Despite projections towards the end of 2023 saying we’d start to see economic uplift in 2024, UK businesses, including in the tech sector, continue to struggle amidst a horde of significant challenges. And an ongoing funding slowdown isn’t helping the situation.

Before becoming Principal of Seraphim Space Manager LLP you were Senior Director at Astra and COO at Apollo Fusion and are currently Board Observer at D-Orbit. What have been your biggest learnings and pivotal insights gained on your journey thus far from these roles?
Team is everything. Many startups have great ideas and tech but it’s all about the execution, i.e. turning it into a product that people want to buy and doing that over and over again. That all comes down to the team. I was very fortunate at Apollo Fusion to work with a team of exceptional people that took very good tech and built a great company with a small team. For me, when I look at startups, the team is the real differentiator between startups.

Ever since I could remember, I have been into fitness- always on the search for the best health supplements. When I started to help my now-wife, Mari Llewellyn, on her fitness journey, we quickly realized there weren’t female-focused supplements that were both effective and delicious. So in 2019, we were inspired to create Bloom to give everyone the opportunity to become the best version of themselves with high-quality delicious health supplements.

Set one clear goal for the company to align around, with each person a “Single Threaded Owner” (STO) of an action to achieve it.

Dan Thompson
CEO, Kluster

Always Be Closing (ABC). Founders are their companies’ best salespeople and also the first to stop selling, handing it over to others — go out and get the revenues.

Avi Eyal
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Entrée Capital

In an era where technological advances are reshaping industries, the legal sector is no exception. The quickly advancing applications of Generative AI to the legal industry marks a significant leap forward. Law firms, in-house legal teams, incumbent legal technology providers and new upstarts are all grappling with the potential impact and figuring out how to prioritise their time and resources to capture the opportunity that has presented itself.

Skiing has been a passion of mine since my childhood, so turning this into a career was always a dream I had. My brother, Nick (Maison Sport CEO), and I both skied professionally for Great Britain and I have always felt at home in the mountains. After retiring from the sport and working as an insurance broker in the City, alongside my brother and fellow ex-ski-racer Aaron Tipping (Maison Sport CFO), we decided to take the leap and buy a French Ski School.

The lack of activity in the public markets over the past 18 months has led to more interest in the private markets from those incumbent public market players. Growth-stage companies have also had a tricky time navigating the frozen funding landscape and are turning to alternative solutions for both primary and secondary liquidity.

From branch manager to robo-adviser: the rise of the ‘fintech’

‘Fintech’ is part of almost everybody’s life, in one form or another, today. In my view, its driving force has always been: “How can technology make financial services work for the average person?”

From the shift away from personal banking undertaken in high street branches to the rise of online solutions, fintechs emerged to address the specific customer needs that were once met by named bank managers.

What were your biggest learnings from your time at Blinkx and the 12 years spent in Silicon Valley?
Blinkx was an incredible journey – but not without its challenges. Building a company is all-consuming and after more than a decade as CEO, I was done. I do wonder about whether I would have felt differently had I planned my life for a thirty-year journey. You can’t start out at 100 miles an hour and expect to sustain that pace for decades.