GOSH, what a summer!
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Some of you may have noticed (or not!) that I had an extended summer break…
Teddy (11) contracted HUS (Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome) as a consequence of getting E. Coli O157 and was in Watford General then Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for a few weeks…
Cue acute severe kidney failure, 24/7 peritoneal dialysis, two op’s under GA, MRIs, CTs, x-rays, 18 hours on a ventilator, a few blood transfusions… Rough stuff, but if you ever have a sick kid please fight like hell if you have to to get them into GOSH — it's a truly remarkable place with remarkable staff — that's how healthcare should be for all of us.
Thanks to all my family, friends and co-founders for your support, gifts and kind words during that time — it really did make all the difference. Thrilled to say, albeit a stressful month or so later than expected, that Teddy is back to school and back to normal.
It wasn’t the late summer I expected but every cloud has a silver lining and the kids finally wore me down… Therefore as a result of the new “let's not put things off” mindset since the GOSH adventure… meet Ralph!
And now what?
I shared the above on LinkedIn and now here on my Substack. I’ll be writing more on LinkedIn and less on Substack — as well as doing a lot behind the scenes, I’ve found that LinkedIn has terrific reach and therefore it’s currently a great way for me to support my portfolio.
So after that extended summer I’ll continue to leverage my investment approach with the right UHNWIs. I recently invested in EVware (see below) and with the right funds have three other startups I’d love to give preemptive offers to. I can do that because over the last 13 years I've developed a process which means I can do the most difficult part of startup investing — evaluating the founders — better than anyone else. My evaluation means I know the startups I’d like to invest in long before the founder begins formal fundraising.
If you're reading this then perhaps this is your opportunity to join me and scale-up my process.
Get in touch by:
Hitting reply to this email.
Emailing me on matthew@stafford.vc
Connecting on LinkedIn, here, or by sending me a DM on Twitter, here.
Also look out for me sharing more about 9others and how it’s a critical part of my investment process on the Nothing Ventured podcast, here, which will be released in December.
Portfolio News
🚗 I invested in EVware — I’ve known Chris for 10+ years and the automotive work he did at Conjure, where he was CTO, couldn’t be more relevant to the new and (small but) growing market EVware is in.
🧼 I got Seep in the FT, here — check out their limited edition washing up ‘sleighing’ kit here.
🌍 Amongst a tonne of partnership announcements what3words marches on to becoming *the* global addressing standard…
Yodel, here, now allows customers to specify their what3word delivery address therefore eliminating the challenges of ambiguous or middle-of-nowhere locations.
Mercedes-Benz, Lamborghini, Subaru and Alpine Electronics were celebrated for enabling what3words across their tech in Japan, here.
And a trainee pilot stopped a farm fire in Bedfordshire spreading by using what3words here.
💳 BlackBullion are in the top 20 of the ‘FinTech 50 Innovation Ranking’, here, which is not bad given only 18 months ago they were firmly (and only) in the ‘EdTech’ camp.
🏕️ Unplugged are up to 19 cabins with 20-22 being installed and 23-26 ordered, Hector was in the ‘Great Escapes in the new Renault Austral’ Top Gear video here, and they’re still getting >99% occupancy.
Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
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