Before
Eighteen years old in London, four weeks into a law degree at King's College before dropping out. No venture contacts, no capital, no technology background.
The move
He started The Twenty Minute VC from his bedroom on a microphone that cost about fifty pounds, then treated cold outreach as a craft rather than a personality trait: a clear subject line, the ask stated up front, proof of credibility, and a personalized detail in every message. He emailed Marc Benioff 53 times before getting a yes, each time with something new. His first significant guest, Guy Kawasaki, came from a four-line email referencing specific passages of Kawasaki's own books. The show became the reason almost any investor would give him an hour.
The turn
After more than a thousand interviews, founders he had hosted began offering him money rather than the other way round. He raised eight million dollars from roughly fifty of them in about a week.
Timeline
- 2015 podcast launched from his bedroom
- 2016 six months at Atomico
- 2018 co-founded Stride.VC
- 2020 launched 20VC as his own fund
- 2024 Fund III closed at 400 million dollars
What this route asks
Consistent public output for years before it pays, and tolerance for rejection at a volume most people will not sustain. The podcast was not a shortcut around the network. It was how he built one in public.