The Tech Spill

Forget everything you think you know about founders, Max Bray, Partner at Kindred Capital is here to spill the tea on exactly the kinds of people funds like his are looking for. Kindred shares its profits with every founder it backs, and is on a mission to tilt the industry toward generosity through Equitable Venture.

Ending up in VC via design and tech, Max’s knowledge of the entrepreneurial and investing landscape is a must-listen for any fledgling founders and new grads!

In this episode, we cover:

• The six qualities he looks for in founders
• What exactly attracted him to Kindred Capital
• His honest take on the effects of AI on jobs and his advice for new graduates
• How founders need to raise money to suit their ambition
• How he might have passed on some great companies because of a personality mismatch
• What kind of founder makes a £2 billion exit from their company

Connect with Ama on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ama-owusu-afriyie/

Learn more about Nova Impact: https://novaimpact.co.uk/

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Ama is back in the hosting spot this week, and hearing everything about Mariam Ahmed’s story. Coming from a family of doctors, her trajectory seemed pretty simple - study hard, get a medical degree, done. But a introduction to computer science course upended all of that.

After a 4 year career at Goldman Sachs, and with support from Y Combinator, Mariam accepted an invitation from an old colleague and co-founded Menza, an always-on AI data team for fast-growing brands.

In this episode, we cover:

• Where she gets her strong conviction
• How she paid off her university tuition fees while still studying
• What life was like on the Goldman Sachs trading floor
• What Menza does and how it helps brands find revenue opportunities and cost leaks
• Why she refuses to predict where Menza will be in three years
• Why she'll never stop building

Connect with Ama on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ama-owusu-afriyie/

Learn more about Nova Impact: https://novaimpact.co.uk/

If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow and share it with a founder friend!

The Tech Spill has arrived! We’re so excited for you to see and hear what we’ve been working on, and what better way to find out everything you need to know about the podcast, than a sit down with its creator, Ama Owusu-Afriyie.

In this special episode we’re getting vulnerable, and Ama shares her journey as a business owner. From her first taste of entrepreneurship at school, navigating job loss and failures, to becoming the founder of a six-figure technical ghostwriting agency.

In this episode we cover:

• How job loss gave her the confidence to invest in her side hustle
• Why exactly she started The Tech Spill
• Her perspective on being a black female founder
• How AI has made everything easier and why you'll get left behind if you don't adapt
• How building can be one of the loneliest periods of your professional life
• Who her dream podcast guests would be and her hopes for the future

Connect with Ama on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ama-owusu-afriyie/

Learn more about Nova Impact: https://novaimpact.co.uk/

If you enjoyed this episode, hit follow and share it with a founder friend!

Zhan Shi didn't follow the script. Goldman Sachs VP. Atomico VC engineer. The kind of resume that opens every door. And then she walked away from all of it to build Career26, a company redefining how finance hires early talent.

This is the story of someone who chose passion over prestige, and conviction over comfort.

In this episode, we cover:

• How Zhan balanced building Career26 while working full time, and why her dad told her she couldn't do both well
• The three questions she asks before committing to anything full time: Why now? Why me? Why hasn't someone else done it?
• Why she left Goldman Sachs - not because finance was bad, but because it didn't fill the empty part of her heart
• Her philosophy on focus: if you can't see yourself being the best at something, why bother?
• What Career26 actually does and why she believes interviews are broken
• Her take on whether top Oxford talent is being "stolen" by finance
• How AI is embedded into every layer of Career26, from operations to student assessment, without it being an AI company on the surface
• What she learned as a software engineer at a VC, building data driven deal sourcing systems and agentic workflows to replicate analyst judgment
• Her advice for anyone sitting on a side project: follow your heart

This is a raw conversation about ambition, self drive, and building something that matters.

Connect with Zhan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhanshi26/
Learn more about Career26: https://www.career26.com/

Hannah Porter-Jones is not your typical Oxford graduate. While everyone around her was heading into consulting, law and finance, she told her friends she was going to be a wedding planner. Now she's building Darcy, an AI-powered event planner.

This is the honest story of what it takes to back yourself when you're the one stepping off the conveyor belt.

In this episode, we cover:

• How Hannah turned real-world expertise into a startup idea
• Why she believes "you need to make yourself redundant"
• Why choosing the path nobody is taking is worth it, even when you're worried you've made the wrong decision
• What happened when someone at a Startup x Coding event asked if she was lost, and her refreshingly honest answer
• What Darcy actually does and how AI is changing the way events get planned

This is a candid conversation about unconventional paths, trusting yourself, and taking up space.

Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahporterjones/
Learn more about Darcy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/darcyplans/

Goldman Sachs Employee Lydia Miller, now Co-founder of Ivee, breaks down her tips for first-time founders dealing with investor relations.

Her top tips include:

✨ Not being too desperate too fast

✨ Only speaking to partners of potential investors

✨ Ensuring interested investors read their 45-page guide before having a call with them.

And many, many more.

Hope you enjoy

🧋💙

CLIPS

Josh Tulloch , Plugged Co-founder, sits down to unpack the largest start-up debate: are founders born or made.

He reasons that the ‘Existential founders’ are the ones that win and for that reason, the most obsessive, wild founders are often ones that are born.

He goes on to discuss the value of looking at the skills- interest venn diagram to try and direct people to follow their passions instead of being directed by socially constructed guidelines.

It was a fascinating debate!

To listen to the full episode on Spotify please navigate to this link:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5CjPnvxlIHEoSFF5u91nJq?si=5mZTEZBKTfmmm_H7lOY06Q

Maverick is not your typical founder. Laid off two days after moving to London. No clients, no money, no safety net. Told by a close friend that he didn’t know how to build a company. Twelve months later, he’d raised investment, built an AI start-up from scratch, and landed his first paying customers.

This is the unfiltered story of what it actually costs to build something from zero.

In this episode, we cover:

How a third-generation gambling family shaped Maverick’s obsession with betting only on what he can control

The rocket ship start-up Maverick joined that swiftly collapsed and what he learnt from this t

How cold LinkedIn DMs and relentless outreach landed him his first clients in weeks

How a single LinkedIn video caught the attention of a three-time YC founder and changed everything

What working at $100 million Model ML company taught him about standards, sales, and speed

Why he moved to San Francisco, lasted six weeks, and left on his own terms

How he booked a one-way ticket to Vietnam with barely any money and kept building anyway

What Maverick Intelligence actually does and how it turns anonymous website visitors into paying customers

Why he’s focused on the US market and what GDPR means for founders building in this space

His honest take on AI agents and how Maverick Intelligence identifies thousands of people every single day, around the clock

The exact sales tools he uses including Clay, Orange Slice, Instantly, and Condo

Why A/B testing before 10,000 users is a complete waste of time

How to upskill technically without a computer science background

Why graduate schemes might actually be holding young people back

The one piece of advice for anyone sitting on an idea they still haven’t started.

This is a revenge arc, a masterclass in sales, and one of the most honest founder conversations we’ve had on the show.

Connect with Maverick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maverick-f/

Learn more about Maverick’s company Maverick Intelligence: https://maverickintelligence.co/

Josh Tulloch, Co-Founder of Plugged, joins us this week to discuss the entrepreneur- first model, offering an alternative route to the traditional corporate chains.

He also offers great insights into both, maintaining the original atmosphere of a company while monetizing and understanding graduate job opportunities.

Hope you enjoy.

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Connect with Guest

LinkedIn- https://uk.linkedin.com/in/joshua-tulloch?trk=org-employees

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Hope you enjoy this episode with super cool founders Peter and Marlene, they started a business at uni and went on to exit this business to one of the UK's fastest growing companies at just 24 years old.

They are now launching their second company together called Calibr.

Calibr helps high-growth organisations source and train the people who drive operational AI efficiency inside companies.

Hope you enjoy.

00:00 LinkedIn Royalty Intro
00:17 Co-Founder Chemistry
03:18 Unlikely Friendship
04:00 How They Met
05:51 Graduate Guide Mission
08:44 Business Model Experiments
11:55 From Recruitment to Product
13:51 Acquisition Story
18:55 Founder Mindset Lessons
19:58 Consulting Feels Boring
20:22 ADHD and Craving Novelty
21:10 What Calibr Actually Does
22:01 Rebuilding Workflows With AI
23:12 Training AI Transformation Teams
24:49 New AI Roles and Upskilling
27:33 AI Layoffs Reality Check
31:24 Is University Still Worth It
37:04 Advice for Aspiring Founders
39:21 Closing and Part Two Tease

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