FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICS

After autumn impasse, we return with our winter series of interesting Podcasts, with a number of leading lights in the UK Tech industry.

First up is Peter Finnie, a leading Tech Patents lawyer in the UK who shows us that lawyers are fun, good to talk too and so knowledgeable for Founders and VCs alike. Remember the top one's cover both!

Peter deep dives and offers some great pearls of advice such as:

# How to manage Patents/IP in 2023 and current state of regulation in the UK on patents (which ain't good)

# How 90% of value in Technology created is in the IP. ie: Google bought YouTube purely because of the brand

# The trends in the Tech market and how Potter Clarkson are still supporting Start-Ups and Scale-Up in these tough times. Plus, how you can meet them

Listen on and enjoy for more

In this episode, we continue our summer focus (yes - there's another heatwave on the way in London to justify this !!)  on leading ladies in the Tech space, talking here to a particularly successful founder in the Health-Tech vertical, Lara Mott.

Chris first met Lara, six years ago, when she was pondering on exiting her successful corporate career to scratch the entrepreneurial itch and launch her own business.

Roll on to 2020, when we were pleased to be contacted by the lovely Lara again, to hear about her itch becoming Improvewell, which is now (in August 2022) one of the fastest growing and one's to watch Health-Tech's in the UK, building upon their status as one of the top 100 Start-Ups in 2021, the UK, to WATCH ..

So, sharing this expertise, Lara talks in detail in the Vod/Pod about:

Wrapping up...

Fittingly, I write this summary of a great Vod/podcast, with a leading lady of the UK VC scene, England’s women have just scored their first goal against Austria !!

This episode focuses on Evie Mulberry, the Managing Partner of Astia VC, a leading San Francisco based VC, who has recently returned to the UK build the UK/EU footprint of the fund.

Evie highlights how Astia – was built by the super impressive Sharon Vosmek, who was one of three founders who established the pillars of Astia 20 years ago.

She brought Evie into the business, when she re-located to the West Coast in 2008. Now Evie is back and based in the South West and is successfully building out their UK and EU ecosystem.

Evie talks in detail on, in the pod about how Astia are:

In conclusion, success is being scaled as this “Expert Sift” process has now evolved into a learning Technology platform fairly recommending businesses at scale

It’s a great chat, with a great lady trying to change the world of VC, according to men!!

Harriet Rosethorn is second up in our summer series on leading women in VC and Technology.

We speak to Harriet in February 2022 and she takes great time to firstly explain that Puma has nothing whatsoever to do with the German Sport apparel brand !!!

She, in fact, joined London based Puma PE, 4 years ago as an investment manager. They are a leading Series A investor in UK and do look at some European Technology names, if they plan to expand in the UK.

Puma's ticket size is between £2m -£10m and Puma look to support a founder's transition to reach / beat the KPIs needed to get to Series B.

We cover a wide array of topics in our 35 minute chat:

In conclusion:

Phoebe Arkell is first up in our summer series on leading women in VC and Technology. Phoebe is certainly one of the up and coming VCs who successful navigated a career in consulting to follow her dream of becoming a VC.

She joined London based, Supernode Global, just before the pandemic and quickly found their focus on investing at the seed stage in digital content, was perfectly suited to this time.

Supernode focuses specifically on platforms and tools focused on these verticals: gaming, animation, sport, education, analytics, ad-tech, music and now the all important metaverse!

Some pearlers from Phoebe and Founders in particular take note:

Phoebe is a polite, thoughtful and kind lady who was a delight to talk to and a bit of a breath of fresh air for founders looking for the friendly face of VC !

Jatin Ondhia is an inspirational leader who set up Shojin Property Partners in 2009 and has navigated the pandemic to grow a successful, scaling Property Technology business.

Jatin originally saw the value of investing in property, whilst working as a banker at UBS for 12 years. From its onset, Shojin was like an angel club, which has evolved into an online regulated Technology platform, democratising ownership and access to capital into middle market residential property (£10m-£60m) and the upside this investment can bring.

Online Real Estate investment is projected to grow from $15bn in 2022, to $800bn by 2027. Developers welcome Shojin as a complementary way of helping them successful fund projects now and in the future.

In this FUNDstar and FOUNDstar Vod/Podcast episode, Jatin shares these pearls:

===> Be nimble and careful in balancing the interests of investors and developers in Property Technology and strategy

Net/net, Shojin is a clever Prop-Tech play, built on successful alignment of funding, growth and profit that is in a sweet spot to grow extremely successfully in the next five years and spread the wealth to many.

Paul decided to build Careology when personal circumstances highlighted how there are very few, real-time technology solutions to help people manage the treatment process and support processes around cancer, for the: person, care-giver and the clinical team.

Three years later, it appears to be going well and Paul, an experienced entrepreneur shares his thoughts on the many challenges of the journey, on this inspiring FUNDstar and FOUNDstar Vod/Podcast episode. These include:

===> How to build the Tech: the App, the Software, the SaaS and how to sell the software licence to providers and help them blend physical & digital, to improve the provider <> patient experience

===> Building traction and business development, where doing smart pilots right really matter and do lead to full rollouts with leading partners, in the clinical healthcare, in the case of Careology. Big companies need to embrace digital and are post Covid. This blend is here to stay in Healthcare

===> The Digital Cancer space is wide open and the TAM of 20m people a year are diagnosed with cancer, makes Careology a particularly attractive opportunity to support

===> The hiring process and how to assemble people that challenge founders

Net/net, Careology is an impressive Health-Tech that is really gaining traction, entering its growth phase and looking towards investors for further support.

Rich is the CEO and Co-Founder of Peak.AI, one of the up and coming Unicorns  of the UK Tech scene and Manchester's finest.

They are a Decision Intelligence leader (using AI and Cognitive Intelligence to make consistently strong decisions) working with Retailers like Superdry and AO.Com, CPGs like KFC and some leading UK & Global PLC manufacturing companies  too!!

Universally these are product companies where the Peak Data Engine "CODI" optimises demand for their product, enables better targeting, an ability to run leaner, assist ESG goals and impact. Peak enables  companies to stop "HOPING" and using AI to "DO"!

Rich talks about his driving motivations around growing 200+ global team, refining the business culture, the power of delegation, customer interaction and how they are becoming one of  the biggest commercial AI companies in the UK and if Europe.

He also touches on the psychology of fundraising and provides some great tips to navigate Seed, Series A, Series B and have integrity  ! A Nasdaq listing is mentioned and Unicorn status. Not a bad spot from Notwics when visiting Manchester in 2015 !!!

Chris is a really interesting Entrepreneur who successfully grew and exited his business extremely successfully.  His childhood was tumultuous but gave him early life skills, which saw him grow and learn how to overcome challenges like Dyslexia (a condition that many leading founders interesting have suffered.

We talk late summer 2021, when the UK was in the midst of first UK energy crisis (with Bulb crashing), something that looks like dream, compared to the reality of life now in Mid March 2022.

He set up as a founder with his business, WAE (We Are Experience) business in 2003, having left the world of consulting when his employer, Arthur Andersen

There are some super pearls for both "Founders" and "Funders"

Good, snappy little listen, with lots of excellent examples - so feel free to reach out to direct to Chris on LinkedIN HERE- or contact us to connect you direct to the team - from Notwics.