FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICS

Staying Down-Under and keeping the distinctly antipodean flavour to the Vod/Pod or “Pub” Cast this week, we spent the next 50 minutes shooting the breeze with the masterful Christian Faes of Lendinvest, who looks tanned and healthy, as well as speaking superbly dandy, from his lockdown induced home in Queensland, Australia.  

Christian is probably the most successful founder that Chris has ever got to know,  in his working life and someone he longs to have a beer with again, possibly in the Ladbroke Arms in Notting Hill.  

Daydreaming aside, this colourful chat, is peppered with some decent banter, that any aspiring founder and / or Fintech founder and investors, should love.  

Again he is a straight talking Australian, where in this episode you’ll get to hear his pearlers on: 

# Where Lendinvest are in the journey …13 years in, how they’ve navigated the pandemic 

#  He has now accepted remote working as a nimble solution for him and his team.. something he was staunchly against pre-Covid and years before, when he was the CEO of the business !! 

# The learnings around fundraising, both good and bad, where he speaks with experience having taken £2bn (YES - £2BN) in Equity & Debt funding. 

# On the Equity side this has been from some stellar names like Atomico, The European Investment Fund and Tiger in the US 

# Reflecting upon the Debt fundraising side, they have raised from all the big investment bank lenders, but despite all this, both founders cumulatively still own 75% of the business !! 

# On VC's, he alludes to how reluctant they were to engage with them in the early days of the business, but the great value, fantastic VC's like Atomico can bring to a business 

# For founders – Christian explains how hard, slow and painful it is to become the founder of a successful business “I do find it funny when I turn on TV and see this glamorisation of the Journey” and what he highlights the banana skins to avoid. with one being to recognise your weaknesses and delegate to become the best 

# We also dig into some of the superficial aspects of the sector and what goes on behind the scenes of glamour, that beset the industry and laugh about the joys of Clubhouse, that was peaking in March 2021, when we filmed this episode!  

He speaks Australia.. 

# Again, reinforcing the view of Mat of the increasing size and reach of the Australian Tech scene, but it’s still a small-closed ecosystem, the total opposite of the UK. So still get on your bikes Australians for greatness.  

The Quotes of the Episode: “I look at Facebook and it took them 10 years to list and that is probably the craziest fastest journey ever”, “picking the right investor is a marriage and a statistically probably has about the same success rate as any marriage, not necessarily always great !!”

Mat of Act Capital Partners, a fascinating Melbourne based, Media focused VC called into the show in Mid-March 2021 to share some right gems of wisdom, to a early morning (coffee'd up), PJ wearing Chris and perfectly properly attired Ant.  During the episode, Mat openly shared his perspective on many areas including: 

# The move from being a Founder to a VC and the trials / tribulations of doing this, where on one occasion he was involved a boxing match with a leading unnamed Tech giant  

# How timing is so important for Founders, around your first investor, your first product and also most importantly, your first piece of luck # The impact of Covid-19 where Mat references Hopin, a very successful company which is discussed at length in the episode 

# He delves further into his perspectives on the Future of Work and beliefs on how this Media will evolve beyond the two-dimensional experience of current virtual experiences.  On the investment side, he pitches in on.. 

# The collaborative aspects of VC & how Act Capital shares brain-power with other VC’s around the globe 

# The hands on approach to the Founders they work with, leveraging the power of the strong Global Media network and experience of the Partners and Principles 

# The topical trend of SPACs – their flaws, the Hype and lack of traction so far in Australia

 # Also NFTs (not to be left out) as they were at their peak in value in March (when filming), discussing their benefits within the blockchain, in building trust & the over-arching impact of tokenisation exciting him  

Finally, on the Talent Driven platforms – like Clubhouse. Mat highlights “They are good only if the person leading the conversation has talent … and few people on Clubhouse do"!  

He speaks Australia, Proudly eschewing about his home scene and also highlights how diversity and inclusivity is opening up in Australia, especially assisted by Lauren @ Startmate is “doing a fantastic job”.  

In conclusion… Its a fascinating chat, with a fascinating chap … a must listen/watch for any Founders or followers in the Media-Tech space especially. Plus a lovely hat-tip to Notwics at the end, from a true gent..  

The Quote of the Episode:  “On Black Swans, I’ve learn ’t everything plays out in cycles and this time it’s going to happen again. I think we will have another pandemic in the next 10 years. The way we are moving globally and the way we are putting pressure on the Earth, supply chains and population growth is creating unforeseen pressure on the world, which will create another Pandemic or change in weather pattern, or another velocity of unforeseen events happening. The next trillion dollar start-up will be a climate change start-up that succeeds in helping fix this”.

Cordelia Meacher is a “tour de force” in the world of Technology PR and Strategy and a true FOUNDstar, having created Fieldhouse Associates 9 years ago and driving it to become one of the leading UK agencies in the world of private Technology.

Through Cordelia’s stewardship and capabilities, Fieldhouse now lists many of the UK and Europe’s leading VC’s as clients, as well as some of the “up and coming” Technology companies, at the forefront of the digital revolution.

Her passion for Technology is un-matched and in this 45 minutes deep dive we cover a diverse range of topics including:

The quote of the episode: “If you can tell people what you do in 2 minutes, in language that your granny can understand” or “if you are in the pub and telling people about what you do – you use language that makes it easy to understand… avoid jargon”.

Fun episode ..from a true FOUNDstar …

George O’Connor, from Stifel Nicolaus, is a legendary figure from the world of UK Technology, being a leading UK sell-side analyst covering public Technology companies for many decades.

===> The impact of Covid-19 on UK Technology stocks (a dip and then recovery)

===> How the Public Tech markets in the US especially, could be bubbling over

So, in conclusion, George argues that there are very strong reasons to list and grow from the UK, following in the footsteps of Sage and others, so if you want to find out why.. please listen on here

Stuart joins us from the wilds of South Devon, (in lockdown) standing up and freshly shaven, to tell us about his experience as a venture capitalist which was honed by working in several big VC’s in London. The main role was at Octopus where he ran a £45m VCT but they all provided Stuart with the experience to build his latest venture, an Enterprise Capital fund called Qantx.  

Qantx is focused on backing founders in the South West of England, with their deal flow driven by Stuart’s excellent reputation and hard work supporting founders over recent years. This has been supplemented by the strong standing his local backers have as well in the region. 

Stuart explains that the fund is focused on three areas that play to the strengths of the South West of England: Enabling Net-Zero, Optimising Healthcare and Monetising Data. The fund is focused on Commercial return is key, as much as the impact.  

Also, he highlights importantly, it’s the first new South West fund launch, focused on active risk capital, in 15 years. The aim is to help grow some regional, national and potentially international Tech champions, following the recent successes of local hero’s ..Graphcore and Xmos.  

Elsewhere in the Vodcast, Stuart’s advice also focuses on mezzanine risk (or flexible debt) – that he is an expert on, as well as the accolade of being one of the early investors into the Renewables space and finally the much-lauded big tips of dos and donts for founders.  

Stuart is a busy old ferret, as well as Qantx he also discusses his work with the Royal Academy of Engineers in London and Heropreneurs, where being ex-Military, he decided to set up a business to help Servicemen build  Tech businesses.  

I’d also add a word of warning we go deep on age-ism, harnessing Chris’s new passion to champion Tech opportunities for oldies. These are a growing group and ignored minority that needs inclusivity  !!  

Finally, if you are a South West Based Founder or potentially thinking of establishing a locally-focused Tech fund, then this is a much watch / listen.

A Flat Capped and hairy David “Wolverine” Johnson, the UK Editor of Maddyness, calls in from the wilds of the Berkshire countryside, to tell us all about the joys of lockdown and how he swapped life in Harlesden for a lovely barn “doer-upper”. As well as home DIY & a fondness for electrical wiring, David updates us on the progress the leading Tech publication has come so far, including the recent launch of their new Podcast called “The Voice”, where the first series focuses on the joys of Sex-Tech!   

Providing some context, Maddyness launched 10 years ago in France and its goal is to provide useful information for founders. They are the leading online media for Start-Ups in France and David joined in September 2019 to launch the UK edition of Maddyness.   

Here the site aims to bring together the UK Start-up ecosystem, trying to do things in a differentiated way to other Online Tech publications. The site has had a brand re-fresh recently, to become more like a digital broadsheet and David predicts that 2021 will be the year of Greentech, with Agritech in France, in particular, really capturing his eye. He prefers for Maddyness UK to focus on the whole European ecosystem but plans to grow their local reach through offices in several European locations.   

In conclusion, we have a really fascinating chat which also touches upon the number of start-ups created in Europe, starting a business in Covid-19 times, the world of VC, which is a sexier world than he thought it was and how hard and stressful it’s been to hire people during the lockdown.   

Finally, as a shout out – David says: “If you are founder, just get in touch directly with David with an angle, through the social media”…

My memories of Alasdair go back many years, to seeing him succeed in the world of film, winning a Bafta and he is an individual who views life as a learning curve, of which technology has featured strongly.

These life skills and understanding feature heavily in this episode, where Alasdair provides some grey hair, well actually purple hair wisdom for any founders that want to build a successful business.

In the case of the latest business, he tells us about Staark, a business born out of frustration of his middle-aged mind and body not being able to find the most perfectly fitting, stylish and cool cyclo-wear or Velo-couture.

Sick of resembling the Michelin man, whenever adorning the lycra, Alasdair and some friends from the eccentric and eclectic Groucho Club decided to fix this with technology, which creates a perfect fit.

Add into the mix sustainable eco - friendly designs and big plans for the materials to seamlessly talk to devices in the onset of 5G, this is an exciting time for the future of cycling, which Staark plans to be central to in the future.

Roll into this a backdrop of Covid prompting more and more people to cycle, to work or for leisure and fitness... it’s an exciting time to grow a clever Cycling Tech business.

Here's Alasdair to tell you more about the 1G of their plans, where they are successfully gaining support from the public on Crowdcube currently...

Oliver Finch is an Englishman in Denmark apparently the happiest country on Earth, where he works for Maersk Growth in Copenhagen.

Oliver called in to tell us more about the world of Corporate VC, through his detailed work with Maersk Growth, the ventures arm of the leading, global conglomerate, Maersk.

Oliver deep dives into his views on several interesting areas in the 50-minute Vod/Pod; naturally touching on the focus of the investment arm of this industrial giant being around supply chain and supply chain logistics.

They invest at Seed to Series A, both in Europe and the US. As a fund, they do lead or follow and do have expertise in certain areas and KPI’s like Digital Container shipping, which Oliver amusingly admits he can send people to sleep talking about this.

He also talks about how they are trying to find businesses in the UK that “do not have founders who just want a vicarage and a super-car”, but those with ambitions to go far beyond this.

The process at Maersk sounds fascinating, for the Founders that decide to work with them. The Growth vehicle and company wrap a value creation team around the chosen business to help them navigate around the giant, essentially enhancing success for all.

He also notes that they are seeing a lot more interest and engagement from US investors, rather than just curiosity, as it had been in the past, many want to actively invest or co-invest.

Like other VC’s. Oliver shares the refreshing perspective that 2021 is off to the races where rounds are being structured successfully remotely and last but not least, he also gives a lovely update on the Danish Tech scene, which is clearly on fire at the moment – with the successes of Vivino.