BackStartups

Interview · Europe

Riding Unicorns

with James Pringle & Hector Mason

Two UK investors interviewing British and European founders and operators about how their companies were actually built.

Format Regular, roughly an hourListen ridingunicorns.buzzsprout.com ↗

Why an angel should listen

The hosts are working investors, and the interviews are conducted accordingly — the questions are about mechanics rather than about vision. For an angel operating in the UK it is the most directly relevant conversation available, because the guests are dealing with the same schemes, the same investor base and the same route to Series A that your companies will face.

The specific value is calibration to a smaller market. Growth rates, round sizes and valuations that are normal in the US are not normal in the UK, and listening to founders describe what a good year looks like there recalibrates expectations that are otherwise set entirely by American shows.

It also covers the operator layer — the people who joined at twenty employees and left at four hundred — which is a perspective the founder-only shows miss.

Where to begin

Start with these

  • Any interview with a founder who raised in both the UK and the US, for the contrast.
  • Operator episodes rather than founder ones, for what actually happens inside a scaling company.
  • Anything covering SEIS or EIS in practice.

In short

Good for

UK marketCalibrating expectationsOperator view
Listen at ridingunicorns.buzzsprout.com

Riding Unicorns: common questions

Is this only relevant if I invest in the UK?
Mostly, and the calibration travels. Hearing founders in a smaller market describe what a good year looks like is a useful correction to expectations set entirely by American shows.
Why do the operator episodes matter?
Because they cover the people who joined at twenty employees and left at four hundred — the layer that determines whether a seed company becomes a Series A company, and the layer founder-only shows never reach.