FUNDstars & FOUNDstars from NOTWICS

We really enjoyed filming this week's  FUNDstar Vod/Podcast, with the extremely affable, amusing and insightful Adam Niewinski, from leading Series B+ investor, OTB Ventures, in Warsaw. Adam takes his time to provide context and background on how he decided venture capital was for him as it was an evolution: # Of his early life of travels # His career in finance # Life as a B2C Fintech &...

George calls in from an office, well a dance studio in Manchester (his office for the day).  He's a good egg and straight-talking Northern man, originally from Sheffield who holds the keys for founders, interested in catching the eyes and ears of ACF investors. who were previously known as AngelCoFund, but re-branded in early 2021. The fund has been a hugely successful Seed investor, adopting...

Bristol based, Spacebands is one of the few early stage Covid-19 / Tech businesses that Notwics have seen successfully navigate and grow commercially through the Pandemic, This has been the result of their product helping Corporations successfully manage the problem of Social Distancing, through a relatively simple, hardware approach. The Spacebands wrist device notifies users when they are too cl...

We spotted RapTech many years ago as an early Seed Stage business, named BattleMe, in 2017, when they resided at the leading Telefonica backed accelerator, called Wayra. Unusually the business was born by Alena and her brother, who through their childhood in Belarus grew a love of 80's and 90's US hip-hop which they then  combined with their technological expertise. Consequently, the Technolo...

We love Jackie as a straight talking, go getting, no holds barred type of VC investor- a real tour de force  and this 40 minute pod shows you just why she is destined to become even more successful with her latest venture, Sandbox Studios. Jackie provides great insight and wisdom, whilst explaining more about Sandbox and how they plan to invest globally, from the Los Angeles base. Being in LA...

We have the pleasure of spending time with one of the leading and most successful investors in the UK and European Seed stage today, on the “FOUNDstars and FUNDstars” VodPod. The effervescent Carmen calls us from Madrid (despite being London based) for this bubbly and insightful Vodcast / Podcast where we focus on several interesting and important aspects of her life as venture capitalist, where C...

In this interesting episode, filmed in late April 2021, Ruslan provides some excellent insight and is again a classic example of how cross border barriers for founders looking for investment have really been removed during the pandemic. This really is a Vod/Podcast that is from Moscow with love, as Ruslan takes time to deep dive on the approach, structure and growth that Begin have created in a ve...

In today's episode we delve into the future and hear the amazing pearls of wisdom, of what may or may not happen in the world of Technology, from one of authorities on this area, David Wood of The London Futurists. David's business is very much in demand, with the pandemic  sparking a mix-shift towards more Corporations (not just Tech) and individuals allocating greater resource and time towa...

We have another cracking episode for you today, with another legendary and outspoken VC, the "bolder than bold" Steve Baxter of Ten13 VC.   Should you not know this, but Steve is a national hero of the Australian Tech scene, with all his great and insightful  wisdom displayed on TV show "Shark Tank".   More recently Steve has been focused his efforts on investing through t...

Jonny is a real character and one of the most likeable rogues in Blockchain. Think of a recipe of  Oliver Twist's the Artful Dodger meets John McCririck, of Horse-racing commentary par excellEnce, sprinkled with Crypto-currency ingredients - then you get the general picture. But joking aside, Jonny is one of the few people Notwics have met and i'm counting in the 1000's that actually make Blo...

Camilla's love of Technology was forged in her early career at the mighty Bain Consulting, where upon being posted to San Francisco for 6 months she had the opportunity to work with baby stage, inspirational start-ups like: UBER and Worldpay !!! Having cut her teeth working on these rather unsuccessful west coast based founders, Camilla became hooked and upon returning to London, she sai...

Bobby Console-Verma is a long standing pillar of the world of Family Office and he takes 50 minutes out of his schedule to tell us about his life in Family Office and what its all about. Bobby's tips are centered around: # The importance of timing with investment throughout his life # His love of Real Estate and Property through his Family Office, FMV Capital # How Family Offices are very unique a...

David joins us from his flat in London, to tell us more about his role at Truesight Ventures, a Seed Fund focused on investing in brilliant founders. They are a small team, 4 people in total based in London & Stockholm.   We discuss & debate:  The VC industry:  # The nature of VC, is "super sexy" in David's words and  it is attracting more young people as an the industr...

Another cheeky chappie joins from the countryside, Nick Finegold a FOUNDstar, founding two great start-ups, namely Curation and The Fat Gladiator. They are both content driven businesses, led by technology address real issues in the world, with Curation .. ESG and the Fat Gladiator anything else that Nick fancies writing stories about and doing a video on. He also deep dives on the time building E...

Dan of calls in from the current Superseed HQ, in the middle of the British countryside to tell us about his Fund that invests in technical founders building business automation platforms.  Or, as he tells his wife and people that don’t know the VC world, “the boring sh*t that goes on behind the Glaxo Smithkline – we love the platforms that go on in that world and change the way people .. lik...

Staying Down-Under and keeping the distinctly antipodean flavour to the Vod/Pod or “Pub” Cast this week, we spent the next 50 minutes shooting the breeze with the masterful Christian Faes of Lendinvest, who looks tanned and healthy, as well as speaking superbly dandy, from his lockdown induced home in Queensland, Australia.   Christian is probably the most successful founder that Chris has ev...

Mat of Act Capital Partners, a fascinating Melbourne based, Media focused VC called into the show in Mid-March 2021 to share some right gems of wisdom, to a early morning (coffee'd up), PJ wearing Chris and perfectly properly attired Ant.  During the episode, Mat openly shared his perspective on many areas including:  # The move from being a Founder to a VC and the trials / tribulations...

Cordelia Meacher is a “tour de force” in the world of Technology PR and Strategy and a true FOUNDstar, having created Fieldhouse Associates 9 years ago and driving it to become one of the leading UK agencies in the world of private Technology. Through Cordelia’s stewardship and capabilities, Fieldhouse now lists many of the UK and Europe’s leading VC’s as clients, as well as some of the “up and co...

George O’Connor, from Stifel Nicolaus, is a legendary figure from the world of UK Technology, being a leading UK sell-side analyst covering public Technology companies for many decades. George has been through the highs and lows of the internet bubble (bursting), the financial crisis and in this episode talks about the new renaissance of UK Technology companies, looking to IPO in the UK in 2021 (D...

Stuart joins us from the wilds of South Devon, (in lockdown) standing up and freshly shaven, to tell us about his experience as a venture capitalist which was honed by working in several big VC’s in London. The main role was at Octopus where he ran a £45m VCT but they all provided Stuart with the experience to build his latest venture, an Enterprise Capital fund called Qantx.   Qantx is focus...

A Flat Capped and hairy David “Wolverine” Johnson, the UK Editor of Maddyness, calls in from the wilds of the Berkshire countryside, to tell us all about the joys of lockdown and how he swapped life in Harlesden for a lovely barn “doer-upper”. As well as home DIY & a fondness for electrical wiring, David updates us on the progress the leading Tech publication has come so far, including the rec...

Amusingly Form are a regulation focused VC, that openly admit the pandemic (we filmed this in Lockdown 3) has actually turned them off watching the news, especially BoBo’s 5 pm Death update.   On the team itself, Leo and Patrick met at the CBI which sparked their interest in setting up the first Fund in the UK / Europe, focused on Regulation, many years later. Think Tusk Ventures in the US, but wi...

Ant and Chris talk to Stephen Kelly, the Chair of Tech Nation, a great UK institution that is helping drive and grow Digital in the UK. He discusses how now could become the golden time or age of UK Tech. Additionally, we dive into how Tech Nation is well placed as a platform to help drive UK companies to grow, scale and smash through the global barriers to become global champions.   Tech Nation i...

My memories of Alasdair go back many years, to seeing him succeed in the world of film, winning a Bafta and he is an individual who views life as a learning curve, of which technology has featured strongly. These life skills and understanding feature heavily in this episode, where Alasdair provides some grey hair, well actually purple hair wisdom for any founders that want to build a successful bu...

Oliver Finch is an Englishman in Denmark apparently the happiest country on Earth, where he works for Maersk Growth in Copenhagen. Oliver called in to tell us more about the world of Corporate VC, through his detailed work with Maersk Growth, the ventures arm of the leading, global conglomerate, Maersk. Oliver deep dives into his views on several interesting areas in the 50-minute Vod/Pod; natural...