The Mergers Podcast

Mark grew up in Aberdeen watching his parents build a company from nothing. His father walked out of a safe corporate job after a motivational course and started his own firm; his mother, a volunteer marriage counsellor, soon followed suit. Mark calls the business a fourth sibling, and the whole experience a weird sort of MBA.

Three decades on, he and Guyve have sold over a million electric toothbrushes and SURI is doing over £50m in revenue this year - in a category owned almost entirely by two incumbents.

In this episode Mark takes us from reselling pizza at his school gates, to cold-calling Sky TV to sponsor his university history society, to a speedboat off Cannes where he walked away with a future co-founder. We get into the Richard Branson rule he's organised his whole career around, why being second is often a perfectly good outcome, and the 90%+ of investors who turn start ups down... and the investor who told Mark : "if it helps, we're not really friends." 

Mostly, though, it's a conversation about listening. And about Mark's cheerfully morbid conviction that we're all going to die anyway so you might as well take a chance. 

I hope you enjoy.

Chapters

• 00:00 - Cold open & Introduction
• 04:50 - Pizza at the school gates, cold-calling Sky TV, and the Branson rule
• 14:15 - P&G as paid training and lessons from his mother
• 18:10 - A speedboat off Cannes: Martin Sorrell, and meeting Guyve
• 23:10 - 19,000 reviews where the top word is "love"
• 27:10 - "I'd be happy to be Slack": credibility without an incumbent's budget
• 32:15 - VC Fundraising - High rejection rates, Investor mindsets, and the investor who said "we're not really friends"
• 47:30 - Why the best salespeople are researchers
• 50:50 - Quick Fire Questions

"I helped break up a human trafficking ring in Stockholm. That was one of my first forays into compliance."

Ambreen Khasru isn’t your typical corporate executive. As the Head of Compliance at eToro and a former leader at Zilch, Juni, and Monese, she has spent her career at the bleeding edge of the Fintech revolution. But her journey didn't start in a boardroom; it began in the music industry of Paris and Sydney before a "zigzag" move into the high-stakes world of international money transfers.

In this episode, Ambreen pulls back the curtain on the "dark side" of finance - from romance scams to human trafficking. We discuss the "growth at all costs" era of VC-backed startups, the reality of personal liability of being an FCA-approved person, and why she believes the "Darth Vader" reputation of compliance is finally being dismantled.

We also dive deep into the 2026 tech landscape: Will AI models replace human oversight? Can a bank really be modernized in a weekend? And what is the one skill every graduate needs to survive a world of automation...

Episode Chapter:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 08:23 Romance scams & The "Pig Butchering" epidemic.
• 13:11 Why Compliance is the "Shield," not the blocker.
• 16:27 The Fintech Revolution: How we hit 3-minute onboarding.
• 24:38 The "Death" of easy VC money: Quality over quantity.
• 32:20 Personal Liability: Is your neck on the line?
• 36:29 eToro & the rise of Social/Copy Trading.
• 40:29 AI: The future of machine-led regulation.
• 54:22 Career Advice: Why you MUST move around the world.

Jon Coker is the Founding Partner at Eka Ventures - the UK's largest early-stage impact VC, which has just closed an £80M Fund II. Before founding Eka, Jon spent 11 years at MMC Ventures, rising from analyst to Co-Managing Partner and backing some of Europe's most iconic consumer companies: Interactive Investor (£1.7B exit), Gousto, Bloom & Wild, and Mubi. In this episode, he breaks down the frameworks behind those picks; why the road less travelled is often safer; and the counterintuitive reason sustainability and commercial returns aren't just compatible - they're companions.

What you'll learn:

• Why Jon quit a JP Morgan flow desk in 2007 with no job lined up
• The founder assessment process Eka uses that most VCs completely ignore
• Why 70% of Eka's Fund I investments had no competing term sheet - and why that's a feature, not a bug
• How to spot "patterns of outperformance" in founders from their teenage years
• The real reason market upheaval from tariffs actually helps early-stage companies
• Career advice for anyone with the itch to leave a big institution - at any age

Chapter Summaries:

• 00:00: Introducing Jon Coker, Eka Ventures & the unicorn track record 
• 06:30: Quitting JP Morgan's Investment Bank in 2007
• 10:50: Joining MMC Ventures, climbing to Co-Managing Partner & backing Interactive Investor 
• 16:10: Why consumer investing became Jon's edge & the Gousto box disaster
• 22:04: Tariffs, protectionism & why market upheaval is a net advantage for early-stage companies 
• 27:15: Competing for deals: the two truths in venture that completely contradict each other 
• 29:54: Eka's thesis, the founder assessment & the deal Jon lost that still stings
• 36:06: Patterns of outperformance: Murvah at Hived & the Floyd Mayweather story 
• 38:21: How Eka does Impact Investing better than the rest
• 43:51: Career advice, AI & the one that got away: Lindus Health

The Mergers Podcast: Honest conversations with the investors and founders shaping European tech.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes every week.

What happens when a founder exits multiple startups and then builds a start-up focused Investment Banking platform from scratch?

In this episode, Rory and Ken sit down with Jason Kirby — founder of Thunder VC, ex-founder of LiquidSky (acquired for $40M+), and an advisor on over $200M in startup transactions.

Jason shares the raw truths about venture capital, selling companies, the AI investment bubble, and how founders can protect themselves during M&A deals.

Key topics we cover:

• The real story behind his $40M+ startup exit (and how a CEO going to prison almost ruined it)
• Why most VCs stop calling when you’re no longer a fund returner
• The biggest mistakes founders make during fundraising and M&A
• What Thunder VC actually does — and how they unlock growth through acquisition
• The rise of AI secondaries, and why Jason thinks we’re in a bubble
• “Breakup clauses”, phantom leverage, and the dirty secrets of dealmaking

This is a must-listen for any founder thinking about venture capital, raising a round, or navigating exit options.

Disclaimer: This episode of The Mergers Podcast is sponsored by Cadro Technologies Limited, an FCA-regulated investment firm. Sponsorship does not imply endorsement of any views expressed in this podcast. The information discussed is provided for general informational and educational purposes only, does not constitute investment advice, and should not be relied upon as a basis for making investment decisions. The hosts and guests speak in a personal capacity. If you are considering investing, you should obtain independent financial advice tailored to your individual circumstances.

Rob Cossins (Co-founder & CEO, Scribe) on the real founder journey: why entrepreneurship is not for everyone, the seven-year build-up from Barclays to AI/data, and how to decide when to raise (and when not to). We get into failing his very first interview (PE at BlackRock), why the jobs are still there (it's just more competitive) and why your founder network is your unfair advantage.

Rob explains what Scribe does (AI data extraction for private markets), what incumbents miss about adoption, and why the best founders sell the vision before the product is perfect.

You’ll learn:
• How to test founder fit before quitting your job
• Timing a fundraise v shipping product
• The “de institutionalising” every banker-turned-founder must do
• How to build a useful network that compounds over your career

Disclaimer
This episode of The Mergers Podcast is sponsored by Cadro Technologies Limited, an FCA-regulated investment firm. Sponsorship does not imply endorsement of any views expressed in this podcast. The information discussed is provided for general informational and educational purposes only, does not constitute investment advice, and should not be relied upon as a basis for making investment decisions. The hosts and guests speak in a personal capacity. If you are considering investing, you should obtain independent financial advice tailored to your individual circumstances.

Tom Hughes’ career has been anything but normal.

He started out as a Dublin kid tracking stock prices on BBC Ceefax, went into equity research before the ’08 crash, and then got 'super-fired' like thousands of others.

From there he somehow blagged his way into Bloomberg with a bold doorstep pitch. He’s moved through private capital research (Gartner), relationship intelligence (Affinity), commercial leadership roles, and now into the world of AI and enterprise upskilling at Workera - where an “AI mentor” isn’t just hype, it’s the actual product.

In this episode we talk about bouncing back from setbacks, breaking into tech from finance, why not every conversation needs to have an immediate outcome, and what AI is really changing inside big organisations.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to recover from losing your job in a downturn (and why persistence matters most).
• The “just show up” story: how Tom literally forced his way into a Bloomberg interview and walked out with a job.
• What shifted after the financial crisis: moving from gut feel to data, risk, and tooling in banking, PE & VC.
• Inside AI transformation: why skills benchmarking and agentic assessment matter... and why most teams are miles behind!
• A masterclass on sales and partnerships at scale
• Networking that lasts: why being useful first (not transactional) is the key to compounding relationships.

Chapters
00:00 — Sponsor & disclaimer (Cadro, FCA-regulated)
01:27 — Live at The Bottle Cocktail Shop; meet Tom Hughes
02:17 — Dublin roots, Ceefax and learning markets at age 8
08:46 — Getting fired in ’08; the empty trading floors moment
10:58 — A year of rejections & café CVs → the pivot into tech
20:43 — Newspaper ad → Bloomberg: calling reception, finding the hiring lead, and turning up without an invite
24:10 — Why AI won’t replace hustle; what hiring managers really value in salespeople
25:27 — From Bloomberg’s “no negotiation” culture to startup chaos; Gartner → Affinity → VC ecosystem
30:11 — AI readiness vs reality: assessing skills at massive scale; agentic assessments
35:22 — Coaching at scale with Gong/Clari; fewer blind spots, better forecasts
37:57 — Networking that works: why long-term compounding beats short-term transactions

Disclaimer
This episode of The Mergers Podcast is sponsored by Cadro Technologies Limited, an FCA-regulated investment firm. Sponsorship does not imply endorsement of any views expressed in this podcast. The information discussed is provided for general informational and educational purposes only, does not constitute investment advice, and should not be relied upon as a basis for making investment decisions. The hosts and guests speak in a personal capacity. If you are considering investing, you should obtain independent financial advice tailored to your individual circumstances.

In this episode of The Mergers, we sit down with Hanna Lewis, investor at Blue Wire Capital and former operator turned founder with unrivaled experience across all aspects of Entrepreneurship and VC.

From making burritos in San Diego to becoming Chief of Staff at a hyperscaling tech company, Hanna's path into venture capital was anything but linear. She shares candid reflections on her journey including building a startup automating HR with AI agents, to pitching over 100 VCs (and why it ultimately fell apart), to her current role backing the next generation of European tech founders.

This episode covers:

• What it really takes to fundraise in a down market and how storytelling can make or break a round
• The surprising gap between European and US investors
• Lessons learned from being too early in the right market (as well as selling to the wrong buyer persona)
• Why startup culture can rise or fall based on the founder’s personality
• How she broke into VC, and what she looks for now in early-stage founders

It’s honest, funny, and full of insight for anyone thinking about joining, founding, or funding startups.

In this episode of The Mergers, Rory and Ken sit down with Jonathan Palmer (JP) — a cybersecurity pioneer who’s worked with elite intelligence units, Fortune 500 firms, and accidentally acquired the patent for secure internet transactions.

With a journey spanning decades — from setting up his first tech company on a pasting table in Putney to running global encryption deals across most of the world — JP unpacks the gritty reality of cyber risk, organised crime, AI threats, and why so many CEOs are still flying blind.

🔐 What we cover:

• How JP found his way into encryption and sold it back to the US wholesale
• The untold story of acquiring a global internet security patent… by accident
• Why cybercrime is now the 3rd largest economy in the world
• How Russia and North Korea are weaponising organised crime for cyber disruption
• Why cyber due diligence is the next blind spot in PE and M&A
• How AI is accelerating fraud, impersonation, and vulnerability at scale
• What it takes to keep UHNW individuals and leadership teams physically and digitally secure

From dark web intel to Hereford kidnap training, this is one of our most gripping episodes yet.

From £3,000 to a $30 million hedge fund by age 21.

In this explosive episode of The Mergers, we sit down with Marceau Dova, the 21-year-old founder of MCD Capital. He takes us through the wild journey of building a hedge fund from scratch at university - starting with £3,000, bootstrapping with student researchers, selling newsletters to prop firms, and ultimately landing institutional backing.

We cover:

• His first 250K of trading capital and how they convinced early investors
• What happened during their first major drawdown and attempted hostile takeover
• The software that powers their quant trading engine—and why a Swiss firm tried to buy it (and poach the team)
• Building conviction, navigating compliance, and maturing into an FCA-regulated fund manager
• How they're scaling, avoiding burnout, and staying focused in a “do or die” year
• The importance of loyalty, mentorship, and the art of real relationship-building in finance

Whether you’re a young trader, aspiring fund manager, or just curious how someone turns a side hustle into an institution, this one’s packed with real insights, hard lessons, and no-nonsense advice.

Disclaimer: This episode is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

From investigating corruption in the prison system to identifying the next decade’s biggest investment opportunities, Eric Markowitz has built a career on deep research, contrarian thinking, and long-term conviction.

In this episode of The Mergers Podcast, Ken and Rory sit down with Eric - Managing Partner & Director of Research at Nightview Capital - to discuss:

• Investigative Journalism & Investing: How Eric’s award-winning journalism sharpened his ability to spot hidden market opportunities.

• The Nightview Strategy: How they’ve returned 25% per annum by focusing on AI, robotics, and long-term structural winners.

• Tesla, Amazon & Investing in AI: Why Tesla is not just a car company, and how Amazon’s fulfilment innovations could reshape e-commerce.

• The AI Dilemma: Why using AI in investing can be a trap, and why real conviction still comes from human intuition and proprietary research.

• Career Lessons: How to break into finance or journalism, and why the best opportunities come from following curiosity, taking risks, and making mistakes early.

This is a must-listen for anyone interested in investing, AI, deep research, and building an unconventional career path.