It's time for another episode of Frankly, hosted by  Steve Cook.  In this episode Steve talks to David Hill, Commercial Director at Open Energi. David reveals to us an interesting origin story of Open Energi that has an unusual structure of running with an executive Chair rather than a CEO – we will know what the benefits and challenges of that model are.  Tune in to learn about how David's approach to selling into very large complex customers. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast...

It's time for another episode of Frankly, hosted by our Operating Partner Steve Cook.  In this episode Steve talks to Daryn Edgar, CEO at LYTT, recognised by ComputerWeekly’s Most Influential Women in UK IT and the Women in Technology Awards, Daryn speaks on a range of topics in digital technology, business development and diversity. As an active startup mentor, Board member and angel investor, Daryn is skilled at building relationships to produce value and influence direction. In today's...

It's time for another episode of Frankly, hosted by our Operating Partner Steve Cook.  In this episode Steve talks to Bruce Hall, CEO at Onyx Insight, who has grown rapidly over 100 people and recently won UK Queens awards for enterprise – one for innovation and one for export. Steve and Bruce try to answer the following questions: how to ensure that the team stays cohesive and culturally consistent during a rapid growth? How to attract and retain talent and why it might be a good idea for...

It's time for another episode of Frankly, hosted by our Operating Partner Steve Cook.  In this episode Steve talks to Chris Shannon, CEO at Fotech Group, established serial entrepreneur with 20+ years experience in a rapid growth, innovative, international environment. After spending a large part of his career as a CEO for various start-ups, Chris shares with us his advice on making it through a start-up rollercoaster, how it is important to stay focused, calm and positive.  Tune in to...

Frankly is back from summer holidays with our Operating Partner Steve Cook talking to CEOs and founders of Launchpad's portfolio and picking up their brains about things they have learned, some of the practical challenges they have dealt with as they scaled their companies over the past 2-3 years.  In this episode Steve talks to Mike Popham, CEO at STRYDE, who is building a new seismic company, reinventing subsurface imaging. The two discuss how seismic is used outside of oil&gas in...

In this episode Siobhan Clarke talks with Christine Moy, Global Head of Liink, Onyx by J.P. Morgan who is building new financial infrastructure with 16+ yrs sweat equity in the trenches of banking, markets, operations, and technology and is responsible for developing and driving the adoption of the blockchain technology across the entire firm.  Siobhan and Christine discuss how to introduce new technologies into the new market, what learning loops are consistent and the importance of the...

It's time for our last Tech Series episode of Frankly, hosted by our CTO, Tom Grey. Today, we get to hear from Dr John Coultate, Head of Product Development at Onyx.  John and Tom talk in detail about similarities and differences when being both hardware and software start-ups and how focus on quality and supply plays a vital role. John also shares the two angles to hardware testing.  Tune in to find out from John what it takes to put something developed using 'hobby grade' components...

Tune in to another episode of Frankly Tech Series, hosted by our CTO, Tom Grey. This time, we get a 20 minute crash course on design thinking from Marlene Weber, User Experience Specialist at Launchpad. Marlene holds a doctorate in human centred design. Practiced at Jaguar Land Rover, she works with clients to map human AI with people first products designed for their businesses. Marlene talks us through her own definition of design thinking, how it is used to challenge assumptions to do...

It's time for another Tech Series episode of Frankly, hosted by our CTO, Tom Grey. Today, we get to hear from Karen Scarbrough, Senior Technology Associate at bp, leading development of bp external and internal blockchain network, developing and presenting educational materials on Blockchain, Zero Knowledge Proofs, and decentralised finance across the organisation.  Karen and Tom talk in detail about the differences between private and public blockchains, its application that are being...

Tune in to the second episode of our Tech Series hosted by Tom Grey, our Chief Technology Officer, where we focus on the technology we develop at Launchpad and our Portfolio Companies. In this episode Tom talks to Arabela Silva, IT and Security Manager at Fotech Solutions, on how young people most times “fall into” tech roles totally unprepared and stay feeling inadequate for a long time. Hence Arabela started being involved in programmes supporting young people in developing their full...

Tune in to the second episode of our Tech Series hosted by Tom Grey, our Chief Technology Officer, where we focus on the technology we develop at Launchpad and our Portfolio Companies.In this episode Tom talks to Amine Ourabah, Head of Processing at STRYDE, about seismic technology and how it is similar to medical ultrasound technology, its environmental impact, STRYDE's system difference from others and how it can eliminate the need for line cutting for receivers in forested areas. Learn...

Tune in to the first episode of our Tech Series hosted by Tom Grey, our Chief Technology Officer, where we focus on the technology we develop at Launchpad and our Portfolio Companies.In this episode Tom talks to Çağrı Cerrahoğlu, Technical Product Owner at LYTT, and Alessandro Delfino, Data Science Lead at LYTT, about combining domain and technology expertise to meet business goals instead of only leading with one or the other. Learn from the team about fibre optics applications from security...

In this episode Siobhan Clarke talks with Andrius Sutas, Forbes 30 under 30 who founded AimBrain (exited to BioCatch) on their newly launched book ‘ The Founder Handbook’. 4 years ago Andrius learned the difference between sales and business development and today he co-authored a book with Siobhan. So over the past 12 months they have collected their knowledge on getting to the first 10 #Enterprisecustomers for any venture and crafted it it into a straightforward frame. Tune in to listen to...

In this episode Siobhan Clarke talks with Richard Jones, Growth Practice Lead at Launchpad and Jess Michael, sales leader with 10 years of experience in enterprise SaaS sales management with the ability to pinpoint inefficiencies and exploit hidden revenue opportunities by operationalizing GTM strategies, and Fred Mather who spent his career in Sales and Sales Management including Marketing, Operations and Business Development focusing on helping build teams in high growth markets.  The team...

Join Siobhan Clarke, Operating Partner @ Launchpad for another episode of Frankly with Ilia Chrezov, Growth Partner @ Launchpad and Ben Hunt-Davis, co-author of the book 'Will it make the boat go faster'.Ben Hunt-Davis is a performance expert, coach, facilitator and keynote speaker. He is also Co-author of “Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?”, the story of how the Great Britain’s men’s eight crew won an Olympic Gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.In our 6th episode Ben leads an inspiring...

Join Siobhan Clarke, Operating Partner @ Launchpad for another episode of Frankly with Ruth Penfold, People Practice Lead @ Launchpad and Renn Vara, co-founder @ SNP Communications.Renn's experience includes more than twenty-five years working with Silicon Valley tech companies, startup founders and senior teams focused on leadership development, startup cultures, team building, and communication structures from startup / fast growth to the enterprise.In our 5th episode Renn talks with Ruth...

John Mushriqui talks to Azeem Azhar, Our fourth podcast is with Azeem Azhar, an exceptional thought leader fascinated by the clash of technology and humanity, who shares his views on the biggest challenge of our time: climate change. John was inspired by Azeem's forecast 'Preparing for the next ten years' in January and made it his goal to bring him on to Frankly to share his perspectives on a diverse range of energy related issues from solar, to storage to carbon capture. And Azeem points...

Join John Mushriqui for another episode of Frankly with Mark Roberge, Managing Partner, Stage 2 Capital. Mark talks about his journey from the early days with HubSpot where he became first SVP Global Sales and Services then Chief Revenue Officer, increasing revenue over 6,000% and expanding the team from 1 to 450. Mark is the author of The Sales Acceleration Formula but it’s really his latest ebook The Science of Scaling that made us want to get him on Frankly. Mark’s no nonsense, data-driven...

Our second podcast is with Kathrine Ryenge, CEO of ZEG Power, an energy start-up with a radical idea: low cost AND clean energy. From hydrogen. ZEG offers a route to the holy grail of higher yield with CO2 capture integrated within the technology without additional cost or carbon footprint. This is far from Kathrine's first gig; she has prior experience working in a number of Scatec startup companies, including Norsk Titanium, a global leader within additive manufacturing of structural...

Our first podcast is with serial entrepreneur Christoph Ostermann, CEO & Co-Founder of Sonnen, a residential energy storage systems tech company, recently exited to Shell, and Audun Abelsnes, MD of Equinor & Techstars Energy Accelerator on the trials, tribulations of starting up in the energy space and how to overcome them.  The energy sector is notoriously difficult to penetrate, with high barriers to entry.  It also has a reputation for being slow to innovate.  Yet the prize for...