Not only are emotions and data NOT opposites, emotions actually ARE data. They are something to be studied and understood. Sir Martin Sorrell discusses data and emotions from the point of view of how to harness both in advertising.In May 2020, we hosted Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman of S4 Capital and Founder of WPP. Sir Martin Sorrell remained its CEO for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. Sir Martin Sorrell shared stories about his earliest business days and how he overcame some of his toughest challenges, as well as how he sees the future and how he now enjoys supporting the next generation.

Jennifer Fleiss is an entrepreneur who has founded and scaled two digitally native businesses from scratch: Rent the Runway and Jetblack.Rent the Runway was co-founded in 2009 by Fleiss and Jenn Hyman. In 2009, they disrupted the trillion-dollar fashion industry and changed how women get dressed forever by pioneering the ‘Closet in the Cloud’: a dream closet filled with an infinite selection of designer styles to rent, wear and return. In this episode from May 2020, we explored the earliest days of Jenny's career, starting in financial services, the subsequent journey which resulted in co-founding her businesses as well as her time spent with Torch Capital, a brand-focused venture fund, where she advises early-stage companies. 

Ever wonder what open-source software and jazz music or free pizza and wordpress have in common?We’ll give you a clue, Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of Automattic ($3bn private valuation; makers of WordPress and Tumblr). During the episode of myfirstminute from the 20th of May 2020, Sam Endacott, Partner at firstminute capital, covered Matt's journey of founding and growing Automattic, including the story behind developing WordPress, the Open Source software used by over 31% of the web. Sam also explored Matt's depth of experience in operating during a financial crisis as well as his outlook on a post-lockdown world.

This holiday period, with the extra downtime away from work, we’ll spend more time playing games than ever!  So what exactly is the recipe for creating a successful game? King co-founder, Riccardo Zacconi discussed the secret recipe behind the success of Candy Crush and how to create stickiness in games (pun intended). We also delved into Riccardo's depth of experience in running King during a major financial downturn and explored how he now enjoys helping and backing founders in this episode from April 2020.Riccardo Zacconi's biography:Riccardo was a co-founder of King and continues to serve as company Chairman, having served as CEO from 2003 until 2019.Riccardo grew up in Italy, worked in management consulting at LEK and BCG before transitioning into tech at the start of the dotcom boom. In 1999, Riccardo joined Swedish online startup Spray to build its business in Germany. After the sale of Spray to Lycos Europe he moved to the UK as an Entrepreneur in Residence for Benchmark Capital. In 2002 Riccardo joined uk online dating startup uDate as VP of European sales and marketing. After the sale of uDate to IAC/Match.com, Riccardo co-founded King in March 2003 and was its CEO from the start, overseeing the company's rapid growth in the global mobile gaming sector to over 500 million monthly players, the company's IPO on NYSE and its $6bn sale to Activision Blizzard in 2016.In December 2016 Riccardo was knighted by the Italian President with the title of Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia. Riccardo is also the founder of the PTEN Research Foundation for rare genetic diseases.

What do you think the average for a startup to reach product-market fit is? 📊The answer: 2-3 years. Ross Mason took 6 years to reach product-market fit with MuleSoft but it was worth the wait when he sold the company to Salesforce for $6.5bn.Ross discusses his journey as Founder of MuleSoft. From the search for product-market fit to the changes in his confidence between 10 million and 2 million in revenue. Ross is the co-founder of MuleSoft and Founder and Managing Partner of Dig Ventures. In this episode from April 2020, we covered everything from scaling MuleSoft in a recession through to being bought by Salesforce for $6.5bn, to how we use the Coronavirus to come out stronger, to how to go about fundraising in those times, to how to know who is essential in your team, to how do Enterprise SaaS customers respond to a crisis like this.