VENTURES | 23/7/25

🎯 On the Docket:

00:00:00 – Intro and News Segment

00:05:02 – Tech News Roundup: Lovable's $200M Series A, OpenAI UK Expansion & AI Infrastructure

00:29:36 – Georgia Gibson, co-founder of Youni, is building technology to get people offline through their campus app that filters events by social connections. An Oxford graduate who avoided social media during her teens, she's pivoting Youni beyond campuses into an AI-powered social event platform. In the conversation, she reveals how event attendance is driven by social proof rather than event quality, explaining her philosophy that while AI tools save time, her platform helps people "spend that time better" by facilitating real-world connections.

00:56:50 – Harrison Hide, co-founder of Long Lane, has raised £4.5M to build a wellness-centric member club on 55 acres outside London, positioning it as "Soho Farmhouse but with wellness at the genesis." A former Wall Street professional who left after recognizing unsustainable lifestyle sacrifices, he's creating a space where all wellness aspects flourish. In the conversation, he details meticulous wellness integration—from organic farms to non-toxic materials—while explaining his vision to reimagine country clubs for health-focused consumers.

01:23:38 – Ben Kaluza, co-founder of NineSixteen Studios, has mastered tech content creation over six years, becoming one of the UK's leading AI/tech educators. Operating under "I make videos that look like ads, so brands pay me to make videos that don't look like ads," he's built an extremely brand-friendly page. In the conversation, he reveals how NineSixteen Studios targets AI startups by productizing his content style, while sharing insights from AI company Discord communities about feature-level marketing strategies.

01:59:00 – Marius Manolachi and Amir Isaac, founders of projectOS from Entrepreneur First's Castle program, are revolutionizing education by connecting project-based learning to job market demands. Marius taught 100,000+ students while Amir built three startups since age 16, identifying that traditional education fails by focusing on accessibility rather than motivation. In the conversation, they explain their AI-powered platform providing personality analyses and proof-of-work portfolios that match learning projects to job requirements.

02:30:19 – Wail Ghazaleh, co-director of Kickstart Global, operates the UK's largest student-led incubator founded by George Robson (Sequoia's youngest partner at 25), filtering 2,000+ applications to 44 founders under 24 whose alumni companies are worth £500M+ collectively. He emphasizes UK talent is underserved compared to the US market. In the conversation, he reveals success patterns including engineers starting young and natural sales ability, announcing applications open in August for October cohort.

02:54:22 – Episode Recap and Closing Thoughts