The Founders Lounge

Ben Fletcher is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the business. He’s currently the Co-Founder & CEO of The Mothership where they buy eCommerce businesses and grow them into the most desirable brands of tomorrow.

After selling his eCommerce wine business in 2013, he founded the Fast Growth Icons series of events, bringing experienced entrepreneurs together to get practical tips to take their business to the next level. He’s been an investor in, and mentor and adviser to a wide range of companies.

 

If you’re interested in starting an ecommerce company, acquiring other businesses, or learning about leadership, you must watch this episode.

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➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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In this episode, we talk about:

How and why Ben acquires eCommerce brands

How they optimize brands after the acquisition

Long-term value creation in business

How to (not) set incentives for your employees

Hiring and who (not) to hire

Setting the culture and values

Why curiosity is critical for success

The importance of the right mindset

 

RESOURCES

Ben’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenFletch/ 

The Mothership: https://www.themothership.ai/ 

Mindset book: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Mindset-Updated-Changing-Fulfil-Potential/dp/147213995X/ 

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RECORDED: 30.8.2022

 

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge 

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Vedika Jain is the Chief of Staff at Weekend Fund, which she runs together with Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt. They write $100k-300k checks into early-stage startups around the world across consumer and B2B. To date they have invested in over 120 startups, they have over 350 Limited Partners and they run the whole fund as a two-person team. Some of their notable investments include Intercom, Deel, Pipe, Moonpay, and many others.

 

If you’d like to raise a VC investment, work for a VC fund or start a VC fund, then you must watch this episode.

 

In this episode, we talk about:

How knowing one person in London helped Vedika get into venture capital

How they run the Weekend Fund as a 2 person team

London vs Silicon Valley

What types of startups and founders they love to invest in

What are some major red flags when founders are pitching to them

What trends she’s most excited about

Vedika’s most life-changing experience so far

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES

Vedika’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/vedikaja_in

Vedika’s email address: [email protected] 

Vedika’s personal website: https://vedikaja.in/

Vedika’s blog: https://vedikajain1.medium.com/ 

Weekend Fund: https://www.weekend.fund/about 

State of Chief of Staff in Tech — 2021: https://medium.com/chiefofstaffnetwork/state-of-chief-of-staff-in-tech-2021-3b188c7eb4a

Product Hunt: https://producthunt.com/

 

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RECORDED: 22.8.2022

 

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge 

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Matt Kelly is a serial eCommerce entrepreneur. At 24 he built and scaled two brands to £10M in annual revenue and was living his best life. Until everything crashed as a result of too fast scaling and a number of unfortunate events. He had to sell his Ferrari, and move out of his penthouse apartment in central London and he was struggling with his mental well-being. But after a few months, he picked himself back up and he’s now building an eCommerce wellness brand of the future - Space Goods.

 

In this episode, we talk about:

How Matt got into eCommerce

Where Matt’s entrepreneurial talent is coming from

Doing £10M/year, living in a penthouse, and driving a Ferrari at 24

Hitting rock bottom, being called a scammer, and having to change the address

Mental health issues and how Matt picked himself back up 

Matt’s approach when building a new eCom brand

Outsourcing everything and working remote (vs in-house teams)

Space Goods - Matt’s psychedelics wellness brand of the future

Building a network and surrounding yourself with successful people

Business idea: co-ownership of a fancy villa

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES

Matt's Twitter: https://twitter.com/matthucius

Matt's brand - Space Goods: https://spacegoods.com/

Matt's Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/c/MidnightPodcastChannel

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RECORDED: 9.8.2022

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

James McKinven is an “indie hacker” trying to figure out how to make a living online, doing what he loves. He runs Podpanda, a premium, done for you, podcast production studio. He runs the Indie Bites podcast, where he speaks to indie founders about how they've started their profitable internet businesses. And he has a few other small businesses, including an online course about podcasting and a handcrafting leather wallets ecom store.

 

In this episode, we talk about:

Managing multiple businesses vs focusing on one single thing

Fulltime jobs and side hustles

Burnout, work-life balance and mental health among founders

Key lessons learned from interviewing 50+ indie founders

Podcasting and why we do it

Podcast growth opportunities

5 books that had the biggest impact on James’

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES

James on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmckinven

James’ website: https://jamesmckinven.com/

Podpanda: https://podpanda.co/

Indie Bites podcast: https://indiebites.com/

Whitstable Craft Co: https://whitstablecraftco.com/ 

 

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RECORDED: 2.8.2022

 

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge 

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Dan Murray-Serter is a serial entrepreneur, #1 podcaster, angel investor community builder, and an avid mental health advocate. With over 50 investments he’s one of the UK’s top angel investors, predominantly active in health & wellness, sustainability, the sharing economy, and Web3 space. His focus currently is building Heights - a brain care company currently valued at £30.000.000.

 

In this episode, we talk about:

From anxiety and insomnia to starting one of the fastest growing companies in Europe;

Dan’s performance habits;

How to manage your time when you’re super busy;

Setting Objectives & Key Results for personal life and romantic relationships;

The one “hack” that impacted Dan’s entrepreneurial success the most;

Starting Britain’s #1 business podcast.

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES

Heights (get 20% off, see the link below): https://www.yourheights.com/ 

Secret Leaders podcast: https://www.secretleaders.com/ 

Relationship OKRs: https://www.whatmatters.com/articles/relationship-marriage-okrs-goals 

 

Get 20% off your Heights subscription: https://yourheights.mention-me.com/me/referee/registerko/105650301/408610407/er/ef5ff166fc203514b459ab584bc04d8df877dde9/fe/cw?epr=1

 

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RECORDED: 25.7.2022

 

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/RmP9QW9U8Hk

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Peter-Jan "PJ" Celis is the founder and CEO of Judge.me - a product reviews app for Shopify. Judge.me is the #1 app on the Shopify app store, which is impressive. But what’s even more impressive is that PJ achieved this without any external investments (many of his competitors did), with a relatively small team of ~50 people (many of his competitors have 100s), and without doing any marketing. 

 

In this episode, we talk about:

Building a tech product without raising funding

Become the #1 app on the Shopify app store without doing any marketing

How reading The 4 Hour Workweek helped PJ to start and optimize his business

How to make the business as efficient as possible

How to build exceptional products and provide exceptional customer support

How is PJ able to pay above-average salaries while offering the cheapest solution in the market

Setting up teams around the world to run 24/7 multi-lingual support 

Why should you sell unsexy things to unsexy people

Obsessive learning

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES

PJ’s company: https://judge.me/

Books By Ricardo Semler: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Ricardo-Semler/e/B000APW260

 

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RECORDED: 21.7.2022

 

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/DkLQ9g7Args

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Adam McCann is the Founder and CEO of Claimer, one of the most disruptive and innovative businesses in the UK, according to Startups 100. Adam started his first business whilst at uni - a website that published news and reviews about video games. He grew this to become one of the largest video game sites in the world. He then sold it and joined the acquiring company as a co-founder. Two years later he took that business to an 8-figure exit. Now, he’s focused on building Claimer, an online service that takes away the hassle and expense of claiming R&D tax credits.

 

In this episode, we talk about:

How Adam started his first business from his bedroom in his parents’ house

How Adam sold his first business and joined the acquiring company as a cofounder

Selling the second business for 8 figures

Disrupting old industries with technology

Adam’s 4-point checklist to find “idea-founder fit”

Why consulting firms might be a good place to search for business ideas

Quick ways to build an MVP for a tech business

Qualities of a successful founder

Adam shares 2 business ideas that someone needs to steal

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammccann/

https://twitter.com/assembledadam

https://www.claimer.com/ 

 

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RECORDED: 5.7.2022

 

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge 

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek ([email protected])

Neyts (Nejc) Zupan is a cofounder of Niteo - a decade-old SaaS studio building solutions for small businesses. Niteo started as an agency, but over time they started to focus only on their own products. They tested over 150 ideas, some were successful, some not so much. In this episode, we mostly talked about one particular project that ultimately failed after they spent almost 1.000.000 EUR on development and marketing.

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES:

The episode was recorded at Mp.si

ParetoSecurity.com

Niteo.co

 

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RECORDED: 19.6.2022

 

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/5KyeqL4S6fA

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek ([email protected])

Paul Price is is a co-founder of Top Dog Studios and Top Dog Beach Club - and NFT project that sold out 8000 items when they launched, generating a total volume of around £1M and making it one of the top 25 projects on the OpenSea NFT marketplace at the time.

 

In this episode, we talked about 

Similarities and differences between a web3/NFT business and a web2/regular business

How NFT projects raise initial funding and how they continue generating revenue

What does it take to start and run an NFT “membership club”

Team structure and team members incentives in an NFT business

What ultimately makes the NFT project successful

The future of NFTs and potential business ideas in web3

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES:

Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/darkp0rt

https://topdogbeachclub.com/

 

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RECORDED: 31.5.2022

 

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/KoIz58xt2ig

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek ([email protected])

Ben Williams is a former Royal Marines Commando, a published author with Penguin Business and a Co-founder of Loopin - a tool to support and empower employees. 

 

In this episode, we talked about

Ben’s beginnings from a dysfunctional family and drug addiction to becoming a Royal Marines Commando

Applying lessons from the army to business

What is “Commando Mindset” and how anyone can develop it

What is fear and how to cope with it

Management and leadership in big companies

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES:

Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ben_williams_cm 

Loopin: https://letsloopin.com/ 

Ben’s book: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Commando-Mindset-Motivation-Realize-Potential/dp/B083Y615MC/

 

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RECORDED: 31.5.2022

 

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Y-7bBXqbNO0

 

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek ([email protected])