The Invested Investor

Professor Chris Mairs CBE, angel investor, entrepreneur, Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First, patron of Fight For Sight and a fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering, tells his story this week. Chris co-founded telecommunications software company Metaswitch Networks where he was CTO for many years having completed a computer science degree at Cambridge and spending some time at IBM, where his seven-strong co-founding team met. Chris tells us the engaging story of how Metaswitch began, why they hired raw graduates over experienced applicants, and why the importance of a high-quality management team is crucial. 

Chris goes on to discuss his transition from entrepreneur to investor in UK based early-stage technology companies and accelerators. Alongside this, he entertains with his many celebrated international sporting achievements, most recent being his incredible cycle across the USA, fundraising for research into the prevention of sight loss.

Christopher Mirabile the Boston based Chair of the Angel Capital Association, co-founder of Seraf and Managing Director of Launchpad Venture Group joins us this week with an incredible story. Christopher takes us from his early days in law and explains how he arrived in the venture, start-up and entrepreneurial space. His vast knowledge makes for an entertaining listen as he discusses what excites him and what pains him about angel investing. Christopher gives us his take on a classic start-up by saying  “A classic start-up consists of a team that’s never done it before, creating technology that’s never existed before, to serve a market that doesn’t exist yet, what could possibly go wrong?”

Keiron Sparrowhawk MedTech expert, founder and CEO of MyCognition joins us this week. He explains his personal connection to his early work within pharmaceuticals with Wellcome and GSK.  He tells us how his disruptive thinking lead him into entrepreneurship and how his first venture PriceSpective resulted in a fantastic exit, which enabled him to concentrate on himself and subsequently create MyCognition.

Keiron explains how his vision for the cognitive fitness game and app described as “physiotherapy for the brain” is set to disrupt the pharmaceutical market, and how the inspiration came from his desire to improve the quality of life of people suffering, often silently with diminished cognitive function. His passion shines through when he describes how this development could shape the way in which society as a whole considers and deals with mental health and cognitive fitness.

Alex Sleigh investment director at the leading financial service provider, Newable Private Investing is our guest this week. Alex talks to us about his early career, how his father’s influence helped him to set his sights on venture capital and how his economics based background helped shape his future entrepreneurial vision.  Alex shares his journey from investment director at London Business Angels to his idea for improving people's lives with enhanced broadband connectivity in rural locations and founding Newable Private Investing, the UK’s leading early-stage investment and business angel network.

Emma Sinclair MBE joins us this week, sharing her audacious approach to life and how life lessons helped her to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship, from car parks and health clubs to tech.  She explains how her childhood connection with the stock exchange taught her how to be bold and exit driven. Emma founded Enterprise Alumni a platform which enables enterprises to stay in touch with their talent pool and engage former employees. She is the youngest person to take a company public in the world. 

Emma states how there is no one-size-fits-all for an entrepreneurial team or formula for winning in life but that it is easier if you have people around you who support you, expressing the importance of trust within her founding team. 

Emma goes on to discuss how her sentiments towards work have changed over time and have naturally gravitated towards building communities for the benefits of competition, support and guidance. Emma’s involvement with Unicef as their first business mentor is her largest commitment outside of Enterprise Alumni. Her project teaches entrepreneurship skills in hard to reach places and resonates with her strong belief that “it is important to start things and not be afraid to think big in order to solve problems”.

Martin Frost, CEO and co-founder of CMR Surgical, joins us this week. Martin is passionate about supporting technology based start-ups that make a difference in people’s lives, and has great experience raising venture and company development.

In this podcast, he talks about his early corporate life licensing breakthrough tech and how this led him into entrepreneurship. He co-founded Red Cloud, a mobile money platform, which has transformed the lives of millions of people in emerging markets. Martin continues to transform lives with CMR’s robotic surgical solutions based in Cambridge. He has his sights set firmly on the global market with the new robotic platform, Versius.

Martin’s honest insights into the needs of an entrepreneur are not only engaging, but are straightforward and hugely valuable too. 

Raymond Luk, the Canadian serial entrepreneur and seasoned investor is our highly experienced and personable guest this week. Raymond takes us on his journey from his early days as founder of Hard Boiled Egg, a software development company, and Opendesk, a software service company, to his angel investing. Raymond explains how his entrepreneurial ventures have shaped his angel investing and how lessons learnt have helped him to understand the needs of start-ups and entrepreneurs. Raymond founded the Montreal based One Year Labs, an early-stage seed accelerator, and has since founded Flow Ventures and Hockeystick, which provides companies with software that enables growth using data.

Iris Barcia is an innovative technologist and experienced telecommunications professional, we are delighted to welcome her this week. Iris explains how technological curiosity and innovation drove her career, and set her on the road to becoming a leading telecommunications professional. Iris entertains us with her start-up journey and her creative role at Keima. 

In part two of Hermann Hauser’s podcast he brings us up to date by discussing his role within Amadeus Capital. Giving us an understanding of his investment portfolio, explaining why he champions AI, machine learning, quantum computing and Blockchain, and what qualities he looks for in an ideal entrepreneur. Hermann offers us his top tips for entrepreneurs and an insight into how lessons can be learnt from his failures.

Hermann Hauser of the legendary Acorn computers is our distinguished guest this week. In part one of Hermann’s podcast, he talks to us about his long and successful history as an entrepreneur. He prompts memories and amuses with his truly amazing journey. Hermann entertains us with the story of how he secured a bank overdraft to finance Acorn computers and how the team managed to put together the BBC Micro in just a few days. He explains how the Micro revolutionised IT teaching in schools, how school children learnt to program using Basic at school and home. He goes on to discuss his role at Olivetti, ARM and the Active Book Company.