Almost Founders: Recent Episodes
Michelangelo Valtancoli, Kourosh Ghaffari
The podcast for young first-time founders. Practical content about early-stage entrepreneurship with a successful founder every week. Through the eyes of two 21 years old first-time founders, we dive deep into the world of startups and learn about what it takes to succeed in a world of innovation.
Ivan Fernandez Lucas is just 22 years old, but has already founded and sold a startup and started his own VC fund Enzo Ventures. They invest into young founders working pre-seed SaaS, marketplaces and e-commerce startups. If this sounds like you, email Ivan at ivan@enzoventures.eu.Want to be matched to a group chat with 15 other startup founders? Join Waves here.
Fred Destin is the founder of £100m seed-stage tech VC fund Stride.VC. Before Stride, he was partner at Accel and Atlas Venture. He has been the lead investor and served on the board of some of the world's most exciting startups, including Deliveroo, Cazoo, Zoopla, Unibuddy, PillPack, Secret Escapes, Dailymotion, and more.
Fred is a true visionary and shared with us his thoughts on early traction and investing in student founders.
Want to join a private group chat with 10 other young startup enthusiasts? Meet Waves.
Meet and network with Alexander Buzin, Computer Science student, Senior Software Engineer and Founder & CEO of Projectium.Network.
Projectium.Network is a networking platform that helps early-stage startups connect with co-founders and contributors community. Sign up here for Projectium.Network.
Sign up here for the Projectium Discord Community.
Want to be matched to 15 other startup lovers? Join Waves for free.
Matt Clifford, Co-Founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First, the world's leading talent investor. They literally pay you to quit your job, find a co-founder and start a tech startup. The total value of the companies created through Entrepreneur First is around $3b.
Listen to Matt's Podcast here. Sign up to Matt's Newsletter here.
Want to be matched to a group chat with 15 other startup founders? Join Waves here.
Learn how Rahul Rana got his internship at Lux Capital through his book Making Moonshots, a deep-dive into the mindsets, philosophies, and strategies that are conducive to building moonshot companies. He's incredibly driven and ambitious, and only 20 years old!
Want to be added to a mini group chat of 15 student founders? Sign up to Waves.
Daniel Schreiber, Co-founder and CEO of Lemonade, $6 B Market Cap.
What you'll learn:
- The trifactor of industry attractiveness
- How to re-imagine an entire industry
- Can ignorance be valuable?
- Setting & managing expectations
Want to be added to a mini-groupchat with 15 other student founders? Apply here.
Meet and network with Michael Sikand, all the way from the University of Michigan, Michael is the founder of the exciting media brand OurFuture. Check out the OurFuture Podcast and Newsletter!
Want to be matched with 15 other student founders? Sign up to Waves here.
Fredrik Gernandt Segerby - Co-Founder at Tailify, influencer marketing platform serving 30% of all Fortune500 companies across 100 countries.
- Friends as co-founders. Smart or dumb?
- Why you should avoid using paid advertising in your early days
- When can it actually be helpful?
Want to be matched with 15 other ambitious aspiring founders? Sign up to Waves here.
Meet and network with Filippo, a last-year business student at Cass Business School that has built and grown massively his digital advertisement company Ares Advertising.
Want to be matched with 15 other ambitious aspiring founders? Sign up to Waves here.
Rupert Lee-Browne, founder and CEO of CaxtonFX - turnover of £1 billion revenue with hundreds of thousands of clients. Top 50 businesses leading Britain. Learn how he started in 2002 with £25k and a telephone.
Main topics:
- Treating customers as Kings and Queens
- How to write a case study for prospective customers
- Downsides of funding
Sign up for personalised micro-communities for aspiring founders here: WAVES.
Meet and network with Zayed Bennani. Student at the Peking University HSBC Business School, his drive and eye for opportunity has allowed him to help Moroccans staying safe throughout the pandemic with his company Elite Clean.
Check out the PHBS Student Union Podcast.
James Eder, Founder of Student Beans - over £100m saved for students.
- Learn why early monetisation is absolutely key.
Book a coaching session with James here.
Free tickets for Seedery - the largest student startup conference.
Meet and network with Alex Lempka, our member who is joining the next Entrepreneur First cohort, is studying at the University of Cambridge and University of Bath simultaneously, and is enabling athletes to prepare for their career transition.
Learn about the Entrepreneur First program.
Subscribe to Alex's Ed-Tech Newsletter.
Sam Amrani - Forbes 30u30, Founder & CEO Tamoco, Olvin (Product of the Year on ProductHunt) - HBR Advisory Council Member, ex-Wayra, ex-EE, and much more.
- How to name your startup
- How long you should spend on branding
- What are the first few steps?
Meet and network with Carlo Fedeli, our member who is transforming Seaweed into plastic.
Text him here.
Learn more about FlexSea here.
Sramana Mitra, MIT graduate, built and sold 3 AI startups, LinkedIn Influencer of the Year, founder of 1M1M.
- The harsh reality of why you shouldn't rely on VC.
- What skills to work on whilst you are a student.
- What is your unfair advantage.
Meet and network with Giacomo, student and Innovation Fellow at Warwick Business School, Google Intern and LinkedIn influencer (10,000 followers).
Sign up to his newsletter Startup Stories here!
Rick Huckstep - Chairman Digital Insurer, Founder SalesClub, Mentor Startupbootcamp, +100,000 LinkedIn followers.
How to understand your customer's perception of value through sales.
Sign up for free to the Wiser! Newsletter, a curated digest of news and stories including interviews with the founders of tech startups, a review of the top news stories in Big Tech, and a roundup of technology innovation in action.
Meet and network with Chiara, learn about the MSc Entrepreneurship at Imperial Business School and how she built two startups whilst still enrolled in her course.
Social Media Links.
Chiara: LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiara-vivaldi/)
e-Novus: LinkedIn, Website (https://e-novus.co.uk/)
Mayla Health: LinkedIn, Website (https://www.maylahealth.com/)
Grow your company more easily with Rebank, the single source of truth for your finance tools.
Arthur Favier - CEO and co-founder of Oppizi - $60m revenue. Why bootstrap? How can you save money in your early days?
Caffè Nero Co-Founder Pablo Ettinger - $480m in revenue; 1000 locations; 5000 employees.
What to do about competitors as an early-stage entrepreneur?
Nadia Michel, host and producer of the podcast The Men's Room.
What are the best questions to ask when networking? How do you formulate them?
Paola Marinone, ex-Google - Co-Founder and CEO of BuzzMyVideos, £2.5m raised and 4.5bn views on their videos.
How do we distinguish risk from uncertainty? Why is it important?
Dr. Baoli Zhao, ex-Oxford - Founder, MD of Allsee Technologies, the industry-leading manufacturers of commercial displays and digital signage solutions.
What is a product that actually adds value?
Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS)
Peking University’s HSBC Business School
One of the most elite universities in one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Jack Lomas, £15m in funding raised - Founding Member of Sensat, AI-Tech start-up.
What are some mistakes to avoid when recruiting new people?
David Stubbs, award-winning InsurTech platform - Co-Founder, and CEO of RightIndem.
How many rounds of tests do you need to go through before launching your product? When have you done enough research to convince investors that you are ready?
Gilad Gat, two Finovate Awards, 10 million users - Co-founder and CTO of TipRanks.
When do I start working on the vision? When do I start testing my hypothesis?
Sona Modi, Virgin Startup Mentor - CEO, and Founder of Gofigo.
How to understand your product's value proposition and product-market fit to find your first customer.
Alejandro Peñas, ex-McKinsey - Founder and CEO of Dosplanos.
What makes a start-up idea worth pursuing?
Chris Haley, VC - Co-founder and partner at 01Ventures
What do VCs and Business Angels look for in a founding team? Is the idea really the most important factor for success?