This Much I Know - The Seedcamp Podcast

In the crowded marketplaces of food and retail, how do you carve out space for independent new brands? For Jenny Costa, founder of Rubies in the Rubble, and Alex Mezger, director at the family managed Jude's Ice Cream, the answer lies in competing on the best quality products possible and relying on an authentic messaging. Since 2011, Rubies in the Rubble has been producing high quality relishes and jams out of surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste. The business has gone from concocting recipes in home kitchens to selling in some of the UK's leading retailers and nailing deals with giants like Virgin. It has been important, Jenny says, to bring an authentic vibrancy to the brand, ensuring the product did not get 'lost in the supermarket shelves'. Similarly for Alex at Jude's Ice Cream, the priority is in delighting customers. 'If it's down to price and price alone, we'll walk away,' he says. The business began as a family-run affair and remains that way. 'In terms of working wth family, it's grounded in respect and knowing each others' strengths, and working to these', says Alex. Jude's also 'massively over-invests in innovation' – leading to experiments like their black coconut flavour. Listen to learn more about navigating supply chain difficulties, nailing brand messaging, managing the compromises between price and quality, and the secrets behind running successful food brands. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Rubies in the Rubble: www.rubiesintherubble.com Jude's Ice Cream: www.judes.co.uk Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Jenny: linkedin.com/in/jenny-costa-685b474a Alex: linkedin.com/in/alex-mezger-a26558

Susan is a Partner at CrunchFund, the seed-stage fund launched by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington which has invested in the likes of Airbnb, Vine (acquired by Twitter), Cruise (acquired by GM for a reported $1 billion), Onfido and X.ai. Previously, Susan worked at Y Combinator and as the Director of Global Programming at TechCrunch where she focused on major events and the Startup Battlefield. Susan began her career as a teacher in Southern California before making a major transition in 2004 to join a hardware startup based in the UK and Silicon Valley. Susan was the first non-engineering hire at both Codian (acquired by Tandberg in 2007, then by Cisco Systems in 2008) and at CoTweet (acquired by ExactTarget in 2010, then by Salesforce.com in 2013). Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Susan discusses her intriguing transition from teaching to venture, arguing that both disciplines require being quick on one's feet and the capacity to connect well with others. Recalling her experiences working at several acquired companies, Susan argues that a successful acquisition requires a level of autonomy for the acquired company post-purchase: "Never leave very smart people with nothing to do because they will very quickly get bored, especially if they are entrepreneurial, and start something else." Given CrunchFund's journalistic origins, the firm also spends a lot of time supporting portfolio founders in 'storytelling', and Susan discusses just how the fund helps entrepreneurs craft their narrative. Learn more about how Susan ended up in venture (following encouragement by Y Combinator's Sam Altman), her time leading global programming for TechCrunch and what CrunchFund focuses on in looking for new companies to back. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com CrunchFund: www.cf.vc Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Susan: linkedin.com/in/susanhobbs/ / twitter.com/slh

There's no 'blueprint' for how to spot a great startup says Sonali De Rycker, General Partner at Accel, one of the world's leading venture capital funds with investments in the likes of Facebook, Spotify and Supercell to name but a few. Sonali joined Accel almost a decade ago from Atlas Ventures and is an expert in consumer, software and financial services businesses. Starting out at Goldman Sachs, described as both a rewarding yet challenging environment to be in, Sonali shares the story of her early career before getting 'the bug' to work in VC in Europe. Speaking with Seedcamp Managing Partner, Carlos Espinal, Sonali talks about the distinct lack of companies in London when she started out and how the ecosystem has evolved over the years. Tune in to hear insider information from Sonali on how best to run a scaling startup including information on boards, the need to listen - and not always fight to be heard - along with tips on fundraising and setting milestones. Learn more about the culture in the Nordics and why there've been so many successful companies to emerge from the region along with Sonali's guiding belief that people create their own destiny. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Accel: https://www.accel.com/ Related bio links: Carlos: twitter.com/cee Sonali: twitter.com/sonalidr

Following the recent announcement of our fourth fund which at first close of £41M is over 2x larger than our last and 20x bigger than our first, we are joined by Seedcamp partners Reshma Sohoni, Carlos Espinal, Tom Wilson and Sia Houchangnia who share our plans to invest in 100 new startups across Europe and take a look back at how the European ecosystem has evolved over the ten years since Seedcamp launched. Seedcamp Fund IV brings together 60 LPs and features big business, venture capitalists and fund of funds from across the globe. Tune in to hear how Seedcamp has innovated its own offering which includes an increase in capital it will invest across pre-seed and seed stages and approval to invest in crypto tokens. Read more about Seedcamp IV: http://seedcamp.com/seedcamp-iv-welcoming-the-next-generation-of-european-talent-with-our-biggest-and-boldest-seed-fund/ Partner bios: Reshma Sohoni: http://seedcamp.com/team/reshmasohoni/ | twitter.com/rsohoni Carlos Espinal :http://seedcamp.com/team/carloseduardoespinal/ | twitter.com/cee Tom Wilson: http://seedcamp.com/team/tom-wilson/ | twitter.com/tom_wils Sia Houchangnia: http://seedcamp.com/team/sia-houchangnia/ l twitter.com/siahouchangnia

Scott Brown is a veritable marketing guru, with decades of experience as an executive in Silicon Valley working with some of the world’s largest tech companies including the likes of Facebook, Cisco and Google during their hyper-growth phases. Speaking to partner Carlos Espinal, Scott -- who worked closely alongside dozens of Seedcamp companies on scaling their marketing, and go-to-market strategies during his time as Expert in Residence -- discusses how companies can nail the marketing fundamentals through his three laws: going back to the roots, building out a customer infrastructure, and documenting & experimenting. "Consumers have so many options and channels these days that you need to hit them where they live," Scott argues. The answer to this lies in what he calls 'economies of content': "content is relatively expensive to create, yet distribution is becoming cheaper; so it becomes a marketing principle of how do you reduce, recycle and re-use that content across as many channels as you can." But pointing towards the evolution of the practice of marketing and skill sets involved, Scott cautions that because founders and marketers are so 'focused on what's coming next, they can lose sight of marketing fundamentals'. Listen in for tangible steps and advice you can apply to your own business. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Scott's blogposts: www.linkedin.com/in/rsbrown7/detail/recent-activity/posts Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Scott: linkedin.com/in/rsbrown7 / twitter.com/rsbrown7

Entrepreneur and former education consultant Lucy Stonehill experienced first-hand the pain points inherent in navigating the transition to higher education when she was an international student applying abroad herself. Confusing and opaque, the process has been largely pen-and-paper based for decades. Solving this pain point was the genesis of her company BridgeU, a tool which empowers schools to provide more intelligent, data-driven university and careers guidance than ever before. In this live podcast, recorded to mark the fifth anniversary of Campus London, Lucy explains how BridgeU came about, and how it leverages data and innovation to better serve the education market. Seedcamp invested in BridgeU in 2014 and, speaking to partner Carlos Espinal, Lucy explains their journey from the company's early days through to internationalisation and growth -- culminating recently in a $5.3m Series A round. 'Seed investors really feel fundamentally focused on the vision and potential,' she says, 'while Series A more about the numbers' -- yet those numbers piece only get the door open, she notes. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com BridgeU: www.bridge-u.com Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Lucy: linkedin.com/in/lucy-stonehill-80434924 / twitter.com/lucystonehill

In 2004 polar explorer Ben Saunders - aged 26 - became the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole, carrying a 180kg sled over 1,420 miles through arctic conditions. Between October 2013 and February 2014, alongside Tarka L'Herpiniere, he made another record-breaking expedition, completing the first ever return journey to the South Pole from Ross Island. In November 2017 he faces his next daunting challenge: the first solo and unsupported crossing of Antarctica. What lessons can we take from from Ben's expeditions -- 11 so far -- for entrepreneurs? There are resemblances to the founder's journey in terms of fundraising processes, preparation for operational complexities, enduring extremity, and the management of teams. "I wasn't only the CEO - I was the product, the thing we were shipping at the end of it," he says. Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Ben discusses lessons learnt from his expeditions and the entrepreneurial parallels. "Self belief is something like a muscle - it kind of responds to being challenged", he argues. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Ben Saunders: www.bensaunders.com Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Ben: wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Saunders_(explorer) / twitter.com/polarben

At Seedcamp, we are passionate about identifying and investing early in startups using emerging technologies that have the potential to solve real problems. We began to invest in companies using blockchain technologies back in 2014 and our portfolio includes the likes of Clause, building the dynamic contracting infrastructure of the future, to Elliptic, providing the forensic tools with which to identify illicit activity on the blockchain. And we believe that there are several iconic companies of the future using blockchain technologies that are yet to be built. If you missed our event on blockchain, tokens and ICOs, tune in to hear from our stimulating investor panel including Mariano Belinky (Managing Partner, Santander InnoVentures), Yann Ranchere (Partner, Anthemis Group) and Richard Muirhead (OpenOcean). The panel joins Carlos Espinal and Sia Houchangnia, and is introduced by Kyran Schmidt, from Seedcamp. And check out our Facebook page for the live video of all the panels from the event: www.facebook.com/seedcamp Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Santander InnoVentures: www.santanderinnoventures.com Anthemis Group: www.anthemis.com OpenOcean: www.openocean.vc Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Sia: linkedin.com/in/siahouchangnia / twitter.com/siahouchangnia Mariano: linkedin.com/in/mbelinky / twitter.com/belimad Yann: linkedin.com/in/yannranchere / twitter.com/tek_fin Richard: linkedin.com/in/richardmuirhead / twitter.com/richardmuirhead

At Seedcamp, we are passionate about identifying and investing early in startups using emerging technologies that have the potential to solve real problems. We began to invest in companies using blockchain technologies back in 2014 and our portfolio includes the likes of Clause, building the dynamic contracting infrastructure of the future, to Elliptic, providing the forensic tools with which to identify illicit activity on the blockchain. And we believe that there are several iconic companies of the future using blockchain technologies that are yet to be built. If you missed our event on blockchain, tokens and ICOs, tune in to hear from our lively founder panel including Peter Hunn (CEO of Clause), Irra Ariella Khi (CEO of Vchain), Richard Burton (CEO of Balance) and Ben Livshits (Chief Scientist at Brave). The panel is moderated by Kyran Schmidt and Sia Houchangnia from Seedcamp. And check out our Facebook page for the live video of all the panels from the event: www.facebook.com/seedcamp Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Vchain: www.vchain.tech Clause: www.clause.io Balance: www.balancemy.money Brave: www.brave.com Related bio links: Sia: linkedin.com/in/siahouchangnia / twitter.com/siahouchangnia Kyran: linkedin.com/in/kyran-schmidt / twitter.com/kyranschmidt Irra: linkedin.com/in/irraariellakhi / twitter.com/irra_k Peter: linkedin.com/in/peterhunn / twitter.com/peterhunn Richard: linkedin.com/in/richardjburton / twitter.com/ricburton Ben: linkedin.com/in/ben-livshits / twitter.com/convoluted_code

With the recent proliferation of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), financing mechanisms for decentralised protocols and applications we are seeing teams raise millions pre-product and with little more than a white paper. What are the dangers with this? On that theme, Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal and analyst Kyran Schmidt are joined by Dmitry Koval, Founder and CEO at Blockwise, a company specialising in blockchain consultancy and software development. Dmitry is a serial entrepreneur and investor with a track record of creating successful businesses in IT, Insurance, Cloud and Blockchain. He is a Non Executive Director at Sweatcoin, a company building a digital currency backed by physical movement. Addressing the recent rise in Initial Coin Offerings, financing mechanisms for decentralised protocols and applications, Dmitry Koval argues that the model is only suited to certain types of projects: those where a token has an 'intrinsic' value tied to the growth of the network, and where 'there is an intrinsic economy in the system'. Dmitry also dissects which business use cases are best suited to blockchain implementations, claiming 'there has to be some multiparty ecosystem, with several parties involved in the process... and even better, or necessary, if they have intrinsic conflicts of interest.' Learn more about the machinery of blockchain and distributed applications, the evolution in ICOs, and the how the regulatory impact will affect new blockchain protocols. Show notes: Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3 Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com Blockwise: www.blockwise.org Sweatcoin: www.sweatco.in Related bio links: Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee Dmitry: linkedin.com/in/kovaldmitry / twitter.com/dmitrykoval