Craig 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 MoreCarlos Diniz is a fantastic example of an entrepreneur learning from their ups and downs. This podcast tells the story of O Meu Dentista, which was the largest dentist franchise in Portugal. The company grew fast, with upwards of €11 million in sales at its peak, however a number of deciding factors led to its closure. Carlos has learnt a incredibly large amount about hiring the right people, Invested Investors and growing pains of a successful start-up. This story is a hugely useful tool for any entrepreneur looking to grow their business, and Carlos is an inspirational figure that now helps businesses learn from his O Meu Dentista journey.
Read MoreNigel Walker is Head of Innovation Lending at Innovate UK, and is constantly helping new and creative ideas flourish. Nigel is responsible for Access to Finance, where he continuously comes across cutting edge businesses in a variety of sectors. Because of this, he has played a role in many businesses that have been featured on Invested Investor, and guided them and many more to success. In this podcast Nigel talks about how he helps businesses of all scales, how to obtain funding, and the four sectors the Government is keen to invest in.
Read MoreNeil McArthur sold potatoes door-to-door as a child in Salford. Then, with his engineering background and his own capital, he set up the business that would later become TalkTalk. In this episode of The Invested Investor, Neil revisits the deals, false starts, and market choices that led to his success in the telecommunications field. He still works for TalkTalk, but spends most of his time working to improve his home city's entrepreneurial ecosystem. In the second half of the podcast he explains how much Manchester has going on beneath the surface in technology and enterprise, and how the narrative needs to catch up to reality.
Read MoreDavid Gill's meandering investment journey has taken him from law, to corporate finance, to running fund operations at HSBC, to managing the highly successful tech incubator St John’s Innovation Centre, in Cambridge. Along the way he learnt some important lessons about early-stage startups. In this podcast David shares these lessons: the hard decisions early-stage entrepreneurs have to make; about his three rules for smart investment; judging an entrepreneurship ecosystem; and when investors should trust their instincts.
Read MoreBridget Connell went into investing four years ago without any financial background, and has completed five deals since. In this episode she explains her hands-on style of investing. She has previously worked in technology, so supports tech startups, and she mentors female investors and entrepreneurs through the syndicate Angel Academe. Bridget is a strong believer in doing your due diligence when working on a project; she stays close to each company she works with, and supports them by drawing other investors close as well. She talks here about her desire to see more diversity in the investment world.
Read MoreWilliam Makant and Yusuf Muhammad founded Plumis in 2008 to develop Automist, an innovative sprinkler system. A decade later Plumis has a £2 million turnover and Automist is installed in 5,000 homes - but everything about it is different, from the product itself to the people involved. The secret to their success? Being able to pivot, to change strategy by learning about a market's key drivers. In this podcast William and Yusuf describe their journey, and the how and the why of their dramatic course change. They outline the pros and cons of working with Angel Investors, and describe how raising more money at the start might have made the company less successful.
Read MoreDavid Gammon a rare thing - an investor in technology with no technological background. Through his work as an Invested Investor and as CEO of Rockspring, he has supported entrepreneurs through some extraordinary successes. In this podcast, David describes his unconventional career path and how he sees the world. He talks about how crucial collaboration is for investors, and how he works with his family to make investment decisions. He has had his share of failures as well, and here explains how dealing with failure can make you a better entrepreneur.
Read MoreGoncalo de Vasconcelos is the co-founder of SyndicateRoom, a multi-award winning UK online equity investing platform. In this podcast, Goncalo talks openly with Peter Cowley about growing SyndicateRoom using the philosophy 'hire slowly, fire fast', why Invested Investor's are paramount to each company's listing on the website and the advice he has to entrepreneurs looking to raise funding.
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