Unicorn Podcast

In this episode of The Unicorn Podcast, Simon Squibb sits down with Rob Schimek, CEO of Bolttech, the groundbreaking unicorn insuretech company that has been making waves in the insurance industry.

In this episode, we delve into the mind of Philip Belamant, the visionary Co-Founder and CEO of Zilch, a groundbreaking fintech company revolutionizing the way we think about and interact with finance.

Tessa Wijaya is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Xendit. She graduated from The University of Sydney, has vast experience in the field of private equity from large companies such as Principia and Mizuho and grew up in Indonesia. Tessa describes herself as “a unicorn among unicorns among unicorns.” There are a lot of people in her family who are entrepreneurs who ran small canteens and hawker stalls.

Yat Siu is an entrepreneur and angel investor. Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, he moved to Hong Kong in 1996 to set up Hong Kong Cybercity, the first free web page and email provider in Asia. Before Hong Kong, he landed his first job at Atari in Germany, and later at graphic software company Lexicor, where he served as director and head of the U.S. East Coast division. In the late ‘90s, he set up Outblaze, which was sold to IBM in 2009 and incorporated into IBM's LotusLive suite of services.

Max Li is Co-founder and Head of Design of Airwallex , where he provides the creative vision for the business, and is responsible for developing and managing Airwallex’s product design initiatives. Leading a global team, Max drives the implementation for designing functional and human-centric products that enable quality user experience in every market where Airwallex operates.

Tech titan Michele Romanow is the Co-founder and CEO of Canadian unicorn, Clearco - the world's largest e-commerce investor. The company has invested $3.2 billion in over 7,000 ecommerce and SaaS companies. Michele is a serial entrepreneur having started six companies before her 35th birthday. In addition to her work as an entrepreneur, Michele is a “Dragon” on the Canadian hit TV show Dragons’ Den (Canada’s Shark Tank).She previously co-founded SnapSaves, which was acquired by Groupon and was also the Co-Founder of Buytopia.ca. A prolific investor, Michele was recently named as one of Fortune’s 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year.Michele is a regular media commentator and her work has been profiled in Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch, and The Globe and Mail. Michele is a director for Vail Resorts, BBTV and Queen’s School of Business. Previously she was a director for Freshii, Whistler Blackcomb, SHAD International and League of Innovators. Michele also co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative non-profit with Sir Richard Branson.In this episode, Michele teaches us how she approaches investments, what it takes to build a billion dollar company, her experience working with romantic partners and much more!How Michelle Approaches Investments What Michelle looks for in an investmentFailureWork/Life Balance and The Entrepreneur LifestyleWorking With Romantic PartnersRebranding from Clear Bank to ClearcoChanging Position From President To CEOFrom Entrepreneur To Employee To Entrepreneur AgainRevenue-Based FundingInvesting In Under-Represented EntrepreneursSolving The ‘University Route’ NarrativeAre Entrepreneurs Born Or Bred?What Makes An Entrepreneur?It’s Not The Years It’s The Miles.Entrepreneurship From A Young AgeMichelle’s Favourite Dragons’ Den InvestmentsClearco Funded Companies Where Does All The Money Come From?Experience vs BooksDo You Have Any Regrets? Michele:https://instagram.com/micheleromanow?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=ClearCoWww.clear.coFor more help start here: www.purposefulproject.com

Tony Fadell is the creator of the iPod, co-creator of the iPhone, and founder of Nest Labs, which was acquired by Google for $3.2 Billion. Named as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2014, Tony believes that instead of building artificial platforms like the Metaverse, we need to focus on building products that fix and improve the real world.

Chris Barton is a well-respected entrepreneur and one of the masterminds behind the music recognition app, Shazam. Shazam was created in London over 20years ago and caught the interest of Apple who went on to purchase the technology for a speculated $400 million in 2017. The app is now among the most popular apps on both iPhone and Android with over 1 billion downloads to date. Chris’ career also includes companies such as Google where he worked for 8 years and Dropbox, where he held the position of head of mobile operators' business development. He has collected a wealth of knowledge and experience through his journey to make him a leading entrepreneur within the digital field and more specifically, mobile applications. He is now embarking on creating a new startup focused on machine learning and computer vision. In today’s special episode of The Unicorn Podcast, Chris tells his story of building software that was so ahead of it’s time, as well as giving you all the highs and lows of his career, so you have the knowledge you need to replicate his success for yourself. "Things take longer than you expect. You hit different hurdles and unknown things happen. Early revenue in your business is like oxygen. Make revenue for your business a priority from day one. If I had realised how important that was, even if it meant delaying my main vision, it would have been a better route to take." Topics: How Chris became an entrepreneur Chris’ unconventional start-up approach Shazam - How it went from an idea to a reality Shazam - Finding an engineer to ‘invent’ the technology Shazam - The four co-founders and their partnership dynamic Shazam - Allocating job roles Shazam - Raising funding Persistence + Timing Hiring CEO’s + getting out of your own way Chris’ new company ‘Guard’ Apple’s acquisition of Shazam What is it like after selling a company? Why Guard? One piece of advice to your younger self Chris Barton: https://chrisjbarton.com/ 📚 FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com

Anne Boden is the Founder and CEO of Starling Bank, a modern British bank that brings new technology to the forefront, delivering a more engaging experience for customers than traditional high-street banks. Since 2014, Anne’s vision has served more than 2.5 million customers as Starling continues to grow into one of the UK’s leading banks. In January of 2014, Anne decided to quit her job to pursue her vision of creating a better bank, defying all stereotypes of women in their 50s with a corporate background. Starting a bank is one of the most challenging businesses to launch, and people thought she was crazy, but Anne was determined to make it work. “I felt silly, I felt people would laugh at me for having this audacious goal. I didn’t just want to create a new bank, I wanted to create one that had the very best technology right from scratch, treated customers very fairly, with a new way of doing things and engaging with customers. Nobody believed me. Nobody thought it was possible.” Topics: Starling’s first steps Raising money + building a team Being a sole founder Building the technology ‘Banking on it’ - Book Securing the $48m investment Crypto What success looks like for Anne Work/life balance Are entrepreneurs born or bred? Luck Advice to her younger self Anne: https://www.instagram.com/anneboden/ https://twitter.com/anneboden Anne's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/BANKING-How-I-Disrupted-Industry-ebook/dp/B084H6N2GS Starling Bank: https://www.starlingbank.com/ 📚 FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com

In Season 2, Episode 12, Simon talks to Tom. Tom Mercer is the Founder of MOMA Foods, a London oat brand. Frustrated with the lack of quality breakfast on the market Tom decided to leave his job in the City and do something about it. MOMA was a genuine grassroots start-up – the first kitchen was under a railway arch in South London and the first retail outlet was a stall (made from a converted filing cabinet) in Waterloo station. MOMA is now the go-to premium porridge brand in the UK, the #1 bircher muesli brand, and a fast-growing player in burgeoning oat milk market Tom is from a farming family in Staffordshire, read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, and prior to MOMA worked as a management consultant for Bain & Co. In his personal life Tom is a proud husband and dad.

In Season 2, Episode 10, Simon talks to Alexia Inge. Singularly committed to curating a ‘Beauty Hall of Fame’, featuring only the best hero products from across the globe, Alexia Inge co-founded Cult Beauty with a lifelong passion for beauty and a mission to become the most trusted beauty retailer in the world. Under Alexia’s leadership since 2014, Cult Beauty has become the place to go for beauty discovery and incubating trends – from the latest scientific wellbeing discoveries to centuries-old remedies that have never been bettered. It has fast become home to some the biggest names and need-to-know burgeoning brands: from being the first independent e-tailer to stock Anastasia Beverly Hills to bringing Milk Makeup across the pond and herding Drunk Elephant into the EU.

In season 2, episode 8, Simon talks to Patrick Tsang. Patrick Tsang is Chairman of Tsangs Group, a fourth-generation China-focused Single Family Office from Hong Kong. Patrick invests in various companies with a positive influence and positive impact. Born and raised in the United Kingdom with deeply-rooted Chinese heritage, he has a robust global network as a seasoned investor. He has worked on numerous IPO and M&A transactions globally and has successfully made investments in Asia, mainly in Hong Kong and China, North America, and Europe. Patrick holds several prestigious appointments, including the Trade Commissioner of Grenada in Macau, to promote international business and investment.