Connectd: Embracing delusion, neurodiversity, and self-awareness in startup success

How this entrepreneur overcame ADHD and dyslexia and used these diagnoses as his superpower to build two businesses worth millions. 

Hear the inspiring story of Roei Samuel, who discusses the importance of self-belief, transparency, and resilience in entrepreneurship. Roei got an exit with his first business, Real Sport, and has gone on to build the UK's fastest-growing startup community in Connectd.

The platform has shaken the early-stage investment landscape by utilising data to ensure transparency, trust, and better connectivity in the investment process. By the end of the episode, you'll be encouraged to think bigger, embrace bold decisions, and navigate the entrepreneurial landscape with more confidence and resilience.

Key Takeaways

- How to create an unstoppable mindset - Roei shares how he has created an intoxicating self-belief to overcome challenges and remove crippling self-doubt.

- Develop self-awareness and play to your strengths - How to become more self-aware and focus on your personal strengths. Embrace who you are and prioritise self-care to achieve long-term success and happiness.

- Create a big vision - Roei is on a mission to democratise the investment landscape and empower entrepreneurs worldwide. 

Have questions about this episode? Ask our hosts, chat now via our website

Transcript

Roei Samuel: 0:08

If you're doing something innovative, something that you have zero experience in, then you have to have that dimension. Because it's not like you're drawing back on like, Okay, I've been here before I've been found for 10 years, you are bright eyed, bushy tailed, you have to have that intoxicating self belief.

Dr Becky Sage: 0:26

You're listening to founded and grounded with Ollie collard, and Dr. Becky sage. The podcast brings you the honest realities of startup life. If you're a founder or aspiring entrepreneur, this is for you. We know running a business can be lonely and tough at times. And we want to help you get ahead with simple tips and sound advice. Every fortnight we hear inspiring stories from an early stage business owner, who's only a couple of steps ahead of you, talking about what they've learned. And as your hosts, we share our insights and experiences as founders, so you can apply this to your own business. Hello, I'm Dr. Becky sage. I'm co host of founder and grounded and I'm here today with Ali. Hi, Ali. How's things going this week?

Ollie Collard: 1:16

Very well. Thank you. How's everything with yourself?

Dr Becky Sage: 1:18

Yeah, good. I'm very much enjoying the fact that the Sunshine has arrived here in the UK, which is taken a very long time to do this year.

Ollie Collard: 1:27

It's taken ages to come out. But it's definitely worth the way you can't be a bit of sun on your skin. Can you? Absolutely.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:33

And I know we're being a cliche being British people talking about the weather. But when you have a grey long winter, like we have I think that we're allowed to talk about the sunshine.

Ollie Collard: 1:44

And talking of sunshine, you're going to be heading off to Boston soon.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:48

I am yeah, I'm very excited. I've been selected to represent GB for an adult gymnastics competition. And the beginning of June I will be out there in in Boston, and hopefully competing well, so yeah, I'm working quite hard at the moment. I think it's taking a little bit of that extra headspace just getting all the logistics sorted extra training, that kind of thing that so exciting stuff.

Ollie Collard: 2:16

We're definitely gonna be cheering you on from the sidelines, Seth.

Dr Becky Sage: 2:18

Thank you. I appreciate that. So talking of people doing exciting things, we've got a really fascinating finder this week, can you tell us a little bit more about them? Can

Ollie Collard: 2:29

do indeed, we've got voice Samuel, who is a founder of a company called connected. Essentially, it's a platform to connect founders, investors, advisors, and it brings together a whole community and the startup ecosystem in one place. And Roy is a very interesting character, definitely larger than life. And yeah, he's a serial entrepreneur as well, which we should say from the outset. Yeah,

Dr Becky Sage: 2:53

absolutely. I think like several of our guests this season, actually, Roy's story has really been shaped by these multiple entrepreneurial journeys that he's been on, these stories are coming out more and more and how actually that first time is really just your, your lesson learning. You're getting your feet wet, you're you're making all those mistakes, and then it really does help as people move forward into the next business. So should we listen to hear how Roy's path unfolded?

Ollie Collard: 3:22

Let's do it. Roy, good afternoon. How you doing?

Roei Samuel: 3:28

I'm good, Ollie. Thanks so much for having me here today.

Ollie Collard: 3:30

It's an absolute pleasure to have you here. Right. And yeah, great to have a fellow podcaster on the show as well. I mean, you know, all the hard yards that goes into producing great content. Yeah.

Roei Samuel: 3:41

100%. And as I said, we actually just stopped ours. And I think the way that you do it, and the fact that you've got an interesting format and taking breaks to reassess and reevaluate is the right way to do content at the moment.

Ollie Collard: 3:51

Definitely. And I'm sure we could have an entire episode talking about podcasting. But today, I want to get to know the real ROI and more about your various business interests. So first of all, can you take me back to your first business real sport, which you've got an exit from? I heard you say the business was built on delusion. So can you tell me more about what you mean by this about the business and how it's influenced your journey? Uh,

Roei Samuel: 4:17

yeah, of course. So how I look at the business now is real sport was providing content creation tools to sports fans, gaming fans, eSports fans, helping them create podcasts, videos, other types of content, helping them distribute that online, optimise that content for social in a way which is really, really standard now but quite bleeding edge back in 1314, when we brought it to market, but why I say it was built on delusion is because when me and my co founder at the time, who were 2221 and 22 years old, were like, right, we're going into sports content with and this wasn't a time where like content creation platforms are left, right and centre. We're going into an environment where we have zero rights where As the demand for rights and the cost to get into, you know, rights holding is hundreds of millions, if not billions. You know, we have zero technical ability between us. And I dropped out of my masters to do it. So built on delusion in that sense. I was like, yeah, what? SkySports BBC News, NBC Sports. Yeah, of course, we'll take those guys on. I've got zero knowledge, you know, that's the sort of delusion you need, I think, as a 2122 year old to go in something like that.

Ollie Collard: 5:25

But you probably wouldn't have done it if you didn't have that delusion. Right. This is it. This is exactly

Roei Samuel: 5:29

that. And I think if you're doing something innovative, something which you have zero experience in, which if it's innovative will be the case, then you have to have that delusion, because it's not like you're drawing back on like, Okay, I've been here before, I've been found for 10 years, you know, you are bright eyed, bushy tailed, you have to have that intoxicating self belief in order to make that jump for sure. And entrepreneurship

Ollie Collard: 5:54

is often a journey. And most people maybe their first business doesn't work out, they're learning the ropes for you, obviously, you've got an exit and sold it and now become an angel investor and started other businesses. So how did that first business influence everything that's happened since?

Roei Samuel: 6:11

Yeah, it's a great question. And certainly there are things that I have done with connected and advice I've been able to give to companies I've invested in, which is totally shaped by huge mistakes. I made a real sport, right? And to be fair, real sport was my first proper business. But, you know, I had run club nights at universities before I'd done various other things. I was doing running trips from Nottingham to Amsterdam for Chinese students, you know, doing doing all sorts of bits, right? Where you learn a lot, you know, you do learn a lot. But But absolutely, I think a lot of the mistakes we made a real sport. One of the things we suffered with was around 2016. There's a big switch in the, let's say the the flavour and appetite for investors and acquirers. Moving away from reach, and how many numbers you had in Facebook and how many followers on Facebook to subscription models. There's a big, big switch. And a lot of companies got hit by that like lad pie Bible social chain. These companies were valued at insane numbers. And then overnight, it was like, Wait, hold on. If you're not converting to subscription, what does it mean? And real sports, the company like that, you know, we switch to late. So lots of things that you learned the hard way, the first time which go into shaping future endeavours, for sure.

Ollie Collard: 7:24

So Rory, tell me more about connected. What was your vision for starting the business in the first place? And has it changed at all?

Roei Samuel: 7:30

Yeah, it's great question. So when I found a real sport, as I said, during my master's, I did not come from banking, I did not come from VC. My dad was a failed entrepreneur who did not raise investment. I did not know anything about the investment world. I got very, very fortunate and through hustle met a really great angel investor guy called Nigel Wright, who was a seed investor into Domino's Pizza, you know, Simba sleep nutmeg, the private bank like awesome angel investor, who him and his team educated me in a way on some fundamental startup behaviours that I had zero idea about, and had I had not had that education, no chance my take expects it. And I realised very quickly that these behaviours which are not actually that sexy, not that rocket source, fundamentally, the frequency and quality of your investor reporting, and therefore your investor relations, and to your ability to access expert networks at speed, those two things are basically the biggest determinants of success for startups. So we just became really passionate, and I could see this in the companies I've invested in, the ones that we're doing these two things were just flying, or at least, you know, nav, navigating the storm, and really weathering the storm and everything, versus the ones who weren't. So we just became really passionate about building out technology that makes those behaviours as simple as possible for anyone to get access to, regardless of if you come from VC or you don't make those behaviours that best practice just as readily available as possible. So our mission and our core stays the same, obviously, as a product and everything else evolves over time. And we're about three and a half years old now. So we're getting on a little bit. But that ethos remains the same.

Ollie Collard: 9:14

Tell me one unsurprising benefit from doing stand up comedy that has helped you personally or your business?

Roei Samuel: 9:22

That's a great question. I would say, almost like a biological sense of when you're owning a room. It's like this thing inside. And it's funny. I didn't have this with a real sport because it stand up presumed real sport and connected and like when you're killing in a room, and it's like you can feel the crowd is just like eating your energy. And then, for some of my first sales pitches, investment pitches are connected, and I was like, Oh, I feel that same energy. And it was the weirdest thing. It was like I did not expect to ever have that feeling again, but it's that same thing. It's like when you're Just when they're when they're literally feeding off the energy. And I would say it's like one of the best feelings ever. And it's why I think everyone should do stand up if you're doing something which is customer facing employee facing something where you've ever got to try and like, hype people up basically do stand up so

Ollie Collard: 10:17

connected aims to really democratise the investment process. How do you ensure that connected remains accessible and fair for all founders, particularly outside of the kind of major tech hubs? Yeah,

Roei Samuel: 10:30

it's a great question. And I think you're totally right, that it's got to be about democratisation and accessibility. One of the things that I think often precludes startups from getting access to best practice is often restrictive terms that comes with it. So sometimes you go through an incubator or an accelerator or work with some people where they translate equity, or they're taking big commissions, they're taking big brokerage fees. And it's quite prohibitive, you know, and investors don't like it, it's not really good for founders, it's one of the reasons why a lot of people are questioning the university spin out model. So for us, we realised, we just need to make this as easy as possible. So if you're a precede startup, you can use connected for 10 pounds a month, you know, we're not taking equity in startups, we're not taking doing anything restrictive. We're literally saying, this is the best practice. And look, some people will appreciate that some people won't. As as you know, as founders ourselves, we know that often, no one can tell us our babies. I mean, we know the best way to do it. But we're just saying that this is what we've seen is the best way to get success, or at least the strong the most strongly, positively correlated behaviours with success, have access. So that's the way that we want to keep it democratic.

Ollie Collard: 11:44

And can you give me a quick pitch for both investors, startups and advisors that you're trying to connect? Yeah, well, I

Roei Samuel: 11:52

guess the pitch is, you know, we've done the analysis around these behaviours and the the outcomes they have on raising that success rate. I think startup failure is so difficult for everyone involved in that ecosystem, right? If you've ever been involved with ones investor as a, as an advisor, or especially as a founder, like it's brutal, it's an identity death, on the founder side, at least. And it's not something anyone wants to go through. And I think, structure transparency data, keeping your key stakeholders, keeping those relationships, as transparent, as strong as filled with trust as possible, helps us all navigate these difficult times, find me a single advisor or non exec, who sat who's been in the game for a while, who wouldn't say, you know, what, a piece of software, which helped me with transparency into what's really going on with my portfolio companies. Me personally, I was on a board of a company invested in where I wish they'd been used and connected, pre connected, and it cost me a lot of legal fees, because actually, there was all sorts going on. And you know, you would have been able to navigate those things with transparency at the core. So I think if you've been involved in the space, you know, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We're just saying best practice transparency, structured data and the way you connect, that's what we want to do. So the pitch should should sell itself.

Ollie Collard: 13:09

How was your experience as a founder influence your investment philosophy?

Roei Samuel: 13:15

Great question. I think, as a founder myself, do you know what it takes. And you also know that you would back and a team with a B plan every single day before backing, you know, BC was an a plan, because the plan will change the people don't really know the mentality of the people don't. So it's all just founder focused. One thing I will say that has changed is between real sport connected, I was investing a lot more into startups directly. And therefore, I was able to take bigger bets or better assess bets on people. But now that was connected with 100 people international expansion, the only investment I've done over the last year bar one has been through like syndicates and SPVs. So I'm actually going probably quite against my thesis, and being a bit less founder focused and actually just trusting investors around me and trusting syndicates around me for certain that period of time in real simple and connected, but best case in point about that is one of the first big investments I made, I invested 50k into a mental health technology company called Telerik. Very passionate about mental health, after having gone through the founder journey, especially. And it was cool business, you know, helping employers improve the mental well being of their employees loved it as a space. founder was amazing. Business didn't quite work out for one reason or another lost my 50k. But when she became available, per in the COO of connected, right, and it's that and was the best investors that I've met. They're investing in people and knowing that it might not work the first time but actually you're investing in them for the option on the second time, the third time to bring them into other projects. You know, that's really what it's about. Well Have a word about our sponsors.

Dr Becky Sage: 15:02

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Ollie Collard: 17:20

an interesting one, I think that the narrative of kind of a players versus B players is maybe a little over simplified. And there is a lot of nuance in there, and lots of areas of grey. So I would kind of start the conversation with that. But what I would say is, you know, Roy is a serial entrepreneur, he's done lots of hiring, probably lots of firing, what Roy has probably built up is this sixth sense of making judgments on people. And he knows when he sees those qualities, right. And that's what essentially an A player is, so he knows how that person is going to get the job done. He can implicitly trust them. He knows if they make a promise they're going to deliver on it. Also, that they're bloody good at what they do. That's what separates an A player from a B player, right. And they're probably a bit borderline obsessive about their their job and their role, and they live and breathe it. And what I'd also say about a players is that they they help add to a team dynamic. So they build up other people around them. They don't tear people down. They're very effective communicators. So all of these qualities, Roy probably knows intrinsically what he's looking for. What would you add to that, Becky?

Dr Becky Sage: 18:34

Yeah, I think I agree with you. I think that it's such a contextual thing, actually, it's about people being in the right place and having the right role for them. So I actually think it's also as you said, there's lots of nuance there. And it's not about like, oh, this person is an a person, this person is a B person. I think it's about like, Is this somebody who's really found the alignment? The roles that you know, that work for them? And are they able to deliver what it is that you need them to deliver? And I think what is also really important in what you've just said, is this idea that it's not just about having incredible kind of technical skills or specific skills for your role. It's about those extra things as well. And I think that is the big thing that makes the difference actually, in terms of A or B, it's can you do those additional things? Because we hear this question all the time, like, should I hire somebody who's like really, really great, but they've got a terrible attitude, or they're not good with other people in the team or they don't always show up or perhaps they don't show respect, or they don't have the passion for what you're doing. And actually, I think that it's very possible to have people have both those things that I mean, we've talked about this before this like hire for attitude and then you can develop skills. I think you want a certain level of skill, but also recognising that an open mind and ability to by the team and ability to communicate well, and a good alignment with the goals of the business are all really important factors when you're thinking about that team. Yeah. And

Ollie Collard: 20:11

also probably add to that is the responsibility of the founder is to motivate and show leadership. So if you can really get the best out of somebody, you're going to turn them into an A player, if you know what drives them.

Dr Becky Sage: 20:25

I absolutely agree with that so strongly, and I've seen it happen so many times. And I think it's exciting when that can happen. And honestly, I think that's one of the great jobs you get to do. As a founder and as a leader in a business, I think that's a privilege to be in that position. So I think that that very much is your job as the founder. I was also thinking about this in the context of what makes a great founder as well was he wasn't a team when it you know, if we're looking at it from an investor's perspective, you and I, we work with many founders, ourselves. And you're talking about that sixth sense. And it's always a question that I'm asking, I have to do in terms of some of the programmes we're working on. We have to we're constantly having to kind of assess is this founder got potential? And with investors, they're asking the same question so often had these conversations about how do we know what that potential is? How do we know and I think that there is still a part of it is objective, there's a bit of a checklist that we can say they've got these specific technical skills that are required in this role. They've got specific leadership skills. But also, I still think there's that vision as a qua that that that it factor or X factor that some people bring along. And perhaps you can't quite articulate that with a checkbox. No,

Ollie Collard: 21:53

you're absolutely right. You can't do it with a checkbox. And I think the skills of a founder obviously developed and honed over time, with running multiple businesses like him Royce case, I think what makes a good founder is somebody who's got a very high level of self awareness. They know their strengths and their weaknesses, know where they need to bring people then to build that team, because you can't do it on your own. That's the fundamental, if you want to grow a business, you have to bring in the right people. So I think it's people who are very aware, I've got incredible empathy. They understand the world and some what motivates people, what drives people, there can be lots of different leadership styles, different personality types, I don't think that matters. I think there's a probably a misconception about these great leaders being extroverts, when, in fact, that's often not the case. So I think there are some misconceptions about what makes a great leader in terms of what investors are really looking for. I think it's that that resilience, that grit, that perseverance, that is very well documented in the startup world. There's a great book by Angela Duckworth called Grit, which outlines exactly what that is. And I think a lot of it comes back to your personal life experiences. So if you look at founders, what what have they had to overcome in their lives? What challenges have they had to endure? Like, how have they got through that, because when they're tired, when the hard times come round, that is going to put them in a very good position to be able to deal with those challenges. So you often hear about these kind of rags to riches stories of people, maybe growing up on a council estate and having no money as a child and stuff like that. And, you know, there's something inherent within them, which has built up their character to actually now position them to grow a very successful business.

Dr Becky Sage: 23:48

Yeah, I love the way you put that. And I think it's an ongoing conversation. One of the things with investors or one of the ways in which I judge whether or not I think there's there's real potential is how people are over time as well. And I think this is another kind of answer to this question. I don't think you can spot check. Is this person a great leader? I think it actually is about kind of, is there a period of three, six months that you're able to see how that person deals with different things that come along? How they progress, how coachable they are? That's something that we look at. And, and can you see them evolving over time? And so it's actually yet not an in the moment thing as well, I think that if you're trying to kind of assess that potential, then it's a dynamic thing that evolves. It's

Ollie Collard: 24:42

a great point and I think a lot of angel investors will put in that initial money, whether it's, you know, something like a 10k 25k just to test them out. And then if they are successful, they've had that time to review or entrepreneur in terms of their progress and development of the business then often they will go into follow on round and support them throughout their, their journey. So I think that yeah, having a track record of being an investor and seeing what people do with that, over that time period is an incredibly important thing for investors to, to be able to take away. So

Dr Becky Sage: 25:16

another thing and it says actually related to the type of person that an entrepreneur is, but I was really fascinated that to hear you talk with Roy about stand up comedy, and how valuable that's been for him. And sometimes I say that my actor training was some of the most important training for me being an entrepreneur. And the reason for that is probably not the surface stuff that people think although that's kind of helpful, like being able to stand on stage, being able to public speak, being able to communicate, but I don't know, if you've ever gone through actor training, but a lot of that is about you being able to sort of separate away from your ego, and not be driven by your ego. And I think that this is a very interesting trait. So we have to be able to sort of shrug off the idea of, oh, no, what are people gonna think of me, I'm going to look like an idiot, if I do this, and it sort of sets you up for taking risks in your business, it sets you up for being able to sort of be more calm, be more relaxed, you know, be more objective about the kind of judgement you might have, or the judgments you have to make as a business owner. So in terms of performance, that was something that I felt was really important for me. And that was something that, for example, doing a PhD in a science subject was not giving me a tool that kind of did the opposite, in terms of like, Oh, you have to sort of build up a shell and, and be a certain way, whereas being an actor, you're like, No, you have to strip all this down and be like, very neutral, essentially. So that and be self aware, that's another one that you already mentioned, such that you can kind of build a character on top of that. I

Ollie Collard: 27:01

haven't personally gone through any acting or tried my hand at stand up comedy. I don't think that was worked too well. But um, what I would say is, I completely agree, I think it's having that confidence to put yourself out there in a very creative capacity. And to essentially suck at it at first, like, you'll probably maybe get laughed at, in not in a good way. And, you know, it's, it's the confidence to put yourself out there, learn from those mistakes, and be at peace with it. And that's probably where that resilience will come in. And you can build from that. And you realise that is never as critical, like that initial failure, like that's going to help you in the long run.

Dr Becky Sage: 27:44

Absolutely, yeah, we think if we still have very scared of failure, and and when we fall down, really not knowing if we can get back up and feel so wounded by something that's a failure, then that's not going to help you in business. So practising it in different ways can be really important. So speaking of failure, our relationship to failure is influenced by several factors in our life.

Ollie Collard: 28:08

Just to add, when I used to look after innovation up at Future Space, which is a hub for high tech and life science businesses, who are obviously fastly growing, we engaged a an external organisation to come and deliver some support. And it was all about using the concept of improv and how to implement that in the world of business. And I have to say, it was incredible, like my takeaways from it were How do you inject fun into a project or a business? How do you build on other people's ideas, and just the notion that there is no stupid idea. And in fact, one of the exercises was, like the power inverting problems and flipping them on their head. So what would be the worst go to market strategy you could build as an example. And it just gets you in this creative mindset. And one of the key takeaways was, how do you think like a kid again, how do you go back to those years and just embrace everything? And I think if we, if we took time to do that, as leaders, actually some of the outcomes we would develop would be a lot better. Yeah,

Dr Becky Sage: 29:16

I love them. I think that Roy had a really interesting story in terms of what shaped his relationship to failure. So let's listen in and see what shaped his relationship to failure.

Roei Samuel: 29:32

Well, all of my dad's businesses failed up until the last one, which you know, he's sold. I want to take two years ago at the age of 70. Right, so I mean, that's a great lesson in and of itself, you know, like persistence will get you there. I think it has a big influence because you realise the you know what it looks like when it doesn't go well. And you know, as a kid, you probably quite fickle ones like one year, you got presents with birthday, why need and you know, it's that sort of thing. And you know, my mom being a primary school teacher when my dad was having a failed failed period of time, you know, it was it was really, really difficult. You know, I think, probably in the late 90s, when I was like seven, eight years old, my dad lost everything. And he would have been 50 at the time, and for two years, he didn't have any income to three years didn't have income, we were living off my mom's income as primary school teacher, and you know, it's difficult. So I think you certainly have a lot of driver being like, Okay, well, I know what I want, I know what I want to set up. But also, you realise that failure won't kill you as difficult is like, and it's horrible and brutal. And in even the most successful founders, who go through the most difficult moments, as we all do. The idea of failure is brutal, and it's terrifying and scary, but it's not going to kill you there. It does always make me think if it's not gonna end up with me dead or in jail, like, we'll go, you know,

Ollie Collard: 30:56

I love that. Because it's not it's not fatal. Is it? Like, what would you do if you knew you can fail? I think that's such a powerful question.

Roei Samuel: 31:03

Yeah. And I think that is true, especially if you do appreciate the journey is like that, you know, there's going to be that thing. And that might not just be within a business, that's the lifetime trajectory. So you're almost guaranteed to have failure at some point. You know, even even as a founder, I consider some investments that I made, where I really wanted to help them and got really emotionally invested where they didn't work out, you know, I was really difficult. So yeah, I think yours doesn't kill you. It's such a cliche. I know. But but it is true.

Ollie Collard: 31:34

So Roy, you've been a mentor with Virgin startup founders Institute, I used to do a lot of work with Virgin StartUp as well. Great organisation. What's your driver for giving back? And why does it matter? Yeah, and you know what,

Roei Samuel: 31:48

I probably feel guilty that I don't do enough anymore. Not as much as I used to. I think now I tried to give back more through people reach out on LinkedIn, you know, people reach out on LinkedIn a lot. And then it's having conversations where we can help and, you know, see if there's anything give back that way. I think, as my times got a bit busier, it's been harder to be structured with that. But ultimately, that's what life should be about to teach and learn. Right? Every time I speak to a founder, I learned something from them. Hopefully, I can teach them something. But that's the only reason we can be on this planet is to teach and learn to try and progress humanity, you know, that expand consciousness further the universe, like do all of those things. Like that's has to be what it's about. So I think that's the joy of life. Right?

Ollie Collard: 32:32

Well, great and deep and meaningful answer ever. I love it. Who keeps Rory firing on all cylinders?

Roei Samuel: 32:39

off as good question. I love that question. I don't think I fire on all cylinders much. Right, I think there's real ebbs and flows. I think. It's funny. Last year, I spent three months single. So three months single, was in between relationships. And during the three months, I went like super optimal ghost mode mode in five months, where it's like, 5am, wake up, in the gym, no drink, everything was perfect. And I was firing on all cylinders, by all accounts, but social connection totally dropped, wasn't seeing friends wasn't doing anything social, wasn't doing anything fun business was really benefiting from it. But actually, social connection needs to be part of the firing on all cylinders piece. And I think it's really difficult to do everything. You know, how, how does having an active social life and a loving relationship match up with? I'm gonna be in bed for 9pm and 5am. Every single morning, right? It's really difficult to do. And I think, especially in this, you know, Andrew Huberman eyes, you know, Joe Rogan eyes world of like perfect routine, and this and that, like, we beat ourselves up so much to fire on all cylinders. And I think it's a really difficult thing to do. At the end of the day, we're all trying our best, I really believe that. And, you know, it will look like that showing up every day will look different. But for me, I think it's, I would say that the biggest driver right now is, you know, I am so grateful to my team, and to my investors who have shown faith in me who have backed the project who, you know, as team members have given me, you know, sort of the best years of their lives to help me build my vision and alongside them, and yes, they're all stakeholders and equity holders and everything else, but so grateful to them, like that's what I want. That's really what drives us is just making sure that you know, for everyone who backed the vision early on, customers, investors, employees team, you know, we get the outcome.

Ollie Collard: 34:33

Are you can you tell me a bit about your journey with ADHD and also being dyslexic?

Roei Samuel: 34:39

Yeah, absolutely. something I'm really passionate about. So diagnosed with dyslexia, like eight, nine years old, when I was doing the usual thing of getting my B's and DS and P's and Q's wrong way around and not really reading properly. And then the ADHD thing came much, much later. And I think it's because ADHD was not really as well off Have a known thing as it is now, because now it's everywhere. But when I was, I guess 14 years old, I was about to be kicked out of school. And rightfully so, I was a huge distraction to everyone else in my class, I couldn't concentrate. I knew I was smart, but you get terrible results and everything, because it just couldn't focus. And, again, super grateful to my school, who set me up with the right sort of special needs education, that's what it was at the time to basically assess what was going on, and ended up within six months and ADHD diagnosis. And it was life changing, you know, literally went from I was in with the wrong crowd, I was a distraction, I was getting myself into all sorts of trouble to being a really, really good student. And you know, imagine managing just about to get through to uni, but then getting a first at uni, getting into masters before dropping out. But it's life changing. And I know that it is difficult to get diagnosed. And it is difficult for people to get that, especially in the NHS. And again, I was really blessed that my school helped me through that. But I think, look into it, do research, if you find the types of thinking associated with ADHD, and understanding those types of things, thinking is beneficial to you. And there might be some great upside and even if you are neurotypical, just understanding about different ways of thinking for yourself and for other people can help with empathy. And ultimately, it's not, on or off, right. It's people talk about mental health, and neurodiversity as a spectrum. But I really see it as a Venn diagram with lots of overlapping, and I want to know who this neurotypical person is, right? Who's this ground zero guy or girl that we're all like, yeah, that's neurotypical. Like, we're all struggling with various things. And again, you know, it's really interesting to understand is ADHD, you know, there are different schools of thoughts around it. From a neuroscientific perspective, people really related to neurological inflammation. And actually, there's a lot of stuff in that. on a psychological level, some people think it's trauma response, you know, so no one really knows what these things are. And that's why I say to everyone, do reading, you know, understand different types of thinking associated with different types of conditions. And learning about the brain can only benefit us all right, and learning about the mind can only benefit us so. So

Ollie Collard: 37:17

building multiple businesses, Roy, it can be all consuming at times, what's a sacrifice that you've made along that journey?

Roei Samuel: 37:26

I think sacrifice is a reality of going on a founding journey, I'm sure you've seen the same order yourself, you know, it's, it can be brutal at times. And I think, especially if you started that journey young. So straight out of uni, or even earlier than that, you'll have to give up on certain moments that are quite defining in relationships, I think is probably the biggest one, you know, and when you get to 30, or 35, and you're looking around, you're like, I've got three friends left. And rightfully so because I didn't show up to the birthday parties, or the dinners or the things that I wasn't there for them in moments where I should have been. So it's, you know, don't think we can ever feel hard done by its decisions that we make to go down this route, we need to stand by them. But that's why we spoke about this before really, you know, talking about the realities of being a founder, that sacrifice is going to be part of it, and know that the decisions you make, you know, we can't be narcissistic about it and say, Well, I because I've decided to be found my mission is really important. And therefore my friends should understand that I don't do those things. No, you're just a friend, but you chose to be you know, and and that's totally fine. And I think you go back to the why you go back to the purpose. Right. And I think you know, you've had Simon Squibb on here before, right? And you know what he's doing now with the purposeful project? I think that's it. I think that's where we find the solace in sacrifice is going back to well, why are we doing this? And I think if you can find your peace with that, then you become okay with the sacrifice. But yes, I think friendships and relationships are the biggest one. And the one you feel the most as you as you start getting older, right? And

Ollie Collard: 39:02

talking of those moments of questioning everything and going back to your why, what gets you out of bed in the morning, and what is your why? My

Roei Samuel: 39:11

why? Well, as I said, like right now, I'm repaying the faith that my team and you know, the people around us have given us an early customers and early partners and all that side, like that is probably my biggest driver. But ultimately, I know the stress, anxiety, depression, pressure involved in the startup ecosystem, and the more that we can do to give people the tools to improve their chances of success, the better we're doing. And there are people doing things which are 1000 times more important than us, which if we can plug into their journey and give them frameworks improve their chances of success. One of our success stories of connected is you know, sorry, I forgot the name of a business called limitless travel. Was Angus is the founder there doing awesome things unlimited travel is helping differently abled people travel the world. And some of his customer testimonials. There was a woman who's talking about limitless. She's able to go paragliding in Tenerife with more dignity than going shopping at her local Morrison's. Right. And it's that sort of thing. And they so they use credited they found investors, they raised 800k, through connected, they got some great advisors, and you know, we're just help plugging into a little part of their journey. And they're doing, as I said, so much more important work than us. But if we can just help more and more people get through that route, and empower more people who are trying to solve some of the biggest problems in the world, then that's amazing.

Ollie Collard: 40:40

Yeah, I mean, you're enabling and empowering them to be able to achieve their their own why's

Roei Samuel: 40:44

100%, exactly that well put might have to steal it from your

Dr Becky Sage: 40:52

the ROI was very clear there about his purpose to help others achieve their purpose. For example, with limitless, and this is something that we're doing a very similar job here to, I would say, kind of this is we're helping other entrepreneurs to be able to build the businesses that they want to build, just in a very different way. And I think that being led by purpose is one way to stay resilient as a founder, being motivated by that Guiding Light by that impact that you want to see in the world. So let's talk a little bit more about resilience and persistence. And what we learned from listening to Roy there. I think that one of the interesting things we've already touched on in this episode today is this idea that serial entrepreneurs, serial founders, are able to actually develop build skills, and probably ultimately have more fun and be more effective in terms of building their businesses. So I think there's something to do with looking through the lens of a lifetime, rather than looking at through a lens of that single business and what you want to achieve in that single business. And that can be incredibly helpful for building that resilience. 100%.

Ollie Collard: 42:07

I think founders need to think more like investors in this term of thinking in decades, rather than years. So if they're playing the long game, then the in the moment, the day to day doesn't matter so much if you're focused on this long term vision, and it's obviously bigger than just yourself, like, we're talking about this big vision, and how are you going to make this dent in the world? What are you going to do to get there? And I think if that's driving you, and you're taking that long term view, then you're going to get success. Because you can be patient, you're going to be motivated. And you're going to be driven every single day to make that happen.

Dr Becky Sage: 42:44

Yeah, I think I see a lot of founders, especially early stage founders really struggle with this. And this continued to pull between you, but I need to get these day to day things done in order to get to that bigger vision. But I think often the balance is very wrong. And you said about like thinking in years. I mean, I think that a lot of the founders I work with are thinking weeks. And so it's one of the jobs I tried to do is really get them to step back and at least think over that period of maybe like three to four years, what are the different phases of the business that you're going to be going through. And like you said, if ultimately, we can step back and think even more long term, I think that's what helps you to do things such as be confident about getting the funding you need, rather than just scraping through or being confident to delegate and perhaps even invest in if you can, in bringing like the a Thai people into your team versus sort of are just scraping around and trying to get a bit of help where you can or burning your own candle at both ends to make things happen, but maybe not very effectively. So I think there's kind of stepping back and thinking more long term really helps you to not get stuck in that. Well, yeah, but I have to just do X, Y and Zed because those things need to be done. Absolutely. But do it as part of a wider framework, like don't get lost from those bigger things that you want to achieve. Otherwise days, weeks, months, years past and you have been going around in circles, and you haven't actually step forward or done. As I call it kind of worked on the big bricks or the big blocks, you've been working on all those tiny little pieces of sand and, and so you're very slowly filling up the jug versus if you put the big blocks in and work on those big blocks, then you'll move a lot more quickly and more effectively.

Ollie Collard: 44:41

And it is really really hard like you can be running around in circles chasing your tail as a founder like if you're you know trying to raise your seed round and you finally get there but then it's like the next challenge you need to scale up you need to build build a team you need to you know, get your product to market like all of these things like challenge. Challenges will come in waves, and it's about how do you adapt to them. And actually, as you say, take some time to step back from it. And I think, if you're not talking to external people, then it's near on impossible to do that you need to be speaking to, even if it's a friend, a coach or mentor, a fellow pair, a fellow founder, whoever it is, you need to be doing that, to be able to play the longer term game. Otherwise, as you say, time is just going to pass and you're not going to achieve what you want to achieve. Because otherwise, you will get caught in the day today. And don't get me wrong, it is bloody scary. Like if you've got a month of runway left, or you're worried about cash flow issues, or somebody's gone off on long term sick, like, what what are you going to do? Like, how is that going to impact your business. So it is hard, but I think that's why support is so important.

Dr Becky Sage: 45:55

And that support really helps you to navigate the ebbs and the flows, as well. So one thing that I always like to think about is, okay, we're all great in those highs, and when everything's going really well, and it can feel really motivating and everything else. But what are you doing, when those times are tougher? And I think that's the shape of kind of an entrepreneur or a founder that's going to be a successful founder as well is, how are you dealing with it in those more difficult times? And? Or even in those busier times at recognising, okay, yeah, there are going to be times when you have to get your head down, get focused, get through something in order to get to the next stage. But how are you continuing to kind of helicopter in your thinking, how are you still stepping back? How are you still gaining perspective at those times? How you still keeping yourself healthy at those times? And how are you making sure those times don't go on indefinitely? I

Ollie Collard: 46:51

think we said there, Becky about actually being healthy is so critical, and really important. And an often an issue that's neglected by founders, like you've got to manage your energy, like, if you're going through tough times within the business, you're probably going to be operating on the back foot. And that's never a good thing. Because you're going to be you're not going to be in that creative mode to be able to solve problems. So it's about managing your energy, maybe taking a bit of time off doing some reflecting, and then going again, and

Dr Becky Sage: 47:19

this is how Roy was really inspiring me as well was to, he said, If I don't end up dead or in jail, then I'll do it. And I think there's something about thinking bigger about taking bolder decisions about you know, taking bigger risks, that allows you also to navigate these things without being in a fight or flight. It's sort of, okay, you're still being courageous, you're still stepping up, you're still being bold, but it's you're not responding out of fear, you're responding out of like creating something, something exciting, something big, something impactful. And they're very different lenses to look at a business through.

Ollie Collard: 48:03

And my takeaway here for founders is just trying to encourage people to think bigger. Like, if you've got that bigger vision, it's going to be a lot easier to communicate, it's going to attract the right people within the business. Like in terms of even selling, what if you're selling something for 200 pounds, or 2000 pounds or 20,000 pounds, it's as hard to sell that same product or service, regardless of the size of it. So just shrink bigger.

Dr Becky Sage: 48:31

So it's talking about the way people think we you touched on neurodiversity in this section, and I've spoken before I got an autism diagnosis just over a year ago. So this is a topic that's very close to my heart. And one of the questions I've been asking myself a lot recently is, are neurodivergent people, more likely to be entrepreneurs? Because I've got to tell you in my entrepreneur network, there are a lot of people who are well, yeah, a whole spectrum of different types of neurodiversity. So certainly, lots of ADHD is some autistic people. Bipolar dyslexia, you know, there's so there's several different types of neurodiversity that seem to be represented a lot in the entrepreneurial community. Has that been your experience as well?

Ollie Collard: 49:24

100% I mean, if we look back at all of the founders on this podcast, like, there is a lot of people who are neurodivergent I mean, I don't know the definition of a neurotypical person or who they are. But what I do know is that entrepreneurship often attracts people who are more neurodivergent I think it comes down to that maybe that different way of thinking, but different attitudes of risk, like they're not following that, that common path like they don't want to be a sheep. So it's about carving out their their own lane, and I think that's probably why it attracts more people like that. Something

Dr Becky Sage: 49:59

I've been wondering means about whether it also helps you to develop the traits you need as an entrepreneur. So just being neurodivergent make you more resilient and make yourself aware because you've had to be so and you've kind of learned those things maybe earlier on in your life, but because you and certainly for, you know, people like me, and several of the people I know, who are late diagnosed autistic, you've been developing these skills without really realising why you had to develop these skills. And, and so certainly resilience is something that I feel like was developed, because of the fact that I was like, why is like things should be working, and they're not working, and I, you know, very uncomfortable with failure. And trying not to fail, but actually inevitably failing. And, and that being very difficult meant that it was actually something I had to learn how to manage very early on, what

Ollie Collard: 50:55

was the first step that you took on that journey back? And just for maybe people listening? Who think maybe I am neurodivergent in some way, but I just don't know, like, what did you do?

Dr Becky Sage: 51:03

Yeah. So I'm gonna do a bit of a shameless plug right now. Because what I did was, it was actually I was, it was more that I was burning out all the time. So initially, I wasn't thinking about like, my, my neurodiverse neurodivergent. And so I was actually looking YouTubing Googling, like, why am I burning out all the time? Like, why am I struggling with, like, some of the social aspects of work, what's going on. And then I was landing on these YouTube videos that were made by autistic people, and specifically autistic people who were, who were diagnosed as adults who kind of who would be seen as so called high functioning, which is a term that we don't really like to use, because there's still lots of challenges. But kind of who can mask who can mirror very easily who kind of show up in the world, perhaps, who have been able to be used their strengths in a way that means that you can survive in the world and you're not being seen? What's it somebody said to me the other day, like, because I'm not flapping all the time, then people you know, people don't necessarily assume that you're Yeah, so you can kind of pass as neurotypical again, whatever that means. So but so starting to see these videos and being like her, like, this was something I never thought about, because I didn't fit myself into that kind of category, or that stereotype of what an autistic person is. And then the more and more I watched these videos, the more I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is like holding up a mirror I feel very seen right now. So the reason I said I'm doing a shameless plug is I do actually have a YouTube channel called spoony squared, where I talk a lot about, you know, my diagnosis process, how I how I came to, to start thinking about this, but also, I'm really focused on that channel on autism in the workplace. autism specifically, because that's my experience, but I think it applies to neurodiversity more widely as well. So yeah, if you do want to kind of get more in depth in terms of my thoughts around that as well, go and check out spoony squared on YouTube. But yeah, so I think I learned a lot from all of the other people around me. And of course, the more I started to talk about it, the more it became something that I was aware of, the more I was able to, I was then connecting with other people who aren't neurodivergent. And one of the things I learned, this is from somebody who could Matthew punter who's doing a PhD in autism at work. And he said to me that right now neurodivergent people are less likely to be in work than women were during the suffrage movement, and black people were during the civil rights movement. So and the stats are incredible. Like, it's something like one in five autistic people are in work. So there's actually a turning point right now we're at a point in history around neuro divergence. And for all the kind of cynical people out there who are like, how come everyone's getting an ADHD diagnosis right now. It's like what actually what we're doing is becoming more aware of how this is really impacting a massive wave of our population. And actually, these are people who have incredible strengths. And like you said, it kind of can build incredible businesses. But I also think this employment statistic is one which also tells us why there's so many entrepreneurs who are neurodivergent because somebody said to me, once they were like, you don't work in a corporate because you couldn't work in a corporate and it's like, there's two sides to that coin one is like, will they have me Um, can I fit into that box? And the other is like, Can is it something that's actually going to work for me. And it doesn't most of the time, like the workplace is is really not a very nice place for people who think differently a lot of the time. So I think that's the other reason that people are, who are neurodivergent are often entrepreneurs, because they're, like, well, I can't fit in these other spaces. So I'm going to do this for myself. And that comes

Ollie Collard: 55:27

back quite nicely to talking about making sure people are fulfilled, they've got purpose, they're in the right job, or running a business, whatever it is, to be able to live life on their own terms and operate to their full potential

Dr Becky Sage: 55:41

100%. And I think that's the big message here. It's not about labels. And it's not about Yeah, which which hat are you wearing? Or which, which badger you wearing? Which diagnosis have you got, I think the key thing, and especially because it's very expensive and very difficult and very timely to get a diagnosis, if there is anyone listening who like thinks that this is something that is going on, what I'd say to you, or even if you don't think this is what's going on, focus on self awareness, focus on your own strengths focus on like, really finding that alignment. And that that applies to anybody. So it's, and that's sort of what I've learned along the way as well getting my diagnosis, that's what it did. For me, it just allowed me to be like, I can just be myself now.

Ollie Collard: 56:24

Do you feel like a different person,

Dr Becky Sage: 56:25

I feel like I'm the person I always was. But it feels very different. To just lean into that and be comfortable with that. And, and the, the life has been kind of joyous since being in that place where you're like, Oh, I'm, I'm just me. And that's, you know, that's kind of where we're all trying to get to write

Ollie Collard: 56:48

some great takeaways there. So lean in to yourself and focus on self awareness, self

Dr Becky Sage: 56:53

awareness, and your strengths and really look after yourself through through everything that you're going through. So let's let's move on and hear more about Roy's story. And I'm very excited to hear what he's got planned next.

Roei Samuel: 57:14

Yeah, it's a great question. And just to clarify, and everyone give wrong information, it was for extra near the first three years, then we grew two and a half x last year. I always say this, because to our point earlier, I think it's so important to be honest and realistic, that founders listening, know if the advice and the things that we're talking about is relevant to them or not. We've talked about this before, like what someone's telling me with their, you know, 200 million Series C raise with 3000 employees, what I should be doing, like it's not relevant. So I always tried to be really transparent about my numbers, so that founders can put it into context. So we've had some really good growth, we launched into Miami, just over three months ago, really early there, we were probably around like 70 AC customers in the US so far. So it's really early generating like 100k Arr, from the US. So super, super early on that side. In five years time, I genuinely believe that connected will be the default operating system and network for the early stage. I see already that we have, you know, waitlist of users and makeshift users and like 1617 countries, we only built the system for the UK and only back in last year, optimise it for the US. So I would love to get this into as many hands as possible. And the team is highly ambitious, you know, I think like the average age for, you know, exec team is like 3132, so that everyone's at that stage in their career, where it's like, we really want to go hammer and tong and then you know, this is a really big thing for us. So yeah, we're massively ambitious, I want to see the application in as many countries as possible. And if we can, again, you know, get into emerging markets where, again, we can just help get their best practice out there plugin, not do anything, which is damaging to the startup not taking equity, nothing like that. Just giving them the frameworks and the operating system for success. And that will be a massive success for us.

Ollie Collard: 59:07

I love that long term vision. And you know, being that one stop shop for early stage founders raising investment. How do you account for cultural differences and the ways of doing business in different ecosystems when you're rolling out on an international basis?

Roei Samuel: 59:24

Yeah, it's great question. I think one of the benefits of the space that we're in, which is the making and managing of connections around capital and expertise, these things should be fairly cross border. If you're connected ourselves, we have investors from San Francisco to Sydney and everywhere in between, and most people's cap tables are the same, right? These are inherently global segments that we're looking at. And you know, a performance marketing expert in Dubai is just as brilliant and useful. or to start up in London it is to Dubai or a start up in London as it is to start in San Francisco. So there should be real global global connectivity here. And we shouldn't face a cold start problem. But then obviously, and it's one of the reasons we stayed away from doing any transaction stuff or arrangement stuff, because then you really are going into very different regulatory environments. And okay, well, you need to see this is how a safe works versus NSA versus advanced versus normal subscription agreement. So by just really focusing on interaction, and network and connectivity, we hope we can get a bit more of a global field in a bit of a quick way. But obviously, every time we look at go to market, of course, we're working with people on the ground, we've tried to get advisors there, we learned tonnes from our customers, right? So when we went to the US, we gave 50 memberships for free to every user type just to give them work with them learn understand, I think that's a really nice way of being able to do it, and certainly would love to continue doing it that way.

Ollie Collard: 1:00:58

I love that. So is that think globally? act locally?

Roei Samuel: 1:01:01

Yes, exactly. A nice one. Another one, I'm going to steal from you.

Ollie Collard: 1:01:06

So what changes do you foresee in early stage investment?

Roei Samuel: 1:01:12

I think one of the biggest changes I've seen is, and this is a great one is the lower average ticket size. I think when I started raising my first angel investment round, and like 2013 2014, it was like the idea of anyone investing less than, like, even 50k. Because I remember sitting down with lawyers, when they were like, well, you know, they still weren't really sure about your raising investment, especially if you weren't being you weren't able to go to big law firms, or I'm talking about going to small law firms a first time founder, and I was educating them about like, No, you know, equity does dilute, they're like mo doesn't. So with venture tooling, where it is right now. And you know, companies like Val ban lever partners doing amazing stuff for syndication and SPVs and deal flow surge and stuff I connected to doing, I think just the general accessibility is so much higher. And again, you know, crowdfunding platforms, you know, brilliant work on this as well. The barriers to entry for getting into the early stage investment space are so much lower. And it's amazing, a company that I follow, I won't mention who they are their fundraising at the moment. And I see that they have like, they've been building out a b2c play. And they're not using crowdfunding platform. They're doing an SPV themselves. And they've got like, 171 investors, where the size of that SPV is like, 185k. Yeah, like, it's small ticket stuff. But for them, it's great. They're not having to go to a crowdfunding platform and take a cart, they're happy to do the management themselves. Although I think that is pretty brutal, but it's the way they've gone. And I think it's yeah, it's just the barriers to entry have never been this low. And I think that's amazing spot to VM. Yeah,

Ollie Collard: 1:02:52

ultimately, if you're democratising investing, then it's going to benefit everyone in the long term.

Roei Samuel: 1:02:57

Yeah, exactly that and I think, especially when we live in a world where I as a adult can go and put my entire monthly pay in a fixed odds betting machine and lose it in 20 minutes. But I'm not allowed to invest. You know, in a startup, unless I can prove that I'm a sophisticated a self certified high net worth is a backward system to me, but different conversation, right? They're definitely broken.

Ollie Collard: 1:03:21

Bit of a generic question here, right. But if you had to try and distil down all of your business learnings and give just one piece of advice to an early stage founder, what would that be? It's really

Roei Samuel: 1:03:34

easy to listen to advice and experience are the things you have no idea about. Where you need to really put the mirror on yourself and really listen is on the things you think, you know. If you're amazing at sales process, you can trick yourself into being like, there's nothing left to learn on their side. But you know nothing about quantum mechanics and someone comes in and starts telling you about that. You're like, I'm a sponge, teach me everything about quantum mechanics. I know fuck all crossbones. I know nothing, right? But actually, if someone comes in and tells you about how to improve your sales process, I think especially as a first time founder, like, you're like, This is my domain, maybe your back gets up a little bit, and maybe you don't listen the same way that you should. And I think that's what we miss out a lot. And that as far as we know, we know how to identify our weaknesses. I mean, that's like so 101 foreigners, I'm not going to be like identify weaknesses. We know we need to do that. Bring in tech, bring an engineering bringing product, whatever it might be. But the one that I see a lot of people get caught out is the one which they consider to be their domain. Never stop learning. So you know, challenge yourself and the things you think, you know, not just the things that you know, you don't I

Ollie Collard: 1:04:43

love that. So it's going from that Good to Great and being open to actually learning and growing personally.

Roei Samuel: 1:04:51

Absolutely. I think there's like the fake humility, which is well I know nothing about engineering, so brought in a head of engineering because I'm not going to do everything myself. And there's a real humility of like I still have no idea what the fuck I'm doing across many, many things. I need all the help I can get.

Ollie Collard: 1:05:05

Where can people find out a bit more about connected and you personally online? Yeah,

Roei Samuel: 1:05:10

so follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Tik Tok, I tend not to use Twitter that much, but I am there and yet connected go to www.connected.com Connect as no last II as well. Which is an I can't imagine? Well, yeah. When I created the name, I couldn't imagine how many times I'd have to say without the last day, right? It felt like a good idea at the time.

Ollie Collard: 1:05:34

I'm sure you'll find this and we put it in the show notes as well for your ROI. Now you had a question for our listeners. So what was that question?

Roei Samuel: 1:05:42

The question that I would like to ask our listeners or your listeners today is, if there was one thing that you could bring into your life right now as a founder? Which would it be which one of these is a priority? Is it funding? Is it talent? Or is it revenue? I'd be I'd be really interested to see what most founders say about that funding, talent or revenue? Which one would you choose? If you can get it into your business day one? Immediately?

Ollie Collard: 1:06:09

Wow, I think we're gonna get some split results on that, because it's such a great question. Roy, if I knew you better, what's one question that I would have asked you? And what is the answer to that question?

Roei Samuel: 1:06:20

That is a, that's a tough one. I guess. It would probably be about managing ADHD as a founder. And the sort of, because I think ADHD, in and of itself is one thing. But managing ADHD as a founder is a really different thing. And the main reason for that is ADHD, brain functions. Okay, the healthy brain functions by the focus and task modules of the brain firing asynchronously. And the ADHD brain they fire synchronously. And the way that we regulate those two modules is through dopamine release. Right? So high dopamine situation, my brain acts focused and normal. And I think that's why you have such a high prevalence of ADHD within the entrepreneurial environment rather than general population, because we can only concentrate in high risk reward. And they think when you're in early stage startup, it's easy because basically, everything's life or death. So high dopamine, high risk, high reward like you're locked in. I think you get to a stage as the founder, and it's only last like weeks at time, because the the next existential crisis or opportunity is only around the corner. But managing ADHD in this pockets of stability. As a businessman, things are going really well is a really, really interesting one and one that I'm certainly still figuring out.

Ollie Collard: 1:07:46

Amazing. Thank you for that. And lastly, can you give us a bit of a spiel on big risk energy for anybody who's not listened to it?

Roei Samuel: 1:07:54

Yeah, absolutely. It's a big risk energy is slash was a podcast had might be again, when we spoke to an amazing range of guests about risk, they're taking their lives risk, they're taking their careers, how they turned out when they weren't well, and when they didn't just, you know, go into my favourite topic, which relates to ADHD, but which is, you know, taking big risks and big bets. But yeah, it's all on YouTube or on Tik Tok everywhere. And, yeah, reach out for like,

Ollie Collard: 1:08:21

ROI. Thank you so much for your time and insights. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show.

Roei Samuel: 1:08:26

Allah, You're a legend. Thank you so much, right.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:08:31

taking big risks and big bets. I love that I think that's something that we definitely all can take away from this kind of been the big theme of this episode hasn't been like really focusing on those big risks, those big wins thinking bigger. And one of the ways we do that is thinking about our priorities. And so I thought that was really interesting that that's what Roy's question was all about, which one of these is a priority for you? So we're going to obviously post that question as always on our socials. So which of these is a priority, funding talent or revenue? And it makes sure that you go over and let us know which one is the biggest priority for you. I'd be very interested to hear where you're all at with that. Making sure that you're prioritising something, of course, and thinking picky about it. One of the things that Roy talked about was the fact that barriers to entry have never been so low. And I think that this is incredibly interesting, because of course, it's very true. We know this, you know, being able to create content, being able to reach audiences being able to have so many tools now, at the end of the day, entrepreneurship startups. It's a whole industry in itself. And so there are so many things out there that really do make entrepreneurship accessible. But I think that there is a con to that, which is that it means that it's now a very big market in itself. It means that doing entrepreneurship is is much more crowded than it used to be. And so do you think that it throws up additional challenges for people? And how do entrepreneurs differentiate themselves? When everyone has a lot of access to entrepreneurship?

Ollie Collard: 1:10:16

That's a bloody great question. I think firstly, what I would say if you're an aspiring entrepreneur, or want to be entrepreneur want to be, then I would say, just get in the ring, like stop playing from the sidelines, the only way you can learn is by doing it, like you can read all the books, do all the courses, I've done all of that, like it doesn't doesn't get you anywhere, you just got to start, I think that's the most important thing. And I'm gonna put my head on the line here and say, This is most definitely the best time in the world to be an entrepreneur right now. All you need, as we know, is a laptop and internet connection, you know, the rise of like SAS products as an example. You know, no code. I mean, historically, if you wanted some leading edge software, you had to be like a large corporation and pay like an annual fee for the software upfront, like, these barriers are completely gone. Now you can stop and start a subscription as you please. And obviously now with the rise of generative AI, this has even reduced the barriers further. So I think crazy things are happening right now, like developers could be out of jobs, at some point in the near future with the rise of AI, which is crazy to think. But there are downsides to all of this, as you say. So I think that one of the downsides, first of all, is like there's become a wash of AI content on the internet. So you'll see like AI, written content on maybe a platform like LinkedIn as an example. And there'd be like AI, written comments and then replying to those comments and AI. And it's like, there's no human interaction here is like, an absolute load of BS. So it's like, there are definitely some downsides. Also, as you alluded to, obviously, the more people that enter the market, the higher the competition. But I don't think necessarily, that's a bad thing. Because the more competition there is in the world, in any market at any given time. It means that you can learn from others, you have to operate your best that most importantly, you have to find out, what makes you different. Why should people care about you? What value are you adding to the world? So I think that it's a great time. And I would encourage people just to stop,

Dr Becky Sage: 1:12:42

I absolutely agree that is a puts more on you in terms of really finding those differentiating factors. So just because it's more accessible, doesn't mean it's easier to make that business actually happen to take off to hit those goals in your business. And I think that that's just important to bear in mind, there's a lot of other food for thought there as well around AI. If all our businesses end up just being AI, then maybe we can all sit back and relax a little bit more as well. So it's, again, not necessarily always a bad thing. But I also think that we one of the differentiating factors for businesses is going to be the human and, and how we continue to really respond to humans and human need, especially in this rise of technology. And

Ollie Collard: 1:13:39

there's going to be a massive change, right? This is the fourth industrial revolution, there's going to be a massive change in the labour market. And it's about how you utilise your existing skill sets as a human like you're saying, to be able to do more, add more value, have been known for something I think that's the critical thing here.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:13:59

And so, ROI and connected have definitely been developed to help people to do that. So if you're interested, do check out the links, go and check out the connected platform. I think it's really interesting and it's growing very fast. So go and have a look, see how they can help you. And don't forget to go and answer Roy's question on our socials. Ali, what are people saying about the last episode from Super books?

Ollie Collard: 1:14:26

We have a great question from the founders of super books. They want to know how long does your child or child in your family spend reading per day at home, either independently or reading together? The four options were a zero time at all. b I don't know. See under 20 minutes or D over 20 minutes. The results in and I'm delighted to say that 69% of you have said that they spend over 20 minutes reading at home per day followed by 15% under 20 minutes, then followed by the remaining 8%. Spending zero time at all. And then again another 8%. I don't know. So delighted to hear that the majority of your children are spending over 20 minutes a day reading and working on the education.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:15:20

And can you tell us about our next guest?

Ollie Collard: 1:15:23

We have got a brilliant young entrepreneur in Alfie Walton. He is a former magician now turned entrepreneur, and he is going places putting out some great content into the world. I think everyone's gonna love hearing his story. Absolutely.

Dr Becky Sage: 1:15:39

Thank you everyone for listening. If you like what you've heard, please leave us a review on Apple podcasts. And don't forget there's a big selection of previous episodes just search founded and grounded on your favourite podcast player. Thank you for listening to find it in grounded with Ollie collard and Dr. Becky sage. Don't forget to press that follow button to help us to grow the show.