The Balderton Podcast: Tech Investment | Venture Capital | Startup Funding

Ben catches up with Editor of The Memo Alex Wood, and talks about what entrepreneurs should do to maximise their chances of getting covered in the media. 0100 Alex explains how a newsroom actually works behind the scenes, and how entrepreneurs can use this knowledge to their advantage 0250 What's the best 'first point of contact' for a journalist? Is it email? Or are you guys way too busy? 0355 Where are you going to coverage? Should entrepreneurs shoot for the stars and go for national & international titles? Or should they focus on the tech and trade media? 0445 Alex advises entrepreneurs to make their intentions very clear... as journalists will thank you for doing so 0650 Does social media work? 0805 Alex advises entrepreneurs on how they should use 'off the record' and 'background calls', and explains why journalists aren't likely to betray your confidence. 1000 Is there a better medium to be covered on (online, print, tv, video?), and what are the key differences between them? 1145 If you have a contrarian viewpoint, Alex has some words of advice... 1305 Assuming it's all gone well, and a Founder is booked to go on telly: what are the most important golden rules for them to follow? 1430 When should a startup use a PR agency? 1650 Should an entrepreneur get media training? (and what should they wear on tv?) 1840 What should you expect in a tv studio? 2120 Quote of the day from Alex, "Founding a company has made me a better journalist" - you heard it here first. 2200 What's next for The Memo (and how can entrepreneurs get covered!?)

Neil Murray, Founder and Editor of TheNordicWeb, joins Ben Goldsmith to challenge a few outdated assumptions about the Scandinavian tech scene. 0030 Neil recently wrote a piece with the title, 'the state of the Nordic tech scene today'. It is a response to certain outdated assumptions about the ecosystem that Neil would like to dispel... 0330 Neil answers the question: will The Nordics overtake London as a venue for tech investment anytime soon? He explains how the stats & gut feeling provide a different answer. 0530 Neil explains how his colleagues in the media need to update and sharpen up their Nordic tech knowledge. 0810 Should be a Nordic web for every city? Here, Neil gives Tech.eu a massive pat on the back. 0920 In a recent article on Pando Daily, the Nordics was criticised for a lack of sector diversity... Neil explains why it is London, not The Nordics, that needs more variety! 1150 Neil lays out the top people and place to meet if you're new to Nordic Tech: CPHFTW, Sup46, Stockholm Tech Meetup, Slush and Arctic Startup all get Mr Murray's approval.

Tom Blomfield becomes the second of GoCardless' original cofounding team to join Ben for a podcast in the last couple of weeks. Tom is building Mondo, a bank that is challenging the high street incumbents. In this episode, Tom talks about the challenges of applying for a banking licence, shares some tips for first time entrepreneurs, and explains why opening banking APIS are - at the moment - rubbish. 0030 It's Mondo's first birthday next month! Feel free to send them a cake in the post. 0130 So far, the reaction to Mondo has been overwhelmingly positive. Why do you think this is? It used to be difficult to get people excited about banking! 0230 Tom explains why most high street current accounts are rubbish, and why Mondo is better. 0340 According to Tom, your current account should be a 'home screen app'; and users should feel as comfortable using it as they do on Google, Facebook or Twitter. 0415 How does Mondo attract consumers? 0612 Tom compares to cost of customer acquisition between high street banks and Mondo... 0700 Last year it was reported that Mondo were applying for a banking licence - when are you due to get your hands on one? 0825 Why are Mondo applying for a banking licence? Lots of so-called 'challenger banks' aren't actually banks... why is Mondo going through all of this effort? 1000 What is a 'bank in a box'? 1050 Tom tells the story of how and why he got involved with Hiroki and Matt at GoCardless 1350 Experience is very important, and Tom now has three businesses under his belt. In light of his previous successes, Tom shares some tips for first time founders... 1630 Why do Mondo run hackathons? And should more banks run hacks? 1800 Tom explains that most banking APIs lead to dummy data... he also explains why this is rubbish, and why Mondo's API provides access to real data. 2300 How can I get a Mondo card?

Matt Robinson, coFounder of GoCardless, talks about founding a business for a second time. As well as swapping stories about McKinsey, YCombinator and cold-calling; Matt gives some advice to entrepreneurs who are starting businesses for the first time...

Ed Cooke -Memory Champion and cofounder of language-learning app Memrise - talks about the struggles faced by ed-tech entrepreneurs, the Membus project, and how memory-techniques can help entrepreneurs hone their investment pitch-deck... 00:44 At the moment, all the talk at Memrise is about a certain project... Ed explains exactly what the Membus is, and what it hopes to achieve. 02:05 Ed explains why using a brightly coloured, vintage bus to collate video clips of native language speakers isn't just a bit of fun, but it's integral to the collation of good quality video of 100,000 native speakers. 03:40 For those of us who haven't had a go: How does Memrise help a user to learn a language? 04:40 Do old-school book-learning methods not work anymore? 05:51 Ed Cooke has trod an interesting path towards entrepreneurship: previously competing (with some success!) in the World Memory Championships. 08:21 TIPS: Ed shares a brilliant tip for entrepreneurs raising funds: how memory tactics can immeasurably improve the structure of an entrepreneur's pitch deck... 11:41 Ed explains that memory isn't just a storehouse, it's a key factor in how we perceive and understand the world. 13:50 Bumps on the road? Ed talks about entrepreneurship's more difficult moments. In particular: driving user-growth and achieving uniformity across platforms. 15:15 Another tip for entrepreneurs: 100 things are always wrong with your business... try and fix the top three, and forget the rest (for now!) The help priorities, Memrise implemented a management methodology called 'Objectives and Key Results', that was most famously used at Google. 17:20 EdTech, as an industry, can be difficult to penetrate for a few reasons, one of the most pertinent being that learning processes are genuinely difficult and complex, and can be longwinded. Therefore making them simple and approachable for users is a challenge. Secondly, schools are usually slow to adopt new technologies, so you need to find 'another' way in. For more podcasts, news and insight from Balderton Capital, please sign up to our newsletter: http://www.balderton.com/news/sign-up-for-our-monthly-newsletter

As PhD data scientist Ollie Glass puts it, data science is a lot like UX/UI was a few years ago: everyone wants a piece of it, but nobody really knows how to make it work for their business. Rentify have managed to overcome that challenge, and - as Founder & CEO George Spencer explains - data science is now integral to Rentify's business. 01:17 George explains how and why he realised that there was an opportunity for Rentify to be a lot smarter with data. 02:55 Was the first though that data could aid sales? Not necessarily! The first experiment was to create an extremely smart solution for landlords. 03:40 George explains what he did wrong with data science the first time around, and what they learned for the next attempt. 06:02 Ollie describes his first interactions with George, and about the process of discovering how a data scientist can best help an entrepreneur. As Ollie says, he also needs to demonstrate that he will help bring more money into the business than his day rate! 07:50 Experimenting with data can be extremely fun... but that shouldn't distract entrepreneurs from finding out a business-purpose for data science. 08:35 Ollie has a message to fellow data scientists: if a client is asking you to do work that doesn't necessarily require a data scientist to carry it out, tell them and help them make a smarter decision 08:53 What was the first project that you collaborated on? 10:40 A word to the wise: Make sure the output is clear, useable information - rather than data that needs another scientist to interpret it 13:01 Tips for entrepreneurs on how, when and why to engage a data scientist. 14:25 Is it a challenge for a data scientist to integrate with existing work-flows and jobs 16:55 A tip to other entrepreneurs from George: you need the rest of your team to understand the purpose of a data scientist, and that is a creative role. 19:40 If a data scientist is joining the team for the short or medium term, make sure someone sponsors them inside your business, otherwise they risk being accidentally shut out. 21:00 Olly explains the questions he really likes to hear when he first meets an entrepreneur 22:50 George explains how data science has transformed his business.

Former Surgeons Dr Jean Nehme and Dr Andre Chow took a great leap when they decided to start TouchSugery... they talk to Ben Goldsmith about saving lives, working with Stanford, and why young surgeons can't get into the operating theatre. 01:13 The Doctors explain the genesis of TouchSurgery, which was inspired by real experiences in hospitals. To quote John, "there are moments, as a physician, when you are trying to save someone's life" 02:50 Jean explains that the best surgeons, due to a lack of experience and training, simply can't get time in the operating room. 03:30 "We wanted to be the best surgeons that we could be... but the tools hadn't changed for hundreds of years" 03:52 Surgical training is an apprenticeship, you learn your trade by doing it. To illustrate this point, Andre explains that his first experience of taking out an appendix was on a young boy... 05:00 This 'apprenticeship' system used to work, but it's broken now. 06:20 Surgery has changed inexorably (for the better) thanks to innovation, now training needs to catch up. 07:25 Not only have surgical practices changes, but on-demand services such as Netflix have altered expectation en-masse: surgeons want to train easier and quicker, and patients want a swift way to understand potential procedures. 10:05 Was their ever much push back from the medical industry? "when we go to Stanford of Johns Hopkins, we are welcomed with open arms" 12:30 There is a social/community aspect to TouchSurgery - Jean explains that the ambition of this system isn't to rank one surgeon against the next, but more to help each individual surgeon get better. 15:41 Unbiased, independent research - published in the world's leading medical journals - is extremely important to TouchSurgery. Why? "When you're talking about patient lives... you need to provide levels of evidence that prove that your system works" 18:55 Leadership: The team at TouchSurgery is comprised of experts from many diverse fields - animation, health-care, data science... We ask the Doctors if this level of diversity makes it difficult to craft a company culture? 20:50 The big question: In a perfect world, how will surgery change over the next 5, 10, 15 years?

Roland Lamb talks to Balderton's Ben Goldsmith about how ROLI have fostered a unique company culture, and how this progressive approach to creating a strong identity and team has a positive effect on the business. You can watch a performance of their latest musical invention here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euoNphLUvxU 0:01 Roland kicks off by explaining exactly how and why ROLI have created an entirely new musical instrument. 2:31 The importance of self confidence and passion: Roland explains exactly how he took the ROLI seaboard from an ambitious idea to a saleable product. 5:17 Sketching: All inventor-entrepreneurs are designers somewhere at heart. If Roland had not repeatedly sketched and reimagined his original ideas, the Seaboard may never have come to life... 6:00 As a new inventor, the majority of people won't understand your idea. You need to be passionate and determined, while selecting which feedback is useful... 6:52 Cross-disciplinary: One of the toughest challenges that Roland has faced, is to help a team comprised of experts in different fields blend with each other, and to form a single unit. 9:53: The inner-conflict between the Inventor/Entrepreneur: Great entrepreneurs and business leaders need to normalise systems to optimise effectiveness... great investors have to be willing to fight the systems to which people usually subscribe. Roland explains how lean methodology, and how setting clear goals defined by time-horizons, can help remedy this internal battle. 12:15 Team ROLI: The team is extremely unique, with developers and engineers sitting next to musicians and product specialists. Roland delves into how his scholarly background in cultural and linguistic systems helped him recognise that daily rituals and processes help to create a beneficial and enjoyable culture. 14:40 The rituals: Every member of the ROLI team attends a stand-up meeting every morning, eats a vegetarian lunch each day at 1300, and can attend a friends and family dinner once a month. 18:10 With the creation of the Seaboard RISE, ROLI has now adopted production-line techniques. Roland talks about the transition from hand-made to mass-production. 20:15 "Quality is everything": Roland is very firm believer that every single thing a business does is part of its quality strategy: from greeting guests to deciding salaries. 23:30 Joy: Roland's big tip to future inventor/entrepreneurs is all about the importance of finding joy in what they are doing, and what they are trying to create.

Joe Steele, CEO of Bookatable, chats with Ben Goldsmith about how Bookatable have grown to put millions of diners in touch with 12,000+ restaurants in 19 European countries every single month... 0:00 Intro: How the Bookatable business evolved from Livebookings. 1:54 Why Bookatable's offering to restaurants is key to success. 3:00 Supply versus demand 4:40 It's a crowded market for both restaurants and customers... how does Bookatable achieve cut-through on such scale? 7:30 Bookable isn't just for good deals, you've got a deal with Michelin! How does that work behind the scenes? 9:05 Who are your customers? Does the Michelin deal help bring in more foodies? 10:30 Running a marketplace business with lower margins and/or purchase figures is hard: how you make the numbers work? how do you get the best LTV out of your customers? 13:00 Great advise from Joe Steele to future marketplace entrepreneurs: if you're running a marketplace business, your P&L needs to be built and structured entirely differently to other businesses, as success looks different to you. 15:10 Who is Bookatable's key demographics? 17:40 Is there a mobile versus desktop split in terms of experience or user behaviour? 19:30 Bookatable is huge now. Does the service differ from city to city, or country to country? 21:10 Stockholm v London v Munich: the differences in expectation for both restaurants and customers. 23:20 How should a marketplace business enter a new market? And why you shouldn't just try and 'copy/paste' your business model

Sam, our resident Swedish national, delves into exactly why the Nordic technology scene is so rich in investable right now. 0:50 Why are the Nordics so techy? Sam explains the area's roots in infrastructure & mobile. 2:13 Tech and politics: Sam poses the interesting idea that socialist politics and ideology have contributed to expertise in creating open-source & network-based technologies. 3:05 Size isn't everything: Sam questions how and why The Nordics have given the world a disproportionately large amount of billion dollar companies, given the relatively small population and market size. 5:28 Aesthetics and tech: how a strong heritage in traditional design industries has helped The Nordics excel in UX/UI design 7:20 Flying under the radar: Sam explains his theory on why Nordic tech companies have an instant competitive advantage against other startups born in other parts of the world. 9:15 Success breeds success: how the likes of Spotify, JustEast, Klarna, Skype are giving back to the tech community. 11:38 Why do Balderton keep looking at The Nordics? 12:50 What's next? Sam think health-tech and IoT will dominate the Nordic tech scene in the coming years. 14:00 Sam gives a big up to the Tech Bikers, who are raising money for a very good cause: More about Tech Bikers: https://techbikers.com/ Sam's page: https://www.justgiving.com/techbikers-paris-to-london-2015-271

Maja Kecman joins Ben Goldsmith to talk about both product and app innovation in healthcare. Maja currently leads Helix, a team of designers embedded in St. Mary's Hospital, and is currently spending the summer on a secondment at Balderton. Listed below are a few key questions in the podcast: 2:10 How do you get a product to market in healthcare? 4:30 How does a product innovation in healthtech evolve? 7:15 Can MVP-style thinking and procedures be applied to healthtech? 9:00 Due to the specialist nature of healthcare innovations and high up-front cost in product, does the funding procedure look different. 1130 Do VCs in healthtech need to be doctors or medical experts? 1430 What is your piece of advice to an inventor/entrepreneur in healthtech 1615 Is the NHS a good or a bad thing for healthtech? 1850 Due to the recent proliferation in healthcare apps, Maja forwards the idea for a system by which the NHS (or another qualified third party) offers a mark of approval to healthcare apps.

To accompany James' recent piece in CityAM, our Mr Wise shares his thoughts on crowdfunding. In addition to expanding on how the industry is encouraging diversity in business, he talks about how crowdfunding is changing the way that people think about ownership, and he responds to criticism that the industry may be a flash in the pan. Recorded during the week that Crowdcube raised £6m http://www.cityam.com/222021/ignore-snobs-why-crowdfunding-bringing-diversity-back-business

CEO and Founder of CarWow James Hind chats to Ben about running and growing a marketplace business. Amongst other things, James reveals how cold calling VCs and angel investors actually works; he advocates taking the plunge with TV advertising, so long as you keep your eye on the stats; and he offers some hints & tips for entrepreneurs trying to spearhead their own marketplace business.

TechWorld's Startups and Innovation Editor Sam Shead chats to Balderton's Ben Goldsmith about where he'd start a tech business in London, asks whether London can collaborate or if it's in competition with itself, and also offers some handy advice for Tessa Jowell and Lord Davies...

Sheng is currently in the middle of a deep dive research project into the world of virtual reality & augmented reality. Amongst other things, Sheng is sure that 2016 will be the year for VR. Not only the year that VR becomes accessible to a far larger market, with applications in healthcare, architecture, and film, but also the year that we'll see some large exits too...