Confounded
A high energy podcast with its own video channel featuring interviews with amazing people who have overcome adversity and life’s challenges to be successful in unique and wonderful ways.
Confounded
Meet Rich Serunjogi – Founder of scorethebusiness.com and Y Combinator graduate.
Born and raised in south London, Rich runs a Y Combinator backed startup, Business Score, connecting online businesses with growth capital.
He spent his early years in #activism from representing his local town Croydon as youth MP.
He also worked on social and political campaigns including the #LivingWage campaign. He studied at the London School of Economics where he was also elected the universities Court of Governors.
Rich then worked at McKinsey in London before starting his #entrepreneurial journey. Business Score is a funding marketplace for eCommerce companies.
Rich has gone through an amazing journey, from concept, through the Y Combinator process and now back in the UK to landing his first clients, building a platform to support fast growth ecommerce business.
His goal is to totally automate the supply of money to ecommerce businesses where traditional funding just cannot deliver using old systems and measurements.
Along the way he has met Silicon Valleys finest and most famous investors and is one of the rare UK founders who have applied, won a place and graduated from the Y Combinator process.
Business score is a funding platform designed to help high growth ecommerce businesses through automated lending.
So Rich, welcome to Confounded TV, the founder of the Business Score and the One Accombinator, graduate Welcome. This is actually Episode 10, so congratulations, I'm a double digits. Double digits, that's wonderful. Episode 10, 100 subscribers I'm virtually there. So I think that the key things of interest are let's start with what the business is and the idea you had before Y Combinator, and then everyone would like to hear about Y Combinator. So can you just lay out what the business is, or what it actually what you thought it was before you went to Y Combinator? For what is interesting?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I think part of the style of life is that you're only trying to be hold these boys involved, so what I can do is take their back and jump right into the visual angle. So the reason why I start business is because I think that if you are a business owner and you're making people happy, they're buying your product. If you want to access the funds and you need to scale your business and to grow it, first of all, I think the fund should be fair. Well, access should be fair. I think it should be reading thoughts and I think it should be simple. And where the world's headed so much more information being available and so much more granular data, there's no reason why the information you generate for your business can't be used to help you access funding in a much more streamlined way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's absolutely key, isn't it? I think applying for funding based on what happened six months ago or a year ago is a bit less century. And, of course, if you're a high-skilling e-commerce company and you're leading funding, last year you may not even have existed, which is like Exactly, and that's what we're finding now.
Speaker 3:So we focus exclusively on internet-based businesses, so e-commerce as a most fluid category and what it means, that every day we're meeting businesses that were set up, some of them six months ago, and now it means like hundreds of pounds of work themselves every single month. Others have been around for a bit longer, but I think the consistent thing that we're seeing, particularly in this kind of COVID and lockdown world, is that people's tourist habits are now shifting online. So online. Definitely the time has come now, but it's been a long time coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and your timing's pretty cool, right? So here's the guy coming and saying I'm going to give fairer, transparent access to funding based on recent events, actual financial history of what's actually happening month-to-month recently, and then all of a sudden, this tragedy comes along, which actually puts people online, of course, so many businesses are just skyrocketing. And also, are you seeing smaller businesses going from quite small revenues and growing fast? Because obviously we all know that all the big guys are selling more, but is that happening across the smaller businesses as well?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been a lot of innovation. I mean, there's probably things. You've got Some businesses that are new kind of how you describe it start doing well from low starting points, but they've also got a lot of business that are previously offline. They're selling the goods in stores. Now I've realized they need to also go online, and so it's quite interesting seeing people who might have not been necessarily savvy adapting to this new reality. And obviously what's great for us is that, because they are online, it means that we can support them and help them to access funding, because there's just much more trans-banks than they do and how they're actually performing once they do come online.
Speaker 2:And I guess there can't be many competitors.
Speaker 3:So at the moment I think there's always like you know, why are they saying they can get funded? As far as you know, at the moment they're not any more exact because, like we do, particularly on my business here, but I'm sure that's going to change. I think it's going to matter until there's more companies that are on my business and we're happy. I mean, I'm happy to see that because I think if there's more organizations helping businesses get funded, looking at more, it's about doing great.
Speaker 2:And also find funding like based on recent events, rather than last year's Files, accounts and Companies House two years later. You know, I mean you file. If you're at the end of years December 2020, then you're going to file them up to any time until September next year. So I mean there's not a while. There is no reason, of course, while you haven't done your accounts and filed them, nobody seems to do it. So, unless they say file within a month you know, because I reckon all the filing for within a month is all you know no, big companies just can't do it. They've got too many moving parts to get to that point. So then the little companies all kind of go well, I don't know what I'm doing, because then my next door neighbor will see my dividends.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought just that. But also you know a lot of companies. It's not obvious that you know that, their annual country, their performance on a national basis and you know the number of businesses the season, exactly many businesses, these are all. There's so many discrepancies that I think it is necessary for it to be a newer, more you know, more reactive way to be able to drill, to assess the business performance.
Speaker 2:So how does it work? I've set up Al's you know fancy hats. I've gone from, like you know, I was turning over, like you know, grand a month of my home hobby, selling hats. For some reason, my hats are taking off and I'm doing 20, 30, 40 grand a month. None of this is reflected in any set of actual statutory accounts. It's obviously in zero or a stage where I'm using how do you actually look technically, look into that data to then go out to lend us and say we've found somebody we think you should lend to.
Speaker 3:Yes, the way it works is we have the business board platform, so the e-commerce business, the support, connect to the business board platform and what we do in the background is we continue the you know feed how they perform in a platform.
Speaker 3:Live through their, through their through their zero or live so live through their counting or live through their clients or other online stores that they might be using, yeah, etc. And what we're able to do in real time is keep those and is notified of new things that they become eligible for. And we have partnerships now as the needed members in the country. Yeah, that means that we have those direct relationships. Yeah, and it's totally straightforward because you know they're often asked to have requirements of particular lenders. What we do is we find we add the support to the businesses and make sure that they also understand what the new assets are.
Speaker 2:So I'm guessing here. An example is Al's house is doing really well for about a month, but you've created some of my Shopify front end, back end, so you can see that. But I guess it lenders well. That's great, but I need to know more about the actual the financials of the business because, for all they know, there's an outstanding directors loan of 50 grand, exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it depends on the needs. So we also help lenders that are very comfortable with lending equity based on the house Okay, al's house, yeah, so we've got revenue. They're called revenue based lenders that particularly just look at your Shopify. Amazon data.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we also have like watch the issue members. For example, maybe Al's house now, maybe it's not the test. You're not able to get you like trade finance. That would mean that you can cover the cash flow challenges. Yeah, so the client has to go at your house, could be. They typically might only pay you after six months or so. Yeah, for all the house.
Speaker 2:That's a whole different podcast, yeah.
Speaker 3:Exactly so. We have relationships from now. We have like full suite of products for e-commerce businesses to handle all these different types of situations.
Speaker 2:That is fantastic, Because I mean for so many fast growing e-commerce businesses, which this last six months must have been a surreal experience, I'm guessing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, how do you even start organising? That Must be quite hard, because you probably I could imagine a few traditional companies which this is starting to work really well, and then they've gone to their bank, their high street bank, because I want to borrow some money and they said, well, no, because look at last year and is that? There's no actual comparison? There's no history for anything like this either. I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Exactly that and I've been actually aware we've seen opportunities to come in and mine and you know, you know, trying to add and you try and reach that gap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and of course you've got, you know we've got a good got to go here, right, because I'm fascinated, even just you know I don't know how many other people are, and Everyone I know is very white combinator. Do you have your idea, your pitch for white combinator? And then you get in. So I presume at this point you had to upstakes and move to the States for three months.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. I'm to the white combinator, but go with it first. It's the internet and valley and, yeah, it's literally most most intense ten weeks of your life.
Speaker 2:Intense just learning, work, grass and work every single day.
Speaker 3:You, just you, just really trying to like it for your product, right, understand, you Try to get more users. You know trying to, and also better for the interest demo day. You know we have classes. You have ten weeks of you know coming from a lot. Yeah, I think it was those trends and you are, and then you've got them, a day which is waiting to pitch your vision.
Speaker 2:And you're pitching to some serious people in that way, right I mean, I mean I don't know all the names, but you know, when I read, that when I read I think I read somebody's book on doing actually, I know there's a, there's a great book, I'll stick it in the show notes. There is a great book about the history of white combinator. But you're pitching to, you know some of Silicon Valley's finest, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it's amazing that I think a white condom done a great job, yeah, but the whole ecosystem. So you have you know all the big investors once they come back. But you also have you know business from Europe now come out by invest major. So really.
Speaker 3:I'd love a global stage, and so you pitch into about two thousand investments, like In in auditorium, and then you have thousands more about what you like. Oh, obviously, the model now has moved to it being on by a vision kind of it. But when I do that, it was.
Speaker 2:I guess that makes it easier for them, right? Because I mean, one of the most amazing things that I was talking to Charlie song first with this is there's sort of Transmissional feel of this. I mean, a lot of people like my linkedin's will be whenever he's back in the office. That'll be fantastic and I think, well, I don't know if they're gonna go back, because actually you know, if I want to, if I want to raise some money, you know I hate to think how much money I spent at Carson, we up and down to London for a meeting to meet an investor, you know, for a 20-minute meeting, trying to schedule three. But then they're also busy and stuff gets cancelled and moved all the time.
Speaker 2:And now of course, you can actually just say I'm here at this time, that time and this time and I'll do my deck and any questions. You can literally run a webinar to do it. So you can actually now reach and also you can pretty quick a bit more full moon. So it affects me what they're doing is you two. There's people in the auditorium who now just joined remotely, but also, rather, because it becomes more accepted, more people will join. So it's quite interesting one. How many of the of that cohort weren't from the states, because obviously you're going from Britain having so I think it's too much to you about a Safe or like that US, I think.
Speaker 2:Wow, okay, yeah. So it's really awesome and, of course, so how are they gonna? You know how they're gonna do that for. So, for somebody who wants to apply and go next year, like, how are they gonna do it now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so but for going forward, outmate, it's really about it. It's working, so people join.
Speaker 2:To that transformation. All right, yeah, I from in the other part of the world and I can't afford to fly to states, live in states for ten weeks. I can just do it from home and that means they can identify Developing countries, they can develop. You know, people who'd never even have thought about it can make you know If you've got small children. Very few people really want to give everything up and spend ten weeks in the states in that situation, most because they won't be allows. So that's really sort of Kind of was leveling right means anyone can apply and then, astoundingly, the idea, the people, the grit and the Dissemination to make an idea work.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yeah, I think definitely the game changer. I think it's interesting, but I think there's also part like why see Nocturne sharp to get away? They're really, you know, making a lot of content or basically a bit, because that they're taking it is that if you can watch, that's the be more possible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and actually maybe different problems apart from the, you know, not the quite the Silicon Valley. Oh, my taxis late, I'd roll out of. You know like I was. You know, because you know the story behind Uber right so that he made a few quid on the on a previous venture I think it was a low millions I mean don't sue me please, travis, I think it was in the low millions and basically San Francisco taxi services were just woeful, if not non-existent, so he bought a price and paid a bloke to drive him around here, as you do, and then of course, all these mates wanted to use this, this driver and everything, so of course it just spiraled into them.
Speaker 2:Actually, this is every once this and you know it was, and I love that, yeah, it's, despite all the bad press about it and stuff it was an idea to fix a problem for somebody for themselves, which then actually has a huge audience out there, which is one of the key things that all start up, because if you've got people who are desperate for funding, can't get it through traditional channels, by plugging in Shopify and zero, you can automate almost that whole process. And is that? Are you just UK focus now? Are you looking like wider than that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll send a moment for you, Okay. So what's amazing is that reading that much better? I'm just going to start your desk in. The US recharge to us. We've had some bugs into your homes today. What immediate future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess, I guess you're a licensed credit broker. Yeah, so yeah, exactly, yes, yes, yeah so you'll have obviously FSA regulations here and then I'm guess you're gonna have similar certainly in Europe. You're gonna have a similar level restriction in each country, so you can have lots of boxes to tick and paperwork to fill out for these European countries, right?
Speaker 3:Actually, I'll be you and I will I mean in the UK on the great Will be to be Broker. The beat. The beat is actually regulated. So is why.
Speaker 3:I'm and star regulated, okay so, so the constraints on as stringent here in the UK is a lot more open. Yeah, ultimately, but yeah, so I think it's owns, we're not lending and it's a lot easier. Yeah, so, yeah, so I think we definitely are like in a forge position. It tells a peanut because it means that we don't necessarily is there's much Flesh red tape that got to you can tell you about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so tell me about your pitch day I.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it was, it was pretty epic. You know, go go up onto the stage. It's interesting because you're the whole room side, right, so everyone's waiting for you to come out. I knew and you, and it's really well orchestrated as well. I must say that why I see I've really got the whole process down to a team also, after like a decade of doing them, and you go into the stage you then you know they'd have a two minutes, so do it in two minutes pitch. Yeah, and weeks for two minutes to two minute pitch. Obviously don't necessarily get a lot of time to actually play exactly what you're doing, exactly what it is, but you do get an idea to come out, paint the pen of water. It's almost like a bit of a hook to have a conversation with investors.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't really love the back of it. We've got like a lot of interest From a lot like Bay Area, like investors got a lot of interest in the investment.
Speaker 2:The best part of the funds. So you have. You had funding choice.
Speaker 3:Well, we have part of trees, definitely got good choice around the big guy like who told me that that's the best thing for us and yeah, I think we made like a good call so far and so, yeah, we're very fortunate and I think it was. He's one of his experiences which I think you take you for a long time, just kind of being that fireman. You know I have to miss the business. Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. I definitely fit as possible. You know it would be good to try and like that stage here in terms of the energy and intelligence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think people are trying on me. You get Brent running founder first. Where you can sort of I've got an idea you can go there and find a co-founder and this kind of trying to align you for the.
Speaker 2:You know he gets like he or they or the fun, put money in a guess for those successful ones and you try and match people together, whether you can ever get the British reserve to kind of be quite so gung-ho and I can imagine if you've got half of that cohort as US base is gonna be a lot of yeah, I can do which is a bit different to the kind of yet British Well, maybe if on Tuesday, you know. So I think that you know, I think that's it's an interesting one. Do you think they can have that level of energy and enthusiasm and I mean I was land, let's say, even outside London, because that's another big issue, isn't it?
Speaker 3:I mean, I definitely is what I'm gonna put a lot of up in this hot you know, click a branch to not really great. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I was there. I Think, potentially, I think what we, what we need more Okay, this is good and it's a London. I think we just need to see that all winners, more people gonna build, they come, then coming back and, and you know, investing and supporting other companies and I think it's often to happen, I think you know so we were surely is actually science and happen, and I think what happened then is those entrepreneurs as well as also bring their experiences, things. Yeah, so I think we're getting there, but, you know, venture as a kind of industry is still ready to be on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and did you? Did you get asked the famous question about? Well, in drawn breath, you know the problem these British companies, as soon as there's a decent amount of money on the table, the founders off Because they want you to conquer the world. Right, the business scores got to fund every e-commerce business, or 80% of them, and you know it's gonna dominate the whole space. If I think of funding and I'm an e-commerce, I'm gonna go to the business score and you and you as the CEO and the founder, I have to make sure you win, win, win growth at all costs. Did you have any of that? Did you get any of that reticence? Did you feel that at all when you were there?
Speaker 3:I'm like, I'm like an energy in town, you can do it. I think I was like and I mean that one story, I'm looking a, I was in a cafe. I'm.
Speaker 3:Like an event or why I think, but I buy out most of them. I'm we use like a sauce and I was in the. I was in the event and there was another founder then it and he was up oh cool, you, you guys, do you do? Why see it? I was like yeah, yeah, do I see? Because I was a guy, you know what I was up to and I was like the founders of fintech, you know they mentioned business. And then he was like, yeah, go through it. I read child, you know you need any help or new introductions. And I took his card when actually went back. A lot of this guy had the e-found, the unicorn.
Speaker 3:I think just like yeah, no, yeah, yeah, and it's like he and you, like I, can make your options, and I think that is where US is like Everyone is open to these having the first conversation. You know, yeah, yeah, and I think there's just, I think, because they've seen, you know 16. That's signature. They've seen like teenagers they should go out and make so 20s. I think there's a real belief that you can do things, the matter you want. So give up on a chance, whereas I think you know in the UK I think it's definitely much more A bay up, an assumption that you know you need to. You know gone to Oxford, you know, right, got this back some McKinsey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do you know, even guest to get a table, yeah, and that did that. That's definitely problematic, but I think it is. I think it's a ball, but I think it is it's.
Speaker 2:I call them the white shirt brigade. They all wear the same tight the shirts is done not for a tie, and all these guys in that space or the same Levi's, the same shirt and the same brogues and you can't like. That's a uniform. If ever there was a bit the same time is proclaiming we don't do uniforms were like cool and hip and you like really, and they have a way of being a member.
Speaker 2:Me a couple of guys I won't say who, what they were doing and I met them in the cafe somewhere in VC land you know may fear Chelsea and they were doing it. So they were going to pitch and I just sat next to my cafe we're chatting and I was getting to pitch and their whole thing was like so analytical and their whole thing was pretty much we went to this place and then we did, we went to this. We ended these MAs, mbas, sorry. So like we're off, we're awesome at business and we're gonna start a start up and raise some money. It wasn't because they wanted to solve a problem or they had a great idea. It's like we're gonna get money because we fit the mold of the guys who should get the money. Six months later, it was closed.
Speaker 3:This is it right. This is it. It's not coming in type coffee. I'm just. I think things are changing. I think we don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. So what's next then?
Speaker 3:Yes, the Nexus continue to grow. Our team, you know, we currently now have Probably now like have hundreds of e-commerce businesses that we, that we're games with. So for us, it's really about like building that up and like building more relationships. I'm yet to continue to expand over doing it.
Speaker 2:It's worth saying, like you know the most think I am once received an email list of all people who had Shopify stores, which is also have deleted, and I had like a million stores on. It was something. I guess that that was pre-covid. So I mean, I presume a lot of people starting these things up and seeing some traction, and also people are like building whole Instagram stuff, like the whole I have, she do have, and also here I got a bike. Life fits underneath the saddle and like when you break the lights up, and that's the kind of thing that people are inventing. One thing only working on Instagram. But I guess you can still, as long as they've got a shot from which shop, for you can still. You know what's this? Okay, let's I'll start again. What size of businesses are you? Is the? Is the? Is your kind of holy grail? I mean what you know it?
Speaker 2:was a turn over up and down for a month.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so to the rest of me, like my, my Wessie, it is you know, we see ourselves as a support, nick, the one bound. One woman, a one guy. You know e-commerce thought I just grind away trying to grow and we feel like we truly just bought them on their journey, yeah, and do the company next big thing. So for us, that's, that's what we love, that's that's all just really exciting. Yeah, you really.
Speaker 2:We're not really talking about Alice's hat. A thousand, I mean it could be it could be really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm good benefit.
Speaker 2:Yeah he rich.
Speaker 3:Straightaway because typically speaking to each other about maybe around five to ten K amongst ourselves, okay, what we're funding, but we love me and any business. But not quite ready yet but we can support that and make sure they do need to find it or whatever. But that was a big make sure they can access it.
Speaker 2:So how you, how you finding them? In my case, yeah, what's your kind of go-to market?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's been a mixture. So I might we do like quite a lot of content, so that's what really well for us even to engage that content. So I guess that content marketing we also like, do like things like multi-vision or like more modern but special kind of basic ads. Yeah, that's been pretty effective. What we found to be probably most powerful is, let's just be word of mouth. Sorry, businesses that have, you know, kind of gone through business force process, tell other businesses that you know we can help them. Wow, that's, that's good man. Yeah, that's the goal and that's that's what we're trying to continue to grow is the word of mouth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's, that's super powerful. If that service is that good that, I'll then go and see here. You know, my business is taking off and I check my Ferrari out on YouTube and I see the guy who sells cushion covers, okay, and and and How'd you do it? Well, I got, I went to the business school, right, that's if you're getting people doing that. That's that's I mean. Do you actually break these down in your metrics? I mean, lad, I said we wouldn't talk about metrics too much because people switch off at that point and hey, ever, we're not gonna talk about metrics for very long. Do you actually measure all the different sources of late? I presume you measure late lead, inquiry lead, not quite ready yet and fulfilled, and are you actually being able to see, actually look, the majority of our businesses coming from word of mouth? Can you actually see that? Oh, we catch some fortune, that's constantly like my.
Speaker 2:And are you brave enough to see how much that is good?
Speaker 3:under wraps. It's the goal. The goal is to get you know if we can get to 100% all that business. Will we ever get that?
Speaker 2:And how'd you compare to like our walker? So, for who aren't familiar, is a walker, I believe, a primarily eBay store funding?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I walk car. I want the business we actually have on our panel, so they're, they're a lend off and okay how we see deer and I think I met James back in the day.
Speaker 2:So, so they're actually a lender on your panel. So actually, if I can, yeah, they're amazing they're.
Speaker 3:They're an amazing lender that we do. I've seen it. This person's we asked and for the demo. We are independent. We're on the side of the E-commerce business to always get the best rate yeah, as quickly as possible, whereas obviously each of the lenders, they only think about their individual product. So we're not tied to any particular buyer or any particular lender we have. We have our main, I mean got. One objective is to make sure that each of us business to get and can you make instant decisions?
Speaker 3:Oh, we can in some regard, make it, but we're always trying to make it, we wish for it, but definitely all the time, and you know, some type like I mentioned this, there's like further details we do need to. It's not, yeah, but I mean our angle I'm not very small. Next year, several years, is instant decisions and Funds and available to one thing.
Speaker 2:Funded is what we See, that things are yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see you doing really well that. I mean you can see that. You know people are coming on your Shopify platform Zero over here. Things start to grow. I mean there's obviously a bunch of stuff you could do as integrated with these in the end. I mean, I presume you can even have a Shopify plug in. Plug it in, it just tells me when I'm, when I'm, if I'm, if funding is available, a bit like the way that, tied in Monza, will tell you there's funding available. So you've got this. The goal is pretty fantastic there. So is this the thing that? Is this the thing that gets rich out of bed? Is that long-term vision is person, comes along, has store. She clicked two buttons and you basically go lenders automated decision profile right down and she can click yes and accept and accept the finance.
Speaker 3:Now I trust me being, yeah, that now, now be gone. I think what gives me out beds of days. You know, when we speak to business, it will be started. So just you, just you know working really hard, right, yeah, it's always so inspiring to hear those stories and I think they're always glamourized when you get next on the next job. Just think they're being about spending a much earlier to any day that we might. We can find a bit guidance and it gets a little bit of a.
Speaker 2:That's yeah, we much yeah yeah, because we both know really what actually happens out there, which is people grind away and grind away and, for whatever reason, serendipity, the breaks don't happen and they're working and working. And then you get the young guy from Jim shark. You know I'm a billionaire now, here's how I do it. I'd also all the entrepreneurs as a great guy and if you look at YouTube, caught the con Might, will it? I think his name is, and he has a whole channel that votes is all these guys who say this is how I got rich. You can get rich to wake up in the morning. Think, like me, six o'clock, we'll go running, do this, you'll be rich like you know at all those YouTube vlogger, instagram, be a rich and it's all just guff, right. It's such a hard work.
Speaker 3:It's not, it really is. Things never get bad. You're always we're trying to figure things out and Just you see that the day-to-day basis, really hungry on yeah.
Speaker 2:Doing the same thing. I you've been a bit of this from why common? And you've got great, obviously great table of investors, but the same time, I bet you're grinding it. Yeah, so have you got what I call the L life work balance, where there isn't one and it's just life, which part of it is, is all just work and life all thrown in. Because this, this thing, this life work balancing, is hilarious and because I, I think all right, you ask the question first and then we'll have a discussion. What I think transformation in what's happened In terms of your life or balance. Have you got life and work? Do you switch off, to switch on it? You just go like I think about this all the time, pretty much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean like I definitely think about it. Yeah, much more than time you I know strikes been or work. Realize these like you ought to Make sure that in your calendar you die or you have time. Yeah, they're gonna go out. It's not nice enough. My mind was still gonna go and have dinner and I'm gonna be on that old friend to go for a drink and then I'm gonna go back home. I'm still gonna be thinking by that thing. That's why you know you can't try.
Speaker 2:No, I think you are all in. I think that's the big myth. Right, I think you are all in. I love that. Yeah, I'll ask Mrs Campbell if I can have half an hour of her time in the diary. Luckily I'm not. I'm not in a business right now, so that's handy. But yeah, I mean I get you. I mean I, I think I bored my wife shitless with cast. That mean I go for dinner, chat about some other stuff, and it just seems to especially go through funding runs and stuff. You just can't push it further back Because it's all consuming and I've got this like theory. So here's all your opinion, this. You thought Charlie songhers when we talked about earlier and I talked to him about transformational thoughts, right, so lucky, he's got a global view. He's got 500 founders. He flies right now I did fly around the world. He knows he sees way more than any one of us might see in a little bubble, right, and we talked about this transformation thing and you see a lot of LinkedIn, especially just now.
Speaker 2:You will say Work-life balance is broken because people are at home. Now we're not, we're not. I'm not talking here about the kids who have a house share and they basically got a desk at the end of their bed right and they're all a bit stuck because I've got a shared kitchen. So we thought we'd be able to have got a house and a flat and they've got some space.
Speaker 2:And I don't see many of them complaining about work life balance because I actually think it's sort of been fixed Because actually if I need to go and what the dog, I can go and what the dog, because I can catch up later and as long as my boss Isn't some kind of presenteeism junkie where you know if you've got to be on your screen nine to five, I'm going to screenshots and make sure you're there by asking you a question every 20 minutes. People actually should, once they understand that merging of work life into you, have a life and stop trying to separate it and Be smoother with the whole thing rather than kind of up off and on. I think it's a good thing, right? Linkedin says not?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it depends on your work, right? Nothing? Obviously you're being like.
Speaker 2:Thank heavens, everyone said I was a knowledge worker. Thanks for that.
Speaker 3:That is not. The term is like is that People can like work on there, like that's lucky that you know? Wrong thing, yeah, I think it just really depends. Like I think what to look at? An expert type work, someone's doing, yeah, something you know, I think we definitely more privileged. Right, you are the kind of person I can't like Make a living.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's all you need to go out. Maybe just a nice make a little head turn, for even if you're a high school engine, every time you just go out go to science. Yeah, they get, or even if you're a nurse, but also between side thing.
Speaker 2:Before those knowledge workers. Right, yeah, they're not commuting, they're not spending three quid at Starbucks and Pret. Yeah, they don't have to sit in a train for the people and stick their nose and something to arm, put on the tube or in other cities. It tells me we're driving, you're not stuck in the traffic.
Speaker 2:I can't see how there's a bit of movement like, okay, well, maybe this house doesn't quite work because I've got a desk in the bed, spare bedroom kind of thing, and I'd rather have a little office. But that will change over time, assuming this doesn't get fixed with a vaccine next week. And I think that has to be good thing for people's families, for the military to go oh it's sunny, I'm gonna go outside for half an hour Rather than be stuck in office with some kind of weird present, tears and junkies like all. Yeah, he just wants you there because, like you know, you're right, it's knowledge workers you got to be working on laptop. But if you're a software developer and you preferred working at night which a lot of them do, because it's quieter and it seems to fit some people's borrowers better, getting up at seven to get to an office for half past eight, it doesn't make any sense now?
Speaker 3:No, it's true, I do buy it, yeah, and I've been fought for those. Those not the kind I think it did. I think it has been like a big step.
Speaker 3:Yeah becoming a norm. Yeah, and I think you know, for a lot of people, like I imagine, I did that, my family I did, I do my business and then you get to me, then maybe that's much of a cheer on, but I've been out by being amazing. I think you get the game change something to turn to me. You are gonna be an office just from Mike. Yeah, that's being to midnight, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, apart from I get back shortly and then it's like In the middle of a recording. But you know, I Felt something like a god. To me it helps being unemployed, I Start. They got to see more of them. I actually realized how much I have missed Because even the year previous to Kobe I was in the month. Three months previous I was never here, I was away in Europe four days a week and that shocked me just in that short period, how much from Christmas to then and then how much I've missed. So it must be good less travel, less you to. It must be a whole bunch of good things. I know it's yeah, all right, I'm trying to send some, trying to find some upside in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've got a little bit of a surprise. Actually, I love website in here and I think sorry if I Not no, you're right, you're not spending two hours on two. I think. What a train each day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and people were I mean people generally spending, like you know, like two a day, a week equivalent on travel. You know, it's just just terrifying. You think about it. Yeah, she's thinking about it doesn't make any sense. Was so, as you're a team, I mean, do you do?
Speaker 3:I do even have an office, it's not it's a good, good question they would be different about at least came to an end. So we are. We haven't you, dear? You see the quality fever now like how we, the editor, definitely for something we're looking at will we go into an office five days a week online? Wow, I think, especially when every stage starts, it is the end of the wanted to be having like space time, about time, yeah, that great work with time. I Think we may not care, maybe like one day, weeks of my three times, maybe about friends, yeah, kind of coming into it. I think that's why I reckon is you know she wanted to create a work, or whether it requires a lot of operation being in person and it's not to make it.
Speaker 2:And also the boss right, you have to look at me Because you still have deliverables, right? Yes, you still have. You still have a shit that needs to get done, yeah, yeah, and you're gonna hope you start to. It must be quite hard. I mean, I've got no idea, but it must be quite hard, because if you set some deadlines, you know people still need to be held accountable to those deadlines. Yeah, and yet you kind of got to do and I kind of zoom call for half an hour every morning. You stand up wherever you do and that's. I can imagine there's quite a difficulty and because you know all Carrot and stick right, so you try to do as much care as possible, but you do need to get stuff because you'll be accountable to those fantastic investors. So you are you a carrot guy or a stick guy, or is there what? How would you describe the kind of management style?
Speaker 3:My most important thing is really try and find the best people in town. Let's get them to be able to do things Brilliant. Try and find the good people you can. So much more of a carrier. I think the dashboard needs to be straightened. Obviously, people have different things to motivate different people and they have people to accept.
Speaker 2:You've got a collaborative stick, really because you're all agreeing to do something. How often do you report to your investors? Yeah, so I'm not going to invest in anything once a month. Okay, so once a month, Not so long.
Speaker 3:Yeah, at least a month. Okay, it may be more than a month, yeah.
Speaker 2:And do they hold you? Are you producing like a presuming investor report every month with traction and all that kind of stuff?
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean different stuff, a few different things. These are all weekly they might have big gains once a month and also asking for help Because many of the investors might have loads of investment. So if you do contact, maybe they have, they can jump in and obviously, some advice.
Speaker 2:And have you used that? I mean, have these guys got multiple companies where you've actually managed to reach out and they actually have another company which can help yours?
Speaker 3:But definitely especially with the YC network, because you know just pretty much, like you know, we're like, oh, we used to try it. Oh, let's ask this guy I mean a lot of these things already like sell or why they're going to be in particular YC. But yeah, I mean all the investors have like they also have different things, like one of them, visually today, one of our mess and see, brings in like experts, networks do like master class sessions with us. Wow, about prioritization for your business. A couple of weeks ago we had like a world renowned author. He came in and he kind of his work. I mean we bring out a person to have a conversation with that leader, that's, that's that. So I mean and notice that also, I guess like start network groups and partners are also, like you know, partners more so than advice. I mean it's definitely a lot of different places to tap into investors and people who may invest in you, but not necessarily, but actually but best in your progress.
Speaker 2:So you've got a, so you've got a good position, haven't you? Because actually you, you end up being the guy for business funding, Right? So if you've got one of these businesses that qualifies for your, for your type of funding, right, that whole investor network is going to be a magic for you. These e-commerce sites, startups, come in, you know, because if you I'm seeing past you and Justin, the UK here then obviously it's going to be like Richard, the go-to guy. I mean, his platform will automate this for you. That's, that's, that's working towards that.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:That's because that's there is a word for this. I can't remember this kind of magical spinning wheel of losty type thing, but that's actually going to be a fantastic help to you. It's fantastic rich. That has been a super quick, far journey through the business score and your your life in the last what year going through one combinator. I really do hope you do well. It sounds like it's going to be a fantastic journey. And for anyone who's who's gone, e-commerce business out there which isn't selling Al's hats, this is your man no-transcript.
Speaker 3:Check this out. Our website is ScoreTheBusinesscom.
Speaker 2:I've never seen the business score all the way through. It is ScoreTheBusinesscom.
Speaker 3:That's how it is.
Speaker 2:Okay, so ScoreTheBusinesscom. He'll be in the credits and I'll mention it in the beginning. Thank you very much, rich. Bye guys you, you, you, you you.
