We have an exciting end to series 4 of the Invested Investor podcasts. This week we are proud to have our founders Peter and Alan Cowley talking about their experience running the Invested Investor. A unique and open conversation between father and son reveals what their key motives are for setting up the Invested Investor, as well as the key successes and failures of the business. Interestingly, they highlight the biggest learnings from all the podcasts they have recorded. 

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Reece Chowdhry, the dynamic founder of RLC Ventures joins us this week. Reece has been investing since the age of 13 and now has over 40 investments to his name. In this podcast, we hear how Reece started life at EY, before setting up RLC Ventures in 2015. 

At 30, Reece is a relatively young yet very well established investor. Don’t let his age fool you, he is extremely experienced but still willing to learn. His approach to investing includes looking for companies with a presence in emerging markets and offsetting a percentage of any carry from RLC Ventures to charities that the founders support. 

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Zoe Peden, investor and award-winning educational technology entrepreneur joins us to talk about her journey. Founder of FutureWorldVC and MyChoicePad, a language development product has made a lasting impact on the lives of people with learning disabilities. Zoe began her career in the charity sector, she describes life as an entrepreneur seeking funding, balancing the ups and downs and living off pure determination and creative talent. 

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Joel Solomon joins us this week, he is the founding partner of Renewal Funds, the Canadian based mission venture capital firm and author of “The Clean Money Revolution”. Joel explains why he decided to become an investor and strategist for social and cultural change, as well as how his principles were cemented during his early career. He takes us back to his first job in politics through to his current position. Joel explains why and how he supports businesses so they can be part of the solution, making the new sectors of environmental technology and climate change matter. 

This is a compelling podcast, it’s sound quality is not up to our usual standard, due to the method of recording.

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Simon Bond is the innovation director for Set-Squared, a partnership of universities that support early stage technology companies helping them to raise investment. He is an experienced Director of business incubation, university enterprise & research commercialisation, he specialises in business development strategies for innovation-intensive companies. 

Simon discusses his background and explains how he always believed he was destined for the business world, after founding a TV station with angel money in the early 1990’s. We learn about his journey as Simon talks us through the thrill of founding, scaling and successfully exiting, and how those early lessons never left him.

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Kath Austin founder and CEO of Bee Bee Wraps and SME Entrepreneur of the year joins us for this week’s podcast. Kath explains why she left her charity fundraising background for her heartfelt curiosity of conquering the waste that her growing household was creating. Kath solved part of her home waste problem by creating her waxed cotton, food wrap product, she explains her determination to bring Bee Bee Wraps to market and why the company has a wide appeal, not only focusing on sustainability and impact but also maintaining an aesthetic that fits alongside current retail trends. Kath explains her journey with the Judge Business School’s incubator, Cambridge Social Ventures, and subsequently how the support programme enabled the sharp growth curve of the company and the business changes required to scale.

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Firdaus Nagree, angel investor, founder and CEO of FCI London’s largest design showroom for high-end furniture and interiors with offices in India, UAE and Nigeria, joins us this week. Firdaus shares his journey from a family business to celebrated multi-award winner. Firdaus openly discusses how he learnt from mistakes made in his early career and how his change in attitude towards business relationships enabled him to shape his decision making processes today. He goes deeper to explain how a eureka moment has since formed his current inclusive managerial style and has enabled him to better mentor start-ups within his role at Entrepreneurs' Organization, the international entrepreneurial network.

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Chris Smith, Managing Partner at Playfair Capital, angel investor and previous Head of Product Development at plan.com, where under his watch the company ranked #1 in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100. Chris is passionate about investing and supporting tech companies where he is able to use his extensive operational and legal experience to best advantage. Chris takes us through his career from London Lawyer to investment manager and entrepreneur. Chris offers some particularly insightful advice including his take on the protection of unique methodology or trade secrets.

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Ronan Perceval CEO and founder of Phorest, a global software provider focusing on the salon space. Ronan tells us how entrepreneurship had always been part of his mindset but how his university software ventures allowed him to define his business beliefs, in particular fundraising vs bootstrapping and founding for the longterm. Phorest has recently been named the most successful business financed by early stage investors by European Business Angels Network

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Craig Dearden-Philips MBE, social entrepreneur, angel investor, writer and academic joins us this week. Craig tells his inspirational journey from his first voluntary work to his present day social investment portfolio and social leadership publications. His first venture Speaking Up, was a system designed to support people with mental health and learning difficulties deemed by Craig necessary as the ones in place, both public sector and charity, where not achieving what they where designed to do. Craig recalls how he always wanted to “build and create things that benefited society”, and how his motivation to help others pushed him into his entrepreneurial endeavors. 

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Professor Chris Mairs CBE, angel investor, entrepreneur, Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First, patron of Fight For Sight and a fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering, tells his story this week. Chris co-founded telecommunications software company Metaswitch Networks where he was CTO for many years having completed a computer science degree at Cambridge and spending some time at IBM, where his seven-strong co-founding team met. Chris tells us the engaging story of how Metaswitch began, why they hired raw graduates over experienced applicants, and why the importance of a high-quality management team is crucial. 

Chris goes on to discuss his transition from entrepreneur to investor in UK based early-stage technology companies and accelerators. Alongside this, he entertains with his many celebrated international sporting achievements, most recent being his incredible cycle across the USA, fundraising for research into the prevention of sight loss.

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