Hotbed

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us on Friday for our fourth Founders Camp Summit. The 100 founders in the room joined 🎤 🌲Miguel McKelvey, Stella Smith, Nitesh (Tesh) Srivastava, Beth Carter, Rosie Hoggmascall, Jeremy Ambrose, Olamide Ogunrinola, Maeve Crowley, Sam Marchant, Siddhi Mittal, Daniel Lancioni, and Michael Ginzo for a day of insights and connection 👏 Here are just some of the incredible photos of our speakers that 🎥 Gabriel Isserlis captured during the day 📸 Founders Camp wouldn't be possible without the support of our partners. Many thanks Blue Array | SEO Agency of the Year, Deel, Daedalus, Zendesk for Startups and Techspace, Simon Schnieders, Liam Quinn, Leo Crowe, Jennifer Johnson, PMP®, Philip Ellis 🧡

Huge congrats to Katrien Cruz Grobler and AI KAT who've just secured £290k in VC funding, led by SFC Capital 👏 👏 👏

Halfway through Week 3 of our #HotbedExpand Programme 💪 Perdie Alder and I pull so much inspiration from the founders in our community, and this cohort is no exception. Founders determine two KPIs in Week 1, set a goal for where they want to be by the end of the programme, then report weekly on their growth and a few other metrics. It's rarely (dare I say never!) a straight path to success, and having worked with 600+ founders, it's safe to say we've probably seen *everything* in these Weekly Updates. There are good weeks and bad weeks - the important thing is to stay focused and that our cohorts know we have their backs. 💪 In their Week 2 updates, founders reported the following: 47% - of founders who increased KPI #1 from last week 32% - of founders who increased KPI #2 from last week 11.5 - average number of users founders spoke with last week These updates allow us to be intimately familiar with our founders' wins, growth, challenges and personal hurdles. Thanks to Novabook Stephen Wilks Ruben Portz Zendesk Zendesk for Startups Jeremy Ambrose Impressit Roman Zomko OVHcloud Filippo Sanesi Deel for helping us make these programmes possible. And most of all, thanks to our incredible cohort 🧡

Normally I won't even think about the festive season until after my birthday, but I'm breaking that rule, because we're hosting a party alongside our friends at Rare Founders, SeedLegals & Mums Building Companies/Dads Building Companies ⭐ Come join us for a night of festive fun - we all deserve to let loose! 10th December, Blue Marlin Ibiza London Join here 👉 lu.ma/11s0lkiv

Calling all startups pushing the boundaries of AI in a secure, sovereign and cost-effective cloud. Join our friends at OVHcloud for their Fast Forward AI Accelerator 🚀 🌐 Free credits for our public cloud & AI solutions 🏢 Direct connections with corporates for potential POCs 💼 Exclusive opportunities to pitch to VCs for funding 🤖 AI deep dives to tackle your toughest tech challenges 🎓 Hands-on workshops covering AI, Sales, Investor Readiness, PR, and more 🤝 Personalized 1-on-1 mentoring from top industry experts Applications close November 24th 👉 https://lnkd.in/eUB4f9bF

A night of no-pitching, no-pressure networking with our friends at Novabook and Antler. 13th November, London.

Join us on Nov 11th for a pitch-off like you've never seen before! 🎤 🗣🗣🗣 🎤 Founder Pitch Relay is back by popular demand, alongside our friends Rare Founders.   Pitch your startup, and hear how your pitch takes on a life of its own, as it's passed from person to person. What sticks? What gets lost in translation? It's time to find out! It'll be an evening of laughter and learning! Check out this vid from our last event for an insight into how it goes... 🤣   🗾 IRL at Google Cloud Startup Hub. 🍹 Free food and drink provided. ⏰ Limited to 100 places. 🎟️ Tickets by donation (from free) lu.ma/lygvkjet We look forward to seeing you there! M Coyle, Vasily Alekseenko, Fraya Brinkman, Perdie Alder

After the huge success of the last event, we're joining forces with Rare Founders again for the second edition of Founder Pitch Relay on 11 Nov! 🎤 Ever wondered how others pitch your startup when you’re not in the room? Join us to pitch your startup, and see how the pitch takes on a life of its own as it's passed from person to person in a live relay. What sticks? What gets lost in translation? It's time to find out! Perfect for all fundraising founders who will have others pitching your startup on your behalf, whether it's through introductions, or because investors are pitching you to their committees / syndicates. 📌 IRL at Google Cloud Startup Hub, Old Street 🎟️ Tickets are by donation, pay what you want 🍷 Free drinks and food 👉 Limited to 100 places, sign up here lu.ma/lygvkjet M Coyle, Vasily Alekseenko, Fraya Brinkman 🧡

Ready. Aim. Fire🔫 - David Levine’s approach to ‘Raising like a pro’ This week Hotbed kicked off their Expand accelerator and I am thrilled to be a part of it, thanks to the masterminds that are Perdie Alder and M Coyle. Today’s session was led by the insightful and honest David Levine on how to prepare for a fundraise. 🔑 Takeaways: 🤫Purpose of a deck purpose = to get to the next step. ☠️Skeleton's will kill your raise. 👋🏻Investor outreach - "personalisation at scale". Approach funding as you would a Marketing/Sales funnel: ⬆️Top of funnel (awareness) - build brand awareness and though leadership around you and your idea through LinkedIn. ➡️Middle of funnel - research relevant investors and reach out with personalised messaging to secure a call. ⬇️Bottom (conversion) - secure a lead investor and push for term sheets within 3 meetings. 📧Obsess over outreach email - its a sales process - treat it like one. 🧾Don't pay retainers - introducers/advisors are not incentivised to do a good job! Focus on success fees. #accelerator #startup #femalefounder

Yesterday, 10 founders selected from over 220 applications met 10 investors for back-to-back 1:1 IRL conversations. Our second Investor:Founder Speed Dating with SeedLegals = done 🤝 Huge shoutout to the 10 *extremely impressive* startups featured, Baris Ozaydinli, Founder, Scooch Charlie Gilpin & Sam Moss, Co-Founders, STOCKED Dinuk Dissanayake, Co-Founder, CORREXIKO Emily Gaunt, Founder, Radar James Dunn, Co-Founder, BackPedal Jenny Wordsworth, Founder, OVUM Ruaraidh Grubb, Founder, OWN-KIND Richard Smith, CEO, Qualus Samuel Flynn, Founder, Hands In Tersha Willis, Co-Founder, terrible* Thank you to the 10 investors who spend 90 minutes chatting to founders, we couldn't do it without you 🧡 And thank you to Zinc Ventures for providing the space to make these connections happen! Can't wait to do it all again next year 🥳 Perdie Alder, M Coyle, Meera Mawkin, Mo Saed