Savannah James Launches Signed Holding Company

Very few operators are at a stage where they are considering an exit. But I’m sure most operators are building with some sort of exit in mind. Well worth the listen. At the very least - Richard Stroupe lays out some sound strategic fundamentals in the write up to this post that are well worth reading.

Thank you to Maggie Lord for sharing her advice on how to exit successfully. This is what entrepreneurs and business owners need to be thinking about before even considering a sale. #growth #exit #entrepreneurs #businessowners #business4sale

A while back, we had the pleasure of interviewing Silvia Torres Carbonell on #StartupSessions, and one of the most powerful insights she shared really resonated with us: "Founders fall in love with their ideas. The best ones fall in love with the problem." Silvia nails one of the most common and costly mistakes early-stage founders make. It's not about having a brilliant idea. It's about finding a real problem, understanding who has it, and making sure the market is big enough to build on. The idea is just a hypothesis. The problem is the foundation. Watch the full episode 👇 https://lnkd.in/du8x2v9J

Loved getting to chat with two Adtech legends Corey Ferengul and Joe Zawadzki, two folks I admire so much in this world! We discussed the rapidly changing creative and adtech landscaping, why DOOH is such an under invested in and exciting channel and some thoughts on the pros/cons of bootstrapping with perhaps a wild story towards the end. Thanks for having me on gents 🙌🙌🙌

I've been on BIG HAPPY's board for several years, so it was fun to have founder and CEO Jonathan Frohlingeronathan Frohlinger on the Aperiam Podcast . Jonathan built Big Happy — "the Pixar of ad tech" — around a simple bet: creative is the hardest variable in advertising to get right, and it's the only one the end consumer actually sees. Seven years in, they're doing 3D and computer-graphic ads across mobile and digital out-of-home for some of the biggest brands and agencies out there. What I appreciated most in this conversation wasn't the creative pitch — it was the business discipline behind it. Big Happy never took a large VC round. They grew deliberately, invested in finance before they overinvested in engineering, and let the market prove product-market fit before scaling spend. Jonathan's advice to founders itching to raise a big round: let your customers coming back tell you whether you have a real business first. Also — ask him about the time he refused to leave a Chase Bank branch until they cashed a check so payroll would clear. One of the best founder stories I've heard Link below.

I saw a tiktok the other day, called out Jay Shetty on Steven Bartlett, calling it “an hour and a half of watching wizards of nothing casting nothing spells on each other.” And sure, DOAC has gotten better over time, and that clip was from three years ago, but the point still stands. The founder podcast has become a pitch deck with a mic attached. Forty minutes of product soundbites dressed up as thought leadership. It doesn't work. Not for your audience, and honestly, not for your brand either. And I’ve done it too. I plug Swypex into content, conversations, dinners, sometimes it lands but you can feel when it doesn’t. That’s when you realize there’s a difference between building a personal brand and running a live infomercial. Give me something real. Be the youngest CFO on Nasdaq and ADX and talk to me about what the region’s startup ecosystem looks like when you’ve actually been knees deep in it. Build the fastest-growing brokerage in Egypt, shake up the EGX, and sit down with a prominent TV host, and tell me something about her personal growth. Even with a plug, it works. I’ll save it and come back for more. We’ve spoken about doing a podcast at Swypex a few times, we even have the mics. But if the substance isn’t there, it’s just more noise in a feed already drowning in it.

Big energy. Bigger story… ⚡🎙️ James Mitra recently sat down with Joe McDonald, Co-Founder & CEO of tem, and Adam Chirkowski, Partner at AlbionVC - the founder and the investor who backed him from day one, telling both sides of one of the UK's fastest scaling stories. This is the honest, unfiltered story of taking on a trillion-dollar market together - and it's packed with lessons you won't want to miss. Covering the fundraise, the mistakes, the hires, and the mindset behind it all. Sneak peek below 👇 Full episode drops 15th July. Stay tuned 👀

Our host Nicky Jones had the pleasure of sitting down with Luke Bream, CEO of Valentte London, to unpack how he and his business partner Justina, have scaled a startup to over £25m, with a clear strategy to reach £100m turnover in the next 24 months. As the business continues to grow, this conversation explores what it actually takes to scale at speed, from decision-making under pressure to building a business around wellbeing while pushing performance. Head over to YouTube or Spotify to watch or listen to the full episode. ▶️ https://lnkd.in/eKPpMyAd 🎧 https://lnkd.in/e65qJ5Bv

Our CEO Nataša Zec joined the Ambition Backstage podcast by Women in Adria, together with Zrinka Vukovic Beric from Invera Equity Partners and mr.sc. Dino Bendekovic from 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸. She explains what working with an investor looks like in practice, with goals set at the start of the year, monthly meetings, financial reports and quarterly business reviews. She also talks about why a shared vision and personal trust matter more than the money, and why Pontis acquired Clover Studio when organic growth was not fast enough for the plans our team had. In four years Pontis went from one employee to more than 120 in Europe, and after the merger the group now employs over 250 people across three continents. Full episode in the comments. Photo by Ratko Mavar

Startup founders face a challenge to land key exec hires. Pigment co-CEO Eléonore Crespo got a surprise assist from the actor Tom Cruise. Cruise was meeting with startup founders at the offices of Crespo's investor, ICONIQ, when she asked founding partner Divesh Makan for a favor. “I said, 'Can I bring my candidate? Because I think that would make a big difference.' They say, 'Yeah, let's go.'" Listen to the whole story and more in the latest episode of The Upstarts Podcast. Crespo talks about how building in Paris helps Pigment compete; how a culture of "unreasonable hospitality" makes it win; and how careful communication makes a co-CEO setup work. This season of The Upstarts Podcast is presented by Rippling. Watch the full interview on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gjAzJnn5