Unicorn Podcast

Tony was born in Beirut, Lebanon, during a violent civil war, and was lucky enough to travel to France at the age of seventeen to study for a computer sciences degree, then attended the IMD Business School in Switzerland. After graduating, Tony founded Nexmo, a pioneer in the Communications Platform as a Service (“CPaaS”) category. Nexmo made it easy for software developers to add essential communications capabilities (like sending messages between ride-sharing drivers and passengers) to their applications, on a global scale. Nexmo went public via a merger with Vonage in 2016.After the Nexmo exit, Tony took some time off to consider what to do next. He began to invest in “platform models that can change the world”, Tony’s investments include Pento, Truelayer, Dialpad, Hopin, and Claap.That other talented individual in emerging economies should enjoy similar career opportunities, without the need for geographic displacement, is a persona, passion and the ideological cornerstone of Tony’s career. It is where the idea of Oyster was born.For most people in emerging economies, career fulfilment means moving to another country. Tony believes this necessity to be in the office sets up unassailable inequalities for many people in emerging economies. Why should they have to move halfway around the world, away from their community and support system, to have a successful career? Tony created Oyster to remove the remaining barriers to successful remote work, including hiring, compensating and managing team members who are physically far away from the office.In this episode, Tony reveals the secrets that helped him scale Oyster to 1$ Billion valuations, as well as his unique journey to success. Simon and Tony also go deep on how to get investment, purpose and Web3.TopicsHow Tony Became An EntrepreneurGetting InvestmentChoosing The Right InvestorHow Tony Came Up With The Idea Of OysterBuilding Oyster From ScratchConnecting World LabourBeing Purpose-DrivenWeb3Are Entrepreneurs Born Or Bred?Tony Jamous:https://www.tonyjamous.com/

Tech titan Michele Romanow is the Co-founder and CEO of Canadian unicorn, Clearco - the world's largest e-commerce investor. The company has invested $3.2 billion in over 7,000 ecommerce and SaaS companies. Michele is a serial entrepreneur having started six companies before her 35th birthday. In addition to her work as an entrepreneur, Michele is a “Dragon” on the Canadian hit TV show Dragons’ Den (Canada’s Shark Tank).She previously co-founded SnapSaves, which was acquired by Groupon and was also the Co-Founder of Buytopia.ca. A prolific investor, Michele was recently named as one of Fortune’s 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year.Michele is a regular media commentator and her work has been profiled in Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch, and The Globe and Mail. Michele is a director for Vail Resorts, BBTV and Queen’s School of Business. Previously she was a director for Freshii, Whistler Blackcomb, SHAD International and League of Innovators. Michele also co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative non-profit with Sir Richard Branson.In this episode, Michele teaches us how she approaches investments, what it takes to build a billion dollar company, her experience working with romantic partners and much more!How Michelle Approaches Investments What Michelle looks for in an investmentFailureWork/Life Balance and The Entrepreneur LifestyleWorking With Romantic PartnersRebranding from Clear Bank to ClearcoChanging Position From President To CEOFrom Entrepreneur To Employee To Entrepreneur AgainRevenue-Based FundingInvesting In Under-Represented EntrepreneursSolving The ‘University Route’ NarrativeAre Entrepreneurs Born Or Bred?What Makes An Entrepreneur?It’s Not The Years It’s The Miles.Entrepreneurship From A Young AgeMichelle’s Favourite Dragons’ Den InvestmentsClearco Funded Companies Where Does All The Money Come From?Experience vs BooksDo You Have Any Regrets? Michele:https://instagram.com/micheleromanow?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=ClearCoWww.clear.coFor more help start here: www.purposefulproject.com 

Suneera Madhani is a payments innovator who has disrupted the industry with her unicorn company Stax. After seeing the need for a better payment experience for merchants, her entrepreneurial spirit took hold and she decided to solve the problem herself. She built Stax from the ground up, providing a sophisticated and business-friendly platformStax is a subscription-based payments processor that charges merchants a flat subscription fee rather than a percentage of sales for in-person and digital transactions. Over the past eight years, the 300-person company has processed $23 billion in payments for more than 20,000 customers across retail, professional services, and health care.On top of being CEO at Stax, Suneera also runs CEO school, a platform that empowers women to understand the power they have to change their lives, shift their legacy, and alter the course of history. In this episode, Suneera reveals the 3 steps to building a billion-dollar business, the TRUTH about why less than 2% of female founders make it to $1 Million, and much moreTopicsWhat makes the perfect co-founderShareholder agreementsAre you having fun?The tough task of raising investment as a womanAre accelerators worth the hype?Rebranding StaxKeeping your ego in checkCulture building“You have it”Are entrepreneurs born or bred?Suneera’s Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/suneeramadhani/CEO School:https://theceoschool.co/Stax:https://staxpayments.com/FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com

Tony Fadell is the creator of the iPod, co-creator of the iPhone, and founder of Nest Labs, which was acquired by Google for $3.2 Billion. Named as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2014, Tony believes that instead of building artificial platforms like the Metaverse, we need to focus on building products that fix and improve the real world.Tony’s first job out of college was such a disaster that it killed all new development in consumer-oriented personal computers for a decade. The next products he built were commercial failures, then he started his own company – a year before the .com bubble burst. But after 10 years he learned – with every team, every product, every disaster – how to design, manufacture, market and sell something people actually wanted.In this podcast, Tony goes deep on why failure is good, the problems with the metaverse, and the key to work/life balance and he also tells us his biggest regret. We’re so excited to bring you this interview with such an incredible entrepreneur and Unicorn. We know you’ll love this one, if you enjoy the episode all we ask is that you share it online so that we can help more people start and grow a business of their own. Enjoy!“You only fail if you give up. If you don’t give up and you learn from your mistakes, that’s a normal cycle of learning and it’s okay! Failure sounds like such a harsh word but I don’t see it that way. You only learn what you love to do by doing a lot of things that you don’t like doing.”TopicsReinventing yourselfFailureOvercoming fearWhen to quitHow to find balanceWorking with familyHow to find a co-founderNaming the book"Fuck the metaverse"Device AddictionSteve Jobs deleted Tony's numberDevice moderationDo you have any regrets?What do you want to learn?If you could interview anyone, who would it be?Get Tony’s Book ‘Build’:https://tonyfadell.com/https://amzn.to/3sP4s8V📚  FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com

Unicorn Podcast Trailer by Simon Squibb

Chris Barton is a well-respected entrepreneur and one of the masterminds behind the music recognition app, Shazam. Shazam was created in London over 20years ago and caught the interest of Apple who went on to purchase the technology for a speculated $400 million in 2017. The app is now among the most popular apps on both iPhone and Android with over 1 billion downloads to date. Chris’ career also includes companies such as Google where he worked for 8 years and Dropbox, where he held the position of head of mobile operators' business development. He has collected a wealth of knowledge and experience through his journey to make him a leading entrepreneur within the digital field and more specifically, mobile applications. He is now embarking on creating a new startup focused on machine learning and computer vision. In today’s special episode of The Unicorn Podcast, Chris tells his story of building software that was so ahead of it’s time, as well as giving you all the highs and lows of his career, so you have the knowledge you need to replicate his success for yourself. "Things take longer than you expect. You hit different hurdles and unknown things happen. Early revenue in your business is like oxygen. Make revenue for your business a priority from day one. If I had realised how important that was, even if it meant delaying my main vision, it would have been a better route to take." Topics: How Chris became an entrepreneur Chris’ unconventional start-up approach Shazam - How it went from an idea to a reality Shazam - Finding an engineer to ‘invent’ the technology Shazam - The four co-founders and their partnership dynamic Shazam - Allocating job roles Shazam - Raising funding Persistence + Timing Hiring CEO’s + getting out of your own way Chris’ new company ‘Guard’ Apple’s acquisition of Shazam What is it like after selling a company? Why Guard? One piece of advice to your younger self Chris Barton: https://chrisjbarton.com/ 📚 FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com

John Roberts is the Founder and CEO of AO World, the online retailer specialising in household appliances and electricals. AO operates following John’s two personal mottos of ‘treat every customer like your gran’ and ‘make your mum proud’, which has allowed the company to attain more 5* reviews than any other electrical retailer. John started AO in 2000 after a friend bet him £1 to set up a business. He had previously been working as a kitchen salesman, and the internet was just reaching mainstream utility, so he decided to set up a company that would sell appliances online. In 2014, Roberts led AO World’s listing on the London Stock Exchange, valued at the time at £1.2 billion. John has also supported Bolton Lads and Girls Club for 25 years, he’s a chairman at OnSide Youth Zones and a councillor at OneYoungWorld. Each of these organisations supports young people and aligns with John’s mission to leave the world a better place. In this episode, John gives us an in-depth insight into his life and career, as well as what it takes to build a billion-dollar company. “Be really clear about what it is that you’re going to do, and be awesome at it. Obsess about being awesome, and be clear on what problems you’re solving because If you’re going to be average at it… Well, there's a lot of average in the graveyard.” Topics: John’s early life The importance of learning Relationships and treating people fairly The £1 bet Why being interesting is everything Taking AO public The Metaverse/Web 3.0 John Roberts: https://twitter.com/johnrobertsao AO: https://twitter.com/ao

Anne Boden is the Founder and CEO of Starling Bank, a modern British bank that brings new technology to the forefront, delivering a more engaging experience for customers than traditional high-street banks. Since 2014, Anne’s vision has served more than 2.5 million customers as Starling continues to grow into one of the UK’s leading banks. In January of 2014, Anne decided to quit her job to pursue her vision of creating a better bank, defying all stereotypes of women in their 50s with a corporate background. Starting a bank is one of the most challenging businesses to launch, and people thought she was crazy, but Anne was determined to make it work. “I felt silly, I felt people would laugh at me for having this audacious goal. I didn’t just want to create a new bank, I wanted to create one that had the very best technology right from scratch, treated customers very fairly, with a new way of doing things and engaging with customers. Nobody believed me. Nobody thought it was possible.” Topics: Starling’s first steps Raising money + building a team Being a sole founder Building the technology ‘Banking on it’ - Book Securing the $48m investment Crypto What success looks like for Anne Work/life balance Are entrepreneurs born or bred? Luck Advice to her younger self Anne: https://www.instagram.com/anneboden/ https://twitter.com/anneboden Anne's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/BANKING-How-I-Disrupted-Industry-ebook/dp/B084H6N2GS Starling Bank: https://www.starlingbank.com/ 📚 FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com

In episode Adam Kamani is an award-winning property entrepreneur, start-up investor, mentor and CEO of Kamani Property Group, KM Capital and YourNxtDoor. He has just launched a next-gen property app called Move Streets.

In Season 2, Episode 12, Simon talks to Tom. Tom Mercer is the Founder of MOMA Foods, a London oat brand. Frustrated with the lack of quality breakfast on the market Tom decided to leave his job in the City and do something about it. MOMA was a genuine grassroots start-up – the first kitchen was under a railway arch in South London and the first retail outlet was a stall (made from a converted filing cabinet) in Waterloo station. MOMA is now the go-to premium porridge brand in the UK, the #1 bircher muesli brand, and a fast-growing player in burgeoning oat milk market Tom is from a farming family in Staffordshire, read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, and prior to MOMA worked as a management consultant for Bain & Co. In his personal life Tom is a proud husband and dad.