Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Lucas London is the co-founder & CEO at the UK’s fastest-growing home decor startup, Lick London. The brand is revolutionising the interiors sector with their unique community-driven ethos, content-rich approach and high-touch quality support. Lucas started out in investment banking before going on to cut his teeth at a host of tech startups. In 2020 Lucas and his fellow co-founder Sam Bradley launched Lick Home and it has quickly grown to become one of the most desirable home decor brands. James invited Lucas on Riding Unicorns to find out more about the company's internal processes, the key hires they made in the early days and its future plans post pandemic. 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.

Mustafa Khanbhai is a Venture Partner at Seamlessly, a VC looking to help companies launch, source & scale sustainably. Mustafa for his part is an experienced corporate development and business leader. Prior to joining Seamlessly Mustafa worked at Uber and helped it grow to the business powerhouse we know it to be today. Elsewhere Mustafa spent 5 years at Virgin helping them launch businesses within the Health Care, Financial Services and Consumer Technical Support sectors.The LSE alumni stopped by Riding Unicorns to share some anecdotes from his illustrious and varied career. We go one to hear about Mustafas experiences whilst on the factory floor at a pet plant to the time he met the one and only Travis Kalanick.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.

Sam Hodges is the Growth Director at men's health company, Numan. Founded in 2018 Numan has quickly become the go-to place for men looking to treat all manner of health issues such as hair loss, gut and lung health and nutritional deficiencies. The company's honest and modern approach to healthcare, fuelled in part by Sam expertise in Performance & Multichannel Marketing, has seen it become one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK. In this episode James and Sam focus on the topic of growth, predominantly what it means, how to become a growth specialist and how to build out a successful growth team.  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.

Paul Lindley OBE is Founder of organic baby and toddler food brand, Ella’s Kitchen. Before turning Ella’s Kitchen into a company with a global turnover of over $100 million the entrepreneur worked as deputy managing director of Nickelodeon UK. Away from work Paul is a committed philanthropist. He is currently the Chair for Robert F Kennedy Human Rights UK and a Trustee of Sesame Workshop, a Board member of social enterprise Toast Ale and Counsellor at One Young World and a Director of Bite the Ballot to name but a few. James sat down with Paul for a fascinating chat, which covered his early career, how and why he started Ella's Kitchen and why he believes business can be a driver for positive change within society. 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.

Hector Mason is an Investor at Episode 1 Ventures, a seed stage Venture Capital fund, whose previous investments include Carwow, Attest, Zoopla and Shazam. Prior to his time at Episode 1 Hector tried his hand at being a founder and after a couple of attempts, one of which included a successful exit Hector decided to move into consultancy before finally settling on venture capital. Since his move Hector has been slowly making a name for himself as one of the most adept early stage investors in the U.K. Hector sat down with James to open up on his time as an entrepreneur, his meteoric rise in venture and what he looks for when investing. Hector also opened up about his plans for The Seed Stage, a demo day he created to help founders optimise their round and generate term sheets. 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.

Jeff Kelisky is the CEO at equity crowdfunding platform, Seedrs. Jeff is an experienced executive whose track record in building, leading and scaling successful technology businesses has made him one of the most revered figures in his space. Before joining Seedrs, Jeff was CEO for Picsolve and Multimap, the latter of which he led through a successful sale to Microsoft. In this our sixth ever episode we discuss with Jeff his remarkable career, what it was like selling a business to Microsoft and what impact the Seedrs/Crowdcube merger will have on private market investing.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.

Vlad Tropko is a Partner at Digital Horizon, a new generation international venture company focused on B2B software based companies in fintech, retail and e-commerce. Vlad is a seasoned VC executive with over 15 years of experience with particular expertise in European and American startups. As well as this Vlad is also an Investor at companies such as Advisable, Bnext, and Ably.Vlad joined Riding Unicorns to explain the composition of his preferred founder, what founders get wrong when pitching to an investor and the importance of a total addressable market when investing in a company. 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.

Jonathan is the VP Commercial at Europe’s largest equity investment platform, Crowdcube. The company has invested over £1bn into startups including Revolut, Monzo & Moneybox. Prior to Crowdcube Jonathan spent time working for the United Nations, UK energy firm, Centrica and was part of the founding team at Pavegen. Jonathan is multiple times Tedx speaker and has spoken at conferences around the world including Future 50. James sat down with Jonathamn to talk about the ins and outs of crowdfunding, what it takes to succeed in the space and the sudden emergence of secondary markets in the non-listed sector. 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.

Hamish Grierson is the co-founder & CEO of Thriva Health, a Wellness and Fitness company providing personalised blood tests, GP-reviewed results, and evidence-based advice. Thriva has already raised over £11m to help it achieve its mission of providing simple and affordable tools to help people better understand and track their internal health data. In this episode we discover Hamish’s journey prior to Thriva, his experiences raising money and how he and his fellow co-founders plan to scale and grow the company in the coming years. 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.

Andrew Scott is the Founding Partner of early-stage startup investor, 7percent Ventures. Andrew and his team have a keen eye for ambitious companies with huge upside. Several of his investments to-date include Oculus VR, Source DNA & Magic Pony, which have been sold to Facebook, Apple & Twitter respectively. Riding Unicorns sat down with the entrepreneur turned investor to talk about what he looks out for in a potential company, what the process is like when coming to sell a business and what he believes is missing in the current VC market today. 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.