. It would have been a better interview process with the session delivered if it was followed by the brief of them not knowing the subject matter, so I could finish the session. I take as many inputs as I can get, but Ive also realized over time to trust my own gut instinct in most situations. It was a whos who of the security industry in the US and theyve been very helpful in terms of hiring and retention. How well has it been received by the Asian market? Our renewable energy business is disrupting a 2 trillion industry by using technology to make the green revolution faster and cheaper for tens of . Octopus Ventures, a dedicated business unit in Octopus Group, is the VCT manager. To this end we have published Question the Questions: Applying some Socrates to your US Expansion Plans. About Octopus Ventures. I applied online. The story of every great technology startup often starts with an idea, most times a crazy and ambitious idea that becomes a solution to address a large market gap using innovative technology, Principal Maria Rotiluwrote in the company blog post. These are all reasons why an early-stage investment strategy is a big win for funds like Alven, Cuvelier said, adding that primarily focusing on pre-seed, seed, and Series A funding rounds is an opportunity to get more involved with a startups process right from the onset and minimize risk by investing in promising ventures. We back founders who are changing the world for the better. Everything is about getting to 1 million recurring revenue from a number of clients in order to demonstrate the capability. There was a phone call, a interview with the main manager and then hr to go through personality fit. Kapag na-expand, nagbibigay ito ng listahan ng mga opsyon sa paghahanap na magpapalit ng mga input sa paghahanap para tumugma sa kasalukuyang pinili. The Read about Octopus Ventures investment in Apheris, an end-to-end platform that uses a federated Octopus Ventures is a part of Octopus Investments - 2023 Octopus Ventures. Ive fortunately always been good at handling stress and functioning on minimal sleep while keeping high energy. What is the interview process like at Octopus? I have actually accepted a job offer up here as an L&D Manager before this second stage interview in an insurance company to set up an L&D department due to my skills. The role in the UK is slightly different to the US . firm Alven, told PYMNTS in a recent interview. We invest where we can make the greatest positive impact, getting behind businesses that put people, community and the environment first. Youve gone from having a small team on the table, where communication is easy, culture is pretty homogenous, and you know a lot of your teams faults because they came to you that way when you hired them. Payments, Grocery Started off with simple hellos then basic questions like what I like about the company, I had brought up that Octopus has it hands in things like energy and such. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. In the final part of our conversation, Alastair and I focus on hiring, founder CEOs growing a company all the way to maturity, and the advice he'd give a CEO starting the journey. For the people and ideas that will change the world. In 2021 Octopus Ventures has backed deep tech startups including quantum computing firm ORCA . Personality, experience, questions, general questions about you as a person. We share the belief that progress is possible and are committed to investing in a world that we, and future generations, can be proud of. The process took 1 week. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Leverate Media is a fast growing company with offices in New York, Singapore, Jakarta, London, San Francisco and Cologne. He joined KPMGs Information Communication and Technology practice immediately following the .com crash and later co-founded Reevoo where he spent six years as CEO. From 2011 it was just the two of us, and we got to four by the end of 2012. . I interviewed at Octopus (London, England) in Jan 2022. Hello. Now we are close to 180 people. Octopus Ventures has closed a $12.3 million pre-seed funding round that the company plans to use to continue the expansion of its B2B FinTech platform across the EMEA region, according to a Thursday (June 23) blog post. What kicked off the companys growth at the beginning? I think that, of all things, these points have been the most helpful to me along the way. Market-leading rankings and editorial commentary - see the top law firms & lawyers for M&A: smaller deals, up to 50m in London Then, the answer to most questions quickly becomes giving your team the support they need to be successful without you doing it yourself. Tech.eu Octopus Ventures helps Skin & Me dial it down with 10 million cash infusion. . B2B Software. Relative to most European markets, the US market is larger on almost all metrics and the Bay Area is home to many of the most successful technology companies of the last 50 years. To be honest, I was already upset by the process, and I saw that interviewer is not really listening to what I am saying because she mistyped my location, years of experience, and other details that I said in my introduction. For journalists in their professional capacity only. I'm in wonderful company alongside Katy | 12 comments on LinkedIn Where have you struggled to identify, retain, or empower your talent? I applied online. Minimum, a Y Combinator backed start-up, raises $2.6m Seed round led by Octopus Ventures to make carbon neutrality accessible to all businesses Minimum's tech allows companies to integrate carbon calculation and offsetting directly into their business processes and customer journeys. A few years ago, South African documentary filmmaker Craig Foster felt burnt out from years of working on arduous nature films. Non-journalists, you'll
Thats an insightful question. What are your views on what you feel some of the impacts AI is going to have on businesses and consumers that perhaps they dont realise yet? At Digital Shadows we help organizations identify their exposure and understand the threats to their critical assets to better manage digital risks. When youre running low on energy and motivation, where do you go to seek inspiration, encouragement, support, or just general fuel in your tank? How did the idea of Digital Shadows first come to be? The great thing was that as part of the diligence process, the US VCs had introduced me to a bunch of CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers) to get a better idea of what we were doing. Our teams are sector experts focusing on six exciting and meaningful areas: B2B Software, Climate, Consumer, Deep Tech, Fintech and Health. Ive been blessed with a good immune system and have never had to take a day off sick from work so far which Im extremely grateful for, but I put a lot of that down to looking after myself better now. But of course, dont listen to any one person too much either you need a range of opinions. Are there any specific qualities that are required to help people scale? Being a B Corp means our social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency have been assessed and certified. Define the interview process and go about it in a structured way and involve the other stakeholders in the interview process. We have more than 2,500 employees serving 2.5 million customers. Why you want to leave the present company? Our team in the US is focused almost entirely on helping our European portfolio scope and enter the US market. If you're a journalist, you'll head to our Newsroom section. Octopus Ventures, part of Octopus Investments, is one of the largest and most active venture capital investors in Europe. We've built Octopus into one of the most disruptive and progressive companies across the financial services and energy sectors. 15,000 respectively. Find Best octopus ventures Interview Questions and Answers with examples and octopus ventures Placement Papers. So, momentum dropped off, they passed on us in the end, and we failed to raise the round. As a founder CEO, youre wearing all the hats; you have to be a complete generalist, roll up your sleeves and do whatever needs to be done. The blog post also mentioned calling on family members, friends, angel investors and venture capitalists for help in the pre-seed stage. Octopus had two very successful AI exits in 2016. How then did Digital Shadows navigate the cultural challenge when you moved to the US? Octopus Ventures. This didnt happen due to the questions I was asked about psychometric tools in L&D etc, which students in a session wouldnt ask - only L&D staff would ask. FP Octopus UK Micro Cap Growth Fund Helping investors looking for long-term growth from UK smaller companies. Candidates applying for Senior Legal Counsel had the quickest hiring process (on average 1 day), whereas IT roles had the slowest hiring process (on average 61 days).
. With 1.9 billion under management and investing over 200m a year, Octopus Ventures is one of the largest and most active venture investors in Europe. Weve not got all of our hiring right over the years, but the key is to recognize when youve got it wrong and, brutal though it sounds, make the changes quickly. So, we tried really hard to do a good job with the hiring. Opens the Fishbowl by Glassdoor site in a new window. Our team is spread across the US, the UK, Singapore and China, with the weight of the team being split between offices in London and New York. This meant that I could get back on the plane to the US pretty soon after. We are headquartered in London but also have people in the U.S. and Asia specifically placed to help the teams we back scale in those markets. That kept the lights on. We have some of the worlds leading universities making world changing breakthroughs, and a growing community of experienced deep tech founders who know how to commercialise those breakthroughs. Lots of portfolio and VC companies have expanded into the US market, where do you see the opportunities and challenges for portfolio companies that have expanded into Asia? Octopus Ventures | 44,435 LinkedIn. A PYMNTS study, New Payments Options: Why Consumers Are Trying Digital Wallets finds that 52% of US consumers tried out a new payment method in 2022, with many choosing to give digital wallets a try for the first time. Related: VCs Say EU Firms Can Still Win Big Without US Expansion. It is looking to invest in B2B software, fintech and health startups. Thankfully, having a co-founder helps, because you can then talk frankly. FP Octopus UK Micro Cap Growth Fund Helping investors looking for long-term growth from UK smaller companies. Weve backed the likes of ManyPets, Depop, Elvie and Quit Genius, and some of our portfolio startups have gone on to join forces with the worlds largest companies. Should we choose to hire you for the post ? Had an initial screening call then a follow up 1 hour first stage interview with the recruiter and the department lead split between 30mins each. Firstly, we were two guys without a track record of building startups. He joins Octopus Ventures as Venture Partner. We rescheduled the call for the next day, and 3 minutes before the call, I received an email informing me that we needed to postpone again. Ready to start measuring customer happiness? I wouldnt want to crush any of that spirit that you need at the beginning, but I think you need to know that success takes 10 years, not 10 months. All rights reserved. (Fortunately, it was a 11 game). Owen holds a Ph.D in Chemistry and spent time as a research assistant before joining Oxford University Innovation to manage the licensing and spinout of technologies developed at the university, spinning out Refeyn and working on IP licensing with Oxford Nanopore. want our Insights hub. We are a team that backs entrepreneurs. How is A related to C, if B is the mother of Cs daughter ? Topics, Editors In London our team spend more of their time seeking talented entrepreneurs to back and then helping them day to day with the challenges that come with building a fast growing young company. Ive always believed that ethics, integrity, diversity and values can have a big impact on why people join you and our VP Sales for the Americas, Maria, was kind enough to write about that here. Please briefly explain why you feel this user should be reported. When we were going out in 20112012, the problem for companies felt too far in the distance; they were just putting firewalls in place, getting their antivirus in order, and building very nascent security teams. Practical support and insights from the team at Octopus Ventures, a multi-stage London VC backing unusual talent intent on global impact. Those conversations came out really positively and the good news is that I managed to convert a number of those into sales by the end of the year. Payments, Small & Job Interview Best Practices Growing Your Career Starting a New Job All Articles Learning Hub Food & Beverage Online Courses Retail Online Courses Thanks for the response. And then, if I remember correctly, another important point in the companys life occurred when progress stalled before your Series A? | At Octopus Ventures we invest in the people, the ideas and the industries that will help change the world. By the numbers, just over half are currently operational in the US, with the majority based on the East Coast. That isnt me I do come up with ideas, but Im not the extreme example that is constantly chasing one new idea after another. Read more. Octopus Ventures is one of the most active early stage investors in Europe, with offices in London and New York and Venture Partners in San Francisco, London, Singapore and China. Octopus Ventures General Information. We like to be in early and follow through from one defining moment to the next. Pay Later, Cross-Border We were just surviving, really. Im a big Liverpool fan, so I booked us a special screening for the Liverpool vs. Arsenal game when he was next in London. It's designed to be, Steven and Guy wanted to create an insurance company that their customers would actually love, Founder David's augmented reality solution helps construction teams get the build right, first time, Founder Anya wanted to understand and reduce the footprint of the food industry. I interviewed at Octopus in Jan 2022. So general greetings as a start . Get in touch. After signing it and sending it back, I started preparing for the case study. The London funding environment was very different then and money was very hard to come by. So annoying when you invest time and end up not receiving answers. Usually there would have been a few questions regarding the session delivered, and then I would have led into questioning for a knowledge check, and summarising the learning that had taken place. Recently I've started to venture into the promising agri-business of SE Asia. . It also forced us to be disciplined about how we went about our business. Get hired today! Octopus Ventures is one of only a handful of European funds to have a global footprint although we expect this number to grow in the years to come. Compared to our US counterparts, European investors tend to have a more limited range of platform services to offer the entrepreneurs they back. Your entire existence cannot depend on the company its stressful enough without that. Now The Octopus Ventures blog: sharing experience, knowledge and insights with entrepreneurs in the startup community as well as recent news from the team and portfolio. Flavia joins Octopus Ventures from Plug and Play, an early-stage investor and corporate innovation platform connecting startups to corporations globally. I did not receive the call at the scheduled time, so . The hiring process at Octopus takes an average of 23.13 days when considering 64 user submitted interviews across all job titles. Im like an octopus on stilts.". Sova is a human resources technology (HRTech) company designed to manage the assessment of candidates for large organisations, helping them improve transparency and diversity. Were backing teams who are eliminating carbon footprints, creating cancer vaccines, building the next phase of the internet and charting a greener approach to space travel, to name just a few. Some also burn out from sprinting through the early stages with no rest, so thats another reason why many may not be built to lead their companies in subsequent stages. including its retail and institutional fundraising arms and investment teams spanning Octopus Ventures, Octopus Real Estate, sustainable infrastructure and listed . We back businesses from an idea on a page all the way through a business's journey to exit. Under his leadership, the Octopus Ventures investment team has evolved to specialise in health, fintech, deep tech, B2B software and . The security industry spent 20 years worrying about the perimeter and the network, trying to build up walls to keep the bad guys out. Hannah Joyce from Odgers Berndtson talks Venture Capital Trends with a fantastic Venture Capital Partner at Octopus Ventures. One of those milestones has to be revenue, and if youre trying to raise from US investors, they prize US revenue over everything else. Yet for us, investment is multi-dimensional, and will always be about . I'm in wonderful company alongside Katy | 12 LinkedIn Octopus Ventures EIS Service gives investors the opportunity to access pioneering businesses with high growth potential. Yes. Working at @OctopusVentures seeking unusually talented entrepreneurs, based in NYC. Get the latest on the people, businesses and ideas that will change the world. Netflix. Venture capital firm Octopus Ventures is entering the world of pre-seed investment with a 10m fund to back early-stage startups across Europe. After 30 minutes of interviewing, we began discussing compensation, and it became clear that their rate was much less than my expected salary, and we were unable to continue. Ill take any feedback onboard. This may be a product, market, capital or hiring constraint. The venture capital industry is becoming global and increasingly we have noticed both West Coast investors as well as Chinese and Japanese investors investing in Europe. <br><br> Designed . Thats a thought that I lean on more now than I did when we started since weve been through so many ups and downs over the last eight years. Description. We got a big springboard in 2013 from the Fintech Innovation Lab in London. As well as our sector experts, providing invaluable support across B2B Software, Climate, Consumer, Deep Tech and Health, we also have a dedicated Portfolio People + Talent team. Octopus has an overall rating of 3.9 out of 5, based on over 276 reviews left anonymously by employees. Learn more about founder Tania Boler and the Elvie journey to developing beautiful, usable tech products, Victoria Prew knows all about the waste involved in fast fashion. The process took 3 weeks. Cliche, I know! Registered office: 33 Holborn, London, EC1N 2HT. Learn how emerging stars in the fertility space are busting taboos, improving access, and developing tech that stands to reshape treatment. PYMNTS Data: Why Consumers Are Trying Digital Wallets. Companies were suddenly exposed in a way that they werent before. "It was the biggest change in the past 10 years. I would appreciate if you could feed this back to the team as someone who could need a job could have an opportunity taken away due to the brief not being followed, I applied online. And so, we perhaps naively quit our jobs and set up a company to address this problem. For instance, they witnessed decreased management time and focus, opportunity cost of investments, culture and organisational behaviour challenges. So we share ours, boldly and generously. Picks, CE100 Our number one priority is that our people have the expertise to support our founders. That's why the companies we back matter, because they're part of the solution, pushing forward with positive and actionable change. By detecting data loss, securing their online brand, and reducing their attack surface, organizations can reduce the loss of revenue, intellectual property, and reputational damage. Hannah Joyce from Odgers Berndtson talks Venture Capital Trends with a fantastic Venture Capital Partner at Octopus Ventures. This is particularly a problem because US revenues typically take longer to ramp up than expected, and costs are substantially higher than European markets sometimes up to the point where they can undermine the viability of a companys business plan. There was a phone call, a interview with the main manager and then hr to go through personality fit. Were building Octopus Ventures deeptech team to help provide the final piece of the puzzle the patient, expert capital that founders need to take breakthroughs from the lab to market.. The entrepreneurs we back are reimagining how whole industries behave. To date we have backed the founding teams of nearly 100 companies including Zoopla, Secret Escapes, Elvie, Depop, Sofar Sounds and Cazoo. Our investors have first-hand knowledge and experience in their focus sectors, from NHS doctors and deep tech PHDs to beauty entrepreneurs and web3 founders. Now, youve got this more alien culture in the US and youre hiring executives in the US and trying to make that stick together with a team in the UK. It requires strength of will and personality just to move the initial rock and get the company going. Getty. What do you like about it? Theyve helped to build some of the worlds fastest-growing businesses, and bring that knowledge and experience to help founders build their own teams. We can invest from the earliest phase of business creation to later stages of growth, but our sweet spot is pre-seed through to Series A. Our knowledge, our network and our collective ambition are what our entrepreneurs want. We care about how we do business. Octopus Ventures; Interview with Digital Shadows' Alastair Paterson: The Company's Growth Story (1/3) I chatted at length with the CEO of Digital Shadows to learn more about how a CEO can . Do you think this sentiment holds? Trying to have a really up-front, authentic leadership team that gets everything out in the open is one way of dealing with this transparently and effectively as the company grows. Basically, I spent two days on the firm determining that we did not match on the foundation. Leverate have worked with a number of Octopus Ventures portfolio companies to help accelerate growth into new markets such as the US, Continental Europe and Asia. 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