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Ben Newsome, Portfolio Partner at Octopus Ventures
In our latest Scaling Stories podcast, we were delighted to catch up with Ben Newsome, a portfolio partner at Octopus Ventures, a very active multi-stage European VC. Ben previously helped build some of Europe’s leading tech companies – from Monzo to Improbable – so who better to talk to about how VCs perceive the importance of talent within an organisation.
Octopus supports and invests in approximately 180 companies, covering everything from unicorn companies to more traditional ‘safer bets’ in industries as varied as health tech, fintech and ‘deep tech’. One of the things that differentiates Octopus is its close working relationships with founders, or what Ben calls a “robust end-to-end process” covering everything from an induction, a holistic look at the business and how capital is deployed.
“It’s very novel for VCs to be looking at driving performance through talent and people,” Ben observes.
When it comes to hiring talent, Octopus is there to support its portfolio in an advisory position, rather than taking a backseat and advising on the odd hire. The Octopus talent team are positioned as ‘coaches’, and they take a holistic approach to advising companies on their talent and people.
A good VC, says Ben, should have capacity to service and support their portfolio, as “there’s only an amount of companies that you can service at one time”, and essentially they should “operate as as an extension of that team”.
But what’s not always appreciated about VCs is that when it comes to getting the right talent, they’re not just tasked with advising founders and senior staff – but the investors too.
“The interesting part about the ‘deal flow’ in VC is that there’s a ton of research and due diligence and naturally, when you look at the success of businesses or the businesses that have achieved great things, it’s [because] they get the right people and scale the business efficiently.”
Ben explains that part of his role is to understand “red flags” and “potential areas of weaknesses” so he can have transparent conversations with investors and make sure they understand the importance of recruiting well – a “precursor to success”.
Regular readers of this hallowed digital scroll may recall the words of Jim Collins, business management guru and author of Good to Great, who wrote that successful executives know how to “get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus)”, and Ben’s keen understanding of why recruitment matters is a testament to this.
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By Nasser OudjidaneIn our latest Scaling Stories podcast, we were delighted to catch up with Ben Newsome, a portfolio partner at Octopus Ventures, a very active multi-stage European VC. Ben previously helped build some of Europe’s leading tech companies – from Monzo to Improbable – so who better to talk to about how VCs perceive the importance of talent within an organisation.
Octopus supports and invests in approximately 180 companies, covering everything from unicorn companies to more traditional ‘safer bets’ in industries as varied as health tech, fintech and ‘deep tech’. One of the things that differentiates Octopus is its close working relationships with founders, or what Ben calls a “robust end-to-end process” covering everything from an induction, a holistic look at the business and how capital is deployed.
“It’s very novel for VCs to be looking at driving performance through talent and people,” Ben observes.
When it comes to hiring talent, Octopus is there to support its portfolio in an advisory position, rather than taking a backseat and advising on the odd hire. The Octopus talent team are positioned as ‘coaches’, and they take a holistic approach to advising companies on their talent and people.
A good VC, says Ben, should have capacity to service and support their portfolio, as “there’s only an amount of companies that you can service at one time”, and essentially they should “operate as as an extension of that team”.
But what’s not always appreciated about VCs is that when it comes to getting the right talent, they’re not just tasked with advising founders and senior staff – but the investors too.
“The interesting part about the ‘deal flow’ in VC is that there’s a ton of research and due diligence and naturally, when you look at the success of businesses or the businesses that have achieved great things, it’s [because] they get the right people and scale the business efficiently.”
Ben explains that part of his role is to understand “red flags” and “potential areas of weaknesses” so he can have transparent conversations with investors and make sure they understand the importance of recruiting well – a “precursor to success”.
Regular readers of this hallowed digital scroll may recall the words of Jim Collins, business management guru and author of Good to Great, who wrote that successful executives know how to “get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus)”, and Ben’s keen understanding of why recruitment matters is a testament to this.