S4: Advice from Britain’s most-successful start up investor, with Tom Teichman, co-founder of The Garage Soho

This week Holly speaks to investor Tom Teichman, the founder of Spark Ventures & The Garage Soho. 

Known as ‘Britain’s most-successful digital start-up backer’ Tom has invested in companies such as LastMinute.com, Moshi Monsters and Made.com. 

He also played a key role in Holly's business journey, when he invested in Notonthehighstreet. Together they recount the serendipitous way in which Tom and Holly met, and the incredible journey they embarked on.

Now Tom runs his latest venture from his Soho townhouse incubator office with his co-founder, the advertising guru Sir John Hegarty. Investing and mentoring small businesses with a focus on technology-enabled consumer brands.  

In this conversation, Holly and Tom discuss his incredible journey from arriving in England as a refugee, taking inspiration from his entrepreneurial parents, to becoming one of the most well known and respected venture capitalist investors in Britain. 

A highly personal interview, Holly and Tom discuss the importance of intuition and emotion in business, how finding the ying to your yang in a business partner makes for a stronger business, and the key points he looks for when investing in a business.

Enjoying listening to these unfiltered chats? It's worth following Holly Tucker MBE and Holly & Co on Instagram, and subscribing to our weekly newsletter on our website, where Holly downloads her thoughts, and exclusively shares small business finds and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.