The Exchanges

Q And then moving into your investing life, you're an advisor to EC One Capital in London, and an angel yourself. What's your role at EC One, and what are you looking for in companies at EC One?

A Yeah, sure. So just for those that don't know, EC One Capital is a sort of a leading, uh, London-based web and mobile investment firm. We typically do, or Julian and the investment team typically do between, um, 50 K seed runs to two million, um, series A or, or bridge runs. My role, um, I think I've been, uh, working alongside or, or advising EC One for a year and a half or so now, and I'm simply just an advisor. So any, um, startups that are related to SAS, uh, or, um, B to C startups, then I will look at your decks, give my two cents to Julian and the team and say yay or nay, and then also, um, secondly, advising their portfolio of companies, so any of their startups that are, are SaaS startups or B to C again, um, I will, they're, they're, they're more than welcome to email me with what problems they've got, and I'll, I'll again give my sort of, my two cents and my experience as to what, what I've encountered.

AI assessment note: “any startups that are related to SAS or B to C startups”

Q Absolutely. Fantastic. And then let's talk a little about Virgin startup. Obviously you're a mentor there. What's the process like in order to attain funding?

A Yeah, um, so I've been a mentor at Virgin, I think, now for about five or six months. I've got my first, um, mentee, uh, who's Anthony from Festival Friends app. Uh, the process of Virgin, it's, it's pretty standard. Um, there's an application, um, you go through the application where you pull together your sort of business case. You start to decide how much of a loan. It's, it's, Virgin Startup is a, uh, sort of a delivery partner for the startup loans company, which is a government initiative, which has been, um, going from strength to strength. So yeah, you, you do your application. Um, then you go into Virgin Startup, and this is before you get paired up with a mentor or receive any cash. They'll go through your application and give you a bit of coaching and advice on how to pull together a basic cash flow or a basic financial model. Basic analysis of your business, then you submit your case, um, then the Virgin sort of startup, uh, committee will approve it or disapprove it, and just to sort of give you, uh, an insight into the numbers, uh, in 2014, there was 10,000 applications, and about three of, three percent of those will, will, will successfully get loans dispersed, um, and then you do your submission, and if you, if you get accepted, then there's the post-loan support, where, um, the mentors, uh, kick in, which is where, where I would start to, um, talk through, and…

AI assessment note: “you do your application... give you a bit of coaching... submit your case... committee will approve it”

Q And what gets you excited when you see, it could be a pitch deck or the founders themselves, what really gets you motivated?

A I think first and foremost, does, does the idea and vision resonate with me? There's, there's just sort of some areas that I find a bit boring, or I don't have the, this sort of necessary experience, um, that, that don't really excite me. So yeah, first and foremost is the idea and the vision. Is it big enough? Would this change the world and put a dent in the universe? Or, um, then also the finder and their background, it's, it's usually a pretty good sign if, um, somebody for instance is starting up a medical startup and they've been a doctor or brain surgeon for the past five years. And that's, that's always quite exciting. And then the teams, probably more applicable to later stage, sort of series A, um, startups. Um, was the finder able to pull in some high profile domain experts? So, um, again, I started up a medical startup. Was I able to bring in somebody that is, um, insanely smart in that field and get them to take a pay cut for equity? All of those things are sort of signs that, that de-risk the decision.

AI assessment note: “first and foremost is the idea and the vision”

Q And how would you suggest that young people should reach out to the mentors that they'd like without it being too much of a take relationship?

A Yeah, sure. Uh, depends really what your, what's, what stage of, of your career you're at, if, and, and also sort of what you can deal with economically. So if you want to work alongside somebody that's been pretty successful and, uh, obviously knows the market that you want to work in, um, quite well, then you could offer to, to intern for free, uh, and just sort of live and learn with them, uh, for, for a few weeks. Other than that, uh, Just building up relationships, getting introductions, um, going to meetups, finding people, just sort of being in the right places at the right time. And, and, and again, it all comes back to being relentlessly resourceful. If you want to have a phone call, or if you want to get advice from, from sort of a, an industry-leading figurehead, there, there will be a way to do that. I remember I, I emailed, I think, uh, Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, uh, and it's, it's not that hard to find their email addresses, and you can mostly usually guess. And as long as they're short, succinct, and to the point, and And you're asking a real valid question, then most of the time these guys love giving advice.

AI assessment note: “as long as they're short, succinct, and to the point”

Q Absolutely. Fantastic. And then let's talk a little about Virgin startup. Obviously you're a mentor there. What's the process like in order to attain funding?

A Yeah, um, so I've been a mentor at Virgin, I think, now for about five or six months. I've got my first, um, mentee, uh, who's Anthony from Festival Friends app. Uh, the process of Virgin, it's, it's pretty standard. Um, there's an application, um, you go through the application where you pull together your sort of business case. You start to decide how much of a loan. It's, it's, Virgin Startup is a, uh, sort of a delivery partner for the startup loans company, which is a government initiative, which has been, um, going from strength to strength. So yeah, you, you do your application. Um, then you go into Virgin Startup, and this is before you get paired up with a mentor or receive any cash. They'll go through your application and give you a bit of coaching and advice on how to pull together a basic cash flow or a basic financial model. Basic analysis of your business, then you submit your case, um, then the Virgin sort of startup, uh, committee will approve it or disapprove it, and just to sort of give you, uh, an insight into the numbers, uh, in 2014, there was 10,000 applications, and about three of, three percent of those will, will, will successfully get loans dispersed, um, and then you do your submission, and if you, if you get accepted, then there's the post-loan support, where, um, the mentors, uh, kick in, which is where, where I would start to, um, talk through, and…

AI assessment note: “the process of Virgin, it's, it's pretty standard. Um, there's an application”

Q And having founded several successful companies, what would you say the fundamental qualities required to be a good founder are?

A Um, yeah, good question. Um, I think sort of being relentlessly resourceful, uh, especially back in the day when there wasn't so much, um, support or so much infrastructure for, for young founders. Um, I think just being able to, not being afraid to pick up the phone to like a, a fortune 500 CEO or just sort of finding, um, Innovative ways of one-upping the market and getting stuff that goes in, in, in your sort of, uh, in your way. So yeah, determination, being relentlessly resourceful, um, I guess having a real dissatisfaction with the status quo. So you, you really want to change the world or you really want to impact your industry or your, um, sort of vertical, um, couple that with imagination and creativity. Uh, you, you, you do have to think outside the box and you really do want to make, Customers or people's lives better using your products. So that, that takes an incredible amount of creativity and vision. And then, uh, finally eagerness, eagerness to learn and humility. Um, you're, you're, you're really going to have to use your friendship network and build up networks and be able to tell a good story. Um, and all of that will, will take a, take an eagerness to learn and humility.

AI assessment note: “determination, being relentlessly resourceful, um, I guess having a real dissatisfaction with the status quo.”

Q And how would you suggest that young people should reach out to the mentors that they'd like without it being too much of a take relationship?

A Yeah, sure. Uh, depends really what your, what's, what stage of, of your career you're at, if, and, and also sort of what you can deal with economically. So if you want to work alongside somebody that's been pretty successful and, uh, obviously knows the market that you want to work in, um, quite well, then you could offer to, to intern for free, uh, and just sort of live and learn with them, uh, for, for a few weeks. Other than that, uh, Just building up relationships, getting introductions, um, going to meetups, finding people, just sort of being in the right places at the right time. And, and, and again, it all comes back to being relentlessly resourceful. If you want to have a phone call, or if you want to get advice from, from sort of a, an industry-leading figurehead, there, there will be a way to do that. I remember I, I emailed, I think, uh, Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, uh, and it's, it's not that hard to find their email addresses, and you can mostly usually guess. And as long as they're short, succinct, and to the point, and And you're asking a real valid question, then most of the time these guys love giving advice.

AI assessment note: “you could offer to, to intern for free, uh, and just sort of live and learn”

Q And what gets you excited when you see, it could be a pitch deck or the founders themselves, what really gets you motivated?

A I think first and foremost, does, does the idea and vision resonate with me? There's, there's just sort of some areas that I find a bit boring, or I don't have the, this sort of necessary experience, um, that, that don't really excite me. So yeah, first and foremost is the idea and the vision. Is it big enough? Would this change the world and put a dent in the universe? Or, um, then also the finder and their background, it's, it's usually a pretty good sign if, um, somebody for instance is starting up a medical startup and they've been a doctor or brain surgeon for the past five years. And that's, that's always quite exciting. And then the teams, probably more applicable to later stage, sort of series A, um, startups. Um, was the finder able to pull in some high profile domain experts? So, um, again, I started up a medical startup. Was I able to bring in somebody that is, um, insanely smart in that field and get them to take a pay cut for equity? All of those things are sort of signs that, that de-risk the decision.

AI assessment note: “first and foremost, does, does the idea and vision resonate with me?”

Q What would you suggest in terms of tips or advice to entrepreneurs looking to gain that capital?

A Yeah, sure. Well, first port of call is, um, sort of rich auntie and uncles. Um, second is, uh, AngelList, all of these sort of crowdfunding websites. Um, third, just networking, um, getting out there, identifying, um, young founders or, or founders that have done, uh, pretty well. Maybe it's a, an exit that's mentioned in TechCrunch, maybe trying to find their email address, and, and, and again, just being But being very succinct in your email comms to them, just to say, uh, just trying to reach out to them. So yeah, there's, there's plenty of, plenty of avenues to try and find angel investment, but I think angel list and, um, sort of like crowd cube would, would probably be the, the, the favorites.

AI assessment note: “first port of call is, um, sort of rich auntie and uncles.”

Q And then moving into your investing life, you're an advisor to EC One Capital in London, and an angel yourself. What's your role at EC One, and what are you looking for in companies at EC One?

A Yeah, sure. So just for those that don't know, EC One Capital is a sort of a leading, uh, London-based web and mobile investment firm. We typically do, or Julian and the investment team typically do between, um, 50 K seed runs to two million, um, series A or, or bridge runs. My role, um, I think I've been, uh, working alongside or, or advising EC One for a year and a half or so now, and I'm simply just an advisor. So any, um, startups that are related to SAS, uh, or, um, B to C startups, then I will look at your decks, give my two cents to Julian and the team and say yay or nay, and then also, um, secondly, advising their portfolio of companies, so any of their startups that are, are SaaS startups or B to C again, um, I will, they're, they're, they're more than welcome to email me with what problems they've got, and I'll, I'll again give my sort of, my two cents and my experience as to what, what I've encountered.

AI assessment note: “My role... I'm simply just an advisor. So any, um, startups that are related to SAS”

Q And how did you learn to code then at such a young age?

A Um, yeah, it was pretty difficult. I think nowadays it's amazing with, um, Treehouse, uh, all of the, the sort of learning resources to, to really handhold you through. Um, I, I can't count how many sort of those, those huge big PHP and MySQL books I've bought and, It was pretty, pretty daunting whenever you're sort of 14, 15 trying to learn about object-orientated programming just through this huge book, and sort of, there was a bit of resource online to, to help you, but, um, yeah, I, I built my first website. It was basically just using WordPress and a couple of plugins and PayPal, uh, and then thankfully that one did pretty well, so I, I was able to sell it for, for a good bit, and then, um, from there on out, I, I sort of hired, um, hired developers.

AI assessment note: “learn about object-orientated programming just through this huge book”

Q And having founded several successful companies, what would you say the fundamental qualities required to be a good founder are?

A Um, yeah, good question. Um, I think sort of being relentlessly resourceful, uh, especially back in the day when there wasn't so much, um, support or so much infrastructure for, for young founders. Um, I think just being able to, not being afraid to pick up the phone to like a, a fortune 500 CEO or just sort of finding, um, Innovative ways of one-upping the market and getting stuff that goes in, in, in your sort of, uh, in your way. So yeah, determination, being relentlessly resourceful, um, I guess having a real dissatisfaction with the status quo. So you, you really want to change the world or you really want to impact your industry or your, um, sort of vertical, um, couple that with imagination and creativity. Uh, you, you, you do have to think outside the box and you really do want to make, Customers or people's lives better using your products. So that, that takes an incredible amount of creativity and vision. And then, uh, finally eagerness, eagerness to learn and humility. Um, you're, you're, you're really going to have to use your friendship network and build up networks and be able to tell a good story. Um, and all of that will, will take a, take an eagerness to learn and humility.

AI assessment note: “determination, being relentlessly resourceful, um, I guess having a real dissatisfaction with the status quo.”

Q And obviously in your businesses, you would have faced some challenges. How did you overcome those? Did you have co-founders for the motivational side, um, And, and how did you really overcome the challenges?

A Uh, I think having a strong mentor, um, I'm a big advocate of having mentors, people that have been there and done that, people that you can sort of act as a signed board, people that aren't attached to your company, so not using sort of your board as, uh, anyone on your board as a mentor, using somebody that can take a very impartial view and an honest truth, and you can sort of deep dive into your own psychology. Um, other than that, um, I think having, having a strong work-life balance, um, whenever I was, Finding those companies age 1415, it was, um, quite a lonely endeavor because, um, I, I was solo finder, um, for the majority of them, I was sort of solo finder until, uh, recently until sort of LiveDrive and MyDrive and all of those ones, um,

AI assessment note: “having a strong mentor, um, I'm a big advocate of having mentors”

Q And how did you learn to code then at such a young age?

A Um, yeah, it was pretty difficult. I think nowadays it's amazing with, um, Treehouse, uh, all of the, the sort of learning resources to, to really handhold you through. Um, I, I can't count how many sort of those, those huge big PHP and MySQL books I've bought and, It was pretty, pretty daunting whenever you're sort of 14, 15 trying to learn about object-orientated programming just through this huge book, and sort of, there was a bit of resource online to, to help you, but, um, yeah, I, I built my first website. It was basically just using WordPress and a couple of plugins and PayPal, uh, and then thankfully that one did pretty well, so I, I was able to sell it for, for a good bit, and then, um, from there on out, I, I sort of hired, um, hired developers.

AI assessment note: “trying to learn about object-orientated programming just through this huge book”

Q Do you think it has the potential to replace almost VCs?

A Uh, no, I think both sort of have their, have their place. I think, uh, the The explosion in angel investment is great. It's great as an ecosystem. It means that there's sort of, I'm very sort of metrics driven and hypothesis driven. It just means that we get to prove more hypotheses. Uh, it means that there's more businesses starting up and more data being collected as to what's resonating with the market. Um, so yeah, no, I, I definitely agree that having a strong angel sort of ecosystem is, is very good for London and also globally. I think that's, that's something that Silicon Valley had, uh, an upper hand in us, uh, Over the past few years, because of sort of all of the early employees of Google, Yahoo, all of those guys who, who cashed out, um, they went back and, and, and give back angel investments, and it's something we haven't had that many huge exits over here in the UK, but thankfully now with, uh, EIS, SEIS, all of those things, we're, we're, we're definitely seeing this market become more buoyant.

AI assessment note: “no, I think both sort of have their, have their place.”

Q And obviously in your businesses, you would have faced some challenges. How did you overcome those? Did you have co-founders for the motivational side, um, And, and how did you really overcome the challenges?

A Uh, I think having a strong mentor, um, I'm a big advocate of having mentors, people that have been there and done that, people that you can sort of act as a signed board, people that aren't attached to your company, so not using sort of your board as, uh, anyone on your board as a mentor, using somebody that can take a very impartial view and an honest truth, and you can sort of deep dive into your own psychology. Um, other than that, um, I think having, having a strong work-life balance, um, whenever I was, Finding those companies age 1415, it was, um, quite a lonely endeavor because, um, I, I was solo finder, um, for the majority of them, I was sort of solo finder until, uh, recently until sort of LiveDrive and MyDrive and all of those ones, um,

AI assessment note: “having a strong mentor, um, I'm a big advocate of having mentors”

Q Do you think it has the potential to replace almost VCs?

A Uh, no, I think both sort of have their, have their place. I think, uh, the The explosion in angel investment is great. It's great as an ecosystem. It means that there's sort of, I'm very sort of metrics driven and hypothesis driven. It just means that we get to prove more hypotheses. Uh, it means that there's more businesses starting up and more data being collected as to what's resonating with the market. Um, so yeah, no, I, I definitely agree that having a strong angel sort of ecosystem is, is very good for London and also globally. I think that's, that's something that Silicon Valley had, uh, an upper hand in us, uh, Over the past few years, because of sort of all of the early employees of Google, Yahoo, all of those guys who, who cashed out, um, they went back and, and, and give back angel investments, and it's something we haven't had that many huge exits over here in the UK, but thankfully now with, uh, EIS, SEIS, all of those things, we're, we're, we're definitely seeing this market become more buoyant.

AI assessment note: “Uh, no, I think both sort of have their, have their place.”

Q What would you suggest in terms of tips or advice to entrepreneurs looking to gain that capital?

A Yeah, sure. Well, first port of call is, um, sort of rich auntie and uncles. Um, second is, uh, AngelList, all of these sort of crowdfunding websites. Um, third, just networking, um, getting out there, identifying, um, young founders or, or founders that have done, uh, pretty well. Maybe it's a, an exit that's mentioned in TechCrunch, maybe trying to find their email address, and, and, and again, just being But being very succinct in your email comms to them, just to say, uh, just trying to reach out to them. So yeah, there's, there's plenty of, plenty of avenues to try and find angel investment, but I think angel list and, um, sort of like crowd cube would, would probably be the, the, the favorites.

AI assessment note: “first port of call is, um, sort of rich auntie and uncles.”