Reece Chowdhry, the dynamic founder of RLC Ventures joins us this week. Reece has been investing since the age of 13 and now has over 40 investments to his name. In this podcast, we hear how Reece started life at EY, before setting up RLC Ventures in 2015. You can hear more by listening to his podcast…
Read MoreCraig Dearden-Philips MBE, social entrepreneur and angel investor, joins us this week. He is the founder of Stepping Out, Voice Ability and Social Club, as well as a writer and academic. Craig tells his inspirational journey from voluntary work to his present-day social investment portfolio and social leadership publications. To hear more, listen to his podcast…
Read MoreTamara Giltsoff never expected to end up in a Government role. She was always interested in new technologies and how they could create innovative business models. This led her to Product Health a connected hardware start-up, which also introduced her to commercial Africa. When it was time to move on, Tamara found her calling as Head of Innovation at the Department for International Development. In this podcast, Tamara gives us insight on how her entrepreneurial spirit could be applied to the world of government, as well as the economic development of Africa. She also investigates how venture capitalism can help shape future government investing practice.
Read MoreDominic Hill was on a six-figure salary and the director of a multi-million pound jewellery wholesaler. However, he left this coveted position because his learning had slowed and saw that the future of the industry was digital. Dominic joined an ambitious start-up but soon realised it wasn't a good fit, so started his own business, Atelier Technology. It was a very hard beginning, with angry investors and a shoestring budget…you can hear more by listening to his podcast.
Read MoreNathan Hill has been on the board of UK Business Angels Association and is an serial entrepreneur. He started his career at Oxford becoming a physicist, which incidentally he was “rubbish at”. However, this set back did identify his gift as a salesman. The start of Nathan’s entrepreneurial career saw him launch Qi3. It is heavily involved in everything to do with space, but he saw that smaller businesses were unable to afford his services. Nathan offered it to them for equity and so launched his Angel career. Over the following years, Nathan has made 15 investments with 25x and 37x exits as well as some failures.…you can hear more by listening to his podcast.
Read MoreJelena Aleksic came to Cambridge to do a PhD in genetics but soon realised she had an entrepreneurial spirit. She started two businesses on the side during her study, but it wasn’t until she obtained funding for Gene Adviser did she work full time on a startup. Jelena was successfully funded 350K from investors, including Peter Cowley. Unfortunately, the business failed, but Jelena learnt some vital lessons which she shares in this podcast.
Read MoreAndrew Gaule has a reputation for innovating within corporate’s. In this podcast we hear how it started during the dotcom boom when he was studying at Henley Business School and saw the potential for selling online. He wrote an MBA paper on the topic, which rewarded him with his worst mark. Andrew wasn’t shaken however and using his entrepreneurial spirit started Henley Incubator in 2000, and the rest is history. Since then Andrew has gone onto help corporate’s by introducing them to open innovation and its benefits, as well as being heavily involved in venture capital.
Read MoreShirin Dehghan is a hugely successful entrepreneur, having built Arieso and sold it to JDSU. In part 2 of her podcast, we hear how she decided to take a year out before getting bored and subsequently gravitating back to the start-up ecosystem. She has made a number of angel investments, including a lesson in letting her guard down as she invested in a team she knew well. Shirin is now a senior partner at Frog Capital, where she sits on four start-up boards. A tip to entrepreneurs, “Don’t turn up to a board meeting with a laundry list of problems without thinking of possible solutions. Your board will lose faith quickly”.
Read MoreDr Simon Murdoch follows his instincts. He set up Bookpages in the mid-90's because he saw an opportunity to emulate Amazon in the UK. He has invested in some the most iconic UK start-ups of the last twenty years. He has become a figurehead for invested investors in London. He loves what he does, particularly learning something new everyday. In this podcast Simon describes why he set up a competitor to Amazon, what it's to work for Jeff Bezos and how he transitioned into investing. Although he has experienced his share of failures, his eye for a successful start-up is remarkable.
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