Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Johannes Weber is the Founding Partner at Ananda Impact Ventures, the leading impact venture capital fund with a pan-European investment remit, managing ca. €200 million in four Core Impact Funds, with backing from notable institutional and private investors. They back technology businesses committed to having a positive impact that answers the most pressing social and ecological challenges of our time, in a way that is both scalable and sustainable. The active portfolio includes NatureMetrics (biodiversity monitoring & assessment), Close Loop Medicine (personalized medicine), OroraTech (wildfire detection & monitoring from space), and IESO Digital Health (online psychotherapy). Johannes joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to speak about the super skill a VC should have, founder’s health, founder alignment, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Meri Beckwith is a Co-Founder at Lindus Health. Their mission is to accelerate clinical trials, so patients can benefit from new treatments sooner. They are an anti-CRO running radically faster, more reliable clinical trials for life science pioneers. They do this thanks to a commercial model that aligns incentives (fixed-priced quotes per study, with milestone-based payments), marrying a world-class clinical operations team with their unique software platform, and access to 30 million Electronic Health Records. They handle the end-to-end execution of clinical studies, including design, patient recruitment, clinical data capture, monitoring, and project management. Meri joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to share what anti-CRO means, how the traditional CRO model is broken, factors behind Lindus Health's success, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Chrys Chrysanthou and Leila Zegna are General Partners at Kindred Capital. At Kindred, they align their ambitions and achievements with their portfolio - in structure and in spirit. Every entrepreneur they invest in becomes a co-owner of the fund and they call it ‘equitable venture’. They invest early and work with their community of founders and advisers to help founders get further, faster from the very beginning. Chrys and Leila join James Pringle and Hector Mason to share what it is like to be Kindred, relationships vs intellectual horsepower, the need for humbleness in Venture & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Suranga Chandratillake is a General Partner at Balderton Capital; a multistage venture firm with more than two decades of experience supporting Europe’s best founders from Seed to IPO. They have both early and growth funds and invest across the technology sector. Suranga joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to share strategies for creating new processes, the importance of establishing good relationships with investors, the Balderton Founder Wellbeing & Performance Platform, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Dinika Mahtani is a Partner at Cherry Ventures; an early-stage venture capital firm led by a team of entrepreneurs with experience building fast-scaling companies such as Zalando and Spotify. The firm backs Europe's boldest founders, usually as their first institutional investor, and supports them in everything from their go-to-market strategy and the scaling of their businesses. Dinika joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to share share her career in banking and then at Uber, angel investing, Cherry Ventures’ secret sauce to success, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Amon Ghaiumy is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ophelos; a fintech startup with unique technology that uses machine learning and behavioural science to get people debt-free and organisations paid back. Amon joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss how he started Ophelos, the existing debt collection industry situation, the founder experience in the UK Tech ecosystem, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

James Evans is the Co-Founder and CEO of CommandBar; an AI-powered user assistance platform that makes your product easier to use. Activate and retain more users to grow faster. James joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss how to determine product-market fit, CommandBar’s hiring philosophy, their fundraising strategy, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Christian Gabriel is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Capdesk (acquired by Carta), a platform that helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Their mission is to unlock the power of equity ownership for more people in more places. Carta is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 5,000 investment funds, and half a million employees for cap table management, compensation management, liquidity venture capital solutions, and more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

David Bateman is a Managing Partner at Claret Capital Partners. The Claret team has been active in the technology financing markets for over 20 years and provides debt solutions to help entrepreneurs and private equity investors grow their companies while minimizing dilution. Since 2013 Claret has backed over 140 European SMEs from a wide range of geographies across Europe. David joins James Pringle to talk about the company profile they prefer to back, what success looks like for a venture fund, the biggest misconception about venture debt, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Agate Freimane is a General Partner at Norrsken VC, an Article 9, or "dark green," investment fund. They operate as a pure impact fund, exclusively investing in companies that have a sustainable objective for the product or service they develop. They provide extensive support to their portfolio companies, assisting them in implementing impact workshops and training programs. This enables them to measure their company's impact incrementally over time and establish long-term ESG goals. Agate joins James Pringle to discuss important founder traits, what sets Norrsken VC apart from other VCs, the person who made an impact on her career, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Christian Noske is a Partner at NGP Capital. They back early-stage B2B companies from Series A onwards in Europe, the US, Israel, and China within enterprise software, industrial tech, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. Their current portfolio includes Coda, DataLoop, Clue, Nova Labs, Scandit, Shippeo, & SecurityScorecard, while their exits include Deliveroo, Xiaomi, Moovit, Kaltura, and many more. Christian joins James Pringle to talk about investment process fundamentals, market changes, company expectations for Series A funding, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

This episode is with Raphael Thiolon (Managing Director) and Lopo Champalimaud (Co-Founder & Managing Partner at V3 Ventures) at Verlinvest, an international, family-backed evergreen investment company. They partner with visionary entrepreneurs who are driving consumer revolutions and building the next generation of category-defining brands that will positively impact the consumer sector for years to come. Raph and Lopo join James Pringle and Hector Mason to talk about the story behind Verlinvest, why they are focused on the consumer space, how different investor perspectives help with company building, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Audrey Handem is a VC at Speedinvest; one of Europe’s most active early-stage investors with more than €1 billion AuM and 40+ investors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. Founder success is Speedinvest’s top priority, so they don’t just send some money and "check in" at board meetings. Their mission is to empower founders with game-changing support through every stage of their journey. Audrey joins James Pringle to discuss the mistakes founders make in fundraising, what she looks for in investments now, what sets SpeedInvest apart from other VCs, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Jay Radia is the Founder and Managing Partner of Blissgrowth. They ideate, build, and scale industry winning B2B software technology companies with the best second-time founders. Jay joins Hector Mason to talk about decision-making, how happiness affects the business, startup process for his different companies, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Roger Wade is the Chairman of Boxfund VC, a venture capital fund established by entrepreneurs, funded by entrepreneurs, and dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs. They possess a deep understanding of the qualities required for entrepreneurial success and actively seek out exceptional individuals with brilliant ideas. They provide them with financial backing and expert guidance to help them thrive. Roger joins James Pringle and Hector Mason to discuss the impact of emotional intelligence, embracing change, using his voice to create a better world, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Sir Martin Sorrell is the Founder and Executive Chairman of S4Capital plc, the tech led, new age / new era digital advertising and marketing services company for global, multinational, regional and local clients, and millennial-driven influencer brands. To commemorate the launch of Riding Unicorns in 2020, Sir Martin joins James Pringle and Hector Mason the second time around to talk about the latest developments at S4 Capital, his perspective on the global market, how he has navigated the profound changes in our world, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Chris Smalling is a professional footballer and is also the Co-Founder of The Player's Fund. Chris currently plays for AS Roma in Italy. He has 31 caps and 1 goal for England. A few year's ago Chris started investing in companies that align with his plant-based lifestyle and he has now helped launch The Player's Fund alongside other top investing athletes such as Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad and Hector Bellerin. We learn more about Chris's journey as an athlete investor. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Niccolo Perra is the Co-Founder of Pleo. Pleo offers smart company cards that enable employees to buy the things they need for work, all while keeping a company's finance team in control of spending. Simplify bookkeeping, eliminate expense reports, and revolutionize your business. Niccolo joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to talk about Co-Founder relationships, product feedback, management and iteration, learnings from launching into new markets, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Jimmy Fussing Nielsen is a Partner and Co-founder of Heartcore Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund with offices in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, and Paris. Since 2007, they have backed some of Europe’s biggest category-defining companies, such as Tink, Neo4j, Boozt, Peakon, Seriously and TravelPerk. So far, they have invested in over 100 founding teams from 13 different countries. And they're looking for more. Jimmy joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to discuss high-risk investing, what’s the hardcore pitch to founders, balancing contrarian views, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄

Babs Ogundeyi is the Founder and CEO of Kuda, a fintech company on a mission to make financial services more accessible, affordable and rewarding for every African on the planet. They've built the money app for Africans around the world, giving them a better alternative to traditional finance by delivering services including free money transfers, smart budgeting, investments and instant access to credit through digital devices. Babs joins James Pringle and Hector Mason in this episode to share about the first key actions he took to start the business, what makes building a bank in Africa different from building one in the US or UK, what is the big vision for Kuda, & so much more. Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow The Riding Unicorns Podcast on our socials and your chosen podcast platform to stay up to date! 🎙️🦄