Go Fund Yourself Podcast by Seedrs Go Fund Yourself

Ken Nguyen is the co-founder and CEO of Republic.

Republic is a fintech firm that enables anyone to invest in private markets. In 6 years, Ken took the company from $1 million in investment deployed, to over $600 million in 2021.

Ken and his family migrated from Vietnam to the US in his early years. He started his career as a Securities Attorney (yes, we have a thing for lawyers) before joining AngelList as their General Counsel.

At AngelList, he discovered he wanted to do more. He wanted to make investing accessible to anyone, no matter their background.

So he left his high-profile job without any plans set, just a vision.

In this interview with Ken, we discussed:


The initial fundraising journey for Republic
The vicious fight to normalise equity crowdfunding in the US
The different mindsets between the UK and US in adopting crowdfunding
How Ken maintains excitement for the future as an entrepreneur
The future vision of being the biggest financial household name

Useful links:

Connect with Ken Nguyen here.

Invest in cool startups on Seedrs here.

Capital at risk.

If you are an entrepreneur or investor, and you’re ready to dive into the world of crowdfunding, get in contact with us today here.

Austen Allred is CEO and co-founder of Bloomtech, an online platform that educates future software engineers and scientists for free. In exchange, Bloomtech alumni give a share of their future income for two years.

Austen also never enjoyed or appreciated academia. A native of rural Utah, it was not something he felt connected to. But one thing he knew for sure was that he wanted to live and work in Silicon Valley. Oh, and work in tech.

But he didn’t have the money to do that. So what did he do?

He moved anyways and slept in his two door Honda Civic whilst working a full time job.

Problem 2: he didn’t have the money to start Bloomtech.

He had to get creative. Austen co-founded a media platform named GrassWire and co-authored Secret Sauce, a growth-hacking textbook which quickly became a best-seller. This provided him with the personal seed money ($250,000) to create and launch Bloomtech in 2018. As well as the support and experience from being part of the 2017 Y-Combinator cohort.

What began as a monthly cohort of 20 people, turned into 250 people a month. They have since graduated over 3000 students. The majority of those placed into high-paid jobs at companies like Apple and Google. The team includes 40 full time employees and 80 part time.

Sharing his rewarding moments and success stories, you feel inspired by his motivation to help people financially.

“It’s not about the stats, it’s about that girl who finally has her own bedroom for the first time.”

Listen to the full story of Austen Allred and Bloomtech here.

Useful links:

Discover more about Austen Allred here.

Invest in cool startups on Seedrs here.

Capital at risk.

If you are an entrepreneur or investor, and you’re ready to dive into the world of crowdfunding, get in contact with us today here.

Don’t forget to leave us a 5* review on Apple Podcasts with the chance to win a £50 voucher from a brand of your choice!

Martha Lane Fox is the founder of Lastminute.com. A period in her life which she describes as ‘total chaos’.

At 25 years old, with co-founder Brent Hoberman, she embarked on a very exciting journey creating one of the first European startups combining e-commerce and travel.

However, when you’re the first to do something, there’s always a lot of naysayers. People didn’t think Lastminute.com was going to be successful. Little did they know they were just getting started. In 2005, they sold the company for £577 million.

Martha took what she had built with Lastminute.com to create GDS (Government Digital Service). This is a section inside the Cabinet Office of the British government responsible for improving access to online public services.

Martha's other interests are explored in this episode, including how technology and the internet can be improved for everyone in the UK, women and venture capital, and Martha's future vision for Dot Everyone, her most recent venture.

Useful links:

Discover more about Martha Lane Fox here.

Invest in cool startups on Seedrs here.

Capital at risk.

If you are an entrepreneur or investor, and you’re ready to dive into the world of crowdfunding, get in contact with us today here.

Don’t forget to leave us a 5* review on Apple Podcasts with the chance to win a £50 voucher from a brand of your choice!

Mansoor Hamayun is one of three co-founders of energy tech company Bboxx. The trio met during their studies at Imperial College London where they ran a student led organisation named Equinox. This set them up with enough experience to eventually become business partners.

Mansoor recalls seeing a 2008 advertisement stating that 1.6 billion people in the world had no electricity. This shocked him and triggered the idea process that eventually led them to launch Bboxx in 2010. They have since installed around 200,000 solar energy systems in homes and businesses across East Africa.

In this episode, it’s clear that Mansoor has an appetite for risk – operating in countries where people otherwise would not – but then again “risk equals reward.”

Mansoor discusses Bboxx’s fundraising journey, how decentralisation and digitalisation go hand in hand, and cost effective ways to produce energy in the home. They also discuss the developing technology of mobile payments in Africa and company culture.

This forward-thinking episode will appeal to those who aim to solve a problem! We’ll leave you with Mansoor’s outlook: “If you’re not solving someone’s problems or needs, you’re not really in business.”

Useful links:

Discover more about Mansoor Hamayun here.

Invest in cool startups on Seedrs here.

Capital at risk.

If you are an entrepreneur or investor, and you’re ready to dive into the world of crowdfunding, get in contact with us today here.

Anne Boden is CEO and founder of Starling Bank. Anne had accumulated 30 years of experience in traditional banking when she realised there was a whole world out there that was embracing new technology and entrepreneurship, and she just  had to learn about it. This led her to travel to the U.S, spark conversations and further spend a year in Fintech.

In January 2014, Anne quit her job and established Starling Bank, transforming the world of mobile banking from scratch. However, she recalls the initial fundraising wasn’t an easy journey, going from door to door looking for people to believe in her vision for the future of banking.

In this episode, Anne Boden discusses the hustle of raising funds, the culture of banking pre-financial crisis and post-crash, the challenges of legacy banks trying to build something new, leading on the Make Money Equal campaign, and how to attract the best technological minds for a team.

She is also passionate about her technological vision for the future of banking. This podcast episode is for those who want to change the scope of the world; as Anne simply states: “I believe people make things happen, not process…. Leaders need to lead - they can change the culture.”

Useful links:

Discover more about Anne Boden here.

Learn more about Seedrs here.

Invest in cool startups on Seedrs here.

Capital at risk.

If you are an entrepreneur or investor, and you’re ready to dive into the world of crowdfunding, get in contact with us today here.

Richard Reed is one of three co-founders of the brand, Innocent Drinks. After seven years of pondering back and forth on what business to create, it took just one hangover for the trio to decide they wanted to launch a smoothie company.

The decision took some time to get to, and so did the growth. Reed mentioned on this episode, “If I had known just how difficult those [first] 15 months were going to be, I would’ve gone - ‘you know what, I’ll just stay in my job. It’s quite good fun.’”

Reed opened up about the hardships of growing Innocent Drinks, including the financial difficulties which eventually led to Coca Cola buying the brand in 2009. Whilst they had a successful exit in the end, Reed credits this highly to his team. He spoke enthusiastically about his best friends, his co-founders, and his team who even after selling their brand, were well looked after.

We won’t give away too much on this inspiring conversation but this is the perfect episode for anyone at the ideation or start-up stage, needing a guarantee that you know what - it will be fine in the end.

Make sure you leave a review on Apple Podcasts to be in for the chance to win £50 of credit to invest in an amazing start-up crowdfunding on Seedrs… and share this with a mate because it helps get our message out there.

Useful links:

Discover more about Richard Reed here.

Invest in cool startups on Seedrs here.

Capital at risk.

If you are an entrepreneur or investor, and you’re ready to dive into the world of crowdfunding, get in contact with us today here.