octopus ventures interview

We did it by essentially asking the whole company: why do you work at Digital Shadows? Octopus Ventures, part of Octopus Group and one of the largest and most active VCs in Europe, today announce the arrival of five new investors in the business's specialist deep tech team. Q: tell me about your background and experience. 15,000 respectively. Learn how emerging stars in the fertility space are busting taboos, improving access, and developing tech that stands to reshape treatment. The financial crisis totally revolutionised the UK and European technology ecosystem," Alex Macpherson, investor and chairman of Octopus Ventures, said in interview with UKTN. Octopus Ventures are launching Coaching Partners for their portfolio, and I'm really excited to have been invited! Also, Ive always been motivated by learning about how to be successful at the next stage. What kicked off the companys growth at the beginning? For journalists in their professional capacity only. Founded in 2007, Octopus Ventures is a venture capital firm based in London, United Kingdom. Executive Summary. Platforms, Subscription Why Fintech? Ultimately, your network is incredibly important in getting the right talent in this industry, alongside maintaining your reputation and integrity to attract the best people. I'm in wonderful company alongside Katy | 12 comments on LinkedIn I am now surrounded by an amazing group of people, with an impressive track record in the sector. Case study: provided a fund performance pack with key metrics. At Digital Shadows we help organizations identify their exposure and understand the threats to their critical assets to better manage digital risks. At the beginning I was much more data driven and trusting of other seasoned executives and advisors. Watch Our Last Interview Video: https://youtu.be/KqIy8pdlJGwQUESTIONS You invest in people and are generally sector-agnostic: are there any trends or qualities/characteristics that are emerging between some of your most successful ventures? Now we are close to 180 people. I joined the Octopus Ventures team in New York at the start of 2017 having spent two years working with our team in London. Thats an insightful question. I do think that some CEOs are just not motivated by that aspect and would be on to the next idea at that point. As part of the Ventures team, Flavia supported large corporations in scouting early-stage, deep tech companies leveraging a range of technologies, from robotics and AI to gene-editing. So we share ours, boldly and generously. We focus on building a more sustainable planet, empowering people and revitalising healthcare. This process was quite important in crystallizing what we are, which then helped with the hiring, because you hire for your values even if things change. How did they change and how did you manage those responsibilities across multiple locations? 25,000 earned at the end of 2 years from the starting of the business? 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Octopus Ventures is a collective of experts and individuals. When looking at the range of hiring considerations, seeking the right culture fit is always immensely important on both sides. Deep <br><br>My career: build, grow and coach technology businesses in Europe and in Asia from manufacturing, public transport, semiconductors to e-commerce, fintech and cybersecurity. We strongly believe that there is no trade-off between doing good and making money, and our business can pursue purpose as well as profit. In the final part of our conversation, Alastair and I focus on hiring, founder CEOs growing a company all the way to maturity, and the advice he'd give a CEO starting the journey. If you're a journalist, you'll head to our Newsroom section. How would you structure your investment DD? We welcome people from the widest range of backgrounds and experience into our team, and that goes for our portfolio founders too. I also think the role a CEO plays in setting culture is critical in a scale-up company, particularly with multiple offices in different places. Was there some point when things began to move forward quickly? For the last few years, weve focused our efforts, and our investments, on three areas where we think we can make the biggest impact. Registered in England and Wales No. Then you get a second call discu. The process took 1 week. Octopus Ventures are launching Coaching Partners for their portfolio, and I'm really excited to have been invited! The program gave us access to a number of banks, so at the end of it we had something that fitted the banks requirements really well and sold three ongoing proof of concepts off the back of that. We were owed money from many banking clients that were taking a long time to pay us. Octopus Ventures has closed a $12.3 million pre-seed funding round that the company plans to use to continue the expansion of its B2B FinTech . All in all it seemed like a friendly interview but a bit ticked off that the interviewer hadn't taken into account the lack of description on the job that wasn't even posted by Octopus investments but just Octopus themselves. There is a common sentiment in the early stage industry that founder CEOs are often not built to grow from the two-person team all the way to the CEO of a mature company, or in some cases just do not wish to do so. Octopus had two very successful AI exits in 2016. Culturally, transitioning can be extremely challenging at that point too. Get in touch. The biggest value we Alliott joined Octopus Ventures in 2008 and became CEO in 2017. Your entire existence cannot depend on the company its stressful enough without that. What did you learn? Interview. . Il permet de dtailler la liste des options de recherche, qui modifieront les termes saisis pour correspondre la slection actuelle. Data, Artifical The first interview was set up by the interviewer Victoria, who specified that it would be a phone conversation. These are the general steps we follow note that the process is slightly different at the pre-seed stage of investment. Commerce, Real-Time We are headquartered in London but also have people in the U.S. and Asia specifically placed to help the teams we back scale in those markets. In looking at my top performers over the years, a number of them came through that network. Now, youve got this more alien culture in the US and youre hiring executives in the US and trying to make that stick together with a team in the UK. Youd just raised a Series A round from a US investor and had just moved the company to San Francisco, so I imagine that a lot of things were moving at that time. With a view to better helping our founders with this challenge, we have spent several months talking to over 100 European CEOs who are building their businesses in the US today some very effectively, others still on a journey to finding the right mix of team, product, go to market strategy and sales. Be the first to find this interview helpful. The London funding environment was very different then and money was very hard to come by. But of course, dont listen to any one person too much either you need a range of opinions. Feedback I sent back to them: Starts off with a HR call, then call with principal, and after that was a call with Associate. Joining the team are: Richard Anson began his career as a geologist. We have some of the worlds leading universities making world changing breakthroughs, and a growing community of experienced deep tech founders who know how to commercialise those breakthroughs. Not so long ago, we separated our investment activities in the IDO and presales market into a separate cluster within the project. Payments, Small & 20,000 and Rs. B2B Software. Connect with Hannah on http://twitter.com/HannahLJoyce Filmed, Edited \u0026 Produced by Veena V Youtube http://www.youtube.com/officialveenavContact http://www.VeenaV.com/contact-me Octopus Ventures is a part of Octopus Investments - 2023 Octopus Ventures. Venture capital firm Octopus Ventures is entering the world of pre-seed investment with a 10m fund to back early-stage startups across Europe. By the numbers, just over half are currently operational in the US, with the majority based on the East Coast. Need a good name for an octopus dog toy. That was really disappointing, and we came back with really low funds. You are doing lots of other things around the broader Octopus strategy: what was the rationale behind this? Our US team invests significant time and effort in understanding how the very best companies expand internationally. We invest where we can make the greatest positive impact, getting behind businesses that put people, community and the environment first. As you can imagine, there are as many examples of winning strategies and tactics that work as there are counter-examples of the same failing. Candidates applying for Senior Legal Counsel had the quickest hiring process (on average 1 day), whereas IT roles had the slowest hiring process (on average 61 days). Needing . The process took 1 week. How would you feel about working for a younger manager? We power the people tackling todays biggest challenges. During a given week a programmer spend 1/4 of his time preparing charts,3/8 of his time for coding,rest of his time for debugging the programs.If he had 48 hrs during the week how many hours did he spend debugging the program. Specific questions concerning years of experience in the necessary domains. Weve not got all of our hiring right over the years, but the key is to recognize when youve got it wrong and, brutal though it sounds, make the changes quickly. Bought up the question of where this office was based as Linkedin didn't give any description and the job itself was given out by just "Octopus". This mix of attributes is very attractive to a venture investor. In January 2020, Octopus Ventures, one of the largest early stage investors in Europe and backers of mental-health-tech company Big Health, published results of new research showing that in . So, I had witnessed that stage of a companys journey and all things involved long before my current role. Octopus Ventures has closed a $12.3 million pre-seed funding round that the company plans to use to continue the expansion of its B2B FinTech platform across the EMEA region, according to a Thursday (June 23) blog post. Im still data driven now and trust a range of my connections, but I also trust my gut more, which in most cases is backed up by the data anyway. If so, why do you think youve had this success? What should we expect from you. So far this year, the Octopus Ventures deep tech team has invested more than 45 million into businesses including Orca Computing, which is providing the UK Ministry of Defences first quantum computer; AI dubbing software developer, Papercup, and adaptive music technology platform, Lifescore. 3 rounds of interviews with team and senior stakeholders within the business I would be working for, followed by a presentation on what I would do for the business over the next 6 months. If the product or service meets a well defined consumer pain point, a company with technology at its core may be able to scale explosively. We got a big springboard in 2013 from the Fintech Innovation Lab in London. How did the idea of Digital Shadows first come to be? No matter how competent the team might be, the critiques of the company are directed at the CEO. & Pharmacy, Healthcare This often involves both basic operational activities, such as incorporating a US company or discovering the optimal location to have a base, as well as more strategic decisions like determining who first to hire, which go to market strategies to leverage, when and how to fundraise. Company its stressful enough without that ; m really excited to have been invited behind this of other around! Invests significant time and effort in understanding how the very best companies expand.!, Artifical the first interview was set up by the interviewer Victoria, who that. The biggest value we Alliott joined octopus Ventures in 2008 and became CEO 2017! And the environment first experience into our team, and I & # x27 ; m excited! Critiques of the company are directed at the beginning I was much more data driven trusting! 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