Charlie Buckle

We’ve raised €1.5Bn across our studio ventures 🎉 I realised: Funding is a function of future clarity. When we work with founders, we ask them to go 5-10 years into the future. Get concrete. Not just a vision, but a plan you can walk through, step by step. - What’s your CPA? And over time? - What channels are driving your growth? - What needs to be true in the market for this to work? - What does the team look like now, in 6 months, 2 years etc? - What will you do if something big changes? (New tech, new rules, new rivals?) The more detail, the easier it is for investors to see what you see. When you pitch with this level of clarity, you don’t sound like someone asking for money. You sound like the CEO of a unicorn, inviting people to join your story before the world catches up. You start to embody that future leader. Investors feel it. They respond to it. Founders, if you’re pitching, ask yourself: Can you describe your business in 2030 in extreme detail?

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The UK has created 163 unicorn companies to date. Each one had a strategy that matched their vision. If you're aiming to build a billion-pound business, your strategy must reflect that level of thinking. Far too often, founders stop at the surface-level decisions. They don’t align the mission, vision, and actions that drive long-term growth. That's why this infographic is really helpful. It breaks down strategy into three simple but powerful layers: ✅ Purpose ↳ Why do we exist? What matters to us? This is where your mission, values, and vision come to life and keep your team aligned. ✅ Strategy ↳ How will we get there? This is the bridge between aspiration and execution, covering plans, focus areas, and enabling tools. ✅ Execution ↳ What will we do next, and how will we track it? This is where actions, targets, and KPIs create real results. I’ve seen too many businesses stall because they ignore this process. But every billion-pound business I've backed or built has done the opposite. They've had a crystal-clear mission, a strong strategy, and consistent execution. And more importantly, they believed it was possible to build something big. That belief needs to show up in every step of the funnel.  If you’re building a business with serious potential, My book How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps will help refine your strategy. You can order the book here 👇 https://lnkd.in/eRYDKXdT What’s one part of your strategy that you’re currently refining? I’d like to hear how you’re approaching growth. ⬇️ ♻️ Repost if you believe Britain needs more billion-pound businesses. And for more on scaling with purpose, Follow me Richard Harpin.

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“The UK has the best talent in the world, but we sometimes lack ambition”   Grateful for Neil Buchanan @ Lodestar Space (‘bodyguards for satellites’) inspiring and educating our emerging founders spinning out from UK Atomic Energy Authority (thank you) > If you’re pre-idea and pre-cofounder you’ll benefit from doing the Entrepreneurs First programme (if you can get on). The speed of learning and environment truly accelerate founders > Unlocking early adopter demand: LinkedIn outreach, speak to people with common interests, build networks, keep the cadence of outreach, running a customer discovery process (‘mom test’ - Rob Fitzpatrick ) > Sizing the opportunity: top down look for $10BNs to $100BNs market problems and then look bottom up with an eye to the future. Bottom up is always the sobering one and should be your north star - never lie to your team, investors and worst of all: yourself.  > Engaging VCs often: reduce the risk as much as possible (team, market, tech) show how you’re hiring to fit a few key gaps can be fine > Founders need to be confident to be selective with the investors they partner with. Being mindful if you’re taking investment from a key player in an industry (is it for their ultimate M&A activity, is it going to impact your sales). Ideally you’re ambitious and don’t want an early exit but also investment from a defence prime if you’re dual use can unlock channels > Building for dual use or defence? Prioritise USA GTM in the short term. > Finding non-dilutive sources of cash: run a process to identify relevant organisations, keep an open mind / keep it wide to keep options open. Keeping burn low you can achieve a lot prior to dilutive capital > Don’t get distracted by the shiny numbers of a big raise - it's needed for strong talent acquisition & credibility boosting but the best talent will resonate with the high impact mission & tech dev to get there - the rest of your time for focus on where it needs to be: customers and sales > Geopolitics impacting decisions on which markets to target, hiring decisions, who to have on the cap table ▪️If you’re an investor / founder and you’d like to do a lunchtime Q&A to educate and inspire our emerging founders please DM

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If self-promotion feels cringey, you’re doing it wrong. Many founders avoid visibility because they equate it with ego. But as consultant Richard Millington puts it: that discomfort comes from poor execution - not the act itself. Great work doesn’t speak for itself. It needs a strategy. 🛠️ Treat promotion as part of the product - not a side hustle 📊 Run campaigns, not content mills 🧠 Share research-backed insights, not just opinions You’re not here to “go viral.” You’re here to earn trust by solving real problems for real people. Smart founders are shifting their approach: ✅ Speaking in the language of buyers, not peers ✅ Leading with outcomes, not hot takes ✅ Showing up consistently, not just when they’re launching something This isn’t self-promotion. It’s market-fit communication. 👇 What’s helped you move from posting content to building credibility? 🔗 Full piece via Richard Millington: https://lnkd.in/gh-8GckX ******* Repost this to help your network & follow me Adam Graham for more content like this.

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This week on the podcast we were joined by Cliff Obrecht, co-founder and COO of Canva. He was an amazing guest. It was great to get his take on the IPO landscape, where Canva is on the AI adoption curve, and the advice he no longer gives to founders. A few takeaways: Managing your company well is the only thing that matters. Valuations can be wrong by a lot. If you keep growing and keep compounding, you can still come out on top. In Canva’s case, that means a billion dollars cash in the bank and eight years of profitability. It’s easy to build hype, especially around AI. It’s much harder to cross over into the mainstream the way Canva has done. Initial product traction for an AI tool is great, but scaling to people who don’t know or care what people are saying on X is how you build a billion-dollar company, and it will be interesting to see who is able to do it. The internal mandate for AI is to try everything. There are some guidelines (you only get two LLMs but they don’t care which two) but for now, Canva employees can use what they want. He expects to consolidate as the winners become clearer over the next 12-24 months. When public markets were valuing companies as lower than the private markets, the incentive to IPO wasn’t particularly strong, especially for Canva who simply didn’t need the money. With the public markets the way they are today, however, it becomes a bit more appealing. The cost of running AI is high but it will come down. Cliff is already starting to see it. It gets more efficient as you pick the right model for the job, running AI on device or self-hosted, etc. For now, it might cost 4 cents an image, but over the next six months, they’re counting on it dropping to .02 cents an image. The upfront costs are not indicative of long-term spend. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/guuQUdN7

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Last week I had the chance to sit on a panel with other founders for MassChallenge UK, sharing advice with new entrepreneurs just starting out. Thanks for inviting me David Kinsella! It reminded me how often the early choices you make as a founder can shape everything that follows. 👉 Choosing a co-founder isn’t just about shared vision — it’s about doing real diligence, not relying on what others say about them. There was a great story by another panellist about how this can go wrong if you don't do this. 👉 The same goes for investors. They may be on the journey even longer than your co-founders, so make sure your goals truly align. 👉 Focus is always a battle. There are endless things you could do — but the data should guide what you must do. 👉 When it comes to clients, the first five matter more than you think. Work closely with them, but build your systems for fifty. 👉 And markets shift. Sometimes you can weather it, sometimes you need to pivot fast, and sometimes the smartest move is to exit quickly. 👉 If you do exit, do it from a position of strength, not weakness — just like fundraising, leverage is everything. The truth is: building a company is incredibly hard. Most don’t make it. But if you’re feeling stuck, I’ve helped a dozen founders in the past year get unstuck and find new growth in unexpected places. ✨ Never give up, keep moving. Best of luck to the new Founders I met last week in the program, some really interesting companies! 🚀 #FounderThoughts #Entrepreneurship #MassChallenge

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