The Edventure Brief

In this Edventure Emerge episode, we reveal the secrets of successful student entrepreneurs, who built incredible startups on university campuses. Our host, Joel Alexander (Crowdpad), is joined by Ahana Banerjee (Clear), Jolyon Martin (Petmedix) and Kyle Grant (Oxwash), with accolades ranging from Forbes 30u30, to joining YC, to multimillion dollar (oversubscribed) funding rounds.

They cover time management alongside university, the barriers to success they faced, and the differences in UK and US ecosystems for promoting entrepreneurship at university. The founders get candid about the first round of institutional money they raised and they mistakes they made with it. Finally, they share their 'Aha' moments that led them to where they are today and the steps they took to validate them.

In this episode, Anthony Rose, founder of SeedLegals (also known as the Man who saved the BBC) highlights the 10 most important things for your funding round, in order to get investment ready and close as swiftly and efficiently as possible. SeedLegals is the one-stop platform for all the legals you need to start, raise and grow your company. Trusted by 35000+ UK startups and investors, it is the #1 in the UK for funding rounds, cap tables & share option schemes. Talking through his story founding SeedLegals, he also shares his thoughts on dealing with investors, lawyers, advisors, and the government - and how to make the most of these interactions to maximise results.   

Find out more about SeedLegals at: https://seedlegals.com/

Tune into this #EdventureEmerge episode, where we are joined by Tessa Clarke (founder of OLIO), Loral Quinn (founder of Sustainably), hosted by Nikita Khandwala (Head of Growth at Coleap). Discussing their experiences as female founders building sustainable tech companies, Tessa and Loral share their personal journeys, what inspired them to start impact-driven businesses and the challenges they faced - both in building sustainable tech companies, but also as female founders.  

They share their perspectives on the most important metrics of success when building a mission-driven business (particularly when raising investment) and common mistakes made by founders building impact-driven companies. Finally, Tessa and Loral share insight and advice they wish they had received when starting their journey.  

Check out OLIO here: https://olioex.com/ 

See more on Sustainably here: https://www.sustainably.co/ 

Visit Coleap at: https://coleap.com/

In this episode, we are joined by Rob Fitzpatrick, serial entrepreneur and world-renowned author, including best-seller The Mom Test. Rob shares his entrepreneurial journey (from academia, to YC, to published author) and the exciting projects he has been a part of - including building his own boat prior to the pandemic! He shares common mistakes made by entrepreneurs, the importance of accepting that you will screw up, and why we should do more and think less. Of course, Rob also shares his insight on making products that customers actually love.

Keep up with Rob here: https://www.robfitz.com/home

Narek Vardanyan is the co-founder and CEO of The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF), one of the most successful crowdfunding marketing agencies in the world and author of the bestselling ’57 Secrets of Crowdfunding’ book. He is internationally recognised as a crowdfunding expert and got featured in Forbes, TEDx, Startup Grind, FoundR Magazine etc. In this episode, we discuss everything about crowdfunding with Narek. He details the process and gives thorough analysis of each stage and what needs to be considered. From talking about the type of product to the version of platform, he sheds light on the ‘art’ of crowdfunding with all listeners.

Republic is a startup investing platform for everyone. They allow regular people — not just a few wealthy accredited investors — to invest in highly vetted private startups, with as little as $10 or as much as $100,000 per investment. Republic was created to democratise fundraising while expanding equity investing to the masses, giving anyone the chance to back the next unicorn company.   Join our episode with Maria Pope and Amora Miller from Republic’s Venture Programmes, the first full stack investor ecosystem for established and emerging leaders in private investing, creating a pipeline from undergraduate mavericks to professional leaders. They talk about the programme they run with VCs and ecosystem builders and discuss the importance of democratising access to capital and investing. They also speak about the investing platform that Republic has and share their personal advice on conducting due diligence as a retail investor. Lastly, they talk about emerging spaces in investing and some exciting areas to watch out for.  

Read more on Republic at: https://republic.co/

In this episode, Oli Littlejohn, the Head of Community at CodeBase, talks us through why NoCode is important and how non technical people can now build digital product. He also shares his own entrepreneurial journey, detailing his experiences helping startups and building a community that helps each other grow. Oli shows us what it’s like to partner with FTSE100 companies to help startups grow and scale as much, and as fast, as possible. CodeBase is the largest technology incubator in the UK and one of the fastest growing in Europe, on a mission to help people build better tech startups and make startups accessible to everyone.  

Read more about Codebase: https://www.thisiscodebase.com/

Ifty Nasir is the founder and CEO of Vestd. Throughout his career he has built businesses and led high performing teams. He is a strong
believer in the ‘Ownership Effect’ and advises businesses on how to share equity to incentivise teams and unlock value.

An entrepreneur since his teens, and an ‘intrapreneur’ in the global energy industry, Ifty reached the most senior levels at BP and Essar
Energy. His mission is to transform the ‘shareholder’ world, currently dominated by ‘cash’, to one more reflective of the contribution made
through human endeavour, energy and hard work.

In this episode, Ifty walks us through the importance of partnerships and how to set them up in an early-stage business. In his words, businesses are built by teams, not by individuals and it's important that everybody is rewarded rather than just the founders. He gives us a deep dive into the topic of equity, explaining cash and non-cash investments, option pools and growth shares. 

Learn more about Vestd, one of the Edventure Emerge 2021 event sponsors, here: https://www.vestd.com/

Dr. Merritt Moore is a quantum physicist and professional ballerina. She graduated with Magna Cum Laude Honors in Physics from Harvard and graduated with a PhD in Quantum Optics from the University of Oxford. She also pursues a professional ballet career, previously with the Zurich Ballet, Boston Ballet, English National Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet. She was awarded Forbes 30 under 30 and is now dancing and choreographing with robots. Join Zara Zaman, co-founder of Edventure, as she talks with Merritt about her journey, the challenges she faced balancing arts and science, her thoughts on the education system and her advice for those torn between two interests.

Connect with Merritt on Instagram or Twitter @physicsonpointe

This episode is all about e-commerce and D2C brands. Nick, a talented e-commerce entrepreneur, tells us his side of the story, his experiences, and his regrets from building one of Shopify’s most visited stores. He discusses the origination of drop-shipping, the importance of customisation for D2C platforms, and the infinite possibilities that drop-shipping could have in the future world. Nick covers the marketing aspects of D2C brands and how to ride the wave of social media to capture the most attention in a world with an ever decreasing attention span. Lastly, he discusses the importance of having a solid network and an industry-specific mentor.

Grant is a junior at Stanford studying sustainable business. He’s spent the last year at Sequoia Capital, working on the Company Design Program — Sequoia’s early stage accelerator — and supporting founders on product, GTM and strategy. He is the co-founder of the College Ventures Network, the largest network of student-run venture groups in the world. At Stanford, he is co-MD of Cardinal Ventures, an early-stage accelerator whose companies have raised over $400 Million.  

Join this exciting episode to hear more about: 

- The College Ventures Network 

- What’s missing on college campuses today 

- How the landscape for student ventures has changed 

- Opportunities for student founders and what they need to launch 

- How to start a startup accelerator  

Read more about College Ventures Network here: https://www.collegeventuresnetwork.com/

Join us for an exciting #EdventureEmerge episode on how to monetise your passions in 2021 with Daniel Koss (founder of Creable), Matt Timons-Brown, (the Raspberry Pi Guy), Erifili Gounari (founder of The Z Link), and Vivek Pandit, (creator of We Are GenZ). They walk us through their journey of creating content and growing followings which ultimately allowed them to monetise their passions. We learn about the creator economy and what has changed in the last decade. They also share actionable tips and tricks to succeed in the highly competitive environment, but also highlight recent changes that bear immense opportunities, such as the fragmentation of one monolithic platforms to individual ones that cater to niche interests.  

Connect with Erifili Gounari: https://twitter.com/marauders
Check out the Z Link: https://thezlink.com 

Connect with Daniel Koss: https://twitter.com/danielkoss
Check out the Creable: https://creable.io/ 

Connect with Matt Timons-Brown: https://twitter.com/RaspberryPiGuy1
Check out Raspberry Pi Guy: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRaspberryPiGuy 

Connect with Vivek Pandit: https://twitter.com/vivek_pandit11
Check out We Are Gen Z: https://www.wearegenz.org/podcast/

In this #EdventureEmerge episode, we are joined by Roberto Croci, Managing Director of Microsoft for Startups MEA. He shares their mission of empowering every founder and startup in the Middle East and showcases the support they provide through initiatives like Highway to 100 Unicorns, the Growth X accelerator, and the Microsoft Reactor. He discusses the importance of connected ecosystems and how to build them. Finally, he explores the startup scene in MEA and why we shouldn't compare it to Silicon Valley, but focus instead on how to leverage its assets to build something unique to this region.

Microsoft for Startups: https://startups.microsoft.com/

Highway to 100 Unicorns: https://www.microsoft.com/MEA/startups/H100webseries/

Growth X Accelerator: https://www.microsoft.com/MEA/startups/growthxaccelerator/

Microsoft Reactor: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/

Tune in to this inspiring #EdventureEmerge episode with Leesa Soulodre (R3I Ventures) and Rosaline Chow Koo (CXA Group), hosted by Kajol Patel (Deloitte). These incredible women dive into a range of topics, sharing wisdom and advice from why it’s never too late for a career pivot to why you should always speak to the person next to you on a plane. Rosaline and Leesa share their non-linear paths into entrepreneurship, discuss the challenges they faced as female founders and explore how we can get more women to be managers of capital.  

Read more about R3I Ventures here: https://www.r3iventures.com/ 

Read more about CXA here: https://www.cxagroup.com/

Want to enter the world of startups but unsure how to get there? Join Oliver and Ali in an exciting conversation where they discuss how to take initiative, find your path to entrepreneurship, and unlock new opportunities through networking. An LSE law graduate, Ali did not take the usual path of his peers. Instead, he joined Apex Airspace, the startup using modular construction to build units of housing on top of existing buildings in London. He shares his journey and the struggles he faced along the way from visa issues to university regulations – not to mention having no experience in real estate. Finally, he stresses the importance of long-term thinking and sincerely investing in your relationships.

Read more about Apex Airspace here: https://www.apexairspace.co.uk/

What is the future of EdTech? In this Edventure Emerge Panel, we try to answer exactly this question.  Raya Bidshahri (School of Humanity), James Lo (Mana), Taras Polischuk (Dorm), and Kourosh Ghaffari (Waves) walk us through their EdTech ventures while elaborating on which problems and gaps within the sphere of education their startups are tackling. We talk about the lack of engagement and enthusiasm in high-schoolers, disillusionment, and disappointment of students about the lack of preparation for "real life" jobs by universities, whose fees are on an upward trajectory. Our four guests then propose steps to reverse these trends and how their idiosyncratic approaches may do exactly that. 

Find out more about Edventure and Edventure emerge here: edventure.vc

Connect with Raya Bidshahri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayabidshahri/

Find out more about School of Humanity: https://sofhumanity.com/

Connect with James Lo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yfjameslo/

Find out more about mana: https://mana.live/

Connect with Taras Polischuk: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taraspolischuk/

Find out more about dorm: https://joindorm.com/

Connect with Kourosh Ghaffari: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourosh-ghaffari/

Find out more about Waves: https://meetwaves.com/

Join Zara as she sits down with Robin Wauters, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Tech.eu, to discuss his path to journalism, why he founded Tech.eu, and the European tech ecosystem.

When he started eight years ago, people told him he couldn't build a publication about European tech. "It's too small", they said. Now, there are multiple publications covering European tech and Europe has 321 unicorns, increasing year on year. Yet, as Robin mentions, there is still a way to go for Europeans to reach the moxie and ambition of their American counterparts. Robin challenges the notion of creating mini Silicon Valleys around the world - arguing that we should think bigger. Rather than replicating Silicon Valley, Europe must forge its own legacy, building an ecosystem that plays to its unique strengths.  

Read more from Robin here: https://tech.eu/author/robin/

Join us for our most spontaneous talk from Edventure Emerge 2021, Europe's biggest conference for student founders and researchers. In this episode, we were joined by Fifty Years Venture Fellow Alejandra Borda, who bravely stepped in at a moment's notice for an impromptu discussion after a speaker no-show! We discussed a wide range of topics including women's health, the use of psychedelics to treat neuropsychiatric diseases such as PTSD and depression as well as for enhancement, and how novel startups in the sphere of biotech and health tech such as OURA, levels or Viome help people better understand their biology, both in health and disease. 

Find out more about edventure here: edventure.vc

Connect with Alejandra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-borda/

Find out more about Fifty Years: https://fiftyyears.com/

In this episode, Grace Vella walks us through her journey of founding Miss Kick, the UK's largest community of female footballers. Grace elaborates on the importance of building a strong community around your brand and the benefits of having such a community both for marketing and awareness but also for shaping the brand of your e-commerce. She also discusses some of the challenges of building a e-commerce around a sport that is so male-dominated. Lastly, she shows us what a day in the life of a successful e-commerce CEO looks like. 

Connect with Grace here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracevella/#

Find out more about MISSK KICK here: https://www.misskick.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA2sqOBhCGARIsAPuPK0jzGlwUoEIZDOm9K9CQjB0x1LIAVpJwuMUqfNl1Icuw02PcWWeqPO8aAo6gEALw_wcB 

Felix Eichler, CTO and Co-founder of Userlane, shares how entrepreneurship changed his life.  The talk is full of actionable advice on finding the right balance when running a startup, to avoid burn out and maximise for impact. He talks candidly about fear and uncertainty as a founder, and how to deal with them. He also shares his advice in four key areas (sleep, diet, sport and distractions) to improve your quality of life, energy levels and productivity - so that you have more time to pursue what you love! 

Forbes on Userlane: "Munich-based Userlane wants to make sure that if AI is going to replace human roles, people should be retrained and kept in work. To do that, it has built automated onboarding and training software created to assist people to understand any software instantly. It's raised more than $16 million to date from Five Elms Capital, amongst others." 

 Check out Userlane here: https://www.userlane.com/

Are you a purple cow? Because THAT is news. Tune in to Mike Butcher, editor-at-large of Techcrunch, as he shares how to cultivate a genuine and enduring relationship with the tech media and get your startup noticed. He breaks down the importance of who you contact, how to get their attention and what is actually considered as newsworthy (rather than a PR attempt).

In this episode, we're joined by technology evangelist, A.I. expert, and futurist, Tannya Jajal, as she explores and envisions a post-automation world. We live in an era of accelerating change. Experts say that we're now entering what will be known as the Imagination Era. Some of the most pertinent questions of our time are: what will the future of work look like in a post-A.I., post-automation world? What will the role of human beings be in a world where most of what can be outsourced to A.I., will be outsourced? What will creativity and innovation mean when humans co-exist with machines?

Read more of Tannya's thoughts at: https://www.tannyajajal.com/

Astranis is building the next generation of internet satellites, improving access to internet connectivity by making smaller and more powerful satellites at a fraction of the cost. Join their Chief of Staff, Christian Keil, who after having been in San Francisco for a while, has made it one of his goals to share the advice that he wishes he had when he was trying to break into startups. Spoiler alert: you don't have to start a startup to have an impactful career in entrepreneurship. 

Read more about Astranis at: https://www.astranis.com/   

Check out Christian's 'Silicon Valley Outsider': https://svoutsider.substack.com/  

And here are his thoughts on joining us at Edventure Emerge: https://svoutsider.substack.com/p/when-in-doubt-it

Steve O’Hear, VP of Strategy at Zapp, talks about his journey from writing about startups, at Techcrunch, to actually running one. In this episode, he shares his thoughts with Zara, co-founder of Edventure, on the importance of multidisciplinary teams for disruptive technologies and the false dichotomy of arts and STEM. He reveals how Zapp are carving out their niche in the on-demand delivery scene, requiring entirely new types of supply chains. He also explores the delicate balance of journalism’s duty to hold power to account but to not lose sight of nuance, or forget the humans behind a story.

Check out Zapp at: https://tryzapp.com/

Join Venture Souq's Lola Fernandez in her discussion with Kate McGinn (Seedcamp), Pascual Cortes-Monroy (Northzone) and Nicholas Shekerdemian (The Venture Collective) to hear about their different paths into Venture Capital.   Venture Souq is a GCC-based An investment firm focused on early-stage technology businesses. https://www.venturesouq.com Seedcamp is a European seed fund that identifies and invests early in founders attacking global markets. https://seedcamp.com Northzone is an early-stage venture capital fund built on experience spanning multiple economic and disruptive technology cycles. https://northzone.com The Venture Collective is a transformational, early-stage venture firm backed by world class entrepreneurs and business leaders. https://www.theventurecollective.com

Matt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneur First, talks about the three biggest lessons he has learnt through helping founders raise a billion dollars. He covers the importance of getting the co-founder relationship right, dreaming bigger and determining your competitive edge.

You can read more about and apply to Entrepreneur First at: https://www.joinef.com/

This episode is brought to you by our event sponsors: Edinburgh Innovations and Vonage. 

Maximilian Fleitmann, Partner at Richmond View Ventures, talks about how to raise a round in 2021. Whilst there may be more VC money in the startup ecosystem than ever before, make no mistake, fundraising is still hard. From his background as both an entrepreneur and now a VC, Max shares his insight and advice on how to make that process easier and maximise your chances of receiving funding for your startup. 

Check out his website for more information: https://www.maxfleit.com/

This episode is brought to you by our event sponsors: Edinburgh Innovations and Vonage.

In this episode, we sit with Raya Bidshahri, the founder of Awecademy and School of Humanity, an online high school with an interdisciplinary curriculum, where learners develop skills and mindsets by solving global challenges. Raya, who has been featured by BBC as one of the top 100 most influential women globally, shares with us the key lessons she learned throughout her entrepreneurial journey regarding what investors are looking for, how to build a solid founding team, challenges and opportunities of founding as a student, the importance of networking and many other valuable lessons! 

 Connect with Raya Bidshahri:  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayabidshahri/ 

https://twitter.com/raya_bid 

https://rayabidshahri.com/  

The School of Humanity 

 https://sofhumanity.com/  

About edventure:  edventure is a student-led pan-European accelerator, building startups through a semester-long program as well as running accelerator and incubators for universities to complement their enterprise offerings. We share key tools and resources, organize epic events, workshops, and talks with experts - in collaboration with our amazing partners. The edventure brief is a podcast hosted by edventure, in which we will be uploading new podcasts every week where we spotlight some of the world's leading start-up founders and VCs to talk about their journeys and experiences in the field. We will also be sharing short clips and excerpts from the podcasts!  

Subscribe here for more of this content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTSaFDeV3NRED3IkJLtteSw?sub_confirmation=1  

Connect with edventure: 

 Listen to our audio podcast on Spotify and Apple: https://anchor.fm/edventure 

Visit our website: edventure.vc 

Read some of our articles from The edventure blog: https://edventure.medium.com/ 

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Edventure book recommendations  

Start with why: https://amzn.to/3wMcYFs 

Exponential organizations: https://amzn.to/34HesES 

Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World: https://amzn.to/3pf0TWM 

The Power of Habit: https://amzn.to/3vRwlNb 

Venture Deals, Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist: https://amzn.to/34LGRtE 

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers: https://amzn.to/3vJzizn 

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail: https://amzn.to/2RiEBXt 

The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses: https://amzn.to/3pf0TWM