Seven Hills hosted a special session on the first day of Advertising Week Europe 2019 on Monday, the flagship conference for the advertising, media and creative industries.
Chaired by Seven Hills co-founder Michael Hayman, ‘Disruptive Influence: The Secrets of Scaling Fast’, featured leaders and investors behind some of the fastest growing firms today.
Eileen Burbidge, founder of venture capital firm Passion Capital and board member at Monzo, said an appetite for disruption was a common characteristic in breakthrough firms: “One thing that is true about Monzo since the very beginning – and I can’t take credit for this – is that they were very passionate about changing the way people experienced banking.”
Gareth Nettleton, SVP of marketing at Strava stressed the importance of social business models: “Our growth is underpinned by our community… I think you make [your business] social from day one, you have to have some kind of social DNA.”
Phil Lloyd, CMO of carwow said that fast-growth comes from building a great company culture: “The spirit of the business as it scales has to be credible and the worst attempts at maintaining culture are when it doesn’t quite fit.”
President, corporate and commercial of Elvie, Darren Goode believes businesses with purpose will experience faster growth: “Everyone wants to do something mission-driven. It needs to be something people are engaged in.”
Priya Guha, partner at Merian Ventures and former British Consul General to San Francisco, explained that female-led businesses are the next big investment opportunity: “For us, it’s about untapped market opportunity. Female founders investing in female founders, rectifying the horrific imbalance there is in the investment space.”