The European Startup Show

Show notes:[3:53] - Why is now the right time to have a carbon removal marketplace?[5:57] - How did you launch a marketplace from idea to first auction in 71 days?[11:21] - If I am a carbon emitter, why can’t I buy carbon offsets? Why do I need carbon removals?[12:47] - What regulations are needed for carbon removal to become mainstream?[13:59] - How do I as a carbon emitter verify the amount of carbon removal?[15:55] - What is the cost of removing 1 tonne of C02 from the atmosphere?[18:09] - Do you worry that the big polluters get the wrong incentive to go on polluting?[19:07] - Who are the main suppliers of carbon net negative technologies?[20:54] - How are you going to market to get buyers and suppliers to the marketplace?[21:56] - What is still a challenge?[23:00] - What are the big trends in the carbon removal space?[25:48] - How is your marketplace different from other carbon removal marketplaces?  What is your differentiator?[27:23] - What are your future plans for Puro.Earth

Show notes:[4:39] - What are the trends you see in the travel sector?[7:20] - Will anything change fundamentally in the travel industry because of the pandemic? What will be its impact, long term?[8:53] - Is there a difference in the way people consume online travel services in Africa vs Europe?[11:56] - How did you build such a strong brand in Africa?[16:10] - How do you recruit people that stay with you for a long time?[18:26] - What are the most important highlights of your career?

Show notes:[1:05] - Childhood and background that contributed to your entrepreneurial drive[3:21] - What led you to see an opportunity in digital UX analytics?[5:06] - What does Contentsquare do?[6:39] - How is Contentsquare different from Hotjar, Google Analytics etc?[8:13] - How does consumer behaviour differ between regions based on the data you are seeing?[9:48] - What did you do in the early days that laid the foundation for future growth.  And is there anything you would do differently?[11:57] - How did you determine your average sale price in your early days?[13:33] - What were some of the biggest failures in your early days and what did you learn from it?[15:22] - Journey of Contentsquare: What is your philosophy on funding?  How did you decide when to raise money and how much? [20:59] - What advice would you give entrepreneurs looking to raise money?[22:13] - How do you determine the priority and sequencing of conflicting goals of maximizing revenue, maximizing profits, maximizing market share, maximizing wallet, share.[24:51] - How do you do your annual planning?[26:18] - How do you integrate companies successfully?  What did you learn from your two integrations?[28:58] - What do we need to do in Europe to have more startups and unicorns come out of Europe?[31:10] - When should you go direct to US from your home country?Links:Book recommendation: The Hard thing about hard things by Ben HorowitzBook recommendation: High Growth Handbook by Elad GilIf you like the podcast, please leave a review!  And follow me on:Linkedin: Anita MoorthyTwitter: @anitamirchi, Email: anitam@alum.mit.edu

Show Notes[0:50] - What does Garden.io do?[2:16] - How did you go from being technical to becoming an entrepreneur[3:45] - How do you balance your desire to be technical with the other aspects of running a business?[5:47] - How has software development changed since you started?[8:30] - When does it make sense to have an open source offering?[14:00] - Is selling to devops different in US vs Europe?[15:11] - How did you determine the pricing for your commercial offering?[17:03] - How did you raise your first million dollars?[19:18] - How did you determine focus in your early stages and what were some of the mistakes made?[22:13] - Where do you go for mentorship and advice?[23:47] - Challenges and strategies that have worked for you in the current pandemic in terms of growing your business[27:04] - Tell us about the latest Garden commercial offering you just launchedLinks:Book recommendation: Inventing the Future

Show notes:[2:35] - How has tech hiring been affected by covid and where are you seeing hiring picking up again?[5:50] - What is a typical hiring process like? How do you find the right hire for a role?[9:28] - When should founders be thinking of making the key commercial team hires?[11:12] - What is the toughest role to fill today?[13:23] - How do founders/CEO think of candidates with unconventional backgrounds and what is your view on it?[15:09] - How do you motivate a candidate to join a startup?[17:32] - How important is diversity and inclusion for startups?  What are you hearing differently today?[20:04] - What are the differences in the hiring traits between the companies that are most successful and those that are less successful?[25:46] - Why do I need a recruiting agency? Why can’t I just use Linkedin?  When do I need a recruiting agency?[29:38] - What should founders and CEOs know about finding the right recruiting firm?[31:57] - How are recruiting agencies compensated?

Show Notes:[ 2:46] - How do you think of the business of sustainability and the need to do good and make money?[6:37] - Why is education the biggest part of sustainability?[10:37] - Can you break down the landscape for online education?[17:07] - How do you keep children motivated and engaged with online education?[19:17] - What is Valenture institute and what is their educational offering?[21:18] - Why taking the traditional curriculum and moving it online doesn’t work?[23:59] - What’s your target market?[25:26] - What about students with learning disabilities? Can online education help those students?[26:08] - How do you get online high schools recognized by universities?[29:40] - What is your fee structure?[31:12] - What are the biggest challenges to online education?[32:35] - How are you attracting the best quality teachers?[34:43] - Is this online platform available for summer programs?[35:18] - What advice would you give to entrepreneurs in education technologyLinks:Valenture InstituteBook: Call Me TedBook: One From ManyLondon restaurant: LuchoLondon restaurant: Noura

Ciaran O’Leary, co-founder and general partner at BlueYard Capital, chats about his venture into the world of decentralized web investments. He shares insights on Europe's entrepreneurial landscape, highlighting what it still lacks. O’Leary discusses the impact of crises on VC strategies and why U.S. firms might differ in their approach. He emphasizes the evolving nature of startup pitches and the importance of product-market fit. With a spotlight on innovative companies like Protocol Labs and BitBio, it's a deep dive into the transformative potential of European startups.

Show Notes:[1:15] - How Chris went from being the #1 employee at Hearsay to now being Chief Product Officer at Hearsay [4:22] - What does Hearsay do?[6:16] - How has the current pandemic affected Hearsay's business.[7:51] - What criteria did Hearsay consider when it decided to expand into Europe.[10:47] - How to prioritize different markets in Europe. How did you pick where to go?[12:40] - Was your strategy to go country by country or to all of Europe?[14:43] - How did you personally prepare before going to Europe?[18:36] - Given your product had a compliance element to it, how did you build awareness with the compliance community across different countries and different regulators?[26:33] - What do you wish you had known before moving to Europe/ What are some of the biggest mistakes companies people make when they move internationally?[29:19] - Is there a hiring plan you would recommend for businesses looking to expand into Europe?[30:44] - What did you personally learn from your time in Europe?Recommendation and Links:Business book: 7 powers by Hamilton HelmerJazz concert: Delfeayo Marsalis Fiction: Mislaid by Nell Zink

In this episode, I sit down with Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and US CEO of Mirakl. Mirakl is part of France’s 40 most promising startups and widely seen as the next French “unicorn.” Their online marketplace technology today powers over $1.5B gross margin value (GMV).  In our talk, Adrien discusses the big trends in eCommerce, how companies need to do to adapt, and how they built a $100M ARR business.[1:00] - How you came about starting Mirakl and the significance of the name[6:52] - How does Mirakl fit into the e-commerce landscape[11:25] - How Mirakl helped the French government during the coronavirus crisis[19:09] - What are the typical use cases for online marketplaces in B2B and B2C scenarios[24:26] - Trends in e-commerce[31:17] - Trends in buyer behavior[35:27] - Who are the losers going to be in e-commerce?[37:37] - How will online marketplace technology impact amazon?[41:10] - How did you build your brand and get your first few customers?[47:39] - As a coach to Harvard Business School, Rock Accelerator Program. What are the most common problems or questions you get from the startup founders?Favorite book: The Sun Also Rises by Ernst Hemmingway

[5:29] - When hiring for Europe, is it better to hire natively or focus on expertise[8:28] - 3 strategies for thinking about Europe expansion[13:42] - How should European companies think about European expansion[15:34] - How should you hire for European expansion[21:40] - Who are the first core people we should hire for each region?[23:28] - How long is reasonable to expect in establishing a region and seeing consistent sales[24:29] - One strategy of developing Europe is to partner[26:56] - When is local competition a problem?Links:Guest: Olivier Maire