This Much I Know - The Seedcamp Podcast

"[When hiring,] you're asking someone you've just met to effectively babysit your child. That's the sort of trust you need to have...you're effectively giving them your baby to help it scale." — Duncan Finlayson, Partner @ True Hiring top-tier talent for your startup is arguably as important as developing a good product. A new hire is a big investment that affects a team's productivity and a company's culture. Startups can't afford the cost of a bad hire so recruiting wisely is essential, albeit extremely difficult. Duncan Finlayson, a partner at True, a global executive search firm with over 15 offices worldwide, spends his days helping fast-growing companies find top-tier talent. In this episode of This Much I Know, Duncan sits down with Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal to discuss the best ways to work with recruiters and hire talent for scaling teams. His go-to advice? Hire people who are willing to put skin in the game. An eagerness for equity can be a very good sign. Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Duncan Finlayson - twitter.com/FinlaysonDuncan Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com True - www.trueplatform.com

Humans are innately community-seeking. It's why we section off into groups on playgrounds, congregate around political leaders, and build families, biological or otherwise. Communities add value, and membership goes far beyond group identity; it even drives purchasing decisions. From clothing and bottled water to open-source software, community is a powerful tool for company building, and one that no founder should underestimate. "No two communities are the same," Seedcamp's community manager Precious Oyelade tells us. "Yet there are repeatable steps and actions you can do to make one work." And this is what Seedcamp's newest series, "Precious on Community" seeks to dive into. Over the few episodes, Precious will be interviewing community builders from all walks of life to share findings and document key learnings about how to build an effective community. Welcome to Precious on Community. Shownotes and links: - Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee - Precious Oyelade - twitter.com/preciousolade - Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com - Seedcamp's This Much I Know with GORUCK: seedcamp.com/podcasts/this-much-i-know-founder-ceo-of-goruck-jason-mccarthy-on-building-community-and-walking-the-harder-path - Tribes, Seth Godin - goodreads.com/book/show/3828382-tribes - How to build a community with people - www.gettogether.world

“That’s what gets us super excited — being able to see a product that fits a very specific need in the market, that even if it’s built super roughly, already exposes the needs that the founder has identified.” Few know the B2B venture space in Europe better than Point Nine Capital. From Delivery Hero and Zendesk, which both IPO’d, to Typeform, Clio, and Vend, the Point Nine team knows how to spot a startup poised for growth. As an early-stage investor at Seedcamp, Cherry, and now as a partner at Point Nine, Ricardo Sequerra Amram spends his days speaking with founders who are at the pre-version 1.1 development stage of a product. In this episode of This Much I Know, Carlos Espinal dives into how Ricardo assesses these bare-bone prototypes and determines their viability to scale. “A magical moment throughout our due-diligence is when we are going through the product with the founder and he is explaining to us why he built such a feature first and why exactly is it that this particular part of the product is important for the prototype, and why he didn’t build the other feature,” Ricardo says. “That’s where the clarity of thought and insight that was generated throughout years of industry experience comes out.” Listen in as Ricardo and Carlos discuss Ricardo’s path into venture capital, and how Point Nine thinks about what makes up a backable prototype and successful B2B entrepreneur. Links Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Point Nine - www.pointnine.com Ricardo Sequerra Amram - twitter.com/ric0seq B2B SaaS Napkin - https://medium.com/point-nine-news/what-does-it-take-to-raise-capital-in-saas-in-2019-26829debef29

“B2B is all about social science and social context. It’s counterintuitive because you’d think that is B2C but in B2C, it’s more about the vision and brand and riding on this huge wave that is building up in the viral market. In B2B it comes down to people. If you have the ability to observe, listen, shut-up, and work your way from that, that’s the biggest asset that founders can have in terms of catering their solution to what is needed in the market.” — Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Founding Partner @ La Famiglia VC La Famiglia VC doesn’t believe in conformist bets. Led by Dr. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg alongside partner Judith Dala, the fund invests in contrarian ideas that enable radical change within the B2B sector. “What we really want to see is founders with bold and transformative visions that have something in their character and in their nature that wills the future into being,” Jeannette explains. Since its start in 2017, the fund has closed two funds and invested in dozens of companies, including several co-investments with Seedcamp in data collaboration platform Graphy and employee service platform Back. In this episode of This Much I Know, Carlos speaks to Jeannette and Judith about their current sector interests, the role of sustainability in VC, and La Famiglia’s view on what makes a good founder. Having both studied social science at university, Jeannette and Judith also discuss the importance of thinking about social context when investing in and founding B2B companies. Links Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Jeannette zu Fürstenberg - linkedin.com/in/jeannette-zu-f%C3%BCrstenberg-a4227a17a/ Judith Dada - twitter.com/dadajudith Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com La Famiglia VC - www.lafamiglia.vc | twitter.com/lafamigliaVC La Famiglia’s newest fund - https://sifted.eu/articles/la-famiglia-50m-fund/

Not many people know that Evan Frank introduced our now-managing partners Carlos Espinal and Reshma Sohoni to each other during Seedcamp’s infancy. Even fewer are aware that Reshma was his first boss in NYC. And virtually no one (likely not even the Seedcamp Team) knows that Evan was single-handedly responsible for onboarding Seedcamp onto Gmail. But Evan Frank’s accomplishments far surpass his influence on Seedcamp’s leadership and tech-stack. After leaving a career in growth equity in 2010, he co-founded onefinestay, a pioneering brand in the alternative accommodation industry, offering short-term stays in high-end urban real estate. After raising $80M from Index Ventures, Canaan Partners, and Hyatt Hotels, onefinestay was acquired by Accor hotels for $200M in 2016. Following the acquisition, Evan was appointed CEO, running the global organisation with over 500 employees. Throughout this founder journey, Evan learned about building company culture through servant leadership and scaling operations using OKRs. Today, he sits down with Seedcamp’s Carlos Espinal to discuss his growth journey to-date and share what he’s up to now building Okra Labs, a firm helping teams incorporate KPI-driven goal setting & management frameworks. Links: Carlos Espinal - www.twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com Evan Frank - www.twitter.com/evanbfrank Evan Frank Website - www.evanfrank.co Okra Labs - www.okralabs.com The Balance - www.thebalance.io Google’s OKR Playbook - www.whatmatters.com/resources/google-okr-playbook John Doerr’s What Matters - www.whatmatters.com

The world of financial services is changing. From managing taxes to saving for retirement, the way in which we manage our money is being disrupted from all angles. And for good reason — a 2019 survey by the World Economic Forum found that only 28 percent of millennials and Gen Zs trust their banks to be ‘fair and honest’. The dissatisfaction with traditional financial institutions has led to a wave of consumers looking to fintechs for a better service. Seedcamp portfolio company TaxScouts is providing a stress-free alternative to Self Assessment tax returns by combining admin automation with certified accountants for a low cost, fixed fee of £119 - a fraction of the cost of traditional accountants. Plum, in its own words, gives banks a brain. Through its AI-powered assistant, Plum helps customers set aside money, invest, and save on bills. In our most recent episode of This Much I Know, Carlos is joined by the founders of TaxScouts and Plum, Mart Abramov - aka ‘Tram’ - and Victor Trokoudes, to share insights on how their respective companies are making money work for everyone. Both Transferwise alumni, Tram and Victor talk about their routes to founderhood and debate their views on the re- (or de-) bundling of finance. More Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com TaxScouts - www.taxscouts.com Plum - www.withplum.com Tram - https://twitter.com/TramWasHere Viktor - https://twitter.com/vmtrok

‘We’re not a backpack company. We are a community and real brand.” — Jason McCarthy Jason McCarthy never set out to start an outdoor gear company. After university, he decided to serve in the US army, where he eventually became a Green Beret across Iraq, West Africa, and Europe. While serving in the Army Special Forces, McCarthy started making go-backs, now known as a go-ruck, for his friends and family who were stationed in high-danger zones. In 2008, he transitioned out of the Army and began searching for his next challenge. His wife told him to ‘do the go-ruck thing.’ The ‘go-ruck thing’ turned into GORUCK, a gear company that empowers real world communities to something greater than themselves. In addition to building some of the most durable and versatile gear in the industry, GORUCK emphasizes its commitment to community through events, GORUCK clubs, and content creation. Most recently, it launched the GORUCK Tribe, a program focused on strengthening mind, body, and spirit. In the most recent episode of This Much I Know, Carlos is joined by founder and CEO Jason McCarthy to discuss how he built a loyal community around a brand, how to find meaning in the beauty of shared pain, and what 2021 has in store for GORUCK. In his own words, ‘2020 was pain on the world’s terms. In 2021, we fight back.” Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com GORUCK - www.goruck.com The State of 2020, GORUCK - blog.goruck.com/news/state-of-goruck-2020-chaos-is-opportunity/ GORUCK Tribe - goruck.com/pages/tribe The Standard, Doc. Trailer - youtube.com/watch?v=KCtxMnO142M

Can I lead the company I started? It’s a question founders and their investors ask themselves a lot. While most founders (four out of five, to be exact) want to stick around as CEOs of their own ventures, more than half are pushed out by the time their company is three years old. Of course, founder-CEOs do exist: Phil Knight, Anne Wojcicki, Reed Hastings, the list goes on. Mike McDerment, Co-Founder and CEO of Freshbooks, is one of those exceptions to the rule. Back in 2003, while running a small design firm, McDerment became frustrated with the process of billing his clients. Unsatisfied with the solutions on the market, he decided to build his own: Freshbooks. Today, Freshbooks helps more than 24 million SME customers send, receive, print, and pay invoices. Throughout the company’s 17-year life, McDerment has served as CEO. He has seen the ups and downs of building and scaling a business. Today, Carlos gets a chance to dig into some of the biggest lessons learned throughout McDerment’s Freshbooks career. They discuss how Freshbooks acquired early customers without a sales department, how the team approached product development for the highly-fragmented SME market, and how McDerment balances life as a parent and CEO. Listen and learn, McDerment has ample wisdom to share! Links: Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Freshbooks - twitter.com/freshbooks | freshbooks.com Mike McDerment - linkedin.com/in/mike-McDerment-68895a1/ Seedcamp - seedcamp.com HBS Founders Dilemma - hbr.org/2008/02/the-founders-dilemma

Your team is the single biggest determining factor for your startup’s success. Building a great product, unlocking market potential, and attracting loyal customers require expertise and hustle from within. And, no, we do not just mean from within the founding team. Individuals across departments and seniority levels determine whether your company rises to stardom or flops miserably. To attract and retain the right talent, startups use employee ownership as an incentive scheme. Stock options have become tech’s currency. There is a common fear among founders that dilution resulting from a sizable stock option pool is too costly. Though, in reality, it is too costly not to incentivise your team properly. Competition for top talent is just too high to afford doing so. At Seedcamp, we firmly believe that employee ownership is an essential ingredient in advancing the European startup ecosystem. This is why, in the following two episodes of Legal Hour, we dive into the nitty-gritty of employee incentive schemes. Joined by Ian Shaw, a partner at Orrick who heads the London employee share schemes and incentives practice, Tom and Carlos discuss everything founders need to know about designing an effective option plan. In this second episode, they dig into specifics around tax structures and option plan structures. Links: Ian Shaw - linkedin.com/in/ian-shaw-6ba480a9/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Tom Wilson - twitter.com/tom_wils Index Ventures Rewarding Talent Handbook - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Index Ventures OptionPlan - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com

Your team is the single biggest determining factor for your startup’s success. Building a great product, unlocking market potential, and attracting loyal customers require expertise and hustle from within. And, no, we do not just mean from within the founding team. Individuals across departments and seniority levels determine whether your company rises to stardom or flops miserably. To attract and retain the right talent, startups use employee ownership as an incentive scheme. Stock options have become tech’s currency. There is a common fear among founders that dilution resulting from a sizable stock option pool is too costly. Though, in reality, it is too costly not to incentivize your team properly. Competition for top talent is just too high to afford doing so. At Seedcamp, we firmly believe that employee ownership is an essential ingredient in advancing the European startup ecosystem. This is why, in the following two episodes of Legal Hour, we dive into the nitty-gritty of employee incentive schemes. Joined by Ian Shaw, a partner at Orrick who heads the London employee share schemes and incentives practice, Tom and Carlos discuss everything founders need to know about designing an effective option plan. In this first episode, the trio clarifies definitions and types of agreements needed to understand the space. Put the kettle on and listen in! Links: Ian Shaw - linkedin.com/in/ian-shaw-6ba480a9/ Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee Tom Wilson - twitter.com/tom_wils Index Ventures Rewarding Talent Handbook - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Index Ventures OptionPlan - indexventures.com/rewardingtalent/handbook Seedcamp - www.seedcamp.com