SEEKERS
In the age of easy, depth wins. SEEKERS talks to the founders and operators who went further than everyone else - on the problem, the product, the pivot, and built companies out of it. Featuring leaders from Dropbox, HubSpot, Wise, Meta, and Hotjar.Hosted by Desi Velikova from Pony Studio.
How Olio turned spare food into a business, with Tessa Clarke
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In 2015, Tessa Clarke was told to throw away all her uneaten food on moving day. She couldn’t do it, and ended up smuggling vegetables across the border instead. A decade later, Olio is a scale-up backed by more than $50 million from investors including Accel, Octopus Ventures and VNV Global: a community of 10 million people giving away food and household goods to their neighbours, 100,000 trained volunteers collecting unsold food from Tesco and other big food businesses, and more than 150 million meals saved from the bin.
Along the way, Tessa made the ki...
How to Master Public Speaking (Even If You're Terrified of It) - Dr. Alexander McWilliam, Public Speaking Expert
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The odds are… you're afraid of public speaking.
And if not, you've definitely cringed through enough presentations to know it's a real struggle for many.
In this episode of SEEKERS, we speak with Dr. Alexander McWilliam - actor, coach, and one of the few people in the world with a PhD in public speaking anxiety. He’s also the founder of Improv4Business, where he uses improvisation and performance psychology to help people become confident, engaging communicators.
We talk about:
Why public speaking makes people panic—and ho...From Gamer to Web3 Disruptor: How Amos Whitewolf Is Rebuilding Gamer Trust with PerionXP
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Amos Whitewolf is the co-founder and CTO of PerionXP, a platform that’s redefining how gamers interact with Web3 by layering gamified quests and crypto rewards on top of massive mainstream games like Fortnite.
A lifelong gamer and entrepreneur, Amos went from boosting League of Legends accounts as a teenager to becoming the #1 ranked player on Axie Infinity, before launching a startup that’s now onboarded over 100,000 verified players.
In this episode, Desi sits down with Amos to uncover:
How PerionXP gamifies gaming itself, letting players choose the missi...From 0 to $25M ARR Bootstrapped: Adam Robinson’s Blueprint for SaaS Growth Without Funding
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Adam Robinson is the founder of two successful SaaS companies - RB2B, a platform that identifies anonymous B2B website visitors and turns them into actionable sales signals, and Retention.com, which helps eCommerce brands recover abandoned carts and reconnect with lost visitors through identity resolution. He bootstrapped RB2B to $5M in Annual Recurring Revenue in just 15 months, and hit $1M ARR with Retention.com in only 27 weeks - all built with a lean team, no outside investment, and a strong founder-led growth strategy.
In this episode we dive...
How to Scale as a CEO – Mindset, Strategy & Leadership Shifts | Joe Leech, CEO Coach
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Joe Leech is a seasoned CEO coach with over 20 years in tech and a track record of adding $20 billion in revenue across various companies.
In this episode of SEEKERS, Joe shares his insights on the human challenges that often hinder business growth and the mindset shifts necessary for leaders to evolve from founders to successful CEOs. With a background in tech, user experience, and product management, Joe brings a unique perspective to leadership coaching.
Key Topics Discussed:
From Corporate Lawyer to Social Impact Entrepreneur: Sanjay Lobo's Journey with OnHand
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In this episode, Desi sits down with Sanjay Lobo, the CEO of OnHand, the leading volunteering platform revolutionising employee engagement. From his humble beginnings in South London, to his impressive career trajectory through senior roles at Lastminute.com and Vistaprint, Sanjay shares his unique journey from lawyer to tech founder.
Discover how his background as a lawyer shaped his innovative approach to business and learn about the pivotal moments that led to the success of OnHand.
Key Takeaways:
Early Life & Inspiration: Sanjay reflects on hi...Thomas Robson-Kanu: From Football Glory to Health Revolution with The Turmeric Co.
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If you're a football fan, you might remember Thomas Robson-Kanu from his Premier League days at Reading F.C. or his spectacular goal in Euro 2016, which helped Wales reach the semi-finals. Today, Thomas is the founder and CEO of The Turmeric Co., one of the UK's leading functional beverage companies. Born from his personal health journey, The Turmeric Co. was established in 2018 and quickly grew to prominence with its unique turmeric shots designed to promote wellness, boasting over 15,000 life-changing customer testimonials.
In this episode, we discussed Thomas's transition from football to...
How Blockchain and AI Will Shape Our Future - Diego Borgo, Web3 Expert and Co-founder of BorgoLabs
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Diego Borgo is a seasoned Web3 and Metaverse advisor with a track record of guiding Fortune 500 brands and boasting collaborations with companies like adidas and Mastercard.
He’s also the co-founder of BorgoLabs, a consultancy that helps companies position themselves and drive growth in the Web3 space.
We recently collaborated with Diego on a client's project and, as usual, was impressed by the innovative yet practical approach he takes to his projects.
He's the first person we invite for a second interview on this podcast, mainly because we w...
Tackling the Realities of UK Youth Issues with Jack Parsons and Leon Marseglia, The Youth Group
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Today, we’re speaking with Jack Parsons and Leon Marseglia - the forces behind the UK’s largest community for young people, The Youth Group.
Since launching the company 4 years ago, "Young Jack," as he's often called, has managed to grow their community to 1.7 million young individuals and connect thousands of them with some of the best UK companies offering jobs, upskilling, and mentorship. Their exceptional accomplishments have been recognized by countless awards and honors, one of which is Jack's 'UK's Kindest Leader' award by the Financial Times. When Leon came onbo...
Decoding Tokenisation with Brent Annells, Chief Marketing Officer at Smart Token Labs
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Whether you're into crypto or not, many foresee blockchain as the foundational layer for future technologies. From finance and healthcare to entertainment and sports, the consensus seems clear: "The Future Will Be Tokenised."
Join us in this super interesting conversation with Brent Annells, CMO of Smart Token Labs. With a background that boasts senior roles at Facebook and Uber, Brent offers a uniquely informed perspective on the revolution that tokenisation promises to bring, especially in reshaping customer engagement.
In this episode, we dive into:
What I'm looking for when investing in startups - Eamonn Carey, Tera Ventures GP and ex-Techstars MD
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Eamonn Carey is a seasoned investor, the General Partner at Tera Ventures, a former Managing Director at Techstars, an advisor to dozens of startups, a founder, an author, and a former journalist. With experience evaluating thousands of deals, we thought he would be the perfect person to discuss the investment climate in Europe.
In this episode, we cover:
- Eamonn's transformative journey from being an aspiring journalist to becoming an ambitious founder closing deals with companies like O2, Emirates, and Diageo.
- How Eamonn's own business experience inf...
Is Web3 the Future of Fan Engagement in Sports – Jean-Charles Gaudechon, CEO of OneFootball Labs
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In this episode of The Product Show, we explore the intersection of sports and web3, questioning whether web3 can fix the broken aspects of football or if it's too broken itself to make a difference. We all know that fan engagement is essential in sports, and web3 and NFTs seem to be the perfect tools to harness the power of communities. However, the reality is not so straightforward.
To help us navigate this topic, we spoke with Jean-Charles Gaudechon, CEO of OneFootball Labs and former Electronic Arts Vice President. According to...
Scaling a Marketing Agency - Oliver Yonchev, CEO & Co-founder of Flight Story | Ex-Social Chain
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Oliver Yonchev is the co-founder and CEO of Flight Story, a company he co-founded with Steven Barlett in 2021 that "helps brands stay at the forefront of what’s possible". Prior to Flight Story, he served as the managing director of Social Chain, one of the most successful social media marketing agencies in Europe.
In this episode, we covered a range of topics, including:
Oliver's earliest childhood memories and how they shaped him as a person (spoiler: he wanted to become a professional footballer when he was younger)How he became ma...From a Spreadsheet to a Global Network for Mentorship - Felix Lee, Co-founder & CEO of ADPList
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Two years ago, "two kids, one from Singapore and the other one from Africa" left their jobs to set up a company. It all began with a single spreadsheet and their obsession to build a product that people really need.
Today, their venture, ADPList, has over 15,000 mentors and hundreds of thousands of users, helping people all around the world find the right mentor. ADPList is transforming the way we think about mentorship - "we're all learners," says its co-founder and CEO, Lee Felix. They have been growing so phenomenally well that...
Scaling High-Performing Engineering Teams - Alex Rashkov, Engineering Manager at Meta
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No matter if you’re in web2 or web3 , as you scale your products to cater to thousands of users, you’re faced with one of the most common challenges for technology startups - how to scale your engineering team fast. Scaling is not just about rapidly hiring people, it’s about building resilient systems and effective team structures that will help the talent you hire thrive and deliver outstanding results. Put a brilliant person in the wrong environment and you can expect nothing but frustration and disappointment.
We discussed the topic...
The future of the Metaverse - Dr Mark van Rijmenam, International Speaker, Author and Strategist
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Is “complete decentralisation” possible any time soon? Can human nature handle it? When are we going to have a really immersive, organic Metaverse experience (as opposed to just having fun with our lookalike avatars in a clumsy virtual environment)? What shall we do to avoid the mistakes we did with web2 and avoid tech giants swallowing us up again?
We discussed the future of the Metaverse with Dr Mark van Rijmenam, international speaker, strategist and book author on the future of tech, blockchain and the metaverse.
He’s recently finished...
How Brands Should Enter the Metaverse & NFT Space – Diego Borgo, Metaverse & NFT Strategist and Advisor
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If you’ve been thinking how to bring your company into web3, this episode is for you! We’re back with a set of super interesting episodes dedicated to web3.
Diego Borgo is a Metaverse native, Web3 ambassador, NFT collector and advisor to global brands. Diego's mission is to help mainstream adoption of blockchain and NFT technology.
He does that by:
1. Advising major global brands on how to enter the space in the right way.
2. Consulting Metaverse & NFT projects, and acting as a member of advisory boards.
3...
Making Insurance Sexy - Martin Schwitzner, VP Product at Marshmallow
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The car insurance provider Marshmallow went from an idea to one of the latest UK unicorns in just 4 years! Founded by twin-brothers Oliver and Alexander, and their friend David, the company is turning the centuries-old insurance industryon its head. We spoke to their VP of Product Martin Shwitzner to find out how they’re achieving this phenomenal growth. We discussed:
How did they do it? How is Marshmallow different from a traditional car insurance provider?The mechanic and approach to generating over 8,000 (mostly) positive online reviews (4.6 rating on Trustpilot). How can you dee...How Your Role Changes Depending On the Size and Maturity Of the Company - Raluca Bujoreanu, Product Lead at Zalando
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We spoke with Raluca Bujoreanu, Principle Product Manager at Zalando and instructor at Product School to discuss how the product needs change depending on the size and maturity of the company. Raluca shared with us:
Her favourite methods for evaluating product features and continuously uncovering user problems before they become major product issues;How to make sure we work on the “right” thing;What’s the ideal profile for a Head of Product at an early stage startup;The first actions she’d take to understand the customer needs and the opportunities on the m...How to Build Your Personal Brand - Amelia Sordell, founder and CEO of Klowt
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Personal branding expert Amelia Sordell started her personal branding agency Klowt last year and in just over a year they’re a team of 7, serving dozens of clients and growing. How come they’re growing so fast? Well, first - Amelia is absolutely amazing! She’s confident, authentic, interesting. She does what she preaches - she has built a strong personal brand. But also - personal branding has never been more important. Personal accounts on LinkedIn have 10x the reach of company pages. The growing number of people who built their companies on the ba...
Growth “Hacks” from Dropbox, Wise, Revolut, HubSpot, HotJar and more
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There’s one question we’ve been asking almost all our guests so far - have you ever done a small UX tweak or a product improvement that had a disproportionately high impact on the product, considering the effort it required. Something tiny that turned out to be a big win. In fact, finding out the answer to this question was our main motivation to start this podcast. Can we all learn tactical tips from successful founders and product managers at some of the greatest companies and use them as an inspiration for our...
Discover Your Startup Core Strengths - Matt Lerner, ex-PayPal and 500 Startups
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If you’re a startup founder, you’ll find our conversation with Matt Lerner super valuable! Matt is the founder and CEO of Startup Core Strengths, a growth accelerator and training for early-stage startups. With 11 years at PayPal and almost 4 years at 500 Startups in his resume, he’s the perfect person to learn from when it comes to startup marketing. He believes that 10% of what you do drives 90% of your growth and he shared with us his advice on how to discover the 10% you should focus on.
In this episode of The Pro...
Building a community app - Zoe Desmond, founder & CEO of Frolo
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Zoë Desmond is the perfect example of how the founder’s personal story and pain empowered them to create a product that solves a problem for millions of people. Zoë's app Frolo helps single parents access guidance and support, connect with each other and organise events and playdates.
With 3 million single parents in the UK and almost no competition in the space, Zoë knew she was onto something when she became a single parent shortly after her son’s 1st birthdays. As a non-technical solo founder and a young single mum, she...
Product Management Is a Balancing Act - Marc Abraham, Head of Product Engagement at ASOS
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As Head of Product - Engagement at ASOS and with two books and dozens of talks and events in his resume, Marc Abraham has mastered the art of managing growing products with way too many moving parts - from processes and frameworks to people and tools. As he puts it, no two days are the same, and “the job of a product manager is never done unless the decision is made to terminate the product”.
His books on product management, “Managing Products = Managing Tension” and “My Product Management Toolkit”, are well worth a read...
Bridging the Gap Between the Online and Offline CX - Faris Aziz, Lead Product Manager at Bloom & Wild
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We get so obsessed with building the perfect digital experience that we sometimes forget that for many products, even if they rely on digital, the magic for the customer happens offline. We’ve been keen to speak to a company that successfully bridges the gap between the offline and online CX and we finally found the perfect product person. Faris Aziz is the Lead Product Manager at Bloom and Wild. Even if you haven’t ordered flowers from them, you probably remember that they pioneered the letterbox flower delivery back in 2013. 8 years later and...
Achieving Hypergrowth - Irina Scarlat, Former Global Head of Growth at Revolut
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How do you define “hypergrowth”? If you google examples of hypergrowth companies, Uber and Revolut would be some of the first examples you’ll see. For this reason and because I think she’s a fascinating product leader, I spoke with Irina Scarlat, who was Global Head of Growth at Revolut until March 2021 and she also let Uber's growth in Romania until 2018. She shared with us her recipe for achieving hypergrowth.
In this episode of The Product Show:
- What it was to grow Revolut from 20k to 1.5M users in...
Trust & Safety as a Key Element of Your Product Strategy - Neil Shah, Head of Product, Identity at Lyft
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Trust and Safety is sometimes everything when it comes to retaining users, yet we don’t discuss this topic enough in the product community. It’s one of those aspects of building a product that we don’t think about in the early days until it becomes a problem. We discussed the topic with Neil Shah, who leads the Trust & Safety efforts at Lyft to find out how they keep their riders and drivers safe. He also had a similar role at Twitter, where he ran a number of projects to fight misinformation, so if...
Designing for Growth and Business Impact - Phil Vander Broek, Design Group Lead at Dropbox
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Growth design is a central part of the way we think about design at Pony and it was an absolute pleasure to discuss the topic with one of the senior design leaders at Dropbox, Phil Vander Broek. He comes with a wealth of experience in growth design and is super excited about the future of this field and how they approach results-driven design at Dropbox.
In this episode we discussed:
Dropbox’s journey to their organisational model and where Growth sits within their company structure How does Growth exist in comp...Pricing Optimization and Monetization Strategies for Startups - Patrick Campbell, Founder & CEO of ProfitWell
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Patrick Campbell is the founder and CEO of ProfitWell, a software that helps subscription companies with their monetization and retention strategies. He strongly believes that people should get more comfortable with working on their pricing strategy and should avoid “the path of least resistance”. It’s not easy, but it’s not more difficult than many other aspects of building a successful product and it’s surely one of the most important ones.
In this episode we discussed:
when is the right time to start thinking about monetizationwhy Brand and Design infl...How to Build a Product Team That Delivers - Megan Murphy, VP of Product at Hotjar
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“Humble Decisiveness” is the Most Important Quality of a Product Manager - Megan Murphy, VP of Product at Hotjar
We spoke with Megan Murphy, VP of Product at Hotjar, to find out how they’re growing one of the most successful user research products in the world and how their fully remote team is serving over 700,000 businesses. Megan comes with a wealth of experience in product management, having worked at companies like Skyscanner and N26, so her deep product thinking is nothing short of inspiring.
In this episode:
How is t...When Your Product is Content - Eric Peters, Product Manager at HubSpot Academy
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Eric Peters, product manager at HubSpot Academy, shares how offering online education and certification can empower product growth. HubSpot Academy is the worldwide leader in free online training for marketing, sales, and customer service professionals. With over 200,000 customers, it has become the hub for their prospect and existing customers and it’s a product on its own. We discussed:
- How they approach the needs of all the different users - existing customers, prospects (unseasoned and seasoned professionals) and content creators
- How they identify the Academy users that could tu...
The Challenges of Growing a Marketplace in the Childcare Space - Ari Last, Founder and CEO of Bubble
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How do you build the safest and smartest marketplace in the world? - You add friction. But how do you grow and scale it - you get rid of friction. This is one of the biggest challenges you’d face if you’re building a marketplace in the childcare industry.
We spoke with Ari Last, founder of Bubble, to find out the ups and downs of building a marketplace in one of the most sensitive industries. And no, Bubble is not “the Uber for babysitting”.
In this episode:
Ari’s pers...How TransferWise Approaches Product Growth - Tessa Pettman, Global Head of Product Marketing
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What's the role of Product Marketing in the product management puzzle?
Tessa Pettman leads the Product Marketing team at TransferWise, one of the most impressive fintech startups in the world! They were founded in 2011 and were recently valued at $5 billion, with over 8M active users around the world.
In this interview, Tessa shares:
- what are the differences between product marketing and traditional marketing
- how they approach product growth at TransferWise
- what she believes is the future of the fintech market in the UK...
In SaaS, You Have to Build a Tool That Users Need on a Daily Basis - Emeric Ernoult, Founder & CEO Agorapulse
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Emeric Ernoult is the co-founder and CEO of Agorapulse, a social media management tool aiming to be in the Top 3 social media SaaS products in the world for SMBs.
He's been through 12 years of failure, according to his words until he and his co-founder Ben finally founded Agorapusle in 2012. As he says, he's "a dinosaur of SaaS". Emeric likes to talk straight, he's French after all, he doesn't believe in quick wins and he has learned how to manage a company.
In this interview, you'll learn:
...
How AI Will "Fix" Fake News - Dhruv Ghulati, Founder & CEO of Factmata
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Former financial analyst Dhruv Ghulati and his team are working on an AI startup with a mission to restore trust in news media.
In this episode you will learn:
- What should be your strategy if you want to raise funding from world-class investors like Mark Cuban, Biz Stone, and Craig Newmark;
- When you should listen to your customers and when you have to lead the market and innovate;
- Why you and I are the future of journalism and why we need a product like F...
How to Bootstrap a Company to 10M - Callum McKeefery, CEO of Reviews.io
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Callum McKeefery is the co-founder and CEO of Rreviews.io, a company offering reviews collection and management solutions. He shared with us how he started the company 10 years ago from his kitchen table with his wife and co-founder Nikki and how they grew to 10M in revenue with no investors funding.
In this episode you'll learn:
- How rain impacts your conversion rate
- What’s the hottest method for customer reviews collection in 2020?
- How you can bootstrap a company from 0 to 10M
