Evening update - 2 August 23

#TodayI

Had Pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Share my article in Business Brief about the challenges of investing in LegalTech and how Larisa Budaeva of Nation.better has overcome them.
Attended a quarterly fund update.
Chatted with Sara Simeone of Niftyz.io.
Reviewed a follow-on opportunity.
Spoke with an investor who plans to launch a fund in the new year.
Produced a nearly final version of my article on Intentional Investing for this month's newsletter.
Have five items remaining on today's to-do list.

Edit: #LaterI

Am going to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Why LegalTech startups are hard

Why LegalTech startups are hard.

https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pnum=34&edid=82393f50-c789-44f8-beff-3802ef4b3d5c&isshared=true

I wrote an article in this month's Business Brief explaining why LegalTech startups are hard.

It explains why law firms' structures make them hard to sell to and there is a call out for Larisa Budaeva's Nation.better which I am fortunate to have invested in.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 1 August 23

#TodayI

Shared what I mean by a 1% founder.
Had a call with Minesh Patel of Amplified Global™.
Attended a site meeting for our house build with Infinity Group and DLM Architects Ltd.
Was pitched by a founder that wishes to remain anonymous.
Chatted with Khalil Hibri of Tangible Markets.
Collected my son's football trophy from engraving.
Worked on my article, Intentional Investing, for this month's newsletter.
Found out my article on LegalTech investing had gone live in this month's Business Brief.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

1% founders

What is a 1% founder?

Sometimes my feedback to founders includes, "I don't see you as a 1% founder". What do I mean?

Across the skill sets that founders need, you need to rank in the top 1% of founders.

This is hard. You are competing with other founders who all have these skill sets way more than the general population.

You can be really good at these and not be 1%. It's not an insult.

The bar is high.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 31 July 23

#TodayI

Woke up at 3am to leave Camp Bestival.
Got the ferry, showered and came to work.
Started working through my backlog.
Did a matcha shot taste test. Very helpful on a day when caffeine was required.
Had coffee with Zoë Cousens.
Caught up with Euan Cameron of Willo®.
Was pitched by Andy Ryan of Bounty Hunter World.

#NowI

Have a lot of sleep to catch up on.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 26 July 23

#TodayI

Advised you to just get stuff done.
Had an appointment with the dental hygienist.
Had coffee with an ex-colleague.
Was pitched by Simon Gallagher of Ida Designer.
Shared that Runna 2.0 has been released.
Saw that Monika Holod's Wangie.app's raise was featured in TechCrunch. Thank you Mike Butcher MBE for the coverage.
Had a postponement.
Did some errands.

#NowI

'm on a ferry to the UK for Bestival tomorrow.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Just get stuff done

Just get stuff done. The best advice you'll ever have.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 25 July 23

#TodayI

Shared Sarah Wernér and I need angels for our Angel and black female founder speed dating event. Please consider signing up or sharing with angel investors you know. Note: Sarah has done most of the work on this.
Was pitched by Temba Boateng of ReTickin'.
Was pitched by Khalil Hibri of Tangible Markets.
Spoke with Fred Warren of Wonder 14.
Was pitched by Justin Sycamore of Arcfina.
Collected the kids from kids club.
Dropped one of them off at tutoring.

#NowINeedTo

Put the bins out, collect him from tutoring and work through my backlog before I go away for a few days tomorrow afternoon.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Angel & black female founder speed dating

Angel & black female founder speed dating.

Sarah Wernér and I had a conversation about venture capital not backing enough underrepresented founders and black female founders in particular.

I've not invested in any black female founders, we had a chat about how best to help, this is the result.

It's not the same as cold hard cash but if we can get founders in front of investors in the first place, hopefully something will happen.

If you are an angel who'd like to take part, please sign up on the Eventbrite link (click the picture).

Even if you can't attend or you're not an angel, please like and share to spread the word.

Thank you.

Marc and Sarah

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 24 July 23

#TodayI

Cycled to Pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Cycled home to drive the kids to kids club.
Asked when you would take on clients with significantly different values to yours.
Had a postponement.
Signed up for ZINC's Portfolio Showcase on 20th September. Thank you Francesca Marsden for the invite.
Had a call with Matthew Codd of Cosmic Partners and unbundled vc's Founder Support Scheme.
Booked a dental hygienist appointment.
Started work on an article for my monthly newsletter. Current title - Intentional Investing.
Was pitched by Sahil Sethi of Maji Financial Wellbeing.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Client value clashes

Would you take on a client if their values were so different from yours you found them offensive? If not why not?

Hena Husain of The Content Architects and I had this conversation on Twitter. I don't know the right answer.

What do you think?

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 21 July 23

#TodayI

Asked for support standing up.
Had a call with Sam Perry of ensemble.
Had a postponement due to poor health.
Met and bought my boys a milkshake.
Booked a week with my boys on Herm Island.
Was pitched by two founders who wish to remain anonymous.
Had coffee with Barrie Baxter of Brixx Software.
Did my final prep for this evening.

#LaterI

Am standing up for the first time.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

First and last time standing up

Tonight I'm performing standup comedy for the first and perhaps last time with the lovely people in this picture.

I've taken a pretty short course, am steeling my nerves, and ten of us who've never done this before are going to put ourselves out there.

I could write something about personal growth and how challenging yourself is good for you, and that's all true, but if I'm honest I'm just nervous and am getting this off my chest.

Wish me luck, please.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 20 July 23

#TodayI

Shared a go to market hack.
Had coffee with an ex-colleague.
Worked on the Guernsey Venture Challenge shortlist.
Had a meeting for the Guernsey Venture Challenge.
Attended Duel Tech's Tackling Threads event hosted by Verity Hurd and Scarlett Hatchwell.
Had my Important not Urgent day.

#LaterI

Am rehearsing for tomorrow night's standup event with Sarah Hansmann Rouxel.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Go to market hack

Go to market hack for specific verticals, size of client or contract value.

Find another founder with the same target clients who you are not competing with. Ask them for the characteristics of those clients. Ask them what worked and what didn't. Start there.

Other founders will talk to you and tell you the truth. Your target clients may be hard to speak to in the first place.

This won't be the whole truth, your business is unique and you will need to adapt what you heard. But it's a great start.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 19 July 23

#TodayI

Shared that my podcast with Karthik Puvvada, The Build In Public Guy, was live.
Saw my Business Brief article was also in the Guernsey Press .
Was pitched by Sam Perry of ensemble. To be continued.
Had a call with Dami Hastrup of MOONHUB.
Attended a Diversity meeting.
Followed up with people I met on Monday.
Worked on my standup.

#NowI

Need to sleep. Brighton was fun but hectic.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Podcast with KP, The Build In Public Guy

This was fun. I did a podcast with KP, The Build In Public Guy (Karthik Puvvada) on his Build In Public Podcast and we talked about everything.

KP has had some incredible people on including Gary Vaynerchuk and Alexis Ohanian Sr. of Reddit, Inc. and Seven Seven Six 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ so I feel privileged to be on here.

Link to listen on Spotify, Apple Music and everywhere in the comments.

We covered all of this. Let me know what you think.

● Intro
● My background story & how I got into venture capital
● What made me build in public as a venture capitalist
● The genesis and reason behind unbundled vc
● My beliefs on the unbundling of VC
● Consistency and compound interest of content
● Content ideas and experiments
● The kind of founders unbundled vc is looking for
● Businesses and sectors that I wants to invest in
● 3 startups KP and I could have invested in during the last 2 decades
● Learning to invest, but never knowing what will succeed
● Explaining what founders have learned from users
● My top 3 questions to assess great founders
● The power of having a network of founders
● Vulnerability as a huge part of building in public

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 18 July 23

#TodayI

Shared that if it's just you making an investment decision, that can be a superpower.
Had coffee with Mark Bedser and Mariam Crichton of 7 Satya.
Had coffee with Julian Saunders of Orlofus.
Had coffee with Richard Cager of Jobsocks.
Had coffee with Jake Fox of South East Angels.
Had coffee with Louis Brookstein of Native Labs.
Had coffee with Jack Maddalena of Naurt.
Had coffee with Simon Ritchie and Archie Croft of Blox Software​.
Had coffee with Dan Wallman of TechNative Digital.
Saw my podcast with Karthik Puvvada - KP, The Build in Public Guy - was live. Trailer link in the comments.
Flew home to Guernsey.
Put the bins out.

Thank you Wired Sussex and The FuseBox for hosting me and making me feel so welcome the last couple of days.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Can’t see the wood for the trees

If it's just you making an investment decision, you can turn that into a superpower.

An investment team can go into so much detail they forget what's important to them.

This is particularly important in early-stage investing where there is an infinite amount of data about the business area and much less about the founders.

You have to know what is important to you and figure that out. Then you can make an informed decision based on your priorities.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 17 July 23

#TodayI

Shared the importance of choosing a co-founder.
Had coffee with Mike Fahey.
Had coffee with Christopher 💻 Weeks of Bounce Technologies Limited.
Had coffee with Llewellyn Thomas of Mission Digital Graphics Limited.
Had coffee with Omid Moallemi and David Parr of Prsnt.
Had coffee with Hayley Lowe of Klovr.
Had coffee with Simon Chuter MBA FRSA of Sussex Innovation.
Had coffee with Jason Baker and Ben Williams of Neonify.ai.
Had coffee with Claire Bown of Insert Space.

#NowI

Am heading to a Tech Jumpstart event.

#LaterI

Will not be sleeping.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic