“You work so hard for something you’ve dreamt of for so long and then you achieve it and it’s nothing like you imagined it would be…”  This week’s 40 Minute Mentor is Lottie Whyte, Co-Founder and CEO of MyoMaster, the home of sports recovery and a brand on a mission to unlock every athlete’s greatest performance.  If you’re an avid BBC Dragons Den watcher, then you’ll have seen Lottie and her Co-Founder and husband, Joe, on the most recent series, where they won an incredible £100,000 investment from Gary Neville and Sara Davies.  In today’s episode we not only discuss this l ..read more

“It’s never felt easy. There’s never been a single day where it’s felt easy. The winds are always hardwired for various reasons, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a lot of fun.”  This week’s 40 Minute Mentor is Morgan Fowles, CEO of popular sustainable activewear and athleisure brand, TALA.  If you’ve been listening to 40 Minute Mentor for a while, you would have already come across TALA, when we caught up with Founder, Grace Beverley in Season 5.  In this episode, we find out more about Morgan’s career in fashion, including her exec role at Thomas Pink Shirtmaker, COO at SPOKE ..read more

“They say all the best businesses in the world have nearly died three times. It’s an inevitable journey you go on when you're creating a high growth business.” This week’s 40 Minute Mentor is Radha Vyas, Co-Founder and CEO of adventure travel startup, Flash Pack.  Flash Pack is on a mission to create 1 million friendships through connecting solo travellers in their 30s and 40s to go on adventure trips they'll never forget.  Since inception, Flash Pack has been on an incredible journey - reaching £20m turnover with a team of 60. However, with Covid hitting the travel industry the h ..read more

“Sometimes entrepreneurship is about bending the odds of success and being willing to take on the risk even though it doesn’t make much sense. It’s about going ahead anyway and changing the odds yourself.”  In our first episode of Series 11 of 40 Minute Mentor, we’re joined by Richard Robinson, Founder and CEO of Robin AI.  Robin AI is a leader in legal AI and empowers legal teams and lawyers all over the world to make contract processes effortless.  In today’s episode you’ll find out how Richard has built Robin AI from ideation to 100+ employees, 72+ global customers and $32 ..read more

“Sometimes entrepreneurship is about bending the odds of success, and just being willing to take on the risks…” Welcome back to Series 11 of 40 Minute Mentor - your pocket-sized career mentor.  We’ve got 13 weeks of non-stop mentorship from some of the best in the industry, coming up for you.  Before we kick off the series with our first 40 Minute Mentor next week, we thought we’d share a few soundbites with you of what’s to come…  In this series trailer, you’ll hear from:  ⭐ Gary Izunwa, Co-Founder & CEO of Tangent  ⭐ Morgan Fowles, CEO at TALA ⭐ Natasha Ratan ..read more

“We scaled way too fast…and the result was that we mis-hired quite a lot. It was not a sustainable way to scale.” This week’s 40 Minute Mentor is Peter Specht, General Partner at Creandum, one of the leading early stage VCs that have invested in over 120 companies, of which 20 are unicorns today.  Following career chapters at Rocket Internet Group, Google and Bain, Peter joined the firm as Investment Manager in 2017, as one of the firm’s first hires in the DACH region, building out its Berlin hub.  Now based in London, Peter primarily focuses on investing into SaaS and B2B marketp ..read more

“Team sports are a great proxy for working in companies, where often the power of the collective is way stronger than any individual.” This week’s 40 Minute Mentor is Davor Hebel, Managing Partner at Eight Roads Ventures, the global VC firm backed by Fidelity.     Eight Roads backs and partners with game-changing tech and healthcare companies across Europe, Asia, Israel and the US. The platform has 50+ years of venture investing experience, $11bn in AUM, over 300 portfolio companies and they’ve had 60+ IPOs. Reflecting on 18+ years in venture capital, Davor shares tonnes of in ..read more

“If you’re not ready to commit to VC for at least 10 years, it’s just not worth trying…”  This week’s 40 Minute Mentor is Masha Bucher, Founder & General Partner at Day One Ventures.  The firm backs Founders from AI and Climate, to future of work and Deeptech, helping customer obsessed and mission-driven Founders win, by harnessing the power of storytelling.  With a background in communications and PR, Masha is pioneering a new model in VC by spearheading public relations in Day One Ventures portfolio, which is one of the many topics we dive into in today’s episode…  ..read more

“You need to figure out what you really need. Not just the role now, but looking at the future and at the competencies you need in your organisation. Figure out how you build a very complementary team, rather than having people who are all the same.”  This week’s 40 Minute Mentor is Sandra Schwarzer, VP C-Suite/Board & EU Talent/Community & Insights Team leader at Index Ventures.  Sandra works with Founders and executive teams on people related issues, including talent strategy, culture and DE&I, and advises Index’ portfolio on their most senior hires.  Before joi ..read more

“This is not necessarily a one-way transaction. Look at fundraising like it’s dating. The VC you’re going to choose, you’ll be stuck with for quite some time, so don’t play games and be honest, the whole way through…”  This week’s 40 Minute Mentor is the brilliant Abhishek Lahoti, Head of Platform at Highland Europe, a growth stage Venture Capital firm based in Geneva and London.  Within his role at Highland Europe, Abhishek’s focus is to build a strong network of advisors and experts to help the portfolio scale at pace.  In today’s episode, we won’t just take a deep dive int ..read more