Scaling Ambition

Entrepreneur First Co-Founder and CEO Matt Clifford interviews EF Hong Kong General Manager Lavina Tien exploring her background and the Hong Kong startup ecosystem. In this episode they discuss: - Lavina’s background and why she was excited by EF’s mission - The Hong Kong startup ecosystem and the opportunities in the area - EF’s partnership with HAX, the world’s leading early stage hardware investor This was a great conversation with some great insight into Lavina’s story and the Hong Kong ecosystem.

Joe White, Entrepreneur, CFO and General Partner at Entrepreneur First. An entrepreneur at heart, Joe founded his first business - a digital design agency - while still at university racking up big name clients like Disney, LSE and Bain & Company. He then went on to co-found Moonfruit, a DIY website platform, building and launching one of the world’s first SAAS products in the process. More recently Joe has become a prominent angel investor and got involved with EF back in 2015, investing in several portfolio companies before eventually becoming a General Partner and the company CFO – so he’s been an integral part of the company’s growth and expansion in recent years, culminating in the $115M first raise of the global fund earlier this year. In this episode Joe and I discuss: - The early days of Moonfruit and the nascent stages of the internet startup scene in the UK - How Joe helped steer the company through the dot com boom and bust in the early 2000s before exiting successfully years later - What startups should look for in a VC and why the highest valuation isn’t always the best We also get into Joe’s advice for dealing with the ups and downs of the startup journey based on his own experience as a founder and with the companies he’s advised and invested in.

Saikrishnan Ranganathan is the Co-Founder of SensorFlow, a company making buildings energy efficient at zero upfront cost. Hotels spend $40 billion on energy each year and commercial buildings spend $120 billion. These are not insignificant costs and the amazing thing is that with better automation these costs could be cut by up to 40%. People have been talking about applying IoT technology to create smart buildings for some time – but the challenges of doing this means nobody has really solved the problem. That’s where Sensorflow comes in - their end-to-end product, built on top of a proprietary network stack, let's them automate an entire building using a single gateway and optimizes energy consumption instantly with no need for complex installations. In this episode Sai and I discuss: - Why he left Goldman Sachs to start a company with EF - How Sai has learned to filter advice from third parties - The key hiring lesson Sai learned the hard way that has made a huge difference to growing his team I had the chance to visit Sai at his office in Singapore before doing the interview and it was awesome to see the hive of activity going on there. This was a great conversation packed full of useful insights whether you’re interested in IoT or looking for advice to grow your business.

Chris Mairs is an entrepreneur, Angel Investor and Venture Partner at EF. He is the co-founder of MetaSwitch, a communications technology business, where he was CTO for many years including a 2-year stint in Palo Alto working with his investors from Sequoia and their portfolio companies. More recently Chris has become a prominent angel investor, investing in over 70 companies, including many from EF – where he’s been involved from the very first cohort back in 2012. In this episode Chris and I discuss:  - The lessons he learned from building MetaSwitch, including a visit from Microsoft Founder Bill Gates to do due diligence on the company - The red flags that turn him off a co-founding team as an angel investor and the qualities he looks for in portfolio companies - How Chris met EF co founders Matt and Alice and how EF’s Companies have evolved since he got involved on the first cohort We also get into the tech trends that Chris is most excited about, his perspective on AI and blockchain and how he’s overcome the challenges he’s faced along the way. The conversation is filled with great stories and words of wisdom from Chris’ wealth of experience as an entrepreneur and investor.

Today’s episode is a special one to celebrate the opening of EF Bangalore and in it, EF CEO Matt Clifford interviews EF Bangalore General Manager Esha Tiwary, exploring her background and the Indian startup ecosystem. When EF Co-Founders Matt & Alice decided to scale last year they made a list of the places where they believed EF could have the highest impact. India was high on that list  because of its extraordinary talent pool – half of Silicon Valley  is run by entrepreneurs and executives who started life in India. On top of this, founders no longer believe they have to leave the country to have an extraordinary impact - from Flipkart to Paytm, it’s clear that you can build globally competitive tech companies in India. In October 2018, we announced the opening of the office in Bangalore and that’s now kicking off this month January 2019, using the same model that has proven successful in London and Singapore and which expanded to Berlin, Hong Kong and Paris in 2018. Esha is the perfect person to launch EF Bangalore. She studied Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur before doing an MBA at Harvard and throwing herself into the Indian startup ecosystem. She's previously worked for startups like Embrace, Cloudnine and Myntra, the largest fashion ecommerce player in India. She’s even had the experience of starting an accelerator with GSF.  In this episode Matt and Esha discuss: - Esha’s background and why she was so excited by EF’s mission - The Indian startup ecosystem and the opportunities in Bangalore and beyond - The comparative advantages of the different startup ecosystems that EF is involved in across Europe and Asia  This was a fascinating and wide ranging conversation offering a peek behind the curtain at EF and insight into the Indian startup ecosystem.

Tom Pocock is the Co-Founder of Credit Mint, a company that’s decentralising corporate lending by using a public blockchain as the shared ledger for corporate debt. The corporate debt industry is migrating from a bank-led model towards smaller lenders. But these new-wave lenders are tied to constant cycles of reconciliation, and trading is slow and expensive. On top of this, companies lose track of their creditors and the market is structurally illiquid.  That’s where CreditMint comes in - they fix these problems by using a public blockchain as the shared ledger for corporate debt. They provide a dealmaking platform; a trading layer; and a settlements facility, all communicating with one digital asset on Ethereum. Tom met his co founder Zac before they joined EF and since founding the company, another 2 ex-EFers have joined the Team – Joe Andrews and Arnaud Schenk – making CreditMint a perfect example of the magic of the EF mafia. Tom studied Mathematics at undergraduate and postgraduate level at Cambridge before a career in finance spending three years at debt fund Park Square Capital. After qualifying, he left immediately to explore his ideas to decentralise the financial system through blockchain technology and applied to EF after meeting his Co-Founder Zac. In this episode Tom and I discuss: - Why Tom left the finance industry to start a crypto business - The current state of the crypto space and Tom’s predictions for future developments, including the death of utility tokens - Tom’s lessons on raising money after a gruelling few weeks of fundraising So whether you’re curious about what it takes to start a blockchain business or want to find out more about the future of the capital markets this episode has you covered.

Rohit Jha is the Co-Founder of Transcelestial a company developing a laser communication solution to replace existing wireless communication technology. In the next decade 3 billion people and 50 billion devices will come online – but the global infrastructure we have in place at the moment isn’t sufficient to provide the required speed and flexibility to manage our needs as a planet.  And that’s where Transcelestial comes in – they’re developing the fastest, long-distance, point-to-point wireless communication network possible. This will be delivered as a space data network for terrestrial and satellite applications, which will use lasers to transfer data at up to 1000x faster than what’s currently available. Rohit met his co-founder Danesh on the first day of EFSG1 and since then the two have never looked back, going on to raise a seed round that included Y Combinator’s Michael Seibel and Wavemaker Partners.  Rohit earned a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from NTU and worked in the RBS FX Electronic Markets Team on low-latency communications and highly scalable software systems before joining EF to start a company. In this episode Rohit and I discuss:  - His fascination with space and how his upbringing influenced his choice to become an entrepreneur - How Rohit met his Co-Founder Danesh on day one of the first EF cohort in Singapore - How Transcelestial built their first prototype after a brainwave in a pub before Investor Committee Rohit and his co-founder Danesh are building the definition of a globally ambitious company and it was great to dig into some of the stories behind the startup as well as getting an insight into the future of communications technology.

Nadav Rosenberg is a General Partner and Head of Commercial at EF. Previously, he flew helicopters in the Israeli army for 10 years, worked as a consultant with McKinsey after earning an MBA from INSEAD and was a member of the founding team of Groupon in the UK. He also led Israeli startup Taboola’s expansion and operations in Europe and Australia before joining EF. One of the things that first time founders struggle with is commercialising their technology and building their client base in the early stages – and as any successful founder will tell you, it doesn’t matter how good your product is if you can’t sell it. Nadav is someone with a wealth of experience in selling and building partnerships in a diverse range of industries and his expertise in this field is something the founders he invests in value a great deal. In this episode Nadav and I discuss: - The key strategies that founders can apply to sell more effectively - What Nadav looks for in founding teams and the extent to which investing is an art or a science - The trends Nadav is most excited about in the crypto space Nadav has great stories to share from his business and life experiences and you’ll leave the conversation with insights into selling, investing, cryptocurrencies and much more.  

Jesse Shemen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Papercup, a company that auto-translates the voice track on videos into the world’s languages. People spend an average of 5 hours watching video every single day but the problem for creators looking to maximise views is that while subtitles are helpful, people want to hear videos in their own language and quality dubbing is prohibitively expensive. That’s where Papercup comes in - they auto-translate the voice track on videos using a groundbreaking approach that combines Bayesian neural networks and speech synthesis, which means that the speaker’s unique voice and emotion is recreated in another language. This means that in one click, you can reach the world’s 7 billion people rather than being restricted to the 1 billion English speakers in the world. Jesse met his co founder Jiameng on EF9 and since founding the company and pitching at the recent EF9 Demo Day, they’ve received a term sheet and are in the process of closing their seed round, as well as securing trials with two large media companies who have sent them their original content. Jesse graduated summa cum laude from Stern School of Business at NYU. He then co-founded Deloitte’s startup incubator and investment arm and co-launched a new venture at Octopus Investments before joining EF9. In this episode Jesse and I discuss:  - How he developed the technical knowledge that underpins Papercup - Jesse’s pitching advice as one of the standout performers at Demo Day - Jesse’s key lessons from raising his first round  We also dive into Jesse’s experiences on EF and how he started working with his co-founder Jiameng on the program so the conversation will offer you a combination of solid practical advice and insight into what it’s actually like to build a company on EF.

Hannah Burrow is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kiroku, a company that automatically writes clinical notes for dentists. Kiroku which is Japanese for "to document or record” uses a unique combination of speech recognition and natural language processing to produce expert level notes which has the potential to save $40 billion worldwide in the dental market alone. Hannah met her co founder Jay on EF8 and since pitching to investors at Demo Day they’ve been developing the product further and are currently trialling it to a closed group of beta testers. Hannah qualified as a dentist from the University of Bristol and since then, she’s worked in practice, hospitals, and public health. While in practice she optimised her workflow by developing educational software for patients and joined EF8 with the intention of solving some of the problems she’d faced in the industry.   In this episode Hannah and I discuss: - Her experience in the dental industry and why she decided to join EF - The early stages of customer development for Kiroku, where Hannah transcribed conversations into clinical notes for dentists herself - How Hannah has gained the technical knowledge needed to run a deep tech company We also dive into Hannah’s advice on pitching, her experiences on EF and how she started working with her co-founder Jai on the program so the conversation will offer you a combination of solid practical advice and insight into what it’s actually like to build a company on EF.

Vadim Toader is the CEO Co-Founder of Proportunity a company that uses machine learning to form accurate real estate forecasts, so investors can make better decisions. By comparing more than 100 sets of data, including historical price growth and crime rates, Proportunity can spot good deals before the market, which enables them to make a data driven decision and help fund first time buyers by putting up a percentage of their deposit and helping with financing. Vadim met his co founder Stefan on EF7 and since founding the company they’ve worked with some of the country’s leading property players, have been backed by Savilles and have recently acquired a lender to help them offer better financing to customers. Vadim studied Engineering, Economics and Management degree at Oxford before working as a consultant at Bain & Co for over 3 years where he built up a wealth of valuation and forecasting experience, solving a bunch of interesting problems along the way. In this episode Vadim and I discuss: - Vadim’s insights about the UK property market learned from building Proportunity - The difference between data driven and intuitive decisionmaking in business - How to do customer development in a slow moving industry that's resistant to change Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or a property investor, this conversation will give you plenty of valuable insights as well as solid practical advice that you can take away and apply.

David Hunter is the CEO and Co-Founder of Optimal Labs a company that applies cutting-edge deep reinforcement learning to create intelligent autopilots for farms, improving the efficiency, reliability and quality of food production.  High tech greenhouses can produce 10-40x yield of traditional farming and they’re universally scalable and deployable anywhere. And the implications of AI controlled farms are potentially huge – with higher quality food, produced faster and more reliably, people will be able to live better for longer. David is one of the famous cases of someone who did EF twice – he was on EF4 and after met his Co-Founder Joao on EF7 the idea for Optimal Labs became a reality and before they knew it, they were following farmers around greenhouses in Holland and building solutions to their problems. He studied AeroNautical Engineering at Imperial and trained as a pilot in the Royal Airforce before going into the banking industry, where he eventually ended up running Deutsche Bank’s quantitative strategies team where his algorithms traded more than 5% of the European stock market volume. After going through EF4 he took some time off to earn a PhD in Deep Reinforcement Learning at Oxford before returning to join EF7. In this episode David and I discuss: - Why he left his well-paid job at Deutsche Bank to start a company - What he learned from doing EF and how he applied this knowledge second time around  - The challenges he’s overcome along the way and his tips on hiring and seeking advice This was a fascinating conversation that will not only give you an insight into the future of nutrition but will also show you the resilience and continuous learning that entrepreneurs have to apply in their lives.

Jake Woodhouse is a member of the current EFLD10 cohort. Up to this point on the podcast I’ve spoken to EF Co-Founders Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck as well as the founders of some of EF’s most exciting companies.  But who better to speak to get a flavour of what EF actually does than someone in the middle of the current cohort in London – and that’s exactly what today’s episode with Jake is all about. Jake studied Management at University before working in the shipping industry for several years as a broker. He then developed an interest in startups, pursuing deals as an angel investor and launching his own energy tech startup before joining EF’s tenth London cohort that started at the beginning of April 2018. In this episode Jake and I discuss: - The initial experiences of the EF cohort at the program’s kick off weekend - The co-founder dating process on the program and the importance of having tough conversations - Jake’s insights into the balance between theory and practice in entrepreneurship  This was a great first hand insight into the EF experience and what it’s actually like to be on the cohort, so you’ll definitely get an understanding of the mechanics of the EF process and some great insights into everything from finding a co-founder to developing a product.

Dev Amratia is the CEO and Co-Founder of nPlan a company that uses machine learning to analyse construction schedules, determine where the biggest risks lie and then recommend improvements. Whether it’s a new stadium or transport system, construction projects are consistently delayed and nPlan is committed to solving this problem by using all available data on these projects to optimise planning schedules.  Dev and his cofounder Alan were on EF9, and since pitching at the EF Demo day here in London, they’ve gone on to become one of the highest valued EF companies at this stage of the start up journey, receiving four term sheets and counting.  Dev has worked for the UK Government, where he led the national review on AI and was previously a project manager with Shell where he saw first hand how challenges in scheduling can make or break construction projects. In this episode we discuss: - Dev's experience pitching at DemoDay and tips for founders preparing to pitch their business - How Dev has approached investor meetings, securing four term sheets and counting - Dev’s insights into choosing his cofounder Alan and developing product market fit This was a fascinating conversation thanks to the freshness of the experience and you’ll definitely get an understanding of the mechanics of the EF process and some great insights into everything from finding a co-founder to developing a product.

Alice Bentinck co-founded EF with Matt Clifford in 2011, back when people thought the idea of inorganic team building was crazy. Seven years on, with the EF model validated from a number of successful exits and investment from Linkedin Co-Founder Reid Hoffman it’s clear that Matt and Alice weren’t that crazy after all. In this conversation with Alice we talk about the mechanics of the EF process and how it actually works, discussing a range of topics including: - The process of choosing the right co founder - The early days at EF and initial resistance to the idea of inorganic team building - The importance of focus and the difference between building a product and building a startup This was a great conversation and you’ll definitely leave with a deeper understanding of the EF process and some great insights into everything from finding a co-founder to developing a product. 

Joe Root is the Co-Founder of Permutive a company that helps publishers and marketers to customize user experience in real-time - on every device, across every channel. Joe and his co-founder Tim were on EF2 and their company has gone from strength to strength in recent years, dealing with millions of users for the world’s biggest publishers like The Times on a daily basis and recently raising their Series A round. Joe earned a BEng in computing from Imperial and a Masters in Computer Science at Oxford before working for Pact Coffee and GoCardless in Product and Sales roles respectively. In this conversation we dive into Joe’s personal story, everything he’s learned about finding product market fit, hiring and funding in the process of building Permutive and what he’s learned about himself along the way.

Rafael Jorda Siquier is the founder of Open Cosmos, a company making space missions simple and affordable. They provide customers with a development kit and simulator so they can build the technology at their own pace and when they’re ready, Open Cosmos takes care of all the paperwork, integrates it into their nano-satellite alongside other customers and puts it into space. This has game changing implications for a number of industries, because making satellite more accessible opens up the potential for everything from the prediction of agricultural yields to the global internet of things and big infrastructure monitoring. Rafael was on EF5 and his company has made some remarkable progress in the last few years, turning Open Cosmos a one-stop shop to orbit and allowing for mass customization, which reduces costs from the millions down to a few hundred thousand. He is an aerospace engineer with an MBA and a background in both space startups and big industry players like Airbus where he was working before starting Open Cosmos. In this conversation we dive into Rafael’s personal story, everything he’s learned about finding product market fit and hiring in the process of building Open Cosmos and what he’s learned about himself along the way.

Alex Appelbe is the Co-Founder of Metis Labs a company providing general intelligence for industrial systems by using deep reinforcement learning to build the factory brain. Alex and his co-founder Bashir were on EF8 and they started Metis Labs by saving energy in processing factories - helping one of the largest beverage manufacturers in the world to reduce energy consumption in each of their locations. Alex is a mechanical engineer with a Master’s in Industrial Systems from Cambridge University and built 10 years of experience in the manufacturing sector before joining EF. In this conversation we dive into Alex’s personal story, everything he’s learned about finding product market fit, hiring and funding in the process of building Metis Labs and what he’s learned about himself along the way.

Alesis Novik is a Co-Founder of AimBrain, AimBrain, a Biometric Identity as-a-Service platform for global financial institutions. Alesis and his co-founder Andrius were on EF3 and what they’re doing in simple terms is effectively replacing standard passwords and pins with voice, facial and behavioural recognition systems that can be used in isolation or in combination with each other. Alesis gained a Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence from the Edinburgh and completed three years of PhD work before dropping out to start AimBrain and join EF. In this conversation we dive into Alesis’ personal story, everything he’s learned about finding product market fit, hiring and funding in the process of building AimBrain and what he’s learned about himself along the way.

Ed Miller is the Co-Founder of Scape, which is building the location infrastructure for city-scale augmented reality & location-based services. Ed and his co-founder Huub were on EF7 and their mapping and location technology allows devices to understand their position in the world, with incredible accuracy and efficiency, which is why they’ve been able to make such rapid progress since starting up. Ed has been working in the field of interactive imagery (VR, AR & 360 video) for the past 8 years. He started his first VR company whilst studying Philosophy & Psychology at university and produced interactive content for the likes of BBC, Vogue and the NHS. In this conversation we dive into Ed’s personal story, everything he’s learned about finding product market fit, hiring and funding in the process of building Scape and what he’s learned about himself along the way.

Mostafa El Sayed, Co-Founder of Automata, which is working to make robotics affordable and accessible by installing it in the workplace. Mostafa and his co-founder Suryansh were on EF4 and their first product, Eva is a bench top robot arm that can be set up in minutes, costs a fraction of other industrial arms, and can be used in a range of industries including metals, pharmaceuticals and electronics manufacturing. Mostafa didn’t have a have a history in robotics before starting Automata and trained as an architect, working for Zaha Hadid, the designer of the London Olympics Aquatics Centre, before pivoting onto the startup path. In this conversation we dive into Mostafa’s personal story, everything he’s learned about finding product market fit, hiring and funding in the process of building Automata and what he’s learned about himself along the way.

Noor Shaker, Co-Founder of GTN, a company that uses quantum physics and machine learning to search the huge space of potential drug molecules and discover drugs that were previously hidden from view. This means GTN can discover better drugs, more quickly, at half the cost. Noor and her co-founder Vid met on EF8 and after combining their expertise in machine learning and quantum physics respectively to found GTN, they’ve made rapid progress, recently closing a big funding round. Noor was Professor in Machine Learning and AI at Aalborg University in Copenhagen before she joined EF and has ten years of academic experience in the field, producing more than 50 papers with 1000 citations and an entire book on generative networks. In this conversation we dive into Noor’s personal story, everything she’s learned about finding product market fit and funding in the process of building GTN and what she’s learned about herself along the way.

Theo Saville is the Co-Founder of Cloud NC, whose mission is to make the CNC milling machines used in many manufacturing processes one click devices that can produce a part easily and efficiently, effectively halving their cost. Theo and his co-founder Chris met on EF5 and have gone from strength to strength since founding the company, expanding their team and raising funding to develop their technology further. Theo studied Engineering at Warwick and gained a masters in manufacturing,  working in a range of fields including 3D printing research and freelance engineering before joining EF. In this conversation we dive into Theo’s personal story, everything he’s learned about finding product market fit, hiring and funding in the process of building Cloud NC and what he’s learned about himself along the way.

In today’s episode I kick off the podcast by speaking to EF Co-Founder Matt Clifford. Matt Co-Founded EF with Alice Bentinck back in 2011 and since then EF has gone from strength to strength, building hundreds of companies worth over $400m including Magic Pony Technology, Tractable and StackHut. After starting London, EF has now set up additional programmes in Singapore and Berlin and recently raising funding from LinkedIn Co-Founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman to continue scaling the EF mission globally. In this episode Matt and I discuss: - Why the risk of starting a company isn’t as big as you think and the two kinds of risk that prospective founders often confuse - How the world has moved from writing cheques to writing code and why technology entrepreneurship is the best career path for ambitious people - How EF has formalised its offering to serve the different parts of the startup path – from helping you find a co founder to getting you funded This was a fascinating a conversation as always with Matt and you’ll definitely get a sense of some of the driving ideas behind EF and insights into the current state of tech entrepreneurship.