Figuring out market size

Figuring out market size when you are creating your own market requires lateral thinking and creativity and evidence.

When Willo® were raising their last round, Euan Cameron and I sat down and figured this out.

We started with how estimating how many people are recruited every year in Europe and the US. Then what proportion might reasonably want to use asynchronous video to screen candidates at scale. Then how much could reasonably be charged per candidate.

We evidenced the latter with estimates of time saved per candidate and therefore the ROI for any customers using the product.

The market size is huge. The ROI for customers is huge.

There is no official market size for Willo®. With lateral thinking and creativity and evidence you can produce numbers that make sense, you can back up and (ROI) you can use for marketing and sales.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 18 Jan 23

#TodayI

Asked what made a difference to founders when choosing investors.
Took the kids to school.
Had a blood test (nothing to worry about).
Shared that unbundled vc has invested in Jonny, Adam and James Campbell of Kuai Commerce.
Had a call with Solomon Bamidele of Totalfiit.
Met someone for coffee and advice.
Chatted with Chris Wyles about investing and fundraising.
Had a remedial massage from Todd Patterson of Infascia ahead of unbundleski.
Did some shopping.
Collected one child from school.
Collected another from football club.
Attended a committee meeting of the Guernsey Cambridge Society.

#NowI

Have to collect another child from football training.
Need to make dinner.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Investing in Kuai Commerce

I couldn't be happier to be investing in Jonny Plein, Adam Knight and James Campbell 甘吉 at Kuai Commerce alongside lead investor Playfair Capital, Haatch and Portfolio Ventures .

Kuai Commerce enables Western e-commerce brands to sell their goods in China using social commerce. It has incredible founders, an unimaginably large potential market and evidenced client demand.

As the first business unbundled vc publicly committed to, this deal is special to me in a number of ways. I am looking forward to great things from them.

https://www.uktech.news/ecommerce/kuai-commerce-pre-seed-20230118

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Choosing between investors

Founders, if you have the luxury of choosing between investors, what factors make a difference to you?

I know what I try to focus on. I'd like a sense check and guidance on what more I could do.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 17 Jan 23

#TodayI

Posted about curiosity.
Had pilates.
Attended a site meeting for our house build with Infinity Construction and DLM Architects Ltd.
Got 'tutto bagnato' walking five minutes from my car.
Chatted with Matthew Codd about his fractional CRO offering and how we might work together.
Shared Daisy Harvey of Loom's video pitch.
Spoke with a VC I have invested alongside to understand their investment remit.
Had a call with Edoardo Cariati of The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Private Equity Society and Hannah Leach of Houghton Street Ventures about the fireside chat we are doing next week. My father went to LSE.
Spoke with my professional advisers.

#LaterI

May be going for an early dinner for my son's 10th birthday.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Public pitch - Daisy Harvey of Loom

#PublicPitch

Delighted to share, with permission, Daisy Harvey of Loom's video pitch.

Loom is a sustainable fashion marketplace that connects customers with designers to make custom-made clothes, addressing the issue of unworn clothing due to bad design, fit and quality.

Please let me know if you would like an intro or feel free to reach out directly.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Curiosity

Curiosity is an essential skill.

When I speak to a founder, I am intensely curious. I want to know about their life, what they are building, why they are building, I want to know all the things.

I am hungry to understand and to learn.

#startups #founders #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 16 Jan 23

#TodayI

Posted asking the best advice you'd ever been given. On Twitter I got my most views ever because Sara Pascoe replied to my Tweet.
Had pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Took some documents to my accountant.
Had breakfast with a friend.
Chatted with Ryu Wong of the University of Sussex about my career and venture capital.
Installed Google Drive on my laptop so everything is backed up.
Was pitched by Charles Brecque of Legislate who is very close to closing his £3m round.

#LaterI

Am having an early dinner with a friend.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Best. Advice. Ever.

Founders, what's the best advice you've ever been given?

I love this that the comedian Sara Pascoe received from her father. She was going to get a teaching qualification so she could pay her rent. 

He said, “Don’t do a teaching qualification. Make it work or starve to death.”

He essentially said, if you have a backup plan, it’s far less likely that you’ll get to do what you want to do.

Via The Guardian.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - Jan 13

#TodayI

Posted about not caring.
Had a call with Thomas Desimpel to understand his investment criteria and share opportunities.
Chatted with Jennifer De La Mare of Digital Greenhouse Guernsey about the mentorship scheme I will be taking part in.
Was pitched by Daisy Harvey of Loom.
Caught up with Euan Cameron of Willo®.
Was pitched by Tunji OLALEKAN and Peter Okafor of Lendha.

#NowI

Have a doctor's appointment.

Have a great weekend everyone.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

I don’t care

Founders, I don't care about your ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, if you are a solo founder or if you are 18 or 80.

If you're good enough, you're good enough.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 12 Jan 23

#TodayI

Chatted with Samuel Cohen about his Operations Consultancy.
Added Anthony Paine's Founder Jumpstart to my founder resources page.
Posted about ChatGPT.
Set up TallyHo! by Nick Pointon for unbundledski.
Spoke with Rus Newton of GABI Ventures about his investment interests.
Shared Rory Marks of Bragardo's video pitch.
Took a walk (with phone switched off Chris Smith).
Had a call with James Parkes of My Day App.
Was pitched by Chris McAdam of Getahead.

#LaterI

Am improvising my joy back with Sarah Hansmann Rouxel.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Public pitch - Rory Marks of Bragardo

#PublicPitch

Delighted to share, with permission, Rory Marks of Bragardo's video pitch.

Bragardo is a social networking platform that uses gamification to increase user engagement and provide a powerful tool for businesses to target specific audiences.

Please let me know if you would like an intro or feel free to reach out directly.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Playing with ChatGPT

Like many of you, I have been playing with ChatGPT. It's insane.

What have you used it for or might like to?

I have used it to:
Generate summaries from pitch transcripts.
Check if a car was four wheel drive.
Produce potential topics for posts.

My son has used it to:
Search for guidance on his Italian revision.
Write code in Python and Lua.
Decode things when given the cipher.
Write essays.

Friends have used it for:
First drafts of blog posts for their business.
Translating code from Objective C to C#.
Drafting Information Memorandums.
Writing jokes.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Late update - 11 Jan 23

#YesterdayI

Posted about why consensus investing fails in venture capital.
Had pilates with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez).
Had a call with a CFO.
Chatted with Melissa Singh of ESM INVESTMENTS LIMITED about what we are each looking for.
Had coffee with a friend.
Collected my son from football.
Booked the hire cars for unbundledski.

#NowI

Have a Zoom and a glass of wine with a founder.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Consensus investing in venture capital

Consensus investing does not work in venture capital. Why? What does this mean?

Most businesses are passed on by most investors. That means the overall consensus is not to invest. In most of the world, the wisdom of crowds works well. Not in venture capital or nobody would ever invest in anything.

This is why venture investing is hard. You have to back your view that is different from the world.

It is also why raising money is hard for founders. As Peter Thiel famously said in Zero to One, you have to believe something about the world nobody else does. Then you have to convince investors to believe the same thing.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 10 Jan 23

#TodayI

Posted about how investing in Rest Less UK changed my life.
Got some docs to my accountant so I didn't miss a deadline.
Added the final people to unbundledski.
Dealt with a persistent salesperson.
Scheduled some pitches.
Arranged to do a podcast.
Met Evaldas Girskus.
Was pitched by Rory Marks of Bragardo.
Had a late postponement.
Signed follow-on investment docs.

#NowINeedTo

Feed the kids.
Do some more admin.
Read Benedict Evans's newsletter.
Get back to a founder.
Put the bins out (paging Kerrie Le Tissier).

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

How investing in Rest Less changed my life.

When I was younger, I had in my head that I wanted to retire at 50. I met Stuart Lewis and Sara Stephens when I was 46. It was 25 years since I left university.

As part of my research, I came across a book called The 100-Year Life written by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott and was fortunate to attend a talk by Professor Scott run by Susie Crowder's Bright Futures LBG.

One important thing the book says is that there is no special reason for us to retire at all or at 65. We are living longer and many of us will either have to or choose to work until later.

If there was even a chance I would live a long and healthy life there was no way I would want to retire soon.

This was a huge mindset change. I was 46, may have had more than half my productive life ahead of me and knew so much more than I did at the start of that life at 21.

There was an opportunity to achieve great things if I put my mind to it.

Rest Less UK changed my life.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 9 Jan 23

#TodayI

Posted about why I added my personal pronouns on LinkedIn.
Had a misunderstanding no-show.
Met MATHEW GULLY for coffee.
Went on BBC Radio Guernsey with the wonderful Sarah Hansmann Rouxel to talk about her upcoming improv course I am attending. Thank you Isla Blatchford for having us on!
Shared Ashley Lockwood of Oya Kitchens' video pitch.
Booked a doctor's appointment.
Booked flights for a friend's 50th.
Received investment docs for a follow-on round.
Did more admin.

#LaterI

Will review those investment docs.
Will get some papers together for my tax adviser.
Will complete a bank account application. Exciting times.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Public pitch - Ashley Lockwood of Oya

#PublicPitch

Delighted to share, with permission, Ashley Lockwood of Oya Kitchens' video pitch.

Oya Kitchens connects underutilised commercial space with short-term use starting with the food service and delivery markets.

Please let me know if you would like an intro or feel free to reach out directly.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic