WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 Welcome to the Innovation Conversation, a podcast 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:05.419 about innovators, both in business and real life. 00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:08.380 Hosted by myself, Ricardo Rescual and Harry McCona. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:11.699 This podcast is also sponsored by ODEV Tech. 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:14.640 ODEV Tech is your premier software development 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:18.019 partner. Make sure you check them out at odev 00:00:18.019 --> 00:00:22.399 .tech. The podcast is also sponsored by Notion 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:25.359 .so. Notion is offering six months for free for 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:27.839 new users. Make sure you check out our website, 00:00:28.039 --> 00:00:30.579 thestoreofevents .co .uk, to read in the software. 00:00:31.579 --> 00:00:33.979 Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Innovation 00:00:33.979 --> 00:00:36.920 Conversation. Today we are joined by Idires Mohamed. 00:00:37.539 --> 00:00:39.679 Welcome to the podcast. Hi Ricardo, great to 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:42.240 meet you again. This time in a podcast setting, 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:48.020 so nice to see you. If you'd like to introduce 00:00:48.020 --> 00:00:50.920 yourself to the audience, please. Yeah, my name 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:54.740 is Idris Mohammed. I am the CEO and founder of 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:58.140 Chainvest. Chainvest is a platform that connects 00:00:58.140 --> 00:01:03.000 startups and investors seamlessly using AI matchmaking. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:07.579 It's not white Tinder for investors. You're not 00:01:07.579 --> 00:01:10.239 swiping left or right, but it's more of a chat 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:13.700 GPT style AI model where investors can go in 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:16.689 there and search up. whatever it is they're looking 00:01:16.689 --> 00:01:20.409 for. It could be, I am looking for a fintech 00:01:20.409 --> 00:01:25.930 startup, pre -revenue, post -MVP, free founders, 00:01:26.409 --> 00:01:29.969 once exited, as niche as you like. And it kind 00:01:29.969 --> 00:01:32.909 of show them almost like a crowdfunding style. 00:01:33.109 --> 00:01:34.829 It will show them all different types of startups 00:01:34.829 --> 00:01:38.010 and they can connect with them and contact them. 00:01:38.230 --> 00:01:40.590 And a later one will be introducing the crowdfunding 00:01:40.590 --> 00:01:42.609 side, which will be done through tokenization 00:01:42.609 --> 00:01:46.959 of private shares. Interesting. And how did you 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:49.280 come up with this idea? Because it's quite revolutionary. 00:01:50.659 --> 00:01:52.780 Do you know what? It's pretty interesting. Because 00:01:52.780 --> 00:01:55.819 I went for an accelerator program back in July. 00:01:55.819 --> 00:01:59.439 I finished it. There was one point where we was 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:01.819 talking about product market fit and then we 00:02:01.819 --> 00:02:04.560 went into a much deeper conversation with the 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:07.040 team about how we actually came about starting 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:09.539 this. And for me, I always thought, you know, 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:12.699 I had a passion for startups. You know, I loved 00:02:12.699 --> 00:02:14.479 watching anything to do with startups, Silicon 00:02:14.479 --> 00:02:17.699 Valley, the history behind it, the history behind 00:02:17.699 --> 00:02:19.360 venture capital. It's just something that I've 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.500 always loved. You know, but there's... seems 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:26.400 to be a much deeper reason for where I started. 00:02:26.580 --> 00:02:28.460 And it goes back to when I was in my very early 00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:30.800 20s, I used to invest in the AIM market, which 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:34.620 is the alternative index market. And it's really 00:02:34.620 --> 00:02:38.139 penny stocks, right? And it's high risk, high 00:02:38.139 --> 00:02:42.180 reward. And, you know, I didn't have such a great 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:46.410 time in there. There's a lot of, you know, small 00:02:46.410 --> 00:02:48.889 companies, very small valuations, small market 00:02:48.889 --> 00:02:51.310 caps, and you know, it can 10 times in a day 00:02:51.310 --> 00:02:54.530 and maybe it might not. And, you know, so I always 00:02:54.530 --> 00:02:56.710 knew there's a place out there in a strong community. 00:02:56.889 --> 00:02:58.710 I made a lot of friends in that community that, 00:02:58.710 --> 00:03:02.150 you know, want to invest at early stage. You 00:03:02.150 --> 00:03:04.490 know, they don't want to invest. They don't want 00:03:04.490 --> 00:03:09.000 to turn, you know, one pound into £1 .20. They 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.159 want to have the opportunity to turn £1 into 00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:14.240 £10, which is what a lot of angel investors essentially 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:18.300 do. At the time, the AIM market left a bitter 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:22.819 taste in my mouth based on a lot of the companies 00:03:22.819 --> 00:03:27.900 that were going down and whatnot. At the same 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:31.180 time, I was seeing quite a lot of companies that 00:03:31.180 --> 00:03:33.520 privately making so much money is like, how comes 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:36.080 I can't invest in that if I mean, famously, Airbnb 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:40.080 struggled to raise, I think 150 grand. And it 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:43.539 was like, you know, they finally got the investment, 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:46.680 but if they had one person give them one, one 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:48.960 grand at that time and invested in that 150 grand, 00:03:49.340 --> 00:03:51.860 I think that's worth like 3 million today. And 00:03:51.860 --> 00:03:53.719 it's like, those are the opportunities that we 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:56.400 don't have. But we have, you know, these public 00:03:56.759 --> 00:03:59.080 AIM market, especially if you're not a high net 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:01.620 worth individual who can't actually access startup 00:04:01.620 --> 00:04:07.439 material. And so that is truly what kind of drove 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:12.400 my forward thinking and subconsciously probably 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:14.599 played a massive factor on why I built Chainvest 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:18.500 because it is just connecting really investors 00:04:18.500 --> 00:04:20.439 with great startups. There's some really great 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:23.560 investors out there and we built this to begin 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:27.720 with more for them. And we learn a lot of what 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:30.860 we're building with our research from investors 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:34.319 that are investing in very niche companies. And 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:37.459 those are the ones that have the biggest problems, 00:04:37.819 --> 00:04:39.759 you know, you're talking about FemTech, HealthTech. 00:04:40.899 --> 00:04:42.839 You know, we've had some tell us that they get 00:04:42.839 --> 00:04:47.220 up to 500 cold mills of emails, which is really 00:04:47.220 --> 00:04:50.740 just, you know, time consuming, terrible, but 00:04:50.740 --> 00:04:53.310 at the same time, They say without it, there's 00:04:53.310 --> 00:04:55.509 no business. But then what do you do when you 00:04:55.509 --> 00:04:59.610 go for 500? And, you know, 70 % of them are fintech 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:02.490 companies or just like they just don't even match 00:05:02.490 --> 00:05:05.850 the criteria or what they invest in, let alone 00:05:05.850 --> 00:05:09.829 being good enough opportunity. And so I think 00:05:09.829 --> 00:05:12.629 this is where we kind of decided we need to kind 00:05:12.629 --> 00:05:16.709 of cater more towards them and then start building 00:05:16.709 --> 00:05:19.949 for the startups as well. And yeah, that's the 00:05:19.949 --> 00:05:23.259 origins, shall I say. It's quite fascinating 00:05:23.259 --> 00:05:25.439 because you're connecting the dots, isn't it? 00:05:25.699 --> 00:05:29.560 I interview a lot of people and it's always... 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:31.800 A common thing between entrepreneurs is the ability 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:36.120 to connect the dots. And this was born out of 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:38.920 your frustration with investing in the stock 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:42.439 market, but then also how do I transform it and 00:05:42.439 --> 00:05:44.399 take this to the startup world? How do I make 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:46.259 sure that people are able to find good startups, 00:05:46.779 --> 00:05:48.259 invest in them when they're just getting started 00:05:48.259 --> 00:05:51.949 because... Like you said, Airbnb, Uber, for example, 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:55.129 they are really, really struggling in the beginning 00:05:55.129 --> 00:05:57.709 and it became hilarious how much they struggle 00:05:57.709 --> 00:05:59.790 in the beginning. One of them, I'm not sure if 00:05:59.790 --> 00:06:03.310 it's Uber or Airbnb or something else, but I 00:06:03.310 --> 00:06:05.550 know he got to a moment in their story where 00:06:05.550 --> 00:06:08.810 they ended up selling pizzas for a conference 00:06:08.810 --> 00:06:10.290 because they were running out of money and they 00:06:10.290 --> 00:06:13.449 made 10k that way. Yeah, I think Airbnb would 00:06:13.449 --> 00:06:15.870 start selling cereals or something as well. That 00:06:15.870 --> 00:06:17.529 was its cereals. That was its cereals, not pizzas. 00:06:17.649 --> 00:06:20.939 Yeah. But he goes to show nowadays we would we 00:06:20.939 --> 00:06:22.699 would jump on that opportunity. Hey, you don't 00:06:22.699 --> 00:06:24.600 invest in every week. Yes, of course I want to 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:27.000 invest in Airbnb but at the time they didn't 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:29.699 have enough attention and now giving them a platform 00:06:29.699 --> 00:06:32.199 to be able to do this and there's you know, I 00:06:32.199 --> 00:06:33.959 talked with a lot of stars is there's tons of 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:35.839 great ideas out there. But the question is always 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:38.360 how do we get past the gatekeeper? How do we 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:40.100 make sure that someone reads our email? Someone 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:42.319 looks at our pitch deck. Someone even spent some 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:44.620 time with us. And that's always the hardest thing. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:47.220 And yeah, it makes it makes a lot of sense where 00:06:47.220 --> 00:06:49.980 you guys are building. And from your feedback 00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:52.160 from the startups you're getting, what are they 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:55.540 saying? So the feedback so far has been great. 00:06:55.620 --> 00:06:57.800 We've got quite a lot on our waitlist at the 00:06:57.800 --> 00:07:02.779 moment as we plan to launch, hopefully, right 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:04.680 at the beginning of January. They're excited. 00:07:05.019 --> 00:07:10.160 They're really excited about what we do as startups 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:14.660 to try and raise investment. There's a lot. you 00:07:14.660 --> 00:07:18.319 know, of emails, as you know, you wait for opportunities, 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:21.540 sort of introductions, the fact that they can 00:07:21.540 --> 00:07:24.540 actually list on our platform and potentially 00:07:24.540 --> 00:07:28.699 just get emails saying, hey, I found you on here. 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:32.100 That gives them, you know, a bit more. We've 00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:35.899 had some startups say if this goes how they hoped 00:07:35.899 --> 00:07:39.660 it would, it allows them to build more and kind 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:41.860 of focus on building. And maybe, you know, they 00:07:41.860 --> 00:07:46.459 can allow this platform to kind of do a lot of 00:07:46.459 --> 00:07:50.040 the dirty work for them but you know hopefully 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:52.399 it won't be as simple as that of course everybody 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:54.560 knows but it gives them something to kind of 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:57.560 like sit back and kind of allow them to work 00:07:57.560 --> 00:07:59.399 hard on everything else that they're building 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:02.519 and because as a startup founder myself you know 00:08:02.519 --> 00:08:05.480 you've got to leverage different you've got to 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:07.819 kind of focus on where you put your time in you 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:10.279 know you have You'll be building, building, building. 00:08:10.379 --> 00:08:11.860 You've got to stop sometimes in the middle of 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:13.860 that. You've got a meeting here, and a meeting 00:08:13.860 --> 00:08:15.540 here, and a meeting there. And you've constantly 00:08:15.540 --> 00:08:18.319 got to do that. And it's great. But at the same 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:21.000 time, if there is a way to kind of streamline 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:24.399 and take a bit of time away from what you're 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:28.300 doing, then that's pretty helpful for a startup. 00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:29.959 But they're excited about the opportunity for 00:08:29.959 --> 00:08:34.919 them to be discovered. And we've had a few conversations 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:38.649 with a few scouts, venture scouts and stuff like 00:08:38.649 --> 00:08:41.429 that and how they would like to leverage our 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:47.509 product to kind of scout talent companies potentially 00:08:47.509 --> 00:08:50.490 that match their, you know, program and grants 00:08:50.490 --> 00:08:54.909 and stuff like that. I mean, it's actually really 00:08:54.909 --> 00:08:57.309 amazing the opportunities that can come out of 00:08:57.309 --> 00:08:59.590 this because one of the conversations we had 00:08:59.590 --> 00:09:01.649 with the companies, you know, they offer grants 00:09:01.649 --> 00:09:05.610 out to certain companies and maybe they can just 00:09:05.549 --> 00:09:07.730 search around and see if they can find startups 00:09:07.730 --> 00:09:10.210 that and reach out to them. And it's like, that 00:09:10.210 --> 00:09:13.409 is, I wish something like that was around for 00:09:13.409 --> 00:09:16.409 me a long time ago. Can you imagine getting an 00:09:16.409 --> 00:09:18.389 email saying, Hey, why don't you try applying 00:09:18.389 --> 00:09:21.590 for our grant? We think you match. I mean, that'll 00:09:21.590 --> 00:09:23.669 be awesome because it's such a nightmare just 00:09:23.669 --> 00:09:26.529 figuring out what grants are available. What's 00:09:26.529 --> 00:09:28.289 the criteria? How do you even write the grant 00:09:28.289 --> 00:09:31.009 application? There's a whole science to it. It's 00:09:31.009 --> 00:09:33.950 not straightforward at all. Yeah. And is it even 00:09:33.950 --> 00:09:38.049 worth the time and yeah exactly that so yeah 00:09:38.049 --> 00:09:40.950 it's not very exciting. How are you finding like 00:09:40.950 --> 00:09:43.090 I know you're building this and it's going well 00:09:43.090 --> 00:09:45.529 but how are you finding managing all this you 00:09:45.529 --> 00:09:48.529 know I'm sure you you also have a personal life 00:09:48.529 --> 00:09:50.129 you also have friends and family that need your 00:09:50.129 --> 00:09:52.509 attention how are you finding you know managing 00:09:52.509 --> 00:09:58.889 that? Yeah I mean it's it's not easy but when 00:09:58.889 --> 00:10:02.240 when you love it it can be you know, your passion 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:04.379 kind of takes over and you can kind of find a 00:10:04.379 --> 00:10:06.740 way to balance it and it gives you the urge, 00:10:06.899 --> 00:10:09.200 you know, when you get an idea and you decide 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:12.779 to wake up at 6 a .m. and start writing, you 00:10:12.779 --> 00:10:15.879 know, it doesn't feel too much like you're working 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:19.080 and, you know, we have the opportunity to kind 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:21.899 of attend events or start up events and, you 00:10:21.899 --> 00:10:25.779 know, meet new people all the time, you know. 00:10:26.470 --> 00:10:29.009 Fortunately for me, my personal life is a little 00:10:29.009 --> 00:10:31.509 bit low maintenance. You know, I do have my daughters 00:10:31.509 --> 00:10:36.970 in school every day. My wife and yeah, we just, 00:10:37.070 --> 00:10:40.570 you know, I try and lock off a little bit here 00:10:40.570 --> 00:10:44.470 and there, but it's hard sometimes when the ideas 00:10:44.470 --> 00:10:45.990 are flowing, when you're in it, when you've got 00:10:45.990 --> 00:10:50.070 the creative juices going. For me, I can be locked 00:10:50.070 --> 00:10:54.070 in for quite some time. When you don't, you know, 00:10:54.210 --> 00:10:55.690 I'm not saying that I'll turn around and be like, 00:10:55.750 --> 00:10:59.330 hey, I'm here now. But, you know, you kind of 00:10:59.330 --> 00:11:04.230 leverage and you kind of use what kind of time 00:11:04.230 --> 00:11:07.149 you have and you balance it out in a way that's 00:11:07.149 --> 00:11:08.710 actually suitable, because there's going to be 00:11:08.710 --> 00:11:13.509 days when you might feel a bit rough and, you 00:11:13.509 --> 00:11:15.610 know, you know, you've got to look after yourself 00:11:15.610 --> 00:11:22.659 mentally, physically. And yeah, just go. Is this 00:11:22.659 --> 00:11:24.899 your first startup or you've done others in the 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:28.379 past? I've worked at others, but no, this is 00:11:28.379 --> 00:11:30.980 my first startup and my co -founder actually 00:11:30.980 --> 00:11:34.000 he's you know worked in other startups and he's 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.139 had his own startup that he's Worked in as well, 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:41.240 which is more of a hardware Side of things and 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:43.539 now you know for this round the initial round. 00:11:43.539 --> 00:11:46.460 How much are you guys raising? We are making 00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:51.259 this is public well, we've Yeah, so fortunately, 00:11:51.259 --> 00:11:53.700 if you had interviewed me last week, I probably 00:11:53.700 --> 00:11:55.399 would have said, hey, you've caught me off guard, 00:11:55.539 --> 00:11:58.059 but we've opened up fundraising round. We ourselves 00:11:58.059 --> 00:12:03.059 have SEIS, EIS Assurance, and we're raising 500k, 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:08.200 which is open at the moment. So people, if people 00:12:08.200 --> 00:12:10.379 want to invest, it'll be easier for them to find 00:12:10.379 --> 00:12:13.279 you and also take on this opportunity, just a 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:15.100 great opportunity. When you're planning the growth 00:12:15.100 --> 00:12:17.340 of a startup, it's always hard because there's 00:12:17.340 --> 00:12:20.769 an element of Accurate forecasting and an element 00:12:20.769 --> 00:12:22.710 of luck when you're forecasting as well, because 00:12:22.710 --> 00:12:25.529 you never know which way it's going to go. What 00:12:25.529 --> 00:12:27.990 do you see as your main pain points right now 00:12:27.990 --> 00:12:30.769 in order to grow the business? The fortunate 00:12:30.769 --> 00:12:33.549 thing for us is that we're building something 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:36.610 that's a two -way market for investors and startups, 00:12:36.769 --> 00:12:38.889 which is why we focused a lot on what the investors 00:12:38.889 --> 00:12:42.610 needed. We did a lot of research on that. Because 00:12:42.610 --> 00:12:46.049 on the startup side, I think we kind of understand 00:12:46.049 --> 00:12:48.549 what it is and we was in an accelerator program, 00:12:48.610 --> 00:12:50.090 we were speaking to other accelerators and it 00:12:50.090 --> 00:12:51.549 was like, oh man, I wish there was something 00:12:51.549 --> 00:12:55.029 that had this and we kind of understand the pain 00:12:55.029 --> 00:12:56.789 points that we're doing is for us and we're just 00:12:56.789 --> 00:12:59.490 kind of validating with other startups that are 00:12:59.490 --> 00:13:03.029 with us. You know, we're currently dealing with 00:13:03.029 --> 00:13:07.190 probably regulations, which is, you know, we've 00:13:07.190 --> 00:13:09.970 got legal advisors on our team. Essentially, 00:13:10.210 --> 00:13:12.570 you know, we know exactly what we need to do. 00:13:13.340 --> 00:13:16.539 but we have to be really careful with some of 00:13:16.539 --> 00:13:20.019 the, once we start going into eventually allowing 00:13:20.019 --> 00:13:22.440 crowdfunding to happen on our platform, which 00:13:22.440 --> 00:13:27.080 is in our roadmap. So the pain points, I'd say, 00:13:29.019 --> 00:13:35.120 we understand the pain points and we go through 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:38.440 it ourselves and we see it and we try and see 00:13:38.440 --> 00:13:41.679 how easily we could make things and kind of build 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:45.879 a product. that kind of helps startups, but really 00:13:45.879 --> 00:13:49.200 matches the needs of investors who are important 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:53.759 users for us as well. Have you found it hard 00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:55.840 to talk with investors, to reach out to investors? 00:13:56.220 --> 00:13:57.600 Because I know it's always hit or miss when it's 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:01.320 an email, so how is that experience going? I 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:03.179 mean, we've got investors on our wait list, but 00:14:03.179 --> 00:14:08.000 it was in a way... The funny thing is, you know, 00:14:08.019 --> 00:14:12.179 we want investors on our wait list to join our 00:14:12.179 --> 00:14:16.820 platform and it's a different kind of conversation 00:14:16.820 --> 00:14:20.440 as you can imagine is we are open for fundraising 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:24.980 which in fact is an easier conversation than 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:28.080 we are fundraising so it's been actually pretty 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:31.100 good for us because you know you know like I 00:14:31.100 --> 00:14:34.240 said we are solving something for them and we've 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:36.379 had a few of them come up and turn around and 00:14:36.379 --> 00:14:40.360 become kind of like help us with give us advice 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:42.830 on what you know, they're looking for and how 00:14:42.830 --> 00:14:45.330 to build it and what they actually pain points 00:14:45.330 --> 00:14:48.789 really are and stuff like that. So, yeah, we've 00:14:48.789 --> 00:14:50.350 had to be careful with our language as well, 00:14:50.490 --> 00:14:53.450 because, you know, investors get an email from 00:14:53.450 --> 00:14:55.230 a startup and it's like, oh, it's fundraising. 00:14:55.490 --> 00:14:56.809 It's like, there's another code email, but it's 00:14:56.809 --> 00:14:59.590 like, no, this is for you to, here we've got 00:14:59.590 --> 00:15:02.210 products for you to use. Yeah, it's been, the 00:15:02.210 --> 00:15:03.970 conversations were good. It's just completely 00:15:03.970 --> 00:15:06.429 different from what we're used to, which is fundraising, 00:15:06.590 --> 00:15:09.360 which will, what we'll be having soon. And, you 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:15.659 know, we kind of appreciate, you know, that level 00:15:15.659 --> 00:15:18.100 of, you know, investors joining our waitlist 00:15:18.100 --> 00:15:21.879 very early that we've never pushed any sort of 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:24.539 our own initial fundraise on them or anything. 00:15:24.580 --> 00:15:26.860 And we've kind of treated it completely separate 00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:30.000 to that based on the reason why they're joining 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:32.960 our waitlist is completely separate. And we don't 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:34.899 want to kind of actually overstep that kind of 00:15:34.899 --> 00:15:38.379 boundary. And we just want to, you know, They've 00:15:38.379 --> 00:15:40.220 joined our witness for one particular reason 00:15:40.220 --> 00:15:42.299 now. How are you finding? You know, I don't when 00:15:42.299 --> 00:15:44.360 you're building something. It's always yes It's 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:47.039 always hard to have hard moments. So when you 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:51.980 having a rough day me personally This is goodness. 00:15:52.139 --> 00:15:56.960 All right, so I'm curious Yeah, you know, I always 00:15:56.960 --> 00:15:58.539 like we're asking this type of questions and 00:15:58.539 --> 00:16:01.620 I'll tell you why because we always look at entrepreneurs 00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:05.399 as this Gods on earth that can do everything 00:16:05.399 --> 00:16:07.500 and everything is you know easy to fix blah blah, 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:10.659 but in reality we also have really bad days and 00:16:10.659 --> 00:16:12.740 Understanding and getting some tips from other 00:16:12.740 --> 00:16:14.960 people and how to manage our bad days. I think 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:17.019 it's super valuable for the audience So that's 00:16:17.019 --> 00:16:20.259 why I like asking this question Yeah, I've got 00:16:20.259 --> 00:16:23.220 three. I've got three things. I do right one 00:16:23.220 --> 00:16:26.779 of them is you know There's days where you've 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:28.500 got a lot of tasks. You know you need to do it, 00:16:28.500 --> 00:16:32.120 but you just can't you're feeling rough or that 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:35.299 it's not there and you need to do it right. And 00:16:35.299 --> 00:16:38.799 when it's that, I like to, I go on YouTube and 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:46.460 I play some very lo -fi, nice jazz sort of cozy 00:16:46.460 --> 00:16:51.440 music. And it's kind of like that helps me work 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:54.940 and do all my tasks. And then there's, you know, 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:57.600 then there's when you actually need to do, you 00:16:57.600 --> 00:16:59.649 know, you're not feeling like That's when you've 00:16:59.649 --> 00:17:01.409 got tasks to do, right? To be honest with you, 00:17:01.529 --> 00:17:05.869 that's just getting the motivation to do it. 00:17:06.250 --> 00:17:10.289 Having getting motivation to actually start like, 00:17:10.309 --> 00:17:13.450 you know, pushing yourself to start to push yourself, 00:17:13.450 --> 00:17:15.789 I think is a completely different one. And for 00:17:15.789 --> 00:17:18.990 that, like I like to listen to some really motivational 00:17:18.990 --> 00:17:23.210 YouTube sort of videos. And these are really 00:17:23.210 --> 00:17:26.430 intense stuff. And it's like really like, get 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:29.789 out of work, nobody's gonna save you. I think 00:17:29.789 --> 00:17:31.349 you might have seen some of these motivational 00:17:31.349 --> 00:17:35.609 ones. You gotta wake up at 4am, go to the gym. 00:17:36.049 --> 00:17:37.369 I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna do that part, but 00:17:37.369 --> 00:17:39.789 it's working. And then it's like, it's really 00:17:39.789 --> 00:17:41.769 like, and there's this dramatic music playing 00:17:41.769 --> 00:17:45.349 in the background. And you'd think, honestly, 00:17:45.529 --> 00:17:47.390 like I've done like, there's times when I've 00:17:47.390 --> 00:17:48.789 listened to that, and I've gone to the gym at 00:17:48.789 --> 00:17:51.009 5am. And it's like, I'm gonna start my day like 00:17:51.009 --> 00:17:55.529 this. Yeah, that's impressive. Two things getting 00:17:55.529 --> 00:17:57.190 up that early and also for the gym to be open 00:17:57.190 --> 00:18:00.869 at 5 a .m. because You know what you'd be surprised 00:18:00.869 --> 00:18:02.589 because that these these type of things I think 00:18:02.589 --> 00:18:05.349 they can for me personally works It's probably 00:18:05.349 --> 00:18:07.630 not for everyone and and the third one for me 00:18:07.630 --> 00:18:10.170 is something that you know My wife is kind of 00:18:10.170 --> 00:18:13.990 helped me with and this one it goes on This one's 00:18:13.990 --> 00:18:18.170 probably underrated in it Allow it embrace it 00:18:18.170 --> 00:18:22.130 and be okay with it for the day or for all for 00:18:22.130 --> 00:18:24.740 half the day just for that just for that day 00:18:24.740 --> 00:18:27.819 not all the time but every now and then just 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:31.740 you know what today I will just allow myself 00:18:31.740 --> 00:18:34.359 yeah I will and I'm gonna probably watch six 00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:36.599 episodes of whatever in a row I'm not gonna do 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:39.180 this tomorrow but just today and not all the 00:18:39.180 --> 00:18:43.019 time but I think that helps me tomorrow I'm a 00:18:43.019 --> 00:18:45.420 completely different person honestly and it probably 00:18:45.420 --> 00:18:48.940 does me more benefits and you know and and and 00:18:48.940 --> 00:18:52.119 the important things to make your brain allow 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:55.539 yourself because you won't feel any weight of 00:18:55.539 --> 00:18:59.000 you should be doing this while you're doing probably 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:01.339 eating junk or ever watching something like that 00:19:01.339 --> 00:19:03.960 and it kind of does I wouldn't advise that all 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:06.460 the time once in a blue moon but I think that's 00:19:06.460 --> 00:19:08.700 very that that one there is very important and 00:19:08.700 --> 00:19:11.019 you should know your body and your mind and your 00:19:11.019 --> 00:19:14.299 and mentally and be like okay you know this is 00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:18.650 this is fine for today you know I do that every 00:19:18.650 --> 00:19:22.329 once in a blue moon, which is I make sure that 00:19:22.329 --> 00:19:25.690 taking a day off is part of my plans. Because 00:19:25.690 --> 00:19:27.670 I realize actually, you know what, if I wanted 00:19:27.670 --> 00:19:29.230 to work nine to five, I will be working nine 00:19:29.230 --> 00:19:32.990 to five. But because I work a lot more than nine 00:19:32.990 --> 00:19:35.930 to five, and I work two very late hours, it's 00:19:35.930 --> 00:19:37.690 like some days it's okay to take a day off and 00:19:37.690 --> 00:19:38.970 say, I'm just going to chill today. I'm just 00:19:38.970 --> 00:19:42.140 going to relax, not do anything. will clear my 00:19:42.140 --> 00:19:44.420 brain and then the next day I'm going to be beaming 00:19:44.420 --> 00:19:46.839 with energy you know full of beans but today 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:48.779 I need to take a day off but it's hard isn't 00:19:48.779 --> 00:19:52.819 it? Exactly so that's the part I think where 00:19:52.819 --> 00:19:55.019 for me my wife kind of helped me with because 00:19:55.019 --> 00:19:58.440 once you do a lot of people do that and the guilt 00:19:58.440 --> 00:20:00.839 is there and they can't even enjoy the time they're 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:04.220 having you know off right because it's like I 00:20:04.220 --> 00:20:05.700 should be doing this I should be doing this but 00:20:05.700 --> 00:20:10.259 once you kind of align yourself and kind of accept 00:20:10.259 --> 00:20:14.289 and be completely okay with this is the type 00:20:14.289 --> 00:20:16.970 of day I'm gonna have you can actually enjoy 00:20:16.970 --> 00:20:21.910 your day guilt free and it's much more you know 00:20:21.910 --> 00:20:25.390 rewarding personally what you're doing then and 00:20:25.390 --> 00:20:27.990 it's actually helpful for you then the next day 00:20:27.990 --> 00:20:31.130 in that sense because like you said like you're 00:20:31.130 --> 00:20:32.849 gonna some people are gonna do it regardless 00:20:32.849 --> 00:20:35.630 because it's just not there today and what's 00:20:35.630 --> 00:20:37.910 the point of not what's the point of going through 00:20:37.910 --> 00:20:41.220 that kind of day anyway and trying to feel the 00:20:41.220 --> 00:20:43.960 guilt and maybe trying to open up the laptop 00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:46.500 for like 10 minutes and it's not just happening 00:20:46.500 --> 00:20:49.559 and stuff like that just you know and the next 00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:52.140 day that might actually you know transfer over 00:20:52.140 --> 00:20:54.319 to the next day that same feeling as well if 00:20:54.319 --> 00:20:57.500 so that's it I'm thinking one of my favorite 00:20:57.500 --> 00:21:01.920 movies Top Gun right and there's two scenes which 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:05.259 are iconic in the movie or actually in both of 00:21:05.259 --> 00:21:07.319 the movies are quite iconic and it's the the 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:10.130 volleyball scene in the first movie and American 00:21:10.130 --> 00:21:12.910 football on the beach in the second movie and 00:21:12.910 --> 00:21:14.809 you see these fighter pilots they're training 00:21:14.809 --> 00:21:16.869 really really hard it's a super hard mission 00:21:16.869 --> 00:21:19.309 and then they take a day off and they go to the 00:21:19.309 --> 00:21:21.269 beach and they play whatever sports you know 00:21:21.269 --> 00:21:23.890 first movie is the whole playing volleyball on 00:21:23.890 --> 00:21:26.609 the beach with jeans which is really weird yeah 00:21:26.609 --> 00:21:29.309 and then the second one is okay let's play American 00:21:29.309 --> 00:21:32.589 football on the beach Tom Cruise is also wearing 00:21:32.589 --> 00:21:34.650 jeans which continues being very weird but at 00:21:34.650 --> 00:21:38.890 the same time Yeah, you need to take some time 00:21:38.890 --> 00:21:42.049 off every once in a while, right? But just don't 00:21:42.049 --> 00:21:48.529 do it in jeans on the beach with Sam. I'm sure 00:21:48.529 --> 00:21:50.410 some entrepreneurs listening to this and they're 00:21:50.410 --> 00:21:53.750 probably thinking, I should build some beach 00:21:53.750 --> 00:21:56.470 jeans. Jeans you can take to the beach. Yeah, 00:21:56.609 --> 00:21:58.349 jeans you're going to see in the next Top Gun 00:21:58.349 --> 00:22:02.529 movie. Exactly. That was me. Where did you get 00:22:02.529 --> 00:22:07.359 your motivation from? Yeah, they said it was 00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:09.680 a good idea. Okay, let me build that fabric and 00:22:09.680 --> 00:22:12.059 that design and you know ways of clearing up 00:22:12.059 --> 00:22:15.599 the sand just Be when you watch the next Top 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:17.539 Gun movie We need to keep a look out and see 00:22:17.539 --> 00:22:19.019 what kind of jeans you're wearing because we 00:22:19.019 --> 00:22:22.079 might have motivated the idea I think so. I think 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:25.140 we should start asking for some copywriting rights 00:22:25.140 --> 00:22:29.470 or something. I'll pass it right now That could 00:22:29.470 --> 00:22:31.490 be a good way. But it's going back to the business 00:22:31.490 --> 00:22:34.990 side of things. I'm always fascinated with accelerators 00:22:34.990 --> 00:22:38.210 and the knowledge they give you. How impactful 00:22:38.210 --> 00:22:40.650 was the accelerator for you, you know, starting 00:22:40.650 --> 00:22:42.769 out and actually being able to launch the business 00:22:42.769 --> 00:22:45.009 afterwards? Did you actually learn a lot of stuff? 00:22:46.089 --> 00:22:49.869 Yeah. I learned an awful lot. I was at Blocklojo 00:22:49.869 --> 00:22:53.009 and you know, the team there, they have a great 00:22:53.009 --> 00:22:58.440 group of mentors. You know, we actually did mentor 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:01.319 speed dating, which they had like so many mentors, 00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:04.380 too many. And, you know, they had a few minutes 00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:07.019 with each one and, and they all had completely 00:23:07.019 --> 00:23:08.819 different backgrounds, you know, some of them 00:23:08.819 --> 00:23:13.799 exited founders, UI, UX, products, legal, you 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:16.920 know, and some of them, when I talk about impactful, 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:19.220 you know, one of my legal advisors I speak to 00:23:19.220 --> 00:23:22.680 till now, you know, beyond the, he's still mentoring, 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:24.900 he's not advising, he's still mentoring, you 00:23:24.900 --> 00:23:27.809 kind of create that kind of a relationship with 00:23:27.809 --> 00:23:30.670 some of the mentors and you some of them are 00:23:30.670 --> 00:23:33.349 going to be very crucial to you in the long run 00:23:33.349 --> 00:23:35.410 and you never know some of them might be with 00:23:35.410 --> 00:23:37.670 you till the end and then you've got obviously 00:23:37.670 --> 00:23:41.130 what you learn there you know as a startup founder 00:23:41.130 --> 00:23:43.710 you think you know quite a lot until they're 00:23:43.710 --> 00:23:47.650 kind of like it's like you know they strip you 00:23:47.650 --> 00:23:51.390 down and and build you up properly not not not 00:23:51.390 --> 00:24:02.039 literally but Emotionally, do you find it hard 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:05.420 for that process to happen? Yeah, I think for 00:24:05.420 --> 00:24:08.099 me to be honest with you I've always had a passion 00:24:08.099 --> 00:24:14.819 for like the startups like so for me I Was like 00:24:14.819 --> 00:24:18.380 one of the ones that was in a little bit early. 00:24:18.380 --> 00:24:22.410 I have this kind of fascination with like the 00:24:22.410 --> 00:24:25.130 history behind the Silicon Valley and startups 00:24:25.130 --> 00:24:29.210 and that's kind of like really like even before 00:24:29.210 --> 00:24:31.470 way before like during covid and my wife would 00:24:31.470 --> 00:24:34.650 tell me that I used to mess up the YouTube algorithm 00:24:34.650 --> 00:24:37.269 she's like why is this like it's like how a rich 00:24:37.269 --> 00:24:39.950 how a poor kid from here built the biggest you 00:24:39.950 --> 00:24:43.710 know just constantly like I used to be obsessed 00:24:43.710 --> 00:24:46.150 with that kind of stuff and still I'm in a degree 00:24:46.150 --> 00:24:50.230 so for me it was very like it was like almost 00:24:50.230 --> 00:24:52.450 like being in that incubator sort of setting 00:24:52.450 --> 00:24:56.450 was like it sounds strange but like it was like 00:24:56.450 --> 00:24:58.890 a really something that I wish wanted to do for 00:24:58.890 --> 00:25:02.269 a very long time so but the part that gets you 00:25:02.269 --> 00:25:05.230 probably that can mentally drain you as well 00:25:05.230 --> 00:25:08.589 is a lot of the assumptions that you had when 00:25:08.589 --> 00:25:10.269 it comes to building and stuff like you know 00:25:10.269 --> 00:25:12.990 you really learned that you know it's not nothing 00:25:12.990 --> 00:25:17.269 is what you thought you know to do a proper product 00:25:17.269 --> 00:25:20.200 market fit Can make you question your entire 00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:24.000 idea, you know When you start doing proper research, 00:25:24.059 --> 00:25:26.119 which you didn't actually in fact take into account 00:25:26.119 --> 00:25:29.119 when you had an idea Can actually make you question 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:33.440 Your entire business, you know like completely 00:25:33.440 --> 00:25:36.019 and we've seen that happen with certain startups 00:25:36.019 --> 00:25:37.759 and it's like this person You know, they've been 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:39.440 on it for a year and they've come through there 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:41.299 and they realize that they don't actually have 00:25:41.299 --> 00:25:44.079 a good They're not building the realization, 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:48.920 but they kind of pivot into stuff, you know what's 00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:51.079 necessary and they help you kind of find that 00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:55.220 but you know the theory side of things I think 00:25:55.220 --> 00:25:57.980 is very important when it comes to startups you 00:25:57.980 --> 00:26:00.259 know and it's not just about how to write your 00:26:00.259 --> 00:26:03.000 pitch deck how to do a financial model there's 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:07.119 the entire like the product market fit the MVP 00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:11.200 testing research, going out there, speaking to 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:13.680 customers, speaking to users, potential users, 00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:17.079 clients, and, and yeah, just just even, you know, 00:26:17.180 --> 00:26:19.359 then there is the side of like the MVP and the 00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:22.799 financial model and pitch and how you speak to 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:26.079 investors and whatnot. That side of things, obviously, 00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:28.680 is very, very valuable for me, though I took 00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:31.859 what I took the most out of these programs is, 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:35.690 you know, the theory side of, you know, I Probably 00:26:35.690 --> 00:26:37.930 say like, you know what? I thought I knew I didn't 00:26:37.930 --> 00:26:41.509 really know In a sense when it comes to startups 00:26:41.509 --> 00:26:45.410 here What advice would you if you could go back 00:26:45.410 --> 00:26:49.849 in time and advise yourself a year back? What 00:26:49.849 --> 00:26:51.609 advice would you give to yourself knowing what 00:26:51.609 --> 00:26:57.549 you know now? I would say see if see if what 00:26:57.549 --> 00:27:01.829 you're building is needed because I Think an 00:27:01.829 --> 00:27:05.089 idea is great, right? But you could take the 00:27:05.089 --> 00:27:09.170 idea so far until you find out that this is just 00:27:09.170 --> 00:27:13.289 a great idea. It's not actually feasible. It's 00:27:13.289 --> 00:27:17.170 not actually necessary, really. And how much 00:27:17.170 --> 00:27:20.809 time and money have you spent? And the thing 00:27:20.809 --> 00:27:25.910 is, I would say, do not be afraid to accept that 00:27:25.910 --> 00:27:30.910 that's a possibility. Because you can fall in 00:27:30.910 --> 00:27:35.920 love with an ideal and you know love you know 00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:37.660 we love our children we love our family we love 00:27:37.660 --> 00:27:39.059 our mothers and stuff like that and you know 00:27:39.059 --> 00:27:40.980 no matter what we would do everything to hold 00:27:40.980 --> 00:27:43.339 on to them and when you talk about falling in 00:27:43.339 --> 00:27:46.299 love with an idea it can honestly be the same 00:27:46.299 --> 00:27:48.480 and it's like nobody can ever tell you that it's 00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:50.700 never going to work or it's not bad or maybe 00:27:50.700 --> 00:27:52.680 you should pivot to this or change in that there 00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:55.980 might be core concepts that actually are really 00:27:55.980 --> 00:27:57.920 really good but there's probably certain elements 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:00.980 that need tweaking and it's like be open to that 00:28:00.980 --> 00:28:04.160 you know Be open to that completely. For me, 00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:06.559 even a brand, people will fall in love with a 00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:12.680 brand and a name. It's like, hey, it's fine. 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:15.940 Don't fall in love with it. Fall in love with 00:28:15.940 --> 00:28:18.640 it, but don't fall in love with it. But think 00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:21.240 before you ask. Love the process. As we're reaching 00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:23.480 the end of the podcast, if people want to reach 00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:27.289 out to you, how can they do so? Yeah, you can 00:28:27.289 --> 00:28:31.190 find me on linkedin you can find chain vest .io. 00:28:31.670 --> 00:28:35.410 That's chain and vest You know not an actual 00:28:35.410 --> 00:28:37.809 vest made of chains, but chain vest. It's spelt 00:28:37.809 --> 00:28:40.589 the same way. I know you can find me on linkedin 00:28:40.589 --> 00:28:42.930 Idris Mohammed at chain vest you could probably 00:28:42.930 --> 00:28:44.930 find and yeah reach out to me if your startup 00:28:44.930 --> 00:28:49.769 looking to kind of match with investors platform 00:28:50.140 --> 00:28:52.680 you know, go on chainvest .io, reach out to me 00:28:52.680 --> 00:28:54.720 and yeah, we're building some for startups. And 00:28:54.720 --> 00:28:56.819 if you're an investor, we are building our weightless 00:28:56.819 --> 00:28:59.019 as well. This is a platform that we built specifically 00:28:59.019 --> 00:29:01.519 for you guys, especially if you're like looking 00:29:01.519 --> 00:29:03.420 for like niche stuff that you know exactly what 00:29:03.420 --> 00:29:05.940 you're looking for, you know, tired of the cold 00:29:05.940 --> 00:29:09.319 mills and everything. It's time to, you know, 00:29:09.480 --> 00:29:11.519 search exactly like you, what you wouldn't want, 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:16.359 like you would in chat GPT and get options like 00:29:16.359 --> 00:29:18.490 you would on a crowdfunding platform. and reach 00:29:18.490 --> 00:29:21.049 out to them, founders like that. Well, this is 00:29:21.049 --> 00:29:22.529 taking so much of your time. I really appreciate 00:29:22.529 --> 00:29:25.190 it. Appreciate it as well. Talk to you soon. 00:29:25.890 --> 00:29:28.769 Bye. The podcast is also sponsored by Notion 00:29:28.769 --> 00:29:31.710 .so. Notion is offering six months for free for 00:29:31.710 --> 00:29:34.190 new users. Make sure you check out our website, 00:29:34.450 --> 00:29:36.890 the startupevents .co .uk to read in the software. 00:29:37.230 --> 00:29:40.150 This podcast is also sponsored by startupnetworks 00:29:40.150 --> 00:29:43.730 .co .uk. Startup Networks, it's an online forum 00:29:43.730 --> 00:29:45.750 where you can find all the resources you need 00:29:45.750 --> 00:29:48.289 to run your startup. From grants to investors 00:29:48.289 --> 00:29:50.450 to tips and tricks on how to be successful in 00:29:50.450 --> 00:29:53.190 your startup. This podcast is also sponsored 00:29:53.190 --> 00:29:56.769 by ODEV Tech. ODEV Tech is your premier software 00:29:56.769 --> 00:29:58.670 development partner. Make sure you check them 00:29:58.670 --> 00:30:01.430 out at odev .tech.