Raj Kaur Khaira

I spoke to the BBC today about why platforms like Netflix are turning to creators like Mark Rober, Ms Rachel and The Sidemen. A few thoughts: - Creators aren’t overnight successes. They’ve cultivated audiences over years, relentlessly testing, iterating and learning. That track record makes them lower-risk bets for streamers than having large in-house development teams. - They’re multi-skilled. Creators are often, or have been, their own directors, writers, producers and editors. That agility and creative discipline is something broadcasters and streamers would love to bottle. - Validation still matters. For creator groups like The Sidemen, there’s kudos (and commercial upside) in working with Netflix - but it also hedges against the algorithmic volatility of YouTube. One tweak and views fall, and a business model wobbles. There's a symbiosis emerging, in sports and entertainment. Platforms need creators as much as creators need platforms. We're seeing a delicate dance of reach, legitimacy and risk. Fascinating times. Article in comments.

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Unlimited Leave - Can It Boost Productivity and Cut Costs? It sounds like a Silicon Valley perk. But unlimited paid time off is quietly spreading to smaller businesses too. Why? Advocates say it: 📊 Cuts admin by removing the need to track multiple leave types 💸 Avoids big payouts for unused days when staff depart 🎯 Offsets pressure to raise base salaries The paradox? Employees often take less time off than under “use it or lose it” schemes. The key, say those who’ve implemented it successfully, is structure: – Tie eligibility to tenure or performance – Keep manager approval in place to prevent abuse It’s a perk that works when paired with trust and clarity. And in Thailand, one company is taking it a step further - offering “Tinder Leave”: paid time off to look for love. ✅ Perks can save costs as well as boost culture ✅ Flexibility is only as strong as the rules behind it ✅ Time off is a productivity tool, not a luxury 👇 Would you take more or less time off if your company offered unlimited leave? 🔗 Full Guardian story: https://lnkd.in/gmPbqXzs 🔗 Tinder Leave story in the Straits Times: https://lnkd.in/gzTA2sZA ******* Repost this to help your network & follow me Adam Graham for more content like this.

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The biggest killer of HealthTech startups 1. Isn’t regulation. 2. It isn’t the NHS. 3. It isn’t even fundraising. It’s pilots. Most founders celebrate every pilot. Investors love the headline logos. Teams post the press releases. Pilots kill more startups than regulators ever will. Because a pilot is easy to start and almost impossible to scale: → No budget-holder owns it → No frontline staff adopt it → No outcomes are measured → No one fights it through procurement So you burn cash chasing new pilots, hoping one will “convert.” Meanwhile, you never build the deep adoption in one site that proves real value. And product-market misfit always shows under pressure. Stop chasing pilot logos. Start chasing outcomes in one location. That’s how you scale HealthTech.

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As I head back to my desk in London, I’ve noticed a few founders (often in their first year or so) have been musing/seeking advice on holidays. Here’s the nuggets I’ve collated over the last 5 years, some obvious, some less so. Also, this is through the lens of a company that is shipping SAAS. Some businesses (European enterprise SAAS) will be very similar, others (e.g. B2C Christmas decoration e-commerce) will be wildly different: 1. Holidays are good. Probably necessary. Founding a category defining company is a 10 year+ game. If you work 18/7/365 you will almost certainly burn out. There’s probably some age dependence. I’d guess a typical 22 year old coming out of investment banking could last 2-3 years like this (not long enough); someone in mid 30’s likely a year-18 months (definitely not long enough) 2. Too much holiday is bad. Your business almost certainly performs hugely worse without you. If you’re taking 10 weeks fully off a year, your business is likely dead 3. I see two principal purposes: 1. Rest (to recharge your batteries and keep the intensity going long term) 2. Spend time with loved ones (compared to a more chilled job, many founders unthinkingly lose the relationships most important to them) 4. Rest is deeply personal. Different people recharge batteries in different ways. Nailing what effective rest is for you is similarly important to other aspects of maximising the impact of how you spend your time. It’s taken me a while to crack this formula. For me: 4 days intense partying with close friends, and then a week of complete isolation and quiet with my girlfriend seems optimal (I’ve iterated this over 5 years). For me a week of road biking would be the definition of hell and probably expedite burnout (but I know this is perfection for others) 5. Timing is vital. Practically no one buys shipping software in early August. So the impact on the business of me being “off” is an order of magnitude + smaller then. Many of the shipping SAAS CEO’s I respect most were “off” at the same time. 6. Don’t expect to be off 100%. I don’t think a founder can ever be off 100%. Something will come up. It’s less stressful to accept this upfront. And make sure those you are travelling with understand. That said I think cutting workload by 70-90% is totally possible. 7. What to cut when you’re “off”: -Internal meetings, the lack of which are not blocking team members that are “on” -Internal admin, the lack of which are not blocking team members that are “on” -External admin, which will not have meaningful business consequences -New business outreach 8. Things not to cut when you’re off: -Responding to client/prospect queries/requests -Excom meetings -Any work that has a major net positive impact on the cash position of the business -Running team responses to serious issues -Answering questions from team, where the lack of an answer would block them Now time to get back to my desk!! #shipsandshipping #maritime #founder #vc #seriesA

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In the UK, we’re often hesitant about selling. There’s a cultural discomfort with it as if being direct about value is something to be avoided. But in business, selling isn’t optional… it’s essential. Every founder needs to learn how to sell. Not just how to talk about a product, but how to position it, how to create urgency and how to communicate its value clearly and confidently. Because no matter how good your product is, it means nothing if no one knows about it. Visibility is just as important as quality. You can have the best product in the market but if you can’t convince people to care, it won’t go anywhere. Selling isn’t just being pushy it’s a skill. And it’s one every successful entrepreneur inevitably masters, whether selling to customers or investors.

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1.6M GLP-1 prescriptions and no plan on how to handle them. One in five UK adults tried to get their hands on a GLP-1 medication last year. And in April alone, 1.6 million packs of Wegovy and Mounjaro were sold. But what struck me most wasn’t the demand, it was how unprepared our systems are to handle it. Pharmacists are being asked to manage eligibility, navigate shortages, and support patient education, all while being left out of the planning conversations. And in some cases, patients are turning to unregulated sources when the system can’t keep up. We keep talking about “scaling access,” but the harder question is: what does responsible scale actually look like? Who triages requests? Who ensures continuity? Who protects against misuse? These are operational questions just as much as clinical ones. And they highlight why pharmacy needs more than supply, it needs structure. With generic #Ozempic soon arriving in Canada, we can expect a huge surge in prescriptions. It’s essential that pharmacy infrastructure evolves now to meet that demand effectively and safely.  #pharmacyconsult #primarycare #healthcareinnovation #pharmacists #pharmacy

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The UK has no shortage of startup support programmes. But how well do they work? In our new paper, Full Speed Ahead: Accelerating Britain’s network of startup support programmes, we ask whether the startup support ecosystem is delivering on its promise to founders, funders and the wider economy. We spoke to programme operators, founders, and policy experts to understand the challenges and opportunities, and we propose four areas of reform to help startup support programmes deliver lasting, measurable outcomes. As our Patron, Steve Rigby, writes in the foreword: “We are world-class at launching startups – but not yet at helping them scale. If we want the UK to remain globally competitive, we need to raise the bar on the programmes we fund, back, and promote.” Our report unpacks why issues persist. The common problems we found include: – Misaligned expectations: Many accelerators focus heavily on mentoring and workshops, whereas founders need investor and customer connections. – Duration mismatches: Most programmes last under six months, but founders in deep tech, health and regulated sectors need much longer runway to become investment-ready. – Short-term funding cycles: Stop-start grants disrupt mentorship, break community continuity and undermine the long-term trust essential for founder development. – Flawed impact measurement: Startup survival and funding secured are important, but this doesn’t capture long-term founder development or second-time success. A "failed" startup can produce a much stronger entrepreneur. Our recommendations include: – Establish standards and shared definitions for different programme types to bring clarity, comparability, and baseline quality to the sector. – Reform impact measurement to track long-term founder development, not just short-term startup outcomes or programme activities. – Move to longer-term, outcome-linked support, replacing stop-start grants with adaptable contracts that support iteration, trust, and planning. – Pilot demand-led funding vouchers to let public funding follow founder needs and reward high-performing programmes. We believe these reforms matter because founders need clarity, funders need accountability, and programmes need time and tools to improve. Done right, these changes could help ensure that public investment flows to the programmes that deliver the most value for founders and the UK economy.

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💥 In just one year, the number of female founders in the UK who’ve scaled past £50M revenue has jumped from 80 to 144. That’s an 80% increase — proof that the female founder ecosystem is no longer emerging, it’s entering its exponential growth phase. 🚀 This month’s Pull Up A Chair – Female Founders Report is packed with signs of momentum: • $55M raise by Kate Condliffe at Diana Health to scale women’s health clinics + tech. • Mercury13 co-founder Victoire Cogevina Reynal taking ownership in women’s sport with the Bristol City Women acquisition. • Phoebe Gates & Sophia Kianni raising $8M for Phia, a Gen-Z-led AI/social platform. • And new data from JP Morgan 2025 showing women now drive 30% of all UK high-growth companies, generating £175B turnover with exits at record levels which is important for fuelling the whole ecosystem ✨ More women are breaking through £50M. More sectors. More exits. And the pipeline is only getting stronger. 👉 Read the full September report and join us at Superscalers if you’re a female founder building past £1M revenue: www.superscalers.world

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I'm extremely proud to present Part 3 of FemHealth Focus: Current realities and future horizons. In this report we explore how UK businesses, clinicians, investors, innovators and policymakers can work with the NHS to improve outcomes for women—and why the cost of inaction is too high to ignore. Featuring forewords from Professor Dame Lesley Regan DBE MD DSc FRCOG , Women’s Health Ambassador at the Department of Health and Social Care and Kate Lancaster, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists | RCOG, Part 3 sets out a bold vision for change. 🎙️ If you'd like to discuss the report in more detail either privately or publicly (we love a podcast!) let me know. Despite long waiting lists and budget pressures, the NHS offers: ☑️ Universal access ☑️ Rich datasets ☑️ A platform for innovation However: 🚧 Fragmentation and siloed services are stalling progress 🏥 Women’s health hubs are a promising model, yet only a third of Integrated Care Boards currently offer the full range of core services 💡Femtech and digital innovation are critical to scaling solutions but need sustainable funding and joined-up thinking  💷 The cost of inaction is high:  ➡️£11bn in gynaecological-related absenteeism and  ➡️£1.5bn from menopause-related workforce exits annually 💡 Whether you're an innovator, investor, delivering care, or shaping policy this report is for you. (Link in the comments) A big thank you to our contributors: Professor Dame Lesley Regan DBE MD DSc FRCOG I Kate Lancaster I Katherine Church I Nicola Fay I Paul Holmes I Dr Nikita Kanani MBE I Rebecca Lewis I Louise Newson I Vivan Pinto I Ruby Raut I Emma Ross I Aamena Salar I Dr Sujitha Selvarajah I Stasa Stankovic I Michelle Tempest I Devika Wood, MPH I Ambra Zhang And to our Mills & Reeve team: Gayle Curry I Sophie Burton-Jones I Steph Caird I Jill Mason I Mia Church I Tania Richards I Navina Badhan I Fay Colegate and many more behind the scenes Not forgetting the fabulous Maria Davies for coming along on this journey with us and doing the hard work of writing the report! #WomensHealth #HealthTech #GenderHealthGap #FemTech #FemHealth

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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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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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