
The Founders Lounge
Imagine you are friends with some of the UK’s best entrepreneurs. Now imagine you can grab a drink with each of them and casually chat about business ideas, motivations, tactics, strategies and success habits. That’s what The Founders Lounge is all about. It provides real insights into the real day-to-day lives of real founders, CEOs and other business professionals every week. Hosted by Matic Jesenovec.
Latest episodes

Jun 14, 2022 • 59min
From 0 to $1M ARR in One Year With a Highly Profitable SEO Agency - Jeremy Moser | E49
Jeremy Moser is the CEO of Userp, an SEO agency that he scaled from 0 to $1.000.000 in ARR (annual recurring revenue) in just one year. They’ve worked with brands like Freshworks, ActiveCampaign, Monday.com, Robinhood, etc. He also owns a SaaS business called Wordable and he occasionally writes for Entrepreneur magazine.
In this episode, we talked about how to start an agency, how to increase an agency’s profitability, product business vs agency business, when to start focusing on SEO, and how to start doing SEO for your business with no special skills.
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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RESOURCES:
Jeremy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmoserr
Userp: https://userp.io/
Wordable: https://wordable.io/
On-site SEO analysis tool: https://sitechecker.pro/
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RECORDED: 27.5.2022
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)

Jun 7, 2022 • 1h 25min
Top 3 Startup Mistakes, Getting Superfans and Doing Your Best Work - Ash Phillips | E48
Ash Phillips is the founder of Diffrnt, which is a startup accelerator that doesn’t take equity and connects a global community of founders. He’s also a startup advisor, a board member at Ecologi, an angel investor with Ada Ventures, and he wears a few other hats.
In this episode we discussed Ash’s entrepreneurial journey, what are some of the most common mistakes that founders make, how to get superfans, how to build a community, how Ash got into angel investing, and how to stay productive and efficient. Ash also shares two business ideas for anyone to steal!
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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RESOURCES:
Follow Ash: https://twitter.com/asherphizzle
Ash on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvkaOXQFsgY9QsTTH1p-eWA
Dffrnt: https://dffrnt.so/
Ada Ventures: https://www.adaventures.com/
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RECORDED: 26.5.2022
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/DtA9rzhuBxE
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)

Jun 2, 2022 • 1h 33min
How to Start a SaaS Business (4 Steps From Idea to Launch) - Ch Daniel | E47
Daniel grew LegitCheck.app to 10M+ all-time users and over £200k in revenue with 0 marketing spend when he was just 23 years old. Currently, his main focus is building a no-code SaaS business Simple.ink. He’s also running the SaaS subreddit, hosting “The Usual SaaSpects” podcast and regularly tweeting about the things that he’s building.
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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RESOURCES:
https://twitter.com/chddaniel
https://legitcheck.app/
https://www.simple.ink/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/
https://anchor.fm/theusualsaaspects
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RECORDED: 25.5.2022
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)

May 24, 2022 • 55min
Building a £10M Bootstrapped Business in a Highly Competitive Market of Online Reviews - Callum McKeefery | E46
Callum McKeefery is the founder and CEO of Reviews.io, Fullpicture.io & Poet.so. In a highly competitive market of online reviews, he managed to bootstrap his business to £10M in revenue with over 65 employees globally. In the episode, he explains how they started the business, where he sees opportunities today, and how a self-funded business can compete against giants like Trustpilot with £100M+ in funding and large sales divisions.
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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RESOURCES:
Callum on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CallumMckeefery
https://www.reviews.io/
https://www.fullpicture.io/
https://poet.so/
https://www.leckey.com/
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RECORDED: 19.5.2022
VIDEO: hhttps://youtu.be/orQ4CZaQhB0

Apr 25, 2022 • 1h 25min
E-commerce with a twist and daily habits of a startup founder - Moritz Braatz | E45
Moritz Braatz is the founder and CEO of Noah - a London-based e-commerce company selling starter kits. Their vision is to empower customers to start something new and help them navigate the first steps of their new endeavors. Noah has been bootstrapped and profitable from the start, however, the two founders have big ambitions and decided to raise over £6M in VC funding to date to fuel their growth. We talked about everything from overcoming supply chain issues and raising funding with a “meme pitch deck”, to tactics & habits for the high performance of a startup founder.
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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RESOURCES:
Moritz’s company: https://noahsbox.com/
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RECORDED: 16.4.2022
VIDEO: hhttps://youtu.be/ch37aM-rMwU
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)

Apr 23, 2022 • 1h 9min
How to buy a website for $1000 and sell it for $10k - James Camp | E44
James Camp is a serial entrepreneur, growth expert, and startup mentor. He sold his largest business, a strategy consulting firm, in 2020 for $31 million. Since then he has been focusing mostly on flipping websites. He typically buys content websites for a few thousand dollars, increases their value, and then sells them for significantly more. In the episode we talk about his exact website flipping process, what are the pitfalls, and where he sees opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to buy a business instead of building it from scratch.
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Intro 00:01:00 How common are failures in business 00:02:30 Why wins matter in business 00:05:50 Difference between entrepreneurs and freelancers 00:07:00 How to determine whether your business will fail or succeed 00:13:00 Why Twitter is important for founders 00:15:50 From zero to million with website flipping 00:21:30 How to flip websites 00:22:30 Where and how to buy websites 00:29:00 What kind of websites you should buy 00:31:30 How to optimize websites 00:34:30 How to optimize website traffic 00:44:00 AI copywriting 00:50:00 Buying vs building a new business 00:52:00 How to sell a website 00:54:30 James's BIG exit 01:03:30 James's plan for the future
RESOURCES:
https://twitter.com/JamesonCamp
https://www.nanoflips.com/
https://builders.build/
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RECORDED: 6.4.2022
VIDEO: htthttps://youtu.be/B3IjbHeeAgE
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)

Apr 20, 2022 • 1h 25min
Building a business network, traits of successful founders & web3 - Matthew Stafford (9others) | E43
Matthew Stafford has been an angel investor since 2014. He is the creator of 9others, a network of 4,500+ entrepreneurs in 45+ cities that brings people together to share a meal and solve business problems. He also writes The Education of An Angel Investor newsletter.
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Intro
00:03:00 Networking and 9others
00:20:50 Is Twitter the best social media?
00:31:10 Top UK people to follow on Twitter
00:36:00 Start-up investing and traits of successful founders
00:54:40 Crypto, NFT’s and web3
01:20:00 NFT communities
RESOURCES:
Matthew on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mstafford
Newsletter about how Matthew thinks about investing: https://matthewstafford.substack.com
Matthew’s investment portfolio: www.stafford.vc
9others: https://9others.com
9others newsletter showing news and upcoming events: https://9others.substack.com
9others Twitter & Instagram: @9others
Chris Sacca: https://twitter.com/sacca
Hussein Kanji: https://twitter.com/hkanji
James Clark: https://twitter.com/mr_james_c
Matt Miller (Mills): https://twitter.com/millsustwo
Amy Lewin: https://twitter.com/amyrlewin
Anne-Marie Imafidon: https://twitter.com/aimafidon
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RECORDED: 4.4.2022
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/GAETmLVFDlc
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)

Apr 10, 2022 • 59min
What starting a €2M+ tech business teaches you about life - Antti Virolainen (Sharetribe) | E42
Antti Virolainen describes himself as an adventurous entrepreneur. He’s the co-founder of a Helsinki-based startup Sharetribe, often described as “the Shopify for marketplace businesses”. Over the years Sharetribe became a well-known brand among entrepreneurs. What makes Shartribe especially interesting is that the founders are not afraid of taking unconventional approaches to funding and culture-building, in order to build a transparent, profitable, and purpose-driven business.
---
➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Intro
00:03:30 How Sharetribe started
00:13:20 Sharetribe's funding structure
00:23:30 SaaS branding
00:29:00 Advice for marketplace start-ups
00:33:40 Transparency in business
00:44:40 Personal growth as a founder
00:53:00 Potential business ideas
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RECORDED: 17.3.2022
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/3DBXLXMsOGQ
Marketing: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
Postproduction: Jon Razinger (https://www.instagram.com/jonrazinger/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)

Mar 24, 2022 • 48min
Zelia Leong: Building habit-forming products and finding high-profile startup advisors (PraisePal) - E41
Zelia Leong started her career in the controversial yet highly ambitious European “startup factory” Rocket Internet. After that, she co-founded a “surprise trips” startup Anywhr, which she was running successfully for a few years until they had to put it on hold during the Covid19 pandemic. That’s when the idea for her current startup, PraisePal, was born. PraisePal is a workplace recognition and rewards tool for high-growth tech teams. In less than 2 years they managed to onboard over 10.000 teams onto their product and they continue to grow rapidly.
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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RECORDED: 16.3.2022
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/M9O6Enl6Mgg
Marketing: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
Postproduction: Jon Razinger (https://www.instagram.com/jonrazinger/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)

Feb 11, 2022 • 56min
Elijah Toh: Scaling to $1M in 1 year without ads, hiring A players and growing Wolt - E40
Elijah currently works as a Regional Marketing Director at Wolt. He previously worked in senior growth and marketing roles at some of the fastest-growing startups in the world, such as Deliveroo, Uber, and WorldRemit. He also started his own craft beer distribution startup which he scaled to $1M in sales in just one year, without any paid advertising, and then sold it.
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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 Who is Elijah00:05:00 From Uber to the most successful start-up in Finland00:13:00 How to hire high-performing employees00:27:50 Elijah's million-dollar craft beer start-up story00:35:20 How to grow business organically00:41:50 What kind of workspace creates the best work culture?00:48:50 New business opportunities
RECORDED: 3.2.2022
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/FmvOI1ta6KQ
Marketing: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)
Postproduction: Jon Razinger (https://www.instagram.com/jonrazinger/)
YouTube thumbnail: Filip Urek (filip.urek@gmail.com)
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