Podcasts about horseplay ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Nick Telson-Sillett, a renowned entrepreneur, angel investor, and public speaker based in London. He has an impressive track record in the startup ecosystem and has made significant contributions to the industry. Today, we will dive deep into Nick's journey as a startup founder, his role as an angel investor, and explore his latest project, trumpet. We'll discuss his strategies for evaluating investment opportunities, his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, and gain his insights on the current startup landscape. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you just look at the reservation market you'd think you find an open table at a restaurant, reserve the table, etc. We drilled in a bit further and found the niche of bars which you couldn't book into in 2012. We went to the industry and pitched the idea of an app like Open Table that worked for bars, they and the customer base were positive about it and we went and built the software and signed up all of the best bars in the UK because there was no other app out there that was catering to them at the time. Because we'd built such a flexible booking system for bars, there was a boom in casual dining which didn't exist back in the day for experiential, different types of restaurants which needed the flexibility. We then made a play for that niche. Early start-ups: Don't get distracted. Focus is so important, everyone promises you the world, partnerships, sponsorships, all these things only add noise. Surround yourself with the work, 3 hours in front of my laptop is more worthwhile than going to a founders event. Becoming a founder has become a fashionable sport, people forget the being a founder is really hard work building your business and putting your head down. I love the start up world, I was mentoring founders so Angel Investing was an obvious route to go down because I can help financially as well as mentoring or helping the companies that I'm financially invested in. A lot of founders I've met aren't investor-ready, and the first thing I say to founders is have you thought what you want out of your business? If it's just you and you don't need to raise money, and if £3m is lifechanging to you, you can build a business worth £3m and you hold 100% of the equity and then you can sell it. BEST MOMENTS ‘You can't please everyone: If you build a product and you're at the whim of your customers you'll never have clarity or be able to build strategically, you'll aways be chasing your tail.' ‘We were the first app to introduce putting your card down or pay a deposit because we found no-shows was a big problem.' ‘Sales is going to be the new engineering, finding great sales people that know what they're doing is tough, determine your ICP (ideal customer profile) and go after them specifically.' ‘Learning to say no to people doesn't have to be rude, it's about preserving your time to drive your business forward.' ABOUT THE GUEST Sillett is a London-based entrepreneur, investor, and public speaker. He is known for co-founding DesignMyNight, a B2C platform that attracted over 8 million views per month and a B2B platform with over 5,000 clients. DesignMyNight was acquired by The Access Group in November 2017 for $30 million.  After DesignMyNight's successful exit, Nick Telson-Sillett continued his entrepreneurial journey and co-founded Trumpet, a buyer enablement software solution. He is also the founder of Horseplay Ventures, a venture arm that invests in startups, and has invested in over 55 startups as an angel investor. Nick Telson-Sillett is actively involved in the startup community and has hosted his own podcast called Pitch Deck, where startup founders pitch their businesses to him and guest angel investors/mentors. They discuss the pitch, the business itself, and the investment opportunity. LinkedIn YouTube ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers, accelerated over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner. Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

Nick Telson is the founder of Trumpet and Pitch Deck podcast.Trumpet is a platform that helps users design personalized, trackable sales pods in just a few clicks: Think microsites for salespeople. Shopify + Canva + Slack all combined to help you close more deals faster. Trumpet has raised to date $2mn Lightbird Ventures alongside Triple Point Ventures and a few angels. Nick is also an angel investor invested in over 55 startups across the US, UK, Latam, and Africa through your investment arm, Horseplay Ventures.If you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

Nick Telson is an exited founder from DesignMyNight in 2017 for $30-$40m and has since invested in over 55 startups across US, UK, Latam and Africa, through his investment arm, Horseplay Ventures.Nick's career started off in marketing at L'Oreal before starting DesignMyNight in 2010. DesignMyNight grew to 100+ employees, 15,000 SaaS customers and 8 million monthly uniques on the website with minimal angel funding. Nick and his co-founder exited to Access Group in 2017. Nick has been recognised as one of the UK's leading entrepreneurs by The Huffington Post and won startup awards from The Guardian and RealBusiness/Disrupt.He has a global top 3 business podcast around investing and pitching called Pitch Deck and is now co-founder of his second startup, in the sales operations space, called trumpet.Find out more about Nick Telson via: website, Instagram and LinkedIn.A new episode EVERY WEEK, showcasing the journeys of inspirational entrepreneurs, side hustlers and their mentors. We discuss their successes, challenges and how they overcame setbacks. Focusing mainly on what they wish they had known when starting out. The podcast aims to give aspiring entrepreneurs the confidence to START UP and START NOW by showcasing real and relatable entrepreneurs. After all, seeing is believing!Join the conversation using #startupstartnow and tagging us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Don't forget to leave a review as it really helps us reach those who need it and allows us to get the best guests for you!Connect with START UP. START NOW. and to nominate a guest please visit: www.startupstartnow.co.uk.  To connect with Sharena Shiv please visit: www.sharena.co.uk.

This week our host Steve McGarry sits down with Nick Telson to talk about his entrepreneurial journey. They touch on some of his current projects like Trumpet and Horseplay Venture, but the conversation focuses on his exit from one of his previous companies, DesignMyNight. They discuss the details on how he was able to step back and prepare for the exit, and the more traditional path they took in order to set up the sale. Nick Telson is a London-based entrepreneur, angel investor, podcaster, startup mentor and public speaker, whose speciality lies in talking no-nonsense founder/investor advice and help. Nick is currently the Co-Founder of Trumpet, and Co-Founder and Angel Investor in Horseplay Ventures. 

 

 - Website - https://www.sendtrumpet.com/ 
- Website - https://linktr.ee/Nick.telson
 - Website - https://www.designmynight.com/ 
-LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicktelson/

 -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You'll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

One of the main challenges you'll face as you scale your business is attracting and retaining the best people.  And that's the subject for episode two of our Scale Up Playbook. Wax/On's Mark Runacus and Harry Neale are joined by founders and leaders who generously share their own fascinating experiences of the people side of growing a business. We discuss your leadership role and your skills; how to make your strategy understandable and accessible by everyone in the company; support networks and mentors; making those big important senior hires; team-building and team-work; diversity and inclusion; and the vital ingredients of the very best scale-up culture.  Thanks to our podcast guests from Eve Sleep, Virgin Media O2, Bread and Jam, Double Dutch, Fitbakes, RealWork, Lucky Saint, Waken, YuLife, and Horseplay Ventures. +++++   Talk to us podcast@wearewaxon.com +++++ Leave us your review on iTunes. And please subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com   

Ask any Founder and they'll tell you that raising money to grow your business is hard work. There are urban myths about it being easier to pitch for a million than for five thousand.  So whether you're scaling up or even starting up, which funding approach should you take? And why?  In this episode we find out by speaking to the people who've done it: Snaffling Pig's Udhi Silva; Will McDowell from Tastily; Direct To Consumer Expert Mike Stevens; Scott Simpkin from Seedrs; Chris Smith from Playfair Capital; and Nick Telson from Horseplay Ventures.  Mark and Harry and their guests guide you along the entire scale-up funding journey, from pre-seed, through crowd-funding and angels, to series A and B and venture capital.  +++++   Talk to us podcast@wearewaxon.com +++++ Leave us your review on iTunes. And please subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com   

What's particularly shocking about Nick Telson's success with DesignMyNight is how deliberate it all seemed. They set themselves a target each year, achieved it and moved onto the next one until they'd hit the numbers they needed for the exit they wanted. How many businesses do that? And it was the first startup he'd ever founded… Nick explains how they sold the business - the actual steps they took - which isn't a process that most people know about unless they've been lucky enough to go through an exit themselves. And in classic startup style, it looked like the whole deal was going to collapse on the day of signing until an unlikely hero stepped up. Since exiting DesignMyNight, Nick has founded Horseplay Ventures, and more recently Trumpet, a mixture of Squarespace and Canva and Slack for sales decks. It sounds like something I would use, tbf. Despite his success, throughout his time leading DesignMyNight, Nick kept one aspect of himself relatively hidden - his sexuality. Find out why and what he's doing about it now.  Sponsor links: smithandwilliamson.com/secretleaders netsuite.com/secretleaders linkedin.com/secretleaders vanta.com/secretleaders

Nick has taken a far too long hiatus but is back for Series 5! Here he reveals a new format for Series 5 which will give listeners a tonne of bite-sized, useful takeaways from leading angel investors and early-stage VCs. The plan for this series is to pump out a lot more content but in smaller chunks; 15-20 minutes per episode. Series 5 sponsored by trumpet - https://www.sendtrumpet.com/ Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/

In our second episode All Together Co-Founder Jamie Mitchell is joined by the excited Co-Founder of DesignMyNight, Nick Telson. Since exiting he has become an angel investor (Horseplay Ventures) and runs the fantastic Pitch Deck podcast. We  dig a little deeper into his career and experiences as a founder, his views on ‘better' business and his ‘Three Things' advice on sales and marketing. 

Anna Flockett and Nick Telson Exited Founder DesignMyNight 2020, Founder Horseplay Ventures, Podcast Host for Pitch Deck, and Virgin & London+Partners Mentor discuss his entrepreneurial journey

Nick is the Founder of DesignMyNight, the UK's fastest growing nightlife website, which he has now exited. He has more recently founded Horseplay Ventures, through which he has invested into 38 early-stage tech start-ups looking to scale, hosts a top 3 global business podcast called ‘Pitch Deck' and mentors 100s of entrepreneurs through the Virgin start-up programme.Round 1: Nick's business journey of raising, scaling and exiting DesignMyNight. Tips for entrepreneurs and founders wanting to create a valuable start-up. What is success for a tech start-up in today's climate?Round 2: Nick's personal journey which included overcoming gay shame in the business world and having the courage to be himself.Unboxing Uncensored: Past lives & reincarnation.Subscribe to Unboxing Uncensored here: https://buymeacoffee/unboxwithharry Learn more about Nick & his work: https://www.nicktelson.com

I was joined by the inspirational Andrew Wilkinson, founder of Tiny; he started product and branding agency Meta Lab in 2006 and was responsible for some of our most-loved and used companies such as Slack, UberEats, Coinbase, Pinterest and Headspace, to name a few. He then used MetaLab's profits to purchase other companies that have solid revenues, are designed well, have a great culture, and are profitable, which he knew he could rocket ship. Tiny now owns circa 30 companies, the likes of designer platform dribbble and the largest remote work community in the world, WeWork Remotely. Tiny has never relied on outside funding until recently where it launched a $150m fund to buy more businesses and for their own company WeCommerce, which has raised $60m, which is now on the Canadian stock exchange with a market cap of circa $1bn - WeCommerce buys and builds businesses that sit solely on the Shopify ecosystem. We listened to the pitch from Will, founder of Circl, which is looking to bring the concept of social betting to the masses. The concept being a group of friends form a Circl, put money in the pot then dependent on what happens in a sports match, the pot moves around the Circl...eg. A throw in, the pot moves clockwise two steps, a red card the pot moves anti-clockwise 4 steps etc...whoever has the pot at the end of the match takes it all. Circl is looking to bring the fun back into betting and make it a social activity, rather than something that's done in isolation and in excess. Andrew and I dug down on go-to-market strategy, where the concept could go beyond sport, the complications of the betting market and the team around Will. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Circl - https://www.playcircl.com/ Tiny - https://www.tinycapital.com/

Please Note: The brand name has changed since recording from Captain Compare to GoCaptain I'm joined by Chris Smith, Managing Partner at Playfair Capital. He focuses his investing activities on seed (and pre-seed) deals in the UK and Israel. Chris is particularly interested in autonomous transportation, business and industrial automation, HealthTech and B2B SaaS. He loves finding companies operating in unloved/overlooked sectors that are ripe for disruption. Prior to joining Playfair, Chris held senior roles at plan.com including Sales Director, Head of Tech/BI and Head of Product Development. Revenues Playfair was founded in 2013 and has made 78 investments with 4 exits to date. Since Chris joined in November 2018, he has led 9 new investments, 3 of which have gone on to raise subsequent rounds so far, and we actually have one investment together into Heka a B2B employee well-being saas product and marketplace. We listened to the pitch from Abraham Sillah, co-founder of GoCaptain, which is looking to help GenZ pay for driving lessons and get them to pass the test quicker: Get driving lesson finance without affecting the applicants credit score enabling them to learn to drive much quicker than the average learner, by booking an intensive driving course with an instructor and learn to drive under 7/14 days. We really dug deep on the go-to-market strategy, proving the real need for the business, early startup team structures and understanding your numbers. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ GoCaptain - https://www.gocaptain.co.uk/ Playfair Capital - https://playfaircapital.com/

I was thrilled to be joined by guest investor, Alex Dunsdon. Alex was previously head of central strategy and business development director for M&C Saatchi. He was also co-founder of thebakery.com from Dec 2012 to Jan 2020, which enables corporates to drive meaningful innovation, as well as creating partnerships with startups. Alex moved on to be chief of staff at Redbrain, one of Europe's fastest-growing companies, helping them transform from startup to scaleup. Currently, Alex set up, and is partner at, Saatchi invest and is LP for Potential Climate Ventures who want to have a global scale impact on the climate - currently invested in and advising over 130 companies. Alex also set up Potential, which is set up to help the 7bn people in the world who have talent but no opportunity. Their mission is to find, foster and fund crazy, unusual, and innovative startups. Alex was also a seed cheque investor into Citymapper, Farewill and Ometria, as well as circa 20 other companies. Alex is also very keen on cryptocurrency so we bent his year at the start of the episode on all things Bitcoin and beyond. We listened to the pitch from Aisling Byrne, founder of Nuw, who are looking to help their users reduce the environmental impact of fashion, and gain unlimited access to the community's shared wardrobe. While there are other fashion swapping/2nd hand fashion sites out there, Nuw have used a unique token system to ensure users trade the same quality of clothes, while taking money out of the whole equation. They have some very positive early traction including high repeat usage rates and are raising funds to help scale the product and market with the aim of having 12m active users over the next 3-5 years. We dug deep on scaling a marketplace, the revenue model, subscriptions, competition and feasibility of scaling the userbase so quickly. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Nuw - https://www.thenuwardrobe.com/ Alex Dunsdon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdunsdon/

I'm joined by legendary west coast angel investor, Zach Coelius. Zach is a 4-time entrepreneur and his last company, Triggit was acquired by Gravity4 in 2015. From then on, Zach has become one of the most revered angel investors in the US with circa 50 investments to his name and 80 invested in total. He currently invests $200K-$1m cheques into early-stage companies and $2-$5m cheques into later-stage ones. Zach uses 3 vehicles for investing; a $45m fund with Industry Ventures as the sole LP; a friends and family Rolling Fund that invests alongside the main fund; and his own syndicate on Angel List that has over 3000 members and was actually the first syndicate on Angel List to get a billion-dollar exit when General Motors bought Cruise Automation in 2016. The syndicate has had 6 exits in total including Hello Sign who were acquired by Dropbox in 2019 for $230m. We listened to the pitch from Daniel Botcherby, co-founder of Kalda; the world's first mental well-being app specifically for the LGBT+ community. In Beta stage, Kalda is looking to bring together members of the LGBT+ community who are struggling with their mental health and provide group therapy sessions, daily check-ins, peer support as well as fixed courses people can go on. 1 in 2 people in the LGBT+ community have suffered some form of anxiety/depression in the last year, 3x the general population. Due to NHS wait times, high prices for individual therapy and stigma that LGBT+ people feel from a therapist not from their community, Kalda is looking to bring people together and at the same time democratise mental health services, making it affordable, easy to access, instant and being surrounded by peers and therapists from the same community. Zach prefers to engage in a more general conversation, rather than a grilling, so we had a chat more broadly about the market in general, expansion plans, future product roadmap and aspirations, competitors and the merits/risks of going after a niche. Some super insightful things highlighted by Zach as well as a very competent founder in Daniel. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Kalda - https://kalda.co/ Zach Twitter - https://twitter.com/zachcoelius

I'm joined by Pietro Invernizzi, first cheque investor at Stride.VC, who recently closed their second $138m seed fund and have recently officially launched the First Check Programme, where they are looking to back up to 20 teams straight out the gate as their first supporter, regardless of how early they are. Pietro started his career as an investment banking analyst in London before moving into the startup world where he joined The Family, the "coolest" place if you want to build a startup in France. Whilst there, he spent a ton of time working really closely with founders, helping them with all the 100s of questions they ask themselves when building a company, particularly around fundraising. In this context, he started 'angel investing' into the founders he was most excited by. He quickly realised that investing was his passion and so decided to join the now notorious Stride VC in June 2020, focusing on their early-stage investment. We listened to the pitch from Tiernan Mines, founder of Hello Lamp Post - looking to reimagine how local governments and councils engage with their community for feedback and ideas. By turning inanimate objects like bus stops, lamp posts and park benches into an engaging SMS conversation, the council can ask for, gather and analyse feedback from locals. The same can go for real estate developers, museums, stadia etc...any public space that wants to engage with its customers or locals. We dug down on the "why", the importance of their own tech, their true moat as a business and defining a true market opportunity. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Hello Lamp Post - https://www.hlp.city/ Stride.VC - https://stride.vc/

I'm joined by legendary investor and Forbes acclaimed, "Queen of UK VC", Eileen Burbidge. Eileen is a Partner at Passion Capital, the legendary early-stage tech venture fund with the likes of Monzo, Tide, Nested, Butternut Box & Marshmallow under their belts and is actually a Board Director with Monzo as well as being super involved with a lot of the other portfolio companies too. Eileen started her career in Silicon Valley, working for the likes of Apple, Yahoo!, and Sun Microsystems. In 2004 she moved to London to become one of Skype's earliest employees. In 2011, Eileen became founding partner of Passion. She is also a member of the board of Dixons Carphone, and awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to Business. We listened to the pitch from Amber Perng, founder of Salmo - looking to digitise, speed up and make cheaper the visa application process, of which there are 1.5m a year in the UK. Based on her own experience having to get a visa after studying in the UK, Amber realised lawyers were charging £4K to fill out forms on your behalf and not much else...it could be better. We really dug on the tech importance of a business such as this, the genuine TAM, reaching that target market, the potential to sell more products to the visa customers and whether they are the team to execute. It also brought up an interesting parallel between Eileen (VC) and my (Angel) take on the investment prospects. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Salmo - https://www.salmo.uk/ Playfair Capital - https://www.passioncapital.com/

Nick Telson, co-creator of the hugely successful night-out booking platform Design My Night and now Co Founder of investment fund and "start-up playground" Horseplay Ventures, joins the Wax/On team to talk about the nightlife sector's renaissance post COVID. He shares the highs and lows of his own start-up journey, including when and why to exit. Plus, what happens if you get Seller's Remorse? Nick explains that he's discovered that money doesn't drive him: he enjoys the hustle and bustle of business. He also explains what he's doing to try and improve inclusion in the start-up community. And we learn that his favourite TV ad may have been inspired by a 19th century pre-raphaelite painting.

Nick Telson, co-creator of the hugely successful night-out booking platform Design My Night and now Co Founder of investment fund and "start-up playground" Horseplay Ventures, joins us to talk about the nightlife sector's renaissance post-COVID and much more. He shares the highs and lows of his own start-up journey, including when and why to exit. Plus what happens if you get Seller's Remorse? Nick explains he's discovered that money doesn't drive him: he enjoys the hustle and bustle of business. He also tells us what he's doing to try and improve inclusion in the start-up community. And we learn that his favourite TV ad may have been inspired by a 19th century British pre-raphaelite painting. +++++ https://horseplay.ventures/ +++++ Talk to us podcast@wearewaxon.com +++++ Leave us your review on iTunes. And please subscribe. +++++ www.wearewaxon.com +++++ KEEP WELL AND STAY SAFE

I'm joined by Chris Smith, Managing Partner at Playfair Capital who focus on pre-seed and seed investments in UK and Israel. Chris is specifically interested in autonomous transportation, business automation, health tech and B2B SaaS. Chris is also an angel investor with 14 deals and 4 exits to date, previously an operator at plan.com and a corporate lawyer. We listened to the pitch from Elliott Herrod - Taylor, founder of The Bunch - looking to reimagine how tenants manage the process of shared accommodation. Elliott had a professional rugby contract with Bath but got bitten by a spider and got sepsis so 3 weeks later decided to go to Uni. He started The Bunch in his 2nd year of uni and took his 3rd year off to get the startup off the ground. The bunch is now in 30 cities, serviced 7000 customers and generates £4m gross revenue. Elliott has a vision to stay with a customer from 18 at university all the way through to renting a property as a young professional, with The Bunch sorting out bills, liability, finding a property and more. We dug down on managing and preventing churn, expanding out your customer base to improve stickiness, standing out against competitors and going up against some big boys within your industry. We also discuss the different angle taken by an Angel vs a VC. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ The Bunch - https://the-bunch.co.uk/ Playfair Capital - https://playfaircapital.com/

I am joined by Veronika Kapustina, an early-stage investor and advisor, who started her journey working on capital raising for late-stage technology corporates such as Uber, Airbnb and Netflix in London and later in California. After moving to the West Coast she started mentoring seed-stage founders and quickly realised that her passion lay in angel investing. After building a high-performing portfolio, Veronika has now become a founder herself, currently setting up a Venture Fund focused on investing in seed-stage founders who come from a social science background. We listened to the pitch from Marie Farmer, founder of Mini Mealtimes app, looking to revolutionise how children's nutrition is both tracked and improved. The app provides personalised nutrition reports, easy to use food diary, expert nutrition advice and dietician-approved recipes. This was a problem for Marie as a mother which led her to set up the idea; a very assured and confident pitch. We dug deep on the business model and subscription model, getting scale for a B2C app, advertising within an app and building a team and a moat. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Mini Mealtimes - https://www.minimealtimes.com/ Veronika Kapustina - https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronika-kapustina-8a590914/

In episode 59, Simon talks to Nick Telson. Nick co-founded DesignMyNight 10 years ago. Coming from a marketing background at L'Oreal, where he launched 2 brands in the UK, he grew DesignMyNight into 8 million views a month website with three ground-breaking B2B hospitality systems with over 15,000 customers. DesignMyNight was acquired by The Access Group in November 2017. He now hosts a top 10 global business podcast, Pitch Deck and has founded a new spin on venture for startups; Horseplay Ventures - a Startup Playground, where he has already invested in 25 startups in the UK and US.

In episode 59, Simon talks to Nick Telson. Nick co-founded DesignMyNight 10 years ago. Coming from a marketing background at L'Oreal, where he launched 2 brands in the UK, he grew DesignMyNight into 8 million views a month website with three ground-breaking B2B hospitality systems with over 15,000 customers. DesignMyNight was acquired by The Access Group in November 2017. He now hosts a top 10 global business podcast, Pitch Deck and has founded a new spin on venture for startups; Horseplay Ventures - a Startup Playground, where he has already invested in 25 startups in the UK and US.

In episode 59, Simon talks to Nick Telson. Nick co-founded DesignMyNight 10 years ago. Coming from a marketing background at L'Oreal, where he launched 2 brands in the UK, he grew DesignMyNight into 8 million views a month website with three ground-breaking B2B hospitality systems with over 15,000 customers. DesignMyNight was acquired by The Access Group in November 2017. He now hosts a top 10 global business podcast, Pitch Deck and has founded a new spin on venture for startups; Horseplay Ventures - a Startup Playground, where he has already invested in 25 startups in the UK and US.

Guest Angel is Saloni Bhojwani who has moved from operator to investor. Saloni was a management consultant at Deloitte for 3 years followed by doing an MBA at London Business School to then being a strategy lead at startup Zebra Fuel. She has since moved into the world of angel investing independently as well as at Founders Factory. Saloni is also recently the founder of Sie; a capital platform that supports the most promising female founders on their fundraising journey. Their ultimate goal is to close the gender funding gap by providing female founders with better access to capital, network, and support. We listened to the pitch by Giles from Chatable Apps; previously an app that, via Bluetooth to your headphones, helped those with hearing loss or hearing difficulties especially in busy environments, that has now pivoted to help those with learning/concentration difficulties including autism and ADD including an actual wearable to be offered via national health services. This episode is a super interesting deep dive into understanding/judging a pitch where the Angels don't have much knowledge, wearable hardware vs app subscription, the risk/reward of relying on health services as your go-to market strategy and different pricing models. A really interesting vertical, a well-informed founder and some brilliant Angel questions. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Chatable - https://chatableapps.com/ Sie - https://www.sie.ventures/

Guest Angel is Anthony Rose, currently the founder of Seed Legals. Anthony is a serial tech entrepreneur whose career has spanned across many sectors including the advent of 3D graphics, P2P music, video streaming, social TV, social platforms, and most recently, legal technology. Anthony is best known for his work managing the launch of BBC iPlayer for which Wired named him "the man who saved the BBC. Anthony lead the team as CTO from 2007 until 2010. Since leaving the BBC Anthony has founded 5 companies with two exits and his new venture Seed Legals is the number 1 closer of funding rounds, closing deals worth over £400m. Pitching to us was Conor, from Kieka. Kieka's mission is to help its users beat the crowds and get from A to B as quickly as possible. Currently starting on the London Underground there is a bigger vision to help beat the crowds in all scenarios from transport to stadiums. It is centred around an AI brain, which is all proprietary tech. This was an extremely interesting episode as Anthony had his founder and investor hat on, both asking investor questions and offering advice to Conor and startups as a whole. We dug deep on B2B data play vs B2C app play, achieving network effects, listening to investor advice and overall business focus/strategy. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Kieka - https://kieka.co.uk/ Seed Legals - https://seedlegals.com/

Guest Angel, Alex Macdonald is founder of Velocity Black, the leading global digital concierge service. Velocity Black is now on Series C, operates in 70+ countries and has been one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK over the last few years. Alex made his first angel investment 5 years ago that exited last year for a 26x return and now reinvests the gains in early-stage, seed and pre-seed tech investments, with a particular interest in marketplaces. Alex joins me to listen to, and question, Benjamin's pitch, Othership; previously called WeCoffee. Set up well before the Corona pandemic, Othership aimed to help freelancers find workspaces wherever they may be; in unused spaces such as hotels, pubs, restaurants, event spaces etc...for a small monthly fee they could get access to this large vetted marketplace across the UK. Corona and the boom of working from home has come at a good time for Othership as they accelerate growth, redefine their business model, take advantage of multiple new opportunities and build a strong community. With other competitors out there, both indirect and direct, are Othership the ones to steal this space? We really drill down on the marketplace model, how tricky it can be to master, and different business model directions. With Alex's wealth of experience in this field and myself building and selling a marketplace startup, this episode is a must for you marketplace founders (and beyond). Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Othership - https://othership.com/ Velocity Black - https://velocity.black/

Angel guest is Pietro Invernizzi, 1st cheque investor at Stride VC and actively looking for seed deals. Stride has become one of the most respected VCs in a very short time due to the line up of Pietro, Harry Stebbings and Fred Destin. They have a £100m fund to deploy across a small number of exciting companies and founders. Pietro joins me to listen to and question Kemal's pitch, Send Music. Kemal has been top of his game as a music producer for decades, currently producing for Radio 1 and Radio 1 Xtra's Diplo and friends. His lived experience revealed a pain point of new artists sending tracks to producers and other high profile artists/DJs. Currently, it's all done with traditional file transfer sites but what if there was one just for the music industry that also acted as a marketplace for new artists/producers to get their tracks in front of the ideal people; as well as track the listens, downloads and hopefully get picked up? Enter, Send Music. A very interesting dive into disrupting an old school industry, is a supremely qualified founder enough to back and a look at different business models. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Send Music - https://sendmusic.com/ Stride VC - https://stride.vc/

Guest Angel Simon Squibb has started 17 companies, invested in over 60+ startups and has mentored hundreds of founders. Having sold his award-winning branding and digital agency, Fluid, to PwC, Simon now focuses on inspiring, motivating and guiding both budding and experienced entrepreneurs by sharing his personal experiences, insights, ideas and tips. His aim is to get 1 million people to start a company. Simon joins me to listen to and question Mariams pitch, Oja. Mariam knows the pain point on wanting to get access to world foods not available in the supermarkets and realised, it's just not that easy. For immigrant families or those that just love world cooking at home, why not get easy access to all the ingredients your heart desires, delivered to your door? That is the Oja mission. We dive into growing a B2C market, the difficulty of implementing technology into old school businesses and flipping the model to a B2B opportunity too. The problem makes sense, the solution makes sense, but is that enough? Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - https://horseplay.ventures/ Oja - https://my-oja.com/ Simon Squibb - https://simonsquibb.com/

Delighted to announce that Series 2 is about to launch. A quick intro about what to expect from Series 2 of Pitch Deck and the release date. Brought to you by my startup playground Horseplay Ventures.

Guest Angel Chet Parker, started out in Architecture, then went into the world of tech, finding his feet at cyber security company, RSA, out of Boston. Whilst there he started flipping houses, builidng up a contact book in California and then went into Angel Investing. 23 investments later, Chet invests in positive impact companies and is now also co-founding his own company, currently in Stealth Mode. Chet joins me to listen to and question Andy's pitch, Honest Mobile. Bulb changed the landscape for the energy industry, Monzo the banking industry and now Honest Mobile want to to the same to the telco industry; improving customer experience and building a B Corp standing. A lofty ambiition indeed, but when an industry is ripe for disruption, then why not give it a go? A great focus on disrupting the big boys, doing things differently and the importance of brand/customer loyalty. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Honest Mobile - https://honestmobile.co.uk/ Chet Parker - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetparker/

Guest Angel Samira Ann Qassim founded Pink Salt Ventures to back purpose-led female founders. She invests early stage and is sector agnostic. Prior to investing, Samira gained experience as a successful tech founder and global brand strategist. Samira joins me to listen to and question Alex and Yang's pitch, Just Wears. Fresh from their appearance on TV's Dragon's Den, husband and wife team, Alex & Yang looked at disruptive brands such as Away and Harry's, who disrupted old school industries, and thought men's underwear has remained unchanged and unchallenged since the dawn of time! Can their ballsy and tongue in cheek marketing and very impressive early revenue, convince us that this is an industry ready to turn away from Justin Bieber and his Calvin Kleins? A great focus on D2C, social media marketing pillars and whether the stand out feature of being environmentally conscious is an important purchase trigger for all industries. *The sound on my mic isn't perfect in this episode. I hope it doesn't affect your enjoyment of the podcast. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Just Wears - https://just-wears.com/ Pink Salt Ventures - https://pinksaltventures.com/

Guest Angel Henry Allan, UK GM of mega D2C brand, Hims, joins me to listen to and question Meenesh Mistry's pitch, Wholey Moly. Surprised at the lack of choice of a naughty but healthy snack, Meenesh and his wife hit the kitchen and set about creating the first-ever healthy cookie. Over 50 iterations later they launched Wholey Moly with interest already from Whole Foods and Selfridges, Meenesh is looking to raise cash to take the brand onto the next level in retail and launch their D2C letterbox cookies proposition. With the expertise of Henry, this is a great deep-dive into D2C branding, retail margins and the importance of team. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Wholey Moley - https://www.wholeymoly.co.uk/ Hims - https://www.forhims.com/

Guest Angel, Dan Rosenberg, founding partner of acquired apparel brand Represent, and now an angel investor in UK and West Coast US, joins me to listen to, and question, Alma Ramirez Acosta's pitch, Vibio. Vibio is looking to bring 21st century connectivity and sensuality into the world of sex toys. They launched their first female vibrator on Kickstarter with an accompanying app, allowing women and couples to control the wearable via the app as well as having educational content to improve people's sex lives. Alma is looking for funding to promote the new sex toy as well as expand the range. Sextech is a booming space but did we think Alma and her team were the ones to breakthrough? Was there differential enough with their offering? And was there a real need for the gadgetry? Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Vibio - https://www.instagram.com/vibiotoys Represent - https://represent.com/

Guest Angel Melissa Lester, investment partner at Dig Ventures, launched Dig alongside Ross Mason who sold his company, Mulesoft, to Salesforce for over £6bn. Dig is a VC with an angel investment outlook, working with early-stage startups and founders helping them grow into huge successes. Melissa joins me to listen to, and question, Julian Bourne's pitch, Sellar. Sellar is looking to modernise the way craft drinks brands and breweries sell into restaurants, bars and off-licenses; trying to convince them to move away from emails and paper/pen ordering and fulfilment to fully online ordering, payment and stock management. Julian pivoted from his original idea with his early-stage investors' cash to this totally new opportunity; could we see it as an opportunity worth taking and has Julian really grasped and understood the market he is going after? Some great insight into pivoting, running with an MVP and the importance of team. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Sellar - https://sellar.io/ Dig Ventures - https://www.dig.ventures/

Guest Angel Tom Savage, award-winning entrepreneur, travel company founder, Ted talker, angel investor and founder of new forward-thinking venture fund, joins me to listen to and question Jamal Whorms-MonDésir's pitch, Wayfare. Wayfare is looking to re-imagine the travel experience for Gen Z. Jamal wants to start with helping them fund their holidays and then digitise the whole experience from discovery, booking, organisation and payment. Can Wayfare become the Klarna of travel? There is some real digging on the idea and business in this episode. Tom doesn't hold back. Some great insight into vision vs execution and the importance of your team. Can Jamal hold up to the intense scrutiny? Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Wayfare - http://letswayfare.com/ Tom's Travel Company - https://www.brilliant-uganda.com/ & https://brilliant-ethiopia.com/

Guest Angel Kelvin Au, Head of Venture at Founders Factory, one of the UKs leading accelerators and incubators, joins me to listen to and question Joe Lewin's pitch, Zwings. Zwings is a B2B and B2G e-mobility brand; think Lime and Uber Jump but rather than dumping them in cities for anyone to use, Zwings sells a turnkey solution to universities, real estate, local councils and companies; this includes the scooters/bikes, docking stations, white-label software, insurance and maintenance, all for a monthly fee. Can Zwings take advantage of the new gold-rush in this space due to social distancing? Are Lime and Bird still a threat? Does Joe have what it takes to grow Zwings to venture scale, or does he even want to? The very interesting difference between how a venture firm and an angel investor look at investments, and their potential exit, are highlighted and discussed. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Zwings - https://www.zwings.co.uk/ Founders Factory - https://foundersfactory.com/

Guest Angel Dan Rosenberg, COO and first employee of acquired, transatlantic apparel brand, Represent, joins me to listen to and question Chieu Cao's pitch, Mintago. Chieu, the founder of huge B2B perk company, Perkbox, has now turned his SME selling sights onto financial well-being. He is on a mission to bring happiness to employees and this starts with an understanding of how they can reach their goals with active financial planning: Physical and mental well-being are greatly affected by a person's financial state so should HR departments focus on this as a starting point? Chieu clearly has incredible experience in this market having been there and nailed it already, but can he convince companies that financial well-being really is the holistic solution where well-being should begin? Great insights into selling into SMEs and how to build a company ripe for B2B scale as well as how to shape your message to sell successfully into companies. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Mintago - https://www.mintago.com/ Represent - https://represent.com/

Guest Angel Henry Allan, UK GM of mega D2C brand Hims, joins me to listen to and question Sophie Baron's pitch, Mamamade. Sophie was disenchanted with the quality and convenience of good baby food available so she decided to hit the kitchen and experiment. Selling her meals to friends and family, Sophie then decided to take it to the masses. Already growing to over £100K revenue a year, having spent zero money, Sophie is raising her first round looking to grow the brand and presence of Mamamade. Can she compete with other huge brands such as Allplants or is her niche and community within the baby good sector her moat? With the expertise of Henry, this is a great deep-dive into D2C branding, KPI measures and how to market a new D2C brand. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Mamamade - https://mamamadefood.com/ Hims - https://www.forhims.com/

Guest Angel Eamonn Carey, MD of Techstars London and Director of The Fund, joins me to listen to and question Dan Murray-Serter's pitch, Heights. Heights is a mental well-being and brain health brand, starting with a smart supplement to feed your brain every morning. Having spent no money on marketing Dan already has endorsements from the likes of Stephen Fry and an impressive £30K MRR. Dan is looking for funding to now fuel "proper growth", as he calls it. An interesting deep-dive into D2C brands, the importance of community and product/market expertise. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Heights - www.yourheights.com The Fund - www.thefund.vc

Guest Angel Beta Lucca, Founder of bafta award-winning, million-dollar games company, Bossa Studios, joins me to listen to and question Paul Custance's pitch, Lirica. Once ex-FD of Sony, Paul saw the science between learning languages and how we remember lyrics of our favourite pop songs. Now financially, and artist, backed by his ex-employer, Sony, Paul wants to disrupt the billion-dollar, booming, language learning space. He definitely has the contacts in the music space but does he have the know-how and team to compete with the likes of Duolingo and Busuu? Paul is looking for funding to now fuel growth globally, launch gamification into the app and add new languages beyond Spanish and English. Brought to you by my Startup Playground, Horseplay Ventures - www.horseplay.ventures Lirica - https://www.lirica.io/ Beta Lucca - https://betalucca.com/