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Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Riding Unicorns Productions

213 episodes

4 days ago

Please note: The topics covered in this episode should not be taken as investment advice. This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Rupert West, the founder and Managing Director of Puma Growth Partners, a UK-based growth equity investor backing companies at Series A with cheque sizes of £4–10m. Puma invests across consumer brands, B2B SaaS, and scalable business services, with a hands-on approach to helping founders scale sustainably and successfully exit. Rupert shares the story of buil...

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Entrepreneurship

All content for Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology is the property of Riding Unicorns Productions and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Please note: The topics covered in this episode should not be taken as investment advice. This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Rupert West, the founder and Managing Director of Puma Growth Partners, a UK-based growth equity investor backing companies at Series A with cheque sizes of £4–10m. Puma invests across consumer brands, B2B SaaS, and scalable business services, with a hands-on approach to helping founders scale sustainably and successfully exit. Rupert shares the story of buil...

Show more...

Entrepreneurship

Episodes (20/213)

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Growth Equity, VCTs and Exits with Rupert West, Managing Director @ Puma Growth Partners

Please note: The topics covered in this episode should not be taken as investment advice. This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Rupert West, the founder and Managing Director of Puma Growth Partners, a UK-based growth equity investor backing companies at Series A with cheque sizes of £4–10m. Puma invests across consumer brands, B2B SaaS, and scalable business services, with a hands-on approach to helping founders scale sustainably and successfully exit. Rupert shares the story of buil...

4 days ago

43 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Building Outreach to a $4bn unicorn and helping AI agents get paid with Paid.ai - Manny Medina, Co-Founder & CEO @ Paid.ai

This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Manny Medina, the visionary founder behind Outreach — the $4B sales engagement unicorn — and now co-founder & CEO of Paid.ai, a startup pioneering how AI agents get priced, paid, and scaled. We dive into Manny’s remarkable journey from zero to $250M+ ARR with Outreach, the gritty early days of selling door-to-door with no cash, and how he turned that experience into a masterclass in category creation. Now, with Paid.ai, Manny is laser-focused ...

1 week ago

50 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Building, Backing & Scaling in an AI-Native World with Kenneth Auchenberg, Partner @ AlleyCorp

In this episode we are joined by Kenneth Auchenberg, Partner at AlleyCorp — one of New York’s most prolific early-stage funds known for incubating companies like MongoDB, Business Insider, and Radical AI. Kenneth’s journey from coding at 16 in Copenhagen to shaping global developer ecosystems at Stripe and Microsoft gives him a unique lens into the next generation of software businesses — and the rise of AI agents. 💥 In this episode, we dive into: 🤖 Why “agentic” workflows are changing everyt...

2 weeks ago

47 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Inside the Quantum Infrastructure Revolution with Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Founder & CEO @ Nu Quantum

This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Founder and CEO of Nu Quantum, a pioneering company building the networking layer for the quantum computing era. Carmen’s journey started in academia, researching quantum photonics, before she spun out Nu Quantum from the University of Cambridge. Now backed by top deep tech investors, the company is on a mission to connect quantum processors and make quantum computing commercially scalable. 🎙️ In this episode, we discus...

3 weeks ago

43 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Building the "Lovable of Marketing" with Patrick Haede, Co-Founder & CEO @ Superscale AI

In this episode, we're joined by Patrick Haede, the founder of Superscale AI, a breakout new startup transforming how digital products are marketed. 🚀 Inspired by Lovable’s success in democratising product-building, Patrick saw the next major frontier: distribution. In a world where anyone can now build a product, how do you market it effectively? Superscale AI is the answer — a platform that lets you instantly generate performance-ready, AI-powered video ads for TikTok, Instagram, and Meta, ...

1 month ago

56 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Scaling from startup to £70M+ funding in 16 months with Paul Anthony, Co-founder of Primer & Colossal

Paul Anthony is the co-founder of Primer, a rapidly growing payment orchestration platform with over 200 employees and more than £70 million in funding from top-tier investors including Seed Camp, Balderton, Accel, and Iconic. His journey began as the first employee at a FinTech startup (now called Depay), followed by a stint at PayPal's Braintree division, before founding Primer to solve the complex payment infrastructure challenges he witnessed amongst enterprise merchants. Paul is now also...

1 month ago

55 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Simone Maini, CEO @ Elliptic, on Leading Through Crypto Winters and Building Elliptic into a Blockchain Analytics Leader

In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James and Hector sit down with Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, the world’s leading blockchain analytics company. Simone’s career path is anything but conventional — from a history degree and Deutsche Bank to leading a $100M+ funded crypto intelligence powerhouse. 🧠 After 8 years in banking and a stint in anti-money laundering consulting, Simone joined Elliptic as Head of Product. What began as a pivot turned into a mission: tackling financial crime in the di...

1 month ago

37 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Pattern recognition and backing Europe's next unicorns with Andrei Brasoveanu, Partner @ Accel

From international math olympiads to high-frequency trading to leading deals at Accel, Andrei Brasoveanu has carved one of the most impressive careers in European tech. After a decade on Wall Street as a quant, he joined Accel’s London office and quickly became one of their top investors—backing breakout companies like Celonis and, more recently, Polar. In this episode, we explore the mindset, methods, and milestones behind his success. What You’ll Learn: 🧠 “Founders are the constant” — Why A...

2 months ago

39 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Building Europe’s Investment Rails with Martin Kassing, Founder & CEO @ Upvest

This week on Riding Unicorns, we're joined by Martin Kassing, founder and CEO of Upvest, one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintech infrastructure companies. Martin’s journey spans private equity, Rocket Internet, multiple startups, and now leading a company that powers investment products for the likes of Revolut and N26. In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore what it really takes to build an enduring infrastructure company in Europe. 🎧 Topics covered include: The founding journey of Upv...

2 months ago

40 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

RU Summit 2025 with Yoann Pavy and Oana Jinga, in Partnership with Cooley LLP

In this special Riding Unicorns episode, recorded live during London Tech Week and hosted at Cooley’s London HQ, we bring you two candid conversations from the frontline of startup building. 🚀 First up: Yoann Pavy, a growth marketing veteran (ex-Deliveroo, Depop, Perkbox), shares why distribution-first thinking is flipping product development on its head. From testing product ideas with viral TikTok mockups to building multi-million ARR with a 3-person team, Yoann reveals: The real metrics th...

3 months ago

33 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

From Founder Failure to Building a €100M+ European VC Fund with Apostolos Apostolakis, Managing Partner @ VentureFriends

In this episode, we’re joined by Apostolos Apostolakis, the founder-turned-VC behind VentureFriends, a pan-European pre-seed and seed fund known for backing consumer and fintech breakouts like Plum, Blueground, Huspy, Carmoola and Instashop. Apostolos shares a remarkable story of resilience — from scaling a startup to €100M+ in revenue and 500 employees, to facing bankruptcy and rebuilding his career with a major exit, prolific angel track record, and eventually launching one of Greece’s most...

3 months ago

35 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Investing as a multi-stage fund into Europe's top startups with Deepka Rana, Principal @ Northzone

In this episode, we’re joined by Deepka Rana, Principal at leading venture fund Northzone, early backers of Klarna, Truelayer, Spotify, iZettle, Kahoot, and Personio. Deepka shares her journey from physics at Imperial and investment banking to investing in some of Europe’s most exciting startups. We unpack: 💸 What it’s like to operate a billion-dollar multi-stage VC fund 🧠 How founders should assess the right type of capital for their journey 🤖 Why AI is fundamentally changing the way softwa...

3 months ago

35 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Building voice-AI infrastructure and scaling go-to-market globally with Carles Reina, GTM @ ElevenLabs & Angel Investor

In this episode of Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Carles Reina, Go-to-Market Lead at ElevenLabs, an AI Audio research and deployment company that tripled it's valuation to $3.3BN in January, after confirming a new $180M funding round. From starting out as a banker in Barcelona to scaling Uber’s first European team, and now investing in over 70 startups, Carles shares the hard-won lessons that drive startup success. We dive into: 🔄 Career pivot: Leaving banking for Uber at 20 people an...

3 months ago

48 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Building the universal integration layer for modern products and raising a Series A from GV with Romain Sestier & Guillaume Lebedel, Co-Founders @ StackOne

In this episode of Riding Unicorns, we're joined by Romain Sestier and Guillaume Lebedel, the co-founders of StackOne, a rapidly growing startup that’s building the universal integration layer for modern SaaS and AI products. Hot off the back of their $20M Series A led by GV, the duo joins us to share their journey, insights, and lessons from the trenches. Romain and Guillaume have known each other for over a decade, having worked together across multiple companies before launching StackOne. ...

4 months ago

46 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Capsule Scale-Up 50 Panel with Poly AI, Flo Health, Carmoola, & Xampla

Recorded live at the Capsule Scale-Up 50 event in London on 30th April 2025, this episode features a standout panel discussion moderated by our co-host James Pringle. The Scale-Up 50 is Capsule’s flagship celebration of the UK’s fastest-growing, most exciting scale-ups, recognising the founders, leaders, and investors driving the next generation of breakout success stories. Supported by Cooper Parry and HSBC Innovation Banking, the event brings together top-tier talent from across the startup...

4 months ago

46 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Building the Future of Marketing with Raffi Salama, CEO & Co-Founder @ Passionfruit

In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James Pringle is joined by Raffi Salama, Co-Founder & CEO of Passionfruit, a fast-growing marketing OS used by the world’s most ambitious brands to orchestrate campaigns across resourcing, planning, execution, and tracking. Raffi shares his journey from launching David Beckham’s Inter Miami football club to scaling Passionfruit across London, Lisbon, and now New York. What started as a freelance marketplace has evolved into a full-stack platform for mar...

4 months ago

50 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Building the premium venture studio and fund for consumer brands with Mike Jones, Founding Partner @ Science

Subscribe to the Reading Unicorns newsletter here. Follow Riding Unicorns on LinkedIn here. Subscribe to the Riding Unicorns YouTube channel here. In this episode we're joined by Mike Jones, Managing Partner at Science Inc., a trailblazing venture studio behind breakout brands like Dollar Shave Club, Liquid Death, and DogVacay (merged with Rover). Mike is one of LA’s most prolific entrepreneurs and investors. From turning around MySpace to co-founding and investing in over 150 companies, his ...

4 months ago

50 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Investing in the future of KidsTech, Gaming and Media with Dylan Collins, Founder @ SuperAwesome (acq. Epic Games)

Subscribe to the Reading Unicorns newsletter here. Follow Riding Unicorns on LinkedIn here. Subscribe to the Riding Unicorns YouTube channel here. In this episode of Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by legendary repeat founder Dylan Collins, known for building and exiting three companies—including SuperAwesome, acquired by Epic Games. Dylan takes us on a fascinating journey from founding middleware for Call of Duty at university, to building tools that made the internet safer for kids, and now b...

5 months ago

42 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Investing in the B2B Fintech sector with Mark Beeston, Founder @ Illuminate Financial

Subscribe to the Reading Unicorns newsletter here. Follow Riding Unicorns on LinkedIn here. Subscribe to the Riding Unicorns YouTube channel here. In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James Pringle and Hector Mason are joined by Mark Beeston, Founder and Managing Partner at Illuminate Financial—a thesis-driven venture capital firm investing in B2B FinTech and enterprise technology companies that are redefining the future of financial services. With offices in London, New York, and Singapore, I...

5 months ago

39 minutes

Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

The firm with a 1-in-6 unicorn investment rate. Staffan Helgesson, General Partner @ Creandum

Subscribe to the Reading Unicorns newsletter here. Follow Riding Unicorns on LinkedIn here. Subscribe to the Riding Unicorns YouTube channel here. This episode sees James Pringle and Hector Mason sit down with Staffan Helgesson, General Partner of Creandum. Creandum is one of Europe's top early stage investors focused on Seed and Series A across a range of sectors from fintech to SaaS to devtools to climate tech, consumer tech and, of course, AI. Breakthrough companies that Creandum bac...

5 months ago

46 minutes