“Consumers of today like to have a dialogue with their brands...consumers can now ask the harder questions.” Ingvar Helgason, Co-Founder of VitroLabs

In this week’s TMIK, Managing Partner Carlos Espinal and Seedcamp team member Polina Stavrovski chat with two very exciting guests, Ingvar, and Joy Howard who are both building companies in the sustainable fashion space. Ingvar’s mission with VitroLabs is to decouple the leather industry from the meat industry by creating a new source of leather from animal cells. Their technology allows high-end fashion brands and creatives to have a new source of leather with all the same properties and no compromise on quality. Joy’s mission with Early Majority is to build a technical streetwear brand that makes outdoor gear for all eventualities, by operating in categories that have traditionally left out the woman’s point of view.

The four delve into a discussion on the shifting nature of consumer behaviour and how they’re in turn empowering brands from a top-down approach, changing traditional notions of shareholders and stakeholders. Joy offers her take on greenwashing, explaining how she has two minds about companies that can seem ‘performative’ with their sustainability branding. “Over time, it *does* lead to a change in consumers' perceptions and their behaviour, but at the same time it’s tough for people who are building something radically different and true to the ideals of sustainability,” she comments. Ingvar nods to the importance of companies being transparent, and that “it’s really telling to see which companies are answering the questions and which companies are brushing them away.” He also mentions the importance of the role governments play in creating carbon emission taxes or at least levelling the playing field by removing subsidies from companies emitting a lot of carbon. “For everything we are consuming, we are not paying the real price,” Ingvar notes.

Joy and Ingvar also discuss the transfer risks associated with migrating from the usual suppliers with decades of experience (but that are way more wasteful), to a more sustainable supply chain that has the same quality of timeline, delivery, and product. Although there has been an increase in demand for sustainable materials, this can also prove quite challenging for startups in competition with more established brands.

Finally, Carlos asks Joy and Ingvar what science fiction book they recommend that will most likely represent our future. Tune in to hear their answers and the full discussion, it’s a good one!

If you’re interested to learn more about Ingvar and Joy’s respective ventures, check out VitroLabs and Early Majority.

Show Notes:
Vitro Labs: vitrolabsinc.com
Early Majority: earlymajority.com/
Ingvar Helgason: twitter.com/ihelgason
Joy Howard: twitter.com/joyehoward
Carlos Espinal: twitter.com/cee
Polina Stavrovski: linkedin.com/in/postav/
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com

The Power of Consumers and The Future of Sustainable Materials

At Seedcamp, we are passionate about identifying and investing early in startups using emerging technologies that have the potential to solve real problems. We began to invest in companies using blockchain technologies back in 2014 and our portfolio includes the likes of Clause, building the dynamic contracting infrastructure of the future, to Elliptic, providing the forensic tools with which to identify illicit activity on the blockchain. And we believe that there are several iconic companies of the future using blockchain technologies that are yet to be built.

If you missed our event on blockchain, tokens and ICOs, tune in to hear from our lively founder panel including Peter Hunn (CEO of Clause), Irra Ariella Khi (CEO of Vchain), Richard Burton (CEO of Balance) and Ben Livshits (Chief Scientist at Brave). The panel is moderated by Kyran Schmidt and Sia Houchangnia from Seedcamp.

And check out our Facebook page for the live video of all the panels from the event: www.facebook.com/seedcamp

Show notes:
Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Vchain: www.vchain.tech
Clause: www.clause.io
Balance: www.balancemy.money
Brave: www.brave.com


Related bio links:
Sia: linkedin.com/in/siahouchangnia / twitter.com/siahouchangnia
Kyran: linkedin.com/in/kyran-schmidt / twitter.com/kyranschmidt
Irra: linkedin.com/in/irraariellakhi / twitter.com/irra_k
Peter: linkedin.com/in/peterhunn / twitter.com/peterhunn
Richard: linkedin.com/in/richardjburton / twitter.com/ricburton
Ben: linkedin.com/in/ben-livshits / twitter.com/convoluted_code

'Distributed Futures': Blockchain, Tokens and ICOs - Founders' Panel

At Seedcamp, we are passionate about identifying and investing early in startups using emerging technologies that have the potential to solve real problems. We began to invest in companies using blockchain technologies back in 2014 and our portfolio includes the likes of Clause, building the dynamic contracting infrastructure of the future, to Elliptic, providing the forensic tools with which to identify illicit activity on the blockchain. And we believe that there are several iconic companies of the future using blockchain technologies that are yet to be built.

If you missed our event on blockchain, tokens and ICOs, tune in to hear from our stimulating investor panel including Mariano Belinky (Managing Partner, Santander InnoVentures), Yann Ranchere (Partner, Anthemis Group) and Richard Muirhead (OpenOcean). The panel joins Carlos Espinal and Sia Houchangnia, and is introduced by Kyran Schmidt, from Seedcamp.

And check out our Facebook page for the live video of all the panels from the event: www.facebook.com/seedcamp

Show notes:
Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Santander InnoVentures: www.santanderinnoventures.com
Anthemis Group: www.anthemis.com
OpenOcean: www.openocean.vc

Related bio links:
Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee
Sia: linkedin.com/in/siahouchangnia / twitter.com/siahouchangnia
Mariano: linkedin.com/in/mbelinky / twitter.com/belimad
Yann: linkedin.com/in/yannranchere / twitter.com/tek_fin
Richard: linkedin.com/in/richardmuirhead / twitter.com/richardmuirhead

'Distributed Futures': Blockchain, Tokens and ICOs - Investors' Panel

In 2004 polar explorer Ben Saunders - aged 26 - became the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole, carrying a 180kg sled over 1,420 miles through arctic conditions. Between October 2013 and February 2014, alongside Tarka L'Herpiniere, he made another record-breaking expedition, completing the first ever return journey to the South Pole from Ross Island. In November 2017 he faces his next daunting challenge: the first solo and unsupported crossing of Antarctica.

What lessons can we take from from Ben's expeditions -- 11 so far -- for entrepreneurs? There are resemblances to the founder's journey in terms of fundraising processes, preparation for operational complexities, enduring extremity, and the management of teams. "I wasn't only the CEO - I was the product, the thing we were shipping at the end of it," he says.

Speaking to Seedcamp partner Carlos Espinal, Ben discusses lessons learnt from his expeditions and the entrepreneurial parallels. "Self belief is something like a muscle - it kind of responds to being challenged", he argues.

Show notes: 
Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Ben Saunders: www.bensaunders.com

Related bio links: 
Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee
Ben: wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Saunders_(explorer) / twitter.com/polarben

Polar explorer Ben Saunders on leadership, entrepreneurship and enduring extremity

Entrepreneur and former education consultant Lucy Stonehill experienced first-hand the pain points inherent in navigating the transition to higher education when she was an international student applying abroad herself. Confusing and opaque, the process has been largely pen-and-paper based for decades. Solving this pain point was the genesis of her company BridgeU, a tool which empowers schools to provide more intelligent, data-driven university and careers guidance than ever before.

In this live podcast, recorded to mark the fifth anniversary of Campus London, Lucy explains how BridgeU came about, and how it leverages data and innovation to better serve the education market. Seedcamp invested in BridgeU in 2014 and, speaking to partner Carlos Espinal, Lucy explains their journey from the company's early days through to internationalisation and growth -- culminating recently in a $5.3m Series A round. 'Seed investors really feel fundamentally focused on the vision and potential,' she says, 'while Series A more about the numbers' -- yet those numbers piece only get the door open, she notes.

Show notes: 
Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
BridgeU: www.bridge-u.com

Related bio links: 
Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee
Lucy: linkedin.com/in/lucy-stonehill-80434924 / twitter.com/lucystonehill

BridgeU CEO Lucy Stonehill on driving innovation in Edtech and achieving international growth

Following the recent announcement of our fourth fund which at first close of £41M is over 2x larger than our last and 20x bigger than our first, we are joined by Seedcamp partners Reshma Sohoni, Carlos Espinal, Tom Wilson and Sia Houchangnia who share our plans to invest in 100 new startups across Europe and take a look back at how the European ecosystem has evolved over the ten years since Seedcamp launched. 

Seedcamp Fund IV brings together 60 LPs and features big business, venture capitalists and fund of funds from across the globe. Tune in to hear how Seedcamp has innovated its own offering which includes an increase in capital it will invest across pre-seed and seed stages and approval to invest in crypto tokens.

Read more about Seedcamp IV: http://seedcamp.com/seedcamp-iv-welcoming-the-next-generation-of-european-talent-with-our-biggest-and-boldest-seed-fund/

Partner bios:
Reshma Sohoni: http://seedcamp.com/team/reshmasohoni/ | twitter.com/rsohoni
Carlos Espinal :http://seedcamp.com/team/carloseduardoespinal/  | twitter.com/cee
Tom Wilson: http://seedcamp.com/team/tom-wilson/ | twitter.com/tom_wils
Sia Houchangnia: http://seedcamp.com/team/sia-houchangnia/ l twitter.com/siahouchangnia

Introducing Seedcamp Fund IV: Partner Podcast

In the crowded marketplaces of food and retail, how do you carve out space for independent new brands? For Jenny Costa, founder of Rubies in the Rubble, and Alex Mezger, director at the family managed Jude's Ice Cream, the answer lies in competing on the best quality products possible and relying on an authentic messaging. 

Since 2011, Rubies in the Rubble has been producing high quality relishes and jams out of surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste. The business has gone from concocting recipes in home kitchens to selling in some of the UK's leading retailers and nailing deals with giants like Virgin. It has been important, Jenny says, to bring an authentic vibrancy to the brand, ensuring the product did not get 'lost in the supermarket shelves'.

Similarly for Alex at Jude's Ice Cream, the priority is in delighting customers. 'If it's down to price and price alone, we'll walk away,' he says. The business began as a family-run affair and remains that way. 'In terms of working wth family, it's grounded in respect and knowing each others' strengths, and working to these', says Alex. Jude's also 'massively over-invests in innovation'  – leading to experiments like their black coconut flavour.

Listen to learn more about navigating supply chain difficulties, nailing brand messaging, managing the compromises between price and quality, and the secrets behind running successful food brands.


Show notes: 
Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Rubies in the Rubble: www.rubiesintherubble.com
Jude's Ice Cream: www.judes.co.uk

Related bio links:
Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee
Jenny: linkedin.com/in/jenny-costa-685b474a
Alex: linkedin.com/in/alex-mezger-a26558

Finding Flavour: Jude's Ice Cream and Rubies in the Rubble on building loved brands

Rob Moffat joined Balderton Capital in 2009 and was promoted to partner in 2015. He is currently a board director or observer with five portfolio companies: Carwow, Wooga, Nutmeg, Prodigy Finance, and Patients Know Best.  Prior to joining Balderton, Rob worked for Google in London, as a Manager in the European Strategy and Operations team, and for five years in strategy consulting at Bain. In this Seedcamp Sessions podcast, Rob covers the different growth engines which have proven successful for startups -- from paid marketing for companies like Carwow, who need to be rigorous in how they think about acquisition, through to continuous product innovation for companies like Revolut, and partnerships and business development for startups like Zego. Rob also covers how to navigate VC and strategic partnership relations, and how Balderton is thinking about the evolving Insurtech landscape.

Show notes:
Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Balderton: www.balderton.com

Related bio links:
Carlos: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee
Rob: linkedin.com/in/robmoff / twitter.com/robmoff

Seedcamp Sessions: Balderton's Rob Moffat on startup growth engines

In this week's episode of This Much I Know, Carlos speaks to our very own Head of Marketing & Communications, Natasha Lytton, about investing in your brand and the importance of getting the whole team aligned with what you do. Reflecting on her experiences as Head of Marketing & Communications at Savsé, a drinks business that became the fastest growing smoothie brand in the UK & her experience as CMO of full-stack food delivery business, Pronto, Natasha speaks with great conviction when she says, firstly, you need to know internally, ‘Who you are, what you do & who you do it for’, and only then, can you start to communicate this externally through marketing campaigns. She provides tangible takeaways for early stage companies, like giving advice on how to work with agencies as well as providing a framework on how to think creatively as a company. 
Tune in to hear more about building your brand as well as how she overcame challenges using strategic, creative & analytical thinking.

Show notes:
Carlos Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3
Natasha Medium: https://sdca.mp/2OGF02E
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Slideshare: slideshare.net/NatashaLytton/how-to-build-a-brand-118987689/

Related bio links:
Carlos Twitter: linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal / twitter.com/cee
Natasha Twitter: https://twitter.com/natashalytton

Natasha Lytton on building strong brands that cut-through an increasingly crowded market

Pipedrive has become the dominant player in the sales CRM market, with over 80,000 businesses using it daily. Their story to the top features persistence and overcoming a lot of negative bias towards building 'yet another CRM tool'.

In this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Carlos sits down with co-founder, Martin Henk as he shares the journey so far including challenges in product, growth, pricing and fundraising.

Tune in to hear how Pipedrive has managed to stand out in so competitive a market and why swapping out marketing hacks for brutal product simplicity has been the key to gaining customers and accelerating growth.

Links:
Martin - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/martinhenk
Martin - Twitter: twitter.com/henkmrtn
Martin - Medium: medium.com/@nokkloom
Carlos - LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal
Carlos - Twitter: twitter.com/cee
Carlos - Medium: sdca.mp/2entVR3

Pipedrive: www.pipedrive.com
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com

Pipedrive: Martin Henk, co-founder

Seedcamp Fund V is here. It’s our strongest fund to-date and we're thrilled that so many friends and founders have put their faith in us to continue backing Europe’s finest entrepreneurs. 

We don’t believe in draping fund announcements in a vague veil of splendour, so we want to give you the inside scoop of Fund V: the who, what, when, why, and how. In addition to publishing our fundraising pitch deck here, our Managing Partners Reshma and Carlos, Partners Tom and Sia, and Head of Brand & Marketing Natasha jumped on to this week’s ‘This Much I Know’ to explain what you can expect from Fund V.

The Seedcamp Nation includes the brains behind some of Europe’s most exciting companies including the likes of Hopin, Revolut, Primer, and Sorare. If you’re looking for pre-seed funding, we want to hear from you. Tell us what you’re building at https://seedcamp.com/looking-for-funding/. 

Links:
Fundraising pitch deck: slideshare.net/seedcamp/seedcamp-fund-v-fundraising-deck/
Seedcamp Announcement: seedcamp.com/introducing-seedcamp-v/ 
Seedcamp: www.seedcamp.com
Looking for Funding?: seedcamp.com/looking-for-funding/

Behind the Scenes of Seedcamp Fund V

This Much I Know is the podcast from Seedcamp, Europe’s seed fund.

Tune into hear the inside story from startup founders, investors and leading tech voices: the people who’ve built businesses, scaled globally, failed fantastically and learnt massively.

Seedcamp invests early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. Seedcamp provides the infrastructure to fast-track a founder’s vision and create value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support and a global network built upon a decade’s experience backing exceptional talent.

The Power of Consumers and The Future of Sustainable Materials

The Seedcamp Podcast

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