Hi friends,
Have you ever met someone who did not look like the obvious choice on paper, yet turned out to be exactly the person the job needed?
Past roles, sector knowledge and years of experience can all help us judge what someone might do next. But these signals can also cause us to overlook people with the judgement, drive and capacity to learn that a role truly demands.
For founders, this matters when deciding who should help lead a company through its next stage. The right person may not know the sector inside out or have held the same title before. What matters more may be their ability to listen, earn trust, bring the right people together and make sound decisions as the business evolves.
Investors face a similar challenge when assessing talent. A strong CV shows what someone has already done, but not necessarily how they respond to setbacks, lead others or grow into a role they have never held before.
This is the focus of Will Maunder-Taylor’s Unsung conversation with Pascal Wittet and Sandy Farmer, Co-Founders of Orca Equity Partners.
Orca backs first-time CEOs to acquire and run established small businesses, even when they have no direct experience in the sector. Pascal and Sandy explain why qualities such as grit, care, humility and a willingness to learn can matter more than conventional credentials.
Their perspective raises a broader question for all of us: how often do we mistake familiarity for potential?
Below, we have gathered further resources for founders on becoming stronger leaders, choosing the right people and building better teams, alongside insights for investors on identifying and backing talent others might miss.
You’ll also find upcoming events and more conversations we think you’ll find valuable.
Enjoy the read,
with 💖
David & Andreas
Backing first-time CEOs to buy their own business
For founders: What better leadership looks like
Better leadership is not about having every answer. It is about knowing when to listen, when to adapt and how to build a team that can grow with the company.
These resources explore how founders can become stronger leaders, spot gaps early and bring in the people their next stage demands.
For investors: Seeing potential before others do
The strongest opportunities rarely arrive with complete proof. Investors need to judge how people think, learn and make decisions before the results are clear.
These resources explore how to look beyond familiar signals, test for real insight and build conviction in founders and managers others may miss.
Podcasts
As software becomes faster and cheaper to build, the advantage in consumer tech is shifting from what teams can ship to how quickly and intelligently they can learn from users.
In Episode #4 of Consumer Tech Napkin, produced in partnership with True, we speak with Neil Tanna of Howbout, Graham Paterson of Jitty and Mike Martin of True about the systems, judgement and experimentation behind great consumer products.
Highlights
Why features alone rarely create lasting defensibility
How distribution, user love and learning loops reinforce one another
What separates genuine experimentation from “shipping and hoping”
How teams balance incremental tests with bigger product bets
Where human taste still matters as AI accelerates product development
AI investment is accelerating, but markets are becoming less willing to reward spending without clear returns.
In the latest episode of This Week in European Tech, Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen of SuperSeed, Lomax Ward of Outsized Ventures and Andrew J Scott of 7percent Ventures discuss:
Whether AI infrastructure spending can deliver sustainable returns
Why better models do not automatically create meaningful automation
What AI is revealing about post-quantum security
How sovereignty is reshaping Europe’s technology supply chains
Events
