00:00welcome to the a 16z podcast I'm Michel
00:02Copeland and we are still in London and
00:04we were lucky to have with us two of
00:05London's most interesting and dynamic
00:07entrepreneurs and investors Reshma
00:10Suhani founding partner of Seedcamp
00:12you guys are the the fund for first-time
00:16founders of choice or that's what you
00:18wanted I can't even say it close we're
00:20trying to be more aiming to be kind of
00:22the choice of European founders as their
00:24first round fund in you know cross so
00:27we're extremely aggressive for Europe
00:29we're doing about 40 investments a years
00:31that puts us in quite the very active
00:34kind of investor role here extremely
00:36aggressive annual you will note from
00:38Reshma's accent that she is also from
00:40the US but has been here for 14 years
00:42and is drinking tea so maybe she is
00:44British after all and we have with us
00:46also a man who is known by one name here
00:48in the London investing in community
00:50shack who is a longtime opera
00:51entrepreneur and investor and was the
00:53man at Spotify for Daniel Eck who sort
00:57of got everything done shaq welcome
00:59thank you for having me we've had a lot
01:01of discussion about london as a tech
01:03center what pieces are in place and you
01:07know what can lend them become that's
01:08unique to itself as opposed to trying to
01:10emulate Silicon Valley yeah I mean I
01:12think you know the last five years and
01:15and we've been around sort of eight
01:16years is a lot of the fundamentals are
01:19there so you've got everything from
01:20beginnings of policy to encourage
01:22investment talent with visas and and so
01:26forth to the universities that breed
01:28that incredible sort of talent emerging
01:31kind of powerhouses around artificial
01:32intelligence etc to the accelerators
01:35seed funds more and more sort of series
01:38a growth investors American Capital
01:41Chinese capital sort of coming in so all
01:43of those pieces are there they've been
01:45building some pretty interesting
01:47companies we use a lot a term around
01:50sort of derivative companies which are
01:52which are great sort of you know
01:54standalone businesses as such and can be
01:56quite valuable but we haven't quite hit
01:58that sort of massive platform business
02:00yet write something originally that grew
02:02up here and well I think nodal kind of
02:04central to to the ecosystem that
02:07everything else feeds through but like a
02:09Google or Facebook or you know Amazon
02:12Schaech what else is missing I think
02:14Krishna's final point there is very very
02:17relevant to encourage entrepreneurs that
02:20seed capital has to come from somewhere
02:23and at the moment when I look around a
02:25lot of it seems to come from some family
02:28officers who seemed to think Tek is the
02:30cool thing to be doing oh it's coming
02:32from the savings of executives that
02:34media companies or tech companies we
02:37haven't had those major hit after hit
02:40multi-billion dollar exits whether in
02:43the private market on the public market
02:44such as the googles or the Facebook so
02:47that trickle down effect hasn't happened
02:49and it'll be awhile till it happens I'll
02:52give you a quick example one of the
02:54biggest biggest success stories that
02:55ever came out of the UK in the last 15
02:58years was a company called money
02:59supermarket it was the financial
03:01comparison service at one stage was
03:03worth over or close to a billion pounds
03:05of one and a half million dollars I had
03:07never heard of Simon Nixon since
03:09apart from last week when I came across
03:12a boutique website advertising five
03:15different villas in the countryside and
03:17apparently the assignment nixon's homes
03:19which he rents out to make some
03:21supplementary income after the only time
03:23I've heard of him in the last 12 to 15
03:25years right and he was one of the best
03:27entrepreneurs who created an exceptional
03:30company which I if I recall correctly
03:32without any VC financing so if you don't
03:36have those kind of generational repeat
03:39entrepreneurs then how do you build that
03:42kind of flywheel that that Silicon
03:43Valley or or do you that Silicon Valley
03:46can lean on you know whether that's in
03:48terms of angel investors or just people
03:50with an experience I mean I think I
03:52think it needs a little harsh actually I
03:54am hearing of Simon Nixon more and more
03:56but I would I would say we're probably a
03:58decade or 15 years behind in that sense
04:01so you know you do have the skype
04:03founders who've obviously done an
04:04incredible amount with atomic go and and
04:07then some but you have Tophet who left
04:09Skype and started transferwise which is
04:12a portfolio company of ours absolutely
04:14and you know I would say has a huge
04:16chance of being one of those sort of
04:17platform businesses if they'd get the
04:18next five years right but people have
04:21left transfer eyes and Tophet is an
04:23active angel investor so I mean you know
04:25getting your and that's just that's not
04:27even just one example I mean there's
04:29multiple coming out of the Google's
04:31Yahoo here and and so on and so King
04:34calm just exited obviously as well I
04:36think they're setting up a fund so
04:37you're getting that we're just sort of a
04:39decade behind right we're a generation
04:41or so behind I mean I have to say it's
04:43not you know London is the world's
04:46largest financial center who kind of
04:49bounces back and forth between London
04:50and New York and just speaking of New
04:52York then it's sort of the same dynamic
04:55with me Wall Street and the financial
04:57center here have such a huge you know
04:59center of gravity is that part of the
05:02reason I mean are you still having you
05:04know kind of the best in the brightest
05:06head off to banking or is there a sense
05:09here now that technology is the place to
05:11be I think one way of looking at it the
05:15difference between the US investment
05:17banks and the UK investment banks I
05:20don't actually know anyone who was like
05:22I need to get into Goldman Sachs London
05:24they're like I want to become an
05:25investment banker and I'll move to the
05:27States what is interesting is if you
05:30look at you have London and then you
05:32have the British population and then you
05:34have all the imports of people you know
05:38who were brought up in a different
05:40country but then came to London I think
05:42that is getting bigger and bigger reshma
05:45being one of them and my parents being
05:47first-generation immigrants and Nicolas
05:49and tavad so you're getting a lot of
05:52exceptional talent from around Europe
05:55coming to London but that's had its own
05:57issues in regards to visas over the
06:00years in regards to living costs so
06:02there's a lot of those social type of
06:03factors which has hindered people from
06:06I think the London Financial Center
06:09versus tech are two separate things
06:11apart from where thin tech is involved
06:13they seem like two very different
06:15industries unlike Wall Street where a
06:18lot of investment bankers are active in
06:21investing in tech startups we talked
06:23about at the firm software eating the
06:25world and as software and tech goes into
06:29every industry whether it be health care
06:31or FinTech or agriculture for that
06:34matter is there an advantage in the
06:38sense of like you have people
06:39from all over the world you have
06:40different approaches and in some ways
06:42there's kind of if tech hasn't seeped
06:44into all of Europe is there a different
06:47perspective that that entrepreneurs in
06:49in England bring to solving problems
06:52that might play out better in the rest
06:55of the world and in other industries um
06:57yeah I mean I think so I think you you
07:00do get such different perspectives and
07:02different systems of sort of finance or
07:05government or otherwise across the board
07:08across Europe so I think you do get
07:10entrepreneurs that are able to sort of
07:13you know able to navigate that and build
07:16solutions that are that are more
07:17scalable I think they're still sort of
07:19hindered by those Geographic barriers
07:22and and and also kind of funding
07:24barriers as well I mean venture capital
07:26I think continues to be so regional I
07:28mean it's a terrible thing it just
07:29doesn't sort of unify across you know
07:32across Europe and so scalability is
07:35limited therefore you know to a big
07:37reason because of that and then Tallinn
07:39I mean it's starting to move across much
07:42more easily but you're still getting you
07:44know kind of a more popular populist
07:46thick rise of kind of anti-immigration
07:48and all of that so it's it's still got a
07:50lot of long ways to go but inherently I
07:52I agree I think you know there is that
07:55there is that sort of sense of being
07:59able to to solve kind of variety of
08:01problems and dealing with those problems
08:03are promised solved differently here and
08:06and or regionally for that matter like
08:08do you see a company that's coming out
08:09of Berlin saying like oh yeah that's a
08:11Berlin company because I can tell from
08:13these characteristics or that's a you
08:15know UK company but our problem solved
08:18differently then say in San Francisco or
08:21Silicon Valley it's a great question and
08:23easy way to answer is us is a huge
08:27individual market and there's enough
08:31room for American companies a lot of the
08:33time just to win the USA because one
08:36it's got population but to the revenue
08:39per user that you can get whereas you
08:40take a market like Sweden the reason why
08:43Spotify partly has been successful was
08:46from day one the product was built to go
08:48global right the same thing with Skype
08:52transferwise are building for a global
08:54audience because the local population is
08:57far too small to be a venture back
08:59company to have a revenue of billions
09:03and billions of million so you have this
09:05international mindset from day one which
09:08company lives in the States didn't
09:10necessarily have this now starting to
09:12think more international so we have that
09:14advantage because we're all exposed to
09:16far more cultural inputs than a couple
09:20in those states would be UK has probably
09:22been the last and machers out of
09:25European countries Germany and UK are
09:27pretty big populations in their own and
09:30I go back to a lot of the companies that
09:32were built here in the last 15 years
09:34were just market leaders in the UK some
09:37of our biggest online real estate
09:39companies are just UK only Rightmove and
09:41Zoopla two huge companies have never
09:44really ventured outside the UK you
09:47couldn't do that if you're from Estonia
09:49or if you're from Finland or view from
09:50Sweden you have to go international from
09:52banging what's a natural the natural
09:54path and if you're a successful company
09:57startup in in the UK do you hit the rest
10:00of Western Europe first because it's
10:02closed do you go to Asia do you go to
10:04the United States what I mean what I'm
10:07seeing a lot is and it's a really it's a
10:10big generational shift so I think if we
10:12looked at entrepreneurs from again about
10:14five years ago or more there was the
10:16sense of well if I start in London or I
10:18start in Manchester let me go across the
10:20rest of the UK and then as you said
10:22maybe France or Germany we're seeing a
10:24completely different completely kind of
10:26change of perspective there our founders
10:29are saying let me launch immediately in
10:31London Berlin maybe even in New York
10:33actually so they're really going after
10:35urban spread rather than any kind of
10:38geographical bias so if they're starting
10:40in English which which mainly happens to
10:42be it's a what are the main cities we
10:45can dominate so I mean those are
10:47long-term trends around population sort
10:50of centralizing and in urban areas and
10:52and you know kind of the massive urban
10:54revolution right so we're not seeing
10:57such biases that we saw a generation ago
10:59and if you see look at the marketplace
11:01businesses it's actually no longer about
11:04yeah it's cities right which cities work
11:06and which cities don't work and you know
11:08Istanbul is many thousands of miles away
11:11from here and there is an entrepreneur
11:13probably go London Istanbul Dubai Hong
11:16Kong that doesn't mean they're looking
11:18at all Europe all Asia they're picking
11:20those cities going aggressively in there
11:23to tackle them that way far better
11:25position to do than the stage because if
11:27you start in San Francisco the natural
11:28thing is San Francisco New York Boston
11:31Miami Chicago LA San Diego right before
11:36you come international so there's this
11:38different startup operational cities
11:42challenge that happens and then it's
11:43just you know having sufficient capital
11:45to have a playbook to be able to
11:48replicate that city by city very quickly
11:49right and in our the cities you know
11:52restaurant were you describing I mean I
11:54get the US but when you go from big city
11:57Istanbul Hong Kong London etc are the
12:01users kind of of a same type is it is it
12:04the city that's the defining
12:06characteristic and the density and kind
12:08of urban lifestyle as opposed to the
12:10region I would think so I mean when we
12:12when our companies are doing that kind
12:14of market research that that's a lot of
12:16what they're what they're finding I mean
12:18you still have to do a lot of
12:19segmentation within those sorts of
12:21cohorts but you know I think a a person
12:24in Shanghai feels a lot closer to the
12:26person culturally kind of what their
12:28day-to-day needs are to a person in New
12:30York or San Francisco or or London or
12:33Berlin versus kind of maybe even the
12:35rest of China or rest of India or so
12:36forth right on the flipside US companies
12:40that come to Europe what are they up
12:42against these days I mean we've been
12:43walking around here near the hotel and
12:45Google's down the street and Airbnb is
12:47somewhere nearby or relatively nearby
12:50etc but what are they up against now
12:52when they come to town and what do you
12:54see so you know having seen this many
12:57times over what happens as US companies
13:00know hey we need to go into Europe we
13:02need to go international so let's put
13:04our office in London and let's send
13:05Peter or Lucy who went to Stanford and
13:08did a semester in Paris because there
13:11aren't lived there and you can go
13:12Europe and you know that person is more
13:16familiar with Europe than most people
13:17and sometimes what ends up happening is
13:19coming to London is actually a huge
13:22disservice because you feel like well in
13:24London you know we can just run Paris
13:26out of there we can run Germany
13:27u.s. is are similar to UK then France
13:31will ever be so those challenges of
13:34accepting that just by being in London
13:38you won't be able to tackle the whole of
13:40Europe and so now what you're seeing is
13:41people going okay if we're going
13:42international we need to open up in
13:44Paris we need to open up in London we
13:45need to open up in Munich or Berlin
13:48straight away because the three are
13:49completely different when you're
13:51approaching and whether it's labor laws
13:53whether it's real estate for us it's
13:55what we do every day and we don't have
13:57those worries it's equivalent to
13:59somebody from San Francisco going to
14:00Chicago there aren't that many nuances
14:02but when you come from the states go hey
14:04I don't even stand the company set up in
14:06why do I have to work with a union in
14:08Paris where you don't have to do that in
14:10UK which is two and a half hours on the
14:12train so it's a completely different
14:14ecosystem and a smaller level in
14:17different cities right I think it's also
14:19I mean it's early days but I think the
14:22last year's of exits have taught both
14:25entrepreneurs and VC's here that you
14:28know you're capped a few domes if you
14:30don't have the expansion fast enough you
14:32don't deliver that fast enough you're
14:34capped and I think if you see examples
14:36of halo which is a brilliant service I
14:38use it all the time but my crazy halo is
14:40is a version of what well it's a
14:43transportation thing I know that it's
14:46they branched out a bit more but you
14:49know yeah you won't know you won't know
14:50it right if you're listening to this
14:52podcast but hey it's like uber but it's
14:54not over but it no because it's it's it
14:56was focused solely on black cabs to
14:58begin with right and it never again it
14:59never expanded fast enough and my taxi
15:02got funded by a different cohort of
15:04investors and that never expanded fast
15:06enough rate and then uber just sprawled
15:07completely in record pace obviously as
15:10we all know so I mean I think having
15:12seen some of the limitations trying to
15:14go at it the traditional way in Europe I
15:17think entrepreneurs and investors are
15:19waking up to the fact that you know we
15:21need to spread faster it needs much more
15:25I think it's early days whether that's
15:26successful yet or not this just
15:28naturally a desire also if you're a
15:30British entrepreneur European
15:32entrepreneur to go in when USA and from
15:36were rational saying I'd actually say
15:37the reverse and you know I used a halo
15:40right because it was 40 minutes away
15:42they were gonna get stuck in traffic and
15:44they can't use the bus lanes whereas the
15:47licensed taxi got me here in eight
15:48minutes and you'd the back road but halo
15:51only use it here and they've shut down
15:54in most cities they were in instead of
15:56them going hey we've done London let's
15:57go tackle USA I would have done Paris
16:00yeah Berlin Copenhagen Sweden you
16:03suddenly have a huge network you have a
16:06huge brand and you have a solid company
16:08halos basically in London niche company
16:11funded by VCS who if they could get an
16:14exit would take my exit tomorrow and get
16:17out of the business because uber has one
16:19in their space right Reshma your fund
16:22has been around for eight years Shack
16:23you've been your reluctantly an investor
16:25you were saying you didn't i'm the
16:27accidental investors never wanted to be
16:29an investor that ended up meeting daniel
16:31ik when he was 22 years old with an idea
16:34of spotify and i pull half of my net
16:36worth into the company before there was
16:38a product so what well what were you
16:41thinking as your mother might say if i
16:44look back to what was i thinking I only
16:46put half of my net worth and the address
16:48and secondly I shouldn't have ever done
16:51another investment after that because I
16:53always go back it won't be as good as I
16:55know so for me I'm not a big music fan
16:57for a star but you know I got to know
17:00Daniel and it was his sheer passion and
17:03the fact that he wasn't willing to take
17:05no for an answer so this is 2007 2008 CD
17:09sales are still there
17:10download business is huge and here's a
17:13young individual who walks into the
17:14record labels again hey I have a
17:15solution for your declining revenue and
17:18this is what's I said give all the music
17:19away free of charge and I remember when
17:21he'd get physically thrown out of these
17:23buildings and that goes so and he's got
17:25well I'll go back there tomorrow because
17:26eventually they will come around to
17:29thinking the way I'm thinking and I'd
17:31like to think you know we've now proven
17:33that streaming is the future but all
17:35that came later for me it was an end of
17:38jool who were realized had such passion
17:40that he was either gonna win or he was
17:42gonna die it was very binary and when I
17:44wrote the check and it was just over
17:47five hundred thousand dollars it was
17:49okay I may never see this again and I
17:51didn't look at it what is my iír IRR or
17:55what my liquidation I didn't even know
17:57any of these words like hey seems like a
17:59cool guy way smarter than I am so okay
18:01why not do it and so really I'm the
18:03accidental investor I had zero desire to
18:05be in the investment world Wow in in
18:07Mexico we call that cojones so I wanted
18:12to sort of describe what the
18:13entrepreneur that you guys work with is
18:15like and so Reshma you you work with
18:19early-stage entrepreneurs are they are
18:21they sort of the Peter Thiel ideal where
18:23they dropped out of college and you know
18:25they're they're driven by X Y or Z man
18:28what do entrepreneurs what what are
18:32their characteristics here and is it any
18:33different honestly than Silicon Valley
18:35and how is entrepreneur ISM kind of
18:37embraced culturally or not good question
18:41I think again it's it's a evolving
18:43journey and so our journey with
18:45entrepreneurs has been that over the
18:46last kind of near you know near decade I
18:49would say when we started there was a
18:52real lack and I think I can say that
18:54sort of confidently being American is a
18:56lack of commercial sense and sort of how
18:59do you get these products out to market
19:00and focus around product and usability
19:03and you know kind of thinking being the
19:05customer champion and how do you
19:06commercialize it how do you monetize it
19:09so I think there was a there was a real
19:10kind of lack of that it's changed
19:13dramatically for the for the founders
19:15we're backing today I mean just so much
19:16more astute everyone's reading the same
19:19thing you're exposed to podcasts like
19:21this and a lot of knowledge and content
19:23like this also role models so again
19:25there's serial entrepreneurs and and
19:26investors you're used to you know a lot
19:29more kind of a lot more access a lot
19:31more people to to access so I think
19:33that's been a dramatic change whether
19:35whether they are you know dropouts as
19:38such I mean I don't think we kind of
19:39look at it that way I think there is a
19:42much more kind of that's zero to one
19:44thinking and thinking thinking very very
19:48incredibly ambitious and and having the
19:50toolkit to also execute on that ambition
19:53so not a pure kind of let's let's be
19:56dreamers but right how do we execute
19:57against that and and and check it's okay
20:00to be an entrepreneur I mean you were an
20:01entrepreneur I was an entrepreneur cuz I
20:03dropped out of high school before my
20:0616th birthday without finishing my exams
20:07I had another option no other option to
20:10do this and I realize growing up in the
20:12projects in you know an environment
20:14where poverty was the norm the only way
20:16I would really be able to help myself
20:19and help my family members get out was
20:21to accumulate some sort of wealth which
20:24I wasn't gonna get in the traditional
20:26career path whatever that would have
20:28been whether it'd been in traditional
20:29banking or whatever who knows what would
20:31have happened but the country has never
20:34been as entrepreneurial as the USA has
20:37and there's a number of social reasons
20:39and governmental reasons one we've got
20:41even though people may complain we have
20:43a pretty amazing welfare system here and
20:45a pretty amazing healthcare system here
20:47when you know your roof is you know
20:49above your head and the welfare will
20:51give you sufficient funds to feed your
20:54family and close your self and you've
20:56got health care system you go education
20:58system you don't have the same
20:59challenges an individual in many
21:01countries including America where if you
21:03get made redundant your health insurance
21:05is the first thing that goes and
21:06everything else goes with it I know
21:08there is a welfare system but the Delta
21:10between the two is huge and secondly
21:12failure in Britain and even till now
21:16it's it's getting better and better is
21:18not encouraged and I can honestly recall
21:21being in a coffee shop in a like
21:24cafeteria many many years ago with my
21:26father who turn around to me to see the
21:29gentleman sitting over this is he's
21:31bankrupt it was like it was a mass
21:33murder or in a high-level criminal and
21:36he and now I look back at it I would
21:38have loved to gone over and had a chat
21:40with this gentleman gonna hey what was
21:41it like what went wrong and are you
21:43gonna start your next company that's not
21:44oh wow bankrupt and reshma you've been
21:46here long enough to I think realize
21:48there is that stigma about faith and I
21:51think maybe actually the chat it's a
21:53really good point I think the challenges
21:54were seeing across continental Europe
21:57you know with those support systems
21:59falling apart is actually in gender
22:02move towards entrepreneurship so we see
22:04that in Portugal uni places just has
22:07been you know has had a great round of
22:09funding recently Spain as well Italy a
22:12little bit also is as those systems
22:14crumble as economic pressure kind of
22:17ratchets up exactly the the the only
22:20road to turn to is entrepreneurship and
22:22striking out and trying to you know and
22:24trying to rise above that right wow
22:26that's interesting so I mean in a lot of
22:30ways policy has a huge role to play
22:32either positively or negatively I don't
22:35know do you have a view on what can be
22:37done from a policy side or or what
22:39should be left well alone well the
22:41safety net that everyone assumed was
22:44there has a few cracks in it everything
22:47as has become visible and whether it was
22:48in the 2008 financial crisis people
22:50putting money in the banks or what
22:52happened in Cyprus and hey your money's
22:54safe and you know you encourage trust
22:57the banks trust the government will take
22:58care of you and suddenly about 10% or
23:0120% of your holdings are now being wiped
23:02out to pay for silly mistakes that were
23:05done by institutions etc etc so is it is
23:10it policy that needs change and I think
23:13it's a combination of everything hey
23:14it's just time right the world changes
23:16and yesterday everyone wants to be
23:19nostalgic but tomorrow is gonna come and
23:21yesterday's gone past and how do we move
23:23forward how do we think what it's gonna
23:26happen in 20 years time and are we
23:28prepared for it in every shape form you
23:30know infrastructure is this efficient
23:32capital is this efficient educated
23:34individuals to fulfill their roles that
23:37required our individuals even are gonna
23:39be required because of machines that
23:41gonna be doing certain things it's just
23:42a journey that everyone's on and
23:44nobody's figured it out if they have I'd
23:45love to meet them right and invest in
23:47them right Reshma we were talking with
23:50Martha Lane Fox and she was bum owning
23:53the the lack of women entrepreneurs and
23:55the women in technology and certainly
23:58Silicon Valley has no answer for that as
24:01of yet but do you have a point of view
24:05on that and are you seeing any movement
24:08one way or another I am not seeing a
24:11movement probably fast enough I would
24:15I don't talk about this topic that much
24:17I guess it's funny I think I read an
24:20interview with Eileen I think she and I
24:22were when we were young we were just
24:23worried about being chinese-american for
24:25her Indian for me I didn't worry about
24:28being a woman right and it's an issue of
24:30a thinking more about but I mean again I
24:32think it's just like entrepreneurship
24:34female entrepreneurship is an ecosystem
24:37thing so we don't have enough female
24:38VC's who you know do look at things
24:41differently and and and will look at
24:43individuals differently we we don't we
24:46don't have enough female entrepreneurs
24:47between up coders all of that I think
24:49again it's changing I think as you have
24:51in the u.s. you're seeing Twitter
24:54product managers who've left and there's
24:57a there's a few women who started you
24:58know fund of their own I think as you as
25:00you start to see talent leave here
25:02hopefully exit have a bit of wealth they
25:05will start to create funds and they will
25:06become angel investors and so forth so I
25:09think that'll help I think you know role
25:12models again I I'm a new mom and it's
25:15hard for me to get out I mean it's
25:16literally and so but I still mean you
25:19know I go out there have a supportive
25:20husband and I think you need those role
25:23you know sherry Eileen me we we need to
25:26play that part sometimes it's difficult
25:27to do so we you've got to keep going out
25:29there and and showing what you're
25:31capable of so and I agree with her that
25:34it's just it's not enough still but I
25:36mean even in our own portfolio it's a
25:38tiny percentage that are female right no
25:40letter companies and cheque I don't want
25:42to you know just because you're a man
25:44you should don't doesn't mean you don't
25:45have an opinion on this
25:46so no you know it's a great question one
25:49here's more and more about and I'd
25:51answer in one way similar to worry Sh'ma
25:53and you know growing up whether is male
25:57female etc putting that at the side it
26:00was hey I am non-white in a white
26:02country and unless you're non-white you
26:05will never understand that and secondly
26:07to answer your question I think you can
26:08answer it better we're sitting in a
26:10lovely venue in London and you've got an
26:12American Indian in London and a
26:16Pakistani heritage male sitting here so
26:21you know is there diversity there's
26:23obviously diversity in this room should
26:25there be more female entrepreneurs yeah
26:27but then you need morpheme
26:29investors which we're starting to get
26:31now and that trickle-down effect will
26:33happen I think you know we're going
26:35through a phase and there's more and
26:37more encouragement and if you look at
26:40every sector there are some exceptional
26:42women in leadership positions Padmasree
26:45warrior indian the individual who was
26:48CTO cisco and now is doing a bunch of
26:50board stuff there there's the pepsi CEO
26:53i think yeah there's an indian lady it's
26:57starting to happen and I think we'll see
26:59a very rapid shift when that happens I
27:02don't know but some of the most
27:04exceptional PMS that I'm meeting in
27:06today's environment are not male yeah
27:09you know our our infrastructure needs to
27:11change its as well so childcare is is
27:14kind of impossible in the UK market in
27:18London and somehow it doesn't fall on my
27:20husband and somehow falls on me to kind
27:22of think about that right and that's a
27:23pretty big issue working hours you know
27:26your children go to school at some weird
27:27times I mean the end of 3 what do you do
27:30with that you know and so a lot of that
27:31infrastructure needs to dramatically
27:34shift to make me if you look in Sweden
27:36maternity leave and paternity leave
27:38serious fundamental changes by the
27:41government encouragement of leadership
27:44positions I think there's actually a
27:46requirement that the ratio has to be X
27:49number of females and X number of non
27:52Swedes on a border I believe so you're
27:55starting to see that happen I hope it
27:57happens in England and Scotland and
27:59Wales and Northern Ireland in every
28:01country sooner rather than later but
28:02that's nothing I can influence because
28:04I'm not a woman I can support the women
28:07who are there women like Reshma women
28:09like Eileen and Cherie and there's you
28:12know a bunch of amazing entrepreneurs
28:15Robin Exton and equivalent to in the
28:18States there's exceptional leaders such
28:21as Ellen Levi's Julia de mcgovney
28:23there's there's no shortage but we need
28:25more and it'll happen sooner or later
28:27I'm gonna let you guys brag now if you
28:29want about companies or people that we
28:32should all be paying attention to that
28:33maybe we haven't you know found out
28:36about yet in the US and our own myopic
28:41well we're really excited and we've been
28:43an incredibly active investor obviously
28:46in FinTech but property tech as of as of
28:48late as well and and to Shaq's point
28:50from before you know we do think UK
28:53startups in that space have been limited
28:55to date so we have a company called
28:56property partner which we're extremely
28:59excited about they are come by it's a
29:01pretty complex business they're
29:02combining acquisition of properties with
29:06funding them through through
29:07crowdfunding and so yeah exactly right
29:10so what happens to the property are we
29:13just all group investors in it or do we
29:15all move in together and have a
29:16communism it's pretty phenomenal so they
29:18have a team that actually goes out there
29:20and sources property so they negotiate
29:22they have a whole team around
29:23negotiating these properties there it's
29:25in residential space right now so
29:27they're buying either standalone houses
29:29or blocks of flats individual flats that
29:31is it London regionally right now but
29:33obviously plans for plans for expansion
29:36and then once they get the property on
29:38they're releasing up them to the
29:39platform and so they just set a world
29:41record a couple of days ago it was a
29:44block of four flats 1.1 million pounds
29:47sold out in 2 minutes and 19 seconds so
29:50I'm investing in real estate is that the
29:52idea that on the crowdfunding side very
29:56human point of view myself included it's
29:59actually the first property I own in
30:01no so part of it it's just you cannot
30:03get on the property ladder and again if
30:05you if you think about it UK maybe you
30:07don't understand the problem but if
30:08you're in New York in San Francisco
30:10interesting Hong Kong you understand
30:12that but a lot of people have savings
30:17and you save over years and years every
30:19time you kind of reach a point where I'm
30:20ready to buy either your desire has gone
30:23up or the prices have gone up or both
30:25and so you can never get on and so in a
30:27very human way this allows you property
30:30by property to really spot what you want
30:32to get into and be able to come in
30:34there's a secondary market associated
30:36with it and all of that as well so we're
30:38extremely excited about where this can
30:40go that's cool that's interesting yeah I
30:41can see that playing well in San
30:43Francisco Shack so it's not a portfolio
30:48company or mine it's a company out of
30:49Germany Berlin company called get your
30:51guide there just announced
30:53million dollars raised from KKR you know
30:56companies had a number of pivots over
30:58the last few years but the execution and
31:01the speed that these founders and this
31:04team is working on with a very global
31:06vision and anyone who's managed to
31:09as a board member who was the CEO of the
31:12founder of booking.com and Fritz
31:15developers who created Chunar which is
31:17the kayak of China onto their board who
31:20are two of the most aggressive ruthless
31:23execution focused individuals based in
31:26Berlin so we come back to that you know
31:28are they thinking of building a company
31:30just for Berlin no this team is thinking
31:32of creating a global global rad which is
31:35why you know investors in Europe but now
31:37KKR who don't normally do early-stage
31:40tech have invested 50 million dollars in
31:44it so that's wanton you know get your
31:45guide get your guide calm and it's about
31:49travel well again it's it's travel but
31:51it's it's more I think the step after
31:54the hotel and the flights of you know
31:56you're in London how do you get to the
31:58London Eye how do you get how do you
32:00remove the friction which you managed to
32:02do in your flights and your hotels and
32:04your lifts or your uber halos but then
32:06having to spam 16 minutes in the rain
32:09waiting to be told that you're in the
32:12wrong counter of X or Y I Madame
32:15so get your guide is obviously high up
32:17there and the other one you know I can't
32:20sing the praises high enough I believe
32:22they're a portfolio company yours and
32:23I'm believe they're a seed coming I
32:31can't sing the praises high enough and
32:34you know had I had the chance I don't
32:37know whether I actually did or not I've
32:38probably didn't have any liquidity cuz
32:40all my investments have been my own and
32:42you know it's a it's a myth that you
32:44always have lots of cash Nate you know
32:47you go through cycles I didn't have any
32:49liquidity at the time but that aside
32:51love what those guys are doing loved the
32:54fact that you know they non Brits that
32:57have made the headquarters in UK and
32:59tackling a global problem yeah which is
33:03the remittance which it's the most
33:06needy who get ripped off by the banks
33:08you try and send in 30 bucks to Pakistan
33:12or to Philippines Western Union want I
33:16think 9 bucks out of that so it's the
33:18people who don't have the money who are
33:20trying to send remittances for their
33:23loved ones or their friends etc who get
33:26charged the most and transferwise is
33:27doing an amazing job and I hope this
33:29goes down as you know one of the biggest
33:31companies ever to come out of Europe up
33:33there with Spotify and Skype or bigger
33:35than even those companies and I think
33:37and card it to Andreessen but probably
33:40earlier with ia ventures out of New York
33:41is having some of that American DNA on
33:45ambition expansion how do you fund that
33:49expansion how do you hire talent was
33:52really crucial from from the early days
33:53so I mean I I do think the trajectory of
33:55that business has changed it would be in
33:58a very different curve had it not been
34:00for some of that American capital that
34:02came in there yeah it's an it's also an
34:03idea that certainly I mean it could have
34:06come out of the US but probably not just
34:08you know for the same reason that SMS
34:09came out of Europe too and and other
34:12things like that but it's a problem that
34:13was solved here and it's a problem
34:14that's global and you know that counts
34:17as bragging but I can't brag about it
34:19too just because it's in my portfolio
34:20well reshma Shack I want to thank you
34:23guys so much it's been a great
34:24conversation and I have high hopes for
34:27all of Europe now we'll have to keep an
34:29eye on thank you for having us Thanks
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