It's time for another episode of Frankly, hosted by  Steve Cook.  In this episode Steve talks to David Hill, Commercial Director at Open Energi. David reveals to us an interesting origin story of Open Energi that has an unusual structure of running with an executive Chair rather than a CEO – we will know what the benefits and challenges of that model are.  Tune in to learn about how David's approach to selling into very large complex customers. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast to stay in the know! Also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts ..read more

It's time for another episode of Frankly, hosted by our Operating Partner Steve Cook.  In this episode Steve talks to Daryn Edgar, CEO at LYTT, recognised by ComputerWeekly’s Most Influential Women in UK IT and the Women in Technology Awards, Daryn speaks on a range of topics in digital technology, business development and diversity. As an active startup mentor, Board member and angel investor, Daryn is skilled at building relationships to produce value and influence direction. In today's episode Steve and Daryn discuss that Lytt was a spun out of bp and Daryn came in as CEO shortly after ..read more

It's time for another episode of Frankly, hosted by our Operating Partner Steve Cook.  In this episode Steve talks to Bruce Hall, CEO at Onyx Insight, who has grown rapidly over 100 people and recently won UK Queens awards for enterprise – one for innovation and one for export. Steve and Bruce try to answer the following questions: how to ensure that the team stays cohesive and culturally consistent during a rapid growth? How to attract and retain talent and why it might be a good idea for some start ups to consider unconventional locations for their business?  Tune in to learn about ..read more

It's time for another episode of Frankly, hosted by our Operating Partner Steve Cook.  In this episode Steve talks to Chris Shannon, CEO at Fotech Group, established serial entrepreneur with 20+ years experience in a rapid growth, innovative, international environment. After spending a large part of his career as a CEO for various start-ups, Chris shares with us his advice on making it through a start-up rollercoaster, how it is important to stay focused, calm and positive.  Tune in to learn about how to get the team know and understand each other and build level of trust.  Ther ..read more

Frankly is back from summer holidays with our Operating Partner Steve Cook talking to CEOs and founders of Launchpad's portfolio and picking up their brains about things they have learned, some of the practical challenges they have dealt with as they scaled their companies over the past 2-3 years.  In this episode Steve talks to Mike Popham, CEO at STRYDE, who is building a new seismic company, reinventing subsurface imaging. The two discuss how seismic is used outside of oil&gas in such industries such as geothermal, mining, carbon capture and storage. Mike reveals his journey from a ..read more

In this episode Siobhan Clarke talks with Christine Moy, Global Head of Liink, Onyx by J.P. Morgan who is building new financial infrastructure with 16+ yrs sweat equity in the trenches of banking, markets, operations, and technology and is responsible for developing and driving the adoption of the blockchain technology across the entire firm.  Siobhan and Christine discuss how to introduce new technologies into the new market, what learning loops are consistent and the importance of the team and people with intellectual curiosity, resilience who focuses on impact.  Tune in to learn ..read more

It's time for our last Tech Series episode of Frankly, hosted by our CTO, Tom Grey. Today, we get to hear from Dr John Coultate, Head of Product Development at Onyx.  John and Tom talk in detail about similarities and differences when being both hardware and software start-ups and how focus on quality and supply plays a vital role. John also shares the two angles to hardware testing.  Tune in to find out from John what it takes to put something developed using 'hobby grade' components live as a product and how does it need to change.  Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast to ..read more

Tune in to another episode of Frankly Tech Series, hosted by our CTO, Tom Grey. This time, we get a 20 minute crash course on design thinking from Marlene Weber, User Experience Specialist at Launchpad. Marlene holds a doctorate in human centred design. Practiced at Jaguar Land Rover, she works with clients to map human AI with people first products designed for their businesses. Marlene talks us through her own definition of design thinking, how it is used to challenge assumptions to do user research, to test with customers and to prototype and on top of it explains the differences between UX ..read more

It's time for another Tech Series episode of Frankly, hosted by our CTO, Tom Grey. Today, we get to hear from Karen Scarbrough, Senior Technology Associate at bp & Co-Founder of molecu, a bp incubated company, leading development of bp external and internal blockchain network, developing and presenting educational materials on Blockchain, Zero Knowledge Proofs, and decentralised finance across the organisation.  Karen and Tom talk in detail about the differences between private and public blockchains, its application that are being built right now, what takes energy consumption of the ..read more

Tune in to the second episode of our Tech Series hosted by Tom Grey, our Chief Technology Officer, where we focus on the technology we develop at Launchpad and our Portfolio Companies. In this episode Tom talks to Arabela Silva, IT and Security Manager at Fotech Solutions, on how young people most times “fall into” tech roles totally unprepared and stay feeling inadequate for a long time. Hence Arabela started being involved in programmes supporting young people in developing their full potential. We will discuss that diversity, not only in gender or race, enables innovation and the importance ..read more