Scaling Ambition

Hannah Burrow is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kiroku, a company that automatically writes clinical notes for dentists. Kiroku which is Japanese for "to document or record" uses a unique combination of speech recognition and natural language processing to produce expert level notes which has the potential to save $40 billion worldwide in the dental market alone. Hannah met her co founder Jay on EF8 and since pitching to investors at Demo Day they've been developing the product further and are currently trialling it to a closed group of beta testers. Hannah qualified as a dentist from the University of Bristol and since then, she's worked in practice, hospitals, and public health. While in practice she optimised her workflow by developing educational software for patients and joined EF8 with the intention of solving some of the problems she'd faced in the industry.   In this episode Hannah and I discuss:

- Her experience in the dental industry and why she decided to join EF - The early stages of customer development for Kiroku, where Hannah transcribed conversations into clinical notes for dentists herself - How Hannah has gained the technical knowledge needed to run a deep tech company We also dive into Hannah's advice on pitching, her experiences on EF and how she started working with her co-founder Jai 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.

Vadim Toader is the CEO Co-Founder of Proportunity a company that uses machine learning to form accurate real estate forecasts, so investors can make better decisions. By comparing more than 100 sets of data, including historical price growth and crime rates, Proportunity can spot good deals before the market, which enables them to make a data driven decision and help fund first time buyers by putting up a percentage of their deposit and helping with financing. Vadim met his co founder Stefan on EF7 and since founding the company they've worked with some of the country's leading property players, have been backed by Savilles and have recently acquired a lender to help them offer better financing to customers. Vadim studied Engineering, Economics and Management degree at Oxford before working as a consultant at Bain & Co for over 3 years where he built up a wealth of valuation and forecasting experience, solving a bunch of interesting problems along the way. In this episode Vadim and I discuss: - Vadim's insights about the UK property market learned from building Proportunity - The difference between data driven and intuitive decisionmaking in business - How to do customer development in a slow moving industry that's resistant to change

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a property investor, this conversation will give you plenty of valuable insights as well as solid practical advice that you can take away and apply.

David Hunter is the CEO and Co-Founder of Optimal Labs a company that applies cutting-edge deep reinforcement learning to create intelligent autopilots for farms, improving the efficiency, reliability and quality of food production. 

High tech greenhouses can produce 10-40x yield of traditional farming and they're universally scalable and deployable anywhere. And the implications of AI controlled farms are potentially huge – with higher quality food, produced faster and more reliably, people will be able to live better for longer.

David is one of the famous cases of someone who did EF twice – he was on EF4 and after met his Co-Founder Joao on EF7 the idea for Optimal Labs became a reality and before they knew it, they were following farmers around greenhouses in Holland and building solutions to their problems.

He studied AeroNautical Engineering at Imperial and trained as a pilot in the Royal Airforce before going into the banking industry, where he eventually ended up running Deutsche Bank's quantitative strategies team where his algorithms traded more than 5% of the European stock market volume.

After going through EF4 he took some time off to earn a PhD in Deep Reinforcement Learning at Oxford before returning to join EF7.

In this episode David and I discuss:

- Why he left his well-paid job at Deutsche Bank to start a company - What he learned from doing EF and how he applied this knowledge second time around  - The challenges he's overcome along the way and his tips on hiring and seeking advice

This was a fascinating conversation that will not only give you an insight into the future of nutrition but will also show you the resilience and continuous learning that entrepreneurs have to apply in their lives.

Jake Woodhouse is a member of the current EFLD10 cohort. Up to this point on the podcast I've spoken to EF Co-Founders Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck as well as the founders of some of EF's most exciting companies. 

But who better to speak to get a flavour of what EF actually does than someone in the middle of the current cohort in London – and that's exactly what today's episode with Jake is all about.

Jake studied Management at University before working in the shipping industry for several years as a broker. He then developed an interest in startups, pursuing deals as an angel investor and launching his own energy tech startup before joining EF's tenth London cohort that started at the beginning of April 2018.

In this episode Jake and I discuss:

- The initial experiences of the EF cohort at the program's kick off weekend - The co-founder dating process on the program and the importance of having tough conversations - Jake's insights into the balance between theory and practice in entrepreneurship 

This was a great first hand insight into the EF experience and what it's actually like to be on the cohort, so you'll definitely get an understanding of the mechanics of the EF process and some great insights into everything from finding a co-founder to developing a product.

Dev Amratia is the CEO and Co-Founder of nPlan a company that uses machine learning to analyse construction schedules, determine where the biggest risks lie and then recommend improvements. Whether it's a new stadium or transport system, construction projects are consistently delayed and nPlan is committed to solving this problem by using all available data on these projects to optimise planning schedules.  Dev and his cofounder Alan were on EF9, and since pitching at the EF Demo day here in London, they've gone on to become one of the highest valued EF companies at this stage of the start up journey, receiving four term sheets and counting. 

Dev has worked for the UK Government, where he led the national review on AI and was previously a project manager with Shell where he saw first hand how challenges in scheduling can make or break construction projects.

In this episode we discuss:

- Dev's experience pitching at DemoDay and tips for founders preparing to pitch their business - How Dev has approached investor meetings, securing four term sheets and counting - Dev's insights into choosing his cofounder Alan and developing product market fit

This was a fascinating conversation thanks to the freshness of the experience and you'll definitely get an understanding of the mechanics of the EF process and some great insights into everything from finding a co-founder to developing a product.

Alice Bentinck co-founded EF with Matt Clifford in 2011, back when people thought the idea of inorganic team building was crazy. Seven years on, with the EF model validated from a number of successful exits and investment from Linkedin Co-Founder Reid Hoffman it's clear that Matt and Alice weren't that crazy after all.

In this conversation with Alice we talk about the mechanics of the EF process and how it actually works, discussing a range of topics including:

- The process of choosing the right co founder - The early days at EF and initial resistance to the idea of inorganic team building - The importance of focus and the difference between building a product and building a startup

This was a great conversation and you'll definitely leave with a deeper understanding of the EF process and some great insights into everything from finding a co-founder to developing a product. 

Joe Root is the Co-Founder of Permutive a company that helps publishers and marketers to customize user experience in real-time - on every device, across every channel. Joe and his co-founder Tim were on EF2 and their company has gone from strength to strength in recent years, dealing with millions of users for the world's biggest publishers like The Times on a daily basis and recently raising their Series A round. Joe earned a BEng in computing from Imperial and a Masters in Computer Science at Oxford before working for Pact Coffee and GoCardless in Product and Sales roles respectively. In this conversation we dive into Joe's personal story, everything he's learned about finding product market fit, hiring and funding in the process of building Permutive and what he's learned about himself along the way.

Rafael Jorda Siquier is the founder of Open Cosmos, a company making space missions simple and affordable. They provide customers with a development kit and simulator so they can build the technology at their own pace and when they're ready, Open Cosmos takes care of all the paperwork, integrates it into their nano-satellite alongside other customers and puts it into space. This has game changing implications for a number of industries, because making satellite more accessible opens up the potential for everything from the prediction of agricultural yields to the global internet of things and big infrastructure monitoring. Rafael was on EF5 and his company has made some remarkable progress in the last few years, turning Open Cosmos a one-stop shop to orbit and allowing for mass customization, which reduces costs from the millions down to a few hundred thousand. He is an aerospace engineer with an MBA and a background in both space startups and big industry players like Airbus where he was working before starting Open Cosmos. In this conversation we dive into Rafael's personal story, everything he's learned about finding product market fit and hiring in the process of building Open Cosmos and what he's learned about himself along the way.