FounderTech Decoded

AJ | Recent CEO of Foundrs and Fractional Community Consultant | The Difference Between A Nurtured Community And A Passive Audience

In this last episode of the FounderTech Decoded podcast in 2023, we are fortunate to close this Series 6 by getting talk to AJ, who has recently stepped down as the CEO of the leading invite only entrepreneurial community Foundrs.
We get to hear how its original founders initially conceived of, formed and launched such a successfully a community. Accompanied by the insight of what it was like to have the privilege to be subsequently charged with the responsibility to continue to nurture and support it.
We learn how Foundrs achieves its success via a super active online founder support network and a combination of onsite events and intimate gatherings. To be then further fuelled and underpinned by a combination of common identity, shared sense of ongoing purpose and a consistent evidencing and surfacing of ‘behind closed doors’ member conversations and peer support - when management aren’t even looking or promoting that member interaction.
We discuss how the rise of leading syndicates like Ventures Together and pioneering accelerators like Unrest that are increasingly designed to deploy capital very quickly and diversely are aligning and feeding into the approach and ethos of successful communities.
Intelligent capital that is looking for ‘Default Alive’ lean approaches increasingly fuelled by FounderTech and avoiding the ‘Fatal Pinch’ of being ‘Default Dead’ by now avoiding a formerly encouraged blitz attitude to scaling quickly and early. 
Finally we get a nuanced insight from AJ as to how to distinguish an “Audience” from a community, as its engagement dynamics become more and more important and central to the early stage founder investor conversation. Primarily that the former is when you’re talking and broadcasting directly 1-to-many and the latter is when the communication is amplifying many-to-many interactions. Insights that he is now looking to share and nurture in his current role as a fractional community consultant, here to now support others trying to now launch and nurture a genuine engaged community.
 
Connect Further
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/aj-foundrs/
> https://www.foundrs.co/ 

Jem Stein | Syndicator @ Daring Capital | Breaking The Current Vicious Funding Cycle Of Social Enterprise Investing

In this episode of the FounderTech Decoded podcast it was a pleasure to talk to Jem Stein who is the Syndicator at Daring Capital focused on reimagining the social enterprise model - particularly in its early stages.
 
We discuss how in this social enterprise space, even more than most early stage venture sectors, the asymmetries around networks and access to capital that we often explore on the podcast, really come to the fore and into play - frequently affirming biases around what and where things get founded. 
 
In his case, how does a really great social entrepreneur, with high founder market fit, trying to navigate and unlock the potential of a niche in which they are trusted and embedded, access that initial tranche of capital that enables them to demonstrate the potential of their approach, show the nuanced skill of their operational delivery and evidence their complex market understanding.
 
We also touch on how traditional venture models with high 5-10 x (and beyond) models do not align with the potential of this type of social enterprise founder, where a 2-3 x return might be a real strategic result, generating a lot of value and achieving a lot of social impact in the process.
 
We also talk about how the increasingly popular syndicate model of investors - that is sensitive and open to leveraging agile capital tools alongside aligned FounderTech - is most likely the right model to innovate this social enterprise investment sector and how Daring Capital as such a syndicate based model wishes to take advantage of the market timing and opportunity around these emerging and evolving early stage market shifts.
 
Explore and connect further:
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/jem-stein-8751959a/
> www.daringcapital.co.uk 
> https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/adebowale-commission-on-social-investment%EF%BF%BC/ 
> https://www.consideredcapital.io/ 
>https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/

Sam Marchant | Early Stage Investor @ Hambro Perks | A New Runway That Starts To Value Different Metrics

In this episode of the FounderTech Decoded podcast, it was a pleasure to talk to Sam Marchant, an early stage founder turned investor with multi-stage asset manager Hambro Perks. A fund relatively distinct in its market positioning in its capability to come in at the initial pre-seed stage but also scale up to a Series C round and beyond.
 
We get into a deep and nuanced conversation around whether the initial runway for early stage is now becoming flatter and longer. In the sense that with less capital a truly talented exceptional domain expert founder can now achieve more with less. Leveraging increasingly Gen AI and no code Foundertech to test, prove and even monetise the minimum viable assumptions behind their startup quicker.
 
We explore whether this involves a recalibration - for those exceptional founders who are often unique in their ability to navigate, identify and unlock new value in deep verticals -  of expectations around their ongoing operations, future scale and eventual exit.
 
Finally we ask whether we just at the beginning of how this emerging conversation and how it will now play? Particularly if this change in early stage founder dynamics has a knock on effect in how venture and their LPs start to reconfigure their early stage founder portfolios and value offerings.
 
Connect further
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-marchant 
> https://www.hambroperks.com/

Sarah King | Co-Founder @ Obu | How Inclusive Design Unlocks The True Economic Potential Of Venture Diversification

In this episode of the FounderTech Decoded podcast, we talk to Sarah King about how her and her Co-Founder Claire Dunn are positioning Obu to find and back female founded UK companies seeking £250,000 to £1,000,000.  
 
How they’re trying to amplify and leverage the power of inclusive design to try and unlock the potential of these businesses as a force for good. To empower a new wave of  investors to see early stage investing in female driven founders - that currently only receive just 1% of venture capital - as a chance to bring new perspectives to the problems in the world they now want to see tackled and hopefully solved.
 
We hear how alongside recently successfully securing their first two investments for Moody Month and Proper Plan via the Obu platform, they have also engaged inclusive design principles to successfully lobby the government to increase the eligible SEIS time limit for startups from 2 to 3 years. A very concrete example of how a big win for female founders also then creates a longer SEIS runway and window of opportunity for all entrepreneurs in the ecosystem!
 
Building on this, we discuss how if a lot of the change that FounderTech wishes to bring about is behavioural rather than technological, is there a better way to frame and tell the stories and engage the tools that help re-engineer current diversification biases simply and fundamentally because they no longer serve and nurture the best economic outcomes?
 
Finally we touch on how this feeds into and fuels the core of the mission behind and woven into their brand name itself. Obu - Over Being Underfunded!
 
Connect Further
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahlking 
> https://www.obuinvest.com/

Adam French | Partner @ Houghton Street Ventures | What If Your First Round Is Your Final Round?

In this episode of the podcast it was great to talk to Adam French who is a partner at Houghton Street Ventures, a previous co-founder of Scalable Capital and active angel investor. Houghton Street Ventures is quite unique in that it is a dedicated early stage fund investing across a wide thesis specifically for founders emerging from the 200,000 alumni, students and faculty of LSE.
 
As such Adam is consistently across a diverse and constant range early stage deal flow with founders across multiple sectors. In that way he is very placed to sense, synthesise and suggest what the imminent future horizon looks like for the early stage ecosystem.
 
Building on this we discuss how FounderTech might unlock a whole new wave of untapped latent entrepreneurial potential. How this might lead to the rise of the 1 person million dollar business, driven by agile fractional teams, leveraging and amplifying capital efficiently inside scalable niches, to the point that founder’s first round might also be their last round.
 
Adam notes that the rise of the ChatGPT and more recently specialising GPTs are key to this ecosystem shift. A shift that he is not just exploring theoretically but has personally leveraged himself to design, doe and build “evAIuate”. His own dynamic FounderTech that leverages AI to put a pitch deck in anyone’s pocket.
 
Visit and connect at
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-french-2192034a 
> https://www.evaiuate.com/ 
> https://houghtonstreet.com/ 
> www.scalable.capital

Judy Leung | Founder of @ Sweqlink | Using Sweat Equity To Incentivise Fractional Talent

In this episode of the FounderTech Decoded podcast we get to talk to Judy Leung who is the founder of Sweqlink. A marketplace for work-for-equity opportunities that is targeting a key bottleneck and catch-22 in the startup ecosystem. Namely how when you’re an early stage founder with limited resources in terms of capital to attract the talent you need, do you incentivise and engage that talent?
 
To help with this process, we hear how Sweqlink divides that talent into 3 distinct categories - Makers > Movers > Manifestors. Each bringing different skill sets and perspectives to the table. How the platform - which is still in its MVP phase - essentially acts a middle man and matchmaker between founders seeking that talent and people with those skills now looking to deploy that talent into an early stage startup.
 
We discuss how this feeds directly into the shift and orientation around the engagement and leverage of fractional teams by that early stage founder. How status is starting to be recognised and conferred on those founders who are using FounderTech to experiment and test their operational acumen and execution before committing to the huge capital and human resource of engaging and servicing a full time executive and management model.
 
Finally we touch on how these changes are generally welcomed because they increase agility, openness and transparency in the early stage ecosystem. However, like with most experimental and emerging FounderTech, they are still fundamentally behavioural rather than technologically driven - in order for the new dynamics and engagement model around platforms like Sweqlink to be tested, flourish and succeed.
 
Engage further
> https://www.sweqlink.com/
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyleeleung/

Marcus Exall | Early Stage Angel Investor & Co-Founder of Up And To The Right | Practising The Art of the Antithesis

In this episode we talk to Marcus Exall, an experienced UK based angel investor that takes a distinctly different approach in contrast to the volume, numbers game and tax efficient driven approaches utilised and leveraged by many of his early stage investor contemporaries.
 
We hear how over the course of his 30 angel investments, Marcus does not have a particular thesis or portfolio bias.Instead we hear how he genuinely sees angel investing as a journey. With the first key and non-negotiable step being evaluating the founder for their values, intent, agility, resilience and gaining a deep understanding as to their deep motivation why they are trying to launch their startup in the first place. For him writing a cheque typically in the £25,000 to £35,000 range, also represents his bet on empowering a founder to try to navigate and create a future that he might also want to participate and live in. 
 
This is mirrored within the criteria and evaluation Marcus applies to himself, where he will assess whether he is the right investor to provide a safe harbour of honest feedback and value-add support for the founder as and when they invariably need it, as they navigate the increasingly complex and uncertain terrain of their launch.
 
Equally we hear upon making an investment, Marcus wants that money to be deployed and go to work as quickly and efficiently as possible and how to that end how is an angel investor in leading FounderTech like Odin and also MVPR.
 
Finally, we also hear how Marcus has helped productise and scale this approach by launching UP AND TO THE RIGHT to help founders successfully create, build, and scale their start up by offering playbooks, original tools, and helpful courses to further incubate and accelerate their journey.
 
Explore and Connect >
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusexall
> https://www.u2r.co/
> https://www.endvr.biz/ 

Joe Lewin | CEO @ Foundy.com | Emerging To Your Point Of Acquisition

In this, the first episode of Series 6 of the FounderTech Decoded podcast it was a pleasure to talk to Joe Lewin, CEO and Founder of Foundy.com the UK’s leading M&A platform.
We hone in on the increasing difference in expectations around planning and framing an exit. Between founders who have bootstrapped and fuelled the growth of their startup with sustainable revenues and ownership versus those who have taken VC money early and are therefore focused on chasing that 20-30x return of the mythical unicorn.
Building on this we talk about and explore the key concept of efficient capital.  Capital that fully adopts and integrates the potential and reach of FounderTech tools, alongside leveraging increasingly popular operational modalities like fractional teams to now change perceptions around status, legitimacy and investor norms. How this shift in legitimacy will increasingly lead to placing a higher value on smaller teams executing and achieving traction quicker and more agilely with less capital.
We explore how at Foundy they are now adopting and amplifying this approach around things like using AI to reduce legal due diligence around a deal from months to minutes. 
How they are also busy currently closing their next round, so they can continue to incorporate and amplify these new dynamics in order to radically alter and re-engineer timelines and functionality around all aspects of M&A planning and execution.  With the ultimate aim and vision of becoming the Rightmove of M&A!

FounderTech Decoded | The FounderTech Collective - Live 15th May 2023

In this special edition of the FounderTech Decoded Podcast we document the first live in person gathering of the UK community at the invite only FounderTech Collective event in London - 15/5/23.
Over the course of the evening we explore via a 4 part fireside chat format, the key themes and strands that have emerged over 5 x Series over the past year of the FounderTech Decoded podcast.
It's a chance to intimately listen in to the emerging debate live the room, that is also hopefully shaping and informing the future of this important conversation for startup ecosystem.
As it now evolves and iterates to become more open, agile and transparent for all.
Part A | The Problem of Asymmetry
Featuring the insight of: Martin Barnes @ Pitch Club, Ken Valledy @ The Startup Lexicon and Serkan Ferah @ PitchSpace
The recalibration of deal communication 
The valuing of “Fast No’s” over Slow Maybe’s
The rebooting of legacy systems, tools & frameworks
The translation of cryptic language
Part B | The Conditions for FounderTech
Featuring the insight of: Hattie Willis @ IfWeRaise, Serkan Ferah @PitchSpace and Chris Booth @Findrs
The rise of no code/low code/MVA
The increasing currency of ecosystem intelligence
The untapped potential of deep and scalable niches
The opportunity for diversified and fluid capital
Part C | The Shifting Financial Terrain
Featuring the insight of: Gareth Hawkins @AngelSyndicate, Anthony Rose @SeedLegals and Ifty Nasir @Vestd 
The role of ASA’s in compacting deal flow timelines
The rise of SPV’s, syndicates, solo capitalists
The need to coordinate liquidity in the angel community
The influence of dynamic cap tables and incentives
Part D | The Potential Future Ecosystem
Featuring the insight of: Daniel Sawko @ Ship Shape, Jim Shirley @ FundingHero and Matt Hussey @ The Brink
The valuing of openness and transparency
The initial elevation of founder market fit
The new KPIs for startup teams and talent
The nurturing of healthier founder archetypes
Want to keep in the loop of the evolving FounderTech conversation, then please subscribe at foundertech.substack.com

Tom Lawrence | Founder @ MVPR | Unlocking The Potential and Possibilities of Content Intelligence

In this episode of the FounderTech Decoded it was fascinating to talk to Tom Lawrence founder of leading FounderTech PR, comms and content platform MVPR.
 
We talk about how his experience working for Edelman - the largest PR agency in the world - informed his sense and perspective that there was a gap in the market for startups who increasingly didn't have the budget in their funding to warrant hiring a boutique agency to handle and manage their comms on an ongoing basis.
 
Alongside this supply side of the comms value chain, Tom increasingly saw opportunities in the demand side. Where journalists who themselves were increasingly being distributed and dispersed to a wider range of niche audience delivery hubs - Substack / Medium etc - alongside more traditional media channels, needed a constant flow of filtered and considered content to write about. He launched MVPR to be the platform that bridged the gap in that double sided marketplace.
 
Additionally, we discuss how once you have a platform like MVPR in the mix, interesting perspectives and opportunities present themselves when it comes to data. Suddenly in both real and residual time you can see a founder and their startups' current and historic comms reach. A ROI insight that can not only be leveraged in planning going forward but also with investors as you start to scale up. 
 
Where a sort of new Content Intelligence emerges. 
 
A classic case of FounderTech coming in and providing agility, more openness and transparency in an area of the startup ecosystem that was still largely informed by opaque practice and legacy systems crying out to be reinvented.
 
Connect further with Tom:
 
> tom@mvpr.io
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmlawro
> www.mvpr.io