We’re living through a time of unprecedented demand on the care workforce in the UK. Across the country, 10% of all healthcare shifts are filled by temporary workers and the way they are managed – by expensive and inefficient recruitment agencies – is bleeding billions of pounds out of the system.
A positive workplace culture is a vitally important feature of early stage businesses, conferring competitive advantage on those that prioritise its development and nourish it over time.Workplace culture starts to form when founders make their first hires and the dynamics within the executive team start to form. It is made up of a number of attributes: some tangible, others less so.
Certain characteristics are obviously positive, such as teamwork, just as some are clearly undesirable, like bullying. Many others, for example learning, purpose, authority, stability, results, risk, safety, fall somewhere in-between.
We’re at a crossroads when it comes to traditional healthcare across Europe. In a world of an ageing population and rising costs, healthcare systems are at a breaking point. Barriers are put in people’s way and stop them from getting the support they need, be that financial barriers, lack of knowledge or even time pressures.
At Smedvig Capital we lead investments in tech and tech-enabled businesses at Series A and Series B. Our approach is to act with conviction, backing 2-3 business a year, becoming a long-term, supportive partner to a focussed family of companies.
Life insurance normally makes people uncomfortable. Nobody wants to think about death, and especially not about the bureaucracy that comes with it. But life insurance wasn’t always like this: it used to be a force for good, a source of comfort.
Is Andreesen Horwitz’s step of renouncing its VC status a sign of the future? (Forbes April 30.19)
A16Z, like much of the VC industry, is responding to the need for greater flexibility in the modern world. Investment opportunities are not homogeneous, rather they come in all shapes and structures. Meanwhile, private markets are growing, offering more opportunities and greater demand to try new things. The move by A16Z enables it to take these opportunities and attract the best deals, by attracting a broader range of talent, driving untraditional thinking and building a differentiated brand.
Back in 2008, following an MBA project, I set out to change the way the world learns languages. Having learned Spanish and travelled across Spain and Latin America, I knew how rewarding language learning can be. But I also understood how challenging it can be, as well as the limitations of traditional learning methods.
Talis has backed some amazing companies since 2009 – including Darktrace, Luminance, Reevoo, Onfido and Iwoca – and we’ve seen thousands of companies come through our door. Right now, we have a portfolio of around 40 or so innovators who we think could have real global potential. To get to term sheet stage, we have to be laser-focused on ensuring there is a world class team, the market opportunity is there, that it’s the right timing and stage and of course that there is traction and demand for the technology the startup is building.
There was there no simple, chic and affordable way to buy flowers online.
How we design, build and use workspace is changing. Fact. How developers go about this successfully is still very much up for debate 
