This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Niklas Hebborn who is a partner at Freigeist Capital, a German deep tech VC firm based in Bonn. He holds a degree in business administration and has a background in consulting and private equity. We spoke about how he got into VC, how Freigeist Capital choose which companies to invest in and support them, and the outlook for the European tech ecosystem.

To find out more about CUTEC, visit https://www.cutec.io/

Here is the link to the survey - https://forms.gle/8sBVj2WNNUjCmJZ58

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Niklas Hebborn, Freigeist Capital

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Jonny Clifford who is the General Manager at Entrepreneur First London, a company that invests in potential entrepreneurs pre-idea and helps them to find co-founders. Jonny has previously been a teacher as well as worked within sales at Show My Homework, an Edtech startup. We spoke about how EF identifies talent and what the programme entails. Amongst other things, Jonny also touched on how to know if founding a company is for you and gave his advice to early-stage founders.

Jonny Clifford, Entrepreneur First

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Denis Kaminskiy who is the co-founder and strategy director of the Cambridge-based digital transformation firm Arcus Global. Denis holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge and has previously held roles at Cadbury and Rolls-Royce. We spoke about how he got into Govtech, the work Arcus does for the UK government and how the UK government is doing at adopting technology.

Denis Kaminskiy, Arcus Global

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Vanessa Marcié who is an expert on leadership and humour and a guest lecturer at the Cambrige Judge Business School and HEC Paris amongst others. She holds a PhD in Management and Marketing Communications from the Univeristy of Côte d’Azur and an MBA from the Cambridge Judge Business School. We spoke about how leading with humour can be an effective leadership style and what steps we can personally take to utilise it more.

To find out more about CUTEC, visit www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Vanessa Marcie, Leading with humour

This week on CUTalks we are talking to Pierre Fautrel, one of the co-founders of Obvious AI. Pierre has a background in cultural entrepreneurship and has a master’s in digital communication from Lyon Business School. Obvious use AI to create novel artworks in a range of different styles and sell them as NFTs online. We spoke about the technology behind their algorithm as well as covering topics such as the public perception of AI-created art. Pierre also shared how he met his co-founders and their plans for Obvious.

To find out more about CUTEC, visit www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Pierre Fautrel, Obvious AI

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Dr. Katalin Kariko, a biochemist who specializes in mRNA research. Katalin’s ground-breaking technology has saved millions of lives during the pandemic as her research formed the basis of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. We spoke about the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccine safety and hesitations around vaccination as well as some of the entrepreneurial ventures that Katalin had embarked on. 

To find out more about CUTEC, visit www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Katalin Kariko - Inventor of the mRNA Vaccine

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Prof. Anthony Finkelstein, former Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security to the UK Government and current President of City, University of London. We spoke about the threats to Britain’s national security, the spread of mis- and disinformation on social media, technological revolutions which are changing our society including Artificial General Intelligence as well as Anthony’s experience working in the Government.

To find out more about CUTEC, visit www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Anthony Finkelstein - National Security

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Ashleigh Ainsley, the Co-Founder of Colorintech - a non-profit organisation that seeks to increase diversity in tech. Colorintech works with some of the largest tech companies in the world - including Facebook, Microsoft and Tik Tok. Ashleigh started his career working in strategy at the London start-up Qubit, Google, corporate KPMG and then the Founders Forum group. In this episode, we spoke about Ashleigh’s experience of founding a company, the best and most challenging aspects from working to a large company to then being a start-up founder, as well as the mission of Colorintech to tackle the lack of diversity in the tech industry.

To find out more about CUTEC, visit www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Ashleigh Ainsley - Colorintech

This week on CUTalks we are talking to Joe Schorge, the founder and managing partner of Isomer Capital, one of Europe’s leading Fund-of-Funds based in London UK.  Isomer has a broad portfolio underlying more than 1,300 companies from start-ups to unicorns and including 6 IPOs, such as Darktrace, Deliveroo and Acast. Having worked as LP, GP, Angel Investor and Technology Operations Executive in the US and Europe over the last 25 years - Joe holds an impressive career trajectory in VC and private investing with distinguished accomplishments. In this episode, we spoke about Joe’s experience of founding Isomer, his path to VC and impact of working in VC, digital finance, Crypto Fund-of-Funds as well as some of the new additions of start-ups in Isomer’s portfolio.

To find out more about CUTEC, visit www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Joe Schorge - Isomer Capital

For the second episode of CUTalks, Shreya and Thomas talk to Tom Simmons, founder and CEO of Stem, a Cambridge and Silicon Valley based food tech company reimagining the role of sugar in our food system. Through the insight of Tom’s own path, they discuss entrepreneurship education, lessons for a successful startup, and how scientists can best apply themselves in the innovation space. 

Jump to the following topics:
Entrepreneurship education - 6:45 
Scientists in innovation - 19:30

Tom Simmons, Stem Sugar

Continuing CUTalks’ journey of startups, Shreya and Thomas talk to Nisarg Mehta, co-founder and CTO of Vector, an international trade and logistics tech startup, transforming operations for companies involved in global supply chains. Nisarg provides some very useful insight for aspiring/early-stage founders, including the divisions of responsibility and skills between co-founders, and managing time and expectations. 

Jump to the following topics:
International trade and logistics space - 3:30, 15:00
The role of a ‘CTO’ - 7:10, 21:55
Importance of personal networks - 17:30
Managing work-life balance - 19:45
Tips to early stage founders - 26:05

Nisarg Mehta, Vector AI

Shreya and Thomas talk to Wild AI co-founder Helene Guillaume about transatlantic companies, women's health and artificial intelligence.

Helene Guillaume, WILD AI

In Episode 7 of CUTalks, Shreya and Thomas talk to John Snyder, discussing John’s experiences with starting up, growing and eventually selling Muscat and Grapeshot.

John Snyder, Muscat/Grapeshot

In this episode of CUTalks, Shreya and Thomas talk to Bruno Cotta, Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre at the Cambridge Judge Business School. Bruno discusses his previous and current roles, and thoughts on some of the key skills that entrepreneurs require.

Bruno Cotta, CJBS Entrepreneurship Centre

Giorgia Longobardi, Cambridge GaN Devices

In this episode of CUTalks, Shreya and Thomas talk to Ipshita Mandal-Johnson, co-founder of Global Biotech Revolution, and the first president of Gap Summit. They discuss Ipshita's journey as a serial entrepreneur and how to make an impact on a global scale.

Ipshita Mandal-Johnson, GBR/Gap Summit

In this episode of CUTalks, Shreya and Thomas talk to John Cassidy, Co-founder and CEO at Cambridge Cancer Genomics (CCG.ai), a precision AI startup transforming the ability of oncologists to provide effective, personalised cancer treatment for everyone. John holds a PhD in functional genomics from the University of Cambridge and a Masters in Pharmacology from the University of Glasgow. His research career in academia (CRUK) and industry (MedImmune) focused on understanding how tumours evolve and become resistant to treatment. John is actively involved in the biotech startup community as a Venture Partner at the Pioneer Fund, Director of SiliconBio and a lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University.

John Cassidy, Cambridge Cancer Genomics

This week on CUTalks we are talking to Tom Britton. Tom is the co-founder of Syndicate Room, a fintech company allowing investors to co-invest with Super Angels in a portfolio of early stage companies. Tom did an MBA in Cambridge before starting the company.

Tom Britton, Syndicate Room

Martin Frost, CMR Surgical

#CUTalks by CUTEC has just launched a new mini-series: Female Founders in the Spotlight. This series has the aim of increasing visibility of female founders of early-stage startups. To launch the series, Shreya Singhal and Thomas Bohné have been talking to Jennifer Jia, founder of Emporsand, a company empowering women through access to sanitation as featured on the BBC. They are repurposing waste cuts of clothing into sanitary towels and making them accessible to women in poverty. We met Jennifer at the EnterpriseTECH and EnterpriseWOMEN at the Judge Business School. Jennifer speaks about the scale of the problem that Emporsand is tackling and the challenges that her company faces in developing a sustainable business model to solve this issue. She also highlights the need for investors and the public in general to appreciate that the lack of sanitation towels are not just problems for women but also the wider society.

Jennifer Jia, Emporsand

#CUTalks by CUTEC has just launched a new mini-series: Female Founders in the Spotlight. This series has the aim of increasing visibility of female founders of early-stage startups. To launch the series, Shreya Singhal and Thomas Bohné have been talking to Nicola Filzmoser, co-founder of Happyr Health, a mobile game based on cognitive behavioral therapy, to help children cope with recurring migraines. We met Nicola at the EnterpriseWOMEN program at the Judge Business School. Nicola is pursuing a Master of Entrepreneurship at Cambridge while working on Happyr full-time. She shares about her personal experience dealing with migraines when she was young and the lack of proper solutions made available to her. Happyr Health have launched a crowdfunding round, initial target of £10k which has been increased to £14k after rapidly reaching their initial target.

Nicola Filzmoser, Happyr Health

How has Covid-19 affected venture capital/private equity/asset management investments, and how can companies survive? Who will survive? Hear directly from Ozan Özkural, the founder of Tanto Capital Partners. This is a recording from a live webinar event that took place on 27th April 2020.

Content: We discussed macroeconomic trends currently being seen, global political and economic consequences, how sectors may morph in the future, and what you (as an individual or a leading figure in your company) can do to survive. 

Format: Opening remarks were provided by Ozan (www.ozanozkural.com / https://twitter.com/OzanOzkural / https://www.instagram.com/ozanozkural/), and then questions were welcomed from the audience on the topic.

This event was organised by CUTEC and CUVCPE societies as part of the ongoing ‘CUTalks by CUTEC’ podcast series. To find other podcast episodes, visit here: https://cutec.io/cutalks. Follow us @CUTEC, #CUTalks and @CUVCPE on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to find out about future events and podcast episodes.

Ozan Ozkural - What does Covid-19 mean for the economy?

This week we are talking to Daniel Rooke, co-founder, partner and head of legal at StartCodon, the Cambridge healthcare and life sciences accelerator. Daniel speaks about his experience working in both large companies and startups, which aspects are similar and different. He also emphasizes the importance for founders to critically think about what they really want and need when finding accelerators to work with.

Daniel Rooke, Start Codon

This week on #CUTalks we are talking to Carlene Jackson, CEO of Brighton-based tech company Cloud9 Insight. Carlene established her first business aged 17 and then spent nearly two decades in the software industry before going it alone to take advantage of the booming cloud technology sector. Cloud9 Insight is a Microsoft Gold Partner which has provided more than 700 UK businesses with cloud-based CRM software systems. Founded in 2010, the company has 30 staff and is also an award winning provider of training and apprenticeships programmes which it runs through its sister company, Vantage Academy.

Carlene Jackson, Cloud9

This week on #CUTalks we are talking to Monique Boddington, currently Interim Deputy Director of Cambridge Judge Launchpad at the Judge Business School. Monique is a teacher and researcher in entrepreneurship, and we look forward to hearing from her about the insights she has gained from working so closely with many startups in Cambridge through the EVER project. These include issues like pivoting strategy, team dynamics, gender and stereotypes in entrepreneurship. She brought up several real-life stories and challenges based on her interaction with startups in Cambridge.

Monique Boddington, Judge Business School

How has covid-19 affected the Southeast Asian (ASEAN) economy, and how can Southeast Asian countries leverage on the China-US trade war? Who will be the champion? Hear from Gita Wirjawan, Indonesia's Minister of Trade from 2011 to 2014. He is also the Chairman of Ancora Group, an Indonesian business group which he founded in 2008 with interests in real estate, technology, education and natural resources. This is a recording from a live webinar event that took place on 17th July 2020.

Gita Wirjawan, Former Minister of Trade of Indonesia

This week on CUTalks we are talking to James Hawkins, co-founder of PostHog, an open course product analytics software, which recently went through Y Combinator and has raised a $3M seed round. James shared some tips for budding entrepreneurs who might not have enough experience to start their own business yet. He also shed some light on the different business models of open source companies, taking examples from RedHat, MongoDB and Gitlab. He firmly believes that there seems to be a trend of open source software taking over SAAS system in recent years. He also explained how PostHog pitched their open source business models to various investors. Lastly he shared about their recent seed funding round with Y Combinator and the experience of working with the firm

To find out more about CUTEC, visit https://www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

James Hawkins, PostHog

This week on CUTalks we are talking to Jonny Everett, co-founder of The Chat Shop and current Programme Manger and Entrepreneur in Residence at Entrepreneur First. Jonny told us about the advisory work he does with startups via Entrepreneurship First and shared his candid experiences with mental health as a founder. He also gave advice on how founders can achieve greater balance in their lives and on how to cope with mental health struggles they may encounter.

To find out more about CUTEC, visit https://www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Jonny Everett, Entrepreneur in Residence - Entrepreneur First

This week on CUTalks, we are talking to Nigel Lambe. Nigel is the CEO of the Sussex Innovation Centre. He has also been an investor and/or co-founder in several food and drink start-ups including Small Batch Coffee Company and Brighton Gin most recently. Prior to this he worked in areas such as sales and supply chain management at various companies.
Nigel told us about how he transitioned from working in the corporate world to working within start-ups and the challenges he overcame. He also shared the ways in which his current company, Sussex Innovation, helps support start-ups and university spin-offs alike. Lastly, he gave tips for current and aspiring founders based on his experiences over the years.

To find out more about CUTEC, visit https://www.cutec.io/

This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Nigel Lambe, The Sussex Innovation Centre

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Adam Medros who is the ex-President and CEO of edX, a non-profit online course provider. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and has previously held roles at TripAdvisor and Amazon. We spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on online learning, the advantages of modular education, and the future of online learning amongst other things. Adam also shared his advice for startup founders running EdTech companies.

Adam Medros, edX

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Taavi Kotka, an entrepreneur and the first CIO of the Estonian government. He started his career as a programmer and became the CEO of Webmedia (now Nortal), the region's largest software company before working with the governmentand is now back in the private sector, helping start-ups develop and consulting on digital transformation.
We spoke about the process of the digital transformation of Estonia, the challenges faced during it and how other countries might follow suit.
This podcast was produced by Carl Homer, Cambridge TV.

Webinar - Taavi Kotka

This week on CUTalks we are speaking to Mark Shmulevich, the Senior VP at TAIGER - an AI software company in Singapore. He is also the founding director of the Zimin Institutes in Israel which helps commercialise promising research with the potential to generate solutions to pressing problems in the world. Additionally, he has been the Deputy Minister of IT in Russia. We spoke about his experiences in the government and the private sector, his work to help the commercialisation of high-impact research and briefly about how AI and deep tech applications may develop in the future. 

To find out more about CUTEC, visit https://www.cutec.io/

Mark Shmulevich, TAIGER

This week on CUTalks, we are speaking to Sir Menelas Pangalos, the VP of BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from UCL and has previously worked at Wyeth and Pfizer. We spoke about the importance of collaboration with academia, how AstraZeneca’s drug development success rate has increased in recent years and how they make sure medicines are accessible to all. 

To find out more about CUTEC, visit https://www.cutec.io/

Menelas Pangalos, AstraZeneca

Your essential ‘How To..’ podcast for all tech founders! 
CUTalks is the podcast by the Cambridge University Technology & Enterprise club. In the podcast, we speak to founders, investors and experts to learn more about turning innovation into business.

CUTalks by CUTEC

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