Simon Glass is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Qodeo, a platform created to address the challenges he observed while working across the venture ecosystem. Qodeo matches venture and private equity investors with entrepreneurs, with a particular focus on founders from diverse, regional, and female communities.
Simon has previously worked at two UK venture capital firms, including Amadeus Capital Partners, the first backer of ARM Holdings. His broader career includes roles at EY in academia and media, at WPP as Deputy Chair of a publishing house, and in project finance where he supported Roy Hill, the world’s largest private iron ore mine, in raising $9 billion.
Simon has written for the Financial Times, holds a BA, MA, and MBA from the University of Cambridge, and completed training in corporate finance at London Business School.
We cover the following:
00:11 Meet Simon Glass: CEO of Qodeo
01:13 Exploring the venture ecosystem
02:35 Challenges for underrepresented founders
05:55 Platform: matching investors and entrepreneurs
14:05 Addressing unconscious bias in investing
19:32 Comparing UK and US startup ecosystems
28:40 Entrepreneurial boom in Europe
32:01 Cultural shifts in entrepreneurship
32:38 Moving the needle in who VCs invest in
36:58 Challenges with angel investors
49:28 Improving the startup funding ecosystem
53:43 Final thoughts.
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For more information on Qodeo, see: https://qodeo.com/
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