Shows
FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 6 Episode 6: Dominic Vergine of Monumo
In our last ever FOUNDstar and FUNDstar Vod/Pod we talk to Dominic Vergine of leading Electric Motor Scale Up, Monumo. Dominic is a true visionary who heralds from the hotbed of UK Tech, Cambridge and is another legend of the ARM stable of leading Technologists. In terms of Monumo, Dominic highlights how he and the team at Monumo are working to:# Create a new wave of sustainably designed Electric Motors that reduce the consumption of electricity and help solve the climate crisis.# Their Technology is world first and like ARM, they aim to become the IP or platform t...
2024-02-1328 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 6 Episode 5: Priya Oberoi of Goddess Gaia VC
Priya is an impressive Venture Capitalist, who established Goddess Gaia Ventures to assist with Women's Health and Wellness. She established GGV on the back of personal circumstances and wanted to fix many of the problems facing Female Founders the Healthcare and Wellness industry.
In terms of nuggets:===> Priya explains what she is looking for in terms of female founders in Healthcare, that are creating impact===> The founders they have invested in are from a variety of backgrounds and GGV are looking and Priya feels like a proud "Mother Hen" helping her founders grow
2024-02-1332 min
BackLash RadioEpisode 16- Los Sueños Triple Crown- Leg 1 recapJoin Anthony Pino and Nick Carullo has they recap Leg 1 of the Los Sueños Triple Crown with Captain Bill Lyall of Blackhawk and Bill Pino of Squidnation
2024-01-3053 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 6 Episode 4: Sam Nasrolahi of InMotion Ventures
In our first FUNDstar Vod/pod of 2024, we sit down with leading VC, Sam Nasrolahi at InMotion Ventures, the Corporate VC arm of Jaguar Land Rover. She's a super intelligent and very direct investor and she certainly knows mobility from a very strong background at BP. I certainly learn't a lot in this 26 minute Podcast Sam conducted with Anthony and I, pre Xmas 2023.
In terms of InMotion Ventures, the fund was originally set up in 2016 to focus on Mobility, but more recently, when Sam joined, (last August) this has changed to focus on a number of industry agnostic areas i...
2024-01-1026 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 6 Episode 3: Konrad Bergstrom of X Shore
King of Scandi Tech takes time out of his hectic schedule, to share his perspectives on scaling amazing consumer businesses, ranging from smart headphones (Marshall, Adidas, Urban Ears) with Zound Industries to more recently creating the "Tesla of the Seas", X Shore
Konrad continues to grow his consumer portfolio and is now looking at Natural Chemicals, in the world of Cleantech and has also invested in a leading uncompromised drinks product called OGIN, creating the world's best gin, from handpicked herbs in Finland
Konrad provides an array of opinions on several hot topics:
2023-11-1725 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 6 Episode 2: Rob Desborough of Seraphim
After an extended summer break, due to personal reasons, its nice to be back broadcasting and publishing season 6 of FUNDstars and FOUNDstars, where our guest was Rob Desborough, the CEO of Seraphim Space Accelerator, and a partner in the Seraphim Space Fund.
There is no disguising Space is hot and Rob provides an array of opinions on several hot topics:
# How Seraphim is the largest investment group focused on Space privately, and launched the first listed Space fund
# They are one of the pre-eminent Accelerators building businesses covering all aspects of Space
# How Space is set to become a $1tr...
2023-09-2130 min
The Book ReviewSummer Book Preview and 9 Thrillers to ReadThere’s no rule that says you have to read thrillers in the summer — some people gobble them up them year round, while others avoid them entirely and read Kafka on the shore — but on a long, lazy vacation day it’s undeniably satisfying to grab onto a galloping narrative and see where it pulls you. This week, Gilbert Cruz talks to our thrillers columnist Sarah Lyall about some classics of the genre, as well as more recent titles she recommends.Also on this week’s episode, Joumana Khatib offers a preview of some of the biggest books to w...
2023-06-0935 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 6 Episode 1: Ben Clark of Futureworlds
Ben is the Director of the University of Southampton's Futureworlds, a business that takes the best bits of accelerators / University innovation and Technological excellence, providing opportunities for students at the University to commercialise and scale.
Ben provides an array of opinions on several hot topics:
#How the Futureworlds model works and the businesses being created
# The current situation in the University funding environment
# The big picture trends emerging from UK Universities and where government's need to act
In particular - a big love and section of the podcast is dedicated to Quantum Computing, which is an area of deep i...
2023-06-0736 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 10: Robin Roehm of ApherisIn this episode our Europe 2023 Roadshow, landed in Berlin, where we meet Robin Rohm, a leader in the world of Federated Learning, which helps solve the problem of securely analysing data across boundaries and regulated industries.
He took a bit of time out from his Rocketship... Apheris who are early market leaders in this "machine learning on steriods" to talk with us in mid February, on the latest episode of FUNDstars and FOUNDstars.
Robin is a very straight talking and insightful guy, who speaks to us, pre the latest bomb to go off in the...
2023-03-3034 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 9: Clement Aglietta of EddaIn this episode we have a great insight into La French Tech, a term widely associated with Mr Macron and his Digital based ascendancy in France, but in this episode, it's from Clement Aglietta, the founder of leading Fintech, Edda, one of the poster-boys (children) of the current French Tech Revolution.
Clement provides some lovely insights on the business, their approach and also waxes lyrical with Chris on the formative days of the great French Tech Conference called "Le Web", where Clement got bitten by the Tech bug and event that Chris still lords as one of...
2023-03-0134 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 8: Sebastian Peck of Kompas VCFirst up for 2023 is our interesting catch - up with leading Amsterdam based Seed and Series A VC - Kompas. In this episode we talk with founding partner, Sebastian Peck, when he's in transit between meetings in Munich.
Sebastian covers a vast array of topics in this insightful 33 minutes conversation with Anthony and I. Kompas is a leading Digital Transformation / Net Zero focused / Zero Waste Circularity VC. So if you are in these areas - this is an excellent FUNDstars and FOUNDstars episode for you. We speak with Sebastian just before Christmas, when England...
2023-01-2632 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 7: Sarah Barber of Jenson Funding Partners (short)We had an awesome time catching up with Sarah, the CEO of Jenson Funding Partners, one of the UK's largest and most successful SEIS investors. Sarah was particularly keen to tell us about their new £60m Aurora fund, for pre-seed to Series A companies helping the transition to Net Zero.
Chris first met Sarah in his Bloomberg days in 2013, when she highlighted the early intentions of Jenson, so it was great to catch up on their progress and what progress there is. They've notably become a Certified B Corp recently as well.
S...
2022-12-1534 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 6: Peter Finnie of Potter ClarksonAfter autumn impasse, we return with our winter series of interesting Podcasts, with a number of leading lights in the UK Tech industry.
First up is Peter Finnie, a leading Tech Patents lawyer in the UK who shows us that lawyers are fun, good to talk too and so knowledgeable for Founders and VCs alike. Remember the top one's cover both!
Peter deep dives and offers some great pearls of advice such as:
# How to manage Patents/IP in 2023 and current state of regulation...
2022-12-0234 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 5: Lara Mott of ImprovewellIn this episode, we continue our summer focus (yes - there's another heatwave on the way in London to justify this !!) on leading ladies in the Tech space, talking here to a particularly successful founder in the Health-Tech vertical, Lara Mott.
Chris first met Lara, six years ago, when she was pondering on exiting her successful corporate career to scratch the entrepreneurial itch and launch her own business.
Roll on to 2020, when we were pleased to be contacted by the lovely Lara again, to hear about her itch becoming Improvewell, which is now (in August 2022) o...
2022-08-1830 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 4: Evie Mulberry – Astia VCFittingly, I write this summary of a great Vod/podcast, with a leading lady of the UK VC scene, England’s women have just scored their first goal against Austria !!
This episode focuses on Evie Mulberry, the Managing Partner of Astia VC, a leading San Francisco based VC, who has recently returned to the UK build the UK/EU footprint of the fund.
Evie highlights how Astia – was built by the super impressive Sharon Vosmek, who was one of three founders who established the pillars of Astia 20 years ago.
She brought Evie into the...
2022-07-0633 min
FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 3: Harriet Rosethorn - Puma PEHarriet Rosethorn is second up in our summer series on leading women in VC and Technology.
We speak to Harriet in February 2022 and she takes great time to firstly explain that Puma has nothing whatsoever to do with the German Sport apparel brand !!!
She, in fact, joined London based Puma PE, 4 years ago as an investment manager. They are a leading Series A investor in UK and do look at some European Technology names, if they plan to expand in the UK.
Puma's ticket size is between £2m -£10m and Puma look to...
2022-06-1335 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 2: Phoebe Arkell - Supernode Global VCPhoebe Arkell is first up in our summer series on leading women in VC and Technology. Phoebe is certainly one of the up and coming VCs who successful navigated a career in consulting to follow her dream of becoming a VC.
She joined London based, Supernode Global, just before the pandemic and quickly found their focus on investing at the seed stage in digital content, was perfectly suited to this time.
Supernode focuses specifically on platforms and tools focused on these verticals: gaming, animation, sport, education, analytics, ad-tech, music and now the all important metaverse!
2022-05-2532 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 5 Episode 1: Jatin Ondhia - Shojin Property PartnersJatin Ondhia is an inspirational leader who set up Shojin Property Partners in 2009 and has navigated the pandemic to grow a successful, scaling Property Technology business.
Jatin originally saw the value of investing in property, whilst working as a banker at UBS for 12 years. From its onset, Shojin was like an angel club, which has evolved into an online regulated Technology platform, democratising ownership and access to capital into middle market residential property (£10m-£60m) and the upside this investment can bring.
Online Real Estate investment is projected to grow from $15bn in 2022, to $800bn by...
2022-05-1633 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 10: Paul Landau - CareologyPaul decided to build Careology when personal circumstances highlighted how there are very few, real-time technology solutions to help people manage the treatment process and support processes around cancer, for the: person, care-giver and the clinical team.
Three years later, it appears to be going well and Paul, an experienced entrepreneur shares his thoughts on the many challenges of the journey, on this inspiring FUNDstar and FOUNDstar Vod/Podcast episode. These include:
===> How to build the Tech: the App, the Software, the SaaS and how to sell the software licence to providers and help them...
2022-04-2232 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 9 - Rich Potter - Peak AIRich is the CEO and Co-Founder of Peak.AI, one of the up and coming Unicorns of the UK Tech scene and Manchester's finest.
They are a Decision Intelligence leader (using AI and Cognitive Intelligence to make consistently strong decisions) working with Retailers like Superdry and AO.Com, CPGs like KFC and some leading UK & Global PLC manufacturing companies too!!
Universally these are product companies where the Peak Data Engine "CODI" optimises demand for their product, enables better targeting, an ability to run leaner, assist ESG goals and impact. Peak enables companies to stop "HOPING" and...
2022-03-3130 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 8 - Adrian Lloyd - Episode 1Adrian provides some great insight into about his journey, from studying Mandarin, to consultancy and then his time at Stanford University, where he decided that he really wanted to be an investor.
So upon returning to London .. Adrian, Damien Lane and Dr Simon Murdoch decided to go for it and launch their first fund at Episode 1, with the support of the British Business Bank
Adrian covers many areas in his 30 minutes ..especially the data magic data that Episode 1 utilises for their B2B Deep Tech / AI / Software Infrastructure and Marketplace investments.
This has led to successful seed stage investments in...
2022-03-2428 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 7 - Chris Averill - Leading Entrepreneur and author of Build, Sell, RetireChris is a really interesting Entrepreneur who successfully grew and exited his business extremely successfully. His childhood was tumultuous but gave him early life skills, which saw him grow and learn how to overcome challenges like Dyslexia (a condition that many leading founders interesting have suffered.
We talk late summer 2021, when the UK was in the midst of first UK energy crisis (with Bulb crashing), something that looks like dream, compared to the reality of life now in Mid March 2022.
He set up as a founder with his business, WAE (We Are Experience) business in 2003, h...
2022-03-1734 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 6 - Jonny Laughton and James Codling of Volution VCJonny and James take 30 minutes, to introduce their awesome new London based VC, Volution VC and their unique approach to funding innovative Technology Scale-Ups.
They are both experienced practitioners of the Private Technology finance space and spotted a gap to fund founders in in the post Series A / Series B space in Enterprise Software SaaS & Fintech space, with the creation of Volution VC.
Listen on here to find out more about -
# Their leading investments so far like Habito and Dead Happy
# How they structure their bridge to somewhere
# The metrics founders n...
2022-02-2430 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 5 - Suranga Chandratillake of BaldertonSuranga Chandratillake, a General Partner at Balderton, in London, is a legend in the world of UK and European VC. So it was great to spend time with one of the biggest players in the world of late stage private Tech, as a record year of UK Tech exits and IPO's drew to a close.
Prior to Balderton, Suranga led one of the UK Technology winners of the noughties, Blinkx. Like all great Technology players, it certainly had some ups and downs as both a private and then public Technology business. This experience was pretty formative in d...
2021-12-1634 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 4 - Oliver Hammond of Fuel VenturesIn a punchy, direct episode, we hear from Oli Hammond at Fuel Ventures, one of the fastest growing UK VC investors in the Seed space. Oli is a talented VC and has a super eye for spotting a lot of the latest Tech Gems, in the UK Early Stage space.
By means of background, Oli joined the fund from Syndicate Room, an interesting Cambridge based investor, whom Chris worked with at Bloomberg, when Oli and the SR attended a lot of the leading showcaser events Notwics delivered there. Prior to this he cut his teeth in Corporate l...
2021-12-0833 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 3 - Maria Palma of Kindred CapitalAs it's Thanksgiving Weekend - we only thought it was right to showcase an American VC in this episode, so get ready for this episode with Maria Palma of Kindred Capital and Anthony Lyall, our in house, US team member taking centre stage.
Maria is a straight-talking, super-bright American based in London with the super edgy Kindred Capital. Kindred are a clever & successful fund, with a unique investment style and razor focus on Deep-Tech & Future Technologies.
Maria has had a varied and interesting career to date, encompassing roles @ GE, an MBA at Harvard University, a S...
2021-11-2538 minThe Book ReviewHuma Abedin Talks About 'Both/And'In her new memoir, “Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds,” Huma Abedin writes about her Muslim faith, her years working alongside Hillary Clinton and, of course, her relationship with her estranged husband, the former Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner. On this week’s podcast, Abedin says that writing the book was “the most therapeutic thing I could have possibly done,” and that writing about her marriage and its time in the tabloids gave her perspective.“Now that I am on the other side, I can say with confidence: I don’t think what I went through is all that singu...
2021-11-051h 18FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 2 - Marc Young of ADG Pref CapWe talk today to Marc Young, a skilled artisan in the world of finance, who de-mystifies the arena of debt, an area that most founders look upon with fear, but at ADG Pref Cap, they have a perfectly sensible product and fund, specifically focused on B2B Software start-ups.
ADG itself is a diversified Asset Management company, which offers a lovely umbrella to the fund, business and regulation. ADG are looking for:
# Founders that have identified a niche / area that they can make a difference and attract customers
# Businesses that are effectively scale-ups, with a h...
2021-11-0533 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 4 Episode 1 - Adam Niewinski of OTB VenturesWe really enjoyed filming this week's FUNDstar Vod/Podcast, with the extremely affable, amusing and insightful Adam Niewinski, from leading Series B+ investor, OTB Ventures, in Warsaw.
Adam takes his time to provide context and background on how he decided venture capital was for him as it was an evolution:
# Of his early life of travels
# His career in finance
# Life as a B2C Fintech & Banking founder around the time of the first Bubble
# Focus on "Vorpals" and "Clicks and Mortar"
... Combined with a love of angel investing.
Thus h...
2021-10-1948 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 10 - George Mensah of Angel Co FundGeorge calls in from an office, well a dance studio in Manchester (his office for the day). He's a good egg and straight-talking Northern man, originally from Sheffield who holds the keys for founders, interested in catching the eyes and ears of ACF investors. who were previously known as AngelCoFund, but re-branded in early 2021.
The fund has been a hugely successful Seed investor, adopting an approach where they co - invest alongside sector side angels that have domain knowledge of the business.
Not to give too much away from the Podcast/Vodcast, but their secret r...
2021-10-0756 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 9 - Ronan Finnegan of SpacebandsBristol based, Spacebands is one of the few early stage Covid-19 / Tech businesses that Notwics have seen successfully navigate and grow commercially through the Pandemic,
This has been the result of their product helping Corporations successfully manage the problem of Social Distancing, through a relatively simple, hardware approach.
The Spacebands wrist device notifies users when they are too close to another user. Sounds simple, but it's very effective and as is often the case with Technology, simplicity sells.
Today, Spacebands co-founder Ronan Finnegan, takes time out of their somewhat 200 M.P.H days...
2021-09-3046 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 8 - Alena Gold of RaptechWe spotted RapTech many years ago as an early Seed Stage business, named BattleMe, in 2017, when they resided at the leading Telefonica backed accelerator, called Wayra.
Unusually the business was born by Alena and her brother, who through their childhood in Belarus grew a love of 80's and 90's US hip-hop which they then combined with their technological expertise.
Consequently, the Technology and Rap Fame platform enables independent Hip-Hop and Rap artists to showcase their talents directly to the community, which, in turn has led to some artists actually getting recording contracts.
Additionally s...
2021-09-2453 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 7 - Jackie Fast of Sandbox StudiosWe love Jackie as a straight talking, go getting, no holds barred type of VC investor- a real tour de force and this 40 minute pod shows you just why she is destined to become even more successful with her latest venture, Sandbox Studios.
Jackie provides great insight and wisdom, whilst explaining more about Sandbox and how they plan to invest globally, from the Los Angeles base.
Being in LA - Sandbox helps align Jackie's past in the world of sponsorship agencies (where she successfully exited her first business for £multi milion exit). They combine their ag...
2021-09-1650 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 6 - Carmen Rico, One of Europe's leading VCsWe have the pleasure of spending time with one of the leading and most successful investors in the UK and European Seed stage today, on the “FOUNDstars and FUNDstars” VodPod.
The effervescent Carmen calls us from Madrid (despite being London based) for this bubbly and insightful Vodcast / Podcast where we focus on several interesting and important aspects of her life as venture capitalist, where Carmen divulges some real golden nuggets for any aspiring VC's or founders looking to grab her attention.
Carmen really is a real “FUNDstar”, something that is very evident in our summertime chat on...
2021-09-0257 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 5 - Ruslan Sarkisyan of Begin CapitalIn this interesting episode, filmed in late April 2021, Ruslan provides some excellent insight and is again a classic example of how cross border barriers for founders looking for investment have really been removed during the pandemic.
This really is a Vod/Podcast that is from Moscow with love, as Ruslan takes time to deep dive on the approach, structure and growth that Begin have created in a very short space of time.
He speaks with real passion, for what he, Alex and Sava have created with the fund, where their refreshingly fun and straightforward approach to...
2021-07-1654 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 4 - David Wood of The London FuturistsIn today's episode we delve into the future and hear the amazing pearls of wisdom, of what may or may not happen in the world of Technology, from one of authorities on this area, David Wood of The London Futurists.
David's business is very much in demand, with the pandemic sparking a mix-shift towards more Corporations (not just Tech) and individuals allocating greater resource and time towards planning for the impact of future digital and technology solutions.
Futurism is now taken seriously, rather than be seen to be a gimmick 20 years ago, when David starting m...
2021-07-081h 00FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 3 - Steve Baxter of Ten13We have another cracking episode for you today, with another legendary and outspoken VC, the "bolder than bold" Steve Baxter of Ten13 VC.
Should you not know this, but Steve is a national hero of the Australian Tech scene, with all his great and insightful wisdom displayed on TV show "Shark Tank".
More recently Steve has been focused his efforts on investing through the excellent and early staged focus VC based in one of my favourite cities in the world Brisbane, called Ten13.
They are a very active bunch and one to focus on foun...
2021-07-0136 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 2 - Jonny Fry of Team BlockchainJonny is a real character and one of the most likeable rogues in Blockchain. Think of a recipe of Oliver Twist's the Artful Dodger meets John McCririck, of Horse-racing commentary par excellEnce, sprinkled with Crypto-currency ingredients - then you get the general picture.
But joking aside, Jonny is one of the few people Notwics have met and i'm counting in the 1000's that actually make Blockchain Technology : simple, understandable and commercial.
In-between verbally abusing Chris on this episode, Jonny kindly expands his opinions on:
# Blockchain (funnily enough) and what it enables, the key t...
2021-06-2447 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 3 Episode 1 - Camilla Dolan of Eka CapitalCamilla's love of Technology was forged in her early career at the mighty Bain Consulting, where upon being posted to San Francisco for 6 months she had the opportunity to work with baby stage, inspirational start-ups like: UBER and Worldpay !!!
Having cut her teeth working on these rather unsuccessful west coast based founders, Camilla became hooked and upon returning to London, she said "adieu" to Bain and "hello" to MMC and the world of VC.
Camilla highlights several topics of interest in the Podcast / Vodcast:
On Trends:
# Ageism - and how early experience with...
2021-06-1755 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 10 - Bobby Console-Verma of 1FSBobby Console-Verma is a long standing pillar of the world of Family Office and he takes 50 minutes out of his schedule to tell us about his life in Family Office and what its all about.
Bobby's tips are centered around:
# The importance of timing with investment throughout his life
# His love of Real Estate and Property through his Family Office, FMV Capital
# How Family Offices are very unique and different. No one is the same in terms of outlook and scale
# The mysteries around Family Offices
# UHNW, HNI, mass affluent all have different...
2021-05-2752 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 9 - David Ephrati of Truesight VenturesDavid joins us from his flat in London, to tell us more about his role at Truesight Ventures, a Seed Fund focused on investing in brilliant founders. They are a small team, 4 people in total based in London & Stockholm.
We discuss & debate:
The VC industry:
# The nature of VC, is "super sexy" in David's words and it is attracting more young people as an the industry
# However, Job opportunities remain scarce and despite the growing number of funds it's no easier to get a job in VC
# It's "super competitive" says Davi...
2021-05-2054 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 8 - Nick Finegold of Curation CorpAnother cheeky chappie joins from the countryside, Nick Finegold a FOUNDstar, founding two great start-ups, namely Curation and The Fat Gladiator. They are both content driven businesses, led by technology address real issues in the world, with Curation .. ESG and the Fat Gladiator anything else that Nick fancies writing stories about and doing a video on. He also deep dives on the time building Execution a massive financial disruptor in the 90’s, challenging the might of the leading investment banks, where had his early learnings of success and failure
Nick is full of gems, in this Pubcast an...
2021-05-1350 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 7 - Dan Bowyer of SUPERseedDan 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 b...
2021-05-1347 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 6 - Christian Faes of LendinvestStaying Down-Under and keeping the distinctly antipodean flavour to the Vod/Pod or “Pub” Cast this week, we spent the next 50 minutes shooting the breeze with the masterful Christian Faes of Lendinvest, who looks tanned and healthy, as well as speaking superbly dandy, from his lockdown induced home in Queensland, Australia.
Christian is probably the most successful founder that Chris has ever got to know, in his working life and someone he longs to have a beer with again, possibly in the Ladbroke Arms in Notting Hill.
Daydreaming aside, this colourful chat, is peppered with some de...
2021-05-0556 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 5 - Mat Cole of Act Capital PartnersMat of Act Capital Partners, a fascinating Melbourne based, Media focused VC called into the show in Mid-March 2021 to share some right gems of wisdom, to a early morning (coffee'd up), PJ wearing Chris and perfectly properly attired Ant. During the episode, Mat openly shared his perspective on many areas including:
# The move from being a Founder to a VC and the trials / tribulations of doing this, where on one occasion he was involved a boxing match with a leading unnamed Tech giant
# How timing is so important for Founders, around your first investor, your fir...
2021-05-0452 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 4 - Cordelia Meacher of Fieldhouse AssociatesCordelia Meacher is a “tour de force” in the world of Technology PR and Strategy and a true FOUNDstar, having created Fieldhouse Associates 9 years ago and driving it to become one of the leading UK agencies in the world of private Technology.
Through Cordelia’s stewardship and capabilities, Fieldhouse now lists many of the UK and Europe’s leading VC’s as clients, as well as some of the “up and coming” Technology companies, at the forefront of the digital revolution.
Her passion for Technology is un-matched and in this 45 minutes deep dive we cover a diverse rang...
2021-04-2743 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 3 - George O'Connor of Stifel NicolausGeorge O’Connor, from Stifel Nicolaus, is a legendary figure from the world of UK Technology, being a leading UK sell-side analyst covering public Technology companies for many decades.
George has been through the highs and lows of the internet bubble (bursting), the financial crisis and in this episode talks about the new renaissance of UK Technology companies, looking to IPO in the UK in 2021 (Deliveroo, Darktrace, Revolut and many more).
George has a “Highlander” type status amongst his peers (including Chris).. as he is the “last man standing” from the golden era of UK Technology...
2021-04-2754 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 2 - Stuart Nicol of Quantx VenturesStuart joins us from the wilds of South Devon, (in lockdown) standing up and freshly shaven, to tell us about his experience as a venture capitalist which was honed by working in several big VC’s in London. The main role was at Octopus where he ran a £45m VCT but they all provided Stuart with the experience to build his latest venture, an Enterprise Capital fund called Qantx.
Qantx is focused on backing founders in the South West of England, with their deal flow driven by Stuart’s excellent reputation and hard work supporting founders over recent...
2021-04-2051 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 2 Episode 1 - David Johnson, MaddynessA Flat Capped and hairy David “Wolverine” Johnson, the UK Editor of Maddyness, calls in from the wilds of the Berkshire countryside, to tell us all about the joys of lockdown and how he swapped life in Harlesden for a lovely barn “doer-upper”. As well as home DIY & a fondness for electrical wiring, David updates us on the progress the leading Tech publication has come so far, including the recent launch of their new Podcast called “The Voice”, where the first series focuses on the joys of Sex-Tech!
Providing some context, Maddyness launched 10 years ago in France and its goal i...
2021-04-2054 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 10 - Patrick Newton, Form VenturesAmusingly Form are a regulation focused VC, that openly admit the pandemic (we filmed this in Lockdown 3) has actually turned them off watching the news, especially BoBo’s 5 pm Death update.
On the team itself, Leo and Patrick met at the CBI which sparked their interest in setting up the first Fund in the UK / Europe, focused on Regulation, many years later. Think Tusk Ventures in the US, but with a few other twist and shakes!
Their approach Is to look at investing at both the "regulatory frontier" or where "soft regulation" has the potential to give birth to new area...
2021-03-3050 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 9 - Stephen Kelly, Tech NationAnt and Chris talk to Stephen Kelly, the Chair of Tech Nation, a great UK institution that is helping drive and grow Digital in the UK. He discusses how now could become the golden time or age of UK Tech. Additionally, we dive into how Tech Nation is well placed as a platform to help drive UK companies to grow, scale and smash through the global barriers to become global champions.
Tech Nation is a big Technology organisation, which helps UK businesses attain access to talent and capital to drive growth. At this current time, Stephen feels very positive about t...
2021-03-3050 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 8 - Alasdair Scott of StaarkMy memories of Alasdair go back many years, to seeing him succeed in the world of film, winning a Bafta and he is an individual who views life as a learning curve, of which technology has featured strongly.
These life skills and understanding feature heavily in this episode, where Alasdair provides some grey hair, well actually purple hair wisdom for any founders that want to build a successful business.
In the case of the latest business, he tells us about Staark, a business born out of frustration of his middle-aged mind and body not being...
2021-03-1551 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 7 - Oliver Finch, Maersk GrowthOliver Finch is an Englishman in Denmark apparently the happiest country on Earth, where he works for Maersk Growth in Copenhagen.
Oliver called in to tell us more about the world of Corporate VC, through his detailed work with Maersk Growth, the ventures arm of the leading, global conglomerate, Maersk.
Oliver deep dives into his views on several interesting areas in the 50-minute Vod/Pod; naturally touching on the focus of the investment arm of this industrial giant being around supply chain and supply chain logistics.
They invest at Seed to Series A...
2021-03-1550 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 5 - Ed Lascelles of AlbionVCEd zooms in from cosy West London, where, from his leading position as one of the best and friendliest UK VC investors, he tells us the over-riding good news, that the UK Series A scene is hot to trot. He also divulges and treats us to snippets about life during lockdown, things are moving more quickly, the magic of Albion and what’s driving their exciting start to 2021 and continuation of their successful 2020.
Ed provides astute opinions on Ed-Tech, the Future Fund, the emergence of US investors in the UK, the immense successes of the UCL Technology Fund in the Lif...
2021-03-0548 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 6 - Martina King of FeatureSpaceMartina takes time out of her busy, command control centre in the Suffolk countryside to tell us about life at Featurespace, a leading UK Cybersecurity player, who recently was ranked as the 8th most important AI company in the UK, by Beauhurst.
Featurespace is a great company that is one of the pioneers of Machine Learning in the UK and their Fraud solution, born by some superb professors at Cambridge University, to become one of the fastest-growing Cyber-security businesses in the world.
Martina is a great leader who talks about the guidance of...
2021-03-0551 min
FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 4 - Kjartan Rist of Concentric VCKjartan calls in from his Summerhouse in the wilds of Denmark, where we caught up with him on a Friday afternoon in late January. Naturally, Kjartan, or the “the white-haired wizard” of VC, was full of new year optimism, emphasising clearly on this Vodcast, that now more than ever is the best time to take the plunge and build a Tech company.
He touches upon how he and his partner Dennis built Concentric, to invest in software that solves real problems in traditional industries. A focus of “Need to have, rather than nice to have”.
2021-02-2549 min
FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 3 - Prask Sutton of Wi5We chat to the wonderful Prask, by his fire, in his very cold, 800 years old, horsehair house in the wilds of the Sussex countryside, where Prask has hunkered down in with his lovely family, but continued to lead and grow his super Scale-Up, Wi5 during the pandemic.
Prask is an excellent founder, growing his business to become a significant Scale-Up in the mobile payments “order and pay” space in the last 4 years, snagging great SME clients like Pizza Pilgrims, the ETM group and many more, in this growth. 2021 represents a year of further opportunities in the US and...
2021-02-2550 min
FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 2 - Richard Pursey of SafetonetRichard is one of NOTWICS most revered and favourite founders, a classic entrepreneur and leading businessman, which has seen SafeToNet power into the top 20 AI Scale-Ups in the UK. Richard clearly shows his passion and energy about setting up SafeToNet and the strong social purpose he feels about protecting Children-on-line.
One of the world’s biggest problems is wanting to be liked online and ascertaining as many likes as possible! Parental Controls are not the solution but a more holistic approach, provided by the behavioural analytics / Deep-Tech contextualised approach that SafeToNet offers, is. Hear more about how th...
2021-02-0352 min
FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 1 - Kathy Gromotka of Downing VenturesKathy talks about Bloomberg, her time at Microsoft, and her employer Downing Ventures, where she is fast becoming one of the up and coming stars of the UK VC scene.
In this episode we touch on many interesting areas such as:
# How does Downing work / Invest / interact with Founders / verticals and current focus.. it’s a big cahoona 76 investments and 140 people fund, looking at 5 companies a day.
# The differences between US funds and how they work and UK Funds – amusingly how one worries about investment going to zero and the others not
# 2020 – and Covid has pr...
2021-02-0348 minFUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICSF&F Season 1 Episode 0 - Who are we, and why do we have a podcast?!Chris Lowe of NOTWICS and Anthony Lyall of Lyall Ventures bring you the FUNDstar and FOUNDstar podcast. In this quick episode, we explain a little bit about ourselves, and what you can expect from the podcast.
2021-02-0103 min
UnfoundNieko Lisi: The Answer YearNieko Anthony Lisi was an 18 year old from Addison, NY. He was a wrestler and loved the outdoors. On September 30, 2011, he and another young man left NY in a pickup truck. Over the next few days, Nieko’s traveling companion arrived in Michigan. While Nieko was seen by a friend in Franklin, TN alone. He was never seen again. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/235131836543343/ Charley Project: http://charleyproject.org/case/nieko-anthony-lisi NAMUS: https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/13249 Articles: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2016/07/21/new-york-police-franklin-investigating-missing-teen-case/87391336/ https://www.newyorkupstate.com/news/2017/03/upstate_ny...
2018-07-272h 40
In A Perfect World32: New MAPS of Hyperspace #3: interviews with Stan Grof and Nicholas SandAt the MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference 2010 with experiential journalist Rak Razam:
* Stan Grof divulges his personal history in the Checkoslovakian psychedelic scene of the 1950s and his first trip in 1956; psychedelic therapy, his LSD research in America and his disappointment at the discarding of years of scientific data; his subsequent founding of holotropic breathwork and its ability to alter consciousness; and his thoughts on the current wave of psychedelic research in some ways going over old ground... Stan advocates the technologies of the sacred as part of healing and a network of centers to support the exploration of consciousness in...
2010-06-1145 min