Tag Archives: Boards

LFP178 – Connecting Startups, Investors, NEDs/Advisors/Mentors w/Roei Samuel CEO Connectd

Way back in the day LFP002 was with matchi.biz who were creating a marketplace to connect innovative firms with incumbents who needed that innovation so the idea of a connection function or market has been around for some time. As matchi.biz were acquired by KPMG in 2017 they were clearly not only successful at creating such a marketplace but did it so well that like a hoover hoovering itself up they got sucked thru their own portal too.

Can these concepts apply to enabling and empowering entrepreneurs? After all the most useful attributes for a founder are acquiring funders, good board members, advisors and/or mentors.

Markets sound like a good idea, albeit one that crony capitalism is forgetting. Markets operate best when what they trade is fungible – eg US$ or gold bullion of a certain quality. However as every marriage broker knows people aren’t exactly fungible – indeed they are perhaps the least fungible thing going. But all these swipe left and right apps seem to make a living for themselves and entertainment for the swipers with some success in the dating and mating game.

Roei and Connectd have set out to make a digital marketplace to add liquidity to the world of startups, investors and the hard-to-name yet super-valuable NED/Advisor/Mentor sector. This has naturally only been amplified massively in the world of lockdown. Historically the “well-connected” have had a head-start in life – can this change in the modern world and everyone be leveled-up?

Topics discussed include: Continue reading

LFP100 – Social Engineering Hits UK Fintech & Fintech Boards – From Prometheus to Fire Safety Officers

Time flies when you are enjoying ourselves and for todays special celebration we have one taboo topic and one private topic so ideally suited to a solo act.  For the main course we get a peep into my upcoming book on the Fintech Board – or more broadly the development of a SmallCo Board as it matures. A topic I have been researching for many months with over three dozen folks who are experts on this topic including over two dozen leading UK Fintech CEOs.

For the starter course we have a dive into a February attempt by a UK politician – largely successful to bully some UK Fintechs into having gender quotas for their boards.  Without a law, a regulation, just pure PR pressure and bullying.  A shocking incident that – unsurprisingly virtually every one of the dozen or so (pretty random) London Fintechs kept its head well below the parapet on and just went along with.

Short notes and especially links:  Continue reading