Building And Growing : Recent Episodes
Lucas Calleja
Lucas interviews founders and operators to provide the community with key insights about building and growing during difficult economic times.
About Paul Clark
As the Founder and Chairman of HSE Global Series, Paul is passionate about creating and delivering high-quality content and engagement services for the health, safety, and environment (HSE) industry. With over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and leadership, Paul has a proven track record of consistently winning and retaining business within a competitive marketplace, as well as establishing credibility with senior decision-makers across various sectors and regions.
About HSE Global Series
HSE Global Series connects experiences between virtual communities and live events across the UK, Europe, North America, and MENA, establishing itself as the leading events platform for HSE and Operations leaders aiming to accelerate their learning and development as industry change-makers. HSE Global Series' mission is straightforward: to champion cognitive diversity and bring together cross-industry HSE and Operations thinkers and doers, providing the sector’s leaders with a forum to share insights, shape new perspectives, and create a safer world for all.
Rather than focusing on large audiences and echo chambers, HSE Global Series emphasizes intimate discussions with open dialogue, designed to explore challenges and uncover what’s truly happening in the world of HSE. This approach builds year-long communities that transform insights into action.
Guided by expert Advisory Councils who help steer each event’s agenda, and featuring world-class speakers delivering human-centric sessions, HSE Global Series fosters a community of 60-100 strong delegations, including Heads, Directors, VPs, and Chiefs of HSE and Operations, all connected by passion and driven by change.
About iUGOiUGO specializes in tracking two essential types of data for fleets: vehicle data and driver data, with the aim of optimizing operations and improving fleet utilization. By leveraging this data, we ensure the safety of riders and drivers, enhance the speed of delivery, and elevate the overall customer service experience for Last Mile Delivery. Through real-time monitoring and analysis, we not only save costs and fuel but also improve compliance, thus gaining a competitive advantage and reducing carbon footprint. In the expanding realm of car leasing industry, in particular sharing business, our innovative strategy involves forecasting demand, offering dynamic pricing, generating real-time driving scores through advanced analytics and rewarding safe driving behaviors, based on location intelligence and safety approach. With us, car leasing becomes more than just a service—it becomes a safer and more efficient experience, all driven by technology.About Evren OzatayEvren Ozatay graduated from Middle East Technical University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2001. He also completed his master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the same university. For his PhD studies, he went to Penn State University in the United States, where he began his research on hybrid electric vehicles. After that, he returned to Turkey and started working at Ford as a research and development specialist. He took on significant roles in project development, innovations, and introducing new technologies to the company. Continuing his career, he began working at Coca-Cola, responsible for business development and sales. After working in various positions for many years, he left and became one of the co-founders of iUGO. For the past nine years, he has led iUGO's growth, the establishment of strategic business partnerships, becoming a desirable company to work for, and taking technological steps towards becoming a global company.
Alkin Akarslan, founder of Laranja and Global Golden Key, dicsusses medical tourism in Turkey and how to access international residency and citizenship opportunities.Laranja founded in 2014 provides medical tourism marketing & management support for select hospitals, small & mid size health care providers, large corporations, government entities and other instutions internationally.With a team of highly skilled professionals and partnerships in over 50 locations worldwide, Global Golden Key provides personalized solutions and expert guidance throughout the entire process, ensuring seamless access to international residency and citizenship opportunities.
About Colm Lyon
Colm Lyon is CEO and founder of fire.com – a digital payments business. He is one of Europe’s leading payments and fintech entrepreneurs. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Colm has built payment businesses, led change across the industry and supported the wider business community.
Previously Colm was the founder and CEO of Realex Payments, one of Europe’s largest and most successful online payments businesses, which was acquired by Global Payments in March 2015. Colm is a member of the UK Finance Payments Products and Services Board, Chair of the Digital PSP Group, a member of the Strategic Participant Group for the New Payments Architecture and a member of the JROC Open Banking Future Entity Working Group in the UK.
About Fire
Fire is a digital payments provider that helps businesses get paid, pay out and go digital with their payment processes.
Trusted.
Fire is regulated in the EU and UK, and we have been licensed to provide payments services for more than 10 years. We are members of payment schemes and networks across Europe and the UK and some of the largest financial institutions in the region work with us to deliver innovative solutions to their customers.
Digital.
Our payments API enables you to easily integrate your payment processes with our services, delivering automation, better reconciliation, and access to regulated services. We specialise in developing our own technology, ensuring that our solutions are not only state-of-the-art but also constant and reliable.
Payments.
Gain access to a range of payment services such as open banking payments, bank transfers, FX and debit cards. Instantly open all the Euro and Sterling accounts you need, each with its own IBAN and account number.
Fire Financial Services Limited trading as Fire and fire.com (Fire-EU) is regulated as a Payment Institution by the Central Bank of Ireland, Reference No: C58301. Registered address: Dogpatch Labs, The CHQ Building, Custom House Quay, Dublin 1, D01 Y6H7, Ireland. Registration No: 464819.Fire Financial Services Limited trading as Fire and fire.com (Fire-UK) is authorised as an Electronic Money Institution by the Financial Conduct Authority, Reference No: 900983. Registered Address: The Rise, 41 Luke Street, London, United Kingdom, EC2A 4DP. Registration No: 11549793.
About Dr. Cherif Massoud
Dr. Cherif Massoud is a key figure in dental and orthodontic care. He believes in leveraging technology to enhance the overall dental experience, making it better for patients and practitioners alike. As the CEO of BASMA.COM, Dr. Massoud focuses on equipping dentists and orthodontists with cutting-edge tools, aiming to make dental care more accessible and affordable. He advocates for the use of advanced technology not only to enhance treatment outcomes but also to transform the overall dental experience. His mission is to ensure that every dental professional has access to the best resources, thereby improving the efficiency and quality of care. By driving the adoption of innovative solutions in dental practices, Dr. Massoud is dedicated to making high-quality dental care available to more people.
About Basma.com
Basma.com is more than just an invisible aligners company; it's a pioneering team committed to transforming smiles through care and innovation. Founded by Cherif Massoud, a third-generation dentist, Basma.com aims to democratize orthodontic care, making straighter smiles accessible to all. By leveraging advanced technology and a focus on quality, Basma.com offers effective, convenient, and comfortable clear aligners tailored to individual needs. Moreover, the company prioritizes personalized care and support, ensuring every customer receives guidance and empowerment throughout their smile transformation journey.
Dan Stuart, known by his nickname 'Savage Dan', manages media relations for Boxxer, works closely with Chelsea FC and is owner of Jukebox Studios (where this podcast is filmed). Dan collaborated with WSTRN to produce their hit single In2, which peaked at number four in the UK charts.
About Sam Howie
Sam Howie, originally from New Zealand, is the Director of Enterprise Sales at Re-Leased, a pioneering cloud-based property management platform established in 2012. Sam was the first person on the ground for Re-Leased in the United Kingdom and since moving to London with his wife in 2015, Sam has played a big role in expanding the Re-Leased footprint. The company has amassed a client base of over 1,200 worldwide, with the UK market being its largest, boasting over 400 clients and working with some of the largest real estate companies across the UK and Europe. Re-Leased, supported by JLL Spark, assists various clients including landlords, managing agents, asset managers, and occupiers in managing their property portfolios via cloud technology, with offices located in London, Houston, Sydney, Auckland, and Hawkes Bay.
About Re-Leased
Re-Leased began as the idea of company founder Tom Wallace, who experienced the challenges of managing property and tenants with outmoded solutions, such as email trails and manual spreadsheets. Re-Leased builds tech products that help property managers to thrive. They create cloud-based automated solutions, easing the burden of missing critical deadlines, reducing administration and assisting compliance.
About Yogesh Juneja
Yogesh Juneja, Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire, has worked in hospitality for more than twenty years across six countries. Yogesh oversees all aspects of the hotel's operations, ensuring unparalleled luxury and unforgettable experiences for every guest.
About Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Four Seasons Hotels and Resort operates more than 120 hotels and 50 residences globally. The brand goes beyond hotels and residences, as it also operates a private charter plane, a luxury retailer and is set to launch a yacht in 2025. This podcast was shot at Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire, a luxurious hotel set across 500 acres of land and offering a range of amenities including a spa, pools and over 25 activities such as shooting and horse riding.
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Chris graduated from the London School of Economics and began a promising career in the International Development sector before stepping away to take an opportunity to become a professional boxer at the age of 24. Retiring from the ring as an undefeated professional in 2016, Chris went on to co-found a successful gym group before turning his full attention to coaching the City’s elite to gain clarity, elevate performance and bring deeper fulfilment into their stressful lives. Through debilitating injuries, the torture of self-doubt and the trials and tribulations of co-founding a seven figure business, Chris has learnt the mindsets needed to combat overwhelm and regain clarity when navigating the rocky path to success. Chris has been coaching individuals and corporates to challenge their physical and mental limits for over ten years, and is also a Keynote Speaker, cold water practitioner and active Brazilian Jiu Jitsu player.
About Roderick Schneider
Roderick Schneider is the Chief Operating Officer of Workforce.com, where the mission is to eliminate employment friction for shift and hourly workers, and reduce the global unemployment rate. Roderick has been helping front line businesses navigate tough situations since moving to the UK during lockdown. When he’s not helping restaurants and bars for work, he’s eating and drinking at them. Prior to Workforce.com, Roderick worked as a financial advisor.
About Workforce.com
Workforce.com automates labour management with smart-rotas, payroll integration, live-wage insights, onboarding and leave-management tools. The Workforce software helps to reduce labour spend and increases profitability within a business.
About Emre ErtanBefore Cenoa, Emre was Chief Product Officer / and interim CTO at Getir, (a Sequoia-backed global ultra-fast delivery company, valued at ~$12B). During his tenure, Getir grew around 20x. He had several product director/manager roles in Silicon Valley’s fast-growth companies such as Zum, Slice, Unroll.me and Feedly. He also started two VC-backed companies before and holds 2 patents. He has an MBA from Stanford and Engineering degree from Sabanci University. Before his technology career Emre played professional basketball in Turkey.About CenoaCeona is a digital financial platform dedicated to democratizing access to inflation-resistant financial security and wealth growth. Aimed at combating inflation and currency volatility, especially in high-inflation countries, Ceona provides easy, affordable access to US dollar transactions and savings, ensuring financial empowerment and the fulfillment of dreams. With a focus on innovation, efficiency, and user-centric solutions, Ceona strives to inspire and enable global financial freedom.
Eva Luitsz, Co-Founder of Studio Melrose LTD, has over 7 years of dedicated expertise in the dynamic field of marketing. Eva specialises in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), social media management, content creation, and strategic planning.
Multi-channel testing is the heart of marketing and works as a great tool to overcome budget restrictions, by helping brands prioritise what delivers the most impact. Tests shouldn’t just be reserved for paid media - companies with low budgets can test organic content across multiple channels to identify which one provides them with the greatest organic reach.
Organic content offers vast possibilities, but its success lies in value and strategy. Engaging followers requires thoughtful planning; otherwise, amidst the content deluge, you risk being overlooked - be sure to create content that aligns with audience interests instead of being too salesy. While there is a place for influencer marketing and advertising, organic content is a great way to keep costs low and grow your community through valuable content.
🚀 Insurtechs: the typically paper and process driven insurance industry sprouted insurtechs as a result of advances in technology, the internet of things (e.g. FloodFlash’s water level sensor) and improved data processing capabilities (e.g. Flock's leverage of telematics to provide quotes). They’ve resulted in a number of benefits for end-customers, notably data driven pricing that correlates more accurately to risk profiles, improved UX (e.g. Superscript's digital broking process) and insurance for companies and asset classes that previously might not have been eligible for policies.
💡 What’s next: we can expect to see more data driven policies emerge to serve those who weren’t previously insurable e.g. satellite data being used to map out housing areas in emerging markets and more data driven pricing. Democratising access to historical loss data will likely lead to policies being priced based upon actual events as insurers will have a better understanding of their exposure e.g. if a driver was previously involved in three crashes, was their behaviour responsible for any or were they not at fault?
💨 Headwinds: during the past couple of years there was a huge amount of pressure on insurtechs to scale their customer numbers, while in the past few months we’ve seen consolidation in the industry as investors look for sustainable insurance fundamentals. In the past, insurance sales cycles to startups were delayed by startups waiting for regulation, whereas now they’re delayed by startups waiting for funding.
About the guests
Mark Robinson is the National Sales Manager for Superscript's advisory and broking service. With over 20 years experience in the insurance industry, Mark is a specialist in technology-based risks.
Nyasha Kuwana joined FloodFlash as Head of Product in 2019 before becoming Commercial Director in 2023. Nyasha oversees FloodFlash UK sales and broker relations as well as the global claims team - setting a company record in 2022 with one claim paid in full in just 3 hours and 50 minutes.
Will Faulks is Head of Data Science and Actuarial at Flock. A qualified actuary working in the Motor Fleet space, using data to predict, prevent, and understand the risks of accidents.
Lewis is a Director at Rothschild & Co Wealth Management. Prior to joining Rothschild & Co in 2014, he began his career in the Wealth Management department at Barclays, having graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc in Economics. He has worked in London and New York over the past decade but now leads the Rothschild & Co office in Manchester.
Areas mentioned on this recording are general information and not a recommendation to act. Please seek independent investment advice before entering into any financial transaction
As the year comes to an end, Lucas Calleja who normally hosts the podcast, stepped into the guest's seat and was joined by James Horrax who kindly hosted the podcast!
They discussed key developments and items that were brought up by guests. Here are three key themes from 2023 that we reflected on:
Pathways to profitability: it was a make-or-break year for many startups, as funding and higher valuations became more difficult to access if pathways to profitability were not clearly demonstrated to investors. VCs themselves have faced difficulties raising from LPs and M&A activity between VCs is on the cards.
Leveraging real-time data: the spotlight on real-time data has been relentless, and we've explored its significance extensively on the podcast across the insurtech, health and safety, wholesale FX and marketing industries amongst others. In a rapidly evolving landscape, real-time data is not just power anymore - it's survival.
Creating quality content: the year showcased an emphasis on quality across creating content, engaging with communities and customers. Cold email and LinkedIn outreach has become saturated particularly with AI generated copy. Companies are creating a pull effect through quality content that is not sales like, but rather delivers value to the communities and stakeholders they engage with - examples include checklist infographics, comprehensive guides, video content and hosting thought leadership events.
Andrea Guzzoni is a serial entrepreneur and investor: Founder and Chairman of easyHire, Andrea invests and advises early-stage startups, focusing on SEIS-EIS UK-based companies and tech ventures in emerging markets. After building up international experience across Milan, London, Australia, Ukraine, and Tanzania, Andrea is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at Oxford University. Andrea is also a Business Mentor at TechItaliaLAB and a Board Member at Mimete, a metal powders producer. Beyond business, Andrea completed a solo world tour from Iceland to Machu Picchu and is a devoted father and a skilled beekeeper.
Outlier Ventures is the global leading Web3 accelerator, supporting founders building on layer one and layer two protocols with a portfolio of over 270 companies. During its Basecamp accelerator program, Outlier Ventures partners with global industry protocol leaders, including Aptos, NEAR, and Polygon, along with leading global corporations such as Walmart’s incubation arm Store Nº8, to design bespoke programs by its team of experts that help refine business strategy, product-market fit, community growth, token design and governance as well as investor and mentor networks.
The Basecamp accelerator program is highly competitive. It offers tailor made support, coaching and network introductions for Web3 founders over a three month period. The program is delivered fully remotely, allowing founders from around the world to join. This is particularly useful for those in emerging markets where blockchain use cases are emerging in response to economic and social needs.
Post-program, founders have the opportunity to pitch to investors and receive ongoing support from Outlier Ventures through the Demo Day. Outlier Ventures provides funding and its in-house team of experts and network in exchange for equity. For further information on the program structure go here.
About Fabio Maffioli
Fabio Maffioli serves as the head of Outlier Ventures’s accelerator program called Base Camp, the globally renowned Web3 accelerator with a diverse portfolio of over 270 companies. In this key role, Fabio is responsible for overseeing the execution of Outlier Ventures' accelerator program, playing a crucial role in ongoing investments in top-tier Web3 enterprises. Simultaneously, he ensures the delivery of an unparalleled service to founders and partners.
Running a team of in-house Program Managers and Associates, Fabio directs the strategic vision and operational support for founders throughout the program, refining Outlier Ventures' accelerator program delivery and elevating the partner management strategy. Prior to Outlier Ventures, Fabio successfully led Facebook's accelerator program, shaping its strategy and managing EMEA Startup programs. His expertise also extends to his previous role as a Senior Program Manager at Techstars.
Enis and Lucas discuss the opportunities and risks associated with investing in emerging markets.
Enis Hulli is a General Partner at 500. Educated as an engineer he has a firm grasp of the technological aspect of the startup world and the ambition and knowledge to see the global potential in the regional startup scene. That is why, rather than venturing on the civil engineer path, he founded firstseed, a network of investors focusing on early stages investments. He aims to cultivate and grow the startup ecosystems in Emerging Europe, help talented entrepreneurs of the broader region and the diaspora in building explosive businesses that will integrate with Silicon Valley. His goal is to position 500 as the leading actor in the region in order to re-shape the future of innovation at Emerging Europe.
500 EE is an early-stage fund within the 500 Global network, a leading global venture capital seed fund and startup accelerator with over 2,600 investments in more than 75 countries and venture partners in more than 25 countries. 500 EE's mission is to back seed-stage technology companies targeting sizeable markets and help them scale globally. Launched in August of 2016, 500 EE has 60 portfolio companies that have collectively raised more than $1B from international investors.
Melvin Chen is an investor and serial entrepreneur, having worked across multiple sectors in the investment and scale up technology industries including Goldman Sachs, Terra Firma and Samena Capital working on financing, StarLake where he advised firms expanding to and raising money from Asia before joining Latch to focus on go-to-market during their hyperscale journey to IPO.
Forming a new market expansion strategy requires businesses to quantify and rank market potential, to ensure that a product will be able to meet growth goals and help the company to raise capital at the right rate. Typically this means that a company must define clear market positioning and find differentiated value proposition before entry and then aim to grow rapidly yet sustainably in the early years.
Sales strategies should always be lead gen and funnel driven, but each strategy will differ based upon company size. SMEs may power their funnel through adwords and social media, mid-large companies bring on SDR functions, sales teams, customer success and marketing while enterprise and strategic sales focus on longer sales cycles with account based marketing, multi-year sales cycles and annual contract values in the millions. Revops teams play a critical role in helping leadership to deliver revenue optimization and predictability in larger organizations, by focusing the organization on the key KPIs and a data drive approach to growth.
About FloodFlash
FloodFlash is a multi-award-winning insurance technology company at the forefront of the parametric insurance movement. Launched in the UK 2019 and in the US in 2022, their rapid-payout flood product provides coverage to businesses, corporates and municipalities that struggle to secure flood terms anywhere else. They use the latest in data modelling and IoT technology to provide fast and flexible cover that pays claims in record times. FloodFlash is a registered coverholder at Lloyd’s of London and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
About Nyasha KuwanaNyasha Kuwana joined FloodFlash as Head of Product in 2019 before becoming Commercial Director in 2023. Having developed customer propositions at insurance giants Aviva and AXA Nyasha more recently applied her skills as a consultant, working with multiple insurtech and fintech startups. Nyasha oversees FloodFlash UK sales and broker relations as well as the global claims team - setting a company record in 2022 with one claim paid in full in just 3 hours and 50 minutes.
Kyle is the Co-Founder of pb+j, an award-winning eCommerce growth agency, named after a sandwich. Over the past decade, he alongside his Co-Founder Tom, and a crew of Jammers, have helped 100's of mid-market, founder-led DTC brands pour gasoline on the fire of their first $1mil+ to reach new heights of $10mil, $20mil, $30mil+, all on Shopify (Plus). Kyle is also a very proud dad of two, partner to an incredibly talented classical soprano, and a Canadian currently based in the British countryside
Kota is building a platform to help companies manage employee benefits and insurance. Issuing benefits to employees involves a magnitude of tools that are often offline and manual, making it difficult for both HR teams and new employees! Kota can offer cover across 30 countries in Europe to streamline their employees’ experience.
Traditionally employees would have to fill in forms and HR teams would engage in back and forth with brokers, meaning insurance policies and pensions would take days or weeks to be issued to new joiners. Kota’s integrations with partners such as Irish Life and Smart Pension allow its clients to enroll new staff into benefits in seconds, and then sync the data through to various HRIS tools such as Workday, Personio and HiBob.
There are also options for companies who may struggle to provide full benefits to employees, who can offer a contribution towards a benefits plan should employees wish to sign up. This can serve as an entry point for growing businesses, and allows for flexibility between employer and employee contributions for a range of benefit products.
About Adrian Fagerlund
As Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder of Linkby, Adrian oversees global business development, sales, and revenue growth across its key markets of Australia, US, UK, Canada and SEA.
He leads Linkby’s global sales team and is passionate about building and fostering high-performance teams that drive scalable business growth with customer experience at the heart.
Adrian has extensive digital media and publisher sales experience. Prior to Linkby, he held various sales leadership roles at Australia’s biggest publishing brands including Nine Entertainment Co and Pedestrian Group.
About Linkby
Linkby allows brands to expand their editorial coverage on a performance basis using CPC & CPM to create new content and distribute it across US, CA, UK, SEA and Australia's top publishers including the likes of Daily Mail, Meredith, Bustle, G/O Media, Vice, R29 and many more.
Linkby has successfully opened the world of premium publishing up to a new world of brands by providing a performance-based, measurable, fast and truly scalable way to work with publishers. In doing so we have secured millions of dollars of incremental revenue for over 300 publishers across the globe.
Ben's journey began at NatWest, in treasury & capital management. He then ventured into the fast-paced realm of RBS' investment bank, focusing on the intricate world of interest & FX risk management and became a corporate bank director, where he led the banking relationships with enterprise and SME customers. A change of scenery brought him to Barclays, where he lent his expertise to their SME Remediation programs. In 2013, Ben decided to pivot, launching his own FCA-regulated advisory company to empower SMEs by helping them demystify their banking needs. Fast forward to 2018, and Ben joined Receipt Bank (now known as Dext), where he led multiple Product Squads. His passion lies in nurturing R&D teams, leveraging Product Ops and OKRs, and driving M&A expansion. Ben is now in charge of product, tech, and IT at Pearson Ham Group.
David Cava is an AI engineering manager and a musician and song writer. Even though he studied a Master in Aerospace Engineering (Imperial College), music is his guilty pleasure.
Right after his master's he started travelling to Miami while working as an engineer in London, to write with some of the best songwriters in the Latin music scene. Now, he is pursuing his musical career as a songwriter and solo artist with millions of plays in his songs and collaborating with some of the biggest names in the Latin industry such as Juan Magán.
David is also an entrepreneur at heart. He was the founder of an AI consultancy company that had amongst its clients the best glass artist in the world. And today, alongside his AI engineering job and musical project, he is developing the brand and marketing for his father's trading firm, reaching more than 150,000 subscribers and a monthly engagement of more than 2 million viewers in just a year.
About AbbeyCross
AbbeyCross is developing a wholesale marketplace to improve transparency, compliance, pricing, and service levels for payments to Emerging Market (EM) countries. Historically, a lack of relevant market data and a fragmented and inefficient wholesale market has meant that margins for payments to EM countries can be over 5%. AbbeyCross’ product roadmap has been developed through a process of co-creation with banks and EM payment providers, with a focus on benefiting the whole ecosystem. While Fintechs have traditionally found it difficult to engage banks, AbbeyCross is showing that there are large scale problems that banks are motivated to solve with the right Fintech partner.About Mike RobertsonMike has over 20 years of experience in transactional banking and holds an MBA from Hult International Business School. Working at Bank of America, HSBC and RBS, Mike grappled with the problems that banks and payment companies face in the emerging markets.About Adrian BrownAdrian has 25 years of experience in legal, banking and fintech roles. Adrian holds a BA/LLB from the University of Tasmania in Australia. Adrian was Head of Transactional FX Products at RBS and Head of Commercialization for FX Payments at BNP Paribas. More recently, he was Managing Director, EMEA for Buckzy Payments. Adrian remains on the Board of Buckzy Payments UK and has acted as an advisor to three other international payments startups.
Harjas and Lucas discuss the story behind Shares, a social investment app. Shares aims to connect users with their existing network and bridge the education gap in investing, by allowing them to communicate and share insights about their investment decisions within the app. Harjas discusses how Shares was founded, the infrastructure that sits behind it and its European expansion plans.
About Harjas SinghHarjas Singh has been building digital financial products and services used by millions of users for over 6 years. As Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Shares, he is responsible for Product Development, Growth and Expansion, where his first priority is the launch and continuous development of the mobile application. Most recently, Harjas spent two years leading the retail investing product at Revolut, a London-headquartered global fintech valued at $33 billion (July 15 2021 Reuters). Prior to this, he gained in-depth knowledge of building trading systems during his time at Deutsche Bank, where he spent four years as an engineer modernising the incumbent's technology. Harjas graduated in 2015 from Virginia Tech, majoring in Computer Science.
Tom and Lucas discuss the importance of leadership hires to help start-ups and scale-ups win. Startups often struggle with slow or inaccurate executive search campaigns that can take 120 days to close plus on average in Europe another 90 days to get the person in a seat, at times with the wrong profile and with a sizeable fee (around 30% of a competitive package) being paid out to external recruiters. Introed helps solve this problem by providing start-up founders with a self-serve toolkit that emphasizes the importance of understanding key factors when selecting potential operators. the failure rate in the tech start-up industry has remained consistently high around 85% for the past 20 years, however, serial entrepreneurs are 67% more likely to succeed vs. first-time founders. Nailing the fundamental steps from conception to success is key, and patterns exist regardless of the industry or business size - this is where leadership comes in and is so important.
About Thomas Pyle
Tom spent 12 years working side by side with founders and executives, scaling up some of Europe's most exciting and successful start-up and scale-up organisations from Badoo/Bumble in social media and dating to bunq in neo-banking. Tom is now the co-founder of Introed, with a simple mission, "help more start-up and scale-up founders win". Giving them access to the right leadership talent, in the right form at the right moment. Introed is breaking the status quo of leadership and executive search in early-stage companies.
Nicola and Lucas discuss the importance of startups building a strong legal foundation, a team which complements each other and what investors look for from startups from a governance perspective.
About Nicola McConville
Nicola is a Partner in Mischon de Reya’s Corporate Department with particular experience in advising companies and investors on funding rounds from seed through to exit. Nicola advises startups on how to structure investments effectively, particularly in sectors like health tech, AI, and quantum tech. On the investor side Nicola advises venture capital funds, including VCTS and EIS funds, as well as venture builders, Family Offices and business angels, both from the UK and overseas, helping them to navigate and de-risk their investment through appropriate structures and documentation.
Ken and Lucas discuss Ken’s experience working in commercial roles at fintechs and banks, his current focus of building a VC for SaaStock and the intersection between VC, sales and partnerships.
About Ken Thomas
Ken is a New Yorker building a venture capital fund here in London. He also helps companies exit and build commercial partnerships. Before coming to London, he worked in traditional banking with banks like HSBC. Since moving to London in 2020 during the pandemic, he worked for two fintechs while completing two master degrees. His main goals are to help build up founders and get to the next level.
About Adheeb Rifdi
Adheeb is a sales and revenue operations leader, having worked at multiple scale-ups including Flock and Mulesoft. At Flock, Adheeb initially led sales before aligning all revenue-generating functions towards company OKRs, while at Mulesoft in a revenue operations role. At Mulesoft, Adheeb helped organisations change and innovate faster by making it easy to connect the world’s applications, data, and devices through the use of APIs as an account executive.
About Flock
Flock is a fully digital fleet insurance company that provides connected vehicle fleets (cars, vans, and trucks) with insurance to enable and incentivise safer driving. It leverages millions of miles of driving data, environmental data, accident and crime data to predict, price, and reduce vehicle risks.
About Sarah Hiraki As Smartly.io’s Head of Creative for EMEA & APAC, Sarah collaborates with the world’s biggest advertisers to drive creative innovation and #worksmartly to reach audiences with more agile, meaningful and effective ads. At Smartly, she is known for her work with clients on short form video, dynamic creative workflows, and elevating brands in emerging channels. A distinctly digital creative, Sarah is a specialist in an ultra-nimble creative approach pioneered with clients like Google, and honed a decade of digital agency and industry experience. Prior to Smartly.io, she spent 6 years at EssenceMediacom, working on campaigns for Google, including the award-winning Project Pegasus. Sarah is proud to be a content creator on TikTok (@sarahhiraki) where she dissects advertising, cultural and media trends through the lens of social justice, race and gender.
About Smartly.ioSmartly.io is one of the world’s largest SaaS digital advertising platforms, managing nearly $5B in ad spend with 700+ brands worldwide. Our leading end-to-end technology and outstanding customer service help brands such as Walmart, FanDuel, L’Oreal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Nestle, and Disney/ESPN to better reach audiences, engage creatives and learn what performs best—consistently driving scale for brand and performance across the largest media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Pinterest, TikTok, and Google.
Ben Stocken
Ben is the founder and Managing Director of West Peak. His work over the last 20 years has enabled teams and businesses to achieve far more than they believed was possible before they met him. His background as an adventurer, performance coach for England Rugby and subsequent people and organisational development roles across industries have given him an unrivalled skillset when it comes to rapidly enabling groups to become high performing teams. Today he leads the fastest growing team of leadership development experts in the UK (West Peak), who are helping leaders change the game.
West Peak
West Peak are the go-to Leadership and Team Development Consultancy for businesses looking to grow, increase performance and engagement beyond what they currently believe is possible. Their fun, challenging and scientifically backed practical approach leads to lasting results.
Eva Piskadlo is a lifestyle Influencer and Blogger based in London. Eva has worked with an array of luxury hotels and restaurants worldwide, including the Edition Hotel group, The Mandarin Oriental, Belmond Hotel Group, The Four Seasons, The Royal Mansour and MGM Hotels. She has also partnered with exciting brands and tourism boards such as Lavazza for their iconic Wimbledon and Royal Ascot sponsorships, Go Turkiye, Visit Malta, San Pellegrino for their BAFTA partnership, and BMW for their ‘Living with Electric’ Campaign. Eva is also a freelance writer for her own blog and CSP Times, a Hong Kong expat luxury lifestyle publication.
About Superscript Superscript provides tech insurance for the bold, brave and ambitious. Based in London's square mile, Superscript has rebuilt insurance - driven by transparent, digital processes, with an expert human touch when you need it - so startups, scaleups and grown ups can go all in on growth. As a venture-backed Lloyd's broker with specialists across key tech verticals like digital assets, fintech, medtech and AI, they know what it takes.
About Mark Robinson Mark Robinson is UK and Europe Solutions Lead for Superscript's advisory and broking service. With over 20 years experience in the insurance industry, Mark is a specialist in technology-based risks.
Stephanie and Lucas discuss Recurly, the world of subscriptions and enterprise marketing, focusing on customer retention, streamlining user experience and taking a multi-channel approach towards marketing.
About Recurly Recurly offers a comprehensive suite of services that covers the entire spectrum of subscription management, from acquisition to retention to scaling. With Recurly, businesses can optimise their subscription growth strategy, achieve industry-leading revenue recovery, and significantly reduce involuntary churn.
About Stephanie Johnson Stephanie is a marketing leader at Recurly, having previously worked in multiple different industries including fashion, hotels and marketing. Stephanie has gained a significant amount of experience in branding, PR and enterprise marketing.
Joe and Lucas discuss how to scale recruitment companies while prioritising customer experience, collaboration and maintaining the right values. Joe discusses the importance of recruitment companies proving their worth during difficult economic cycles, the challenges the hospitality industry has faced post-Brexit and the importance of businesses focusing on profit (or revenue if they've just raised).
Joe Curtis is a co-founder of 11 Investments and Recruiter Labs. 11 Investments is a seed-stage investment and accelerator program based in London, exclusively for recruitment businesses.
Eva and Lucas discuss the challenges faced by early-stage founders, the importance of building out a personal brand and the Block Dojo incubator program.
About Eva Dobrzanska
Eva Dobrzanska helps early-stage founders grow their businesses and raise capital better with strategic advice on equity fundraising strategies, investor outreach & targeting, scaling a business and expanding internationally, and accessing the right funding. Eva is also a top LinkedIn voice and frequently publishes useful resources for early-stage founders and operators.
Ammar and Lucas discuss Finalrentals, which enables small and medium car hire companies to transform their operations and distribute via online channels across the world. The car rental market is fragmented, with local SMEs representing more than 50% of the market. Finalrentals and its franchisees now serve more than 32 countries, bringing low-cost car rental solutions to consumers from Wales, to the UAE and USA and many more.
Franchisees receive access to a CRM system that is specifically designed for the car rental network, allowing them to see bookings, customer information, legal documents, and revenue reports in real-time. They can control their inventory and understand how they are priced relative to their competitors. Franchisees also receive exclusivity for their area, to ensure that there is no market cannibalisation between franchisees.
The incremental revenue uplift per franchisee per month is £15,000 to £95,000 - a huge impact that is derived from access to new distribution channels, improved conversion flows and increased retention (previously 18% of customers would never return).
About Ammar
Ammar Akhtar is the Founder and CEO of Finalrentals which is based in Cardiff. UnitedKindgom a car rental brand and a digital eco system, currently operating in 32 countries andexpanding. In 2022 alone the brand has expanded to 14 countries under the leadership ofAmmar.
He is the winner of the prestigious Gulf Capital MEED Award for his contribution to thedigital car rental eco system the UAE. Nominated as top 5 disruptors to watch out for bySME Advisor in 2019. 2020. Entrepreneur magazine also nominated him as entrepreneur of the year 2019-2020 and he is the winner of prestigious the Poland Prize by Techseed by ministry of economicdevelopment in Gdansk Poland.
Ammar is the brain behind the online booking systems for Budget, Thrifty, Dollar and manyother companies in the UAE including Udrive in the Middle East. Ammar’s dream is to make car rental reservations as easy as renting a movie from Netflix or ordering food from Deliveroo. Last but not the least he would like to eradicate poverty as much as possible across the world and would love aspiring entrepreneurs find the right guidance and purpose of their organization. He is currently expanding his dream and his organization through his Cardiff HQ and the company is now backed and funded by Welsh Government and Fuel Ventures.
Stuart and Lucas discuss how RiskTalk collects conversational data to help build safer and more efficient workspaces. Conversational data has many advantages relative to paper checklists such as the ability to measure vocal data points such as tone, confidence and glottal movements. The casual manner in which data is collected allows management to identify risks that are discussed amongst team members before paperwork is submitted, and also to provide proactive support for team members that might be experiencing emotional distress. The intersection of conversational data points and machine learning will be of particular interest to insurance companies that look to minimise payouts by helping their clients be data driven and identify leading indicators of accidents and incidents.
About Stuart Farquharson
Stuart brings 15 years of experience in improving safe systems of work to RiskTalk. He started his career with large mining organisations before working across a range of heavy industries specialising with a focus on action based safety. Stuart’s passion for improving safety through innovation and tapping into the expertise of workers on the ground led him to develop RiskTalk. As MD, his deep understanding of the industry enables him to produce the best safety outcomes for companies by making use of their inherent strengths.
About RiskTalk
Transforming outdated paper-based systems and electronic forms, RiskTalk uses intuitive voice technology to foster an engaging safety culture through conversation in organisations around the world, bridging the gap between management and workers on the ground.
Ray and Lucas discuss how Ufurnish.com aims to solve the problem of finding furniture online by aggregating retailers into one platform and providing valuable consumer insights. Inspired by the likes of Rightmove and Auto Trader, ufurnish.com operates as a marketplace, working with leading brands to serve consumers across the UK.
ufurnish.com is the UK's leading search and comparison website for home furniture and furnishings. Used by over 8m UK consumers, ufurnish.com brings 100+ furniture retailers and all their products onto one website to make search simple. Discover products from high street retailers such as John Lewis, Dunelm and M&S alongside small, independent retailers like French Bedroom, Arthauss and Rockett St George.
Ray Wright is an Australian Tech Entrepreneur based in London and co-founder of ufurnish.com. Ray and his wife, Deirdre Mc Gettrick, founded ufurnish.com after purchasing their first home together. They identified a clear need for a solution that would revolutionise the furniture market. Using his 20 years of technical and commercial experience, Ray leads ufurnish.com's go to market proposition in developing the company's brand and commercial offering.
Firat and Lucas discuss Large Language Models (LLM), which powers ChatGPT and Bard. They discuss trends in the space, notably the emergence of industry specific LLMs that can dive into deep levels of detail within their particular vertical e.g. a radiology specific LLM that assists with diagnosis, and the fact that LLMs will lead to higher expectations from the workforce e.g. one analyst may be able to complete the work of three analysts by instructing LLMs to build and maintain financial models. They also discuss ChatGPT's emerging position as a key distribution channel for companies, rivalling Google search (both native and paid), and the speed at which AI is developing, which brings both good and bad!
James and Lucas discuss strategic communications and the importance of understanding people's motivations and addressing their challenges, both in the business and political spaces. They discuss the importance of the consistent repetition of simple messages in order to build trust, a multi-channel approach to address different audiences and how to ensure firms don't get pigeonholed, that is just being recognised for one business line or aspect of their service.
About James Horrax
James is a strategic communications and campaigns specialist. With a political campaigning background, James has also worked as a management consultant in the financial and professional services space. He has a wealth of experience in advising governments, start-ups and scale ups, SMEs, large corporate, HNWIs and private clients. James’ expertise encompasses profile development, crisis and reputation management and stakeholder engagement.
About Yellow Jersey PR
Yellow Jersey PR is a boutique, multi-award-winning communications consultancy, with offices in London, Leeds and Zurich, built to help clients navigate the increasingly complex and fast-changing arenas of business, finance and society. We are shaped by our values, owned by our team, and chosen by clients with purpose. With a global client base, we take a fully integrated approach to our engagements through four practice groups: Corporate PR; Financial PR; Investor Relations; and Digital+Design.
Enis and Lucas discuss 500 Emerging Europe and their work investing in local entrepreneurs to build global businesses. 500 invest in entrepreneurs who think globally and are willing to move to the US to build businesses for the higher tech markets in the west. Enis explains how 500 actively source and build up their funnel to have an advantage when it comes to deal flow, how ChatGPT is increasing the quality of work and the attractiveness of B2B startups when tackling the US market.
Enis Hulli is a General Partner at 500. Educated as an engineer he has a firm grasp of the technological aspect of the startup world and the ambition and knowledge to see the global potential in the regional startup scene. That is why, rather than venturing on the civil engineer path, he founded firstseed, a network of investors focusing on early stages investments. He aims to cultivate and grow the startup ecosystems in Emerging Europe, help talented entrepreneurs of the broader region and the diaspora in building explosive businesses that will integrate with Silicon Valley. His goal is to position 500 as the leading actor in the region in order to re-shape the future of innovation at Emerging Europe.
500 EE is an early-stage fund within the 500 Global network, a leading global venture capital seed fund and startup accelerator with over 2,600 investments in more than 75 countries and venture partners in more than 25 countries. 500 EE's mission is to back seed-stage technology companies targeting sizeable markets and help them scale globally. Launched in August of 2016, 500 EE has 60 portfolio companies that have collectively raised more than $1B from international investors.
Pablo and Lucas discuss the importance of accepting local payment methods when expanding into new markets in Latin America, particularly Brazil, whilst managing currency risk and maximising sales. Pablo shares valuable insights for businesses entering the Brazilian market, emphasizing the importance of strategic partnerships and leveraging influencers for marketing success.
Pablo Klein founded Primefy, a cross-border payment solution supported by the Department for Business & Trade of the UK Government. He previously managed teams at Shopify, Booking.com and Tide Bank, scaling payments-related products.
Alia and Lucas discuss how RegTech companies and AI have helped fintechs and the banking industry to scale whilst mitigating risks. Alia explains the fundamentals behind the types of due diligence financial institutions are required to complete, what types of responsibilities institutions and compliance individuals face and the importance of ensuring that RegTech promotes financial inclusion.
Alia is a qualified risk and compliance professional with over a decades' experience working with global financial institutions and Fintechs advising on legal, risk and compliance processes to deliver cross business innovative control solutions.
Completing her undergraduate in Law from the London School of Economics and Legal Practice Course followed by a Masters of Law from BPP University, she started her career in criminal law as a trainee solicitor. With a mission to proactively disrupt organised crime and help reduce the myriad of financial crimes taking place, she transitioned to a career in financial crime and regulatory compliance working at Lloyds Bank, HSBC, Qatar National Bank, Oaknorth, Revolut and Algbra, to be at the frontline in combating financial crime risks and safeguarding organisations and communities from being used and abused by organised crime groups.
As part of the Global Regulatory Affairs team at ComplyAdvantage, Alia acts as an SME and Practice Lead to support the product, marketing and commercial teams strategise the building of world leading financial crime detection tools and is the 'voice of the customer' as Customer in Residence.
Alex discusses his latest project Appeggio, and how it was inspired by previous banking and IT experiences gained whilst building multiple neobanks and growing multiple traditional banks and corporations. Appeggio aims to democratise enterprise grade development for everyone, through its no-code platform, unlocking code reuse, multi-platform deployment and server-less infrastructure.
Alex Twigg is a fintech pioneer, who we think holds the record for helping to launch the most neobanks in the world at 5, Egg, UBank, Judo Bank, Trust Bank and Alex Bank, across the UK, Singapore and Australia.Alex has been recognised in Fintech Asia’s most influential 100 and in Australia's top 50 CIO’s for his part in the creation of the world’s 1st fully operational cloud native bank, Judo Bank. Not owning a single server or employing a single developer the bank was built by bolting together 50+ software as a service platform in less than 18 months to create a fully capable end to end banking platform, the strategy for which, nicknamed #everythingasaservice, has been written up as a academic case study, 'How Everything-as-a-Service Enabled Judo to Become a Billion-Dollar Bank Without Owning IT'.
Together with Professors Breidbach and Joshi from UQ and Wake Forest Universities, respectively, he has continued research into the evolution of the Judo Bank, EaaS strategy, with particular emphasis on the ESG benefits. And building on his EaaS experience, together with cofounder James Ladd, is building Appeggio, an enterprise grade no-code platform, conceived to make everyday people application development superheroes, by delivering #experienceasaservice. Creating the freedom from the bottlenecks between designers, product owners and developers, to spend spend more time collaborating in meaning ways and providing everything you need to securely host, run and maintain your creation. Without ever having to ever know what a server is, or write a single line of code. Along the way Alex became a graduate member of the Australian Chartered Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia.
Marcus Joseph-Strych, co-founder and CEO of Bond, and Lucas Calleja discuss the story behind Bond. Bond are building overnight deposit facilities for electronic money institutions to deposit client money while building corporate investment rails through a simple API, vertically integrating into their client’s treasury with the long term aim to establish themselves in the investment arena alongside other well known heavyweights leveraging their core base of AUM from underserved digital clients.
Jake and James discuss how they founded Epigroup and grew it to become a leading professional services firm. They discuss the importance of focusing on the how during project delivery, investing in the right employees and culture, as well as how they provide risk management and assurance services to help to improve health and safety in businesses in Australia.
Epigroup was founded in 2012 by two friends, Jake Cole and James Teakle, with a vision to simplify workplace health and safety (WHS) and make it easier for businesses to ensure the safety of their employees. Today, with a head office in Western Australia, Epigroup is a leading WHS brand with a team of professionals and an in-house multimedia team working towards creating healthier and safer workplaces. From WHS consulting to custom digital training, Epigroup takes the guesswork out of your project.
David Foreman is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Praetura Ventures, the award-winning, Manchester-based VC which has raised £140m since 2019 and invested in 50 businesses to date. Outside of capital, Praetura Ventures is known for providing More Than Money to exceptional early-stage founders across tech and life sciences, including Northern success stories like Peak, Culture Shift, XR Games and BankiFi. An active and outspoken voice, David regularly provides comment and opinion on VC and is highly passionate about the North of England’s place on the global stage, often speaking to government and spearheading the region at major events. Outside of VC, David is also the co-founder of Praetura Group, which has grown to 150 people and £550m AUM and includes the Praetura Lending Division.
In 2022, Praetura Ventures published ‘What’s Powering the Powerhouse?’, a deep dive into the North of England’s funding landscape, as told by early-stage founders, investors and ecosystem champions in the region. The research presents the facts on funding in the North, with contributions from over 300 founders and stakeholders and words from the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bruntwood, The Sunday Times, Bionow and a host of major contributors.
Download it for free here
Cam Sinclair founded Ammo, a fast-paced growth marketing team geared towards working with tech startups, after an extensive career in the political sphere.
Cam and Lucas discuss the similarities between marketing and political campaigning, diving into a number of different strategies that are used across both.
Benjamin Small, partner manager at Superscript, discusses his background in FX brokerage, how Superscript is creating value for VCs and tech firms, and all things partnerships! Lucas and Ben discuss the key success factors of a partnership, how partnerships differ depending on who they are e.g. high-net worth advisor vs. influencer and Ben provides a few key tips for people hoping to get into partnerships.
James D'Mello discusses how he manages investor relations in his role as Head of Strategic Partnerships at Fuel Ventures. James and Lucas discuss the different types of VC funding available for founders (tranched and up-front), the type of due diligence that investors conduct on funds and their portfolio companies, as well as the process behind building a funnel and network.
Clara Probert and Pauline Li, co-founders of Madonna Capital, share their stories and how they came together to focus on bridging the gender funding gap. Female founders receive between 1-2% of VC funds in the UK each year, slightly behind the US, leaving both markets with a long way to go. Clara, Pauline and Lucas discuss how Madonna Capital helps prepare founders to be investor ready, post-transaction support in the form of fractional advisory and Madonna Capital's roadmap for 2023.
Madonna Capital is a growth partner to high-growth businesses with a commitment to fair female representation in the executive team. The team brings extensive in-house experience across finance, banking, debt financing, strategy, and operations to help women overcome obstacles in the venture ecosystem and make progress towards closing the gender funding gap. Clara Probert is a managing partner at Madonna Capital and a former banker with extensive experience in corporate banking, venture debt funds, and business strategy. Pauline Li is a Managing Partner at Madonna Capital, with over 16 years of experience as a Chartered Accountant and fractional CFO. Pauline has advised and worked in various sectors such as financial services, luxury consumer, energy, and media across APAC, North America, and the UK.
Ahmet and Lucas discuss private equity from sourcing deals to engaging advisors during the due diligence process and the different reasons companies would consider it as a source of funding as opposed to other methods such as venture capital, listing on an exchange and taking loans from banks. They also dive into different use cases for private equity in developed and emerging markets.
Dr. Ahmet Erelcin has over 30 years experience in the financial services industry, having held multiple roles at leading firms including having led HSBC Turkey’s brokerage arm and having set up its private equity fund. Ahmet is now a board member at Andalou Hayat Emeklilik and is a lecturer at Koç University.
Firat Gonen discusses all things data science, and his journey from completing his PhD to founding his own startup, leading data at Turkish super app Getir, Allianz and Vodafone. Firat and Lucas dive into the importance of commercial acumen for data scientists and data acumen for commercial teams, the different types of coding languages that exist, why real-time data isn't always achievable and the emerging influence of ChatGPT.
John Ryan, Founder of Gigable, discusses his story of building a two-sided marketplace for merchants and gig economy workers in order to bring cost transparency to the industry. John and Lucas cover problems faced by restaurants who lose on average £1 per order with aggregators, couriers not knowing how much they'll make in a shift and how viral growth helps lower the CAC:LTV ratio.
Pedro Pinto, VP of Growth at Soldo, discusses his key takeaways from a tech career focused on growth at Revolut, Neat, Huddle and Box. Lucas and Pedro discuss product led growth, localisation strategies and full funnel acquisition.
Dennis Helderman, co-founder of easyHire, discusses how to prepare for a funding round, the benefits of crowdfunding and easyHire's strategic position in the European rental market. easyHire's franchisees represent £70 million of equipment assets, a number which they are hoping to grow as a result of increasing the number of franchisees they work with across Europe. Dennis and Lucas also discussed key system infrastructure updates, such as the super CRM and AWS migration pre-fundraise, in order to ensure that the systems could support the scale up when funds are deployed
** Disclaimer - crowdfunding is a highly risky investment and should only be undertaken by those prepared to lose all of the money they invest.
Joanna Wlazlak, Head of Platform at Element Ventures (an early-stage B2B fintech-focused VC), discusses the history and importance of the platform role in creating value post investment for portfolio companies through process improvements, partnership development and gathering data insights. Joanna previously spent over ten years working in and with startups and her previous experience includes investing and supporting cyber security and deep tech companies.
Ken and Lucas discuss ways that startups and corporations collaborate together, and the excitement and challenges that come with it. Ken is Partner/ co-founder at Progressive Acceleration where he helps brands across all sectors (inc. P&G, Mercedes, GSK) to successfully partner with best in class start-ups, in order to accelerate, test and to unlock new growth. He is also the co-author of The Startup Lexicon book, which provides definitions and stories behind more than 200 words and phrases used by start-ups and investors.
Howard and Lucas discuss legal considerations during fundraising, trends within the tech industry and how the VC space has grown over the years. Howard is a a corporate transactional partner at Fladgate LLP, with a particular focus on UK and European venture capital.
Tom is a Principal at Fuel Ventures, an early-stage software fund investing in SaaS, Marketplaces and Platforms. In this video, he walks us through his learnings and experience as a founder, B2B sales operator and VC, alongside some useful tips for early-stage founders and those looking to get into VC.
Dan Day discusses his story of bootstrapping Invisible Artists out of Sydney, its global expansion and overcoming the pandemic. Invisible Artists design, animation & visual effects to collaborate with clients, from concept to delivery, producing work that stands out, is elegant and different.
Michael is co-founder and CEO of Aurem, a workplace savings platform that’s changing how expatriates in the UAE achieve their financial goals from their first job to retirement.
Ayelen Denovitzer, co-founder and CEO of Solvo, walks us through her years at Revolut, her start up journey and the crypto market. Solvo brings a solution to the crypto curious keeping simplicity, transparency and trust at its core.
Cyrus Tchahardehi is co-founder and CEO of Sleepyhead Program a start-up that retrains people suffering from long-term insomnia to sleep. With a rare direct to consumer position in the digital therapeutics space, Sleepyhead Program has already helped treat over 2,000 sufferers in the 18-months since they started.
Snackr is the mobile ordering platform for sports and entertainment venues. Snackr was founded in 2019 by Perth-based entrepreneur and massive sport fan, Matt Lim. The idea came to Matt after missing Optus Stadium’s first streaker while waiting in line for drinks. Snackr increases revenue, smooths the demand curve, improves staff utilisation and provides bespoke marketing opportunities - all in the name of delivering a market-leading event experience!
Matt Lim is CEO & Co-Founder of Snackr. Before Snackr, Matt worked in corporate finance & management consulting, specialising in major infrastructure projects. Snackr combines Matt's passion for sports and technology and is currently expanding into the UK market.
Matt Barrie discusses how Quiver is disrupting the e-commerce delivery market. Quiver's technology enables merchants to offer instant, emissionless deliveries to online shoppers - meaning that a customer can shop online and receive their goods within the hour, while also maintaining their customer preferences across different merchants.
Andy Mosson discusses his views on institutional crypto infrastructure and adoption as Head of Sales at Bitpanda Pro, a European digital asset exchange made for experienced traders, finance professionals and institutions that offers exchange and OTC product offerings. Prior to Bitpanda Pro, Andy spent close to a decade at JP Morgan in both product management and sales roles within their electronic trading business, providing listeners with insights into his journey from traditional finance to crypto.
Daniel Sawko discusses how Ship Shape's free investor search engine opens up access to founders, and the journey to date. Shipshape.vc is an investor search engine that indexes investors and their investments like Google indexes websites.
Jon Ostler, UK CEO of the personal finance comparison site, finder.com, shares his thoughts on the current fintech landscape, how he grew Finder to be the UK's fastest growing comparison site and some top tips about running a successful business that he has learned throughout his career.
Matt Hicks, VP of Global Sales at Vertice, discusses the challenges that businesses managing multiple SaaS contracts face; from unused licenses, to businesses paying hefty premiums relative to their competitors, and the lack of price transparency in the SaaS world.
Juan Andrade discusses Rebank's cross-channel marketing strategy, driven completely by non-marketers and their innovative experiments such as calculators, advice sessions, communities.
Joe David discusses the Nephos Group and how accountants provide strategic advice to clients during times of economic uncertainty.
James Ruthven & Sach Vara discuss the M&A Deal Platform and how it helps business owners optimise their multiples while exiting their businesses.
Daniel Cronin discusses how Integrated Finance makes key banking infrastructure available to fast growing startups.
Dennis Helderman discusses easyHire's story, growth opportunities during times of economic uncertainty and the benefits of scaling via a franchise model.
James Campbell from the Walmer Group discusses changes to R&D tax relief, innovation funding in the UK and provides tips for founders to raise investment during difficult market conditions.
Juan Andrade discusses how Rebank's data led banking layer unlocks key metrics such as cash balance, runway spending analytics and automated spend categories.
Mintus launched in April 2022 as an alternative investments platform, democratising access to assets such as blue chip fine art. Dr. Vedat Mizrahi discusses building and growing Mintus and alternative assets in our first episode.