The Power Of Hindsight With Mark Abraham

Nick Telson is the Co-Founder of DesignMyNight who recently exited the company for multiple millions after 9 years at the helm. DesignMyNight are in 20 cities and towns in the UK and Ireland, and have also created their very own bookings and enquiries system, Collins, as well as one of the leading ticketing platforms in the UK, Tonic. 

In this episode we discussed what it was like starting a business back in 2009 as well as bootstrapping it to success after pivoting three years into the business. Huge value in this episode. 

Leonard Sekyonda is a British Internet personality, Best-selling Author, Motivational Speaker & Life Coach. At 19 years old Leonard jumped straight into the deep end, setting-up his first international business flying to South Asia (Philippines) and recruiting nurses to the UK. 

Aware of the lack of support and belief available for aspiring entrepreneurs, Leonard went on to Co-found Tech startup MYCOMEUP in early 2009, motiving it’s audience with motivational articles and MYCOMEUP (words of wisdom) videos which have garnered over 31 Million views on Youtube.

MYCOMEUP WORLD is a social network that matches freelancers, entrepreneurs and creatives. It also provides work opportunities through an internship. The network now boasts over 127,000 global users. Leonard’s goal is to make the Personal Development techniques and methods that he has used throughout his journey accessible and applicable within people's day to day lives.

In this episode, Mark sat down with Dr Kevin Fleming & Dr Sandeep Kapur from Mayo Clinic Healthcare in partnership with Oxford University Clinic at their new clinic in Portland Place London.  Mayo Clinic is widely regarded as the leaders in medical research and preventative healthcare with 63,000 employees globally. They are a not for profit organisation, so all revenues are reinvested into research and better care for their clients. The topics covered included the effects of alcohol & drugs, the catastrophic results of a pure vegan diet for a child can lead to, anxiety & depression, sleep and what is the most optimal diet.

Knowledge is power and Gary Beckwith certainly has lots of knowledge to share with over three decades working on the River Thames in London. Starting out with just a fuel barge, it slowly grew to a passenger boat and then to become London’s No 1 sightseeing cruise. Only two weeks ago, Gary and his wife Rita signed the sale of the company to a US firm in a trade sale. I sat with Gary to talk about the emotion of this sale as well as his life in business. A truly amazing man who anyone listening will learn from.

In this week’s podcast, I sat down with Melissa Lester of Dig Ventures, a venture capital firm that puts founders first. If you are a founder looking to raise investment, this is the podcast for you. We discussed how to build your investment deck, how to pitch to investors in a meeting, what to look for from an investor and how to negotiate favourable terms. Melissa demystifies the investment world which can be full of semantics. I hope you enjoy.

What does every startup need to know from a legal standpoint? From trademarking to IP protection to negotiating terms with your investors, we cover it all with James Lewis of Fieldfisher LLP. 

James Lewis is a dispute resolution lawyer with over 10 years' experience providing valued advice on contractual and related disputes to assist his clients in making informed commercial decisions. In this episode of The Power of Hindsight, we discuss how a start-up should tackle the formation of a company from a legal perspective. The importance of IP protection, trademarking, employee incentives through shares and how to negotiate terms with investors.

Many entrepreneurs & self-employed people fail miserably at managing their accounts. Whether that be failing to save their receipts or forgetting to put away money for the taxman each month, the same mistakes are made. Starting a business can be hard and bring many stressful situations over the first year or two, financial management can be one of the biggest. Mark sat down with Dave Sellick of Sidgrove to answer all the above and more. Dave is one of the most innovative accountants transforming this industry where he matches tech to help startups and exceptional founders manage their finances.