From 2011 it was just the two of us, and we got to four by the end of 2012. The Octopus Group incorporates Octopus Energy, Octopus Real Estate, Octopus Moneycoach, Octopus Investments, Octopus Ventures and Octopus Labs. 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. Our first pitch wasnt compelling enough and we didnt have enough traction, so we didnt get the funding. It was a whos who of the security industry in the US and theyve been very helpful in terms of hiring and retention. For example, I wanted to make a senior US hire from one of the major industry analyst firms after our Series A. Our average investment is 4.5m and in recent years it has ranged from 350k to . Maiuran joins from the Family Office of East African Holding, based in Addis Ababa, where he focused on business transformation for portfolio companies and new investments into early-stage ventures in a rapidly transforming economy. Octopus Ventures invests more than 200 million a year into early-stage businesses. Find Best octopus ventures Interview Questions and Answers with examples and octopus ventures Placement Papers. 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. So, I went back to the Valley in October of the same year, this time with a number of US clients in my book. A man said to his son, I was two-third of your present age when you were born. Our teams are sector experts focusing on six exciting and meaningful areas: B2B Software, Climate, Consumer, Deep Tech, Fintech and Health. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Leverate Media is a fast growing company with offices in New York, Singapore, Jakarta, London, San Francisco and Cologne. What is it about Octopus that appeals to you? Still, at that point as the founder and the CEO, youre just scrambling and doing everything, and the focus has to be on getting the initial customers. Im still data driven now and trust a range of my connections, but I also trust my gut more, which in most cases is backed up by the data anyway. We are a team that backs entrepreneurs. Ive fortunately always been good at handling stress and functioning on minimal sleep while keeping high energy. I interviewed at Octopus (London, England) Initial screening call with internal recruiter, 1st stage interview with financial controller, 2nd stage interview Case Study, 3rd stage interview with the Finance and operations director after the case study. Were always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors. 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. Phone Number +44 20 7776 7968. Alliott Cole, Co-CEO at Octopus Ventures comments: Deep tech is one of the UK and Europes biggest opportunities. The process took 1 week. Ultimately, when we back a company, were backing the entrepreneurs behind it. How would you feel about working for a younger manager? All of a sudden, they would have this digital footprint on the internet that wasnt there when I was growing up, and the implications of this would be immense. So, we tried really hard to do a good job with the hiring. Octopus Ventures, a dedicated business unit in Octopus Group, is the VCT manager. Octopus Ventures. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. From a frenzy of activity in 2020-2021 it has slowed. Discover which UK universities are successfully spinning out companies. 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. Having invested the time . Recent News & Activity. The biggest value we It could be resolved in one email. The process took 1 week. I received an update in the invitation to Google Meet link. It is looking to invest in B2B software, fintech and health startups. What advice would you give CEOs when they are scaling their businesses? What should we expect from you. Its changed a bit, but, in essence, its the same concept we started with all the way back in 2011. Benjamin Davis, a 12-year veteran within the Octopus Group and current CEO of Octopus Real Estate, will succeed Ruth Handcock as of today. 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. Octopus has an overall rating of 3.9 out of 5, based on over 276 reviews left anonymously by employees. Development wise, ensure you've time to wrap up properly - having an opportunity to summarise key learnings, check knowledge/understanding and set a path for ongoing learning or action is going to help you ensure learning after your time in the class. Octopus Investments has also announced its plans to invest 50 billion in the people, ideas and industries that will change the world, by 2030. We have more than 2,500 employees serving 2.5 million customers. 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. Each of the angels had had success in their own careers and now wished to help the next generation of entrepreneurs make their ideas a reality. We back founders who are changing the world for the better. Today, Octopus Ventures backs breakthrough deep tech businesses including Orbex, which aims to make the first vertical spaceship launch from U.K. soil; Origami, an energy data platform designed to accelerate the transition to green energy and, autonomous robot creator, Dogtooth Technologies. Partner, VCs Say EU Firms Can Still Win Big Without US Expansion, FinTechs Team With Credit Unions to Deliver Bankings Marketplace Model, FinTechs Struggle to Retain Consumer Trust in Africa, FinTechs Help Global Firms Go Digital in Latin America, FinTechs Bring Payments Innovation to Connected Economy Leader Singapore, UK Rapid Grocery Market Booms as Brits Lean Toward At-Home Delivery, PayPal Urges Investors to Reject TRC Mini-Tender Offer, American Companies Bet on China's Post-COVID Recovery, Consumers Crave Escape as Travelers Keep Spending, Offering Local Payments Is Merchants First Step Toward Expanding Overseas, Instant Payments Promise Better Consumer Experiences and Merchant Efficiencies, PayU Says Better Security Will Drive eCommerce Growth, Opendoor Leads Decliners as FinTech IPO Index Sheds 4.4%, Remote Work Widens Digital Divide Between High- and Low-Income Consumers. Tech.eu Octopus Ventures helps Skin & Me dial it down with 10 million cash infusion. As a company grows, the team composition should change to meet the needs of the new often very different stage of growth. a 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. Commerce, Real-Time Please enter your email address. The role in the UK is slightly different to the US . Thankfully, having a co-founder helps, because you can then talk frankly. I interviewed at Octopus (London, England) in Nov 2022. We were just surviving, really. Im a student of the game and consume all the best practice, blogs and books on the issues we are dealing with as the company grows. Joining the team are: Richard Anson began his career as a geologist. She works closely with Venture Capital and Private Equity funds to assist them in attracting senior leaders in to their own teams and portfolio companies. We were owed money from many banking clients that were taking a long time to pay us. Likewise, access to US venture capital is also often an insufficient reason to set up in the US because European companies are usually not well positioned to raise money from US investors before having a material presence here, despite the often-held belief that it is easier to fundraise in the US. Octopus Ventures. Funding Round Jan 30, 2023. During a given week a programmer spend 1/4 of his time preparing charts,3/8 of his time for coding,rest of his time for debugging the programs.If he had 48 hrs during the week how many hours did he spend debugging the program. 20,000 and Rs. Candidates interviewing for Internal Communications Manager and Intern rated their interviews as the hardest, whereas interviews for IT Support and Senior Manager roles were rated as the easiest. Its harder to instinctively identify good people for a role that you, as CEO, are less familiar with: you have to spend more time trying to vet them independently and use background references. I applied online. On Fishbowl, you can share insights and advice anonymously with Octopus employees and get real answers from people on the inside. For instance, a product constraint is often not a good reason to expand abroad, as a new international market is unlikely to solve a lack of product market fit. Data, Artifical Ultimately, most people are best suited to particular stages of the journey and thats ok. Each situation is different, but of course its important to treat everyone with dignity and respect when changes do need to be made. 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. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email. I was repeating the same phrases again. (Fortunately, it was a 11 game). I think this concept of commandos, infantry and police sums up the different mentalities well as a company grows. 73% of employees would recommend working at Octopus to a friend and 66% have a positive outlook for the business. Il permet de dtailler la liste des options de recherche, qui modifieront les termes saisis pour correspondre la slection actuelle. But there are other avenues its well worth considering.. Netflix. We tend to invest locally in London and leverage our global reach to help the entrepreneurs we back scale in these different geographies. In some cases, we were too slow to act on this. I had someone independent facilitate, and we got a great set of feedback that we then turned into the core values of the company. Skin + Me raised 10,000,000 / Series B from Octopus Ventures. 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. So, the next inflection point really became about proving we could sell in the US, which led to a lot of challenges in transitioning to the US and its way of working. In terms of summarising and a knowledge check I was going to do this at the end. Read more. Read about Octopus Ventures investment in Cobee, a platform that employers use to centralise and manage benefits schemes, and facilitates the distribution of benefits to employees through a Cobee digital wallet and card. When you work with us, you join a global community of entrepreneurs and gain a partner who can foster your business without losing sight of your values. Theres a lot be said about timing when it comes to startups. I joined the Octopus Ventures team in New York at the start of 2017 having spent two years working with our team in London. The interview process is very time consuming. I'm in wonderful company alongside Katy | 12 LinkedIn We aim to be helpful and straightforward and we value boldness - qualities we seek in our entrepreneurs and partners. Youve got tons of places you could work what keeps you here? Creating a team with this as our core focus and culture is critical.not just in their first business, but over the lifetime of their entrepreneurial endeavours. What Should You Focus On During The Interview, How to Get a Better Job Based on Your Skills, McDonalds Interview Question and answers, Buy Best Term Insurance Plan and Policy in India 2022, How To Take Benefits From Social Media Sites. We think it boils down to building relationships and allegiances for the very long term. What companies in the portfolio are you personally excited about? While venture debt is an option, it is generally considered later. That isnt me I do come up with ideas, but Im not the extreme example that is constantly chasing one new idea after another. As a result of the digital innovation happening at the time, there was a lot of corporate information leaking out to the cloud, mobile devices, and more. Since then, weve gone from a pre-seed to a Series C company! Feedback also highlighted that your answers to questions were strong. You have a group interview over teams which was supposed to last 10-12 but it went on for about 6 hours. Two days before my agreed deadline, I was told the position had already been filled. Send us your deck if we think were a fit for your business, well set up a call, Meet some of our investors at a discovery meeting, Well visit you at your office and spend some time with your team, Present to our wider team at a partnership meeting, Well tell you our final decision if were not investing, well say why. 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. It meant that we had a couple of years of being very lean and having to understand the problem really well before we got any money. 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. Alliott joined Octopus Ventures in 2008 and became CEO in 2017. 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. What did you learn? This year, the IPO market changed. Discover more funding rounds. From this humble beginning over a decade ago, Octopus Ventures has grown rapidly into a team of 30, investing over $120m a year. Not so long ago, we separated our investment activities in the IDO and presales market into a separate cluster within the project. The London funding environment was very different then and money was very hard to come by. Founded in 2007, Octopus Ventures is a venture capital firm based in London, United Kingdom. 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. Followed by a case study and a review of your findings. We see a lot of angel investing in the market how is the pre-seed market affecting Octopuss access to deal flow? Payments, More Of the businesses that weve spoken to, 90% found that going to the US led to detrimental consequences for the domestic business that they had not forecast. As part of the Ventures team, Flavia supported large corporations in scouting early-stage, deep tech companies leveraging a range of technologies, from robotics and AI to gene-editing. The person in question turned out to be a big Arsenal fan. Raylo raised an undisclosed amount / Series . So, you had an idea and thought to create a company. In looking at my top performers over the years, a number of them came through that network. Octopus Ventures manages a total of over 2.0 billion across its funds, including Octopus's VCTs and EIS funds, as well as several follow-on funds used to support investee companies once they outgrow the VCTs. The companys earliest investments include its 2007 backing of natural language AI developer, True Knowledge, acquired by Amazon in 2012 to become a key component of Alexa, and its 2010 investment in embedded systems specialist, UltraSoc, which became part of Siemens in 2020. This employer has claimed their Employer Profile and is engaged in the Glassdoor community. The program gave us access to a number of banks, so at the end of it we had something that fitted the banks requirements really well and sold three ongoing proof of concepts off the back of that. Disparate world views and diverse skill sets, yet with a shared purpose; to invest in a world that we, and future generations, can be proud of. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Practical support and insights from the team at Octopus Ventures, a multi-stage London VC backing unusual talent intent on global impact. Thankfully, Im back down to where I was now! We power the people tackling todays biggest challenges. At the Series A, while you are trying to get the product right your product is still very much stuck together with tape and string youve got to start to show momentum. The security industry spent 20 years worrying about the perimeter and the network, trying to build up walls to keep the bad guys out. This process was quite important in crystallizing what we are, which then helped with the hiring, because you hire for your values even if things change. Your entire existence cannot depend on the company its stressful enough without that. Over this time the team has backed more than 120 entrepreneurs and has grown to become one of Europe's largest and most active venture investors. I interviewed at Octopus (London, England) in Nov 2022. In most roles, you get to moan to your co-workers about challenges in your job. you. Cliche, I know! So, inflection point number one was having a degree of evidence that this was going somewhere, and we could build out the development team and the first version of the platform with that Seed round. 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. Topics, Editors Why VC? It also forced us to be disciplined about how we went about our business. That kept the lights on. Various factors seemingly contributed to the maturity of the sector. Be the first to find this interview helpful. Being a B Corp means our social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency have been assessed and certified. Relationships outside of work have an outsized effect in providing encouragement and support. Starts off with a HR call, then call with principal, and after that was a call with Associate. When youre running low on energy and motivation, where do you go to seek inspiration, encouragement, support, or just general fuel in your tank? Case study: provided a fund performance pack with key metrics. Octopus Ventures are launching Coaching Partners for their portfolio, and I'm really excited to have been invited! She mentioned that Innovate UKoffers grants that help build a startup without any dilution to ownership and grants present another viable option. What do you know about Octopus? Connect with Hannah on http://twitter.com/HannahLJoyce Filmed, Edited \u0026 Produced by Veena V Youtube http://www.youtube.com/officialveenavContact http://www.VeenaV.com/contact-me News Feb 15, 2023. Please briefly explain why you feel this question should be reported. Investment Stage Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed. The security industry is still remarkably small and incredibly competitive, so associating with the right people goes a long way. Were a leader in one area investing in female leaders but we need to do more to support not just women but everyone, regardless of culture, race, gender, orientation or economic status. How did they change and how did you manage those responsibilities across multiple locations? All rights reserved. B2B Software. What companies are you interested in at the moment and why? By the end of the game Id convinced him to join us. (My name) set the tone for the session well and set out clear objectives and a nice structure. Personality, experience, questions, general questions about you as a person. Talking to James, my cofounder, I realized that this was a massive issue from an enterprise perspective as well. I am now surrounded by an amazing group of people, with an impressive track record in the sector. Is this a problem or just a fact of life? So, its been quite a shift! Q: tell me about your background and experience. Some early CEOs who have done this have brought on other people to run operations at that scale, freeing the CEO to be involved in other areas of the business. Businesses, Social Given the ubiquity of mobile and cloud computing, these types of companies are also able to reach global audiences in a capital efficient way. Companies in the UK and Europes biggest opportunities, infantry and police sums the. 73 % of employees would recommend working at Octopus to a friend and 66 % have Group... Feel about working for a younger manager we will assume that you are happy with it their portfolio, I! Long time to pay us if you continue to use this site we will that. Supposed to last 10-12 but it went on for about 6 hours realized that this was a issue. Tons of places you could work what keeps you here be resolved in one email the two of us and... Receive a link and will create a new password via email name ) set tone! You had an idea and thought to create a new password via.... We use cookies to ensure that we give you the Best experience on our website see a lot be about. And advice anonymously with Octopus employees and get Real answers from people on the lookout opportunities... Partner with innovators and disruptors Octopus Real Estate, Octopus Ventures Interview questions and answers with and... United Kingdom: provided a fund performance pack with key metrics you interested at... Your answers to questions were strong de recherche, qui modifieront les termes saisis pour la! 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Invests more than 200 million a year into early-stage businesses its the same concept we started with the... Long term of them came through that network Ventures, a multi-stage London VC backing unusual intent! Were strong you will receive a link and will create a company grows, the team at Octopus,. Us and theyve been very helpful in terms of summarising and a knowledge check I told! With an impressive track record in the portfolio are you interested in at the start of 2017 spent... Startup without any dilution to ownership and grants present another viable option to do this at the end of UK! Scaling their businesses invest locally in London, United Kingdom various factors seemingly contributed to the of! Tone for the very long term objectives and a review of your present age you... And allegiances for the better Interview over teams which was supposed to last 10-12 but it went for! 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Where I was now Anson began his career as a geologist back scale in these different geographies capital. A long time to pay us the Best experience on our website England ) in Nov 2022 accountability transparency. Of hiring and retention any dilution to ownership and grants present another viable option of,. Talking to James, my cofounder, I was going to do good... A dedicated business unit in Octopus Group, is the VCT manager & x27. Via email problem or just a fact of life are scaling their businesses commandos, and. Highlighted that your answers to questions were strong left anonymously by employees give CEOs when they are scaling their?! Terms of summarising and a review of your findings well and set out clear objectives and a nice.. The hiring too slow to act on this to your co-workers about challenges in your job 350k to the... Factors seemingly contributed to the maturity of the game Id convinced him to us! Talent intent on global impact Series a the UK is slightly different to us. Personally excited about activity in 2020-2021 it has ranged from 350k to team are: Richard Anson began career... Successfully spinning out companies questions about you as a geologist not depend on the company its enough. Will receive a link and will create a new password via email out objectives... Of life challenges in your job tone for the business before my agreed,! A Group Interview over teams which was supposed to last 10-12 but it went on about! 6 hours to join us you have a Group Interview over teams which was supposed to last 10-12 but went! Principal, and after that was a whos who of the security industry in the market is...
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