Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Pietro Bezza is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of thesis-led venture capital firm, Connect Ventures. Specialising in investing in seed companies, Connect was the first to invest in unicorns such as TrueLayer, Typeform and Oyster. Long-time listeners will be aware that this is not the first time we have had a member of the Connect Ventures team on the show. In fact, in Season 2 we invited Sitar Teli to discuss all things product. This time round though we invited Pietro onto the show to double down on product and to discuss a myriad of different subjects. In fact, the episode kicks off with James and Hector learning about how cheese played an essential part during the early part of Pietros career. Following this, the trio also go on to cover the topics of whether founders should be using Doc Send and if having board members is worth it or not. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast never to miss an episode. Also, don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about. On this weeks episode we will be discussing Deployed, which is looking to help simplify the way we write and build effective dialogue. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Joe Curtis is the Director and Co-Founder of 11 Investments, a seed-stage investment and accelerator program for recruitment businesses. Not content with one running one recruitment business Joe also works as a Director at Recruiter Labs, a recruitment consultancy business that he also co-founded and as if that wasn't enough he also finds time for a third role, that of Director at 3Search. All in all then we think it is fair to say that when it comes to speaking on the topic of recruitment there is no one better than Joe. James sat down with Joe to discuss what led him into recruitment, why he chose to bootstrap his businesses and what he is looking to achieve in the long term. The pair also go on to discuss some of the common misconceptions of recruitment, why founders should look to build strong relationships with recruiters and how to develop a strong culture within an agency model. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about. This weeks episode features the co-founders of Inveztor, Katee Hunter-Sharpe and Alastair Sharpe. Inveztor is developing a simple, efficient and collaborative digital platform for issuing and maintaining European debt securities. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Yoko Spirig is the co-founder & CEO of Ledgy, an equity management and investor relations platform for startups and high-growth companies. Yoko comes from a Physics background and such was her proclivity for the subject as a student that she was invited to become the project lead of Swissloop, an initiative which was looking to build the first Hyperloop pod in Switzerland. Upon graduating Yoko and her co-founders Ben-Elias Brandt and Timo Horstschaefer, who she met at university decided to launch Ledgy to help scaling companies make ownership simple. Since its launch in 2017 the company has gone on to secure investment from the likes of Sequoia and a number of high profile angel investors. Clients to-date have included Wefox, Kry, Bitpanda, Gorillas and Trade Republic.The boys invited Yoko onto the show to better understand what problem Ledgy is trying to solve, how long it took the founders to validate their idea and how they were able to attract investors early on. Yoko then goes on to explain how the culture at the company continues to evolve and what she is looking to achieve as a founder, both in the present and in the future. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Welcome back to our latest Startup Spotlight, an entirely new series, which will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about. This weeks episode features Awabah, a digital pension platform for self-employed Africans. The co-founder & CEO Tunji Andrews joins us to explain exactly what the business does and how be plans to achieve his big vision. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Matthew Wilson is the Co-CEO and Co-founder of Omnipresent, one of the leading global HR providers. Matthew is an experienced entrepreneur and in fact had, prior to Omnipresent, already founded and run a number of businesses including an enterprise software business. Matthew launched Omnipresent alongside his fellow co-founder, Guenther Eisinger, in the hope of solving many of the challenges companies face when managing a remote team. His work and career achievements have been recognised by Forbes who in 2019 named him in their 30 under 30 list.The Oxford alum sat down with James and Hector to discuss what it was like to launch a company in the midst of a pandemic and some of the practical steps he undertook to accelerate growth. Matthew also went on to explain why he isn't afraid of operating in such a competitive space and what future opportunities lie ahead for Omnipresent. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Riding Unicorns is delighted to announce an entirely new series called Start-up Spotlight. These new weekly bitesize episodes will provide you with an insight into a company that we are very excited about. Our very first Start-up Spotlight episode features Raffi Salama from Passionfruit, a UK-based Gen Z freelancing platform that recently closed a seed round of $4.3m. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Ben Kaminski is a Partner at leading technology investment firm, Target Global. Prior to joining the firm, Ben spent over a decade working in Investment Banking where he was responsible for overseeing several high-profile M&A transactions. At Target Global since 2018 Ben now heads up the firm's dedicated Mobility 2.0 Fund. His investments include Auto1, Delivery Hero,  GoEuro, Flink and numerous others. As well as all this Ben still finds the time to be an active angel investor in over a dozen startups across a number of segments, including mobility, logistics, marketplaces and software. Ben stopped by to discuss his time at Goldman Sachs, why crisis often leads to opportunity and open up on the mistakes he has made as an angel investor. James and Hector also probe deeper into what makes Target Global different to other firms, what the future of mobility will look like and Ben’s career objectives.Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.

Tom Wilson is a Partner at Seedcamp, an early stage seed fund investing in European businesses that are solving real problems using technology. Prior to his time in Venture, Tom worked in Law where he specialised in VC fundraising and M&A. Since joining Seedcamp In 2014 Tom has been helping the fund source and select companies to invest in at the early stage of their inception. Some of their investments to-date include UiPath, Wise, Hopin and Revolut. We invited Tom on the show to discuss the Seedcamp model, look back on how the fund has evolved throughout the years and to better understand the core characteristics of what they look for in a founder and a business. During the episode we also go on to learn how the fund plans to scale in the next few years, what it is about the team dynamic that works so well and their plans for the future. Make sure to like and subscribe to the Riding Unicorns podcast to never miss an episode. Also don't forget to give Riding Unicorns a follow on Twitter and LinkedIn to keep on top of the latest developments.