What were your biggest learnings whilst working at Goldman Sachs and subsequently driving FirstMinute’s work into South Africa, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Egypt?
At Goldman Sachs, I worked in the Financial Institutions M&A Group working on transactions for Banks, Insurance and Payments Companies. I’ve always been fascinated by the plumbing of the Global Economy! At firstminute I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the startups trying to modernise this system – both traditional fintechs and crypto infrastructure companies. What’s so exciting about Emerging Markets is how much white space there is to build critical infrastructure in financial services and the value capture for companies as these regions move from cash to digital. The talent in these regions is amazing and Covid really changed the fundraising dynamic as meetings shifted online.

What were your biggest learnings as a founder?
Being a founder is an ongoing learning experience. You make so many smaller and bigger mistakes. You learn from them, adapt and move on. If you only see the media it is easy to believe that you are the only one where its not smooth sailing towards unicorn status. That is why it is crucial to have a network of fellow founders. You will quickly find out that everybody has their own set of struggles behind the scenes. They also understand what you are going through, how lonely it can be and will give you honest advice based on their experience without any hidden agenda.

What inspired you to become a VC and was there a ‘lightbulb’ moment?
As the founder of a bootstrapped company, and an early employee twice over (most recently at Airtable, where I built our first growth team and led partnerships), I get my energy from the messy, early stages of company building. After I left Airtable, I assumed I’d take a few weeks to catch my breath and then get back to building. But I was really drawn to what Gil Dibner had built over at Angular Ventures for one major reason…Angular invests early.

What were your biggest learnings as Partner at SURFnCode,Board Member at Hadean,Co Founder of Luminous Ventures and Mentor at Entrepreneur First?
I think the biggest takeaway throughout my tech career is that this sector (no matter whether you are a founder or VC) is not easy. For me, it’s all about the quality of the founder – rather than the idea – to increase the odds of outlier success (or big bang failure).

What advice would you give to Founders looking to raise funds in the current climate and what Terms should they focus upon?

Founders are naturally wary of lower valuations in the current climate, but this market reset should not spook early stage businesses. For SMEs that are hopefully years off an exit, valuations are not the ultimate mark of success and should not be overly embellished. With future financing, valuations will likely increase, and an accurate number will reduce the likelihood of a later down-round.

Attracting financing is crucial for any startup looking to grow, but founders should also take the opportunity to carefully select investors who can help guide their business and realise their vision. It’s a two-way street.

What do you see as the key pitfalls that can sink a startup?

Let’s call out the elephant in the room. We may not officially be in a recession yet, but the market we’re operating in is incredibly different right now. 

Over the past few months, we’ve seen hiring freezes and layoffs, as well as VC companies taking caution with where they put their cash and telling portfolio companies to find a  “path to profitability”. Gone are the glory days of 2021 when valuations were sky-high, VC investment almost doubled and close to 600 new European unicorns were created (compared to just 167 in 2020). 

But whilst some tech companies are making cutbacks, this won’t be the case for all.

It’s just over eight years since Angie, Andy and I set up Faculty.

From a kitchen table in 2014, to a team of over 250 amazing colleagues today – together helping companies use AI to solve their biggest problems. It’s been quite the journey.

How did Faculty start? Well, I was at Harvard when I learned about educational programmes helping people become data scientists.

The programmes are good for companies, for the world, and for PhD students – as it is hard to transition from academia into business.

My co-founder Raffi and I started Passionfruit in recognition of the fact that work isn’t working very well for people and businesses. This problem is felt acutely by the new generation of skilled knowledge workers. With many of them entering the workforce over the last few years, they have felt a misalignment between the needs of workers and organisations, which has worsened since the pandemic. And, while lockdown may be over,  these new attitudes towards work/life balance are here to stay. And, combined with the fact that attracting, engaging and retaining the right talent remains as difficult as it has ever been, the companies that will succeed are those able to meet the demands of top talent.

The summer holidays are over and children have returned to school this week. But getting employees back to the office after 30 months of home or hybrid working is not as straightforward.  Many bosses are increasingly keen to get employees back, concerned about preserving culture, encouraging collaboration, innovation – so critical to tech businesses –  and networking and facilitating learning and development.   And despite evidence of increased productivity, with many tech businesses thriving through the Covid-19 pandemic lock-downs, there remain some sceptics who express concerns that employees “pretend to work” from home.  So what approach should employers take?