Blogs & Podcasts

26Nov

Angelique Mohring – how GainX raised funding & prospered in the male-dominated tech startup sector

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  • Diversity, fundraising, scaleup, startup
Angelique Mohring, founding CEO at GainX, explains: ★The challenges she’s faced as a female founder/CEO raising money in a male-dominated industry ★Why she chose to launch her global HQ in the UK - despite Brexit... ★How to conceive & launch your business during a strategic retreat at a 5* resort! ★How she reduced the GainX sales cycle from 18 months to 3 days  
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07Nov

Viviana Faga & Doug Landis, Emergence Capital

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  • enterprise software, Hiring, SaaS, Scale-ups, Start-ups, VC, venture capital
Doug & Viv, Partners at Emergence Capital, share their expertise in delivering successful go-to-market and growth strategies at companies like Salesforce and Box. They discuss: ★ How to prioritise & dominate your target verticals ★ Why you should hire a marketing lead before you invest in sales expertise ★ How to create a new software category for your business ★ How to build harmony & efficiency between your sales & marketing teams ★ Customer Success teams: why they're as important as sales/marketing yet often undervalued at startups
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25Oct

Carles Ferrer – Nauta Capital investing in capital-efficient disruptors

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  • enterprise software, international expansion, startup, VC, venture capital
Carles Ferrer is a General Partner at Nauta Capital – a European enterprise software VC fund - and he’s invested in companies like BeMyEye, Brandwatch and ChannelSight.  Carles discusses:  ★ Nauta's philosophy of investing in capital efficient disruptors   ★ How Nauta’s regional hub focus within Europe, combined with their sector focus, differentiates them from other VC funds ★ When expanding from Europe to The States – how to get the timing & the talent right! ★ Future themes Nauta are prioritising including the massive disruption of the Retail sector both online & offline
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02Oct

Scott Belsky: insights from his new book “The Messy Middle”

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  • entrepreneurs, Organisational Culture, scale-up, scaleup, the messy middle, venture capital
Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author,  and investor, and currently serves as Adobe’s Chief Product Officer. Scott’s also a Venture Partner with Benchmark and an early advisor and investor in a number of fast-growing companies like Pinterest, Uber, and Periscope. He is the author of Making Ideas Happen and in early October 2018 published his new book "The Messy Middle": The product or company launch gets cheered, the finish line gets celebrated, but the rocky terrain in between is woefully underestimated and misunderstood!
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24Jul

How to hire exceptional marketing leaders at your software/SaaS scale-up

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  • CMO, executive hiring, Recruitment, scaleup, startup, startup recruitment, talent, talent attraction, talent search
How do you evaluate a potential senior marketing hire? Marketing is a such a crucial function in any business and yet so many firms fail to correctly resource it. The following are a few questions you should be asking before you select a candidate for a senior marketing role. Do they have the right skillset? […]
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21Jun

Eamonn Carey – MD @ Techstars UK: which societal trends have huge potential for startups?

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  • enterprise software, Scale-ups, Start-ups, startup accelerators, VC, venture capital
Eamonn Carey – once upon a time a TV producer and presenter - is now the Managing Director at Techstars London. He’s also founded and exited 2 startups and invested in over 25 companies globally. Eamonn discusses: The path he took from media exec to entrepreneur to investor Why enterprise software companies need to build character & mischief into their products to mimic the user engagement of B2C products  Some of the key societal and technology trends he’s excited about - and believes could have huge potential for future Techstars cohorts
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04Jun

How and when to hire sales people at your software start-up

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At some stage, a software start-up will feel the need to hire sales people. It’s a natural step to take in the growth of any company. After all, hiring sales staff frees up the start-up founder to focus on other important things, such as product development or simply the small business of ‘running the company’. […]
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04Jun

Usman Shuja @ SparkCognition – AI, IOT & Moneyball 2.0

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Usman Shuja is the GM & Head of Industiral IOT at SparkCognition – the leading provider of AI solutions for IOT - who recently closed a $57m Series B with Verizon Ventures, Boeing, CME Ventures, Brevan Howard Investment Holdings and Invenergy Future Fund. Usman is a thought leader in machine learning, cognitive computing, security, and industrial IoT – he sits on Forbes Technology Council - and also an international cricketer.
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22May

David Ratner, CEO @ Realm: “the enemy of best is not worst…the enemy of best is good enough”

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David Ratner is the CEO at Realm - the data management platform and solution that seamlessly handles connectivity, latency, transport and other backend details for mobile, IOT, and other connected apps. David’s previously had successful exits at Carrier Access and Openwave. Realm has a roster of high profile investors including Andreesen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator. David discusses: * Why “the enemy of best is not worst…the enemy of best is good enough” * How and when to launch a 2nd product - when your initial product is a big success - and how to balance resources between the 2 products * The challenges of getting messaging on-point for enterprise software businesses * Why hiring for cultural fit is way more important than hiring for the exact skillset 
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12Apr

Kjartan Rist – Founding Partner at Concentric Partners

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Kjartan Rist, Founding Partner at Concentric Partners, has spent the last 18 years focusing on the technology start-ups and scale-ups as a founder, advisor, Board member and investor. He’s been involved in over 50 transactions and founded or co-founded 2 successful VC funds and a merchant bank.  Kjartan discusses: *The valuable lessons he learned in his early days in VC from experienced investors - like Nenad Marovac & Steve Schlenker at DN Capital - and also Steve Papa, the founder-CEO at Endeca *The value a local VC firm can provide to a tech venture developing an international footprint – in terms of strategic business development and local go2market strategy *A very candid analysis of the challenges faced by 1 of his enterprise software investments - including the dangers of relying too much on a single route to market - and the steps they are now taking to overcome those challenges
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