Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Darren Tenkorang is the founder and CEO of Trim-IT, one of the first app-powered mobile Barber Shops in the UK. The idea for the business came to Darren whilst he was still at University. He entered his business plan into a competition and much to his surprise he won. The subsequent £10,000 award ended up forming the base to launch the business that we see today.  The South London native sat down...

Jeremy King is the CEO and founder of one of the leading consumer research platforms in the world, Attest. Jeremy graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA, which led him to secure several prestigious interning positions. In 2005 Jeremy began working at McKinsey as an Engagement Manager. After ten years with the consultancy firm Jeremy had decided that he was ready to go out on his own. H...

James and Hector review August's episodes, discuss the future of VC, AgriTech, Sustainability and Robotics. The guys also finally announce their dinner party guests. 

Georgia Stewart is the co-founder and CEO at Tumelo, a start-up which provides investment platforms and pension providers increased transparency on the companies they own. Georgia grew up in Edinburgh and was originally keen on pursuing a career as a vet. Whilst studying at Cambridge University Georgia became exposed to just how little transparency there was in the investment sector and made a men...

Alice Bentinck MBE is one of the co-founders of Entrepreneur First, one of the world's leading talent investors that helps people develop their startup ideas. Away from EF Alice is also one of the founders of Code First: Girls, an organisation which offers free web programming courses for women in university. In 2015 Alice was named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by In...

Amy Lewin is the Deputy Editor at Sifted. Backed by the Financial Times, Sifted is a new media publication that provides In-depth reporting, news and analysis on European startups and their founders, investors and partners. Before joining Sifted Amy served as a writer and editorial assistant for IKEA Family Magazine at August Media before moving to Courier magazine to work as a features editor.  A...

Sitar Teli is a founder and Managing Partner at Connect Ventures, a thesis-led, pan-European, seed stage VC. With over 14 years experience in early-stage investments in both consumer and B2B companies, Sitar has become an expert on growth, culture, building high performance teams and finance strategy. Most notably Sitar led the Series A round for SoundCloud when working for Doughty Hanson Technolo...

Simon Franks is a partner at Venture Capital and Private Equity firm, Redbus. Simon however is perhaps best known for co-founding LoveFILM, which during its time was one of the biggest names in film rental. After the company had reached two million subscribers it was sold to Amazon In 2011 for £200m. Simon has spent much of the proceeding years focusing on philanthropy. Through his work at the Fra...

The second of our monthly round up episodes. We discuss our favourite episodes in July as well as the World becoming a more competitive, the Square acquisition of Australian FinTech Afterpay and what's going on in the B2B space... hint "Data Is The New Oil".

David Semmens is the Chief Investment Officer at leading UK digital wealth management service, Wealthify. David has experience working across a number of industries covering banking, insurance and asset management and has worked for world renowned financial institutions such HSBC Asset Management, Euler Hermes and Standard Chartered Bank. David has gained a reputation as the go-to person for anyon...

James Hind is the Founder and CEO of Carwow, one of the most popular platforms for buying new and used cars in the UK. James studied Finance, which led him into the corporate world, however it was not long before he realised that the only was he was going to be fulfilled professionally was if he went it alone. After working as a ski guide for a few months James went ahead and launched carwow in 20...

Eamonn Carey is the Managing Director at Techstars, a global platform that connects entrepreneurs, investors and corporations. Away from Techstars Eamonn also operates as an Angel Investor, which has seen him invest in over 50 companies. His expertise and knowledge has seen him invited to speak at conferences all around the world including Web Summit, Collision, SXSW and Mobile World Congress as w...

Harry Franks is the co-Founder of Zego, a tech enabled insurance intermediary, servicing commercial customers in the modern world. The company was launched in 2016 and now employs over 60 people spread across both London and Madrid. Much of Zego’s growth is due in part to Harrys high-level understanding of how to build partnerships with leading companies in the on-demand space and within the insur...

This is the first of our new monthly series where Hector and James discuss what's going on in the world of venture and startups, take a look back at the last month's episodes and talk through what's going on at their firms. 

Jean Nehme is the founder & CEO of Touch Surgery, a health tech company shaping the future of surgery through the convergence of surgical expertise and technology. Jean, a trained surgeon, founded Touch Surgery in 2010, in a bid to offer patients educational surgical simulations for more than 200 procedures in 17 specialties. The company was acquired by Medtronic in 2020 but Jean’s continues t...

Matthew Ford is a Partner at Global FinTech Investment Firm, Mouro Capital. Matthew and his team manage over $400M assets that targets early to growth fintech investment opportunities across Europe, North America and Latin America. Prior to Mouro Capital Matthew worked as the Chief Product Officer at Tandem Bank.  Matthew joined James and Hector to discuss his transition from working in operations...

Laurence Krieger is the CEO of Tide, the leading provider of UK SME business accounts and one of the fastest-growing FinTechs in the UK. With over 12 years of experience working in senior roles at fast-growing fintech start-ups Laurence has played a huge role in shaping the industry that we see today. Prior to Tide Laurence launched one of the first prepaid cards into the UK with Moneysupermarket...

Sam Louis is an Investor at Venture Capital and Private Equity firm, AIV Capital. Having worked for a wide range of companies, including Angel Investment Network, BrickTribe, SeedTribe Sam has a good idea of the inner workings of the whole entire funding ecosystem and as such has developed a deep understanding over what makes a good founder.  Riding Unicorns invited Sam on the show to mull over th...

Juliette Souliman is a VC Investor at MMC Ventures, a venture capital fund investing in early stage, high-growth UK companies. Juliette is well regarded for her expertise in fintech, insurtech and the blockchain. Away from MMC Julliette is also the co-founder of Ground Floor Ventures, a European and US business angel network focusing on pre-seed venture deals. Juliette, Hector and James sat down a...

Rachel Carrell is the Founder and CEO of private childcare provider, Koru Kids, Originally from New Zealand Rachel moved to London and soon realised after having a baby just how difficult it was to arrange good quality childcare in the capital. She therefore decided to launch Koru Kids to help parents find the right childcare to suit their needs. Prior to Koru Kids Rachel worked at McKinsey.  In t...

Welcome back to Riding Unicorns as we usher in Season 2 with more guests and more insight into the world of startups and VC. We are also delighted to welcome Hector Mason, Partner @ Episode 1 Ventures as our new co-host.

Hector McNeil is Founder and Co-CEO at ETF business, HANetf. The company is Europe’s first independent white label ETF platform and has over $2bn assets under its management. Hector is considered a veteran of the EFT space after having played a huge role in establishing Susquehanna’s ETF desk in Europe as head of business development. His work has been recognised several times, most recently by be...

Chad West is Director of Global Marketing & Communications at British unicorn, Revolut. The Fintech startup has acquired over 3.5 million customers in three years and was recently valued at over $1.7B making it one of the most revered British companies in recent years. Prior to Revolut Chad worked in Marketing and Communications at VC, Rocket Internet.  During the episode Chad discusses his ti...

Carlos Eduardo Espinal is the Managing Partner at Seedcamp, a European seed fund investing in early stage startups. To date Seedcamp has backed over 400 companies, 6 of whom went on to become unicorns. Carlos is one of the most experienced investors in Europe having worked at numerous high profile companies before joining Seedcamp in 2010. Carlos dropped by to talk about how Seedcamp started, how...

Roisin Levine is the Head of Banks at one of the UK’s leading fintech companies, Flux. The online banking app provides fully itemised digital receipts into banking apps for the likes of Barclays, Monzo and Starling and many more. Roisin has experienced a meteoric ascension in the space which has seen her crowned winner of the Rising Star in Women in Fintech Award an incredible three times.  In thi...