In this episode of Launchbase, John Radford sits down with Eddie Whittingham—ex-police officer, lawyer, and tech entrepreneur. Eddie bootstrapped The Defense Works, a cybersecurity training company, and successfully exited to Proofpoint, a NASDAQ-listed firm. Now, he’s building Ministry of Work, a premium co-working space for ambitious founders.

They discuss:

✅ Bootstrapping to exit—what worked and what didn’t ✅ The role of luck vs. hard work in startup success ✅ Why most online training is terrible—and how Eddie made it better ✅ The reality of selling a business—how Proofpoint found him through LinkedIn ✅ Why founder networks matter more than ever

Jonathan Keeling has seen fundraising from all angles—helping CrowdCube raise over £1B for 1,000 startups and now scaling Haatch from £50M to £250M AUM.

In this episode, we dive into the realities of startup fundraising, crowdfunding do’s and don’ts, and what investors really look for. We also explore how UK investors differ from their US counterparts, the rise of AI-powered startups, and why recycled capital is key to a thriving ecosystem. If you’re raising or investing, this one’s for you!

Passion, Resilience, Coachable, Curiosity.

These are the qualities that seed/pre-seed investment firms like TIA Ventures look for in entrepreneurs and bringing 'Thought Into Action'. This week, John grabs a virtual coffee with Wills Hapworth, Managing General Partner at TIA Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund that partners with companies building emotional and visceral connections with their consumers.

We discuss identifying your “North Star” as an entrepreneur and recognising your visceral product-market fit. We touch base on questions like: “Are MVP’s still relevant?”, "How do you get your product to market?”, "Are your credentials as an entrepreneur important to investors?” and unpacking the success stories by learning from the failures.

Sources:

“Superhuman” Article: https://firstround.com/review/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit/

Execution is everything. When launching your digital product, you should always have the “why” and the “how” and sell your product in just one sentence. This week, we sit down with Nick Miller, UK Country Manager for Payfit on launching your product lean and focusing on the “less is more” mantra. Understanding your user and what problem you are solving for them through your MVP will save you money in the long-run.

We dive into pinpointing what is essential when it comes to launching an agile product: “What is your selling point?”, "What objectives are you trying to achieve?”, and “How do you allocate your resources to create a product with a high level of excellence?”

For those of us starting the journey towards launching our own business or startup, taking those first steps may seem daunting. This week, we have a chat with Lex Deak, Founder of Basket, on delving into the vast and multi-faceted world of entrepreneurship and starting a business from the ground up: the good, the bad and the funny.

To say that 2020 was a rollercoaster ride is the understatement of the century. In times of chaos, however, comes opportunity. This week, we sit down with Molly Johnson-Jones, Co-Founder of flexa, to discuss launching your product during a pandemic and the challenges and opportunities that come with keeping your product and startup thriving in the chaos.

We're in a business climate transformed by a global pandemic and tech founders need help figuring out how to navigate the seed round and impress investors and stand out from the crowd. This week, we sit down with Robert Walsh, the Managing Partner at Q Ventures. Robert answers our burning questions: What key qualities do investors look for in your business? What is your idea disrupting? Is it necessary to have a working MVP when approaching an investment company?

This week, we end off Season 1 with a bang as we sit down with Gabriela Hersham, Co-Founder and CEO of Huckletree. Huckletree is the home of conscious entrepreneurship across the UK and Ireland, providing a network of mentors, talent, investors and experts, along with the right services to help their members grow.

We discuss what the future of work may look like in a post-pandemic world, the role of community in facilitating growth and avoiding the founder trap of approaching the startup as a lifestyle, rather than a stackable business.

Sources:

Huckletree: https://www.huckletree.com/about

With the dog days of lockdown slowly lifting, there are businesses that have built and maintained communities that have kept the world a happier place and our guests this week are one of them. BorrowMyDoggy is a digital platform that connects dog owners with trusted local people who would love to look after their dog and make it easy to arrange walks, playtime, overnight stays or holidays. Grab a coffee and sit back as we discuss all things funding and launch, the importance of building a community with your users and the importance of the pivot in accommodating platforms that rely on community building during the pandemic.

Sources:

Borrow My Doggy - https://cutt.ly/4x4KkPs

The Mom Test - https://cutt.ly/kx4KSVP

When it comes to developing digital products, it takes a village. And when it comes to building product for companies that strive to do good in the world, it makes the journey that much sweeter. This week at Launch Base HQ, we are joined by Rachael Box, Founder of Local Village Network (LVN). LVN are a charity dedicated to tackling network poverty and social inequality. Our sponsor Borne Agency partnered with LVN in delivering a native mobile application, connecting young people to volunteers and a world of opportunities.

We touch base on the influence of tech in bridging network poverty and what that entails and the future of "tech for good." Our host discusses the importance of keeping your user in mind when it comes to designing products for charities and defining your product roadmap through user-testing sessions as your product evolves.

Sources:

Website: https://www.lvn.org.uk/

Download the App: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/lvn/id1209440307

Different founders make different kinds of mistakes. This is where DropJaw comes in. DropJaw Ventures are a specialist business advisory firm and provide access to capital, interim management and advisory services to scale up businesses and companies in need of a turnaround.

This week, we have an insightful discussion with Roy Shelton, Managing Partner at DropJaw Ventures on the challenges faced by young, emerging, scale-ups and more established companies who are driving for greater efficiency and commercialisation.

We delve into:

• How do you assess risk management?

• What kind of growth levels do investors look for?

• Funding fatigue and how to break the funding distraction.

• Industries investors are excited about in 2021.

DropJaw Ventures: https://www.dropjawventures.co.uk/

Execution is everything. This morning, our host is joined by Lydia Jones, Founder and CEO of Housemates. Housemates is a marketplace to discover and book student accommodation in minutes. Lydia has been featured in TechRound’s 29 under 29 for 2020 and BusinessCloud’s 35 under 35 to watch in the UK.

We discuss staying curious when solving a problem through product and building a product your users didn’t know they needed. We chat about the importance of shame when it comes to your first MVP and remaining agile when finding that red hot centre when building the best value problem product.

Links: https://housemates.io/

This week, we decode the role of CTO with our guest Andy Skipper, Founder and Chief CTO Coach at CTO Craft. CTO Craft’s community brings together technology leaders from across the world, from small startups to global organisations. They offer an easily digestible range of deep-dive courses and programmes to help technology leaders of all experience levels. We discuss the role of a CTO, what that entails, how CTO's can recognise how to make the transition from engineer to team leader and all the wrong ways to do agile.

Sources mentioned:

CTO Craft Conference: https://conference.ctocraft.com/

The terms 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning' and 'Big Data' have been in the limelight throughout 2020 and 2021 has been no exception. Our guest this week saw this potential and their portfolio demonstrates this. This week, our host has a catch up with Mads Jensen, Managing Partner at SuperSeed. SuperSeed accelerates B2B startups in launching great AI-focused products. John picks Mad's brain on all things: Big Data and AI, what characteristics do VC's look for in a founder, the role of MVP in solving a problem, and should our politicians be listening to robots?

Sources mentioned:

Borne Agency - https://borneagency.com/

SuperSeed - https://www.superseed.com/

When it comes to scaling a business from the ground up, you want to build a category-defining company that owns the entire space and adds value for your users. This week, John dives in with Dr Charles Armitage, Co-Founder and CEO of Florence, an online marketplace that connects independent nurses and carers for freelance shifts.

Re-inventing your startup at every opportunity is key whilst scaling to pivot your business with your user’s changing needs. We discuss building products that are user-centric and defining your product-market fit on the roadblocks that may appear along the way and learn from the mistakes because that is what an MVP is for.