Not My First Guess

Today I’m joined by Joyeeta Das, Co-founder & CEO of Samudra Oceans. Joy is a serial deep-tech entrepreneur who’s founded five startups, three of which have had successful exits. She’s also an influential and active member of the wider startup community with additional roles as an advisor and investor. She’s scaled projects to hundreds of million of dollars in revenue, managing teams of three to 800 strong so she has a lot to teach us from startup to scaleup.Our conversation is a little bit different again today as it focuses more on Joy’s collective wisdom and experience so I’ll give you a quick taster of her various businesses now for context, before we get started. I’d also highly recommend following the links in the show notes to learn more about them if you’re interested.Joy’s current business is called Samudra which is sanskrit for oceans. Joy and her co-founder Alexander Facey founded Samudra in October 2022 after meeting at climate emergency venture builder, Carbon13, and bonding over their mutual love of the ocean and hardware engineering. They believe the ocean holds the key to a lot of the present climate crisis and are on a mission with Samudra to take 10 million tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere by 2033 by scaling seaweed farming using robotics and AI.Joy also co-founded;Gyana - an organisation that creates tech platforms to democratise the power of AI.SuperPitch - an online ecosystem connecting globally-minded investors with talented, diverse founders, particularly women, to raise funding and build successful businesses.Anahatalife - a unique NGO that gets artists, scientists, poets, actors, musicians and mathematicians together to solve world scale problems.Aseema - a strategic consultancy advising new businesses on the formation of corporations, business structures, drafting privacy policies and structuring commercial transactions.In this episode we discuss:Why Joyeeta pivoted her dream of becoming a monk into being a serial founder and what it taught her about taking risksHow to gain the same market intuition in three months as someone who’s spent a decade in the same industryDating to find the right co-founder, nurturing your relationship, and breaking up successfullyWhy the funding system is broken and what we can do about itThe number of meetings it takes to raise your first million and then turning that into 20 (million)Responding to biasLinks:Check out Samudra Oceans - https://www.samudraoceans.comJoyeeta’s TED Talk, Why do we have to choose between a dreamer and a doer? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN3Nx4YT-_UThe 36 Questions - https://www.scienceofpeople.com/deep-questions/Carbon13 - https://carbonthirteen.comGyana - https://www.gyana.comSuperPitch (acquired by Diversity X) - https://www.diversityx.vcAnahatalife (integrated into a national program)Aseema (acquired)

This episode is a little flashback for us, jumping back to a conversation Hattie had with Matt Meeker, Co-Founder, Executive Chairman and CEO (that’s Canine Enrichment Officer) at Bark, and former founder of Meetup. Today, when she’s teaching founders how to test their ideas in the early stages, Hattie still comes back to how Matt tested both Meetup and Bark with customers, and with so many valuable insights and lessons, it seemed rude not to have this available as part of this series! So with Matt’s kind permission, we’re thrilled to welcome the episode to its new home. If you haven’t listened yet, there is so much in here!Bark are on a mission to make dogs as happy as they make us. Because dogs and humans are better together. The company started as BarkBox a monthly themed combining their favourite toys and treats from the market, and have gone on to create their own toys and treats, along with health and wellness support.Matt is an incredible, serial entrepreneur who before Bark, founded Meetup in 2001. Growing from 50 to 6,000 users in the first few months Meetup was then acquired by WeWork for $156million. After leaving Meetup in 2007, Matt went on to launch BarkBox in 2012 which is an equally impressive company reaching profitability in 2017 having sold over 50million boxes.In this episode we discuss:How Meetup was born out of the devastating event of 9-11 to connect people and give underserved communities a place to goThe value of the Lean Startup methodPivoting a business one year in after responding to customer feedbackPutting the product where customers want to buyBuilding retention in subscription modelsKeeping connected to customers as a founderThe keys to success as a serial entrepreneurSince this episode was originally recorded, Matt’s dog Hugo, who was a big inspiration for him and the company, sadly passed away though Matt continues to feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility to honor him and his legacy, to ensure it’s still here and strong one-hundred years from now. Matt has also returned back to his original position as CEO and is just as passionate about fulfilling Barks mission to make dogs as happy and healthy as ever, as Hugo would’ve wanted.Links:Bark - https://bark.coMeetup - https://www.meetup.comThe Lean Startup Methodology - https://theleanstartup.com/principles

Copy Club is a community for marketers who want to help each other do great things. And there’s a lot of them out there with the Copy Club community having grown to over 1000 members from over 800 brands since Lottie founded it in 2014.After working with massive global brands including Proctor & Gamble, Lacoste, and Dolce & Gabbana, Lottie created Copy Club as a means to feel less lonely in her job as Head of Marketing for PROPERCORN, who were at the time one of the five fastest growing businesses in the UK.She didn’t know where to turn to for help and wanted to make friends who might make her life easier, and who, she could in turn support, so she took matters into her own hands and made that kind of place a reality.The Copy Club community is now a mega resource of some of the brightest minds in marketing with a slack channel where people can share and solve their challenges with other members, monthly talks diving into key marketing skills, regular social events, over 100 hours of recorded content, oh and 2% of their top-line revenue goes to charity, which is no small number as they have reached over one million in annual revenue.In this episode we discuss:The lessons Lottie learned at P&G and how those apply to high growth startups, as well as what is totally different about startup marketing!Building a business slowly and sustainably without investment, but still growing to exciting revenuesLearning from burnoutAnd community building adviceLinks:Checkout Copy Club - https://thecopyclub.co.uk

Porto and Bello are an accessible clothing brand that seeks to help ease some of the fear and anxiety around cancer treatment by focusing on the person and not just the patient.Alexia launched Porto and Bello in 2021, with husband Josh, following her own experience of being treated for breast cancer which she was diagnosed with at 29, 34 weeks pregnant with her second child, in March 2020 - five days before the very first covid lockdown.This is a bit of a different episode for us as Alexia graciously opens up about her powerful and very personal journey to discuss how one of the most painful and biggest challenges of her life inspired her new venture as an entrepreneur, and how Porto and Bello gave her a fire that helped fuel her through the rest of her treatment.With the statistic now sitting at one in two of us being affected by cancer in our lifetime, Alexia’s story is one we can all gain a lot of insight and inspiration from.Links:Checkout Porto&Bello - https://portoandbello.comCheck your boobs or pecs - https://coppafeel.org/Listen to our episode with Sophie from Mamamade (Alexia’s sister in law)AppleSpotifyNicky Newman - @nicknacklouMacmillan - https://www.macmillan.org.ukFuture Dreams - https://futuredreams.org.ukChai Cancer Care - https://chaicancercare.orgTrek Stock - https://www.trekstock.com

Daye are on a mission: to close the gender pain gap, and overcome historical gender biases in medical research and product innovation. They launched their first product, CBD tampons in 2019, with a focus on sustainability and pain relief, and have since branched out to other products supporting vaginal health, including their latest product- vaginal screening using a tampon sample.But they're not stopping there- hoping to democratize access to insightful gynaecological health information which is not typically available through other providers or through the NHS.At the time of recording, Daye have raised several rounds of funding, including a recent £10m Series A, after building a consumer subscriber base of 60,000 for their tampons; and are now expanding into tampons as workplace perks too with a business proposition! There was so  much to unpack in this episode: - From Valentina’s journey as a solo founder - To how Daye reached the first 1000, 10,000 and 50,000 customers- To testing products - Building a brand and voice- Constantly evolving as the CEO of a fast growing company- And raising nearly £15m pounds.LinksCheckout DayeCoaching for your team with MoreHappiCompany wide therapy with SpillOnline Therapy via BetterHelp or TalkSpaceRevenue based finance via UncappedLegal support via SeedLegals

Most founders dream of going public- but what happens after you ring the bell, if share prices tank, and the company you used to leap out of bed to run is destroying your mental health?For anyone who hasn’t heard of Eve mattresses, they were one of the first companies in the UK to offer a mattress in a box- and the countries fastest retail IPO at the time they went public just a couple of years after launching. They disrupted the standard business model of having to invest in retail stores where customers could try before you buy. Their tube adverts still hold records for brand awareness. On this episode, we talk to Kuba Wieczorek, co-founder of Eve. He’s talked openly about the toll the company took on his mental health, and why he’s much happier running a lifestyle business today- branding agency Kuba and Friends. In this episode we discuss: How Kuba became a co-founder at EveWhy IPOing is the biggest thing he’d change if he had his time at Eve againHaving a mental breakdown he couldn’t legally talk about with friends and family, for fear of insider tradingWhat a brand is and isn’t - clue it’s not the logoAnd, which startups should and shouldn’t worry about brand and how to balance when to investLinksCheckout Kuba's new company, Kuba and Friends here

Recorded live from Sifted Summit, this episode unpacks the challenges of fundraising as a diverse founder, practical tips on fundraising, and what we can do at individual, organisational, and systems levels to fix inequities in the startup ecosystem.Our incredible guests are:Simi Lindgren is the founder of Yuty, tackling bias in AI to match customers based on ethnicity, skin type and medical condition to the best beauty products. They raised £500k in their pre-seed, making Simi just the 10th black female founder to gain VC backing in the UK. Nick Telson took his first startup, Design My Night, to exit with just £500k in Angel funding. Since the acquisition, he's angel invested himself, and has just raised £1.6m for his new startup Trumpet at Pre-seed, based on 1800 pre-launch signups.Farah Kabir is the founder of Hanx, a sexual wellness and contraception company, busting the taboos on women buying intimacy products. They've raised £1.8m in angel funding.Fundraising resources mentioned on the showCheckout diversity focussed funds and collectives like: Ada Ventures, Google's Black Founder Fund and Latino Founder Fund, Pink Salt Ventures, Case for Her, Cornerstone VC, Proud Ventures,  Fundraising resources via we are radiklAdvise on angel investing via Angel Investing SchoolCommunities like DiversityX, IfWeRaise, Hold VCs and investors to account with the Glassdoor for VC's Landscape.vcAnd listen to more fundraising tips on Nick's Podcast, Pitchdeck

What is a female urinal and why does it matter? Ever walked past a massive queue for the ladies, while the queue for the mens is non-existent and wondered why? Ever wondered what the solution is? Women have to urinate more often and on average for longer than men. Plus, we have more reason to visit the loo (typically we take on more care duties for children or adults who need assistance, plus menstruation ).  Our toilets also take up more space, so we tend to have fewer places to go, because venues focus on equal square footage of toilets, not equal access to facilities.Enter Peequal, whose founders Amber and Hazel were fed up with having to choose whether to visit the bathroom or get food in intervals and at festivals. So far, they’ve raised £250k for their innovative take on a women’s urinal which has already been rolled out at festivals like Glastonbury and Wilderness Festival, and saw international demand before they even had a working prototype. Investors include Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo.In this episode we cover: The power of cardboard prototypes and watching how customers use urinals (without being arrested)Why Glastonbury made the perfect early evangelists venueHow constructive conflict can be the key to happy co-foundingHeart in mouth moments from pitch decks missteps to manufacture mess-upsGetting on BBC’s front-page and drumming up international demand with a prototype that didn’t work, and they were almost too embarrassed to showFundraising tips Plus much more!Links: Checkout Peequal hereFollow Peequal on instagram here or Twitter hereRead Invisible Women hereGet data on how investors view your decks with Docsend Seed legals explains ASAs hereFounder catalyst offers free ASA here Convertible notes explained here

Meet serial entrepreneur, angel investor, musician, physicist and self-professed big geek Chris Howard!Chris has raised millions in investment for his own startups, taught entrepreneurship by giving founders £100 and a raspberry pie, and started to invent an "anti-accelerator" at his new startup, The Rattle. In this episode Chris shares: How he wrecked his first startup after raising $2.2m for it, by ignoring product market fit3 questions every prospective founder should ask themselves (in the voice of batman)The difference between market and invention led entrepreneurshipTips on how to reach out to investors and what to look for in themPlus much moreLinks: Checkout the Rattle hereRead Rattle's pitch deck hereFollow Chris on LinkedIn hereAnd watch one of his Cold Reads here

Meet Foong, reformed Consultant turned Founder, who loved her colleagues at PWC, but found she lacked Purpose in her work. When Foong made the leap, it was to Matchable, a company intent on helping people like her find more purpose by volunteering their specialist skills to startups and charities; which are impact heavy but resource poor.Today, Matchable has projects ranging from transforming Columbian farmers into cacao entrepreneurs using Blockchain, to helping children deal with grief using Augmented Reality and AI; and clients ranging from Seed funded startups like Heights, to massive names like Dentsu International, Deutsche Bank and Primark.In this episode we unpack: A different path into entrepreneurship - applying for a role on a partially validated ideaWhy focus groups often give false positivesHow Matchable kept testing revenue streams and customers to find the right fitThe importance of recognising what you can't do as a founder! Designing a work culture where extroversion isn't the defaultPlus much moreLinksCheckout Matchable hereRead Quiet by Susan Cain here