Not My First Guess

How do you test a blood testing business, when none of the co-founders come from a clinical background? What happens when your entire investor pipeline disappears overnight? What do you do when customers just aren't buying?  And what's it like scaling a health tech startup from 0 to 130 staff, and over a 100k customers? The person to ask is Eliot Brooks, co-founder of Thriva and former COO. We spoke the week Eliot stepped down to make space to explore  new entrepreneurial endeavours; after 7 years spent building the company.Thriva have raised £11m so far, including £6m raised in 2019, and £4m in 2020 based on growth rates at the time of 100% year on year. In 2022 they were number 7 on the Financial Time’s list of Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies. In this episode we asked Eliot about: His path into entrepreneurship, and where the idea for Thriva came fromHow you test a health tech business in the early stages…. Can you be lean and agile? Do you need totally different approaches?Scaling a business- Expectation vs reality, what were some of the early guesses that had to evolve as they grew… Lessons learned fundraising as first time foundersHis plan to step down: why now? How do you phase yourself out as a founder?And much more…LinksGive Thriva try

What do you have to do to make your customers love you so much, they'll get a tattoo of your logo? Especially when it's a "boring" B2B tool for writing better cold emails... Lavender's founder William Ballance may not quite have gotten his own head around why customers love them this much; but he's certainly cracked building a product and brand customers rave about. There's a lot to learn along William's journey as a serial founder, whatever your industry or business model. In this episode we discuss: Pivoting businesses, from Alumni networking to a tool for cold emailThe importance of finding your early adoptersThe psychology of salesCommon mistakes first time founders and serial entrepreneurs make and practical tips to avoid themThe power of remote working for product ideationThe importance of gamification Building a consumer style brand, for a B2B businessLinksGive Lavender a tryConnect with Wiliam on LinkedIn, and take up his generous offer of office hours for fellow founderGet inspired by Lavender's LinkedIn brand

Design thinking is a buzzword we hear a lot in the startup space- but what is it really all about? Should you be trying it? Is it too late to get started? And how might it speed up your route to market and loyal customers who keep coming back for more? In this episode, Hattie is joined by Nirish Shakya, a design thinking and user experience design expert. For the past 15 years, he has been helping organisations across the UK, Europe and the Asia-Pacific create impactful customer experiences by empowering teams to put their customers first, collaborative creatively without the fear of judgement and innovate faster.He also has his own show, Design Feeling about developing greater self-awareness, creative confidence and meaning, as we design . On it, Nirish interviews top industry leaders and experts from design, technology and creative industries to share hard won insights to help listeners know themselves better and become more impactful problems solvers with more meaning with joy. In this episode of Not My First Guess, we unpick: What design thinking really is, why it matters and how we as founders can practically get better at itPractical skills like rapid prototyping (testing the core risks in your idea and product quickly) and how anyone can get started, even if they've never done user experience design beforeWhat founders should know when working with and briefing design teamsSome of the biggest takeaways Nirish has had from experts on his own podcast, Design FeelingAnd much moreLinks: Listen to Nirish's podcast, Design FeelingGive rapid prototyping a go with Balsamiq Email Nirish: Nirish@designfeeling.coExplore UX courses at General AssemblyRead Inspired by Marty Cagan

After earning few thousand euros selling toasties at school, you may think founding a company would have been Anieke's first stop post university. But a horrendous hackathon experience initially put her off the no sleep, stinky side of entrepreneurship. Instead, she started out in the corporate world, though quickly made her way into Venture Capital, where she invested in Social Impact ventures at Rubio. Her desire to sit the other side of the table never wore off though, so she quit to start her own company, taking with her the VC mindset and key questions to ask when launching a new, high growth venture. Testing a few ideas in parallel, it wasn't until she made customers cry with her proposition to help people connect with much loved children remotely, that she doubled down on Peekabond. In this episode she shares:How being a VC changed how Anieke approached founding a companyThe importance of early testing: including how making prospective customers cry convinced her to double down, and how Anieke tested the product with ppt and then no code before investing in buildRunning a co-founder dating  process for both her co-founders, and the yucky questions you need to ask early And much more! LinksTry Peekabond hereRead more about the Mom Test hereLearn more about OnDeck programmes hereTry 50 questions for co-founder dating hereTake the Barrett Values Test hereBuild a clickable prototype on Bubble.io or AdaloListen to Hattie's previous interview with Tessa Clarke hereRead YC's warning to startups hereRead Tessa's article on the need for a cockroach plan hereFollow Anieke on LinkedIn here

This week's interviewee, Emily Cummin, is carving out a new industry- not quite Death Tech, but Grief Tech instead. Her platform, Untangle was founded to help people dealing with big loss, whether bereavement or divorce, to cope with the emotional and practical fall out. Untangle are still pre-revenue, but are just about to turn on a series of income streams, having already built a more than 40k strong instagram community, and a user base of 12.5k people, with strong retention, engagement and referrals.In this episode Emily shares her entrepreneurship journey so far, including lessons learned around: The surprising gratitude that can come from doing research with customers who need a space to ventHow they used WhatsApp to create their first prototype without coding The power of continuing to facilitate meet-ups with community members as a founderSome of the harder moments, including fundraising and scrapping 3 months of codeAnd her advice on when to trust your gut, and build sooner\Linkshttps://untanglegrief.com/

How do you unlock the opinions of a generation? And what does it change when you can tap into qualitative research at scale? The person to ask is Jay Richards, co-founder of Imagen Insights, which helps big brands like Amazon Prime, Sky, Puma, the NFL, Pepsico and many more, to access thousands of Gen Z opinions, within 48 hours. Not coming from a traditional marketing or research agency background, Jay hasn't felt he has to do things the traditional way. From creating a SaaS business model, instead of an agency bodyshop; to setting totally different working hours for his team; to how they're building a community of Gen Z consultants.Today, Imagen has a community of more than 25,000 Gen Z, across 111 countries. They’ve grown 3x ever year since they were founded in 2019, and are on track for 10x growth this year. In this episode we unpack all this, plus: - The community Jay built before Imagen, and how that led to the NFL asking for his help-  How they tested their methodology with google sheets and docs, with Ebay and Gymshark as customers- Jay's top sales tips and meeting structures- Common misconceptions of Gen Z- And much much moreLinkshttps://imageninsights.com/

Venture Capital claims a lot of Techcrunch headlines, covers our Linkedin timelines, and eats months of our lives and runway, as founders fundraising. But, it can be hard to separate the celebrations of fundraises, from whether Venture Capital is really right for you as a founder, what it will cost you personally, and what is going to increase your chances of success if you do choose that path.Who better to help us debunk some of the myths around venture capital, alongside offering incredibly practical advice, than a former founder who has sat on both sides of the table. Zoe Peden was the founder of a VC backed startup, MyChoicePad, and is now a VC, with Ananda Impact Ventures. In this episode we cover:How VC really works- and why more founders need to understand that before raising capitalHow to work out if Venture Capital is the right path for youWhen to start speaking to VCs (hint, it’s potentially a stage earlier than you think)What to ask a VC at interview stage, and what you can expect from them after they write the chequePlus much more… Linkshttps://ananda.vc/ or info@ananda.vchttps://www.100yearlife.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/we-are-one-tech/https://www.founderland.org/

What do you need to know as a founder raising early stage, pre-seed or seed funding? Who are angels? What do they care about? How do they make investment decisions?  What should you be asking of them? And what can you do to increase your chances of a successful raise? In this episode we meet founder of entrepreneurial community Dffrnt, Ash Phillips, who became an Angel investor with Ada Ventures to invest in more diverse, typically underrepresented and overlooked founders. Together, we dive into: What Ash looks for in founders he invests inHow to use your pitch narrative to inject passion even when you’re not the best at backing yourselfPractical tips like a handy hack to stand out on the market sizing slideHow to hustle for great adviceAnd much moreLinks: https://dffrnt.so/https://www.adaventures.com/https://help.seedlegals.com/en/articles/4345960-dilution-how-it-workshttps://atomico.com/insights/the-atomico-angel-programmes-fourth-yearhttps://checkwarner.medium.com/adas-investment-in-flexa-3a164985cf90

Many founders dream of the moment their company is acquired. But no-one imagines that post acquisition they may be forced to fire the employees who helped build the startup over 10 years,  watch the company they built lose millions in value, and ultimately, have to buy it back to save their legacy. That was Sach Kukadia's journey in Secret Sales. Luckily, he was able to build back some of the value, for a second sale that was, as he describes "a gentle dismount". But, the process still left him and his co-founder/brother Nish, completely burned out. Luckily, he's  now recharged, without losing his entrepreneurial spirit, and recently launched a new investment jewellery brand, 7879. Within months of launching, it was the best seller in Selfridges latest concept event, and is on track for a 1.5 million run rate in 2022. In this episode, Sach shares: Lessons learned from his first company, secret sales, including how not to lose your voice as a young founderWhat happens when you end up with Ebay on your board too early, and it puts off every other investorThe emotional rollercoaster of selling the business, only to have to buy it back, but without the people who originally drove it to successHow he tested his latest venture 7879 pre-launchAnd how you do data led design for a jewellery collectionLinkshttps://7879.co/

Ideas often come from experiencing frustration first hand. That's exactly what happened to Ellie. While giving up alcohol for a month, she got fed up with the lack of options available in lieu of her traditional G&T. That, coupled with career frustration, that she couldn't get a job building a consumer facing brand, led her to create her own. She launched Caleño- a non-alcoholic drinks brand,  to bring more joy to those choosing to go alcohol free. Today, Caleño has both d2c and traditional retail channels: including Sainsburys, Waitrose and M&S and restaurant chainsIn this episode she shares: How she ended up being in the right mindset for entrepreneurshipA pivotal trip to Columbia and how it shaped the brandThe surprise opportunity to launch in their first supermarketLessons learned as a solo founderAnd the time you really don’t want to hear your product is “on fire”Links: https://calenodrinks.com/