Kaiku Conversations

Alex meets with Chistian Oldendorff, an early-stage investor, to discuss trends in tech investing and the shipping industry.

Christian is the Founder of Amplifier, an early stage venture capital fund and innovation unit spun out of the shipping industry, investing across the entire supply chain(seed/series A). From first to last mile, the fund focuses on solutions in deep learning, autonomy, IoT supply chain visibility, trade finance and smart enterprise SaaS technology. Additionally, Christian is the co-owner of Reederei Nord, a ship owning entity that was established in 1964 that currently owns and operates approximately 70+ ships across bulk, container and tanker markets. 

Previously, Christian launched Oldendorff Overseas Investments, which enabled institutional investors to invest in maritime more efficiently. This resulted in investments of over $750 million in shipping assets. Christian has made 20 investments since 2011, including three funds, one accelerator and 16 startups across Pre-seed, Seed and Series A stages across various sectors.

In this episode Alex is joined by Akash from Shaper Impact Capital to discuss routes into VC and trends in impact investing. Entry into venture capital is highly competitive and Akash offers some insight on how to make your application stand out. Akash offers some excellent advice for students and recent graduates and offers a unique insight into growth drivers in the ecosystem.

Akash is the Head of Europe at Shaper Impact Capital and will shortly be joining Augmentum Fintech, having previously worked as an Analyst for the Cass Entrepreneurship Fund. He studied Accounting & Finance at Cass Business School and started his career in Barclays Ventures focusing on fintech and startup incubation.

Check out Shaper Capital's newsletter for interesting updates on the impact startup ecosystem: www.shaperimpactcapital.com.

Akash also runs his own blog which can be found here: www.akash-bajwa.com.

This week Kaiku welcomes Keith Lynn to discuss product development early-stage growth. 

Keith is the founder at DogWagsTail—a startup product coaching practice. Working with venture-backed and revenue-generating bootstrapped startups, Keith coaches founders (and their crucial product leadership hires) in advanced practices deployed by the planet's renowned product-led companies.

With DogWagsTail, Keith is on a relentless mission to support breakthrough startups bringing remarkable digital products to market—products that customers need—want—and will love to use.

Keith previously led double-digit growth (£20 - £70m revenue and over £100m in gross sales) at InsurTech Simply Business—acquired for $490m. Alongside DogWagsTail, Keith is a mentor at a virtual program run by Techstars—the globally revered accelerator and startup network.

“An impact startup is founded with a clear intention of solving an ecological or social challenge” - Alex and Tzvete talk about opportunities for innovation and the urgency driving impact startups. 

Tzvete started out as a journalist before switching to proptech and future cities. She has worked in built world tech (Bosch's London Connectory and Round Hill Ventures) and is now focusing on 'Future of work'. She works with startups on positioning and strategy, is on the advisory board of implantable technology company Impli and is an advisor to The Entrepreneurs Network, UK's leading think tank of over 10,000 entrepreneurs. Tzvete also mentors female founders and is a strong advocate for diversity in technology. You may follow her Ecosystem project (online initiatives with VCs and founders) or subscribe to her newsletter on tech and venture capital".

Alex and Seb discuss the role of Government in VC and the startup market in Latin America. Seb Diaz was the CEO of Startup Chile, a public project and the biggest accelerator in LatAm, and now works as an advisor for the Yield Lab, an AgTech venture fund.

‘Marketing is the mechanism that closes the deal’ - Rich Moore is an expert in sales strategy and online engagement. Rich emphasises the importance of psychology in building a community and how entrepreneurs can use meaningful content to drive meaningful engagements. Check out his LinkedIn and website at therichardmoore.com!

This week our founder Alex meets with Lee Lam from Lee Lam Consulting on what community has meant for her in the past few months whilst working with local business up and down the UK, and the positives that can be taken away for the future through a new way of working. About Lee Lam Lee has a depth of experience and knowledge in financial services technology due to the COO / Chief of Staff roles across a career that spans over 20 years and has also run a successful coaching practice alongside this for over 14 years. She is the right blend of risk-taking, change-making creativity, with the security, safety and logic of a COO who can implement change and growth without any dramas.

Lee deliberately looks for those areas that could be stifling or stopping your ability to perform to your potential. And you may not even realise they are there - until it is too late. These are your blindspots. Lee’s own experience in senior leadership teams has allowed her a unique insight into leading teams and leading managers of teams and she has translated this into a powerful coaching approach for her clients, ranging from large corporates to entrepreneurial startups. Working with all sizes of business, from startups up to large organisations, she also takes on a limited amount of individual clients for one to one work.

Luke Smith, investor at Forward Partners, joins Alex to talk about the developments at Forward Partners, new models of financing and gives some great insights on the current VC landscape. Forward Partners is one of the UK’s leading early-stage VCs leading on revenue-based financing and working with founders to move startups forward. 

Mario, investment associate at Encomenda Smart Capital, joins Alex to talk about the Spanish startup ecosystem, the opportunities for startups after COVID-19 and some advice for founders to make it through. 

Encomenda Smart Capital invests in digital companies in Spain and beyond, with over €1bn value created in invested companies. Mario has worked in several technology accelerators and helped raise over €5m in public and private funding.  

Carl Rodrigues, founder of joiningthedots.network, joins Alex to talk all things networking, how to build a community, and shares tips on getting attention as we emerge back into a noisy, more virtual world...

Carl wears many hats as a tech entrepreneur, connector, coach and investor: advising on everything from Blockchain to AI and Fintech. Carl also helps startups assess, set up and run successful funding campaigns.