Founder, Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur Exchange.

After a summer break, Taking Stock returns with my guest Shalini Khemka who runs her own community for entrepreneurs as well as sits on the Mayor of London's Business Advisory Board and is Non-Executive Director of UK Export Finance. 

Shalini has great access to senior policy makers making real time decisions, so I thought I would check in to hear her views on how businesses should be navigating the next 6-12 months. There's a lot of uncertainty in the air here in the UK, and business leaders are navigating all the various Government Schemes, and trying to balance going for growth again versus being prudent and keeping costs under control. 

We cover the following areas in our conversation: 

• What have been the key Government interventions to help UK businesses such as the Furlough Scheme and Bounce Back Loans and how have they performed? 
• Will some of these schemes be extended, how will the Government frame such a decision given the "K" shaped recovery we seem to be having, with some sectors booming, whilst others in real trouble. 
• Should businesses be bringing people back to work? What does this mean for the future of working, and in particular the impact on younger workers. 
• What are the key things that Shalini is pushing for as we approach the next phase of this crisis. 

No-one can predict the future, but I hope you find the conversation useful, especially if you're having to make some big calls in the coming months.

CEO + Founder, Metail. 

I met Tom at an entrepreneur roundtable hosted at Runway East in Shoreditch London a few years ago. Turns out we have a fair bit in common given we went to the same school in London and also studied at Cambridge University. We're also both of mixed heritage: Tom is a half-Norwegian half-Nigerian combo to my half-Swiss half-Kenyan-Indian background.

I've noticed Tom put up some interesting posts on LinkedIn since the start of the Black Lives Matter protests and thought I would invite him onto the show to dig a little deeper. We cover:

• What is driving the huge protests behind the BLM movement and why are people taking it more seriously than ever before.
• Why Tom is writing to our old school to get involved in improving how history is taught to adolescents, especially when it comes to black history and Britain's colonial past.
• The great work Tom is doing to mentor young black entrepreneurs and help them access funding they often are not able to reach.
• How Tom worked hard in his own start-up to build a fair and inclusive environment before selling the business last year. We also touch on how Tom is helping promote awareness of the ethnicity pay-gap. 

I hope it sparks some good thoughts.

Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Treasury and Economy). 

This week I caught up with Baroness Susan Kramer, a former banker and fund manager who successfully entered politics and served as a Minister under the Cameron/Clegg coalition government, before joining the House of Lords.

Susan is a big advocate for the UK Fintech movement and has done a lot to help the sector become world-leading.

We spent our Taking Stock time covering topics such as:

• Her personal story of how she became more politically active, eventually quitting the private sector to run as the Liberal Democrat candidate for London Mayor in 2000.
• Her early involvement in the UK Fintech movement and how she helped build the profile of the industry with Government and the Bank of England.
• Her views on the key Government interventions during this Covid-19 crisis, including the economic measures from Chancellor Rishi Sunak to help small businesses.
• Her macro view on what’s on the agenda in the next months and years, and why more entrepreneurs should consider going into politics to fix the big issues the UK will face in the coming decade.

I meet a lot of entrepreneurs who express frustration at our UK politics, so I’m hoping this episode will inspire some to figure out a way how they too can get involved and (with a bit of luck) help steer us through these turbulent times.

Watch the video of this interview:
anilstocker.com/2020/06/23/taking-stock-interview-with-the-rt-hon-the-baroness-susan-kramer

I caught up with friend and fellow entrepreneur Mandeep Singh who co-founded Trouva – the leading marketplace for independent shops across Europe.

Trouva’s mission is to help local communities and many family-backed shops who use the platform to sell to customers world-wide. Trouva allows them to connect with more customers than would typically walk into their stores – especially now during lockdown.

I thought Mandeep would be the right guy to tell us about what effect lockdown is having on independent retailers who have to fight for relevance even in normal times against their larger high street brand competitors.

We also touch on what Trouva has been doing during the Covid pandemic and how Mandeep is starting to give back to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in London by investing in early stage companies through angel rounds, and providing mentorship for many first-time entrepreneurs. This is a theme I will return to on Taking Stock. 

I hope you enjoy.

Watch the video of this interview:
anilstocker.com/2020/06/10/taking-stock-interview-with-mandeep-singh

In this week’s Taking Stock I have a wide-ranging chat with Gary Turner, co-founder and MD of Xero UK – one of the leading cloud-based accountancy platforms for small businesses. Under Gary’s watch the company has scaled from 0 to over 600,000 customers in the UK, and close to £100 million in annual revenues.

Gary was one of the first movers in the UK fintech scene. After meeting the Kiwi founders of the recently founded Xero, he left a big corporate job and took a bet their vision would become a reality. I met Gary early on in my entrepreneurial journey with MarketFinance and he’s been a great mentor and given me some useful advice along the way. Some of which we touch on in this episode.

We cover a lot of ground in our 45 mins conversation, including:

• How leaders should be responding to the brutal death of George Floyd in the USA and through this turbulent time of protest
• How that other crisis (Covid-19) is affecting Xero customers and the company itself.
• Unique data insights that Xero has access to about how small businesses are navigating this tough time
• Gary’s personal journey in building Xero and some of his core principals about effective leadership
• A look to the future and the long-term vision for Xero

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

Watch the video of this interview:
anilstocker.com/2020/06/09/taking-stock-interview-with-gary-turner

In this week’s Taking Stock I talk to friend and serial entrepreneur Matt Robinson, co-founder at GoCardless and now running the proptech company Nested. We talk about the state of the UK real estate market during and after the COVID lockdown, and lessons he’s learnt from launching and running two VC-backed businesses – is it any easier the second time around? 

Watch the video of this interview:
anilstocker.com/2020/05/27/taking-stock-interview-with-matt-robinson

It’s not hard to attract a hip crowd when you run a cocktail bar in one of London’s party hot-spots, but what happens when those crowds are ordered to stay at home?

In this week’s Taking Stock vodcast, I spoke to William Knowles-Mofford, Founder of Looking Glass Cocktail Club, about his journey from dropping out of Goldsmiths to owning one of Shoreditch’s trendiest bars. Life may have dealt him lock-down, but he’s making cocktails, selling them online and delivering them personally, to keep his business alive. 

Watch the video of this interview:
anilstocker.com/2020/05/14/taking-stock-interview-with-william-knowles-mofford

Scaling a confectionery business from a single stall at a local food market to cracking the American market is no easy feat.

In this week’s Taking Stock vodcast, I chatted with Melanie Goldsmith, CEO of Smith & Sinclair and POLLEN, about her journey from getting her first big order for their edible alcoholic pastilles to scaling up and branching out into new categories such as CBD. 

Watch the video of this interview:
anilstocker.com/2020/05/07/taking-stock-interview-with-melanie-goldsmith

Global trade and business are interconnected by a web of supply chains. These ensure factories in China and farmers in South America are able to get their orders and produce to markets around the world. What happens when a global pandemic shuts down supply, halts transport routes and disrupts demand?

In this week’s Taking Stock vodcast, I chat with Geoffrey de Mowbray, founder and CEO at Dints International. He talks about his journey to setting up a supply chain logistics company working with clients around the developing world and shares tips and tricks on working your way through a pandemic! 

Watch the video of this interview:
anilstocker.com/2020/04/30/taking-stock-interview-with-geoffrey-de-mowbray

In an industry that’s centred around people coming together in public places, how does a premium commercial coffee supplier react when those public places are closed?

For my inaugural Taking Stock vodcast, I chatted to Emma Loisel, Co-founder and Chair at Volcano Coffee Works about the challenges of doing business during a global pandemic. 

Watch the video of this interview:
anilstocker.com/2020/04/23/taking-stock-interview-with-emma-loisel