January 26, 2022

Steve O’Hear: The importance of journalism and how to pitch your business to the media.

1 hour 2 minutes

If you're a tech founder in the last 10 years, you'll know who Steve O'Hear is. Chances are, you've even pitched him your business.

Steve is best known for his 15 years as a technology and business journalist, including reporting for TechCrunch, covering European startups and venture capital. He was the first to write about the now household names of Deliveroo, Monzo and Transferwise.

Steve is now the VP of Strategy at home-delivery brand Zapp. Steve was born with muscular dystrophy and you'll hear in this episode how in the midst of the pandemic, this has shaped his mid-career switch from journalism to building the future of convenience retail.

Someone at the top of their game and changing their career is a unique situation on the show. Whether you're looking to get into journalism or looking for strategy roles at upcoming startups, I'm incredibly excited to share this episode with you.

If you're interested to try Zapp, Jimmy's Jobs listeners can get £10 off when they spend £20 by using the code ZAPPJIMMY at checkout.

We're not taking any commission from this link, we're just using it to test how many of you amazing listeners click through.

In this episode with Steve we discuss:

How he defines the job of a journalist and what the best route is to become one

And how has the job of a journalist changed?

When did people start coming to him with stories rather than the other way around? And how did he cultivate online relationships?

When pitched dozens of businesses a day, what he looked for in the stories to cover.

Famous stories that stuck with him and companies that weren’t successful that he thought might be

Why he made the decision to leave journalism

What is strategy and what is a Vice-President?

The growth of Zapp and how to maintain a culture

Where does the name come from?

Why did he join Zapp specifically?

Tips for working from home?

Different roles Zapp are hiring for and expansion plans for Zapp

The future of Zapp and the scale of the problem it's tackling

Why do we need this instant delivery?

If Steve was 22 in 2022, where would he look to work?

What more can we do to get disabled people into work?

If you could go back in time to any point in history, when and where would it be?

A tech-themed quickfire round

Join the #SaveDerby campaign by using this template to email your MP and raise the issue with them- we've generated amazing support and have even had a question asked in parliament. Even if you're a casual football fan, local teams are the lifeblood of UK towns and it would be a travesty to let one of the oldest clubs in the UK fall into the history books.

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