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.

Over the past decade, the food industry has seen a boom in vegan and plant-based brands in order to capture what has been regarded as ‘the future of food’. However, as quickly as this trend has started to rise, it has started to fall with a growing number of plant-based companies entering administration and cutting their workforces. It’s clear that just being vegan isn’t as substantial a mission statement as it used to be. Companies need more. Foodhak has more.

The current economic situation has been a major challenge for me as an entrepreneur. With the risk of recession looming, it has been difficult to navigate the business landscape and more challenging than before to raise investment. However, this difficult economic situation has also presented an opportunity for us at Immersive Fox – our AI creates video clones of you that do the heavy-lifting of video creation This leads to cost savings in video production and, when used in cold outreach, boosts sales responses – it has become increasingly attractive to businesses in this climate. This has enabled us to grow our business, despite the difficult economic conditions.

Alisa Patotskaya
CEO, Immersive Fox

What have been your biggest learnings in venture and as a Board observer at WeGift, Moteefe, and Deployed?
As I’ve always been focusing on early stage, my biggest learning is that this is completely a people game. You can have incredible founders execute a mediocre idea but you can’t have mediocre founders trying to execute a great idea. Founders (and fund managers!) need resilience and unwavering drive to execute. This also applies to the types of networks and communities you build around you which is so incredibly important in venture and one of Pact’s strong suits which appeals to founders.

Artificial intelligence is constantly at the centre of widespread media scrutiny and debate, with consistent concerns about the potential for unethical usage and privacy and data infringements. However, whilst measures must be taken to mitigate these worries, we need to open up the conversation to understand how AI, when used ethically, can be a significant force for good. A key example of an area where AI has huge potential to improve outcomes is in mental health care. AI offers an opportunity to help unlock a more objective and safer approach to assessing and diagnosing mental health conditions.