⚡ How a Revolution in Payments, Against all the Odds, Created a Unicorn

Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…

🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the start-up world
📰 The biggest news stories in the start-up world
💳 How a revolution in payments, against all the odds, created a unicorn
🍟 How strong smells made this company hit the news
👀 Our favourite start-up to keep an eye on this week
🖊️ A tool to help you manage projects and design products

✨ Last weeks most clicked link was this Product Designer job with Bonsai, the Business Management Software company.

Happy hustling,
Rich & Gary

🎤 Events/Opportunities

💡 KPMG’s Tech Innovator in the UK competition is back! If you run an innovative tech company making a difference and disrupting the industries in which you operate, then apply here.

💸 Apply to Founders Factory for funding and support to scale your start-up and help you find product market fit.

🦄 Do you have a start-up idea but need help getting it off the ground? Skl.VC are a venture studio offering investment, expertise, and killer team to help founders create companies that will revolutionise their industries.

💼 Job opportunities

🎨 Growth Marketer, Kittl
💻 Growth Marketing Manager, Saas.group
🍽️ Product Designer, Nory

📈 Microsoft has launched a UK AI start-up accelerator in partnership with London-based private investing platform Seedrs. UKTN

🐄 Swedish start-up Agteria has found a molecule that can reduce the amount of methane gas from cows by up to 70%. Sifted

🚀 Finnish space start-up ICEYE has raised €94m in growth funding ed by Finnish sovereign wealth fund Solidium Oy with participation from Move Capital Fund I, Blackwells Capital, Christo Georgiev and existing investors. Sifted

🤖 A day after retiring the hydraulic model, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot has gone electric. TechCrunch

💳 GoCardless: A Story of Resilience, Innovation, and Unyielding Will

In the gritty confines of a North London pub on a brisk January evening in 2011, the entrepreneurial seeds of GoCardless were sown—not out of a passion for payments, but from a collective disdain for the existing systems. Hiroki Takeuchi, Matt Robinson, and Tom Blomfield, fresh from Oxford and buoyed by their recent stint in Silicon Valley, were poised for disruption. But as they would soon discover, their path was anything but straightforward.

The concept for GoCardless emerged from a simple yet audacious question: Why were payments so cumbersome? This question led the trio to abandon conventional career paths and plunge into the uncertain waters of fintech. The initial days were filled with brainstorming sessions where multiple ideas were pitched and discarded until they landed on revolutionising direct debit payments—an area ripe for innovation but fraught with regulatory and operational challenges.

Their early break came when they secured a spot in the prestigious Y Combinator program in the U.S. This was not without its drama—their interview was a disjointed affair, with each founder contradicting the others, reflecting their raw and untested partnership. However, their potential shone through the chaos, convincing the panel to invest.

Upon their return to the UK, the founders confronted the harsh realities of the fintech world. Navigating the regulatory landscape required them to engage with financial laws and banking standards—a steep learning curve. The process to become a licensed payment provider was arduous and fraught with potential setbacks. Every day brought new challenges, from understanding complex compliance issues to convincing banks to partner with a fledgling company with no track record.

Internally, the company faced critical moments that tested their resolve and unity. The early departure of Robinson and Blomfield, pivotal figures in the start-up's foundation, could have been a death knell. Instead, these departures solidified Takeuchi's role as the leader, pushing him to evolve from a technical founder to a visionary CEO, capable of steering the company through turbulent waters.

The true test of Takeuchi’s leadership came with his life-altering accident that left him paralysed. This personal tragedy coincided with a precarious phase for GoCardless, as they were scaling operations and securing key partnerships. The resilience Takeuchi demonstrated in returning to his CEO duties while still recovering inspired his team and reaffirmed his commitment to the company’s vision.

Under his renewed leadership, GoCardless experienced significant growth. They refined their product offering, making it indispensable for small to medium-sized businesses by allowing them to process payments efficiently and at low cost. This pivot not only saved the company but also positioned it as a critical player in the global payments landscape.

Today, GoCardless is more than just a payment processing firm; it is a symbol of innovation driven by adversity. The company’s journey is peppered with strategic pivots—from navigating co-founder exits to overcoming regulatory hurdles and surviving personal tragedies. Each pivot was not just about survival but about seizing opportunities to redefine their market.

GoCardless’s saga underscores the essence of entrepreneurship—resilience. As GoCardless continues to expand its footprint globally, it remains a testament to the power of perseverance and vision in the face of overwhelming odds.

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Have you ever smelt something so good that you just have to have it? Well, McDonald’s know that’s exactly how most people feel when they smell the famous McDonald’s fries.

So, to capitalise on this golden smell of glorious potatoes, they’ve made the City of Amsterdam STINK of McDonald’s fries. They’ve strategically placed these boards that put out the strongest smell of McDonald’s fries that you can imagine around the Dutch City. Now, I say strategically, because all of these boards are located 200 feet away from a McDonald’s location, making it super easy for any potential customer to act on their craving.

We’re not saying that you can put boards up like this around a major city like Amsterdam, but can you entice your potential customer with smells, sounds or visuals out in the public domain? Even better if you can conveniently direct them to a very local store!

Each week we’re featuring one start-up we love. We’d love this to come from community recommendations, so if you know a start-up doing something awesome who deserves a shout-out, please reply to this email. 

Thrift+ is a UK-based online marketplace dedicated to quality-assured secondhand fashion. The platform enables users to buy and sell pre-loved clothing, emphasising affordability and sustainable shopping. Thrift+ offers a wide range of items from diverse brands, all quality-checked to ensure authenticity and condition. The service includes a hassle-free process for sellers to send items to be resold, while buyers enjoy a seamless shopping experience with money-back guarantees and easy returns. Thrift+'s mission is to reduce fashion waste and extend the lifecycle of clothes, aligning with sustainable practices.

Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our innovator community have recommended.

Miro is a digital platform that revolutionises visual collaboration, enabling users to create, brainstorm, and manage projects seamlessly. The tool supports a range of activities including whiteboarding, wireframing, and creating mind maps, allowing for real-time collaboration across teams globally. Miro integrates with various software, enhancing productivity by aligning all aspects of project and process management. With a user base of over 60 million, Miro caters to diverse industries, providing solutions that streamline workflows and foster innovation in corporate and creative environments.

Next week we’ll be looking at how a platform to design school yearbooks developed into the world's most valuable female-led start-up, estimated to be worth over $26 billion. As usual we’ll also be highlighting our favourite start-up of the week, funding opportunities, and plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.

P.S. Connect with us on LinkedIn…