Working at @OctopusVentures seeking unusually talented entrepreneurs, based in NYC. Market-leading rankings and editorial commentary - see the top law firms & lawyers for M&A: smaller deals, up to 50m in London I had someone independent facilitate, and we got a great set of feedback that we then turned into the core values of the company. I was also sent the NDA to complete the case study. Our renewable energy business is disrupting a 2 trillion industry by using technology to make the green revolution faster and cheaper for tens of . Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Leverate Media is a fast growing company with offices in New York, Singapore, Jakarta, London, San Francisco and Cologne. Hannah Joyce from Odgers Berndtson talks Venture Capital Trends with a fantastic Venture Capital Partner at Octopus Ventures. I interviewed at Octopus (London, England) in Mar 2022. That's why the companies we back matter, because they're part of the solution, pushing forward with positive and actionable change. So, its been quite a shift! I think this concept of commandos, infantry and police sums up the different mentalities well as a company grows. 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. What candidates say about the interview process at Octopus Energy. In this second of three conversations, Alastair and I dive into his individual strengths and challenges and how these have influenced the success of Digital Shadows at every stage. 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. Our mission is simple to invest in the people, ideas and industries that will change the world. If you build good rapport with someone in the interview process, it can really carry you through the end when he or she has competing offers. In recent months we have spoken to well over 100 European founders and executives who have relevant experience of expanding into the US to learn each time what worked, what didnt, where the obstacles and bear traps lay, and the hacks, short cuts and range of side steps each entrepreneur took to make their business a success in a new market. After six months, C joined them with Rs. 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. Issued by Octopus Investments. I interviewed at Octopus (London, England) in Feb 2022, It was just the same as any sort of interview, the feedback wasnt accurate to the brief I received which led to this below: What kinds of challenges in transitioning to the US were you grappling with at this stage? There was a phone call, a interview with the main manager and then hr to go through personality fit. The hiring process at Octopus takes an average of 23.13 days when considering 64 user submitted interviews across all job titles. Asked to describe an overview of the fund (i.e. 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. Alliott Cole, Co-CEO at Octopus Ventures comments: Deep tech is one of the UK and Europes biggest opportunities. A man said to his son, I was two-third of your present age when you were born. Being a B Corp means our social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency have been assessed and certified. By the end of the game Id convinced him to join us. The head of our People & Talent team, Laura C. Willming, joined Jimmy's Jobs to talk about how founders can build a brilliant team! Since then, weve gone from a pre-seed to a Series C company! He secured a PHD in engineering geology, spent time as a post-doc researcher and spent four years in the engineering industry. . I'm in wonderful company alongside Katy | 12 LinkedIn There was a phone call, a interview with the main manager and then hr to go through personality fit. So general greetings as a start That also isnt me: I want to build my own rocket ship, not ride on one someone else created. 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 . Thankfully, Im back down to where I was now! The person in question turned out to be a big Arsenal fan. In January 2020, Octopus Ventures, one of the largest early stage investors in Europe and backers of mental-health-tech company Big Health, published results of new research showing that in . 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. Now Octopus Ventures | 44,435 LinkedIn. We welcome your ideas, whoever you are. Youve got tons of places you could work what keeps you here? Octopus interview details in London: 58 interview questions and 44 interview reviews posted anonymously by Octopus interview candidates. Youve got to follow your own conviction, or gut, ultimately. It is looking to invest in B2B software, fintech and health startups. 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. It also forced us to be disciplined about how we went about our business. Needless to say, its pretty hard to go from zero to public and successfully run the company throughout. Our team in the US is focused almost entirely on helping our European portfolio scope and enter the US market. Octopus Ventures is part of Octopus Investments Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 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. As a company continues to grow, your ability to hire well is one of the key determinants of success and failure. From this humble beginning over a decade ago, Octopus Ventures has grown rapidly into a team of 30, investing over $120m a year. ; FP Octopus UK Future Generations Fund We're targeting long-term capital growth by focusing on investing in companies, aligned with our sustainable investment themes. Skin + Me raised 10,000,000 / Series B from Octopus Ventures. This has proven to be a very difficult aspect of transitioning from one stage to another, but it has to be confronted. Anonymous Interview Candidate in London, England, I applied online. Common stages of the interview process at Octopus according to 64 Glassdoor interviews include: Glassdoor has millions of jobs plus salary information, company reviews, and interview questions from people on the inside making it easy to find a job thats right for you. One of those milestones has to be revenue, and if youre trying to raise from US investors, they prize US revenue over everything else. Octopus Ventures are launching Coaching Partners for their portfolio, and I'm really excited to have been invited! The process took 1 week. What is it about Octopus that appeals to you? & Pharmacy, Healthcare This button displays the currently selected search type. How would you feel about working for a younger manager? This rating has improved by 3% over the last 12 months. 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. 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. Octopus Ventures General Information. We do not offer investment or tax advice. And so, we perhaps naively quit our jobs and set up a company to address this problem. 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. Case study: provided a fund performance pack with key metrics. 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. Alastair Paterson is the co-founder of Digital Shadows and has been its CEO for 8 years since its founding. There is a common sentiment in the early stage industry that founder CEOs are often not built to grow from the two-person team all the way to the CEO of a mature company, or in some cases just do not wish to do so. Contact Email info@octopusvnetures.com. And how has Digital Shadows grown since that beginning? 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. Cliche, I know! I am now surrounded by an amazing group of people, with an impressive track record in the sector. All rights reserved. Weve updated them every 1218 months since then, because the company changes and the culture changes. Copyright 2008-2023, Glassdoor, Inc. "Glassdoor" and logo are registered trademarks of Glassdoor, Inc. Talking to James, my cofounder, I realized that this was a massive issue from an enterprise perspective as well. . The entrepreneurs we back are reimagining how whole industries behave. Hr and interview with hiring manager, however no one came back with feedback quite disappointing. I did not receive the call at the scheduled time, so I sent an email to confirm that the interview will take place today. My co-founder James did a little contracting work on the side. 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. 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. Why Fintech? I applied online. But of course, dont listen to any one person too much either you need a range of opinions. We back businesses from an idea on a page all the way through a business's journey to exit. Hello. 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. Various factors seemingly contributed to the maturity of the sector. B2B Software. Were spread not just in San Francisco, where I am were in London, Dallas our biggest US office now Singapore, and Germany. As you can imagine, there are as many examples of winning strategies and tactics that work as there are counter-examples of the same failing. Where have you struggled to identify, retain, or empower your talent? Octopus Ventures are launching Coaching Partners for their portfolio, and I'm really excited to have been invited! The London-based startup has raised over $30.5 million in funding to date, with backers including the media titan Sky (now owned by Comcast) and to VCs including Octopus Ventures, LocalGlobe, Sands Capital, and Guardian Media Group Ventures. We aim to be helpful and straightforward and we value boldness - qualities we seek in our entrepreneurs and partners. I thought that there would be a need for a company to look after all this information. For some companies we may work in a very hands-on manner and for others, it could be less frequent projects. Also get tips from expert on How to Crack octopus ventures Interviews. 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. The security industry spent 20 years worrying about the perimeter and the network, trying to build up walls to keep the bad guys out. Index, Data 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. I applied online. I interviewed at Octopus (London, England) in Jan 2022. Developing a personal relationship in the hiring process can be an essential complement to the business reasons a person might join your company. The sentiment does hold in many cases, but not all. The first interview was set up by the interviewer Victoria, who specified that it would be a phone conversation. If you find that interesting, then that can sustain you through points of rapid change. Job Interview Best Practices Growing Your Career Starting a New Job All Articles Learning Hub Food & Beverage Online Courses Retail Online Courses Inky? In 2021 Octopus Ventures has backed deep tech startups including quantum computing firm ORCA . Mat Munro brings fourteen years of operator experience in venture backed businesses, from founding a number of companies to leading product, design, and engineering teams at the likes of VisualDNA. 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. 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. Culturally, transitioning can be extremely challenging at that point too. Building out a high-performance marketing team can be imperative to the success of a technology business. How did you articulate the problem you wished to solve to, say, the potential customers? Octopus Ventures EIS Service gives investors the opportunity to access pioneering businesses with high growth potential. Ce bouton affiche le type de recherche actuellement slectionn. Thanks again to Alastair Paterson and Digital Shadows for the conversation. Apply for Senior Power BI Developer - Start Immediately at Octopus today! Venture capital for the founders building a better tomorrow. Lost your password? Id had a seven-year journey at my previous employer. Investment Stage Early Stage Venture, Late Stage Venture, Seed. We invest where we can make the greatest positive impact, getting behind businesses that put people, community and the environment first. I take as many inputs as I can get, but Ive also realized over time to trust my own gut instinct in most situations. 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. Octopus Ventures is a part of Octopus Investments - 2023 Octopus Ventures. Should we choose to hire you for the post ? I applied online. We were owed money from many banking clients that were taking a long time to pay us. We are a team that backs entrepreneurs. PYMNTS I did not receive the call at the scheduled time, so . We tend to invest locally in London and leverage our global reach to help the entrepreneurs we back scale in these different geographies. Hannah works with the Founders of pure play technology and digital companies that have received VC, Growth or PE funding who are keen to develop, scale and drive their businesses to become global players. Q: tell me about your background and experience. It was a whos who of the security industry in the US and theyve been very helpful in terms of hiring and retention. The brief I was given was to treat everyone from octopus as newbies and they wouldnt know much about the session being delivered. For journalists in their professional capacity only. Staying really active helps lower my stress and generally keeps me healthy and able to deal with the challenges of my role. How well has it been received by the Asian market? This meant that I could get back on the plane to the US pretty soon after. Alliott joined Octopus Ventures in 2008 and became CEO in 2017. (My name) set the tone for the session well and set out clear objectives and a nice structure. And then, if I remember correctly, another important point in the companys life occurred when progress stalled before your Series A? Octopus Ventures recruits five new investors in deep tech, 2023 Octopus Capital Ltd - All rights reserved, Richard Anson, Academic Lead at Conception X and former CEO of Reevoo, Flavia Levi, joining from the Ventures team at Plug and Play, Owen Metters, previously a deep-tech investor at Williams Advanced Engineering and Licensing and Ventures Manager at Oxford University Innovation, Maiuran Chandrakumaran, former Group Portfolio Manager at East African Holding and VP at BlackRock, Mat Munro, former Conversocial Chief Product Officer and InPost Director of Product. Not being able to scale your marketing function can place significant constraints on a companys ability to grow, which can be a challenge, especially for consumer facing businesses, where you are competing with agencies and established start-ups for the best marketing talent. 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. In the second part of the conversation, Alastair and I discuss his individual strengths and challenges and evaluate how well he has applied them at each stage of Digital Shadows growth. 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. ( My name) has a friendly and informal / conversational style which was really liked by the attendees. What did you do in your previous role? What do you know about Octopus? 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. 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. 15,000 respectively. 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. As a result of this, European entrepreneurs are drawn to the US for a variety of reasons, but typically they start thinking about a US launch when they reach some sort of limitation in their home market. Let us help you get to the right place so you can read the stories most relevant to Thankfully, having a co-founder helps, because you can then talk frankly. The first interview was set up by the interviewer Victoria, who specified that it would be a phone conversation. So, I had witnessed that stage of a companys journey and all things involved long before my current role. 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. a Personal opinions may change and should not be seen as advice or a recommendation. 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. The process took 3 weeks. So far this year, the Octopus Ventures deep tech team has invested more than 45 million into businesses including Orca Computing, which is providing the UK Ministry of Defences first quantum computer; AI dubbing software developer, Papercup, and adaptive music technology platform, Lifescore. Written by Nick Sando Read more. Were always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors. This year, the IPO market changed. The decision to scale into the U.S. market, followed by the execution, is not for the faint Written by Nick Sando. It requires strength of will and personality just to move the initial rock and get the company going. Funding Round Feb 15, 2023. 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. (Fortunately, it was a 11 game). 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. On the other end, there are those who prefer to grow existing ideas, with little role in idea-creation. The role in the UK is slightly different to the US . Our in-house People + Talent specialists are here to support with building teams and cultures that thrive. Octopus Ventures has previously backed some of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs, making . We back founders who are changing the world for the better. No matter how important the company might feel to you, its still not as important as family and we all have lives outside work. Foodsteps is a platform. Non-journalists, you'll For instance, they witnessed decreased management time and focus, opportunity cost of investments, culture and organisational behaviour challenges. I applied online. It was quite funny coming out to the US; in the first six months I put on five kilos. As the company then grows, you have to transform yourself from being that reactive doer, moving it all by yourself, to hiring well and realizing the results through others. All Rights Reserved. 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. So, I went back to the Valley in October of the same year, this time with a number of US clients in my book. I wish I was an octopus so I could slap 8 people. firm Alven, told PYMNTS in a recent interview. What companies are you interested in at the moment and why? 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. . , . Needing . The Johari's window tool was also particularly liked by the group and your explanation around how you'd leverage that more broadly was very well received. 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 You have to be focused on the next milestones and what will allow you to raise or have a sustainable business. This was the evidence we needed to convince the UK VC community to put money in, and our original seed round happened with Passion Capital around this time. Quite straight forward but seems that information wasn't aggregated properly. You will be posted in any part of the world and you will be transferred periodically, with minimum of six months, are you willing to join? Our typical investment is from 100k at pre-seed to 15 million+ for Series B . Description. Ready to start measuring customer happiness?