Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology

Riding Unicorns Productions
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Riding Unicorns is the go-to podcast for anyone interested in venture capital and high-growth startups. Hosted by VCs James Pringle and Hector Mason, the show explores what it takes to build and back successful tech unicorns. Each episode features candid conversations with top founders, operators, and investors—unpacking the strategies, challenges, and insights behind scaling category-defining companies. From fundraising and product-market fit to hiring, growth, and beyond, no topic is off-limits. Whether you're a founder, VC, angel investor, or just curious about the world of startups, you’ll find valuable takeaways in every episode.

  1. The future of Social Commerce with Sam Jacobs, Co-Founder @ Go Places

    -8 H

    The future of Social Commerce with Sam Jacobs, Co-Founder @ Go Places

    Sam Jacobs is the Co-Founder of Go Places, the operating system for social commerce. In just 18 months, Go Places has become a trusted partner to some of the world’s biggest brands including Samsung, Mars, The Body Shop, and Trip. Backed by deep experience from Amazon and Coca-Cola, Sam and his co-founder Jack are building the infrastructure layer for TikTok Shop, combining performance, content, live shopping, affiliate management and analytics into a single high-performance engine. Go Places runs 9 in-house live shopping studios (growing to 25 next year), manages 60+ trained presenters, and has developed AI-powered tools like One Place - a real-time data platform that helps brands understand the full impact of social commerce beyond the TikTok checkout. We dive deep into: 📈 The rise of TikTok Shop and why social commerce isn’t just a trend — it’s becoming a core pillar of brand distribution  🎥 Lessons from China’s live shopping boom and why it’s just getting started in the West  🛠️ Building infrastructure: from creator training to studio logistics and custom AI tooling  💡 How enterprise brands are learning to think like challenger brands in social commerce  🤖 AI’s role in content generation, performance analysis, and dynamic presenter optimisation  🚀 Scaling a startup from 6 to 35 people in 12 months — while maintaining speed and culture  🧠 The underrated skill every founder needs: how to sell  🌍 Why luxury brands are coming to TikTok Shop — and how Go Places helps them adapt Plus, Sam shares his North Star vision, the wildest stat from TikTok Shop, his dream dinner guests (including Mourinho and Ryan Reynolds), and his future unicorn pick in AI-powered finance support. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of commerce, creator-led brands, or scaling complex operations at speed. Sam brings clarity, ambition, and sharp execution to one of the most exciting spaces in consumer tech right now.

    44 min
  2. AI, Infra vs Apps & Spotting Red Herrings with Akash Bajwa, Principal @ Earlybird

    8 OCT.

    AI, Infra vs Apps & Spotting Red Herrings with Akash Bajwa, Principal @ Earlybird

    Akash Bajwa, Principal at Earlybird VC, one of Europe’s longest-standing early-stage funds. Akash shares his journey into venture and how he helped launch Earlybird’s London office, now a core hub for the firm. We dive into the state of AI investing, how to distinguish enduring companies from short-term hype, and what traits define the next wave of outlier founders. With experience backing companies like Briefcase (AI for accountants) and Spatial (3D generative AI), Akash offers a deep and practical perspective on both infrastructure and application-layer AI—and how to evaluate founder-market fit in the era of LLMs. In this episode, we discuss: 🧠 What “the art of early-stage” really means at Earlybird🤖 AI-native founders vs experienced SaaS veterans – who wins?💡 Infra vs apps – where to invest, and how to spot defensibility🚀 Why velocity and learning rate matter more than credentials⚠️ Red herrings in AI and why some infra startups vanish overnight🛠️ From vector DBs to prompt tooling – what survives when labs move fast🔎 Deep dive on recent Earlybird investments including Briefcase and Spatial💬 Why go-to-market insight is more valuable than tech alone🔮 How to underwrite GenAI founders in an environment that’s changing monthlyWhether you're building at the frontier of AI, trying to raise your seed round, or navigating a product roadmap in a fast-moving category, this conversation offers frameworks you’ll want to revisit.

    47 min
  3. Investing in Africa's Digital Future, Lexi Novitske, GP @ Norrsken22

    1 OCT.

    Investing in Africa's Digital Future, Lexi Novitske, GP @ Norrsken22

    Lexi Novitske, General Partner at Norrsken22, a $205m growth-stage fund backing transformative tech companies across Africa. Lexi has spent over a decade living and investing in Nigeria, backing breakout African startups like Paystack, Flutterwave, and Smile Identity. As one of the continent’s most respected VCs, she shares how her team is building a truly Pan-African platform — with partners on the ground in Lagos, Johannesburg, and Nairobi — and why local presence and context are essential for investing in emerging markets. Norrsken22 is on a mission to scale the outliers — high-growth companies tackling infrastructure, financial inclusion, identity, healthcare and more — and Lexi pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to win in this market. 🦄 In this episode, we discuss: 🌍 Africa’s startup boom and what global investors often get wrong  📈 Why Africa’s massive, mobile-first population is a global tech superpower  💸 The rise of Fintech, remittance, and payments infrastructure across the continent  🧠 Building trust in low-trust environments and how tech is solving for identity & access  📊 Valuation discipline and why applying Silicon Valley multiples doesn’t work in Africa  🛠️ Infrastructure before apps and how context shapes investment strategy  🤝 Partnering with international funds  - the good, the bad, and the nuanced  🚀 Recent investments like Tyme Bank and what makes a Pan-African breakout 🇪🇬 Egypt, DRC, and beyond and which next-gen markets Lexi is most excited about 📚 Why VCs need empathy, not just capital, to invest in complex environments Lexi also reflects on her evolution as an investor, the importance of local talent, and why venture success in Africa isn’t just possible, it’s already happening.

    44 min
  4. Growth Equity, VCTs and Exits with Rupert West, Managing Director @ Puma Growth Partners

    24 SEPT.

    Growth Equity, VCTs and Exits with Rupert West, Managing Director @ Puma Growth Partners

    Please note: The topics covered in this episode should not be taken as investment advice. This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Rupert West, the founder and Managing Director of Puma Growth Partners, a UK-based growth equity investor backing companies at Series A with cheque sizes of £4–10m. Puma invests across consumer brands, B2B SaaS, and scalable business services, with a hands-on approach to helping founders scale sustainably and successfully exit. Rupert shares the story of building Puma from scratch, starting with the core mission: to deliver true value-add support to founders using his team’s operational and financial expertise. He also dives into the firm’s unique structure (including VCTs), investment thesis, and deep operational involvement with portfolio companies like Pockit and YASO. 🦄 In this episode, we discuss: 📊 Why Puma takes a multi-sector approach and how it helps reduce concentration risk  🧠 What makes a founder truly “venture-backable” and how Puma assesses founder psychology  🚀 Case study: Why Puma backed social commerce infra startup YASO to help brands scale in China 🧰 Exit readiness: How VCs should focus on DPI, not just deployment 📍 Why “next round ready” is as important as product-market fit 💥 Lessons from navigating crises from 2008 to COVID to today’s inflation squeeze 🏦 The power of VCTs and permanent capital in turbulent markets 🌱 Why every venture firm needs resilience and empathy to support founders in hard times 💬 Rupert’s take on customer obsession and why the best founders keep buyers front and centre Whether you’re raising your Series A or building a growth fund yourself, this episode offers deep insight into what great VC support should look like and how fund managers can stay close to the action while scaling.

    43 min
  5. Scaling Outreach to a $4bn unicorn and then launching Paid.ai to monetize AI agents. Serial venture backed founder Manny Medina @ Paid.ai.

    17 SEPT.

    Scaling Outreach to a $4bn unicorn and then launching Paid.ai to monetize AI agents. Serial venture backed founder Manny Medina @ Paid.ai.

    Manny Medina returns to the startup battlefield with Paid.ai after orchestrating one of the most remarkable scale-up success stories in recent memory. As the founder and former CEO of Outreach, Manny transformed a door-to-door sales operation into a £250+ million ARR powerhouse valued at £4 billion. Now, he's tackling what he believes will be the next fundamental shift in software: the transition from seat-based SaaS models to autonomous AI agents. Paid.ai addresses the infrastructure gap that's emerged as companies scramble to monetise AI agents. Unlike traditional software that charges per user seat, agents work autonomously—one seat can operate thousands of agents, completely breaking the conventional SaaS economic model. Manny's new venture provides the billing, margin management, and success tracking infrastructure that agent-native businesses desperately need. Episode Highlights: The category creation playbook: Manny reveals how Outreach became synonymous with sales engagement platforms, sharing why building something genuinely different beats competing on "better" every timeRevenue quality over velocity: His obsession with minimising "create and close" revenue taught him to distinguish between market-driven growth and genuine product-market fit—a lesson that kept Outreach's wheels from falling off during hypergrowthThe agent monetisation crisis: Traditional billing systems like Stripe become "unbelievable pretzels" when customers want to pay by outcomes, activities, or agent performance rather than fixed subscriptionsFundraising without decks: Manny's unconventional approach to raising capital for Paid.ai—presenting investors with just a "catalogue of problems" rather than polished presentationsConstraints as competitive advantage: Why he deliberately chose a 17-person office in Kings Cross and refuses to expand, using physical limitations to force ruthless prioritisationThe sales DNA advantage: His candid admission that everything he does—from fundraising to product development—is fundamentally about sales, and why he consumes sales methodology like others consume sportsMarket timing mastery: How he navigates being potentially early to the agent revolution while building enough runway to survive a decade-long gestation period if needed Ready to Future-Proof Your Business Strategy? This episode is essential listening for anyone building, investing in, or simply trying to understand the seismic shift happening in B2B software. Manny doesn't just share war stories from scaling Outreach—he provides a masterclass in reading market transitions, building durable businesses, and positioning yourself at the forefront of technological change. Don't miss this deep conversation with one of the UK's most successful repeat founders—tune in now to discover why the agent era isn't coming, it's already here.

    51 min
  6. Building, Backing & Scaling in an AI-Native World with Kenneth Auchenberg, Partner @ AlleyCorp

    10 SEPT.

    Building, Backing & Scaling in an AI-Native World with Kenneth Auchenberg, Partner @ AlleyCorp

    In this episode we are joined by Kenneth Auchenberg, Partner at AlleyCorp — one of New York’s most prolific early-stage funds known for incubating companies like MongoDB, Business Insider, and Radical AI. Kenneth’s journey from coding at 16 in Copenhagen to shaping global developer ecosystems at Stripe and Microsoft gives him a unique lens into the next generation of software businesses — and the rise of AI agents. 💥 In this episode, we dive into: 🤖 Why “agentic” workflows are changing everything — and how founders should rethink UX, infrastructure, and pricing  🚀 The new founder playbook — how AI-native teams are replacing engineers with agents and scaling faster than ever  🛠️ Building agent-first infrastructure — what Resend, Stripe, and Supabase are doing right (and why developers are no longer your only user)  💼 The business model shift — why agents need their own payments, APIs, and enterprise stack  🧠 From artisanal to mass-produced software — and what it means for defensibility, data moats, and GTM  🇪🇺 Europe vs the US — the real difference in ambition, infrastructure, and what founders can learn from each ecosystem  🧪 Inside AlleyCorp’s incubation model — how Kenneth prototypes ideas with vibe-coding and builds companies from zero to seed This is a must-listen for anyone thinking seriously about the next wave of AI-native startups, especially if you’re building agents, infrastructure, or developer-first products.

    47 min
  7. Inside the Quantum Infrastructure Revolution with Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Founder & CEO @ Nu Quantum

    3 SEPT.

    Inside the Quantum Infrastructure Revolution with Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Founder & CEO @ Nu Quantum

    This week on Riding Unicorns, we’re joined by Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Founder and CEO of Nu Quantum, a pioneering company building the networking layer for the quantum computing era. Carmen’s journey started in academia, researching quantum photonics, before she spun out Nu Quantum from the University of Cambridge. Now backed by top deep tech investors, the company is on a mission to connect quantum processors and make quantum computing commercially scalable. 🎙️ In this episode, we discuss: 🧠 What quantum networking is — and why it’s essential for unlocking quantum advantage  📈 Nu Quantum’s pivot from photonic components to full-stack infrastructure  🧬 How to build a team at the bleeding edge of science and engineering  ⏳ Why quantum adoption is closer than most people think  🔐 The importance of entanglement, secure comms & UK leadership in quantum  💡 Lessons on commercialising research and navigating long deep-tech timelines  🏗️ Analogies to cloud infrastructure and what Carmen learned from traditional data centres  🌍 Carmen’s take on the global race to build the quantum internet This is a fascinating look into a frontier technology that could reshape everything from national security to pharmaceuticals. A must-listen for founders, investors, and anyone curious about the future of computing.

    44 min
  8. Building the "Lovable of Marketing" with Patrick Haede, Co-Founder & CEO @ Superscale AI

    27 AOÛT

    Building the "Lovable of Marketing" with Patrick Haede, Co-Founder & CEO @ Superscale AI

    In this episode, we're joined by Patrick Haede, the founder of Superscale AI, a breakout new startup transforming how digital products are marketed. 🚀 Inspired by Lovable’s success in democratising product-building, Patrick saw the next major frontier: distribution. In a world where anyone can now build a product, how do you market it effectively? Superscale AI is the answer — a platform that lets you instantly generate performance-ready, AI-powered video ads for TikTok, Instagram, and Meta, using just a product URL and a few prompts. Patrick’s vision is big: turning every founder into a full-stack marketer, and replacing marketing agencies with a prompt-based AI interface that’s actually performant. We dive into: 📈 The origin story – from digital product studio to pivoting into the AI-native future of marketing 🤖 Why “prompt-first” is the new UI – and how GenAI is changing how people interact with software 🎥 How Superscale creates hyper-performant UGC-style ads at scale using AI-generated actors 💡 Getting creative at speed – empowering users to produce 100s of high-converting ads with minimal effort 🔥 Why performance data should drive product development, not just UX or engagement 🧠 Agentic workflows – how Superscale is building an agent that can ideate, iterate, and deploy ads automatically 🌍 Who their power users are – from indie hackers and Shopify merchants to Lovable app founders and performance marketers 🧪 What makes an ad “work” in 2025 – and how creative risk-taking is becoming an AI superpower 🔮 The future of marketing – closing the loop between performance data and automated content creation 💰 Business model innovation – the potential of usage-based pricing, rev share, and agency-in-your-pocket experiences We also chat about Patrick’s fundraising journey with Creandum, investor feedback loops, and what it takes to win in a competitive GenAI market where everyone's launching an “agent”. This is an essential listen for: Founders building digital productsGrowth marketers trying to scale contentBuilders excited about the next wave of AI-native toolsInvestors tracking the next Lovable-style breakout🎧 Tune in now to learn how Superscale AI is giving every product the power of a top-tier marketing agency — at lightning speed and near-zero cost.

    57 min
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À propos

Riding Unicorns is the go-to podcast for anyone interested in venture capital and high-growth startups. Hosted by VCs James Pringle and Hector Mason, the show explores what it takes to build and back successful tech unicorns. Each episode features candid conversations with top founders, operators, and investors—unpacking the strategies, challenges, and insights behind scaling category-defining companies. From fundraising and product-market fit to hiring, growth, and beyond, no topic is off-limits. Whether you're a founder, VC, angel investor, or just curious about the world of startups, you’ll find valuable takeaways in every episode.

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