Cambridge Tech Podcast

This week’s episode starts with Dr Nicky Dee telling us about how she went from an accidental PhD to entrepreneurship, and from #cleantech to #climatetech, culminating in a 20-year (to date) career in impact-driven innovation.Nicky’s early experiences highlighted that there were lots of startups with ideas, most with great intent, but that they were hard to scale and that the measure of a company should not be dictated by what they earn, but by what they do. As CEO of Carbon13 Nicky now creates action on climate through innovation and entrepreneurship by bringing together talented individuals to build and scale impactful ventures capable of mitigating 10 million tonnes (net) of CO2E per year.With a portfolio of 70 companies, representing 30 nationalities, there is no shortage of great Climate Tech to showcase, and Nicky talks to us about the venture builder and launchpad programmes, setting up in Berlin and funding. We also talk about whether Cambridge is doing enough to drive Climate Tech, look at other centres of excellence including Berlin, South East Asia, and the US, and start to discuss what we need to do to keep Cambridge / UK companies migrating to the US.Produced by Cambridge TV

This week we talk about a career in tech transfer, commercialisation, and seed funding with Anne Dobree.We hear about the growth of Cambridge Enterprise, the introduction of new programmes like Founders at The University of Cambridge, how the relationship with Parkwalk Advisors began, and how Cambridge Innovation Capital started.It’s a fascinating discussion about how Cambridge developed from nascent to buoyant for science and tech innovators, with Anne as a key anchor for over two decades.Anne shares some sound advice to entrepreneurs, including:·       Don’t underestimate the value of boards·       Connect on LinkedIn·       Use your network to get an introduction·       And one we particularly like – never underestimate young teams!Anne, now Investor Director at Parkwalk Advisors, also talks about how things are different on a practical level. She talks about seeking companies to invest in and helping them as they grow, deal flow, and how she’s more likely to say ‘no’ now than in the Cambridge Enterprise Ventures. Produced by Cambridge TV

Join us for the first episode of the THIRD series of #CamTechPod.Joined by Linh Richardson, Programme Manager of impulse, Thomas Albrow-Owen, CTO of Prospectral, and Tim Jones, Product Manager for Digital Engineer and Data Science from NPL.Linh talks to us about the impulse programme and how it takes hi potential tech innovators and helps them to determine if there is potential for their invention, including alumni such as Steve Brierley from Riverlane, Marc Rodriguez Garcia from Xampla, Jean de la Verpilliere from Echion Technologies, Cyan Williams from Radiant Matters, and Andrew Kadis from Cambridge Vision Technologies.Tim talks to us about the role of NPL and how he found himself on the impulse programme in 2023 as a lifelong learner.Tom talks about the huge opportunity for computer vision - the branch of AI on how software recognises images - from the innovative work at Prospectral.And we collectively talk about the importance of taking the leap from an academic idea into the commercial domain, the ability to leverage very impressive mentors and advisors through the programme and making new connections.Produced by Cambridge TV

From ARU to Allia to Cambridge Enterprise, this week’s guest, Caroline Hyde of IE Cambridge, shares her long-held passion for supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the importance of connectedness. We talk about the new Innovation and Entrepreneurship report and the investment the University of Cambridge is making to support its students, researchers and alumni. Did you know that for every £1 the university spends, it creates £11.70 of economic impact? And that out of £30bn of economic impact annually, more than £23bn comes from commercialising University research?Caroline reiterates that it’s not just economic impact but societal impact where companies like Xampla, Colorifix, T-Therapeutics are making a huge impact in the world.You can find the link to the report here https://ie.cam.ac.uk/resource/innovation-and-entrepreneurship-at-the-university-of-cambridge-2024/ And check out the new website that Caroline refers to for even more information https://www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk/ Produced by Cambridge TV

In this special episode of #CamTechPod, recorded with a live audience during #CamTechWeek, we talk to guests Ray Anderson, Executive Chair of Bango, and Marc Rodríguez, CTO of Xampla, about how to scale smarter, not harder. We talk about two huge components of successfully scaling.Firstly, we hear about the inflection points that have signalled key points in the scale up journey, how to set targets, adapt structures, and even how to take a company public.Both Ray and Marc also share thoughtful advice on the second topic - culture and leadership. How do you navigate from startup to scaleup whilst not losing the culture and people dynamics? and, When do you know it’s time for changes to be made in the leadership team?We have audience questions before challenging Ray and Marc to answer what they are most proud of, and what they’d go back and change if they did it all again – you’ll need to tune in to find out what they said!Produced by Cambridge TV

In this episode we talk more about the business than ‘tech’ so get ready for a super interesting conversation with the person behind a successful Cambridge portfolio business. As the founder and now Executive Chair we caught up with Ciaron Dunne who talked to us about:·       Growing up with business in mind·       Doing ‘everything’ in startups·       The importance of luck and good judgement·       Having excitement and passion for what you’re doing (even Bingo!)·       Being inherently commercial, and·       Doing recruitment a little differently.Ciaron talks to us about Genie Ventures which includes Broadband Genie, Genie Goals and Genie Shopping, and celebrates the importance of team and doing the right thing.And I think we can all aspire to be the ‘last click’ – you’ll have to tune in to find out more.Produced by Cambridge TV

Hot off the press, we have a company soft launching right now with a database approach that is needed by most SMEs to improve their efficiency.Entrepreneurship started at school for this week’s guest, amplified by family connections in building tech businesses, and we’re thrilled to talk to Jason Mashinchi, Managing Director at Cambridge Kinetics.Jason talks to us about the rationale for creating Kinabase – and AI alternative to traditional databases how they are using the power of AI to eliminate the cumbersome and costly development previously required with incumbent alternatives.Jason also shares some of the lessons learnt along the way, including:·       Selling expertise vs going down the funding route·       Leveraging grant funding·       Disrupting a market that hasn’t changed for decades·       Starting a company straight from university and the lessons along the way·       The importance of being well networked, and·       Mentoring and paying it forward.See it to believe it, and watch a tailored system being built before your eyes! And if you’re in the Creative Industries, there may even be funding available for Jason to help you!Produced by Cambridge TV

We can’t let a $75million raise go without a fanfare, so we invited Rebecca Simmons back on to tell us about the latest fundraise, and provide a moment to pause, reflect and celebrate their news.Tune in as Bek answers:·       What was the process like? ·       How long did it take? ·       What are the differences between A, B and C rounds (the answer may be a surprise)? ·       What does this mean to the board and decision making? ·       How do you spend $75m to scale? ·       What are some of the new challenges?And keep listening to be (re)inspired by Bek’s episode from January 2024.Produced by Cambridge TV

Cleantech Venture Day searches for the most interesting 16 companies across pre-seed, seed and Series A in a range of cleantech areas. In this week’s episode Sylvie Russell, COO of Cambridge Cleantech shares details of the day, the industry and the new #Cleantech Super Cluster. We also hear from two of the founders who pitched on the day:Sarah Blake, Commercial Director and Co-Founder of Minimass – a construction tech company focussed on reproducing beams in a more sustainable way - tells us about her startup experience and the funding journey they have been on.Chloe So, CEO and Co-Founder of Pulpatronics – a RFID company who are simplifying the production of tags and revolutionizing sustainability with chipless, metal-free, paper RFID tags – shares her rather different experience from Sarah’s.