Not My First Guess (Hattie Willis)
Explorez tous les épisodes de Not My First Guess
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| 01 May 2022 | Lessons from Y Combinator, Burnout, Investing and Book Writing, with Devin Hunt | 01:06:00 | |
Episode #1: Meet Devin Hunt
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| 01 May 2022 | Kitchen to 40k+ community and £1.5m crowdfund, with Sophie Meislin Baron, founder of Mamamade | 00:51:19 | |
Episode #2: Meet Sophie Meislin Baron
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| 10 May 2022 | Stocking supermarkets, building as a solo founder, and creating joy, with Ellie Webb | 00:59:44 | |
Ideas often come from experiencing frustration first hand. That's exactly what happened to Ellie. While giving up alcohol for a month, she got fed up with the lack of options available in lieu of her traditional G&T. That, coupled with career frustration, that she couldn't get a job building a consumer facing brand, led her to create her own. She launched Caleño- a non-alcoholic drinks brand, to bring more joy to those choosing to go alcohol free. Today, Caleño has both d2c and traditional retail channels: including Sainsburys, Waitrose and M&S and restaurant chains In this episode she shares:
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| 16 May 2022 | Selling affordable luxury: from Secret Sales to 7879, with Sach Kukadia | 00:59:23 | |
Many founders dream of the moment their company is acquired. But no-one imagines that post acquisition they may be forced to fire the employees who helped build the startup over 10 years, watch the company they built lose millions in value, and ultimately, have to buy it back to save their legacy.
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| 30 May 2022 | Angel investing to make a difference, with Ash Phillips, Angel Investor and Founder of Dffrnt | 00:47:42 | |
What do you need to know as a founder raising early stage, pre-seed or seed funding?
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| 06 Jun 2022 | Behind the venture capital curtain, with Zoe Peden, Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures | 00:54:05 | |
Venture Capital claims a lot of Techcrunch headlines, covers our Linkedin timelines, and eats months of our lives and runway, as founders fundraising.
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| 13 Jun 2022 | The power of qualitative research & Gen Z, with Jay Richards, founder of Imagen Insights | 00:57:25 | |
How do you unlock the opinions of a generation? And what does it change when you can tap into qualitative research at scale?
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| 27 Jun 2022 | Doing good through grief tech, with Emily Cummin, founder of Untangle | 00:45:06 | |
This week's interviewee, Emily Cummin, is carving out a new industry- not quite Death Tech, but Grief Tech instead. Her platform, Untangle was founded to help people dealing with big loss, whether bereavement or divorce, to cope with the emotional and practical fall out. In this episode Emily shares her entrepreneurship journey so far, including lessons learned around:
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| 11 Jul 2022 | VC turned social impact founder, with Anieke Lamers, founder of Peekabond | 00:42:31 | |
After earning few thousand euros selling toasties at school, you may think founding a company would have been Anieke's first stop post university. But a horrendous hackathon experience initially put her off the no sleep, stinky side of entrepreneurship.
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| 25 Jul 2022 | Doing design thinking & rapid prototyping, with Nirish Shakya, host of Design Feeling | 00:59:13 | |
Design thinking is a buzzword we hear a lot in the startup space- but what is it really all about? Should you be trying it? Is it too late to get started? And how might it speed up your route to market and loyal customers who keep coming back for more?
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| 08 Aug 2022 | The psychology of sales & making emails fun to write, with William Ballance, founder of Lavender | 01:00:02 | |
What do you have to do to make your customers love you so much, they'll get a tattoo of your logo?
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| 22 Aug 2022 | Starting & scaling a thriving health startup, with Eliot Brooks, co-founder of Thriva | 00:42:47 | |
How do you test a blood testing business, when none of the co-founders come from a clinical background? What happens when your entire investor pipeline disappears overnight? What do you do when customers just aren't buying? And what's it like scaling a health tech startup from 0 to 130 staff, and over a 100k customers? Thriva have raised £11m so far, including £6m raised in 2019, and £4m in 2020 based on growth rates at the time of 100% year on year. In this episode we asked Eliot about:
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| 05 Sep 2022 | Matching profit, purpose and sustainable growth, with Wai Foong Ng, founder of Matchable | 00:50:24 | |
Meet Foong, reformed Consultant turned Founder, who loved her colleagues at PWC, but found she lacked Purpose in her work. In this episode we unpack:
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| 26 Sep 2022 | Startup wrecks, smarter fundraising, and rattling the accelerator model, Chris Howard, founder of the Rattle | 00:59:54 | |
Meet serial entrepreneur, angel investor, musician, physicist and self-professed big geek Chris Howard!
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| 17 Oct 2022 | Founding the first female urinal with Amber Probyn, Founder of Peequal | 00:51:41 | |
What is a female urinal and why does it matter? Enter Peequal, whose founders Amber and Hazel were fed up with having to choose whether to visit the bathroom or get food in intervals and at festivals. So far, they’ve raised £250k for their innovative take on a women’s urinal which has already been rolled out at festivals like Glastonbury and Wilderness Festival, and saw international demand before they even had a working prototype. Investors include Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo. In this episode we cover:
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| 01 Nov 2022 | Fundraising as a Diverse Founder, with Guests Simi Lindgren, Nick Telson and Farah Kabir | 00:47:47 | |
Recorded live from Sifted Summit, this episode unpacks the challenges of fundraising as a diverse founder, practical tips on fundraising, and what we can do at individual, organisational, and systems levels to fix inequities in the startup ecosystem.
Fundraising resources mentioned on the show
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| 06 Dec 2022 | When it all goes wrong after the IPO, with former Eve Mattress Co-founder Kuba Wieczorek | 00:59:14 | |
Most founders dream of going public- but what happens after you ring the bell, if share prices tank, and the company you used to leap out of bed to run is destroying your mental health? For anyone who hasn’t heard of Eve mattresses, they were one of the first companies in the UK to offer a mattress in a box- and the countries fastest retail IPO at the time they went public just a couple of years after launching. They disrupted the standard business model of having to invest in retail stores where customers could try before you buy. Their tube adverts still hold records for brand awareness.
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| 20 Dec 2022 | Growing a Gynae Startup and Tackling Tampon Taboos- with Daye Founder, Valentina Milanova | 00:53:50 | |
Daye are on a mission: to close the gender pain gap, and overcome historical gender biases in medical research and product innovation. They launched their first product, CBD tampons in 2019, with a focus on sustainability and pain relief, and have since branched out to other products supporting vaginal health, including their latest product- vaginal screening using a tampon sample. But they're not stopping there- hoping to democratize access to insightful gynaecological health information which is not typically available through other providers or through the NHS. At the time of recording, Daye have raised several rounds of funding, including a recent £10m Series A, after building a consumer subscriber base of 60,000 for their tampons; and are now expanding into tampons as workplace perks too with a business proposition! There was so much to unpack in this episode: - From Valentina’s journey as a solo founder
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| 21 Feb 2023 | Building a business from one of life's toughest obstacles with Alexia Baron, founder of Porto&Bello | 00:59:13 | |
Porto and Bello are an accessible clothing brand that seeks to help ease some of the fear and anxiety around cancer treatment by focusing on the person and not just the patient. Alexia launched Porto and Bello in 2021, with husband Josh, following her own experience of being treated for breast cancer which she was diagnosed with at 29, 34 weeks pregnant with her second child, in March 2020 - five days before the very first covid lockdown. This is a bit of a different episode for us as Alexia graciously opens up about her powerful and very personal journey to discuss how one of the most painful and biggest challenges of her life inspired her new venture as an entrepreneur, and how Porto and Bello gave her a fire that helped fuel her through the rest of her treatment. With the statistic now sitting at one in two of us being affected by cancer in our lifetime, Alexia’s story is one we can all gain a lot of insight and inspiration from. Links:
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| 07 Mar 2023 | Growing to over £1million in annual revenue without funding with Lottie Unwin, founder of Copy Club | 00:57:02 | |
Copy Club is a community for marketers who want to help each other do great things. And there’s a lot of them out there with the Copy Club community having grown to over 1000 members from over 800 brands since Lottie founded it in 2014. The Copy Club community is now a mega resource of some of the brightest minds in marketing with a slack channel where people can share and solve their challenges with other members, monthly talks diving into key marketing skills, regular social events, over 100 hours of recorded content, oh and 2% of their top-line revenue goes to charity, which is no small number as they have reached over one million in annual revenue. In this episode we discuss:
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| 21 Mar 2023 | What a pig can teach you about serving customers with Matt Meeker, Co-founder, CEO and Exec Chairman of Bark | 00:40:43 | |
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:
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:
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| 03 Apr 2023 | How thinking like a monk can make you a better founder with Joyeeta Das, Co-founder & CEO of Samudra Oceans | 00:59:40 | |
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.
Gyana - an organisation that creates tech platforms to democratise the power of AI. 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.
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| 18 Apr 2023 | How to find your perfect partner in life and business with Jessica Alderson, Co-founder and CEO of So Syncd | 00:59:43 | |
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:
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| 01 May 2023 | Why confidence isn't one size fits all with Lauren Currie (OBE), Founder of UPFRONT | 00:59:49 | |
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:
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| 15 May 2023 | Rising from Dragons Den ashes to change the game for female founders with Emmie Faust, Founder Of Female Founders Rise | 00:59:18 | |
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:
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| 29 May 2023 | What a founder of four learned about becoming founder fit with Victoria Armstrong, Angel Investor & Board Advisor for Female Founders Rise | 00:57:51 | |
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:
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| 12 Jun 2023 | Why being a generalist is a founder superpower with Milly Tamati, Founder & Chief Generalist of Generalist World | 00:52:47 | |
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:
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| 26 Jun 2023 | Trauma Tech, a real usecase for VR with Sanya Rajpal, Founder and CEO of AdagioVR | 00:59:59 | |
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:
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| 10 Jul 2023 | Special Episode: Fundraising | 00:34:46 | |
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:
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| 24 Jul 2023 | Make the earth move: how to build a sustainable sextech business with Farah Kabir, Co-founder of HANX | 00:56:17 | |
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:
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| 07 Aug 2023 | Flush with ideas to end pollution - period with Martha Silcott, Founder of FabLittleBag | 00:56:57 | |
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:
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| 21 Aug 2023 | The truth about finance and overnight success with Abigail Foster, Founder of Elent | 00:53:31 | |
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:
And so much more! Links:
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| 04 Sep 2023 | The simple mantra you need to succeed with marketing featuring Jacqui Patton, Founder of Ink Blot Creative | 00:41:18 | |
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:
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| 18 Sep 2023 | What VCs don't tell you when you're raising with Jasmin Thomas, serial Founder & Angel Investor | 00:37:08 | |
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.
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| 28 Nov 2023 | Fundraising Special Part 2 (Back By Popular Demand) | 00:45:58 | |
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: | |||
| 14 Dec 2023 | Banker to changemaker: empowering SMES in emerging markets featuring Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, Co-founder of Liquify | 00:48:37 | |
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:
Check out Alberta’s company Liquify: Check out Algebra in the City: 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 | |||
| 21 Dec 2023 | An un-bae-lievable journey: featuring Amardeep Parmar, podcast host and Co-founder of The Bae HQ | 00:54:12 | |
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:
Checkout more of Amar’s content: The Bae HQ: The Entrepreneurs Handbook Mentioned Resources | |||
| 09 Jan 2024 | How to successfully exit your own company, with Tim Deeson | 00:45:22 | |
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. In this episode we discuss:
Tim’s Businesses: Deeson: OpenDialog.ai: If We Raise: | |||
| 16 Jan 2024 | Business and bipolar: changing the future of mental health support, with James Roycroft-Davis, Co-Founder of Baseline | 00:46:01 | |
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: James’ Podcast, Vulnerable: | |||
| 31 Jan 2024 | Designing company culture like a customer experience | 00:53:56 | |
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!
Link to the Future Kind Collective Website:
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| 26 Mar 2024 | Changing currencies, changing lives: Featuring Robert Hayward, Founder of GoodFX | 00:53:48 | |
This episode, we are joined by Robert Hayward, founder of GoodFX, an international payments B Corp that turns currency conversion into social good, using the profits they make every time their customers trade FX, to support charities and create meaningful job opportunities for refugees. For anyone who doesn’t know, The foreign exchange market, commonly referred to as the Forex or FX, is the global marketplace for trading currencies. Having spent 10 years in the city working in banking, Rob had started to wonder how he could put his skills to use and make a difference in the world. After initially rejecting an opportunity to work in FX, he realised that there could be a way to use some of the money the industry was making in lockdown to make a difference. This birthed GoodFX. In this episode we discuss:
Link to the GoodFX website: | |||
| 02 Apr 2024 | Breaking Barriers: Opportunities For All: Featuring Felicity Halstead, Founder of GoodWork | 00:58:43 | |
This episode we are joined by Felicity Halstead, founder of the company GoodWork. GoodWork is a not-for-profit that works with employers to create employment opportunities for young people from marginalised communities. Having had experience in youth programmes, as well as working with social mobility organisations and supporting entry-level recruitment in her job, Felicity saw first hand that a young person’s results on paper are not an accurate representation of how that person would apply themselves in the workplace. So often organisations would focus on past performance rather than potential. This led to the creation of GoodWork as Felicity hopes to breakdown systemic barriers to create more opportunities for young people. In this episode, we discuss:
Link to the GoodWork website: | |||
| 08 Apr 2024 | Baking in Loyalty: Cakedrop's Recipe for Startup Success - Featuring Nicola Ward, Co-Founder of Cake Drop | 00:49:14 | |
This episode we are joined by Nicola Ward, Co-Founder of CakeDrop. Having both worked in the City, Nicola and her sister Anna had a conversation about how awkward office birthdays can be. Often forgetting to buy a cake and having to resort to a cheap last minute one from the shop around the corner. They felt that something needed to be done to improve the employee experience in the office and uplevel celebrations at work. This gave way to the idea for CakeDrop. CakeDrop began by delivering artisan cakes to offices for employee birthdays, supported by an online calendar that allowed office managers and HR teams to pre-schedule key dates for the year ahead. 7 years on, and CakeDrop have worked with customers such as Disney, Meta, Netflix and LadBible. In this episode we discuss:
Link to the Cake Drop website: | |||
| 15 Apr 2024 | Rethinking Start-up Funding for more Equitable Entrepreneurship: Featuring Andy Ayim MBE | 01:03:13 | |
This episode, we are joined by Andy Ayim MBE, a serial founder and Angel Investor who is known for his human centered approach to business. Over a decade ago, Andy cofounded Mixtape Madness, a proudly bootstrapped 7 figure business. When he left day to day operations there, he dove into Product Management with high growth startups such as WorldFirst, acquired for $700m by Ant Financial; and Series C startup Zilch where he was Head of Product Management. In 2018 he took his next leap, to become Managing Director at US based VC firm, Backstage Capital where he raised over $2.5M to deploy into underrepresented founders. As you’ll hear, improving equity in the startup ecosystem has been a huge driver for Andy, and led to his next startup, The Angel Investing School, a company on a mission to train the next generation of angel investors, including those who feel excluded by the current system, or haven’t seen typically themselves represented among angels. Additionally, Andy supports startups, scaleups and corporates as an advisor; this is someone who knows what it takes to grow a company. Andy’s impact has seen him get voted as one on the top 10 BAME Leaders in Tech in the FT, as well as being awarded an MBE for his services to diversity in tech. Andy has also been one of our biggest supporters at IfWeRaise from the very early days, in fact even before I met my co-founder, and is now one of our Board Advisers, so it was extra special having him on the show. In this episode, we discuss:
Links: Angel Investing School: Andy’s Personal User Guide: Mixtape Madness: | |||
| 22 Apr 2024 | Fertile Ground for Founders: Changing Lives and Welcoming New Ones: Featuring Tess Cosad | 00:55:43 | |
This episode, we are joined by Tess Cosad, the CEO and Co-Founder of Béa Fertility. As someone who takes much of her inspiration from injustice, Tess saw the pain and difficulties that many people were going through in their attempts to build a family, with access and affordability making the journey even more stressful and heartbreaking for many. In comes Béa Fertility, a company that provides clinical-grade fertility treatment that can be shipped straight to your door, and costs 1/20th of what IVF would. Tess has always been passionate about building businesses that make an impact. She was the first woman to lead a digital startup program to female entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia in 2018, and is also a pioneer of the FemTech industry having gained experience working with Hers By Design, and Emberson Ventures, a B2B marketing agency. Despite often being one of the few women in male-dominated VC circles, Tess persists in her commitment to bring about positive change and support impactful solutions, by pushing evidence-based strategies and supporting founders who adopt similar change driven principles. This episode, we discuss:
And much more including hilarious stories that had our editor chuckling almost the whole way through the edit! Let us know what you think! Links: | |||
| 29 Apr 2024 | Strands of Success: From Instagram Community to Industry Game Changer: Featuring Kate Berski | 01:00:06 | |
This episode we are joined by Kate Berski, Co-Founder of Curlsmith, a high performance, inclusive haircare brand which she started with her husband in 2018. It soon became one of the fastest growing textured hair brands and would go on to retail at Ulta Beauty, Target, Boots and many more. The idea for Curlsmith was formed out of a family struggle to find suitable haircare products for Kate’s nieces’ curly hair. Kate and her husband Michal soon realised that there was a gap in the market with lots of people unable to find appropriate products for their hair. Using her experience in advertising and brand consulting, combined with Michal’s experience working for some major beauty companies, they soon developed a community around an Instagram page that they launched, which shared advice, recipes and tips for people with curly hair, before they began the process of making their own product. In this episode, we discuss:
And much much more… Links:
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| 06 May 2024 | The Beauty of AI For Good: Featuring Simi Lindgren, Founder of Yuty | 00:56:59 | |
This episode we are joined by Simi Lindgren Founder of Yuty. Some of you may recognise Simi from our special episode on fundraising as an underrepresented founder, where she was joined by two other incredible guests. But we wanted to take the time to dive deeper into Simi’s story and insights building an AI startup. Simi initially went to med school thinking that she would become a doctor. However, she soon realised that she wasn’t there for the right reasons. This led her to dropping out of her degree and getting an internship at a magazine working in beauty, and ultimately leading her to following her own passions. Simi then built up her experience in the beauty industry, working in marketing communications where she matched brands and PRs with media celebrities and influencers. Having progressed really well, in 2020 she decided that it was time to do something herself, which led to the launch of Yuty. Founded in 2020, Yuty is a venture capital backed technology company that uses AI to redefine hyper-personalisation, transforming the way brands can engage with their customers. The app provides data backed product recommendations delivered through a quiz, in order to help all customers, regardless of race, gender or ability, to find the product that is right for them. Having had personal experiences of not feeling seen or understood, and not being able to find the right products, Simi wanted to create something that was accessible for all, and after teaching herself to code, Yuty was formed. This episode we discuss:
Plus much much more! Links: Yuty website: https://www.yuty.me/ | |||
| 13 May 2024 | Parenting Pioneers: Building Babbu Featuring Charlie Rosier | 00:43:29 | |
Joining us in this episode is Charlie Rosier, a seasoned entrepreneur and fourth-time founder. Her latest venture, Babbu, disrupts the early childhood education space with an innovative online platform tailored for children aged 0-5. Driven by personal experience and insights gained during lockdown conversations with fellow parents, Charlie recognized the overwhelming pressure parents face—spending 37 hours weekly on childcare concerns alone. Determined to alleviate this stress, she birthed Babbu. Rooted in science but crafted by parents, Babbu reimagines the parenting journey, providing a supportive community and expert advice to empower parents in nurturing their children. This episode we discuss:
Links to Babbu’s website: | |||
| 20 May 2024 | Transforming Management With AI Innovation: Featuring Sarah Touzani | 00:58:08 | |
Ever wonder what it takes to transform from a passionate leader into a successful startup founder? In this episode, we'll uncover the secrets to building an innovative, AI-powered solution that's revolutionising the way managers drive team performance. Joining us today is Sarah Touzani, the brilliant mind behind Waggle, an AI co-pilot empowering managers with the tools and insights to excel. Building on Sarah’s 15+ years experience in finance and tech, Waggle has already caught the attention of major players like Techstars and JP Morgan. Backed by a talented, diverse team, Sarah has navigated the challenges of fundraising, fostering culture, and forging strategic partnerships to position Waggle for exciting growth across the US and Europe. In this candid, we'll dive into:
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| 04 Jun 2024 | Becoming Business Barbie and Making Accounting Accessible for Founders: Featuring Rachel Harris | 00:59:19 | |
As well as being “Business Barbie” to her followers on instagram, Rachel Harris, is an award-winning content creator, author, speaker, business owner, and most importantly, an accountant extraordinaire. Named as one to watch on the 35 under 35 list and recently crowned as the First Intuition Apprenticeship Mentor of the Year for 2023, Rachel is a true breakout star in the accounting world. Rachel's passion for empowering accountants and small business owners shines through in her remarkable journey. From building the thriving Accountant She community of over 25,000 people to becoming the youngest-ever director and trustee of AAT, Rachel has been a trailblazer at every step. She’s also making an impact, including with her innovative corporate bursary scheme, launched in January 2023, fully funds aspiring accountants in financial hardship, providing them with the mentoring and support they need to succeed. In this episode, we dive deep into Rachel's entrepreneurial journey and the invaluable lessons she's learned along the way. We'll explore:
Links: Rachel’s business StriveX: Accountant_She Website: Rachel’s Instagram: | |||
| 17 Jun 2024 | How Every Founder Can Use AI: Featuring Cien Solon | 00:45:38 | |
Are you worried you’re not using enough AI as a founder? I promise you’re not alone. In fact, after interviewing our incredible guest today, I went away and automated a LOAD of my own processes - sometimes you just need to understand the art of the possible! This episode is a GREAT start - we’re joined by AI advocate Cien Solon, who is on a mission to make “AI for All” with her latest startups Launch Lemonade and Scale that Thing! Cien is a Product-Led Growth expert, a start-up consultant and a constant builder. She is also a Techstars mentor and part of the Angel Investing School team. She has developed a portfolio of products from fintech, to AI tools to B2B SaaS and had a previous career in Marketing giving her an amazing view of the full journey. Today, with Launch Lemonade, she allows anyone to build AI chat bots to help with very specific tasks - from a sales chatbot to speak with customers, to creating marketing copy, writing reports, the possibilities are mostly bound by our own creativity; that’s why her consultancy startup Scale that thing helps businesses build their AI and Product-led Growth strategies and implement them. So in this episode, as well as product building insights and advice from an incredible expert, expect plenty of inspiration on how you can implement AI in your own business! Cien’s Website: Launch Lemonade App: Scale That Thing Website: | |||
| 01 Jul 2024 | From Entrepreneur to Employee: Lessons From Coconut Founder: Featuring Adam Goodall | 00:44:15 | |
🚀 What’s it like to go Corporate Employee> Founder > Founder > Corporate Employee? At Not My First Guess we love a squiggly career path! 🏁 That’s why we’re so excited to have serial founder, and once again corporate employee, Adam Goodall share his journey and lessons learned, from taking the first leap into full-time entrepreneurship, to deciding when to sell, to why he's enjoying being back in someone else's company. 🌐💡 Adam is a serial founder with two startups under his belt - ProConfirm and Coconut. With a background in accounting at PwC, Adam has focused on innovating in spaces that may not seem “sexy” but have huge potential for growth. Adam first co-founded a startup with his room mate Samuel O'Connor (who he would also co-found Coconut with too), when their work at PwC led them to spot an opportunity to digitise the manual process of verifying client finances. They originally built ProConfirm as a side hustle while working corporate jobs but one of Adam’s biggest lessons was when to take the leap to full time. They soon gained traction, leading to acquisition interest from a major U.S. player. Post-acquisition, Adam discovered his love for product management, setting him on the path to their next venture, Coconut, on a mission to simplify tax and accounting software for sole traders, landlords & their accountants. Since selling Coconut, Adam has now returned to employee life at Funding Circle and is brilliantly honest about what it was like to try to get a job as a serial founder (the hard and easy bits). 🧠 Together we’ll explore: - How to find great ideas, when you are and aren’t looking for them - Adam’s hard won lessons on fundraising for Coconut, even as a second time founder with an exit under his belt - How to know when an acquisition offer is right for you - Advice on validating your idea before building the right product: what an MVP should and shouldn’t be - And how we build a robust identity as founders so we can fully embrace a squiggly career path Don't miss it! #Entrepreneurship #StartupLife #FounderStories #fintech #startups #innovation #podcast Links:
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| 15 Jul 2024 | From Pitch to Payday, The Hidden Costs of Fundraising: Featuring Sam Simpson | 01:00:46 | |
Have you ever found yourself drowning in fundraising legals and language? This is the interview you’ve been waiting for… In this episode, we're joined by the brilliant Sam Simpson, Co-founder of FounderCatalyst, who's on a mission to simplify and accelerate the early-stage investment legal journey. Sam's not just talking the talk; he's walked the walk, having co-founded and exited several tech start-ups, including the 17th fastest growing company in Europe in 2017. Oh, and did we mention he took that company from £0 to £27m in less than 4 years? But Sam's not just a founder; he's also an active angel investor with 32 investments under his belt in just 6 years. Plus, he's a sought-after board advisor. In other words, when it comes to navigating the minefield of fundraising and investment, Sam’s who you want to learn from. In this episode we discuss:
So, whether you're a first-time founder trying to wrap your head around the legal jargon or a seasoned entrepreneur looking to optimise your fundraising game, this episode is packed with actionable advice and hard-won wisdom. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to learn from one of the people I trust most in this ecosystem! Links:
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| 15 Oct 2024 | Toks on Tech Stacks: Building a Following Alongside Your Product: Featuring Ghita El Haitmy | 00:50:43 | |
Have you ever wondered how to stay on top of the hottest new tech tools and trends as a founder? Curious how you can leverage platforms like TikTok and Instagram to market your B2B startup in a fun, engaging way? Get ready to learn because in this episode I'm joined by Ghita El Haitmy, the smart and sassy founder of Tech Bible, which empowers professionals to gain a competitive edge by keeping them up-to-date on the latest tech through bite-sized social media content. Ghita has an amazing entrepreneurial journey to share. Ghita started out working in a corporate role but always knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur. Her first startup was an AR app for the blind and visually impaired. When that wound down, she realized there was a huge need for someone to test and recommend the best new software tools for businesses. So Tech Bible was born, helping busy professionals cut through the noise and discover the tools and trends to boost their productivity. Ghita has grown a big following by making fun, relatable videos on TikTok and Instagram sharing her tech tips. In our chat, Ghita and I dive into:
Stay tuned for an illuminating conversation packed with tactical advice and plenty of laughs along the way! Links:
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| 29 Oct 2024 | Pitch Perfect: Unlocking Your Inner Storyteller: Featuring Pascalle Bergmans | 01:01:26 | |
Storytelling is one of the most underrated founder skills! It’s critical for motivating your team, selling to customers, and of course, raising investment. It can also position you as a thought leader, which yes, helps all those things too. But it’s one of the things that trips sooo many founders up. From pitches that make it obvious they were created to follow a formula, to LinkedIn posts that show zero personality, to team talks that end with glazed eyes, it’s so easy to get it wrong. So in this episode, we're thrilled to have a very special guest who knows a thing or two about captivating an audience. Joining us is Pascalle Bergmans, the multi-talented founder of PresenTales, a Pitch Training company which empowers senior leaders and executives to deliver their stories with impact and passion. With an impressive background performing on the West End in musicals like Wicked, Mary Poppins, and Robin Hood, Pascalle is no stranger to the art of engaging storytelling and owning a stage. In this episode, we dive deep into Pascalle's wealth of knowledge and experience. We'll explore:
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| 12 Nov 2024 | Building Bridges: Supporting Founders and Breaking Myths: Featuring Marcus Exall | 00:54:28 | |
Joining us this episode is Marcus Exall, serial founder, angel investor, and investor in residence at Virgin Startup. In this episode, Marcus shares his journey from building and exiting a digital advertising company to supporting countless founders along the way. We dive into his early days as an entrepreneur, from running a paper round as a kid to selling tickets at a nightclub, and how those experiences shaped his approach to business. Plus, we debunk some common myths around investment and entrepreneurship, and discuss the importance of freedom and failure in the startup journey. Don't miss this episode packed with insights and laughs! Links:
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| 26 Nov 2024 | Designing for Neuro Inclusivity: Practical Tips for Founders with Autism and ADHD: Featuring Sascha Evans | 00:55:29 | |
Did you know that 20% of your employees, customers, and friends are likely to be neurodivergent? In today's episode, we're diving into the importance of neuro inclusivity in entrepreneurship, with Sasha Evans, a brilliant entrepreneur and expert in experience design and neurodiversity. Join me, Hattie Willis, as I chat with Sasha about her journey into entrepreneurship, from theatre to startups, and how she's helping founders design for neuro inclusivity. We'll cover practical tips for founders with autism, ADHD, and beyond, as well as how neurotypical founders can create more inclusive experiences for their customers and stakeholders. Plus, we'll explore Sasha's brilliant series on LinkedIn, where she answers your burning questions about neurodiversity.
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| 10 Dec 2024 | Innovators not Imposters: Featuring Cecil Adjalo | 01:04:16 | |
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Cecil Adjalo, founder of Foundervine, one of the UK's largest and most vibrant accelerators, having designed a high-impact training program that provides ambitious entrepreneurs with the skills, tools, and support they need to confidently scale their ventures. Cecil has a passion for operational efficiency, automation, and creating data-driven organisations which led him into the field of Data and Analytics. He began his career by troubleshooting issues with hospital database software and later transitioned to management consulting, start-up creation, business intelligence, and strategy, with his passion for data and analytics ultimately leading him to where he is now. In this episode, we cover:
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