Elevating Founders

Today we have Russ Shaw, Founder, Global Tech Advocates & Tech London Advocates, and Stephen Nundy, Partner and CTO at Lakestar. Listen in for what qualities VCs look for in a Founder, what tech verticals they have their eye on right now and insight into the investment world. Stephen reveals his predictions for the future, explores the tech founder ecosystem in London compared to other countries and he shares his view on why internal motivation and dedication to the mission is a key early signal for a successful founder.

In episode 9, Laura Stebbing, Co-CEO of accelerateHER, an organisation focused on addressing the under-representation of women in technology, talks to the founder of social fashion rental app, By Rotation, Eshita Kabra Davies.

Did you know that the average person has 57 items in their wardrobe, yet we only use 30% of these?

Laura and Eshita chat discuss the rise of the 'conscious consumer', the importance of the sharing economy, and why Eshita left the safety of her investment desk job to catapult into the online fashion world!

Today we are delighted to have Tom Eisenmann, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and author of The Fail-Safe Startup. Interviewing him today is a friend and fellow from the Elevating Founders network and cohort, Sina Sadrzadeh.

Tom and Sina discuss how important innovation is to drive economic growth post pandemic, why the hypergrowth that VCs push for isn’t always sustainable and dispels the myth that listening to your gut is the right thing to do.

Tom breaks down some key takeaways from the book including why startups fail, what defines failure and when you should break away from the herd.

Resources:

The Fail-Safe Startup (penguin.co.uk)

Twitter: @teisenmann

Learn more about Sina: https://wingcard.io/themillennialentrepreneur

Tom Eisenmann is the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the faculty co-chair of the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. Since joining the HBS faculty in 1997, he has launched eleven MBA courses on a range of topics related to entrepreneurship, including The Entrepreneurial Manager, an introductory course taught to all 900 first-year MBAs and Entrepreneurial Failure, an MBA elective. Eisenmann has written over one hundred Harvard Business School Case Studies and his writing appears regularly in the Wall Street Journal, The New Statesman and The New York Times.

This week's episode features Rebekah Brown, Founder of FemTech startup, M Powder.

Rebekah shares her personal motivations for starting M Powder,  explains the challenges of launching a FemTech startup in a male dominated investor market, and explains the importance of driving conversations about the menopause, a stigmatised subject even today.

Check out M Powder!

In episode 6, Asha Haji, Co-Founder and COO of Framework chats with Eric Collins, CEO of Impact X about how Asha has pivoted drastically from both a personal and professional standpoint through the pandemic, why she believes education is a superpower and how making an impact in her career is so important to her.

Their conversation is open, honest and any budding entrepreneurs will gain so much from listening.

Resources:

• Elevating Founders Website

Carolyn Dawson (Informa Tech) chats to Tim Groot, Founder and CEO of Grip, the AI-powered events platform about the rise of virtual events through the pandemic and the power of meaningful connections.

Grip, sometimes referred to as the Tinder for networking, didn’t just survive but thrived during the pandemic. Tim explains the painpoint that instigated the idea and explores the paradigm shift in how meetings and events are carried out now.

Check out Grip's website.

Special mention to Feedspot for featuring us in the Top 40 UK Tech podcasts!

Today's episode explores HealthTech and Investment trends during the pandemic, with Amy Lewin, deputy editor at Sifted chatting to Noor Sweid, partner at Global Ventures and Dmitry Kaminskiy, Managing Partner of Deep Knowledge Ventures.

The lockdown forced a digital health experiment from remote consultations, to technologies such as AI improving efficiencies across the board for health services…and this inflection point has brought HealthTech very much to the forefront of VCs attention!

Now the vaccine is here, is this paradigm shift here to stay, and what does this mean for investment?

This week Chase Jarvis interviews one tech founder (Alex Tew, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Calm) and an elite athlete (Christine Ohuruogu MBE, British 400m Gold medallist) on mental health, human performance and more...

They discuss the school of thought that tech founders are the new breed of elite athlete as they are constantly having to perform at the best of their ability, and they discover numerous parallels between their roles including the importance of staying mentally sharp and putting on a performance.

Lynn Anderson Clark, strategic partnerships lead at Founders Factory, speaks to Eric Schmidt, former CEO and chairman of Google and co-founder of Schmidt futures about why future founders should solve the world’s biggest problems. Their conversation explores how the startup ecosystem can increase impact investing, finessing the balancing act of profit and purpose, what entrepreneurial culture is like in the UK, and Eric’s top tips for success, *spoiler alert* it's about shots on goal!

In this episode of Elevating Founders, Brent Hoberman chats to Tim Draper, Founding Partner of Draper Associates, whose prominent investments include SpaceX, Hotmail, Skype and Tesla.

Their conversation spans insights on Tim’s passion for VC, if entrepreneurship is teachable and the biggest opportunities for investment today beyond the usual markets.