Hiring the Right CRO45:47 Conclusion and Key Takeaways
In the latest episode of our “Path to Market” series, our Director Natasha Lytton and her co-host Micah Smurthwaite, Partner at Pipeline Ventures, speak with Gia Scinto, a partner at Cole Group, specializing in go-to-market executive hires for renowned startups like Airbnb and Stripe. Gia shares her extensive experience in building go-to-market teams for top startups across her different roles, including as the first talent leader at Y Combinator and as an executive talent partner at Andreessen Horowitz.She emphasizes the importance of metrics in recruitment, the founder's role in hiring, and key considerations for early-stage companies hiring their first sales leaders. Gia also provides actionable advice on running an effective recruiting process, including aligning on job requirements, conducting thorough interviews, and ensuring a successful onboarding process. Key takeaways:- Set a minimum experience threshold for the role- In the first interviewing rounds, assess the candidate against the main goals of their roles- Set clear expectations and establish attainable goals in the initial months to facilitate a seamless onboarding into the company.Show notes:Gia Scinto – linkedin.com/in/giascintoNatasha Lytton – linkedin.com/in/natasha-lyttonMicah Smurthwaite – linkedin.com/in/micah-smurthwaite-2283b49Overview:00:00 Introduction to Gia and Her Extensive Experience00:54 Working with founders at Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator08:13 Advice for Early-Stage Sales Hiring12:25 Running a Successful Recruiting Process20:35 Interview Questions for Sales Leaders24:35 Assessing Culture Fit in Early-Stage Companies26:31 Hiring Challenges and Lessons Learned28:17 Pitching to Senior Candidates in Startups29:09 Importance of Product Differentiation30:03 Segmentation and Market Strategy34:09 Onboarding and Setting Expectations38:03 Back-channeling and Reference Checks41:16 Onboarding Best Practices for Success43:17 Common Pitfalls in Hiring46:40 Building Go-to-Market Systems50:41 Advice for Go-to-Market Candidates
In a new episode of Path to Market, our Director Natasha Lytton and her co-host Micah Smurthwaite, Partner at Pipeline Ventures are joined by Ryan Lieber, an experienced Go-to-Market Leader and one of Snowflake’s earliest employees and its first SDR.Together they discuss Snowflake's impressive growth trajectory, the challenges and strategies of category creation, key sales methodologies like MEDDPICC, the best approaches for scaling internationally, and cross-functional sales efforts. Ryan shares his experiences from joining Snowflake when it was an unknown startup in 2014 to its current status as a data giant with over 7,000 employees and a market capitalization of over $50 billion.He also delves into when and how founders should hire their first SDRs and sales leaders, the metrics for measuring their success, and the role of marketing alignment in scaling sales. Moreover, he emphasizes the importance of understanding regional cultural and communication nuances, and how to leverage partnerships in new markets.Key takeaways:- taking an iterative approach to the sales process enables you to transition from broad outreach to focusing on sales-qualified opportunities;- hiring SDRs earlier rather than later is not only cost-effective, but it also enables founders to focus on product development; - choose a sales leader who isn't afraid to "get their hands dirty" and is willing to adapt to the dynamic needs of a growing startup. They are in touch with the pulse of the market and the realities faced by their teams;- international expansion is not a uniform process and differs significantly by region. This is why understanding cultural nuances, leveraging regional partners, and ensuring the market is ripe for entry are essential considerations; - taking a partnership approach to scaling accelerates growth and embeds credibility in the customer’s eyes.Show notes:Ryan Lieber – linkedin.com/in/ryan-lieber-8aa59a62Natasha Lytton – linkedin.com/in/natasha-lyttonMicah Smurthwaite – linkedin.com/in/micah-smurthwaite-2283b49Overview:00:00 Introduction and Guest Background01:00 Ryan’s Early Days at Snowflake03:59 Career Growth and Opportunities05:01 Building the EMEA Team07:08 Challenges and Learnings08:19 Finding the Ideal Customer Profile13:57 Sales Methodology: MEDDPICC19:30 Hiring and Building a Sales Team21:48 The Daily Grind of an SDR22:01 Key Traits for Sales Success23:30 Red Flags in Sales Hiring27:07 Effective SDR Metrics32:09 Hiring Your First Sales Leader34:54 The Power of Marketing in Sales36:49 Scaling Internationally42:26 Snowflake's Startup Program45:02 Final Thoughts and Advice
In this insightful episode, our Director Natasha Lytton and co-host Micah Smurthwaite, Partner at Pipeline Ventures are joined by Alicia Carney, a seasoned product marketing expert with extensive experience at high-growth startups like Deliveroo.Together, they dive deep into identifying and validating Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) in pre and post product-market fit stages. Alicia shares her insights on navigating early market fit through to scaling operations post-product market fit.Key takeaways:- Define and validate ideal customer profiles (ICP) through market needs and user research- Be intentional and thoughtful about who you are serving and the value you offer- Focus on empirical metrics and continuous customer engagement.Show notes:Alicia Carney - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciacarneyNatasha Lytton - linkedin.com/in/natasha-lyttonMicah Smurthwaite - linkedin.com/in/micah-smurthwaite-2283b49Interview guide link: http://bit.ly/3tJubmC Establishing an ideal customer profile (ICP) by Notion VCMarket research platforms: userinterviews.com, pollfish.com, gong.io, grain.com
We are excited to announce the launch of our new podcast series, "Path to Market," where our Director Natasha Lytton and co-host Micah Smurthwaite, Partner at Pipeline Ventures dissect the art and science behind effective go-to-market (GTM) strategies for startups and scale-ups.The introductory episode explores essential elements of go-to-market planning, real-world examples of startups overcoming market-entry challenges, and practical advice on avoiding common pitfalls. Highlights include:- understanding the balance between art and science in sales;- the importance of a focused market entry;- the critical nature of making the right hire. What to Expect from “Path to Market”Future episodes will cover an array of topics, from defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to choosing between sales development representatives and product-led growth motions. Whether you’re embarking on your startup journey or are further along, there’s something beneficial for every stage.The podcast series will feature seasoned marketing, sales, and product experts who have worked for companies such as Stripe, Snowflake, and Deliveroo.
In a new episode of 'This Much I Know,' Carlos hosts Andy Budd, a veteran UX/UI designer and one of our venture partners, to discuss his latest book, 'The Growth Equation: How Early Stage Startups Can Build a Powerful Engine for Growth.' Andy shares his journey from being a tech enthusiast to launching the UK's first UX agency, ClearLeft. The discussion rich with anecdotes and actionable insights explores key themes to help founders navigate the complexities of startup growth. These include:founder-led sales; creating a go-to-market strategy, and the importance of customer retention and onboarding. He emphasizes practical, incremental approaches to building a customer base, crafting effective sales emails, and leveraging community-driven growth. Andy advocates for positioning and language-market fit as critical aspects of early-stage success, suggesting that a focused effort on understanding and connecting with the target audience precedes establishing a strong brand. Show notes:Andy Budd - linkedin.com/in/andybuddCarlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalSeedcamp - seedcamp.comAndy Budd - andybudd.com/bookThe Growth Equation: How Early Stage Startups Can Build a Powerful Engine for Growth by Andy Budd is available in bookstores and online.
In this episode, our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal is joined by our Talent Manager James Wright, and special guest Dominic Jacquesson, a veteran VC operator who recently received an MBE for his contributions to the UK entrepreneurship and technology ecosystem. Dominic shares insights from his varied career, including his extensive experience at Index Ventures working with top-tier tech companies, and from his latest book, 'Scaling through Chaos' written on behalf of Index to offer founders a comprehensive roadmap for scaling teams and leadership. The conversation covers key topics, such as:- Building effective teams;- Leadership, and the role of culture and values in scaling a startup;- Risk management, setting up processes, and the applicability of OKRs/KPIs. Dominic also announces his new venture into studying neuroscience after an accomplished career in the startup ecosystem.Show Notes:Dominic Jacquesson MBE - linkedin.com/in/dominicjacquessonCarlos Espinal MBE - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalJames Wright - linkedin.com/in/jdhwrightScaling Through Chaos and other resources from Index Ventures, including the web app TeamPlan, are available for free on Index Press (https://www.indexventures.com/index-press)00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome01:46 Dominic Jacquesson's Career Journey07:53 Writing 'Scaling Through Chaos'15:01 Scaling Startups: Key Insights17:24 Navigating Leadership and Hiring37:08 Risk Management in Scaling45:29 Dominic's New Venture49:50 Conclusion
In the ever-evolving landscape of business communication, platforms like WhatsApp are no longer just messaging apps but have transformed into powerful platforms enabling businesses to connect with their customers in groundbreaking ways.In the latest episode of Startups in Focus, our Managing Director Carlos Espinal and our Principal Felix Martinez, dive deep into this topic with Tarek Khalil and Mohamed Elbadwihi, co-founders of Rasayel, exploring how they are leveraging WhatsApp to redefine business communication.They also explore:- the evolution of WhatsApp as a platform and its impact on business communication, driven by its mass usage and business demand, highlighting the complexities of compliance and global usage variations;- the strategic choice of focusing on WhatsApp due to its global prevalence and trusted infrastructure; - the potential of building a billion-dollar company on platforms like WhatsApp, drawing parallels with Salesforce and Shopify;- how to navigate platform risks.About Rasayel:Rasayel focuses on enabling businesses to interact with customers via WhatsApp, which they see as the future of business communication, offering a more personal and immediate interaction compared to emails and phone calls. Tarek and Mohammed foresee significant business opportunities as WhatsApp evolves, aiming for Rasael to become a leading player on the platform. Show Notes:Tarek Khalil - linkedin.com/in/tarek-khalil-wa/Mohamed Elbadwihi - linkedin.com/in/amunoCarlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal/Felix Martinez - linkedin.com/in/felixjmartinez/Rasayel - rasayel.ioSeedcamp - seedcamp.comGet in Touch with Rasayel:For businesses, investors, or users eager to explore further into Rasayel, the easiest way to reach them is—fittingly—through WhatsApp via their website. Dive Deeper:Betting on WhatsApp - Tarek Khalil, Co-founder and CEO of Rasayel, wrote a thesis for anyone who wants to understand, build, or invest in the future of the WhatsApp platform. [https://justmessaged.substack.com/p/betting-on-whatsapp]Overview:00:00 Can WhatsApp Sustain a Billion-Dollar Company?00:25 Introduction to the Podcast and Guests01:05 Founders' Backgrounds and Journey03:16 Lessons Learned from Previous Startups05:29 The Birth of Octopods and Rassayel08:10 How Rassayel Helps Businesses10:36 WhatsApp as a Platform13:34 Platform Risks and Meta's Strategy21:24 Global Usage of Messaging Apps23:53 Global Messaging Trends and WhatsApp's Dominance24:47 Trust and Confidentiality in Messaging Platforms25:47 WhatsApp's Strategic Development and Market Penetration27:45 Navigating Multiple Messaging Channels32:07 WhatsApp Business Platform: Features and Compliance37:34 Future of Business on WhatsApp45:03 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
In this episode, Carlos interviews General Stanley McChrystal, a distinguished military leader with 34 years of experience commanding at a four-star level, including significant roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. They discuss General McChrystal's career, including his extensive awards like the Defense Distinguished Service Medal. General McChrystal shares his post-military endeavors, including founding the McChrystal Group and teaching leadership at Yale. The conversation delves into General McChrystal's books, particularly 'Leaders' and 'Team of Teams', exploring how writing these books shaped his views on leadership. Key themes include:- understanding the complexities of leadership;- the interplay between leaders, followers, and context,- and the role of character and self-discipline in effective leadership. The episode also covers practical insights on managing and transforming organizational cultures. General McChrystal shares personal anecdotes and reflections on leadership mistakes, personal development, and mentoring.00:00 Introducing General Stan McChrystal01:26 General McChrystal's Career Evolution and Achievements01:48 Discussion on Leadership07:15 The Three Myths of Leadership09:58 The Role of Followers and Breaking the Cycle13:15 Leadership Evolution and Organizational Dynamics16:58 Challenges in Leadership and Adaptability20:52 Team Dynamics in Startups and Large Organizations23:40 Adapting Leadership Styles and Overcoming Mistakes30:09 Commander's Dilemma: Vehicle Maintenance and Leadership Challenges31:48 Leadership in Counter-Terrorism Operations32:35 The Importance of Character in Leadership35:42 Defining and Reflecting on Character39:43 Personal Development and Daily Routines45:26 Mentorship and Learning from Mistakes55:54 Military Traditions and Cultural Questions57:37 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsShow Notes:General Stan McChrystal - linkedin.com/in/stanmcchrystalCarlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalmcchrystalgroup.comseedcamp.comGeneral McCrysyal's books - mcchrystalgroup.com/about/books
The latest episode of Startups in Focus features Leonid Feinberg, founder of Verax, a Seedcamp-backed company that provides enterprise-grade trust solutions for generative AI. Having a strong background in security and cloud services, including a previous company acquired by Amazon, Leonid shares insights on managing AI-related risks and offers practical advice for future customers regarding AI's potential and trust management.In conversation with our Managing Director Carlos Espinal, he delves into the challenges and solutions associated with deploying generative AI in production. He also explains how Verax's Control Center helps enterprises gain visibility and mitigate risks by analyzing and modifying AI responses in real-time. Furthermore, they discuss the current and future landscape of AI data management, the evolving best practices in AI, and the geopolitical implications of AI. Show Notes:Leonid Feinberg - linkedin.com/in/leonidfCarlos Eduardo Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalVerax AI - verax.aiSeedcamp - seedcamp.comOverview:00:00 Introduction to Today's Guest: Leonid Feinberg, Co-founder and CEO of Verax00:53 Leonid's Background and Journey to Founding Verax01:33 Understanding Verax: Enterprise Trust Solution for Generative AI02:48 Architectural Insights: Rolling Out LLMs in Enterprises05:02 Challenges and Best Practices in AI Deployment08:01 Future of AI and Data Management12:16 Verax's Role in Enterprise AI Trust18:39 Geopolitics and AI: Global Implications26:15 Advice for future AI Customers28:21 Conclusion
In a new episode of Startups in Focus, our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal is joined by Ryan Donnelly, co-founder and CEO of Enzai, an AI governance platform that allows organisations to adopt best-in-class AI governance policies and measure against them.They discuss:- the impact of AI as a technological revolution similar to the mobile shift, dotcom boom, and web invention- the importance of regulations and standards in ensuring AI's responsible use and trustworthiness- the challenges and opportunities in AI adoption- Enzai’s mission of enabling organizations to leverage AI technology effectively and responsibly, in compliance with emerging regulations- Enzai's vision of enabling trust in AI future regulatory landscapes and the necessary frameworks for AI adoption.Tune in for an insightful discussion on the future of AI governance and compliance.Show NotesRyan Donnelly - linkedin.com/in/ryan-donnelly-enzaiCarlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalEnzai - enz.aiSeedcamp - seedcamp.comReach out to Ryan and his team at hey@enz.ai. Time stamps:00:00 Introduction to the AI Technological Revolution00:36 Meet Ryan Donnelly: Co-founder and CEO of Enzai01:14 The Inspiration Behind Enzai02:19 Understanding Enzai’s Customers03:13 The Role of Regulations in AI05:07 The Evolution of AI Regulations10:26 The Importance of Standards in AI14:20 Enzai's Vision for the Future15:49 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
The latest episode of This Much I Know is an in-depth exploration of leadership, personal growth, and the transformative power of understanding one's own history and motivations. Carlos's guest, Jerry Colonna, Co-founder and CEO of Reboot, shares his journey from being a venture capitalist to becoming an executive coach, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and human connection in business and personal development. His reflections on the challenges and complexities of leadership are interwoven with personal anecdotes, and the painful but enlightening process of self-discovery he experienced. Carlos and Jerry discuss the societal implications of leadership decisions, the moral and ethical responsibilities of leaders in today's world, and the potential for venture capital to contribute positively to societal challenges. Central to the conversation is the concept of "Reunion," derived from Jerry Colonna's eponymous book, highlighting the necessity for leaders to confront their own pasts and the "othering" that divides people, to foster more empathetic and effective leadership. Show Notes:Jerry Colonna linkedin.com/in/jerry-colonna-rebootCarlos Espinal – linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalReboot - reboot.ioSeedcamp - seedcamp.comJerry Colonna's new book Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong - reunion.reboot.io
In the newly launched "Startups in Focus" series, our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal chats with Johannes Keienburg, co-founder and CEO of Cakewalk.Their conversation revolves around the importance of access control, visibility, and security in organizations. Johannes shares insights on the need for access management processes from the early days of an organisation, the challenges of data security, the evolution and future of access controls.Show notes: Johannes Keienburg - linkedin.com/in/johannes-keienburg/Carlos Espinal – linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalCakewalk getcakewalk.ioSeedcamp seedcamp.com
In a new episode of This Much I Know, Carlos's guest is Chris Tottman, General Partner at Notion VC, one of Europe's top-tier VC firms. Chris shares insights on: - his journey as an entrepreneur and Venture Capital investor - the evolution of venture capital in Europe - how founders can become successful in company building. - the role of mentorship in the VC industry.He also highlights the significance of founder-led sales, strategic pricing, understanding customer needs, fundraising challenges, and more.Show Notes:Chris Tottman - linkedin.com/in/chris-tottmanCarlos Espinal – linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalNotion VC - https://www.notion.vc/Included - https://included.vc/Seedcamp - seedcamp.comChris's Book 'THE GO TO MARKET HANDBOOK FOR B2B SaaS LEADERS' - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CJ45462M?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_CBFYWJN41F41CBK033SA
In a follow-up to their Seedcamp Firsts conversation on data, our Venture Partner Devin Hunt and Candice Ren, Founder of analytics agency 173Tech and a member of the Seedcamp Expert Collective, dive deep into A/B testing and good data science practices. With new and exciting AI technology emerging around recommendation engines, how can product leads evaluate which solution is better and how to really measure a “better recommendation”?Focusing on a specific case study - a furniture marketplace, Candice, who worked on A/B testing and recommendation engines for Bumble, Plend Loans, MUBI, Treatwell and many others, shares her thoughts on:- the intricacies of setting up and analyzing an A/B test experiment focused on comparing two different recommendation algorithms- how you set your hypothesis- the best way to segment your user basis - how to select what you are controlling for (e.g. click-through rate)- how to interpret test results and consider broader business metrics impact.Candice and Devin also emphasize the importance of granular testing, proper test design, and documentation of test results for informed decision-making within a company's testing framework.
In a new Seedcamp Deep Dive, Carlos's guest is Di Cook, AI Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), research affiliate at the Center of the Study for Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, and a doctoral candidate in war studies at King's College in London. Her research interests lie at the intersection of defense, intelligence, and AI.Their conversation revolves around the societal and security implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI), from the existential risks that AI could create, to the role of AI in national and international security. They also explore how AI technologies, and especially synthetic media, are augmenting and exacerbating societal and ethical issues and discuss potential initiatives and policies that can help to address these issues. They also examine the risks, potential misuses, and opportunities presented by AI, especially in the field of open-source intelligence (OSINT).Last but not least, they delve into different stakeholder's roles in re-establishing societal trust.Show Notes:Di Cooke - linkedin.com/in/dcooke34/Carlos Espinal – linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalCentre for Strategic and International Studies - csis.orgSeedcamp - seedcamp.com
In the latest Seedcamp Deep Dive, Carlos is joined by Kyran Schmidt, co-founder of Outverse, a community-first solutions platform; Jonathan Reimer, co-founder of crowd.dev, a developer data platform; and our Partner Sia Houchangnia. They discuss:- the importance of community-building for tech startups;- why intentionality and fostering a sense of belonging in community development are essential;- types of communities namely product and practitioner communities;- challenges, and strategies in creating and managing communities; - the community tech stack and specific tools (e.g., Discord, WhatsApp); - key success metrics and budget management considerations; - and more.Overview:00:38 - Introduction to the Power of Communities06:47 The Role of Community in Product-Led Growth18:02 Defining Community and Its Importance26:28 Managing Community Dynamics: Heroes vs Nutters28:50 The Importance of Community Culture29:43 Building, Designing and Scaling Community 33:49 Community Segmentation and Success Metrics37:49 The Role of Founders in Community Building57:47 Community Building: Tool Stack and Budgeting1:05:31 Concluding Thoughts on Community BuildingShow Notes:Jonathan Reimer - linkedin.com/in/jonathimerKyran Schmidt - linkedin.com/in/kyran-schmidtSia Houchangnia - linkedin.com/in/siahouchangniaCarlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalcrowd.dev - crowd.devOutverse - outverse.comSeedcamp - seedcamp.comResources: How to build a developer community: a step-by-step guideCrowdDev's blog (includes many articles about community building)[Seedcamp Firsts] How to create and scale an iconic community. Lessons from Sorare – Features Dan O’Kelly, an early Community - - Lead at Seedcamp-backed fantasy sports unicorn Sorare in conversation with our Partner Sia Houchangnia Appwrite's community and blog [appwrite.io]
In a new episode of Seedcamp Firsts, Candice Ren, Founder of 173Tech and a member of the Seedcamp Expert Collective, talks with our Venture Partner Devin Hunt about how data relates to building a great product at your startup. Candice, who contributed to building Bumble's data analytics function and team, explains the importance of understanding and utilizing company data effectively in startups. She provides insights into establishing Northstar metrics, user journey analytics, feature analytics, data dictionaries, and strategies for effective data sharing among teams.Learn about: - the user journey as your source of data;- the difference between product/app and features analytics; - how to think about your data stack; - what to track and why you shouldn't track everything;- why you need a master dashboard and what should it include.
In the latest episode of 'This Much I Know,' Carlos's guest is James Wise, Partner at Balderton and author of the newly published book "Start-up Century." They discuss:- the global movement of entrepreneurship and its role in today's world and the decades to come- the evolving nature of work and how AI is accelerating its transformationthe Five C's of AI Integration- the new technological frontiers, including health, housing, and energy- James's 'Entrepreneur's Manifesto,' a policy recommendation for governments to better support entrepreneurs- the role writing plays in his day-to-day work as an investor, and how his book has influenced his investment strategiesShow Notes:James Wise - twitter.com/jamespaulwise - linkedin.com/in/jamespaulwise/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal/ Balderton - balderton.comSeedcamp - seedcamp.comStart-Up Century. Why we're all becoming entrepreneurs - and how to make it work for everyone - https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/startup-century-9781399410595/
The latest Seedcamp Deep Dive focuses on the intersection of art, logistics, and technology. Carlos's guest is Edouard Gouin, co-founder and CEO of Convelio, a tech-led global logistics startup specialised in fine art shipping.They discuss:- the journey and challenges of building Convelio;- Convelio's position in and interactions with key players within the art ecosystem; and its innovative value proposition;- the critical elements of customer service;- the importance of forming cultural alignments in business partnerships;the integration challenges after acquiring a 'brick and mortar type' logistics company;- Edouard's appreciation for art and his regret of missing out on promising investment opportunities in the early stages of his favourite artists' careers.Show notes:Convelio is recruiting for multiple roles. Check out openings here: https://jobs.lever.co/convelioEdouard Gouin - linkedin.com/in/edouardgouinCarlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalConvelio - convelio.comSeedcamp - seedcamp.com
In a new episode of This Much I Know, Carlos and his guests Aaron Rosenberg (Radical Ventures, previously at DeepMind) and our Partner Tom Wilson explore the current state and impact of AI innovations and future developments, as well as AI's broad-ranging impacts on society, job market, and geopolitical landscape.They also reflect on the ways machine learning reshapes the dynamics in various industries, such as law and software development, and how AI-powered interfaces, like Humane's AI pin, could change how people interact with technology.The conversation also covers investment trends in AI startups, the role of venture capital in prioritising Responsible AI, and regulatory frameworks needed as the technology evolves. Aaron also shares his experience and ideas learned from his tenure at DeepMind.Show Notes:RESPONSIBLE AI STARTUPS (RAIS) FrameworkAaron Rosenberg - linkedin.com/in/aaronrosenberg12Tom Wilson - linkedin.com/in/tomwilsonseedcampCarlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalRadical Ventures - radical.vcSeedcamp - seedcamp.com
In the latest Seedcamp Deep Dive, our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal chats with Thomas Knowles, Head of Security Operations at ClearBank about all things cybersecurity - from essential cybersecurity foundations for early-stage companies to cybersecurity certifications and threat intelligence management.Show Notes: Thomas Knowles - linkedin.com/in/thomas-knowles-77a3509/Carlos Espinal – linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinalClearBank – clear.bankSeedcamp – seedcamp.comCybersecurity Certifications mentioned in the episode:SOC2 Certification (https://secureframe.com/request-demo/demo-secureframe)CyberEssentials (https://cybersmart.co.uk/cyber-essentials-certification/)Cybersecurity Framework | NIST (https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework)Official PCI Security Standards Council Site - Verify PCI Compliance, Download Data Security and Credit Card Security Standards (https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/)
Listen to a wide-ranging conversation about scaling engineering and technological innovation, between Meri Williams, CTO at Seedcamp-backed Pleo (previously CTO at Healx and Monzo, a.o.) and our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal.They cover:- Meri's career journey from building satellites as a teenager in South Africa to becoming one of Europe's most renowned CTOs; - The importance of applied learning and deliberate practice in keeping up with the fast-paced changes in technology; and how to create a "culture of learning"; - How to create the conditions and the environment for the success of your team as a CTO;- The importance of diversity, values fit, and culture add; - The current state of Generative AI, and the opportunities and risks it brings along; - How to adapt to and mitigate Cybersecurity challenges;- The role of Open Source in tech startups and scale-ups, and giving back to the OS community; and more.
In a new Seedcamp Firsts podcast episode, our Partner Sia Houchangnia chats with Dan O'Kelly, an early Community Lead at Seedcamp-backed fantasy sports unicorn Sorare. They cover all things community building, including:- the importance of community in a fast-growing startup;- founders' key role in setting up the vision and building the foundations of an authentic community;- the early tactics Sorare used to build their community;- how to kickstart and nurture your community;- how to nurture organic initiatives by community members;- why it is important to put resources into community building;- mistakes and lessons learned in scaling community in the hyper-growth phase.
This episode of This Much I Know, features Paul Jozefak, co-founder and CEO of Seedcamp-backed receeve, a Germany-based end-to-end debt collection and recovery platform.
In conversation with our Managing Partner, Carlos Espinal, Paul reflects on: - his career trajectory in VC and entrepreneurship; - the current state of SaaS businesses; - reeceve's role and vision in the debt recovery and collection ecosystem; - the importance of luck and good timing in business; - how receeve navigatigated the COVID crisis; - how to build a strong relationship with your co-founder(s); - and more.
Tune in on your favourite platform or watch on Youtube.
Show Notes:
Paul Jozefak - linkedin.com/in/pauljozefak/
- twitter.com/pjozefak
Carlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal
- twitter.com/cee
receeve - receeve.com
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Listen to an excellent conversation between our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal and Philippe Boteri, Partner at Accel and a co-investor in companies such as UIPath (NYSE: PATH) and Synthesia.
Philippe shares the story of his foray into tech during the dotcom boom, how he became an investor and the key learnings of his 15+ years-long career in VC. He also reflects on some of the most iconic investments he has made over the years, including UIPath and DocuSign.
Philippe and Carlos explore the potential of Generative AI and discuss our co-investment in Synthesia, an AI video creation platform Accel has recently backed.
In this new episode of This Much I Know, our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal chats with serial entrepreneur Rogier Fischer, Co-founder and CEO of Hadrian, about the global state of cybersecurity, how companies of all sizes can mitigate risks, and how AI might change the game for the cybersecurity industry.
Show notes:
Rogier Fischier - linkedin.com/in/rogierfischer/
Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee
Hadrian - hadrian.io
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Welcome to Seedcamp VI! We are incredibly excited to invest at the earliest stage in the next 100 most ambitious European companies, from Angel to Seed rounds. The power of Seedcamp truly comes from the impact and reach of the ever-growing Seedcamp Nation. Now with a portfolio of 460+ companies including 9 unicorns that span different sectors and originate from all over the Continent, our belief that European entrepreneurs can compete on a global scale has never been truer.If you’re looking for pre-seed funding, we want to hear from you. Tell us what you’re building.In this special episode of This Much I Know, our leadership team shares what you can expect from Fund VI. Tune in!Show Notes:Seedcamp Announcement: seedcamp.com/introducing-seedcamp-v/Looking for Funding?: seedcamp.com/looking-for-funding/Seedcamp: seedcamp.comFundraising pitch deck: sdca.mp/SeedcampVI_Deck
In a post-pandemic world, early-stage founders have multiple options for building their teams and choosing their ideal work mode(s). However, the decision between on-site, hybrid, and remote can be a complex one, involving multiple factors; such as access to talent, legislation, and people operations. While remote work became the default at the height of Covid-19, post-pandemic life has seen many organisations revert to old behaviours, pulling people back to offices and causing a fair deal of controversy in the process. April Hoffbauer, Vice President of People at Maze, Seedcamp-backed global and fully distributed startup Maze, still believes that remote and fully distributed offers an excellent opportunity for early-stage startups to tap into the global talent pool from day one.In conversation with our Director, Natasha Lytton, April shares her insights on everything that goes into how to think about and set up building a remote, fully-distributed, and asynchronous team. Tune in!Show notes:April Hoffbauer - linkedin.com/in/aprilhoffbauerNatasha Lytton - linkedin.com/in/natasha-lyttonMaze - maze.coSeedcamp - seedcamp.com
In the latest Seedcamp Firsts episode, Joanna Christie, a VP of Brand & Marketing at Seedcamp-backed company Gaia, shares her best insights on how to lay the foundation for your startup brand and think strategically about the brand as you scale up. In conversation with our Head of Brand and Network, Natasha Lytton, Joanna emphasizes the essential role Brand plays in company building, from customer acquisition to retention. Key takeaways:1. Brand is the first building block for anything you do as a business, not just marketing. 2. When done right, the brand plays an important role in customer acquisition and retention.3. Brand equity is built on consistency and it evolves4. Ideally, you want a brand guardian in-house.5. Brand equals recognition equals trust.6. For B2B2C marketplaces, you don’t need different brands (e.g., supplier-focused vs. demand-focused). It is one brand, and you just have different audiencesShow notes:Joanna Christie - linkedin.com/in/joanna-christie-60104b15/Natasha Lytton – twitter.com/NatashalyttonSeedcamp – seedcamp.com
In this Seedcamp Deep Dive, Carlos is joined by Virgile Raingeard, co-founder and CEO of Figures, a Seedcamp-backed company providing the only compensation benchmark product for European start-ups and scale-ups.Carlos and Virgile discuss the current trends in hiring, talent retention and development, local vs. global pay, as well as compensation transparency. Virgile emphasizes the factors that lead to more compensation transparency in the tech industry. Furthermore, he shares why early adopters have a first-mover advantage from an employer branding perspective.Show notes:Virgile Raingeard - twitter.com/vrraingeardCarlos Espinal - twitter.com/ceeFigures - figures.hrSeedcamp - seedcamp.com
In our latest Seedcamp Firsts edition, Victor Riparbelli, co-founder of our portfolio company, Synthesia, speaks with our Venture Partner, Devin Hunt, about making big bets, how to get comfortable with long-term product decisions, and learning from mistakes.
Synthesia is the world's largest AI video platform. Using anthropomorphic AI avatars, the company helps people make video content without the need for cameras, studios, actors, and any other physical recording process.
Key Takeaways: - The early days are about survival and getting to product-market fit. As the company grows, you can take bigger bets. - Think about new markets as opposed to an incremental solution in an existing market. - Plan and think out the potential scenarios before starting to code.
Learn more here: https://sdca.mp/Big_Bets
Show notes: Victor Riparbelli - twitter.com/vriparbelli Devin Hunt - twitter.com/hailpixel
Synthesia - synthesia.io Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
In Part II of our Seedcamp Firsts series on customer operations, Rona Ruthen and Natasha Lytton delve into Scaling - a phase when change is the only constant.
Rona shares her incredible experiences scaling operations across various roles, including VP of Customer Operations at Monzo, where she helped the company grow from 1 million to six, all largely over the Covid pandemic. With more than 15 years of experience in FinTech financial services and payment solutions in companies in Israel and the UK, she is a seasoned expert in scaling up customer service and operations.
Learn why communication, clear goals, and single-threaded leadership are essential and how to get buy-in from people across the company.
If you missed Part I, catch up here: sdca.mp/Customer_Operations_Podcast
Show notes: Rona Ruthen - twitter.com/RonaRuthen Natasha Lytton - twitter.com/Natashalytton
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Check out our growing Seedcamp Firsts Content Library here: sdca.mp/SeedcampFirsts
In our latest edition of Seedcamp Firsts, our Head of Brand and Network, Natasha Lytton, speaks with one of our fantastic mentors, Rona Ruthen, about setting up customer support and operations in early-stage startups.
Rona is one of the best possible people to learn from on this topic following her experience scaling Fintech unicorn Monzo among other well-known startups, including Seedcamp portfolio company Curve.
Learn why setting up customer operations is a strategic decision, why customer experience is critical for every product that we use and care about, and why you want customers to engage with the product and make that whole experience easy, end to end. Furthermore, find out why, as you start scaling customer support, you need more consistency and standardisation in how you respond to customers and how you interact with them.
Read our Deep Dive Q&A with Rona: sdca.mp/Customers_Operations
Stay tuned for Part II, where Rona will join us to go much deeper into everything around scaling, where change is the only constant. We'll be delving much more into how you can bring teams on the journey with you and whole companies and embrace change, which becomes different challenges, but no less change as you go on that scaling journey.
Show notes: Rona Ruthen - twitter.com/RonaRuthen Natasha Lytton - twitter.com/Natashalytton
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Check out our growing Seedcamp Firsts Content Library here: sdca.mp/SeedcampFirsts
Learn all things content from the masterminds behind Juro’s and tl;dv’s content strategies - from why content was first determined to be an essential part of the business and shaping the early strategy to execution measurement and key learnings for early-stage founders.
For Juro and tl;dv, content has been an integral part of their strategies from the early days. Find out why and how they set the ground for successful content strategies.
Show Notes: Raphael Allstadt - twitter.com/rallstadt
Tom Bangay - twitter.com/tombangay
Natasha Lytton - twitter.com/Natashalytton
tl;dv - tldv.io
Juro - juro.com
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Read our written Q & A - sdca.mp/Content_QA
We’re excited to kick off our new Seedcamp Firsts series with Jo Widawski, co-founder and CEO of Maze. In conversation with our Venture partner, Devin Hunt, Jo shares the founding story of Maze and his top insights into early-stage product development.
Our ultimate goal with Seedcamp Firsts is to help support the next generation of exceptional entrepreneurs navigate those critical first steps in building a business.
We want to open up the hard-won knowledge and insights across the Seedcamp Nation – from the exceptional founders we’ve backed to our mentors, Experts in Residence, Venture partners, and our core team.
Stay tuned!
In the latest Seedcamp Deep Dive, Carlos is joined by Itxaso del Palacio, Partner at Notion Capital and Sammy Rubin, Co-founder of YuLife. Their discussion revolves around making employees healthier, happier, and more productive.
Sammy shares his inspiration to build the world's first lifestyle insurance company to have personal well-being at its core. He also emphasizes why it is essential to enable companies to build a well-being culture and help employees live their best selves.
Itxaso highlights why she backed Sammy and his co-founders and explains the difference between product-led and customer-centric businesses. She also emphasizes how YuLife's well-being challenges have been transformative for the Notion Capital team.
Itxaso del Palacio - twitter.com/ItxasoLondon Sammy Rubin - twitter.com/SammyRubin Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee
Notion Capital - notion.vc YuLife - yulife.com Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Further reading: Game Changers: The impact of hiring amazing people - and how to hire them by Notion Capital [https://www.notion.vc/resources/game-changers-the-impact-of-hiring-amazing-people-and-how-to-hire-them]
In this episode, Carlos Espinal is joined by Karel Obluk, a cybersecurity expert, former CTO and interim CEO at AVG Technologies (a cybersecurity software company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and ultimately acquired by Avast Software) and now a Partner at Evolution Equity Partners.
They kick off the conversation with Karel's early career in tech, his leadership roles at the cybersecurity firm AVG and the history of the cybersecurity industry. They then discuss the risks and opportunities in the cybersecurity space, his firm's investment strategy, and what it takes for high-growth companies to expand internationally.
Show notes: Karel Obluk - twitter.com/karelobluk Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee
Evolution Equity Partners - evolutionequity.com Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Recommended read: Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime-from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door, by Brian Krebs
In the newest Seedcamp Deep Dive, Sophie Adelman, co-founder of Multiverse and The Garden, and Siadhal Magos, co-founder of our portfolio company Metaview, join Carlos and our Talent Manager Alex Lewis to discuss all things talent in early-stage startups - from hiring to motivating and transitioning during market downturns.
Tune in to learn best practices for interviewing and selecting candidates, why and when expertise is needed in startups, and why compassion is essential when letting employees go.
Show notes: Sophie Adelman - twitter.com/Adelbadge Siadhal Magos - twitter.com/smagos Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Alex Lewis - twitter.com/AlexLewisTalent
The Garden - onegarden.com Metaview - metaview.ai Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Recommended resources: Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street [https://whothebook.com]
How to build an interviewer training process that raises the bar by Metaview [https://resources.metaview.ai/interviewer-training-playbook]
In the latest episode of 'This Much I Know,' Carlos is joined by David Singleton, the CTO of Stripe. David shares valuable insights and lessons from his decades-long career at global technology companies such as Symbian, Google, and Stripe.
In a vivid conversation, he and Carlos explore: - the essential nature of timing in technological innovation; - the fast-paced changing financial world; - the importance of putting customers first; - the evolution and definition of the CTO role; - Stripe's mission and operating principles; - developer productivity; - attracting and growing talent; - building a learning organization; - and more.
Show notes: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee David Singleton - twitter.com/dps Seedcamp - seedcamp.com Stripe - stripe.com
Seedcamp is Europe's seed fund, identifying and investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. The Seedcamp Nation includes over 440 startups building breakout businesses that change the way people live, interact and buy and includes publicly listed UiPath, Wise, and unicorns Revolut, Hopin, Sorare, Pleo, wefox, Grover, and viz.ai along with fast-growing businesses such as Primer, Peppy and Ezra.
Stripe is a financial infrastructure platform for businesses. Millions of companies—from the world's largest enterprises to the most ambitious startups—use Stripe to accept payments, grow their revenue, and accelerate new business opportunities. Headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, the company aims to increase the GDP of the internet.
Contact their team to learn more: https://bit.ly/39TVMrT
In this Seedcamp Deep Dive, Carlos speaks with author and farmer Sarah Langford and Sward's Co-founder and CEO Reuben Saxon about the crucial role of regenerative farming in food supply and carbon capture. Carlos kicks the conversation off with an insightful review of Sarah's upcoming book "Rooted: Stories of Life, Land and a Farming Revolution." They also trace the evolution of farming in the UK from the post-war era to Brexit and the current generational shift in farming.
They are later joined by Reuben Saxon, co-founder and CEO of Sward, a startup enabling farmers to take control over their natural capital assets alongside their stewardship and food production. Together they discuss the digitization of agriculture, harmonising financial and environmental incentives, and how young farmers embrace technology to increase productivity and connect with fellow farmers globally.
Tune in to learn about the importance of natural capital and why regenerative farming plays a pivotal role in a more sustainable future.
Show notes: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Sarah Langford - twitter.com/wigsandwords Reuben Saxon - linkedin.com/in/reuben-alexander-saxon-78273328
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com Sarah Langford's book "Rooted: Stories of Life, Land and a Farming Revolution" - amazon.co.uk/Rooted-Stories-Life-Farming-Revolution/dp/0241503744 Sward - sward.io
In this Seedcamp Deep Dive, Carlos is joined by Dan Bladen, Co-founder of Kadence, and Tushar Agarwal, Co-founder of HubbleHQ as they share their founder stories and experiences with pivoting their businesses during the Covid -19 pandemic.
Listen in to learn more about the latest trends in hybrid workspaces and the commercial real estate market along with what it means to create employee-centered work environments.
Show notes: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Dan Bladen - Co-Founder & CEO - Kadence - twitter.com/danbladen Tushar Agarwal - Co-founder & CEO - HubbleHQ -twitter.com/iamtoosh
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com Kadence - kadence.co HubbleHq - hubblehq.com
In this episode of This Much I Know, Carlos Espinal is joined by Matt Miller, a Partner at Sequoia Capital. Matt started his entrepreneurial journey at a young age, first as an avocado seller and eventually when he took two years off university to work on a restaurant tech product. Today, he helps lead Sequoia’s initiative in Europe, where he works on finding great companies to partner with.
Throughout this episode, Matt talks about his favourite sectors, shares some stories about working with companies like Tessian, and explains how the investment in Graphcore spurred on Sequoia’s decision to approach the European ecosystem.
Show notes: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Matt Miller - twitter.com/mcmiller00 Seedcamp - seedcamp.com Sequoia Capital - sequoiacap.com A Fireside with Matt Miller & Luciana Lixandru - youtube.com/watch?v=tnjPCtG87dU
In this episode of This Much I Know, Managing Partner Carlos Espinal speaks with Emi Gal and Diego Cantor, co-founders of Ezra, about how digital healthcare will become. Every year, 20 million people are diagnosed with cancer, 10 million of which are detected late. Ezra's core mission aims to change this equation through their next-generation cancer screening technology that uses AI & MRIs. Carlos kicks the discussion off with an observation: healthcare solutions are now increasingly moving from reactive to proactive, as the ability to predict medical diagnoses ahead of time is growing. This statement translates well into some of Ezra's findings: while 13% of their scans suggest a potential cancer patient, a whopping 70% of their findings are clinical findings (ie. liver disease, aneurysms, etc.). The three also cover the balance between data privacy and medical progress within the field of medical imagery, as any kind of algorithm requires data to be trained on. Finally, Emi and Diego touch on their long-term aspirations for Ezra, and what it is going to take for the world to have equal access to such technologies.
Tune in to this episode — it's a really good one.
“Consumers of today like to have a dialogue with their brands...consumers can now ask the harder questions.” Ingvar Helgason, Co-Founder of VitroLabs
In this week’s TMIK, Managing Partner Carlos Espinal and Seedcamp team member Polina Stavrovski chat with two very exciting guests, Ingvar, and Joy Howard who are both building companies in the sustainable fashion space. Ingvar’s mission with VitroLabs is to decouple the leather industry from the meat industry by creating a new source of leather from animal cells. Their technology allows high-end fashion brands and creatives to have a new source of leather with all the same properties and no compromise on quality. Joy’s mission with Early Majority is to build a technical streetwear brand that makes outdoor gear for all eventualities, by operating in categories that have traditionally left out the woman’s point of view.
The four delve into a discussion on the shifting nature of consumer behaviour and how they’re in turn empowering brands from a top-down approach, changing traditional notions of shareholders and stakeholders. Joy offers her take on greenwashing, explaining how she has two minds about companies that can seem ‘performative’ with their sustainability branding. “Over time, it does lead to a change in consumers' perceptions and their behaviour, but at the same time it’s tough for people who are building something radically different and true to the ideals of sustainability,” she comments. Ingvar nods to the importance of companies being transparent, and that “it’s really telling to see which companies are answering the questions and which companies are brushing them away.” He also mentions the importance of the role governments play in creating carbon emission taxes or at least levelling the playing field by removing subsidies from companies emitting a lot of carbon. “For everything we are consuming, we are not paying the real price,” Ingvar notes.
Joy and Ingvar also discuss the transfer risks associated with migrating from the usual suppliers with decades of experience (but that are way more wasteful), to a more sustainable supply chain that has the same quality of timeline, delivery, and product. Although there has been an increase in demand for sustainable materials, this can also prove quite challenging for startups in competition with more established brands.
Finally, Carlos asks Joy and Ingvar what science fiction book they recommend that will most likely represent our future. Tune in to hear their answers and the full discussion, it’s a good one!
If you’re interested to learn more about Ingvar and Joy’s respective ventures, check out VitroLabs and Early Majority.
Show Notes: Vitro Labs: vitrolabsinc.com Early Majority: earlymajority.com/ Ingvar Helgason: twitter.com/ihelgason Joy Howard: twitter.com/joyehoward Carlos Espinal: twitter.com/cee Polina Stavrovski: linkedin.com/in/postav/ Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
In this Seedcamp Deep Dive, Head of Brand Natasha Lytton speaks with Maria, Head of Product at Spill about the intersection of technology with mental health, and the growing opportunities that exist when offering accessible mental health services moving forward for both patients and clinicians. Spill’s mission is to “put high quality talk therapy in the pocket of every person on Earth” by not using a traditional finger-wagging approach. Maria and Natasha dive into discussing what it means to build trust across a product for users. Maria suggests that the most actionable way of viewing trust in a product is through ‘consistency over time.’ She advises that PMs need to stop thinking about users’ interactions with product as a snapshot in time, but rather expanding their outlook to a series of interactions. The two also discuss the shocking fact that the financial industry is more regulated than the mental health industry. The episode finishes off with Natasha and Maria hypothesising around how tech will evolve in its intersection with mental health in the years to come.
Listen in, it’s a good one!
This is a part of the Health series, stemming from our recent Deep Dive on Health within the Seedcamp portfolio.
Show notes:
Maria Boghiu - twitter.com/MariaBoghiu Natasha Lytton: twitter.com/Natashalytton Spill - spill.chat Finger-wagging: nytimes.com/2019/05/06/well/family/doctors-is-it-ok-if-we-talk-about-why-finger-wagging-isnt-working.html Health blog post: seedcamp.com/the-future-of-healthcare-and-the-tech-companies-out-to-improve-it/
Seedcamp EiR David Mytton and VP Devin Hunt have both been successful, technical founders (Server Density, Lyst). As they scaled respective internal teams, they gathered a plethora of experiences on the matter. On this week's TMIK, our Managing Partner Carlos Espinal chats with David and Devin about "Unpacking the Stack", and the various angles to consider across product, engineering and design teams.
The three dig into a range of topics, starting with hiring, and whom to hire first for both technical and non-technical founding teams. Then, they break down the terminology and various responsibilities of the different functions. Taking the example of product, Devin explains that the Chief Product Officer (CPO) is there to set the product vision, whereas a Product Manager (PM) manages an aspect of that vision. Furthermore, he explains that product teams are responsible for delivery, as well as working hand in hand with engineering and design teams. On that, David points out the importance of building cohesiveness within teams to better the communication (and shares a couple cues, including the power of show & tell meetings)
Finally, Carlos asks Devin and out different reasons for early start-up killers. Some answers covered the balance in technical know-how in founding teams, the bias in prioritising engineering problems (vs. actually helping the business) or the difficulty to fire wrong hires early-on.
We've been lucky enough to have both David and Devin with us at Seedcamp. This episode (un)packs a lot, so definitely tune in - lots of valuable insights shared!
“Technology alone is not enough. Without the right governance, it may still lead us down the road of overconsumption and environmental catastrophe.” — Azeem Azhar, Author of Exponential: How Accelerating Technology Is Leaving Us Behind and What to Do About It
Azeem Azhar knows a thing or two about what direction exponential technology is heading toward, and how it's challenging our well-established social, economic, and political systems. On this week’s TMIK, Managing Partner Carlos Espinal chats with Azeem on his newly published, must-read book, ‘Exponential: How Accelerating Technology Is Leaving Us Behind and What to Do About It.’ Neither the conversation nor the book is about a dystopian future, but the two definitely dive into some dystopian outcomes!
The two discuss a range of themes that technology has transformed, particularly around the changing landscape of labour, increasing levels of local productions, and transport. In regards to the labour market, Azeem brings up the contradicting nature and impact that one single business model and economy can have in developed countries versus developing countries. The gig economy model is one interesting example. In developed countries where labour markets are formalised, the gig model creates flexibility, but more insecurity; however, in less established countries, the model provides more certainty to the labour force. The two also highlight the importance of not shying away from ML and robots. One fun tidbit: in 2020, the companies that had most heavily invested in robots and ML, also hired the most people (Amazon, Netflix, JD.com).
Finally, Carlos asks what investment themes Azeem is currently looking at. “I rely on the founders to tell me,” Azeem states, but he does share a few he’s keeping an eye out for. Think smart car batteries, protein engineering, and bio-manufacturing.
This episode packs in a lot, so definitely tune in; it’s a really good one.
Shownotes Azeem Twitter: twitter.com/azeem Azeem Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/azhar/?originalSubdomain=uk Exponential book: amazon.co.uk/Exponential-accelerating-technology-transforming-business/dp/1847942903 How the Gig economy could drive growth: forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2017/03/23/how-the-gig-economy-could-drive-growth-in-developing-countries/?sh=1b1783104a49 Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
“Keep it simple. Be brilliant at the basics”. This is the advice that Andrew Bartlow, Founder of Series B Consulting gives to small, high-growth organisations looking to scale rapidly on this week’s This Much I Know episode. Managing Partner Carlos Espinal chats with Andrew about Andrew’s recently published book, “Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High-Growth Organizations.”
The two discuss common challenges related to rapid growth, including the brilliant jerk’ phenomenon, along with the merits of when a company should define a proper HR function. Regarding the latter point, in super early stages of a company, HR encapsulates payroll, employee benefits, and recruiting. But when a team starts to have around 20 employees, Andrew suggests that a CEO should hire a dedicated recruitment role. “You want a dedicated internal recruiter once you’re hiring 10-12 people a year,” Andrew says. “The recruiter will easily pay for themselves.” They also discuss how to find the right advice from the right people for founders. It’s important to prioritise context over content and to not go shopping across a bunch of different people for advice - it’s better to find the targeted advice that fits a founder’s own context better.
Tune into this week’s episode to hear some of the secrets to scale your high growth startup successfully!
Shownotes: Andrew Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/bartlow Series B Consulting: seriesbconsulting.com Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com Book, Scaling for Success - amazon.co.uk/Scaling-Success-Priorities-High-Growth-Organizations/dp/0231194447](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scaling-Success-Priorities-High-Growth-Organizations/dp/0231194447 Brilliant Jerk Phenomenon - hbswk.hbs.edu/item/can-the-brilliant-jerk-be-managed-effectively
90% of startups fail. For early-stage founders, this can come from both false positives or negatives. Two factors include: bias towards early adopters vs. mainstream customers, that are mostly necessary to scale, or giving up too early on a project that turns out to be a billion-dollar business idea a couple of months later. Tom Eisenmann, Professor at Harvard Business School, discusses this and much more in his recently published book 'The Fail-Safe Startup'. In this episode of This Much I Know, our hosts Kate McGinn and Carlos Espinal have a chat with Tom to cover topics at the heart of founder journeys. This includes a few key factors to keep in mind for early-stage founders, such as MVP testing or upfront customer discovery work. Tune in to hear more about what Tom observes in academia around patterns both founder and investors tend to follow!
Show notes: Tom Eisenmann: twitter.com/teisenmann Tom's book: penguin.co.uk/books/315/315444/the-fail-safe-startup/9780241420171.html Kate McGinn: twitter.com/ktmcgn Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
The landscape of working and hiring remotely has drastically changed. Recruiting some of the best global talent as an employer requires a lot of knowledge on highly locally specialized topics because doing the statutory minimum is simply not enough anymore. Dee Coakley, the CEO and co-founder of BoundlessHQ, is on a mission to make it easy to employ anyone, anywhere. In this episode of This Much I Know, our host Carlos Espinal has a chat with Dee to cover topics at the heart of global organisations around multi-country payrolls and HR compliance. Tune in to hear more about the best practices on topics around compensation for internationally remote teams, employee stock options and more!
Links Dee Coakley: twitter.com/DeeCoakley Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Restructuring a company can happen on all scales. Whether it’s within a founding team or a huge corporation, there are important common threads that are applicable across all business sizes to ensure value creation. On this episode of This Much I Know, we have a very special guest, Managing Partner Carlos Espinal’s father, Carlos Espinal Sr, Business Transformation & Restructuring Specialist, to discuss restructuring lessons that founders and CEOs can apply to their startups. Carlos Senior shares several past professional experiences that shaped his knowledge and understanding of how to best restructure a company. Carlos and Carlos discuss the importance of honest and transparent communication with stakeholders, identifying the root cause of a company’s problem, assessing the quality of a team on delivery outcome, and the key ingredients within a transformational plan.
The power of community lies in the ability to thrive virtually and scale across borders. Behind these communities, lie powerful and dedicated leaders whose intrinsic motivation to connect and support members creates compounding value.
On the final ‘Precious on Community’ episode, Precious speaks with Erika Batista, VP International at On Deck on managing and growing their communities.
On Deck is an ecosystem of founders, investors and angels providing programmes and creating communities that strengthen each other one after the other. Erika shares her experience of building community through new geographies and finding the ‘North Star’ that resonates with individuals and unites them as a community. She offers advice on striking the balance between doing things that don’t scale, and managing the influx of information that comes when thinking about community as a growing product. Precious and Erika explore the difference between operational failures and experimental failures, and Erika offers some hot tips on how she manages to get her community members always coming back to events. Tune in, it’s a good one.
Show links: Precious Oyelade - www.twitter.com/preciousOlade Erika Batista - www.twitter.com/erikabatista Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com OnDeck - www.beondeck.com
The power of community lies in the ability to thrive virtually and scale across borders. Behind these communities, lie powerful and dedicated leaders whose intrinsic motivation to connect and support members creates compounding value.
On the second-to-last ‘Precious on Community’ episodes, Precious speaks with Hung Lee, Curator at Recruiting Brainfood on managing and growing communities.
Recruiting Brainfood is an industry newsletter for talent professionals that Hung Lee started in 2017 and has grown to 38,000 subscribers. Hung shared a lot of important questions to ask yourself when starting, managing and moderating a community: Have you nailed the community values down by being true to your intrinsic motivation? What does the community member get for showing up? How will you ensure the community doesn’t get corrupted? The age-old question of Platform was raised as Hung shared his preference for newsletters over Slack (naturally), and how setting up a community is as customised an experience as setting up a bar, “you need to go and create a reason for being”.
Tune in, it's a good one!
Show links: Precious Oyelade - www.twitter.com/preciousOlade Hung Lee - www.twitter.com/Hunglee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Recruiting Brainfood - www.recruitingbrainfood.com
"Diversity of the leadership... is the number one thing you should be doing as a founder at the early stages. Because that is going to pull in more diversity over time — that's how networks operate." — Hephzi Pemberton, Founder at Equality Group
Diversity and inclusion within startups is essential in innovating and adapting in our fast-paced world. Bringing people with distinctive life experiences into the room to make decisions is key, whether in leadership meetings, the board room, or investment discussions. Even if we might agree with this hypothesis, the reality is that most companies are not doing enough to encourage a diverse workforce. Research from the Silicon Valley Bank finds that only 42% of startups (in the UK, US, and Canada) have at least one C-suite executive who is ethnically or racially diverse. 43% have at least on female C-suite executive. Racial and gender, not to mention socio-economic and political, diversity is sadly by many still not seen as a must-have priority.
To discuss why diversity is so important for good decision-making and share key tangible ways startups can work on their diversity and inclusion efforts, today's podcast features Hephzi Pemberton, founder of the Equality Group. Joined by our talent manager Alex Lewis, our host Carlos Espinal discusses Hephzi's most recent book launch of The Diversity Playbook. In it, she showcases latest research and case studies, as well as an applicable exercise in each chapter, to show how leaders and firms who embrace and embed inclusion and diversity into their business will benefit.
Show notes:
Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Hephzi Pemberton - www.hephzipemberton.com Alex Lewis - twitter.com/AlexLewisTalent] Harvard IAT - implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/education.html Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com The Diversity Playbook - https://amzn.to/3w08qv8
We've said it before and we'll say it again: the world of managing people and organising teams is brimming with changes. COVID-19 and new societal views on working in the 21st century (90% of Generation Z, for instance, want a human element when it comes to their job role and interactions with their coworkers) are changing workplaces of all types. Founders and investors are picking up on these trends and putting their money and time towards solving these issues. HR, a department which we remember looking like a sole office manager equipped with nothing but an Excel sheet and coupons for free drip coffee, has been booming with innovation. Giovanni Luperti, co-founder and CEO of Humaans, is one such innovator. Backed by Moonfire, Y Combinator, and a handful of operators including the CEOs of Figma, LinkedIn, Qubit and Evervault, Humaans is helping managers better onboard and manage their staff.
One of Humaans backers is Mattias Ljungman, the founder and Managing Partner at Moonfire. Previously the co-founder of Atomico and an investor in Klara and Supercell, Ljungman knows a thing or two (or three or four or..) about venture investing. When he met Giovanni, he got excited by his vision and backed Humaans as one of Moonfire's first investments in its recently launched $60M seed fund.
In this episode of This Much I Know, our host Carlos Espinal sits down with Giovanni and Mattias to discuss building for and investing in the future of work: everything about growing an organisation to managing teams remotely and keeping team culture at the centre of it all.
Show notes: Carlos Espinal - www.twitter.com/cee Mattias Ljungman - www.twitter.com/Ljungman Giovanni Luperti - www.twitter.com/giovanniluperti Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com/ Humaans - www.humaans.io/ Moonfire - www.moonfire.com Moonfire Fund Launch - www.fortune.com/2021/05/06/new-venture-capital-fund-moonfire-europe-startups/
Being a leader is a lonely journey. COOs, due to their incredibly diverse job descriptions, are particularly at-risk of feeling lonely and unable to confide in people within their teams. This is what seasoned COO-turned-CEO Ben Branson-Gateley from Seedcamp portfolio company CharlieHR and Kelsey Traher from Marvel felt. In search of a community that didn't exist, they teamed up to start their own support group. What started as a small pub meet-up in 2015 has now evolved into COO Stories, a London community of over 200 Ops Leaders. From that one community, there is now a collection of different communities across the London & Berlin tech ecosystems that all share the same set of community values, rooted in friendliness, openness, humility, and integrity.
In this episode of Precious on Community, Precious Oyelade sits down with Ben and Kelsey to discuss how they built COO Stories and what they have learned about building a healthy community during their time together. They dive into the drumbeat of their community, the importance of letting leaders emerge from within, and how the conscious decisions they made on membership criteria, the cadence of events, and platform for communication have shaped COO Stories into a space where members are truly engaged and collaborative. Remember to check out the first and second episodes of Precious on Community in the show notes before diving into this one!
Show notes Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Ben Branson-Gateley - twitter.com/gateley Kelsey Traher - twitter.com/kelsddog COO Stories - www.coostories.com CharlieHR - www.charliehr.com Marvel - www.marvelapp.com Precious on Community, Ep 1 - https://seedcamp.com/podcasts/seedcamp-sessions-introducing-precious-on-community-what-does-community-mean/ Precious on Community, Ep 2 - https://seedcamp.com/podcasts/seedcamp-sessions-precious-on-community-the-business-of-community/
"If you try to grow too quickly, you miss a really critical opportunity to create the foundation of community and figure out a model that works really well and is repeatable. Don't try to do too much too quickly." David Spinks, Co-Founder @ CMX
A decade ago, the term 'community' didn't strike most as a central component of company-building, even though it was. Fast-forward to today, where the internet has transformed communication in our professional and personal realms, and community managers have become key stakeholders in product, marketing, and business development. David Spinks has been at the forefront of this community revolution. Having launched his first online community at 14 for his favourite video game, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, David now advises community teams at the likes of Google, Udemy, Waze, and Airbnb. He is the co-founder of CMX (acq. by Bevy), where over 20,000 community professionals gather to learn and support each other, and the host of the CMX Summit, the world's largest community conference.
In this episode of Precious on Community, Precious dives into David's background and dissects how founders can use community to grow their businesses. The two community leaders also dig into CMX's SPACES, a model for defining community business value which is further explored in David's recently released book The Business of Belonging.
One of David's recommendations for early-stage startups? Don't try to do too much too quickly. Focus on one small group and build on top of their loyalty and commitment to the brand.
A few cited examples of community-building in a business-context include:
- Airbnb: www.airbnb.co.uk/d/superhos
- Reddit: www.review.firstround.com/What-to-Learn-from-the-Man-Who-Managed-Reddits-Community-of-Millions
- Skimm-bassador Program: www.theskimm.com/general/skimmbassadors-5er7Uanv5uK6eQYMiOsmaU-post
- Notion Community: www.notion.so/Notion-Community-04f306fbf59a413fae15f42e2a1ab029
- Sephora Beauty Insider: www.glamour.com/story/sephora-beauty-insider-program-updates
- Tech Ladies: www.hiretechladies.com
Links: Precious Oyelade - www.twitter.com/preciousolade David Spinks - www.twitter.com/DavidSpinks Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com The Business of Belonging - www.davidspinks.com/book CMX SPACES - www.cmxhub.com/the-spaces-model CMX Community - www.cmxhub.com/community Bevy - www.bevy.com
"[When hiring,] you're asking someone you've just met to effectively babysit your child. That's the sort of trust you need to have...you're effectively giving them your baby to help it scale." — Duncan Finlayson, Partner @ True
Hiring top-tier talent for your startup is arguably as important as developing a good product. A new hire is a big investment that affects a team's productivity and a company's culture. Startups can't afford the cost of a bad hire so recruiting wisely is essential, albeit extremely difficult.
Duncan Finlayson, a partner at True, a global executive search firm with over 15 offices worldwide, spends his days helping fast-growing companies find top-tier talent. In this episode of This Much I Know, Duncan sits down with Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal to discuss the best ways to work with recruiters and hire talent for scaling teams. His go-to advice? Hire people who are willing to put skin in the game. An eagerness for equity can be a very good sign.
Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Duncan Finlayson - twitter.com/FinlaysonDuncan Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com True - www.trueplatform.com
Humans are innately community-seeking. It's why we section off into groups on playgrounds, congregate around political leaders, and build families, biological or otherwise. Communities add value, and membership goes far beyond group identity; it even drives purchasing decisions. From clothing and bottled water to open-source software, community is a powerful tool for company building, and one that no founder should underestimate.
"No two communities are the same," Seedcamp's community manager Precious Oyelade tells us. "Yet there are repeatable steps and actions you can do to make one work." And this is what Seedcamp's newest series, "Precious on Community" seeks to dive into. Over the few episodes, Precious will be interviewing community builders from all walks of life to share findings and document key learnings about how to build an effective community.
Welcome to Precious on Community.
Shownotes and links: - Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee - Precious Oyelade - twitter.com/preciousolade - Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com - Seedcamp's This Much I Know with GORUCK: seedcamp.com/podcasts/this-much-i-know-founder-ceo-of-goruck-jason-mccarthy-on-building-community-and-walking-the-harder-path - Tribes, Seth Godin - goodreads.com/book/show/3828382-tribes - How to build a community with people - www.gettogether.world
“That’s what gets us super excited — being able to see a product that fits a very specific need in the market, that even if it’s built super roughly, already exposes the needs that the founder has identified.”
Few know the B2B venture space in Europe better than Point Nine Capital. From Delivery Hero and Zendesk, which both IPO’d, to Typeform, Clio, and Vend, the Point Nine team knows how to spot a startup poised for growth. As an early-stage investor at Seedcamp, Cherry, and now as a partner at Point Nine, Ricardo Sequerra Amram spends his days speaking with founders who are at the pre-version 1.1 development stage of a product. In this episode of This Much I Know, Carlos Espinal dives into how Ricardo assesses these bare-bone prototypes and determines their viability to scale.
“A magical moment throughout our due-diligence is when we are going through the product with the founder and he is explaining to us why he built such a feature first and why exactly is it that this particular part of the product is important for the prototype, and why he didn’t build the other feature,” Ricardo says. “That’s where the clarity of thought and insight that was generated throughout years of industry experience comes out.”
Listen in as Ricardo and Carlos discuss Ricardo’s path into venture capital, and how Point Nine thinks about what makes up a backable prototype and successful B2B entrepreneur.
Links Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Point Nine - www.pointnine.com Ricardo Sequerra Amram - twitter.com/ric0seq B2B SaaS Napkin - https://medium.com/point-nine-news/what-does-it-take-to-raise-capital-in-saas-in-2019-26829debef29
“B2B is all about social science and social context. It’s counterintuitive because you’d think that is B2C but in B2C, it’s more about the vision and brand and riding on this huge wave that is building up in the viral market. In B2B it comes down to people. If you have the ability to observe, listen, shut-up, and work your way from that, that’s the biggest asset that founders can have in terms of catering their solution to what is needed in the market.” — Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Founding Partner @ La Famiglia VC
La Famiglia VC doesn’t believe in conformist bets. Led by Dr. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg alongside partner Judith Dala, the fund invests in contrarian ideas that enable radical change within the B2B sector. “What we really want to see is founders with bold and transformative visions that have something in their character and in their nature that wills the future into being,” Jeannette explains. Since its start in 2017, the fund has closed two funds and invested in dozens of companies, including several co-investments with Seedcamp in data collaboration platform Graphy and employee service platform Back.
In this episode of This Much I Know, Carlos speaks to Jeannette and Judith about their current sector interests, the role of sustainability in VC, and La Famiglia’s view on what makes a good founder. Having both studied social science at university, Jeannette and Judith also discuss the importance of thinking about social context when investing in and founding B2B companies.
Links Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Jeannette zu Fürstenberg - linkedin.com/in/jeannette-zu-f%C3%BCrstenberg-a4227a17a/ Judith Dada - twitter.com/dadajudith Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com La Famiglia VC - www.lafamiglia.vc | twitter.com/lafamigliaVC La Famiglia’s newest fund - https://sifted.eu/articles/la-famiglia-50m-fund/
Not many people know that Evan Frank introduced our now-managing partners Carlos Espinal and Reshma Sohoni to each other during Seedcamp’s infancy. Even fewer are aware that Reshma was his first boss in NYC. And virtually no one (likely not even the Seedcamp Team) knows that Evan was single-handedly responsible for onboarding Seedcamp onto Gmail. But Evan Frank’s accomplishments far surpass his influence on Seedcamp’s leadership and tech-stack. After leaving a career in growth equity in 2010, he co-founded onefinestay, a pioneering brand in the alternative accommodation industry, offering short-term stays in high-end urban real estate. After raising $80M from Index Ventures, Canaan Partners, and Hyatt Hotels, onefinestay was acquired by Accor hotels for $200M in 2016. Following the acquisition, Evan was appointed CEO, running the global organisation with over 500 employees. Throughout this founder journey, Evan learned about building company culture through servant leadership and scaling operations using OKRs. Today, he sits down with Seedcamp’s Carlos Espinal to discuss his growth journey to-date and share what he’s up to now building Okra Labs, a firm helping teams incorporate KPI-driven goal setting & management frameworks.
Links: Carlos Espinal - www.twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Evan Frank - www.twitter.com/evanbfrank Evan Frank Website - www.evanfrank.co Okra Labs - www.okralabs.com The Balance - www.thebalance.io Google’s OKR Playbook - www.whatmatters.com/resources/google-okr-playbook John Doerr’s What Matters - www.whatmatters.com
The world of financial services is changing. From managing taxes to saving for retirement, the way in which we manage our money is being disrupted from all angles. And for good reason — a 2019 survey by the World Economic Forum found that only 28 percent of millennials and Gen Zs trust their banks to be ‘fair and honest’. The dissatisfaction with traditional financial institutions has led to a wave of consumers looking to fintechs for a better service.
Seedcamp portfolio company TaxScouts is providing a stress-free alternative to Self Assessment tax returns by combining admin automation with certified accountants for a low cost, fixed fee of £119 - a fraction of the cost of traditional accountants. Plum, in its own words, gives banks a brain. Through its AI-powered assistant, Plum helps customers set aside money, invest, and save on bills.
In our most recent episode of This Much I Know, Carlos is joined by the founders of TaxScouts and Plum, Mart Abramov - aka ‘Tram’ - and Victor Trokoudes, to share insights on how their respective companies are making money work for everyone. Both Transferwise alumni, Tram and Victor talk about their routes to founderhood and debate their views on the re- (or de-) bundling of finance.
More Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com TaxScouts - www.taxscouts.com Plum - www.withplum.com Tram - https://twitter.com/TramWasHere Viktor - https://twitter.com/vmtrok
‘We’re not a backpack company. We are a community and real brand.” — Jason McCarthy
Jason McCarthy never set out to start an outdoor gear company. After university, he decided to serve in the US army, where he eventually became a Green Beret across Iraq, West Africa, and Europe.
While serving in the Army Special Forces, McCarthy started making go-backs, now known as a go-ruck, for his friends and family who were stationed in high-danger zones. In 2008, he transitioned out of the Army and began searching for his next challenge. His wife told him to ‘do the go-ruck thing.’ The ‘go-ruck thing’ turned into GORUCK, a gear company that empowers real world communities to something greater than themselves. In addition to building some of the most durable and versatile gear in the industry, GORUCK emphasizes its commitment to community through events, GORUCK clubs, and content creation. Most recently, it launched the GORUCK Tribe, a program focused on strengthening mind, body, and spirit.
In the most recent episode of This Much I Know, Carlos is joined by founder and CEO Jason McCarthy to discuss how he built a loyal community around a brand, how to find meaning in the beauty of shared pain, and what 2021 has in store for GORUCK. In his own words, ‘2020 was pain on the world’s terms. In 2021, we fight back.”
Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com GORUCK - www.goruck.com The State of 2020, GORUCK - blog.goruck.com/news/state-of-goruck-2020-chaos-is-opportunity/ GORUCK Tribe - goruck.com/pages/tribe The Standard, Doc. Trailer - youtube.com/watch?v=KCtxMnO142M
Can I lead the company I started? It’s a question founders and their investors ask themselves a lot. While most founders (four out of five, to be exact) want to stick around as CEOs of their own ventures, more than half are pushed out by the time their company is three years old. Of course, founder-CEOs do exist: Phil Knight, Anne Wojcicki, Reed Hastings, the list goes on. Mike McDerment, Co-Founder and CEO of Freshbooks, is one of those exceptions to the rule. Back in 2003, while running a small design firm, McDerment became frustrated with the process of billing his clients. Unsatisfied with the solutions on the market, he decided to build his own: Freshbooks. Today, Freshbooks helps more than 24 million SME customers send, receive, print, and pay invoices. Throughout the company’s 17-year life, McDerment has served as CEO. He has seen the ups and downs of building and scaling a business.
Today, Carlos gets a chance to dig into some of the biggest lessons learned throughout McDerment’s Freshbooks career. They discuss how Freshbooks acquired early customers without a sales department, how the team approached product development for the highly-fragmented SME market, and how McDerment balances life as a parent and CEO. Listen and learn, McDerment has ample wisdom to share!
Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Freshbooks - twitter.com/freshbooks | freshbooks.com Mike McDerment - linkedin.com/in/mike-McDerment-68895a1/ Seedcamp - seedcamp.com HBS Founders Dilemma - hbr.org/2008/02/the-founders-dilemma
Your team is the single biggest determining factor for your startup’s success. Building a great product, unlocking market potential, and attracting loyal customers require expertise and hustle from within. And, no, we do not just mean from within the founding team. Individuals across departments and seniority levels determine whether your company rises to stardom or flops miserably.
To attract and retain the right talent, startups use employee ownership as an incentive scheme. Stock options have become tech’s currency. There is a common fear among founders that dilution resulting from a sizable stock option pool is too costly. Though, in reality, it is too costly not to incentivise your team properly. Competition for top talent is just too high to afford doing so.
At Seedcamp, we firmly believe that employee ownership is an essential ingredient in advancing the European startup ecosystem. This is why, in the following two episodes of Legal Hour, we dive into the nitty-gritty of employee incentive schemes. Joined by Ian Shaw, a partner at Orrick who heads the London employee share schemes and incentives practice, Tom and Carlos discuss everything founders need to know about designing an effective option plan.
In this second episode, they dig into specifics around tax structures and option plan structures.
Links: Ian Shaw - linkedin.com/in/ian-shaw-6ba480a9/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Tom Wilson - twitter.com/tom_wils Index Ventures Rewarding Talent Handbook - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Index Ventures OptionPlan - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
Your team is the single biggest determining factor for your startup’s success. Building a great product, unlocking market potential, and attracting loyal customers require expertise and hustle from within. And, no, we do not just mean from within the founding team. Individuals across departments and seniority levels determine whether your company rises to stardom or flops miserably.
To attract and retain the right talent, startups use employee ownership as an incentive scheme. Stock options have become tech’s currency. There is a common fear among founders that dilution resulting from a sizable stock option pool is too costly. Though, in reality, it is too costly not to incentivize your team properly. Competition for top talent is just too high to afford doing so.
At Seedcamp, we firmly believe that employee ownership is an essential ingredient in advancing the European startup ecosystem. This is why, in the following two episodes of Legal Hour, we dive into the nitty-gritty of employee incentive schemes. Joined by Ian Shaw, a partner at Orrick who heads the London employee share schemes and incentives practice, Tom and Carlos discuss everything founders need to know about designing an effective option plan.
In this first episode, the trio clarifies definitions and types of agreements needed to understand the space. Put the kettle on and listen in!
Links: Ian Shaw - linkedin.com/in/ian-shaw-6ba480a9/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Tom Wilson - twitter.com/tom_wils Index Ventures Rewarding Talent Handbook - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Index Ventures OptionPlan - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
Seedcamp Fund V is here. It’s our strongest fund to-date and we're thrilled that so many friends and founders have put their faith in us to continue backing Europe’s finest entrepreneurs.
We don’t believe in draping fund announcements in a vague veil of splendour, so we want to give you the inside scoop of Fund V: the who, what, when, why, and how. In addition to publishing our fundraising pitch deck here, our Managing Partners Reshma and Carlos, Partners Tom and Sia, and Head of Brand & Marketing Natasha jumped on to this week’s ‘This Much I Know’ to explain what you can expect from Fund V.
The Seedcamp Nation includes the brains behind some of Europe’s most exciting companies including the likes of Hopin, Revolut, Primer, and Sorare. If you’re looking for pre-seed funding, we want to hear from you. Tell us what you’re building at https://seedcamp.com/looking-for-funding/.
Links: Fundraising pitch deck: slideshare.net/seedcamp/seedcamp-fund-v-fundraising-deck/ Seedcamp Announcement: seedcamp.com/introducing-seedcamp-v/ Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Looking for Funding?: seedcamp.com/looking-for-funding/
The gap between academic research and business is shrinking. Notable scientific technologies are shifting from receiving grants to venture capital funding. From massive frauds (cough Theranos) to incredible successes like Moderna, deep science is gaining traction amongst the world’s top investors. According to Statista research published in early 2020, the value of venture capital invested in the life sciences industry reached 22.4 billion dollars in 2019, almost doubling from the figure in 2014. As scientific advances become more commercializable, this figure will only increase.
With an eye on the future within the space, Carlos and one of our newest interns, David, are joined by Luke O’Neill, a Fellow at the Royal Society, a Professor of Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, and the co-founder of recently acquired Inflazome. They talk about which areas of science may be overhyped, share their mutual love for Star Trek, and dig into topics from Professor O’Neill’s newly published book which tackles life’s biggest questions like, “Do we have control over our lives?” Listen in to find out whether or not we do.
Links: 1) Never mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science - https://www.bookstation.ie/product/never-mind-the-bllcks-heres-the-science/ 2) Inflazome - https://inflazome.com/press-release-21-sep-2020.html 3) Prof. Luke O’Neill - https://twitter.com/laoneill111 4) Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee 4) Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com/
Accel partner Harry Nelis knows what it’s like to be in the founder seat. After graduating with a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Harry moved to Silicon Valley to work as an Engineer at Hewlett Packard before founding his own venture-backed software company.
His experience as a founder showed him just how difficult it is to build a long-lasting company and develop a sticky customer base. It has also informed his founder-first approach to venture capital investing at Accel, one of the world’s most successful funds, having invested in Slack, Etsy, and Qualtrics to name a few. A strong believer in founders leading their own companies, Harry thinks of himself as a coach and advisor to world-class companies.
In this episode of This Much I Know, Carlos sits down with Harry to dive into some of the biggest topics in VC. They discuss some of Harry’s most memorable investments, the evolution of the European VC landscape, and the changing attitudes towards IPOs among founders and investors.
Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Harry nelis - https://twitter.com/hnelis Accel - https://twitter.com/Accel
On the afternoons of 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for one of our favourite events of the year - the Seedcamp Marketing Summit. Attended by over 80 people we delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
Huge thanks to all the fantastic people who contributed to this virtual experience, including portfolio company speakers: Andy Shovel (CEO @This), John May (Head of Demand Generation @re:ceeve), Will Allen-Mersh (Partner @Spill), Anthony Rose (CEO @SeedLegals) and Steffen Hedebrandt (Co-founder @Dreamdata). Our amazing keynote speakers: Shachar Radin (CMO @Hubble), Meagan Healey (Brand & Comms Director @Attest), Andy Davis (Head of Demand Generation @Attest), Chris Seigel (Senior Director, Direct to Consumer @Harrys), Sally Higgin(Marketing & Comms Director @Harrys), Darryl Sparey (Managing Director @Hard Numbers), Ashley Friedlein (CEO @Guild) and Kate Adams (Vice President of Marketing @Drift). Finally, thank you to our two amazing fireside speakers: Ines Ures (NED, ex-CMO Deliveroo, & ex-CCO Treatwell) and Chad West (Director, Global Marketing & Communications @Revolut). A huge effort by all to make sure this event translated across well into virtual!
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
On the 17th & 24th of September, we brought early-stage marketers from the Seedcamp Nation together for our first ever online edition of the Marketing Summit. We delved into the hottest topics cropping up across our portfolio companies' marketing teams: from building a demand generation machine to PR for startups and whether or not PR agencies provide any benefits at an early stage - it was a jam-packed program! Our Head of Marketing and MC, Natasha Lytton, guided us through it all.
Financial fraud is everywhere: in action movies, history books, and, yes, in our day-to-day lives in companies small and large. According to a 2020 PwC study, 56% of companies in the UK surveyed had experienced fraud, corruption, or economic crime in the past 24 months. This is well above the global finding of 47%. At Seedcamp, we are lucky to have two companies in our portfolio tackling this important and growing issue: Salv, an anti-money laundering platform for banks & fintechs, and Resistant AI, a software solution protecting automated decisions against evolving online fraud.
Today, we are joined by their founders and CEOs, Taavi Tamkivi and Martin Rehak, respectively. Tune into this week’s podcast to hear their thoughts on the ever-expanding issue of financial crime and how their startups are tackling it in distinctive ways.
Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Savl - https://salv.com/ Resistant AI -https://resistant.ai/ Taavi Tamkivi - https://twitter.com/taavitamkivi Martin Rehak - https://twitter.com/rehakmar
In 2012, super-angel investor Chris Sacca launched Lowercase Capital, a new fund focused on the intersection of media and technology. To ensure its success, he hired one of the best-networked business development executives in the LA area: Matt Mazzeo. Within just a few months, Matt proved his tremendous aptitude for venture investing. Over the next four years, Matt and the Lowercase team invested in Instagram, Twitter, Slack, Kickstarter, and Medium to name just a few.
Today, Matt is a Partner at Coatue Management, where he heads up the firm’s venture arm. By continuously learning, following your interests, and giving more than you get, Matt has differentiated himself as one of the top VCs in the industry.
Tune into this week’s thought-provoking podcast where Carlos and Matt discuss Matt’s path into VC and his approach to advancing the startup ecosystem. You’ll also discover whether Matt is a huge gamer or not (spoiler: he is).
Links Matt Mazzeo - https://twitter.com/Mazzeo Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Coatue - https://www.coatue.com
On this third episode of the Seedcamp Legal Hour, Tom and Carlos are joined by Anthony Rose, Co-founder and CEO of SeedLegals, the world's first legal automation platform for startup funding and a proud Seedcamp portfolio company. Besides being a serial entrepreneur, Anthony’s career has also seen him take on huge feats such as managing the launch of BBC iPlayer, for which Wired UK named him "the man who saved the BBC”.
With one in 12 of all early-stage investments in the UK going through the SeedLegals platform, the company now holds key insights on what is market standard when it comes to legal terms. One of the mistakes Anthony has noticed throughout the years includes founders requesting bespoke contracts. He comments, for an investor, it’s like going on a holiday and having a rental car. So you get out of the airport and you jump into the rental car and if Saab or somebody has moved all of the controls into a different place […] it’s a nightmare.”
Tune in to learn the six critical things to get sorted legally when you’re just starting a company and how data can empower founders to make better legal decisions.
Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Tom Wilson - twitter.com/tom_wils Anthony Rose - twitter.com/anthonyrose SeedLegals - www.seedlegals.com
Tom and Carlos are back with another episode of the Legal Hour podcast where they’ll walk you through the standard terms for term sheets, advisory agreements, and founder collaboration agreements and why founders shouldn’t blindly just use templates available without proper diligence.
The term ‘standard documents’ came along not only from wanting to absorb the lessons learned, but also to introduce some level of simplicity in rather complex legal agreements. However, what is defined as ‘standard’ changes depending on various external variables that alongside others include how competitive the market is currently. So, if the standard terms aren’t static, but rather continuously shifting, what should founders look out for before placing their signature on any of them?
Tune in to hear from Tom and Carlos as they’ll walk you through the most important elements that aren’t typical and should be adjusted to a specific company’s needs.
The key resources mentioned: Seedsummit - https://seedsummit.org/ YC SAFE - https://www.ycombinator.com/documents/ Resources by Tom - https://tom-wilson.com/ Blog posts by Carlos - https://thedrawingboard.me/
Links Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Tom Wilson - https://twitter.com/tom_wils Blog by Tom - https://tom-wilson.com/ Blog by Carlos - https://thedrawingboard.me/ YC SAFE - https://www.ycombinator.com/documents/ Seedsummit - http://seedsummit.org/
We talk frequently about the future of health on this podcast and feature myriad guests to help cover the various facets involved in improving health care services the world over. The World Health Organisation has long been warning of an impending health sector crisis and, with the arrival of Covid-19, the urgency for better health care infrastructures is finally at the forefront of people’s mind.
In this latest deep dive into the world of health care, we’re joined by Phil McElnay and Samir El-Alami, founders and CEO’s of MedAll and Doctorly respectively, both proudly backed by Seedcamp at the earliest stage.
In this podcast they discuss how the health industry remains outdated due to silos of data, old software, lack of productivity tools and even access to good wifi. Although the simple digitalisation of the system would in itself be transformative for the sector, grants and regulations are rather moved towards advanced technologies, while little to no attention is given to more ordinary, yet fundamental, areas such as administration and training.
As a medical doctor and a National Institute for Health Research academic fellow, Phil became very aware of the need for better digital training early on, which ultimately resulted in the creation of MedAll. A platform for training software for health care practitioners, medical schools and training bodies, MedAll helps build curriculums and credentials to a much higher standard and ultimately provide better care for patients.
Samir on the other hand, an academically trained archaeologist, with twelve years experience in the tech startup world, found himself torn between a new venture in ed-tech or health tech, eventually opted for the latter, once made aware that doctors in Germany spend on average 70% of their time on administrative tasks instead of on patients. A few years later, Doctorly has now raised a $5.6M seed round in its quest to get rid of disk-based operating healthcare systems.
Tune in to hear these two experts discuss the future of healthcare and healthcare systems, the most innovative forms of training globally and how they are highlighted and adopted worldwide, practical examples of where the health tech sector needs to expedite, and why are startups still afraid of tackling this space.
Links Phil McElnay - twitter.com/Phil_mce MedAll - www.medall.org Samir El-Alami - twitter.com/SamirElAlami Doctorly - www.doctorly.de Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
In this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Carlos is joined by David Helgason, co-founder and former CEO of Unity Technologies, a Danish-American video game software development company best known for the development of Unity, the world’s leading real-time 3D development platform and last valued at $6bn.
Originally from Iceland, at the age of ten David moved with his accomplished journalist mother and his two brothers to Denmark. He shares how we would use his mother’s computer at every chance he had and that this infatuation with computers became the drive for his passion to work as a developer, alongside his studies in physics and psychology.
By the time David finished university, he had already founded two tech companies, Panmedia - a business processes tech shop - and iCover, which developed creative CD-cover like experiences for digital albums. After graduation, David embarked on a new project with his two friends Nicholas Francis, and Joachim Ante, and that summer they founded Over The Edge Entertainment (OTEE) which was later renamed Unity Technologies.
A classic Silicon Valley tale, except with a European spin, Carlos and David go through the learning curves of building startups from a young age, what really set Unity apart from its competitors, and how much heart and sweat they put behind each and every customer.
Now a prolific angel investor, backing more than forty nordic startups through his syndicate Nordic Makers, there is one thing in particular that he wants to share: never underestimate the importance of following your own intuition.
Links David Helgason - twitter.com/davidhelgason Unity - twitter.com/unity3d Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
Open source software is having a moment – the number of projects are growing, as are the developers working on them. Importantly too, there has also been an evolution of business models in the space. Gone are the days when only Red Hat stood as an example of successful commercialisation; now, 40+ companies relying on open source technology at their core have reached $100M+ revenue, with high-profile IPOs in recent years like Elastic ($252M IPO), MongoDB ($192M IPO).
In this podcast we have a Seedcamp team takeover as our very own Sia and Kyran join Carlos to help us look back at how much momentum open source has been building in recent years along with the exciting ground still to cover in this space. They discuss reasons for renewed investor interest in open source, Seedcamp’s own criteria when assessing businesses in the space (such as founder-community fit), and the evolution of business models. The three also provide context on some of Seedcamp’s new investments in open source companies – including a full-text search engine, developer tools for data science, security solutions and hyperfast databases.
Tune in if you are an open source founder interested in hearing what VCs will be looking for in your space, a VC looking to determine the assets that make an open source company really stand out, or if you are simply interested in hearing more about some of our recent investments in this area.
Links: Sia Houchangnia - twitter.com/SiaHouchangnia Kyran Schmidt - twitter.com/KyranSchmidt Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
In this special Deep Dive, Carlos delves into a topic we’re particularly passionate about at Seedcamp, ‘The future of health’, alongside the founders of Sano Genetics and Humanity, both proud portfolio companies.
Covering everything from the future of genomics to how to slow the ageing process and reduce the possibility of disease, Sano Genetics and Humanity are at the forefront of some of the most pressing issues facing how we think about improving our personal health.
Join Dr. Charlotte Guzzo and Dr. Patrick Short from Sano Genetics and serial entrepreneur Michael Geer of Humanity as they discuss the challenge we face to move people from reactive to proactive health. This covers everything from the future of doctor/patient relationship dynamics, progressing research in precision medicine, the role of pharmaceuticals, regulatory bodies and insurance companies along with how to overcome the challenges caused by the current cash crunch in the national healthcare system.
Links Humanity - www.humanity.health Michael Geer - twitter.com/Geeria Sano - twitter.com/sanogenetics Charlotte Guzzo - twitter.com/Charlotte_Guzzo Patrick Short - twitter.com/patrick_j_short Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
After the success of our first Legal Hour podcast in which Tom and Carlos discussed commercial legal terms and what founders should look out for, they’re back again; this time with a detailed look at how to structure your round and legal terms to be aware of.
The purpose of this episode is to arm all founders with valuable information to help you make the most knowledgeable decisions, as no founder or investor should be afraid of any legal structures - “they are all trodden paths that other founders have gone through, and they are all tools from which to use”.
The session will cover various legal structures both founders and investors should be generally already familiar with, but going more in depth as to what the considerations should be when going for equity share purchases over commercial contracts, or the importance of understanding the different national jurisdiction a company might choose to comply with, and why, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each along the way.
Tune in to deepen your knowledge about legal structures for your next round, and to allow for better speed, simplicity and clarity, in your decision-making process.
Links Tom Wilson - twitter.com/tom_wils Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
Can you translate the entrepreneurial concept of ownership in the VC landscape? How can you really spot passion in a founder? These are just a few of the questions that Carlos and Carmen Alfonso Rico cover in this week’s podcast, as they discuss the learnings from shifting from being a VC to a founder, and then back again to a VC. After graduating with the best grades in the country and being scouted by the former Spanish president of congress to help reform the healthcare and education system, Carmen started her career in the private sector at Morgan Stanley until her fortuitous encounter with Antoine Nussenbaum, partner at Felix Capital, changed the course of her career. Now the proud partner of Samaipata, a Franco-Spanish-Anglo pre-Series A VC focused on digital platforms, Carmen reminisces about her learning and passion for what she calls #CustomerLove, and unveils what she finds to be the most exciting sectors and companies right now in light of the current climate, such as the digitalisation of professional services and, yes, Hopin! Tune in to learn more about how to think beyond your comfort zone and be driven by founders’ passions as a VC, how data-driven founders are much more likely to have the upper hand and why you should never underestimate the immense value of brand and community.
Links Carmen Alfonso Rico - linkedin.com/in/calfonsorico Samaipata - twitter.com/samaipatavc Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
Why are people put off by the term impact and yet, at the same time, they want to promote the very things that the term encapsulates? How can we fix this dichotomy between the negative bias towards social impact against the very need that social impact drives for? These are some of the questions underlying this week’s podcast as Carlos discusses with Check Warner, co-founder of Ada Ventures, her journey toward creating a more diverse VC landscape and providing better access to opportunities to all.
Before launching Ada Ventures officially and announcing the first close in late 2019, Check started her VC career at Downing Ventures carrying along, as a competitive advantage, her work and knowledge from the advertainment industry where she cut her teeth and would support founders working on segmenting audiences, acquisition strategies, brand communication and product offering, perspectives not often offered by traditional VCs back in 2015. Her awareness of the lack of diversity in the VC landscape soon brought her to spearhead Diversity VC and saw her campaigning, for four years, for the disruption of traditional networking circles to allow for new and different people to access funds. She eventually founded Ada Ventures with Matt Penneycard, which focuses specifically on investing in overlooked founders and markets.
Tune in to our latest podcast to learn about the long term changes we need to put into motion to truly harvest diversity; what language to use when talking to impact investors, and the trends and audiences currently tackled by founders across the impact landscape.
Links Check Warner - twitter.com/checkwarner Ada Ventures - www.adaventures.com Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
14% of the global GDP goes from government to businesses every year. But how does the public procurement office run this global economy and how can companies trying to sell to government navigate its inner-workings? The rather opaque admin of the process is exactly what drove three university students to decide to build Stotles, specifically addressing the murky waters of government contracting and a proud Seedcamp-backed company
Stotles’s founding team, CEO John Witt, COO Taj Kamranpour and CPO Carsten Schaltz, join Carlos in this week’s podcast to discuss how their work aims at bringing more large, medium and small business into the fold and increase competition to benefit everybody in the market: suppliers, government buyers and taxpayers. A rather appealing mission when a 1% increase in efficiency can turn into a £20bn saving for taxpayers.
Tune in as the Stotles team reveal how they are democratising government procurement by providing data that empowers companies to be active on biddings, rather than reactive and how they can help companies to close contracts and build credibility in the private sector, as they ultimately strive to get companies and government to work better together.
Links Stotles - www.stotles.com John Witt - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwitt10/ Taj Kamranpour - linkedin.com/in/tkamranpour Carsten Schaltz - linkedin.com/in/carstenschaltz Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
In this week’s recorded video podcast Seedcamp partners, Carlos and Tom, join forces to discuss some of the key terms startup founders should keep in mind when considering a term sheet from investors.
Carlos and Tom first met when Tom, in his previous life, was one of the lawyers working on helping to set Seedcamp up as a fund. Fast forward six years later and Tom - now one of our investment partners - shares how he wears both his investor and private equity lawyer hat to support portfolio companies and to help startups more broadly gain a comprehensive overview of how to navigate different legal complexities that can arise when it comes to setting up and fundraising for your startup; especially important in today’s challenging times.
In this Legal Hour Session, Carlos and Tom cover different golden rules on how to document and structure an investment round along with key information on how to factor in option pools. It’s well worth also reading Tom’s latest article - “The most important clause to look out for in a dreaded “down-round”, uncovering potential concerns for startups fundraising in these current circumstances. Tune in for advice on how to “focus on the terms, not the structure”, “not letting market standard verbiage prevent you from doing your research”, and how “to always think comprehensively about your terms”.
Tom Wilson - twitter.com/tom_wils Tom's article: https://medium.com/@taw/the-most-important-clause-to-look-out-for-in-a-dreaded-down-round-cac2b70e8fc8 Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
This week Carlos is joined, remotely, by Dominic Hallas, Executive Director at The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), to discuss his work liaising between policymakers and the tech community, and the role Codec is playing in helping startups navigate these uncertain times.
After entering local politics at a young age in Leeds, and running a project in Delhi for the Bloomberg Foundation, Dom took the helm at Coadec in 2018, an initiative founded exactly ten years ago by pillars of the tech ecosystem Jeff Lynn, founder of Seedrs and Mike Butcher, editor of TechCrunch.
Right now the government has issued a series of different grant schemes to help businesses overcome Covid-19 related challenges, none of which apply to startups. In this session, Carlos and Dominic discuss the barriers preventing public administration from understanding the needs of the tech ecosystem, both in these specific challenging times and more broadly, and how Coadec’s new project ‘Save Our Startups’, is advocating for new grant schemes tailored to the needs of venture-backed businesses that do not fit the criteria for COVID-19 relief schemes currently provided by the government.
Tune in to hear how you can support Coadec right now in advocating for coherent liquidity packages for tech startups and how founders voices can contribute to help Coadec bring specific issues facing the startup ecosystem to the government’s attention.
Dominic Hallas - twitter.com/Dom_Hallas Coadec - www.coadec.com; https://twitter.com/Coadec Save Our Startups - www.saveourstartups.co.uk; https://twitter.com/saveourstartups Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com
In this week’s podcast, Carlos is joined by Russ Shaw, Founder of Tech London Advocates, and Asher Ismail, Co-founder of Seedcamp-backed company, Uncapped, Europe’s first revenue-based finance provider, as they discuss the need - now more than ever - alternative financing mechanisms to support founders.
If you are currently raising or trying to determine how to navigate this current climate, listen in as Russ and Asher discuss the need to provide capital to founders more efficiently, from both an institutional and a venture capital standpoint, and why alternative forms of investment are democratising and diversifying the investment landscape and becoming increasingly popular among the founders of tomorrow
Links: Russ Shaw - twitter.com/RussShaw1 Tech London Advocates - www.techlondonadvocates.org.uk Asher Ismail - twitter.com/asher_ismail Uncapped - www.weareuncapped.com Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com/
As the future sets to become fully digital in the next few months, what are the fundamentals required to enable the offline event market to successfully move online?
Joining Carlos to discuss the topic this week is Johnny Boufarhat, founder of our portfolio company Hopin, the first all-in-one live online events platform who recently announced their $6m seed round, led by Accel, and Devin Hunt, our Venture Partner on all things product and design, who recently published ‘The Workshop Survival Guide’ on how to effectively create educational experiences.
Together they explore how major events can be transformed from offline to online, without compromising on connection or experience, and how to manifest the learning of ‘The Workshop Survival Guide’ on online platforms, to offer better interactivity and engagement.
Tune in to hear more about how to rethink the entire strategy of an event from a digital perspective, how to design sharp and unambiguous content, and how Hopin can help you tackle problems such as audience interactivity and network, sponsor engagement needs and creating premium digital experiences online.
Links: Johnny Boufarhat - twitter.com/johnnyboufarhat Hopin - www.hopin.to Devin Hunt - https://twitter.com/hailpixel The Workshop Survival Guide - https://workshopsurvival.com Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com
Recorded live at our Seedcamp People Summit, Marin Jankovski recalls the beginnings of GitLab and how the company grew to become one of the largest distributed workforce, with 67 locations around the world and not a single office space for their 1200 people.
In the session, featuring an inspiring introduction by Ben Gateley CEO and cofounder of our portfolio company CharlieHR, Marin explains the two most crucial pillars their team depends on when working remotely: communicating async - “it’s inclusive and it allows people on different times to contribute and not be left out”; and to always be able to individualise the single source of truth.
Tune in for practical insight on how to build an efficient remote team, how to convince investors to follow in this mission, and how to include people in important decision-making processes.
Links: Marin Jankovski - linkedin.com/in/marin-jankovski GitLab - gitlab.com GitLab Handbook - https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/ Seedcamp - seedcamp.com CharlieHR - charliehr.com Ben Gateley - http://twitter.com/Gateley
This week Carlos is joined by our brand new lead on all things talent and people, Marina Gorey, who we are incredibly excited to have join us to support our portfolio companies in helping them think about how they shape the most critical part of their organisations: their people.
Prior to joining us at Seedcamp, Marina co-founded and was Chief People Officer at pioneering Kidtech company, SuperAwesome. In this podcast, she discusses some of her key learnings on how to actively empower the people in your team, and create communication structures that will prevent teammates from leaving at critical stages.
Listen in to learn who and how to hire when scaling your company, the right time to invest in people management and people management tools, and how important it is to document your culture when onboarding new remote teams.
Links: Marina Gorey - linkedin.com/in/marinagorey/ Super Awesome - https://www.superawesome.com/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com/
Blog Post - https://medium.com/@marinalgorey/startups-scaling-people-operations-what-breaks-as-you-scale-31308179ce2d
This week Carlos is joined by Daniel Burka, Director of Design at Resolve to Save Lives, which he joined nearly two years ago to support the mission of saving 100 million lives from cardiovascular disease and to prevent epidemics.
In conversation with Carlos, Daniel walks through his journey from the early age of seventeen when he founded his first company Silverorange which this year celebrated its 20th anniversary. Since then he’s been leading on design across various organisations including Digg, Milk, and Google Ventures. Now he runs product and design in digital product initiatives at Resolve to Save Lives.
Listen in as Daniel shares what he’d do differently with hindsight, the importance of testing and sifting through various ideas to spot the good ones, and how to manage the relationship between design and engineering teams.
Links: Daniel Burka - https://twitter.com/dburka Resolve to Save Lives - https://www.resolvetosavelives.org/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com/
This week Carlos is joined by Simon Beckerman, founder of Depop, the leading app for Gen Z shoppers boasting 16 million users, nearly 20 million items listed on the platform, and around one million active users per day. Depop is where the world's creatives come to buy, sell and discover the most inspiring and unique things. In conversation with Carlos, Simon shares what sparked the business idea and how it became one of the fastest-growing communities.
Prior to founding Depop, Simon immersed himself in industrial design and arts but eventually decided to steer towards entrepreneurship. Simon shares with Carlos the advice he would give to his younger self in the early days of Depop.
Tune in to discover how Simon overcame the early challenges in community building, when is the right time to hand the stewardship of a community to the community itself, and how and when to move aside as a founder and hire your first CEO.
Links: Simon Beckerman - https://twitter.com/simonbeckerman Depop - https://www.depop.com/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com/
Last month we launched 'Breakthrough' an interactive event showcasing a cross-section of companies gearing up to raise their Series A in front of a packed room of growth stage investors.
As well as hearing from select companies across everything from distributed computing to using advanced scanning technology for early-cancer detection, Carlos also hosted a number of panels to dive deeper into sectors where we’re seeing particularly advanced innovation and where we’re making a high number of investments.
HealthTech is an area we’ve been particularly interested in and proactively investing across for many years now. Carlos sat down with a cross-section of founders we’ve backed across the sector including Lina Chan, Co-founder of Adia Health; Hamish Grierson, Co-Founder of Thriva and Diego Cantor, Co-founder of Ezra to discuss everything from proactive versus reactive healthcare, the disconnect between mental and physical health, empowered patients, and the importance of integration with current healthcare systems.
Tune in to hear how founders think the evolution of healthcare will look like in two years time.
Links: Adia: https://adiahealth.com Thriva: https://thriva.co Ezra: https://ezra.com Breakthrough 2019: https://seedcamp.com/events/breakthrough/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com
“Innovation is not a repeatable formula. Innovation is this messy thing that depends on the culture of the organisation; its heritage and its values.”
In this week’s podcast, Carlos is joined by David Rowan, Founding Editor-in-chief of WIRED UK as he walks through the professional journey that fueled the creation of his new book: “Non-Bullshit Innovation: Radical Ideas from the World’s Smartest Minds”.
From DJ-ing at a pirate radio station to interning at The Times and eventually going on to lead WIRED UK, David has always had an entrepreneurial approach to journalism.
Tune in to discover how after eight years at WIRED and angel investing in 58 startups, including Improbable, David followed his curiosity to discover what sets real innovators apart.
Links: David Rowan - https://twitter.com/iRowan Buy your copy of Non-Bullshit innovation: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1787631184/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com/
Freddy joined HelloFresh as employee number 5 and left as Marketing Director, managing budgets to the tune of £25M. Tune in as Freddy shares the journey with Natasha and dives into the importance of hiring, keeping teams motivated and channel diversification along with key lessons learned and applied to his new business, Wild.
Links: Natasha: https://twitter.com/Natashalytton Freddy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freddy-ward-32074a56/ HelloFresh: https://www.hellofresh.co.uk Wild Cosmetics: https://www.wilddeo.com/
In this fireside chat recorded live at the Seedcamp Marketing Summit, Sam Grant focuses on how cognitive biases affect decision making and why brand loyalty really matters. Sam shares his learnings from leading marketing efforts at Coca-Cola to developing a brand and channel strategy at Samsung.
Tune in to hear why Sam is a strong believer in building an emotional relationship between the brand and your target audience.
Links: Sam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samgrant1/ Natasha: https://twitter.com/Natashalytton
In this talk recorded live at the Seedcamp Marketing Summit our own EiR, Andy Young walks us through the seven tried-and-tested growth lessons he learned from Silicon Valley. Andy dives into the importance of having the right mindset and following the appropriate process in order to figure out how you can grow.
Some of the materials Andy refers to: - 10,000 feet view exercise: http://bit.ly/10kftview - Subscription board dashboard: http://bit.ly/kpi-sheet - User testing script: http://www.sensible.com/downloads/test-script.pdf
Links: Andy: https://twitter.com/andyy
What3words, recently described by the BBC as “the app that can save your life”, was recently catapulted to the top of the app and play store, thanks largely to a clearly defined b2b2c strategy.
Tune in as CMO, Giles Rhys Jones, shares how they made it happen, from building an in-house creative team and using content to remove the barriers between their supporters and decision-makers in large organisations, to the importance of brand identity and purpose in overall strategy and startup success.
Links: Giles: https://twitter.com/gilesrhysjones What3words: https://twitter.com/what3words
Recorded live at the Seedcamp Marketing Summit, Hannah Craik discusses one of the most pressing issues facing marketers today: how to balance short-term spikes vs. long-term penetration.
From her roles at digital media agencies to ASOS and now Heist studios, Hannah shares practical insights on how to generate sales today while also keeping one eye on future cashflow. She also depicts the importance of brand visibility and its synergy with short-termism.
Listen in as Hannah shares how she tackles the challenge of big data gaps and the inherent desire to make decisions based on any information that can be found along with the fundamental - though difficult to measure - the importance of creative content.
Links: Hannah: https://twitter.com/hicraik Heist Studios: https://twitter.com/heiststudios
The transition from dealing directly with a product to becoming a manager of people can be a challenging one for many founders. In this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Carlos is joined by Emily Brooke - Co-founder of Beryl - the company on a mission to get more people cycling and to transform cities. Listen in as Emily uncovers how that mission has evolved over time and her own transition from getting her hands dirty with product development to developing people, all while striving to build a purpose-driven business.
Emily’s journey to inventing Beryl and launching its first, now iconic, green laser light, wasn’t the most obvious one. After dropping out from a physics degree at Oxford, where she struggled with the lack of tangibility the course provided, she went onto study Product Design in Brighton. It was during that time she started to research why there was such low uptake of cycling in urban cities and created Beryl to help address some of the key barriers.
Now the Beryl laser light can be seen across all Santander Cycle bikes in London and has also been adopted by cycle hire schemes in a number of other major cities. After raising more than £100,000 on Kickstarter for the laser light, Beryl has gone onto launch its own cycle hire scheme - Beryl Bikes.
Tune in to hear some of the biggest manufacturing and commercial hurdles the team has faced over the last seven years and why Emily believes strongly in the need to build businesses with purpose.
Links: Emily Brooke - https://twitter.com/buzzbrooke Beryl - https://beryl.cc/ and https://twitter.com/berylbikes Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - https://seedcamp.com/
“It’s very difficult to spot an outlier in the early days. At series A, outliers are not obvious. If you go towards group decision making, you can miss some of these outliers.”
In this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Carlos is joined by Luciana Lixandru, Partner at Accel, the top-tier US fund with a strong presence on the ground in Europe. Prior to joining the firm in 2011, Luciana worked at Morgan Stanley and as an investor with Summit Partners. Currently, she successfully proves Accel’s thesis that innovation and talent can come from anywhere.
In conversation with Carlos, Luciana reveals how partners at Accel filter investment opportunities to spot the next global winner amongst local champions. She also shares details on how the fund operates internally, and why being connected with an associate should never be taken as a slight.
Tune in to hear Luciana’s journey from leaving her hometown in Romania for Georgetown to mastering financial terms whilst at Morgan Stanley and eventually investing in such tech superstars as Deliveroo, UiPath, Tessian, and Framer.
Links: Luciana Lixandru - https://twitter.com/LucianaLix Accel - https://www.accel.com/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Carlos is joined this week in the studio by Daniel Korski, co-founder and CEO of PUBLIC, a London-based VC fund that invests in tech startups transforming the way public services are run and delivered. Daniel is also the Chairman of the GovTech Summit, the largest global event for the Govtech sector hosted annually with French President Emmanuel Macron, and has 20 years of experience in senior positions in government across the UK, EU, and US. Most recently, Daniel served as the Deputy Head of Policy at No. 10 Downing Street and Special Advisor to David Cameron. He has also been an advisor to the Vice-President of the European Commission and has previously worked for the UN and Foreign Office in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.
Tune in to hear Daniel sharing his unique story - from embarking on a career in diplomacy, politics and journalism before using his expertise to back Govtech startups tackling largely traditional and undisrupted sectors the UK economy still largely depend on. Daniel also delves into the shaping of the UK government’s ‘digital revolution’ and how it thinks about delivering its services, to how governments are thinking about the role of entrepreneurship and the broader startup ecosystem on the national economy.
Links: Daniel Korski - twitter.com/DanielKorski PUBLIC - public.io Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Nilan is the VP of Growth at TransferWise, which he joined 7 years ago. Previously Nilan was VP Growth at HouseTrip, in charge of scaling the company’s growth in the European market. He’s also worked as Chief Marketing Technology Officer at Holiday Extras, where he was responsible for all areas of technology, marketing and customer acquisition. Nilan also advises a number of early stage startups on growth and getting traction.
Links: Nilan Peiris - twitter.com/nilanp Devin Hunt - twitter.com/hailpixel Seedcamp - seedcamp.com TransferWise - transferwise.com
Sally is the Chief Innovation Officer of Photobox and a commercial Product Director with over 20 years of tech and digital experience. She is currently leading product innovation at Photobox where she is responsible for new revenue lines and leads an end-to-end team who develop and launch new products.
Links: Sally Foote - twitter.com/sallyfoote Devin Hunt - twitter.com/hailpixel Seedcamp - seedcamp.com Photobox - photobox.co.uk
Earlier this year Stripe hired Google veteran Matt Henderson to head its newly expanded Dublin engineering hub. Before joining Stripe Matt led Google’s strategy for scaling the Google Play app store. In prior he led Amazon’s marketplace strategy in Europe and founded shopping platform Rangespan, which was acquired by Google in 2014.
Links: Matt Henderson - twitter.com/_matt_henderson Devin Hunt - twitter.com/hailpixel Seedcamp - seedcamp.com Stripe - stripe.com
Hiring a head of growth and paying for Facebook ads isn't enough to scale growth. Growth is a mindset that needs to filter from the top down.
On this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Matt Lerner, founder and CEO of Startup Core Strengths, joins Carlos in the studio. Prior to founding Startup Core Strengths, Matt was the London-based partner for 500 Startups, where he initiated the ‘Distro Dojo’ seed-stage growth program for the funds’ portfolio companies. Matt also had an 11-year run at PayPal where he lived through the company’s 15x hyper growth phase from progressive startup to Finch giant, culminating in him leading b2b marketing for PayPal UK.
Join Carlos and Matt as they delve into the nitty gritty of why growth marketing has a negative legacy when contrasted with growth hacking for product teams, why overthinking metrics is a dangerous game to play for early stage founders and whether Eric Ries’s lean methodology of ‘build, measure, learn’ is in fact a relevant playbook for marketing teams. Matt also details the reasons behind founders mistakenly assuming they have product market fit, the key proxy metrics that pre-revenue startups should use to determine what areas to focus on and why the determinant of growth success is based on the five core pillars of - Message, Metrics Focus, Process and Team.
Download a free copy of Matt's e-book 'Growth Hacking for Founders' at: https://startupcorestrengths.com/GH4F
Links: Matt Lerner - twitter.com/matthlerner 500 Startups - twitter.com/500startups Startup Core Strengths - startupcorestrengths.com Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
The mistake many Western tech giants have made is seeing China as just another country where they could easily get a few million users instead of focusing on localising their product offering.
Carlos is joined in the studio this week by one of our very own partners, Sia Houchangnia, who has recently returned from a month-long deep dive of exploring the venture landscape in China and south-east Asia.
In this episode, Sia unpacks the key differences in approach between VCs in the far East and those in the West - from investment strategy and portfolio construction all the way to the differing perceptions of what investor value-add looks like. He also provides unique insights into the challenges faced by European companies when entering the hyper-competitive Chinese market (and vice-versa), the rise of Chinese ‘super-apps’, how to address the gaps in engineering talent coming out of the region today as well as why the prospect of more EU-Chinese collaboration is one we should be excited about.
Links: Sia Houchangnia - twitter.com/siahouchangnia Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
On this week’s episode of This Much I Know, we have Cristina Fonseca, co-founder of Talkdesk and Indico Capital Partners, unpacking what it takes to build the next powerhouse enterprise SaaS business. Cristina took Talkdesk, which allows any company to create a call centre in the cloud, from 0-150 employees, raising $24M in venture funding and evolving ‘from engineer to psychologist’ in the process. Cristina also takes us through her transition to the other side of the table, detailing the move from being an operational founder to venture partner at one of Lisbon’s first early-stage VC funds.
Tune in to hear Cristina’s tips to founders who are starting out their journey in building enterprise SaaS businesses, why hiring sub-exceptional talent is costly business and the challenges facing the European venture ecosystem today.
Links: Cristina Fonseca - twitter.com/cnfonseca Indico Capital Partners - www.indicocapital.com Talkdesk - www.talkdesk.com Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
You can’t grow your business when you are super prudent - Sach Kukadia, co-founder and CEO at Secret Sales, the members-only shopping club that provides its users with exclusive access to discounted designer brands.
Willingness to take risks has been a key component of Sach's journey, from building a radio station in his early years to creating Secret Sales, the business he co-founded with his brother in 2007. A true family affair, the Kukadia brothers were inspired by their father and his work with major fashion brands, including the likes of Pepe Jeans, to launch Secret Sales - the first ever private online shopping club.
In conversation with Carlos, Sach discusses the importance of brand and why excessive discounting can be "worse than burning inventory", along with the highs and lows from over a decade of running Secret Sales and how they managed to overcome one of their biggest business challenges and yet retain profitability. Sach also walks us through his unique experience of buying back a controlling stake in the business a year after having sold to Excalibur Group.
Tune in to learn more about building a brand, fundraising and navigating macro socio-economic challenges.
Links: Sach Kukadia - https://twitter.com/SachKukadia Secret Sales - https://secretsales.com/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - wwww.seedcamp.com
On this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Carlos welcomes Joe Cohen to the hot seat. It would be hard to find someone with more experience in building ultra-successful consumer, entertainment and leisure marketplace businesses than Joe who founded Seatwave (acquired by Ticketmaster) after having served as the global COO of Match.com, and served as GM at Ticketmaster and Citysearch to name just a few. Joe is now an active angel investor and sits on the board of Sofar Sounds, Spektrix and Freda Health.
Tune in to hear Joe walk us through his incredible journey - from attempting college six times to no avail and producing a documentary film before getting a job at Disney where he pitched a web-based product for the first time to his boss, all the way to founding and exiting Seatwave, the UK’s leading fan-to-fan marketplace. Joe reflects on the challenges he faced in dealing with fundraising from leading investors, the crucial issue of balancing supply and demand in the formative stages of a marketplace business, as well as the effect that different leadership styles and levels of transparency has on company culture.
Links: Joe Cohen - twitter.com/Cohen_Goes_HAM Ticketmaster - www.ticketmaster.com Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
We’ve been investing in Estonia’s breakout talent for close to a decade and were one of the first funds to come to the region, uncovering exceptional founders and investing in the likes of TransferWise, Grabcad, Teleport, Monese, Erply and Nevercode, among others many others.
We were super excited to be back in the region last month for a fireside chat with Sten Tamkivi recorded live from Lift99 in Tallinn. Sten is the Founder of Seedcamp-backed company, Teleport, which was acquired by Topia in 2017, and where he currently serves as CPO. Sten's illustrious history also includes stints as an EIR at a16z, GM at Skype and as an advisor to the Estonian president.
Tune in to hear Sten and Carlos discussing the talent-pool breaking out of Estonia, the ways founders can tailor their narratives to European versus US investors, as well as Sten’s incredible entrepreneurial journey including how his days at Skype prompted him to found Teleport and ask himself the question: ‘How can one make every single government compete for every single citizen in the world?’
Links: Sten Tamkivi - twitter.com/seikatsu Topia - www.topia.com Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com
What role do health-tech startups play in the future in providing integrated and holistic healthcare systems? How can we use the bio-psycho-social model through the lenses of sexual well-being to create openness and to de-stigmatize one of the most fundamental and topics of our lives – sex.
In this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Carlos is joined by Dr Anna Hushlak and Hamish Grierson. Anna is the co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Ferly, whose vision is to radically transform society’s relationship with sex – from how we think about it to how we have it. Hamish is the co-founder and CEO of Thriva, who are on a mission to empower millions of people with simple and affordable tools to easily understand and track their internal health data by providing personalized at-home finger-prick blood tests and medical advice.
Tune in to hear Anna and Hamish discussing the challenges of building credibility around new technology and blood collection techniques as a startup, the challenges of creating trust and openness in the fundamentally private and personal environment that is sex, how one defines what ‘good’ sexual and mental wellbeing is, and dissecting their lessons learned and tips to founders launching health-tech startups.
Links: Dr Anna Hushlak: twitter.com/annahushlak Hamish Grierson: twitter.com/hamishgrierson Carlos Espinal: twitter.com/cee Ferly: www.weareferly.com Thriva: www.thriva.co Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
With mistrust in the technology sector at an all-time high, rather than asking ‘could this exist’ should we now be asking ‘should this exist’.
Caterina Fake is Silicon Valley’s most eloquent commentator and dot-connector on technology and the human condition. As a humanist with a deep passion for history, literature, arts and culture, she has a unique perspective on the myriad unforeseen ways technology can impact our world. And as a celebrated tech pioneer herself, Caterina brings a deep knowledge of technology and an optimistic enthusiasm for entrepreneurs.
In the early 2000s, Caterina co-founded Flickr and introduced many of the innovations — newsfeeds, hashtags, “followers,” “likes” — that laid the foundation for modern social media. (Though she’s quick to point out where social media has gone wrong, as you’ll hear in this podcast). As an angel investor, advisor and board member, she helped build companies like Etsy, Kickstarter and Stack Overflow — which defined and nurtured new types of human-centered online communities. She’s now co-founder of Yes VC, an investment fund in search of ideas that elevate our collective humanity. For Caterina, hosting Should This Exist? reflects her career-long dedication to helping technology fulfil its promise.
Don’t miss this episode of This Much I Know as Caterina shares her fascinating journey, from the massive highs and lows as a founder and the effects of radical transparency, to supporting early-stage entrepreneurs at Yes VC and why humanising technology has been one of the most important jobs across her entire career.
Links: Caterina Fake: twitter.com/caterina Yes VC: https://yes.vc Should this exist podcast: https://shouldthisexist.com Carlos Espinal: twitter.com/cee Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
What makes up the economy and how does it affect individuals, startups and businesses alike? With ongoing talk and speculation as to whether we’re heading towards another global recession, Carlos is joined this week by Max Rofagha, Founder and CEO of Finimize - providers of jargon-free financial news, information and a community to empower users to make better informed financial decisions - and their VP of content, Carl Hazeley.
Along with information regarding the macro-state of play in today's economy and telltale signs that are often indicators of an imminent downturn, Max also shares his personal journey to creating Finimize in a bid to help people like himself, millennials with some savings but no clue what to do with them, to navigate the 'financial jungle'.
Tune in as Max and Carl discuss sectors that currently make for an attractive investment opportunity, the benefits - or lack thereof - of Robo-advisors and their mission to do for financial wellbeing the same thing Nike has created for physical wellbeing.
Links: Max Rofagha: twitter.com/wholeearthweb Carl Hazeley: linkedin.com/in/carl-hazeley/ Carlos Espinal: twitter.com/cee Finimize: www.finimize.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Company culture is one of those areas which seems quite simple on a high level, yet only a few businesses excel at. This week we are bringing in Bretton Putter, the founder of CultureGene, a next generation executive search consultancy. In the episode we examine what exactly 'constitutes' company culture, the criteria to look for when hiring, and how to effectively test for cultural fit in the early days.
In his most recent book, 'Culture Decks Decoded', Brett has combined his analysis of hundreds of culture decks and tackles the patterns that make up a sustainable culture. The benefits are clear, but the path to success remains vague. As Bretton says, "Probably the most commonly forgotten aspect about creating company culture is that it has to be managed."
Links: Bretton - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/brettonputter Bretton - Twitter: twitter.com/brettonputter Bretton - Medium: https://medium.com/@BrettonPutter Carlos - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal Carlos - Twitter: twitter.com/cee Carlos - Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
CultureGene: www.culturegene.ai Culture Decks Decoded: www.culturegene.ai/books/culture-decks-decoded Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Pipedrive has become the dominant player in the sales CRM market, with over 80,000 businesses using it daily. Their story to the top features persistence and overcoming a lot of negative bias towards building 'yet another CRM tool'.
In this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Carlos sits down with co-founder, Martin Henk as he shares the journey so far including challenges in product, growth, pricing and fundraising.
Tune in to hear how Pipedrive has managed to stand out in so competitive a market and why swapping out marketing hacks for brutal product simplicity has been the key to gaining customers and accelerating growth.
Links: Martin - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/martinhenk Martin - Twitter: twitter.com/henkmrtn Martin - Medium: medium.com/@nokkloom Carlos - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal Carlos - Twitter: twitter.com/cee Carlos - Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Pipedrive: www.pipedrive.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
In this week’s podcast, we are proud to welcome Michael Wolfe, co-founder of Gladly. Michael is a serial-founder and has been through the full range of experiences from exponential growth, raising hundreds of millions through venture funding, taking companies to IPO and secondaries. Michael is currently an acting portfolio advisor at Point Nine Capital, working on company-building, scaling and recruiting.
Tune in to hear the set of patterns Michael has developed through his years of experience, which he refers to as the “startup operating system”. If your company has reached a point with initial traction so you are looking to grow, but feel a bit lost, the concept will help you align the guiding principles for successful growth.
Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/MichaelWolfe/the-startup-operating-system
Links: Michael - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/wolfemichael/ Michael - Twitter: twitter.com/michaelrwolfe Michael - Website: medium.com/@michaelrwolfe Carlos - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal Carlos - Twitter: twitter.com/cee Carlos - Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Gladly: www.gladly.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
There’s no better way to kick-off 2019 than with an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the story of portfolio company and fintech unicorn, TransferWise, as told by Co-founder and CEO, Kristo Käärmann. As part of the first ever Seedcamp podcast recorded in a sauna, Kristo tells us the story of how two Estonian friends went from exchanging money over a Skype chat to sending more than €3 billion across the world every month. Now valued at more than $1.5 billion, TransferWise has received backing from leading venture capitalists like Index Ventures, Valar Ventures, IA Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Baillie Gifford, and Sir Richard Branson, among others.
Tune in for a unique insight into one of the flagship companies in the fintech ecosystem and hear first hand from Kristo as he shares some of the challenges faced along the way in building a global giant in the currency exchange category. And if you want to be a part of TransferWise's mission to create money without borders, there are more than 130 openings at the company around the world!
Links: Kristo - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkaarmann Kristo - Twitter: https://twitter.com/kaarmann Kristo - Website: http://kaarmann.com Carlos - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal Carlos - Twitter: twitter.com/cee Carlos - Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 TransferWise: https://transferwise.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
This week we have Joe Furr, founder and creative director at Point Studio, deconstructing his thought process on web design and soulful branding. Aged just 28 years old, Joe has more than a decade worth of experience and has worked with brands such as Thriva, Oinky and Seedcamp, among others. On tailoring an identity, Joe notes: “You are thriving for something that’s timeless, but a brand is never finished.”
Tune in to hear what goes on behind the scenes of a design studio, why it is important to work with clients who understand their vision and how to navigate your look in a constantly evolving environment.
Links: Joe - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joe-furr-85446826/ Joe - Twitter: twitter.com/whatthefurr Carlos - Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Carlos - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal Carlos - Twitter: twitter.com/cee
Point Studio LDN: www.point.studio Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Hiring and retaining talent is one of the most severe challenges of early-stage companies. Employee stock options are a fair, but often misunderstood tool for aligning interests between early employees. Fortunately, the Director of Talent at Index Ventures, Dominic Jacquesson has combined knowledge from both sides of the Atlantic and created a comprehensive guide called “Rewarding Talent”.
In the podcast, Dominic shares his findings on the differences between European and US startups and gives tips for early-stage founders on building sustainable long-term relationships with its employees.
“We are very much advocates of giving something to everyone. It might be a small amount, but as you scale, try to make everyone an owner.”
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Index Ventures: https://www.indexventures.com
Carlos: medium.com/@cee www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal twitter.com/cee
Dominic: https://medium.com/@domjacquesson https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicjacquesson/ https://twitter.com/domjacquesson
Rewarding Talent: https://www.indexventures.com/rewardingtalent Rewarding Talent (online version): https://www.indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook/rewarding-talent Rewarding Talent (quick guide): https://www.indexventures.com/blog/rewarding-talent-quick-guide
Index Ventures OptionPlan: https://www.indexventures.com/optionplan
In this week's episode of This Much I Know, Carlos speaks to Thomas Kristensen, Principal at LGT Capital Partners on how Venture Capitalists secure capital into their funds and how decisions are made from an Asset Manager's perspective. Kristensen reflects on his 14 years of experience at LGT, saying that Asset Managers invest in VC funds as it’s an exciting investment for them. If they do exceptionally well, the opportunity could produce outsized returns as well as keep investors afloat of latest technologies and business models that are being disrupted. He also lays out the criteria LGT assess before making investments into VC funds which, like venture investment decisions focus on the 'people' who deploy the capital and whether they have the proven capability of ‘sniffing out $10 billion valuation companies’. Tune in to hear more about the structure of funds, how they work and the expectations around what makes a Venture Capital fund attractive from an investment perspective.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 LGT Capital Partners: https://www.lgtcp.com/en/ Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Related bio links: Carlos Twitter: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee LGT Twitter: https://twitter.com/LGT_Group
Malcolm is the co-founder of a British sportswear company Zaggora, where he bootstrapped the company to $40 million in sales in 18 months. He’s also an expert in residence at Seedcamp, where he advises companies on all things growth and marketing.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malcolmstuartbell/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/malcolmbell Zaggora: https://uk.zaggora.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Mulenga is the founder and CEO of Growthcurve, with more than 10 years of experience in growing businesses and building products. Prior to founding Growthcurve, he was the Vice President of Marketing and Growth at Monese and a Digital Project Manager at FCB Inferno. In his talk he focuses on a systematic approach to growth and points to several KPIs often overlooked.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mulengaagley/ Medium: https://medium.com/@InTheScript Growthcurve: https://growthcurve.co Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
As part of our Marketing Summit our Head of Marketing, Natasha Lytton, sat down with Laurence Bret-Stern, CMO @ Pipedrive, Charlotte McCrum, Founder @ Harper Gray and Max Ottignon, Founder @ Ragged Edge to discuss the power of storytelling. Tune in to hear this panel discussion which covers everything from forming a brand, maintaining consistency and prioritisation in the early days to the importance of internal and external communication and emphasises the combination of rational and emotional in creating an image.
Charlotte's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottewinder/ Charlotte's Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlottemccrum Harper Gray: http://harper-gray.com Laurence's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurencebret/ Laurence's Twitter: https://twitter.com/lbret Pipedrive: https://www.pipedrive.com/en-gb Max's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxottignon/ Ragged Edge: https://raggededge.com Natasha's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-lytton-02bba627/ Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
In this fireside chat recorded live at our Marketing Summit, Richard Reeds speaks to Natasha Lytton about the amazing growth story of innocent drinks, the company he co-founded in 1999 with two friends at a market stall and grew into the most loved juice brand in Europe. From extreme hustling in the early-days of innocent to the acquisition by Coca-Cola in 2013, Richard shares how they overcame many of the problems faced in the early days and the importance of brand and storytelling in everything they did. Following the acquisition by Coca-Cola, Richard and his innocent co-founders went on to launch JamJar Investments, a consumer-focused VC firm that has backed the likes of Deliveroo, Graze.com and Babylon Health and places him in a unique position where he understands the power of consumer products from the perspective of both an entrepreneur and an investor.
Richard's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-reed-65351517/ Richard's Twitter: https://twitter.com/richardreedinno Innocent: https://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk JamJar: http://www.jamjarinvestments.com Natasha's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-lytton-02bba627/ Natasha's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Natashalytton Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
In this week's episode of This Much I Know, Carlos speaks to our very own Head of Marketing & Communications, Natasha Lytton, about investing in your brand and the importance of getting the whole team aligned with what you do. Reflecting on her experiences as Head of Marketing & Communications at Savsé, a drinks business that became the fastest growing smoothie brand in the UK & her experience as CMO of full-stack food delivery business, Pronto, Natasha speaks with great conviction when she says, firstly, you need to know internally, ‘Who you are, what you do & who you do it for’, and only then, can you start to communicate this externally through marketing campaigns. She provides tangible takeaways for early stage companies, like giving advice on how to work with agencies as well as providing a framework on how to think creatively as a company. Tune in to hear more about building your brand as well as how she overcame challenges using strategic, creative & analytical thinking.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Natasha Medium: https://sdca.mp/2OGF02E Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Slideshare: slideshare.net/NatashaLytton/how-to-build-a-brand-118987689/
Related bio links: Carlos Twitter: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Natasha Twitter: https://twitter.com/natashalytton
Byron Reese is an award-winning author, entrepreneur and futurist, currently serving as the CEO and Publisher at GigaOm. In his most recent book, “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers and the Future of Humanity”, he examines periods of innovation in human history leading up to artificial intelligence and discusses different viewpoints of the future. As Byron explains: “After reading the book, you may still be afraid of AI, you may not, but you’ll be able to say that you know, why, for example Elon Musk thinks of AI like he does.”
Tune in to hear more about Byron’s personal journey to the field of artificial intelligence through founding various successful companies and get a glimpse of the potential future scenarios perceived in the book.
Links: Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com GigaOm: https://gigaom.com
Carlos: medium.com/@cee www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal twitter.com/cee
Byron: byronreese.com medium.com/@byronreese www.linkedin.com/in/byronreese/ twitter.com/byronreese
Will Beeson is one of the founding members of CivilisedBank, a new challenger fintech business bringing together people and technology to help UK companies do business and people save money with an overall mission to make banking more civilised. In this podcast, Will shares his journey from investment banking into fintech with stops in New York, London and Rome along the way.
It was in Italy, where Will worked on transforming a paper-based underwriting operation into something fit for the 21st century and became fascinated with the potential impact of technology on financial services. In addition to his role in CivilisedBank, Will investigates the future of financial services through hosting the Rebank podcast, where he tackles topics ranging from consumer banking to roboadvisory. Tune in to hear his thoughts on the challenges ahead and where impact is yet to be made in the financial sector.
On one of the hottest segments of the market, consumer banking, Will notes: “We have seen the marketing and user acquisition side, but I feel that the natural next step has to be the lending model component of banking. I don’t see long-term success for retail or business banks, who don’t leverage lending as a core component of what they are doing."
Links: Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com CivilisedBank: https://www.civilisedbank.co.uk/ Rebank Podcast: https://bankingthefuture.com/
Carlos: medium.com/@cee www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal twitter.com/cee
Will: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willbeeson/ https://twitter.com/will_beeson
Danielle Blumberg Ullner holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and has more than 20 years of experience in management consulting and venture capital. Before joining BCG Digital Ventures, Danielle worked as an operating partner in Pico Partners in Israel. “An operating partner is either a subject matter expert in a narrow field, or an overall ninja, who helps to identify gaps in existing structures and has a go at solving them with resources available to them. In my case, I was called the ninja.” Her everyday included mapping out the gaps in functional areas for Pico’s portfolio companies and solving problems wherever she deemed necessary.
Tune in to hear more about her thoughts on building relationships between investors, consultants and the team, and learn about the importance of the COO role in scaling a product past the initial product-market fit.
Links: Carlos: www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal | twitter.com/cee Danielle: www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-blumberg-ullner/
Carlos Medium: medium.com/@cee Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com BCG Digital Ventures: https://www.bcgdv.com Pico Partners: http://www.pico.partners
In this week's episode of This Much I Know, Seedcamp founder, Moritz Plassnig, talks to Carlos about his journey from scaling a prototype into the creation of a company, CodeShip, that in spring of 2018 was acquired by CloudBees. Moritz founded Codeship aged just 21 and demonstrated maturity beyond his years in his decisions and accounts most of his success to being close to the customer. On dilemmas of speed vs. understanding, he notes the following: “As a VC, you are hedging your bets and hoping for those couple of companies, who will become extremely successful. However, as a founder, you are instinctively a bit more careful, as you want to be successful but on the other hand, the cycle, in our case, took up to 7 years, which means that you do not want the business to fail just by risking too much. Finding the risk-reward balance is extremely important.”
Speaking candidly with Carlos, Moritz shares the many stages of the company’s progress and touches upon his own evolution as a manager. In addition, Moritz discusses the acquisition by CloudBees and analyse the importance of an inclusive, but decisive culture. “At the end of the day, if you are the CEO, you have to own it. Any decision made in your company is also your decision and the only recommendation one can give is to never compromise on your underlying values.”
Links: Carlos Medium: https://medium.com/@cee Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Codeship: www.codeship.com CloudBees: https://www.cloudbees.com
Carlos: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal https://twitter.com/cee
Moritz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moritzplassnig https://twitter.com/moritzplassnig
In our last podcast, we had a fantastic discussion with Andy Bromberg from CoinList on the trends and problems of ICOs from the viewpoint of an industry-leading token offerings platform. In this episode, we go more in-depth and learn even more by exemplifying one of the most successful token fundraising events in near history. Coming out of Lithuania is the remarkable success story of Justas Pikelis, the 27-year-old co-founder of Monetha. Monetha aims to tokenize trust and create a decentralised reputation system for global commerce. “Explained in simple terms, we want to reward good and penalise bad online behaviour through a token incentive system.” In August of 2017, the company raised more than $37 million in under 18 minutes with its initial coin offering.
Arguably timing their ICO at the peak of the token financing boom, Justas sheds light on his thinking and methodology prior to the round. Furthermore, he touches upon the decreasing location barriers for raising capital outside of Silicon Valley and Europe and shares tips on how to recognise ICOs with strong growth potential and what to look out for when going through the journey.
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Monetha: www.monetha.io
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal | twitter.com/cee Justas: linkedin.com/in/justaspikelis | twitter.com/justaspikelis Kyran: linkedin.com/in/kyran-schmidt
Andy Bromberg’s is one of those stories made famous by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg in the movie Social Network. While enrolled at Stanford University, Andy and his colleagues started working on the Stanford Bitcoin Group, doing academic research and building side projects in the industry. However, his journey to the world of cryptocurrencies was not as straightforward as it may seem. In 2014, he dropped out of Stanford and co-founded Sidewire, a media company aiming to highlight discussions and debates of prominent opinion leaders. All the while, he closely followed the development of cryptocurrencies and in the summer of 2017 took a leap of faith and joined the management team of CoinList in order to bring transparency to initial coin offerings.
Talking with Seedcamp Managing Partner Carlos Espinal and Analyst Kyran Schmidt, Andy shares lessons learned from building companies in two vastly different industries and Andy dives into the differences in evaluating and structuring ICOs compared to traditional business models. "No investor is going to use a couple of million dollars worth of tokens", says Bromberg referring to the need for further development in the structure of ICOs.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Coinlist: www.coinlist.co
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Andy: www.linkedin.com/in/andybromberg/ / twitter.com/andy_bromberg Kyran: www.linkedin.com/in/kyran-schmidt/
Edward Wray graduated Oxford University to pursue a job at JP Morgan, where he spent 7 years eventually leaving as the VP of Dept Capital Markets & Derivatives. Going on to co-found Betfair in 1999, he was its first Chief Executive until 2003, when he moved to Australia to set up the company’s joint venture. It floated on the stock market in 2010, valued at £1.4 billion and is now one of the world’s largest online sports betting operators, processing more than 5 million transactions a day.
In this Seedcamp session, Ed shares many aspects of his journey, from raising £1m from his family and friends, as no VC was prepared to back him, to important life lessons he learnt through first time mistakes, like trusting your gut instinct. Now Director of Funding Circle, Ed says that when joining as director of a company, it’s imperative that employees live and breathe the business as well as understand that they themselves don’t always have the answers.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Funding Circle: https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk/
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Ed Wray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-wray-b25b011/ / https://twitter.com/edwray21
David Siegel is one of the world's first web designers, a strategist, bestselling author, and a pioneer of the "personal data locker" concept. He's the CEO of the Pillar Project - a next-generation universal smart wallet that uses tokens and 20.30, a community of people who want to build the decentralized world, which includes blockchain, cryptocurrencies, decentralized apps and more. Having built one of the earliest websites on the internet in 1994, David went onto help Fortune 500 companies get themselves online, before eventually selling to KPMG. Speaking to Carlos, he outlines how bodies like the SEC should move towards evidence-based regulation of crypto assets. David argues that we are not in a crypto bubble, as bubbles imply the total collapse of an asset class value forever. Meanwhile, he says, the 'value of all cryptocurrencies will continue to rise, though with plenty of volatility for the foreseeable future.'
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com The Pillar Project: www.pillarproject.io
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee David: linkedin.com/in/siegelventures/ / twitter.com/pullnews The Token Handbook: hackernoon.com/the-token-handbook-a80244a6aacb
Earlier this year, we headed out to Berlin to speak to early-stage founders at The Factory and share stories from a couple of our more recent investments in the region. In this live episode, Carlos is joined by Samir El-Alami, Co-founder and CEO of doctorly, a cutting-edge cloud-based practice management software for doctors, and Lara Hämmerle, Co-founder and CPO of Vantik, who are out to re-invent private pension plans for young people of today. Tune in as Lara and Samir share their insights into the investment process, giving tips on how to attract investment, acquiring first customers and becoming reputable in the face of larger organisations in the early days.
Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Factory, Berlin: https://factoryberlin.com/ Doctorly: http://doctorly.org/ Vantik: https://www.vantik.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/incarloseduardoespinal Carlos Twitter: twitter.com/cee Samir Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamirElAlami Lara Twitter: https://twitter.com/larahaemmerle
Room to Read has brought the enduring gift of education to 11.6 million children in 15 countries. Its founder, John Wood left his position as Director of Business Development for Microsoft’s Greater China region to found the organisation. Seventeen years later, with over 20,000 schools and communities served, millions have been impacted by John’s decision to help a headmaster in Nepal fill his school’s library. Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, John recounts his journey from leaving Microsoft to supporting girls' education and children's literacy in Asia and Africa. He also discusses how businesses are stronger when they incorporate an idea of cause and purpose into their actions -- and how it can represent a competitive advantage in today's commercial world.
If you want to support room to read through the Techbikers initiative discussed in the podcast, here is the link: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ezerider
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Room to Read: www.roomtoread.org TechBikers: www.techbikers.com Purpose Incorporated: www.purposeincorporatedbook.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee John: linkedin.com/in/johnwood8 / twitter.com/johnwoodRTR
Sneaking out during lunch breaks to help out the chefs at the City law firm where he worked, Patrick Drake was always destined for a career doing what he loves: cooking. As co-founder and Head Chef of the world's largest recipe box service, HelloFresh, that's exactly what happened. Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Patrick recalls his story of jettisoning a corporate career and founding HelloFresh - inspired by the vision of making it easier for people to eat tasty, nutritious food and learn how to cook new dishes for themselves and their families. He discusses lessons learnt in HelloFresh's early days ('handwriting little thank you notes to our first 10 customers who were basically our parents and our friends trying to humour us'), where live feedback was enormously important for iterating in product. Tune in to hear more on the HelloFresh journey from handing out fliers in Waterloo station through to IPO.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com HelloFresh: www.hellofresh.co.uk HelloFresh 'Recipes That Work' Cookbook: amzn.to/2JHGNOH
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Patrick: linkedin.com/in/patrick-drake-6160b1b / twitter.com/patrickdrake
What is the financing environment looking like for European startup ecosystems and the entrepreneurs building companies within them? In this data-driven podcast, Carlos is joined by Robin Wauters, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Tech.eu, an online publication dedicated to covering the European technology industry in depth. Robin was formerly the European Editor of The Next Web and before that a Senior Editor at TechCrunch. The two discuss some of the macro financing trends across Europe and the broader health of European startup hubs -- covering everything from exit volume and return multiples, levels of venture funding and the startup infrastructure in central and Eastern Europe.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Tech.eu
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Robin: linkedin.com/in/robinwauters / twitter.com/robinwauters
Katie Marrache began her career working for entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den investor, James Caan. After landing an internship with him straight out of university, she was soon charged with managing Cann’s portfolio of consumer investments at his investment firm Hamilton Bradshaw. A brief detour into television journalism at the BBC followed, after which she joined London-based Innocent drinks as a category manager, and began looking after the investment portfolio of the Innocent founders. She joined JamJar Investments, their official VC fund investing in online and offline consumer brands, when it was launched -- making partner in 2017.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Katie recalls her journey into venture and the biggest lessons learnt early on working with James. She dives further into JamJar's thesis and the five most important things to bear in mind when consumer facing brands: (1) be authentic, (2) be creative (3) recruit effectively, as your early team are your biggest brand advocates, (4) track performance metrics, and (5) spend time on product. 'The product is the brand,' she says. 'You can spend a long time crafting how it looks and sounds rather than what it is'.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com JamJar: www.jamjarinvestments.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Katie: linkedin.com/in/katie-marrache-98207a15 / twitter.com/katiemarrache
Levison Wood is a British explorer, writer and photographer whose work has featured around the world. He has recently returned from his most ambitious expedition to date - a 5000 mile circumnavigation of the Arabian peninsula from Iraq to Lebanon (a new book and documentary series are set to follow). He previously also walked the Himalayas, a six-month journey of over 1700 miles, as well as the length of the river Nile (4250 miles over nine months).
A former paratrooper and major in the army reserves, Levison recalls the leadership lessons learnt from his military experiences, including four years in Afghanistan. He elaborates on the importance of 'mission command' – setting an objective, but allowing subordinates the freedom to execute on that objective as they see fit – and its applicability to the business realm. 'You may have the experience to do it yourself and prefer to do it one way, but you have to take a step back and say get on with it', he argues, given the empowering effect of giving employees and soldiers greater autonomy in execution.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Levison Wood: http://www.levisonwood.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Levison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/levison-wood-frgs-ba526620 / twitter.com/Levisonwood
Rob Moffat joined Balderton Capital in 2009 and was promoted to partner in 2015. He is currently a board director or observer with five portfolio companies: Carwow, Wooga, Nutmeg, Prodigy Finance, and Patients Know Best. Prior to joining Balderton, Rob worked for Google in London, as a Manager in the European Strategy and Operations team, and for five years in strategy consulting at Bain. In this Seedcamp Sessions podcast, Rob covers the different growth engines which have proven successful for startups -- from paid marketing for companies like Carwow, who need to be rigorous in how they think about acquisition, through to continuous product innovation for companies like Revolut, and partnerships and business development for startups like Zego. Rob also covers how to navigate VC and strategic partnership relations, and how Balderton is thinking about the evolving Insurtech landscape.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Balderton: www.balderton.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Rob: linkedin.com/in/robmoff / twitter.com/robmoff
At $765m Atomico IV is one of the largest venture capital funds ever raised in Europe. But what do Atomico look for in the companies and founders which they choose to back? In this second Seedcamp Sessions podcast, Ben Blume, Principal at Atomico, elaborates on the fund's investment thesis and processes, explaining the high level benchmarks that the firm looks for when investing in entrepreneurs, from technological defensibility to deep domain experience and inherent scalability. Ben describes in more detail the principles which guide's Atomico's decision making process (including 'Now is the Age of the Entrepreneur'), as codified in their manifesto, as well as their appetite for 'visionary and risky bets'.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Atomico's Manifesto: http://www.atomico.com/manifesto
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee David: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/benblume / https://twitter.com/benblume
I launched the Seedcamp 'This Much I Know' Podcast back in 2015 with a view to hearing and sharing the exceptional and often unknown stories of many inspirational thought leaders. We've learned about our guests' lives, goals and ambitions as well as their thoughts and first-hand experiences when it comes to building and scaling startups, teams and communities.
As we near our 150th podcast and following feedback from you, our listeners, we are introducing a new, shorter-form podcast called 'Sessions'. Our Sessions interviews will be hyper-focused on a specific issue, idea or functional area and provide you with digestible content and tangible actions you can take away and apply to your own businesses.
Naturally, we will continue to do our long-form podcasts for those of you who enjoy the deeper dives and we hope Sessions will be the perfect accompaniment to this.
So please do tune in and let us know your thoughts along with any 'Session' areas you'd like us to explore or guests you'd like to recommend.
We're thrilled to kickstart Sessions with David Mytton, CEO of Server Density, on why you can't build SaaS without significant funding
In a recent blog post, David argues you can't build a SaaS company in 2018 without significant funding. With increased competition from alternative vendors, investing in product and engineering to differentiate from other solutions is imperative -- and comes at a significant expense. Tune into this informative podcast as David, who received investment from Seedcamp in 2009, explores why bootstrapping a SaaS business in 2018 is no longer viable plus much more.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com David's blogpost: https://davidmytton.blog/you-cant-build-a-saas-company-in-2018-without-significant-funding/
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee David: www.linkedin.com/in/davidmytton / twitter.com/davidmytton
Daniel is a founding partner at the Berlin-based fund, Cherry Ventures. With a consulting background at McKinsey before co-founding CityDeal (acquired by Groupon) and later Quandoo - the SaaS company for restaurants sold to Recruit Holdings - Daniel's knows first-hand what it takes to found and lead a business as well as what to look for when it comes to backing successful ones.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Daniel discusses his transition into venture and startups from consulting as well as lessons learnt from scaling CityDeal and Quandoo. He reveals the 'cookbook' for recruiting, onboarding and managing an effective tech salesforce which was 'applied at the Groupon universe'. Referencing Groupon's purchase of CityDeal, the two also discuss how to smoothly navigate acquisition processes, from pre-acquisition conversations right through to the division of responsibilities following a deal.
Daniel holds a PhD in law from Vienna School of Law and an MBA from INSEAD and he has lived and worked in Vienna, São Paulo, London and Singapore.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Cherry Ventures: http://www.cherry.vc/
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Daniel: linkedin.com/in/danielpglasner
In the crowded marketplaces of food and retail, how do you carve out space for independent new brands? For Jenny Costa, founder of Rubies in the Rubble, and Alex Mezger, director at the family managed Jude's Ice Cream, the answer lies in competing on the best quality products possible and relying on an authentic messaging.
Since 2011, Rubies in the Rubble has been producing high quality relishes and jams out of surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste. The business has gone from concocting recipes in home kitchens to selling in some of the UK's leading retailers and nailing deals with giants like Virgin. It has been important, Jenny says, to bring an authentic vibrancy to the brand, ensuring the product did not get 'lost in the supermarket shelves'.
Similarly for Alex at Jude's Ice Cream, the priority is in delighting customers. 'If it's down to price and price alone, we'll walk away,' he says. The business began as a family-run affair and remains that way. 'In terms of working wth family, it's grounded in respect and knowing each others' strengths, and working to these', says Alex. Jude's also 'massively over-invests in innovation' – leading to experiments like their black coconut flavour.
Listen to learn more about navigating supply chain difficulties, nailing brand messaging, managing the compromises between price and quality, and the secrets behind running successful food brands.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Rubies in the Rubble: www.rubiesintherubble.com Jude's Ice Cream: www.judes.co.uk
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Jenny: linkedin.com/in/jenny-costa-685b474a Alex: linkedin.com/in/alex-mezger-a26558
Susan is a Partner at CrunchFund, the seed-stage fund launched by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington which has invested in the likes of Airbnb, Vine (acquired by Twitter), Cruise (acquired by GM for a reported $1 billion), Onfido and X.ai. Previously, Susan worked at Y Combinator and as the Director of Global Programming at TechCrunch where she focused on major events and the Startup Battlefield. Susan began her career as a teacher in Southern California before making a major transition in 2004 to join a hardware startup based in the UK and Silicon Valley. Susan was the first non-engineering hire at both Codian (acquired by Tandberg in 2007, then by Cisco Systems in 2008) and at CoTweet (acquired by ExactTarget in 2010, then by Salesforce.com in 2013).
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Susan discusses her intriguing transition from teaching to venture, arguing that both disciplines require being quick on one's feet and the capacity to connect well with others. Recalling her experiences working at several acquired companies, Susan argues that a successful acquisition requires a level of autonomy for the acquired company post-purchase: "Never leave very smart people with nothing to do because they will very quickly get bored, especially if they are entrepreneurial, and start something else." Given CrunchFund's journalistic origins, the firm also spends a lot of time supporting portfolio founders in 'storytelling', and Susan discusses just how the fund helps entrepreneurs craft their narrative.
Learn more about how Susan ended up in venture (following encouragement by Y Combinator's Sam Altman), her time leading global programming for TechCrunch and what CrunchFund focuses on in looking for new companies to back.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com CrunchFund: www.cf.vc
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Susan: linkedin.com/in/susanhobbs/ / twitter.com/slh
There's no 'blueprint' for how to spot a great startup says Sonali De Rycker, General Partner at Accel, one of the world's leading venture capital funds with investments in the likes of Facebook, Spotify and Supercell to name but a few. Sonali joined Accel almost a decade ago from Atlas Ventures and is an expert in consumer, software and financial services businesses.
Starting out at Goldman Sachs, described as both a rewarding yet challenging environment to be in, Sonali shares the story of her early career before getting 'the bug' to work in VC in Europe. Speaking with Seedcamp Managing Partner, Carlos Espinal, Sonali talks about the distinct lack of companies in London when she started out and how the ecosystem has evolved over the years.
Tune in to hear insider information from Sonali on how best to run a scaling startup including information on boards, the need to listen - and not always fight to be heard - along with tips on fundraising and setting milestones.
Learn more about the culture in the Nordics and why there've been so many successful companies to emerge from the region along with Sonali's guiding belief that people create their own destiny.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Accel: https://www.accel.com/
Related bio links: Carlos: twitter.com/cee Sonali: twitter.com/sonalidr
Following the recent announcement of our fourth fund which at first close of £41M is over 2x larger than our last and 20x bigger than our first, we are joined by Seedcamp partners Reshma Sohoni, Carlos Espinal, Tom Wilson and Sia Houchangnia who share our plans to invest in 100 new startups across Europe and take a look back at how the European ecosystem has evolved over the ten years since Seedcamp launched.
Seedcamp Fund IV brings together 60 LPs and features big business, venture capitalists and fund of funds from across the globe. Tune in to hear how Seedcamp has innovated its own offering which includes an increase in capital it will invest across pre-seed and seed stages and approval to invest in crypto tokens.
Read more about Seedcamp IV: http://seedcamp.com/seedcamp-iv-welcoming-the-next-generation-of-european-talent-with-our-biggest-and-boldest-seed-fund/
Partner bios: Reshma Sohoni: http://seedcamp.com/team/reshmasohoni/ | twitter.com/rsohoni Carlos Espinal :http://seedcamp.com/team/carloseduardoespinal/ | twitter.com/cee Tom Wilson: http://seedcamp.com/team/tom-wilson/ | twitter.com/tom_wils Sia Houchangnia: http://seedcamp.com/team/sia-houchangnia/ l twitter.com/siahouchangnia
Scott Brown is a veritable marketing guru, with decades of experience as an executive in Silicon Valley working with some of the world’s largest tech companies including the likes of Facebook, Cisco and Google during their hyper-growth phases. Speaking to partner Carlos Espinal, Scott -- who worked closely alongside dozens of Seedcamp companies on scaling their marketing, and go-to-market strategies during his time as Expert in Residence -- discusses how companies can nail the marketing fundamentals through his three laws: going back to the roots, building out a customer infrastructure, and documenting & experimenting.
"Consumers have so many options and channels these days that you need to hit them where they live," Scott argues. The answer to this lies in what he calls 'economies of content': "content is relatively expensive to create, yet distribution is becoming cheaper; so it becomes a marketing principle of how do you reduce, recycle and re-use that content across as many channels as you can." But pointing towards the evolution of the practice of marketing and skill sets involved, Scott cautions that because founders and marketers are so 'focused on what's coming next, they can lose sight of marketing fundamentals'.
Listen in for tangible steps and advice you can apply to your own business.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Scott's blogposts: www.linkedin.com/in/rsbrown7/detail/recent-activity/posts
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Scott: linkedin.com/in/rsbrown7 / twitter.com/rsbrown7
Entrepreneur and former education consultant Lucy Stonehill experienced first-hand the pain points inherent in navigating the transition to higher education when she was an international student applying abroad herself. Confusing and opaque, the process has been largely pen-and-paper based for decades. Solving this pain point was the genesis of her company BridgeU, a tool which empowers schools to provide more intelligent, data-driven university and careers guidance than ever before.
In this live podcast, recorded to mark the fifth anniversary of Campus London, Lucy explains how BridgeU came about, and how it leverages data and innovation to better serve the education market. Seedcamp invested in BridgeU in 2014 and, speaking to partner Carlos Espinal, Lucy explains their journey from the company's early days through to internationalisation and growth -- culminating recently in a $5.3m Series A round. 'Seed investors really feel fundamentally focused on the vision and potential,' she says, 'while Series A more about the numbers' -- yet those numbers piece only get the door open, she notes.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com BridgeU: www.bridge-u.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Lucy: linkedin.com/in/lucy-stonehill-80434924 / twitter.com/lucystonehill
In 2004 polar explorer Ben Saunders - aged 26 - became the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole, carrying a 180kg sled over 1,420 miles through arctic conditions. Between October 2013 and February 2014, alongside Tarka L'Herpiniere, he made another record-breaking expedition, completing the first ever return journey to the South Pole from Ross Island. In November 2017 he faces his next daunting challenge: the first solo and unsupported crossing of Antarctica.
What lessons can we take from from Ben's expeditions -- 11 so far -- for entrepreneurs? There are resemblances to the founder's journey in terms of fundraising processes, preparation for operational complexities, enduring extremity, and the management of teams. "I wasn't only the CEO - I was the product, the thing we were shipping at the end of it," he says.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Ben discusses lessons learnt from his expeditions and the entrepreneurial parallels. "Self belief is something like a muscle - it kind of responds to being challenged", he argues.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Ben Saunders: www.bensaunders.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Ben: wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Saunders_(explorer) / twitter.com/polarben
At Seedcamp, we are passionate about identifying and investing early in startups using emerging technologies that have the potential to solve real problems. We began to invest in companies using blockchain technologies back in 2014 and our portfolio includes the likes of Clause, building the dynamic contracting infrastructure of the future, to Elliptic, providing the forensic tools with which to identify illicit activity on the blockchain. And we believe that there are several iconic companies of the future using blockchain technologies that are yet to be built.
If you missed our event on blockchain, tokens and ICOs, tune in to hear from our stimulating investor panel including Mariano Belinky (Managing Partner, Santander InnoVentures), Yann Ranchere (Partner, Anthemis Group) and Richard Muirhead (OpenOcean). The panel joins Carlos Espinal and Sia Houchangnia, and is introduced by Kyran Schmidt, from Seedcamp.
And check out our Facebook page for the live video of all the panels from the event: www.facebook.com/seedcamp
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Santander InnoVentures: www.santanderinnoventures.com Anthemis Group: www.anthemis.com OpenOcean: www.openocean.vc
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Sia: linkedin.com/in/siahouchangnia / twitter.com/siahouchangnia Mariano: linkedin.com/in/mbelinky / twitter.com/belimad Yann: linkedin.com/in/yannranchere / twitter.com/tek_fin Richard: linkedin.com/in/richardmuirhead / twitter.com/richardmuirhead
At Seedcamp, we are passionate about identifying and investing early in startups using emerging technologies that have the potential to solve real problems. We began to invest in companies using blockchain technologies back in 2014 and our portfolio includes the likes of Clause, building the dynamic contracting infrastructure of the future, to Elliptic, providing the forensic tools with which to identify illicit activity on the blockchain. And we believe that there are several iconic companies of the future using blockchain technologies that are yet to be built.
If you missed our event on blockchain, tokens and ICOs, tune in to hear from our lively founder panel including Peter Hunn (CEO of Clause), Irra Ariella Khi (CEO of Vchain), Richard Burton (CEO of Balance) and Ben Livshits (Chief Scientist at Brave). The panel is moderated by Kyran Schmidt and Sia Houchangnia from Seedcamp.
And check out our Facebook page for the live video of all the panels from the event: www.facebook.com/seedcamp
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Vchain: www.vchain.tech Clause: www.clause.io Balance: www.balancemy.money Brave: www.brave.com
Related bio links: Sia: linkedin.com/in/siahouchangnia / twitter.com/siahouchangnia Kyran: linkedin.com/in/kyran-schmidt / twitter.com/kyranschmidt Irra: linkedin.com/in/irraariellakhi / twitter.com/irra_k Peter: linkedin.com/in/peterhunn / twitter.com/peterhunn Richard: linkedin.com/in/richardjburton / twitter.com/ricburton Ben: linkedin.com/in/ben-livshits / twitter.com/convoluted_code
With the recent proliferation of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), financing mechanisms for decentralised protocols and applications we are seeing teams raise millions pre-product and with little more than a white paper. What are the dangers with this?
On that theme, Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal and analyst Kyran Schmidt are joined by Dmitry Koval, Founder and CEO at Blockwise, a company specialising in blockchain consultancy and software development. Dmitry is a serial entrepreneur and investor with a track record of creating successful businesses in IT, Insurance, Cloud and Blockchain. He is a Non Executive Director at Sweatcoin, a company building a digital currency backed by physical movement.
Addressing the recent rise in Initial Coin Offerings, financing mechanisms for decentralised protocols and applications, Dmitry Koval argues that the model is only suited to certain types of projects: those where a token has an 'intrinsic' value tied to the growth of the network, and where 'there is an intrinsic economy in the system'.
Dmitry also dissects which business use cases are best suited to blockchain implementations, claiming 'there has to be some multiparty ecosystem, with several parties involved in the process... and even better, or necessary, if they have intrinsic conflicts of interest.'
Learn more about the machinery of blockchain and distributed applications, the evolution in ICOs, and the how the regulatory impact will affect new blockchain protocols.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Blockwise: www.blockwise.org Sweatcoin: www.sweatco.in
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Dmitry: linkedin.com/in/kovaldmitry / twitter.com/dmitrykoval
Which slices of the financial stack will new technologies irreversibly transform, and which will be the enablers – artificial intelligence, NLP, virtual assistants or blockchain – most significant in this transformation?
On that topic Lex Sokolin, Partner at Autonomous Research, a leading research firm for the financial sector, joins Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal. Lex is a futurist and entrepreneur focused on the next generation of financial services. He was founder and CEO of NestEgg Wealth, a roboadvisor acquired by AdvisorEngine. Prior to NestEgg, Lex held a variety of roles in investment management and banking at Barclays, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank.
Alluding to his own entrepreneurial experience, Lex suggests 'most people who build fintech companies think they're going to get the attention economy but instead what they get is a financial services business'. He explains that unless start-ups have the ability to chase customer acquisition with millions of dollars, the smart bet historically has been to sell directly to banks.
Most consumer facing roboadvisors and fintech companies today, he says, are just ‘a new distribution mechanism, a new UI, sitting on top of existing wealth management solutions'. But, he argues, AI’s most visible effect will occur at this layer, through voice or chatbot enabled interaction with financial services.
Lex also addresses the recent proliferation of Initial Coin Offerings, a financing mechanism for cryptocurrencies and decentralised applications. 'The things that are built [in the crypto economy] look wildly different and look like they really can't be replicated on the traditional stack, on an 80s core processing system’, he says.
It’s a world, he argues, that closely resembles science fiction, promising the ‘full collapse of all asset classes into software' and autonomous machines transacting with each other entirely through digital assets and tokens.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Autonomous NEXT: https://next.autonomous.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Lex: linkedin.com/in/alexeysokolin / twitter.com/lexsokolin
From £25,000 of private savings, and over the course of a year-and-a-half, Zaggora was able to become a multi-million dollar sportswear company selling activewear to women. How did its founders navigate the journey of launching a clothing product in a market where consumers are often fickle and shifting fashion cycles reign?
On that topic, Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal is joined by Zaggora co-founder, Dessi Bell, who before launching the brand with her husband Malcolm in 2011 worked as an investment banker at JPMorgan for five years. Prior to that, she cut her teeth and developed a taste for retail in her early 20s working at Ministry of Sound where she developed a fashion brand.
Dessi sheds light on the mysterious world of influencer market and discusses how it can be deployed to establish brand presence suggesting, 'when it really works is when there's an interesting partnership that goes beyond just a picture on Instagram. Meaningful brand partnerships that can be syndicated in press and other advertising will be a much more valuable resource.'
Pointing towards Zaggora's own early experiences leveraging the viral potential of Facebook groups, she emphasises how building an affirmative and inclusive brand was crucial for their success, with the company finding an identity in empowering women and letting them achieve their best.
Learn more about shifting cycles in retail technology, dealing with inventory & supply chains, and iterating quickly in the product development cycle.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Zaggora: www.zaggora.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Dessi: linkedin.com/in/dessislavabell / twitter.com/dessinka
What are the critical steps a European startup founder must make when plotting expansion to the United States? On that topic Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal is joined by Dan Glazer, Partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR) - the US law firm which has represented the likes of tech titans Apple and Netscape over the course of its illustrious history.
Dan recently co-led the WSGR team supporting UK-based technology company Improbable in its $502 million Series B round of venture financing led by SoftBank Group Corp - the largest-ever Series B investment in Europe and also the biggest venture financing round by a private British company in history. He leads the New York office's technology transactions practice, and is also a member of the firm’s US expansion practice, with a focus on advising UK and other non-US technology and growth companies on US expansion, fundraising, and strategic partnership transactions.
Discussing the 'different risk environment' for startups and established businesses in the US, Dan cautions that founders afford themselves '3 to 6 months preparation in advance' of setting up shop in America, 'because you don't want to find you've pushed the button go on your entire US business but you can't staff it appropriately'. He walks through the 10 key areas founders should focus on - from legal incorporation and immigration to HR, admin and government support.
Learn more about how American cultural differences can affect hiring, why Delaware is the 'Esperanto' of legal jurisdictions and the the difference in US and European legal environments for startups.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com WSGR: www.wsgr.com US Expansion in 10 Steps: www.wsgr.com/PDFs/10-steps-us-expansion.pdf
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Dan: linkedin.com/in/danielcglazer / twitter.com/danielcglazer
What does the advent of artificial intelligence spell for the future of legal services and lawyers themselves? On that topic Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal is joined by founder and CEO Matt Osman of Legit Patents, the startup building AI-powered applications to automate parts of the R&D process, and Neil Miller, Partner at JAG Shaw Baker and formerly General Counsel at SoundCloud.
"The lawyer of the future is going to look much closer to a combination of a strategic advisor, an account manger, and someone in charge of customer support," suggests Matt, pointing to the recent phenomenon of law schools incorporating coding into their studies. "Quite a lot of their job will be interpreting and packaging the results that are produced by software."
Meanwhile Neil describes which aspects of the legal process will be automated first - including much of the grunt work currently performed by paralegals and associates. Yet he notes there are services which will be immune, including family law which 'requires a level of empathy you won't get with AI'.
Speaking about his experiences at JAG Shaw Baker and SoundCloud, Neil also provides a 101 on legal basics for startups and 'the things that become more complicated if you don't fix them early on,' from incorporation, cap tables and granting options, to keeping track of open source libraries and rights associated with them.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Legit Patents: www.legitpatents.com JAG Shaw Baker: www.jagshawbaker.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Matt: linkedin.com/in/matthew-osman-36b658110 / angel.co/matthew-osman Neil: linkedin.com/in/neilmiller
'The best founders are intentional around product,' says John Lilly, Partner at Greylock and former CEO at Mozilla. ‘It’s about how you understand user needs and be intentional about matching those needs, figuring out what people really truly need, and building the right thing for that.'
John joined Greylock as a partner in 2011, leading their investments in Dropbox, Tumblr and Instagram. Prior to Greylock, John was CEO of Mozilla - the organization behind Firefox, the open source Web browser used by more than 450 million people. John also co-founded Reactivity, an enterprise security infrastructure company acquired by Cisco in 2007, where he served as founding CEO and later CTO. Earlier in his career, John held positions on the executive team at Trilogy Software and as a Senior Scientist in Apple’s research labs.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, John discusses the evolution of his views around product intentionality and the importance of putting users first. He discusses his transition from product, technology and operationally focused roles at Reactivity and Mozilla, to investment.
At the early stage, he argues, venture capital is about betting on founding leadership teams and vision. 'In consumer internet especially you just learn this profound humility because you just can’t figure out things a priori'.
Learn more about how Firefox was scaled from 3% to 25% of web browser users, why it is sensible to prioritise user needs, and why the position of COO will always be amorphous.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Greylock: www.greylock.com Mozilla: www.mozilla.org
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Robin: linkedin.com/in/johnlilly / twitter.com/johnolilly
"Digital transformation is hard for big companies because they have encouraged 'Groupthink' and rewarded the wrong behaviour for years and years," warns digital maven, entrepreneur and business mentor Mary Keane-Dawson.
After c-suite roles at WPP, Steak, Reform and Collective, in 2013 Mary co-founded medical technology startup MyHealthPal as well as the women's networking franchise How She Made It - both of which started in London, but have since expanded to the US and Canada.
Mary started in advertising sales on Fleet Street in the late 80s, the dawn of desktop publishing, and she has been part of the digital revolution ever since. She has helped guide several of the world’s largest brands’ entry to the disruptive and evolving landscape of digital, including Mazda, Ford, John Lewis, BUPA, IBM, Nestle and British Gas. The first woman to Chair The Guardian Changing Advertising Summit, she is a speaker, writer, business mentor and coach. In April 2017 Mary stepped down as MD of Neo@Ogilvy and is starting a new agency leadership role in June.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Mary discusses her extraordinarily quick journey from ad sales to management, and the challenges she encountered on the way. "Rather than just being a sponge in the meeting and just nod my head sagely in agreement with the most senior person, I wasn't afraid to ask the question that was on everyone's mind," she explains of her early days.
Learn how 'another revolution' in marketing and advertising awaits us with the rise of AI and Machine Learning, how companies can unlock value through digital transformation, and why it only works when there's collegial buy-in.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Mary: linkedin.com/in/marykeanedawson / twitter.com/marykeanedawson
Robin Klein is one of the true pioneers of Europe’s venture scene: as cofounder of The Accelerator Group (TAG) in 1995, and an early stage investor in the likes of Transferwise, lastminute.com, last.fm, Love Film and Agent Provocateur, he has catalysed the success for some of London’s most impactful private businesses over the past two decades.
“We never forget that the company is owned by the founders and that we are part of the support team”, says South African-born Robin. General Partner at LocalGlobe, he was until 2015 a venture partner at Index Ventures. Prior to joining Index, Robin co-founded The Accelerator Group, with his son Saul. Before beginning his investment career in earnest he built and sold a number of businesses, the last of which was the Innovations Group. He sits on the board of several companies, and conducted the first documented e-commerce transaction in the UK in 1995.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Robin speaks optimistically about the future of European venture, but warns it still lags behind in IPOs and corporate M&A. “There is a lot of capital and a tremendously supportive ecosystem… but that capital will dry up or be unsuccessfully deployed if the volume of the exits doesn’t support the bottom of the pyramid,” he says.
He also emphasises for the importance of founder-market fit for LocalGlobe. “At the stage we invest the amount of due diligence you can do on the product, market and the metrics is relatively limited so I would like to spend much more time with our founders, because that’s where the heart of our decision-making lies.”
Learn more about the kinds of milestones LocalGlobe looks for in early-stage companies, the evolution of Europe’s ecosystem and the next industrial revolution.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com LocalGlobe: www.localglobe.vc
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Robin: linkedin.com/in/robinklein / twitter.com/robinklein
As the founder of Campus London, Google's first physical startup hub, Eze Vidra has a strong claim to being the ‘godfather’ of London’s current tech scene. Eze's journey has taken him from product management and leadership roles in startups across the globe to managing strategic partnerships for Google and founding multiple businesses, including VC Cafe and not-for profit TechBikers, the charitable initiative that brings the tech community together with a 320km bike ride from Paris to London.
Joining Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Eze recalls the story of early days at Campus London and how it became the entrepreneurial hotbed it is today - with 3,600 jobs created and more than £128 million raised by Campus startups since launch five years ago.
Eze is currently Chief Innovation Officer at Antidote, a digital health startup matching the right patients with the right trials. Previously he was a general partner at Google Ventures and, prior to that, the European head of Google for Entrepreneurs, where he helped forge partnerships to strengthen the startup ecosystem. He also led Campus London, a collaborative environment for startups created by Google For Entrepreneurs. While at Google, Eze spearheaded strategic commerce partnerships in EMEA, and helped launch Google Shopping, Google Shopping Express, and Google Wallet.
Now in its sixth year, TechBikers, will take place 15-17 June 2017 with over 60 riders raising money for literacy charity Room to Read. You can donate here: http://bit.ly/TeamEze
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Campus London: www.campus.co/london Antidote: www.antidote.me/
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Eze: linkedin.com/in/ezevidra / twitter.com/ediggs
From virtual assistants to risk analytics, and drug discovery to imaging and diagnostics, artificial intelligence’s scope for transforming the healthcare industry is significant. But just how will the use of AI and Machine Learning techniques reshape how medicine is practised today?
Healthcare dominates other industrial applications of AI in terms of money invested and number of deals, with $1.8B having been raised across 270 deals in startups within the space since 2012 according to data from CB Insights. Regulatory attention has followed this cash torrent: just recently it was announced that the Google-acquired startup DeepMind’s data-sharing partnership with the NHS was under investigation.
To discuss AI’s use within healthcare, Carlos Espinal is joined by two Seedcamp-backed founders: Manoj Ramachandran, co-founder of Viz.ai, a startup working on deep learning algorithms to revolutionise imaging diagnostics; and Pascal Zuta, from the US-based GYANT, a digital health assistant and symptom checker.
Pascal discusses how using AI can help treat high frequency conditions, taking load off the system and letting medical professionals concentrate on more difficult and meaningful tasks. Meanwhile Manoj argues that the most difficult thing is ‘integrating it within a clinical workflow so that it augments the practice of a healthcare physician'.
Tune in to hear whether these founders believe an algorithm or robot can ever truly replace human interaction within the healthcare sector.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Viz.ai: www.viz.ai GYANT: http://gyant.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Manoj: linkedin.com/in/manoj-ramachandran-6186ba4 / twitter.com/manojram1 Pascal: linkedin.com/in/pascalzuta / twitter.com/pzuta
The attitude of the British mainstream press when covering technology companies is often one of 'risk and scepticism', says TechCrunch Editor at Large Mike Butcher. But what if instead of predicting failure or projecting concern journalists took a more positive view of technology entrepreneurship?
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Mike explains how TechCrunch’s policy is to ‘bat for the entrepreneur’, supporting and advocating for their success. He describes the process of taking this Silicon Valley-style approach to tech writing and injecting it into European journalism, including his early days as the ‘Arthur Dent of the tech writing world’ when such writing was almost exclusively focused on US companies.
Mike is Editor at Large of TechCrunch, the biggest breaking news site about the world’s hottest tech companies. He founded the The Europas Conference & Awards, the charity Techfugees and has been an advisor on startups to the British Prime Minister and the Mayor of London. He is also a co-founder at TechHub.
Tune in to hear more about how founders can best narrate and tell their story, the evolution of tech journalism in Europe, and some of the next big problems founders should concentrate their energies on.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Mike: linkedin.com/in/mikebutcher / twitter.com/mikebutcher
“If you don’t have experimentation across the full customer journey, you’re going to have a hard time growing any business,” says Sean Ellis, who coined the term ‘growth hacker’ in 2010 after using such techniques to ignite spectacular, low-cost growth for Dropbox, Eventbrite, LogMeIn and Lookout - each now worth billions of dollars.
Sean is an entrepreneur, investor and startup advisor. He founded and sold customer insights company Qualaroo, growing it to millions of dollars in recurring revenue with customers such as Uber, Starbucks and Amazon, and is the co-author of Hacking Growth, published in April 2017. He founded and runs GrowthHackers.com, the number one online community built for growth hackers.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Sean demystifies the principles of growth hacking. He goes behind the scenes of the Silicon Valley giants famous for having deployed innovative, experimental and data-driven methods to drive growth, including Uber, Facebook, Airbnb and Dropbox, where he served as the company’s first marketer.
Sean discusses some of the actionable insights from his new book - including how startup founders can build growth teams, validate product decisions, discover the right ‘north star metric’ (such as drives taken in Uber’s case) to guide business decisions, and generate insights from data that spans the entire customer journey.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com GrowthHacking.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Sean: linkedin.com/in/seanellis / twitter.com/SeanEllis
How should we respond to the economic, social and moral consequences of automation driven by advancements in artificial intelligence? We are, argues Calum Chace (author of ‘Pandora’s Brain’, ‘Surviving AI’ and ‘The Economic Singularity’), on the brink of two singularities and accordingly need to plot a path to a future society that is ‘meaningful, sensible and communicable’.
The first singularity we face is technological: Moore’s law stipulates that computing power doubles every two years at the same cost. If this holds then an artificial general intelligence (GI) will eventually arrive that surpasses the cognitive abilities of an ordinary human and then, shortly afterwards, that of all humans combined. Relatedly we face an economic singularity: such intelligent machines will take all the jobs that humans do - and we won’t be able to invent ones they can’t.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Calum reflects on how we should react to the advance of AI to ensure the outcome we get is one which is positive for humankind. He argues that we will need need to decouple income from jobs, and will probably need a new economic system - but that the Universal Basic Income advocated by many futurists, tech CEOs and thinkers is insufficient. “We should be aiming for a world in which machines are so efficient and powerful we don't have to pay for anything,” he says.
Calum is a regular speaker and writer on artificial intelligence and related technologies. Prior to his writing career, Calum had a 30-year career in business, in which he was a marketer, a strategy consultant and a CEO. He maintains his interest in business by running a small property business and serving as chairman and coach for growing companies. In 2000 he co-wrote The Internet Startup Bible, a business best-seller. He studied philosophy at the University of Oxford.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Calum’s Blog: http://calumchace.wordpress.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Calum: linkedin.com/in/calum-chace-bb68168 / twitter.com/cccalum
lastminute.com, the online travel company, was founded in early 1998: “a time when, it seems strange now, but there really wasn’t a belief the internet would necessarily survive, yet alone be a tool we used every day,” says cofounder Martha Lane Fox. Two years later, at the peak of the dotcom bubble in March 2000, the company was publicly floated, “representing this brave new world of entrepreneurialism in the UK”. A week afterwards, the tech market crashed.
Martha is an internet entrepreneur, philanthropist and public servant. She sits on the boards of Twitter, mydeco.com and Marks & Spencer, chairs the board of the digital skills charity, Go ON UK, and was on the board of Channel 4 from 2007 to 2011. In 2013 she became the youngest female member of the House of Lords, joining as a crossbencher. She was appointed Chancellor of the Open University in 2014 and in 2015 launched the charity Doteveryone.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Martha discusses how lastminute.com was able to survive and even flourish amid the dotcom crash, eventually being acquired for £577m by Sabre Holdings in 2005. As well as explaining the roots of the company’s success - mainly landing great deals, and building strong relationships and partnerships - she talks candidly about the biggest obstacles the company faced, including overspending on technology and floating prematurely: “‘We IPO’d too early. It’s as simple as that.”
Martha also addresses her work at Doteveryone, the British charity finding new ways to make the internet work for everyone. “I’m not some crazy tech utopian. I don’t believe startups and software are going to save the world. I think it’s an indelible part of the world but there is a lot that makes it inequitable,” she says.
Tune in to learn more about Brexit’s implications for the future of the UK’s technology sector, what founders should expect from their board directors, and how to address gender inequality in tech.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Lastminute: www.lastminute.com Doteveryone: www.doteveryone.org.uk
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Martha: linkedin.com/in/marthal2 / twitter.com/Marthalanefox
You may recognise actor, producer and filmmaker Joseph Gordon-Levitt from blockbusters including The Dark Knight Rises, 500 Days of Summer and Inception. On top of an acting career that spans 30 years, Joseph is also the founder of collaborative production company HitRecord. Out to disrupt the conventional Hollywood model, HitRecord encourages artists on its platform to work collaboratively on productions, with the freedom to remix each other's work and success distributed collectively.
“Rather than just exhibiting and admiring each others work as isolated individuals, we gather here to work on projects together,” as Joseph describes it. The company - founded in 2005, originally as a place for Joseph to get feedback on the projects he started between acting gigs - has enjoyed several successes, including winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media for the series ‘HitRecord on TV’, produced via the platform, in 2014.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Joseph discusses the origins of HitRecord and how the company is disrupting Hollywood by pioneering a “collaborative, creative process, driven by people having fun”. He also details his early acting career and passion for editing and production - including dropping out of Columbia after discovering and falling in love with Final Cut Pro.
Joseph describes working with Christopher Nolan as a highlight, “He doesn’t think about what anyone else wants to see, he just makes a movie he wants to see”, explains why enduring years of interviews “effectively amounting to a salesman” has made him a better entrepreneur, the future of learning and technology and, crucially, what the Batcave is like in person!
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com HitRecord: www.hitrecord.org
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Joseph: www.imdb.com/name/nm0330687 / twitter.com/hitRECordJoe
How do you organise a billion people’s life choices? For tech giants like Google, Facebook or Apple that isn’t a flippant question: incremental design choices can have monumental significance when introduced at the scale such companies command. ‘They’re urban planners,’ argues Tristan Harris, ‘designing this invisible city that a billion people live inside, and they don’t know it.’
Called the ‘closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience,’ by The Atlantic magazine, Tristan Harris was formerly a Design Ethicist at Google and is now a leader in Time Well Spent, a movement to align technology with our humanity. Time Well Spent aims to heighten consumer awareness about how technology shapes our minds, empower consumers with better ways to use technology and change business incentives and design practices to align with humanity’s best interest. Previously, Tristan was CEO of Apture, which Google acquired in 2011.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Tristan calls for greater recognition by technology giants and software engineers of their ethical responsibilities. He argues that companies like Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, which jostle aggressively for command over people’s attention in a zero-sum game, are in a ‘nuclear arms race’, or ‘race to the bottom of the brainstem’.
Given the perverse incentives such companies face – such as deploying ‘drip-by-drip’, instant notifications to sustain people’s interest – Tristan encourages the creation of coordinating mechanisms, akin to the Geneva Convention, and the adoption of shared norms to clean up what he calls the ‘pollution in the attention economy’.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Time Well Spent: www.timewellspent.io Tristan Harris: www.tristanharris.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Tristan: linkedin.com/in/tristanharris / twitter.com/tristanharris
Conventional wisdom often encourages startup founders to focus on product and growth, and then figure out monetization later. Yet this can be a backwards step as Patrick Campbell, CEO at Price Intelligently, notes. Businesses should ‘look at the market they want to attack, and then build the thing for them’, by gathering and analysing data on buyer personas.
Patrick’s background is one steeped in using data to generate insights about people and customers. Prior to setting up Price Intelligently, which provides price optimisation software for businesses using proprietary algorithms to determine customers’ relative preferences and their price sensitivities, Patrick worked on Strategic Initiatives for Gemvara. Before Gemvara, Patrick worked in Sales and Operations at Google, where he built new models to optimise their AdWords strategies. He also worked in intelligence for the NSA, shortly after graduating.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Patrick encourages businesses to work hard on using data to understand the profile and psyche of their customers by building quantified buyer personas. “If you just get in a room and then get aligned on, ‘Here’s who we’re selling to,’ your decisions around product, sales, marketing and operations, even, become crystal clear,” he says.
Learn more about pricing strategies, collecting user behaviour data and finding patterns to help understand customer experience, as well as how to determine which product features are the most important for customers.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Price Intelligently: www.priceintelligently.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Patrick: linkedin.com/in/patrickccampbell/ / twitter.com/Patticus
Online transactions occur behind a veil of digital anonymity. As a result it is not always possible to ensure a person is who they claim to be. For many startups the problem of trust is even more pronounced, with early stage companies lacking the credibility or reputation of established competitors. So how do you build trust online?
On that topic Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal is joined by two entrepreneurs for whom trust lies at the very heart of their businesses: Philipp Man, founder and CEO of the luxury watch marketplace CHRONEXT, and Husayn Kassai, founder and CEO of Onfido, a software company providing the next generation of identity verification and background checks.
Selling assets worth thousands, CHRONEXT must ensure trust across their entire platform and supply chain. Philipp notes their ‘whole business model is built on guaranteeing trust and preventing potential fraud’ and discusses some of the authentication mechanisms they rely on - from identity checks and due diligence on suppliers to manual inspection checks by expert watchmakers.
Meanwhile Husayn explains how Onfido is essentially in the business of building trust and that the company was born out of the recognition that trust would be the ‘currency of the future’. He discusses Onfido’s early days, selling first to the on-demand sector and sharing economy, later to FinTech, and now online and retail banking.
Tune in to learn how to build credence for your early stage business from entrepreneurs who’ve been there before, and how to balance converting customers with minimising fraud.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Onfido: www.onfido.com CHRONEXT: www.chronext.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Husayn: linkedin.com/in/husaynkassai / twitter.com/HusaynKassai Philipp Man: linkedin.com/in/philippman / twitter.com/ManPhilipp
Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal gave a talk at the AIBE Summit 2017 on venture capital investment in Artificial Intelligence. With one of the largest AI portfolios held by an early-stage investor in Europe, including companies like ThirdEye, Reinfer and Viz.ai, Carlos discusses the areas in which Seedcamp has invested to date and why, as well as wider funding trends.
Carlos recalls the history of previous ‘AI Winters’, in which valuations dry up and scepticism abounds, and explains why right now it’s a great time to be an entrepreneur working with artificial intelligence. He argues that AI, like mobile in 2007, is no longer a standalone category but a technological enabler, unlocking value in healthcare, security and other sectors.
The slides to his talk can be found here: sdca.mp/AIslides Read more from Carlos on the topic of artificial intelligence and its potential to become 'the new mobile' here: sdca.mp/AIisnow
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com AIBE Summit: www.aibesummit.com
More on the AIBE Summit: The AIBE Summit is a conference on artificial intelligence in business & entrepreneurship. Their mission is to increase public understanding and intellectual discussion on the implications of AI for the business world, to raise the technological literacy of students, entrepreneurs, and professionals alike, and to recognise London as one of the world’s major digital capitals for the future of AI.
It is an initiative pioneered by the LSE Entrepreneurs Society, driven to celebrate the newly formed Partnership on AI between Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft.
“Being a good consultant, being able to problem solve in a room with a whiteboard, is not the same as being able to get things done,” argues Davor Hebel, managing partner for Europe at Eight Roads ventures (and previous consultant).
Davor’s area of focus at Eight Roads includes consumer and enterprise technology - with Innogames (bought by MTG), Treatwell (bought by recruit) and Notonthehighstreet among the companies he has worked alongside. Davor spent several years at McKinsey and Company, where he advised companies on issues of strategy and technology. He was also an entrepreneur in his native Croatia. Davor holds a tech degree from ASU, an MISM from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Davor discusses moving from Croatia and transitioning from a Communist state to market economy - the US - where he was ‘enamoured by capitalist society, the private economy, talk of entrepreneurship and ownership of companies’.
Learn more about the proof points Eight Roads looks for in companies, including repeatable revenue and an understanding of which marketing channels are starting to scale, and which type of companies should consider relocating to the US.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Eight Roads: www.eightroads.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Davor linkedin.com/in/davorhebel / twitter.com/dhebel
With ‘fake news’ of increasing concern - and an issue pushed to prominence during the US presidential election - how can we ensure the accuracy of our information sources? Few are better placed to answer than Azeem Azhar, product entrepreneur, writer and founder of PeerIndex, the social media analytics startup acquired by BrandWatch.
How to find the best and most reliable information is something that Azeem says has driven him throughout his rich and varied career. As well as founding PeerIndex, which processed social data by using machine learning to identify novel, actionable signals, Azeem was involved with startups like EVI (acquired by Amazon), AMI Software (acquired by Bertin) and others. He also worked as a technology correspondent and in management positions for The Guardian, The Economist, BBC and Reuters. Azeem now curates the Exponential View, a weekly newsletter on technology and society.
Speaking with Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Azeem discusses his journey from journalism to technology. He distills the most important lessons learnt during the founding and development of PeerIndex - including successfully pivoting the business twice. Talking about his own experience, he urges entrepreneurs who have sufficient doubts about whether their punches are landing in the market to act quickly.
Azeem also addresses the ways in which advanced technologies like AI are reshaping society, including their costs and associated ethical puzzles, and suggests ways in which we can respond to increased technological efficiencies to avoid a future like that depicted in dystopian blockbuster ‘Elysium’.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Exponential View: www.exponentialview.co
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Alex: linkedin.com/in/azhar / twitter.com/azeem
This week we’re joined by Alex Macpherson, Managing Director of Octopus Ventures. With 53 companies in its portfolio (including successes like Zoopla, Swiftkey and Graze.com), and around $850M in management, Octopus is one of the European ecosystem’s leading players, backing teams across multiple stages and sectors.
Alex transitioned into venture after 11 years as a derivatives trader in the City – prior to which he sold personal and business computers after leaving school (and even worked in the circus). In 2000 he founded Katalyst, a private investor group making investments into early stage, start up and expansion stage companies. Over seven years, Alex led the business as CEO until its sale to Octopus in August 2007 – upon which he joined the firm.
Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Alex discusses the ways his years as a City trader shaped his approach to investing– including learning the lesson that the ‘first cut is the cheapest’, meaning investors and entrepreneurs should know when to cut their losses or shift strategy.
Referencing some of Octopus’s biggest success such as Zoopla, Alex explains how he looks for teams that combine execution with vision and why, given that the difference between success and failure is ‘wafer thin’, backing exceptional founders is essential.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Octopus Ventures: www.octopusventures.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Alex: linkedin.com/in/alexandermacpherson
Big data, argues Kenneth Cukier, senior editor for data and digital at The Economist, is epoch defining: the ability for humans to store and transmit information at a scale previously inconceivable will transform ‘how we work, live and think’ – much as fire, bronze and the paper press revolutionised earlier societies. But how should we respond to the economic dislocation AI will produce in conjunction with big data?
Kenneth’s career in journalism is a distinguished one. The co-author of the New York Times Best Seller “Big Data” (2013) he manages new digital product development and oversees data analytics for The Economist. Prior to this, Kenneth served as technology editor of the Wall Street Journal Asia and also worked at the International Herald Tribune in Paris. In 2002-04 he was a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Speaking with Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Kenneth claims that information has gone from ‘a stock to flow’. Instead of being stored in fixed media – such as clay discs 4,000 years ago – data is now liquid and dynamic. The application of machine learning techniques and algorithms to such data lets us do things once impossible, such as build self-driving cars or diagnose diseases at a far earlier stage. But, he cautions, ‘it is the mark of an unwise society’ and close to criminal that we are not properly sharing data in spheres such as healthcare.
Listen to understand how we can learn from the information we collect, what change needs to materialise before we feel AI’s effect in proper, and how to respond to the job displacement that AI will bring about.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com The Economist: www.economist.com Kenneth’s TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pHzROP1D-w
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Kenneth: cukier.com / twitter.com/kncukier
This week we’re joined by serial entrepreneur and General Partner of LDV Capital, Evan Nisselson. LDV Capital invests in entrepreneurs building early stage Visual Technologies companies in Europe and North America.
Evan’s fascinating background includes time as a photographer, photo agent and photo buyer before landing in Sillicon Valley in the mid-90s and becoming one of the first photo editors on the internet. Evan has spent the past 18 years building and investing in Visual Technology businesses and his expertise in the sector led to the creation of LDV Capital over four and a half years ago.
In this podcast, Evan talks to Carlos about his own experiences as a founder and CEO of Digital Railroad, launched in 2004, providing professional photographers, agencies and image buyers with a web service platform and marketplace. Evan talks about the successes and failures of the company, liquidated shortly after the economic crash in 2008, and the critical lessons he learned from his experiences that he goes on to share with founders he backs today.
Often described as “crazy” for his views, Evan has a habit of predicting future trends. In May 2003 he wrote an article that said camera phones would replace point & shoot cameras. Evan talks through his predictions around the Internet of Eyes replacing the Internet of Things, satellite selfies and retina cameras as seen in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror.
Tune in to hear more about Evan’s thoughts around the evolution of social interactions, whether privacy is dead and how timing is everything when it comes to investment.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com LDV Capital: http://www.ldv.co/
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Evan: linkedin.com/in/evannisselson / twitter.com/nisselson
How can companies promote great technical leadership, and how should startups approach hiring developers? On that topic Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal is joined by Jackson Gabbard, one of the founding hires in Facebook’s London office and now an Expert in Residence at Seedcamp.
Having made the transition from an English degree to a career in software development by teaching himself to code, Jackson also recalls how he overcame gaps in his technical knowledge through focus and hard study – leading to multiple promotions at Facebook after some initial struggles.
Jackson, who conducted over 500 developer interviews while at Facebook, helped create the mobile timeline and worked on abuse prevention systems, cautions against non-technical founders outsourcing their dev work abroad because it can limit product development in the long run.
Learn why the myth of the ‘10x engineer’ is a dangerous one, the reason it’s important to have product visionaries and not just great salespeople, and how tech companies can ensure good people management.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Jackson's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCcdCkJKXlRoXVD03eo-q8mQ/
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Jackson: linkedin.com/in/jacksongabbard / twitter.com/jackson_gabbard
Union Square Ventures, the New York-based venture capital firm, is famous for investing in ‘large networks of engaged users, differentiated by user experience, and defensible though network effects’, but how does that thesis apply today? In what sectors are there valuable network effects that remain to be unlocked by new and emerging technologies such as blockchain?
On that topic Andy Weissman, Partner at USV, joins Seedcamp Partner Carlos Espinal. After qualifying and working as a lawyer, Andy began his internet career at AOL in the 1990s before moving over to Soundview/Dawntreader Ventures. In 2007 he founded Betaworks, the New York-based startup studio and seed-stage investors notable for investments and exclusive stakes in Bitly, Chartbeat, Twitter, Tumblr and Groupon among other successes.
Discussing sectors with untapped network effects, Andy argues that there are strong opportunities in medicine and healthcare to provide modes of care that are more user-centric. He spells out his vision of the future of blockchain, with reference to USV’s investment thesis and bets on companies like Mediachain. He also discusses how, in its strategy of building companies in-house while also investing externally, Betaworks - founded in the same year as Seedcamp - closely resembles a film studio.
Learn more about the evolution of the social web, how network effect businesses scale and monetise, and USV’s pioneering role in New York’s venture and technology scenes.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Union Square Ventures: www.usv.com Betaworks: www.betaworks.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Andy: linkedin.com/in/andrewweissman / twitter.com/aweissman
We believe the time is now for the application of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to fuel new innovation, empower a new breed of startup and disrupt industries. That’s why we’ve already made several investments in the space including re:infer, ThirdEye, AI Build and Legit Patents who all participated in our 'AI is Now' event in collaboration with Northzone.
If you missed the event, tune in to hear all from the lively panel discussion featuring an incredible panel of experts on artificial intelligence including Dr. David Barber, UCL Computer Science, Founder of re:infer, Ed Challis, VC Michiel Kotting, from Northzone, and Seedcamp partner Carlos Eduardo Espinal.
Read more from Carlos on the topic of artificial intelligence and its potential to become 'the new mobile' here: http://sdca.mp/AIisnow
And check out our Facebook page for the live video of all the panels from the even: www.facebook.com/seedcamp
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Northzone: www.northzone.com re:infer: www.reinfer.io UCL: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/home/
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Michiel: linkedin.com/in/kotting / https://twitter.com/mkotting
With large corporates and startups alike increasingly seeking to project authenticity in their marketing, how can founders and marketing officers ensure their company’s purpose and vision is expressed distinctively? On that topic, join Seedcamp partner, Carlos Espinal, and marketing guru Katy Turner, Managing Partner at Multiple as they discuss how creating a brand with a compelling story and a strong 'why' are the ones that win in the long-run.
Katy began her career in publishing before jumping into technology in search of the future. Katy joined Orange launching products across their international footprint. From there she went to VC Eden Ventures to get under the skin of startups. Following adventures in venture, she took up the VP of Marketing role at Videoplaza, helping to scale it to its acquisition by a major US player. As Chief Marketing Officer at Tech City UK she headed up brand, communications, PR and product marketing before becoming a founder herself with the launch of Multiple, a strategic consultancy which helps high potential technology businesses scale through purpose, people and platforms.
Speaking to Carlos, Katy relays what she calls the ‘universal lesson of branding’: that understanding why you exist as a business and get out of bed in the morning is ‘everything’ – with Google/Alphabet (organising the world’s information) and Nike (inspiring and innovating for athletes) two examples of companies that have really codified the purpose at their core.
Learn why it’s often important for companies to take a step back from the day-to-day and ‘philosophise’, the attention that should be paid to culture and values, and the key lessons in scaling.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Multiple: www.wearemultiple.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Katy: linkedin.com/in/katyturner1 / twitter.com/KatyT
The Netherlands is fast becoming one of Europe's major tech hubs with American technology giants Uber, Netflix and Tesla choosing the country for its European base, not to mention domestic success stories such as TomTom and Booking.com. But what features underlie the country’s success and what challenges does the Netherlands face in growing its startup ecosystem?
On that topic, Carlos speaks to three veterans of the Dutch ecosystem: Prince Constantijn van Oranje, startup envoy for Startup Delta - the Dutch support program that boosts the entrepreneurial climate in the Netherlands - alongside serial entrepreneur and Rockstart Founder, Oscar Kneppers and Ton van 't Noordende, Venture Partner at the seed and early-stage investors Keadyn as they discuss company building and what makes the Netherlands an attractive destination for startups and venture capital.
Tune in to understand how the Netherlands’ small size naturally builds an appetite for platform and marketplace-based companies like 3D Hubs which, by default, must scale by expanding abroad – and how one of biggest challenges the ecosystem faces is its fragmentation.
Learn also how to build a company, why flexibility, resilience and execution power are crucial in teams, and which sector the country’s own version of the ‘Paypal Mafia’ is likely to come from.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Startup Delta: www.startupdelta.org Rockstart: www.rockstart.com Keadyn: www.keadyn.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Prince Constantijn: linkedin.com/in/constantijn-van-oranje-nassau-0280b38 / twitter.com/constantijn14 Oscar: linkedin.com/in/oscarkneppers / twitter.com/oscarkneppers Ton: linkedin.com/in/tonvantnoordende / twitter.com/noordende
On Cybersecurity, Mr Robot & how startups can stay safe online with Jamie Akhtar and Mariella Thanner, Tresor Security
As the UK government lays out plans to invest an additional £1.9bn to reduce cyber-attacks, and pressure mounts on US presidential candidates to prioritise cybersecurity, the world's attention is focused on how to stay protected online.
In this week's Seedcamp podcast Carlos is joined by Jamie Akhtar and Mariella Thanner, founders of cybersecurity firm Tresor Security, for an intriguing dive into how startups can fortify their cybersecurity posture and minimise their digital vulnerabilities.
This podcast is indispensable listening for startups considering how they can protect themselves going forward, with Jamie and Mariella touching on when the right time to start thinking about security policy is; performing proper diligence and the small steps companies can take to prevent their data from being being compromised.
Learn about the similarities between Hollywood’s glamorised depiction of cyber security in the drama-thriller television series ‘Mr Robot’ and the kind of incidents and breaches Jamie and Mariella have to deal with, and which part of the cybersecurity value chain is a strong bet to invest in.
Show notes: Carlos Medium: http://sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Tresor Security: www.tresorsecurity.com
Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Jamie: linkedin.com/in/JamieAkhtar / twitter.com/jamieakhtar Mariella: linkedin.com/in/MariellaThanner
Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas is an entrepreneur, founder and executive focused on growth-stage tech businesses. Until recently Carlos was the Chief Product Officer at Skyscanner, the travel search engine. Previously he was founder and CEO at Fogg, a hotels metasearch startup that was acquired by Skyscanner. He also served as deputy CEO of the IT service firm Netfocus, where he led digital security before the company was acquired by Hewlett-Packard.
Speaking with Seedcamp partner Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Carlos provides an unparalleled insight into the art of product management and scaling tech businesses, as well as a first-hand view of the acquisition process – a process he went through at both Skyscanner and Netfocus.
Carlos addresses some of the biggest scaling challenges he faced when helping grow Netfocus, and discusses how at Skyscanner he saw just how important it was to empower product managers by removing obstacles and giving them freedom to meet goals – a tendency not, he argues, second-nature for engineers used to controlling all variables.
Learn more about product management as a discipline, and what sets it apart from engineering and design roles – and why ‘Running Team Operations’ and ‘The Rhythm of the Business’ would be essential chapters in any book on product management.
Show notes from the episode: Carlos Espinal Website: www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Skyscanner: www.skyscanner.net
Related bio links: Carlos Espinal: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas: linkedin.com/in/carlosgonzalezcadenas
In this episode, Seedcamp partner, Carlos, is joined by Josh Nussbaum, Principal at the New York-based venture capital firm Compound, formerly known as Metamorphic Ventures. Compound, who rebranded earlier this year while raising a new $50 million fund, invests in early-stage technology startups disrupting or enabling traditional industries in New York and across the States.
Josh’s route into VC began early, spearheading Startup Week while a student at NYU and hosting hackathons for several years before joining Compound, initially as an intern. Since joining forces with David in 2012, he has become an integral part of the Compound team. Prior to joining Compound, Josh worked in business development for startup, JustDecide, a social decision-making company. Prior to JustDecide, Josh worked in digital marketing and branding at Bayard Advertising.
Carlos and Josh discuss how a rebrand enabled Compound to freshen its story for the future and how the best startups tell a story about how the future is going to be. Josh meditates on learning from missed investment opportunities and how to identify patterns for future investment decisions.
Also discussed is Compound’s philosophy. Raising its first fund shortly after the iPhone came out, the firm favoured investments in so-called ‘transactional media’, at the intersection of digital media and digital commerce (Indiegogo, Tapad, Movable Ink) – but is now looking more towards AI-focused startups.
Learn more about New York’s tech ecosystem, the rebranding of a venture firm, and lessons from missed opportunities.
Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Compound: www.compound.vc Get it on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/podcasts/seedcamp-podcast-josh-nussbaum-principle-at-compound
Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Josh: on medium at http://sdca.mp/2e9k6GX / twitter.com/josh_nussbaum
In this episode, Seedcamp partner, Carlos, is joined by Amy Nauiokas, founder and president of Anthemis Group. Founded in 2010, Anthemis is a leading digital financial services venture capital and strategic advisory firm, focused on reinventing financial services for the 21st century.
Amy’s journey is a fascinating one; from studying and working in Cameroon, assisting the US Peace Corps, to moving to Wall Street and serving as Senior Managing Director at Cantor Fitzgerald before moving to Barclays Capital and later becoming CEO of Barclays Stockbrokers.
Carlos and Amy discuss leadership during periods of crisis, with Amy heading Cantor during the tragic events of September 11.
Amy speaks about her founding of Anthemis Group with Sean Park and Nadeem Shaikh, and praises the virtue of self-awareness. She discusses Anthemis’ philosophy and its reputation for ‘inventing categories’, with early investments in the InsurTech (ClimateCorp), Consumer and Retail Banking (Simple), Wealth Management (Betterment) and Blockchain spaces. She goes on to reflect with Carlos on the importance of passion as a guiding force, alluding to her founding of media production company Archer Gray and her philanthropic ventures at Bubble.
Learn more about the value of thinking differently, marrying strategy and execution, and the importance of passion as a guiding force.
Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Anthemis Group: www.anthemis.com
Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Amy: http://www.anthemis.com/people/amy-nauiokas/ www.linkedin.com/in/amynauiokas
Werner Vogels, CTO and VP at Amazon.com and a world-leading expert on scalable systems, didn’t have the traditional entry into tech one might expect.
Responsible for driving Amazon’s technology vision, which is to continuously enhance innovation on behalf of Amazon’s customers at a global scale, Werner is one of the architects behind Amazon’s approach to cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Tune in to the 100th Seedcamp podcast special for a deep-dive as Werner talks to Carlos about his fascinating and varied journey from studying Computer Science aged 28 and a 10 year career in academia, to co-founding his own business before starting his first “real job” at Amazon in 2004.
Learn more about the core pillars that uphold Amazon’s approach to hiring, team work and commercialisation as well as how a relentless focus on customer centricity guides all product development.
With references to Seedcamp-backed companies such as TransferWise - improving customer experience and disrupting staid industries such as financial services - hear Werner’s thoughts on the need for enterprise to innovate to compete with younger companies or risk going out of business.
If the above player doesn’t work for you, you can also listen directly from our Soundcloud page.
Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Amazon: http://aws.amazon.com
Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Werner: www.linkedin.com/in/wernervogels / twitter.com/Werner
In this episode, Seedcamp Partner, Carlos, is joined by Alex Kayyal, Europe Head at Salesforce Ventures, investing in the next generation of enterprise technology. Alex brings over a decade of experience across technology and finance, having been both an investor and entrepreneur. Prior to Salesforce, he helped establish a venture growth firm and also founded his own startup. Alex's experience as a founder, investor and investment banker puts him in a unique position to understand the, often daunting, M&A process from both a company and investor perspective.
In this podcast, Alex and Carlos discuss the art and science of valuation, from a company and acquirer perspective, and the sell and buy process.
Tune in for top tips on how to avoid a 'fire sale' situation and learn more about Alex's first-hand experience when it comes to scaling a business, seeking investment and how to internationalize.
Salesforce portfolio companies include: Carto, CoolaData, Digital Genius, NewVoiceMedia, Onfido, Qubit, RedKix and Universal Avenue, among others.
Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Salesforce Ventures: http://www.salesforce.com/ventures/
Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Alex: www.linkedin.com/in/alexkayyal / twitter.com/alexkayyal
In this episode, Seedcamp Partner Carlos was joined by Hugh Campbell from GP Bullhound. The conversation begins with Hugh explaining his time at Oxford where he studied "Physiology, psychology and philosophy". They then proceed into speaking about his work experience with City Bank and Goldman Sachs before his 3 co-founders decided to take the lessons learned in investment banking to create GP Bullhound. Since it's inception the company has now expanded outside London to new locations like Manchester, Germany and France to be closer to great tech companies because these come from all over Europe.
Speaking about the challenges of fundraising Hugh shares that in his view today's biggest challenge for founders in the UK is not to raise £1M early stage round given the existing tax benefits but it's much harder for businesses that are at 10 or 15 people and want to grow to 100 and need a larger round. He then proceeds to share his tips on fundraising and give examples on how to build better relationships with investors while explaining how trust plays a big part of an M&A deal. Regarding exits they discuss the rise of private equity firms in the purchasing of tech busiensses and how those are different from traditional large acquirers like Google, Microsoft or Facebook.
During the podcast Hugh and Carlos also approach the state of enterprise software market especially regarding exit options. They then proceed speaking about the evolution of the European investor and tech scene during the last decade focusing in the IPO scene and how it is improving in Europe with IPOs like Auto Trader, Boohoo, Zalando and Rocket Internet. These have been impacting the entire European landscape including the German technology market fuelling it's incredibly fast growth - especially in Berlin all of which despite not having the tax brakes in the UK.
Finally they discuss the expansion strategies for UK based companies and Hugh shares his favourite book for young entrepreneurs so that they can evaluate if their idea is any good at an early stage.
Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: http://www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: http://www.seedcamp.com GP Bullhound: http://www.gpbullhound.com/
Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @twitter.com/cee Hugh: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/hucampbell / https://twitter.com/hugh_gpb
In this new episode of the Seedcamp Podcast Nic Brisbourne, Managing Partner at Forward Partners joins Carlos Espinal.
Being passionate about both maths and sciences during his high-school years Nic ended up studying Social and Political Science at Cambridge for three years. His first job right out of university was in a traditional company where he worked as a consultant at Gemini Consulting. This first experience allowed him to have a unique view on the existing parallels between being a VC and being a consultant. After this first experience Nic moved on to the venture industry in 1999 living through four months of excitement before the bubble burst and experienced first-hand the hard-times that came right after. During his years at Reuters he learned a lot and had the privilege to look at exciting new areas like IoT and AI really early on when they were not as popular as they are today.
More recently Nic joined Forward Partners as a Managing Partner investing in ambitious startups. Nic also clarifies the types of businesses they are interested in investing in as well as how they are uniquely able to help their founders.
Finally, discover his views and insights on to the future with possible impacts of Brexit, what startups should focus on and the one book that he recommends to all founders.
Show notes from the episode: Carlos Website: http://www.carlosespinal.com Seedcamp: http://www.seedcamp.com Forward Partners: http://www.forwardpartners.com
Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @twitter.com/cee Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brisbourne / https://twitter.com/brisbourne
In this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast learn about Corporate Development from a strategic buyer and aquihires with Chrys Chrysanthou from Notion Capital and Carlos Espinal.
Tune in and listen to Chrys share how going through the military and managing 70 persons helped him get a job at Cisco where he ended up staying for 10 years and learned how corporate ventures work. After his time at Cisco he had the opportunity to join a promising young startup in the space of the Internet of Things space and manage their operations as the COO. Later on Chrys ended up joining Amazon Web Services where had the privilege to work closely with Amazon CTO - Werner Vogels leading Business Development efforts of the startup ecosystem. And finally, in 2014 Chrys moved to the Venture Capital industry joining Accel Partners first and later moved on to join Notion Capital where he is now and focusing more on early stage B2B Cloud & SaaS startups.
http://www.seedcamp.com http://www.carlosespinal.com http://www.notioncapital.com https://twitter.com/cchrysan
In the latest podcast, Sitar of Connect Ventures talks to Carlos Espinal about the issue of growth in startups. They discuss the importance of Product focus and User Experience with the impact on virality.
After completing her studies at Duke University and a brief work experience in Investment Banking, Sitar decided to move into the early stages of Venture Capital. This lead to her to go against her initial plan and move to the UK to join the well known Doughty Hanson where she lead investments including Soundcloud. Along the way, Sitar got to meet her current partners at Connect ventures and soon enough discovered that they shared the same long term vision for the company which resulted in Sitar joining in as a Managing Partner.
With investments in both Citymapper and Typeform, Sitar shares her view on why product focus is such a key differentiator for Connect Ventures.
Related bio links: Carlos: uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @twitter.com/cee Sitar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sitar / @twitter.com/sitar
- www.seedcamp.com
- www.carlosespinal.com
- https://twitter.com/sitar
- http://connectventures.co.uk/
In today's episode, Carlos from Seedcamp is joined by Alex Stephany, Tech CEO, Advisor and Author of "The Business of Sharing: Making it in the New Sharing Economy". Tune in to listen to Alex on how he hustled his way through the tech scene from scratch, after studying english Literature, ending up to became the CEO of Justpark. Alex and Carlos move on to discuss key advice on hiring and exchange views on job titles for early employees, how to keep your team motivated and how to understand if you have made a bad hire.
If you're interested in Sharing Economy, this is the time to turn the volume up. Alex explains that the reason why he's written a book focused on this topic was to offer a 360 degree view coming from the entrepreneurs when compared with other books which have been primarily written by scholars or economists. Listen to a discussion on the professionalisation of the supply side, it's impact on the sharing economy and their visions about the future.
Show notes from the episode: Alex Website: http://alexstephany.com Seedcamp: http://seedcamp.com Book: amzn.to/1xA0Fq3
Related bio links: Carlos: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @http://twitter.com/cee Alex: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alexstephany / @http://twitter.com/AlexStephany
In this episode, Seedcamp Partner Carlos was joined by David Clayton from True & North. Starting off by speaking about David's early life and career and how it lead first for him to work at The Guardian. They proceed into speaking about the creation of True & North in 2010 with the goal of helping companies improve their growth and sales.
David shares his advice and examples on how to improve the quality and success of your sales calls by creating authority and credibility early during a cold call. Finally, he also speaks about the top key reasons for why sales teams fail and how keeping things simple when focusing on the mindset, different processes and goals of every call or meeting which can substantially improve the success rate of any call.
Show notes from the episode: True & North: http://trueandnorth.co.uk Seedcamp: http://seedcamp.com
Related bio links: Carlos: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @cee David: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/dsclayton / @dave_clayton
In this episode, Seedcamp Partner Carlos was joined by Vincent Jacobs from Kima Ventures. Together they speak about Vincent's education and career which includes working at Seedcamp back in 2012.
Sharing some insights on how Kima Ventures works, Vincent speaks about their investment strategies as well as the deal pipeline management techniques they have been building since 2010. These strategies allow them to manage a large amount of applications and also a portfolio of 380 companies.
Vincent and Carlos also dive into the evolution of the startup landscape in the last few months and the challenges that Kima faces when investing in companies all over the world, including countries that are underserved by investors. Finally Vincent speaks about the evolution of the requirements for raising a Series A round during the last few months and how those differ between the UK and the US.
http://seedcamp.com/ http://www.kimaventures.com/ https://twitter.com/vincejaco https://twitter.com/cee
In this episode, Seedcamp Partner Carlos was joined by the experienced investor and entrepreneur Christoph Janz, Managing Partner at Point Nine Capital. The result is an in-depth conversation about investing in SaaS companies and the key KPIs to have in mind for this sector.
Listen to Christoph sharing his story about catching the “entrepreneurial virus” at just 12 years old, and re-living some of the stories from his time as the co-founder of DealPilot.com(acquired by Shopping.com) and Pageflakes (acquired by LiveUniverse), as well as an investor in companies such as Zendesk, FreeAgent Central, Geckoboard and many others.
If you’re a founder, operator or investor in any globally ambition SaaS business then you’ll want to hear Christop’s take on key metrics that early startups should have in mind to scale their businesses and get his thoughts on everything from customer acquisition challenges to sales pipelines.
Show notes from the episode: Christoph's blog: http://christophjanz.blogspot.com Seedcamp: http://seedcamp.com
Related bio links: Carlos: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / @cee Christoph: https://de.linkedin.com/in/christophjanz / @chrija
In this episode, Carlos was joined by our very own Tom Wilson, a qualified UK Lawyer and member of the Seedcamp investment team. Together, they took a deep dive into the Legal Tech sector, an area that Tom is particularly passionate about given his past experience (and headaches) as a lawyer prior to joining Seedcamp.
We touched upon defining the Legal Tech sector and the various sub sectors that make up the legal eco-system. We went on to discuss some of the topics that are making the Legal Tech space so interesting right now including: a push for increased transparency, tech solutions focused on the automation of processes (i.e. NLP etc.), the maturing ecosystem, the generational shift and more broadly the innovation (i.e.AI etc.) and areas of our interest taking place right now in legal services.
Show notes from the episode:
Apply to Seedcamp x Nextlaw labs - http://seedcamp.com/seedcamp-x-nll/ Tom's blog post on the sector - http://bit.ly/29KtaAf
Related bio links:
- Tom - https://twitter.com/tom_wils / https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tomwilsonseedcamp
- Carlos - www.carlosespinal.com / twitter.com/cee
- Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com / twitter.com/seedcamp
Additional show links:
- Apperio - https://apperio.com/
- Lexoo - https://www.lexoo.co.uk/
- Beagle.ai - http://beagle.ai/
- Legal Robot - https://www.legalrobot.com/
- Juro - https://www.juro.io/
- Legal Zoom - http://www.legalzoom.com/
In this episode, Carlos was joined by Matt Buckland, Head of Talent and HR of Lyst (www.lyst.co.uk), the fashion commerce platform, and Rob O’Donovan, Co-Founder & CEO of Seedcamp-backed CharlieHR (www.charliehr.com), the free HR platform for small businesses. We took a deep dive into best HR practices, a really hot topic for companies that are scaling their businesses and looking for the best tools and practices to manage their teams.
The importance of creating a company culture is already common knowledge, but as part of this podcast we explore this in more detail by actually defining it with examples from Matt & Rob's extended experience. They touch on ways to institutionalise and organise the processes, how software can turn real social interaction into meaningful data, and the importance of having a smooth, genuine on-boarding process for your new hires.
Listen to great advice and real stories on what works best (or doesn’t) when it comes to categorising behaviour and getting a reality check on what does the new generation of hires find fulfilling in their roles - key defining elements that build up your brand culture and values.
Related Bio Links : uk.linkedin.com/in/mlbuckland / twitter.com/ElSatanico uk.linkedin.com/in/robodonovan / twitter.com/rjodonovan www.seedcamp.com / twitter.com/seedcamp www.carlosespinal.com / twitter.com/cee
In this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast Sean Seton-Rogers from PROfounders Capital meets Carlos to share some of the lessons learned over his career as an investor – from experiencing the “The Bubble” first hand to more recently being able to invest in almost 30 European companies in the last 5 years.
Sean has been working closely with great founders helping them to focus in the right things to make sure they can grow and are able to raise their next round.
Sean also shares with Carlos the story of his times through the “Social Wars” and how he met with Michael Birch and Xochi Birch founders of Bebo while at Benchmark and helped them grow through their acquisition by AOL.
Carlos and Sean also discuss the evolution of the startup ecosystem in Europe and how it became a relevant market for the US investor as well as the rise of Unicorns coming out of Europe.
http://www.profounderscapital.com/
Seedcamp Partner Carlos Espinal had the chance to sit down with Playfair Capital founder, Federico Pirzio-Biroli, to discuss his background prior to starting Playfair and Co-Working space Warner Yard.
In this episode, Federico shares with us his passion for frontier markets, and his views on the opportunity to move the needle in those areas for the better, leveraging his experience in building Playfair and seeing the EU ecosystem develop over the years.
For more on Federico's latest move, check out the Business Insider piece covering his departure:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/playfair-capital-founder-federico-pirzio-biroli-is-moving-to-africa-and-warner-yards-coworking-space-is-closing-2016-6
https://twitter.com/fede_r1c0 https://twitter.com/cee
Starting by scoring a first interview with Guy Kawasaki Harry Stebbings walks us through how he started his network from scratch and built his massive following for his 20 Minute VC podcast show.
In this podcast, Harry shares his story with Carlos giving unique insights on to some of the amazing marketing efforts that he has created to drive user growth and retain his audience all while highlighting the accomplishments of his interviewees. Discover how he uses channels like Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter to drive his audience to the show and how he discovered which channels best converted for him.
www.thetwentyminutevc.com www.twitter.com/HarryStebbings www.seedcamp.com www.carlosespinal.com
In the latest episode, Carlos was joined by Jeff Veen, Design Partner for True Ventures, a Venture Capital firm that focuses on supporting the earliest stage Founders and their teams. In the podcast, Jeff and Carlos discuss how a Partner with a design background views potential investment decisions, unearthing a lot of advice on design for startups in the process.
http://www.seedcamp.com http://www.carlosespinal.com https://trueventures.com/
In this episode, Carlos sat down with Seedcamp Experts in Residence, Keith Wallington (previously at Mimecast) and Taylor Wescoatt (previously eMoov, Timeout and eBay), to discuss product hypothesis and getting to minimum viable product. Both have played roles in scaling businesses and worked with many of Seedcamp's portfolio, recognising that a lot of companies have more validation for a service than is actually the case. As EIR's they work to ensure startups are testing their theories to validate their products in the right way.
In this podcast, the three discuss the topic "winners recognise their startup is a series of untested hypothesis" a quote from Steve Blank, author of The Startup Owners Manual.
In the ‘Seedcamp Podcast Series’ we talk with key people in the tech startup industry to hear their stories, key advice and learnings from their experiences.
In this episode, Dr. Edward Challis Founder and CEO of Seedcamp-backed Re:Infer (https://reinfer.io/) and Christoph Auer-Welsbach, IBM Watson Partner Innovation, joined Carlos to discuss Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and whether or not we will have to worry about humanity’s fate in the future.
With their experienced backgrounds, we covered the state of artificial intelligence today, some of the plausible uses and evolution of AI in the near term, and dispelling some of the myths around what is AI and what it can and can’t do.
Related Bio Links - https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardchallis https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophauerwelsbach/en
In this episode, Julian Teicke, Founder and CEO of Seedcamp-backed FinanceFox joined Carlos to discuss Julian's background as a serial Founder and what his ambition is, which is to fix the whole user experience within Insurance.
Julian's starting with building relationships with brokers and slowly moving up the value chain as other elements of the value chain catch up in their innovation as well. The two talk about how startups can work with organizations that are a bit stagnant, but that understand the old world economy. They move on to discuss what a sci-fi insurance future might look like as well.
In this episode, Carlos was joined by Alistair Shepherd, Founder of Saberr (http://www.saberr.com/), a Seedcamp portfolio company. Saberr, is a people analytics company that helps organisations make better decisions about their people. The marketing industry was transformed when it started using data to drive decision-making and Saberr believe people functions are at the same inflection point.
In his chat with Carlos, Alistair talks about the reasons startups can succeed and fail, and how important it is to build a team that works well together. Using a shared value set and making sure the team is 'even', ensuring that you can map out the performance of a team with each new hire, in advance. The two discuss what builds good working relationships, and how to define and manage diversity and culture in the team.
In this episode, Carlos was joined by Ernesto Suarez, CEO of Halo Insurance Services, and Nikolaus Sühr, CEO and Co-Founder of Seedcamp's own KASKO, to discuss the future of insurance tech. The insurance market, like the financial and property markets, is poised for startups to shake up the status quo - and they already are! In this conversation, the three discuss what is happening in the space, the key players emerging across the sector and what we can expect to see in the coming years.
In this second episode, Carlos and Tom from the Seedcamp team were joined by Seedcamp portfolio company, Spoke. Founder Ben Farren joined them to tell us about the story behind Spoke and the origins of building a UK men's brand from scratch.
Spoke is an e-commerce model to give men exactly what they're looking for: properly made clothes that really fit, without the luxury markup. Its clothes are cut in more sizes, from the very best fabric and trim - then sold direct to the consumer, at a sane price.
Prior to Founding Spoke in 2012 (and in 2011 with Spoke V1 - Ben is a great example of showing how to pivot!) he founded and launched Splash, West Africa's first Mobile Payments Platform, still one of just three on the continent to reach profitability.
This week we're sharing a short series for anyone who's ever wanted the inspiration, knowledge and insight into what it's like to build a retail business online.
In this first episode, Carlos was joined by Julian Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of Khunu, earlier this year to hear his story. Julian shares his experience in building a retail business in a fast-paced environment, with no prior experience. From the initial concept to finding product-market fit, and finding the talent to scale and the future of the business, you can find it all in this episode.
In this episode, Carlos was joined by Jonathan Moules, a long-standing journalist for the Financial Times. Jonathan imparts his wisdom having worked with entrepreneurs for over the last decade to deliver the best stories for the FT. He has worked through the first dot-com boom and switched focus in 2005 to focus fully on Founders. Jonathan provides great advice on how to tell the human element of a story, how best to create and build a relationship with a journalist, how to spot bad PR's and what stories work best for him.
In this episode, Carlos was joined by Dr. James Smith and Jonathan Heusser, for a look into Bitcoin - what it is, what it means for the industry and how the startups developing within this new space. If you want to get to grips with Bitcoin and the future of payments, this podcast is the best place to start.
James Smith is CEO and Co-Founder of Seedcamp-backed startup, Elliptic. The company identifies illicit activity on the Bitcoin blockchain and provides services to the leading bitcoin companies and law enforcement agencies, globally. The team recently announced a $5M series A round to keep building out its blockchain forensics tool.
Jonathan Heusser is Founder of Queueco, a market maker for digital currencies. They develop a scalable, automated trading platform and deploy it globally to trade on all major digital currency exchanges. Their strategies rely on the latest statistical and machine learning techniques and support the digital ecosystem by adding much-needed liquidity.
Stefan Klestil, Partner at Speedinvest, joins Carlos for our latest podcast. Alongside Seedcamp, Speedinvest invested in Holvi (acquired by BBVA) and in Curve, the fintech startup that consolidates all your payment cards into one. In this episode, Stefan and Carlos talk through his career, investments in the FinTech space and how investors can best support their founders. Stefan also gives an insight into what Speedinvest looks for in startups and which geographies are of key interest for new startups working in the FinTech space.
In this episode, Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, General Partner for leading VC Balderton Capital, joins Carlos to talk through his career working at giants such as Uber and Dropbox, and other players in the mobile landscape. The two discuss his first-hand experience of being acquired and his work in teams that very quickly scaled to include hundreds of employees. Carlos and Lars also look at the three key elements that have built global successes Dropbox, Whatsapp and Uber; the team, simplicity of product and monetization strategy.
In this episode, Carlos was joined by Damian Kimmelmann, Co-Founder and CEO of DueDil, a fintech company that provides accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date private company data.
After talking through Damian's background as a serial entrepreneur and the idea that built DueDil, we switch focus and talk through sales, looking at how to find and scale a b2b sales team.
Dimitar Stanimiroff, Managing Director of Stack Overflow Developer Insights at Stack Overflow, a Q&A site for programmers with over 4 million members, joins Carlos and Dave for this deep dive into hiring.
Discussing everything from the hiring process, how to overcome challenges, hiring from within, and how to recruit technical talent if you're not technical.
Will Herrmann, Head of Commercial Operations for Hassle.com, joins Seedcamp's Dave Haynes in this podcast which follows Hassle.com's recent exit, having been acquired by Helpling. Following a session with some of our startups, Will discusses everything from scaling company operations following Hassle.com's Series A round to valuations and M&A.
Jon Bradford has played a key role in shaping the European tech ecosystem. Through his involvement in many accelerators (Springboard, Techstars, Ignite 100) and numerous supportive initiatives, he has had a big impact shaping the infrastructure that helps develop and build great startups across many Cities throughout Europe.
Carlos sits down with Jon in this Seedcamp podcast to talk through his personal journey, share insights into the many lessons learned from accelerating early-stage companies and what the future holds for him next.
Scott Sage, Expert in Residence at Seedcamp, sits down with Carlos Espinal for the second in a three-part series. In this episode, Scott and Carlos discuss sales. They talk through sales execution, how to scale your sales process as your company grows, how this first develops outside of the core team when your product is ready to go to market and how to make your first sales hire.
In this episode, Carlos was joined by Yodit Stanton and Verena Wimmer, to unpick exactly what we mean when we talk about Data Science, the role of the Data Scientist, how startups can think about using data and when to consider hiring for the role, which tools are best and what we'd like to see in the future. If you're ready to learn more about the power of data, this podcast provides a great place to start.
Yodit Stanton is Founder of new Seedcamp company Open Sensors, the Internet of Things startup providing public and private infrastructure for real-time data, she is also the organiser of Women in Data Meetups in London.
Verena Wimmer is Lead Data Analyst at Hassle, the online cleaning marketplace recently acquired by Helpling. Verena also organises Data Mates, which brings together data-wizards, journalists, and data-driven designers to tell beautiful stories with data every eight weeks in London.
Seedcamp Co-Founder Saul Klein joined Carlos for this podcast on everything from the importance of knowing your positioning to the origins of Seedcamp. Aside from being the Co-Founder of Seedcamp, Saul is a prominent figure in the global tech scene, currently he is Co-Founder of LocalGlobe, which announced a dedicated Seed fund last year, and Co-Founder of Kano, a new kind of computer company. In his conversation with Carlos, Saul talks through his career journey working in successful startups Lovefilm and Skype, and his role as an Investor at Index Ventures, Seedcamp and LocalGlobe. He highlights the importance that design and communications play in building great startup companies, and that the best creatives will only produce the best work if they can work with great positioning, which is key for the founding team to drive.
Jeff Lynn, CEO and co-founder of Seedrs, joined Carlos for the first podcast of 2016 to talk about the fintech revolution taking place in London and the state of equity crowdfunding. Jeff discusses why the UK was the right place to form Seedrs in 2009, why it is still early days for crowdfunding, why Founders are learning that it isn't just about capital but opens you up to a community who can support you in your journey, and which sectors are most successful when using platforms such as Seedrs. Jeff also provides insight into what you should consider when looking at equity crowdfunding as a way to raise funds.
We recently welcomed Gerard Grech, CEO of Tech City UK, to the Seedcamp office to join Partner Carlos Espinal to discuss how to build and create environments to support tech startups. Gerard talks through his experience in the music and telecoms industries and why he embarked on the challenge to help shape the UK tech scene, working alongside entrepreneurs and Government. Discussing everything from the Tech Entrepreneur Visa to the Future Fifty, Gerard provides insight into how other countries can create initiatives to support startups and entrepreneurs.
Ben Drury, Founder of 7Digital, joined Seedcamp’s Dave Haynes for this interview talking through his journey as an entrepreneur. From starting in the first dot-com boom within early online music tech to building 7Digital during the dot-com crash, Ben discusses everything from building new services for a new era of technology, acquiring and selling other companies, to 7Digital’s own IPO.
Keith Wallington, Expert in Residence for Seedcamp and ex-Chief Group Officer of Mimecast, joins Carlos for this Podcast to explore key lessons learned from his experience helping operationalise businesses as a mentor, and internally at Mimecast through his multiple C-level roles. Looking at how these processes can be implemented in different organisations for their own benefit.
Phil Libin, Co-Founder and Chairman of Evernote and Managing Partner of General Catalyst Partners, joined Carlos Espinal for a chat at Web Summit in Dublin.
Phil and Carlos discuss everything from his long-standing career as a CEO, looking at his key advice for managers making the transition from early-stage leader to the CEO of a growth company, to the origins of Evernote and, in Phil’s new role in Venture Capital, what the future of apps looks like. Phil gives insight into the thoughts that led to him stepping down as CEO of Evernote as the company scaled. Debating when to recognise that someone skilled in running larger organisations makes sense for your business and that you can hire the best talent.
Rob Moffat, Principal at Balderton, recently hosted an Academy session at Seedcamp. Following his presentation to our Founders, Rob joined our own Dave Haynes for this podcast to give his investor view on understanding customer acquisition costs.
Rob talks through different marketing channels and how more startups are using mobile, TV and even direct mail, as search engine marketing becomes more expensive. Pulling on his experiences working with Balderton investments such as Wooga, Qubit and HouseTrip, Rob provides an overview of cost per acquisition (CPA) and lifetime value (LTV) and the risks of blending the two. Giving a summary of what VC’s look at when analysing your marketing data. The full presentation Rob gave our teams is available here:
http://www.slideshare.net/robmoff/understanding-customer-acquisition-costs-a-vcs-view
Scott Sage, Expert in Residence at Seedcamp, sits down with Carlos Espinal in the first of a three part series. In this episode, Scott and Carlos discuss Internationalisation.
Scott begins by explaining his move from wanting to study music into majoring in finance and building a career in investment. He talks about his keen interest in SaaS, marketplace and enterprise companies and what makes a business stand out to him as an Investor before providing some key lessons learnt from his first few investments made at Draper Esprit (previously DFJ Esprit). He then discusses Internationalisation and why this is important for young companies, before looking at some best in class examples, when European startups should look at opening international offices, and advice based on the experiences he went through working with Conversocial, Datahug and Trustpilot.
Krishna Gupta, Founder and General Partner of Romulus Capital, joined Seedcamp in Boston on our recent US Trip. Krishna founded Romulus in 2008 whilst studying at MIT. He formed the fund to plug the gap between angel investments and big funds, creating a firm to help build early-stage businesses.
In our interview he discusses his entrepreneurial nature and young career that lead to Romulus and his views on the current state of the Seed stage investment market. He also gives his key advice for foreign companies looking to expand to the US and why more startups should be thinking about longer term business plans when scaling.
In this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast, we were joined by Sheila Marcelo, Founder, Chairwoman & CEO of Care.com.
Sheila joined Seedcamp on our US tour to meet with our Founders and talk about the personal life experiences and passion that led to her building Care.com, the world’s largest online care destination. She touches on everything from creating company culture and failing fast as a young Founder, to scaling the company and being coached as a CEO.
In this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast, we were joined by Hadley Harris, Founding General Partner of ENIAC Ventures.
Our conversation covers his career in mobile technology that lead to him building ENIAC Ventures in 2009, a mobile centric early-stage VC. Hadley provides insight into how the ENIAC team operate to provide the best support and expertise for their Founders, and the best way for entrepreneurs to work with investors when they don’t know the answer to a problem. He also discusses what ENIAC look for in potential B2B and consumer mobile investments.
In this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast, we were joined by Managing Partner of Fresco Capital, Stephen Forte.
In our conversation we covered his move from Wall Street to becoming the “tech guy” to building his career in startups. Stephen provides some great advice for CTO’s in small companies on the skills they need to build as the business scales. He discusses how to develop an understanding of the non-technical sides of your business, how to hire and manage your first technical employees and the people skills you need in order to manage and delegate.
We had the chance to catch up with Silicon Valley born founder of Rude Baguette, France's Startup Blog, during his recent visit to London.
In this episode we covered the startup scene in France, the future of journalism, and how founders can best approach a journalist to increase their chances of being covered.
In this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast, Dave Haynes is joined by Fred Destin, Partner at Accel to talk through the career path that led to him working at one of the world’s leading VC funds. Fred talks about the key differences he sees between the US and European venture ecosystems and his five years spent serving on the board of Seedcamp.
Fred Destin joined Accel in 2014 and focuses on consumer and software investments. He is the lead investor and board member at Deliveroo, Pillpack and KNC. Prior to Accel, he was a partner at Atlas Ventures where he worked with with companies like Zoopla (public), Secret Escapes, Dailymotion (acquired by Orange), PriceMinister (acquired by Rakuten) and others. Fred grew up in Belgium and graduated from the Solvay Business School (University of Brussels).
In this episode we were joined by Matthew Bradley, Investor at Forward Partners. Matthew discusses his background and his experience that led him to start his own business in Italy and to invest in early-stage companies by later joining Forward Partners. He explains how the Forward Partners business model differs from others, by supporting and backing solo Founders at the idea-stage, offering in-house product development and growth support to give them the greatest chances of success.
Matt is an investor at Forward Partners — a B2C eCommerce fund based in London that invests in and provides support to entrepreneurs at the idea and seed stage. He did an undergrad BA in Politics and International Relations. An atypical background for a VC, Matt worked in Trading, Structuring and Sales at Barclays Capital and Lloyds for 5 years developing a deep understanding of risk (and reward!) solutions. He did an MBA at SDA Bocconi and spent a couple of semesters at Duke Fuqua to do his finance concentrations. In this podcast we talk about his journey into VC and what’s keeping him busy at Forward Partners, including their new site: http://thepathforward.io/
In this episode we were joined by Simon Murdoch, Founder of early stage European technology VC, Episode 1. Simon discusses his background and experience that led him to becoming an entrepreneur and later an investor at Episode1, what he brings to the companies he works with, and insights into what he looks for in founders.
Simon sold his first company BookPages to Amazon in 1998 after which he reported to Jeff Bezos as VP Europe of Amazon.com. In early 2000, Simon founded and ran Chase Episode 1, an early stage European technology VC fund backed by JP Morgan Chase. The fund made over 3x return after all fees and carry. Chase Episode 1 included investments in BetFair (IPO 2010) and ScanSafe (sold to Cisco 2009). After the fund Simon became a full-time angel investor. His angel portfolio includes/included investments in Shazam, Zoopla (IPO 2014), LoveFilm (sold to Amazon 2011), Shutl (sold to eBay 2013), and Natural Motion (sold to Zynga 2014). In addition, from 2010 to 2012, Simon worked at Octopus Ventures in portfolio development. Simon has a BA in Physics from Cambridge and a PhD in Computer Science and Expert Systems.
In this episode we were joined by Dan Appelquist, Startup ambassador at The Open Data Institute. After discussing his background, Dan talks about Internet of Things, Privacy, and Open Data, giving insights in to how companies should explore data in a new way.
Daniel Appelquist works with the Open Data Institute startup program and the Open Data Incubator for Europe to build bridges with the startup and entrepreneurial community across Europe. Dan is a Mobile and Web industry veteran technologist who has been bringing innovative and disruptive services to market for two decades. He was an early Internet and Web pioneer, and has been a dot-com CTO and later a dot-com refugee. He helped to launch Vodafone Live! in the UK and has been instrumental in the development of industry standards initiatives and ventures such as dotMobi, the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, and device APIs such as the W3C Geolocation browser API. He has been a community instigator, founding MobileMonday London, as well as the Mobile 2.0 conference series in San Francisco and the Over the Air hack days in the UK. He worked as Open Web Advocate for Telefónica Digital and with Mozilla to bring FirefoxOS to market and build the ecosystem around HTML5.
In this episode we were joined by Rob Fitzpatrick, Founder of Founder Centric. Rob discusses his background, how he got involved in the startup ecosystem, and gives insights on customer research and product validation. Question not to miss: “Are you solving a big enough problem for which you offer a solution that customers would pay for?"
Rob is Founder of Founder Centric. He works with startup accelerators & support programs, designing & delivering educational curriculum for their founders. Prior to all that, Rob run tech startups for about 7 years, raised funding in the US and UK, is a YC alum, and built products used globally by brands like Sony and MTV. He taught at Oxford and UCL and designed startup education programs for a bunch of accelerators, as well as some outliers like the UN. He is author of The Mom Test, a handbook on how to learn from customers when everyone is lying to you.
In this episode we were joined by Gabbi Cahane, Managing Partner at Meanwhile. He discusses his background, his involvement in the creative industry, offering insights to founders on how to create, position and develop their brand starting from “the brief.”
Gabbi Cahane is Managing Partner at Meanwhile. He founded his first marketing firm aged 23 after stints as a hod carrier, a fork-lift driver, a club promoter and a creative at Hill & Knowlton. His experience of creating, positioning and developing the brands of individuals and organisations has covered almost every marketing and communications discipline in pretty much every sector and spanned most geographic regions. He is also the founder of Cahane & Associates, a strategy and advisory firm that works with investors, corporates, growth companies and start-ups to identify, build, position, develop, promote, grow, acquire and sell brands.
In this episode we added a twist to our traditional podcast format, as the Seedcamp Partner Carlos Eduardo Espinal is our guest! Neil Murray founder and journalist at Tech.eu hosts our weekly podcast series, and interviews Carlos about his recently released book, the "Fundraising Field Guide”. The book aims to help founders reach out to investors, deal with rejections constructively, prepare materials and financials, understand valuations and deal terms, and manage the legal process. After discussing the motivations and the story that led to this project, Carlos gives an in depth overview on how he structured his book, highlighting the key take aways founders should keep in mind during their fundraising journey.
The most highlighted quote from his book?
"Analyzing what was said during your meetings and learning how to improve on your mistakes is the most crucial step in finding the right investor more quickly”
Carlos Eduardo Espinal is partner at Seedcamp. Prior to Seedcamp, Carlos was an Associate at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, an early-stage investment firm based in London. There he honed his understanding of what investors look for when considering an investment. Before his time as an investor, Carlos was an engineer for the Advanced Communications Technologies group of The New York Stock Exchange (SIAC). Carlos holds an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University. He was awarded with Wired Europe’s100 Most Influential in Digital, British Interactive Media Association’s Hot 100 Digital People, and TechCityInsider’s 100 List. Recently, Carlos published the “Fundraising Field Guide”, which aims to elucidate the secrets to raising capital from investors for early-stage, high-growth startups and therefore provide those ambitious founders with the right information to take their company to the next level. Get it now at the fundraisingfieldguide.com
In this episode we were joined by Chris Morton, Founder and CEO of Lyst. He discussed his background, the story behind Lyst, how to generate the foundations for a marketplace growth and the importance of protecting the company culture when growing your team.
Chris Morton is the CEO and cofounder of Lyst (www.lyst.com), a social curation platform for online fashion. Prior to founding Lyst, Chris was an investor at Balderton Capital and Benchmark Capital, focussing on consumer internet; specifically ecommerce, music and games. Chris was also Business Development Manager of the Energy and Materials division at QinetiQ, one of Europe's leading technology R&D organisations. Chris earned his M.A. in Natural Sciences (Physics and Philosophy) from Cambridge University, 2003, and he is a DERA Scholar.
In this episode we were joined by Joel Gascoigne, Founder and CEO of Buffer. He discussed his background, the story behind Buffer, and the importance of creating a values driven culture from early days and growing the team with a culture fit in mind.
Joel Gascoigne is a co-founder and CEO of Buffer, a web-based platform that helps users share social media content. Prior to Buffer, he co-created OnePage where he learned a vast amount about the realities of running a web startup, worked as a web developer at Priority Research and as a web designer and developer at joelg.co.uk. Joel obtained a degree in computer systems from the University of Warwick.
In this episode we were joined by Will Critchlow, Founder and CEO of Distilled. He discussed his background, his experience as a founder, and the fundamentals of search, social and content for a startup company.
Will Critchlow founded Distilled in 2005 with Duncan Morris. Distilled provides online marketing services from offices in London, New York and Seattle, hosts the SearchLove conference series in the US and UK and produces the popular online training platform DistilledU. His academic background is mathematics with a degree from the University of Cambridge (St. John’s College) including a graduate thesis on auction theory. Previous jobs included programmer, strategy consultant in the telecoms industry and floor sweeper.
Bill is a managing partner at Connect Ventures. He has 10 years working in venture capital and startups, having worked as an investment manager at Amadeus Capital and in a variety of operational roles at several California based startups. He is on the boards of Citymapper, Knyttan, Marvel, RetentionGrid, Secretsales, and TOTEMS.
In this Seedcamp Academy podcast, we talk about Bill’s history and draw on his experience of participating in many board meetings. What are their true purpose? When and how should you be setting up your ideal board? And what are some of the best practices for founders to get the most of them.
In this episode we were joined by Marc Zornes, Founder at Winnow. He discussed his background, his involvement in the food industry, and his latest experience as founder at Winnow.
Marc Zornes started his career at a large wholesale grocers, and food and sustainability have been his two passions ever since. Recently he started Winnow because he saw a massive opportunity in solving the problem of food waste and he's a strong believer that technology can help us change the way we make food. Before Winnow he co-authored the Global Institute report “Resource Revolution: Meeting the World’s Energy, Materials, Food, and Water Needs.’ whilst working as a consultant at McKinsey.
In this episode we were joined by Suranga Chandratillake, General Partner at Balderton. He discussed his background, his experience raising investment for blinkx, growing the business, his latest experience as an investor at Balderton, and some of the lessons he’d tell his younger self.
Suranga joined Balderton as a General Partner in 2014. He was previously an entrepreneur and engineer. He founded blinkx, the intelligent search engine for video and audio content in Cambridge in 2004. He then lead the company for eight years as CEO through its journey of moving to San Francisco, building a profitable business and going public in London where it achieved a peak market capitalisation in excess of $1Bn. Before founding blinkx, Suranga was an early employee at Autonomy Corporation - joining as an engineer in the Cambridge R&D team and ultimately serving as the company's US CTO in San Francisco.
In this episode we were joined by Josephine Goube, Director of Partnerships & Communications at Migreat. She discussed her background, how she became involved in making immigration easier for companies, discussing Entrepreneur Visa options available to set up a business in the UK.
Listed as one the top 35 women in Business in Britain in 2015 by Management Today, Joséphine currently heads Migreat, the fastest-growing global platform for migrants to get access to information and immigration support. She previously worked at TechStars London and Rainmaking, co-founded the London School of Economics Business Incubator & graduated from the New Entrepreneurs Foundation.
In this episode we were joined by Bryce Keane, Founder & Director at Albion Drive. He discussed his background, how he created the brand behind 3beards, offering his insights on how to build a compelling brand and communications strategy.
Bryce Keane is an international communications professional with experience managing a wide variety of global campaigns throughout EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions, across a wide variety of sectors. Prior to joining Albion he worked for international WPP flagship agency Cohn & Wolfe. Bryce has a deep fascination with London's booming start-up culture and is known within the scene as one of the of 3beards, a start-up events company that runs a number of regular and iconic start-up events in East London including the weekly Silicon Drinkabout, monthly Don’t Pitch Me, Bro! and quarterly Digital Sizzle.
In this episode we were joined by Malcolm Bell, Founder & CEO of Mailcloud.
Malcolm discussed his background, his experience as founder of Zogorra, and growth hacking strategies for startups.
Malcolm setup his first business when he was 15, designing websites for local companies. Years later, he bootstrapped his first e-commerce startup to $40ml in sales within 18 months, selling 1 million products to 600,000 customers around the world. In November 2013 he founded Mailcloud to build smarter email and messaging to help the world work faster on mobile devices.
In this edition of the Seedcamp Podcast Series focused on Asia, Carlos Espinal continues his discussion about the asian investment ecosystem with Bay McLaughlin, co-founder of Brinc.io.
In particular, they focus on the challenges for hardware entrepreneurs in penetrating this geography and what are the best ways to do it successfully. Bay McLaughlin has supported technology startups for the last decade. Over half of this time was spent at Apple as a founding team member of their global SMB channel. The other half of his career has been spent inside of or founding startups, two of which failed, one of which exited successfully. Most recently, he has co-founded Brinc.io, a hardware investment fund and platform to bring the next wave of connected technologies to retail shelves around the world.
In this edition of the Seedcamp Podcast Series focused on Asia, Carlos Espinal talks with Tytus Michalski, Managing Partner at Fresco Capital about the startup investment ecosystem in Asia.
Tytus discussed his background, how he became involved in investing, offering his insights on what founders should consider when expanding to this geography, and the risks and challenges of not taking into account the cultural differences. Tytus has been investing, working and living in Asia since 1999. Previously, he was Chief Investment Officer of Equities at PMA Investment Advisors, an institutional hedge fund. He is an active supporter of startup ecosystem in Hong Kong and Asia with an emphasis on mentorship and education.
In this episode we were joined by Josh Elman, Partner at Greylock Partners.
Josh discussed his background and how he became involved in investing, and the criteria that VCs commonly use to assess whether a startup is ready for their investment.
He joined Greylock Partners in 2011 and invests in entrepreneurs building new consumer products and services. Josh specialises in designing, building, and scaling consumer products, having been part of multiple companies that have grown to more than 100 million users.
For many of the young, ambitious founders that we back, starting a company might be the first time they’ve had to manage a team. Yet very quickly they’ll need to not only manage a growing startup, but also transform into leading an organisation that could easily grow from 2 to 200 people in just a few short years.
So for this month’s Academy we invited in Gillian Davis, author of 'First Time Leader' and Director of Leadership Development at ustwo, to talk about how to run your startup like a leader.
In this episode we sat down with Neil Rimer, a Founding Partner of Index Ventures - one of the world's leading VC firms.
We talked about Neil's start in venture capital, founding Index Ventures, and identifying when you're ready to raise funding and finding the right investor for your startup.
Neil co-founded Index Ventures with Giuseppe Zocco and David Rimer in 1996. Previously he spent 4 years with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco before joining Index Securities in 1990. He has invested in market-defining companies from across the spectrum including Betfair (LSE: BET), Genmab, FundingCircle, Climate Corp. (MON) HouseTrip, Kaggle, Last.fm (CBS), MOO and Supercell. He has served on the board of U.C. Sampdoria, and currently serves on the board of Human Rights Watch.
During our latest Seedcamp Academy session we were joined by Stripe co-founder John Collison.
He shared the story of how he grew the online payment provider with his brother, from securing the first few clients to managing the tens of thousands of clients using Stripe today.
John grew up in Ireland and founded his first startup, Shuppa, in 2007. After merging the company just a year later, John moved to Harvard to study Psychology. In 2010, John cofounded Stripe, receiving backing from Paypal cofounders, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Max Levchin.
In this edition of the Seedcamp Podcast Series, Carlos Espinal continues his discussion with Taylor Wescoatt (Entrepreneur in Residence at Seedcamp) about the Behavioural Product Roadmap model.
Having previously discussed the Vision Roadmap, Taylor explains how to move from a Proposition to targeted Behaviours, and then finally into what you are building.
To learn more about the Behavioural Roadmap, click here: http://seedcamp.com/resources/the-behavioural-roadmap-for-startups/
In this edition of the Seedcamp Podcast Series, Carlos Espinal continues his discussion with Taylor Wescoatt (Entrepreneur in Residence at Seedcamp) about the Behavioural Product Roadmap model.
In particular, they focus on Taylor's Vision Roadmap, which has been created to help startups action their vision in a smart and structured way using tried and tested techniques that Taylor developed throughout his 20 year career in Product and UX.
To learn more about the Vision Roadmap, click here: http://seedcamp.com/seedcamp-podcast-episode-34-taylor-wescoatt-on-the-vision-roadmap-for-startups-2-of-3/
We caught up with Andy to talk about his experience raising investment for Huddle, growing the business, his latest experience as an investor, and some of the lessons he'd tell his younger self.
After graduating with a degree in Economics, Andy switched careers to work at a telco company where, amongst other things, he implemented a document management system. This and his experience handling documents and collaboration at subsequent jobs, was the inspiration for Huddle - the world's leading Enterprise content collaboration platform. With some success under his belt, Andy recently joined SoftTech VC as Venture Partner.
Seedcamp is Europe's leading Acceleration Fund, providing capital and ongoing support to over 160 startups. To hear more valuable advice from experienced entrepreneurs and investors, head over to seedcamp.com for articles covering topics across product, sales, marketing, finance, and more.
We had to sit down with Sales and Partnerships guru and Seedcamp mentor, Daniel King to ask him about how to start thinking about building out a Sales organization within a startup. Daniel is also an Non-Exec Director in Seedcamp Company Profitero.
Daniel is an executive leader with more than 15 years experience in Senior Management, with a focus on Digital and Online Media, Retail and eCommerce technology, Data, BI, Analytics, SaaS platforms and Market Research. Extensive knowledge in investing, advising, and scaling high-growth companies including international expansion. Hands-on experience in building, managing, developing and retaining teams. Daniel is on the board of many companies and has an amazing track record of companies he's helped scale. You can learn more about him and get in touch with him here:
uk.linkedin.com/in/danielking1
In this edition of the Seedcamp Podcast Series, Carlos Espinal talks with Taylor Wescoatt (Entrepreneur in Residence at Seedcamp) about his background in Product and UX, and how it led to him developing the Behavioural Product Roadmap model which is specifically optimised for startups.
They discuss Taylor's involvement with and key learnings from, CitySearch, Netscape, Seatwave, eBay, and Time Out
To learn more about seedcamp, visit our website at http://www.seedcamp.com
Ryan founded Hootsuite in 2008. He has since been at the forefront of social business, leading the Hootsuite team while funding programs that empower the next generation of startups and entrepreneurs.
We had a chance to sit down with him and hear the story of how Hootsuite started and how he's managed its growth over the years.
In 2004, Scott served as a photojournalist for Mercy Ships in Liberia, West Africa, where he learned the life-threatening effects of contaminated water. Upon moving back to his home in New York City in 2006, he founded charitywater. This is his story.
We talk about how the idea came about, some of the personal challenges he went through, what gave him strength through his founder journey, and even how managed to make ends meet as he was fundraising for his company.
Dan Hill is Product Lead at Airbnb and Former co-founder and CTO at Seedcamp Company Crashpadder (http://tcrn.ch/1L3XiPM). He blogs at http://danhilltech.com/ and tweets at https://twitter.com/serenestudios
We had a chance to sit down with him and chat about his experience with Crashpadder and now at Airbnb and life lessons he's learned along the way.
We had the chance to sit down with Fred and Todd of Foley & Lardner (http://www.foley.com/) to discuss points startups should consider as part of 'flipping' to the USA or starting off as a foreign company vs. one based in the USA.
A little bit more background on Fred & Todd:
Fred Adam is a partner and business lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. He advises public and private multi-nationals, investment funds, and fund portfolio companies regarding international outbound and inbound tax planning, fund formation structuring, domestic tax matters of all types and international tax matters relating especially to global business model planning and global tax efficiency projects, transfer pricing, mergers and acquisitions, financial services (PE, Venture, Hedge, etc.), and pre- and post-transaction integration structuring. In particular, Mr. Adam concentrates his practice on taxation and structuring involved in international and domestic tax matters, fund formation and investment transactions, private equity investments, and domestic and international mergers & acquisitions. His experience also includes domestic and cross-border fund formation, taxation and structuring, domestic and international real estate matters, and day-to-day advisory for international and capital market businesses. Integral to his planning experience, Mr. Adam also has significant experience relating to tax controversy matters and transfer pricing.
E. Thom (Todd) Rumberger Jr. is a partner and corporate lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP where he focuses his practice on private equity, mergers and acquisitions and venture capital, and Internet, software, telecommunications, digital media and financial services companies through all stages of their growth. He is vice chair of the firm’s Private Equity & Venture Capital Practice, co-chair of the Technology Industry Team and is a member of the Transactional & Securities Practice. Mr. Rumberger counsels his corporate clients, ranging from start-up, emerging growth stage and venture backed, to public domestic and foreign companies, on a wide variety of matters ranging from formation, capitalization, key executive employment and general employment issues, and corporate governance, to early (convertible debt and seed preferred) and later stage venture capital, debt and public equity financings and offerings, strategic partner, reseller, and similar commercial agreements. In addition, he has broad transactional experience representing public and private company, and private equity, buyers and sellers involved in mergers and acquisitions and financings. Additionally, Mr. Rumberger works with foreign start-up and growth stage companies in establishing a presence in the United States.
We had the chance to sit down with Will Bunker during this year's Collision Conference in Las Vegas. Apologies for the noisy background, but conference areas are not particularly great!
An accomplished entreprenuer and investor, Will Bunker co-founded One-and-Only.com in late 1995. He and his partners grew the company into the largest online dating site and eventually sold the firm to TicketMaster-City Search for $45 million in June of 1999. Soon after, the company was rebranded as Match.com.
Mr. Bunker has a passion for working with early stage entrepreneurs, helping their firms grow and working towards an exit with the highest possible valuation. A long time resident of the Silicon Valley, where he lives with his wife and two teenage children, Will serves on the screening committee of the Band of Angels, (www.bandangles.com) the oldest funding organization in the Valley. He also serves as a member of the Silicon Valley Founders Institute (www.fico.com).
The Founders Institute is a global launch network that helps entrepreneurs create meaningful and enduring technology companies.
We had a chance to chat with Heidi Roizen of DFJ and hear her story and what she looks for in founders as well as how to manage key stages in a company's life.
Heidi Roizen is the operating partner at DFJ. She has spent her life immersed in the Silicon Valley ecosystem as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, educator, and member of the boards of directors of private and public companies, trade associations and nonprofit institutions.
After receiving her undergraduate and MBA degrees from Stanford University, Heidi co-founded T/Maker Company (an early personal computer software company) in 1983, where she served as CEO from inception through its acquisition by Deluxe Corporation in 1994. In 1996, Heidi joined Apple as vice president of worldwide developer relations. From there, Heidi entered the venture capital world, serving as a managing director of Mobius Venture Capital from 1999 to 2007.
Heidi is also a Fenwick and West Entrepreneurship Educator in the Department of Engineering at Stanford University, where she teaches the course Spirit of Entrepreneurship. Heidi is a member of the boards of directors DMGT (LSE:DMGT), ShareThis, and Technorati, and serves on the advisory boards of Springboard Enterprises and the National Center for Women in Information Technology.
In this Podcast, we have a chance to sit down with Brett from the Forsyth group (http://www.forsythgroup.com/), an Executive Search Firm.
Covering everything from how to prepare for hiring internally to how to deal with egos, Brett shares his wealth of knowledge both from the point of view of his current role placing top candidates within top-tier firms, to his time as a founder himself.
While visiting Youtube's main offices in California, we had the chance to meet with Eytan Lerba, a Founder turned Googler (currently he's a Manager of Strategy at YouTube) who had some very interesting stories to tell regarding his journey starting Wizit (http://wizitapp.com/).
We had the chance to sit down with Top Product Hunter & European Community Manager @producthunt, Bram Kanstein to talk about his @startupstash story and role within Product Hunt.
During our chat he provides us with valuable tips for any company considering listing on Product Hunt. Having launched the #2 most upvoted product of all time on Product Hunt, it comes with a lot of weight!
Sten, founder of Teleport (http://www.teleport.org), a Seedcamp & A16Z company, has created an online service to help discover and budget your next move.
We had the chance to sit down and learn how his notable background (serial entreprenuer, advisor to the President of Estonia, GM @ Skype, and EIR @ A16Z) helped shape the origins of the company and how he is serving an ever increasing pool of people around the world who are mobile because of their career.
We had the chance to sit down and chat with co-founder Rob Go of NextView Ventures while at their offices in Boston.
With a background in operational product-focused roles at eBay, Fidelity and BzzAgent, and having spent some time as a VC at Spark Capital prior to starting NextView, Rob brings a wealth of different points of view to the companies he works with.
As Director of Developer Relations at Evernote, Chris plays an important role in evangelising Evernote's API as well as working to improve the tools, services, and outreach for Evernote's community of developers around the world.
We had a chance to sit down with Chris and talk to him about how he's worked with companies in the past, what he has seen be successful (and not), and what he recommends for anyone wishing to create their own public API.
We had a chance to sit down with Jeff, author of Mastering the VC Game to get his insights on company development and what he looks for in a founder.
Jeff is a former entrepreneur (Upromise, Open Market) who joined Flybridge in 2002 and focuses on the consumer, marketing services, e-commerce, software and mobile start-up markets. On the side, he serves as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School where he teaches a class on entrepreneurship and lean start-ups called Launching Technology Ventures and has co-authored ten HBS cases. Jeff also currently sits on the board of MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange and is a Founding Executive Committee Member of First Growth Venture Network, a network of venture and angel investors supporting entrepreneurs building companies in the New York area.
Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.
Building a brand is no easy feat, in particular, a brand that generates customer passion. Richard Liu, an ex-Paypal and LinkedIn team member, decided to pursue his passion and build a brand around what he needed, and we had the chance to catch up with him and hear how he went from desk jockey to brand jockey in the process.
DSPTCH is a bag, case and accessory manufacturing company based in San Francisco. Their products focus on taking military and tactical functionality and reapplying it to consumer travel bags and accessories.
While in San Francisco, we had the chance to sit down and have a quick chat with Sonny and explore the origins of Misfit, his relationships with John Sculley and Noam Chomsky, and his vision for changing people's lives through amazing products.
More on Sonny: Founder of Misfit, makers of award-winning wearable and smart home products, including Shine and Flash, elegant activity and sleep monitors, and Bolt, a smart color-changing bulb. Founder of AgaMatrix, makers of the world's first iPhone-connected hardware medical device, and 15+ other FDA-cleared products. Previously: Microsoft Research machine learning / linguistic tech, UIUC math BS, MIT linguistics PhD work w/ Noam Chomsky. Knows some interesting languages and is a patron of good design. Longing to make 10x solutions for big problems and building a company that matters.
Note: A fan was on in the room (the room was really hot) and was creating some background noise until about minute 5 in the podcast.
As an entrepreneur of 20+ years, turned venture capitalist for the last decade+, Michael is passionate about investing to accelerate innovation and empower the next generation of entrepreneurs. He is a lecturer at Harvard University, and shares lots of his amazingly relevant content on his blog: http://mjskok.com/
Carlos had the chance to sit down with Michael and ask him many questions about his background and his views on governance in a startup.
While in NYC, we had the chance to catch up with Spencer Lazar of General Catalyst. Spencer has been a long-time friend and is one of those few VCs who has been a product manager turned VC turned founder turned VC again, so it was great to catch up with him and hear his story.
From GC's website: Spencer focuses on early stage software & internet investments, with a particular interest in online marketplaces, mobile applications, web services, and enterprise IT.
He was previously the cofounder of Spontaneously, Inc - an iOS development studio. Prior to that he was an early stage software & internet investor at Accel in London, where he sourced and worked with companies including Hailo, Birchbox, Bonobos, ForgeRock, and Qriously. Preceding that, he was a growth equity investor at Insight Venture Partners, where he sourced & helped manage the firm's investments in 3P Learning, BeyondTrust, and GenArts. He started his career as a product manager at the mobile enterprise software developer, ScrollMotion.
We had the chance to catch up with long-time friends Andrew and James of Valar Ventures (http://www.valar.com/about) during Seedcamp's US Trip stop in NYC.
Valar, a co-investor in Transferwise (http://www.transferwise.com) with us and other investors, is unique, for a US-based VC, in its mandate to "look for exceptionally talented founders who are creating beautiful products that are valuable across multiple geographies."
In their words: Valar’s core thesis is that an increasing number of transformative technology companies are being started outside of Silicon Valley and the United States, and that the founders of those companies will benefit from having a US partner that understands their unique challenges and opportunities and can help them achieve optimal growth.
We talked about what they look for in an investment, but also key things they've seen work (and not).
On our very first day of Seedcamp's Spring US Trip, we had the chance to visit Lucas Nelson of Gotham Ventures. With a background in hacking and a clear interest in the more technical companies and founders, he provides a very unique view into the world of investing and adding value as an investor.
During our chat his interest in helping CTOs surfaced. Through his co-creation of http://www.startupctosummit.com he provides CTOs a way to share their learnings with each other, and shares some of the top mistakes during our talk.
If you're ever in NYC, don't hesitate to get in touch with Lucas.
Gearoid O'Rourke, Growth & Design lead at Hassle.com joins Carlos to discuss the subtleties behind the different styles of design thinking, and how founders should start thinking about design early on in their company's journey.
During our chat, Gearoid mentioned a couple of resources, which included:
Undercover User Experience Design by Cennydd Bowles A Book Apart series - http://abookapart.com/ Design+Banter - http://designandbanter.com/
If you want to get in touch with Gearoid, feel free to follow him on twitter - https://twitter.com/gearoidorourke
While visiting our offices to record a Meerkat video, we managed to hijack Vojtech, Communications Manager at Index Ventures to sit down with Dave and Carlos to chat about his background in PR and explored how startups can leverage PR as well as a content strategy to make an impact for customers and investors.
Philipp Moehring, ex-Seedcamp team member and now part of the team heading up AngelList Europe, shares with us his views on the future of platforms, investing in Europe, and his view on how things are evolving in the tech ecosystem globally.
Note: Sorry for the bad echo in the room. Our normal room (which arguably isn't perfect either) wasn't free.
Podcasting is increasingly becoming the future of spoken media, with more and more people getting into the medium through the ease of recording through mobile devices. Tor Rauden, founder of Seedcamp company Opinion, walks us through what he thinks of Podcasting and its future.
If you want to download the app, go here: https://itunes.apple.com/app/opinion-record-podcasts-edit/id926260308
On this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast Series, Carlos interviews James Moed and explores some of the thinking behind his recent post on three things to think about before thinking about design (which can be read here: http://seedcamp.com/resources/3-things-to-talk-about-before-talking-about-design/).
A little more about James:
James Moed advises both innovation leaders and design teams, helping them to combine fresh insights around customer behaviour with inspiration from other sectors, new business models, and emerging technologies. James has worked with startups, governments, and social enterprises, as well as corporations in a range of industries - from retail to IT, luxury, and health care.
Previously Director of Financial Service Design at IDEO in London, James is especially passionate about making finances feel human again, through services that transform our complex relationship with money. His experience is broad, including insurance networks for Indian farmers, budgeting tools for US credit card users, and loyalty strategies for private wealth clients. Having worked with teams from Generali, Barclays, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Bupa, and the Government of Singapore, James helps organisations build a customer centered approach to innovation, drawing the connections between real-life user observations, new offerings, partnerships, and strategies for growth.
Ales Spetic, founder of https://cubesensors.com/ and previous Seedcamp founder, walks us through some of the early challenges of starting a hardware company.
On this episode of the Seedcamp Podcast Series, Carlos (@carloseduardoespinal) & Dave (@dave-haynes) chat with Alex Trewby of Divide (now Google - http://read.bi/1I9JlTl) on how to grow a company, tackle M&A, build an enterprise sales strategy, and tackle selling into large organizations.
On this edition of the Seedcamp Podcast Series, Carlos Espinal and Tom Wilson, Investment Manager (and ex-Lawyer) at Seedcamp, have a chat with Tina Baker, Partner & Co-founder of JagShawBaker (http://www.jagshaw.com/) and real-life rockstar (http://tinab.tv/tinabhome.html).
On this 3rd Podcast in our 'Take On' Series, Reshma and Carlos tackle some of the questions that many founders would love to ask success story Moo's (http://www.moo.com) founder, Richard Moross (http://richardmoross.com/). Questions we covered include the worst investor rejection Richard received to what drives innovation within Moo.com.
On this podcast, Reshma and Carlos take on what investors look for in other investors to syndicate with, but also what founders should look for in investors, when actively fundraising.
For more information on the subject, check out our blog post on the subject - http://seedcamp.com/resources/what-tier-is-your-investor-or-what-to-look-for-in-an-investor/
In the past, we've blogged about what investors look for in Founders (http://bit.ly/nTXFTz), but today Reshma & Carlos decided to kick off our podcasting series on the very subject but discussing what we both look for in founders in greater detail, walking through all the attributes we generally see correlate highly with successful founding teams.
Visit our site http://www.seedcamp.com to learn more about us.