PODCAST: Becoming a second time founder

Listen here to the podcast interview with Matt, co-founder of GoCardless, as he thinks about his next venture.

00:01 Matt CoFounded GoCardless alongside Hiroki and Tom, and now he’s ready to start his next venture. Matt explains how he is attempting to improve the property industry.

02:20 You can buy anything in one click from Amazon… there’s no reason why property can’t be easier to buy

02:55 Matt explains that he’d always wanted to start a business, and that the lessons learned at both university and McKinsey were stepping stones to entrepeurship.

04:14 “My first ever conversation with Hiroki was about whether you should have cofounders… I said that you shouldn’t. He was right”

05:45 So the advice here is: get cofounders. The journey of starting and running a business is a long one, and would be even longer if you do it solo.

07:00 Matt answers the question: Non-technical entrepreneurs often ask if they should find a technical cofounders, or whether they should hire a CTO instead… is there a correct option?

07:55 YCombinator: not many entrepreneurs have done it, what’s it like?

10:00 An anecdote worth noting for any company that needs b2b sales: Cold-calling sucks… but it works!

13:00 Fintech: GoCardless were ‘fintech’ before fintech was cool… did that help?

15:35 Matt made the decision to step away from GoCardless to start another business. He explains how he knew it was the right time to go again

16:49 Are there any experiences that you’re taking away from GoCardless and immediately applying to the next venture?

18:40 Now you’re on your second startup, what advice would you give to a first time founder?

21:00 Matt shares a potential new year’s resolution for 2016: Blue sky thinking is useful to a point, but grabbing the bull by the horns gets stuff done.