The Startup Microdose Podcast & The Future of Information Sharing

Podcasts are becoming some of the most avidly consumed content available. More and more people are tuning for their ‘microdose’ of wisdom from industry leaders and pioneers. It’s a great and easy way to broaden your mind while you commute, work, cook, exercise and relax.

I’ve got in on the act with my colleague, Ed Stephens, from the senior team at Angel Investment Network.

On our show, The Startup Microdose Podcast, we interview successful entrepreneurs and investors to unpack their stories, opinions, quirks and wisdom.
Microdose 1

Popular episodes include:

Oleg Fomenko, Founder of Sweatcoin – the fastest growing health and fitness app in history

Anthony Rose, CEO of Seedlegals – angel investor and the man who built BBC iPlayer

Pip Jamieson, CEO of The Dots – ‘The LinkedIn for Creatives’

Tim Armoo – the 23-year- old marketing whizz behind Fanbytes – a Snapchat-focused influencer marketing platform

You can view all available episodes with full descriptions on iTunes or www.startupmicrodose.com

microdose itunes

The Future of Podcasting – The Interactive Experience with Entale

As part of this project, we’ve teamed up with our friends at Founders Factory-backed Entale.

They are revolutionising the podcast experience by incorporating visual context, time-stamped links and chaptering. These additional features allow listeners to derive a deeper and more interactive experience from their favourite podcasts.

microdose entale

They’ve got a tonne of great shows already on the platform including The Startup Microdose, so make sure you check out their app!

Coming up on The Startup Microdose Podcast:

Maya Pindeus, Founder of Humanising Autonomy (Deep Machine Learning in Autonomous Vehicles)

Emma Sayle, Founder of Killing Kittens & one of the UK’s leading ‘sex-entrepreneurs

Julian Hearn, Founder of Huel (Nutritionally complete food)

Giles Rhy-Jones, CMO of what3words (A new address sysstem for the world – previously featured on this blog in a post called “How what3words are Changing the World

We are very excited to share this with you – enjoy!

Do you want to be interviewed on the podcast? Or know someone with entrepreneurial flair and knowledge to share?

I’d love to hear from you…

What are the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals?

In the past few years, there has been a dramatic surge in interest relating to so-called ‘impact’ companies and investments. Public awareness and concern for global economic, environmental and social issues are at an all-time high. We attribute this in part to the so-called ‘Blue Planet Effect‘ and in part, to the ever more ominous severity of the issues we face. As a result, institutions like United Nations have set out strategies like their Sustainable Development Goals to help solve these issues (more on these below).

The data from Angel Investment Network‘s 1 million users reflect this growth in interest. We’ve seen an astonishing 250% increase in the number of investors interested in the Greentech & Environment industry in the UK since 2016. The number of companies raising money who define themselves as ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainable’ has blown up at a similar rate.

And we don’t expect this interest to dwindle anytime soon. Our newest product, Seedtribe, was built to support investors and companies in the ‘impact’ sector. In a previous post, I described how Seedtribe is encouraging investors to commit more to this space and I defined ‘impact’ in this context as:

…when an investor backs a business which has a social and/or environmental mission at its core…[but is also] targetting profitability alongside its social mission.

This works as a general definition. And makes the important point that investing in ‘impact’ is NOT philanthropy.

This point is reflected in Seedtribe’s model for selecting companies. There two key focus areas in our evaluation:
  • We are committed to generating returns for our investors. We select businesses that we believe have the strongest chance of achieving high-growth and/or high-profit. These will ultimately have the best chance of producing returns for investors. Our investment committee has 14 years’ experience investing in and raising finance for startups. It employs due diligence methods honed over this period to pick the most promising companies.
  • We are also committed to working on ‘impact’ businesses. Our investment committee also evaluates businesses according to criteria developed by the United Nations, known as ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs). It is these businesses which we believe will produce positive and lasting change in the world and allow our investors to invest in impact.

sustainable

But what are the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs)?

The SDGs, or Global Goals for Sustainable Development, are a collection of 17 global objectives set by the United Nations in 2015.

The 17 goals focus on global social, environmental and economic issues. Their purpose is to produce positive and lasting change across key development problems in all countries.

The official title for the project is ‘Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’.

The goals are broad and interdependent, but each has its own specific targets. Each goal is described in brief below:

Goal 1: No Poverty

End poverty in all its forms

Goal 2: Zero Hunger

End hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3: Good Health & Wellbeing

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4: Quality Education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5: Gender Equality

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6: Clean Water & Sanitation

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7: Affordable & Clean Energy

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities

Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption & Production

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13: Climate Action

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Goal 14: Life Below Water

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 15: Life on Land

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

sustainable 2

How is Seedtribe helping?

The UN recognises that successful implementation of these targets will be most realistically achieved by individuals and institutions working towards them on a local and regional level. Lasting global impact will then be realised provided there is a sufficient collective effort across different regions.

Seedtribe aims to contribute to this collective effort. We help investors and entrepreneurs use their skills and resources to create impactful businesses with the potential to affect positive change across all these SDGs.

Watch this space.