Ventures

Just wrapped up an awesome chat with Alex Banks on the pod - the kind of conversation that makes you excited about where tech is actually heading. What I love about Alex is how he cuts through all the AI hype and gets down to the real stuff. We riffed on everything from using AI to handle those annoying freelance receipts you know, the ones sitting in your drawer right now, to this wild idea about viral marketing that actually makes sense.

The conversation took this really interesting turn when he started talking about elder care. He told this great story about an 80-year-old reader from Wales who reads his AI newsletter - imagine that! These are always my favourite episodes - when you can see exactly how these big tech ideas could fit into regular people's lives tomorrow.The Rundown 🎯00:00 - Welcome and intro01:38 - AI for solo entrepreneurs: automating the accounting headache13:52 - Growth stacks and finding the right influencers16:08 - Building viral marketing with Shopify discounts19:23 - Flash mob discounting strategy21:29 - The Wales connection: Using AI for elder care26:04 - Why WhatsApp might be the future of elder tech28:04 - Wrap upThe Good Stuff 💎

AI for Receipt Hell (yes, please!) Listen, we've all been there - that drawer full of receipts that haunts your dreams come tax season. Alex dropped some serious knowledge on how to make this pain go away:- Auto-categorization that actually works (finally!)- Snap a pic, forget about it system- Batch processing (because who has time to do one at a time?)- Plays nice with your existing accounting setup- Uses Gemini (way cheaper than the alternatives, btw)The Tech Stack Tea ☕️Real talk on the build strategy:- Lovable for frontend (chef's kiss)- MVP first, fancy stuff later- Natural language everything- API magic to tie it all togetherGrowth Hacks That Aren't Cringe Some gold nuggets on getting traction:- Super specific targeting (no spray and pray)- Newsletter collabs that make sense- Finding those hidden gem influencers- LinkedIn stuff that actually works- Real engagement (because we're all tired of bot DMs)The Viral Discount Engine 🔥This part got me excited - imagine discounts that spread like wildfire:- API-triggered rewards for sharing- Network effects that compound- Smart discount rates based on behavior- Flash mob sales (but make it tech)- Actually tracking if this stuff worksElder Care (But Make It Smart) The most human part of our chat - using tech to help the elderly:- WhatsApp integration (because that's what they actually use)- Smart med reminders- Proof-of-pill photos- Keeping the family in the loop- Simple interfaces that don't confuse- Voice commands that make sense- OpenAI doing the heavy liftingReal Talk on Implementation The stuff nobody tells you but everyone needs to know:- Build where people already are- Stack your tools smart- Trust over features- Work with habits, not against them- Integration is everythingWhat Actually Matters Bottom line stuff:- Make it personal- Keep it simple- Flow with existing systems- Clear value (no BS)- Give people reasons to stick aroundMore thoughts brewing on this. Might need to do a follow-up episode. Stay tuned! ✌️

Rob Lawrence is the Founder of Good Engine.xyz which is a first-of-its-kind, generative offer comparison engine built round a 🤖 that reads T&C’s — all designed to help players make a good choice. Rob is one of the OG’s in the marketing space - his mind when thinking up ideas for digital campaigns is second to none He came up with the modern reality TV mechanic in short the man with incredible ideas (who has executed on them) 

🛠️ Building Goodengine, to bring fairness to gambling

🧠 The most incredible mind I have had the pleasure of interviewing 

My top 5 takeaways from diving into his mind 👇

1. Rob On Not Having Lofty Ambitions As A Kid.

I never had a pattern to things

I just went and did whatever took my fancy

2. Rob On Gambling User Experience

It's terribly poorly thought through from a UX POV

The job of gambling websites is to get you in and keep you there.

Nobody shares any data

3. Rob On GPT 4o

What they’re doing now used to be called RPI

And that AIAgent Demo they showed last week

I saw that 25 years ago at IBM

4. On Building Something People Want

We’ve built something that means people can find what they want.

And it works unbelievably well.

If you allow people to find what they want, it will be easy.

Then they’ll use it

5. On Giving Brands Ideas They Want

The good choice is simple

Certain marketplaces don’t think like that

And well they aren’t incentivised too.

Ana Pricop is the co-founder @ Outdid.io, the B2B start-up building a world where people trust each other and are safe online. Before starting Outdid,

Co-Founder / Relationship

And of course the Quick Fire

Tom Charman is an absolute cockroach founder, having built 4 start-ups and started angel investing all in the last decade.

Haz Hubble is the Founder of Pally which is solving the most complex problem in human history - how humans connect!

🛠️ Building Pally, to solve the Human connection problem

🧠 25 and wise beyond his years

🏦 Youngest CGMA in the world

Background

- When Haz described himself as an intelligent person who doesn’t know very much. Reflecting on his childhood, would he say he has always been like this?

- What would Haz say he is running from?

- Knowing Haz grew up as an avid gamer, did he display any entrepreneurial traits?

- Was there a turning point in Haz's childhood that set him on his current trajectory?

- Did Haz have a mentor who guided him in the early days, or did he navigate his path independently?

CGMA/CFO

- How does a Haz reflect on being the youngest Chartered Management Accountant in the world

- As a young Chartered Accountant, how did Haz navigate not being taken seriously or older peers trying to dictate his actions?

- How does Haz approach asking the right questions?

- Does Haz have a process for working through problems?

- What was the best lesson Haz learned about being a CFO, and who shared it with him?

Communication + Inner Drive

- What would Haz say his superpower is?

- How does Haz think about the need for a strong moral compass in the workplace?

- Where does Haz's focus and drive come from?

- What advice would Haz give to young people today who want to start building solutions to the world's problems?

Building Pally & Solving Human Connection

- Why did Haz start going by "HAZ"?

- When did Haz find his love for solving the human connection issue?

- Does Haz enjoy the size and scale of the solution to the human connection problem?

- Does Haz think we underestimate how human connection will evolve in a year and overestimate it in 10 years?

- How did Haz pitch convince friends and family to invest in his vision of the future?

- Is Haz glad he raised a seed round without unknown investors?

- As a founder, what are three things Haz focuses on every single day in the business?

Quickfire

- What makes the pain of building companies beautiful for him?

- What does a successful day in the life of Haz look like?

- If Haz could be doing anything else, what would it be?

- What was the most recent mistake Haz made?

- Is Haz happy?

- Who are the three peers Haz finds himself constantly learning from, and why?

Harjas Singh is the Chief Product Officer and co-founder of SHARES which has one goal: to empower you to become a smarter investor, so you can take charge of your financial future.

Background

When did Harjas find his love or interest for tech and finance?

What was family life like for Harjas as a child?

Considering that there are at least 21 Indian-origin CEOs of billion-dollar companies, what was it like for Harjas growing up in Delhi?

Harjas on moving to the US over India due to the education system.

At Virginia Tech, Harjas pursued his passions for coding and Bhangra. How did these interests shape his experience?- How Harjas was hired at Revolut

Revolut

While at Revolut, Harjas scaled the wealth division from zero to 2 million users across countries.

What are his biggest learnings from that experience?

When building out products, does Harjas have a secret sauce for asking questions to uncover user needs?

Does Harjas believe that simplicity is always better when it comes to product design?

How does Harjas prevent feature creep?

Why does Harjas think revoluters look at the world differently?

Was Harjas happy at Revolut?

SHARES

What was Harjas's first investment in life?

What were the thoughts that motivated Harjas to start Shares?

Knowing the challenges of fintech from his time at Revolut, why did Harjas start Shares?

How does the investing business model work at Shares?

Did Harjas have a mentor in the early days?

What was the single most important lesson he learned from them?

How did Harjas find raising the first $10 million for Shares?

How does Harjas balance user-centric product decisions with business value?

When thinking about new features in an exploration session, what does Harjas like to do?

How does AI change the actual creation of product design?

Hiring

What is the importance of an ideation sparring partner, in the early days of a start-up.

What’s Harjas’s perspective on the need to build in person?

Does Harjas know pretty quickly when someone is a good fit for his team?

If Harjas could go back to the moment he and the core team committed to building Shares, would he do it again?

What’s been Harjas’s biggest hiring mistake?

Does Harjas think it's wrong to be in it for the money?

What advice does Harjas have for the young founder who is starting to think about their first hire?

How does Harjas plan on giving back to the community?

Quickfire- What is Harjas’s biggest regret?

How does Harjas maintain an optimistic mindset, especially in the challenging space of finance?

Harjas is a fan of the ALL IN podcast.

Who is his favourite out of the four besties?- Does Harjas believe that he's built different?

Is Harjas happy?

From whom does Harjas continuously learn in his work life?

Warren Hutchinson is the Chief Experience Officer and founder of ELSE Agency which is on a mission to become the UK’s most effective design consultancy. Working with the likes of 02, Nivea and Universal

Warren is one of the most knowledgeable people in design consultancy I've met and one of the few real people left that walks the talk:

🔬 Deep Multi-Domain Experience

👨‍🏫 Repeat Guest lecturer at Brunel University

In this episode, we hit home on

1 - Understanding Warrens's Background and career into Design

2 - Fundamentals of Design and how that translates into the real work

3 - Running ELSE and why he has been invested in R&D from 2012

4 - Building a better Agency with a 4-day work week.

**Quick fire round**

- Do you have to be in America for the best innovation

- What was the biggest takeaway from ELSE and how did that shape how you think

- What has been the best experience you’ve used that you haven't built

- If you could go back and do something in your time at ELSE differently what would that be?

"You have to get out to be inspired by what's going on in this big huge world"

Dan Bolland is a man of many talents a fractional exec, accountant, start-up, financing, frontier-tech, investment, growth, and governance. Having worked inside and consulted with businesses large and small he brings unique views on tough knotty problems and a desire to make things work smoothly and scalably.

In Today’s Episode with Dan Bolland, We Discuss:

1.) Dan's Background

2.) Reality of work at a Start-up and Series B

3.) When to focus on users vs Revenue

4) Quickfire round

Ahana Banerjee is the Founder of Clear a beauty tech startup that lets users track and share their skincare routines and buy products. Valued at $15 million, Clear has partnered with more than 2,000 brands, has 9,000 users on the app and about $1 million in VC funding. Clear also the 2022 L'Oréal Beauty Tech for Good winners, selected by Beiersdorf for the Beauty Tech Innovation Summit 2023, and were featured under "Best New Apps and Updates" on the iOS App Store in 2023.

In Today’s Episode with Ahana Banerjee, We Discuss:

1.) Ahana Background

2.) Yc experience | Pitching + Fundraising | Founders

3.) Female founders ecosystem

4) Quickfire round