• [7.46] - How has blockchain space changed due to Bitcoin and what are the top trends you are seeing in blockchain technology?
• [12:47] - Where are the opportunities for blockchain for the corporate market?
• [14:48] - What problem does Minespider solve and for whom?
• [17:30] - Why is blockchain the best technology to solve the supply chain transparency problem and who is this valuable to?
• [20:30] - How did you identify the business model?  Are customers willing to pay for this transparency?
• [23:40] - Where should entrepreneurs go to get funding for high-risk emerging tech?
• [28:21] - What does a European grant fund look for?
• [29:53] - How has covid impacted what you do?
• [31:54] - What metrics do you use to evaluate blockchain technology-based companies?
• [33:05] - Who else is solving this problem and how is Minespider different?
• [42:24] - Does including supply chain information add a significant cost to the final cost of the product?
• [43:24] - What are the applications of your current Minespider blockchain protocol?

• [1:12] - What are you responsible for at Hubspot?
• [2:08] - Why did they choose you to lead international expansion?
• [4:30] - What are the criteria Hubspot considered to determine the timing for expansion?
• [6:45] - How did you think about mapping and prioritizing different countries in Europe?
• [11:24] - What is the playbook for launching into a new country?
• [24:58] - How does hiring differ across Europe, Asia, Australia?
• [29:03] - How did sales differ from geo to geo?
• [31:39] - Advice to CEOs on international expansion and metrics to evaluate the progress.
• [37:59] - How did you budget for each new geo you went into?
• [45:27] - What would you do differently today?  Will you change your strategy today because inbound and content creation is not novel anymore
• [53:05] - Determining pricing and packaging for different markets
• [54:28] - How have you handled Asia?

If you like the podcast, please leave a review!  

And follow me on:

Linkedin: Anita Moorthy

Twitter: @anitamirchi, 

About Next Matter

• [4:16] - What does Next Matter do?  Can you share a few use cases?
• [6:45] - How does Next Matter differ from other project management tools?

Big Trends

• [9:08] - Are no coding tools realistic for large companies with complex and unique processes?
• [13:59] - What trends do you see for how the future of work will evolve?

Building your company

• [17:58] - How do you position Next Matter effectively in the prospect’s mind?
• [19:52] - How do you get people to actually pay for yet another tool that is going to help them with coordination and collaboration?
• [22:02] - How did you decide on the specific use cases to work on?  How did you focus your team on the right manual processes to digitize?
• [24:43] - When raising funding, what was your approach to pitching investors?
• [32:00] - What is your advice on hiring your first 10 people?

Links:

Next Matter

Book recommendations:

Hard things about hard things by Ben Horowitz

The Swarm - A novel of the deep by Frank Schӓtzing

• [3:15] - What advice would you give other entrepreneurs looking to start a company with someone they are related to?
• [4:34] - How have you dealt with the fear and uncertainty of the current situation?  
  • [6:55] First for your employees
  • [8:27] For your investors
  • [9:41] Your customers - how have you dealt with angry frustrated customers?
• [13:40] - How are you and your brother managing the stress?
• [15:27] - How does the payment flow work if I am a customer and I just paid for a multi-tour?
• [17:56] - What is the current sentiment towards travel and does it vary by different segments (survey data: Tourradar]
• [23:22] - What is your long term strategy around remote working?
• [24:24] - What are your thoughts on Google and the legal action some travel companies are taking where they are blaming Google for unfairly taking their data to power their products?
• [27:52] - Advice for travel companies raising funds in this environment?

Links

TourRadar

Book recommendations:

Infinite Game

Power of Vulnerability

Who

• [1:28] - Which of the various roles you have had - consultant, entrepreneur, board member, CEO, investor, and now VC - have you enjoyed the most, and why?
• [4:14] - What is “Indico powered by Google Startups” initiative?
• [9:10] - How can European VCs get better at identifying the next big Airbnb or Uber in Europe?
• [14:50] What is the Portuguese startup scene like?  Where are the opportunities in Portugal?
• [17:54] - What are some of the areas of opportunity Indico Capital is focusing on?
• [21:35] - How can Europe make its startup ecosystem better?  What is still missing to produce more successful startups out of Europe?
• [29:30] - What do entrepreneurs need to have before they look for seed or Series A funding from your point of view
• [35:18] - What are the top 5 lessons or advice you would have for entrepreneurs?

Links

• Indico Capital Partners
• Google for Startups by Indico Capital Partners

Book Recommendation

• 1984 by Orson Wells
• Bad Blood
• MDB the Malaysian scandal

Follow me

Linkedin: Anita Moorthy

Twitter: anitamirchi

Instagram @european_podcast

• [1:52] - Why did you start Akoni? What pain does it solve?
• [8:00] - How did you achieve product-market fit?
• [11:18] - What are the key trends you are seeing in financial services and fintech?
• [15:13] - How has the pandemic changed the expectations and needs of the consumer and business user?
• [21:13] - How do you balance innovation from open banking and open finance with ensuring adequate protection of consumers?
• [26:19] - How do you see open banking evolve in Europe and what would you like to see happen in terms of regulations
• [28:18] - How does Europe compare with other regions like US in terms of fintech innovation?
• [31:15] - How are the different players - incumbents, middleware, fintech companies collaborating or working together to make the ecosystem work, (in the UK)?
• [34:39] - Go-to-market strategy - How did you build relationships with key banking players?
• [36:49] - What advice would you give to yourself, in your early years at Akoni - what would you do differently?
• [40:29] - How has the experience of being a female founder and CEO in Fintech been like?
• [[44:37] - What are your future goals?

Links

Akonihub

Hive Founders

Books

Fountainhead

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

• [0:48] - What need does Trint solve beyond transcription?
• [2:45] - How does Trint differ from other transcription services?
• [6:14] - How did you go from being a war journalist to becoming an entrepreneur?
• [14:49] - What have you learned as a war correspondent that you were able to use to become the entrepreneur and CEO you are today?
• [21:09] - What advice would you give someone starting a company who has little experience in entrepreneurship and/or are starting this late in their life?
• [29:02] - How did you determine the average sale price of your platform given it is more than just transcription?
• [33:41] - What are some of the mistakes you made and what advice would you give others?
• [37:13] - Given your background in journalism and interviewing, what have you found to work for good interview questions - that allow you to get to the heart of someone’s motivation?

Links:

Trint

Book Recommendations:

Shackleton’s way - Lessons in Leadership

Show Notes:

• [0:43] - Why did you start Dashboard and what problem is it trying to solve?
• [5:06] - How did you refine your initial value proposition and find your focus?
• [6:54] - There are big companies with deep pockets in the energy space - why can’t they solve this problem on their own?
• [10:05] - Is there a VC arm inside most of these large energy companies and who are the right people to build relationships with?
• [13:02] - What does the funding look like for industrial tech and how was that process for you?
• [19:50] - How do you raise money in industrial tech? What advice would you give to other industrial tech entrepreneurs?
• [23:36] - How did you partner with big companies and still maintain non-exclusivity?
• [27:49] - What stage of TRL are you and how did the big companies react to your technology?
• [30:56] - What’s the next step after this?
• [33:38] - How did you find the right people for the team in the initial stages?
• [36:35] - How did you build the culture at Dashboard?
• [38:33] - What were some of the biggest mistakes you made in your entrepreneurial journey and what did you learn from that?

Links:

Dashboard.net

Book recommendations:  

American Dirt; 

Make, Think, Imagine: The Future of Civilizations by Lord Brown

Show Notes:

• [2:57] - How does Anote work?
• [6:32] - How do you convince investors to invest in music as an asset class where timeline and expected cash flows are unpredictable?
• [10:44] - What songs or artists make ideal suppliers in Anote?
• [16:37] - How do you value music and does it require a certain sophistication on the investors side?
• [18:40] - Since you launched the platform, what are you seeing as yields/returns for investors?
• [20:38] - How are you going to market? Finding investors and catalogs?
• [22:28] - Why have other marketplaces for music royalties failed and what are you doing differently?
• [25:57] - What factors are most important for the sustainability of marketplaces like Anote?
• [28:04] - What did you need to do to get regulatory approval for Anote?
• [32:51] - What were some of your biggest failures in your early days and what did you learn from it?
• [34:57] - What are the biggest challenges currently facing your company?
• [36:13] - Advice for other entrepreneurs and your future plans

Show notes:

[1:03] - Journey from documentary filmmaker to startup founder

[3:41] - What was your strategy as a first-time founder for attracting people who are really motivated and engaged to work with you?

[4:52] - What does Panion do and why is it called Panion?

[9:05] - How do you build engaged communities?

[14:53] - What are you seeing as successful monetization strategies for community-based platforms?

[17:22] - Advice on angel funding

[21:28] - How did you keep yourself motivated in your early days

[23:00] - How do you de-stress?