40 Minute Mentor

Today’s inspiring guest and your mentor for the next 40 minutes is Adrian Blair, CEO of the digital bookkeeping platform Receipt Bank. Receipt Bank helps make accounting easier for over 400,000 small businesses around the world and recently raised $75 million Series C funding for the next chapter in their growth journey. Before joining Receipt Bank, Adrian led the development of the eCommerce partnership strategy at Google and helped grow Just Eat from a small scale start up to the FTSE 100 company we now know it as now. In today’s episode, we talk about the lessons Adrian has learned on his amazing career journey so far, including: The leadership lessons from working alongside Google Co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and how they still influence his approach to this day. The highs and lows from his journey with Just Eat and how this experience has shaped how he’s steering Receipt Bank on their rapid growth journey. And, what to think about when planning your career and why you should be considering more than just money and experience when planning your next move. It was fascinating to learn more about Adrian’s early days at Google, the motivations behind his big career moves since, and what the future holds for Receipt Bank. If you’re thinking about making your next career move or want to know what it’s really like on the inside of an incredible growth journey like Just Eat, you’ll definitely want to listen to Adrian’s invaluable advice in this episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you’d like to find out more about Adrian, check out his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianblair To see what Receipt Bank are all about, take a look at their website - https://www.receipt-bank.com/uk/ And if you want to see some of the brilliant things Circl are doing, take a look at their website – https://www.circl.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People are at the heart of every startup’s success and nobody knows the importance of recruiting the right talent more than today’s 40 Minute Mentor, Zoe Jervier Hewitt, Operating Partner for Talent at venture capitalists EQT Ventures. Zoe’s career started in HR and Talent at Apple before transitioning into Tech at the high growth Start Up Mind Candy. She then became one of the first employees at Entrepreneur First, where she built a global, talent acquisition and assessment function from scratch. After 4 very successful years at EF, Zoe joined the leading VC EQT Ventures as an Operating Partner where she acts as both an in-house Talent Advisor to the investment team and EQT’s portfolio. In today’s episode, we talk more about Zoe’s unusual route into the sector, having done a degree in History of Art at Oxford University, and we take a deeper look into her biggest learnings from her career so far, including: How growing up in a mixed race, working class family helped to instil in her a strong work ethic that has aided her throughout her career The importance of brand building and proactively searching for talent when you are a small start up Why a structured recruitment process is key to preventing biases creeping into your decision making Plus, her advice for those from underrepresented communities looking to raise investment from VC’s like EQT Zoe’s passion for developing talent really shines through in this episode and it was fascinating to get her perspective on recruitment in the Tech sector from someone who is a bona fide expert. We really enjoyed chatting to her about a topic we are particularly passionate about. So, if you’ve recently founded your own start up and are looking to expand your team, or you’re looking for advice on how to raise from a top VC like EQT, or perhaps you’re weighing up the benefits of a career in talent – whatever your situation, we're sure you will benefit from Zoe’s insightful advice. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you’d like to find out more about Zoe, check out her LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoejervier/ And if you want to get to know EQT Ventures a little better take a look at their website – https://eqtventures.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s not every day you close a $13m Series A funding round, but to do it in a global pandemic is really quite an achievement. That’s what today's 40 Minute Mentor Stefano Vaccino successfully did with his FinTech Yapily. A feat that is even more impressive, given the fact that he also contracted Covid-19 during the raise – he is truly made of tough stuff. Stefano has an impressive and diverse career, pivoting from academia to Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, then into product leadership roles in start ups, before he took the plunge and set up Yapily in 2017. Yapily’s mission is to transform the Financial services sector by harnessing the power of open banking and it was an absolute pleasure to hear more about their incredible growth journey over the last 3 years. In today’s episode we talk about the future of Financial Services and dig deeper into various aspects of Stefano’s entrepreneurial journey, including: The lessons he learnt from raising a $13 million Series A round this year and his advice for anyone looking to fundraise Why building a diverse team and a positive company culture is so important and why you need to build a team that embraces learning and innovation Plus, his candid insights into the day-to-day life as a CEO of a fast growing, well-funded, start up. Stefano was a fantastic guest and it is not difficult to see how he has achieved so much in such a short amount of time with Yapily. He shares some wonderful advice that is applicable to anyone working in or looking to move into the start up world – from CEO’s looking to fundraise, to frustrated bankers looking to break into Fintech; Stefano provides fantastic mentorship throughout this episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you’d like to find out more about Stefano, check out his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanovaccino/ And if you want to get to know Yapily a little better take a look at their website – https://www.yapily.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After eight successful years at Google, James joined what was at the time a little known travel tech firm called Airbnb to lead their business in the UK and Northern Europe. Over 3.5 years he had significant successes, as well as having to overcome a fair few challenges, before he moved to another US Headquartered Scale Up SeatGeek as their International GM Never shying away from a challenge, James joined the job search engine Adzuna, as their CCO, right at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic…! In this episode, we talk though James' career highlights and lessons learned including: How he built a successful career at Google and the lessons he’s taken forward into all his roles since His experience of working for US headquartered businesses like Google and Airbnb and how you can ensure you stand out, even if you’re on the other side of the world Plus, how he’s dealt with starting a new exec role in the middle of a global pandemic and how he’s helped the team adapt to the “new normal” We had a brilliant time talking to James who has had such an impressive career to date. Despite holding senior roles for some of the most aspirational Tech Scale Ups that have ever existed, he has remained incredibly down to earth and we really enjoyed hearing about his varied experiences. James provides a fascinating window into the workings of Tech Scale Ups and shares some great advice for anyone looking to follow in his footsteps. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you’d like to find out more about James McClure, check out his LinkedIn profile –https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-mcclure-5b6a364/ And if you want to get to know Adzuna a little better take a look at their website – https://www.adzuna.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our 40 Minute Mentor in this episode is the brilliant Tara Lajumoke, Managing Director of FT Strategies’, the Financial Times consulting arm. After starting her career at Goldman Sachs, Tara moved in to consulting at McKinsey where she progressed to Junior Partner before taking the bold and entrepreneurial move in March 2020 to move to FTS. As you’d probably expect, it’s been a roller coaster few months for Tara, walking into a new senior role right at the beginning of a global pandemic and having to juggle this with having a young family, which is something we dive in to in this episode. Outside of work Tara uses the skills she’s learnt from Consulting to help develop the female leaders of tomorrow, working as a Business Mentor at the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women Entrepreneurs. In this episode, we dive into Tara’s story and explore how she’s been able to achieve the things she has, both from a personal and professional perspective, including: Why Tara decided to leave McKinsey for what many would see as a riskier move and what it’s been like leading FT Strategies through a global pandemic. The importance of education, why it’s such a big factor in Tara’s life and why it’s a huge focus for the way she’s bringing up her own children. And we also discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and what companies and individuals can do to make a tangible difference to the cause We have had the pleasure of working with Tara for a little while and we were so excited to get her on our podcast as she is such a positive and down to earth role model. Needless to say, we loved hearing more about her career journey and how she’s managed to achieve so much in her career to date. So whether you work in consulting or you’re just in need of some inspiration from a brilliant leader, this episode is packed full of gems for you to learn from and apply to your own life and career. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Tara, check out her LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-lajumoke-40aa29/ And if you’d like to find out more about FT Strategies, you can have a look at their website here - https://www.ftstrategies.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest and your Mentor for the next 40 minutes is an England Rugby legend, a hugely popular broadcaster and journalist and a successful business owner – Will Greenwood MBE. If you’re a Rugby fan Will needs no introduction, but for those of you who may not follow the sport, Will is one of the greatest English rugby players of all time, playing 55 times for his country, representing the British and Irish Lions on multiple tours and most famously, playing a fundamental role in England’s 2003’s Rugby World Cup winning team. Today, Will is a popular rugby commentator and analyst for The Telegraph and Sky Sports, as well as hosting his own Rugby union podcast. Will is also a fellow entrepreneur, and started his own hospitality business in 2011, Legend Holidays and Events, where he runs family holiday experiences, corporate events and sports festivals. It was a genuine honour to sit down with Will and hear more about his life and career, including: Will’s upbringing and the influence his Dad (who was also a Rugby international and coach) had on his career What it was like to be a part of World Cup winning team in 2003 and what made their culture so fundamental to their success Plus, Will’s tips for anyone thinking of making a bold or difficult career change and his advice from his own experience of transitioning from Rugby into a career in media. Will has achieved so much in his career and his passion truly shines through in our conversation as well as his dedication to inspire and help others. He is a brilliant 40 Minute Mentor and whether you’re Rugby fan or not, we're sure you will be just as inspired as we were, hearing his career story. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Will, check out his LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/willgreenwood If you’d like to find out more about Legend Holiday and Events, you can have a look at their website - https://www.ourlegend.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest and your Mentor for the next 40 minutes is the incredible Claire Valoti from Snapchat. Having completed a degree in politics, Claire quickly realised that this wasn’t going to be the career for her and pivoted into marketing and advertising, spending a number of years at Mindshare before making the move into Tech with Facebook. In 2016 she was headhunted to become the GM responsible for launching and growing Snapchat in Europe and she has since progressed to VP of International. It was an absolute pleasure hearing about Claire’s career, which has seen her recognised as one of Business Insider’s Most Powerful Women. In today’s conversation we discuss a whole range of topics, including: How Claire’s upbringing helped shape her career and how her parents instilled certain qualities and values that have helped her become the leader she is today How she managed to secure leadership roles at two social media giants, one including Snapchat where she received an offer while pregnant and joined 2 weeks before the birth of her 2nd child Plus, Claire’s first-hand experience of climbing the ranks in the largely male-dominated tech industry and what tech businesses can do to help promote diversity and inclusion Claire is one of the most inspiring and high profile female leaders in Tech and was an absolute joy to interview. She gave a truly honest and candid insight into her career and shared so many insightful pieces of advice – so whether you’re a job seeker, an aspiring GM or a leader in Tech, there is something for everyone in this episode. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Claire, check out her LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevaloti/ If you’d like to find out more about Snapchat, you can have a look at their website - https://www.snap.com/en-GB/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s episode of the 40 Minute Mentor, we had the pleasure of interviewing fellow podcast host and serial-entrepreneur, Dan Murray-Serter. Dan is Co-Founder of Heights, the holistic brand for the brain, and Co-Founder and Host of the UK’s number 1 business podcasts, Secret Leaders – one of my personal favourites. Despite initially wanting to be a Football coach, he started his career in the world of advertising before co-founding his first business at the age of 24. Since then, Dan has been running his own businesses for the last 7 years, which has led to him winning multiple awards, including being named Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 off the back of his success with his previous start up Grabble. Over the course of our chat we covered a number of topics: Dan’s candid insights into the life of an entrepreneur How the idea for Heights was born and how the team leveraged high-profile expert opinions from the likes of Stephen Fry to help rapidly grow their community Plus, he reveals who the most inspiring person is, that he’s had on Secret Leaders. It was a real pleasure interviewing a podcast legend like Dan, who is such a honest and gregarious entrepreneur. We really enjoyed hearing Dan’s candid reflections on the ups and downs he’s faced as an entrepreneur and more about his ambitious plans for Heights. So if you’re currently thinking about taking the leap and starting out on your own, or if you’re a Secret Leaders fan keen to learn more about the man behind the mic, you’ll definitely want to listen to this episode! We’re always keen to get feedback so if you have any thoughts once you’ve listened to this interview, just drop me an email at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Dan, you can check out his LinkedIn profile here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmurrayserter/ If you want to find out more about Heights, you can have a look at their website following – https://www.yourheights.com/ And if you haven’t listened to the Secrets Leaders podcast, you’ll want to head over to - https://www.secretleaders.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s episode of the 40 Minute Mentor, we get the privilege of speaking to not one, but two inspiring mentors – Ina Kjaer and Maggie Brereton from EOS Deal Advisory. Following successful careers as senior Partners within KPMG’s deal advisory business, Ina and Maggie took the bold decision to leave with a determination to shake up an industry known for it’s macho culture, long hours and a shocking gender pay gap. To do this they launched EOS Deal Advisory– a diverse, tech driven deal advisory consultancy that has already grown to a team of over 15 and has an enviable client list. It’s not every day that we get to talk to such impressive leaders who have reached the top of the Big 4 and then taken the bold leap of starting a business from scratch! It was fascinating to hear Ina and Maggie’s stories and learn more about their experience and how they’re striving to do things differently at EOS. Having started the business less than 12 months ago, today’s conversation focuses on the highs and lows of launching your own business, including: The initial challenges they faced in the early months of EOS and how they were able to overcome them. Why they decided to start EOS together, as equal partners, and how this has influenced the way they work and the way they’re building the business. And the importance of culture and diversity and how EOS are actively trying to create a business that’s distinct from the ‘macho culture’ often found in bigger consultancies. Ina and Maggie were fantastic 40 Minute Mentors and it was an absolute pleasure to dive into their careers and the vision they have for EOS. So whether you’re currently working in a consultancy and want to understand how you can progress your career, or perhaps you’re contemplating starting your own professional services business – this episode is packed with great career advice and life lessons from two trail blazers, who are truly disrupting the industry. We’re always keen to get feedback so if you have any thoughts once you’ve listened to this interview just drop me an email at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Ina, you can check out her LinkedIn profile here – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ina-kj%C3%A6r-065540/ If you want to find out more about Maggie, you can check out her LinkedIn profile here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-brereton-99339814/ If you want to find out more about EOS Deal Advisory, you can check out their website following - https://www.eos-dealadvisory.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I have always found the world of politics intriguing, so I was especially excited when Sam Gyimah, the Former UK Minister for Science, Technology, Universities, and Innovation, agreed to be on the 40 Minute Mentor. Sam was born in the UK but raised in Ghana before returning to study PPE at Oxford University, where he was elected the first Black British President of the Oxford Union Society - one of the world’s most prestigious debating societies. After starting out in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, Sam successfully transitioned into entrepreneurship, working in both Fintech and then a Logistic Training business which he scaled to £10m turnover and 70 staff in a 4 year period. His endeavours saw him voted the CBI Entrepreneur of the Future in 2005. Following his entrepreneurial success, he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, which was the start of an impressive and high profile political career. In today’s conversation, Sam shares a wealth of valuable insights from his incredible journey from a comprehensive school education to Number 10 Downing Street. During our fascinating chat we discuss: • How Sam’s experience at Oxford University set him on the path for a career in business and politics, despite initially being attracted to a career in law • What you need to know about working for a high-profile person and how to overcome the challenges of being in the public eye • Why working in politics is like being in a constant asteroid shower and the core skills you need to develop to survive and thrive in that kind of environment • Plus we also touch upon his take on how his former colleagues are coping with the Covid-19 pandemic. Sam was a great guest - open and honest, he shared some fascinating insights into the inner workings of parliament and what a career in government really entails. So whether you’re plotting to enter the world of politics yourself, or simply want to know how Sam came to be known as one of the most influential people in the country, I’m sure you’ll gain a lot of insights from hearing his story. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Sam, check out his LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-gyimah/?originalSubdomain=uk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices