Scaleup Valley Podcast

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Craig Everett, CEO at Holibob Key Takeaways Opening a world of possibilities for travellers, tour operators, and travel brands by pioneering solutions. How to innovate in a very crowded market like travel Leveraging technology to disrupt an established market Raising a Pre-Seed round during the Pandemic Bringing diversity in a v...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike DIas speaks with Ricardo Costa, CEO of Bernardo da Costa Key Takeaways: How to ensure long term success of family companies The first company in Portugal starting a Happiness Department Internationalization: Lessons learned expanding to Spain (M&A) The journey from a €1.8M family company to a €65M holding and 250 team members in 5 countries Inve...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley, Mike Dias speaks with Alex Lempka, CEO at Connect Earth. Key Takeaways: A set of data tools that empower consumers and SMEs to take eco-conscious decisions Starting a company at only 24 years old Opportunities across the climate tech sector How to hire the right people at the right time Taking care of yourself as a founder. Think about your priorities on you...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Robert Graham, CEO at Pillar Health Key Takeaways The concept of acquisition entrepreneurship (ETA - entrepreneurship through acquisition) How to acquire a business Buying and scaling Pillar Health Group: From 1 to 10M+ EBITDA in 5 years with 3 acquisitions Self funded search and the SBA Loan Program (US specific) Helping acquis...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Felix Poernbacher CEO at DeepDrive. Key Takeaways: From strategy consultant / investment banker to deep tech startup founder Is it wise to have 7 people in a founding team? The technology behind DeepDrive: disrupting the electric motors for Electric Vehicles Focusing on building a large scale series production From 0 to series A...

In this episode of the Scale Up valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Trish Higgins, Partner at Chenmark Building a holding company model How to grow with a small business acquisition model Working with businesses to preserve legacies and position companies for long term success. The importance of having a pipeline of CEOs to lead the portfolio of companies Buying, owning and operating exciting bu...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, mike Dias speaks with David Heinemeier Hansson, Co-Founder at 37signals. Key Takeaways Lessons learned by founding and leading a SaaS company for 21+ years A product-led growth model vs hiring too many people Why limiting headcount growth to 50-75 people Why is it healthy to not scale at all? A different lens to work, scale and growth Enjoy your jour...

In this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Juanjo Mostazo, Co-Founder at Homa and Venture Partner at K-Fund. Key Takeaways: How to transition from CTO to founder to investor A new European city on the rise: Malaga Founding and scaling Homa - raised 160M+ Having a multicultural founding team covering different european countries (Spain, Germany, France) The gaming market:...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Salma Bakouk, CEO at Sifflet Key takeaways From investment banking in Asia to getting back to Paris to start up Sifflet On a mission to reduce Data Entropy Growing a company with your best friend: challenges and opportunities Creating a healthy and friendly culture working remotely Raising $12.8M A round led by EQT Ventures in 2...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Raja Skogland, Founder at The Visionary Company Key Takeaways: Investor in 70+ startups Helping seed to series A companies fundraise and scale. Investor readiness and fundraising best practices Mistakes to avoid as early stage founders

On this Episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Christian Meinerding CEO at HiveMQ Key Takeaways How to build a new category The power of inbound marketing Learnings of a German Startup in Silicon Valley Reliable Data Movement for Connected Devices Overnight successes may take 10 years to succeed Expansion to the US without boots on the ground Lessons learned raising 49.3M

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Tim Veira, Founder, CEO & Investor. Key Takeaways: Lessons learned as entrepreneur building Special Edition Holding (Africa) Becoming famous with Shark Tank and the transition to investor Back to your purpose as entrepreneur: building the future of Education with BGA (Brave Generation Academy) How to successfully scale up a comp...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Christoph Prieler, Co-Founder 6 MD at Finmatics. Key Takeaways: Leveraging passion for accounting Accounting Automation made easy Scaling a technology SaaS company from Wien Putting AI on the hands of the accountants. Creating a Go-To-Market strategy that combines partnerships with own channels Focusing scarce resources on the r...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Scot Wingo, CEO of Spiffy. Key Takeaways - Lessons learned by leading ChannelAdvisor to IPO in May of 2013 at 80M+ ARR - Scaling Spify to a 30M series C earlier this year with 90%+ YoY growth in the last 2 years - How to digitize brick and mortar businesses - Lessons learned with Amazon - focus on serving the customer -How to cr...

On this episode of the ScaleUp Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Ana Zamora, CEO at Vitaance. Key Takeaways: Improve the lives of your employees. Bring life to your company The advantages of gamification in improving people’s routines How to position a company in terms of wellbeing Why focus on engagement? We make sure that we are used. From 0 to 1 From Corporate Executive to StartUp Founder F...

On this episode of the Scale Up valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Jens Noertershaeuser, Co-CEO at Kranus Health Key Takeaways: Solving the care gap in Men's Health Revolutionize men's health by providing innovative and accessible healthcare solutions Having a multi product approach without losing focus A evidence based approach to healthcare led by science The difficulties to expand the produc...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Thomas Canguilhem, Co-Founder & CEO of EcoTree. Key Takeaways Climate tech scaleup specializing in sustainability. Ecotree's goal is to promote environmental awareness and engage individuals and businesses in eco-friendly behaviors How to successfully combine a B2C and B2B without losing focus. How to transform climate change aw...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Shane Bigelow, CEO at CHAMPtitles. Key Takeaways: Starting a company in Cleveland, Ohio Helping insurance carriers, lenders, state governments, vehicle retailers, and OEMs create, manage, and transfer digital vehicle titles Why don't sell SaaS to Governments - the power of distribution The importance of recruiting in every stage...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Tate Hackert, President & Founder of ZayZoon Key Takeaways: The rise of a new category: Earned Wage Access Giving employees the ability to access wages whenever they are needed. How to create a new concept and brand to a new category The particularities of the Canadian ecosystem: challenges and opportunities Learning from your e...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Neil Andrew, CEO & Founder of Lunio. Key Takeaways: The evolution of marketing The importance of recruiting well the first 100 people Evolving from a performance marketing agency to a startup in just three years. Having a four member founding team The best way to let a co-founder go How to create an inbound engine that actually...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Joerg Heuer, CEO & Founder at EcoG. Key Takeaways: EV charging solutions that grow your business. Disrupting a market with a founding team that comes from the corporate world. Challenges and opportunities of the EV charging market. Lessons Learned from expansion to the US. How to handle strategic and financial investors. The pow...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Daniela Braga, CEO & Founder of Defined.ai, the largest marketplace in AI. Key Takeaways: Building the world’s leading AI marketplace How Daniela raised more than $80M for Defined.ai From Academia to leading the AI sector The thin line between thinking outside the box and staying resilient How to become one of the 2% of female f...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Simon Eklund, CEO at Legal Desk Key Takeaways Make your own Legal Documents online How to scale a legal tech company, being a lawyer and not having a technical Co-Founder How to adjust a legaltech product to scale to other Scandinavian countries Raising capital in a non VC fashion - capital efficient way - with sustainable metri...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Daniel Keiper-Knorr, General Partner at Speedinvest. Key Takeaways: The most innovative companies are created in the most turbulent times. The Speedinvest thesis evolution Why Speedinvest is investing in Emerging Markets Good Talent grows everywhere A match made in heaven: why founders should choose a fund that shares values and...

On this episode of the Scale Up Valley Podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Sebastian Baier, Founder & MD at Buynomics. Key Takeaways Pricing, the key to profitability End-to-end revenue optimization. Lessons learned from raising a 13M Series A round Why expanding to mid-market instead of opening verticals in Enterprise How to make inbound work How to successfully scale a company without a technical co-...