Vulnerable: Recent Episodes
James Roycroft-Davis
Welcome to Vulnerable, the first ever podcast dedicated to exploring founder mental health, powered by Founders Taboo. I’ll be sitting down with founders from pre-seed, to Series A, to Exit/IPO, Angel investors and VCs from around the world, to get vulnerable... We’re breaking down the stigma attached to talking about your mental health as a founder. Far too many founders and entrepreneurs suffer because they’re afraid to speak about their challenges.
Well not anymore.
Yariv is an Industrial & Clinical Resident Psychologist specializing in Startup Professionals & Founders.
After 15 years in tech & startups, reaching CMO positions, he “pivoted”, and became a Psychologist.
Today he works with startups, founders and CXOs in exploring professional & personal aspects of living in a startup environment; the ups & downs, the performance & planning, the logic & emotion, the soft & hard skills - with the aim of discovering the most relevant insights.
THIS PODCAST IS A FOUNDERS TABOO PODCAST; THE FOUNDER’S MENTAL HEALTH COMPANY
Andy is CEO and co-founder of Honest Mobile. They’re changing mobile for good. Sign up here to find out more: honestmobile.co.uk/
Andy was previously co-founder at Deloitte Propel where he was part of the senior leadership team. Andy grew the business from a team of five to fifty and revenue grew at triple digit CAGR from zero to an ARR of £4m.
THIS IS A FOUNDERS TABOO PODCAST: THE FOUNDER’S MENTAL HEALTH COMPANY
Dan is a serial entrepreneur with 10 years experience in starting,scaling and failing startups multiple times and Angel investor in 75+ startups.
Co Founder of 3 different types of companies today:
1.Heights - a dtc health and wellness company building the braincare category.
Experience includes raising millions in crowdfunding and venture, and building a remote global team with a direct to consumer health and wellness brand.
2.Kindling Media - a media company, we make podcasts (like top European Business podcast Secret Leaders, and Top 5 UK Crime podcast, Bad Money).
Experience incudes bootstrapping to profitability, launching new shows and personally interviewing over 200 of the world's top leaders (including 50+ unicorn founders)
3.Foundrs - a non profit community.
THIS PODCAST IS POWERED BY FOUNDERS TABOO: BUILDING THE FOUNDER MENTAL HEALTH MOVEMENT
Lottie is the Founder and CEO of The Copy Club
It started in 2016… she felt lonely at work and she didn’t know where to turn to for help. Now, Copy Club is a community of 3000+ members who come together to lift each other up and for fast answers to hard questions.
In this episode Lottie opens up about the battles she’s faced building The Copy Club and reflects deeply on her journey as a founder.
THIS PODCAST IS BY FOUNDERS TABOO: THE FOUNDER MENTAL HEALTH COMPANY
Nick is an Entrepreneur (Minderful) and Doctor (NHS) who brings personal experience from living with Bipolar (type II).
As a Doctor he cares deeply about his clinical work but he’s acutely aware of the greater social impact of research, enterprise and management.
Marcus spent the last 20 years building and running tech and digital services businesses.
He completed his first exit in 2011, and has been an active angel investor and adviser since 2014.
Here is the story since then:
→ 25 investments
→ Over $1bn in venture capital raised by companies he has invested in
→ Fund returned 2.3x to date, still 90% invested
→ He typically make 2-3 investments a year
→ He prefers to spend a few months getting to know founders before he invests
→ He has advised and given mentoring to hundreds of founders
He’s on a mission to help more founders succeed.
This podcast is powered by Founders Taboo
Alex is co-founder and CEO of Sequel, a community of the world's best athletes investing in the world's best startups making a positive impact.
He is co-founder and Chairman of Velocity Black and an Angel investor in over 25 companies.
He’s one of the most impactful and influential figures in British startups and he talks very vulnerably about his journey.
THIS PODCAST IS POWERED BY FOUNDERS TABOO
Mike is General Manager of Fresha, one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in Europe and APAC.
He founded Fintech startup Groov which he sold to JAVLN and in this episode he details the full rollercoaster ride of founding Groov, and how he experienced the lowest of lows.
Mike’s LinkedIn is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellovegrove/
Andy is the founder of the Angel Investing School, prolific Angel investor and serial founder.
He was named Top 10 BAME influencers in tech by the FT in 2018 and received The Queens honours MBE medal in 2020 for contributions diversity in technology sector. Growing up in Tottenham moulded by multiculturalism he never knew about building a personal brand or the lack of diversity in tech.
And now he dedicates himself to alleviating the struggles of founders from under privileged backgrounds.
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders
James is an Entrepreneur and investor in UK technology.
VC @ Portfolio Ventures - EIS VC fund.
Co-Host @ Riding Unicorns - top venture podcast.
Founder @ Pringle Capital.
COO @ Narchie - marketplace for homeware
Find him on LinkedIn
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders
About Nick:
I’m a London-based entrepreneur, angel investor, podcaster, startup mentor and public speaker, whose speciality lies in talking no-nonsense founder/investor advice and help. I'm currently co-founder of new B2B sales tool, trumpet, host of Pitch Deck podcast and co-founder of an angel investing venture-arm, Horseplay Ventures
I previously co-founded DesignMyNight, back in 2010 and managed to grow that over 7 years with minimal angel funding, to 100+ employees, 15,000 SaaS customers and 8m monthly uniques on the website. We exited to Access Group in 2017.
I live for the early stages of startups - building the brand, finding product market fit, iterating quickly and building out a team. Most of my content is centred around this, as well as tips from an angel investor. Even after exiting to financial freedom, I caught the founder bug again and have co-founded my next startup, trumpet, in 2022; looking to disrupt B2B sales and kill the sales pdf deck. Follow me on here while we build out this new journey in public.
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders
About Maya:
I'm Maya, Co-founder of VIVE, well-being enthusiast, potato lover and avid meditator (basically a 24 year old monk) 🧘🏽
I teach visualisation, one of the most powerful but underrated skills in the world. If you haven't heard of it, you need to!
Used by elite athletes and CEO's, visualisation retrains your brain to change the way you think, act and feel. If you want to feel better, perform better, and achieve your awesome goals then this is for you! I deliver workshops, events and 1-1 sessions- so feel free to get in touch 📲
So, the big question is... why do I do what I do? 🤔
8 years ago, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis- an incurable irritable bowel disease. My symptoms were excruciating, and I was in the most debilitating pain- unable to walk or eat. I was left with very little hope for my future.
Then I started learning visualisation, which helped me rewire my beliefs/thoughts, strengthen my body and ultimately take back control of my health. It saved my life (and I don't say that lightly).
Now, I am on a mission to make visualisation accessible to everyone! 🚀🚀
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders
About James:
I started JBM at the age of 25 with £2k in my pocket and a laptop in my kitchen.
10 years on our team help scale some of the most innovative and creative companies in the world.
JBM is at the centre of everything I believe in - developing future leaders, growing diverse businesses and investing in mission driven people.
Because people are a companies’ greatest asset.
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders
About Gian:
Over my career, I have been a part of $300m+ in venture capital fundraising from pre-seed to series B companies.
I was able to see best-in-class pitch decks and entrepreneurs presenting to me.
Some of these entrepreneurs have gone on to raise $100m+ in fundraising each.
Then, in 2020, I burnt out and decided to leave my VC job.
However, during my time as a VC I realised something...
Investors back founders not companies. People invest into people.
Yet, founders don't know how to show they are investable.
And in the pursuit of checklist ticking "what investors look for", they fail at the most important one:
How to make investor's want to fund YOU as a founder.
That's why I started my boutique advisory firm: to help founders inspire investors by making themselves investable.
My background:
Co-founder of Pebble Labs and Trait Biosciences (raised $16m)
Investor at Octopus Ventures where I oversaw over $200m+ in funding:
Led investments into:
→ AllPlants, 2018: £7.5m Series A ($58m raised total)
→ Skin+Me, 2019: £8m Seed
→ Quit Genius, 2020: $12m Series A ($80m raised total)
Follow-on investments into:
→ Patch Plants, 2019: £2.7m bridge round
→ Elvie, 2019: $42m raise with IPGL ($55m raised total)
→ Depop, 2019: $62m raise with General Atlantic (Exited to Etsy for $1.6bn)
→ Big Health, 2020: $32m raise with Gilde Health ($55m raised total)
And I now run a 1:1 coaching service to maximize your fundraising.
And the founders I work with have gone on to raise c.$100m in the last year.
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders
Michelangelo is an up and coming VC at Stride VC, who wants to speak out to change his industry's perception of mental health for founders
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders
Roei is a sufferer of ADHD, depression and anxiety and details in this episode his journey with the conditions.
Roei has founded two companies, RealSport (acquired) & Connectd. RealSport grew to a community of over 7million monthly users across UK, USA & Australia. After RealSport was acquired in 2018, he moved into the investment space.
This connected him to an entirely new community - but many of the frustrations he felt as a Founder were also true as an investor and start-up advisor. There was a distinct lack of diversity and accessibility in investment opportunities for start-ups. All the same types of deals were going to the same group of investors - stifling innovation for both the founders and potential investors.
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders
This is the epic story of how Patrick built Europe's most advanced healthcare SaaS to acquisition in 2019, and destroyed his mental health doing it.
This story people may find upsetting.
He is now an Angel investor, startup coach, advisor and friend.
Welcome to Vulnerable, Patrick Hulsen.
This episode is powered byFounders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders.
Ash Phillips, the Founder at Dffrnt. Startup advisor. Consultant on community, comms, brand positioning and b2b GTM strategy.
Angel investor via Ada Ventures angel programme (x6 deals) and independently (x1 deal).
Sometime TEDx speaker, featured in places like Forbes, Sunday Times, etc. Prev. Maserati100 and South West Mentor of the Year'.
But most importantly… suffers with imposter syndrome… and this is his story
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders.
This is Andy Johns' story. One of the most powerful, deep and open stories we've covered so far on this podcast. He's been a part of 8 startups worth more than $1B as an employee, advisor, or investor. He worked at Facebook, Twitter, Quora, and Wealthfront where he was VP of Growth & Product and eventually became President. He's an investor in Robinhood (IPO), Webflow, and Reforge. And he's been an advisor to Opendoor (IPO), Poshmark (IPO) and Blue Bottle Coffee. He now spends most of his time advising startups on growth as well as making a contribution to mental health advocacy via his writing at andyjohns.substack.com.
But he left it all to heal from trauma developed in his childhood which stayed with him for most of his life. And now, this is his story. The open book version.
Welcome to Vulnerable, Andy Johns.
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders.
Where do I even start with this episode? One of the best episodes I've ever done in my years recording podcasts. Ben Williams was a Marine, blown up whilst on patrol in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. Luckily, he survived, as did everyone that day, but the lesson he learned through dealing with drug addiction, suicide attempts, a perpetual battle with his mental health, to fighting the Taliban, to recovering from a shattered calf from the blast, to founding a tech company called Loopin that's changing the face of workplace mental health.
Stop reading the show notes now. Seriously. Just give this a listen
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders.
I’m going to precede this episode with a bit of a warning that it contains some graphic references to suicide ideation and it could be quite distressing.
But Kosta Kolev is one of the most intelligent and uniquely brilliant founders you’ll ever listen to. He’s a co-founder of Calliper, a product specialist and self taught engineer by trade but is serial young entrepreneur who gets you thinking.
An immigrant who was brought up with very entrenched values around hard work and intellectual curiosity, Kosta is someone who realised he was very different at Uni and the exploration as to why he was different led him down a difficult path through depression.
Not only is Kosta a good friend, but he’s also a real advisor, straight talker, and a fabulous, fabulous guy.
So, welcome to Vulnerable Kosta Kolev
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders.
This story with Jana Dowling is incredible. Jana is a female founder with bipolar disorder.
She’s one of the most unconventional founders I’ve literally ever met and we clicked as soon as we met.
Jana has done things the hard way. She didn’t go to Uni. She entered entrepreneurship late after a career in tv production, now approaching 40, building Arkeo, a mental health tracking app born out of her experience of being on 24 hour suicide watch after having a severe depressive episode. And this is the story of how she built it, from virtually nothing to now having thousands of users tracking their mental health habits.
I’ve done a lot of podcast episodes now and I know when I’m recording something in the moment that this is going to help so many people out there realise that whatever they’re going through, it can be done.
Through sheer will. Sheer Grit. Sheer determination.
So, welcome to Vulnerable, Jana Dowling.
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders.
Have you ever been sat with someone having a conversation about something so deep that you get completely lost in the brilliance of the moment and realise how transformative that conversation was for how you view the world?
I had this experience when sitting down with this guy, who is now a good friend, Janos Barberis. Janos’s CV is insane. He’s done it all. All before 40.
A founder, investor, VC, academic, scholar and mental health advocate And yet, Janos has driven himself to near suicide from his relentless pursuit of building. He’s now focusing his time on building SuperCharger Ventures the world’s leading EdTech accelerator, also building FoundersTaboo, the founders mental health platform.
Welcome to Vulnerable Janos Barberis
Alex Strang. Founder of The Moment Company, a unique mental wellbeing startup which is completely centred around people taking a moment to recalibrate, re-centre, take a breathe. How? Well, he and his team have created a pebble. A pebble which takes your through a scientifically proven breathing sequence which enables you to take a moment for complete mindful bliss.
But, Alex’s story is really the reason why we’re recording. A story of panic attacks, depression, lost connections and purpose in his last startup, to exploring his mental health and then leading him to build moment.
Also, one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and someone who I have mad respect for.
This episode is powered by Founders Taboo, the Headspace for Founders.