Startup Microdose

Mark’s life ‘itch’ during over 30 years as a clinical psychologist and leadership consultant has been understanding people and understanding character. Now, as CEO and founder of CharacterScope, he is digitising all of his and his team’s experience to build advanced psychological tools which help companies to develop teams with optimal cultures and team members with strong leadership qualities. Defining those terms is something discussed at length throughout the conversation.

Against the advice of family and friends, Lord Bilimoria started Cobra Beer in 1989 from a thirst for a truly exceptional beer to go with Indian food. Cobra now has a market share of 98% of all licensed Indian restaurants in the UK. But the journey was no easy ride, with the business a hair’s breadth from failure on no less than three occasions over the years. This is the fascinating story of passion, ingenuity and determination to realise the dream of building one of the world’s best beer brands.

Stephen is the founder and CEO of the Business Growth Fund. Under his management the BGF has invested over £2bn into growth businesses in the UK and Ireland, making it the largest fund of its kind, in the world. Stephen talks us through the founding story which involved raising £2bn from some of the biggest banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He also provides an insightful and optimistic take on the UK’s business outlook for the future, whatever happens in whatever Brexit takes place. It’s a fascinating and articulate account of the state of the industry!

Rod is the MD of the UK Business Angels Association. The UKBAA is the national trade association representing the interests of business angels and the early-stage investment space. The mission is to connect the angel investment eco-system into a coherent landscape for financing high-potential entrepreneurs. Rod talks through his experiences as an investor, how that lead to his current role and why the work they are doing at the UKBAA is so important for the future of our industry and our country.

Luke is the founder of Testcard, an award-winning and venture-backed medtech startup which allows users to test themselves for a number of medical conditions at home and receive instant results. Luke is a highly experienced founder and he gives us a candid and humorous account of the successes, failures and learnings that have led him to this point in his career.

Lu is the founder and CEO of Blooming Founders, a co-working space and support network focused on nurturing and scaling women-led businesses. She is also the author of ‘Dear Female Founder’, a collection of letters written to their younger selves by female founders around the world. Our discussion focuses on Lu’s experiences as a female founder and the particular challenges faced by the growing number of female entrepreneurs in the business community.

Rupert is the founder of Spareroom which he started in 1999. He had moved to London seeking fame and fortune as a musician with the best band name of all time. But the biggest struggle he faced was finding somewhere great to live. He is one of the seminal examples of a startup founder solving their own problem. 20 years later Spareroom has 2 million visitors a month, is rapidly expanding in the US and has never raised a penny of investment…

Jack is the founder of the Centre for Human Health and Performance on Harley Street in London. Formally trained as a doctor but not constrained by it, Jack vexed his superiors by persistently dabbling in ‘silly computer stuff’ and spending time with Douglas Adams, creating the universe in ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. This 'silly computer stuff' turned into several venture-backed companies and couple of exits. But the 160-hour working weeks it required to be a doctor and an entrepreneur, left Jack physically and mentally spent. He used the returns from his companies to start the Centre for Human Health and Performance where his world-class team helps elite athletes, cancer patients and now entrepreneurs to optimise their health, wellbeing and performance.

Pär is the founder of Sting, an eco-system for startups based in Stockholm that empowers entrepreneurs to build global companies. Since 2002, Sting has supported 241 startups (an astonishing 70% of which are still active), helping them attract a combined 429M euros in private capital. We discuss Sting’s systems-based approach to startup coaching and their innovative financing vehicles improving outcomes for entrepreneurs, investors and even the Swedish government. We also talk about why Sweden has more unicorns per capita than any other country; and discuss the Dali Report which explores the cognitive traits common to successful founders.

Nikolai is the co-founder and COO of wealth management platform EXO Investing which he started with school friend Lennart Asshoff in 2016. Backed to the tune of €16.5M at seed by ETS Factory and Ariane De Rothschild, their mission is to unlock private banking for everyone. The platform allows users to build a unique portfolio and keep it optimised daily by using AI algorithms built over 30 years at ETS Factory. But as we discover, the EXO platform is only the first step on a greater mission to build something much bigger for the fintech/finance-as-a-service eco-system…

Will is the founder and CEO of Hummingbird Technologies. The vision for which came to him on a hospital bed during a two-year fight with cancer. Happily recovered, Will is now realising that vision, using the most advanced machine learning and computer vision techniques to deliver actionable insights on crop health. The company, which is backed by investors including James Dyson and Horizons Ventures, has won numerous awards including the CogX Best AI AgTech Product and the 2019 KPMG Best British Startup. Will gives us an inspiring account of how he and the team are optimising sustainable farming practices and transforming the agriculture industry.

Julien founded e-commerce giant Made.com in 2010 alongside Brent Hoberman, Chloe Macintosh and Ning Li. The company posted revenues of £173 million in 2018 up 37% from the previous year as it continues to expand geographically and refine its service in existing territories. He stepped back from his executive role at Made in 2017. He now works as a mentor, advisor and investor for promising entrepreneurs and their startups. Julien gives a meticulous account of the Made.com journey from concept to success as well as some insights into his future projects including mental health tech and blockchain-based asset management.

Andy was one of the early employees at Spotify. In his 5 years at the company, he helped launch it to the UK, US and Singapore and saw the company go from just a handful of early users to over 50 million in 2014. After Spotify and a trip to Burning Man, he launched airport app, Flio, before stepping back from his executive role there to start Sherpr in 2017. Sherpr is a door-to-door delivery and concierge service for sports equipment partnered with the likes of IronMan, Rapha and the British Heart Foundation. Andy is a load of fun and shares some excellent practical advice as well as giving us a candid account of his battle with anxiety at Spotify.

WeFarm is the world’s first peer-to-peer knowledge sharing platform for farmers. In just a few years, 1.5 million farmers have signed up and over 260 million messages have been exchanged leading to tangible improvements in farming outcomes and quality of life in some of the most challenging places in the world. Backed by a host of impressive investors including Local Globe, Silicon Valley-based True Ventures and Skype & Atomico founder Niklas Zennström, the vision is to become the global network for the biggest industry on Earth. Kenny is committed to enacting meaningful and positive change in the world by marrying commercial techniques with an impact-driven approach. His execution of this so far has been masterful and is a lesson to all entrepreneurs at this critical moment in human history. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Kwame’s mercurial career includes roles as a professor of design, a filmmaker and the founder of the most successful record label in the history of Portugal. His true calling is the solution of meaningful problems from a design, engineering and systems perspective. After meeting model Lily Cole who was working on a gift economy app called Impossible, together they decided that the Impossible brand could be so much more than one product. They now describe Impossible as an innovation agency, where they aim to create impactful solutions and enact positive change in the world using their own ‘planet centric design’ methodology. Their current projects include: Fairphone – an ethical smartphone; Bond Touch – wearable tech that connects loved ones; Navify – a cancer diagnostic dashboard; and Wikitribune – a crowdsourced news publication designed to combat fake news in collaboration with Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales. Enjoy!