The StartUp to ScaleUp Game Plan

Richard Anton, General Partner at Oxx, discussed the past, present and future of B2B SaaS investing. Richard shared insights about the evolution of the sector during the past 2 decades and explained why he believes Europe will strongly grow its share of global B2B SaaS investing despite the traditional Silicon Valley hegemony. Richard delved into topics such as the rise of generative AI, the emergence of Product-Led Growth (PLG), and the importance of organisational health in a tech venture's success. Richard emphasized the importance of solid product-market fit, diverse and balanced teams, and the capacity to build and defend a company's moat. He also shared his investment philosophy which prioritizes growth-oriented, category-defining companies with proven "founder-market fit". For more Oxx insights check out https://www.oxx.vc/ & for advice on hiring exceptional leadership talent for B2B Saas & AI ventures head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

In the latest episode of The Startup to Scale-Up Game Plan, host Gary Reeman invites Mark Beeston, Founding Partner at Illuminate Financial, to share his career journey, investment strategies, and insights into the fluid dynamics of the financial market. Illuminate Financial is a venture capital firm known for its expertise in investing in enterprise software companies catering to financial services businesses. We go over how Mark leveraged significant changes he had observed in the financial markets to build Illuminate Financial. A noteworthy suggestion from Mark is the centrality of charisma, energy, and being coachable for startup teams. He accentuates that being coachable does not merely imply following directives, but it signifies being receptive to constructive dialogues about shared experiences and potential risks. We delve into Illuminate Financial's collaborative engagements with JP Morgan, Barclays, and other major banks supporting the portfolio. These collaborations primarily focus on solving problems, catering to clients' needs, investing in resolutions, acquiring potential enterprises, and remaining updated with innovation opportunities. Mark underscores the importance of these symbiotic relationships, which revolve around a culture of persistent and progressive change. Mark reveals his reflections on the past decade by drawing upon profound insights into the venture capitalist environment. These reflections provide start-ups and other investors with valuable perspectives. Learn from Mark's experiences as he discloses the essential lessons from his journey for example the significance of fostering long-lasting business relationships. In the latter part of the conversation, we probe into the abundant potential of financial markets and portfolio companies in the coming decade. Mark lays out some exciting opportunities posed by the institutional adoption of advanced technology and blockchain rails. The episode winds down with a personal anecdote about Mark's love for cars and his approach to striking a work-life balance. In this insightful episode, uncover the complexities of business partnerships, financial entrepreneurship, and venture capitalism from Mark Beeston’s expert viewpoint. For additional insights into Illuminate Financial check out https://www.illuminatefinancial.com/ and for advice on hiring senior executives into enterprise software ventures head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Adam Liska is the co-founder & CEO at Glyphic – funded by Point72 Ventures – who’ve developed an AI co-pilot to make sales teams more productive, improving conversion rates & increasing revenue. Adam discussed: * Why he felt the market was ready for a fast-moving LLM product company even before OpenAI released ChatGPT * Overcoming the challenges of transitioning from working at a large corporate to becoming a startup founder * Key AI trends including multimodality – training LLMs not just on text but also on all the podcasts & videos on the internet * Why he feels people are over-indexing on AGI versus developing, releasing & enhancing great AI products For more Glyphic insights check out https://www.glyphic.ai/ & for advice on hiring exceptional leaders for AI startups & scale-ups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/about-us/

Jason Foster is the CEO of groundbreaking biotech firm Ori who've raised $130m in funding from the likes of Novalis, Octopus & Amadeus. Jason also runs his own angel investment portfolio & supports over a dozen healthtech & Saas ventures as a Board member/advisor. We explored: For more insights into Ori check out https://oribiotech.com/ and for advice on hiring C Suite talent for VC-backed startups and scale-ups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Hannah Meiton is a Founding Partner at the Nordic VC fund, Ampli Ventures who invest in the Nordics’ leading SaaS ventures. We explored: For more insights into Ampli Ventures, check out https://www.ampli.vc/ & for advice on recruiting exceptional leaders into SaaS startups & scaleups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Amrit Sami is a VC at Mercia Ventures who's taken an unconventional route into the world of venture capital. We explored: For more Mercia Ventures insights check out https://www.mercia.co.uk/ventures/ & for advice on hiring leaders for your Saas venture, head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Seth de Hart is a Venture Partner at Point Nine – he also advises other B2B SaaS startups on building & optimizing go2market We discussed For guidance on B2B saas sales & go2market check out https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethdehart/ and for advice on hiring B2B SaaS leadership talent head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Jonathan Organ is a Founding Partner at Axiom Equity – a new breed of B2B Saas investor who aim to challenge convention & think outside the box. We discussed: For more Axiom Equity insights check out https://www.axiomequity.com/ & for guidance on recruiting exceptional B2B SaaS leadership talent head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Barrie Hadfield is the founding CEO at mindset.ai – a B2B saas venture who make every piece of content easily accessible via a unique combination of generative AI & advanced knowledge graphs. Barrie’s a serial entrepreneur who’s founded 5 companies, employed thousands of people globally & launched several products that went on to be market leaders. We explored the extraordinary impact generative AI has had on his business over the past 12-18 months - and the exponential progress Barrie envisages for software engineering productivity in the next 3-5 years. We also discussed: For more insights into mindset.ai check out https://www.mindset.ai/ & for guidance on hiring leadership talent for B2B Saas startups & scaleups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Kashish Gupta is the co-founder of HighTouch, a Saas scale-up helping companies sync customer data across different back-end databases and systems. HighTouch has raised $90m from investors like Databricks, Bain Capital and Iconiq. We delved into HighTouch's journey, discussed their strategic relationships with Databricks, Snowflake & Hubspot, and explored their unique approach to data management. Some key takeaways include: For more insights into HighTouch check out https://hightouch.com/ and for advice on recruiting leadership talent for B2B software startups & scaleups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Maria Palma is a General Partner at Kindred Capital - a London HQ VC who describe themselves as an ‘equitable venture’ fund where every founder they back becomes a co-owner of the fund. Kindred have raised £266m across 3 funds & have backed startups like FiveAI, which was sold to Bosch in 2022, and Atlas ML, which was sold to Meta within a year of raising a seed round from Kindred. Maria explained why: For more insights into Kindred Capital check out https://kindredcapital.vc/ and head over to https://alpinasearch.com/ for advice on hiring leadership talent for software startups & scaleups

Dan Bowyer is a Partner at SuperSeed Ventures a VC fund investing in technical founders who love business automation. Dan has a radically different background to your typical VC - his career spans modelling, performing in a boy band & presenting kids TV shows before switching over to tech, entrepreneurship and eventually VC. Dan’s passionate about startups innovating and changing the world – he believes that startups can help tackle many societal problems. We discussed: For more insights into SuperSeed check out https://www.superseed.com/ & for head over to https://alpinasearch.com/ for guidance on recruiting exceptional senior talent for software ventures

Jamie Akhtar is the Founder & CEO at Cybersmart, a cybersecurity scale-up, funded by VCs including Oxx & British Patient Capital, dedicated to helping SME's safeguard their data. We explored: For more Cybersmart insights check out https://cybersmart.com/ & for advice on recruiting senior executives for B2B software startups & scale-ups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Guy Rubin is the CEO & Founder of Ebsta, the Revenue Intelligence Platform for Salesforce & Hubspot customers. Ebsta helps high-performing business development teams engage with more target accounts, helps sales teams close deals faster, & helps customer success teams retain happier customers. We explored why: For more revenue intelligence insights check out https://www.ebsta.com/ & for advice on hiring leaders for B2B Saas ventures check out https://alpinasearch.com/

Magnus Karnehm is a Principal at Left Lane Capital – Magnus heads up their European office We explored Left Lane's unique approach to venture capital – running their fund like a sales team with each investor speaking to 25+ companies a week giving them exposure to off the beaten track sectors as well as the hot and trendy sectors. We discussed the traits of startups that scale efficiently from $1m to $10m ARR - in particular data obsession We also discussed the mistakes that can hinder a Saas venture's trajectory - e.g. moving upmarket too early With great candour & humility, Magnus opened up on his journey of self exploration since embarking on the Hoffman Institute process after his father passed away last year. We discussed how important it is for a VC to maintain peak personal performance as their decisions - and the support they provide to their portfolio companies - are so impactful. For more insights into Left Lane Capital check out https://www.leftlane.com/ and for advice on hiring leadership talent for software ventures head over to https://alpinasearch.com/ More information on the Hoffman Institute process can be found at https://www.hoffmaninstitute.co.uk/

Maarten Stolk is the CEO & co-founder at Deeploy - a Dutch startup helping businesses build explainable and responsible AI We discussed: For more insights into Deeploy, head over to https://www.deeploy.ml/ & for guidance on recruiting impactful leaders for software startups & scaleups head over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Ed Keelan is a Partner at Octopus Ventures focused on B2B SaaS. As well as identifying & nurturing disruptive SaaS startups, Ed's actively involved in various initiatives addressing D&I topics - including neurodiversity - within the VC sector. We discussed: For more insights into Octopus Ventures head over to https://octopusventures.com/ & for advice on recruiting exceptional leaders for startups & scale-ups check out https://alpinasearch.com/

William Tunstall-Pedoe's claims to fame include, in his first startup, Evi – which he sold to Amazon - creating the AI technology that now powers Alexa in 100s of millions of devices globally, coding the AI software behind the anagrams in the Da Vinci Code, and calculating that April 11th 1954 was the most boring day in history! William’s latest venture – Unlikely AI – who’ve recently raised a $20m seed round led by Amadeus & Octopus - is his most ambitious venture yet & could radically change the future of software & AI development We explored: For more insights into Unlikely AI head over to https://unlikely.ai/ & for advice on recruiting exceptional leaders for startups & scale-ups check out https://alpinasearch.com/

Ambre Soubiran is the CEO at Kaiko – a cryptocurrency market data provider who in June ‘22 raised a $55m Series B led by Eight Roads. Kaiko aims to become the Bloomberg of the blockchain & cryptocurrency worlds! We explored: For more insights into Kaiko head over to https://www.kaiko.com/ & for advice on hiring leaders for B2B SaaS scale-up heads over to https://alpinasearch.com/

Bastian Karweg is the Group CEO at Echobot & Leadfeeder – these 2 saas ventures were recently acquired & merged by Great Hill Partners to create a ground-breaking sales intelligence & go-to-market platform & appointed Zoominfo's former CEO, Derek Schoettle, as their Chairman. We explored: For more insights into Echobot & Leadfeeder check out https://www.echobot.com/ & https://www.leadfeeder.com/ And for advice on recruiting exceptional leadership talent for B2B Saas scale-ups check out https://alpinasearch.com/