On his last day at Balderton Capital, Harry Briggs talks to Ben Goldsmith, and provides a unique and personal insight into the world of venture capital. Amongst many things, Harry talks about saying 'no' to good entrepreneurs, the seismic shift in London's tech scene, and how own experiences of being gay in the world of tech investment.

Harry Briggs gives a personal insight into VC life

Balderton Capital are one of Europe's largest tech VCs, investing the best breakthrough technology companies in the continent. This podcast will share weekly insights for those at the forefront of the European technology scene: our partners, investment team, portfolio companies, and other selected experts and contributors. The 'cast will be a worthwhile listen for anyone who is looking to raise venture capital investment, building a technology company from the ground up, or is enthusiastic about the London & European tech community. If you'd like to read news & updates from our team, check out our news page: http://www.balderton.com/newsfeed

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We were delighted to host a fireside chat at Balderton HQ about disrupting capital markets with Murray Roos, Group Head of Capital Markets at LSEG, Enrico Bruni Managing Director at Tradeweb, and Rana Yared, General Partner at Balderton.

Disrupting Capital Markets: Rana Yared, Murray Roos and Enrico Bruni

John Cole is the CCO of Ezoic. Ezoic is a Google award-winning artificial intelligence platform designed to automatically test ads, website layouts, mediation, and more to increase ad revenue and optimize user experiences at the same time.

John is the Chief Customer Officer of Ezoic. Formerly an officer in the British Royal Navy, John was a founding Director of Media Run Group – which started several online businesses in the mid 2000’s (Media Run Search, Media Run Ad Network, and Blowfish Digital Ad Agency). Following the acquisition of Media Run Ad Network by Adknowledge Inc in Oct 2007, John managed Adknowledge in Europe, which included the Super Rewards virtual currency platform (which monetized Facebook, MMO & Mobile Games) & Cubics – the first Social display advertising platform inside Facebook. After a brief and successful foray into the world of independent online publishing (he was founder of UK website operator ‘Epirical’), John sold his online interests to Ezoic in Dec 2011 and joined as CCO. John moved his family from London UK to live in San Diego in August 2013.

0034 John explains that Ezoic combines ad-testing, CMS and UX; and dives into some of the complexities of multivariate testing 

0205 Why did Ezoic stay in stealth for three years? 

0400 Even though the company has pivoted, the central idea has remained the same: where and how an ad appears on a page is as important as retargeting and context. 

0500 John explains that Ezoic bought 500 websites, and used them to test and hone their theories

0715 The secret sauce is achieving the balance between UX and monetisation - the assumption is that one usually compromises the other. 

1055 John talks about the human cost of staying in stealth for three years, and resisting the urge to shout about Ezoic from the rooftops

1400 Does staying in stealth for three years to undertake a long period of testing and re-testing mean that you guys are anti-'lean startup'? 

1540 John explains the strategic rationale behind the choice of the name 'Ezoic' 

2300 What's next? Times are exciting at Ezoic - making acquisitions and winning awards!

John Cole, Ezoic: Staying in stealth for three years, and balancing UX & Monetisation in Testing/AI

Mårten Mickos is a rare European founder. He has led 3 global software companies, including the Balderton-backed MySQL, and is now opening the London office of HackerOne, a new company which is used by Uber, Twitter and Github to protect their critical systems.

Mårten joined open-source database company MySQL as CEO early in the company's journey. He remained in charge until the $1 billion acquisition by Sun Microsystems in 2011.

Mårten's next role was again as a software CEO, at cloud software company Eucalyptus. Hewlett-Packard acquired the business in 2014.

In this video, Mårten is interviewed by Balderton's Managing Partner, Bernard Liautaud. Like Mårten, Bernard spent the majority of his professional life as a software CEO at the very highest level. As CEO and Founder of Business Objects, Bernard become the first European to IPO a software company on Nasdaq in 1994, and continued in the role of CEO until the company was acquired by SAP in January 2008, for $6.8bn.

For further reading, see Mårten's blog, which is intended help startup CEOs with questions around leadership and company-building here: http://schoolofherring.com/

Mårten Mickos, CEO MySQL, Eucalyptus, Hackerone: Building a billion dollar software company

All three coFounders of Lovecrafts - Cherry Freeman, Nigel Whiteoak and Edward Griffith - joined Ben Goldsmith for the latest episode of the Balderton podcast. 

Lovecrafts create online marketplaces such as LoveKnitting and LoveCrochet that bring traditional crafts to the digital age. Balderton first invested in the company in 2015, leading a $7.5m round. LoveCrafts have since raised a further $20m. 

0030 You have three cofounders: is that better or worse than one, single CEO figure? 

0100 Edward started the business and brought in Cherry and Nigel. How did that process work? Did they need convincing? 

0230 How did the founders first meet? 

0300 Nigel, how did Edward coax you to leave your job and join him at Lovecrafts?

0405 Is Lovecrafts an inherently difficult idea - getting a potentially older demographic online can be tricky. 

0550 Edward has previously spoken about a craft renaissance - what is driving that? 

0655 As leaders of the 'making' company, What do the Lovecrafts cofounders make? 

0740 How does fundraising work with three founders? Does one take the lead? 

0845 How do you divide responsibilities within the business. 

0940 Hiring: is the hiring process at all complicated due to the 'three founder system'? 

1210 Cherry explains why their hiring process won't drastically change as they scale. 

1350 The trio share some advice for early-stage cofounding teams.

Cherry Freeman, Nigel Whiteoak, Edward Griffith of LoveCrafts | Why 3 founders are better than 1

The Tab's CEO and Founder Jack Rivlin talks to Ben Goldsmith about all of the 'first-times' he's encountered since founding student media company The Tab with a group of friends at Cambridge University. The first time Jack hired people outside of the founding team, the first fund-raise, the first time that The Tab decided that they were going to launch in New York...

0014 Without pausing for breath, Jack starts the episode by sharing the news that The Tab recently smashed one of their own traffic records. 

0135 Jack talks about Babe, The Tab's very recently launched new title for a female readership. 

0200 Why launch Babe? Jack discusses how a lot of media aimed at women is patronising, and heavily product and celebrity focuses. The 'Babe' team want to change that. 

0240 The subject of 'firsts' - as a 19 year old founder, Jack has had to go through a lot of complex, important and often high profile experiences at a comparatively early age. 

0325 What was the first story published on The Tab?

0450 When did The Tab first gain the attention of the national media? 

0550 When was the firs time that The Tab got into hot water? 

0640 Jack talks us through the first apology issues by The Tab... which is now taught on journalism courses. 

0710 What was the mission of the business when you first launched The Tab? As I'd imagine it wasn't "we want to build a media company that gets funded by VCs in 7 years time!" 

0830 When was the first time you did something wrong? 

1040 Jack talks about achieving a blend of serious journalism and more frivolous stories 

1220 Why do you do 'the fun stuff'? 

1350 Jack explains how what The Tab is doing is different, and why it is good for young people to have a publication like The Tab

1430 How did you make your first hires outside the original team? 

1600 Jack talks about finding their first sales person... at Glastonbury. 

1745 When did The Tab stop being the fun publications that a group of friends set up at Cambridge, and become a business?

1950 When did you decide to take The Tab to the USA? 

2250 What's next for The Tab?

Harry Briggs gives a personal insight into VC life

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