In our last ever FOUNDstar and FUNDstar Vod/Pod we talk to Dominic Vergine of leading Electric Motor Scale Up, Monumo. Dominic is a true visionary who heralds from the hotbed of UK Tech, Cambridge and is another legend of the ARM stable of leading Technologists. In terms of Monumo, Dominic highlights how he and the team at Monumo are working to:# Create a new wave of sustainably designed Electric Motors that reduce the consumption of electricity and help solve the climate crisis.# Their Technology is world first and like ARM, they aim to become the IP or platform that the EV designs of the now and future are built upon.# The Design industry is evolving across all industries where Electric engines reside and Monumo aims to be at the forefront of a AI and Deep Tech revolution that evolves and replaces the current CAD design.# Monumo is one of many AI led businesses that will all be revolutionising and improving design, manufacturing and sustainability in the next ten years# Monumo is the current market leader in this space, providing: Simulation, AI/ML and prototyping for potential clients and customers. They aim to complete their engine and launch next year - to a strong pipeline of demand.  They are also currently enacting their Series A round to accelerate this. In conclusion:Dominic is right at the cutting edge of the Deep Tech / AI led revolution in industry and manufacturing design. It's hard work but fulfilling, as per his Edison quote on innovation, that its: "ninety nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration". If you want to connect with Dominic please DM me or him directly on LNKD.

Priya is an impressive Venture Capitalist, who established Goddess Gaia Ventures <GGV> to assist with Women's Health and Wellness. She established GGV on the back of personal circumstances and wanted to fix many of the problems facing Female Founders the Healthcare and Wellness industry.

In terms of nuggets:===> Priya explains what she is looking for in terms of female founders in Healthcare, that are creating impact
===> The founders they have invested in are from a variety of backgrounds and GGV are looking and Priya feels like a proud "Mother Hen" helping her founders grow

===> This is her first of four funds, with a big focus on taking her founders to the US and to crack this market
===> GGV are building relationships with Angel groups / Universities / Founders referencing them are providing great deal-flow

===> They are investing in FemHealth and Sport have made 11 investments so far.. Seed and Series A - where most Health-Techs tend to navigate between

===> On a week of a Superbowl win for the Kansas City Chiefs  and Taylor Swift's impact is used as a good example of leading women focusing on Sport and Health - a big area for GGV

===> The current fundraising environment is the hardest environment to raise in the last 15 years. "Its an incredibly difficult environment". Priya provides some great pearls on this..
===> AI / Clinical Trials / Cancer Tech / The NHS and other topics are tackled in a wide ranging conversation In conclusion:Priya is top drawer and she is very keen to connect with any founders or VCs that find this session interest DM me or Priya on LNKD.

In our first FUNDstar Vod/pod of 2024, we sit down with leading VC, Sam Nasrolahi at InMotion Ventures, the Corporate VC arm of Jaguar Land Rover.  She's a super intelligent and very direct investor and she certainly knows mobility from a very strong background at BP. I certainly learn't a lot in this 26 minute Podcast Sam conducted with Anthony and I, pre Xmas 2023. In terms of InMotion Ventures, the fund was originally set up in 2016 to focus on Mobility, but more recently, when Sam joined, (last August) this has changed to focus on a number of industry agnostic areas in mobility.  In this pre-Christmas Vod/Pod Sam tells us more about these areas, so listen on if you want to find out more about this fascinating and importantly, very active VC on: # How they invest in Electrification, Sustainability, Climate-Tech, Industrial-Tech, Automation AI platform and AI in Enterprise, globally. # Stage-wise the focus is on Pre-Seed to Series B, but Seed to Series A is the sweet-spot # They interact with the whole JLR and Tata that they can reach out to in the Cloud, AI and Automation expert areas # Pre-Seed and Series B deal-flow seem to predominate in 2023, with Seed and Series A being light # They are broadening their activity in the EU, particularly Germany and France. France is very strong in AI and Robotics, with Germany great in Manufacturing / Industrial Tech # Israel remains a strong focus still for them # Some good genuine, Generative AI opportunities have appeared in Infrastructure and niche areas like compliance # Cloud native companies are of particular interest to Sam Naturally we discuss the market and current trends, which is of interest to all. Sam believes (and hopes) there will be a potential pick up in VC investing in 2024 and AI / Enterprise Infrastructure could be a particularly powerful driver behind this. Sam is particularly excited by the complexity of this area, which she’ll be delving into more in 24! In conclusion: Sam is a very busy lady - as you can gather by the passion she expresses in her role, but she is very keen to connect with any founders or VCs that find this session interest DM me or Sam on LNKD.

King of Scandi Tech takes time out of his hectic schedule, to share his perspectives on scaling amazing consumer businesses, ranging from smart headphones (Marshall, Adidas, Urban Ears) with Zound Industries to more recently creating the "Tesla of the Seas",  X Shore

Konrad continues to grow his consumer portfolio and is now looking at Natural Chemicals, in the world of Cleantech and has also invested in a leading uncompromised drinks product called OGIN, creating the world's best gin, from handpicked herbs in Finland

Konrad provides an array of opinions on several hot topics:

===> How he has scaled businesses to become Technology leaders in their respective industries

===> What the impact of AI is in the Music industry and the scary realities of AGI accelerating more widely in 2024 to potentially takes over us .. "All need to do small steps together to manage this inevitable change"

===> How his success has come from spotting trends ahead of other entrepreneurs and being first to market

===> The 5 senses and the 6th sense is going to be accelerated by AI

===> How Wellness, Nature and Family should feature more strongly in Entrepreneurship

So, listen on here for other amazing insights from Konrad, a must for any Consumer focused VC or Founder. Konrad is a true visionary who is now plotting his next move in the world of AI and sonic mental health (making Sound intelligent) by the sound of things...bom! bom!

Listen here for more...

After an extended summer break, due to personal reasons, its nice to be back broadcasting and publishing season 6 of FUNDstars and FOUNDstars, where our guest was Rob Desborough,  the CEO of Seraphim Space Accelerator, and a partner in the Seraphim Space Fund. There is no disguising Space is hot  and Rob provides an array of opinions on several hot topics: # How Seraphim is the largest investment group focused on Space privately, and launched the first listed Space fund # They are one of the pre-eminent Accelerators building businesses covering all aspects of Space # How Space is set to become a $1trillion investment market by the end of the decade, from $1.6n when Rob set up Seraphim in 2014 and now is the time to be investing in this space # 100,000 Satellites will be in space by 2030 and private Space Stations will be in orbit by 2028 # That Space offers so many opportunities in Mining, Datacentre, Optimisation of  Science & Materials, industry 4.0/industry 5.0 and  life in general # 13 of the 15 biggest VC funds in the world have invested into space So, listen on here for other amazing Space star gems from Rob On a lighter note, My mum was a Trekkie and I've been a space nerd since watching 007's Moonraker movie and skiving off school to watch the Space Shuttle's land in the 80's in the Nevada Desert, so this pod was right up my street. More recently I am fixated by aliens, via Invasion on AppleTV - so if you love space, want to invest in it or generally get more of an understanding of what's going on...I recommend taking 30 minutes to listen to this episode.

Ben is the Director of the University of Southampton's Futureworlds, a business that takes the best bits of accelerators / University innovation and Technological excellence, providing opportunities for students at the University to commercialise and scale. Ben provides an array of opinions on several hot topics: #How the Futureworlds model works and the businesses being created # The current situation in the University funding environment #  The big picture trends emerging from UK Universities and where government's need to act In particular - a big love and section of the podcast is dedicated to Quantum Computing, which is an area of deep interest for both Ben and Anthony, plus a technology that University of Southampton is showing some excellence in. Not wanting to give too much away, listen on and enjoy the pod !!

In this episode our Europe 2023 Roadshow, landed in Berlin, where we meet Robin Rohm, a leader in the world of Federated Learning, which helps solve the problem of securely analysing data across boundaries and regulated industries.

He took a bit of time out from his Rocketship... Apheris who are early market leaders in this "machine learning on steriods" to talk with us in mid February, on the latest episode of FUNDstars and FOUNDstars.

Robin is a very straight talking and insightful guy, who speaks to us, pre the latest bomb to go off in the Tech scene this year, namely SVB.

Robin gives some gems for Founders and VCs on:

===> Scaling into a world that is becoming wiser to Machine Learning

===> Pharma, Healthcare & Manufacturing (especially Semiconductor) appear to be the early movers adopting the Federated learning to solve these data problems at scale

===> We naturally talk about Generative AI (as everyone is...) and how Apheris fits in the next AI generation

===> How he raised a big VC round in a few weeks in early 2022.. oh how those were the days!

===> Apheris's hyperfocus on Capital Efficiency - The buzzword of 2023.. to move in line with what VCs want

===> Lastly, the Berlin scene - which remains cool and "Shoreditchy".

In conclusion,
Robin is a top top man, a top founder, a top dad and top clubber. We loved Robin's admission that he often goes clubbing at 6am at the weekend in Berlin, all fresh faced and smoothie'd up, to enjoy his love of music and dancing.. Brilliant !

Next up - we're off to Stockholm to speak to the king of Swedish Tech.. King Konrad Bergstrom, the founder of Tesla of the Seas, X Shore.

Be good, don't eat too many eggs. See you in a month.

In this episode we have a great insight into La French Tech, a term widely associated with Mr Macron and his Digital based ascendancy in France, but in this episode, it's from Clement Aglietta, the founder of leading Fintech, Edda, one of the poster-boys (children) of the current French Tech Revolution.

Clement provides some lovely insights on the business, their approach and also waxes lyrical with Chris on the formative days of the great French Tech Conference called "Le Web", where Clement got bitten by the Tech bug and event that Chris still lords as one of the best Tech events ever.

===> Why Edda has become so successful with limited partners and private investors

===> The tool is like a "Bloomberg for VC" enables users to have seamless management of private investment, data analytics and reporting

===> The American Dream is over - there are more Americans want to come to live in European cities to build large Technology companies

===> How Paris is exploding as a Technology powerhouse in terms in Capital, Innovation and Government support

In summation,
A very impressive founder and the world is Edda's oyster in a market that is bigger than the Public markets.

Next up, in late March is...Robin Roehm, the founder of leading AI scale, Apheris, who tunes in from Berlin

First up for 2023 is our interesting catch - up with leading Amsterdam based Seed and Series A VC - Kompas. In this episode we talk with founding partner, Sebastian Peck, when he's in transit between meetings in Munich.

Sebastian covers a vast array of topics in this insightful 33 minutes conversation with Anthony and I. Kompas is a leading Digital Transformation / Net Zero focused / Zero Waste Circularity VC. So if you are in these areas - this is an excellent FUNDstars and FOUNDstars episode for you. We speak with Sebastian just before Christmas, when England were still in the World Cup!!

In our wide ranging chat we cover:

# Sebastian's thought on the VC environment and current trends for 2023

# What Kompas is all about - Focus, Style, current activity and the massive challenges they are addressing

# AI is a strong part of their approach and how their companies / investments interact and collaborate with each other

# The Nordics and Benelux region lead the way Energy consumption within Building, Listen and learn UK Gov!!

# They are deploying and have money in the bank !

# His love of Tom Chi and At One, who they've co-invest with

In conclusion,

He's a very clever man, I learn't a lot - I hope you find this month's episode useful.

See you in February where we have a great episode with the fantastic Clement, the founder of leading Fintech, Edda

We had an awesome time catching up with Sarah, the CEO of Jenson Funding Partners, one of the UK's largest and most successful SEIS investors. Sarah was particularly keen to tell us about their new £60m Aurora fund, for pre-seed to Series A companies helping the transition to Net Zero.

Chris first met Sarah in his Bloomberg days in 2013, when she highlighted the early intentions of Jenson, so it was great to catch up on their progress and what progress there is. They've notably become a Certified B Corp recently as well.

Sarah covers an array of topics and has some great opinions on the following:

# The way Jenson select and invest in leading UK founders, how the team interact and support this large portfolio of businesses. About being clear about what they can and can't help with.

# The current state of the investment landscape for UK Founders - circa November 2022 and thoughts on how 2023 could pan out. They tend to close their EIS investments in Q1.

# Her excitement around the launch of their new non SEIS fund, aiming to invest in all the amazing ESG tech, filling a huge funding whole in the UK between Pre-Seed and Series A. Founders form an orderly queue please !

# 60% of investments have been made outside of London and their is more opportunity to accelerate this moving forward, by keeping in touch with the excellent hubs around the regions.

# Investments are also international (Ireland) and with the new fund, could become more international.

# Diversity and equality in Tech and how Jenson look to tackle this. 18% of their portfolio investments have been into female founders.

All in All - there's much more and this episode is a cracker & in the spirit of giving  at Christmas - there is a long form and short form version of this excellent episode. Longer video below

Enjoy and Happy Christmas to the many watchers and listeners. Back in January with a cracking episode with Sebastian Peck, of Amsterdam based VC .. Kompas

After autumn impasse, we return with our winter series of interesting Podcasts, with a number of leading lights in the UK Tech industry.

First up is Peter Finnie, a leading Tech Patents lawyer in the UK who shows us that lawyers are fun, good to talk too and so knowledgeable for Founders and VCs alike. Remember the top one's cover both!

Peter deep dives and offers some great pearls of advice such as:

# How to manage Patents/IP in 2023 and current state of regulation in the UK on patents (which ain't good)

# How 90% of value in Technology created is in the IP. ie: Google bought YouTube purely because of the brand

# The trends in the Tech market and how Potter Clarkson are still supporting Start-Ups and Scale-Up in these tough times. Plus, how you can meet them

Listen on and enjoy for more

In this episode, we continue our summer focus (yes - there's another heatwave on the way in London to justify this !!)  on leading ladies in the Tech space, talking here to a particularly successful founder in the Health-Tech vertical, Lara Mott.

Chris first met Lara, six years ago, when she was pondering on exiting her successful corporate career to scratch the entrepreneurial itch and launch her own business.

Roll on to 2020, when we were pleased to be contacted by the lovely Lara again, to hear about her itch becoming Improvewell, which is now (in August 2022) one of the fastest growing and one's to watch Health-Tech's in the UK, building upon their status as one of the top 100 Start-Ups in 2021, the UK, to WATCH ..

So, sharing this expertise, Lara talks in detail in the Vod/Pod about:
===> How to successfully scale a product into the NHS - the 7th largest employer in the world with 1.7m people
===> The nuances of decision making process within the NHS
===> How the UK Health industry continues to embrace digital post Covid and hasn't slipped back in old "bad" pre-Covid habits

Wrapping up...
The future looks rosy for Improvewell - driven by Enterprises's (not just in Health-Tech) continuing need for platforms that enable data led solutions for wellbeing continuing to grow, in the post pandemic world.

Fittingly, I write this summary of a great Vod/podcast, with a leading lady of the UK VC scene, England’s women have just scored their first goal against Austria !!

This episode focuses on Evie Mulberry, the Managing Partner of Astia VC, a leading San Francisco based VC, who has recently returned to the UK build the UK/EU footprint of the fund.

Evie highlights how Astia – was built by the super impressive Sharon Vosmek, who was one of three founders who established the pillars of Astia 20 years ago.

She brought Evie into the business, when she re-located to the West Coast in 2008. Now Evie is back and based in the South West and is successfully building out their UK and EU ecosystem.

Evie talks in detail on, in the pod about how Astia are:
===> Female first and only invest in Technology businesses that have female leaders or Women in executive roles
===> Remain concerned about the “woefully low investment” into Female led Technology businesses. Its not Female Founders that need to change, its the VC industry
===> Are inclusive and don’t believe in the “soft intro”, preferring founders to apply through their “Expert Sift” process, which aims to eliminate bias in their search process for founders

In conclusion, success is being scaled as this “Expert Sift” process has now evolved into a learning Technology platform fairly recommending businesses at scale

It’s a great chat, with a great lady trying to change the world of VC, according to men!!

Harriet Rosethorn is second up in our summer series on leading women in VC and Technology.

We speak to Harriet in February 2022 and she takes great time to firstly explain that Puma has nothing whatsoever to do with the German Sport apparel brand !!!

She, in fact, joined London based Puma PE, 4 years ago as an investment manager. They are a leading Series A investor in UK and do look at some European Technology names, if they plan to expand in the UK.

Puma's ticket size is between £2m -£10m and Puma look to support a founder's transition to reach / beat the KPIs needed to get to Series B.

We cover a wide array of topics in our 35 minute chat:
On new business:
===> We discuss how Puma are one of a number of very active funds at the Series A stage currently, taking advantage of market conditions and  lower competition for the best founders
===> By being active - they aim to fund the better businesses, at a better prices and potentially get more ownership than they would have 6 months ago
We also discuss the portfolio in depth:
===> Covering a wide array of topics and businesses, from very successful investment in an End of Life business Pure Cremations to the in-outs of nano, micro and nano (not nemo) influencer marketing, via her work with Influencer
More generally:
===> Harriet provides some very good tips on hiring and how Puma interacts with their founders on how to hire top talent.

In conclusion:
Harriet speaks passionately about the Puma portfolio of companies and shows a commitment & expertise that many founders should look to have from their investors, as times potentially become tougher, in the remainder of 2022

Phoebe Arkell is first up in our summer series on leading women in VC and Technology. Phoebe is certainly one of the up and coming VCs who successful navigated a career in consulting to follow her dream of becoming a VC.

She joined London based, Supernode Global, just before the pandemic and quickly found their focus on investing at the seed stage in digital content, was perfectly suited to this time.

Supernode focuses specifically on platforms and tools focused on these verticals: gaming, animation, sport, education, analytics, ad-tech, music and now the all important metaverse!

Some pearlers from Phoebe and Founders in particular take note:
===> Supernode invest globally, as per the name, in Seed rounds of £1m - £2m
===> It's all about execution in these content driven verticals and that's what captures their eye
===> How they add proper value and not just money for founders - mentorship, offsites, founder circles are offered to all and are true to their word
===> Culture is key for them as a fund and the community they've built
===> Chemistry is central for any 10 year journey for Phoebe and the founders Supernode invest in

Phoebe is a polite, thoughtful and kind lady who was a delight to talk to and a bit of a breath of fresh air for founders looking for the friendly face of VC !

Jatin Ondhia is an inspirational leader who set up Shojin Property Partners in 2009 and has navigated the pandemic to grow a successful, scaling Property Technology business.

Jatin originally saw the value of investing in property, whilst working as a banker at UBS for 12 years. From its onset, Shojin was like an angel club, which has evolved into an online regulated Technology platform, democratising ownership and access to capital into middle market residential property (£10m-£60m) and the upside this investment can bring.

Online Real Estate investment is projected to grow from $15bn in 2022, to $800bn by 2027. Developers welcome Shojin as a complementary way of helping them successful fund projects now and in the future.

In this FUNDstar and FOUNDstar Vod/Podcast episode, Jatin shares these pearls:

===> Be nimble and careful in balancing the interests of investors and developers in Property Technology and strategy
===> Asia is a great opportunity for funding Property Tech. There is an abundance of great investors there, that understand Tech and property
===> They are razor focused on strategic investors, and like to have as many private investors as possible, as they become brand ambassadors
===> Profit is not a bad thing in the current climate and Shojin has been profitable for the last two years
===> The role of a CEO is problem solving and is super stressful !

Net/net, Shojin is a clever Prop-Tech play, built on successful alignment of funding, growth and profit that is in a sweet spot to grow extremely successfully in the next five years and spread the wealth to many.

Paul decided to build Careology when personal circumstances highlighted how there are very few, real-time technology solutions to help people manage the treatment process and support processes around cancer, for the: person, care-giver and the clinical team.

Three years later, it appears to be going well and Paul, an experienced entrepreneur shares his thoughts on the many challenges of the journey, on this inspiring FUNDstar and FOUNDstar Vod/Podcast episode. These include:

===> How to build the Tech: the App, the Software, the SaaS and how to sell the software licence to providers and help them blend physical & digital, to improve the provider <> patient experience

===> Building traction and business development, where doing smart pilots right really matter and do lead to full rollouts with leading partners, in the clinical healthcare, in the case of Careology. Big companies need to embrace digital and are post Covid. This blend is here to stay in Healthcare

===> The Digital Cancer space is wide open and the TAM of 20m people a year are diagnosed with cancer, makes Careology a particularly attractive opportunity to support

===> The hiring process and how to assemble people that challenge founders

Net/net, Careology is an impressive Health-Tech that is really gaining traction, entering its growth phase and looking towards investors for further support.

Rich is the CEO and Co-Founder of Peak.AI, one of the up and coming Unicorns  of the UK Tech scene and Manchester's finest.

They are a Decision Intelligence leader (using AI and Cognitive Intelligence to make consistently strong decisions) working with Retailers like Superdry and AO.Com, CPGs like KFC and some leading UK & Global PLC manufacturing companies  too!!

Universally these are product companies where the Peak Data Engine "CODI" optimises demand for their product, enables better targeting, an ability to run leaner, assist ESG goals and impact. Peak enables  companies to stop "HOPING" and using AI to "DO"!

Rich talks about his driving motivations around growing 200+ global team, refining the business culture, the power of delegation, customer interaction and how they are becoming one of  the biggest commercial AI companies in the UK and if Europe.

He also touches on the psychology of fundraising and provides some great tips to navigate Seed, Series A, Series B and have integrity  ! A Nasdaq listing is mentioned and Unicorn status. Not a bad spot from Notwics when visiting Manchester in 2015 !!!

Chris is a really interesting Entrepreneur who successfully grew and exited his business extremely successfully.  His childhood was tumultuous but gave him early life skills, which saw him grow and learn how to overcome challenges like Dyslexia (a condition that many leading founders interesting have suffered.

We talk late summer 2021, when the UK was in the midst of first UK energy crisis (with Bulb crashing), something that looks like dream, compared to the reality of life now in Mid March 2022.

He set up as a founder with his business, WAE (We Are Experience) business in 2003, having left the world of consulting when his employer, Arthur Andersen

There are some super pearls for both "Founders" and "Funders"
# He speaks about the mistakes you make "Fail to prepare, prepare to Fail". At some point "Every business gets a kicking"
# Always keep strong cash reserves, for difficult time
# Read "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. Only when you fail, do you improve.. which is why Mercedes, VW, Volvo are starting to eat Tesla's dinner in electric now. Notably Tesla have never failed
# Always be well prepared when you want to sell your business, in Chris's case - he prepared for three years ahead of this
# The best way to sell is when you are growing, rather than grown. Sell on the way up
# You should always lean on other people (mentors) at different stages to manage you and your business
# Be careful about taking financial backing, its not always the best thing for a business
# He talks about the pandemic and the best learnings from businesses he helped coach for free

Good, snappy little listen, with lots of excellent examples - so feel free to reach out to direct to Chris on LinkedIN HERE- or contact us to connect you direct to the team - from Notwics.