Dan of calls in from the current Superseed HQ, in the middle of the British countryside to tell us about his Fund that invests in technical founders building business automation platforms. Or, as he tells his wife and people that don’t know the VC world, “the boring sh*t that goes on behind the Glaxo Smithkline – we love the platforms that go on in that world and change the way people .. like Payroll, HR etc. That’s what we invest in at Scale”.
Dan’s a lovable rogue, a punchy artful dodger .. and we have a good bit of banter on the hour talking about:
# On the Future of Work: "I am never going back to full time in the office ever again “ and “the Technology created so far hasn’t even touched the sides in most industries, like Education, Healthcare, Insurance”.
“Covid-19 has just shone a light on the inadequacies on some industries. Its all about need and burning underpants and those that don’t change have burning underpants. Some still haven’t like Retail and Insurance. In fact, the Insurance industry is so old farty, with loads of dead wood that there are lots of great start-ups that will extinguish the burning underpants”. Dan reckons we have only just begun and some industries are still reticent to technology, even now, moving past Covid-19.
# On Industry 4.0: Dan argues that Mid-sized companies in manufacturing and energy need to change and engage with new start-ups that can help them change. Dan has not seen much evidence of this so far in business automation in Covid-19. The business leaders of these businesses do not think the same as the founders Superseed back.
# On Regulation: is the big bear in the world because Humans are stupid and greedy. The Government need to regulate the new economy that we are building. Getting the regulatory framework set in the UK to create innovation2
# On Virtual: "No one talks about Skype anymore - what an opportunity missed in the pandemic by Microsoft here. Skype has become the MSN"
# On VC investing: Decisions to invest are roughly “50% data and 50% sentiment – driven by meeting people”. He asks founders for a widget on their website that says that they are a good match, which would save founders so much time. VC will become more automated, specialised and will give more people access to it. Apply here…
# On Private Equity: “is just spreadsheet stuff, its all about the deal, sell the thing. So boring”
# On UK Start-Up scene: “I want the UK to be the springboard to the world, for start-up and catch with the US figurs, where we have unicorns in a year, that they have in a month. Unicorns, smoonicorns”
# On US Start-Up scene: “Most of their unicorns are bullsh*t, they are all never never business models .. like Uber, WeWorks, SPACs” !
# Volume: They see 5000 decks a year, 1000 of them they take seriously, through their direct, partner and scout network. “You get very good at being a very quick filter and 12 step matrix.. which sounds a bit like AA. We are very short shrift, but invest within 8 weeks”
Quote of the Pod/Vod:
“When starting Superseed I said wanted a 60% success rate and his business partners said to me you are smoking crack!!! 95% of start-ups fail. We want lots of Dragons exiting for £100m”.
