07Nov

Can AI overcome human bias in VC decisions?

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Artificial Intelligence, Diversity, diversity & inclusion, entrepreneurs, VC, venture capital

Eva-Valerie Gfrerer is the founding CEO at MorphAIs - the pioneer in AI-driven VC investment. MorphAIs uses a data and technology driven approach to reduce human error and bias and make investments more accurate, transparent and inclusive. Eva discussed many data-driven VC topics including: ❇️ entrepreneurial talent is equally distributed – it’s the access to capital that isn’t ❇️ AI-led decisions can drive more inclusive VC investments and enhanced returns ❇️ data-driven behavioural science may help investors evaluate even subtle criteria like passion & perseverance

29Oct

Creating a culture where people will have the best 5 years of their working lives!

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CEO, enterprise software, growth strategy, Hiring, Scale-ups, talent, venture capital

Niels Brochner is a co-founder at Contractbook a document & contract automation scale-up who've raised $43m from VCs like Tiger Global, Gradient & Bessemer Venture Partners Niels discussed: ❇️ How to create a culture where people actually want to come to work – where they’ll have the best 5 years of their working life! ❇️ Why US VCs are more supportive & impactful than European VCs ❇️ How to identify talent with “StartUp IQ” even if they are not proven rockstars! ❇️ The lessons business leaders can learn from exceptional sports champions like the NBA’s Steve Kerr

24Sep

Camels versus unicorns: which type of scale-up are you?!

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Henry Alty, Investment Director at Gresham House Ventures, invests in process & workflow automation software, digital transformation, & scale-ups looking to improve the use of data & analytics We explored: 🐪the opportunity to build profitable, sustainable, scale-ups - "camels" - that many investors overlook in their search for unicorns 📈how to scale from 3m-5m ARR to 10m-20m+ ARR - founders must be prepared to invest in expensive leadership talent, & to relinquish control of key functions, to build a genuine scale-up 💸how Gresham's combined PE & VC expertise delivers value to growth companies seeking investors in an increasingly crowded market 🔬why founders should take extensive references & really dig into the approach & track record of prospective investors - just as they should do when hiring senior talent 🌍why companies who embrace ESG criteria are well-positioned for the challenges of the next decade

02Sep

Workvivo: speed + creativity = global success

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John Goulding is the CEO at Workvivo - an employee engagement and communication platform venture he co-founded in 2017 to create an engaging virtual workplace & replace the intranet. Workvivo’s growing 200% year-on-year & has over half a million users across more than 80 countries with 100% customer retention! Workvivo is backed by Zoom founder Eric Yuan, Frontline Ventures & Tiger Global. We explored how: effective CS & strong customer retention fuels great product ideas & makes companies a better, more enjoyable, place to work in a culture that focuses on speed enables you to outmanoeuvre much larger competitors creative employee backgrounds, typically under-valued in the tech sector, are becoming increasingly crucial in shaping successful tech ventures virtual teams and remote working has improved employee creativity during the pandemic young European SaaS ventures can achieve huge success in The States

31Aug

Purpose-driven culture & brand: vital for future market leaders?

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Gary Brotman is the CEO at Secondmind - a UK start-up who've raised $51m from VCs like Amadeus, Atlantic Bridge & Passion Capital to help companies achieve sustainability through machine learning. We explored: Is building a purpose-driven culture and brand crucial for any business looking to become a market leader? How does Secondmind leverage ML to help automotive innovators meet future environmental and regulatory challenges? How can you find the signal in the noise to solve business problems? Why are usability and trust top priorities for any SaaS venture? How can SaaS ventures overcome the challenge of scaling products from research “magic” to impactful commercial products?

24Feb

How can we help startup founders & investors resolve their mental health challenges?

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CEO, COVID19, diversity & inclusion, entrepreneurs, mental health, VC

Yusuf Ozdalga is a Partner at QED Investors and a Board member at Fidel API, Wayflyer, GetGround, Capitalise, Weavr, and Rest Less. He’s also a Jiu Jitsu bronze medalist! 🤗 During our interview we delved into mental health and addiction issues and the Operation Lighthouse initiative 🥋 We also explored Yusuf's learnings from Jiu jitsu - and how these might help us in our professional lives - including how to handle unexpected developments and how to remain resilient in the face of powerful opposing forces. ↔️ And we discussed how people need to be more open-minded about paths so success - in life, in investment, and in business - there are always diverse approaches and perspectives you can leverage and deploy. 💯 Yusuf explained how QED are leading by example on diversity issues and pushing their portfolio companies to measure and improve their progress with D&I

20Feb

Scalable culture & strong ESG standards will drive post-pandemic success stories

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Emil Gigov, Partner at Albion VC, has been involved in 30 early stage & growth investments during his 2 decades as a VC. We explored: 🎯The metrics Albion use to track the ESG (environmental, social, governance) performance of their investments 🎯The 3 long-term growth themes that underpin Albion's investment decisions: technology, education and demographics 🎯How scalable culture and people processes impact on a startup's ability to grow and raise further rounds of funding

14Feb

If your message sucks – you’re just farting in the wind!

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Artificial Intelligence, b2b saas, CEO, enterprise software, entrepreneur, growth strategy, leadership, SaaS, scale-up, Start-up Culture, VC, venture capital

Parry Malm is the co-founder and CEO at Phrasee – a scaleup who combine natural language techniques with AI and deep learning to optimize marketing across all digital channels in over 20 languages. Funded by Albion VC, Galvanize Capital and Next 15 Communications, Phrasee’s solution is truly revolutionary and delivers major ROI for blue chip clients like Ebay, Virgin Atlantic and Superdry. 🎯 We explored the underlying problem that Phrasee set out to address - lots of companies focus on optimizing the operational efficiency of a marketing campaign: "You click a button and a million messages go out to a million people. But what if that message sucks?!” 🎯 We discussed how Phrasee has placed ethics front and centre – in terms of the way the company is run, the solutions they offer and the clients they work with - for example, Phrasee recently rejected the opportunity to work with a US client who sold guns and ammunition. 🎯 And we critically examined the VC ecosystem: “For all that VCs say about backing innovators – what they are actually doing is backing incrementors!” 🎯 Parry explained how startups like Phrasee can begin by dominating a narrow market and then expand into complementary areas.

07Feb

Forever changing how organisations succeed – scientifically!

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A-Players, b2b saas, CEO, enterprise software, entrepreneur, growth strategy, leadership, mental health, Organisational Culture, scale-up, Start-up Culture, startups

Pierre Lindmark is the CEO at Winningtemp – 1 of Europe’s fastest growing B2B SaaS scale-ups. Winningtemp’s vision is to provide the science behind successful organisations - to forever change how organisations succeed! They serve 700 clients in 23 countries leveraging advanced AI and providing science-based insights to dramatically reduce employee turnover and sick leave. We explored: 🎯 Why founders and entrepreneurs need to train themselves to sell from Day 1 – even if they don’t feel comfortable selling 🎯 How to create the mentality in your organisation to ensure that everyone is selling 🎯 Why early employees tend to be gladiators who, as the organisation scales, must evolve into laser-focused soldiers 🎯 How CEOs can use weekly vision boards to tap into the dreams and strengths of every employee - to ensure they're up to speed with their emerging talent 🎯 Why the pandemic's impact on employee motivation and emotional well-being demonstrates the need for leaders to introduce more empathetic communication - and some specific tips on how to do this

26Dec

How Emburse are creating a culture of inclusion and diversity

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B2B, CEO, diversity & inclusion, enterprise software, Organisational Culture

Eric Friedrichsen is the CEO at Emburse - who humanize work by empowering business travelers, finance professionals and CFOs to eliminate manual, time-consuming tasks. Emburse has 14,000 customers for their AP and expense management solutions - from start-ups to global blue chips like Grant Thornton, Telefónica, Lufthansa and Toyota. We explored Emburse's determination to create a culture of inclusion and diversity: "If we aren’t part of solving the problem we are perpetuating the problem!" We discussed their core values "SEEIT": Sincerity, Empowerment, Empathy, Individuality, Teamwork and some of their specific D&I initiatives. For example, Emburse gave all employees a vacation & "personal reflection" day on Juneteenth – prompted by the George Floyd killing and concerns about systemic racism in society. We also examined what it means to be a “customer-led” company – rather than a sales-led or product-led company. And we discussed how Emburse was helping its employees cope with the stresses of 2020 - with an unlimited PTO policy and the rollout of Emburse Unplugged Days which are compulsory 1x a month for every employee and have even led to the growing reputation of their house band “The Bad Receipts”!

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