Please note: The topics covered in this episode should not be taken as investment advice.

This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Rupert West, the founder and Managing Director of Puma Growth Partners, a UK-based growth equity investor backing companies at Series A with cheque sizes of £4–10m. Puma invests across consumer brands, B2B SaaS, and scalable business services, with a hands-on approach to helping founders scale sustainably and successfully exit.

Rupert shares the story of building Puma from scratch, starting with the core mission: to deliver true value-add support to founders using his team’s operational and financial expertise. He also dives into the firm’s unique structure (including VCTs), investment thesis, and deep operational involvement with portfolio companies like Pockit and YASO.

🦄 In this episode, we discuss:

📊 Why Puma takes a multi-sector approach and how it helps reduce concentration risk
 🧠 What makes a founder truly “venture-backable” and how Puma assesses founder psychology
 🚀 Case study: Why Puma backed social commerce infra startup YASO to help brands scale in China
🧰 Exit readiness: How VCs should focus on DPI, not just deployment
📍 Why “next round ready” is as important as product-market fit
💥 Lessons from navigating crises from 2008 to COVID to today’s inflation squeeze
🏦 The power of VCTs and permanent capital in turbulent markets
🌱 Why every venture firm needs resilience and empathy to support founders in hard times
💬 Rupert’s take on customer obsession and why the best founders keep buyers front and centre

Whether you’re raising your Series A or building a growth fund yourself, this episode offers deep insight into what great VC support should look like and how fund managers can stay close to the action while scaling.