Founders Forum Group’s Post

Look how excited I am to see my logo on the Sifted Summit screen a year ago. 🙈 We had the audacity to say back then we were building the top community for Asian heritage entrepreneurs, operators and investors in the UK. Some didn't see the vision but Anisah Osman Britton MBE and Sophie Louise Rowe did. They have us a platform ❤️. Seeing the logo in lights felt like validation we could one day join the vanguard of top UK startup communities. +++ We return in a different position a year on. We're no longer the new kids on the block. The community leaders who I once studied from the outside are now peers and in many cases friends. (And we have much better logo than last year 😉). I'm leading a roundtable at #siftedsummit2024 on "Cutting to the chase when building your community" on Wednesday at 14:05. People assume we've been around for way longer than we have with way more resources than we have. There are so many people way more powerful than me who could have built the community we've now proven was needed. Let's cut the BS, you all know that. Everyone knew something should be done but no one wanted to go through the pain of doing the actual work. 🫤 My roundtable will be about how to stop just complaining about the problems and instead taking action. Many of us are powerful in our own ways but convince ourselves we're powerless. Let's change that.

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A Call for Innovation and for Evolution⚙️ Today I am lucky to attend the 2024/25 #Rotary Zone 26/27 Institute in Spokane! With a perfect metaphor for Rotary’s recognition sitting just outside the conference windows, John Hewko, RI’s General Secretary & CEO illustrated five keys to innovation as Rotarians to preserve this incredible organization I’ve come to love: 1. Perform SWOT analysis and make changes to attract idea club members 2. Implement new and innovative club models —think outside the box to reach potential members who do not prescribe to flexible schedules 3. Improve Projects: Consider scale and sustainability-clubs that solve 100% of a smaller project are often more successful in the long-term than those who solve 1% of a large issue 4. Consider Partnership: Use unique skills and experience of various people 1+1=3!! 5. Leverage the Power of AI: embrace technology to better ID problems in the community and where we can Together, let’s keep the #magicofrotary alive!!! ⚙️

Congrats to the Forbes Under 30 Europe Class of 2024! This year, I helped report the Media & Marketing and Technology lists, featuring social media star Madeline Argy and Linearity founder Vladimir Danila. The Media & Marketing list is chocked full of women journalists—Nada Bashir, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Phoebe Davis, Kriti Gupta—who are bravely changing and holding up this field. Notable to mention: this year's Technology list features exclusively founders, with ElevenLabs taking the cake for most raised on this year's list with $101 million and unicorn status from a valuation of $1.1 billion. Check out these lists and all the others from my colleagues at Forbes below. #30under30 #forbes #media #marketing #journalism #advertising #socialmedia #technology

🎉 Breaking News: Inc. Magazine 5000 Honors Our Portfolio Companies! 🎉 We are thrilled to announce that three of our portfolio companies have earned their spot on the #Inc5000 list of the Fastest Growing Companies in America: 🔥 Vestwell - Rank 499 Founded by Aaron Schumm, a proud Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business alumnus, Vestwell is revolutionizing workplace savings with cutting-edge digital solutions. This fintech powerhouse continues to scale rapidly, earning its well-deserved place among the top 500 fastest-growing companies in America for the third year in a row. 🌟 Levitate - Rank 738 Led by Duke University alumnus Jesse Lipson, Levitate is setting new benchmarks in the martech industry with its innovative AI-powered CRM platform. Jes’ vision and execution have driven Levitate’s explosive growth, making it one of the standout companies on this year’s list and honored for the second year in a row. 💡 AiFi Inc. - Rank 857 AiFi is leading the charge in autonomous retail technology, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the shopping experience. Their inclusion in the Inc. 5000 for the second year in a row reflects their relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence. These achievements underscore the extraordinary leadership and groundbreaking work of these founders and their teams. We are proud to be part of their journey and to celebrate their success. Congratulations to Vestwell, Levitate, and AiFi Inc. for this outstanding recognition! Your success is a testament to the power of innovation and the impact of bold leadership. We’re proud to support you. #Inc5000 #VentureCapital #Fintech #Martech #RetailTech #Innovation #DukeUniversity #StartupSuccess

If you missed the April i4Series panel discussion and networking event, check out the article below that covers key takeaways about how businesses can innovate by partnering with the Clemson University Research Foundation. #innovation #southcarolina #businessresources #research

🇩🇪 Ludwig-Erhard-Gipfel 2024 // German Economic Forum 2024 🇩🇪 I was honred to be invited by WEIMER MEDIA GROUP and Business Punk to be part of this amazing event. To be honest, I was not sure what to expect, joining an event as a start-up, addressed mainly to big corporate venues and polics. However, #LEG2024 was super intersting for me - not only listed to the likes of Dr. Markus Söder, Dr. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Dr. Marco Buschmann & many more, but also the stunning event hosted by Business Punk in a small chamber next to the main building, where we were discussing more #startup topics in the context of #politics. My personal key takaway from the amazing discussions, between Carsten Puschmann, Christian A. Saxenhammer, Dr. Patrick Müller LL.M., Oliver Stock, Anja Horn & Ludwig Ensthaler ✔️ Politics need to support startups even more (financially & infrastructure) ✔️ Bureaucracy, (like going to the notary every time) needs to be minimized ❓ I hope that Christian Lindner & Co. will do something and be more initiative with the german start-up enviroment, after the cut INVEST from 25% to 15% after only one year. ------- Jakob Jakubov, Miriam Czepluch-Staats, Max Klemmer, Philipp Glonner

Competition? What competition?! It's been Event-tastic for me this week. The first stop was a great Tech Leaders event from Manchester Digital, always a good turnout. Then last night up to Burnley College for an excellent meetup by the team at Lancashire Digital Hub: Powered by Innovate Lancashire and Barclays Eagle Labs, where yours truly did a talk on becoming an Accidental Leader. This morning I'm back on the road for the great business networking event at SciTech Daresbury. More details to follow next week when I come up for air but what a fantastic set of events. It got me considering a few things though, obviously I met some old and some new faces, some potential clients and.... what others would consider "competition". Yep, others in the software space. But that's not how I see anybody. I see them as opportunities. Why? We are all offering slightly different services, or work with slightly different budgets or industries. Or completely different tech stacks - we work with Microsoft and there's not a lot of agencies that do. Then there's overspill when we get busy, we don't often need it but it may happen. And vice versa where someone may want to use us in the same manner. So there's no such thing as competition in my mind, what about you? Do you consider anyone to be a direct competitor? #innovation #technology #NoSuchThingAsCompetition

This is kind of CRAZY - I am just about to JUMP on a plane…. ✈️ To attend a business networking event in Fort Lauderdale (Florida) 🤩😬 This makes no logical sense, as like most business owners I am already BUSY, and as I have no idea what to expect..... 🤷♂️ In the past, I would have THOUGHT and THOUGHT about this, and probably said NO. These days I TRY to follow my intuition. The reality is that, whilst this is a step into the UNKNOWN, this feels right. And I have learnt this is a much better way to LIVE ⭐️ I joined an amazing business community this year called the The Advance Innovation Society which is run by Ty Richardson, PhD and Kelly Roach, CEO ⭐️🎉 I have already met so many amazing people who are members of this community and can’t wait to meet so many of these individuals in person 😊 Taking time out, and spending time with individuals that inspire you is always when the magic happens.... 🔥 See you on the other side.... #peformhappy #performance #growthmindset #purpose

'FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BOLD' is the MAD//Fest London 2024 theme. Why? People who play it safe rarely make the cover of TIME magazine. MAD//Fest London 2024 will focus on the global #brands, challengers + entrepreneurs who are boldly going where others haven’t been before. You'll hear from the pioneers who have been brave enough to step up, take calculated risks + put their reputations on the line. You'll discover creative + #innovative work that turns heads. You'll learn how to take your own marketing to dizzying new heights + push the possibilities of what it can achieve. Do you want to get involved? Click here to join the MAD//Fest fun (limited tickets remaining) - https://lnkd.in/d3Wrjh8h