WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 Welcome to the Innovation Conversation, a podcast 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:05.360 about innovators, both in business and real life. 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:08.419 Hosted by myself, Ricardo Rescual and Harry McCona. 00:00:08.619 --> 00:00:11.660 This podcast is sponsored by OpenExperts .com. 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:14.140 OpenExperts is a place to go if you're looking 00:00:14.140 --> 00:00:16.300 to talk with top experts from around the world. 00:00:16.539 --> 00:00:20.879 That is Open -Experts .com. This podcast is also 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:24.539 sponsored by StartupNetworks .co .uk. Startup 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:26.820 Networks, it's an online forum where you can 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:28.739 find all the resources you need to learn your 00:00:28.739 --> 00:00:31.449 startup. from grants to investors to tips and 00:00:31.449 --> 00:00:34.670 tricks on how to be successful you started. Today 00:00:34.670 --> 00:00:37.450 we are talking with Perdi and Margaret from Hotbed, 00:00:37.909 --> 00:00:41.049 one of the top accelerators in London. Hi, and 00:00:41.049 --> 00:00:42.850 welcome to another episode of the Innovation 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:45.710 Conversation. Today we are joined by Perdi and 00:00:45.710 --> 00:00:49.369 Anne from Hotbed. Ladies, welcome. Thanks for 00:00:49.369 --> 00:00:52.210 having us. It's a pleasure having you here. Would 00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:53.789 you like to tell our audience a little bit more 00:00:53.789 --> 00:00:58.859 about Hotbed? Definitely. So Purdy and I started 00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:03.259 Hotbed in May of 2022, and we were actually building 00:01:03.259 --> 00:01:05.980 another company at the time that we started in 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:09.239 2020. But through building that company, we realized 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:11.719 there was a huge shift in the market or shift 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:14.760 in demand for investors being able to access 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:17.400 incredible founders outside of like just their 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:19.920 local area. And we had all these conversations 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:23.180 about how Zoom was going to unlock this pool 00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:25.980 of incredible talent, but we didn't really see 00:01:25.980 --> 00:01:30.219 that desire to transform into a meaningful impact. 00:01:30.379 --> 00:01:33.019 We didn't see a shift in the number of founders 00:01:33.019 --> 00:01:36.420 who were being funded outside of these key cities, 00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:40.640 and we kept wondering why. The majority of venture 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:43.859 capital dollars right now goes to just five cities 00:01:43.859 --> 00:01:48.819 that account for 0 .004 % of the entire world. 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:51.239 And it just doesn't make sense to us. We really 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:54.079 believe that talent is evenly distributed around 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:57.319 the world, but opportunity and funding isn't. 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:00.439 So that's what we're trying to impact with Hotbed. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.609 So our strategy, our business plan, I don't know 00:02:04.609 --> 00:02:06.049 why I said business plan. I mean, who even creates 00:02:06.049 --> 00:02:09.110 a business plan anymore? But like our, the way 00:02:09.110 --> 00:02:11.870 we work, shall we say, is quite different from 00:02:11.870 --> 00:02:17.129 a traditional accelerator. And that is very much 00:02:17.129 --> 00:02:19.810 because We don't really understand the point 00:02:19.810 --> 00:02:21.870 of trying to choose founders when they're super 00:02:21.870 --> 00:02:24.289 early stage. Everyone knows their game plan is 00:02:24.289 --> 00:02:27.629 going to change. And all of these other accelerators 00:02:27.629 --> 00:02:29.969 and even VCs are having to make decisions based 00:02:29.969 --> 00:02:32.490 off of like static pitch decks, which we don't 00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:35.310 think does a good job of articulating the potential 00:02:35.310 --> 00:02:38.050 of the startup and the founder. And so the way 00:02:38.050 --> 00:02:39.889 this comes back to what we were just talking 00:02:39.889 --> 00:02:42.650 about with our larger vision is that we've launched 00:02:42.650 --> 00:02:45.430 this virtual accelerator to be able to reach 00:02:45.430 --> 00:02:48.310 founders from all across the world. And we use 00:02:48.310 --> 00:02:50.650 this kind of unique strategy of letting founders 00:02:50.650 --> 00:02:53.490 who meet our minimum requirements onto our programs 00:02:53.490 --> 00:02:55.729 that are typically between like five to six weeks. 00:02:55.729 --> 00:02:59.909 Sometimes they go up to like 10 or 12. And we 00:02:59.909 --> 00:03:01.550 bring on the founders to meet those requirements. 00:03:01.669 --> 00:03:04.169 Then we track their week -on -week growth in 00:03:04.169 --> 00:03:07.969 both quantitative and qualitative metrics. And 00:03:07.969 --> 00:03:10.909 then over the course of the program, the founders 00:03:10.909 --> 00:03:13.490 who progress the fastest are the ones who then 00:03:13.490 --> 00:03:17.729 proceed onto our final demo day events. We really, 00:03:17.729 --> 00:03:20.909 really like the strategy because we're able to 00:03:20.909 --> 00:03:23.229 assess the potential of the startup based off 00:03:23.229 --> 00:03:25.590 of things like their ability and their speed 00:03:25.590 --> 00:03:28.069 of execution, how many users they're speaking 00:03:28.069 --> 00:03:31.330 to per week, what sort of insights they're extracting 00:03:31.330 --> 00:03:35.110 from these conversations, how quickly they reuse 00:03:35.110 --> 00:03:37.569 these insights or integrate them into the product 00:03:37.569 --> 00:03:41.210 roadmap and use it for their growth plans. And 00:03:41.210 --> 00:03:44.669 it just paints a much more comprehensive vision 00:03:44.669 --> 00:03:47.469 for the founder. So right now, we're going to 00:03:47.469 --> 00:03:49.610 be going on to cohort number six shortly. We 00:03:49.610 --> 00:03:52.669 worked with over 500 startups from over 40 different 00:03:52.669 --> 00:03:54.810 countries, and we're really just getting started. 00:03:54.889 --> 00:03:57.750 There's a lot more there, but I'll stop. Wow, 00:03:57.909 --> 00:04:02.050 so quite impressive stats. How hard was it to 00:04:02.050 --> 00:04:04.210 get this off the ground? Because you mentioned 00:04:04.210 --> 00:04:06.509 you both met in a different project. And then 00:04:06.509 --> 00:04:08.129 when you started this, how hard was it to get 00:04:08.129 --> 00:04:11.389 started? Because I can imagine getting all these 00:04:11.389 --> 00:04:13.069 conversations to all these investors to start. 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.819 It's not easy to do, right? So how did that work 00:04:16.819 --> 00:04:19.819 out? I think it's probably better to talk about 00:04:19.819 --> 00:04:22.279 how we got our first company started off the 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:25.079 ground because from the founders who are listening, 00:04:25.540 --> 00:04:28.339 when we started Hotbed, we'd already run a previous 00:04:28.339 --> 00:04:30.420 startup where we built a lot of the relationships 00:04:30.420 --> 00:04:33.500 which came into Hotbed. So we didn't really feel 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:35.279 like we were starting from zero. We were already 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:38.259 starting from. a point where we had built trusted 00:04:38.259 --> 00:04:40.819 relationships with people. When we started our 00:04:40.819 --> 00:04:43.740 previous companies by startups, which was in 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:47.339 August 2020, we had nothing. We'd just been made 00:04:47.339 --> 00:04:50.220 redundant a couple of days prior with almost 00:04:50.220 --> 00:04:53.259 no notice during a pandemic. So it really wasn't 00:04:53.259 --> 00:04:57.040 an ideal time. But the way that we started was 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:59.850 just to have a conversation with everybody that 00:04:59.850 --> 00:05:03.209 would take it at that point and really understand 00:05:03.209 --> 00:05:06.110 what they wanted. So we had open conversations 00:05:06.110 --> 00:05:09.949 with 10, 15 people in the first couple of weeks 00:05:09.949 --> 00:05:13.170 who reached out to us after we got made redundant 00:05:13.170 --> 00:05:16.490 and just talked to them about like what their 00:05:16.490 --> 00:05:18.829 challenges were. what we might be able to help 00:05:18.829 --> 00:05:20.750 with. And then we've almost built the business 00:05:20.750 --> 00:05:23.529 around that. So we didn't come in with an idea 00:05:23.529 --> 00:05:25.110 in mind of what the business is going to be. 00:05:25.410 --> 00:05:28.209 We had a conversation, we wanted to both start 00:05:28.209 --> 00:05:30.189 our own business. We've been in the entrepreneurial 00:05:30.189 --> 00:05:33.550 ecosystem, which definitely helped. But rather 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:35.870 than have a solid idea, and then pitching that 00:05:35.870 --> 00:05:38.009 to people, we just had conversations where we 00:05:38.009 --> 00:05:41.000 listened, we started seeing some common threads 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:43.319 of things that people were saying a lot. And 00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:46.759 then we came together and formalized a business 00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:49.379 that responded to people's needs. And that's 00:05:49.379 --> 00:05:53.540 how we started. We ran that business. It's kind 00:05:53.540 --> 00:05:55.540 of still ongoing, but we ran it full time for 00:05:55.540 --> 00:05:57.660 the first 18 months. Essentially, it was a white 00:05:57.660 --> 00:06:01.980 labeling program. a product so we would go and 00:06:01.980 --> 00:06:03.800 work with other companies on a program where 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:05.800 they could connect with founders but we were 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:07.480 kind of designing and building it in the background 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:09.259 so it would be branded as them but we were the 00:06:09.259 --> 00:06:12.920 people doing the work. And then through that 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:16.399 experience we then discovered some of these problems 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:19.000 that MA talked about in the ecosystem and we 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:20.600 came up with a way that we thought that we could 00:06:20.600 --> 00:06:23.240 solve that problem and so then that's when we 00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:25.939 had Hotbed built and we were fortunate enough 00:06:25.939 --> 00:06:28.439 that some of those relationships that we'd built 00:06:28.439 --> 00:06:31.629 with founders in Spice Startups, the previous 00:06:31.629 --> 00:06:33.810 startup, were then relevant for Hotbeds. So then 00:06:33.810 --> 00:06:35.990 we kind of evolved it from that. Interesting. 00:06:36.649 --> 00:06:39.470 From all the startups you've had on your program 00:06:39.470 --> 00:06:44.550 so far, what are the key defining characteristics 00:06:44.550 --> 00:06:46.769 of each founder that you think, you know what, 00:06:46.970 --> 00:06:49.129 people who have these five traits, they are always 00:06:49.129 --> 00:06:51.790 going to be successful. Which ones are they? 00:06:51.910 --> 00:06:54.250 Because I'm always curious to know if you can 00:06:54.250 --> 00:06:56.310 tell from the get -go. like someone's going to 00:06:56.310 --> 00:06:58.569 be successful or not. So have you managed to 00:06:58.569 --> 00:07:00.689 identify them? And if so, then which ones are 00:07:00.689 --> 00:07:08.230 they? So I would say the TLDR is absolutely not. 00:07:08.449 --> 00:07:12.310 Can we tell from the get go on who is going to 00:07:12.310 --> 00:07:17.069 be exceptional? And I think that's mirrored across 00:07:17.069 --> 00:07:23.689 the entire VC ecosystem world as well. I would 00:07:23.689 --> 00:07:27.220 say The similar characteristics, a few at the 00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:30.139 top of my head is one, these founders are speaking 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:33.100 with users very, very frequently. That's one 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:36.639 of the kind of biggest indicators that we've 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:38.519 seen that seem to be correlated with success. 00:07:38.899 --> 00:07:41.259 And I don't think that's, I don't know whether 00:07:41.259 --> 00:07:43.660 or not that's because they're getting insights 00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:46.480 that are changing the trajectory of the company 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:49.680 or if it's because it's perhaps an indicator 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.810 that this founder really cares about the customer 00:07:52.810 --> 00:07:56.709 and wants to empathize with the customer as much 00:07:56.709 --> 00:08:01.269 as possible. I'm not sure. And then number two 00:08:01.269 --> 00:08:04.550 would be these founders tend to be much more 00:08:04.550 --> 00:08:07.790 focused when they're coming to sessions or even 00:08:07.790 --> 00:08:10.810 meeting with Purdy and myself. They don't want 00:08:10.810 --> 00:08:12.350 hour long discussions talking about everything. 00:08:12.490 --> 00:08:15.170 A lot of time they come in two to three questions 00:08:15.170 --> 00:08:19.329 and are in and out, which we love. They come 00:08:19.329 --> 00:08:21.029 in, they know what they want, they get it, and 00:08:21.029 --> 00:08:23.069 then they leave. Amazing. I love that. Freddie, 00:08:23.149 --> 00:08:25.810 what else do you think? I don't really like the 00:08:25.810 --> 00:08:28.819 term hustle. hustling or hustle culture, but 00:08:28.819 --> 00:08:32.799 it is the ability to sell. It's not even necessarily 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:35.220 the ability to sell, which is a really, really 00:08:35.220 --> 00:08:36.799 positive trait, because not only are you going 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:38.379 to have to sell to investors, you're going to 00:08:38.379 --> 00:08:40.220 have to sell to your customers and future team 00:08:40.220 --> 00:08:43.200 members. So you have to have that storytelling 00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:46.379 and ability to get people behind you and believe 00:08:46.379 --> 00:08:49.519 what you're building. But it's also just the 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:51.820 fact that you're prepared to go out there and 00:08:51.820 --> 00:08:54.500 hustle a little bit so like and they mentioned 00:08:54.500 --> 00:08:56.740 in our programs we ask people for a weekly update 00:08:56.740 --> 00:08:58.840 and we ask them how many users they spoke to 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:01.679 and the people that don't want to speak to users 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.179 and they want to kind of stay in their cocoon 00:09:04.179 --> 00:09:06.259 and guess what people want and then build it 00:09:06.259 --> 00:09:09.159 and they're comfortable you know coding or coming 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:12.639 up with financial forecasts or basically doing 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:16.210 the stuff which is required but You need to also 00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:18.070 make sure you've got a customer and that customer 00:09:18.070 --> 00:09:20.730 is willing to buy the people who are like, up 00:09:20.730 --> 00:09:23.269 for having those conversations, speaking to people, 00:09:23.529 --> 00:09:27.009 learning, like, like I said, in our programs, 00:09:27.009 --> 00:09:29.289 we have people that will sit there and not say 00:09:29.289 --> 00:09:31.450 a single word necessarily throughout the whole 00:09:31.450 --> 00:09:33.490 time. And then there's people who will be very 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:36.649 vocal and ask questions in every single, every 00:09:36.649 --> 00:09:38.309 single session that we do, they'll be asking 00:09:38.309 --> 00:09:40.309 VCs questions, they'll be building a profile 00:09:40.309 --> 00:09:42.190 for themselves. And you can see that they're 00:09:42.190 --> 00:09:45.129 really hungry for it. And I think That is one 00:09:45.129 --> 00:09:47.990 thing that helps founders to stand out. And they're 00:09:47.990 --> 00:09:49.450 normally the people that have the better weekly 00:09:49.450 --> 00:09:51.730 updates when they send it to us, because they've 00:09:51.730 --> 00:09:53.090 spoken to people and they've learned something 00:09:53.090 --> 00:09:55.129 and they've changed something because of what 00:09:55.129 --> 00:09:58.049 they've learned. And then I think, you know, 00:09:58.169 --> 00:10:01.389 resilience, tenacity, that kind of thing, you're 00:10:01.389 --> 00:10:04.909 going to get knocked back a lot. And you have 00:10:04.909 --> 00:10:07.250 to be able to kind of accept that that's going 00:10:07.250 --> 00:10:09.110 to happen and not let it get to you too much 00:10:09.110 --> 00:10:15.370 and keep going. I think it's very hard to get 00:10:15.370 --> 00:10:17.710 started and get funding right now. Or on the 00:10:17.710 --> 00:10:19.649 contrary, there's a lot of options on the table 00:10:19.649 --> 00:10:21.529 and actually get funding from multiple places. 00:10:22.750 --> 00:10:25.409 So I think it just differs based on what stage 00:10:25.409 --> 00:10:27.970 you're at. Pre -seed and seed companies, honestly, 00:10:28.009 --> 00:10:30.090 they're still getting funded. SEIS rounds are 00:10:30.090 --> 00:10:32.190 still getting closed. Angel Investors, maybe 00:10:32.190 --> 00:10:33.870 they have less discretionary income, but they 00:10:33.870 --> 00:10:36.129 still want the tax benefits. And so I wouldn't 00:10:36.129 --> 00:10:39.309 say we've seen a noticeable slowdown in those 00:10:39.309 --> 00:10:43.399 pre -seed rounds. Seed rounds, Honestly, it still 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:45.039 seems like we're getting, they're getting close. 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:47.179 I mean, I think the data might slightly indicate 00:10:47.179 --> 00:10:49.059 that they're slowing down a bit, but I wouldn't 00:10:49.059 --> 00:10:50.799 say for founders, like from what we've seen, 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:52.659 there's need to be like incredibly discouraged. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:55.279 I would say probably budget a little bit more 00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:56.860 time to close your seed round. It might take 00:10:56.860 --> 00:10:58.600 longer. You might have to speak with more investors. 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:02.159 They might be a bit more risk adverse, but it's 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:04.720 certainly not all doom and gloom. Series A and 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:07.720 past that certainly hurt otherwise, but we're 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:10.320 so focused on the early stage founders and you 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:12.870 know, so far. They're doing okay. Yeah. And the 00:11:12.870 --> 00:11:16.929 expectation, just keeping in mind that with all 00:11:16.929 --> 00:11:19.169 of the AI and NoCo tools that are available, 00:11:19.570 --> 00:11:21.730 the expectation is that you've proved quite a 00:11:21.730 --> 00:11:23.870 lot. I think that's the difference. So it's easy 00:11:23.870 --> 00:11:26.190 to raise it pre -seed that are investors that 00:11:26.190 --> 00:11:28.830 is capital. But if you raise with just an idea 00:11:28.830 --> 00:11:31.250 and a deck, investors are going to push back 00:11:31.250 --> 00:11:33.789 a bit and say like, what can you prove now without 00:11:33.789 --> 00:11:35.769 taking the funding that this is going to work? 00:11:36.210 --> 00:11:38.960 And can you build? a website using no code and 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:41.259 then start building up a waiting list, or can 00:11:41.259 --> 00:11:44.179 you build a prototype yourself? You don't need 00:11:44.179 --> 00:11:47.919 that coding expertise or loads of money to build 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:51.120 something. So, and with ChatGPT and other AI 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:53.360 tools, you should be able to be out there kind 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:55.200 of as much as you possibly can before you raise 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:58.139 it. So what advice would you give to early -stage 00:11:58.139 --> 00:12:00.460 founders? Would it be just to build your own 00:12:00.460 --> 00:12:04.940 code for local tools and then ChatGPT to fill 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:08.090 in the blanks? Well, number one, I'm not biased, 00:12:08.309 --> 00:12:11.750 join hotbed, we'll help you out. But point number 00:12:11.750 --> 00:12:15.990 two, after you've done that, I would say, I mean, 00:12:15.990 --> 00:12:17.769 it's hard without knowing like what the founder 00:12:17.769 --> 00:12:19.389 is building because there's a lot of different 00:12:19.389 --> 00:12:21.669 options out there. But honestly, you don't even 00:12:21.669 --> 00:12:23.929 have to get as sophisticated as building something 00:12:23.929 --> 00:12:27.129 on a note code platform. We've had founders like 00:12:27.129 --> 00:12:29.090 Rachel from Courier Kids who literally built 00:12:29.090 --> 00:12:32.179 the MVP on WhatsApp. You don't need anything 00:12:32.179 --> 00:12:34.500 fancy. You just need to prove the value proposition 00:12:34.500 --> 00:12:37.860 resonates with the target user. That's it. Interesting. 00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:41.039 How are you finding the mix between genders and 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:43.840 different backgrounds, both in hotbed and also 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.159 in the market? Because there's a lot of conversations 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:49.820 at the moment about diversity in the space and 00:12:49.820 --> 00:12:53.879 how there's a bit of a voice for sex cases. So 00:12:53.879 --> 00:12:57.960 how are you finding that overall? There's a tip. 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:00.360 So we were just talking to Ricardo before that 00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:03.610 we've started this series of 25 tips. And there 00:13:03.610 --> 00:13:06.090 was a tip that came from Sam Marchant at Handbrake 00:13:06.090 --> 00:13:08.970 Perks about the difference between women founders 00:13:08.970 --> 00:13:11.049 and men founders when they're pitching investors. 00:13:11.549 --> 00:13:13.929 And the fundamental difference that he's seen 00:13:13.929 --> 00:13:16.110 from all the pitches he's seen is that women 00:13:16.110 --> 00:13:19.169 tend to, well, men tend to talk about where they're 00:13:19.169 --> 00:13:20.950 at now and where they're going, and women talk 00:13:20.950 --> 00:13:22.710 about where they're at now and how they got there. 00:13:22.950 --> 00:13:25.309 So the women will start from a position of today 00:13:25.309 --> 00:13:27.230 and look backwards, whereas men will start from 00:13:27.230 --> 00:13:30.169 a position today and look forwards. And communicating 00:13:30.429 --> 00:13:33.710 the larger vision is what the VC investors are 00:13:33.710 --> 00:13:36.330 buying into. So they're buying into what's going 00:13:36.330 --> 00:13:38.309 to happen when they're on the journey going forwards. 00:13:38.669 --> 00:13:43.309 And so there is a lot of talk out there about 00:13:43.309 --> 00:13:46.470 women getting less funding. If you look at the 00:13:46.470 --> 00:13:50.409 Sea Legal's data, women that are out there raving 00:13:50.409 --> 00:13:52.710 rounds are just as likely to pose them as men. 00:13:53.009 --> 00:13:55.889 It's just that there's there seems to be less 00:13:55.889 --> 00:14:01.129 attention or raising less money. But some of 00:14:01.129 --> 00:14:04.950 it in part is down to how, I'm sure you've heard 00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:07.850 this before, the questions that VCs ask women 00:14:07.850 --> 00:14:11.289 are about risk and the questions that VCs might 00:14:11.289 --> 00:14:14.149 ask men are about opportunity. So you kind of 00:14:14.149 --> 00:14:17.529 need to be aware of the game that's being played 00:14:17.529 --> 00:14:20.789 and switch the narrative to work in your favor. 00:14:21.370 --> 00:14:24.649 If you're a female founder, just think that you 00:14:24.649 --> 00:14:26.350 should be talking about opportunity, you should 00:14:26.350 --> 00:14:28.090 be talking about the future, you should be talking 00:14:28.090 --> 00:14:30.029 about vision, because that's what's going to 00:14:30.029 --> 00:14:33.409 get VCs or other investors excited. If you're 00:14:33.409 --> 00:14:35.950 asked a question that's related to risk or is 00:14:35.950 --> 00:14:37.629 related to the past or you feel like you're having 00:14:37.629 --> 00:14:40.009 to prove yourself, answer that question in a 00:14:40.009 --> 00:14:42.289 way that switches it to talk about the way that 00:14:42.289 --> 00:14:44.350 the man would have been asked the same question. 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:48.659 I would also I would also add on that like there's 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:50.740 everything right now we see all of like the press 00:14:50.740 --> 00:14:53.139 pieces sifted articles LinkedIn content around 00:14:53.139 --> 00:14:56.159 like societal issues and like these macro issues 00:14:56.159 --> 00:14:58.299 but I think it's so much more important for founders 00:14:58.299 --> 00:15:00.220 to focus on like what they can personally do 00:15:00.220 --> 00:15:03.129 like how they answer questions and like even 00:15:03.129 --> 00:15:05.110 like their attitude going into the pitch. One 00:15:05.110 --> 00:15:06.710 of the things that frustrates me the most is 00:15:06.710 --> 00:15:09.350 when I hear female founders before they've even 00:15:09.350 --> 00:15:11.929 started fundraising or have even put together 00:15:11.929 --> 00:15:13.590 their deck being like, well, is it even worth 00:15:13.590 --> 00:15:15.389 me talking with investors because I just hear 00:15:15.389 --> 00:15:17.850 no females are getting funded? And like we hear 00:15:17.850 --> 00:15:20.690 that so often. And that I think I honestly think 00:15:20.690 --> 00:15:23.830 that narrative is like perhaps doing more harm 00:15:23.830 --> 00:15:27.360 than perhaps anything else because people go 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:29.419 into this whether they don't go into it or they 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:31.980 go into it thinking the odds are completely against 00:15:31.980 --> 00:15:34.639 me when realistically like there are so many 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:38.220 incredible successful female founders like who 00:15:38.220 --> 00:15:40.340 continuously prove like this glass ceiling i 00:15:40.340 --> 00:15:42.960 mean it doesn't it doesn't there isn't one i 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:46.500 mean there there are absolutely systemic issues 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:49.779 but there's no reason why um people should be 00:15:49.779 --> 00:15:53.080 hesitant or fear like fearful about the process 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:56.740 What about raising? Would you advise people to 00:15:56.740 --> 00:16:00.059 just focus on raising investors in the UK? Or 00:16:00.059 --> 00:16:02.120 should they go to other markets like Europe and 00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:05.019 the US? Especially in the US around the world, 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:08.799 especially in Europe. Where would you advise 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:11.000 people to go? Just focus on their existing market 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:14.320 or should they go elsewhere? That's a really 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:19.580 good question. It depends case by case. In the 00:16:19.580 --> 00:16:22.549 US, I think people tend to underestimated a bit 00:16:22.549 --> 00:16:25.389 they think oh investors are a lot more focused 00:16:25.389 --> 00:16:28.889 on opportunity they're less risk adverse and 00:16:28.889 --> 00:16:31.350 they're gonna be able to raise larger rounds 00:16:31.350 --> 00:16:33.750 at larger valuations when realistically like 00:16:33.750 --> 00:16:36.789 the US already has fantastic deal flow so sure 00:16:36.789 --> 00:16:39.509 investors have more capital but at the same time 00:16:39.509 --> 00:16:43.050 like the pool of competition is phenomenal And 00:16:43.050 --> 00:16:46.029 also, investors in the US tend to prefer to invest 00:16:46.029 --> 00:16:47.389 in the US, which is something that we're trying 00:16:47.389 --> 00:16:49.149 to change, but that's a topic for a different 00:16:49.149 --> 00:16:53.289 day. And then regards to how Europe or how they 00:16:53.289 --> 00:16:55.809 should think about that process, it could be 00:16:55.809 --> 00:16:58.309 helpful for founders to speak with investors 00:16:58.309 --> 00:17:00.809 here in the UK and then just ask them if they 00:17:00.809 --> 00:17:02.649 know of any great investors in Europe that they 00:17:02.649 --> 00:17:05.190 can introduce them to. That would at least help. 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:07.299 bridge the gap between cold outreach to someone 00:17:07.299 --> 00:17:10.380 in a completely different country. I would say, 00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:12.500 though, to bear in mind, if you're doing a pre 00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:15.799 -seed round and you're doing SEAS, remember that 00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:17.460 international investors don't get that benefit. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:20.349 Yeah, and be a bit strategic. If you are going 00:17:20.349 --> 00:17:21.990 to go to the US, don't just go because you think 00:17:21.990 --> 00:17:23.990 it's a golden ticket. But if you're going to 00:17:23.990 --> 00:17:26.329 launch into the US as your next market, that 00:17:26.329 --> 00:17:28.230 is a strategic reason to take money from that 00:17:28.230 --> 00:17:30.089 country. Same if you want to launch into any 00:17:30.089 --> 00:17:32.470 other country in Europe or further afield. If 00:17:32.470 --> 00:17:34.289 you're going to go there, then raising from there 00:17:34.289 --> 00:17:36.009 makes a lot more sense than just going because 00:17:36.009 --> 00:17:41.049 you think that you can get money. Now for a very 00:17:41.049 --> 00:17:43.430 cheap question. I know a lot of people listen 00:17:43.430 --> 00:17:45.750 to this podcast. They are fond of themselves. 00:17:45.809 --> 00:17:47.619 They're just getting started. And they're having 00:17:47.619 --> 00:17:49.700 a bit of those down moments, right? Because you 00:17:49.700 --> 00:17:53.440 all have them. So could you tell us, could you 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:55.420 share with our audience the worst moment you 00:17:55.420 --> 00:17:57.259 had in business? Where you're just saying, you 00:17:57.259 --> 00:17:59.279 know what, I'm just going to quit this. I am 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:01.619 fed up. Bring on, I don't know, because I'm a 00:18:01.619 --> 00:18:03.619 big fan of junk food when I'm feeling sad. Bring 00:18:03.619 --> 00:18:05.819 on the mill chicken, gigantic burger, and I'm 00:18:05.819 --> 00:18:08.380 just going to soak in my own misery here. So 00:18:08.380 --> 00:18:10.680 what was that day and how did you fight back 00:18:10.680 --> 00:18:15.309 against it and how did you rise above it? We're 00:18:15.309 --> 00:18:16.789 probably going to need to wait a little longer 00:18:16.789 --> 00:18:21.470 to share what our most recent bad day was. If 00:18:21.470 --> 00:18:24.609 we can think of a different bad day, other than 00:18:24.609 --> 00:18:27.789 the obvious one, maybe we can talk about what 00:18:27.789 --> 00:18:30.369 we do during bad days. What do you do on during 00:18:30.369 --> 00:18:36.509 bad days? Yeah. I would say number one, have 00:18:36.509 --> 00:18:41.869 time to vent. If you feel really poorly, you 00:18:41.869 --> 00:18:44.119 just have to kind of... honor that not to sound 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:47.559 wooey but like it's okay it's okay to like go 00:18:47.559 --> 00:18:49.799 out for a walk a really long walk like listen 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:52.980 to music and like just be really pissy it happens 00:18:52.980 --> 00:18:56.400 um and i've been like so shocked by the number 00:18:56.400 --> 00:18:58.400 of times like i feel bad and then honestly you 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:00.099 wake up the next day and you just get into work 00:19:00.099 --> 00:19:03.720 and keep going on um speaking speaking with founders 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:05.740 other founders is obviously really important 00:19:05.740 --> 00:19:09.200 because everyone's been in a similar situation 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:13.369 and also reminding myself of like the other points 00:19:13.369 --> 00:19:16.529 of potential failure for now really successful 00:19:16.529 --> 00:19:18.690 companies like there's this incredible story 00:19:18.690 --> 00:19:21.450 in the book from mark randolph is a co -founder 00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:24.029 of netflix i think it's called no rules rules 00:19:24.029 --> 00:19:26.710 where he talks about one time to subscribers 00:19:26.710 --> 00:19:28.589 they meant to this is when they were still mailing 00:19:28.589 --> 00:19:32.630 out dvds meant to mail out some like. presidential 00:19:32.630 --> 00:19:34.529 debate or something like that, and they accidentally 00:19:34.529 --> 00:19:38.250 ended up mailing out videos of pornography. And 00:19:38.250 --> 00:19:40.650 to me, that's probably one of the worst mistakes 00:19:40.650 --> 00:19:42.869 I've heard of. And yet, they're still doing pretty 00:19:42.869 --> 00:19:45.289 well, and no one even knows about that story. 00:19:45.509 --> 00:19:49.029 Sorry, Netflix. But moments like that, there 00:19:49.029 --> 00:19:50.789 are countless of them, and they're probably so 00:19:50.789 --> 00:19:53.029 much worse than what you're facing right now. 00:19:53.690 --> 00:19:55.650 We were actually talking about this today, so 00:19:55.650 --> 00:19:57.789 it's a good time to ask this question, because 00:19:57.789 --> 00:20:03.130 we had a pretty bad day fairly recently. And 00:20:03.130 --> 00:20:06.609 we were just saying, you don't really have any 00:20:06.609 --> 00:20:08.529 other choice than to pick yourself up again. 00:20:08.809 --> 00:20:12.450 You can wallow in it for a day, but at some point, 00:20:12.930 --> 00:20:14.549 you're going to have to make a decision to either 00:20:14.549 --> 00:20:18.029 let it destroy you or to keep going. And so that's 00:20:18.029 --> 00:20:20.470 where the resilience and the tenacity comes in. 00:20:21.429 --> 00:20:24.069 When you make the decision to keep going, it's 00:20:24.069 --> 00:20:26.589 really surprising how only like a couple of weeks 00:20:26.589 --> 00:20:28.849 later you can look back and it doesn't seem as 00:20:28.849 --> 00:20:31.309 bad as it did in the time that it was happening. 00:20:32.670 --> 00:20:35.869 And so there's loads of strategies that I've 00:20:35.869 --> 00:20:38.730 adopted having bad days, like in previous jobs 00:20:38.730 --> 00:20:40.849 as well. And it might be like a bad interaction 00:20:40.849 --> 00:20:43.109 with a client and I feel really awful about it. 00:20:43.109 --> 00:20:44.750 And someone said to me, how much do you think 00:20:44.750 --> 00:20:46.730 that other person is really thinking about this? 00:20:46.970 --> 00:20:49.009 Like they're not going home and spending all 00:20:49.009 --> 00:20:51.700 night worrying about it. they don't really care. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:54.299 And if it's something that you think is kind 00:20:54.299 --> 00:20:56.799 of business critical, like just remember where 00:20:56.799 --> 00:20:58.759 you've come from. If you started a business, 00:20:58.779 --> 00:21:02.220 you started from nothing. So you can do it. So 00:21:02.220 --> 00:21:04.680 it's kind of amping yourself up a bit and giving 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:09.779 yourself a bit of a pep talk. How important do 00:21:09.779 --> 00:21:11.599 you think it is to be surrounded by good family 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:14.460 and friends to help you on the entrepreneurial 00:21:14.460 --> 00:21:17.259 journey? Is that a key element or is it something 00:21:17.259 --> 00:21:22.700 it's very nice to have out? But if not, It's 00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:25.180 a bit of a double -edged sword, I think, honestly, 00:21:25.660 --> 00:21:27.920 because it depends on who your family and friends 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:30.940 are. And having founder friends, I think, is 00:21:30.940 --> 00:21:33.319 really important. Having friends that work in 00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:35.519 a corporate environment try and give you advice 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:37.759 when you've had a bad day as a founder can be 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:41.079 really, really annoying because they'll say something 00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:45.359 that's just so unsympathetic to your situation, 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:47.359 not necessarily intentionally just because they 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:51.849 genuinely don't get it. And so those people aren't 00:21:51.849 --> 00:21:54.369 necessarily helpful, but having a community of 00:21:54.369 --> 00:21:55.910 founders, I think is, I don't know if your opinion 00:21:55.910 --> 00:21:59.130 is different. Yeah, I would say, weirdly enough 00:21:59.130 --> 00:22:01.829 having, I have a few friends who have absolutely 00:22:01.829 --> 00:22:04.029 nothing to do with startups. They love me to 00:22:04.029 --> 00:22:05.509 death, but probably have absolutely no idea. 00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:09.779 what hotbed is, but they all were like wear hotbed 00:22:09.779 --> 00:22:11.559 stickers like on their laptops, one of them has 00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:15.039 it on like their phone. And it's so wonderful 00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:17.859 to like have that total blind support. Because 00:22:17.859 --> 00:22:20.579 I know at the end of the day, like, God forbid 00:22:20.579 --> 00:22:23.119 anything ever happens to hotbed, they couldn't 00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:27.380 care less, like they love me for me. And that 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:29.240 is just like a nice reminder, because so much 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:31.380 of your identity is tied up in your startup. 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:35.579 And it's nice to be reminded like, hey, you're 00:22:35.579 --> 00:22:39.029 not. just that you're a lot more um but at the 00:22:39.029 --> 00:22:41.809 same time like you do want people who kind of 00:22:41.809 --> 00:22:44.390 understand it around you i would just say as 00:22:44.390 --> 00:22:47.849 party was saying like advice is so rarely transferable 00:22:47.849 --> 00:22:49.890 and yet people especially people who have never 00:22:49.890 --> 00:22:52.450 been founders love to just share it like it's 00:22:52.450 --> 00:22:54.230 like the formula to success like oh my gosh you 00:22:54.230 --> 00:22:57.450 just need to like do x y and z and it's like 00:22:57.450 --> 00:22:59.970 probably 99 of that advice like would have killed 00:22:59.970 --> 00:23:03.740 the companies so you have to like just appreciate 00:23:03.740 --> 00:23:05.740 the intention that hey that person's trying to 00:23:05.740 --> 00:23:08.440 help you and then like politely discard a bit. 00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:12.400 Very interesting question but how did the name 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:21.880 came about? I think through a thesaurus and random 00:23:21.880 --> 00:23:25.720 internet searching for names that was similar 00:23:25.720 --> 00:23:29.400 to like incubator or something. We were toying 00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:33.200 with words that were related to ecosystem words 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:36.559 that you would have heard before. But our previous 00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:38.680 business was called Spice Startups and we built 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:42.700 up a brand that was a bit more like feisty than 00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:45.940 the traditional brand that you would see in the 00:23:45.940 --> 00:23:48.099 fundraising ecosystem or accelerator ecosystem. 00:23:48.539 --> 00:23:51.000 And so I think we were just reading out like. 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:53.440 a thousand different words from a thesaurus, 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:54.900 like, how about this, how about this, how about 00:23:54.900 --> 00:23:56.460 this, how about this, how about this. And then 00:23:56.460 --> 00:23:58.619 we landed on Hotbed, which is like a hotbed of 00:23:58.619 --> 00:24:00.599 innovation or a hotbed of talent, which you'd 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:02.440 see in press articles and stuff. And we were 00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:05.079 like, that's it, because it encapsulates that 00:24:05.079 --> 00:24:08.240 you come to us for the place where all of the 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:10.400 talented individuals are and like where the innovation 00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:12.680 is happening and like where it's all going on. 00:24:12.839 --> 00:24:15.480 And it's got the like kind of incubation feeling 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:18.490 of like best support helping them to grow as 00:24:18.490 --> 00:24:20.529 well. So it felt like a good fit in terms of 00:24:20.529 --> 00:24:22.470 what it means and also a good fit in terms of 00:24:22.470 --> 00:24:28.309 like being bold. If you have a magic wand and 00:24:28.309 --> 00:24:31.190 you can fix something or a lot of things in this 00:24:31.190 --> 00:24:34.630 ecosystem, what would you want to fix straight 00:24:34.630 --> 00:24:36.630 away? Because you just know it's wrong and it 00:24:36.630 --> 00:24:38.369 doesn't make any sense to continue the way it 00:24:38.369 --> 00:24:44.079 is. I think it goes back to, okay, I'll say two 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:46.279 things, but like the first one, it really goes 00:24:46.279 --> 00:24:48.880 back to what I said at the beginning, which is 00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:50.660 like talent is evenly distributed around the 00:24:50.660 --> 00:24:53.559 world, but funding and opportunity is not. And 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:55.339 like that's something we just kind of keep repeating 00:24:55.339 --> 00:24:58.019 because it's so mind blowing to think like how 00:24:58.019 --> 00:25:01.609 many brilliant people out there are just not 00:25:01.609 --> 00:25:02.950 being founders they're not building incredible 00:25:02.950 --> 00:25:04.630 companies they're probably sitting on the answers 00:25:04.630 --> 00:25:07.289 to so many of our problems but there's just no 00:25:07.289 --> 00:25:09.450 way to find them and to fund them and give them 00:25:09.450 --> 00:25:11.289 the opportunities they need to bring their vision 00:25:11.289 --> 00:25:14.150 to life and I think when you like really meditate 00:25:14.150 --> 00:25:16.990 on that it almost becomes a little bit like maddening 00:25:16.990 --> 00:25:19.529 or infuriating because it's just absolutely absurd 00:25:19.529 --> 00:25:21.769 so that's what I'd like to see changed hopefully 00:25:21.769 --> 00:25:24.109 from us um and then point number two I would 00:25:24.109 --> 00:25:28.599 say mindset Founders are so often like, not even 00:25:28.599 --> 00:25:31.500 just founders, everyone I think is like the worst 00:25:31.500 --> 00:25:34.180 enemy. And the narrative that you have on repeat 00:25:34.180 --> 00:25:36.740 to yourself is what ends up becoming your reality. 00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:40.079 So if you go into fundraising with the mentality 00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:43.640 of, I'll go back to the gender bit, like I'm 00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:45.619 a female founder, I'm not gonna get funded. Every 00:25:45.619 --> 00:25:47.700 time an investor says it says no to you, you're 00:25:47.700 --> 00:25:49.539 gonna think, oh, it's because I'm a female versus. 00:25:50.019 --> 00:25:52.319 the men who are also pitching hundreds of founders 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:55.099 and maybe one of them is just thinking like, 00:25:55.180 --> 00:25:57.359 okay, it's a numbers game. I'm trying to get 00:25:57.359 --> 00:25:59.180 to the five investors out of 300 that are going 00:25:59.180 --> 00:26:01.299 to back me. This one said no, onto the next one 00:26:01.299 --> 00:26:03.720 means I'm one closer, one closer to finding an 00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:06.259 investor. Your self -narrative is absolutely 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:09.059 everything, but so many people are on autopilot 00:26:09.059 --> 00:26:11.700 and it's just programmed for them and haven't 00:26:11.700 --> 00:26:14.480 realized that's a massive tool that's sitting 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:16.299 in your brain that's completely under your control. 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:22.779 I'll say another two. So I think in the ecosystem, 00:26:22.779 --> 00:26:25.259 there is a lot of noise, but not necessarily 00:26:25.259 --> 00:26:29.460 a lot of value. And managing to navigate through 00:26:29.460 --> 00:26:32.880 the noise to get to the value, I think is sometimes 00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:35.900 quite difficult for founders. So as an example, 00:26:35.940 --> 00:26:38.059 if you go on LinkedIn, there's a lot of people 00:26:38.059 --> 00:26:41.460 talking about a lot of stuff for their own personal 00:26:41.460 --> 00:26:44.799 PR, but they're actually not providing any value. 00:26:45.039 --> 00:26:47.940 And you need to find the people that are. And 00:26:47.940 --> 00:26:50.640 I think the other thing is from an investor perspective, 00:26:50.700 --> 00:26:53.500 and I understand why investors do this, but like 00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:57.259 not enough clarity on the decision making, which 00:26:57.259 --> 00:27:00.240 can end up wasting founders time. So if it's 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:04.460 a no, tell somebody it's a no and explain why 00:27:04.460 --> 00:27:07.500 rather than having, I think, and it kind of links 00:27:07.500 --> 00:27:10.759 into this thing where investors are seen as like 00:27:10.759 --> 00:27:14.559 better than founders. founders have to like bow 00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:18.000 down to the investors and that dynamic in the 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.720 relationship. I don't think it should be like 00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:22.960 that. It's fairly obvious why it is like that 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:24.279 because there's people with money and people 00:27:24.279 --> 00:27:27.059 that want money. But I think investors could 00:27:27.059 --> 00:27:29.779 help change that by just being a bit more transparent 00:27:29.779 --> 00:27:32.240 about whether they're interested or not and to 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:34.640 save people from like constantly going after 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:36.259 them when they know that it's a no, but they're 00:27:36.259 --> 00:27:38.579 not prepared to say it's a no. Because founders 00:27:38.579 --> 00:27:40.119 are going to keep chasing the money if they think 00:27:40.119 --> 00:27:44.680 the money's there. What mantra do you have on 00:27:44.680 --> 00:27:46.539 the back of your mind? I think the mantra might 00:27:46.539 --> 00:27:48.819 be a strong word, but what's that quote or the 00:27:48.819 --> 00:27:51.319 mantra or that little sentence you keep on having 00:27:51.319 --> 00:27:54.039 on the back of your mind that guides you through 00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:57.279 really, really rough days? To those days, it's 00:27:57.279 --> 00:27:59.059 just one thing. What's that one thing that kids 00:27:59.059 --> 00:28:00.599 are impeding themselves saying, I don't know, 00:28:00.599 --> 00:28:03.220 maybe I got this or no, they're not going to 00:28:03.220 --> 00:28:06.519 screw me over or I'm stronger than I am? What's 00:28:06.519 --> 00:28:11.839 out there? Do you have one? I wouldn't say that's 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:19.559 such a wonderful question. No, I love it. Yeah, 00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:23.799 I don't have one thing that I repeat. It's very 00:28:23.799 --> 00:28:26.920 much like an evolving conversation. I would just 00:28:26.920 --> 00:28:30.880 say like personally, my spirituality is really 00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:34.819 like the foundation of i know i guess like how 00:28:34.819 --> 00:28:37.019 i get through the day and it gives me so much 00:28:37.019 --> 00:28:42.660 peace and just remember like your one very very 00:28:42.660 --> 00:28:46.740 small bit of of the universe and so these little 00:28:46.740 --> 00:28:50.099 like ups and downs which seem absolutely devastating 00:28:50.099 --> 00:28:53.460 and are so easy to kind of get like wrapped into 00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:57.180 i mean i firmly believe there's like a plan for 00:28:57.180 --> 00:28:59.799 everyone and so i just remind myself like Priti 00:28:59.799 --> 00:29:02.519 and I, she said this earlier, you just have to 00:29:02.519 --> 00:29:04.799 surf the wave and that's very true. Of course, 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:07.599 sometimes you want to co -create, you don't want 00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:09.519 to just surf the wave, you want to shape the 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:13.720 wave too. So it's a bit of a dance, shall we 00:29:13.720 --> 00:29:19.920 say. I think for me, I tell myself, and I really 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:23.299 truly believe this, even on the worst day, the 00:29:23.299 --> 00:29:25.900 worst business day you can possibly have, This 00:29:25.900 --> 00:29:28.079 is still better than the alternative. But if 00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:30.119 you think about everything that you might want, 00:29:30.279 --> 00:29:31.359 you might be like, do you know what? I'm just 00:29:31.359 --> 00:29:32.960 going to quit and go work at Starbucks because 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:35.200 I can't really be dealing with the stress and 00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:36.920 I want to finish my job at the end of the day 00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:38.819 and then like not take the job home with me and 00:29:38.819 --> 00:29:40.859 just come home and be totally present with everyone 00:29:40.859 --> 00:29:43.619 else. And then you really, really like play that 00:29:43.619 --> 00:29:45.019 through in your mind and you'll be like, I don't 00:29:45.019 --> 00:29:46.839 want that. I'd be bored as hell if I was just 00:29:46.839 --> 00:29:50.140 working at Starbucks. And so you want to be doing 00:29:50.140 --> 00:29:52.309 this. And if you don't want to be doing doing 00:29:52.309 --> 00:29:54.349 what you're doing, have a really serious conversation 00:29:54.349 --> 00:29:56.470 with yourself about that because you have to 00:29:56.470 --> 00:29:58.349 be so committed if you're going to build a business. 00:29:59.130 --> 00:30:01.849 But even on the worst day, it's better than the 00:30:01.849 --> 00:30:05.509 alternative. Yeah. What was the best success 00:30:05.509 --> 00:30:11.930 story so far? So there is a founder, this is 00:30:11.930 --> 00:30:13.670 going to be so unbiased because we also invested 00:30:13.670 --> 00:30:17.920 in him. His name is for Ron, he's the founder 00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:20.720 of a company called Sare, and he actually went 00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:23.640 through one of our programs with Spice right 00:30:23.640 --> 00:30:25.859 in the early days of his company. When we went 00:30:25.859 --> 00:30:27.099 through a hotbed, he went through one of our 00:30:27.099 --> 00:30:29.400 programs again, was one of the top performers, 00:30:29.960 --> 00:30:34.859 proceeded on to demo day, one demo day, and he 00:30:34.859 --> 00:30:37.480 closed his round. He's now raising a larger round, 00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:40.400 and yeah, we're fortunate to invest in his company, 00:30:40.900 --> 00:30:43.960 the earlier round. He was recently on, I think, 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:48.480 the Forbes 100 startups at India, some incredibly 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:54.259 impressive list. The company is doing phenomenally 00:30:54.259 --> 00:30:56.299 well, but also for Ron, just as an individual, 00:30:56.420 --> 00:31:00.339 he is so wonderful. He came into one of our cohorts 00:31:00.339 --> 00:31:02.279 and spoke with the founders. I think it's one 00:31:02.279 --> 00:31:05.259 of our most watched YouTube videos because he's 00:31:05.259 --> 00:31:08.119 so brilliant and articulate, but it's also very 00:31:08.119 --> 00:31:12.819 warm and kind. You know, I think, I think even 00:31:12.819 --> 00:31:14.660 though he's far along right now, he's still just 00:31:14.660 --> 00:31:16.079 getting started and we're, you know, we're so 00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:17.119 excited to see where he's going to be in five 00:31:17.119 --> 00:31:21.700 years. What advice for these people when they 00:31:21.700 --> 00:31:24.259 approach investors? What's that one thing you 00:31:24.259 --> 00:31:26.720 say, actually don't do this, do this, this and 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:31.200 that. Is there any magical trick to just have 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.299 engaging conversations with investors or not 00:31:33.299 --> 00:31:34.940 really just a matter of placing them all with 00:31:34.940 --> 00:31:39.220 emails and seeing who replies? I think. if I 00:31:39.220 --> 00:31:42.599 had to give one piece of advice, it would be 00:31:42.599 --> 00:31:46.519 like, remember, well, two things. Firstly, remember 00:31:46.519 --> 00:31:49.960 that the investor is a human. And so actually, 00:31:49.960 --> 00:31:51.920 don't go in and pitch them at all have a conversation 00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:54.900 with them, and let them do a bit of the talking 00:31:54.900 --> 00:31:57.779 and find out what they're interested in and then 00:31:57.779 --> 00:32:00.980 find the right angle to talk to them rather than 00:32:00.980 --> 00:32:02.799 just go in and be like, they'll respond to this, 00:32:02.940 --> 00:32:05.549 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And 00:32:05.549 --> 00:32:07.769 the second thing is have some empathy outside 00:32:07.769 --> 00:32:11.490 of them being human with their situation, because 00:32:11.490 --> 00:32:13.509 a lot of founders will say, I'm pitching investors 00:32:13.509 --> 00:32:15.430 because I want money. Why do you want money? 00:32:15.450 --> 00:32:19.269 Because I want to build my business. If you went 00:32:19.269 --> 00:32:21.349 to the pub and just walked up to a random stranger 00:32:21.349 --> 00:32:24.430 and said, can I have 100 pounds? They'll be like, 00:32:24.450 --> 00:32:27.390 why am I going to give you 100 pounds? And as 00:32:27.390 --> 00:32:29.190 soon as you get into the mindset of like, why 00:32:29.190 --> 00:32:31.329 is that person going to give me the money? It's 00:32:31.329 --> 00:32:34.240 because they get something out of it. then the 00:32:34.240 --> 00:32:36.619 empathy for the other person kind of shows. And 00:32:36.619 --> 00:32:38.240 that's, I think, when you can pitch a more compelling 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:40.559 argument. It's like, how am I going to make you 00:32:40.559 --> 00:32:43.539 loads of money rather than how am I going to 00:32:43.539 --> 00:32:47.140 benefit from you giving me this money? It's a 00:32:47.140 --> 00:32:48.619 completely different approach, I think. Like 00:32:48.619 --> 00:32:50.019 I said, a lot of people are just going asking 00:32:50.019 --> 00:32:52.400 for money, right? And they never think, what 00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:55.200 does this person needs to have in order to give 00:32:55.200 --> 00:33:00.460 me money, right? I know we're very short on time, 00:33:00.579 --> 00:33:02.339 which is a shame because there are some things 00:33:02.339 --> 00:33:04.859 we can talk about. But if people want to reach 00:33:04.859 --> 00:33:08.460 out to you, how can we do so? Yeah, so go over 00:33:08.460 --> 00:33:12.539 to hotbed .co. There's an email list you can 00:33:12.539 --> 00:33:15.059 sign up to be notified about our upcoming events 00:33:15.059 --> 00:33:18.119 and our upcoming programs, our most recent event. 00:33:18.220 --> 00:33:20.200 We just had the co -founder of WeWork who was 00:33:20.200 --> 00:33:22.299 our headline speaker amongst an incredible line 00:33:22.299 --> 00:33:25.599 of speakers. So our events, again, I'm totally 00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:28.920 biased, but they are pretty wonderful. I would 00:33:28.920 --> 00:33:33.230 also check out our LinkedIn, our Twitter, Maybe 00:33:33.230 --> 00:33:34.769 we can link it in the show notes. I don't know 00:33:34.769 --> 00:33:36.630 if that's an expression podcasters just say or 00:33:36.630 --> 00:33:38.750 if it's real I hope it's real we can link it. 00:33:39.069 --> 00:33:42.349 But yeah, I hope and then our YouTube channel 00:33:42.349 --> 00:33:44.890 We're trying to build our subscribers. 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