Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology
00:23:05 · Alan Chang, James Pringle
[00:23:05] S1: extremely helpful. So far, anyone who we want to speak with we're within reach. Obviously, investment network has very good connections. So we met a lot of people in the industry from that way. We also managed to hire an ex CEO of Ofgem as an advisor, so to help on the regulatory front. So that opened a lot of doors. And generally people are just very, very excited about a change, right, in this industry. And, you know, they just think, you know, something fresh, something more innovative, something actually solves customer problems and, you know, help lower customer bills and help us go net zero, think. Like, because it's on so many people's agenda. Right? Like, people really care. A lot of people really care about going net zero. A lot of people really care about doing what's best for the customer. So we just kind of hit, you know, we don't hit like all the... Everything they care about, they hit every song. Right. So, think we found, you know, a lot of people have been very, very helpful so far. And we really appreciate the helpers so And, yeah, I would say, Jerry's been very positive. [00:24:09] S0: That's good to hear. I mean, it sounds like you've brought in some great people. If Hector and I came and spent a day in the office, what would we notice about the culture at TesterApp Energy? And I noticed you got a few roles on LinkedIn. Like, how big is the team, and how big will it be in twelve months' time?
00:24:09 · James Pringle, Alan Chang
[00:24:09] S0: That's good to hear. I mean, it sounds like you've brought in some great people. If Hector and I came and spent a day in the office, what would we notice about the culture at TesterApp Energy? And I noticed you got a few roles on LinkedIn. Like, how big is the team, and how big will it be in twelve months' time? [00:24:28] S1: Yeah. So about 26 today. We don't plan to grow the headcount that much. We are so very, in terms of who we need, right? We, I think we need, we have everyone we needed to execute the plan. But I think we're always on the lookout for an opportunistic for top talent. That's why we... I'll say we'll always be hiring. But I don't expect a team to be much bigger than what we have today in, let's say, twelve months time. So one thing I learned is, at Revlon, it's better to have small but brilliant team than a large but less effective team. So I want to maintain that philosophy here as well. In terms of culture, I would say are... I brought some of that from Revolut, right? And I'll say the key cultural value we have... Because Revolut, I think from memory, had six cultural values. I think it's too much for people to remember. So I just brought one, right, which is never settle. You know, we never stop. We don't stop until we're number one. We don't stop. We don't settle anything that's not top notch in quality. We don't settle for anything that is not fast. So, yeah, that's that's really, I'll say, our culture and in practice, we work very... We all work very hard. Everyone works six, seven days a week.
00:24:28 · Alan Chang, James Pringle
[00:24:28] S1: Yeah. So about 26 today. We don't plan to grow the headcount that much. We are so very, in terms of who we need, right? We, I think we need, we have everyone we needed to execute the plan. But I think we're always on the lookout for an opportunistic for top talent. That's why we... I'll say we'll always be hiring. But I don't expect a team to be much bigger than what we have today in, let's say, twelve months time. So one thing I learned is, at Revlon, it's better to have small but brilliant team than a large but less effective team. So I want to maintain that philosophy here as well. In terms of culture, I would say are... I brought some of that from Revolut, right? And I'll say the key cultural value we have... Because Revolut, I think from memory, had six cultural values. I think it's too much for people to remember. So I just brought one, right, which is never settle. You know, we never stop. We don't stop until we're number one. We don't stop. We don't settle anything that's not top notch in quality. We don't settle for anything that is not fast. So, yeah, that's that's really, I'll say, our culture and in practice, we work very... We all work very hard. Everyone works six, seven days a week. [00:25:51] S0: Just around, like, customers, they... If someone's listening now, what do they do to sign up?
00:25:51 · James Pringle, Alan Chang, Hector Mason
[00:25:51] S0: Just around, like, customers, they... If someone's listening now, what do they do to sign up? [00:25:56] S1: So right now we're internal beta. So we're testing the product to make sure all the bugs are checked before move to the next stage. We are targeting early next year for private external beta. So, yeah, if anyone's interested, yep, send me send me a DM and happy to... More than happy to put in the proper beta. [00:26:15] S0: Awesome. I think Hector and I probably wanna be in there. [00:26:19] S2: Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. I'll be signing up. It's a fascinating company with a with a huge ambition and vision and and one that is kind of inevitable, and and let's hope that you're you're the team who can can accomplish it. So lots of great anecdotes, some interesting insight in your... Into your time at at Revolut and and some of the inside workings of of that company and also how you're kind of using the learnings from there to build company and and culture and a high performing team at Tesseract. So we could have carried on speaking for hours, but we don't have hours. So it'd be great to move on to the dinner party guest scape, which is where we ask you who would you invite to a dinner party if you could have three guests and they can be they can be dead or alive.
00:26:19 · Hector Mason, Alan Chang
[00:26:19] S2: Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. I'll be signing up. It's a fascinating company with a with a huge ambition and vision and and one that is kind of inevitable, and and let's hope that you're you're the team who can can accomplish it. So lots of great anecdotes, some interesting insight in your... Into your time at at Revolut and and some of the inside workings of of that company and also how you're kind of using the learnings from there to build company and and culture and a high performing team at Tesseract. So we could have carried on speaking for hours, but we don't have hours. So it'd be great to move on to the dinner party guest scape, which is where we ask you who would you invite to a dinner party if you could have three guests and they can be they can be dead or alive. [00:27:03] S1: Yeah. So I'll start off two... Maybe two answers where most people is in most people's list. As for Elon and Steve, Steve Jobs. I think Elon's the obvious one. And Steve for building awesome consumer products. I just love to understand how he thinks about the travel, right? How he thinks about building products. The third one is probably for me, Enzo Ferrari. I think it's another great product company. He has... In terms of how many cars he sells versus the brand, how great that product is, it's just it's just fucking awesome. [00:27:39] S2: That's such a good one. I... I'm a massive car nut, and I hadn't thought about Enzo Ferrari, but, yeah, couldn't agree more about the product side of things. I mean, they're a piece
00:27:39 · Hector Mason, Alan Chang
[00:27:39] S2: That's such a good one. I... I'm a massive car nut, and I hadn't thought about Enzo Ferrari, but, yeah, couldn't agree more about the product side of things. I mean, they're a piece [00:27:49] S1: of art. Exactly. Cars do not need to be, you know, if you build a car in a spreadsheet, you get a Ford. If you build a car with, you know, beautiful, great design, you get a Ferrari with it. That is both functional and beautiful. So that's... We... Probably one of the greatest products of all time. [00:28:08] S2: What a great note to end the podcast on. Yeah. Great to chat, and thanks for all your insight. Really, really great getting [00:28:13] S1: to know you. Thank you. Thank you for having me.