Secret Leaders

Sherry Coutu CBE is a serial entrepreneur, former CEO, angel investor and non-executive director based in Cambridge, UK but originally from Canada. She is best known for investing in Lovefilm, Zoopla and for sitting on the advisory board of LinkedIn.A self-confessed techie, Sherry has now turned her hand to philanthropy, having learned first hand that the number one problem for scaling businesses is finding great talent with the necessary skill sets, to enable startup businesses to grow.Sherry’s resume is as lengthy as they come. She founded Interactive Investor International (III) in 1994 which she ran until 2000 when it floated on the London Stock Exchange. She then swapped entrepreneurship for angel investing, because it afforded her a better work/life balance.For 15 years she was a serial angel investor working with hundreds of entrepreneurs. But now she focuses her efforts on charitable endeavours via Founders4Schools.Join us today as we talk to Sherry about: The inspiration behind Founders4Schools Why she decided to start the Scale Up Institute The number one thing holding businesses back from scaling up What appeals to her as an angel investor Her top tips to entrepreneurs What she’d wished she’d known growing up The best advice she’s ever received Links: https://www.founders4schools.org.uk/ http://www.scaleupinstitute.org.uk/ --SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Serial tech entrepreneur William Reeve realised early on that he wasn’t quite techy enough to be a techy, and so focused on the business side of tech businesses. And without this early enlightenment, we might not have seen the likes of Zoopla, Dunelm, Secret Escapes, Lovefilm or Graze, to name but a few of the businesses that have benefitted from William’s involvement.At the tender age of 23, having recently graduated from Oxford University with a degree in engineering and having just started his own company, William was told by a family member that he was ‘too young’ to start his own business. Four years later that business sold and netted William £10m.Listen today as we find out what it took to bring Lovefilm to market and how it beat Amazon. Join us as we chat to William about: Other than marriage, what William’s best investment to date was How, aged 27, he sold his first business and made almost £10m in the process Why he chose to go down the DVD subscription route How Lovefilm handled the slow business start by buying out the competition What it’s like negotiating with a behemoth like Amazon How to measure user churn Links:https://www.wreeve.com/--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Martha Lane Fox is a digital entrepreneur who is not only passionate about the world of tech, but Chancellor of the Open University, a philanthropist and a public servant to boot. Martha can be thanked for making our everyday lives easier, as well as the lives of children, and even prisoners.Martha’s resume is as lengthy as they come, and whilst she is notably the youngest female member the House of Lords has ever had, you will probably know her best as the founder of lastminute.com.However she doesn’t want that to be her sole legacy. She credits lastminute.com for affording her the opportunity to pursue her other work interests: being on the board of M&S, Twitter, Chanel and Channel 4, as well as her charitable work including setting up Reprieve - a charity helping those suffering from torture and human rights abuses.Martha is a keen advocate of just being human, for not letting your work define you, and so it is no surprise that she is the co-founder of prime evening entertainment venue, Lucky Voice. Just don’t make her listen to another rendition of Don’t Stop Believing, and don’t ask her to sing anything by Celine Dion.We chat about: Brent Toberman changing her life forever. The accident that could have been the end of her, but how she drew on her resilience, both mentally and physically, and how it has given her the opportunity to pursue other business avenues. Why no one had come up with the concept of Lucky Voice before, and why it wasn’t called Rubber Chicken. What she learned through working on the board at M&S. The subliminal role San Francisco plays in tech start-ups. Supporting young women in tech and why their voices need to be heard. Links:Doteveryone--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Saasha Celestial-One may sound like a band formed in the swinging sixties, but she’s actually one half of a food waste startup looking to sign up 1 billion users to food sharing app, Olio, by 2025.Born and raised by hippy parents in Iowa, Saasha cut her teeth upcycling and tackling food waste from a very early age. Having grown up with not very much, she set her mind on building a bulletproof CV and worked hard to de-risk her professional career - she admits she was really seeking financial security and career stability.But having worked at Morgan Stanley, McKinley and American Express, she knew her heart wasn’t in financial services and consulting. And it was whilst on maternity leave when she took redundancy, realising she was financially secure, did she finally turn her hand to something she was truly passionate about.Her first foray into entrepreneurship was the hugely successful My Creche, London's first PAYG provider offering flexible childcare for busy parents. But that was nothing in comparison to the behemoth challenge she is tackling by way of Olio.Join us today whilst we talk with Saasha about her journey from Midwest America to tackling food waste, one sweet potato and leftover cabbage at a time.We talk with Saasha about: Olio, what it means, and how it’s tackling the problem of food waste How redundancy changed her life Why a leftover sweet potato and a cabbage brought her to her current path How far £40k will go when you start your startup How Olio began with 12 people in a Whatsapp group Olio’s reliance on volunteers to spread the food waste message How you can get involved The best piece of advice she’s ever been given Links:www.olioex.com--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Jed McCaleb is a cryptocurrency legend. He's been involved in some of the most high profile organizations in crypto including Mt. Gox, Ripple, and now his current rocket ship, Stellar.org. But the journey from Little Rock, Arkansas to number 40 in the Forbes rich list has not been a smooth ride.He struggled his whole life with trying to find a balance between wanting to do something huge and wanting to just go chill at the beach and surf. Luckily for the rest of us, he opted to work hard to affect a lot of change in the world.Having dropped out of UC Berkeley after just one and half semesters, realising that he could already do what he wanted to do, programming, it still took him nearly four years in the wilderness, building stuff and floundering in the dark, before he started up e-donkey.And the rest, is history.Join us today as we follow Jed’s journey from e-donkey to Stellar.org and listen as we talk about: Why he’s better suited as CTO, not CEO His childhood growing up in the woods with no running water or electricity The basics of cryptocurrency (it’s mum-friendly don’t worry) Why he picked the name e-donkey for his company The time he built a butanol lab in his girlfriend’s apartment How Mt. Gox was originally started as an online trading exchange for Magic: The Gathering The future of bitcoin Why even as an incredibly successful entrepreneur he still struggled to get Stellar.org off the ground His best piece of advice for entrepreneurs Links:stellar.org--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Riccardo Zacconi, CEO of King and creator of Candy Crush, shares his entrepreneurial journey from selling his car and flat to self-fund King to becoming Italy’s most successful entrepreneur. He discusses the importance of timing and predicting the market, creating a unique user experience, and the role of innovation in keeping the company afloat. Zacconi also emphasizes the significance of great hiring, monitoring KPIs for game developers, and shares his proudest moment while building the brand.

Today’s guest, Jason Calacanis, is best known for his podcast This Week In Startups and for investing in unicorn companies such as Uber, Thumbtack and Robin Hood; as well as selling shares in Facebook (whilst telling Mark Zuckerberg what he thought of him) and working alongside investors such as Elon Musk.But it took him awhile to get here.Jason was the Founder and CEO of Rising Tide Studios and Weblogs Inc (which he sold to AOL in 2005 for $25m), before turning his hand to angel investing. Jason is the dinner party guest you want to have at your table - he would entertain and delight because he favours candidness over honesty, and believes that the secret to success is the ability to get on with difficult people.An early investor in calm.com, Jason could see the benefit it would bring to the world and credits the founder, Alex Tew, for having the same levels of creativity as Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.Jason says he loves angel investing because he gets to hang out with the smartest people in the world who tell him how the world is going to change, how they're going to do it and then they invite him along for the ride.So to that end, join us on our ride as we chat with Jason about: Whether he’s marmite or fungus. Getting trolled for investing in calm.com and why you should never underestimate anyone. The secret to angel investing. Why the people who are going to change the world aren’t always easily likeable. His favourite book of 2018 (hint, it isn’t Shoe Dog). Who his all-time favourite guest on TWIST (this week in startups - his podcast) has been. The impact of the realisation that the person who picked the Times cover model was the most powerful person in the room, not the model themselves, had on him. Links:This week in startups--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Clara Brenner is co-founder and Managing Partner of the Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm she established to invest in the future of cities. She had a vision to empower entrepreneurs keen to solve urban problems, and so with business partner Julie Lein, she is helping grow tomorrow’s most valued companies.The UIF provides seed capital and regulatory support to social entrepreneurs looking to create solutions to tough urban challenges, such as transportation, work force, housing in the built environment and education, amongst others.Clara’s journey began in Washington DC where the two biggest industries are government and real estate, and whilst she has no desire to get involved with GovTech just yet, she did enjoy working in real estate, cutting her teeth at Fundrise, a social impact company.From there Clara went on to co-found Tumml, a startup hub for urban tech before establishing the Urban Innovation Fund, which closed a $24.5m seed stage fund last June. And now, with a diverse portfolio of companies under their wing, Urban Innovation fund is set to dramatically change the urban landscape.Join us as we chat with Clara about: Her motivation to begin her hero's journey, from Washington DC to San Francisco. The role technology will play in shaping the urban environments of the future. Why she’s happy for people to acknowledge her success as well as being female, rather than just accepting it. The diverse portfolio that the UIF has inadvertently invested in and why she is drawn to companies with strong female and POC founders. Why she was so determined as a kid not to follow in her mother’s footsteps and how, despite her best efforts, the apple really didn’t fall too far from the tree. What personality traits and motivations entrepreneurs need to have if they hope to succeed with her. The appalling parental leave policy in the USA and the business Clara is championing to support breastfeeding mothers who have to go back to work. Her vision for the San Francisco of the future. Links:Urban Innovation Fund--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Tim Draper is the world’s most famous venture capital investor who’s backed many companies like Hotmail, Twitter or Tesla. He is a ridiculously nice and charming guy (it might be all that Bitcoin he owns, who knows?), he’s full of amazing advice and has a voice like chocolate silk - which, if it did exist, he could probably afford to buy.Tim founded DJF, Draper Associates and Draper University. All you need to know if you’re listening outside the Valley is that Tim is one of the great legacy names known best for a warm smile, a suit and a firm handshake.His unique ability to pick out opportunities explains why you might have heard of him as one of the world’s most prolific Bitcoin supporters and owners.We chat with Tim about: A family of venture capitalists What it means to be a hero Why he disagrees with Elon Musk about AI The benefits of Bitcoin His book, “How to be The Startup Hero: A Guide and Textbook for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs” What Draper University is all about Links: How to be The Startup Hero: A Guide and Textbook for Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs Bitcoin Hustle --SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Tim Brown, ex-professional New Zealand footballer turned American shoemaker entrepreneur, discusses his transition from athlete to entrepreneur in the sustainable footwear industry. He explores the difference in attitudes towards entrepreneurship between London and San Francisco, the journey of creating a B Corp, and the Allbirds funding journey. Tim also shares his experience playing soccer in Australia and offers advice for entrepreneurs.