Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology (Riding Unicorns Productions)

Vlad Tropko is a Partner at Digital Horizon, a new generation international venture company focused on B2B software based companies in fintech, retail and e-commerce. Vlad is a seasoned VC executive with over 15 years of experience with particular expertise in European and American startups. As well as this Vlad is also an Investor at companies such as Advisable, Bnext, and Ably.

Vlad joined Riding Unicorns to explain the composition of his preferred founder, what founders get wrong when pitching to an investor and the importance of a total addressable market when investing in a company. 

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Jeff Kelisky is the CEO at equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs. Jeff is an experienced executive whose track record in building, leading and scaling successful technology businesses has made him one of the most revered figures in his space. Before joining Seedrs, Jeff was CEO for Picsolve and Multimap, the latter of which he led through a successful sale to Microsoft. 

In this our sixth ever episode we discuss with Jeff his remarkable career, what it was like selling a business to Microsoft and what impact the Seedrs/Crowdcube merger will have on private market investing.

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Hector Mason is an Investor at Episode 1 Ventures, a seed stage Venture Capital fund, whose previous investments include Carwow, Attest, Zoopla and Shazam. Prior to his time at Episode 1 Hector tried his hand at being a founder and after a couple of attempts, one of which included a successful exit Hector decided to move into consultancy before finally settling on venture capital. Since his move Hector has been slowly making a name for himself as one of the most adept early stage investors in the U.K. 

Hector sat down with James to open up on his time as an entrepreneur, his meteoric rise in venture and what he looks for when investing. Hector also opened up about his plans for The Seed Stage, a demo day he created to help founders optimise their round and generate term sheets. 

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Lucas London is the co-founder & CEO at the UK’s fastest-growing home decor startup, Lick London. The brand is revolutionising the interiors sector with their unique community-driven ethos, content-rich approach and high-touch quality support. Lucas started out in investment banking before going on to cut his teeth at a host of tech startups. In 2020 Lucas and his fellow co-founder Sam Bradley launched Lick Home and it has quickly grown to become one of the most desirable home decor brands. 

James invited Lucas on Riding Unicorns to find out more about the company's internal processes, the key hires they made in the early days and its future plans post pandemic. 

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Andrew Scott is the Founding Partner of early-stage startup investor, 7percent Ventures. Andrew and his team have a keen eye for ambitious companies with huge upside. Several of his investments to-date include Oculus VR, Source DNA & Magic Pony, which have been sold to Facebook, Apple & Twitter respectively. 

Riding Unicorns sat down with the entrepreneur turned investor to talk about what he looks out for in a potential company, what the process is like when coming to sell a business and what he believes is missing in the current VC market today. 

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Ray Chohan is the co-founder of PatSnap, one of the global leaders in ​​connected innovation intelligence. With more than 800 individuals located across three continents, Ray and his team really are at the forefront of revolutionizing the innovation process. 

During the episode Ray reveals the motivation behind founding PatSnap and exactly what problem the company is trying to solve. From an operational perspective Ray was able to share some tips for fundraising, hiring and how to become an expert communicator. In closing Ray goes on to explain why he is hugely excited about web 3.0 and what value he thinks it will bring to our daily lives. 

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Gordon Sanghera is the co-founder and CEO of Oxford Nanopore. With the help of some of the brightest minds around the globe Gordon, who has over 15 years experience in the design and development of biosensor devices, and his team have been able to develop revolutionary sensing technology that performs precise analysis of single molecules. 

Riding Unicorns invited Gordon on the show to explain in simple terms what the company does, the real world benefits to its products and how despite the difficulty they were able to find a commercial model that worked. We also delve into the rock n roll culture Gordon has helped implement at Oxford Nanopore, why he hires people with a diverse skill set and what the future looks like for him and the company 

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Tom Leathes is the co-founder and CEO of Motorway. Launched four years ago by Tom and his long term friend and business partner Harry Jones, Motorway is harnessing the power of technology to deliver an amazing experience for customers looking to value and sell their car. In the four years it has been operating the company has already helped over 2.5m customers resulting in 300% year on year growth.

Riding Unicorns were lucky enough to sit down with Tom and pick his brain on several topics including the motivation behind Motorway, which we go on to learn was fuelled by failing with a previous start-up. Tom goes on to explain how his role in the business has changed since it has scaled, how the team was able to develop its MVP and why customer satisfaction will always be his and the company's number one priority. We close by exploring Tom's qualities as a founder, what advice he would give to his younger self and his plans for the future. 

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Guy Podjarny is the Founder of cybersecurity firm, Snyk. Founded in 2015 the company specialises in offering developer-first security and was recently valued at over £8bn. Prior to Synk Guy worked as CTO at Akamai following their acquisition of his startup, Blaze.io. Guy has spent his career becoming an expert in web application security, a topic which he covers in depth on his own podcast, The Secure Developer podcast. 

Guy spent some time with James and Hector to discuss how a big vision starts with small steps and why he believes everything is a product. The trio also cover topics such as managing a cap table over several rounds, how to enforce company values and what qualities Guy possesses as a founder. 

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Jimmy Williams is the Co-Founder and CEO of InsurTech, Urban Jungle. Jimmy started out in consulting before pivoting towards insurance following his own frustrating experience trying to secure a policy. In 2016 Jimmy launched Urban Jungle in the hope of providing an alternative offering in what he increasingly saw as an unfair, expensive and slow moving sector. Having recently closed an $11.4m Series A round the company hopes to continue building its reputation as one of the key disruptors in insurance. 

Jimmy joined Riding Unicorns to discuss his transition from consulting to entrepreneurship. We learn how freelancing helped bridge that gap. We also probed Jimmy on how he went about finding and recruiting his fellow co-founder, Greg Smyth. Finally we dive into his personal philosophy on culture and why he prefers to overlook certain favoured metrics when trying to scale his business. 

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Larry Gadea is the Founder and CEO of unicorn workplace software provider, Envoy. Larry’s story is a remarkable one. After his family fled Romania as refugees Larry spent much of his early childhood perfecting his knowledge of computer engineering. His proclivity in this space would see him go on to secure prominent positions at both Google & Twitter. In 2013 Larry decided to go it alone and launch Envoy with the mission of improving visitor and host experiences in the workplace. The company now oversees over 100,000 new sign-ins every day and has plans for further growth in the coming years. 

Hector and James invited Larry on Riding Unicorns to explore what drives him, find out more about his experiences at Google & Twitter and to better understand what pain points Envoy was trying to solve. We also manage to get Larry’s thoughts on the operational side of the business, in fact we manage to get him to share a little bit more about the company's initial go to market strategy, why they continue to focus heavily on building relationships with their core customer base and how they are going about building a great business culture. 

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Brad Coffey is the Chief Customer Officer at Pipe, the trading platform that enables entrepreneurs to grow their business on their terms. By treating recurring revenue streams as an asset, Pipe allows companies to transform their recurring revenue into up-front capital, instantly. Prior to joining Pipe Brad was the Chief Strategy Officer at HubSpot, where he helped grow the business from $1m to $1b in ARR. Brad is also a keen angel investor and advisor having helped many startups develop their strategy around product, packaging and pricing.

In this the final episode of Season 3 Hector and James sit down with Brad to explore the differences between entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, the challenges of fundraising and what metrics are the most valuable. Later into the episode the trio cover the topics of cross team KPIs, the best way to build a multi product company and Brad's views on the competition and the future of Pipe. 

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Taymoor Atighetchi is the Founder and CEO of British e-commerce stationary brand, Papier. The story of Taymoor’s rise in business is fascinating. He started out by selling antiques on Portobello Market before going on to co-found the now very popular news youth site, The Tab. Upon graduating Taymoor secured a role at Bain & Company as a consultant. It was there where Taymoor spotted the opportunity to disrupt the retail space by providing an online offering to what was once a very bricks and mortar dependent sector. In the seven years since its launch Papier has raised over $65 million. The company now employs over 100 people and has plans for further expansion into America.

In this, the penultimate episode of Season 3, Hector and James sit down with Taymoor to better understand his entrepreneurial journey, the motivations behind launching Papier and the practicalities of making the business work. During the episode the trio also delve into the company's experience of fundraising, its approach to culture and its future plans. 

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Dominic McGregor is the Founding Partner of Investment Firm Fearless Adventures. Dominic however is perhaps best known for the role he played in helping to build the hugely successful social media agency, Social Chain. With the help of his co-founder Steven Bartlett the pair were able to transform a mere idea, dreamt up in their university halls, into one of the world's leading media companies. Having both now exited the company Dominic has launched Fearless Adventures in the hope of helping other founders on their own start-up journeys. Dominic is also a prominent mental health advocate and regularly speaks on the topic of his own personal struggles with anxiety and alcoholism. 

In this, the first episode of season 4, James, Hector and Dominic sit down to discuss the work that went into building Social Chain, his philosophy when it comes to hiring and the issues you face when running a heavily cash flow reliant business. Dominic also opens up on his latest venture. We go on to learn more about his vision for Fearless Adventures and what he is looking for from founders. The episode closes with Dominic opening up about his own battles with sobriety with Dominic offering advice on what coping mechanisms to employ during difficult periods. 

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Hussein Kanji is the founding partner at renowned early stage venture firm, Hoxton Ventures. Following experiences at Microsoft and Accel Partners Hussein decided to set up Hoxton Ventures in 2013 in the hope that by backing Europe’s best global tech companies, his team would be able to bring a slice of Silicon Valley to Europe. As a result of backing four unicorns and creating $54bn of value both Hussein and Hoxton have gone on to develop a reputation as one of the best operators in the venture space. 

In this episode Hussein begins by reflecting on his time at Microsoft and how that experience went on to shape his approach to venture. James and Hector then dig deeper into Hussein’s personal motivations behind going into venture and lessons he has learnt from picking founders. 

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Adnan Ebrahim is the co-founder and CEO of health and mindfulness app, Mindlabs. Adnan can trace his entrepreneurial roots all the way back to the school playground where he would often be seen selling wristbands to his classmates. Adnan’s love for business did not stop there however and after one successful venture in blogging Adnan decided to follow that up by launching Car Throttle, an online community for car enthusiasts. What started out as an idea born in his bedroom quickly grew into one of the most popular content platforms in the automotive space. The company's growth drew the attention of none other than Dennis Publishing, who in 2019 decided to acquire the company. Shortly after the acquisition Adnan decided to launch his latest venture, Mindlabs in the hope of bringing people some much needed peace of mind through accessible wellness classes. 

In this episode James and Hector start off by looking back at Adnan’s time at CarThrottle, the challenges he faced growing the business and its subsequent acquisition by Dennis Publishing. Later into the episode the three discuss the motivation behind Adnan's new venture and explore what learnings he is taking from his first start-up experience. The episode closes with some helpful tips on fundraising and angel investing. 

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Rania Lamprou is the co-founder and CEO of Simpler - 1-click checkout for online shopping. Prior to launching Simpler Rania worked in several industries from marketing, business development, sales and product management. In 2020, Rania decided to launch Simpler with the aim of revolutionising the online checkout experience for both shoppers and sellers alike. The company has recently exited stealth mode and is now looking to grow its offering in the coming months. 

Riding Unicorns invited Rania on the show to get a better understanding of why she decided to become a founder, what leadership skills she picked up in her previous roles and what she is trying to achieve with Simpler. During the episode we also dive deeper into the goings on at Fast, which recently announced that it was ceasing operations. James, Hector and Rania reflect on how the company got to that point and what lessons Simpler can take from their story. The episode also covers operational processes, tips on attracting the best talent and how to build a great culture. 

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Julie Chen is the Founder and CEO of The Cheeky Panda, makers of a range of Bamboo toiletry products including traditional toilet paper, facial tissues, kitchen towel, wipes and nappies. The idea for the company was born out of a family trip to China. While in China, Julie and her husband couldn't help but notice the abundance of Bamboo, which is of course one the world's fastest growing plants. It was there where Julie spotted the opportunity to create an environmentally friendly alternative to tree based tissue paper we use in the west. The company finally launched in 2016 and has since reached B Corp status with many of their products now available in over 25 countries. The hope is to continue to grow the company so that one day it is in the position to be able to go public. 

Julie joined us to explain what inspired her to launch the brand, detail some of the challenges she has faced in building Cheeky Panda and what she hopes to achieve in the coming years. James and Hector also quiz Julie on her approach to crowdfunding, what it is like running a business with her husband and her thoughts on the importance of increased opportunities for underrepresented founders.  

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Paul Murphy (@paulbz on Twitter) is a Partner at Lightspeed, a global venture capital firm focusing on multi-stage investments in the enterprise technology, consumer, and health sectors. Prior to his stint at Lightspeed Paul worked at Microsoft, Betaworks, Giphy and Northzone to name but a few. Paul also has extensive experience as an entrepreneur having set-up several companies namely Mobile Games Studio, Dots and calendar app, Katch. Paul is now sharing his knowledge of what it takes to build a successful business with the next generation of founders and helping Lightspeed identify the game changing businesses of the future. 

Paul spoke to Riding Unicorns to shed some light on the decision making process behind his career moves, the lessons he has learnt from incorporating businesses and how his experiences in business has informed his approach to investing. The guys also go on to probe Paul on why Europe is becoming attractive to U.S funds, what common traits successful founders share and what he aims to achieve moving forward. 

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James Routledge is the Founder of Sanctus, leading providers of mental health coaches. After starting his first business at University James was hooked by the idea of being an entrepreneur. His first business venture, MatchChat, a social media app would however ultimately go on to be unsuccessful. As is often the case in life there is a silver lining to all supposed failures. James would ultimately go on to reflect more deeply about the stress he felt around this time and how it affected his mental health. Spurred on by this experience James launched Sanctus in 2016 and the company has since partnered with some of the biggest brands to help them transform their mental health culture. In November 2022 James took the difficult decision to step down as CEO but as he mentions during the episode he continues to have a very strong relationship with the company to this day. James now spends much of his time writing and is in fact a best selling author. His first book, Mental Health at Work, shares his stories, learnings and guidance on the topic of mental health. 

Riding Unicorns invited James on the show to discuss the highs and lows of working on MatchChat and the inspiration behind launching Sanctus. Mental health was of course a huge topic throughout the episode. James went on to share some practical advice on how to improve mental health in the workplace. 

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Freddy Ward is the co-founder of D2C cosmetics company, Wild. Freddy started his career at Hello Fresh and is actually credited as being its fifth ever employee. After working his way up to Marketing Director Freddy decided to start his own company, Wild, with lifelong friend and former Director of Fly Hiring, Charlie Bowes-Lyon. Wild is best known for its refillable deodorants and range of exotic fragrances, which customers seem to have really warmed too. In fact the company has already sold over 300,000 deodorants in little over 18 months. The company is hoping that by focusing on natural ingredients and by cutting down on plastic waste it will be at the forefront of a new wave of environmentally friendly consumer products. 

In this episode Freddy explains what marketing means to him, how he went about starting Wild and how he later developed its brand. The episode also covers how one should go about experimenting with new marketing channels, the thought process behind launching new products and what value Freddy believes he brings to the business. 

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Kevin Diestel is a Partner at Sapphire Ventures, a venture capital firm that primarily invests in Series B technology companies. Before moving into private equity Kevin worked as an Analyst for Merrill Lynch. After two years working for the Investment Bank Kevin began working for Shamrock Capital Advisors, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm. During his time there he was responsible for evaluating investments in the media, entertainment and communications sectors. Having joined Sapphire in 2012 Kevin now focuses his time primarily on innovative consumer businesses and vertical software applications. Kevin holds a board seat at a number of companies including Culture Amp, Current, Degreed, project44, and Sun Basket. 

In this episode Kevin starts off by explaining his role at Sapphire Ventures, his approach to investing and how he and his team deal with downturns in performance. Kevin also goes on to detail how he strikes a balance between intuition and data when investing. Finally James and Hector quiz Kevin on how he avoids bias during the decision making process and what the ultimate goal is for his career. 

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Katie Marrache is a Partner at JamJar Ventures, a VC firm founded by the people behind the hugely popular Innocent drinks. Katie is the definition of a go-getter. Whilst at University she secured an internship with Dragons’ Den investor, James Caan, which saw her manage the entrepreneurs portfolio of consumer investments. After a short stint working in television Katie joined Innocent drinks as a category manager, which once again saw her manage an investment portfolio. In 2017 she made Partner and with it became Europe's youngest ever female venture capital partner.

Speaking to Riding Unicorns Katie reflects on her career to date, how she as a VC quantifies the size of a market and the benefits of focusing on product. In what turned out to be a discussion full of fascinating insights and opinions James, Hector and Katie also go on to discuss the trends that most excite them in the consumer space and the marketing strategies they feel are most effective when going to market. 

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Tom Goodwin is the co-founder of innovation consultancy, All We Have Is Now. Tom is however much more than just an entrepreneur. Tom has spent over 20 years studying topics such as the impact of new technology, changing consumer behaviours, and trends in digital marketing and as such is regarded as one of the experts in his field. He is also the author of Digital Darwinism, a business book that explores the current digital transformation in business. As well as this Tom is a much sought after public speaker and has spent much time educating audiences all over the world on digital transformation and innovation.

Tom sat down with Riding Unicorns for what turned out to be quite a lively debate on the topic of venture capital. Tom makes his feelings on VC’s abundantly clear throughout the episode. We go on to learn that Tom’s main gripe is his belief that VC’s have become unimaginative in their approach to investing, which in his mind, is resulting in a slew of uninspiring and in some cases copycat companies. Towards the end of the episode the conversation turns to brand building, a topic Tom is very familiar with. Unsurprisingly Tom is full of fascinating insights and even goes on to provide founders with some sage advice on the subject. 

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Charles Delingpole is the Founder & CEO of ComplyAdvantage, leaders in AI driven fraud and AML risk detection. Founded in 2014, ComplyAdvantage works with over 500 clients across 75 countries to tackle the risk of money laundering, terrorist financing and corruption. Prior to ComplyAdvantage Charles founded the world’s largest student discussion forum The Student Room Group. He then followed this up by co-founding MarketFinance, a corporate financial solutions company. 

Charles joined James and Hector on Riding Unicorns to discuss how his passion for coding helped him to become an entrepreneur, the secrets behind his three successful start-ups and how his role as a CEO continues to evolve. This episode also goes on to cover the motivations behind his journey and what legacy he hopes to leave behind.

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Martin Bysh is the co-founder & CEO of Huboo, an award-winning order fulfilment service for eCommerce sellers. Martin spent the early part of his career working in a number of industries including everything from video games to dating sites and market research. After years of toiling in different ventures Martin finally decided to launch Huboo in 2017 with his co-founder Paul Dodd. Since then the company has grown at a remarkable rate and is now responsible for shipping an average of five million packages a year. This has led the Bristol based company to open new fulfilment centres around the globe in locations such as Madrid, Eindhoven and in the very near future, Leipzig.

Martin sat down with us to reflect on his many career moves to date, explain how he met his co-founder Paul and shed some light on why he always found it difficult to maintain focus throughout his career and how founding Huboo helped him finally achieve that. We also go on to learn how the company has managed to align all its products whilst simultaneously building a great company culture. 

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Aidan Corbett is the co-founder and CEO of Dublin-based Wayflyer. Founded in 2019 the company supports e-commerce businesses worldwide by providing a range of financing and analytics solutions that improve cash flow, drive sales and optimise supply chains. Since launching in April 2020 the company has already gone on to provide over $500 million to businesses, a fact which has meant that Aidan and his team have been able to build a unicorn in just 20 months. Wayflyer now has more than 800 customers across 11 countries, and employs 250 people between Dublin, London, New York, Atlanta and Sydney.

We invited Aidan to learn more about how his time at Conjura led him to founding Wayflyer, his thoughts on the future of B2B finance and why the Irish start-up scene is thriving. Aidan also left us with plenty of practical advice such as how best to prepare for international expansion, how to attract talent and the best ways to build a solid workplace culture. 

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Haakon Overli is the Founder and General Partner of Dawn Capital, a VC firm investing in European founders in the hope of helping them build the next generation of global software companies. During the early stage of his career Haakon worked in investment banking before eventually taking the decision to go out on his own and become an entrepreneur. In 1999 he launched Self Trade, an on-line stock broker, which he eventually sold in 2000 to HypoVereinsbank for €911m (US$1.1bn). Haakon now spends his time developing relationships with founders and providing them with advice in an attempt to help them grow their businesses. 

Haakon sat down with James and Hector to discuss his time with Self Trade, the various investment models currently at play in venture capital, and what he considers to be a red flag when investing. Haakon also goes on to share his personal philosophy on business and life, which as we go on to learn, much of which is informed by his neurodiversity.

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Francesco Simoneschi is Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer, a fintech development platform. TrueLayer is not, however, Francesco's first experience in founding, managing and growing a successful tech company. In fact, prior to launching TrueLayer, Francesco helped develop an angel fund called Mission and Market, which was able to provide investment to more than 50 startups. Following a period working in mobile game development Francesco became VP of Strategy for FOVE – the world’s first eye tracking virtual reality headset. With TrueLayer Francesco is looking to grow the Open Banking economy by creating a truly global platform for companies to develop new financial services and products. 

Francesco joined us on the show to discuss his time working as a VC, what inspired the idea behind TrueLayer and what plans he has for the business moving forward. James and Hector also go on to quiz Francesco on what he believes the future of Open Banking will look like, what he looks for when picking a seed investor and whether the founder mindset can be taught. 

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Tom Wilson is a Partner at Seedcamp, an early stage seed fund investing in European businesses that are solving real problems using technology. Prior to his time in Venture, Tom worked in Law where he specialised in VC fundraising and M&A. Since joining Seedcamp In 2014 Tom has been helping the fund source and select companies to invest in at the early stage of their inception. Some of their investments to-date include UiPath, Wise, Hopin and Revolut. 

We invited Tom on the show to discuss the Seedcamp model, look back on how the fund has evolved throughout the years and to better understand the core characteristics of what they look for in a founder and a business. During the episode we also go on to learn how the fund plans to scale in the next few years, what it is about the team dynamic that works so well and their plans for the future. 

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Ben Kaminski is a Partner at leading technology investment firm, Target Global. Prior to joining the firm, Ben spent over a decade working in Investment Banking where he was responsible for overseeing several high-profile M&A transactions. At Target Global since 2018 Ben now heads up the firm's dedicated Mobility 2.0 Fund. His investments include Auto1, Delivery Hero,  GoEuro, Flink and numerous others. As well as all this Ben still finds the time to be an active angel investor in over a dozen startups across a number of segments, including mobility, logistics, marketplaces and software. 

Ben stopped by to discuss his time at Goldman Sachs, why crisis often leads to opportunity and open up on the mistakes he has made as an angel investor. James and Hector also probe deeper into what makes Target Global different to other firms, what the future of mobility will look like and Ben’s career objectives.

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Riding Unicorns is delighted to announce an entirely new series called Start-up Spotlight. These new weekly bitesize episodes will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about. 

Our very first Start-up Spotlight episode features Raffi Salama from Passionfruit, a UK-based Gen Z freelancing platform that recently closed a seed round of $4.3m. 

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Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about. 

This weeks episode features Awabah, a digital pension platform for self-employed Africans. The co-founder & CEO Tunji Andrews joins us to explain exactly what the business does and how be plans to achieve his big vision. 

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Matthew Wilson is the Co-CEO and Co-founder of Omnipresent, one of the leading global HR providers. Matthew is an experienced entrepreneur and in fact had, prior to Omnipresent, already founded and run a number of businesses including an enterprise software business. Matthew launched Omnipresent alongside his fellow co-founder, Guenther Eisinger, in the hope of solving many of the challenges companies face when managing a remote team. His work and career achievements have been recognised by Forbes who in 2019 named him in their 30 under 30 list.

The Oxford alum sat down with James and Hector to discuss what it was like to launch a company in the midst of a pandemic and some of the practical steps he undertook to accelerate growth. Matthew also went on to explain why he isn't afraid of operating in such a competitive space and what future opportunities lie ahead for Omnipresent. 

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Yoko Spirig is the co-founder & CEO of Ledgy, an equity management and investor relations platform for startups and high-growth companies. Yoko comes from a Physics background and such was her proclivity for the subject as a student that she was invited to become the project lead of Swissloop, an initiative which was looking to build the first Hyperloop pod in Switzerland. Upon graduating Yoko and her co-founders Ben-Elias Brandt and Timo Horstschaefer, who she met at university decided to launch Ledgy to help scaling companies make ownership simple. Since its launch in 2017 the company has gone on to secure investment from the likes of Sequoia and a number of high profile angel investors. Clients to-date have included Wefox, Kry, Bitpanda, Gorillas and Trade Republic.

The boys invited Yoko onto the show to better understand what problem Ledgy is trying to solve, how long it took the founders to validate their idea and how they were able to attract investors early on. Yoko then goes on to explain how the culture at the company continues to evolve and what she is looking to achieve as a founder, both in the present and in the future. 

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about. 

This weeks episode features the co-founders of Inveztor, Katee Hunter-Sharpe and Alastair Sharpe. Inveztor is developing a simple, efficient and collaborative digital platform for issuing and maintaining European debt securities. 

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Joe Curtis is the Director and Co-Founder of 11 Investments, a seed-stage investment and accelerator program for recruitment businesses. Not content with one running one recruitment business Joe also works as a Director at Recruiter Labs, a recruitment consultancy business that he also co-founded and as if that wasn't enough he also finds time for a third role, that of Director at 3Search. All in all then we think it is fair to say that when it comes to speaking on the topic of recruitment there is no one better than Joe. 

James sat down with Joe to discuss what led him into recruitment, why he chose to bootstrap his businesses and what he is looking to achieve in the long term. The pair also go on to discuss some of the common misconceptions of recruitment, why founders should look to build strong relationships with recruiters and how to develop a strong culture within an agency model. 

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about. 

On this weeks episode we will be discussing Deployed, which is looking to help simplify the way we write and build effective dialogue. 

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Pietro Bezza is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of thesis-led venture capital firm, Connect Ventures. Specialising in investing in seed companies, Connect was the first to invest in unicorns such as TrueLayer, Typeform and Oyster. 

Long-time listeners will be aware that this is not the first time we have had a member of the Connect Ventures team on the show. In fact, in Season 2 we invited Sitar Teli to discuss all things product. 

This time round though we invited Pietro onto the show to double down on product and to discuss a myriad of different subjects. In fact, the episode kicks off with James and Hector learning about how cheese played an essential part during the early part of Pietros career. Following this, the trio also go on to cover the topics of whether founders should be using Doc Send and if having board members is worth it or not. 

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast never to miss an episode. Also, don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Justina Tartilaite is the Co-Founder of Adsum, tax credit specialists. Adsum is pioneering innovation in tax-based financing and is at the forefront of leveraging modern technology in order to provide businesses with much-needed tax credits in real-time. Prior to launching Adsum, Justina worked as a Director at Deutsche Bank and in various capital markets roles for ABN AMRO Bank. 

Justina joined us on this, our penultimate episode of the season, to discuss her career leading up to Adsum, why she decided to become an entrepreneur and what the early bootstrapped days looked like. Later in the episode, Justina opens up about her love of referrals, building an exceptional culture and what it was like to finally seek external capital. 

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast never to miss an episode. Also, don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, our mini-series, which will provide you with an insight into an early-stage company that we are very excited about. 

On this weeks episode we will be discussing Monet, an embedded fintech for the creator economy - enabling platforms and agencies to offer borderless credit and payments. 

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, our mini-series, which will provide you with an insight into an early-stage company that we are very excited about.

This week's spotlight shines on Kuai Commerce, a startup focused on helping western brands sell Direct to consumers in the Chinese market. James sat down with co-founder Jonny Plein to discuss the opportunity the Chinese market presents and how Kuai provides western brands with access to it.💹

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also, don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, our mini-series, which will provide insight into an early-stage company that we are very excited about.

This week's spotlight shines on 5mins. 5Mins.ai is the TikTok of L&D. With 13,000+ bite-sized lessons tailored to each role . Live in 80+ countries with leading tech brands such as SmartPension, Perkbox, Spenmo etc - our customers find that with our bite-sized learning approach, employees upskill 3X faster and it delivers 8X better return on spend than traditional long-form learning platforms.

Founder & CEO Saurav sat down with James to discuss the importance of building such a culture within a company and how their unique platform helps companies succeed via learning through bite-sized video content.

Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast never to miss an episode. Also, don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at The Oval in Vauxhall as part of our first live event. Guests and friends of the show gathered to celebrate 2 years of Riding Unicorns. 

Startup Spotlight with Kadence. They've just announced a $10M Seed funding round led by Kickstart Fund with participation from Portfolio Ventures, Manta Ray, Hambro Perks and Vectr7 as well as Shadow Ventures and Forward VC.

Welcome to Season 5 🥳

Our first guest for the new season is Victor Trokoudes, Co-Founder & CEO of Plum.

Plum is an app that empowers you to put your money into action, wherever you are on your financial journey. You can save, spend, earn and invest, in one app with ease. Using AI-powered saving tools and investment features which make building and diversifying your portfolio seamless, Plum has helped customers save and invest £1.2 billion.
 
Victor joined James Pringle & Hector Mason to discuss crowdfunding, FinTech, Super apps, North Star metrics, and much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Jacob Waern, Founder & CEO of eduMe.

eduMe gives your deskless workforce seamless, passwordless access to embedded onboarding & training with native integrations into software such as Microsoft Teams, Fountain, Braze, and Beekeeper. eduMe is the leading mobile-based training platform for the frontline workforce used by modern companies in more than 60 countries worldwide. They've raised over $27 million to date.
 
Jacob joined James Pringle & Hector Mason to discuss the impact of the EduTech sector, managing deep integrations with clients such as Uber, Rocket Internet SE's role as a breeding ground for entrepreneurship, culture, product and much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Dr. Ben Maruthappu, Co-founder & CEO of multi-award-winning technology company Cera.

Cera is a digital-first home healthcare company, delivering cat nursing telehealth and repeat prescriptions. In less than five years, we’ve grown from scratch to a team of almost 10,000 professionals, providing over 40,000+ in-person healthcare visits in homes throughout the UK every day. They have raised over $400 million to date.

Ben joined James Pringle & Hector Mason to discuss his secrets to high performance, motivations, fundraising and how he has been building an amazing healthcare company for the future.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Gordon Midwood, CEO of Anything World.

Anything World is an innovative platform that combines AI, voice computing and 3D rendering with layers of behavioural intelligence. They enable users to request and play with any object imaginable. It’s the easiest and fastest way for developers to create AI-driven 3D experiences powered by voice.

The Anything World Mission is to simplify and redefine 3D content creation for everyone across the metaverse. We want to eliminate the barriers to 3D creativity.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Jamie Beaumont, Founder of Playter.

Playter helps fund the global community of startups and scaleups by helping them convert any invoice into Buy Now, Pay Later. Playter is the growth platform that helps businesses scale quicker, reduce their burn rate, increase their runway and take control of all payment terms regardless of the supplier.

Jamie joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss the rise of Playter, fundraising growth competition, and much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is George Richardson, Co-Founder & CEO of AeroCloud.

AeroCloud’s modular intelligent airport management platform is built on
leading-edge technology & uses predictive AI & machine learning. Combined with common-use passenger processing & self-service solutions, they deliver an innovative answer to the complex operational challenges experienced by airports across the globe. AeroCloud’s market share has been steadily ramping up since 2019 with their platform currently supporting operations in 32 airports across the US & Europe, & serves over 120 million passengers annually with a strategy to expand into MENA in 2023.

George joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss George's background as a racing driver. Data and AI. What it's like helping a fragmented industry get super efficient. The impact of COVID on the airline and airport sector and much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Georgi Ganev, CEO of Kinnevik.

Kinnevik’s ambition is to be Europe’s leading listed growth investor, they back the best digital companies for a reimagined every day and to deliver significant returns. They have a strong and expanding portfolio in ClimateTech, HealthTech, consumer services, food tech, and fintech. Kinnevik’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm’s list for large-cap companies under the ticker codes KINV A and KINV B.

Georgi joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss leadership habits, investment committees, hiring, and much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Left Lane Capital Principal Magnus Karnehm.

Left Lane is a global venture capital and growth equity firm investing in high-growth internet and consumer technology companies that are fundamental to the lives of customers. The foundation of Left Lane’s strategy is built on four main elements: specialization in internet-first businesses, proprietary sourcing at every level, deep data rigor and best practices, and a genuine philosophy around partnering with founders.

Magnus joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss what drew him to VC, what to look for in an investment, hiring, and much more!

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Fearless Adventures Founding Partner David Newns.

Fearless Adventures invest in and support entrepreneur-led businesses with their expertise in growth strategy and support building great teams. Their founding team have built and scaled their own businesses from scratch to multi-million-pound exits and are now looking to use that capital and expertise to help new founders on their journey to reach the same peaks.

David joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, building the Fearless Academy, habits to stay efficient and much, much more!

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Alan Chang is the CEO of Fuse.  As former Revolut-er #5, Alan was involved in the disruption and innovation in banking, and now, he is bringing that same energy and passion to Fuse.

Fuse was founded to generate affordable renewable power and solve climate change. Their mission is to build a Terawatt of renewable capacity to power the world. They have raised $78m from top tier investors like Balderton, Lakestar, Accel, Creandum, Lowercarbon, and Ribbit to date.

Alan joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss the Revolut journey, where the idea for Fuse came from, never settle culture, the future of the energy industry  and much, much more!

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Startup Spotlight with Blair Hawthorne, CEO & Founder at LoopFX.

They've just come out of stealth mode to improve the efficiency of high level foreign exchange trades. LoopFX have secured funding from some of the best finance angels in the country with participation from Portfolio Ventures.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Believe in Science Founder & CEO Anthony Fletcher.

The  Believe in Science mission is to prove people can indulge responsibly, helping consumers make better decisions when it comes to food, starting with The Urban Legend Doughnut - the ultimate treat food, sticky, sweet, delicious yet never high in fat, sugar or calories.

Anthony joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss how the business stared, the dangers of sugar, working with supermarkets and much, much more!

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Crowdcube Co-CEO Matt Cooper.

Crowdcube is a leading equity crowdfunding platform for investing in high-growth opportunities across Europe. They help entrepreneurs of start-ups and growing businesses to connect with potential investors. Dedicated to helping UK-based entrepreneurs raise finance to start or grow their business, Crowdcube gives investors real equity in the companies they fund.

Matt joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss the evolution of crowdfunding, the democratisation of private market investing, work-life balance and much, much more!

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Mayowa Ogunremi, Investment Principal @ Form Ventures

Form is a new early stage venture fund investing in startups disrupting regulated markets, or building in new markets that will face regulation. They use decades of experience to help founders break down policy barriers and shape winning regulatory strategies.

Mayowa joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss her route into venture, her experience as a therapist turned VC, Founder appetite to build a huge business and much, much more!

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Tony Jamous, CEO @ Oyster™

Oyster is a distributed talent enablement platform that allows growing companies to tap into the global talent pool and offer their remote workers around the world, a great employment experience. They have raised over $220 million from the likes of Connect Ventures, Slack Emergence, Salesforce Ventures. PayPal Ventures and others.

Tony joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss the future of work, the traits of successful founders, creating a healthy schedule and much, much more!

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Startup Spotlight with Chris Priebe, Founder at Zelt.

Zelt is a cloud application you can use to onboard new joiners in 2 minutes and manage HR, payroll and IT from a single system of employee record. They have raised from Episode 1 Ventures, The Fund, Lakestar and Portfolio Ventures.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Yann Sarfati, Co-Founder & CEO @ Userled

Userled helps products sell themselves by initiating product led growth journeys.

Yann joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss the forming of Userled,  how prior startup attempts shape your next company, hiring sunshine people and much, much more!

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Startup Spotlight with Dan Webb, Co-Founder at Light Garden.

Light Garden are building Existent®, the platform that brings physical interaction to the metaverse. Existent® is a software platform and set of authoring tools that extend state-of-the-art virtual reality with the ability for players to be able to physically interact with everything they see in the virtual world. They have raised from Stride VC, Portfolio Ventures and key angels across gaming, sports and entertainment.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Thomas Wynne, Co-Founder & CEO @Capsule!

Capsule is a specialist, purpose-led insurance partner for growth companies – partnering with innovative and ambitious businesses on their scale-up journey. They are a certified B Corporation with ESG at their core.

Thomas joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss the emotional side of selling a company, the opportunity in the insurance space, speaking to customers to help shape the product & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Eileen Burbidge, Partner @ Passion Capital and Director @ Fertifa

Eileen has worked for some of the biggest tech companies in the world such as Skype, Apple and Yahoo. She founded venture firm Passion Capital in 2011 and has backed incredible companies such as Tide, Monzo, Tray.io and others from pre-seed stage.

Eileen joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss what it's like being an interim CEO, the excitement of investing, the importance of quick decisions & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Our guest this week is Otta CEO Sam Franklin

Otta is the better way to find a job in tech. They have raised over $20m including a Series A led by Tiger Global after initial backing from LocalGlobe and Riding Unicorns Live 2022 special guest Paul Forster. Sam has worked as a management consultant and cut his teeth at tech company Nested.

Sam joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss what makes an entrepreneur, the pathway to Otta.com, imposter syndrome & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This week's guest is CodeMonk Founder & CEO Maulik Sailor

CodeMonk is changing the way the world goes to work — thanks to their dedicated platform powered by a global network of world-class, remote-based tech professionals. They offer companies a complete end-to-end solution, enabling them to hire entire development teams in just a matter of days.

Maulik joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss proactive vs reactive, how to define a Product Manager, the importance of decision making & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This week's guest is hackajob Co-founder & CEO Mark Chaffey

hackajob have made it their mission to make the hiring process fairer, faster and based on skills rather than backgrounds, so people can get the job they deserve and earn what they're worth.

Mark joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this special extended episode to discuss how to validate an idea, lessons learnt during his career, the importance of professional coaching  & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This week's guest is Packfleet CEO & Co-founder Tristan Thomas.

Packfleet is on a mission to empower independent businesses across the UK to offer the best deliveries on Earth.

Tristan joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss how to scale a business, how to time your fundraising activities, some thoughts on product management & so much more..

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This week's guest is Yulife CEO & Co-founder Sammy Rubin.

Yulife is on a mission to inspire people to live their best lives: financially, mentally and physically. They have fundamentally changed the nature of life insurance, creating an innovative new ‘win-win’ model which benefits individuals, businesses and society.

Sammy joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss how to spark creativity, how to build the right team, showing vulnerability in leadership & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Startup Spotlight with Alex Lempka, Co-Founder at Connect Earth.

Connect Earth is an environmental data company working with banks and fintechs to offer customers insights into the impact of their spending and investments on the climate.

Its technology is integrated with banking groups such as KBC Bank, community banks and fintech firms in Europe and the United States.

Connect Earth recently raised a £4.5m round led by Gresham House Ventures.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This week's guests are Odin Co-founders, Paddy Ryan and Mary Lin.

Odin is building a better way to invest together: a relationship-centric investment marketplace for founders, angels, and VC’s.

Paddy and Mary join James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss the founder's psyche, finding your Ikigai, creative strategies to facilitate people in your network to invest in startups & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Startup Spotlight with Edmond Boulle, Co-Founder at Orbital Witness.

Orbital Witness is a legaltech/proptech company liberating everyone involved in property transactions by organising all the information at the start of the process so there are no nasty surprises. 

Over 1.5% of all commercial property transactions in the UK use Orbital Witness and they have just raised a £7.5m Series A led by Parker89 to continue growing and also expand into the residential space. 

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This week's guest is Playfair Partner, Henrik Wetter Sanchez.

Playfair is a generalist fund with a contrarian approach to pre-seed technology investing. They have backed 70+ companies across two funds including Thought Machine, Andela, Mapillary and Omnipresent.

Henrik joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this special episode to discuss his journey to VC, scaling Playfair, culture fit, crowdfunding, learning from other VCs, & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Peter Specht is a Partner at venture fund Creandum.

Creandum is a leading European early-stage venture capital firm backing some of Europe’s most successful tech companies including Spotify, iZettle, Depop, Klarna, KRY, Epidemic Sound and Small Giant Games.

Peter joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss how to be a super valuable board member, the odds of questioning, managing the speed of a deal, & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This week's guest is Sequence Co-founder & CEO, Riya Grover

Sequence helps B2B companies design and iterate on billing and payment flows so they can stay focused on their mission. Their goal is to empower operators to build, scale and iterate, expand seamlessly into new markets and product verticals, and have a real time pulse on their business.

Riya joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to share tips for facilitating merger and acquisition, the inspiration for Sequence, her views on building enterprise products, & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This week's guests are Leapsome Co-founders, Jenny von Podewils and Kajetan von Armansperg

Leapsome is an all-in-one intelligent people enablement platform. CEOs and HR teams at more than 1400 forward-thinking companies (including Spotify, monday.com, and Unity) use Leapsome’s intelligent people enablement platform to drive employee development, productivity, and engagement.

Jenny and Kajetan join James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to share what it’s like having two CEOs at Leapsome, leading a high-performance organization, cutting through the noise of HR-tech, & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Dr. Andre Retterath is a Partner at venture fund Earlybird Venture Capital. 

Earlybird Venture Capital focuses on European technology companies. Founded in 1997, Earlybird identifies and backs exceptional early-stage companies on a pan-European basis and supports them through their growth and development phases – providing financial resources, strategic support, and access to an international network & capital markets.

Andre joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to share how looking at data can help you win deals, dealing with the classic AI problem, data-driven software for VCs, & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Cristina Vila Vives is the founder and CEO of Cledara. A dreamer and a doer, she started Cledara as a result of her life-long desire to start a company that focussed on helping people.

Cledara brings visibility and control to software subscriptions, helping users to reduce software costs by 30% and save +20h a month on finance admin. With 1000+ customers and offices in Denver, London and Barcelona, Cledara is all companies need to manage their software in 2023.

Cristina joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss the prevalent but unrealized issues in a company's software management, the processes they implemented that helped Cledara’s growth and success, key learnings in business fund raising, & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Saasha Celestial-One is the co-founder & COO of Olio, a sharing app for local communities, on a mission to fight waste. They make it easy to pass on the things we no longer need — from food to furniture, and clothes to books — to people who live nearby. They also work with businesses to redistribute unsold or unserved food. That way, every last bit of edible food ends up benefitting local people, rather than it ending up in the bin.

Prior to founding Olio, Saasha spent 13 years in finance, strategy and business development roles at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & American Express, and also founded My Creche, London's first PAYG provider offering flexible childcare for busy parents.

Saasha joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to share about the food waste problem that sparked the idea for Olio, the challenge of building a business around it, dealing with doubters, & so much more.

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Alex Macdonald Co-Founded Velocity Black which went on to be acquired by Capital One and is now the Co-Founder at sequel helping the world's best athletes invest in the world's best startups, making a positive impact.

They are on a mission to help athletes build legacies for their families and for the world. They harness cutting-edge technology and a network of founders, angels, and venture capitalists built over a decade to enable athletes to invest in the most promising startups changing the world for the better.

Alex joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss investing in startups, the competitive advantage of athletes against other investors, helping worthy young entrepreneurs & so much more. 

Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Jack Durling is Co-Founder of Lockdown Liquor & Co. The brand offers award-winning premium blended cocktails, crafted by expert mixologists using the best quality ingredients resulting in unique and great tasting cocktails. Having initially traded direct to consumers, Lockdown Liquor is now retailed in a selection of prestigious outlets including Daylesford Organic, Anthropologie to name a few, as well as a diverse selection of customers in the on trade from national restaurant groups, 5* hotels, members clubs, theaters to private aviation.

Jack joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode  to talk about how to break out as a brand, the signals of a growing business, venturing to the on-trade industry, & so much more. 

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Saif Hameed is Founder and CEO of Altruistiq. The platform enables large enterprises with complex supply chains to automate sustainability data measurement, management and exchange - with unparalleled accuracy and ease. They believe that business has the power to be a force for positive change in the world.Their mission is to help businesses do more of what is measurably good, and less of what is immeasurably wrong.

Saif joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to talk about working on green initiatives, leaving the corporate world to become a founder, the challenges of building a business, & so much more. 

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Donald Gillies and Henry Irish are the Founders of PassFort. They enable regulated financial services companies to rapidly onboard customers then manage risk and compliance standards throughout the customer lifecycle. Their integration model enables them to ingest datasets from any provider and interoperate with any system. They help you build a data ecosystem, with pre-built connectors to more than 25 data providers and growing.

PassFort’s dynamic orchestration of customer due diligence (CDD), enhanced due diligence (EDD), Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Business (KYB) and anti-money laundering (AML) workflows puts the weight of compliance activity on automation and our risk engine, not your customers.

Donald and Henry join James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to share about creating a strong relationship foundation as CEOs,  building a high performance culture, life after acquisition and exit, & so much more. 

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Kirsty Grant is Managing Director at Seedrs. Seedrs is Europe’s leading online private investing platform that enables individuals to invest in startups, growth companies, and, if eligible, top VC funds, as well as supporting entrepreneurs in all sectors to raise capital from their communities, angels and institutional investors.Since its launch in 2012 as an equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs has funded over 2,000 deals, with over £2.5 billion invested on the platform to date. With the recent acquisition of Seedrs by Republic, it is now part of the largest private investing platform in the world, with more than 2.5 million members globally that have invested in over 2,400 deals. The combined strength of Seedrs and Republic gives both investors and entrepreneurs unprecedented access to capital and investment opportunities across the globe.

Kirsty joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss where crowdfunding is at now, creating products that cater to different kinds of investors & so much more.

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Babs Ogundeyi is the Founder and CEO of Kuda, a fintech company on a mission to make financial services more accessible, affordable and rewarding for every African on the planet. They've built the money app for Africans around the world, giving them a better alternative to traditional finance by delivering services including free money transfers, smart budgeting, investments and instant access to credit through digital devices.

Babs joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to share about the first key actions he took to start the business, what makes building a bank in Africa different from building one in the US or UK, what is the big vision for Kuda, & so much more. 

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Chris Smalling is a professional footballer and is also the Co-Founder of The Player's Fund. Chris currently plays for AS Roma in Italy.  He has 31 caps and 1 goal for England.

A few year's ago Chris started investing in companies that align with his plant-based lifestyle and he has now helped launch The Player's Fund alongside other top investing athletes such as Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and Hector Bellerin.

We learn more about Chris's journey as an athlete investor.

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Jimmy Fussing Nielsen is a Partner and Co-founder of Heartcore Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund with offices in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, and Paris. Since 2007, they have backed some of Europe’s biggest category-defining companies, such as Tink, Neo4j, Boozt, Peakon, Seriously and TravelPerk. So far, they have invested in over 100 founding teams from 13 different countries. And they're looking for more.

Jimmy joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss high-risk investing, what’s the hardcore pitch to founders, balancing contrarian views, & so much more.

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Niccolo Perra is the Co-Founder of Pleo.

Pleo offers smart company cards that enable employees to buy the things they need for work, all while keeping a company's finance team in control of spending. Simplify bookkeeping, eliminate expense reports, and revolutionize your business.

Niccolo joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to talk about Co-Founder relationships, product feedback, management and iteration, learnings from launching into new markets, & so much more. 

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Sir Martin Sorrell is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4Capital plc, the tech led, new age / new era digital advertising and marketing services company for global, multinational, regional and local clients, and millennial-driven influencer brands.

To commemorate the launch of Riding Unicorns in 2020, Sir Martin joins James Pringle and Hector Mason the second time around to talk about the latest developments at S4 Capital, his perspective on the global market, how he has navigated the profound changes in our world, & so much more. 

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Jay Radia is the Founder and Managing Partner of Blissgrowth. They ideate, build, and scale industry winning B2B software technology companies with the best second-time founders.

Jay joins Hector Mason to talk about decision-making, how happiness affects the business, startup process for his different companies, & so much more.

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Roger Wade is the Chairman of Boxfund VC, a venture capital fund established by entrepreneurs, funded by entrepreneurs, and dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs. They possess a deep understanding of the qualities required for entrepreneurial success and actively seek out exceptional individuals with brilliant ideas. They provide them with financial backing and expert guidance to help them thrive.

Roger joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss the impact of emotional intelligence, embracing change, using his voice to create a better world, & so much more. 

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Audrey Handem is a VC at Speedinvest; one of Europe’s most active early-stage investors with more than €1 billion AuM and 40+ investors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna.

Founder success is Speedinvest’s top priority, so they don’t just send some money and "check in" at board meetings. Their mission is to empower founders with game-changing support through every stage of their journey.

Audrey joins James Pringle to discuss the mistakes founders make in fundraising, what she looks for in investments now, what sets SpeedInvest apart from other VCs, & so much more. 

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This episode is with Raphael Thiolon (Managing Director) and Lopo Champalimaud (Co-Founder & Managing Partner at V3 Ventures) at Verlinvest, an international, family-backed evergreen investment company. They partner with visionary entrepreneurs who are driving consumer revolutions and building the next generation of category-defining brands that will positively impact the consumer sector for years to come.

Raph and Lopo join James Pringle and Hector Mason to talk about the story behind Verlinvest, why they are focused on the consumer space,  how different investor perspectives help with company building, & so much more. 

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Agate Freimane is a General Partner at Norrsken VC, an Article 9, or "dark green," investment fund. They operate as a pure impact fund, exclusively investing in companies that have a sustainable objective for the product or service they develop. They provide extensive support to their portfolio companies, assisting them in implementing impact workshops and training programs. This enables them to measure their company's impact incrementally over time and establish long-term ESG goals.

Agate joins James Pringle to discuss important founder traits, what sets Norrsken VC apart from other VCs, the person who made an impact on her career, & so much more. 

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Christian Noske is a Partner at NGP Capital. They back early-stage B2B companies from Series A onwards in Europe, the US, Israel, and China within enterprise software, industrial tech, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. Their current portfolio includes Coda, DataLoop, Clue, Nova Labs, Scandit, Shippeo, & SecurityScorecard, while their exits include Deliveroo, Xiaomi, Moovit, Kaltura, and many more.

Christian joins James Pringle to talk about investment process fundamentals, market changes, company expectations for Series A funding, & so much more. 

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David Bateman is a Managing Partner at Claret Capital Partners.

The Claret team has been active in the technology financing markets for over 20 years and provides debt solutions to help entrepreneurs and private equity investors grow their companies while minimizing dilution. Since 2013 Claret has backed over 140 European SMEs from a wide range of geographies across Europe.

David joins James Pringle to talk about the company profile they prefer to back, what success looks like for a venture fund, the biggest misconception about venture debt, & so much more. 

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Christian Gabriel is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Capdesk (acquired by Carta), a platform that helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Their mission is to unlock the power of equity ownership for more people in more places. Carta is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 5,000 investment funds, and half a million employees for cap table management, compensation management, liquidity venture capital solutions, and more.

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James Evans is the Co-Founder and CEO of CommandBar; an AI-powered user assistance platform that makes your product easier to use. Activate and retain more users to grow faster.

James joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss how to determine product-market fit, CommandBar’s hiring philosophy, their fundraising strategy, & so much more. 

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Amon Ghaiumy is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ophelos; a fintech startup with unique technology that uses machine learning and behavioural science to get people debt-free and organisations paid back.

Amon joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss how he started Ophelos, the existing debt collection industry situation, the founder experience in the UK Tech ecosystem, & so much more. 

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄