Peer Effect

Today I'm joined by Mark Whitcroft, one of the founding partners of Illuminate Financial, a VC that specialises in FinTech and Enterprise Software. He started the business 7 years ago and is now on the second fund with a value of about $100 million.

We speak about what drives better decision making while roaming around team, data and sales cycles!

Key Learnings:

• Decision making is a skill that can be focused on and improved
• In early stages you don't have enough data so quality of decision making is driven by founding team and their hires. As business develops use of data to drive more certain decisions is critical
• The danger of advice and false indicators in decision making

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Today I'm joined by James O’Donnell, Commercial Director of Social Ink, the social media marketing company that helps CEOs and businesses create stories online through social media and building communities.

We speak about why you should be creating authentic content that shares your story.

Key Learnings:

• People love hearing stories. Content that is story-based gets on average three times as many views and twice as many interactions.
• Just jump in. Don't let the need for perfection stop you starting
• Use "pillar content" to focus your message so you can be passionate AND relevant to your business

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Today I'm joined by Matt Baird, an expert recruiter and Founder Member of the District4 community. He specialises in Social Housing.

We speak about how the District4 model has empowered Matt to do the job as he feels best which has had a big impact on customer experience and personal satisfaction.

Key Learnings:

• How the model means he can spend his whole day focused on customers as no meetings or management
• Power of allowing specialists to focus on what they're good at and not nudge them into management
• Absence of KPI monitoring actually leads to increased performance and satisfaction

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Today I'm joined by Brandon Metcalf, CEO & Founder of Place Technology, one of the top 21 companies to watch in 2021. Brandon previously was the COO of Talent Rover before he sold the business.

We speak about the importance of knowing and understanding your financials as a founder: P&L, cash flow and exit valuation model.

Key Learnings:

• Build your exit valuation model now to avoid irrelevant revenue and effort
• Credibility with investors comes from execution and understanding your numbers
• Use data to avoid the "squirrel approach"

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Today I'm joined by Clair Mohammed, a partner coach for District4. Clair helps expert recruiters in the community get their businesses up and running.

We speak about Clair's experience with the members, the challenges they have been facing and what she is doing to help them overcome these challenges in order to help them achieve their goals quicker and more smoothly.

Key Learnings:

• Difference of mindset as your own boss rather than being an employee
• How to work in a way that resonates with your own values
• Power of coaching to help with the paralysis of unlimited choices and opportunities

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Today I'm joined by Nick Baker, one of the Co-Founders of Alpha Financial Market Consulting, now the world's leading asset and wealth management consulting firm. He started in 2004, and enlisted in 2017, with private equity ownership along the way. He is now a Non-Exec Advisor and Angel Investor.

We speak about how Nick drove Alpha past the £100 million valuation and the general business principles behind this. Now it is listed on AIM and worth over £350m.

Key Learnings:

• Reward people with equity, and have a strong story why will be valuable as may take some time
• Be commercial and the danger of discounts
• What do you want to be famous for? Figure out what you should and shouldn't be doing

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What does it take to create a £100 million business?

I will be taking you on a journey and sharing my key learnings. I believe there's a massive opportunity to disrupt the recruitment sector and build something very different and exciting. With the support of my network I'll be talking to CEOs, VCs, founders, DNI specialists, marketers, and many more so we can learn and live it together.

It comes down to one very simple idea, happy expert recruiters equal happy customers. I believe that the District4 model is highly disruptive, highly scalable, and delivers excellent customer experience. I also believe it is the future of recruitment and organisational design. It is also happening in other sectors.

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