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 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.559 thestoreofevents .co .uk to read in the software. 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:34.380 Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Innovation 00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:36.859 Tower Station. Today we are joined by Prakriti 00:00:36.859 --> 00:00:39.759 Igar. Prakriti, welcome to the podcast. Hi, lovely 00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:42.939 to be here. Pleasure having you. Prakriti, would 00:00:42.939 --> 00:00:44.159 you like to introduce yourself to the audience, 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:47.049 please? Yes. I am a second year student at the 00:00:47.049 --> 00:00:49.590 LSE and I'm currently studying management. Alongside 00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:51.409 this, I am the managing director of Kickstart 00:00:51.409 --> 00:00:54.189 Global, which is UK's largest student net incubator. 00:00:54.229 --> 00:00:56.649 Happy to share more about that as we go on. Yes. 00:00:56.969 --> 00:00:59.130 I'm fascinated that you're only on the second 00:00:59.130 --> 00:01:01.109 year already managing director of the company. 00:01:01.469 --> 00:01:07.150 So, well done. How did that come to me? So, essentially, 00:01:07.170 --> 00:01:10.090 I joined the team last year. There was an event 00:01:10.090 --> 00:01:11.730 that was happening and I essentially just walked 00:01:11.730 --> 00:01:13.969 up to the team saying, I love what you're doing. 00:01:14.409 --> 00:01:16.629 and ended up joining and the rest of its history. 00:01:17.250 --> 00:01:19.689 It sounds like a very cringe story, but it is 00:01:19.689 --> 00:01:22.090 very much true. The Kickstart team is also really 00:01:22.090 --> 00:01:23.750 nice and flexible in the sense that it works 00:01:23.750 --> 00:01:26.230 very much like a startup. So when I joined, even 00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:28.730 though my role was like a specific category, 00:01:28.950 --> 00:01:31.049 I ended up basically doing everything. And then 00:01:31.049 --> 00:01:32.790 we've grown a lot since then. So it was kind 00:01:32.790 --> 00:01:34.230 of like there was a bunch of people who really 00:01:34.230 --> 00:01:35.829 wanted to take it forward. And that was one of 00:01:35.829 --> 00:01:38.129 them. And so it got passed on to me by lovely 00:01:38.129 --> 00:01:42.159 directors who were there before me. I love the 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:44.099 go -getter attitude. I could just walk in and 00:01:44.099 --> 00:01:47.159 say I want to join and that's kind of it. Did 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:50.390 you have any idea what they did back then? Yeah, 00:01:50.390 --> 00:01:52.750 so I attended the event because when I came into 00:01:52.750 --> 00:01:54.989 LSE, I really was into startups. And I think 00:01:54.989 --> 00:01:56.969 when I wanted to study management, what I meant 00:01:56.969 --> 00:01:58.689 was that, oh, I want to start my own startup 00:01:58.689 --> 00:02:01.030 one day. I do think that in London, there's a 00:02:01.030 --> 00:02:03.209 lot of other careers, of course, that are like, 00:02:03.209 --> 00:02:05.290 a lot more popular, for example, finance, investment 00:02:05.290 --> 00:02:07.890 banking, consulting. And I think that this ambition 00:02:07.890 --> 00:02:09.949 of mine kind of got lost. And thanks to kickstart, 00:02:09.949 --> 00:02:12.110 I came across it again. And I found it really 00:02:12.110 --> 00:02:13.949 interesting that they were helping students build 00:02:13.949 --> 00:02:15.530 student startups. And I was like, well, I don't 00:02:15.530 --> 00:02:18.050 have an idea right now. But I do really believe 00:02:18.050 --> 00:02:20.569 in what you're doing, which great and yeah just 00:02:20.569 --> 00:02:22.270 ended up joining. I didn't know much about it 00:02:22.270 --> 00:02:24.629 then but now I do know it inside out and thanks 00:02:24.629 --> 00:02:26.550 to all of the alumni who are super helpful and 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:28.689 kind of making sure that I have all the guidance 00:02:28.689 --> 00:02:32.370 that I need to run everything. So just for our 00:02:32.370 --> 00:02:34.610 audience, what exactly do you guys do at Kickstart? 00:02:34.810 --> 00:02:38.389 Yes, so a bit of background. So Kickstart started 00:02:38.389 --> 00:02:41.229 10 years ago and the main reason why we started 00:02:41.229 --> 00:02:43.400 was that there were a bunch of entrepreneurship 00:02:43.400 --> 00:02:46.180 societies across the UK, which had a lot of students 00:02:46.180 --> 00:02:47.740 who were interested in starting startups. But 00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:50.259 when it came to actually building teams, which 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:52.580 are resilient and like cross -disciplinary and 00:02:52.580 --> 00:02:54.379 have the right skill sets to make it happen, 00:02:54.599 --> 00:02:55.939 they would fall short. So let's say if there 00:02:55.939 --> 00:02:57.979 was someone from LSE who was like great at finance 00:02:57.979 --> 00:03:00.000 and wanted to build a fintech app, they can't 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.800 exactly do it without the UI designer or someone 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:04.919 who can kind of code the app for them. And I 00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:06.780 think the idea was to bring together talents 00:03:06.780 --> 00:03:11.379 from the best universities in the UK and get 00:03:11.379 --> 00:03:16.180 very domain intensive experts together and put 00:03:16.180 --> 00:03:18.039 them into teams and help them form teams and 00:03:18.039 --> 00:03:20.120 build it. We've been doing this for 10 years 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:21.840 now, so over the years it's changed quite a bit. 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:25.280 What we do now is we help any founder under 24 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.159 in a lot of ways. they can come in without an 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.080 idea and they leave with an investable MVP. Our 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:33.639 alumni over the past 10 years have raised like 00:03:33.639 --> 00:03:36.280 35 million. I think it's gone up to 36 like yesterday 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:38.939 because someone else, one of our alumni hands 00:03:38.939 --> 00:03:41.860 in, which is a fintech raised another round. 00:03:42.900 --> 00:03:45.770 So yeah, we're sector agnostic. We have a lot 00:03:45.770 --> 00:03:48.210 of cool startups, approximately 70 in a lot of 00:03:48.210 --> 00:03:50.129 different industries. So we have them in health 00:03:50.129 --> 00:03:52.930 tech, med tech, sports tech. And all of this 00:03:52.930 --> 00:03:54.969 has been done by students who are working part 00:03:54.969 --> 00:03:57.409 time. So sorry, full time students who are doing 00:03:57.409 --> 00:03:59.389 this kind of like on a voluntary basis. And we 00:03:59.389 --> 00:04:01.830 do not charge our founders anything except for 00:04:01.830 --> 00:04:03.830 their commitment and the fact that they have 00:04:03.830 --> 00:04:05.669 to show up for every single thing in the program 00:04:05.669 --> 00:04:08.270 if they're selected. Wow, this is quite impressive. 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:12.050 Well, that's quite a lot of money. And is this 00:04:12.050 --> 00:04:13.969 limited? So this is not limited to LSE, right? 00:04:14.009 --> 00:04:16.550 So we actually work with all the universities. 00:04:16.850 --> 00:04:19.990 Yeah. So we have approximately 55 university 00:04:19.990 --> 00:04:22.410 partners which operate across the UK. This year 00:04:22.410 --> 00:04:24.009 we've also expanded to, let's say, Edinburgh, 00:04:24.329 --> 00:04:26.509 Leeds, Leicester and all these places. So we 00:04:26.509 --> 00:04:30.490 have quite a broad reach across the UK. Obviously, 00:04:31.069 --> 00:04:33.350 I end up talking to a lot of students, so to 00:04:33.350 --> 00:04:35.649 speak. What do you think are the main points 00:04:35.649 --> 00:04:36.990 for students when they're launching their business? 00:04:37.149 --> 00:04:39.930 Is it hard? Is it easy? Obviously with you guys, 00:04:40.170 --> 00:04:42.250 I'm assuming it becomes a lot easier, but what 00:04:42.250 --> 00:04:45.449 is the market like? I do think building a startup 00:04:45.449 --> 00:04:47.829 is never easy. I think a lot of the approach 00:04:47.829 --> 00:04:50.029 that we had in a few years, two years back was 00:04:50.029 --> 00:04:51.769 that a lot of students come into this thing, 00:04:51.790 --> 00:04:54.009 oh, this is like the easy way out. And we're 00:04:54.009 --> 00:04:55.649 going to choose like building a startup as a 00:04:55.649 --> 00:04:57.670 career because, well, it's like very difficult 00:04:57.670 --> 00:04:59.430 to apply for internships. But actually that's 00:04:59.430 --> 00:05:02.089 not true because building a startup is perhaps 00:05:02.089 --> 00:05:05.620 harder. if not just as hard sorry is just as 00:05:05.620 --> 00:05:07.399 hard if not harder than let's say pursuing any 00:05:07.399 --> 00:05:09.839 other career but i think the main pain point 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:13.040 that students have is a not having the right 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:15.019 people to speak to because in the uk there's 00:05:15.019 --> 00:05:17.920 not exactly that many role models of kind of 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:21.560 like founders and especially in university itself 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:23.920 there's not that many let's say seniors or alumni 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:26.079 who can look at who you can look up to who ready 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:28.420 to guide you on what to do from day one with 00:05:28.420 --> 00:05:30.259 kickstart coming in because we have access to 00:05:30.259 --> 00:05:32.959 that community and because we have our eyes on 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:34.899 the best talent we're able to put these people 00:05:34.899 --> 00:05:36.779 in the room together so I would say one is the 00:05:36.779 --> 00:05:39.540 lack of community of student founders themselves 00:05:39.540 --> 00:05:41.420 but also the lack of community of people who 00:05:41.420 --> 00:05:43.199 can give them advice and we solve both of them. 00:05:43.420 --> 00:05:45.620 I do think after you've become a student founder 00:05:45.620 --> 00:05:47.240 the pain points are different but I do think 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:49.500 at the start it is both of these. Once you already 00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:51.860 have a startup then I do think the pain point 00:05:51.860 --> 00:05:54.779 would be to be able to get investment before 00:05:54.779 --> 00:05:57.319 you graduate from university. Naturally if you 00:05:57.319 --> 00:05:59.500 have an offer from Lexa McKinsey which is paying 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:03.569 you like some 60 grand it's very hard. in comparison 00:06:03.569 --> 00:06:05.990 to that, to take the riskier option of building 00:06:05.990 --> 00:06:08.189 a startup, even though it would be more fulfilling 00:06:08.189 --> 00:06:09.949 and let's say even more profitable in the long 00:06:09.949 --> 00:06:12.470 run. So a lot of our goals now is also helping 00:06:12.470 --> 00:06:14.490 students in that later stage and making sure 00:06:14.490 --> 00:06:16.269 that they're able to secure funding and have 00:06:16.269 --> 00:06:18.370 the right introductions to investors before they 00:06:18.370 --> 00:06:21.170 catch it from university. What do investors say? 00:06:21.509 --> 00:06:23.410 Do they almost say you're just quite young or 00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:24.589 they actually say, you know, I like the idea, 00:06:24.689 --> 00:06:28.149 let me go and invest? I think because a lot of 00:06:28.149 --> 00:06:30.730 students are first time founders, If you look 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:32.990 at any kind of like accelerators, like let's 00:06:32.990 --> 00:06:35.329 say Techstars or Antler, what they rely on a 00:06:35.329 --> 00:06:37.110 lot when they're getting first -time founders 00:06:37.110 --> 00:06:40.069 is just credibility, right? So if you have the 00:06:40.069 --> 00:06:41.689 right kind of signals of like, oh, you worked 00:06:41.689 --> 00:06:43.569 at Google for 10 years, or you've like, you know, 00:06:43.709 --> 00:06:45.750 done this research for 10 years, those are usually 00:06:45.750 --> 00:06:47.110 very good indicators that you're going to be 00:06:47.110 --> 00:06:49.610 a successful founder. So for investors to back 00:06:49.610 --> 00:06:52.050 student founders, it does take a leap. I do think 00:06:52.050 --> 00:06:53.990 that with the startup founders that we have been 00:06:53.990 --> 00:06:56.839 able to find at Kickstart who... despite, let's 00:06:56.839 --> 00:06:59.240 say, having only been in the industry for four 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:01.519 years, do know it inside out because they're 00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:03.259 that obsessed with the problem and that obsessed 00:07:03.259 --> 00:07:05.399 with the users, we're able to solve that gap 00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:08.699 for investors. And I do think having the brand 00:07:08.699 --> 00:07:10.920 of, let's say, Kickstarter behind startups really 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:13.100 does help in bridging that credibility gap because 00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:15.720 investors know that the flow that usually comes 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:19.620 from us is beneficial to them and does have a 00:07:19.620 --> 00:07:21.759 lot more credibility than, let's say, someone 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:24.199 who has just emailed them out of the blue. And 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:26.899 where do you find all this investing? Mostly 00:07:26.899 --> 00:07:29.040 LinkedIn. I think it would be if, I think someone 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:31.060 asked me recently what's like things you're good 00:07:31.060 --> 00:07:33.060 at and I think I said emailing and LinkedIn, 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:35.120 like a lot of this simply comes from reaching 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:37.740 out. We also have, you know, 10 years of history. 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:40.199 So we have investing partners who let's say invested 00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:41.860 in a startup seven years ago, and they've backed 00:07:41.860 --> 00:07:43.879 us since because they've seen the quality of 00:07:43.879 --> 00:07:45.339 startup founders that we've got them. There's 00:07:45.339 --> 00:07:47.360 also a lot of investors in our own alumni network. 00:07:47.399 --> 00:07:49.139 So people who graduate from Kickstart and then 00:07:49.139 --> 00:07:51.620 end up becoming investors are super useful. But 00:07:51.620 --> 00:07:54.360 a lot of it is also simply angel investors who 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:57.180 stumble across our events, are impressed by the 00:07:57.180 --> 00:07:59.699 quality because they never suspected that it 00:07:59.699 --> 00:08:02.300 could be possible to have star quality from even 00:08:02.300 --> 00:08:03.980 student founders and then they basically never 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:06.660 leave. That's a great success story. I mean, 00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:08.980 from talking with your community, do you think 00:08:08.980 --> 00:08:12.579 students are still... A couple of years ago, 00:08:12.939 --> 00:08:14.759 everyone wanted to be able to start. Do you think 00:08:14.759 --> 00:08:16.720 that's still very much the case? Absolutely. 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:21.459 I think it's quite funny, actually, when a lot 00:08:21.459 --> 00:08:24.300 of people tell me that, oh, we went to this place 00:08:24.300 --> 00:08:26.160 and it seemed like everyone wanted to build startups. 00:08:26.660 --> 00:08:29.550 I think being... in that startup community now, 00:08:29.670 --> 00:08:31.850 it does feel like that because let's say when 00:08:31.850 --> 00:08:33.750 we release applications for our fellowship, we 00:08:33.750 --> 00:08:35.909 do get let's say like thousands in one day, right? 00:08:36.509 --> 00:08:38.909 I think this is very different on ground when 00:08:38.909 --> 00:08:40.750 you actually walk into a university because I 00:08:40.750 --> 00:08:43.330 remember feeling like I was basically one of 00:08:43.330 --> 00:08:45.570 very few people in LSE who actually wanted to 00:08:45.570 --> 00:08:47.730 build a startup as opposed to like join any other. 00:08:48.570 --> 00:08:51.190 I know a lot of people at Imperial, for example, 00:08:51.289 --> 00:08:55.659 as well, who are surrounded by like 90 % of the 00:08:55.659 --> 00:08:57.320 people who let's say want to go into like con 00:08:57.320 --> 00:09:00.360 trading and it's very hard to still stand the 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:02.220 ground and realize that what you want to do and 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:04.879 by a competitive advantage lies is building a 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:07.940 startup. So yeah, I absolutely don't think that 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:09.279 a lot of people are going to build startups and 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:12.000 I think A, it's still that hard to find a community 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:14.879 and B, we still need a lot more student founders. 00:09:15.019 --> 00:09:17.240 We still need a lot more people doing this from 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:20.659 the get -go rather than deciding to, you know, 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:23.240 give all their talent to other things. What do 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:25.100 you think are the main mistakes that founders 00:09:25.100 --> 00:09:30.759 make, especially at such an age? That's a very 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:33.259 good question. I think the biggest mistake that 00:09:33.259 --> 00:09:37.519 founders probably make is mistaking a lot of 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:40.139 LinkedIn and cloud stuff for actual progress. 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:43.240 I think I've seen a lot of founders who've spent 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:45.620 a lot of time building that idea, but a lot of 00:09:45.620 --> 00:09:49.600 it is brand building, which is great, but not 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:53.980 actually getting to it. maybe just the idea of 00:09:53.980 --> 00:09:56.659 that they don't have enough time. I do think 00:09:56.659 --> 00:09:59.659 that student founders, but already doing a degree 00:09:59.659 --> 00:10:01.299 in let's say half the time that it's supposed 00:10:01.299 --> 00:10:03.860 to and to be able to fit a startup in that it 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:05.480 is very important that you actually stick to 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:07.899 it and do it consistently. So some of the biggest 00:10:07.899 --> 00:10:09.460 success stories that we've had at kickstart. 00:10:09.769 --> 00:10:11.850 are that they let's say did a fellowship like 00:10:11.850 --> 00:10:13.850 two years ago and they're still building a startup 00:10:13.850 --> 00:10:15.470 and it's now that they start seeing results. 00:10:15.809 --> 00:10:17.610 So perhaps giving up too early because you don't 00:10:17.610 --> 00:10:19.629 think you don't have the time or giving up too 00:10:19.629 --> 00:10:21.169 early because you don't think you didn't get 00:10:21.169 --> 00:10:23.590 like success within the first two months would 00:10:23.590 --> 00:10:26.190 probably be the biggest mistake. What's the normal 00:10:26.190 --> 00:10:29.389 age for students? Are they 20 year old or are 00:10:29.389 --> 00:10:32.110 they post grad or master degree student? So we 00:10:32.110 --> 00:10:34.250 have founders under 24 that can mean anything 00:10:34.250 --> 00:10:36.960 so we do have people who you know even people 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:39.080 who are pursuing PhDs and then we have a lot 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:41.139 of master's students. Most of them are like second 00:10:41.139 --> 00:10:43.200 or third year undergrads, simply because that 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:45.039 gives them enough time to actually build a startup 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:47.759 while they're still with us. And I guess it must 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:50.700 be fairly clear while still studying, right? 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:52.379 Because you obviously have commitments, you need 00:10:52.379 --> 00:10:54.759 deadlines for exams and all that, so it must 00:10:54.759 --> 00:10:57.059 be exciting. Exactly. What type of support do 00:10:57.059 --> 00:11:01.799 you take up? At Kickstart? Yeah. So we have... 00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:03.870 we run a couple of different things the main 00:11:03.870 --> 00:11:06.070 thing that we run is the fellowship so the founders 00:11:06.070 --> 00:11:08.690 under 24 fellowship runs for 20 weeks where they 00:11:08.690 --> 00:11:10.929 have weekly master classes mixers and mentorship 00:11:10.929 --> 00:11:13.149 so when it comes to weekly master classes that 00:11:13.149 --> 00:11:16.309 means you meet with business icons who've been 00:11:16.309 --> 00:11:18.409 doing this forever and they kind of give you 00:11:18.409 --> 00:11:20.409 advice and this is not like a fireside chat so 00:11:20.409 --> 00:11:22.049 it's not like a lecture hall but like a thousand 00:11:22.049 --> 00:11:24.570 students and there's like some old white guy 00:11:24.570 --> 00:11:26.090 like just talking about what he's done in his 00:11:26.090 --> 00:11:29.549 life no it's a room of 10 very carefully selected 00:11:29.549 --> 00:11:31.389 student founders sitting together on a table 00:11:31.389 --> 00:11:34.549 and getting one unknown advice from very experienced 00:11:34.549 --> 00:11:36.789 founders so this year we've been grateful to 00:11:36.789 --> 00:11:38.590 have the backing of a lot of incredible people 00:11:38.590 --> 00:11:41.029 we've had this year of octopus group founders 00:11:41.029 --> 00:11:42.789 of oak north we've had the founder of too good 00:11:42.789 --> 00:11:46.080 to go then founder of flight story. Like a lot 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:48.639 of these people who've like founder of amicable 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:51.279 as well, they've come down to literally where 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:53.940 we work in shortage exchange, who by the way 00:11:53.940 --> 00:11:56.120 are partners with us and are absolutely incredible 00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:59.779 sat down with us and just talked for hours. I 00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:03.240 think it's also underestimated how much founders 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:06.480 are also craving deeper connections with emerging 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.299 founders, because a lot of them, like, you'd 00:12:09.299 --> 00:12:11.399 expect them to prefer, let's say, fireside jobs. 00:12:11.779 --> 00:12:13.679 But they're more than happy to kind of have one 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:15.860 -on -ones with these student founders. So that's 00:12:15.860 --> 00:12:17.320 the kind of support that they have, because they 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:19.259 get access to the phone books of essentially 00:12:19.259 --> 00:12:21.179 all of these millionaires who've done this before, 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:23.340 who are very relevant to their fields. Secondly, 00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:25.539 they have mentors. So we have dual mentorship 00:12:25.539 --> 00:12:27.620 at Kickstart, which means that you have one mentor 00:12:27.620 --> 00:12:29.759 from an industry. So if you're building a climate 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:31.440 tech, you'll have someone who's, let's say, build. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.559 a wind farm before, and then you also get paired 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:36.559 up with an accelerator mentor or an investor. 00:12:36.919 --> 00:12:40.100 So if we think that the next step for you after 00:12:40.100 --> 00:12:43.379 Kickstart is perhaps going to YC, then you will 00:12:43.379 --> 00:12:45.419 be paired up with someone who's been at YC before 00:12:45.419 --> 00:12:47.600 and can essentially help you make sure that you 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.059 get there. Basically, it just creates a great 00:12:50.059 --> 00:12:51.740 strategic funnel for making sure that they have 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:55.320 the support to get resources beyond Kickstart 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.700 as well. The third thing is mixers, which is 00:12:57.700 --> 00:12:59.840 essentially just get togethers and co -working 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:01.860 with the kickstart team and the kickstart community. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:04.159 Every single Saturday, we meet together heads 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:06.440 down from like 9 a .m. and we're usually that 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:09.259 like 12 a .m. in the night, just building together. 00:13:09.559 --> 00:13:12.620 And this can also mean like by the students and 00:13:12.620 --> 00:13:15.860 stuff like that. Yeah. And yeah, just like chilling 00:13:15.860 --> 00:13:19.450 around. I do think that. The benefits of just 00:13:19.450 --> 00:13:21.470 like the synergies of just putting people together 00:13:21.470 --> 00:13:23.690 in one room is a lot. Like we could do absolutely 00:13:23.690 --> 00:13:26.110 nothing and just have the founders and by the 00:13:26.110 --> 00:13:28.049 end of it, they will have had like five customers 00:13:28.049 --> 00:13:30.129 from just talking to each other. Absolutely like 00:13:30.129 --> 00:13:31.990 revamp their deck by just giving each other feedback 00:13:31.990 --> 00:13:34.879 and have made like. a lot more progress on let's 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:36.779 say their SaaS or like, you know, exchange tech 00:13:36.779 --> 00:13:39.019 stacks, which is pretty exciting. Other than 00:13:39.019 --> 00:13:40.440 that, we have, you know, the usual things of 00:13:40.440 --> 00:13:42.720 like, you know, we sponsor event invites, or 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:44.799 we get them like credits to a lot of softwares, 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:46.860 like hundreds of thousands of pounds, essentially 00:13:46.860 --> 00:13:49.879 worth of stuff. Or we, you know, make intros 00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:51.919 to like, any one and all that. What would you 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:55.440 change in the system? You change anything? I 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:57.960 think the biggest thing that I would change is 00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:00.039 being the number of female founders, I do think 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:03.220 that Despite there being a lot of female leadership 00:14:03.220 --> 00:14:05.919 in the team, we've tried very hard to make sure 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:09.299 that we're able to come to at least 40, 60, if 00:14:09.299 --> 00:14:11.820 not 50, 50 cohort representation. But this is 00:14:11.820 --> 00:14:14.100 extremely hard because application numbers are 00:14:14.100 --> 00:14:16.899 skewed and it's very hard to find that talent. 00:14:17.100 --> 00:14:19.259 So definitely change that. I do think something 00:14:19.259 --> 00:14:22.179 else that I would change in the system. is being 00:14:22.179 --> 00:14:24.960 able to interact with a lot more angels on a 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:26.460 regular basis is something that we're working 00:14:26.460 --> 00:14:28.580 on. It's not exactly a systemic issue. But yeah, 00:14:28.779 --> 00:14:30.480 that's kind of next in our plans to get a lot 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:32.679 more angels involved. It just has a lot more 00:14:32.679 --> 00:14:35.159 like quicker deployment of liquidity than BC. 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:38.879 Why do you think there's less female power? I 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:41.720 mean, just because I get it after a certain age, 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:43.980 I get there's different family commitments and 00:14:43.980 --> 00:14:47.399 also society pressures. But in uni, it's pretty 00:14:47.399 --> 00:14:51.860 much supply core. I think, and this is something 00:14:51.860 --> 00:14:54.279 we were talking about to a lot of the female 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:56.620 speakers as well that came about, which is that 00:14:56.620 --> 00:14:58.399 what is perhaps the biggest barrier? And I think 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:00.700 it comes from just the sense of the fact that 00:15:00.700 --> 00:15:02.320 when you're a first -time founder, since you 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:04.320 don't have the logos to back you, you kind of 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:07.980 need yourself. to if you need to have the confidence 00:15:07.980 --> 00:15:10.340 to realize that if you have expertise in a certain 00:15:10.340 --> 00:15:12.259 domain, you're going to be able to build a startup 00:15:12.259 --> 00:15:14.279 which competes against let's say industry giants 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:16.600 who have been in the industry for like 10 to 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:18.980 thousands of years and entirely turn it upside 00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:21.120 down. I do think with female founders, we've 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:23.100 seen some incredible talent, but they do need 00:15:23.100 --> 00:15:24.899 more of a push to actually realize that they're 00:15:24.899 --> 00:15:26.480 capable of doing that. In fact, when we look 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:28.600 at like application quality, like I do think 00:15:29.430 --> 00:15:31.809 There's not exactly a difference in quality from 00:15:31.809 --> 00:15:34.509 female founders and male founders, but it's simply 00:15:34.509 --> 00:15:37.330 the number of applications that is much less 00:15:37.330 --> 00:15:38.710 from female founders. So something that we're 00:15:38.710 --> 00:15:41.210 working on is just reaching out to them more 00:15:41.210 --> 00:15:43.169 often and saying that you can do this. A lot 00:15:43.169 --> 00:15:45.230 of being a founder involves putting your face 00:15:45.230 --> 00:15:47.990 on, let's say, brands and building a personal 00:15:47.990 --> 00:15:51.070 brand and all of that, which stems from confidence. 00:15:52.110 --> 00:15:53.950 And yeah, I think that would probably be the 00:15:53.950 --> 00:15:58.370 biggest one. Beyond that, I do think that VC, 00:15:59.170 --> 00:16:01.590 investments are quite highly skewed, like female 00:16:01.590 --> 00:16:03.629 founders, even if they do join a program, the 00:16:03.629 --> 00:16:05.610 likelihood of them getting investment as compared 00:16:05.610 --> 00:16:08.429 to a male founder is dramatically lower, like 00:16:08.429 --> 00:16:10.830 2 % of all VC funding goes to women, which is 00:16:10.830 --> 00:16:13.789 quite insane. We're trying to change that by 00:16:13.789 --> 00:16:15.649 getting a lot more female angels involved. But 00:16:15.649 --> 00:16:18.470 yeah, I do think that the investment ecosystem 00:16:18.470 --> 00:16:20.269 needs to change for us to actually be able to 00:16:20.269 --> 00:16:22.909 retain the female founders that do go through 00:16:22.909 --> 00:16:28.299 our program. That seems to be a problem that 00:16:28.299 --> 00:16:31.259 everyone's facing. They don't have enough support, 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:32.820 and when they do have enough support, it's really 00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:36.600 hard to articulate to a male VC. This is actually 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:38.480 building, and that makes you believe in them, 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:40.980 which is kind of ludicrous in this day and age, 00:16:41.059 --> 00:16:42.679 but yeah, I guess it still happens, which is 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:45.759 obviously very wrong. Exactly. That's something 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:48.700 that we all need to change, I guess. And what 00:16:48.700 --> 00:16:50.320 do you do to keep yourself motivated? I mean, 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:51.840 because obviously I'm assuming you work quite 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:53.909 a lot of hours, so... How do you balance everything? 00:16:54.110 --> 00:16:56.370 I genuinely don't have an answer to this. I do 00:16:56.370 --> 00:16:59.049 love it. I think I said this recently, we hosted 00:16:59.049 --> 00:17:01.269 a summit the other day at Google headquarters 00:17:01.269 --> 00:17:03.450 when you were there for the entire day with a 00:17:03.450 --> 00:17:06.569 lot of VCs and a lot of student founders. And 00:17:06.569 --> 00:17:08.410 Kickstarter has genuinely given me all of my 00:17:08.410 --> 00:17:11.170 friends, all of my mentors, all the advice that 00:17:11.170 --> 00:17:13.710 I get. People who I hang out with on a day -to 00:17:13.710 --> 00:17:15.930 -day, even when I'm not working, are Kickstarter 00:17:15.930 --> 00:17:18.269 founders. And it is genuinely the community that 00:17:18.269 --> 00:17:20.230 I was seeking when I was at LSE, when I was not 00:17:20.230 --> 00:17:22.789 able to find it. So I think that the purpose 00:17:22.789 --> 00:17:24.750 of kickstart which is to find like a home for 00:17:24.750 --> 00:17:27.349 student founders is genuinely what it gave me 00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:29.589 and i think that is very easy to stay motivated 00:17:29.589 --> 00:17:32.049 like that i also think that when you speak with 00:17:32.049 --> 00:17:33.970 founders who've done it before you every single 00:17:33.970 --> 00:17:35.930 week and when you hear from all these master 00:17:35.930 --> 00:17:38.910 class speakers i think it makes you realize they're 00:17:38.910 --> 00:17:41.029 normal people They've done this before. They 00:17:41.029 --> 00:17:43.769 also had humble beginnings and they've also kind 00:17:43.769 --> 00:17:46.309 of like begun from really small things. And I 00:17:46.309 --> 00:17:48.069 also think that with the success stories that 00:17:48.069 --> 00:17:49.750 you see at Kickstart, so they've been friends 00:17:49.750 --> 00:17:51.690 of mine who I've seen come in with just an idea. 00:17:52.109 --> 00:17:53.910 And a year later, they've like raised money and 00:17:53.910 --> 00:17:55.509 moved to a different country because IVCs were 00:17:55.509 --> 00:17:57.789 from that, right? And I think when you see those 00:17:57.789 --> 00:17:59.329 kinds of success stories, it's just very hard 00:17:59.329 --> 00:18:01.930 to believe that. A, that what we're doing is 00:18:01.930 --> 00:18:04.230 not impactful because it really is, it genuinely 00:18:04.230 --> 00:18:06.349 matters. So it's very easy to get up in the morning 00:18:06.349 --> 00:18:08.769 and have this be the first thought in your head. 00:18:09.190 --> 00:18:11.470 But also I think that it makes you realize that 00:18:11.470 --> 00:18:13.390 a lot of things are possible if you just do them. 00:18:13.390 --> 00:18:15.390 So if you have an idea, if you think you want 00:18:15.390 --> 00:18:17.910 to make something happen, we have live examples 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:21.069 around us of you can do things that you set your 00:18:21.069 --> 00:18:22.630 minds to. So it's very easy to follow through. 00:18:22.670 --> 00:18:24.289 I like that. It's a little bit of M &M there, 00:18:24.329 --> 00:18:27.890 but yeah, I like it. I like it. But you know, 00:18:27.970 --> 00:18:30.759 what's the structure like? I would say it's very 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:33.759 organized. We're just a bunch of students. So 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:36.299 we have directors. We do have two new directors 00:18:36.299 --> 00:18:38.880 who are Vile and Naila, who will be kind of taking 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:41.200 forward the legacy with Kickstart. And the rest 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:43.220 of it's just students. So we have students from 00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:47.000 LSE, VORIG, BART, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Imperial, 00:18:47.500 --> 00:18:49.400 and they all have different roles. Of course, 00:18:49.420 --> 00:18:51.119 again, we operate very much like a startup as 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:54.549 well. It's very ad hoc based on the kind of events 00:18:54.549 --> 00:18:57.849 that we're showing. We have a team of 20 and 00:18:57.849 --> 00:19:00.450 they're all full -time students doing this alongside. 00:19:00.890 --> 00:19:03.549 We're trying now to potentially onboard some 00:19:03.549 --> 00:19:06.049 people full -time who are willing to take a break 00:19:06.049 --> 00:19:08.849 from the university, to work on this, to expand 00:19:08.849 --> 00:19:11.849 the program, but that's in progress. What do 00:19:11.849 --> 00:19:13.750 you think universities should start doing differently? 00:19:14.049 --> 00:19:16.150 Because obviously, you can try and do some management. 00:19:16.769 --> 00:19:18.470 Do you think universities first stage should 00:19:18.470 --> 00:19:20.329 actually start doing something different too? 00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:28.339 I think universities right now don't do a very 00:19:28.339 --> 00:19:30.920 good job of even exposing people to the fact 00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:33.380 that this is a possible career. I think entrepreneurship 00:19:33.380 --> 00:19:35.680 is always like categorized as like, oh, the flashy 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:37.420 thing that like you do if nothing else works 00:19:37.420 --> 00:19:40.519 out. Or it's the only thing, the thing that only 00:19:40.519 --> 00:19:42.599 let's say someone who's deeply technical and 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:45.259 who's again been in a different career for 10 00:19:45.259 --> 00:19:47.480 years can do. I think there's very few examples 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:51.039 of like say alumni who just graduated and within 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:52.900 the next two years are raising money. Secondly, 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:56.140 I do think personally, even like university content 00:19:56.140 --> 00:19:58.660 is very old. There's a lot of revamping that 00:19:58.660 --> 00:20:00.960 needs to be done in order to genuinely equip 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:03.960 students to build companies. So for example, 00:20:04.299 --> 00:20:07.240 if there's classes on AI, perhaps we should be 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:10.259 talking more on like hands -on. tools that are 00:20:10.259 --> 00:20:13.019 being used, which like CRM softwares and stuff 00:20:13.019 --> 00:20:15.319 like that, that can be employed as opposed to 00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:17.779 learning about the history of AI. This is a personal 00:20:17.779 --> 00:20:20.140 strong opinion that I have, which I know there's 00:20:20.140 --> 00:20:22.940 lots of opinions on, but I do think that in general, 00:20:23.259 --> 00:20:25.759 while learning fundamentals is great, I do think 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:27.900 the curriculum needs to be updated to actually 00:20:27.900 --> 00:20:30.319 match the pace of the world, which is definitely 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:34.369 way faster than what they're teaching at. I would 00:20:34.369 --> 00:20:36.990 imagine that being from one of the UK best universities, 00:20:37.289 --> 00:20:38.849 they would actually have up -to -date curriculum 00:20:38.849 --> 00:20:41.230 and all that. But it's interesting actually getting 00:20:41.230 --> 00:20:43.609 the feedback and realizing that might not be 00:20:43.609 --> 00:20:45.670 the case. So I guess it does come down to the 00:20:45.670 --> 00:20:48.210 individual. I think it's perhaps also degree 00:20:48.210 --> 00:20:51.069 to degree. I do think technical degrees are far 00:20:51.069 --> 00:20:54.089 better equipped in students to do that than management. 00:20:55.089 --> 00:20:57.230 I also think that my degree is perhaps more suited 00:20:57.230 --> 00:21:00.269 to other careers. Let's say if someone were to 00:21:00.269 --> 00:21:03.349 pursue like. consulting or banking. I do think 00:21:03.349 --> 00:21:05.609 LSE gives you all the skills that you need up 00:21:05.609 --> 00:21:08.289 to date on pursuing those, but perhaps not in 00:21:08.289 --> 00:21:12.329 your company. Now my experience on one thing, 00:21:12.450 --> 00:21:15.430 which is what's the last book you read? How impactful 00:21:15.430 --> 00:21:18.029 has that book been? Of course, if it's just a 00:21:18.029 --> 00:21:20.609 bad book, please don't recommend it, but I like 00:21:20.609 --> 00:21:23.829 the best book you've read in the last year. Right, 00:21:23.970 --> 00:21:26.930 the best book I've read. I will have to think 00:21:26.930 --> 00:21:31.170 deeply about this. I'm not sure about book. I 00:21:31.170 --> 00:21:33.470 follow a lot of people online who I kind of read 00:21:33.470 --> 00:21:35.549 into. I do think Paul Graham, who is the partner 00:21:35.549 --> 00:21:38.309 of ICI, has some brilliant essays. There's one, 00:21:38.309 --> 00:21:41.569 I think, about the anatomy of determinism or 00:21:41.569 --> 00:21:44.109 the anatomy of ambition, one of those. Absolutely 00:21:44.109 --> 00:21:47.509 incredible. There's Case Kenny on Instagram, 00:21:47.569 --> 00:21:50.190 which I think has pretty great content. To be 00:21:50.190 --> 00:21:52.710 very honest, yeah, I think I prefer more podcasts. 00:21:52.970 --> 00:21:55.769 Diary of a CEO is a great one for any business 00:21:55.769 --> 00:21:58.970 related content. and things like that. I do think 00:21:58.970 --> 00:22:00.750 recently all of my knowledge has been coming 00:22:00.750 --> 00:22:02.730 from meeting people in person from master classes, 00:22:02.910 --> 00:22:05.029 so books have kind of been put on the shelf, 00:22:05.109 --> 00:22:07.210 but I will get back to you whenever I read books 00:22:07.210 --> 00:22:09.869 if I have any recommendations. Interesting answer. 00:22:10.230 --> 00:22:12.309 And I know for all the young learners listening 00:22:12.309 --> 00:22:15.130 in, what do you advise them to do when they're 00:22:15.130 --> 00:22:17.710 having a bad day? When you're having a bad day, 00:22:17.809 --> 00:22:19.490 when you're having one of those days that nothing 00:22:19.490 --> 00:22:21.549 seems to work out. What do you do and what do 00:22:21.549 --> 00:22:26.619 you advise them to do? Right, I think Most problems 00:22:26.619 --> 00:22:30.019 are smaller than you think. If you have a rethink, 00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:32.980 I think the advantage that we have as young founders, 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:36.539 let's say, or young entrepreneurs is that with 00:22:36.539 --> 00:22:38.660 the student label, you can kind of mess up and 00:22:38.660 --> 00:22:41.039 you still have a backup. And I think this is 00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:43.160 the coolest thing because you're able to kind 00:22:43.160 --> 00:22:44.920 of really experiment and the risk of failure 00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:47.000 for us is a lot less than let's say, if you were 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:49.740 like 10 years from now, because you can mess 00:22:49.740 --> 00:22:52.339 up really badly and go back the next day and 00:22:52.339 --> 00:22:54.559 just start something fresh or completely revamp 00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:56.460 what you were doing. and like no one's going 00:22:56.460 --> 00:22:58.059 to buy it up alive because you're a student and 00:22:58.059 --> 00:22:59.720 it's completely fine. I think this is the biggest 00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:01.440 thing that I have right now. It's just the brand 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:03.660 of the student. It gets you lots of free stuff. 00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:05.980 Go to like any software and you will essentially 00:23:05.980 --> 00:23:08.519 get a lot of things. We have most of our, so 00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:11.920 our spend is like very close to zero because 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:13.920 most softwares that we use, most of our tech 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.700 stack comes for free. And then we have workspace 00:23:16.700 --> 00:23:19.160 again sponsored. We have events also sponsored 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:21.279 by people because we're student run. I do think 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:23.619 for, again, student founders, risk is just low. 00:23:23.990 --> 00:23:25.690 restart again. You're a student, you're young. 00:23:25.849 --> 00:23:28.049 We've got a lot of time to make mistakes, but 00:23:28.049 --> 00:23:30.029 then we can also amend them. So that's that. 00:23:30.430 --> 00:23:32.750 I love that. Prakriti, if people want to reach 00:23:32.750 --> 00:23:34.430 out to you and find out more about the work you 00:23:34.430 --> 00:23:37.230 do, how can they do so? Feel free to search me 00:23:37.230 --> 00:23:39.910 up on LinkedIn at Prakriti Gurk or email me at 00:23:39.910 --> 00:23:42.529 prakriti at kickstartglobal .com. I'm usually 00:23:42.529 --> 00:23:44.950 very responsive on my email. We also have a lovely 00:23:44.950 --> 00:23:47.849 team who will reply to you, if not me. We have 00:23:47.849 --> 00:23:49.670 a lot more exciting projects coming up for the 00:23:49.670 --> 00:23:52.069 year, not just for the summer or later. If you're 00:23:52.069 --> 00:23:54.579 a student, investor, a startup founder who wants 00:23:54.579 --> 00:23:56.339 to help, a mentor who wants to get involved, 00:23:56.740 --> 00:23:59.779 just reach out. We usually have, you know, there 00:23:59.779 --> 00:24:01.539 can never be enough support. So if you think 00:24:01.539 --> 00:24:04.400 you can help in any way, reach out. We think 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:07.140 we can definitely help you in many ways if you're 00:24:07.140 --> 00:24:10.099 a founder or an investor. So I would not miss 00:24:10.099 --> 00:24:12.180 out on an opportunity and check with our decision 00:24:12.180 --> 00:24:18.299 very carefully. Thank you so much. It was lovely 00:24:18.299 --> 00:24:25.259 to be here. Notion is offering six months for 00:24:25.259 --> 00:24:27.720 free for new users. Make sure you check out our 00:24:27.720 --> 00:24:30.519 website, the startupevents .co .uk to read them 00:24:30.519 --> 00:24:33.420 this often. This podcast is also sponsored by 00:24:33.420 --> 00:24:36.779 startupnetworks .co .uk. Startup Networks, it's 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:39.420 an online forum where you can find all the resources 00:24:39.420 --> 00:24:41.880 you need to run your startup, from grants to 00:24:41.880 --> 00:24:44.259 investors to tips and tricks on how to be successful 00:24:44.259 --> 00:24:47.220 in your startup. 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