The European Startup Show

[7.46] - How has blockchain space changed due to Bitcoin and what are the top trends you are seeing in blockchain technology?[12:47] - Where are the opportunities for blockchain for the corporate market?[14:48] - What problem does Minespider solve and for whom?[17:30] - Why is blockchain the best technology to solve the supply chain transparency problem and who is this valuable to?[20:30] - How did you identify the business model?  Are customers willing to pay for this transparency?[23:40] - Where should entrepreneurs go to get funding for high-risk emerging tech?[28:21] - What does a European grant fund look for?[29:53] - How has covid impacted what you do?[31:54] - What metrics do you use to evaluate blockchain technology-based companies?[33:05] - Who else is solving this problem and how is Minespider different?[42:24] - Does including supply chain information add a significant cost to the final cost of the product?[43:24] - What are the applications of your current Minespider blockchain protocol?

[1:12] - What are you responsible for at Hubspot?[2:08] - Why did they choose you to lead international expansion?[4:30] - What are the criteria Hubspot considered to determine the timing for expansion?[6:45] - How did you think about mapping and prioritizing different countries in Europe?[11:24] - What is the playbook for launching into a new country?[24:58] - How does hiring differ across Europe, Asia, Australia?[29:03] - How did sales differ from geo to geo?[31:39] - Advice to CEOs on international expansion and metrics to evaluate the progress.[37:59] - How did you budget for each new geo you went into?[45:27] - What would you do differently today?  Will you change your strategy today because inbound and content creation is not novel anymore[53:05] - Determining pricing and packaging for different markets[54:28] - How have you handled Asia?If you like the podcast, please leave a review!  And follow me on:Linkedin: Anita MoorthyTwitter: @anitamirchi, 

About Next Matter[4:16] - What does Next Matter do?  Can you share a few use cases?[6:45] - How does Next Matter differ from other project management tools?Big Trends[9:08] - Are no coding tools realistic for large companies with complex and unique processes?[13:59] - What trends do you see for how the future of work will evolve?Building your company[17:58] - How do you position Next Matter effectively in the prospect’s mind?[19:52] - How do you get people to actually pay for yet another tool that is going to help them with coordination and collaboration?[22:02] - How did you decide on the specific use cases to work on?  How did you focus your team on the right manual processes to digitize?[24:43] - When raising funding, what was your approach to pitching investors?[32:00] - What is your advice on hiring your first 10 people?Links:Next MatterBook recommendations:Hard things about hard things by Ben HorowitzThe Swarm - A novel of the deep by Frank Schӓtzing

[3:15] - What advice would you give other entrepreneurs looking to start a company with someone they are related to?[4:34] - How have you dealt with the fear and uncertainty of the current situation?  [6:55] First for your employees[8:27] For your investors[9:41] Your customers - how have you dealt with angry frustrated customers?[13:40] - How are you and your brother managing the stress?[15:27] - How does the payment flow work if I am a customer and I just paid for a multi-tour?[17:56] - What is the current sentiment towards travel and does it vary by different segments (survey data: Tourradar][23:22] - What is your long term strategy around remote working?[24:24] - What are your thoughts on Google and the legal action some travel companies are taking where they are blaming Google for unfairly taking their data to power their products?[27:52] - Advice for travel companies raising funds in this environment?LinksTourRadarBook recommendations:Infinite GamePower of VulnerabilityWho

[1:28] - Which of the various roles you have had - consultant, entrepreneur, board member, CEO, investor, and now VC - have you enjoyed the most, and why?[4:14] - What is “Indico powered by Google Startups” initiative?[9:10] - How can European VCs get better at identifying the next big Airbnb or Uber in Europe?[14:50] What is the Portuguese startup scene like?  Where are the opportunities in Portugal?[17:54] - What are some of the areas of opportunity Indico Capital is focusing on?[21:35] - How can Europe make its startup ecosystem better?  What is still missing to produce more successful startups out of Europe?[29:30] - What do entrepreneurs need to have before they look for seed or Series A funding from your point of view[35:18] - What are the top 5 lessons or advice you would have for entrepreneurs?LinksIndico Capital PartnersGoogle for Startups by Indico Capital PartnersBook Recommendation1984 by Orson WellsBad BloodMDB the Malaysian scandalFollow meLinkedin: Anita MoorthyTwitter: anitamirchiInstagram @european_podcast

[1:52] - Why did you start Akoni? What pain does it solve?[8:00] - How did you achieve product-market fit?[11:18] - What are the key trends you are seeing in financial services and fintech?[15:13] - How has the pandemic changed the expectations and needs of the consumer and business user?[21:13] - How do you balance innovation from open banking and open finance with ensuring adequate protection of consumers?[26:19] - How do you see open banking evolve in Europe and what would you like to see happen in terms of regulations[28:18] - How does Europe compare with other regions like US in terms of fintech innovation?[31:15] - How are the different players - incumbents, middleware, fintech companies collaborating or working together to make the ecosystem work, (in the UK)?[34:39] - Go-to-market strategy - How did you build relationships with key banking players?[36:49] - What advice would you give to yourself, in your early years at Akoni - what would you do differently?[40:29] - How has the experience of being a female founder and CEO in Fintech been like?[[44:37] - What are your future goals?LinksAkonihubHive FoundersBooksFountainheadZen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[0:48] - What need does Trint solve beyond transcription?[2:45] - How does Trint differ from other transcription services?[6:14] - How did you go from being a war journalist to becoming an entrepreneur?[14:49] - What have you learned as a war correspondent that you were able to use to become the entrepreneur and CEO you are today?[21:09] - What advice would you give someone starting a company who has little experience in entrepreneurship and/or are starting this late in their life?[29:02] - How did you determine the average sale price of your platform given it is more than just transcription?[33:41] - What are some of the mistakes you made and what advice would you give others?[37:13] - Given your background in journalism and interviewing, what have you found to work for good interview questions - that allow you to get to the heart of someone’s motivation?Links:TrintBook Recommendations:Shackleton’s way - Lessons in Leadership

Show Notes:[0:43] - Why did you start Dashboard and what problem is it trying to solve?[5:06] - How did you refine your initial value proposition and find your focus?[6:54] - There are big companies with deep pockets in the energy space - why can’t they solve this problem on their own?[10:05] - Is there a VC arm inside most of these large energy companies and who are the right people to build relationships with?[13:02] - What does the funding look like for industrial tech and how was that process for you?[19:50] - How do you raise money in industrial tech? What advice would you give to other industrial tech entrepreneurs?[23:36] - How did you partner with big companies and still maintain non-exclusivity?[27:49] - What stage of TRL are you and how did the big companies react to your technology?[30:56] - What’s the next step after this?[33:38] - How did you find the right people for the team in the initial stages?[36:35] - How did you build the culture at Dashboard?[38:33] - What were some of the biggest mistakes you made in your entrepreneurial journey and what did you learn from that?Links:Dashboard.netBook recommendations:  American Dirt; Make, Think, Imagine: The Future of Civilizations by Lord Brown

Show Notes:[2:57] - How does Anote work?[6:32] - How do you convince investors to invest in music as an asset class where timeline and expected cash flows are unpredictable?[10:44] - What songs or artists make ideal suppliers in Anote?[16:37] - How do you value music and does it require a certain sophistication on the investors side?[18:40] - Since you launched the platform, what are you seeing as yields/returns for investors?[20:38] - How are you going to market? Finding investors and catalogs?[22:28] - Why have other marketplaces for music royalties failed and what are you doing differently?[25:57] - What factors are most important for the sustainability of marketplaces like Anote?[28:04] - What did you need to do to get regulatory approval for Anote?[32:51] - What were some of your biggest failures in your early days and what did you learn from it?[34:57] - What are the biggest challenges currently facing your company?[36:13] - Advice for other entrepreneurs and your future plans

Show notes:[1:03] - Journey from documentary filmmaker to startup founder[3:41] - What was your strategy as a first-time founder for attracting people who are really motivated and engaged to work with you?[4:52] - What does Panion do and why is it called Panion?[9:05] - How do you build engaged communities?[14:53] - What are you seeing as successful monetization strategies for community-based platforms?[17:22] - Advice on angel funding[21:28] - How did you keep yourself motivated in your early days[23:00] - How do you de-stress?