The Growth Show with Matt Lenzie

Mark Potter is the founder of Ernest Hardy Ltd which is a property development company. Mark left school at 14 and has built up a number of businesses over the years, including a gun shop, sold some tanks and other military vehicles and built up his own property portfolio.

Marks "can do" attitude sets him apart from other entrepreneurs, and this is demonstrated best by his approach when a business that he had worked extremely hard on went into administration, instead of licking his wounds he moved into property and had 14 properties within 12 months!

Mark has subsequently evolved his property investment strategy moving on from single units to larger development projects.

Hiplok co-founders, John Abrahams and his colleague Ben Smith are product designers by trade and cyclists by heart. With over 25 years combined design and cycle industry experience, they set out to change security for cyclists. They wanted to protect what they love by bringing their design expertise and rider experience to deliver innovative, quality, bicycle locks which not only protect your bike but protect the joy of riding.

The result was the world’s first wearable bike lock. But that was only the beginning. Since the launch of the Hiplok ORIGINAL in 2011, the pair have continued to lead on innovation, designing and building quality security products which riders around the world trust in. And when they aren’t at the drawing board or on the testing table at Hiplok’s UK Design Headquarters, you’ll find them riding bikes.

Neil Fillary is an ex-investment banker and is currently an investor into cryptocurrencies both on a personal basis as well as running a portfolio of investments and companies in the space. Neil also runs a multi-family office platform, which provides a real insight into what ultra High Net Worth investors are thinking about digital currencies.

Neil previously worked for Royal Bank of Scotland in their capital markets business, then spent a number of years at Deutschebank, then moved to JP Morgan Chase where he sold hedge funds into family offices. Neil is currently the founder and Director of Dax which is a digital asset custody service and is the founder of Shuttle Holdings, which is a private investment office focusing on emerging digital technologies.

Neil has a portfolio of his own investments along with a significant upside return which has been generated for the investors into Shuttle Holdings.

Neil's LinkedIn.
Shuttle Holdings.
 

Billy Schwer is a former lightweight IBO Super Light Weight champion boxer, who has subsequently forged a carer as a performance coach and trainer. Billy is the author of the book “Man Up”, which provides his steps, using a boxing analogy, of how to overcome challenges in life.

Billy has overcome significant difficulties in his own life, following his retirement from boxing where he has had to adapt from being in his words, “Billy the boxer”, to find another sense of purpose in life, overcoming depression, bankruptcy and the breakdown of relationships.

Billy is a dynamic and energetic individual who frequently publishes a programme of motivational videos via his LinkedIn profile, which I would recommend following.

The takeaways from this episode of the Growth Show are:

• “Billy don’t be a hero and don’t be a fool with your life”
• We can make decisions about who we are as a child, which we can overcompensate for what we perceive as shortcomings
• You don’t “play boxing”
• Peel back the layers of your ego, to discover your true self
• Billy’s life mission is the transformation of the middle-aged-man
• Billy’s programme creates a safe space for men to share their experience and vulnerabilities
• Billy has transformed from being very focused on himself as all professional athletes have to be, to helping other people
• What are you willing to do to achieve your objectives? How far are you willing to push yourself?
• Whats driving your performance, your behaviour?
• Dogged determination is required.
• “Win or lose, you choose”

Billy is accessible via the following channels:
https://billyschwer.com/
https://www.instagram.com/billyschwer/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billy-schwer/

Caroline Syson is a serial entrepreneur and founder of PocketPA, which is a piece of software which Caroline has developed from scratch, initially to help her daughters beauty business and is now in the process of rolling out to other micro businesses.

Caroline explains the challenges that she has faced building this business, even having to sell her beloved car to fund it! Caroline is now seeking investment into her company to enable it to scale up.

Pocket PA is the one-stop small business app that helps you save time and money, every single day, simple, easy & stress free. The platform manages bookings, clients and your accounts.

Key takeaways:

• Just because someone says they can’t do something, this doesn’t mean that no-one can, it just means that they haven’t done it before.
• Keep on going, even when things are incredibly tough, maintain focus on the end goal. 
• Forming strategic partnerships can be a great way to accelerate the growth of your business.
• PocketPA gives you the ability if you are laughing a new business for the first time to manage the business admin, the money and all of the practical aspects of their business.
• Caroline’s ambition is for PocketPA to become the go-to tool for all micro businesses.

https://www.pocketpa.com/

https://www.instagram.com/pocketpamobile/

Natalie Allport joins Matt Lenzie for the latest epsiode of the Growth Show, here Natalie and Matt discuss lots of different breathing techniques, including Wim Hof, Buteyko breathing, plus training in the snow, cross-fit, snowboarding and more.

Natalie is a former Canadian National Team Athlete, and has subsequently turned her attentions to cross-fit, cross-country and skiing as well as running her highly successful digital agency 93 Agency, where Natalie works with athletes to assist them with growing their respective brands.

Takeaways:

• Read Breath by James Nestor
• Read the Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown
• Techniques to help deal with stress
• Techniques to help improve breathing

Natalie is on Instagram, her social media agency is: 93agency.com

Jeremy Harbour is the founder of Unity Group Holdings a Singapore based private equity group, and The Harbour Club, which is a business acquisitions (M&A) training programme.

Jeremy has acquired 100+ companies in what he calls agglomerations, which are consolidations of complimentary businesses which he then seeks to list on the stock market. He recently set up MBH Corporation Plc which has an approx market cap of £21.90m.

Matt and Jeremy discuss how Jeremy got into business acquisitions, how he has built his portfolio and touching on some of the exits that he has generated.

Key takeaways:

• Important to understand and quantify what the real risks are.
• Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but won’t get you anywhere!
• Remove the risks from the transactions - asymmetric approach - protect the downside, leave the upside intact.
• A tidal wave of opportunity is available right now
• The baby boomers have seen this movie before and have seen how it ends!
• After every drug binge there has got to be a hangover - in the context of the economy being propped up, the analogy is that it is on drugs!
• Go do deals!
• Don’t use business brokers.
• Start before you are ready.

Godo.deals
https://www.harbourclubevents.com/
Jeremy Harbour LinkedIn

Matt Baker is a former music teacher and he has subsequently gone on to build his own property investment business, specialising in HMO's (homes of multiple occupancy), and has set up a HMO training platform, The HMO Platform and is also Co-Founder of co:home.

Matt discusses his journey from setting up his music tuition business and the realisation that the music was not going to provide him with the level of income he was looking for, then realising that property could be the asset class which provided the wealth acceleration that Matt was looking for.

Matt then discusses how he bought his first properties, then set up the HMO Platform, where he trains other investors to set up what he calls "next level HMO's".

Matt also talks about his latest project co:home, which is a specialist co-living managing agent which has recently been launched.

Key takeaways:
- how to manage multiple businesses
- how to get started
- how to establish a training business
- health and fitness

https://www.linkedin.com/in/clearlymattbaker/
Matt Baker Instagram
The HMO Platform
co:home

Shack Baker is a serial entrepreneur who has had a variety of different careers, including being a highly successful musician, setting up and running a clothing brand an most recently a property investor. Shack has been investing in property for the past 3 and half years, and has built up a £2.5m portfolio in that period of time.

Shack grew up in South London and he was the eldest of 6 children and he explains on the podcast how he felt a big responsibility to provide for his family. His objective when he got into property was to buy his council flat that he lived in. That then evolved into moving into learning about property investment.

Take away points:

-       Shack was in a collective, not a boy band!

-       His music was on heavy rotation on Radio 1, Kiss and MTV.

-       “No doesn’t mean no never, it just means no now!”

-       Miracle Mornings for Millionaires is a great book!

-       Meditation, affirmations – keep you focused, visualisation

The Property Shack
Shack's instagram

Stephen Page is a successful entrepreneur who has built and exited his own business, he has subsequently turned his hand to launching a fund, with Startup Funding Club, now called SFC Capital, which is a multi-award winning FCA regulated fund manager specialising in investing into early stage companies through the SEIS and EIS. Startup Funding Club is one of the most active early stage investors in the UK, with a portfolio of 200+ companies invested into to date.

Stephen discusses his philosophy in terms of investment, what he looks for in a company, and offers some handy hints and tips for founders and potential entrepreneurs for the characteristics that he looks for when making investments into companies and provides some history to his career and some of the things that he has done to form his investment philosophy.

A great episode with some really interesting stories which we hope you will enjoy!

Take away tips:
- Find people who can be your mentors
- Own the product not the licence, if you want to list on the markets
- Make sure that you have very strong agreements in place - particularly if you are distributing someone else's product
- When an exit comes around, take it - you never know what may be around the corner
- COVID is a big opportunity for people
- Investors have capital to invest, looking to use that
- Startups can be a great source of return
- If you have any idea of being an entrepreneur, now is the opportunity to do it
- Team up with other successful entrepreneurs, single founders are potentially a barrier to accessing funding, SFC prefer to invest in teams, 2 or 3 people that start a company together
- What SFC is looking for, is all about the people
- You have to get outside!

If you are looking for funding for your early stage business, or considering investing into early stage companies get in touch with SFC Capital today.