Learn From Great People (LFGP): Business | Start ups | Agency | Corporates Viraj Acharya

Ana Pricop is the co-founder @ Outdid.io, the B2B start-up building a world where people trust each other and are safe online. Before starting Outdid,
Ana was studying at Sciences Po France's leading university in the social sciences.

🛠️ Building something cutting edge with ZK Proofs
🚀 Raised $2.5 Million dollars in 3 days
👥 Incredible co-founder relationship

In Today’s Episode with Ana Pricop, We Discuss:

Background
- Growing up, did Ana have any entrepreneurial traits?
- Growing up in Romania, what was family life like for Ana?
- Does Ana think that being the oldest child in the family has played a role in creating the person she is today?
- How would Ana’s teachers describe her when she was young?
- Jumping forward to Ana’s master’s degree—why did she feel she had to pursue one?
- What does Ana know now that she wishes she had known when she started in startups?
- How did Ana convince the dean of her master’s university to let her take a gap year to try and build a startup?
- What or who gave her the conviction to try?

Building Outdid /Fundraising
- How Ana figured out that what she was building was a viable idea?
- Ana mentioned Outdid initially struggled with raising funds. Why did she find that was the case, and what did she learn from it?
- What advice would Ana give to first-time founders from her experience in Denver?
- How did she feel about raising $2.5 million in 3 days?
- Given her role as Cofounder at Outdid, how does Ana find her own space while building such a technical product?
- What does Ana know to be true about building a startup that others might consider false?

Co-Founder / Relationship
• What makes a great co-founder in Ana’s view?
• Ana’s partner shared some insights. How did she meet him?
• What is it like for Ana to work with her partner to build a product?
• Is there a fine line Ana must draw to balance personal life with work, or is it a mix of both?
• What is it that Ana’s partner is great at that allows her to be awesome?
• How does Ana think her partner would describe what it’s like to work with her?
• If Ana were to start a new startup, would she co-found it again with her partner?

The Founder Experience
- Ana recently spent time with Richard Branson. How has that experience changed the way she looks at the world and what she is building?
- Why does Ana find the pain of building Outdid beautiful?
- What is the best piece of startup advice Ana has received?
- Where does Ana want to be in 10 years? Is Outdid “it” for her, or are there other areas she wants to explore?

And of course the Quick Fire


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Tom Charman is an absolute cockroach founder, having built 4 start-ups and started angel investing all in the last decade.

Tom is one of the most seasoned founders I’ve had the pleasure of meeting - his calmness to the nuclear winters of AI. His Spidey sense to recognise a problem and build a solution in addition to balancing a cofounder relationship with his long-term partner.

🛠️ Building something new, in the future of modern product development and experimentation.

🚀 4x founder NAVA, RASSA +more

👼 And Angel investor


Background
- When did he find his love for tech and startups?
- How did he develop the traits of a driven individual with a strong moral compass.
- What would Tom say he is running from?
- How did having a mother who was a psychologist shape Tom during his childhood?
- Growing up, did Tom always know he wanted to be involved in startups?

Building with your partner
- How did Tom meet his partner Olivia
- What is it like for Tom working with Olivia to build software businesses?
- Is there a fine line Tom has to draw to balance personal life with work, or is it a mix of both?
- Tom mentions that great partnerships are about complementary skill sets, what skills does Olivia possess that allow Tom to excel?
- How does Tom think Olivia would describe what it's like to work with him?

AI, ML & Startups
- What does Tom see as the single largest difference between building a company in the US versus the UK?
- How important does Tom believe it is to have early success in one's startup career?
- What gave Tom the conviction to start building startups years ago?
- What does Tom look for in an idea to determine its viability?
- What was Tom's first startup and the top three lessons he learned from it?
- From the one startup that failed, what were the key learnings from that experience?
- Tom wrote an article in 2016 discussing the proximity to creating AGI, has his opinion changed ?
- How does Tom stay focused on building the best product without getting distracted by market hype?
- What advice would Tom give to young founders on differentiating their products?
- What's the best technical advice Tom has received about building with AI? What about the best non-technical advice?
- How did Tom stumble upon the idea for his current startup?
- Does Tom believe that humans today are ready for the kind of products he's building?
- What essential piece of advice would Tom give to founders wanting to start in building AI products?
- What do other people think is false that Tom knows to be true about startups?


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Haz Hubble is the Founder of Pally which is solving the most complex problem in human history - how humans connect!

Haz is one of the most clear-minded founders I’ve met - his focus when solving problems. He was the youngest CGMA in the world and his ability to empower not only the team at Pally but also his previous role as CFO of a 200-person company.



🛠️ Building Pally, to solve the Human connection problem

🧠 25 and wise beyond his years

🏦 Youngest CGMA in the world



Background

- When Haz described himself as an intelligent person who doesn’t know very much. Reflecting on his childhood, would he say he has always been like this?

- What would Haz say he is running from?

- Knowing Haz grew up as an avid gamer, did he display any entrepreneurial traits?

- Was there a turning point in Haz's childhood that set him on his current trajectory?

- Did Haz have a mentor who guided him in the early days, or did he navigate his path independently?



CGMA/CFO

- How does a Haz reflect on being the youngest Chartered Management Accountant in the world

- As a young Chartered Accountant, how did Haz navigate not being taken seriously or older peers trying to dictate his actions?

- How does Haz approach asking the right questions?

- Does Haz have a process for working through problems?

- What was the best lesson Haz learned about being a CFO, and who shared it with him?



Communication + Inner Drive

- What would Haz say his superpower is?

- How does Haz think about the need for a strong moral compass in the workplace?

- Where does Haz's focus and drive come from?

- What advice would Haz give to young people today who want to start building solutions to the world's problems?



Building Pally & Solving Human Connection

- Why did Haz start going by "HAZ"?

- When did Haz find his love for solving the human connection issue?

- Does Haz enjoy the size and scale of the solution to the human connection problem?

- Does Haz think we underestimate how human connection will evolve in a year and overestimate it in 10 years?

- How did Haz pitch convince friends and family to invest in his vision of the future?

- Is Haz glad he raised a seed round without unknown investors?

- As a founder, what are three things Haz focuses on every single day in the business?



Quickfire

- What makes the pain of building companies beautiful for him?

- What does a successful day in the life of Haz look like?

- If Haz could be doing anything else, what would it be?

- What was the most recent mistake Haz made?

- Is Haz happy?

- Who are the three peers Haz finds himself constantly learning from, and why?


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Harjas Singh is the Chief Product Officer and co-founder of SHARES which has one goal: to empower you to become a smarter investor, so you can take charge of your financial future.

Harjas is the most user-focused CPO’s I’ve ever met, a clairvoyant when it comes to the future of investing, and a wizard at building teams.

🛠️ Building SHARES.io, raised over $50m
🔮 Product Visionary (I mean just check out the app)
🚀 Scaled Revolut Wealth from 0 - 2m Users

In this episode, we get into the depths of :
1 - Understanding how his childhood in India and education in the USA led him to Tech
2 - Scaling wealth at Revolut from an idea to 2m users
3 - Building Shares and the Future of retail/consumer investing
4 - How do you build a kick-ass Team

Background

When did Harjas find his love or interest for tech and finance?

What was family life like for Harjas as a child?

Considering that there are at least 21 Indian-origin CEOs of billion-dollar companies, what was it like for Harjas growing up in Delhi?

Harjas on moving to the US over India due to the education system.

At Virginia Tech, Harjas pursued his passions for coding and Bhangra. How did these interests shape his experience?- How Harjas was hired at Revolut

Revolut

While at Revolut, Harjas scaled the wealth division from zero to 2 million users across countries.

What are his biggest learnings from that experience?

When building out products, does Harjas have a secret sauce for asking questions to uncover user needs?

Does Harjas believe that simplicity is always better when it comes to product design?

How does Harjas prevent feature creep?

Why does Harjas think revoluters look at the world differently?

Was Harjas happy at Revolut?

SHARES

What was Harjas's first investment in life?

What were the thoughts that motivated Harjas to start Shares?

Knowing the challenges of fintech from his time at Revolut, why did Harjas start Shares?

How does the investing business model work at Shares?

Did Harjas have a mentor in the early days?

What was the single most important lesson he learned from them?

How did Harjas find raising the first $10 million for Shares?

How does Harjas balance user-centric product decisions with business value?

When thinking about new features in an exploration session, what does Harjas like to do?

How does AI change the actual creation of product design?

Hiring

What is the importance of an ideation sparring partner, in the early days of a start-up.

What’s Harjas’s perspective on the need to build in person?

Does Harjas know pretty quickly when someone is a good fit for his team?

If Harjas could go back to the moment he and the core team committed to building Shares, would he do it again?

What’s been Harjas’s biggest hiring mistake?

Does Harjas think it's wrong to be in it for the money?

What advice does Harjas have for the young founder who is starting to think about their first hire?

How does Harjas plan on giving back to the community?

Quickfire- What is Harjas’s biggest regret?

How does Harjas maintain an optimistic mindset, especially in the challenging space of finance?

Harjas is a fan of the ALL IN podcast.

Who is his favourite out of the four besties?- Does Harjas believe that he's built different?

Is Harjas happy?

From whom does Harjas continuously learn in his work life?


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Warren Hutchinson is the Chief Experience Officer and founder of ELSE Agency which is on a mission to become the UK’s most effective design consultancy. Working with the likes of 02, Nivea and Universal

Warren is one of the most knowledgeable people in design consultancy I've met and one of the few real people left that walks the talk:


🚀 Working in design, strategy and innovation for almost 25 years!

🔬 Deep Multi-Domain Experience

👨‍🏫 Repeat Guest lecturer at Brunel University



In this episode, we hit home on

1 - Understanding Warrens's Background and career into Design

2 - Fundamentals of Design and how that translates into the real work

3 - Running ELSE and why he has been invested in R&D from 2012

4 - Building a better Agency with a 4-day work week.

**Quick fire round**

- Do you have to be in America for the best innovation

- What was the biggest takeaway from ELSE and how did that shape how you think

- What has been the best experience you’ve used that you haven't built

- If you could go back and do something in your time at ELSE differently what would that be?


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"You have to get out to be inspired by what's going on in this big huge world"

Daljit Singh is one of the most incredible OG Designers I’ve met!

🚀 DIGIT Agency Founder where he designed and launched his own sausages
💰 Co-founder @Anna.Money which has a $100m Valuation
👁️ Digital Design Visionary - D&AD Black Pencil Award, Design Week Best of Show & 2 BAFTAs.

In this episode, we hit home on:
1 - Growing up in East London and the importance of family.
2 - The early years of digital design on the internet and founding DIGIT.
3 - Building great design teams with creatives.
4 - The move from the agency side to the brand side.


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