The Founders Lounge Matic Jesenovec

End of year special episode is a mix of the best moments from our podcast in 2022. I thank all of you for taking the time and watching, and I hope you are getting massive value out of it. In this episode, we talk about warrior mentality, relationships, building businesses to be sold, and scaling an e-commerce store from 0 to 1.

Brought to you by Judge.me - the ultimate e-commerce product reviews solution. If you’re looking for a job in an inspiring, profitable, and fast-growing UK-based startup, check out https://careers.judge.me.

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➤ Please leave a comment if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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VIDEO (Youtube): http://foundrs.vi

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Marketing and postproduction: Matevž Semprimožnik (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matevz-semprimoznik/)

Paul Blair is a military veteran turned entrepreneur. Over 20 years of experience in leadership and high-pressure situations in the military served as a great and unique background to start a business. As an entrepreneur, he has launched, grown, and sold businesses in the property, financial services, and pet product sectors. Today he’s still involved in several businesses, but his main focus is on ArcX, a SportTech and Digital Health startup that's developing a game-changing smart ring for sports enthusiasts.

In this episode, we talk about:

- Lessons learned from 20 years in the military

- Military vs entrepreneurship

- The most difficult moments in Afghanistan

- Starting a pet product brand

- Paul’s funny experience with Dragon’s Den

- The challenges of building a hardware startup

- Hardware startup financing

- How to effectively handle being involved in multiple businesses

- The #1 course that most impacted Paul’s career

- Paul’s strategies for constantly improving himself

Brought to you by Judge.me - the ultimate e-commerce product reviews solution. If you’re looking for a job in an inspiring, profitable and fast-growing UK-based startup, check out https://careers.judge.me.

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➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤

➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ

➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com

➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip

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RESOURCES

- ArcX: https://arcx.fit/

- Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-blair-dso-6446a315/



VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge

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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Ryan McDaid is the co-founder of Fonez, an Irish electronics store which he took from 0 to €10M in revenue. He recently took a back seat and decided to instead focus on his property business and life coaching. 
 
Brought to you by Judge.me - the ultimate e-commerce product reviews solution. If you’re looking for a job in an inspiring, profitable, and fast-growing UK-based startup, check out https://careers.judge.me.
 
---
➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
 
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In this episode, we talk about:
- Ryan’s first (illegal!) business
- When is it ok to break the rules
- How Ryan discovered the opportunity that led him to found a €10M brand
- Opening physical shops
- How to compete with large corporations
- How to build a strong brand
- Working in the business vs working on the business
- Startup Home and how Ryan and I met
- Why Ryan is now focusing on his property business
- Personal growth through business
- Does money matter in life?
 
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFoundersLounge 
 
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Joseph (Jos) Battle is a UK-based serial entrepreneur who experienced the highest heights and the lowest lows of the entrepreneurial journey. His entrepreneurial skills and mindset were obvious already in his childhood when he started making money with various “lemonade stand” types of businesses. He thrives on seeking new opportunities and bringing them to life. Throughout his several business ventures, he went from 0 to having hundreds of employees within weeks. He started a marketing agency that was at its peak making £4M in profit. One of his businesses was worth £100M before it, unfortunately, all came crashing down… He shares all these stories, lessons and much more in the episode.
 
In this episode, we talk about:
- Jos’ first businesses
- How Jos identifies business opportunities
- How to make things happen early on in a business
- The most complained about TV advert in the UK
- Why Jos didn't have to pay for speeding
- Growing from 0 to 200 employees in 6 weeks
- Leveraging the early Facebook Ads opportunity
- Growing a marketing agency to £4M profit
- From a £100M business to bankruptcy
- Hiring a CEO for your business
- What Jos is doing differently in his current business
- How Jos identified the latest trend which he’s now pursuing
- Challenges and opportunities of the “eco” industry

RESOURCES
Joseph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-battle-71283068/
Ecovibe: https://ecovibewholesale.co.uk/
OLIO app: https://olioex.com/
 
Brought to you by Judge.me - the ultimate e-commerce product reviews solution. If you’re looking for a job in an inspiring, profitable and fast-growing UK-based startup, check out https://careers.judge.me.
 
---
➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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VIDEO: https://youtu.be/6ADUZ80zt5c
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Nick Telson is a London-based serial entrepreneur, angel investor, podcaster, startup mentor, and public speaker. He’s currently a co-founder of a new B2B sales tool, trumpet, host of the Pitch Deck podcast, and a co-founder of an angel investing venture arm, Horseplay Ventures. He previously co-founded DesignMyNight and managed to grow that to 100+ employees, 15,000 SaaS customers, and 8m monthly uniques on the website before they exited for $30-40M.
 
In this episode, we talk about:
How a drunk night out led to a new business idea
Pivoting from a media business to a tech business
Negotiating a deal to sell the company for tens of millions
Nick’s ideation process when starting his second business
What Nick is doing differently with his second startup
How Trumpet got 2500+ signups for their private beta
Time management for busy people
Managing our ever-shortening attention spans
Building a personal brand (even if you don’t have much experience)
Validating early-stage ideas the right way
How mentors can change the trajectory of your business
What separates ok founders from great founders
 
Brought to you by Judge.me - the ultimate e-commerce product reviews solution. If you’re looking for a job in an inspiring, profitable, and fast-growing UK-based startup, check out https://careers.judge.me.
 
---
➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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RESOURCES
Nick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicktelson/
Trumpet: https://www.sendtrumpet.com/
Pitch Deck podcast: https://anchor.fm/pitch-deck
 
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/9YennIfncR8
 
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)

Jordan Schlipf is a serial tech entrepreneur and early-stage investor. Today, he’s the founder & CEO of the Rainmaking Venture Studio, the world's first investment-only Corporate Venture Builder. They raised tens of millions of Pounds to de-risk the process of building new businesses by building them in partnership with large corporations.
 
In this episode, we talk about:
Jordan’s story
Jordan’s first successful business
London’s startup scene through the years
What is a venture studio
How Rainmaking is different from other venture studios
Jordan’s 2 strategies for identifying business opportunities
First steps when starting a new business
Recruiting founders/CEOs
What makes a great founder
 
Brought to you by Judge.me - the ultimate e-commerce product reviews solution. If you’re looking for a job in an inspiring, profitable, and fast-growing UK-based startup, check out https://careers.judge.me.
 
---
➤ Please subscribe & share if you liked the episode ❤
➤ Follow for business ideas & stories: https://twitter.com/MaticJ
➤ Matic’s UK product founders community: http://joinpmf.com
➤ Looking for funding? Get a VC intro: http://vc.foundrs.vip
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RESOURCES
Jordan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-schlipf-0b855174/ 
Rainmaking Venture Studio: https://rainmaking.io/venture-building/
 
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/_O6g7OYZwdk
 
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Marketing and postproduction: Tom Zorman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-zorman/)