FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICS: Recent Episodes
Anthony Lyall
Christopher Lowe and Anthony Lyall interview the very best VCs and also some of the biggest UK Technology Scale-Ups, along with other super-smart leaders in the ecosystem. We hear their stories, tips, tricks, all while having a laugh.
In our last ever FOUNDstar and FUNDstar Vod/Pod we talk to Dominic Vergine of leading Electric Motor Scale Up, Monumo. Dominic is a true visionary who heralds from the hotbed of UK Tech, Cambridge and is another legend of the ARM stable of leading Technologists. In terms of Monumo, Dominic highlights how he and the team at Monumo are working to:# Create a new wave of sustainably designed Electric Motors that reduce the consumption of electricity and help solve the climate crisis.# Their Technology is world first and like ARM, they aim to become the IP or platform that the EV designs of the now and future are built upon.# The Design industry is evolving across all industries where Electric engines reside and Monumo aims to be at the forefront of a AI and Deep Tech revolution that evolves and replaces the current CAD design.# Monumo is one of many AI led businesses that will all be revolutionising and improving design, manufacturing and sustainability in the next ten years# Monumo is the current market leader in this space, providing: Simulation, AI/ML and prototyping for potential clients and customers. They aim to complete their engine and launch next year - to a strong pipeline of demand. They are also currently enacting their Series A round to accelerate this. In conclusion:Dominic is right at the cutting edge of the Deep Tech / AI led revolution in industry and manufacturing design. It's hard work but fulfilling, as per his Edison quote on innovation, that its: "ninety nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration". If you want to connect with Dominic please DM me or him directly on LNKD.
Priya is an impressive Venture Capitalist, who established Goddess Gaia Ventures
In terms of nuggets:===> Priya explains what she is looking for in terms of female founders in Healthcare, that are creating impact
===> The founders they have invested in are from a variety of backgrounds and GGV are looking and Priya feels like a proud "Mother Hen" helping her founders grow
===> This is her first of four funds, with a big focus on taking her founders to the US and to crack this market
===> GGV are building relationships with Angel groups / Universities / Founders referencing them are providing great deal-flow
===> They are investing in FemHealth and Sport have made 11 investments so far.. Seed and Series A - where most Health-Techs tend to navigate between
===> On a week of a Superbowl win for the Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift's impact is used as a good example of leading women focusing on Sport and Health - a big area for GGV
===> The current fundraising environment is the hardest environment to raise in the last 15 years. "Its an incredibly difficult environment". Priya provides some great pearls on this..
===> AI / Clinical Trials / Cancer Tech / The NHS and other topics are tackled in a wide ranging conversation In conclusion:Priya is top drawer and she is very keen to connect with any founders or VCs that find this session interest DM me or Priya on LNKD.
In our first FUNDstar Vod/pod of 2024, we sit down with leading VC, Sam Nasrolahi at InMotion Ventures, the Corporate VC arm of Jaguar Land Rover. She's a super intelligent and very direct investor and she certainly knows mobility from a very strong background at BP. I certainly learn't a lot in this 26 minute Podcast Sam conducted with Anthony and I, pre Xmas 2023.In terms of InMotion Ventures, the fund was originally set up in 2016 to focus on Mobility, but more recently, when Sam joined, (last August) this has changed to focus on a number of industry agnostic areas in mobility. In this pre-Christmas Vod/Pod Sam tells us more about these areas, so listen on if you want to find out more about this fascinating and importantly, very active VC on:# How they invest in Electrification, Sustainability, Climate-Tech, Industrial-Tech, Automation AI platform and AI in Enterprise, globally.# Stage-wise the focus is on Pre-Seed to Series B, but Seed to Series A is the sweet-spot# They interact with the whole JLR and Tata that they can reach out to in the Cloud, AI and Automation expert areas# Pre-Seed and Series B deal-flow seem to predominate in 2023, with Seed and Series A being light# They are broadening their activity in the EU, particularly Germany and France. France is very strong in AI and Robotics, with Germany great in Manufacturing / Industrial Tech# Israel remains a strong focus still for them# Some good genuine, Generative AI opportunities have appeared in Infrastructure and niche areas like compliance# Cloud native companies are of particular interest to SamNaturally we discuss the market and current trends, which is of interest to all. Sam believes (and hopes) there will be a potential pick up in VC investing in 2024 and AI / Enterprise Infrastructure could be a particularly powerful driver behind this. Sam is particularly excited by the complexity of this area, which she’ll be delving into more in 24!In conclusion:Sam is a very busy lady - as you can gather by the passion she expresses in her role, but she is very keen to connect with any founders or VCs that find this session interest DM me or Sam on LNKD.
King of Scandi Tech takes time out of his hectic schedule, to share his perspectives on scaling amazing consumer businesses, ranging from smart headphones (Marshall, Adidas, Urban Ears) with Zound Industries to more recently creating the "Tesla of the Seas", X Shore
Konrad continues to grow his consumer portfolio and is now looking at Natural Chemicals, in the world of Cleantech and has also invested in a leading uncompromised drinks product called OGIN, creating the world's best gin, from handpicked herbs in Finland
Konrad provides an array of opinions on several hot topics:
===> How he has scaled businesses to become Technology leaders in their respective industries
===> What the impact of AI is in the Music industry and the scary realities of AGI accelerating more widely in 2024 to potentially takes over us .. "All need to do small steps together to manage this inevitable change"
===> How his success has come from spotting trends ahead of other entrepreneurs and being first to market
===> The 5 senses and the 6th sense is going to be accelerated by AI
===> How Wellness, Nature and Family should feature more strongly in Entrepreneurship
So, listen on here for other amazing insights from Konrad, a must for any Consumer focused VC or Founder. Konrad is a true visionary who is now plotting his next move in the world of AI and sonic mental health (making Sound intelligent) by the sound of things...bom! bom!
Listen here for more...
After an extended summer break, due to personal reasons, its nice to be back broadcasting and publishing season 6 of FUNDstars and FOUNDstars, where our guest was Rob Desborough, the CEO of Seraphim Space Accelerator, and a partner in the Seraphim Space Fund.There is no disguising Space is hot and Rob provides an array of opinions on several hot topics:# How Seraphim is the largest investment group focused on Space privately, and launched the first listed Space fund# They are one of the pre-eminent Accelerators building businesses covering all aspects of Space# How Space is set to become a $1trillion investment market by the end of the decade, from $1.6n when Rob set up Seraphim in 2014 and now is the time to be investing in this space# 100,000 Satellites will be in space by 2030 and private Space Stations will be in orbit by 2028# That Space offers so many opportunities in Mining, Datacentre, Optimisation of Science & Materials, industry 4.0/industry 5.0 and life in general# 13 of the 15 biggest VC funds in the world have invested into spaceSo, listen on here for other amazing Space star gems from RobOn a lighter note,My mum was a Trekkie and I've been a space nerd since watching 007's Moonraker movie and skiving off school to watch the Space Shuttle's land in the 80's in the Nevada Desert, so this pod was right up my street.More recently I am fixated by aliens, via Invasion on AppleTV - so if you love space, want to invest in it or generally get more of an understanding of what's going on...I recommend taking 30 minutes to listen to this episode.
Ben is the Director of the University of Southampton's Futureworlds, a business that takes the best bits of accelerators / University innovation and Technological excellence, providing opportunities for students at the University to commercialise and scale.
Ben provides an array of opinions on several hot topics:
How the Futureworlds model works and the businesses being created
The current situation in the University funding environment
The big picture trends emerging from UK Universities and where government's need to act
In particular - a big love and section of the podcast is dedicated to Quantum Computing, which is an area of deep interest for both Ben and Anthony, plus a technology that University of Southampton is showing some excellence in.
Not wanting to give too much away, listen on and enjoy the pod !!
In this episode our Europe 2023 Roadshow, landed in Berlin, where we meet Robin Rohm, a leader in the world of Federated Learning, which helps solve the problem of securely analysing data across boundaries and regulated industries.
He took a bit of time out from his Rocketship... Apheris who are early market leaders in this "machine learning on steriods" to talk with us in mid February, on the latest episode of FUNDstars and FOUNDstars.
Robin is a very straight talking and insightful guy, who speaks to us, pre the latest bomb to go off in the Tech scene this year, namely SVB.
Robin gives some gems for Founders and VCs on:
===> Scaling into a world that is becoming wiser to Machine Learning
===> Pharma, Healthcare & Manufacturing (especially Semiconductor) appear to be the early movers adopting the Federated learning to solve these data problems at scale
===> We naturally talk about Generative AI (as everyone is...) and how Apheris fits in the next AI generation
===> How he raised a big VC round in a few weeks in early 2022.. oh how those were the days!
===> Apheris's hyperfocus on Capital Efficiency - The buzzword of 2023.. to move in line with what VCs want
===> Lastly, the Berlin scene - which remains cool and "Shoreditchy".
In conclusion,
Robin is a top top man, a top founder, a top dad and top clubber. We loved Robin's admission that he often goes clubbing at 6am at the weekend in Berlin, all fresh faced and smoothie'd up, to enjoy his love of music and dancing.. Brilliant !
Next up - we're off to Stockholm to speak to the king of Swedish Tech.. King Konrad Bergstrom, the founder of Tesla of the Seas, X Shore.
Be good, don't eat too many eggs. See you in a month.
In this episode we have a great insight into La French Tech, a term widely associated with Mr Macron and his Digital based ascendancy in France, but in this episode, it's from Clement Aglietta, the founder of leading Fintech, Edda, one of the poster-boys (children) of the current French Tech Revolution.
Clement provides some lovely insights on the business, their approach and also waxes lyrical with Chris on the formative days of the great French Tech Conference called "Le Web", where Clement got bitten by the Tech bug and event that Chris still lords as one of the best Tech events ever.
===> Why Edda has become so successful with limited partners and private investors
===> The tool is like a "Bloomberg for VC" enables users to have seamless management of private investment, data analytics and reporting
===> The American Dream is over - there are more Americans want to come to live in European cities to build large Technology companies
===> How Paris is exploding as a Technology powerhouse in terms in Capital, Innovation and Government support
In summation,
A very impressive founder and the world is Edda's oyster in a market that is bigger than the Public markets.
Next up, in late March is...Robin Roehm, the founder of leading AI scale, Apheris, who tunes in from Berlin
First up for 2023 is our interesting catch - up with leading Amsterdam based Seed and Series A VC - Kompas. In this episode we talk with founding partner, Sebastian Peck, when he's in transit between meetings in Munich.
Sebastian covers a vast array of topics in this insightful 33 minutes conversation with Anthony and I. Kompas is a leading Digital Transformation / Net Zero focused / Zero Waste Circularity VC. So if you are in these areas - this is an excellent FUNDstars and FOUNDstars episode for you. We speak with Sebastian just before Christmas, when England were still in the World Cup!!
In our wide ranging chat we cover:
Sebastian's thought on the VC environment and current trends for 2023
What Kompas is all about - Focus, Style, current activity and the massive challenges they are addressing
AI is a strong part of their approach and how their companies / investments interact and collaborate with each other
The Nordics and Benelux region lead the way Energy consumption within Building, Listen and learn UK Gov!!
They are deploying and have money in the bank !
His love of Tom Chi and At One, who they've co-invest with
In conclusion,
He's a very clever man, I learn't a lot - I hope you find this month's episode useful.
See you in February where we have a great episode with the fantastic Clement, the founder of leading Fintech, Edda
We had an awesome time catching up with Sarah, the CEO of Jenson Funding Partners, one of the UK's largest and most successful SEIS investors. Sarah was particularly keen to tell us about their new £60m Aurora fund, for pre-seed to Series A companies helping the transition to Net Zero.
Chris first met Sarah in his Bloomberg days in 2013, when she highlighted the early intentions of Jenson, so it was great to catch up on their progress and what progress there is. They've notably become a Certified B Corp recently as well.
Sarah covers an array of topics and has some great opinions on the following:
The way Jenson select and invest in leading UK founders, how the team interact and support this large portfolio of businesses. About being clear about what they can and can't help with.
The current state of the investment landscape for UK Founders - circa November 2022 and thoughts on how 2023 could pan out. They tend to close their EIS investments in Q1.
Her excitement around the launch of their new non SEIS fund, aiming to invest in all the amazing ESG tech, filling a huge funding whole in the UK between Pre-Seed and Series A. Founders form an orderly queue please !
60% of investments have been made outside of London and their is more opportunity to accelerate this moving forward, by keeping in touch with the excellent hubs around the regions.
Investments are also international (Ireland) and with the new fund, could become more international.
Diversity and equality in Tech and how Jenson look to tackle this. 18% of their portfolio investments have been into female founders.
All in All - there's much more and this episode is a cracker & in the spirit of giving at Christmas - there is a long form and short form version of this excellent episode. Longer video below
Enjoy and Happy Christmas to the many watchers and listeners. Back in January with a cracking episode with Sebastian Peck, of Amsterdam based VC .. Kompas
After autumn impasse, we return with our winter series of interesting Podcasts, with a number of leading lights in the UK Tech industry.
First up is Peter Finnie, a leading Tech Patents lawyer in the UK who shows us that lawyers are fun, good to talk too and so knowledgeable for Founders and VCs alike. Remember the top one's cover both!
Peter deep dives and offers some great pearls of advice such as:
How to manage Patents/IP in 2023 and current state of regulation in the UK on patents (which ain't good)
How 90% of value in Technology created is in the IP. ie: Google bought YouTube purely because of the brand
The trends in the Tech market and how Potter Clarkson are still supporting Start-Ups and Scale-Up in these tough times. Plus, how you can meet them
Listen on and enjoy for more
In this episode, we continue our summer focus (yes - there's another heatwave on the way in London to justify this !!) on leading ladies in the Tech space, talking here to a particularly successful founder in the Health-Tech vertical, Lara Mott.
Chris first met Lara, six years ago, when she was pondering on exiting her successful corporate career to scratch the entrepreneurial itch and launch her own business.
Roll on to 2020, when we were pleased to be contacted by the lovely Lara again, to hear about her itch becoming Improvewell, which is now (in August 2022) one of the fastest growing and one's to watch Health-Tech's in the UK, building upon their status as one of the top 100 Start-Ups in 2021, the UK, to WATCH ..
So, sharing this expertise, Lara talks in detail in the Vod/Pod about:
===> How to successfully scale a product into the NHS - the 7th largest employer in the world with 1.7m people
===> The nuances of decision making process within the NHS
===> How the UK Health industry continues to embrace digital post Covid and hasn't slipped back in old "bad" pre-Covid habits
Wrapping up...
The future looks rosy for Improvewell - driven by Enterprises's (not just in Health-Tech) continuing need for platforms that enable data led solutions for wellbeing continuing to grow, in the post pandemic world.
Fittingly, I write this summary of a great Vod/podcast, with a leading lady of the UK VC scene, England’s women have just scored their first goal against Austria !!
This episode focuses on Evie Mulberry, the Managing Partner of Astia VC, a leading San Francisco based VC, who has recently returned to the UK build the UK/EU footprint of the fund.
Evie highlights how Astia – was built by the super impressive Sharon Vosmek, who was one of three founders who established the pillars of Astia 20 years ago.
She brought Evie into the business, when she re-located to the West Coast in 2008. Now Evie is back and based in the South West and is successfully building out their UK and EU ecosystem.
Evie talks in detail on, in the pod about how Astia are:
===> Female first and only invest in Technology businesses that have female leaders or Women in executive roles
===> Remain concerned about the “woefully low investment” into Female led Technology businesses. Its not Female Founders that need to change, its the VC industry
===> Are inclusive and don’t believe in the “soft intro”, preferring founders to apply through their “Expert Sift” process, which aims to eliminate bias in their search process for founders
In conclusion, success is being scaled as this “Expert Sift” process has now evolved into a learning Technology platform fairly recommending businesses at scale
It’s a great chat, with a great lady trying to change the world of VC, according to men!!
Harriet Rosethorn is second up in our summer series on leading women in VC and Technology.
We speak to Harriet in February 2022 and she takes great time to firstly explain that Puma has nothing whatsoever to do with the German Sport apparel brand !!!
She, in fact, joined London based Puma PE, 4 years ago as an investment manager. They are a leading Series A investor in UK and do look at some European Technology names, if they plan to expand in the UK.
Puma's ticket size is between £2m -£10m and Puma look to support a founder's transition to reach / beat the KPIs needed to get to Series B.
We cover a wide array of topics in our 35 minute chat:
On new business:
===> We discuss how Puma are one of a number of very active funds at the Series A stage currently, taking advantage of market conditions and lower competition for the best founders
===> By being active - they aim to fund the better businesses, at a better prices and potentially get more ownership than they would have 6 months ago
We also discuss the portfolio in depth:
===> Covering a wide array of topics and businesses, from very successful investment in an End of Life business Pure Cremations to the in-outs of nano, micro and nano (not nemo) influencer marketing, via her work with Influencer
More generally:
===> Harriet provides some very good tips on hiring and how Puma interacts with their founders on how to hire top talent.
In conclusion:
Harriet speaks passionately about the Puma portfolio of companies and shows a commitment & expertise that many founders should look to have from their investors, as times potentially become tougher, in the remainder of 2022
Phoebe Arkell is first up in our summer series on leading women in VC and Technology. Phoebe is certainly one of the up and coming VCs who successful navigated a career in consulting to follow her dream of becoming a VC.
She joined London based, Supernode Global, just before the pandemic and quickly found their focus on investing at the seed stage in digital content, was perfectly suited to this time.
Supernode focuses specifically on platforms and tools focused on these verticals: gaming, animation, sport, education, analytics, ad-tech, music and now the all important metaverse!
Some pearlers from Phoebe and Founders in particular take note:
===> Supernode invest globally, as per the name, in Seed rounds of £1m - £2m
===> It's all about execution in these content driven verticals and that's what captures their eye
===> How they add proper value and not just money for founders - mentorship, offsites, founder circles are offered to all and are true to their word
===> Culture is key for them as a fund and the community they've built
===> Chemistry is central for any 10 year journey for Phoebe and the founders Supernode invest in
Phoebe is a polite, thoughtful and kind lady who was a delight to talk to and a bit of a breath of fresh air for founders looking for the friendly face of VC !
Jatin Ondhia is an inspirational leader who set up Shojin Property Partners in 2009 and has navigated the pandemic to grow a successful, scaling Property Technology business.
Jatin originally saw the value of investing in property, whilst working as a banker at UBS for 12 years. From its onset, Shojin was like an angel club, which has evolved into an online regulated Technology platform, democratising ownership and access to capital into middle market residential property (£10m-£60m) and the upside this investment can bring.
Online Real Estate investment is projected to grow from $15bn in 2022, to $800bn by 2027. Developers welcome Shojin as a complementary way of helping them successful fund projects now and in the future.
In this FUNDstar and FOUNDstar Vod/Podcast episode, Jatin shares these pearls:
===> Be nimble and careful in balancing the interests of investors and developers in Property Technology and strategy
===> Asia is a great opportunity for funding Property Tech. There is an abundance of great investors there, that understand Tech and property
===> They are razor focused on strategic investors, and like to have as many private investors as possible, as they become brand ambassadors
===> Profit is not a bad thing in the current climate and Shojin has been profitable for the last two years
===> The role of a CEO is problem solving and is super stressful !
Net/net, Shojin is a clever Prop-Tech play, built on successful alignment of funding, growth and profit that is in a sweet spot to grow extremely successfully in the next five years and spread the wealth to many.
Paul decided to build Careology when personal circumstances highlighted how there are very few, real-time technology solutions to help people manage the treatment process and support processes around cancer, for the: person, care-giver and the clinical team.
Three years later, it appears to be going well and Paul, an experienced entrepreneur shares his thoughts on the many challenges of the journey, on this inspiring FUNDstar and FOUNDstar Vod/Podcast episode. These include:
===> How to build the Tech: the App, the Software, the SaaS and how to sell the software licence to providers and help them blend physical & digital, to improve the provider <> patient experience
===> Building traction and business development, where doing smart pilots right really matter and do lead to full rollouts with leading partners, in the clinical healthcare, in the case of Careology. Big companies need to embrace digital and are post Covid. This blend is here to stay in Healthcare
===> The Digital Cancer space is wide open and the TAM of 20m people a year are diagnosed with cancer, makes Careology a particularly attractive opportunity to support
===> The hiring process and how to assemble people that challenge founders
Net/net, Careology is an impressive Health-Tech that is really gaining traction, entering its growth phase and looking towards investors for further support.
Rich is the CEO and Co-Founder of Peak.AI, one of the up and coming Unicorns of the UK Tech scene and Manchester's finest.
They are a Decision Intelligence leader (using AI and Cognitive Intelligence to make consistently strong decisions) working with Retailers like Superdry and AO.Com, CPGs like KFC and some leading UK & Global PLC manufacturing companies too!!
Universally these are product companies where the Peak Data Engine "CODI" optimises demand for their product, enables better targeting, an ability to run leaner, assist ESG goals and impact. Peak enables companies to stop "HOPING" and using AI to "DO"!
Rich talks about his driving motivations around growing 200+ global team, refining the business culture, the power of delegation, customer interaction and how they are becoming one of the biggest commercial AI companies in the UK and if Europe.
He also touches on the psychology of fundraising and provides some great tips to navigate Seed, Series A, Series B and have integrity ! A Nasdaq listing is mentioned and Unicorn status. Not a bad spot from Notwics when visiting Manchester in 2015 !!!
Adrian provides some great insight into about his journey, from studying Mandarin, to consultancy and then his time at Stanford University, where he decided that he really wanted to be an investor.
So upon returning to London .. Adrian, Damien Lane and Dr Simon Murdoch decided to go for it and launch their first fund at Episode 1, with the support of the British Business Bank
Adrian covers many areas in his 30 minutes ..especially the data magic data that Episode 1 utilises for their B2B Deep Tech / AI / Software Infrastructure and Marketplace investments.
This has led to successful seed stage investments in the last decade in many now household names, including: Betfair, Natural Motion, Zoopla and Carwow!!!
More recently. these hotties have appeared, in the stable ... Sano Genetics, Omnipresent and Supercede and no doubt these will flourish as well... so listen on here as to why..
Chris is a really interesting Entrepreneur who successfully grew and exited his business extremely successfully. His childhood was tumultuous but gave him early life skills, which saw him grow and learn how to overcome challenges like Dyslexia (a condition that many leading founders interesting have suffered.
We talk late summer 2021, when the UK was in the midst of first UK energy crisis (with Bulb crashing), something that looks like dream, compared to the reality of life now in Mid March 2022.
He set up as a founder with his business, WAE (We Are Experience) business in 2003, having left the world of consulting when his employer, Arthur Andersen
There are some super pearls for both "Founders" and "Funders"
He speaks about the mistakes you make "Fail to prepare, prepare to Fail". At some point "Every business gets a kicking"
Always keep strong cash reserves, for difficult time
Read "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. Only when you fail, do you improve.. which is why Mercedes, VW, Volvo are starting to eat Tesla's dinner in electric now. Notably Tesla have never failed
Always be well prepared when you want to sell your business, in Chris's case - he prepared for three years ahead of this
The best way to sell is when you are growing, rather than grown. Sell on the way up
You should always lean on other people (mentors) at different stages to manage you and your business
Be careful about taking financial backing, its not always the best thing for a business
He talks about the pandemic and the best learnings from businesses he helped coach for free
Good, snappy little listen, with lots of excellent examples - so feel free to reach out to direct to Chris on LinkedIN HERE- or contact us to connect you direct to the team - from Notwics.
Jonny and James take 30 minutes, to introduce their awesome new London based VC, Volution VC and their unique approach to funding innovative Technology Scale-Ups.
They are both experienced practitioners of the Private Technology finance space and spotted a gap to fund founders in in the post Series A / Series B space in Enterprise Software SaaS & Fintech space, with the creation of Volution VC.
Listen on here to find out more about -
Their leading investments so far like Habito and Dead Happy
How they structure their bridge to somewhere
The metrics founders need to get investment from the team
The Post Series A funding environment and the UK regulatory environment
They are growing fast and are exited to meet more founders and fellow VC's focused on the Series A/B/C and the gaps in-between this
Good, snappy little listen - so feel free to reach out to them direct - or contact us to connect you direct to the team - from Notwics.
Suranga Chandratillake, a General Partner at Balderton, in London, is a legend in the world of UK and European VC. So it was great to spend time with one of the biggest players in the world of late stage private Tech, as a record year of UK Tech exits and IPO's drew to a close.
Prior to Balderton, Suranga led one of the UK Technology winners of the noughties, Blinkx. Like all great Technology players, it certainly had some ups and downs as both a private and then public Technology business. This experience was pretty formative in developing a number of the approaches Suranga applies in his role as a VC.
In this episode we discuss:
Balderton and what his role and day as a General Partner in a top VC fund consists of
Balderton's approach to funds, founders, opportunities and their different funds, including their new £600m Early Stage fund
How the UK can continue to evolve its capabilities to home, fund and support global Technology businesses in future, to rival the US
The proliferation of digitisation into everything now and even more-so in the future
The Metaverse, as everyone's talking about it and trying to work out where to place their bets
This is just a taster, so please listen and watch on, in this fascinating episode with a real leader in the world of UK late stage private Tech investing.
Enjoy and see you in 2022.
In a punchy, direct episode, we hear from Oli Hammond at Fuel Ventures, one of the fastest growing UK VC investors in the Seed space. Oli is a talented VC and has a super eye for spotting a lot of the latest Tech Gems, in the UK Early Stage space.
By means of background, Oli joined the fund from Syndicate Room, an interesting Cambridge based investor, whom Chris worked with at Bloomberg, when Oli and the SR attended a lot of the leading showcaser events Notwics delivered there. Prior to this he cut his teeth in Corporate land, working for Svenska Handelsbanken, which determined life as a "suit" was not for him
In this episode of FUNDstars and FOUNDstars, Oli tells us about:
Fuel and its phenomenal growth
The culture and approach of Fuel - with their SEIS and EIS focus
Their successes so far and what Fuel are looking for by vertical (especially Travel-Tech!!)
How they scout their founders
And many many more golden nuggets, which help explain why Fuel Ventures is becoming a winner amongst the ebullient Seed funding space in the UK.. listen and watch on ..
As it's Thanksgiving Weekend - we only thought it was right to showcase an American VC in this episode, so get ready for this episode with Maria Palma of Kindred Capital and Anthony Lyall, our in house, US team member taking centre stage.
Maria is a straight-talking, super-bright American based in London with the super edgy Kindred Capital. Kindred are a clever & successful fund, with a unique investment style and razor focus on Deep-Tech & Future Technologies.
Maria has had a varied and interesting career to date, encompassing roles @ GE, an MBA at Harvard University, a Start-Up in Bangalore start-up and an AdTech scale-up in New York. After these roles, she turned to investing as a VC with RRE in NYC.
She's now landed at Kindred Capital at the start of the pandemic and lives in London. She's a 100 MPH type of lady & in this 40-minute chat, we cover a heck of a lot, including:
Kindred Capital and their unique, successful investment style
The trend of inclusivity in the Tech space, with advice given on navigating the right approach to meet VCs in the UK / Europe
The trendline that will only increase - of more American VC Werewolves arriving in London - that are investing now in Seed !!
And I'm not going to tell you everything ... so listen on for many many interesting tips for founders, views on VC, the investment future & more..
A cracking episode and Happy Thanksgiving to all our American listeners and watchers !!!
We talk today to Marc Young, a skilled artisan in the world of finance, who de-mystifies the arena of debt, an area that most founders look upon with fear, but at ADG Pref Cap, they have a perfectly sensible product and fund, specifically focused on B2B Software start-ups.
ADG itself is a diversified Asset Management company, which offers a lovely umbrella to the fund, business and regulation. ADG are looking for:
Founders that have identified a niche / area that they can make a difference and attract customers
Businesses that are effectively scale-ups, with a healthy MRR, moving towards £100k in the next 12 months
Founders that need some smart, growth funding to bridge the gap or provide breathing space till their business is ready for Series A funding
Founders that have businesses that are about to scale, rather than scaled!
Investing internationally over zoom, with a Dutch business recently taking investment from them, which they've never met Face To Face
Marc also sheds light on these areas in this 33 minute call:
Post pandemic there are more relevant businesses around for them, partly due to better search mechanisms being put in place at Pref Cap, but also the market itself
They avoid B2B Fintechs, that fundamentally need a consumer aspect to their scale
A whole new generation of verticals are growing, like Rev Tech which is a very interesting growing category, focused on providing CRM tools, to fast growing SaaS scale-ups
People or Scouting appears to better for them, rather than using data tools to spot the talent
US Software companies are increasingly buying UK built Software businesses..giving angels EIS returns, within 5 years, rather than 10!
Good fund - helping fill a growing niche in Europe for founders..
We really enjoyed filming this week's FUNDstar Vod/Podcast, with the extremely affable, amusing and insightful Adam Niewinski, from leading Series B+ investor, OTB Ventures, in Warsaw.
Adam takes his time to provide context and background on how he decided venture capital was for him as it was an evolution:
Of his early life of travels
His career in finance
Life as a B2C Fintech & Banking founder around the time of the first Bubble
Focus on "Vorpals" and "Clicks and Mortar"
... Combined with a love of angel investing.
Thus he created OTB Ventures in early 90's Poland, to focus on the massive changes in emergent technology opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe.
This has stood them well over the years and they hit the headlines recently, by leading one of the most successful Series B rounds in the UK, in 2021, with their investment in Fintech O/S.
When outlining the fund and how they operate - these are some of the key pearls of wisdom:
The nature of VC investing and how this spreads the risk
He gives the best ever analogy of how the relationship between a VC and Founder should be... like a long road trip over Europe
How Investors should be fundamentally hands off
The funds focus on CEE, The Baltics and Finland
They aren't looking at the business, but the founders from these countries
The OTB investments are usually businesses where the founders can be based in the UK/US with R&D in CEE, but scaling globally
They really on strong relationships with the Seed Funds in these countries, as well as their analyst
Scaling globally from day one is important, a model that is tried and tested in Israel - one founder that is always on a plane to the US / UK and the other founder is managing the R&D
Ukrainian and Estonian founders are doing this model en masse currently
Series B in CEE is madly competitive
& its the best time ever to set up a Tech company in the CEE region..
George calls in from an office, well a dance studio in Manchester (his office for the day). He's a good egg and straight-talking Northern man, originally from Sheffield who holds the keys for founders, interested in catching the eyes and ears of ACF investors. who were previously known as AngelCoFund, but re-branded in early 2021.
The fund has been a hugely successful Seed investor, adopting an approach where they co - invest alongside sector side angels that have domain knowledge of the business.
Not to give too much away from the Podcast/Vodcast, but their secret recipe has been hugely successful - with one of their investments, Gousto becoming a unicorn and clearly household name in the UK.
Other FUNDstar gems from the diamond that is George:
On the sectors -
He's hyper interested in Founders wanting to disrupt the Financial Capital Markets
The Creator Economy and its tools and software are also big for George - especially in the gaming space
The future of food is emerging with the D2C servant economy that continues to evolve and the re-purposing of under-utilised Food spaces
On the geographical angle -
The majority of their investments are in
The interest in investing in the regions is growing - with Northern Ireland also building some great Seed businesses
On the new Technologies -
On NFTs - he sees that this technology has massive value in valuing value
SPACS and Electrification / Hydrogen comes into the discussion too
Plus several other excellent tips to help founders succeed ..
Bristol based, Spacebands is one of the few early stage Covid-19 / Tech businesses that Notwics have seen successfully navigate and grow commercially through the Pandemic,
This has been the result of their product helping Corporations successfully manage the problem of Social Distancing, through a relatively simple, hardware approach.
The Spacebands wrist device notifies users when they are too close to another user. Sounds simple, but it's very effective and as is often the case with Technology, simplicity sells.
Today, Spacebands co-founder Ronan Finnegan, takes time out of their somewhat 200 M.P.H days to tell us more about the business here, touching on:
Life as a serial entrepreneur at a wise old age of 26 and Spacebands being the latest of many successful ventures, with exits for the others when the passion has fizzled
How Spacebands has found a perfect home with key Food Producers, manufacturers, TV producers and industrial businesses around the world, that are key businesses and need to stay open and producing during the pandemic
The product has longevity to tackle the next wave of difficulties of workplace safety, not just the consequence of Covid-19
Despite being relatively simple software, they are one of the few Health-Tech players that have seen some great success with the NHS, but Ronan is keen to stress it's just one of their customers !
How scaling is moving from a 2 man flat to a workspace for 5 people in Bristol @ the excellent Set-squared
Awards means scaling, as shown by their recent accolade of being named as one of the top 5 innovative businesses in Bristol !
So in conclusion ..
It's an impressive journey and should Spacebands tickle your fancy then find out more HERE and also if you want to support them - they are currently Crowdfunding on Crowdcube HERE
We spotted RapTech many years ago as an early Seed Stage business, named BattleMe, in 2017, when they resided at the leading Telefonica backed accelerator, called Wayra.
Unusually the business was born by Alena and her brother, who through their childhood in Belarus grew a love of 80's and 90's US hip-hop which they then combined with their technological expertise.
Consequently, the Technology and Rap Fame platform enables independent Hip-Hop and Rap artists to showcase their talents directly to the community, which, in turn has led to some artists actually getting recording contracts.
Additionally since we first met Alena, the business has scaled into becoming a major scale-up, with both a growing content and tech team of 20 people, resulting in being featured as APP of the day in 163 countries, by Apple.
Balancing this, during the chat, Alena also highlights the stresses of scaling a Technology during the pandemic and how it's not been plain sailing:
1/ Zoom fatigue set in several times- where she didn't really enjoy hours of back to back daily calls - without any breaks.
2/ She also highlights how impersonal her role as a founder has become, like many founders - she's not actually met some of her team face to face, which she really dislikes
3/ Alena is big on team spirit and is super keen to get her team all back together in the office to bounce of each other and stimulate innovation
4/ On diversity, Alena highlighted that the gender balance just magically swung towards more women come into the business during Covid, not by any design though, just by consequence and RapTech now has a 50/50 split
But in general / practical terms - she found doing business successfully in the Pandemic pretty tough - something that the wider Tech press tend to overlook with their extreme focus on mental health !
Net/Net,
RapTech is a real success story led by a great Eastern European female founder, based in London who has overcome many challenges from investors and the industry she and her brother has disrupted.
We hope the podcast provides some useful insight for other founders on how to navigate the UK an US tech ecosystem and globally grow a strong B2C brand and technology business, from the UK.....at the moment.
We love Jackie as a straight talking, go getting, no holds barred type of VC investor- a real tour de force and this 40 minute pod shows you just why she is destined to become even more successful with her latest venture, Sandbox Studios.
Jackie provides great insight and wisdom, whilst explaining more about Sandbox and how they plan to invest globally, from the Los Angeles base.
Being in LA - Sandbox helps align Jackie's past in the world of sponsorship agencies (where she successfully exited her first business for £multi milion exit). They combine their agency expertise on one side of the business, by matching these celebrities with pre-seed, brand led VC investments.
So Jackie speaks with authority having been both a founder and investor on these areas...
1/ Current D2C Trends in brand and consumer preferences
2/ A focus on stuff that ships well - especially in the US (that Anthony knows called: Babe Rose, White Girl Wasted, Dr Dre & Beats are some of the names discussed
3/ The difficulty in raising a fund for the first time and trying to raise for what is a next generation fund...combining an agency/brand/celebrity and fund
4/ Some great tips for founders - that you should dig in and put in the work
5/ Don't believe the hype of being a co-founder, being a sole founder is great, especially when you exit
6/ The collaborative nature of VC - which has surprised Jackie
7/ The increasing influence of NFT's on the brand space
8/ Her tip to buy Polka Dot - if dabbling in Crypto-currency
We also skirted around her time in The Apprentice - but Jackie offered to talk about - where she was one of the greatest students of Sir Alan, not to be hired in our opinion.
However that hiring has fired her onto bigger things, including her latest book on leadership called Rule Breaker..
A super watch and listen...
We have the pleasure of spending time with one of the leading and most successful investors in the UK and European Seed stage today, on the “FOUNDstars and FUNDstars” VodPod.
The effervescent Carmen calls us from Madrid (despite being London based) for this bubbly and insightful Vodcast / Podcast where we focus on several interesting and important aspects of her life as venture capitalist, where Carmen divulges some real golden nuggets for any aspiring VC's or founders looking to grab her attention.
Carmen really is a real “FUNDstar”, something that is very evident in our summertime chat on:
The life of a VC and the connectivity tools needed to get the job done real-time
How the modern day journey of a VC can entail a number of roles to learn and perfect your trade, from her experience in Finance, Founding her own Start-Up and working for a number of leading VC's
What she looks for in a founder and how this led to her discovering the poster Unicorn of Covid-19 UK tech, Jonny Boufourat of Hopin, when he was raising his initial £150k Seed round !
Top tips for Founders when reaching out to leading VC's, with showing passion at the top of this list
Her approach to inclusivity, epitomised by her work opening the ecosystem with Kieran Hill and the Debut Sessions and Eamon Carey with The Fund
The current market trends for investment at Pre-Seed and Seed where the volume and quality of dealflow in Europe is at all-time highs
As we start to move towards a return to physical events in autumnal London - how Tech events in the near future could soon become a hybrid of on-line and in-person, with the technology being created very much more interactive
.. So watch this space!!!
In this interesting episode, filmed in late April 2021, Ruslan provides some excellent insight and is again a classic example of how cross border barriers for founders looking for investment have really been removed during the pandemic.
This really is a Vod/Podcast that is from Moscow with love, as Ruslan takes time to deep dive on the approach, structure and growth that Begin have created in a very short space of time.
He speaks with real passion, for what he, Alex and Sava have created with the fund, where their refreshingly fun and straightforward approach to VC is encapsulated on their website HERE and touched upon nicely by Ruslan in this 50 minute conversation.
He provides these golden nuggets on Begin:
On Seed VC investing - the job is all about communication rather than anything else. You don't need to be a rocket scientist in analysing balance sheets and financial modelling, its all about communication with Seed stage founders
With Founders - "you should be the smartest person in the relationship, not us" and forget geek speak. Don't talk in jargon, speak frankly
On focus - They are sector agnostic and invest in the best start-ups they see from their network. So if they see 5000 businesses a year, they pick the best 5 and don't hold themselves to a specific focus
On the process - They are a small team of three - who discuss closely the 20-50 names a year that make the top 5. They then reference check the businesses they like with their advisory board, expecting no's, but if not the investment decision can be made in two weeks
Global Focus - Begin tend to invest globally more-so than Russia
Chemistry - is key. Begin have to feel it with the founder and have "a good feeling with the founder", which enables deals to get done quickly
On Physical meetings - he wants to get back to this and travelling the globe as soon as possible "can you imagine getting married without even seeing the person" ?
On advisors - choose them wisely and from a variety of backgrounds and don't have too many, as it can slow things down
On the Russia. Tech Scene:
Two things are happening..
Russia has some great Tech companies, some that go outside Russia to grow and become global, like Revolut, who have raised $800m today at a valuation of $33bn
There are big potential unicorns in Russia, that grow fast, very quickly, but get acquired early as they cannot attain the international investment need to become global giants, when based in Russia
In conclusion:
Ruslan is a super, straight talking guy, a real gem and great advert for Russia VC.
In today's episode we delve into the future and hear the amazing pearls of wisdom, of what may or may not happen in the world of Technology, from one of authorities on this area, David Wood of The London Futurists.
David's business is very much in demand, with the pandemic sparking a mix-shift towards more Corporations (not just Tech) and individuals allocating greater resource and time towards planning for the impact of future digital and technology solutions.
Futurism is now taken seriously, rather than be seen to be a gimmick 20 years ago, when David starting meeting other Futurists in the basement cafe of Waterstones in Piccadilly!
Anthony and I caught up with David in Mid April 2021. During our one hour conversation, David provides his thoughts on the following:
On a positive note:
The advances of Neural technology were applauded and how embedding wireless chipsets into a brain to eradicate human paralysis could become a reality, in the next two years
The possibilities that convergence could potentially drive the emergence of new, stronger AI technologies in the future, with chipsets emerging now to enable this
The massive potential impact of Quantum Cloud computing, with hugely disruptive elements. However the jury remains out on when this will commercialise?
Quantum algorithms will eventually revolutionise Chemistry, Drug Discovery, Materials and nano-technology
On a worrying note:
The point of singularity could be as early as 2030, or as late as 2045
Terminators with Super intelligence could eventually dominate the Human race, though not in the form of robots as in the movies, but as either bots and Cyber-infections that will prey upon and exploit the vulnerabilities in software we use every day, via shared infrastructures
The emergence of Super AI that will know each of our own individual AI "hot buttons to press"!
The disappointment around Glass and how touchless technology has been much slower to evolve as a commercial application, than futurist predictions in 2008
In conclusion,
There are in fact, many, many more sensible crystal ball moments from David so please listen or watch. If you enjoy, we highly recommend joining The London Futurists by connecting with David HERE or reading his latest book .. "Predictions and Foresight, Good, Bad and Vital".
We have another cracking episode for you today, with another legendary and outspoken VC, the "bolder than bold" Steve Baxter of Ten13 VC.
Should you not know this, but Steve is a national hero of the Australian Tech scene, with all his great and insightful wisdom displayed on TV show "Shark Tank".
More recently Steve has been focused his efforts on investing through the excellent and early staged focus VC based in one of my favourite cities in the world Brisbane, called Ten13.
They are a very active bunch and one to focus on founders. Steve hones in on these areas in today's episode and provides his own, unique spunky wisdom to the conversation around the Australian Tech and VC scene:
How ballsy the Australian Start-Up scene has been during the pandemic, where unprecedented levels of capital being pumped into VC as an asset class
The growth of the Australian Unicorn class, with a number of Unicorns announced as the scene matures and more talent is getting backed and built
The focus of Ten13 on Software, APIs and how they've done 17 deals in the last 16 months. including 4 deals closing in the week before Christmas, right in the middle of the Australian Holiday season !! They are looking for more !!!
Ten13 VC invest globally and invest any where from £100k - £5m, with the vast majority of founders from Australia and NZ, but based usually in the US, as most tend to migrate via the Delaware / San Francisco flip, more-so than heading to London
On his Start-Up Catalyst advice for Founders: Basically cut to the chase fast in pitches, life is too short and i don't want to hear the loads of drivel - say in the first 5 minutes of a call or a pitch, what you do and what you want. Research from day one what capital you need to raise
And many, many more marmite and points - so listen or watch here Should you enjoy this, we highly recommend connecting with Steve HERE
Jonny is a real character and one of the most likeable rogues in Blockchain. Think of a recipe of Oliver Twist's the Artful Dodger meets John McCririck, of Horse-racing commentary par excellEnce, sprinkled with Crypto-currency ingredients - then you get the general picture.
But joking aside, Jonny is one of the few people Notwics have met and i'm counting in the 1000's that actually make Blockchain Technology : simple, understandable and commercial.
In-between verbally abusing Chris on this episode, Jonny kindly expands his opinions on:
Blockchain (funnily enough) and what it enables, the key trends and drivers, with some "here and now" really interesting real life commercial successes and anecdotes such as "blockchain is basically an excel spreadsheet on steroids"
Blockchain mass adoption in the next 18 months, ironically led by governments and regulatory bodies to improve compliance and security
Blockchain as a driver of better ESG & Sustainability in the world
The global following his thought leadership has through his blog Digital Bytes and Blockchain Radio show
The Madness of the current Financial world and how we are due a major financial correction in the next 6 months & Chris's pet love "OIT - Oldies In Tech"
And many, many more marmite and points - so listen or watch here
Camilla's love of Technology was forged in her early career at the mighty Bain Consulting, where upon being posted to San Francisco for 6 months she had the opportunity to work with baby stage, inspirational start-ups like: UBER and Worldpay !!!
Having cut her teeth working on these rather unsuccessful west coast based founders, Camilla became hooked and upon returning to London, she said "adieu" to Bain and "hello" to MMC and the world of VC.
Camilla highlights several topics of interest in the Podcast / Vodcast:
On Trends:
Ageism - and how early experience with major start-up names helped her investment understanding and ability in later life. (Rant alert - Chris has a bit of a soapbox moment here about his favourite topic)
How the VC investment landscape has significantly changed in the last 10 years
The old chestnut of Women in Tech and how much better the world of VC is now for women, compared to 10 years ago, in the UK
The growing interest amongst women to pursue careers in VC
How there is an increasing amount of Female only founded businesses receiving term sheets in the UK in 2021 (yippee!)
Camilla also touches upon hurdles and sacrifices you have to make when setting up your own fund, similar in a way to being a founder !
On EKA:
Camilla focuses in on:
Her current role investing in profit with purpose, consumer technology and backing people building sustainable business
How Consumer Fintech is really on fire in the UK and is perhaps as strong as an an investment thesis as in the US now
How Consumer Health-Tech accelerated 5-10 years during the pandemic and how the last 18 months have really propelled sustainability to become a top investment area
Founders they meet - should always be careful around dilution, focused on profit margins and building strong user metrics with consumers
EKA receive around 1,200 decks a year and Camilla explains how they try and be as open and inclusive as possible to Founders that approach them
Founders should be as personable as possible, even when sending a blind deck
EKA invest Seed to Series A in UK (regionally, not just London) and have made 2 investments so far in 2021 (at the time of the interview)
Bobby Console-Verma is a long standing pillar of the world of Family Office and he takes 50 minutes out of his schedule to tell us about his life in Family Office and what its all about.
Bobby's tips are centered around:
The importance of timing with investment throughout his life
His love of Real Estate and Property through his Family Office, FMV Capital
How Family Offices are very unique and different. No one is the same in terms of outlook and scale
The mysteries around Family Offices
UHNW, HNI, mass affluent all have different classifications of wealth, amongst different organisation - so trying to understand this is difficult and needs a lot of leg work
Family Office is a £2.5 trillion marketplace of wealth a year
More latterly,
Bobby has built a Software tool called 1FS, becoming a founder again, with 1FS looking to become the platform to assist Family Offices manage their assets real-time, the risk involved and improve efficiency.
If you are interested in finding out more about the UK Family Office space, then this is the episode for you..
David joins us from his flat in London, to tell us more about his role at Truesight Ventures, a Seed Fund focused on investing in brilliant founders. They are a small team, 4 people in total based in London & Stockholm.
We discuss & debate:
The VC industry:
The nature of VC, is "super sexy" in David's words and it is attracting more young people as an the industry
However, Job opportunities remain scarce and despite the growing number of funds it's no easier to get a job in VC
It's "super competitive" says David and after many knock backs he got a lucky break with a friend who set up a VC in Tel Aviv, to where he hot footed it too, for his first role
We take a look at Inclusivity opportunities in the industry in the context of VC, LPs and Founders
We also assess the power of network & how its a must for young people entering the industry to aspire to build there network, in a measured way
Smaller, newer funds continue to become successful and are becoming more widely backed at the moment On Truesight Ventures: We talk about
How it morphed from a small group of angels collectively building out friendships, deal-flow, co-investing into a fund in 2018
They now manage $20m and issue tickets of around £100k-£150k # David and the team invest in Software, but avoid Hardware and Biotech
They have made 40 investments from the fund so far and review 1,000 to 1,500 decks a year
The team are UK and Nordic focused, & have invested in a number of winners already: like Omnipresent (HR Tech) and Dispatch (Food delivery)
The mindset of a VC:
It's all about lots and lots of research and deep diving. objectively
When close to investing and at final stages, they are always set to "on" rather than "off". "We want the Founder to nail the final ball"
VC's like to channel check their convictions about a founder, with other VCs and investors in the space. "They all talk to each other"
David really admires founders, admitting he doesn't have the guts to be one! "So be bold and strong founders, when presenting the business and opportunity"!
Plus Founders, remember VC's are human too and if you ever have the pleasure of meeting him - Formula 1 and Rick and Morty are his achilles heel !!!!
Quotes of the episode: "We have to all feel a passion and bond with a founder, where the founder's enthusiasm and determination to not be derailed from the many set - backs they are bound to encounter, is critical to them investing"
AND
"In this job I am on the phone a lot and listening to people mainly talk about themselves a lot, is not something I want to do when I want to switch off and relax. So Clubhouse really does not work for me at all"
Another cheeky chappie joins from the countryside, Nick Finegold a FOUNDstar, founding two great start-ups, namely Curation and The Fat Gladiator. They are both content driven businesses, led by technology address real issues in the world, with Curation .. ESG and the Fat Gladiator anything else that Nick fancies writing stories about and doing a video on. He also deep dives on the time building Execution a massive financial disruptor in the 90’s, challenging the might of the leading investment banks, where had his early learnings of success and failure
Nick is full of gems, in this Pubcast and he has lived life, especially when considering he was inside the world trade center when the planes hit:
On Covid-19: “I am bored, stuck on a farm for a year, with your own our children is deeply unpleasant” and “Retail has to realise that 1.2m people are now selling stuff from home now in the UK.. its changed this”.
On the ills of investment banking: Where he fixed front running, through the creation of his first business, Execution. The business premise was “Lets cross large blocks of stock in a hermetically sealed transaction, like Ebay” and he admirably built a business that was cash-flow positive on the first day and he managed to sell successfully in the Sovereign Debt crisis. Something he compares “to re-arranging your garden furniture in the middle of a hurricane”
On running a business: “Is important to listen to people, but its also quite important not to listen to other people” and when you are an entrepreneur, “you don’t mind failing as well as its your failure, rather than other peoples”
On being a sole founder of business: “The Ups come in the early years and how you should never take your eye off the ball”. Nick admits he failed to stop looking forward, when successful with Execution and this destroyed the business
On Data and building datasets to segment your audience, with solution based outcomes: Which is what he evolved with Curation, Susst and the Fat Gladiator offerings. “one is for people interested in Gates and the other is for people interested in Greta”
On ESG: “Big corporate managements are getting it now and they are genuinely trying to transition”
On Reddit and Gamestop: “The weaponization of apps, the democratization of information on the internet and the socialisation of trading, all collided” and really spells the start of the end of the world of asset management. Why should one person managing billions of people’s money make this decision and not everyone”?
On Peloton: Nick bought one to enjoy the joys of working out in lockdown, and counteract the alcohol consumption
Quote of the episode:“I have made million mistakes, but they have always been made with the best intentions and how you react to them is important, is how you learn. Like going to the Monaco grand prix, getting drunk the night before and listening to the cars the following day, with a tremendous hangover”
Dan of calls in from the current Superseed HQ, in the middle of the British countryside to tell us about his Fund that invests in technical founders building business automation platforms. Or, as he tells his wife and people that don’t know the VC world, “the boring sh*t that goes on behind the Glaxo Smithkline – we love the platforms that go on in that world and change the way people .. like Payroll, HR etc. That’s what we invest in at Scale”.
Dan’s a lovable rogue, a punchy artful dodger .. and we have a good bit of banter on the hour talking about:
On the Future of Work: "I am never going back to full time in the office ever again “ and “the Technology created so far hasn’t even touched the sides in most industries, like Education, Healthcare, Insurance”.
“Covid-19 has just shone a light on the inadequacies on some industries. Its all about need and burning underpants and those that don’t change have burning underpants. Some still haven’t like Retail and Insurance. In fact, the Insurance industry is so old farty, with loads of dead wood that there are lots of great start-ups that will extinguish the burning underpants”. Dan reckons we have only just begun and some industries are still reticent to technology, even now, moving past Covid-19.
On Industry 4.0: Dan argues that Mid-sized companies in manufacturing and energy need to change and engage with new start-ups that can help them change. Dan has not seen much evidence of this so far in business automation in Covid-19. The business leaders of these businesses do not think the same as the founders Superseed back.
On Regulation: is the big bear in the world because Humans are stupid and greedy. The Government need to regulate the new economy that we are building. Getting the regulatory framework set in the UK to create innovation2
On Virtual: "No one talks about Skype anymore - what an opportunity missed in the pandemic by Microsoft here. Skype has become the MSN"
On VC investing: Decisions to invest are roughly “50% data and 50% sentiment – driven by meeting people”. He asks founders for a widget on their website that says that they are a good match, which would save founders so much time. VC will become more automated, specialised and will give more people access to it. Apply here…
On Private Equity: “is just spreadsheet stuff, its all about the deal, sell the thing. So boring”
On UK Start-Up scene: “I want the UK to be the springboard to the world, for start-up and catch with the US figurs, where we have unicorns in a year, that they have in a month. Unicorns, smoonicorns”
On US Start-Up scene: “Most of their unicorns are bullsh*t, they are all never never business models .. like Uber, WeWorks, SPACs” !
Volume: They see 5000 decks a year, 1000 of them they take seriously, through their direct, partner and scout network. “You get very good at being a very quick filter and 12 step matrix.. which sounds a bit like AA. We are very short shrift, but invest within 8 weeks”
Quote of the Pod/Vod:“When starting Superseed I said wanted a 60% success rate and his business partners said to me you are smoking crack!!! 95% of start-ups fail. We want lots of Dragons exiting for £100m”.
Staying Down-Under and keeping the distinctly antipodean flavour to the Vod/Pod or “Pub” Cast this week, we spent the next 50 minutes shooting the breeze with the masterful Christian Faes of Lendinvest, who looks tanned and healthy, as well as speaking superbly dandy, from his lockdown induced home in Queensland, Australia.
Christian is probably the most successful founder that Chris has ever got to know, in his working life and someone he longs to have a beer with again, possibly in the Ladbroke Arms in Notting Hill.
Daydreaming aside, this colourful chat, is peppered with some decent banter, that any aspiring founder and / or Fintech founder and investors, should love.
Again he is a straight talking Australian, where in this episode you’ll get to hear his pearlers on:
Where Lendinvest are in the journey …13 years in, how they’ve navigated the pandemic
He has now accepted remote working as a nimble solution for him and his team.. something he was staunchly against pre-Covid and years before, when he was the CEO of the business !!
The learnings around fundraising, both good and bad, where he speaks with experience having taken £2bn (YES - £2BN) in Equity & Debt funding.
On the Equity side this has been from some stellar names like Atomico, The European Investment Fund and Tiger in the US
Reflecting upon the Debt fundraising side, they have raised from all the big investment bank lenders, but despite all this, both founders cumulatively still own 75% of the business !!
On VC's, he alludes to how reluctant they were to engage with them in the early days of the business, but the great value, fantastic VC's like Atomico can bring to a business
For founders – Christian explains how hard, slow and painful it is to become the founder of a successful business “I do find it funny when I turn on TV and see this glamorisation of the Journey” and what he highlights the banana skins to avoid. with one being to recognise your weaknesses and delegate to become the best
We also dig into some of the superficial aspects of the sector and what goes on behind the scenes of glamour, that beset the industry and laugh about the joys of Clubhouse, that was peaking in March 2021, when we filmed this episode!
He speaks Australia..
Again, reinforcing the view of Mat of the increasing size and reach of the Australian Tech scene, but it’s still a small-closed ecosystem, the total opposite of the UK. So still get on your bikes Australians for greatness.
The Quotes of the Episode: “I look at Facebook and it took them 10 years to list and that is probably the craziest fastest journey ever”, “picking the right investor is a marriage and a statistically probably has about the same success rate as any marriage, not necessarily always great !!”
Mat of Act Capital Partners, a fascinating Melbourne based, Media focused VC called into the show in Mid-March 2021 to share some right gems of wisdom, to a early morning (coffee'd up), PJ wearing Chris and perfectly properly attired Ant. During the episode, Mat openly shared his perspective on many areas including:
The move from being a Founder to a VC and the trials / tribulations of doing this, where on one occasion he was involved a boxing match with a leading unnamed Tech giant
How timing is so important for Founders, around your first investor, your first product and also most importantly, your first piece of luck # The impact of Covid-19 where Mat references Hopin, a very successful company which is discussed at length in the episode
He delves further into his perspectives on the Future of Work and beliefs on how this Media will evolve beyond the two-dimensional experience of current virtual experiences. On the investment side, he pitches in on..
The collaborative aspects of VC & how Act Capital shares brain-power with other VC’s around the globe
The hands on approach to the Founders they work with, leveraging the power of the strong Global Media network and experience of the Partners and Principles
The topical trend of SPACs – their flaws, the Hype and lack of traction so far in Australia
# Also NFTs (not to be left out) as they were at their peak in value in March (when filming), discussing their benefits within the blockchain, in building trust & the over-arching impact of tokenisation exciting him
Finally, on the Talent Driven platforms – like Clubhouse. Mat highlights “They are good only if the person leading the conversation has talent … and few people on Clubhouse do"!
He speaks Australia, Proudly eschewing about his home scene and also highlights how diversity and inclusivity is opening up in Australia, especially assisted by Lauren @ Startmate is “doing a fantastic job”.
In conclusion… Its a fascinating chat, with a fascinating chap … a must listen/watch for any Founders or followers in the Media-Tech space especially. Plus a lovely hat-tip to Notwics at the end, from a true gent..
The Quote of the Episode: “On Black Swans, I’ve learn ’t everything plays out in cycles and this time it’s going to happen again. I think we will have another pandemic in the next 10 years. The way we are moving globally and the way we are putting pressure on the Earth, supply chains and population growth is creating unforeseen pressure on the world, which will create another Pandemic or change in weather pattern, or another velocity of unforeseen events happening. The next trillion dollar start-up will be a climate change start-up that succeeds in helping fix this”.
Cordelia Meacher is a “tour de force” in the world of Technology PR and Strategy and a true FOUNDstar, having created Fieldhouse Associates 9 years ago and driving it to become one of the leading UK agencies in the world of private Technology.
Through Cordelia’s stewardship and capabilities, Fieldhouse now lists many of the UK and Europe’s leading VC’s as clients, as well as some of the “up and coming” Technology companies, at the forefront of the digital revolution.
Her passion for Technology is un-matched and in this 45 minutes deep dive we cover a diverse range of topics including:
===> The Future of Work and her desire/balanced approach to getting the team back into the HQ in Covent Garden
===> The value of proper PR in helping Tech companies grow: launch, execute funding rounds, build teams and help with product growth
===> The understanding they have of the investment world, by working with VCs and helping them position themselves
===> The excitement that exists around the speed of Tech adoption moving forward into 2021
===> The Future of Events (Virtual, Livestreaming and Physical) and how Fieldhouse believe these could pan out in 2021
===> How Fieldhouse decides about businesses to work with?
===> Her Top tips for building a business
===> Spoiler alert – this was filmed back on the day when PM Boris Johnson presented his view for the future post lockdown
The quote of the episode: “If you can tell people what you do in 2 minutes, in language that your granny can understand” or “if you are in the pub and telling people about what you do – you use language that makes it easy to understand… avoid jargon”.
Fun episode ..from a true FOUNDstar …
George O’Connor, from Stifel Nicolaus, is a legendary figure from the world of UK Technology, being a leading UK sell-side analyst covering public Technology companies for many decades.
George has been through the highs and lows of the internet bubble (bursting), the financial crisis and in this episode talks about the new renaissance of UK Technology companies, looking to IPO in the UK in 2021 (Deliveroo, Darktrace, Revolut and many more).
George has a “Highlander” type status amongst his peers (including Chris).. as he is the “last man standing” from the golden era of UK Technology stockbroking where brokers can actually provide seasoned, factually backed, opinionated (dashed with amusement) analysis to institutional investors.
In this episode, George highlights a number of gems and advice for both founders and investors alike.
These key areas are delved into by this leading FUNDstar:
===> The Broker’s Creed
===> The impact of Covid-19 on UK Technology stocks (a dip and then recovery)
===> Critiquing the MEATY Khalifa review on Fintech – which had just come out and had been published at the time of the recording (February 2021)
===> How the Public Tech markets in the US especially, could be bubbling over
===> The meaning and value of SPACs for now and the future
===> Country living and Boats
Quote of the Episode.
“London does small Tech really, really well and London investors are far happier to put up with the bumps in the road of small, public Technology companies. There are a community of Institutional investors that get Tech and support accordingly, perhaps more encouragingly than their US peers”.
So, in conclusion, George argues that there are very strong reasons to list and grow from the UK, following in the footsteps of Sage and others, so if you want to find out why.. please listen on here
Stuart joins us from the wilds of South Devon, (in lockdown) standing up and freshly shaven, to tell us about his experience as a venture capitalist which was honed by working in several big VC’s in London. The main role was at Octopus where he ran a £45m VCT but they all provided Stuart with the experience to build his latest venture, an Enterprise Capital fund called Qantx.
Qantx is focused on backing founders in the South West of England, with their deal flow driven by Stuart’s excellent reputation and hard work supporting founders over recent years. This has been supplemented by the strong standing his local backers have as well in the region.
Stuart explains that the fund is focused on three areas that play to the strengths of the South West of England: Enabling Net-Zero, Optimising Healthcare and Monetising Data. The fund is focused on Commercial return is key, as much as the impact.
Also, he highlights importantly, it’s the first new South West fund launch, focused on active risk capital, in 15 years. The aim is to help grow some regional, national and potentially international Tech champions, following the recent successes of local hero’s ..Graphcore and Xmos.
Elsewhere in the Vodcast, Stuart’s advice also focuses on mezzanine risk (or flexible debt) – that he is an expert on, as well as the accolade of being one of the early investors into the Renewables space and finally the much-lauded big tips of dos and donts for founders.
Stuart is a busy old ferret, as well as Qantx he also discusses his work with the Royal Academy of Engineers in London and Heropreneurs, where being ex-Military, he decided to set up a business to help Servicemen build Tech businesses.
I’d also add a word of warning we go deep on age-ism, harnessing Chris’s new passion to champion Tech opportunities for oldies. These are a growing group and ignored minority that needs inclusivity !!
Finally, if you are a South West Based Founder or potentially thinking of establishing a locally-focused Tech fund, then this is a much watch / listen.
A Flat Capped and hairy David “Wolverine” Johnson, the UK Editor of Maddyness, calls in from the wilds of the Berkshire countryside, to tell us all about the joys of lockdown and how he swapped life in Harlesden for a lovely barn “doer-upper”. As well as home DIY & a fondness for electrical wiring, David updates us on the progress the leading Tech publication has come so far, including the recent launch of their new Podcast called “The Voice”, where the first series focuses on the joys of Sex-Tech!
Providing some context, Maddyness launched 10 years ago in France and its goal is to provide useful information for founders. They are the leading online media for Start-Ups in France and David joined in September 2019 to launch the UK edition of Maddyness.
Here the site aims to bring together the UK Start-up ecosystem, trying to do things in a differentiated way to other Online Tech publications. The site has had a brand re-fresh recently, to become more like a digital broadsheet and David predicts that 2021 will be the year of Greentech, with Agritech in France, in particular, really capturing his eye. He prefers for Maddyness UK to focus on the whole European ecosystem but plans to grow their local reach through offices in several European locations.
In conclusion, we have a really fascinating chat which also touches upon the number of start-ups created in Europe, starting a business in Covid-19 times, the world of VC, which is a sexier world than he thought it was and how hard and stressful it’s been to hire people during the lockdown.
Finally, as a shout out – David says: “If you are founder, just get in touch directly with David with an angle, through the social media”…
Amusingly Form are a regulation focused VC, that openly admit the pandemic (we filmed this in Lockdown 3) has actually turned them off watching the news, especially BoBo’s 5 pm Death update. On the team itself, Leo and Patrick met at the CBI which sparked their interest in setting up the first Fund in the UK / Europe, focused on Regulation, many years later. Think Tusk Ventures in the US, but with a few other twist and shakes! Their approach Is to look at investing at both the "regulatory frontier" or where "soft regulation" has the potential to give birth to new areas, like Open Banking. Patrick highlights his belief that the current desire to start businesses appears to have declined slightly due to the Pandemic and they have seen slightly less dealflow in the last year. He pinpoints this is the impact of a fear of change and lack of human contact but has high hopes for a nice confident summer, to spark optimism and a new wave of risk-taking. On other notes, the recent budget shows further evidence that the UK Government is taking a very active and interested role in the continuing evolution of the UK Digital Tech Ecosystem. We also discuss price sensitivity around valuation and how this impacts a VC building out their portfolio, as well as the difficulties of raising money for a VC, and touch upon SPACS for the first time this year. Net/net, it’s a really thoughtful session, where Patrick provides some really considered responses to help founders and funders navigate the challenges of the year ahead.
Ant and Chris talk to Stephen Kelly, the Chair of Tech Nation, a great UK institution that is helping drive and grow Digital in the UK. He discusses how now could become the golden time or age of UK Tech. Additionally, we dive into how Tech Nation is well placed as a platform to help drive UK companies to grow, scale and smash through the global barriers to become global champions. Tech Nation is a big Technology organisation, which helps UK businesses attain access to talent and capital to drive growth. At this current time, Stephen feels very positive about the year ahead, the rich pipeline of UK IPO candidates (82 Unicorns and 125 "soon-a-corns") .. that could imminently list in London. Interestingly, in this post-Brexit world, he adds that many Canadian and European Technology companies could also potentially list in London too, as the home of Tech. Stephen talks about how the Technology success stories will drive local ecosystems to emerge, which will guide future generations, something that Stephen saw during his time at Sage when this Technology success story helped drive a cluster of growth in Newcastle and the North East. He also references how we should implement the Halo effect that was evident in abundance when he built a Technology company in Silicon Valley, that he took to a Nasdaq exit. He feels there is a real opportunity for Tech Nation to help foster and grow further tech clusters in the UK, where local heroes can build momentum from their Tech leadership and the wealth it brings in universities, schools, local business and the environment to help evolve widespread growth in Tech Britain. Inclusivity throughout the whole of the UK is key around the UK as we move beyond the pandemic. In Conclusion, Tech Nation is looking to help drive and build the leaders of not just tomorrow, but the next 30-years, creating a UK Tech legacy for the future, driven by Education, Retraining, Net Zero, Innovation, better energy usage/consumption and many other initiatives they are helping shape and drive. It’s a very optimistic and encouraging talk about the future and it appears we’re in a great pair of hands with Stephen, whose passion and humbleness is in abundance throughout the chat,
My memories of Alasdair go back many years, to seeing him succeed in the world of film, winning a Bafta and he is an individual who views life as a learning curve, of which technology has featured strongly.
These life skills and understanding feature heavily in this episode, where Alasdair provides some grey hair, well actually purple hair wisdom for any founders that want to build a successful business.
In the case of the latest business, he tells us about Staark, a business born out of frustration of his middle-aged mind and body not being able to find the most perfectly fitting, stylish and cool cyclo-wear or Velo-couture.
Sick of resembling the Michelin man, whenever adorning the lycra, Alasdair and some friends from the eccentric and eclectic Groucho Club decided to fix this with technology, which creates a perfect fit.
Add into the mix sustainable eco - friendly designs and big plans for the materials to seamlessly talk to devices in the onset of 5G, this is an exciting time for the future of cycling, which Staark plans to be central to in the future.
Roll into this a backdrop of Covid prompting more and more people to cycle, to work or for leisure and fitness... it’s an exciting time to grow a clever Cycling Tech business.
Here's Alasdair to tell you more about the 1G of their plans, where they are successfully gaining support from the public on Crowdcube currently...
Oliver Finch is an Englishman in Denmark apparently the happiest country on Earth, where he works for Maersk Growth in Copenhagen.
Oliver called in to tell us more about the world of Corporate VC, through his detailed work with Maersk Growth, the ventures arm of the leading, global conglomerate, Maersk.
Oliver deep dives into his views on several interesting areas in the 50-minute Vod/Pod; naturally touching on the focus of the investment arm of this industrial giant being around supply chain and supply chain logistics.
They invest at Seed to Series A, both in Europe and the US. As a fund, they do lead or follow and do have expertise in certain areas and KPI’s like Digital Container shipping, which Oliver amusingly admits he can send people to sleep talking about this.
He also talks about how they are trying to find businesses in the UK that “do not have founders who just want a vicarage and a super-car”, but those with ambitions to go far beyond this.
The process at Maersk sounds fascinating, for the Founders that decide to work with them. The Growth vehicle and company wrap a value creation team around the chosen business to help them navigate around the giant, essentially enhancing success for all.
He also notes that they are seeing a lot more interest and engagement from US investors, rather than just curiosity, as it had been in the past, many want to actively invest or co-invest.
Like other VC’s. Oliver shares the refreshing perspective that 2021 is off to the races where rounds are being structured successfully remotely and last but not least, he also gives a lovely update on the Danish Tech scene, which is clearly on fire at the moment – with the successes of Vivino.
Ed zooms in from cosy West London, where, from his leading position as one of the best and friendliest UK VC investors, he tells us the over-riding good news, that the UK Series A scene is hot to trot. He also divulges and treats us to snippets about life during lockdown, things are moving more quickly, the magic of Albion and what’s driving their exciting start to 2021 and continuation of their successful 2020.
Ed provides astute opinions on Ed-Tech, the Future Fund, the emergence of US investors in the UK, the immense successes of the UCL Technology Fund in the Life Sciences, AI. Quantum Computing space and the wider fund in Enterprise Data space. Tips are provided for budding Fundstars and Foundstars too!
He like most of us longs for the return of normalised living and to be able to venture back to his beloved Groucho Club, his favourite social haunt in London, where he can inflict his new found skills of Jazz piano, learnt on-line in lockdown, to any unfortunate listeners (like Chris, a fellow member)!
Martina takes time out of her busy, command control centre in the Suffolk countryside to tell us about life at Featurespace, a leading UK Cybersecurity player, who recently was ranked as the 8th most important AI company in the UK, by Beauhurst.
Featurespace is a great company that is one of the pioneers of Machine Learning in the UK and their Fraud solution, born by some superb professors at Cambridge University, to become one of the fastest-growing Cyber-security businesses in the world.
Martina is a great leader who talks about the guidance of the Bill Gates of UK Tech, Mike Lynch, on her career, the top tips every Scale-Up founder needs including how to manage large global growth, recruitment and the challenges of fundraising.
She talks about agents of change, resilience and finally tells us about a brand, new patented technology that they have invented, on the Vodcast, so listen on to find out more….
Kjartan calls in from his Summerhouse in the wilds of Denmark, where we caught up with him on a Friday afternoon in late January. Naturally, Kjartan, or the “the white-haired wizard” of VC, was full of new year optimism, emphasising clearly on this Vodcast, that now more than ever is the best time to take the plunge and build a Tech company.
He touches upon how he and his partner Dennis built Concentric, to invest in software that solves real problems in traditional industries. A focus of “Need to have, rather than nice to have”.
Speaking about 2021, Kjartan identifies and opens up on many key trends, ambitions and opportunities that exist in the real world for digitalisation.
He also provides some great tips for Founders on what Concentric is looking for and how they work with Founding teams, whilst also demystifying the role of the Venture Capitalist and how it differs from the glamourous image provided by the press.
With Kjartan being a keen Liverpool fan, we can’t help but shoot the breeze on football too!
Net/net – it’s a really insightful 49 minutes, from a leading VC in the Early Stage European Technology scene
and we apologise in advance for the slight bit of feedback in parts on this Vodcast.
We chat to the wonderful Prask, by his fire, in his very cold, 800 years old, horsehair house in the wilds of the Sussex countryside, where Prask has hunkered down in with his lovely family, but continued to lead and grow his super Scale-Up, Wi5 during the pandemic.
Prask is an excellent founder, growing his business to become a significant Scale-Up in the mobile payments “order and pay” space in the last 4 years, snagging great SME clients like Pizza Pilgrims, the ETM group and many more, in this growth. 2021 represents a year of further opportunities in the US and Europe too !
Prask also talks to us about how you have to have a brutal focus, especially when providing solutions to the SME space (like the dog and duck!). On the side of the tips, he talks about leadership, culture, managing a team remotely, all caveated around growing a data-focused business where the pandemic has revolutionised and accelerated acceptance of the Wi5 offering.
It very much is a UK Tech name to watch and tipped by NOTWICS to be on the pathway to significant success in the next 3 years !
Apologies in advance - for the commercial clang for Cubitt’s Spectacles – even-though they are my favourite bins or rims!
Richard is one of NOTWICS most revered and favourite founders, a classic entrepreneur and leading businessman, which has seen SafeToNet power into the top 20 AI Scale-Ups in the UK. Richard clearly shows his passion and energy about setting up SafeToNet and the strong social purpose he feels about protecting Children-on-line.
One of the world’s biggest problems is wanting to be liked online and ascertaining as many likes as possible! Parental Controls are not the solution but a more holistic approach, provided by the behavioural analytics / Deep-Tech contextualised approach that SafeToNet offers, is. Hear more about how they do this in this fascinating overview !!
We also discuss how the Pandemic has accelerated the need for their application’s agnostic offering & the strong adoption and successes, of one of the leading AI Scale-Ups in the UK.
Richard also distils a few gems on raising money and the need not to do investment rounds, taking every meeting, managing exuberance, managing Alexa and the Connected Home, digging holes and refilling them, Chelsea Football Club and finally his new found love of facial hair.
A really great deep-dive!!
Kathy talks about Bloomberg, her time at Microsoft, and her employer Downing Ventures, where she is fast becoming one of the up and coming stars of the UK VC scene.
In this episode we touch on many interesting areas such as:
How does Downing work / Invest / interact with Founders / verticals and current focus.. it’s a big cahoona 76 investments and 140 people fund, looking at 5 companies a day.
The differences between US funds and how they work and UK Funds – amusingly how one worries about investment going to zero and the others not
2020 – and Covid has proved it’s all about product market fit. Is you are right – you’ll still be getting in front of people and getting business, albeit at a slower time line
ESG, Women in Tech and Diversity are all dear to Kathy’s heart – irrespective of being en vogue.
She’s a good egg who loves her Job and hangs out with VC’s on Saturdays, but is a keen Long boarder
Note: With apologies for the product placement for Nike, Haribo, Bloomberg and Instagram. Where you can follow us at clowe52 rather than clowe55 !
Chris Lowe of NOTWICS and Anthony Lyall of Lyall Ventures bring you the FUNDstar and FOUNDstar podcast. In this quick episode, we explain a little bit about ourselves, and what you can expect from the podcast.