My firstminute

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Thursday 7th May 2020, we hosted former Formula 1 Champion and Founder of GreenTech Festival, Nico Rosberg.

Nico Rosberg became Formula 1 World Champion in 2016 with Mercedes AMG Petronas and has since embarked on a career as a sustainability entrepreneur and investor in green technologies.

Nico Rosberg's drive as an entrepreneur is fuelled by the will to drive positive change for society and mankind. He pursues this approach not only in his business activities, but also as an ambassador for sustainable change in mobility through technological innovation. Rosberg has invested in numerous successful start-ups such as Lilium, Volocopter, What3Words, Tier and Lyft. He is also an investor and shareholder of the all-electric racing series Formula E. Rosberg is also a co-owner of the German vehicle technology company TRE GmbH, one of the leading companies in the field of chassis development.

In 2019, Nico co-founded the GREENTECH Festival, a global platform for innovative and pioneering green technologies, which attracted almost 40,000 visitors at its premiere.

Nico remains linked to Formula One through his commentary for the German TV channels SKY & RTL, his Rosberg Racing young driver’s academy and his engineering company TRE. He continues his work as an ambassador for many outstanding brands such as Rolex, Deutsche Bahn, Kempinski Hotels and Heineken.

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Wednesday 20th May 2020, we hosted Matt Mullenweg, Founder & CEO Automattic ($3bn private valuation; makers of WordPress and Tumblr).

During the session, Sam Endacott, Investor at firstminute capital, covered Matt's journey of founding and growing Automattic, including the story behind developing WordPress, the Open Source software used by over 31% of the web. Sam also explored Matt's depth of experience in operating during a financial crises as well as his outlook on a post-lockdown world.

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Monday 18th May 2020, we hosted Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman of S4 Capital and Founder of WPP. Sir Martin Sorrell remained its CEO for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company.

Sir Martin Sorrell shared stories about his earliest business days and how he overcame some of his toughest challenges, as well as how he sees the future and how he now enjoys supporting the next generation.

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Wednesday 27th May 2020, we hosted Kevin Hartz, Co-Founder & Chairman at Eventbrite.

During the session, Kevin and Spencer Crawley, Co-founder and General Partner at firstminute capital, discussed the high and low points Kevin experienced with founding and growing Eventbrite and Xoom. They also covered his transition into the world of investing, the key criteria that he looks for as part of his investment process, and the advice he is currently employing with his own team and portfolio companies. Some of Kevin's early/seed investments include: Airbnb (Seed, Series A), Uber (Series B), Pinterest (Seed, Series A), and PayPal (Seed).

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Tuesday 30th June 2020, we hostedJeremy Zimmer, the Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of UTA. One of the industry’s leading agents for decades, he has been instrumental in establishing UTA as one of the world’s pre-eminent talent agencies with a reputation for its artist-first focus and oversees more than 1,200 agents, executives and employees globally.

After rising through the ranks as a talent agent, Zimmer co-founded UTA in 1991 and was named CEO in 2012. Since then, he’s led the company’s remarkable evolution into one of the world’s leading talent and entertainment companies through a series of ambitious acquisitions and expansions across news, speakers, content creation, music, esports, digital talent and sports spaces.

From fabled Hollywood family to super-agent to multi- hyphenate entertainment leader, Zimmer has helped guide the careers of some of the most influential names in entertainment today and personally represents artists such as Bryan Cranston, Chance the Rapper, DJ Khaled, Chelsea Handler, Kevin Hart, Anthony Hopkins, Don Cheadle, Tyra Banks, Ryan Seacrest, Noah Baumbach, Brian Robbins, and YG.

During the session, we explored everything from how Jeremy got started in his career, to his leadership advice in times of crisis, to his passion for the Arts, to his views on the future of media, entertainment and more.

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Thursday 28th May 2020, Tommy Stadlen, Venture Partner at firstminute capital, interviewed Jennifer Fleiss, an entrepreneur who has founded and scaled two digitally native businesses from scratch: Rent the Runway and Jetblack.

Together, they explored the earliest days of Jenny's career, starting out in the financial services, the subsequent journey which resulted in co-founding her businesses as well as her time spent with Torch Capital, a brand-focused venture fund, where she advises early stage companies.

Jenny Fleiss' bio:

Jenny Fleiss is an entrepreneur who has founding and scaled two digitally native businesses from scratch: Rent the Runway and Jetblack.

Jetblack is the first portfolio company within Walmart’s technology incubator, disrupting traditional ecommerce with a personal shopping service over text message and voice. Previously, Jenny co-founded Rent the Runway, a business that has transformed the retail industry by making designer clothing rentals a convenient and accessible luxury experience for millions of women. During her time at Rent the Runway, Jenny wore many different hats, serving as President, Head of Logistics, and Head of Business Development. Jenny remains a Rent the Runway board member and adviser, a board member of Shutterfly and Jetblack, and an adviser to and investor in various businesses, many with female founders. She is Co-founder of the RTR Foundation, and guest lecturer at various universities and professional forums.

Jenny has been honoured with numerous recognition's including Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30”; Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40” and “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs”; and Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology.”

She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated Cum Laude from Yale University.

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Monday 12th May 2020, Spencer Crawley, Co-founder and General Partner at firstminute capital, interviewed Dr Hermann Hauser, Co-founder of ARM ($31bn acquisition by Softbank), Co-founder Amadeus Capital, Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.

Dr Hermann Hauser is a science-based innovator and serial entrepreneur who has successfully developed and financed over 100 high-tech companies whilst offering inspiration and mentorship to the next generation of entrepreneurs.

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Wednesday 6th May 2020, Camilla Mazzolini, Investor at firstminute capital, hosted session to cover all things marketplace with three Unicorn founders turned investors: Cristina Fonseca (Talkdesk [$1bn private valuation] and Venture Partner at Indico Capital Partners), Fabrice Grinda (Co-founder & Co-CEO OLX [acquired by Naspers], Founding Partner FJ Labs), and Paul Forster (Co-founder & former CEO Indeed.com [$1bn acquisition by Recruit]).

My firstminute is a series of informal talks with global leaders sharing stories about the earliest days of their career, how they overcame some of their toughest challenges, and how they now enjoy supporting the next generation.

On Thursday 14th May 2020, we hosted a special edition of “My firstminute” with Sir Clive Woodward, England's 2003 Rugby World Cup Winning Head Coach and Team GB Director of Sport, London 2012

Sir Clive is an icon of British sport. He pioneered elite performance culture and ‘marginal gains’ well ahead of his time. Drawing on his considerable commercial experience, Sir Clive has spent decades transferring successful leadership approaches between business and sport.

In conversation with technology founder and firstminute capital LP Tommy Stadlen, Sir Clive described his journey to World Cup glory, which began with no office, no phone, no management team and a losing culture. Tommy covered the lessons Sir Clive has learned applying high performance principles to football, Olympic sport and startups. And we also heard how a master planner has approached lockdown.

On Friday 15th May 2020, we hosted Spencer Rascoff, Co-founder & former CEO Zillow, Board Advisor at Tripadvisor, Co-founder & Executive Chairman of dot.LA, Co-founder Hotwire.com and Co-author of the New York Times' bestseller "Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate".

Clara Lindh Bergendorff, Investor at firstminute capital, dived into Spencer's career as investor, entrepreneur and company leader who has co-founded two businesses that became household names, Zillow ($8bn market cap) and Hotwire.com ($663m acquisition by IAC). Early this year, he also launched, dot.LA, a media and journalism company dedicated to covering and bringing together L.A.’s startup world.