Jehiel Oliver is changing the lives of smallholder farmers in 18 countries.

It started 10 years ago in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 60% of crops are plowed by hand.

That means there’s a 90% gap between what Africa’s smallholder farmers could be producing and what they’re actually producing.

But what if, Jehiel thought, you could connect Africa’s small-scale farmers with tractor owners — in the same way rideshare apps connect riders with drivers?

He founded Hello Tractor to connect small-scale farmers with tractor owners to do just that.

In the latest episode of The High-EQ Founder, Jehiel shares:

* Why he decided not to take VC funding (even though they were using credit cards to make payroll) and what he focused on instead

* The hard decision he had to make when COVID wiped out their revenue streams and how they bounced back to have their most productive year ever

* How being prepared for opportunity led to moderating a panel discussion with not one, but two sitting presidents, including President Obama which then led to a series of incredible strategic opportunities for Hello Tractor

Connect with Jehiel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jehiel/

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Kuan Yen Tan has a high tolerance for risk.

Back in 2017, he was working as a senior research scientist at Microsoft and quantum computing was barely attracting VC attention. But, despite having a young, growing family, Kuan took a big leap of faith:He left Microsoft to be CTO and co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers.Fast forward to today:Global investment in quantum computing has grown to $55+ billion and its practical potential is much closer to being realized.And IQM has raised well over €200M, building a diverse team of nearly 300 people representing 48 nationalities company in its mission to use quantum computing to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges.Curious to hear more about some of the key decisions and lessons?In the latest episode of The High-EQ Founder podcast, Kuan and I talked about:→ how IQM rounded up a team of 15 experts before they even completed the fund-raise→ how they organized — and re-organized — management roles to optimize both technical expertise and people management skills→ the approach that didn’t work in developing strategic partnerships and what they do now instead→ opportunities and lessons from COVID 19 and how it accelerated organizational learning

Follow Kuan on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/kuan-yen-tan/

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Europe is often cited for its world-class scientific talent and research universities.

And yet, so much potential for innovation remains untapped due to IP ownership rules that can make spinout companies un-investable and hard to scale.

Riam Kanso, Ph.D, wants to change that.

As founder and CEO of venture program Conception X, she's on a  mission to accelerate the commercialization of scientific breakthroughs by helping Ph.D students launch start-ups — without having to drop out of school.

To date, they've worked with 360 PhD teams from 50+ universities who have gone on to raise £74 million.

In the latest episode of The High-EQ Founder, we talked about:

• why PhDs actually have more entrepreneurial traits than most people realize


• do’s and don’ts for building your board and how to leverage their strengths


• how the “American” attitude toward failure has helped her be more resilient


• and why NOT getting a £5 million grant turned out to be better than getting it

Follow Riam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riamkanso/

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People don’t quit bad jobs, they quit bad bosses, goes the saying.

And yet, a majority of managers — nearly 6 out of 10 according to one CareerBuilder study — are expected to build and grow high-performance teams without any formal management training.

Darja Gutnick, psychologist gone rogue, wants to change that.

As CEO and co-founder of leadership coaching app bunch.ai, she’s on a mission to help new generations of leaders get customized access to the leadership resources and support they need, when they need it.

In the latest episode of The High-EQ Founder, we talked about:

• balancing user growth with monetization — and why she would have launched a paid version much sooner


• how they differentiate bunch.ai from ChatGPT


• how to address the perspectives of different stakeholders and the dangers of groupthink


• the tiny actions you can take to create greater luck surface area

Follow Darja on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darjagutnick/

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"When we talk to end users, they are so emotional about the fact that this is my job and I really want to make this happen but I can't because the status quo is just making my life miserable. And so it's a mindset shift, more than a technology shift."
 
These are the words of Bianca Cefalo, the CEO and cofounder of SpaceDOTS, who’s working to accelerate innovation in space by reducing the development time of new materials, from years to months.
 
In this conversation, we discuss:

• The painful childhood lesson she learned from her father’s failed automotive business — and how it helped her part ways amicably with a co-founder


• How she keeps emotions from getting in the way in business decisions


• The hiring mistake she almost made and how she’s learning to trust her gut in a competitive talent market

Follow Bianca on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biancacefalo/
 
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Music by Tom Fox: https://tfbeats.com/

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I often say founders are like the Navy SEALs of business: They're both leading small, agile teams, in stealth mode, through uncertainty and chaos. And because the stakes are high, their success relies on a culture of psychological safety and trust.
 
Retired Navy SEAL Dave Cooper built some of the best teams in the Navy SEALs — he's the one who oversaw the training for SEAL Team Six in preparing for the mission to capture Osama Bin Laden.
 
He says: "Psychological safety is not something we can just order. It's something that emerges from a group of people who are mutually respectful, right? Inside an operational SEAL team, we're much more egalitarian than the rest of the military. And people feel safe to say, 'Hey, boss, I see things differently.'"
 
Dave and I talked about how:

• "tough guys" show vulnerability, without looking weak


• the small gestures that create a culture where people feel safe to  disagree


• the dangers of "authority bias" and why "command and control" leadership doesn’t work anymore


• he structured after-action reviews to extract more learning from their mistakes in preparing for the Bin Laden mission

Follow Dave on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-cooper-387aaa3b/
 
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Music by Tom Fox: https://tfbeats.com/

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"I mean, it was beautiful, with loads of nuances and touches to make it user-friendly but we should have built an MVP way quicker. We should have just gotten a box, shoved some LED lights in it, built 10 of them, put them in a net [and asked potential users], does this work for you?”

This — the pitfalls of spending too much money and time over-designing their first product — was one of the first lessons Dan Watson learned when launching precision fishing start-up SafetyNet Technologies.

He’s my latest guest on The High-EQ Founder podcast, where we discuss:

• the degree of user interaction they now have when building their MVPs


• the surprising downside of winning the prestigious James Dyson design award


• how SafetyNet punches above its weight by collaborating with their competitors


• how being transparent with his team paid off in fierce loyalty, even as he had to let half of them go

Follow Dan on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-watson-05706128/

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"Pure efficiency is fragile. Redundancy is robustness," says Sophie Cahen, CEO and founder of medtech start-up Ganymed Robotics. 

In this conversation, she shares how:

• a controversial decision paid off in market feedback 


• she balances data and intuition in decision-making


• having a bias for action can work against you


• Ganymed has made the most of "good" and "bad" luck

Follow Sophie on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiecahen/

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Music by Tom Fox: https://tfbeats.com/

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"Identifying brilliant people and finding worthy problems to solve together."

This is the mantra of Håvard Lillebo, a serial founder of deep tech start-ups in clean energy, robotics and nanotechnology. 

 In this conversation, we discuss:

• the life-changing lesson he learned from his father when he was 18 years old


• why he gave up the CEO role, two months after founding his second startup


• the €12 million mistake that taught him the difference between optimism and wishful thinking


• the strategies he puts in place to increase his luck, find deep tech talent and raise funding (€140 million and counting) 

Follow Håvard on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/havardlillebo/

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Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renitakalhorn/

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