The European Startup Show

[00:01:00] Jared's Journey from sales to building a thriving community of 45,000 revenue professionals and how community saved his life. [00:10:00] What makes for a successful B2B community and when companies should think of creating one [00:14:00] The Collab: Jared’s New Initiative - a newsletter and community for collaborative growth. How Collab connects creatives, founders and fractionals with...

[2:15] From Classical Music to Tech Startup Anu discusses her transition from a classical musician to founding a technology company, highlighting the unexpected path from arts to entrepreneurship. [12:25] Understanding the Upright Project's Impact Model A deeper dive into how the Upright Project measures the net impact of companies, using tangible examples to illustrate their methodology. [23:05]...

2:16 - Path from operator to angel investor to Atomico scout 19:09 - Advice on early stage marketing Marketing focus by stage of growth How do you balance performance marketing and brand/organic marketing? How do you balance the marketing for end-users vs decision makers? Common mistakes 80% of founders make - working as siloed teams Resource for angel investing Ventures Together Alma Angels Seae...

Guerson Meyer, Co-Founder & Technology Officer of Sophiq Properties, a PropTech company talks about how he uses no-code solutions at Sophiq Properties to locate, evaluate and validate properties in real-time, adapting to the needs of each investment.  In 2023 alone,  they will complete 16 operations totalling 30 million euros. Hear in detail what no-code tools he used to build his core busines...

Why all SaaS companies should implement usage-based pricing and How to run a successful design partner program with your customers to build your early MVP

[1:49] - Why not having domain expertise can sometimes help entrepreneurs [5:45] - Defining your ICP [8:31] - Determining your MVP [13:06] - Funding your seed and lessons learnt from raising too early. [22:48] - GTM [30:11] - Building a team and culture; it starts first with language. [40:20] - Culture first hiring tips

[2:16] - 20 years and starting a company in Estonia[5:08] - Angel investing and what to look for?[10:01] - First CIO of Estonia[16:59] - Koos - what is it and why is it important[29:04] - Advice for other entrepreneurs[31:35] - ChatGPT and the future[33:09] - HK Unicorn squad and Links Koos Sponsors: Chargebee E-residency

[2:00] - How the SVB crisis unfolded at Payhawk[6:23] - The 3 most important ingredients for building a successful unicorn[16:19] - Validating your company idea[18:19] - 60 rejections. How Payhawk overcame the biggest objection from VCs[28:35] - Leading through crisis[31:54] - Competition - Use data not marketing to assess competition[36:18] - Trends in Fintech: the payment gap Company link: Payha...

[2:24] - Journey to starting Seedstars[5:31] - Investing and not being local[10:27] - Seedstars programs[13:28] - Investor returns from emerging markets[19:06] - Challenges[25:12] - Advice for entrepreneurs [27:16] - Advice for investors Links Seedstars Book: Where the crawdads sing

[3:16] - Hedgeflows: Managing risk and automating payment runs for SMEs [9:51] - Advice for finding early product market fit[16:39] - How to attract talent in early stages without brand or VC backing[19:07] - Knowing your investor’s incentives Links: HedgeFlows Books: Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 steps to successful startup by Bill Aulet

[2:08] - The economics of solar[7:39] - Challenges and barriers to solar adoption[11:11] - Where are the different countries when it comes to adopting solar[14:50] - Erik’s Journey to starting Svea Solar[19:06] - advice on doing layoffs[23:13] - Challenges of scaling - its all about recruiting, developing and retaining talent[29:48] - Continuous people evaluation[37:40] - 3 things Erik looks for w...

[2:07] - Advice on navigating current economic conditions[6:00] - FTX bankruptcy [8:48] - Early-stage due diligence [10:59] - Identifying outliers to find the next Uber or Airbnb[14:13] - Decision-making at Creandum[16:20] - Funding process  Links Creandum The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

[1:44] - About Remofirst and Nurasyl’s journey to starting Remofirst.[6:49] - The three ingredients for not failing at a startup [9:04] - Finding your ideal customer profile[12:00] - Trends in remote hiring[14:09] - Funding journey and tips[21:50] - Making remote working work Links Remofirst Delivering Happiness - Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos

[1:53] - Journey to becoming a venture partner at 29 years[7:40] - Increasing the number of women in VC[10:53] - Ideal startups for Sapphire and how they source deals[21:29] - Common challenges, mistakes and advice for Series B companies[30:14] - Series B valuation and trends in valuation[33:51] - Work life balance as a VCLinks: Sapphire Ventures The Fearless Organization

[2:15] - Online dating market - is there space for one more?[4:47] - Lessons learned from previous startups - retention, defensibility, product complexity, and proving pmf outside of your home market.[16:39] - Never giving up[20:52] - With 8 rounds of fundraising under his belt, David shares his secret for fundraising.[29:00] - Seed stage valuation[29:54] - Iceland as a growing entrepreneurial hub...

1:55] - Journey to founding TERN [4:49] - Refugee problem is a global problem. By the numbers. [7:08] - Are refugees are burden to the host country? [9:85] - The Rwanda Refugee plan - will it work? [21:39] - UK’s support for refugees - asylum seekers vs resettlement [28:28] - TERN support for refugees [31:45] - Top three businesses started by refugee entrepreneurs and their main challenges Links T...

[1:53] - Safety in upbringing and why being outside can be a boon to an entrepreneur [8:29] - “Never look at the competition, know your customer instead” [10:58] - Focus on the product and avoid distractions [14:25] - On B2C marketing [19:20] - Building the company culture at Vivino [23:34] - When should a founder step down and bring in a new CEO [27:08] - Fundraising tips [30:35] - what Heini loo...

[1:51] - Irish startup scene[7:41] - How to attract and incentivize talent at a macro level[11:13] - The best startup ecosystems in Europe[19:15] - Dogpatch[24:12] - Norther Ireland/Southern Ireland collaboration[27:21] - Funding for startups in IrelandLinks Dogpatch Changing World Order by Ray Dalio Midnight’s children by Salman Rushdie

[2:30]  Idea development when you are not from the industry [14:52] - From idea to MVP - DIY or outsource? [21:16] - Funding journey pre-seed to seed [25:26] - Building your team [29:34] - Getting your first customers [31:58] - Niche down on a vertical or not [37:25] - Fundraising dos and don’ts Links Arx Alliance

1:45 - Your journey from operational role to VC6:16 - Advice for others thinking of moving from operational to VC role.12:33 - What makes Creandum different to other VC firms?16:25 - Creandum’s process of finding and investing in companies25:00 - Timing for approaching Creandum 27:48 - Metrics for investing32:59 - Trends in Europe Links Creandum

2:00 - Founding YuLife - the journey 10:34 -  Finding the right co-founders 17:49 - Initial customers 19:21 - Proving ROI 23:11 - From founder-led sales to systematic marketing and sales 27:28 - External branding 31:41 - Pivoting from B2C to B2B early on 34:33 - Internal culture and branding Links YuLife 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Steven Covey

[1:57] - About Notion Capital[4:04] - Notion’s go-to-market support and building the scaling engine[9:09] - How to build a team for growth[16:10] - When to bring in marketing; and determining the first hire[20:13] - US Expansion: when and how you should expand to the US [28:01] - How do you become a Notion Capital portfolio company[40:35] - Big trends and areas of growth in Europe Links Notion Cap...

[2:08] Your career from currency trader to COO of Railsbank [6:50] Advice for women in FinTech on growing their careers [11:07] Building a high-performance sales team and hiring women after a career break [16:24] Current trends in embedded finance and fintech [25:46] Growing from 120 - 500 people Links: Railsbank Little Women by Louisa Alcott

[2:12] - Journey from consulting to founding Meatable [11:06] - Alternative protein market [14:35] - Biggest challenges facing Meatable and lab-grown meat [17:45] - Cost of Meatable burger vs a normal burger and target market [22:58] - Funding [24:45] - Go-to-market strategy: license technology or vertically integrate [28:00] - Messaging for different markets - Singapore, US, Europe [31:00] - US e...

[2:17] Your journey to founding HealthHero [11:54] Multi-pronged business model and prioritization [14:13] Brand strategy [16:49] Go-to-market strategy [20:58] Structuring for growth [25:24] US expansion plans Links HealthHero Sponsors Chargebee E-residency Book recommendation Sapiens