Entrepreneur Agony Aunt Podcast

Making a multi site office culture work and delivering 10X solutions with Tom Adeyoola

How do you iterate your way to product market fit without scaring your investors? And what are the best practices as your company grows to multiple locations, or your team is spread across several sites? Tom Adeyoola, CEO and Founder of fashion technology company Metail, has grown his startup to over 100 people, raised $20million in strategic investment and had offices in both London and Cambridge from day one. He joins Vicky Brock to share the very deliberate people management processes he has evolved to develop his teams and combat any feeling of us and them. He also talks about how Metail looked beyond domestic markets and use the concept of 10x improvements to ensure that the products they bring to market are positioned in a way that will deliver sufficiently disruptive change.

How to nail your Q and A to secure funding with Edge Fund CEO Evelyn McDonald

More founders lose out on startup investment because they handled their Q & A badly than at any other point in the pitching process. Evelyn McDonald, is CEO of the Scottish Edge fund, an investment competition that awards roughly £1million per round, with maximum investments of £150k per young business. Our discussion covers what question you can expect to be asked by investors, how to prepare, why the Q and A is so important and what founders need to do and say ensure to have the best chance of getting funded.

I thought the episode so useful for entrepreneurs who're pitching for money that I've had it transcribed here: https://goo.gl/WLjtUA

Telling good advice from bad, who to trust and why a maybe is really a no with Leah Hutcheon

Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year 2017, Leah Hutcheon of Appointedd, joins Vicky Brock to help an entrepreneur who is sick of bad advice. We discuss when to trust advisors, when to trust your gut, where to find good advice, how to grow your team and how to manage input from investors and board directors that you disagree with. As Leah says, you need to build and use your network and trust yourself to know that with any people decision - if it is a maybe, then it's a no.

Sales in startups: how, why and when to hire a pro with Jim Sterne

Sales expert, author and entrepreneur Jim Sterne talks about how to land your first four sales, pricing those early sales, and how to hire and compensate sales professionals. He also advises founders on how to avoid the pressure to give away your time and expertise for free. He urges: "if someone ever tells you as a founder to hire a sales-person, listen to them - sales comes first. Sales is a skill that can be mastered over time, but that takes talent and experience - and of course - experience costs money!"

Equity investment as fuel and why female founders must ask for more money

Equity investment, knowing your value and the importance of raising enough money to fuel your startup for 18 - 24 months of growth. Global Invest Her founder Anne Ravanona and Vicky Brock urge a high potential female founder to think big and ask for more money.

Exposing your idea, validation and embracing vulnerability with Joel Blake OBE

Answering a listener's question on whether to expose their early pre-startup idea on social media to get validation, guest Joel Blake OBE joins the Entrepreneur Agony Aunt to talk collaboration, iteration, validation and being ready to embrace your vulnerability. He explains: "entrepreneurship changes you to your core - how open are we really to being changed?"

Hyperfocus, urgency and founding for scale with Dennis Mortensen of x.ai

Serial entrepreneur Dennis Mortensen talks about how hyperfocus, urgency, radical transparency and a single KPI have become part of his process for building successful startups at scale. CEO of x.ai, whose AI personal assistants are changing the way meetings are scheduled, Dennis advises a founder looking to inject more pace into their startup team.

Social impact and how entrepreneurship beats charitable aid with Kate Webb

Founder of tourism companies spanning two continents and working with entrepreneurs in Malawi and the UK, Kate Webb of Orbis Expeditions advises a founder wanting to build a business with social purpose in developing regions. In this fascinating discussion, Kate shares her learnings from over a decade of entrepreneurship in Africa, and why she so strongly believes in pursuing business and economic development, instead of charitable aid.

Funding for Startups Who Aren't Unicorns with Anne Ravanona

Funding from debt, crowdfunding, equity and desperation financing for smaller and early-stage startups with Anne Ravanona, CEO & Founder of Global Invest Her, a global community and platform that helps women entrepreneurs get investment-ready. Speaker, writer and advocate, Anne is an expert in demystifying fundraising and she joins Vicky to answer two listeners' funding questions, and to discuss Vicky’s personal experiences of raising angel investment, grant and debt funding. This blog post on desperation financing expands on some of the other themes touched on in this episode: https://goo.gl/D1o5hE

Board tensions, risk and good governance with Dean Nash

Dean Nash, Head of Legal & Compliance at Monzo Bank, talks light touch risk management processes, trust and autonomous decision making - and the tensions that arise from very different worldviews of the founder and the board director. Dean may just have changed my mind about a few hard truths of board governance as we dive into a question from a first-time board director trying to support a fast-moving founding team who regard board meetings as an unnecessary distraction.

Tech hiring and growing your retail technology business with Cathy McCabe

Retail technologist Cathy McCabe talks about finding good technical hires for your startup. She believes you need high-performance individuals who can wear different hats. Hungry, ambitious generalists who want to learn and do different roles - but with that comes the challenge of high maintenance.

As a former retail CIO turned tech startup CEO, she also advises how technology entrepreneurs can better sell to large retailers and brands. “Constantly be looking at the pipeline and how you’re growing the business - you have to focus relentlessly on your product. You can’t just hand the solution over and move on. You have to really help them adapt to make sure that what your solution is promising is actually delivered and continues to deliver.”

Coping with acute and chronic stress as a startup founder CEO

In this mini extra episode, Mark Logan, IOD Director of the Year and former Skyscanner COO advises a startup founder who asks whether the stress they are under is a normal part of the CEO job, or something more troubling.

He explains that while moments of acute stress come with the CEO title, the problem is when these join up to become chronic. We shouldn’t live with that because while it might become normal, it is not sustainable. “Remember you didn’t start the company because you were after more stress in your life!"

The blog post referenced by Vicky in this episode: Mistakes that cost founders their companies

Family finance and taking the entrepreneurship plunge: Mini extra episode

June Angelides, Mums In Technology founder, and her 3-year-old Ivy join me to advise a listener who yearns to give it a go as an entrepreneur, but worries about putting their family financial security at risk. We talk finances, family and the power and joy that comes from taking the risk and giving your goal your best shot. Mini Christmas extra episode.

Moving beyond startup failure with founders Joe Tree & Vicky Brock

Founders Joe Tree and Vicky Brock talk about losing their companies and facing, then surviving the pains of startup failure in this frank episode. They share the invaluable if difficult, learnings that come from that experience. Under-capitalisation, product-market fit issues, slow sales cycles, and board/investor tensions don’t take away from the sense of personal responsibility and pain when you lose your company - but as Joe says: “we didn’t fail to do something remarkable... I have no regrets. You have a whole arsenal of experience that very few people have.”

Maximising sales, PR and startup visibility on limited resources

Cally Russell, founder and CEO of Mallzee, gives wise, practical advice on getting PR, boosting startup visibility on a shoestring, the power of the founder sale and why you should be focussing on OKRs. All while patiently taking the odd below the belt insult from fellow entrepreneur Vicky Brock in surprisingly good humour.