Don’t take my advice

Don't take my advice.

Anyone's advice, including this, is just advice. It's not instruction, it's what someone else thinks.

It's up to you to figure out what advice to take and what not to.

You have to figure out your own path.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 7 June 23

#TodayI

Shared how to think about competitive markets.
Spoke with Justin Meades of Phase Mechanical.
Had coffee with Nicholas Collinson.
Was pitched by Dr. Dupe Burgess of Bloomful.
Shared that my stealth startup has come out of stealth.
Made a load of intros.
Caught up with Dami Hastrup of MOONHUB.

#NowI

Have to feed the kids and attempt to stop them bickering.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Magrathea - out of stealth

Super excited to be able to announce I have invested in Alex Grant and Jacob Brown at Magrathea in both their Pre-Seed and Seed rounds.

Magrathea aims to industrialise the production of carbon neutral metal from seawater and brines, starting with magnesium, and you can see the first evidence below.

Today they are out of stealth with the announcement of their $10m Seed round led by VoLo Earth Ventures and Capricorn Investment Group (click the picture for details).

I also got to invest alongside the amazing Sam Altman of OpenAI though I did not know that at the time. (Back your judgment, not others'.)

Alex and Jacob are incredible founders and I am privileged to be a small part of their journey.

Magrathea is a US deep tech startup and so well outside my usual investment scope. I will explain how and why I broke my rules in another post.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Competitive spaces

How to think about building or investing in competitive spaces.

You have two viable options:

1. Differentiation. Your differentiation needs to matter. It needs to be the product and not the feature. If it's a nice to have and not a must have, you will lose.

2. Execution. You have to execute way better than your competitors. Partly this is about your ability to execute. Partly it's about your competition's. You have no control over the latter. Don't get involved if they're good. You want to compete against poorly run companies not great ones.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 6 June 23

#TodayI

Shared how to get started on your pitch.
Had a site meeting for our house build with DLM Architects Ltd and Infinity Group.
Had coffee with Claire Cherry of Joyance Partners.
Spoke with Perdie Alder and Margaret Anne Coyle of Hotbed.
Was pitched by Mark Perlmutter of Vegan Investing Club.
Chatted with Rachael Crook of Lifted.

#NowI

Am heading to a panel meeting.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

How to get started on your pitch

I'm often asked, "How do I get started on my pitch and what questions should I be expected to answer?"

1. Take this template.
2. Make sure you have good one-line answers for each of the questions.
3. Have a more in-depth answer prepared for each question if asked for more detail.
4. That's it.

There's obviously more to it. But this is a great start.

With thanks to Guy Kawasaki and Pitch.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 5 June 23

#TodayI

Shared that you should take founder reference calls.
Had coffee with James Ede-Golightly of Oxehealth and OXECO.
Chatted with Daniel Nyambe of Bantu Limited .
Had a call with Adrian Norman and Yordi de Kleijn of UniteVerse.
Chatted with Jake Abdinoor of @JX Ventures.
Spoke with Landon Sanford of Stealth.

#ThisEvening

I start realigning my sleep schedule ahead of a very early start for Saturday's 39-mile Saffery Rotary Walk.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Founder reference calls

Founders, make sure you take founder reference calls before accepting investment, particularly from your lead.

Ideally, they should be from founders they have been invested in for a while so they have more data points. They should also include a founder whose startup didn't make it.

You will have your investors with you for a long time. Your lead will be on your board for a long time and will have decision rights. It's important to get this right.

Most people are good actors. but there are some horror stories out there.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 2 June 23

#TodayWe (Dylan Cohen and I)

Attended London Tech Walk. Thanks again Haz Hubble and Magdalena Kościółek for organising.
Shared that I had attended London Tech Walk. Comment on this or the original post to be kept informed for next Friday's.
Had coffee with Daisy Harvey of Loom.
Postponed a founder call to watch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse at BFI London Imax Cinema (pic below).
Tried to catch up with a founder and had a location mismatch that prevented it.

#NowWe

Are waiting to collect a repaired laptop then heading to Buckinghamshire for a friend's 50th tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everyone.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

London Tech Walk

Had great fun this morning on London Tech Walk 5 with these wonderful people - Alessandro Canella, Lodovico Sella, Dylan Cohen, Claire B., Rohan M., Haz Hubble and Magdalena Kościółek.

Meet at a new location each Friday at 8am, coffee and walk until 9am, chat with some new people you might never otherwise have met.

Very simple and very effective. I will be back.

To find out about future London Tech Walks, please comment below.

Thank you Haz and Magdalena for organising!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 1 Jun 23

#TodayI

Hosted a founder breakfast with Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners. Thank you everyone who attended.
Had coffee with Monika Holod of Wangie.app.
Shared about the founder breakfast.
Had coffee with Andrew Miles.
Sent my first ever unbundled vc founders email.
Caught up on my backlog.

#ThisEvening

I will be watching some improv at The Free Association.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Founder event - what’s next?

A great turnout for my breakfast event on the transition from founder-led sales with Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners who is part of unbundled vc's founder support scheme.

Matthew even gave away three free sessions with him to attendees!

Thank you to everyone who attended and please give me feedback in the comments.

Founders, what would you like to see next? More from Matthew? Marketing advice? Raising advice?

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 31 May 23

#TodayI

Had breakfast with my brothers, Simon Cohen and Dan Cohen.
Recorded a podcast with Aarish Shah of Nothing Ventured and EmergeONE.
Had a quick bite with Jonny Plein of YASO.
Shared about being on the panel for Nano Grit Demo Day.
Attended the Nano Grit Demo Day. Thank you Chris Fernandes and Igor Krasnik for hosting and to all the fantastic founders who presented.

#NowI

Am going for dinner with Dylan Cohen.

#FoundersDontForget

My breakfast event tomorrow morning on the transition from founder-led sales with Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Nano Grit Demo Day

Really excited to be on the panel for the Nano Grit Demo Day taking place today at 5pm (link in comments) alongside Karthik Puvvada, Landon Sanford & Deep Kakkad.

Thank you Chris Fernandes and Dmitry Schetnikovich for including me.

Looking forward to hearing from some great founders and startups very shortly!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 30 May 23

#TodayI

Shared that I have advised my 15yo son not to study computer science at university.
Had coffee and a tour of Runna HQ with Dom Maskell, Ben Parker and Dylan Cohen (pic below).
Had lunch with a fellow investor.
Shared a reminder about my founder breakfast with Matthew Codd on Thursday.
Finally met in person my fellow investor in Nation.better and Wangie.app, Raj Kulasingam.
Had an early dinner with Daniel Sozonov of Unison.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Don’t study computer science

I have advised my fifteen year old son, Dylan Cohen, not to do a computer science degree.

The demand for software developers will shrink enormously as what one person can achieve increases exponentially. This is hugely net positive for the world as it will be much easier to build.

You need to be that person who can build most effectively using the new tools. The best will always still be in demand.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update -26 May 23

#TodayI

Shared about my breakfast event with Matthew Codd next Thursday.
Took the kids to school.
Chatted with Chantal Epp FRSA of ClicknClear.
Had coffee with Paul Robinson of Hyperion.
Chatted with Tim Wyatt and Seb Valencia of Optimise Guernsey.
Had a call with Paul de Gruchy Gaudin.
Caught up with Simon de la Rue of The Little Big Group.

#NowI

Am going for pizza with the kids.

Have a great long weekend.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Founder breakfast event - the transition from founder-led sales

Next Thursday, come and hear Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners and unbundled vc's founder support scheme speak about navigating the transition from founder-led sales.

Then ask Matthew and Marc Cohen anything.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 25 May 23

#TodayI

Ran to work (my legs hurt).
Shared about posting authentically.
Attended Pi Labs virtual demo day.
Chatted with Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners about the breakfast event we are running next week. Details tomorrow.
Planned out my first unbundled vc founders email.
Had my Important not Urgent day.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Authenticity in posting

What is authenticity on LinkedIn and why does it matter?

For me it's, "Can I imagine myself saying this."

Rewrite it until you can even if those aren't theoretically the perfect words.

If you don't sound like yourself, people will notice and they won't like your posts. This is why most company posts suck, they have no authentic voice.

Most importantly, you have to sound like the same person if you meet someone because that may be one of the reasons they wanted to meet you!

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic