Have you ever found yourself drowning in fundraising legals and language? This is the interview you’ve been waiting for… 

In this episode, we're joined by the brilliant Sam Simpson, Co-founder of FounderCatalyst, who's on a mission to simplify and accelerate the early-stage investment legal journey. Sam's not just talking the talk; he's walked the walk, having co-founded and exited several tech start-ups, including the 17th fastest growing company in Europe in 2017. Oh, and did we mention he took that company from £0 to £27m in less than 4 years? 

But Sam's not just a founder; he's also an active angel investor with 32 investments under his belt in just 6 years. Plus, he's a sought-after board advisor. In other words, when it comes to navigating the minefield of fundraising and investment, Sam’s who you want to learn from.

In this episode we discuss:

• Simplifying the early-stage investment legal journey
• Insider tips on SEIS/EIS and equity investment
• Strategies for finding the right investors for your startup
• Lessons learned from co-founding and exiting successful tech start-ups
• How to think about valuing your early stage startup
• What Sam looks for as an angel and what really puts him off even a seemingly “great” deal

So, whether you're a first-time founder trying to wrap your head around the legal jargon or a seasoned entrepreneur looking to optimise your fundraising game, this episode is packed with actionable advice and hard-won wisdom. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to learn from one of the people I trust most in this ecosystem!

Links:

1. All about valuation:                                      https://www.foundercatalyst.com/blog/all-about-funding-round-valuation-2
2. Toxic Term sheets:                           https://www.foundercatalyst.com/blog/avoiding-toxic-term-sheets-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-ask-answered
3. Understanding how an angel thinks: https://www.foundercatalyst.com/blog/understanding-how-angel-investors-think-2
4. The end of an angel investment: https://www.foundercatalyst.com/blog/the-end-of-an-angel-investment-from-the-magic-to-tragic-2
5. Founder Catalyst:                                                 https://www.foundercatalyst.com/company
6. Sam’s LinkedIn:                                            https://www.linkedin.com/in/samsimpson1/?originalSubdomain=uk

🚀 What’s it like to go Corporate Employee> Founder > Founder > Corporate Employee? At Not My First Guess we love a squiggly career path! 🏁

That’s why we’re so excited to have serial founder, and once again corporate employee, Adam Goodall share his journey and lessons learned, from taking the first leap into full-time entrepreneurship, to deciding when to sell, to why he's enjoying being back in someone else's company. 🌐💡

Adam is a serial founder with two startups under his belt - ProConfirm and Coconut. With a background in accounting at PwC, Adam has focused on innovating in spaces that may not seem “sexy” but have huge potential for growth. 

Adam first co-founded a startup with his room mate Samuel O'Connor (who he would also co-found Coconut with too), when their work at PwC led them to spot an opportunity to digitise the manual process of verifying client finances.

They originally built ProConfirm as a side hustle while working corporate jobs but one of Adam’s biggest lessons was when to take the leap to full time. They soon gained traction, leading to acquisition interest from a major U.S. player.  Post-acquisition, Adam discovered his love for product management, setting him on the path to their next venture, Coconut, on a mission to simplify tax and accounting software for sole traders, landlords & their accountants. 

Since selling Coconut, Adam has now returned to employee life at Funding Circle and is brilliantly honest about what it was like to try to get a job as a serial founder (the hard and easy bits).

🧠 Together we’ll explore:

- How to find great ideas, when you are and aren’t looking for them

- Adam’s hard won lessons on fundraising for Coconut, even as a second time founder with an exit under his belt

- How to know when an acquisition offer is right for you

- Advice on validating your idea before building the right product: what an MVP should and shouldn’t be

- And how we build a robust identity as founders so we can fully embrace a squiggly career path

Don't miss it! #Entrepreneurship #StartupLife #FounderStories #fintech #startups #innovation #podcast

Links:

• Coconut: https://www.getcoconut.com/

• Adam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjgoodall/?originalSubdomain=uk

This episode we are joined by Nicola Ward, Co-Founder of CakeDrop. Having both worked in the City, Nicola and her sister Anna had a conversation about how awkward office birthdays can be. Often forgetting to buy a cake and having to resort to a cheap last minute one from the shop around the corner. They felt that something needed to be done to improve the employee experience in the office and uplevel celebrations at work. This gave way to the idea for CakeDrop. CakeDrop began by delivering artisan cakes to offices for employee birthdays, supported by an online calendar that allowed office managers and HR teams to pre-schedule key dates for the year ahead. 7 years on, and CakeDrop have worked with customers such as Disney, Meta, Netflix and LadBible.

In this episode we discuss:

• Evolving her business idea
• Running a business with a sibling
• How CakeDrop began and how they got to where they are now
• How they reacted to lockdown
• Building a team and finding the right people
• Learning the difference between how your gut is leading you and how your anxiety is leading you to make decisions
• Public speaking and founder confidence 
• The importance of momentum in fundraising
• Managing your potential investor base

Link to the Cake Drop website:

• https://cakedrop.london/

This episode we are joined by Felicity Halstead, founder of the company GoodWork. GoodWork is a not-for-profit that works with employers to create employment opportunities for young people from marginalised communities. Having had experience in youth programmes, as well as working with social mobility organisations and supporting entry-level recruitment in her job, Felicity saw first hand that a young person’s results on paper are not an accurate representation of how that person would apply themselves in the workplace. So often organisations would focus on past performance rather than potential. This led to the creation of GoodWork as Felicity hopes to breakdown systemic barriers to create more opportunities for young people.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Preconceptions around what talent looks like and how to identify potential
• Transitioning from only working in the public sector to the private sector
• The importance of finding your community
• Fundraising in the charity sector
• The community interest company (CIC) route
• Being a LinkedIn topvoice
• The impact of having an ADHD and Autism diagnosis

Link to the GoodWork website:

• https://www.goodwork.org.uk/

This episode, we are joined by Robert Hayward, founder of GoodFX, an international payments B Corp that turns currency conversion into social good, using the profits they make every time their customers trade FX, to support charities and create meaningful job opportunities for refugees. For anyone who doesn’t know, The foreign exchange market, commonly referred to as the Forex or FX, is the global marketplace for trading currencies. Having spent 10 years in the city working in banking, Rob had started to wonder how he could put his skills to use and make a difference in the world. After initially rejecting an opportunity to work in FX, he realised that there could be a way to use some of the money the industry was making in lockdown to make a difference. This birthed GoodFX.

In this episode we discuss:

• Rob’s journey into entrepreneurship and how he used his skills learned in the corporate world to get there
• The intoxicating nature of working with a “big fish” company
• Using a business model as a vehicle for social change
• Raising money as a B Corp, and the value of B Corp applications
• The importance of having self value as a fundraiser
• The necessity of bootstrapping when making an impact business

Link to the GoodFX website:

• https://www.goodfx.co.uk/

   This episode, we are joined by the founders of Future Kind Collective, Alicia Grimes and Natalie Pierce. Having initially met when Natalie interviewed Alicia for a job, the two found themselves working in the same company on strategy and service design projects focused on culture change. What started as a working relationship soon blossomed into a friendship and the two bonded on a shared feeling that something wasn't quite right about traditional culture consulting and that a change was needed. Alicia and Natalie thought that a more holistic approach was called for, with a focus on a genuine care for the people behind the business, prioritising people over profit, with as much focus on employees as customers. These ideas paved the way for the Future Kind Collective to be born, where a team was built that focuses on turning around the Culture of companies to create a better environment for all involved, or helping startups create great cultures from day 1!

In this episode we discuss:

• How Alicia and Natalie met and the birth of Future Kind Collective
• Imposter syndrome
• The definition of Culture
• How founders can use values to make decisions about what they do and don’t do
• The importance of saying no as founders

Link to the Future Kind Collective Website:

• https://www.thefuturekind.co/

In this episode we’re joined by James Roycroft-Davis. 

James is a Serial Founder, Angel Investor and Host of the UK’s #1 Founder and Investor Mental Health Podcast - Vulnerable.

He’s previously started businesses around weightless and dog training, but hadn’t yet found his purpose and the business he wanted to build for the next 10 years, until in March 2023 he was diagnosed with Type 2 Bipolar Affective Disorder. When he started sharing about his diagnosis on his social media he was flooded with messages saying “there’s no support for me or my support networks”.It’s what led him to co-found Baseline, as he puts it:The first company building technology, content, and community in the Bipolar space, to help people on the bipolar spectrum and their support networks to live better. 

In this episode we dive into: 

- Why first time founders need to stop giving investors god like status

- The shocking correlation between founders and the Bipolar spectrum

- How getting his diagnosis led to Baseline

- Building your first product on a shoestring with AI

- The importance of building for mental health sustainability as a founder

- The need for founders to nail content creation and personal branding

- And much more!

James’ Business Baseline:

• https://www.joinbaseline.co/

James’ Podcast, Vulnerable:

• https://open.spotify.com/show/1K0x3TuxwlV8lhRhMJzcSD?si=3b8cb3208ce34ca2

This episode, we're joined by Tim Deeson, serial founder and angel investor with over 20 years of experience building companies. He started his first company Deeson, which grew to be a multi-million pound digital agency, at age just 20. 

Tim successfully exited Deeson to co-found GreenShoot Labs, an innovative conversational AI consulting and product development studio. After exiting that, Tim became an Angel Investor and took up a role at LSE as an entrepreneur in residence, giving advice to students, alumni and staff on their start up ideas and business. 

Alongside all this work, Tim started to feel the founder itch again, and so it was really lucky that when we met he ignored Hattie's initial attempts to tell him he could not be her co founder, because they were increasingly sharing the same mission of how to make access to the startup ecosystem fairer. Ultimately this led to the beginning of IfWeRaise, a company that Tim and Hattie co-founded in 2022

In this episode we discuss:

• Tim’s journey into entrepreneurship and the surprising difference between selling to bigger and smaller organisations
• Why and how to successfully exit a business that you founded
• Co-founder relationships
• Becoming an Angel Investor 
• The importance of focusing on a customer market rather than investor market
• How Hattie and Tim met and the development of IfWeRaise

Tim’s Businesses:

Deeson:

• https://www.deeson.co.uk/

OpenDialog.ai:

• https://opendialog.ai/

If We Raise:

• https://www.ifweraise.com/

In this episode we’re joined by Amardeep Parmar, Co-founder of The Bae HQ which is the number one community for British Asian Entrepreneurs; curator of the Tedx Chigwell programme, and host of the Entrepreneurs Handbook. 

As if that wasn't enough, having written and edited hundreds of Articles around the subject of entrepreneurship, Amar is also an Angel Investor.

Before lockdown, Amar was a technology consultant, having graduated with an economics degree. However, when covid hit, Amar decided to invest his time into more creative interests and began writing articles online. He became the second-fastest growing writer on medium.com, second to Barack Obama. This paved the way for a new career whereby he was able to become a fulltime creator in 2021.

In this episode we discuss:

• The pressures of being and calling yourself a “creator” in the entrepreneurial world
• The importance of making and putting out content in order to learn
• Treating people like people, not putting them on pedestals
• Social intelligence
• Lessons learned from podcasting
• Angel Investing and advice for first time raisers

Checkout more of Amar’s content:

The Bae HQ:

• https://www.thebaehq.com/

The Entrepreneurs Handbook

• https://open.spotify.com/show/5nceulxUsr8jrJ2TdSEVOK?si=14ab888833a4470f

Mentioned Resources

• https://seedlegals.com/
• https://hatchenterprise.org/
• https://www.antler.co/

Today I’m joined by Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, a social entrepreneur and educationalist, and co-founder of Liquify, an invoice marketplace that enables SMEs in emerging markets to get quick access to affordable cash.

Having started her career building deep expertise in the financial world, Alberta left banking in 2018 to pursue a career in impact investing because she wanted to combine her knowledge and experience in financing, with her passion for social issues and social change. 

This led Alberta to founding Algebra In The City (AITC), an educational tuition and consultancy business. Having spent some time as a tutor, Alberta had seen a disparity between students that went to private schools and students who went to state schools, including differences in the way students had been taught to process information and problem solve. This led Alberta to wanting to make education more equitable for young people by making tuition much cheaper in order to increase accessibility.

However, one of the things we dive into in this episode is Alberta’s desire to build something at scale- and once she realised this wasn’t the business she wanted to be building for the next 10 years, it was time for a pivot to build something more VC backable… one that ultimately led her to liquify.

In this episode we talk about:

• Internships and the importance of taking a step back when you’re starting something new
• Mistakes you make when starting a new business
• The importance of deciding whether you want your business to be scaelable
• What VCs want
• The importance of finding the right co founder
• Prioritising your personal life whilst running a business
• And so much more

Check out Alberta’s company Liquify:

• https://liquify.digital/

Check out Algebra in the City:

• https://www.algebrainthecity.com/about-us/

WMassive thank you to this episode’s sponsor ShipShape. If you want to tailor your search for VCs, check them out at www.shipshape.vc 

This episode is a little bit special. We're doing our second fundraising compilation, taking different tips and hard won lessons from our founders we've interviewed before. In this episode, we're going to focus on five founders:

1. Jay Richards: At the time of interview, Jay's company Imagen had 25, 000 community  members across 111 countries, having raised just 400k. Incredible growth. Here Jay talks about how some founders have a grit that means they can just go further with less. Curious about Imagen? Learn more here: https://imageninsights.com/

2. Valentina Milanova: Valentina has raised several rounds of funding for her femtech company Daye, including a 10 million series A. In this episode she talks about her experiences fundraising as a female founder as well as some of the things she did but maybe wouldn't do again. Checkout Daye’s website:  https://www.yourdaye.com/

3. Lottie Unwin: Lottie is a proud bootstrapper who grew her business to over a million in revenue without fundraising. In this episode she shares her perspective and why she chose a different path. Since recording Lottie’s company have rebranded from CopyClub to Upworld. See more of what they’re up to at https://up-world.co/ 

4. Joyeeta Daas: Joyeeta is a serial founder who created five startups and successfully exited three. Since the episode aired, she's fundraised again for her most recent venture, Samudra Oceans: https://www.samudraoceans.com/

5. Eliot Brooks: Eliot grew health tech startup Thriva to over 100,000 customers and more than 130 staff before he decided it was time for his next startup adventure. Before he left, Thriva had raised 11 million pounds in funding based on 100 percent year on year growth rates: Thriva | Home Blood Testing & Health Checks

Together they cover a huge range of business models and industries. From B2B SaaS to HealthTech and FemTech, Community plays, DeepTech and ClimateTech.

Want to dive in deeper- checkout each of the guests’ full episodes:

Jay Richards: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4o0lQfU69vC8HEYzdfs4wb?si=de2a9f708a864d2b

Valentina Milanova: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4jfFTiaD2hRyiuCHUaproV?si=2c4584b088ce47d3

Lottie Unwin: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2iRxjMLNUXviNhpVPJXmiE?si=293d0b1e872140b4

Joyeeta Daas: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2NV8fCzOUKaGSU0xeUQwMJ?si=8d3a33cf63334748

Eliot Brooks: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bfYSOaUSL9Fxf9xP6IxIZ?si=2df55b95df004a1e

Finally, a massive thank you to this episode’s sponsor ShipShape. If you want to tailor your search for VCs, check them out at www.shipshape.vc

Today I’m joined by Jasmin Thomas, Serial Founder & Angel Investor.

After a successful career building the first teams of unicorns like Deliveroo, Algemy, Improbable and Dark Trace, Jasmin turned her hand to her own business.

Having been diagnosed with MS, Jasmin had experienced the benefits of CBD oil first hand, from relieving period cramps to flare ups she was having.

From this, she was inspired to start her own efficacious skincare company, Ohana Health. However, as she soon found out, having a CBD based product brings even more challenges than your regular startup. And once she realised it wasn't a VC backable business, she made an even bolder move to shut the company down.

Now, she uses the valuable insights she gained through that experience, along with a deep passion for supporting women in various capacities, particularly early stage founders and those in the tech industry, to fuel this next phase of her career.

Her dedication is channeled through her work with angel community Alexandria Angels, where she focuses on investing in exceptional deal flow at the early stages, aiming to diversify cap tables, as well as acting as a venture partner and scout for VCs and as a consultant, collaborating with pre Series A startups.

She's also committed to supporting the development of gender diverse tech teams, bridging the gap for women in tech and STEM fields with tech recruitment agency Xena.

In case you couldn't already tell, she's a rather remarkable leader in the community and has even been highlighted by Richard Branson as an entrepreneur to watch for her exceptional drive and vision.

In this episode we discuss:

• Thinking out of the box as a core founder skill
• Asking VCs the right questions while you raise
• The secret value recruiters bring to the table
• How intention and self-awareness lead to success
• Unearthing hidden hurdles in your industry, early
• And so much more!

Links:

• Check out Alexandria Angels - https://alexandriaangels.persona.co/
• Learn about Angel Investing from Andy Ayim - https://andyayim.com
• Check out We Are Xena - https://wearexena.com
• Listen to our episode with Alexia Baron - spoti.fi/3EhjhXh
• Listen to our episode with Jacqui -
• Check out our new sponsor shipshape.vc - https://bit.ly/43Kq99N

Are you worried you’re not using enough AI as a founder? I promise you’re not alone. In fact, after interviewing our incredible guest today, I went away and automated a LOAD of my own processes - sometimes you just need to understand the art of the possible!

This episode is a GREAT start - we’re joined by AI advocate Cien Solon, who is on a mission to make “AI for All” with her latest startups Launch Lemonade and Scale that Thing! Cien is a Product-Led Growth expert, a start-up consultant and a constant builder. She is also a Techstars mentor and part of the Angel Investing School team.

She has developed a portfolio of products from fintech, to AI tools to B2B SaaS and had a previous career in Marketing giving her an amazing view of the full journey.

Today, with Launch Lemonade, she allows anyone to build AI chat bots to help with very specific tasks - from a sales chatbot to speak with customers, to creating marketing copy, writing reports, the possibilities are mostly bound by our own creativity; that’s why her consultancy startup Scale that thing helps  businesses build their AI and Product-led Growth strategies and implement them.

So in this episode, as well as product building insights and advice  from an incredible expert, expect plenty of inspiration on how you can implement AI in your own business!

Links:

Cien’s Website:

• https://ciensolon.com/

Launch Lemonade App:

• https://launchlemonade.app/

Scale That Thing Website:

• https://www.scalethatthing.com/

Today I’m joined by Jacqui Patton, Founder of Ink Blot Creative.

After training as an actress, Jacqui’s life took some twists and turns, including an eye-watering stint as the lady behind the number dishing out hair removal emergency advice at Veet, before finding her way into the world of marketing.

A truly natural and masterful communicator, it’s no surprise that a simple (yet radically candid) conversation with the new CEO accidentally landed her the role of Head of Comms at RBS International.

There she honed her craft and when life radically shook up her perspective, she decided to take on a new challenge and left the corporate world to forge her own path by starting Ink Blot Creative.

Having been a client of agencies for many years, she spent quite a while trying to do what everyone else was doing in the same way that they were doing it.

But she soon realised the clients she and her team got most excited about, were the ones a little bit like them (and us)! People that are building a growing business and want a helping hand to make it the best it can possibly be.

In this episode we discuss:

• How to avoid the content loop procrastination trap
• Remembering what you actually do, and why
• Getting obsessed with your customers, not your competitors
• Finding inspiration from other industries
• Connecting with your legacy
• And so much more!

Links:

• Checkout Ink Blot Creative - https://www.inkblotcreative.co.uk
• Attend Jacqui’s Greenhouse Event - https://greenhouse.je
• Follow the IfWeRaise Founder Roadmap - https://www.ifweraise.com/#roadmap
• Listen to Business Anchors with Dan & Lloyd Knowlton - https://open.spotify.com/show/1IyamqopNDm8tYhhCsiiUk?si=7fa2d250e19b4dcc
• Listen to our episode with Sophie Meislin Baron - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4i5DfzfIAW7niBQToRn4Ly
• Listen to our episode with Abi Foster - spoti.fi/44lJJK7
• Checkout our new sponsor shipshape.vc - https://bit.ly/43Kq99N

Today I’m joined by Abi Foster, Founder of Elent.

After becoming a qualified ACA Chartered Accountant, Abi began her professional career in the luxury magazine sector at Condé Nast, before moving on to Hearst Publishing's finance department.

She enjoyed spending time outside of work supporting colleagues and friends to better understand their own personal finances, though through this experience Abi noticed that many people, specifically women and young people, had low financial literacy and had received little to no financial education in school or at university.

From this realisation, Elent was born.

With the mission to help eradicate inequalities in our society by making financial education accessible to all from a young age, Abi founded Elent in October 2021 and has since partnered with 24 schools, educating over 20,000 students and counting.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why you never want to be a finished product
• Growing from 3,000 to 60,000 followers in a month
• Finding the right combination of people to build your dream team
• Calling out acronyms as a key life lesson
• Accepting growth in all aspects of your life as a founder, not just business

And so much more!

Links:

• Checkout Elent - https://elent.com/
• Follow Abi on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigail-elent-finance-education/
• Follow Elent Finance on Instagram for finance tips - @elent_finance
• Checkout our new sponsor shipshape.vc - https://bit.ly/43Kq99N

Today I’m joined by Martha Silcott, Founder of FabLittleBag.

Martha invented FabLittleBag after she was forced to smuggle her used tampon from the bathroom to her handbag at a friends dinner party when faced without a bin in their downstairs loo. The experience was so awful that she decided to do something about it and the more she looked into it, the more she was horrified at the impact of flushing tampons and pads down the toilet.

Determined to bring her invention to market she left the corporate world behind and set out to change the world, one FabLittleBag at a time, with her now patented disposal bag.

FabLittleBag exists to protect rivers, oceans and beaches from the pollution caused by flushed period products. With the UK alone flushing 2.5m tampons and 1.4m pads down the toilet each day, it’s a big issue. FabLittleBags are also made of plants (which means they are carbon reducing) and recycled plastics, supporting the circular economy of waste.

With FabLittleBag, Martha is on a mission to educate and convert flushers into being binners and help people who menstruate by making an often awkward and uncomfortable experience become one that enables them to feel good, hygienic, and confident.

In this episode we discuss:

• Asking the right person the right question at the right time
• Naming your business, under pressure
• Why perfectionism is the enemy of progress
• Creating empathy
• The costs of fund raising
• And much more!

Links:

• Checkout FabLittleBag - https://fablittlebag.com
• Surfers Against Sewage - https://www.sas.org.uk
• Marine Conservation Society - https://www.mcsuk.org
• Here We Flo - https://www.hereweflo.co
• Listen to our episode with Lottie Unwin - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2iRxjMLNUXviNhpVPJXmiE?si=50ycebb2SKy3CuYJcYeVZA
• Listen to our episode with Devin Hunt - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JYwEzyipbroKM59ISB805?si=vAPKNVclS9iiurMKA0oaHw

Today I’m joined by Farah Kabir, Co-founder of HANX.

One day, while enjoying a stable career in Asset Management at Goldman Sachs, Farah stood in line at her local Boots ready purchase a box of condoms when she realised her boss was standing behind her.

Utterly mortified, Farah felt the very relatable pang of shame rise within her until… she suddenly thought “actually, why should I be embarrassed about this?” and so over a bottle (or two) of wine, she decided to jump into bed with her best friend Sarah (who also happens to be a doctor) and give birth to HANX - a sex-positive, anti-awkward approach to contraception.

HANX are on a mission to change the world, and champion unapologetic sexual and intimate health for everyone. Coupled with clever partnerships, creative campaigns and conscious ingredients, they’re taking on the condom industry by banishing stereotypically ‘masculine’, penis-centric messaging, not to mention gross chemicals that shouldn't be anywhere near a vagina.

In this episode we discuss:

• How doing it with the lights off and grazed knees are a sign of great… business
• Safe sex at Number 10 Downing Street
• Co-existing with competitors
• Why selling yourself in store is still a great way to attract customers
• Being open and honest with your team
• And much more!

Links:

• Get yourself some HANX - https://www.hanxofficial.com
• Listen to our other episode “Fundraising as a diverse founder” featuring Farah and some of our other incredible guests - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LIiOdqRsdUOqy2hu8iXbw?si=kXb2iuMCTKGby58HqOdfTw
• Listen to our episode with Lauren on scarcity mindset - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fesy7fsEVgLLrcOs0BIDK?si=p-xXyVx8SEyaI_OtHzzTRA
• Learn about getting back to basics as a founder with Marcus Exall - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusexall/
• Check out Kayode Odeleye to learn about financial storytelling - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayodeodeleye/

Today I'm very excited because we are doing a special episode all about fundraising.

This is a topic I get asked about all the time from founders wanting to know who they should go to for investment, what investors are really looking for, and what they should be asking investors in turn.

It's a topic we've talked about a ton on this podcast. We've had angel investors give their perspective, venture capitalists share theirs, and founders of all different stages talk about their journeys. So it seemed only right that we start to amalgamate some of these.

When we came to it, though, we had so much content it couldn't fit in a single episode. So this will in fact be the first in a small series. Don't worry if you love our guest deep dive interviews as well, we promise they'll be back in between. So stay tuned to not miss any of it.

In this episode, we dive into five different perspectives with three founders turned investors, and two founders sharing their experience one of crowdfunding and one of going after Angel Investment.

We discuss:

• The Flick Test and other tips from Founder and Angel Investor, Chris Howard
• Lessons on taking it to the crowd with Sophie Meislin Baron, founder of Mamamade
• How Venture Capital really works with Zoe Peden, Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures
• The most common advice Devin Hunt, Venture Partner at Seedcamp, gives startups he invests in
• The magic of never giving up with Amber Probyn, Co-founder of Peequal
• And much more!

Links:

• Startup wrecks, smarter fundraising, and rattling the accelerator model, Chris Howard, founder of The Rattle - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3exPXbxTmqXAWo7ZZKBPZE?si=p-u6rIusSA-m3kCVr6DvBQ
• Kitchen to 40k+ community and £1.5m crowdfund, with Sophie Meislin Baron, founder of Mamamade -https://open.spotify.com/episode/4i5DfzfIAW7niBQToRn4Ly?si=feube4F6RyerId9fRNvO0g
• Behind the venture capital curtain, with Zoe Peden, Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures -https://open.spotify.com/episode/7FiiIpZ6w2LeLvSbtMtgdj?si=UNyrAUfBTPSFly6EWiSNNA
• Lessons from Y Combinator, Burnout, Investing and Book Writing, with Devin Hunt -https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JYwEzyipbroKM59ISB805?si=vAPKNVclS9iiurMKA0oaHw
• Founding the first female urinal with Amber Probyn, Founder of Peequal -https://open.spotify.com/episode/0tifsaBCFwbFSnYiIscIZG?si=PShlSE9CQfium7E0sZMC4Q
• We also highly recommend listening to Fundraising as a Diverse Founder, with Guests Simi Lindgren, Nick Telson and Farah Kabir, as it’s practically it's own special episode in itself -https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LIiOdqRsdUOqy2hu8iXbw?si=JdLxp-xIRyy6xZai5Bd0cg

Today I’m joined by Sanya Rajpal, Founder and CEO of AdagioVR.

Sanya is an Activist, International Development Expert and Serial Entrepreneur dedicated to transforming systems that unleash individual potential - and a truly remarkable individual in her own right.

She built her first company while at Law School, Dignifly, with the goal to empower people to transform their own lives and solve problems in their communities and the world.

She then went on to the UN to focus on growing tech entrepreneurship ecosystems before co-founding her latest venture, AdagioVR with her father.

AdagioVR is a mental health and high-performance startup using cutting-edge clinical and therapeutic techniques that drive preventative mental wellbeing and behaviour change through Virtual Reality.

Now, I'm often skeptical about VR being applied to lots of, in my opinion, not very useful use cases. But this is one where I have personally used the tech, and for me it was genuinely game changing, helping me work through some trauma that I have put a lot of time and therapy into, and hasn't made the same difference.

So personally, I am honestly forever grateful to Sanya already for the work she's done.

In this episode we discuss:

• What Nobel Prize winner and social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus told Sanya about creating change
• How to secure leverage in business
• When your strength becomes your weakness
• Being told you’re the wrong person to front your own venture if you raise - hello, a lot of bias
• Why it’s time to let go of funding FOMO

Links:

• Checkout AdagioVR - https://adagiovr.com
• Join the waitlist - https://adagiovr.com/jointhewaitinglist
• Connect with Sanya on Instagram & LinkedIn
• Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking by Matthew Syed - https://www.matthewsyed.co.uk/book/rebel-ideas-the-power-of-diverse-thinking/
• Listen to our episode with Joyeeta Das - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2NV8fCzOUKaGSU0xeUQwMJ?si=8blzNAQQR2uErhOpj0SN2w

Today I’m joined by Milly Tamati, founder and CEO of Generalist World.

After growing up on a farm in rural New Zealand, Milly set herself the North Star of travelling the world in her twenties. Driven by a deep desire to keep moving, she found herself venturing down the path of entrepreneurship as a way of funding her wanderlust.

Along her journey, she’s founded multiple businesses across the globe as a solo and a co-founder; including one of the largest hop on hop off wine tours in Victoria, Australia.

Though it was when she was asked to write her own job description for a Mental Health startup that she realised she didn’t want to be defined by a list of bullet points and became the Director of Miscellaneous instead. Thus the seed for her latest venture, Generalist World, was planted.

Milly’s now on a mission to change how the world sees generalists, and how generalists see themselves - all from a rural island in Scotland. And with Generalist World celebrating its first birthday, the day we recorded this episode, Generalist Universe is firmly in Milly's sight (literally, she’s got it sketched it on a napkin).

In this episode we discuss:

• How to utilise a non-linear career path
• The hidden asset that is rural entrepreneurship
• The highs and lows of having a co-founder
• Getting your first customer within 12hrs of testing an idea
• Rethinking the “growth at all costs” mentality

Links:

• Join the Generalist World Community - https://www.generalist.world/
• Connect with Milly on LinkedIn & Twitter
• Listen to our episode with Lauren Currie - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fesy7fsEVgLLrcOs0BIDK?si=4qvsnI0pRVacFFfy6N-yQw
• Listen to our episode with Zoe Peden - https://open.spotify.com/episode/7FiiIpZ6w2LeLvSbtMtgdj?si=sLSsIhFLTZaIZzELIV9pvA
• Listen to our episode with Sach Kukadia - https://open.spotify.com/episode/7EZwcaqJ6r8ZkXXnJVI7Ti?si=XlePYE5UQAS1xrGrPH-0fQ

Today I’m joined by Victoria Armstrong, Angel Investor, Advisor and Mentor. Victoria is an inspiring player on and off the pitch with an impressive entrepreneurial background of 20 years worth of experience in rapidly growing start-ups including Biotech, Mental health and SaaS, and has the stories to prove it. She’s invested her journey across three very different markets (New Zealand, the US, and the UK), in seven different startups, four of which she founded and exited, with one being acquired out of the US. Victoria now holds multiple board and advisory positions in various tech businesses and immensely enjoys helping others be “founder fit” to have sustainable journeys of their own. Oh and she also happens to be on the Board of Advisors for, our favourite, Female Founders Rise!

In this episode we discuss:

• Exposing unconscious bias, especially your own
• Nurturing business and human babies in tandem
• Why it takes a village to raise a business
• Calling your A Team before a crisis hits
• How to create psychological safety with external stakeholders
• Stepping away from your founder identity

Links:

• Connect with Victoria on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriaarmstrong
• Checkout Female Founders Rise - https://femalefoundersrise.com/
• Listen to our episode with Emmie Faust - https://open.spotify.com/episode/79dEjWYv8Aotkp7TTfznMY?si=dBZPCU0IQx-Fo0ANzBlAZA
• Listen to our episode with Lauren Currie - https://open.spotify.com/episode/3fesy7fsEVgLLrcOs0BIDK?si=4qvsnI0pRVacFFfy6N-yQw
• Listen to our episode with Valentina Milanova - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4jfFTiaD2hRyiuCHUaproV?si=tW-5vWe5TrOa9ibLkLNUJA
• Listen to our episode with Nick Telson at Sifted Summit - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LIiOdqRsdUOqy2hu8iXbw?si=TBjVTQVNR6GEVGn55yyA2w
• Listen to our episode with Zoe Peden - https://open.spotify.com/episode/7FiiIpZ6w2LeLvSbtMtgdj?si=sLSsIhFLTZaIZzELIV9pvA

Today I’m joined by Emmie Faust, Serial Entrepreneur, Investor, Advisor, Mum of four, Host of The Growth Podcast with Emmie Faust and Founder of Female Founders Rise.

Emmie is an experienced exited entrepreneur with over 20 years in digital marketing, having personally scaled and sold not one, not two, but three businesses. She also has the rare and exceptional tale of facing modern day dragons on Dragons’ Den and winning - though her investment didn’t come without battle scars.

Last year, Emmie decided to take on a new adventure and set out on a mission to help other female founders succeed by creating Female Founders Rise. Female Founders Rise is a UK based community of over 1000+ female and non-binary founders providing advice, connection, resources and the support they need to scale their businesses, and is quickly growing itself.

In this episode we discuss:

• Paying a painful price for SEO
• Learning how to listen to what the universe is telling you
• Navigating stressful exits
• Deciphering what to believe and who to trust as a founder
• Balancing organic growth with global aspirations

Links:

• Join the Female Founders Rise community - https://femalefoundersrise.com/
• Listen to the Female Founders Rise Playlist on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5LD1Fd1vgVjUchVDEiXQ3D
• Listen to The Growth Podcast with Emmie Faust - https://emmiefaust.com/podcast/
• Learn about Black Hat SEO - https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/black-hat-seo
• Learn about Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) - https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/spv.asp#:~:text=of the risks.-,The Bottom Line,and perform separate financial transactions.
• Listen to our episode with Simi Lindgren - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LIiOdqRsdUOqy2hu8iXbw?si=TBjVTQVNR6GEVGn55yyA2w
• Listen to our episode with Lottie Unwin - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2iRxjMLNUXviNhpVPJXmiE?si=50ycebb2SKy3CuYJcYeVZA

Today I’m joined by Lauren Currie (OBE) Founder of UPFRONT and Host of the podcast UPFRONT Moment with Lauren Currie.

UPFRONT is an organisation dedicated to changing confidence, visibility, and power for 1 million women and non-binary people. The idea was born of Laurens own frustration with the lack of women speakers and the dominance of all-male panels at conferences. She’s been doing this work since 2016 and wherever she goes, it’s her aim to take other women with her and amplify their voices. She and the UPFRONT team do this through Bonds (6-week course), The UPFRONT Global Community Bond (their membership community), and content.

Besides running UPFRONT, Lauren’s also a CEO, a speaker and the Trustee and Chairperson of Pregnant Then Screwed, an organisation dedicated to ending maternity discrimination.

She’s been building businesses since she graduated from University. She was CEO and co-founder of Stride; a digital platform on a mission to democratise leadership development. She co-founded Snook, one of the UK’s leading service design agencies when she was 23. She was the Managing Director of NOBL Collective in the UK and Europe. And before that, she was Director of Design at Good Lab.

Lauren’s work has been featured in The Guardian, Design Week, and Creative Review and she was awarded an OBE for services to design and diversity. She’s been named “woman changing the world under 30” by ELLE magazine, “one of the UK’s top businesswomen under 35” by Management Today, and "one of the UK's top 50 Creative Leaders" by Creative Review.

Essentially, she’s a ridiculously impressive and even more ridiculously kind and supportive woman!

In this episode we discuss:

• How to trust yourself to do the thing that feels like the one
• Testing an idea with a post-it on the back of a toilet door
• How to redress your lack of confidence
• The most important thing you need to know about imposter syndrome
• Why you need to double your price, now

Links:

• Follow Lauren and UPFRONT on Instagram - @_laurencurrie_ and @upfrontglobal
• Checkout UPFRONT - https://weareupfront.com
• Sign up for Bond 7 - https://bond7.weareupfront.com
• Coupon code for 10% off Bond 7 for NMFG listeners is - NOTMYFIRSTGUESS
• Join Laurens free Masterclass on May 11th - https://workshop.weareupfront.com
• Listen to the UPFRONT Moment Podcast - https://weareupfront.com/podcast
• Visit Pregnant Then Screwed - https://pregnantthenscrewed.com
• The Good Lab - http://www.thegoodlab.co.uk/
• Valentina Milanova’s Episode - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4jfFTiaD2hRyiuCHUaproV?si=qlUCRHE_TCuHPEEEtBxT1Q

As well as being “Business Barbie” to her followers on instagram, Rachel Harris, is an award-winning content creator, author, speaker, business owner, and most importantly, an accountant extraordinaire. Named as one to watch on the 35 under 35 list and recently crowned as the First Intuition Apprenticeship Mentor of the Year for 2023, Rachel is a true breakout star in the accounting world.

Rachel's passion for empowering accountants and small business owners shines through in her remarkable journey. From building the thriving Accountant She  community of over 25,000 people to becoming the youngest-ever director and trustee of AAT, Rachel has been a trailblazer at every step. She’s also making an impact, including with her innovative corporate bursary scheme, launched in January 2023, fully funds aspiring accountants in financial hardship, providing them with the mentoring and support they need to succeed.

In this episode, we dive deep into Rachel's entrepreneurial journey and the invaluable lessons she's learned along the way. We'll explore:

• The power of community-building and creating the support system you wish you had
• What founders do and don’t need to worry about when it comes to accounts
• The most efficient way to pay yourself as a founder
• The importance of setting an “internal charge out rate” to value your own time both in the company and out of it
• Approaches to valuing your company, and what Rachel looks for as an Angel Investor, and trains clients to prepare for in her mock “Dragons Den” investment readiness sessions

Links:

Rachel’s business StriveX:

• https://strivex.co.uk/

Accountant_She Website:

• https://www.accountantshe.co.uk/

Rachel’s Instagram:

• https://www.instagram.com/accountant_she/?hl=en

Today I’m joined by Jessica Alderson, Co-founder and CEO of So Syncd.

So Syncd is a dating app and website that matches compatible personality types.

Based on the 16 personality types theory, So Syncd is the first dating app to connect compatible personality types by pairing couples who have just enough similarities to understand each other and just enough differences to create a spark.

After breaking up with her boyfriend of three years (who she moved to Australia with) Jess returned to London ready to date again, but was left disappointed after meeting people on dating apps and not feeling a real connection. Jess and her sister (now co-founder) Lou were having drinks one night and agreed there had to be a better way to date. Their colleagues and friends were also wasting a lot of time on bad dates and it was clear why: personality compatibility is the key to any amazing relationship, yet dating apps were still matching people on the basis of a couple of photos. It just didn’t make sense to them and they believed there had to be a better way to help people find exciting, fulfilling and long-lasting relationships, thus So Syncd was born.

With a match on So Syncd being seven times more likely to result in a conversation compared to the industry average, Jess and Lou are proving their theory to be right. So Syncd already has around 400k users globally and an almost 50/50 split of male:female which is super rare on dating apps as they’re usually heavily male weighted, and has helped lead to an exceptionally high success rate of people finding love through the app – including a wedding less than a year after launching and recently welcoming their first So Syncd baby!

In this episode we discuss:

• The real power of true success stories
• A better way to find investment
• How to stand out in an overcrowded market
• Overcoming personality bias in the workplace
• Finding the right CTO and tech team as non-technical founders
• The cost of customer acquisition
• Why we all need to talk more about the value of the right co-founder personality match

Links:

• Checkout So Syncd - https://www.sosyncd.com/
• Quiet by Susan Cain - https://susancain.net/book/quiet/
• Lunchclub - https://lunchclub.com/
• The 16 Personality Types - https://www.sosyncd.com/personality-type-guide/

Today I’m joined by Joyeeta Das, Co-founder & CEO of Samudra Oceans. Joy is a serial deep-tech entrepreneur who’s founded five startups, three of which have had successful exits. She’s also an influential and active member of the wider startup community with additional roles as an advisor and investor. She’s scaled projects to hundreds of million of dollars in revenue, managing teams of three to 800 strong so she has a lot to teach us from startup to scaleup.

Our conversation is a little bit different again today as it focuses more on Joy’s collective wisdom and experience so I’ll give you a quick taster of her various businesses now for context, before we get started. I’d also highly recommend following the links in the show notes to learn more about them if you’re interested.

Joy’s current business is called Samudra which is sanskrit for oceans. Joy and her co-founder Alexander Facey founded Samudra in October 2022 after meeting at climate emergency venture builder, Carbon13, and bonding over their mutual love of the ocean and hardware engineering. They believe the ocean holds the key to a lot of the present climate crisis and are on a mission with Samudra to take 10 million tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere by 2033 by scaling seaweed farming using robotics and AI.

Joy also co-founded;

Gyana - an organisation that creates tech platforms to democratise the power of AI.

SuperPitch - an online ecosystem connecting globally-minded investors with talented, diverse founders, particularly women, to raise funding and build successful businesses.

Anahatalife - a unique NGO that gets artists, scientists, poets, actors, musicians and mathematicians together to solve world scale problems.

Aseema - a strategic consultancy advising new businesses on the formation of corporations, business structures, drafting privacy policies and structuring commercial transactions.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why Joyeeta pivoted her dream of becoming a monk into being a serial founder and what it taught her about taking risks
• How to gain the same market intuition in three months as someone who’s spent a decade in the same industry
• Dating to find the right co-founder, nurturing your relationship, and breaking up successfully
• Why the funding system is broken and what we can do about it
• The number of meetings it takes to raise your first million and then turning that into 20 (million)
• Responding to bias

Links:

• Check out Samudra Oceans - https://www.samudraoceans.com
• Joyeeta’s TED Talk, Why do we have to choose between a dreamer and a doer? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN3Nx4YT-_U
• The 36 Questions - https://www.scienceofpeople.com/deep-questions/
• Carbon13 - https://carbonthirteen.com
• Gyana - https://www.gyana.com
• SuperPitch (acquired by Diversity X) - https://www.diversityx.vc
• Anahatalife (integrated into a national program)
• Aseema (acquired)

This episode is a little flashback for us, jumping back to a conversation Hattie had with Matt Meeker, Co-Founder, Executive Chairman and CEO (that’s Canine Enrichment Officer) at Bark, and former founder of Meetup. Today, when she’s teaching founders how to test their ideas in the early stages, Hattie still comes back to how Matt tested both Meetup and Bark with customers, and with so many valuable insights and lessons, it seemed rude not to have this available as part of this series! So with Matt’s kind permission, we’re thrilled to welcome the episode to its new home. If you haven’t listened yet, there is so much in here!

Bark are on a mission to make dogs as happy as they make us. Because dogs and humans are better together. The company started as BarkBox a monthly themed combining their favourite toys and treats from the market, and have gone on to create their own toys and treats, along with health and wellness support.

Matt is an incredible, serial entrepreneur who before Bark, founded Meetup in 2001. Growing from 50 to 6,000 users in the first few months Meetup was then acquired by WeWork for $156million. After leaving Meetup in 2007, Matt went on to launch BarkBox in 2012 which is an equally impressive company reaching profitability in 2017 having sold over 50million boxes.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Meetup was born out of the devastating event of 9-11 to connect people and give underserved communities a place to go
• The value of the Lean Startup method
• Pivoting a business one year in after responding to customer feedback
• Putting the product where customers want to buy
• Building retention in subscription models
• Keeping connected to customers as a founder
• The keys to success as a serial entrepreneur

Since this episode was originally recorded, Matt’s dog Hugo, who was a big inspiration for him and the company, sadly passed away though Matt continues to feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility to honor him and his legacy, to ensure it’s still here and strong one-hundred years from now. Matt has also returned back to his original position as CEO and is just as passionate about fulfilling Barks mission to make dogs as happy and healthy as ever, as Hugo would’ve wanted.

Links:

• Bark - https://bark.co
• Meetup - https://www.meetup.com
• The Lean Startup Methodology - https://theleanstartup.com/principles

Copy Club is a community for marketers who want to help each other do great things. And there’s a lot of them out there with the Copy Club community having grown to over 1000 members from over 800 brands since Lottie founded it in 2014.

After working with massive global brands including Proctor & Gamble, Lacoste, and Dolce & Gabbana, Lottie created Copy Club as a means to feel less lonely in her job as Head of Marketing for PROPERCORN, who were at the time one of the five fastest growing businesses in the UK.

She didn’t know where to turn to for help and wanted to make friends who might make her life easier, and who, she could in turn support, so she took matters into her own hands and made that kind of place a reality.

The Copy Club community is now a mega resource of some of the brightest minds in marketing with a slack channel where people can share and solve their challenges with other members, monthly talks diving into key marketing skills, regular social events, over 100 hours of recorded content, oh and 2% of their top-line revenue goes to charity, which is no small number as they have reached over one million in annual revenue.

In this episode we discuss:

• The lessons Lottie learned at P&G and how those apply to high growth startups, as well as what is totally different about startup marketing!
• Building a business slowly and sustainably without investment, but still growing to exciting revenues
• Learning from burnout
• And community building advice

Links:

• Checkout Copy Club - https://thecopyclub.co.uk

Porto and Bello are an accessible clothing brand that seeks to help ease some of the fear and anxiety around cancer treatment by focusing on the person and not just the patient.

Alexia launched Porto and Bello in 2021, with husband Josh, following her own experience of being treated for breast cancer which she was diagnosed with at 29, 34 weeks pregnant with her second child, in March 2020 - five days before the very first covid lockdown.

This is a bit of a different episode for us as Alexia graciously opens up about her powerful and very personal journey to discuss how one of the most painful and biggest challenges of her life inspired her new venture as an entrepreneur, and how Porto and Bello gave her a fire that helped fuel her through the rest of her treatment.

With the statistic now sitting at one in two of us being affected by cancer in our lifetime, Alexia’s story is one we can all gain a lot of insight and inspiration from.

Links:

• Checkout Porto&Bello - https://portoandbello.com
• Check your boobs or pecs - https://coppafeel.org/
• Listen to our episode with Sophie from Mamamade (Alexia’s sister in law)
  • Apple
  • Spotify
• Nicky Newman - @nicknacklou
• Macmillan - https://www.macmillan.org.uk
• Future Dreams - https://futuredreams.org.uk
• Chai Cancer Care - https://chaicancercare.org
• Trek Stock - https://www.trekstock.com

Daye are on a mission: to close the gender pain gap, and overcome historical gender biases in medical research and product innovation. They launched their first product, CBD tampons in 2019, with a focus on sustainability and pain relief, and have since branched out to other products supporting vaginal health, including their latest product- vaginal screening using a tampon sample.

But they're not stopping there- hoping to democratize access to insightful gynaecological health information which is not typically available through other providers or through the NHS.

At the time of recording, Daye have raised several rounds of funding, including a recent £10m Series A, after building a consumer subscriber base of 60,000 for their tampons; and are now expanding into tampons as workplace perks too with a business proposition! 

There was so  much to unpack in this episode: 

- From Valentina’s journey as a solo founder
- To how Daye reached the first 1000, 10,000 and 50,000 customers
- To testing products
- Building a brand and voice
- Constantly evolving as the CEO of a fast growing company
- And raising nearly £15m pounds.

Links

• Checkout Daye
• Coaching for your team with MoreHappi
• Company wide therapy with Spill
• Online Therapy via BetterHelp or TalkSpace
• Revenue based finance via Uncapped
• Legal support via SeedLegals

Most founders dream of going public- but what happens after you ring the bell, if share prices tank, and the company you used to leap out of bed to run is destroying your mental health?

For anyone who hasn’t heard of Eve mattresses, they were one of the first companies in the UK to offer a mattress in a box- and the countries fastest retail IPO at the time they went public just a couple of years after launching. They disrupted the standard business model of having to invest in retail stores where customers could try before you buy. Their tube adverts still hold records for brand awareness. 

On this episode, we talk to Kuba Wieczorek, co-founder of Eve. He’s talked openly about the toll the company took on his mental health, and why he’s much happier running a lifestyle business today- branding agency Kuba and Friends. 

In this episode we discuss: 

1. How Kuba became a co-founder at Eve
2. Why IPOing is the biggest thing he’d change if he had his time at Eve again
3. Having a mental breakdown he couldn’t legally talk about with friends and family, for fear of insider trading
4. What a brand is and isn’t - clue it’s not the logo
5. And, which startups should and shouldn’t worry about brand and how to balance when to invest

Links

• Checkout Kuba's new company, Kuba and Friends here

Recorded live from Sifted Summit, this episode unpacks the challenges of fundraising as a diverse founder, practical tips on fundraising, and what we can do at individual, organisational, and systems levels to fix inequities in the startup ecosystem.

Our incredible guests are:

• Simi Lindgren is the founder of Yuty, tackling bias in AI to match customers based on ethnicity, skin type and medical condition to the best beauty products. They raised £500k in their pre-seed, making Simi just the 10th black female founder to gain VC backing in the UK. 
• Nick Telson took his first startup, Design My Night, to exit with just £500k in Angel funding. Since the acquisition, he's angel invested himself, and has just raised £1.6m for his new startup Trumpet at Pre-seed, based on 1800 pre-launch signups.
• Farah Kabir is the founder of Hanx, a sexual wellness and contraception company, busting the taboos on women buying intimacy products. They've raised £1.8m in angel funding.

Fundraising resources mentioned on the show

• Checkout diversity focussed funds and collectives like: Ada Ventures, Google's Black Founder Fund and Latino Founder Fund, Pink Salt Ventures, Case for Her, Cornerstone VC, Proud Ventures,  
• Fundraising resources via we are radikl
• Advise on angel investing via Angel Investing School
• Communities like DiversityX, IfWeRaise, 
• Hold VCs and investors to account with the Glassdoor for VC's Landscape.vc
• And listen to more fundraising tips on Nick's Podcast, Pitchdeck

What is a female urinal and why does it matter? 

Ever walked past a massive queue for the ladies, while the queue for the mens is non-existent and wondered why? Ever wondered what the solution is? 

Women have to urinate more often and on average for longer than men. Plus, we have more reason to visit the loo (typically we take on more care duties for children or adults who need assistance, plus menstruation ).  Our toilets also take up more space, so we tend to have fewer places to go, because venues focus on equal square footage of toilets, not equal access to facilities.

Enter Peequal, whose founders Amber and Hazel were fed up with having to choose whether to visit the bathroom or get food in intervals and at festivals. 

So far, they’ve raised £250k for their innovative take on a women’s urinal which has already been rolled out at festivals like Glastonbury and Wilderness Festival, and saw international demand before they even had a working prototype. Investors include Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo.

In this episode we cover: 

• The power of cardboard prototypes and watching how customers use urinals (without being arrested)
• Why Glastonbury made the perfect early evangelists venue
• How constructive conflict can be the key to happy co-founding
• Heart in mouth moments from pitch decks missteps to manufacture mess-ups
• Getting on BBC’s front-page and drumming up international demand with a prototype that didn’t work, and they were almost too embarrassed to show
• Fundraising tips 
• Plus much more!

Links: 

• Checkout Peequal here
• Follow Peequal on instagram here or Twitter here
• Read Invisible Women here
• Get data on how investors view your decks with Docsend 
• Seed legals explains ASAs here
• Founder catalyst offers free ASA here 
• Convertible notes explained here

Meet serial entrepreneur, angel investor, musician, physicist and self-professed big geek Chris Howard!

Chris has raised millions in investment for his own startups, taught entrepreneurship by giving founders £100 and a raspberry pie, and started to invent an "anti-accelerator" at his new startup, The Rattle. 

In this episode Chris shares: 

• How he wrecked his first startup after raising $2.2m for it, by ignoring product market fit
• 3 questions every prospective founder should ask themselves (in the voice of batman)
• The difference between market and invention led entrepreneurship
• Tips on how to reach out to investors and what to look for in them
• Plus much more

Links: 

• Checkout the Rattle here
• Read Rattle's pitch deck here
• Follow Chris on LinkedIn here
• And watch one of his Cold Reads here

Ever wonder what it takes to transform from a passionate leader into a successful startup founder? In this episode, we'll uncover the secrets to building an innovative, AI-powered solution that's revolutionising the way managers drive team performance. 

Joining us today is Sarah Touzani, the brilliant mind behind Waggle, an AI co-pilot empowering managers with the tools and insights to excel. Building on Sarah’s 15+ years experience in finance and tech, Waggle has already caught the attention of major players like Techstars and JP Morgan. Backed by a talented, diverse team, Sarah has navigated the challenges of fundraising, fostering culture, and forging strategic partnerships to position Waggle for exciting growth across the US and Europe.

In this candid, we'll dive into:

• Key lessons learned in the leap from leader to founder
• Strategies for assembling a powerhouse team and aligning them around your "why"
• Tips for securing funding and leveraging accelerators to catalyse growth
• Sarah’s approach to product development that attracts an eager customer base
• How Sarah maintained the vision while keeping operations running smoothly
• Advice Sarah wishes she had when first starting out

Links:

• Founder Catalyst: https://www.foundercatalyst.com/
• Waggle: https://www.usewaggle.ai/

Meet Foong, reformed Consultant turned Founder, who loved her colleagues at PWC, but found she lacked Purpose in her work. 

When Foong made the leap, it was to Matchable, a company intent on helping people like her find more purpose by volunteering their specialist skills to startups and charities; which are impact heavy but resource poor.

Today, Matchable has projects ranging from transforming Columbian farmers into cacao entrepreneurs using Blockchain, to helping children deal with grief using Augmented Reality and AI; and clients ranging from Seed funded startups like Heights, to massive names like Dentsu International, Deutsche Bank and Primark.

In this episode we unpack: 

• A different path into entrepreneurship - applying for a role on a partially validated idea
• Why focus groups often give false positives
• How Matchable kept testing revenue streams and customers to find the right fit
• The importance of recognising what you can't do as a founder! 
• Designing a work culture where extroversion isn't the default
• Plus much more

Links

• Checkout Matchable here
• Read Quiet by Susan Cain here

How do you test a blood testing business, when none of the co-founders come from a clinical background? What happens when your entire investor pipeline disappears overnight? What do you do when customers just aren't buying?  And what's it like scaling a health tech startup from 0 to 130 staff, and over a 100k customers? 

The person to ask is Eliot Brooks, co-founder of Thriva and former COO. We spoke the week Eliot stepped down to make space to explore  new entrepreneurial endeavours; after 7 years spent building the company.

Thriva have raised £11m so far, including £6m raised in 2019, and £4m in 2020 based on growth rates at the time of 100% year on year. 

In 2022 they were number 7 on the Financial Time’s list of Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies. 

In this episode we asked Eliot about: 

• His path into entrepreneurship, and where the idea for Thriva came from
• How you test a health tech business in the early stages…. Can you be lean and agile? Do you need totally different approaches?
• Scaling a business- Expectation vs reality, what were some of the early guesses that had to evolve as they grew… 
• Lessons learned fundraising as first time founders
• His plan to step down: why now? How do you phase yourself out as a founder?
• And much more…

Links

• Give Thriva try

What do you have to do to make your customers love you so much, they'll get a tattoo of your logo?

Especially when it's a "boring" B2B tool for writing better cold emails...

Lavender's founder William Ballance may not quite have gotten his own head around why customers love them this much; but he's certainly cracked building a product and brand customers rave about. 

There's a lot to learn along William's journey as a serial founder, whatever your industry or business model. 

In this episode we discuss: 

• Pivoting businesses, from Alumni networking to a tool for cold email
• The importance of finding your early adopters
• The psychology of sales
• Common mistakes first time founders and serial entrepreneurs make and practical tips to avoid them
• The power of remote working for product ideation
• The importance of gamification 
• Building a consumer style brand, for a B2B business

Links

• Give Lavender a try
• Connect with Wiliam on LinkedIn, and take up his generous offer of office hours for fellow founder
• Get inspired by Lavender's LinkedIn brand

Design thinking is a buzzword we hear a lot in the startup space- but what is it really all about? Should you be trying it? Is it too late to get started? And how might it speed up your route to market and loyal customers who keep coming back for more?

In this episode, Hattie is joined by Nirish Shakya, a design thinking and user experience design expert. For the past 15 years, he has been helping organisations across the UK, Europe and the Asia-Pacific create impactful customer experiences by empowering teams to put their customers first, collaborative creatively without the fear of judgement and innovate faster.

He also has his own show, Design Feeling about developing greater self-awareness, creative confidence and meaning, as we design . On it, Nirish interviews top industry leaders and experts from design, technology and creative industries to share hard won insights to help listeners know themselves better and become more impactful problems solvers with more meaning with joy.

In this episode of Not My First Guess, we unpick: 

• What design thinking really is, why it matters and how we as founders can practically get better at it
• Practical skills like rapid prototyping (testing the core risks in your idea and product quickly) and how anyone can get started, even if they've never done user experience design before
• What founders should know when working with and briefing design teams
• Some of the biggest takeaways Nirish has had from experts on his own podcast, Design Feeling
• And much more

Links: 

• Listen to Nirish's podcast, Design Feeling
• Give rapid prototyping a go with Balsamiq 
• Email Nirish: Nirish@designfeeling.co
• Explore UX courses at General Assembly
• Read Inspired by Marty Cagan

After earning few thousand euros selling toasties at school, you may think founding a company would have been Anieke's first stop post university. But a horrendous hackathon experience initially put her off the no sleep, stinky side of entrepreneurship.

Instead, she started out in the corporate world, though quickly made her way into Venture Capital, where she invested in Social Impact ventures at Rubio.

Her desire to sit the other side of the table never wore off though, so she quit to start her own company, taking with her the VC mindset and key questions to ask when launching a new, high growth venture. Testing a few ideas in parallel, it wasn't until she made customers cry with her proposition to help people connect with much loved children remotely, that she doubled down on Peekabond.

In this episode she shares:

• How being a VC changed how Anieke approached founding a company
• The importance of early testing: including how making prospective customers cry convinced her to double down, and how Anieke tested the product with ppt and then no code before investing in build
• Running a co-founder dating  process for both her co-founders, and the yucky questions you need to ask early 
• And much more! 

Links

• Try Peekabond here
• Read more about the Mom Test here
• Learn more about OnDeck programmes here
• Try 50 questions for co-founder dating here
• Take the Barrett Values Test here
• Build a clickable prototype on Bubble.io or Adalo
• Listen to Hattie's previous interview with Tessa Clarke here
• Read YC's warning to startups here
• Read Tessa's article on the need for a cockroach plan here
• Follow Anieke on LinkedIn here

This week's interviewee, Emily Cummin, is carving out a new industry- not quite Death Tech, but Grief Tech instead. Her platform, Untangle was founded to help people dealing with big loss, whether bereavement or divorce, to cope with the emotional and practical fall out. 

Untangle are still pre-revenue, but are just about to turn on a series of income streams, having already built a more than 40k strong instagram community, and a user base of 12.5k people, with strong retention, engagement and referrals.

In this episode Emily shares her entrepreneurship journey so far, including lessons learned around: 

• The surprising gratitude that can come from doing research with customers who need a space to vent
• How they used WhatsApp to create their first prototype without coding 
• The power of continuing to facilitate meet-ups with community members as a founder
• Some of the harder moments, including fundraising and scrapping 3 months of code
• And her advice on when to trust your gut, and build sooner\

Links

• https://untanglegrief.com/

How do you unlock the opinions of a generation? And what does it change when you can tap into qualitative research at scale?

The person to ask is Jay Richards, co-founder of Imagen Insights, which helps big brands like Amazon Prime, Sky, Puma, the NFL, Pepsico and many more, to access thousands of Gen Z opinions, within 48 hours.

Not coming from a traditional marketing or research agency background, Jay hasn't felt he has to do things the traditional way. From creating a SaaS business model, instead of an agency bodyshop; to setting totally different working hours for his team; to how they're building a community of Gen Z consultants.

Today, Imagen has a community of more than 25,000 Gen Z, across 111 countries. They’ve grown 3x ever year since they were founded in 2019, and are on track for 10x growth this year.

In this episode we unpack all this, plus:
- The community Jay built before Imagen, and how that led to the NFL asking for his help
-  How they tested their methodology with google sheets and docs, with Ebay and Gymshark as customers
- Jay's top sales tips and meeting structures
- Common misconceptions of Gen Z
- And much much more

Links

• https://imageninsights.com/

Venture Capital claims a lot of Techcrunch headlines, covers our Linkedin timelines, and eats months of our lives and runway, as founders fundraising.

But, it can be hard to separate the celebrations of fundraises, from whether Venture Capital is really right for you as a founder, what it will cost you personally, and what is going to increase your chances of success if you do choose that path.

Who better to help us debunk some of the myths around venture capital, alongside offering incredibly practical advice, than a former founder who has sat on both sides of the table. Zoe Peden was the founder of a VC backed startup, MyChoicePad, and is now a VC, with Ananda Impact Ventures.

In this episode we cover:

• How VC really works- and why more founders need to understand that before raising capital
• How to work out if Venture Capital is the right path for you
• When to start speaking to VCs (hint, it’s potentially a stage earlier than you think)
• What to ask a VC at interview stage, and what you can expect from them after they write the cheque
• Plus much more… 

Links

• https://ananda.vc/ or info@ananda.vc
• https://www.100yearlife.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/we-are-one-tech/
• https://www.founderland.org/

What do you need to know as a founder raising early stage, pre-seed or seed funding? 

Who are angels? What do they care about? How do they make investment decisions?  What should you be asking of them? And what can you do to increase your chances of a successful raise? 

In this episode we meet founder of entrepreneurial community Dffrnt, Ash Phillips, who became an Angel investor with Ada Ventures to invest in more diverse, typically underrepresented and overlooked founders. 

Together, we dive into: 

• What Ash looks for in founders he invests in
• How to use your pitch narrative to inject passion even when you’re not the best at backing yourself
• Practical tips like a handy hack to stand out on the market sizing slide
• How to hustle for great advice
• And much more

Links: 

• https://dffrnt.so/
• https://www.adaventures.com/
• https://help.seedlegals.com/en/articles/4345960-dilution-how-it-works
• https://atomico.com/insights/the-atomico-angel-programmes-fourth-year
• https://checkwarner.medium.com/adas-investment-in-flexa-3a164985cf90

Many founders dream of the moment their company is acquired. But no-one imagines that post acquisition they may be forced to fire the employees who helped build the startup over 10 years,  watch the company they built lose millions in value, and ultimately, have to buy it back to save their legacy. 

That was Sach Kukadia's journey in Secret Sales. Luckily, he was able to build back some of the value, for a second sale that was, as he describes "a gentle dismount". But, the process still left him and his co-founder/brother Nish, completely burned out. 

Luckily, he's  now recharged, without losing his entrepreneurial spirit, and recently launched a new investment jewellery brand, 7879. Within months of launching, it was the best seller in Selfridges latest concept event, and is on track for a 1.5 million run rate in 2022. 

In this episode, Sach shares: 

• Lessons learned from his first company, secret sales, including how not to lose your voice as a young founder
• What happens when you end up with Ebay on your board too early, and it puts off every other investor
• The emotional rollercoaster of selling the business, only to have to buy it back, but without the people who originally drove it to success
• How he tested his latest venture 7879 pre-launch
• And how you do data led design for a jewellery collection

Links

• https://7879.co/

Joining us in this episode is Charlie Rosier, a seasoned entrepreneur and fourth-time founder. Her latest venture, Babbu, disrupts the early childhood education space with an innovative online platform tailored for children aged 0-5. Driven by personal experience and insights gained during lockdown conversations with fellow parents, Charlie recognized the overwhelming pressure parents face—spending 37 hours weekly on childcare concerns alone. Determined to alleviate this stress, she birthed Babbu. Rooted in science but crafted by parents, Babbu reimagines the parenting journey, providing a supportive community and expert advice to empower parents in nurturing their children.

This episode we discuss:

• Lessons learned as a serial founder
• Grief that comes with failed businesses
• Why we have to value our time differently as founders
• Lessons in linkedin marketing
• Fundraising - what Charlie knows now but didn’t know when she started
• Balancing being a mother with being a startup founder and the guilt that comes with it

Links to Babbu’s website:

• https://babbu.co.uk/

Ideas often come from experiencing frustration first hand. That's exactly what happened to Ellie. While giving up alcohol for a month, she got fed up with the lack of options available in lieu of her traditional G&T. That, coupled with career frustration, that she couldn't get a job building a consumer facing brand, led her to create her own. She launched Caleño- a non-alcoholic drinks brand,  to bring more joy to those choosing to go alcohol free. 

Today, Caleño has both d2c and traditional retail channels: including Sainsburys, Waitrose and M&S and restaurant chains

In this episode she shares: 

• How she ended up being in the right mindset for entrepreneurship
• A pivotal trip to Columbia and how it shaped the brand
• The surprise opportunity to launch in their first supermarket
• Lessons learned as a solo founder
• And the time you really don’t want to hear your product is “on fire”

Links: 

• https://calenodrinks.com/

Episode #2: Meet Sophie Meislin Baron
 
Sophie is a first time founder, who launched her startup after experiencing the pains of going back to work after having a baby, and finding no good options for easy weaning. She grew an incredibly engaged community by sharing candidly about parenthood, including  her own lack of fulfilment when she had her first child. So far, Mamamade have built a community of more than 40,000 parents, sold 20,000 meals in 2021, and are on track for an annual revenue of £1m in 2020.

But having not set out to found a startup, it took Sophie a while to build the confidence to see herself as a real founder. 

Now, she's intent on rewriting the way we think of entrepreneurs, and what success really means. Having raised a record breaking pre-seed round on crowdfunding platform Seeders, with angels including the founders of Made.com, Allplants and Designmynight, it would be easy for Sophie to focus on her fundraising to showcase her success, but instead, she reinforces the need for us to challenge our relationship with raising capital, as shorthand for a successful business. 

 In this episode she shares: 

• How she got over her discomfort testing her product on strangers
• The importance of community building for D2C brands
• What it really takes to raise a crowdfund 
• Why she didn't see herself as a founder at first

Links: 

• https://mamamadefood.com

Episode #1: Meet Devin Hunt

Devin is a serial founder, investor and startup mentor. 

His first startup was accepted onto Y Combinator, on a cohort with Dropbox, Songkick and Disqus, but ultimately failed. His second startup Lyst is still going strong, raising a pre-IPO round of funding at a reported $700m valuation in 2021. 

But Devin, having burned out and left the company, also went on to found two more startups. The first, Foundercentric, taught founders "how to suck less" by getting fast and continuous feedback from real customers, and his latest venture, Useful books, helps Non-Fiction writers get real feedback from their readers and community as they write.

He's also an investor at Seedcamp, a fund which has invested in 7 European unicorns: Hopin, Wise, Revolut, Sorare, wefox, Pleo and UiPath.

In this episode he shares: 

• What Paul Graham taught him on Y Combinator
• Why his first idea died, and how he could have killed it a lot faster
• How they tested the core assumptions in Lyst
• His experience of burnout, and how he avoids it today
• How to speak to customers to avoid bad data
• The most common advice he gives startups he invests in
• And when to hold your nose... 

Links: 

• https://www.usefulbooks.com/
• https://www.lyst.co.uk/
• https://seedcamp.com/

This episode we are joined by Simi Lindgren Founder of Yuty. 

Some of you may recognise Simi from our special episode on fundraising as an underrepresented founder, where she was joined by two other incredible guests. But we wanted to take the time to dive deeper into Simi’s story and insights building an AI startup. 

Simi initially went to med school thinking that she would become a doctor. However, she soon realised that she wasn’t there for the right reasons. This led her to dropping out of her degree and getting an internship at a magazine working in beauty, and ultimately leading her to following her own passions. Simi then built up her experience in the beauty industry, working in marketing communications where she matched brands and PRs with media celebrities and influencers. Having progressed really well, in 2020 she decided that it was time to do something herself, which led to the launch of Yuty.

Founded in 2020, Yuty is a venture capital backed technology company that uses AI to redefine hyper-personalisation, transforming the way brands can engage with their customers. The app provides data backed product recommendations delivered through a quiz, in order to help all customers, regardless of race, gender or ability, to find the product that is right for them. Having had personal experiences of not feeling seen or understood, and not being able to find the right products, Simi wanted to create something that was accessible for all, and after teaching herself to code, Yuty was formed.

This episode we discuss:

• Choosing a path for the wrong reasons and going off the “beaten path” despite pressure internally and from the family
• Why she went down the VC route with Yuty
• Choosing an Investor Partner and how to manage them
• The importance of constantly asking questions
• Assumptions and why being curious is the ultimate founder trait

Plus much much more!

Links:

Yuty website: https://www.yuty.me/