Karl is a former gang leader turned activist, poet, influencer and public speaker. Having grown up on a gang-ridden estate in South London, he has managed to harness his life experiences which has propelled and uniquely situated him as an activist/influencer within the U.K and globally.

The episode shows the story of his incredible transformation, combined with his unique ability to connect with people on a human level, makes Karl one of the most potent voices in the country, allowing him to bridge the gap and unite communities.

We spoke about: 

• How Karl originally became involved with gangs and how he quickly rose to the top of his gang, the physical and mental scars he still carries to this day

• The difficulty he faced in eventually leaving the gang, both from external and internal pressures 

• Why he decided to create Black Seed to harness his ‘acquired nepotism’ to empower his community

You can find out more about Black Seed here: https://www.blackseed.ventures/

You can find out more about Karl Lokko here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-lokko-92696088/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

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We covered: 

• Why Simone decided to move into the startup space and outlines the value she can bring in an advisory capacity to startups having not been a founder herself
• Common mistakes student startups make within her university tutoring experience and how to address them
• How to adapt going from a large corporate to innovating and growing successfully within a startup

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We covered:

• How she simultaneously made history when one of her start-ups was acquired whilst the other was in the process of collapsing

• Yasmine’s experience of a worsening relationship between herself and her co-founder

• How entrepreneurship differs in a start-up setting versus a corporate environment

You can find out more about Yasmine El-Mehairy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmineelmehairy/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

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We spoke about: 

• How Ben made his foray into tech entrepreneurship as a teenager. The experience culminated in a successful exit of the business and laid foundations for where he is now 

• Ben’s motivations behind becoming an innovator within the parking, energy and electric vehicle industries which has been crying out for technological disruption

• What disruptive approaches Ben has used to navigate these old-fashioned industries which traditionally have lacked innovation and how these have helped propel them into the technological world of today

You can find out more about Ben Ziff here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benziff/

You can find out more about CitiPark here: https://citipark.co.uk/

You can find out more about CitiCharge here: https://citicharge.co.uk/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

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We covered:

• The process Chip took in starting a fintech, the partnerships they had to build early on and the manual tasks Simon had to take behind the scenes to offer the service to early adopters

• How Simon and Chip built the trust of their early users because that was instrumental to growing their user base to over 400,000 as of today

• How Chip attracted their first group of users onto the platform through content creation

You can find out more about Simon Rabin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonrabin/

You can find out more about Chip here: https://www.getchip.uk/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

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We spoke about:

• How F*ck Being Humble started as a community where she wrote a blog about it that got picked up by The Times and BBC before she even launched a single event that ignited her growth

• The steps Stef took in starting this community based around the premise of self-promotion

• Stef reveals the most effective lesson around self-promotion that you can use, that she teaches at her workshops with the likes of Microsoft, ASOS and many others

You can find out more about Stefanie Sword-Williams here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanieswordwilliams/

You can find out more about F*ck Being Humble here: https://www.f*ckbeinghumble.com/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

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We covered:

• Why Jess and her team wanted to innovate in the space of jewellery to fight the unethical diamond industry

• How Jess tested product-market fit in an environment where no one was previously selling lab-grown diamonds, while also maintaining low costs while testing

• How Kimai landed Meghan Markle as one of the wearers of their pieces and how this impacted the business overnight

You can find out more about Jessica Warch here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-warch/

You can find out more about Kimai here: https://kimai.com/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

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We spoke about:

• His background of starting and exiting a sport media content creation platform of 9m monthly active users and how this informed his journey into starting Connectd

• As a first-time founder, what you should focus on when gearing yourself up for investment – coming from Roei an angel investor himself

• At what stage within your business should you consider going for funding, how to start initial conversations and in what circumstances should you consider turning down money

You can find out more about Roei Samuel here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roei-samuel-b2a7016a/

You can find out more about Connectd here: https://connectd.co/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

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We spoke about:

• How Viktor got the idea by feeling the pain-point directly himself as a former tradesman by actually having to hire Uber cars to pick up supplies on demand while busy working

• How he scaled his platform initially given it is a 3 sided platform where each one of those parties need to be there to create value for the other sides being there – classic chicken and egg problem

• Which side you should onboard and focus on first to a multi-sided market from Snap-It’s experience

You can find out more about Viktor Muhhin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktormuhhin/

You can find out more about Snap It here: https://www.snap-it.app/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.