Alex Macdonald: The harsh lessons I learned building multiple high-growth startups and Angel investing

Yariv is an Industrial & Clinical Resident Psychologist specializing in Startup Professionals & Founders. After 15 years in tech & startups, reaching CMO positions, he “pivoted”, and became a Psychologist. Today he works with startups, founders and CXOs in exploring professional & personal aspects of living in a startup environment; the ups & downs, the performance & planning, the logic & emotion, the soft & hard skills - with the aim of discovering the most relevant insights.

THIS PODCAST IS A FOUNDERS TABOO PODCAST; THE FOUNDER’S MENTAL HEALTH COMPANY Andy is CEO and co-founder of Honest Mobile. They’re changing mobile for good. Sign up here to find out more: honestmobile.co.uk/ Andy was previously co-founder at Deloitte Propel where he was part of the senior leadership team. Andy grew the business from a team of five to fifty and revenue grew at triple digit CAGR from zero to an ARR of £4m.

Dad Humanist AddVenture Capitalist [Now a Partner at Superseed VC](http://www.superseed.com) 4x exited entrepreneur now investing in technical founders who are transforming how the world works. Tech entrepreneur, operator and investor with 20 years experience building businesses and implementing digital. Having enjoyed some spectacular failures, and some delightful successes. The Long Story: Left a handful of scrappy A Levels at the school gates and ran to the big smoke with his best Zoolander impression to start modelling with Models 1. Joined a Boy Band in the early 90s for 3 roller coaster years of excess. Left the music world in 94 to present kids TV for the BBC and Channel 4. Managed to spend it as quickly as earned and realised that however famous or wealthy, it can't make you happy if you can't look at yourself in the mirror.

THIS IS A FOUNDERS TABOO PODCAST: THE FOUNDER’S MENTAL HEALTH COMPANY Dan is a serial entrepreneur with 10 years experience in starting, scaling and failing startups multiple times and Angel investor in 75+ startups. Co Founder of 3 different types of companies today: 1. Heights - a dtc health and wellness company building the braincare category. Experience includes raising millions in crowdfunding and venture, and building a remote global team with a direct to consumer health and wellness brand. 2. Kindling Media - a media company, we make podcasts (like top European Business podcast Secret Leaders, and Top 5 UK Crime podcast, Bad Money). Experience incudes bootstrapping to profitability, launching new shows and personally interviewing over 200 of the world's top leaders (including 50+ unicorn founders) 3. Foundrs - a non profit community.

THIS PODCAST IS POWERED BY FOUNDERS TABOO: BUILDING THE FOUNDER MENTAL HEALTH MOVEMENT Lottie is the Founder and CEO of The Copy Club It started in 2016… she felt lonely at work and she didn’t know where to turn to for help. Now, Copy Club is a community of 3000+ members who come together to lift each other up and for fast answers to hard questions. In this episode Lottie opens up about the battles she’s faced building The Copy Club and reflects deeply on her journey as a founder.

THIS PODCAST IS BY FOUNDERS TABOO: THE FOUNDER MENTAL HEALTH COMPANY Nick is an Entrepreneur (Minderful) and Doctor (NHS) who brings personal experience from living with Bipolar (type II). As a Doctor he cares deeply about his clinical work but he’s acutely aware of the greater social impact of research, enterprise and management.

Marcus spent the last 20 years building and running tech and digital services businesses. He completed his first exit in 2011, and has been an active angel investor and adviser since 2014. Here is the story since then: → 25 investments → Over $1bn in venture capital raised by companies he has invested in → Fund returned 2.3x to date, still 90% invested → He typically make 2-3 investments a year → He prefers to spend a few months getting to know founders before he invests → He has advised and given mentoring to hundreds of founders He’s on a mission to help more founders succeed.

This podcast is powered by Founders Taboo Alex is co-founder and CEO of Sequel, a community of the world's best athletes investing in the world's best startups making a positive impact. He is co-founder and Chairman of Velocity Black and an Angel investor in over 25 companies. He’s one of the most impactful and influential figures in British startups and he talks very vulnerably about his journey.

THIS PODCAST IS POWERED BY FOUNDERS TABOO Mike is General Manager of Fresha, one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in Europe and APAC. He founded Fintech startup Groov which he sold to JAVLN and in this episode he details the full rollercoaster ride of founding Groov, and how he experienced the lowest of lows. Mike’s LinkedIn is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellovegrove/

Andy is the founder of the Angel Investing School, prolific Angel investor and serial founder. He was named Top 10 BAME influencers in tech by the FT in 2018 and received The Queens honours MBE medal in 2020 for contributions diversity in technology sector. Growing up in Tottenham moulded by multiculturalism he never knew about building a personal brand or the lack of diversity in tech. And now he dedicates himself to alleviating the struggles of founders from under privileged backgrounds.