Not My First Guess

   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

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

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