FounderTech Decoded

Tim Whiston | Exited Founder and Current Co-Founder of isme|&|co | Unlocking The Untapped Potential Of Entrepreneurial Capacity

In this episode of FounderTech Decoded we are let into the 20+ year journey of Tim Whiston, as he moves from running a FTSE 250 business, through to engineering an exit as a founder to now accelerating business marketplace Iisme|&|co from its initial launch to its current growth seed funding round.
After considering a portfolio career post his exit, he met his Co-Founder Will at a virtual meet up during the pandemic. Amazed to see the inefficiencies and untapped potential around how businesses in the UK connected with each other in terms of sharing services and information, they launched and are now preparing to scaleing isme|&|co.
We explore how Tim’s training at the start of his career, as a chartered accountant and then working for one of the ‘Big 4’ firms, and then at KPMG, might have provided him with a different financial perspective into potential that many startup founders who are fresh to future modelling their businesses may lack. Something that he has experienced as an angel investor when evaluating early stage startups he wants to evaluate and to invest in.
We then use The Switch Deck to explore and discuss whether there is an untapped ‘capacity’ within the SME / Entrepreneur marketplace in the UK that FounderTech in its open intent and potential to rewire the early stage ecosystem could help nurture and unlock.
Connect with Tim:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-whiston-797499127
https://www.ismeandco.com/
 
Are you a forward thinking investor, platform or founder that wants to be kept in the loop with all things FounderTech as the conversation continues to develop, iterate and evolve in 2023? Then simply subscribe to The FounderTech Bulletin and remain up to date with all key developments, including following Propelia’s launch of BlackBox - as its own powerful Founder Market Fit driven platform - into the early stage venture ecosystem. 
Subscribe now to The FounderTech Bulletin here: https://foundertech.substack.com/
#FounderTechBulletin #BlackBox #FounderTechDecoded

Nick Moutter | EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Who Has Raised Over £40m Across Various Startups and Founder @ Moot | Empowering The Future Of Ecommerce

In this Episode we get to talk to Nick Moutter, who recently won the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award for his work with Moot powering the next generation of ecommerce with deep tech and innovation that moves it radically beyond the current capabilities of Shopify.
We’ll listen to Nick comparing the grit, persistence and tenacity that a founder needs with his experiences when he was younger as an emerging professional footballer. We discuss how his own journey suggests that backing such a founder in the early stages with that grit over a longer arc and timeframe, will mean they are more likely to produce a ‘win’ and a long term return for their investors.
 
We also discuss how a credible introduction carries the majority of the weight of an initial engaging investor conversation and also often taking money from the wrong investor is worse than not receiving investment at all.
 
As we will with all guests on this Series 4 of FounderTech Decoded, we then walk through, explore, challenge, counteract and insight to The Switch Deck together. You can follow and hear Nick really put it through its paces and testing and pushing against some of its key assumptions up at www.propelia.com/switchdeck
 
Connect further with Nick: 
https://www.ey.com/en_uk/entrepreneur-of-the-year/uk-finalists 
https://moot.group/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmoutter

Drew Rogers | Exited Founder in 2022 | UK’s 100 most inspiring female entrepreneurs | How To Successfully Engineer Your Exit Without Taking On Outside Venture

In this episode we talk to Drew Rogers and have the opportunity to listen to her founder’s story as it progresses from arriving as a child to the UK not speaking the language. To a side hustle that became Number 1 on Google. To exiting in 2022 from her startup My Language Lab® fuelled by the changing and evolving demands of online students and learning in the pandemic.
Drew’s journey to exit is unusual because it involves taking in no outside venture but embodies the much vaunted but rarely executed agile / no code low code approach. An approach that informed and drove her path from an offline tutoring business to launching a platform driven business, with high product market fit informed by analytics, assessment and automation.
Hear Drew share how once she had identified her acquirer, she then looked to the endpoint she wanted for her exit and worked backwards. Engineering My Language Lab so it gradually became more and more valuable and sellable. Particularly as her founder’s story deeply connected and resonated with that acquirer, enabling her to fashion and frame exit on terms that were commercially as well as personally fulfilling.
As we will with all guests on this Series 4 of FounderTech Decoded, we then walk through, explore, challenge, counteract and insight to The Switch Deck together. www.propelia.com/switchdeck
Are you a forward thinking investor, platform or founder that wants to be kept in the loop with all things FounderTech as the conversation continues to develop, iterate and evolve in 2023? Then simply subscribe to The FounderTech Bulletin and remain up to date with all key developments, including following Propelia’s launch of BlackBox - as its own powerful Founder Market Fit driven platform - into the early stage venture ecosystem. 
Subscribe now to The FounderTech Bulletin here: https://foundertech.substack.com/

Chris Wickson | Co-Founder @ Akkroo and Twice Exited Founder | Finding New Opportunities Within Scaleable Niches

In this episode we talk to Chris Wickson about his journey from launching his B2B SaaS startup Akkroo, to it being acquired for $34m by Integrate in 2019 - which after his earn out period leaves him currently with the fresh vista of being an active angel investor.
However, instead of taking the obvious path of trying to leverage their point of view and market expertise, he and his co-founder are actively seeking out problems in verticals they have relatively little experience and insight into. 
The logic being that rather than double down on their pre-existing confirmation biases towards certain industries and sectors, by coming afresh to a sector they may be able to see how they can leverage solutions and fresh thinking into legacy systems and markets.
We drill into this further by exploring a term called ‘Scaleable Niches’ that has come up in previous episodes of the podcast. This posits that instead of looking at and evaluating horizontal B2B SaaS based opportunities, the new and untapped value lies in going deeply in verticals where genuine insight, product driven IP and innovation play a lot more prominence.
If in this case new models are needed to map and chart where the most promising Scaleable Niches are and also the type of founder you might need to align with and back? A founder who has sufficient exceptional Founder Market Fit that they can propel you into and provide the unfair advantage in terms of deep market insight, networks and expertise that a Scaleable Niche with blue sky potential might provide.   
As we will with all guests now on the podcast, we then overlap the insight of Chris’ founder’s journey onto different aspects of The Switch Deck - key shifts effecting the future of the early stage venture ecosystem.
 
Connect further with Chris:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-wickson
 
Are you a forward thinking investor, platform or founder that wants to be kept in the loop with all things FounderTech as the conversation continues to develop, iterate and evolve in 2023? Then simply subscribe to The FounderTech Bulletin and remain up to date with all key developments, including following Propelia’s launch of BlackBox - as its own powerful Founder Market Fit driven platform - into the early stage venture ecosystem. 
Subscribe now to The FounderTech Bulletin here: https://foundertech.substack.com/

Francesco Cracolici | Opening Up Emerging Markets and Founder @ Crossfund | When Market Replication Represents A Critical First Mover Advantage

In this Episode we take a turn into new territory for the podcast, into the rapidly evolving world of emerging markets with Francesco Cracolici. Not the commonly cited emerging markets of vibrant new investable sectors such as FinTech, HealthTech or PropTech but instead how you identify and invest in the launch and scale the ‘Uber of Ghana’ or the ‘Revolut of Mongolia’.
Francesco talks us through how once properly understood these emerging markets potentially represent new opportunities and horizons for investors, who are looking to gain a new form of first mover advantage by leveraging existing and proven successful tech models and platforms into these often greenfields territories.
In this way you are looking at model replication and rapid technical and capital deployment being the key differentiators into a successful launch path into emerging markets, which often do not have the legacy of established ecosystems.
We discuss how in these markets and ecosystems FounderTech can really add value and accelerate the learning and adoption curve of these new and replicating startups. We also talk about how the market creation of such rapidly scaleable companies is potentially the quickest way of lifting developing companies economically and why he is launching Crossfund to accelerate and further stimulate this change.
As with all guests in the Series 4, we explore aspects of Francesco’s journey via The Switch Deck. Particularly of interest was understanding how in these emerging markets the pitch deck performs very well as an instrument and tool to filter and evaluate which opportunities to focus on, assess and potentially then back. Explore the deck here: www.propelia.com/switchdeck 
Connect further with Francesco:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesco-cracolici/ 
https://www.crossfund.com/ 

Luke Loveridge @ Propflo, Dan Pritchard @ Tech South West Awards and Ben Cooper @ Bristol Private Equity Club | The Journey To Making The South West A Vibrant Regional Hub

In this episode it’s been great to talk to founder Luke Loveridge about his experience not only exiting a startup with HomeLINK but then going on to currently launching another one with Propflo - for which he recently won Startup of the year at the Tech South West Awards.
Tech South West was conceived of and launched by Dan Pritchard in 2018. A brand expert who moved to the region, he recognised the opportunity to supercharge its potential as a major tech hub. In that time, Dan also launched the Tech South West Awards in 2019, and with the Tech South West team, developed the tech cluster organisation to run virtual accelerator programmes, commission key reports and build its membership to over 3000-strong, all helping to put the South West as a region firmly on the UK’s tech map. 
Bringing the perspective of the regional investor to the conversation is Ben Cooper, who as well as now being involved in the Awards is an active member of the Bristol Private Equity group -  a leading regional angel syndicate. As well as being an active NED and strategic advisor to startup and scale ups.
With these 3 perspectives, this episode is a real window for anyone wishing to get an insight into how you begin to nurture, stimulate and interconnect the various nodes of a region to create the conditions for a vibrant regional hub outside of the traditional founder and investor London bias and focus.
As with all guests on the Series 4, we then walk and talk and overlay the insights of the above through the framework of The Switch Deck together.
Connect further: 
https://propflo.co.uk/ 
https://www.techsouthwest.co.uk/awards-2022 and https://program.agency/
https://www.bristolprivateequityclub.com

Alison McMurtrie | Recently Exited Cyber Security Co-Founder and Founder of iDunn Consulting | The Path To Becoming An IP Driven Exited Founder

In this episode it was a pleasure to talk to Alison McMurtrie about her different route to becoming a recently exited founder. 
A journey where her future ‘co-founder to be’ unbeknownst to her had targeted and pitched her a role to become involved in her cyber security startup, only to find that 18 months later they both arrived at an early exit by selling the IP of the business rather than the business itself.
As a result of this exit, Alison had the opportunity to cross the aisle and become an active angel investor and a startup and SME advisor with her company iDunn Consulting. 
Hear her describe the challenges of being an early stage female angel trying to invest in deeply innovative product driven - as opposed to SAAS / ecommerce - business from her home base in Ireland. 
Alison highlights why most venture finds this type of actual real world product investment hard. We also hear why with this type of investment she prefers a concise one pager as opposed to receiving a pitch deck. Followed up by an introductory call where she makes 80% of her investment decisions.
As we will with all guests on the Series 4, we then walk through, explore, challenge, counteract and gain further insight into The Switch Deck together.
Connect further with Alison: 
https://www.idunn.ie/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonmcmurtrie/ 
https://twitter.com/idunnconsult 

Series 4 ＜＞ Karl Swanepoel | Exited His First Startup At 15 and Current Founder @ Revolancer | How To Generate Critical Founder Leverage In The Face Of Investor Resistance

As we commence Series 4 of FounderTech Decoded, we will be using The Switch Deck to help frame our forthcoming conversations which will primarily focus on founders.
The Switch Deck are the 10 key shifts in early stage venture that help further align founders and investors, that we explored and synthesised from Series 1-3 of FounderTech Decoded.
In this Episode we have an amazing open conversation with Karl Swanepoel, who is the youngest exited founder we have talked to on the podcast. For context, Karl had to find an exit to his first startup at 15 because he wasn’t yet legally old enough to have the PayPal account to run it!
After recently raising his pre-seed round for his new freelancer start up @Revolancer from SFC Capital and now onto his next fundraising round, listen as he walks through The Switch Deck and gives a masterclass as to how an early stage founder can be self-directing through persistent leverage to counteract investor resistance and engagement.
Visit www.propelia.com/switchdeck to accompany your listening as we walk through and analyse each of the 10 insights.
Connect further with Karl: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlswa/ 
www.revolancer.com 
karl@revolancer.com 

Dan Simmons @ Founder of Pilot Round and Host Of FounderTech Decoded Podcast | Why Platforming Founder Market Fit Is Key To Scaling FounderTech

Throughout this podcast Series, I've repeatedly come back to Propelia's key premise that the lens of Founder Market Fit, when intelligently aligned and strategically evaluated alongside the metrics Product Market Fit, is key to empowering the dynamics of FounderTech to help rewire the early stage venture space.
I've alluded in various podcast Episodes, to how my own founder's journey which started elevating extraordinary talent in the record business, is parallel to then moving onto and launching Propelia. Where we have for over a decade consistently modelled and analysed the journey and trajectories of early stage founders for their Founder Market Fit.
As we prepare to launch the MVP of our own piece of FounderTech 'Pilot Round' (formerly Blackbox) which builds and leverages these insights, I thought it was a good time to now share more...
So in this Episode, our Head of Comms Matt Hussey turns the mic on me to hopefully make a convincing case as to why I believe the market timing is now right 'Pilot Round'. Why it is potentially poised to be the first FounderTech platform that powerfully integrates with founders and investors to scale Founder Market Fit in the pre-seed and seed venture space.
Listen and then learn more:
> Visit www.pilotround.com
> Introduction to FounderTech: https://mailchimp.com/courier/article/dan-simmons-foundertech-venture-capital/
> Exploring Founder Market Fit: https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.net/foundermarketfit/ 
> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-simmons-a40658122/

Justin Langen @ Head Of Investor Partnerships At Uncapped | The Rise Of Non-Diluted Funding As An Inflection Point For Raising A Round

In this Episode of FounderTech Decoded we talk to Justin Langen, Head of Investor Partnerships at Uncapped. In this conversation we zoom in on the evolution of using different and new financial products to reframe traditionally stigmatised approaches around instruments used to fund debt, to now hopefully propel venture into a much more agile and open space.
 
How this venture landscape that has traditionally veered towards equity as the default go-to, is starting to see the introduction of new tools and platforms around restructuring and offering debt-based solutions, start to gradually adjust and reconfigure the funding conversation. Where such debt is not seen as an end of the line emergency vehicle but a much more proactive and dynamic part of a founder’s startup runway.
 
We discuss how at Uncapped they are starting to explore calling this ‘Non-Diluted Funding’ and how they are learning that this type of venture debt is particularly suited to SaaS models and platforms. Where the fundamentals and unit economics are more easily made visible and known, in order to determine if there are distinct levers that can be amplified to stimulate further growth, revenues and return. Particularly when these models are also plugged into FounderTech APIs like Xero and Chargebee, to offer a much better real time macro and micro view of the scaling startup via which to quickly evaluate the business.
 
Finally, we talk about how viewing and delivering Non-Diluted Funding in this way can actually provide a very strong signal, point of intelligence and financial datapoint when raising a further equity round. Giving founders new found flexibility and runway security and in doing so also potentially strengthening their negotiating hand with VCs for their equity rounds. All of which allows for more intelligence and optionality in the venture landscape going forward.
 
Explore further and connect with Justin: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-langen-528873151/ 
https://www.weareuncapped.com/ 
https://www.saastock.com/