Scaling Ambition

Entrepreneur First Co-Founder and CEO Matt Clifford interviews EF Hong Kong General Manager Lavina Tien exploring her background and the Hong Kong startup ecosystem. In this episode they discuss:

- Lavina's background and why she was excited by EF's mission - The Hong Kong startup ecosystem and the opportunities in the area - EF's partnership with HAX, the world's leading early stage hardware investor

This was a great conversation with some great insight into Lavina's story and the Hong Kong ecosystem.

Joe White, Entrepreneur, CFO and General Partner at Entrepreneur First. An entrepreneur at heart, Joe founded his first business - a digital design agency - while still at university racking up big name clients like Disney, LSE and Bain & Company. He then went on to co-found Moonfruit, a DIY website platform, building and launching one of the world's first SAAS products in the process. More recently Joe has become a prominent angel investor and got involved with EF back in 2015, investing in several portfolio companies before eventually becoming a General Partner and the company CFO – so he's been an integral part of the company's growth and expansion in recent years, culminating in the $115M first raise of the global fund earlier this year.

In this episode Joe and I discuss:

- The early days of Moonfruit and the nascent stages of the internet startup scene in the UK - How Joe helped steer the company through the dot com boom and bust in the early 2000s before exiting successfully years later - What startups should look for in a VC and why the highest valuation isn't always the best

We also get into Joe's advice for dealing with the ups and downs of the startup journey based on his own experience as a founder and with the companies he's advised and invested in.

Saikrishnan Ranganathan is the Co-Founder of SensorFlow, a company making buildings energy efficient at zero upfront cost.

Hotels spend $40 billion on energy each year and commercial buildings spend $120 billion. These are not insignificant costs and the amazing thing is that with better automation these costs could be cut by up to 40%. People have been talking about applying IoT technology to create smart buildings for some time – but the challenges of doing this means nobody has really solved the problem.

That's where Sensorflow comes in - their end-to-end product, built on top of a proprietary network stack, let's them automate an entire building using a single gateway and optimizes energy consumption instantly with no need for complex installations.

In this episode Sai and I discuss:

- Why he left Goldman Sachs to start a company with EF - How Sai has learned to filter advice from third parties - The key hiring lesson Sai learned the hard way that has made a huge difference to growing his team

I had the chance to visit Sai at his office in Singapore before doing the interview and it was awesome to see the hive of activity going on there. This was a great conversation packed full of useful insights whether you're interested in IoT or looking for advice to grow your business.

Chris Mairs is an entrepreneur, Angel Investor and Venture Partner at EF. He is the co-founder of MetaSwitch, a communications technology business, where he was CTO for many years including a 2-year stint in Palo Alto working with his investors from Sequoia and their portfolio companies. More recently Chris has become a prominent angel investor, investing in over 70 companies, including many from EF – where he's been involved from the very first cohort back in 2012.

In this episode Chris and I discuss: 

- The lessons he learned from building MetaSwitch, including a visit from Microsoft Founder Bill Gates to do due diligence on the company - The red flags that turn him off a co-founding team as an angel investor and the qualities he looks for in portfolio companies - How Chris met EF co founders Matt and Alice and how EF's Companies have evolved since he got involved on the first cohort

We also get into the tech trends that Chris is most excited about, his perspective on AI and blockchain and how he's overcome the challenges he's faced along the way. The conversation is filled with great stories and words of wisdom from Chris' wealth of experience as an entrepreneur and investor.

Today's episode is a special one to celebrate the opening of EF Bangalore and in it, EF CEO Matt Clifford interviews EF Bangalore General Manager Esha Tiwary, exploring her background and the Indian startup ecosystem.

When EF Co-Founders Matt & Alice decided to scale last year they made a list of the places where they believed EF could have the highest impact. India was high on that list because of its extraordinary talent pool – half of Silicon Valley is run by entrepreneurs and executives who started life in India. On top of this, founders no longer believe they have to leave the country to have an extraordinary impact - from Flipkart to Paytm, it's clear that you can build globally competitive tech companies in India.

In October 2018, we announced the opening of the office in Bangalore and that's now kicking off this month January 2019, using the same model that has proven successful in London and Singapore and which expanded to Berlin, Hong Kong and Paris in 2018.

Esha is the perfect person to launch EF Bangalore. She studied Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur before doing an MBA at Harvard and throwing herself into the Indian startup ecosystem. She's previously worked for startups like Embrace, Cloudnine and Myntra, the largest fashion ecommerce player in India. She's even had the experience of starting an accelerator with GSF. 

In this episode Matt and Esha discuss:

- Esha's background and why she was so excited by EF's mission - The Indian startup ecosystem and the opportunities in Bangalore and beyond - The comparative advantages of the different startup ecosystems that EF is involved in across Europe and Asia 

This was a fascinating and wide ranging conversation offering a peek behind the curtain at EF and insight into the Indian startup ecosystem.

Tom Pocock is the Co-Founder of Credit Mint, a company that's decentralising corporate lending by using a public blockchain as the shared ledger for corporate debt. The corporate debt industry is migrating from a bank-led model towards smaller lenders. But these new-wave lenders are tied to constant cycles of reconciliation, and trading is slow and expensive. On top of this, companies lose track of their creditors and the market is structurally illiquid. 

That's where CreditMint comes in - they fix these problems by using a public blockchain as the shared ledger for corporate debt. They provide a dealmaking platform; a trading layer; and a settlements facility, all communicating with one digital asset on Ethereum.

Tom met his co founder Zac before they joined EF and since founding the company, another 2 ex-EFers have joined the Team – Joe Andrews and Arnaud Schenk – making CreditMint a perfect example of the magic of the EF mafia.

Tom studied Mathematics at undergraduate and postgraduate level at Cambridge before a career in finance spending three years at debt fund Park Square Capital. After qualifying, he left immediately to explore his ideas to decentralise the financial system through blockchain technology and applied to EF after meeting his Co-Founder Zac.

In this episode Tom and I discuss:

- Why Tom left the finance industry to start a crypto business - The current state of the crypto space and Tom's predictions for future developments, including the death of utility tokens - Tom's lessons on raising money after a gruelling few weeks of fundraising

So whether you're curious about what it takes to start a blockchain business or want to find out more about the future of the capital markets this episode has you covered.

Rohit Jha is the Co-Founder of Transcelestial a company developing a laser communication solution to replace existing wireless communication technology.

In the next decade 3 billion people and 50 billion devices will come online – but the global infrastructure we have in place at the moment isn’t sufficient to provide the required speed and flexibility to manage our needs as a planet. 

And that’s where Transcelestial comes in – they’re developing the fastest, long-distance, point-to-point wireless communication network possible.

This will be delivered as a space data network for terrestrial and satellite applications, which will use lasers to transfer data at up to 1000x faster than what’s currently available.

Rohit met his co-founder Danesh on the first day of EFSG1 and since then the two have never looked back, going on to raise a seed round that included Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel and Wavemaker Partners. 

Rohit earned a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from NTU and worked in the RBS FX Electronic Markets Team on low-latency communications and highly scalable software systems before joining EF to start a company.

In this episode Rohit and I discuss: 

- His fascination with space and how his upbringing influenced his choice to become an entrepreneur

- How Rohit met his Co-Founder Danesh on day one of the first EF cohort in Singapore

- How Transcelestial built their first prototype after a brainwave in a pub before Investor Committee

Rohit and his co-founder Danesh are building the definition of a globally ambitious company and it was great to dig into some of the stories behind the startup as well as getting an insight into the future of communications technology.

Rohit Jha is the Co-Founder of Transcelestial a company developing a laser communication solution to replace existing wireless communication technology.

In the next decade 3 billion people and 50 billion devices will come online – but the global infrastructure we have in place at the moment isn't sufficient to provide the required speed and flexibility to manage our needs as a planet. 

And that's where Transcelestial comes in – they're developing the fastest, long-distance, point-to-point wireless communication network possible.

This will be delivered as a space data network for terrestrial and satellite applications, which will use lasers to transfer data at up to 1000x faster than what's currently available.

Rohit met his co-founder Danesh on the first day of EFSG1 and since then the two have never looked back, going on to raise a seed round that included Y Combinator's Michael Seibel and Wavemaker Partners. 

Rohit earned a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from NTU and worked in the RBS FX Electronic Markets Team on low-latency communications and highly scalable software systems before joining EF to start a company.

In this episode Rohit and I discuss: 

- His fascination with space and how his upbringing influenced his choice to become an entrepreneur - How Rohit met his Co-Founder Danesh on day one of the first EF cohort in Singapore - How Transcelestial built their first prototype after a brainwave in a pub before Investor Committee

Rohit and his co-founder Danesh are building the definition of a globally ambitious company and it was great to dig into some of the stories behind the startup as well as getting an insight into the future of communications technology.

Nadav Rosenberg is a General Partner and Head of Commercial at EF. Previously, he flew helicopters in the Israeli army for 10 years, worked as a consultant with McKinsey after earning an MBA from INSEAD and was a member of the founding team of Groupon in the UK. He also led Israeli startup Taboola's expansion and operations in Europe and Australia before joining EF. One of the things that first time founders struggle with is commercialising their technology and building their client base in the early stages – and as any successful founder will tell you, it doesn't matter how good your product is if you can't sell it. Nadav is someone with a wealth of experience in selling and building partnerships in a diverse range of industries and his expertise in this field is something the founders he invests in value a great deal. In this episode Nadav and I discuss:

- The key strategies that founders can apply to sell more effectively - What Nadav looks for in founding teams and the extent to which investing is an art or a science - The trends Nadav is most excited about in the crypto space

Nadav has great stories to share from his business and life experiences and you'll leave the conversation with insights into selling, investing, cryptocurrencies and much more.  

Jesse Shemen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Papercup, a company that auto-translates the voice track on videos into the world's languages. People spend an average of 5 hours watching video every single day but the problem for creators looking to maximise views is that while subtitles are helpful, people want to hear videos in their own language and quality dubbing is prohibitively expensive. That's where Papercup comes in - they auto-translate the voice track on videos using a groundbreaking approach that combines Bayesian neural networks and speech synthesis, which means that the speaker's unique voice and emotion is recreated in another language. This means that in one click, you can reach the world's 7 billion people rather than being restricted to the 1 billion English speakers in the world.

Jesse met his co founder Jiameng on EF9 and since founding the company and pitching at the recent EF9 Demo Day, they've received a term sheet and are in the process of closing their seed round, as well as securing trials with two large media companies who have sent them their original content.

Jesse graduated summa cum laude from Stern School of Business at NYU. He then co-founded Deloitte's startup incubator and investment arm and co-launched a new venture at Octopus Investments before joining EF9.

In this episode Jesse and I discuss: 

- How he developed the technical knowledge that underpins Papercup - Jesse's pitching advice as one of the standout performers at Demo Day - Jesse's key lessons from raising his first round 

We also dive into Jesse's experiences on EF and how he started working with his co-founder Jiameng on the program so the conversation will offer you a combination of solid practical advice and insight into what it's actually like to build a company on EF.