Patrick Schneider: Beast Ventures

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Investor With Joel Palathinkal

Episode: Patrick Schneider: Beast Ventures
Date: September 10, 2025
Host: Dr. Joel Palathinkal
Guest: Patrick Schneider (Founder, Beast Ventures; VC from UK)

---

Overview

This episode features a lively roundtable discussion centered on Patrick Schneider and his journey as a venture capitalist and founder of Beast Ventures. The group covers breaking into VC, strategic networking, global tech ecosystems (especially UK vs. US), valuations, the rise of platforms like Clubhouse, investing in deep tech and impact, and practical advice for aspiring investors and founders. The atmosphere is informal, transparent, and collaborative, with contributions from journalists and medical professionals in the audience.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Value of Clubhouse and Modern Networking

Timestamps: 01:11, 02:12, 04:37, 05:43, 06:58, 07:44

• Serendipitous networking: Clubhouse enables low-pressure connections and serendipitous meetings across global time zones.
  • Patrick describes how Clubhouse has become more accessible for Europeans and shares, “My Friday night lockdown party was running your Clubhouse... it’s become really global, which is great.” (02:12)
• Platform evolution: The explosion of Clubhouse usage increases opportunities but also creates “noise” and discovery challenges.
  • Patrick: “There are thousands and thousands of...members... There are rooms popping up everywhere. So that’s going to be an issue… sifting through all of the noise.” (04:45)
• Relationship building: Clubhouse, LinkedIn, and similar platforms blend casual and professional networking, yielding new deal flows and reconnections with old acquaintances.
  • Patrick: "[After a Clubhouse session] Ron introduced me to a startup...that I spoke...with last week...wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been on Clubhouse at that moment.” (07:44)
• LinkedIn limitations: While Clubhouse facilitates genuine engagement, LinkedIn messages can be impersonal and overwhelming for VCs.

2. Breaking Into Venture Capital & Building Trust

Timestamps: 03:48, 10:06, 13:56, 15:10, 15:39

• Nontraditional pathways: Patrick’s entry into VC was through corporate intelligence and venture building in Russia, emphasizing operational grit.
• Relationship-first approach: Trust-building through sharing valuable deal flow, not immediately asking for money, is key.
  • Patrick: "They, in the end, it was their idea to formalize things, not mine...with some of these relationships, it does take time, you have to build trust." (15:39)
• Analogy with startups: Fundraising for VCs with LPs mirrors what founders experience; power dynamics influence who gets access and when.

3. Approaching VCs: Thoughtful Outreach

Timestamps: 18:58

• Good outreach example: Patrick discusses investing in a founder who “kept in touch” after an initial rejection, attending events, and demonstrating growth. Relationship nurturing often leads to investment later.
  • “If she just kind of ghosted us...then that wouldn’t have happened. That’s a good example.” (20:34)
• Bad outreach: Cold, transactional approaches rarely yield results.

4. Comparative Views: US vs UK & European Tech Ecosystem

Timestamps: 20:52, 23:56, 26:22, 28:11, 30:04

• Cultural differences: US is “less risk averse”; UK and Europe have plenty of talent but less early-stage money and more conservative attitudes toward start-ups.
  • Patrick: “Americans are less risk averse than Europeans. It’s just a fact... Sometimes I forget I’m in a VC/startup bubble.” (20:52)
• Valuations: US valuations—especially in the Valley—are significantly higher at both early and late stages. There's regional variation even within countries (e.g., “New Jersey of the UK” = Belfast or north of England, where valuations are lower).
  • “Same IP, the same tech team...move down to London...valuation can double.” (26:22)
• Ecosystem hotspots: London, Oxford, Cambridge form the UK’s "Silicon Triangle"; Edinburgh, Nordics, France, Berlin noted for sector-specific strengths.

5. Impact of Remote Work & Virtual Investment

Timestamps: 30:04, 32:04, 33:38

• Remote diligence increases deal flow quantity, but not always the quality of interaction.
  • Patrick: “Increase in quantity...not sure if the quality...is as strong. But...learning about what’s out there, it’s more efficient.” (32:04)
• Some decisions benefit from face-to-face meetings, especially at the early stage.

6. Investing in Deep Tech and Impact

Timestamps: 36:51, 39:46, 42:04

• Patrick’s MIT experience shaped his deep tech focus—especially taking complex science “out of the black box” and turning it into actionable investment.
  • Patrick: “We had to not be afraid of science...They trained us...if we can validate the science...what’s the commercial opportunity here?” (36:51)
• Beast Ventures focuses on planetary health and human health (food/agriculture, health tech, clean meat, climate).
• Blurring lines between deep tech and impact: "VC is going to become impact investing...Regulations are changing...consumer habits are changing...” (39:46)

7. Healthcare, Systems, and Opportunity

Timestamps: 44:45, 45:21, 48:36

• The UK’s single-payer, government-run healthcare creates opportunities for startups—especially those leveraging data for population health or therapeutics.
• Patrick: “You can...go to the hospital and they’ll try and look after you...centralized database...great opportunities [for] startups.” (45:21)
• US healthcare is more business-driven; in the UK, less profit pressure but resource constraints mean hospitals can be understaffed.

8. General Advice for Aspiring VCs and Founders

Timestamps: 50:47, 54:49, 56:56

• Build relationships and develop subject matter expertise—specialized focus helps raise first-time funds.
• Patrick: “If you want to get into VC, that’s where I would start...If you have a particular area you’re passionate about and expertise in, it helps.” (50:47)
• Persistence trumps brilliance:
  • Patrick: “A lot of the people who are successful are not necessarily the smartest, but they are the most persistent...if you don’t give up and everyone else does, then by default you win.” (54:49)
  • Bonnie: “No is an acronym...just keep changing the talking points...No stands for not ordinarily.” (56:56)

---

Notable Quotes

• On Building Relationships:
  • "It takes a lot of time to build trust. That’s even true with some startup founders."
    — Patrick Schneider (15:39)
• On Clubhouse Networking:
  • "Wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been on Clubhouse like at that moment."
    — Patrick Schneider (07:44)
• On US vs. UK VC Culture:
  • "Americans are less risk averse than Europeans. It’s just a fact."
    — Patrick Schneider (20:52)
• On Persistence:
  • "The people who are successful are not necessarily the smartest, but they are the most persistent... If you don’t give up and everyone else does, then by default you win."
    — Patrick Schneider (54:49)
• On Founders Nurturing Relationships:
  • "She kept in touch...I saw how the company...and she grew as a founder...We got to the stage where we wanted to invest..."
    — Patrick Schneider (20:34)
• On Impact Investment:
  • "Our thesis is that...VC is going to become impact investing."
    — Patrick Schneider (39:46)

---

Segment Timestamps for Reference

• [01:11] — Clubhouse’s role in networking
• [10:06] — Patrick’s journey from corporate intelligence to VC
• [13:56] — Starting a fund through organic relationships
• [18:58] — Example of founder building a relationship with Patrick
• [20:52] — US vs. UK/Europe differences
• [23:56] — Deep dive on valuations
• [26:22] — Regional valuation disparities
• [36:51] — Impact of MIT and deep tech investing mindset
• [39:46] — Beast Ventures' focus: planetary and human health
• [44:45] — Healthcare system similarities/differences
• [50:47] — Advice for breaking into VC: build relationships, specialize
• [54:49] — Patrick on perseverance and success

---

Tone & Atmosphere

The conversation is candid, supportive, and collaborative. There's no preaching—just storytelling and experience-sharing. Both the host and guest emphasize relationship-building, patient career development, and persistence above resume-building or transactional networking.

---

Takeaways for Listeners

• Network intentionally and nurture relationships, both on new platforms and offline.
• Patience, value add, and consistent contact are key to building VC and founder trust.
• Developing sector expertise helps aspiring VCs gain an edge, but persistence is even more crucial.
• Global tech ecosystems are converging, but local context and risk appetite still matter.
• Impact investing is not a niche, but the likely future of venture capital.
• Use “no” as a motivator—change the frame and find a way forward.

---

This episode is a must-listen for aspiring investors, early-stage founders, and anyone curious about the evolving intersection of deep tech, impact, and the global VC landscape.

Transcript

[Radio Host]

It's Boomerango mornings on the Fan, 1019 FM.

[Sports Analyst]

I want players who want to play. I don't want players who are oft injured. I want players who give a crap. And I really feel like, you know, since, you know, Thibodeau got here and Leon Rose got here, and I guess you could say World Wide west, that they've tried to bring in players who kind of mirrored that kind of thinking.

[Radio Host]

Listen to Boomerang on Demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

He's also pretty young as well.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Yeah, he's got a couple years on him.

[Participant / Commentator]

Right.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Not that Jeff Bezos is sort of out of shape or old or anything like that, but he's just been doing it for such a long time, so 23 years or longer.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Well, okay, so what else is popping on the news? Right? So we got. We could talk about Robinhood. We could talk about GameStop. I mean, Bonnie, you're the journalist here. What else is big gossip in tech and Venture? I see you turned your camera off, so.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

I did. Well, yeah. You know, it's funny. I write a newsletter that goes out every Tuesday morning, and I was talking about Clubhouse.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

And everybody moving over to Clubhouse. And, you know, it's amazing. People are just sick of. Of the game being rigged, the platforms. And then, you know, we have. What happened with GameStop and Robin Hood and AMC and all that. People had enough.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah, I agree.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

And speaking of Clubhouse, that's where I met Patrick. You know, Patrick and I didn't know each other. It was like a blind, blind date, you know, on Clubhouse, I posted. It was like, my first weekend using Clubhouse. And I was like, hey, maybe I'll just post an event on, like, how to get into Venture. And Patrick just, like, shows up. I'm like, hey. And he's also a vc. So I actually had to leave early. And, like, Patrick ended up running the session, like, when I left. And then we circle back, I'm like, hey, we should. Maybe we should keep in touch. And here he is.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

You know, my Friday night lockdown party was running your Clubhouse because I'm on UK time, so it's a great platform. I find finding it a lot better now that there are also more people in Europe who are on it, because when I first joined, I think, in October, and it was just people on, like, the west coast. And for my. For my time zone, I'd have to, like, yeah, I'd have to sort of like, log on at, like, 4am or something like that. But now it's become. That's become really global, which is great.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

So what did I miss? So what were people asking when I. When I left? They're probably talking shit about me, right?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Not going to go into that. But. No, they were just, I mean, like, they were just asking, like, very detailed questions about, like, what they should do to get into vc, basically, because a lot of them are kind of, you know, just starting. Starting out in their careers. So. Yeah, it's an interesting one because it also, like, made me reevaluate my own decisions as well and things like, what.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Is the point of all this?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, well, no, no. Well, that too, but more like, you know, if I had done this, would that have been like a better, you know, better. Better decision and so on and so forth. And it kind of, you know, there was an element of me kind of tying them, you know, do as I say, not not as I did.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

So learn from my mistakes. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Exactly.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Well, I guess, Bonnie, you know, you, you, you know, you do these kind of things with VCs as well. What are the VCs telling you when they talk about, like, how they broke in? What's the advice that they give to people that are trying to get into Venture?

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Well, that's not really what we cover. We cover what their funds are focused on. I host an investor breakfast every two weeks with one investor and a small group of entrepreneurs. That was Clubhouse before there was Clubhouse. And I've been doing these for six years, and now we started doing them virtually in April, of course. And every VC has different advice spoken at my breakfast, Joe. Every single person, something different. I gotta follow you on Clubhouse.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Yeah, I mean, I'm just pretty new to it. I don't know if anybody else is using it pretty religiously. I tried it out a few times and it's good. I just. I don't know what you guys feel. Do you guys feel that it is less engaging because there's no video and it's just audio? Or do you think it's better because it's just more soothing? You don't have to, like, turn your camera on.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

I know. I like it better that it's audio only because it's. You can multitask. You don't have to sit there and smile for the camera all the time.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

You can multitask. And also you can kind of. There are different ways of using, I suppose. Like, you can be. You can be a bit more passive in some rooms and treat it more like a podcast. And then you Know if you're just, if you just want to learn something, if you want to contribute, you can, you can put your hand up and so on. But I think like one thing I've noticed is there's suddenly there are thousands and thousands of like members of these groups and so on. And there are rooms popping up everywhere. So that's going to be an issue, I think like, you know, it's actually sifting through all of the noise like once it looks like, because it looks like it's just exploding now. So they're going to have to rethink the, you know, UX or search or you know, recommendations or something like that. Having said that, so far they've done a pretty good job. Like people I know pop up all the time and they're like, do you want to join this group? Or something like that. And like, how do they know I'd be interested in that? So, yeah, there are. I mean, I'm sure they'll, I'm sure they'll manage, but it'll be interesting to see how it evolves as it gets, as it gets a lot bigger.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

I know. Back in December, early December, I got into a room. A friend of mine told me to jump into the room. He said he's a West coast investor and there was Marc Andreessen and a bunch of well known west coast investors and you know, it was the end of, end of it. So I was only there for the last 10 minutes and then I went like a month later and it exploded sometime over the holidays and I went a month later and there were like hundreds and hundreds of people. I'm like, oh my God. And I stay away from the big rooms. It's like, it's too much and you're not gonna get a chance to speak anyway. They're not even gonna see you.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, it's true.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Cool. Well, hey, you know, I got one more question for you guys and you know, any don't need to make this like a static podcast. If any of you guys want to chime in or ask questions, feel free to. But I got another question about networking. So how often do you guys connect with people on LinkedIn and then say, hey, you know, let's hop on a call. Like, I mean, I do that pretty frequently. I was just curious if I'm the only one that does that and if that's, you know, weird to you guys or if that's kind of a common thing for you guys. But I, I try to meet like two to three new friends in a non transactional way, like every week. And it's just been really fruitful. But what are you guys takes on that?

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

You know, it's funny because the same thing happens to me on Clubhouse. You know, you can go and start a private room. That's been happening to me like almost daily.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

From Clubhouse.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Yes.

[Participant / Commentator]

Okay, got it.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Yeah. And it's funny because Clubhouse, what's interesting is there's people that I haven't talked to in like five years and they, you know, so Ron was there, right? So it was too. Oh yeah, you know, Ron Shigetta as well. So Ron just randomly popped in because I think it connects to your.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Your database.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

So I just see random people that I haven't seen in a while just pop in. Even like my past co workers, a few people were in there as well. So I don't know what about you, Patrick? Do you just. What about, you know. Cause you're. You're a vc, so part of it is deal flow. So find yourself just kind of meeting people like me and just other people.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, obviously. Obviously we met on Clubhouse. And then Ron, I hadn't seen or seen or spoken to for like a couple maybe. Well, I hadn't seen him in a few years and I probably hadn't spoken to him in over a year. And after, after being that room that led to us having a call, he introduced me to a startup I spoke to that I spoke, had my first call with that startup last week, so. And I'm having another one next week and introducing the founder to my partner. So, you know, that would have. Wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been on Clubhouse like at that moment. So yeah, like it's definitely. It's already like delivering some, some sort of results and deal flow. LinkedIn is a bit trickier, I think. Like, I like, I do like connecting to people on LinkedIn.

[Radio Host]

But D.C. sports fans start their day with 1067. The fans sports junkies let Jaden cook with Commander's Talk.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

They were 60 minutes away from the.

[Radio Host]

Super bowl last year and they're better this year and a lot of fun.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

You're acting like I haven't been embarrassed in my life before.

[Radio Host]

Every morning from 6 to 10, I.

[Sports Commentator]

Thought I handled myself with incredible maturity.

[Radio Host]

If you missed it live, listen to 1067. The Fan Sports junkies on Apple podcasts, Spotify.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

They're listening to everything you do or.

[Radio Host]

Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Also, I don't know if you like as. As. As a vc, I get a lot of. I get a lot of People adding me and just kind of, you know, start the startup founders and it's hard to manage, you know, to manage the conversations with all of them. So, yeah, I do. I mean, I read the messages and then like, if it is relevant, I will hop on a call, but it's not. I can't do it every time, unfortunately.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Yeah, I know. I was saying, I was writing in the newsletter that the serendipity on Clubhouse was amazing. Of course they do have your database from your iPhone. Right now it's iPhone only, as we know. And they just got 100 million in funding, so I have a feeling they might be building out the Android version soon.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

We could probably afford a debt one dev team, right? Couple engineers.

[Participant / Commentator]

So cool.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Well, hey, you know, well, Patrick, why don't we talk through your background and your story into vc. I think that'd be a good maybe starting point and then we'll see where everybody in the group takes it, you know, so. And again, you know, feel free to chime in, guys. We don't need to really make it like, you know, a static conversation. So if you have questions or if you want to add comments, feel free to.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, absolutely. Feel free to interrupt me. Anyone who's on. Who's on the call, by all means. So, yes, I. Well, I'm from the uk. I started. I actually started my career in corporate intelligence, which is so very. Which is a quite a niche industry in a way. It's basically private investigations for corporations and law firms and banks and, you know, hedge funds or whatever. It's effectively a kind of due diligence research business. And so from that I ended up working with a lot of PE funds and development banks and also a few VCs. And I had this like crazy idea to go and like set up a venture studio in Russia because I saw that like there was like a lot of. There was an explosion of tech happening there. This was in like 2010. So, you know, I went out there, I spoke the language already because I studied at university, so I had some connection to the place and started trying to build startups out there, which was kind of, you know, doubling down on risk in a way. You know, startup is. Startup is risky enough in like the UK or the US In Russia it was sort of insane, but like, it was a good, it was a good baptism by far, especially to learn some. Well, to learn to learn how hard it is operationally to actually like launch and scale a business. And then after that I went to business school at MIT in Boston. And while I was there I got interested in a lot of the kind of, well, IP heavy businesses that were being spun out of MIT and even worked with a company and helped them spin out into an analytics business. And around the same time I was in conversations with an Asian family office who were already doing some very early stage VC investing. And we set up this company together. So we set up a company called Beast Ventures, which I still run to do seed stage investing both in the US and in Europe. And so yeah, since then we've invested in 16 companies, we've had a few earlyish exits and we have quite a few companies in our portfolio that have had follow on investments from really good VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Atomico in Europe and yeah, a bunch of angels.

[Radio Host]

So it's, it's, it's, it's boomerangs on the fan. 1019 FM.

[Sports Analyst]

My job is to try to get us to a championship. That's all I care about. Because remember when they fired Tibbs, what they said in their PR statement that they put out and that was we're all about championships. And I'm paraphrasing, we want to win a championship. And the reason we essentially fired the coach is we don't think he can get us there.

[Radio Host]

Listen to Boomerang on Demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts on.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Reasonably well so far, but I still kind of feel like it's just the beginning and I'm like nowhere near where I want to be sure.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

And you know, walk us through, you know, that's a great path from somebody just bouncing out of mit. You know, how did you kind of navigate those initial conversations? Did you think those initial conversations with the family office was going to turn into a fund or did you really just kind of meet them organically and then it came later? I guess. What was your intention when you first.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, I met them organically actually probably like a couple years before that. And I had a lot of friends, I had a lot of friends who were startup founders, guys from, guys from London who moved to, who moved to Silicon Valley in kind of, you know, 2008, 2009. This was, there was already a London tech scene, but it was not, it wasn't what it is today. So if you wanted to raise like a decent, you know, Series A round in Europe back then, your options were, were limited again, it wasn't impossible but like it was a lot, like there was a lot more money in the Valley. So a lot of guys went out there. One of my friends founded a company called Liverail, which, you know, which was a very big exit to Facebook. And then kind of through, I just started getting sent deals or, you know, investment opportunities in startups. And that's kind of how I started that relationship with the family office, just generating some deal flow for them and saying, would you guys, you guys should take a look at this company. It's very interesting. And that's. Yeah. And that evolved into something more formal.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

So you actually just shared deal flow with them as a co investor and you're like, hey, what do you guys think about this? You kind of included them and it was really for them to just kind of access deal flow on their own. Pretty much, right?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yes.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

So I think that's a good point. I think that's a great way to build trust and track record because it probably just takes a long time to build these relationships with these people. And, you know, a lot of people are probably asking them for money. So I think you did it the right way. Just kind of didn't expect anything.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, I mean, they, in the end, it was their idea to kind of formalize things, not mine. And so. But yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's tricky because obviously when you, if you really, really want something, you want to do something, you want to go after that opportunity and you want to kind of ask, you know, chase people for it and you know, obviously like that, that's, that's the right attitude. But with, you know, with some of these relationships, it does take time, you know, and you have to build trust. I think I found that's even true with, with some startup founders. I think, like, I've managed to, you know, I've built relationships with some founders who would never, you know, who would never have taken our money, like, you know, or let us invest alongside some really established VCs if we just, you know, send them, you know, cold email and said like, you know, can you give us allocation in this round? It takes. Takes a lot of time.

[Participant / Commentator]

Sure, yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Would you say that it's pretty similar as far as the way that you raise money from LPs compared to startups raising money from venture? Because, I mean, you know, you're still, you're pretty much a startup as well as a fund manager and, you know, I think that analogy is true, but, you know, I'd be curious to hear your opinion if you feel it's just the same kind of thing.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

I think it is. I think it is the same in some cases. And I think it does work. It works both ways. You know, there's, you know, being brutally honest, there's always, like, there are always kind of power differentials in these relationships. And, you know, some, you know, for example, if we, if we want to invest in a startup that's founded by someone who's like, previous, it's Boomerangs on.

[Radio Host]

The fan 1019 FM.

[Sports Analyst]

My job is to try to get us to a championship. That's all I care about. Because remember when they fired Tibbs, what they said in their PR statement that they put out, and that was, we're all about championships. And I'm paraphrasing, we want to win a championship. And the reason we essentially fired the coach is we don't think he can get us there.

[Radio Host]

Listen to Boomerango On Demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Previous company was, you know, a massive unicorn. And, you know, they have VCs, you know, just writing them blank checks, you know, then it's not easy for us to get into those, to get into those deals. And, you know, that requires building a relationship. And, you know, conversely, like, if, you know, if someone cold emails me on LinkedIn and says, like, hey, this is my deck. Like, you know, do you guys want to invest or not? Again, like, it, like, that's not necessarily the best approach, but it, like, once I get there, if I get, If I get to know people, then it's. Then it's a completely different story. It doesn't matter who they are or where they come from. If we, you know, connect, then there might be investment at the end of that.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

What's, you know, on the flip side, what's an example of a founder that did a good job building a relationship with you and especially with the first outreach, what do you thought was. What did you think was kind of a thoughtful way to approach you as a vc?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

I think, yeah, there was. There was one, one founder whose company we invested in recently, and she. I think she approached me on LinkedIn maybe three, three years ago and even longer than that and said that, like, you know, she. She'd gone to university with. Well, she'd gone to the same university as one of the founders of our existing portfolio company then and, you know, knew what he was working on and said, like, you know, she thought it was a really cool company and, you know, she's working in an adjacent space and would be really interested in showing us, you know, showing us what she's working on. And, you know, it just so happened that she was, you know, she was right. It was actually something that we were interested in. It was a bit early at the time, but she, you know, we kind of, you know, we actually passed then because it was much, much too early even for us. But like, she always, like, she kept in touch. I also like, because I liked, because I liked her a lot and thought she was a great founder. I invited her to events and I even got her on like panels and stuff like that. And then I kind of saw how, you know, how the company had grown and also how she'd grown as a founder. And we got to the stage where, yeah, where we wanted to invest and we're much more comfortable with the investments. And I think that probably if she just kind of ghosted ourselves, we passed or whatever and just thought, okay, well screw those guys, they're not giving me any money, then that wouldn't have happened. That's a good example. Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

And talk to me about just the difference that you've seen because you were in Boston and then now you're in Europe. So one of the. What are some of the biggest differences that you've seen as far as the culture in general and then just the tech ecosystem between two different countries?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, well, I think there's. And again, this is changing, but I think like, at least when I started out, there's definitely much more of an investment culture in the U.S. generally speaking, I think, you know, you have way more angels, you have a lot more, well, you have a lot more institutional money going into VCs as well. So the kind of financial piece of the tech ecosystem which is crucial obviously was a lot bigger than it was in Europe. I mean, we have, in Europe we have the talent, that's for sure. And there's the market too. But there just wasn't, there wasn't, there wasn't as much money flowing to early stage ventures. And there are, you know, there are a bunch of reasons for that. Like, that's like a whole, you know, conversation in itself as to why that, why that, why that is and was even more so a few years ago. But I also find that, you know, this is obviously a bit of a cliche but like Americans are less risk averse than Europeans. It's just, it's just a fact. And the Europeans who work in, who work in tech and work in vc, do you have like a healthy appetite for risk? But they're just, you know, there are just fewer people like that here. So they're kind of, you know, the ecosystem is smaller and I kind of you sometimes forget because I'm in this like VC startup bubble. When I speak to my friends who are like lawyers and you know, like bankers about like startup investing and they kind of, you know, I show them a deck, whatever, they're like, you know, terrified. They're like, well, you know, if that's gonna work. So it's kind of. There is, there's, there's still a big cultural difference but, but you know, on the whole there are, I mean there are a lot of similarities as well. You know, like our sort of Oxford, Cambridge imperial ecosystem is, I think like on the kind of, on the research side of things is, you know, in my opinion is as good as, you know, Cambridge, Mass. Or Stanford or you know, any of the other research centers in the States. When it comes to commercialization, we are slightly behind but hopefully that's changing now. There's a lot of.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Yeah, what about the valuation? I personally have seen some differences in expectations on valuation. So for me when I see a company that's coming out of like y Combinator or Techstars, I usually see it's pretty standard to see 8 to 10 million pre. But from some of the VCs that I spoke to in the UK, they said that's really, really high. So have you seen that just in both ecosystem as far as just valuation?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah. I'd say again, the UK ecosystem has caught up in terms of valuation. With the US it's not wildly different these days, especially, especially at early stage, it's a little bit closer. I guess the difference, probably the difference is more in. I don't want to, like, I don't want to be disparaging and say like, you know, there's not necessarily any such thing as a bad startup, but the kind of ones that are less, the stars that may be less attractive for VCs. I would say in the US they're still quite high, they're still quite highly valued, whereas in the UK they're quite low. But I think when it comes to like, you know, the ones coming out of the good universities, the good accelerators, you know, the valuations may be like, yeah, they may be half what they are in the States.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

But I'd say the difference is this isn't my area of expertise but from what I've seen like the difference between kind of series, later stage investments in the US versus the UK is probably even bigger. I think in the US if you have some serious revenue traction and growth, you can see startups in Silicon Valley now valued at close to 100 million free money for a series A round. Whereas that still doesn't happen here yet. It would still be. Even if you were, even if you're doing sort of 5 million ARR here, you would not be valued at 100 for your A round, you'd be valued at maybe like 30, something like that, or 30, 40.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

So you know, a funny joke that Bonnie and I think have laughed about before is, you know, you can get kind of like a $10 million valuation type of company in New Jersey for like 6 million.

[Participant / Commentator]

Right.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Just because of the location and that's just across the pond. So New York, it would be like maybe worth 15 million pre. But in the. If you went to Jersey and you found the same type of quality company, but they're based in Jersey, it would be, it'd be like, you know, like 6, 6 million pre. So what's like the New Jersey of the uk?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, so I'd say London, London, Oxford, Cambridge are like, they're kind of like a triangle and they're almost like Silicon Valley. I mean, that area of land is smaller than, you know, the area that you guys call Silicon Valley. So even though like in our minds they're like three distinct places and I'd say, yeah, the valuations there are like, because everyone talks to each other kind of on a par. But yeah, if you go to, for example, I went to Belfast, Northern Ireland a few years ago and I went to, I met some startups that were spinning out of some health tech startups that were spinning out of Ulster University and there, yeah, the valuations were a lot lower. Probably if you go to the, if you go to the north of England, if you go to Scotland as well, valuations are a lot lower. And there are some great companies, especially deep tech. The reason, I mean, I guess the reason people don't go there. Well, pre Covid, things are slightly different now, but the reason people didn't really go there is because it's just there isn't the same density of startups in these places. So, you know, I think for a lot of VCs, it's like too much, too much work to, you know, to be driving up and down the country. VC is always quite local, so. But yeah, like they can, you know, if there's companies, when they, if they move down to London, they suddenly, you know, with the, you know, with the same ip, the same tech team, their valuation can double.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

And what are the other hotbeds in Europe? I guess so that, you know, you mentioned Ireland and Scotland. I guess Scotland Is Glasgow one of the tech.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, I mean, Edinburgh's good. Edinburgh is pretty good for like AI and cybersecurity. Then like Holly University has quite a good gaming program as well. So there's like some interesting, like, VR and gaming startups coming out of there. And then like. Yeah. And then I guess, like. Yeah, across Europe there are. There are like all these other hotspots. Like the Nordics are very good for gaming.

[Participant / Commentator]

Mm.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Also Sweden's very good for like media and music and like that kind of thing. France is quite good. France is quite good for deep tech as well. Although they have their own, like, they had. They also have their own kind of healthy consumer and fintech scene as well. Berlin obviously is like a big, A big spot for startups. I think initially because it was like quite a. It was kind of, I guess the equivalent of probably the equivalent of like Portland or something like that in the States or at least it was like that. It was quite like a fun, young city. Rent's really cheap, like great kind of club and art scene. So a lot of startup founders moved there and now it's actually turned into like a proper startup ecosystem.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

I wanted to say something because as I said, I was on that other platform and the investors were talking about how they're no longer in Silicon Valley, they're primarily in Miami or Austin. So geography doesn't mean as much as it used to. And yet you're still talking about. And I know that there are a lot of lockdowns going on in the UK and on the continent, yet you still say that it is depending on where you're on geolocation. Or is that changing as well?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, well, it's. I think it remains to be seen how, like, how it will change once things open up again. I think, you know, that's obvious. It's obviously. It obviously makes less of a difference when you. When everything is just online, so the geography doesn't matter. But I don't know, I still feel that, you know, to build, like to build relationships, it helps if you can meet people face to face. And if you, I mean, just going beyond that, there's also like a kind of understanding, you know, if you're assuming that as a, you know, as a vc, you have to have some understanding of the market, you have to have some domain expertise and so on. That's something that comes from, you know, living in the UK or living in Germany and so on and so forth. So I don't, you know, I, I won't necessarily know what the German Healthcare market looks like even if I can meet like a German startup online. On the other hand, if they, I mean, if they are building something that's like, that's truly, truly global, then I guess it makes less of a difference. But, yeah, no, I agree, it is. It has changed things a lot, not being able to meet people face to face. But what do you guys think? Do you think it will go back to the way things were before or like once, once everything opens up, or do you think people will do a lot more stuff online? It's hard to. It's really hard to predict.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

You know, these, the investors, and there were a lot of top Silicon Valley investors in this particular room were talking about how they get. They're getting to see a lot more deal flow and getting a lot more done because they're. Of course, it's a different relationship when you meet people face to face in person, in real life, but they're getting to meet more people since they're using Zoom and other things.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, yeah, there's definitely an increase in quantity. I'm just not sure if the quality of those, of those interactions is as, is as strong. But yeah, I think in terms of kind of learning about what's out there, it's a lot more efficient than having face to face meetings.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

And I mean, I want to make the disclaimer that, that joke that Bonnie and I made was before COVID So the New Jersey, New York comment, it was something we mentioned at an event that we were at like back in. I don't even know how many years. It's.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Back early 2020. So I mean, this was like before all that happened, so. I agree. I mean, I've done, you know, several investments in 2020 and I haven't met any of the founders.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

That, you know, just pushes people to go out and do things virtually. And obviously there's some efficiencies, but some people are still old school.

[Participant / Commentator]

Right.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

They probably still want to meet in person. Some. But I think, yeah, it's a tough one. I think the valuation question probably has been leveled because people aren't in those locations anymore. So I think it's across the board, but I think the top companies, I think are still commanding those top valuations and we are seeing a lot of exits happen and IPOs happen. I mean, just in this year, the pandemic. So I think the activity is there and people are still deploying capital.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, for sure. I think, like, maybe in my case, because I think, because when I started out, we were doing Deals. We weren't just doing deals locally. We were doing deals in, you know, in California and Boston. I was living in London. We did some investments in Israel as well. And as a result, there were a few deals we did where we just, where we actually didn't meet the founders. This was like, we did it all over, over zoom, or I can't even remember. This might have even been pre zoom, whatever we were using. And. Yeah, and like, there were a couple of cases where I sort of felt, you know, I might not have made the same decision if I'd met the founder in person. And so that's why. Yeah, that's why I guess I'm like, still, like, I'm now skeptical of it because I've done it like, and I've seen the kind of, I've seen what happened two or three years later and I don't know, I think it's just, it's a question of, not just, it's a question of kind of understanding the context of, you know, if you don't know the kind of ecosystem. And I'm specifically talking about very early stage investing because I think that, like, once companies are at a certain level of traction, there's a completely different set of questions. And it's not necessarily about the founder's ability to like, you know, to get something off the ground. It's something, it's something else. But like, when I, when you're talking about very early stage, it's really so founder centric that if you don't, you know, if you don't meet them, if you don't spend a bit of time with them, if you don't actually know people who know them and kind of like, and, or have worked with them or, you know, you don't have all this like, context and, you know, and intelligence. I think you're taking a bit more risk.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Do you think it's good practice to have the LP sometimes meet some of the founders? And do you think that's a good way for emerging managers to also build a good relationship with LPs if they're interested?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yes. No, definitely. I think it really is. And I think there are a lot of, especially if you're, if you're starting out, you're not going to be raising, you're probably not going to be raising money from big institutional investors, you're going to be raising from family offices, maybe smaller strategic investors and so on. And like, I found that both those groups like the idea of being actually involved in vc. They're not like they're not just, you know, they're not sort of paid just to allocate assets. They are like they're motivated by other things as well. And so, yeah, by getting them involved in your deal flow or introducing them to founders, get them a lot more engaged.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Yeah, that was helpful and you know, maybe just going a little deeper on deep tech. So, you know, I think it's interesting because you come from mit, so that's, you know, obviously one of the best engineering colleges in the world. Do you think that had a big influence on you focusing on deep tech?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, it definitely did. We did this. We actually, there was one particular course at MIT that basically sort of opened my eyes a bit because I don't come from a science or engineering background. And so I think prior to that my interest in investing in VC was always like, well, if I can't understand everything about this business, then like, you know, then I, then I don't understand it at all. And you know, like, we did this course called iTeams where we had to work with different groups and labs at mit and they would, you know, they'd come to us with a technology and they'd say, like, this is like, we've developed this, you know, this is what we're going to use it for. And then we would have to figure out. Part of the whole point of the course was for us to figure out like, whether it was commercially viable, whether, whether it could be used elsewhere, like what the kind of, you know, like how you would actually commercialize it, whether this is actually a startup, whether this is just like a licensing project and so on and so forth. So we had to like, they sort of trained us to go through that process and also to like, to not be afraid of science. And you know, because almost, it's almost think of the kind of scientific part of it as well, kind almost like a black box in that, you know, we can, you know, if we can validate, if we, you know, if we, if we can, if we have people who can actually validate the science that actually this, this works. And it's not, it's not still a science project. It's not still a research like stage. It's actually been proved. This is, this has been proven to do what it, what, you know, what the, what the founders or the, you know, the professors in some cases say it can do, then, you know, assuming that that risk has been taken care of, then it's like, what's the commercial opportunity here? And you kind of, you could, you could, you quickly Realize that a lot of these companies do actually have, do you have like a massive like moat around them in terms of ip. And they do have a huge competitive advantage on the product side. The real challenge is actually like turning these, turning, turning these successful science projects into businesses. But that's like, that's the exciting part as well because we have to be, we have to be quite, quite involved in some cases. And it's not just a case of, you know, writing a check and then making a few intros and turning up to a board meeting.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

What are some of the, that's what.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Other VCs do, of course, but like, but some do.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah, yeah.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

And then with deep tech, what are some of the sectors or themes that you're excited about?

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Well, this is something we've been thinking about. Like I promised prior to Covid, it's not a result of like 2020 naval gazing, but I think what's happened, what we've seen over the past year has like, you know, obviously has had an effect on the way, like the way people look at the, and investing and business and everything. And we're kind of, our two themes now are planetary health and human health and the two kind of overlap as well. So we kind of look at, you know, we look at some food, food and agriculture both in terms of like human health but also in terms of climates and emissions and so on. We are looking at some health, health, tech companies, some AI, drug discovery, clean meat. Yeah. Automation in. Automation, analytics in farming. Yeah, I mean I can reel off a list but yeah, those are just some of the things that excite us. But I mean more generally speaking I think we like, we generally believe that like impact, like the VC is going to become impact investing or it is becoming impact investing in some cases. And that, you know, I think people, people with a kind of more old school mentality kind of think that the two, you know, you have philanthropy, you know, and then you have impact, you have impact investing which is maybe slightly closer to kind of traditional finance, but it's not, it's still kind of, it's still more philanthropic. But our thesis is that you know, the consumers habits are changing, regulations changing. Everyone has seen, you know, the consequences of not being prepared for something. And so that's like, you know, you can apply that to, you could definitely apply that to climate, but you can also apply it to you know, preventive health, preventative like health care and you know, all these, and you know, nutrition and farming and all these other things I've mentioned. So that's broadly speaking, what we're excited about.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Yeah. And Ron is definitely your guy for food tech. He introduced me to two to three deals that I've invested in just because of him and his intro. So he's the perfect guy for that high end food tech deal flow. But I would say. Yeah, I mean, I think that's really interesting because we have a sector focus for deep tech and we have a sector focused for impact separately. But when you look at food tech, right. I mean if you can grow food in the lab with a bioreactor, there's like a sustainability impact initiative, but then you're also using a bioreactor. So I feel like that's deep tech and cancer. You know, the technology that you would normally use for cancer research, you know, you're doing that for food. But it's also an impactful way to give food to people without animals.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Wanted to mention that Bill Gates just became the largest owner of farmland in the United States and some of it is Grantland as well. And he's a notoriously anti meat person.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

So I wonder if we're going to see more of a focus on lab grown meats or foam meats, whatever you want to call them.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, yeah, no, I'm hoping we will. But yeah, it's people.

[Radio Host]

Yeah.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

People still haven't agreed on what to call that's technology. There's like there are about five different names for it. But I think, yeah, I think we all know what we're talking about. But yeah, I mean, like that's, that's true. I think, you know, even, I mean even investing in health care, I consider, you know, impact in a way. Yes, obviously like healthcare is. And maybe also, maybe it's because I come from Europe where healthcare is not so, not as much of a business as it is in the US So.

[Participant / Commentator]

That'S a fair comment.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

So we kind of, you know, we, we, I guess culturally we see it quite differently. So. Yeah, obviously. But you know, like I was looking at a liquid, liquid biopsy company the other day, so like a founder like who had worked at Gardens and some of these other, other big diagnostics companies and yes, there's obviously, there's there's obviously huge commercial potential there. But you know, if you're stopping people, I mean if you're stopping people from getting sick, then that's, that's, that's also impact, I would say. But you know, people like their categories, I guess. And it's like there's, if you, if you're, if you're a Kind of institutional investor. You kind of want to have your, like. I understand, you want to have your silos of like this is, that's, that's a life science vc, that's impact, that's deep tech.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

You know, I think it'd be helpful to understand the healthcare system in the uk. So you're saying that it's not run as a business as much, meaning is it just more easier to forward? And does the government subsidize some of the health care for people? I guess, because, yeah. I mean, in America, I mean, it's crazy expensive. It's really scary. Now I'm actually going through the point in my life where I have a relative that's dealing with like elderly care and it's a nightmare. I mean, it's really, really tough to navigate. So I'm assuming it's just probably better and more accessible and easier, I guess. But maybe you can shed some more light on that.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, it's not perfect, but it is free. It's completely free. It's not subsidized. There's no insurance or anything like that. Literally, you can turn, you register. Well, if there's an emergency, you just go to the hospital and they'll try and look after you. If you're thinking, I mean, like, for more, I guess for more elective stuff, you've got to register, you've got to go through the system. And it's also completely free. It can be slow. I'd say probably the quality might not be as good as you get at like the top US Hospitals in terms of like, I mean, quality in terms of like, speed and, you know, access to like every hospital having access to all the best technologies and so on and so forth. But like, you know, the kind of, the doctors are great, you know, the frontline staff are amazing. It's just, but it's a very expensive thing to run and, and so you kind of, you have to, you can't have every single hospital being like state of the art. Like, sure. But yeah, it is, it's. It's all centralized and it's all free. And so that actually that creates opportunities as well for startups who are looking to sell to the good, sell to the government, to the National Health Service. Because they have, you know, they're building one centralized database of like, everyone's like health records and they're kind of, you know, and they're slowly, slowly digitalizing the entire healthcare system, which again, not as fast as they could, but the fact that they're doing it and the Fact that there are 60 million people in the UK, there's also creates great opportunities for, you know, for startups, that is especially ones that are focused on data and want to like develop therapies or kind of something, some, some kinds of insights based on like massive data sets. If they, you know, if they go through, if they go through some of these programs and they go through the system. Yeah, they can almost put like you put startups in the UK at an advantage vis a vis the US vis a vis their kind of competitors at the same level in the US because there's just, it's just we don't have a fragmented system like you guys.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah, that's fair.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

And do you think that the fact that it's free makes the doctors more excited to just give more quality care? Because they're not, they probably get less pressure from the hospitals to kind of just really crank through patients. Right. Because I think when you're, when you're thinking as a business in a hospital, you're like, hey, how many patients can I, you know, how much throughput can I put in through a quarter? And you probably have benchmarks. And I actually know this because I had a relative that's a medical doctor and she told me that her office, that she works for the doctor's office, she's judged based on like volume. So it's, she needs to kind of hit some benchmarks as far as volume. But you know, I feel like that probably puts pressure on doctors to maybe rush or not put in 100% and not maybe even care as much as they want to because they have that pressure of the business.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

I'd say that's definitely true, but I guess the only, the only caveat would be that like it's, the hospitals are probably understaffed because it's. Yeah. And so there's not. Yeah, I guess it depends how it would.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

The pressure's still there.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, the pressure's still there and probably would depend like at what time like there are, you know, there are peak times and there are peak times of year. Like. Well, in a normal year, you know, when even non Covid times where like in the winter you have a lot of old people who are, who are sick with the flu and then the wards fill up and you know, you have, there are, there are problems. But yeah, I think there's definitely. They're not thinking in terms of revenue.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

I just realized Smith is a medical doctor, so hope I didn't say anything.

[Participant / Commentator]

Wrong or anything out of turn.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Smith.

[Smith (Medical Doctor)]

No, right on. It's there the pressure to do? I mean I'm a hospital based physician. I've also been in the clinic going through 40, 50 patients in the clinic versus in the hospital 30, 35. Kind of gets hard. It's really, these are complex patients, it's hard. Then there's another setting that says, you know what, quality care is important to us and we'll get you this kind of a support system for you to see. Only 15 to 18 and then they build up your bonus based on that.

[Participant / Commentator]

Oh wow.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Yeah, they do.

[Smith (Medical Doctor)]

There's some people, you know, I mean you could stay there 18 hours and make all that.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Yeah, sure.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Well, thanks for that insight. You know, and you know, Smither and Shayla, they're on the, they're on the deep tech team. So I guess any questions you guys have or I guess Patrick, any words of wisdom on maybe just forcing good deals or building relationships or getting access to good deals and I guess in turn, you know, feel free to ask questions. I know we got around like seven minutes, so open it up.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, I mean I'm happy to answer some questions. If anyone, if anyone has any, just jump in. But yeah, I mean, look, I think like, like as I said earlier, generally speaking it's, it's about building relationships. That's how you get into deals. That's also how you can build up a track record. If you want to get into vc, that's where I would start. Obviously it helps a lot if you have a particular area that you're very passionate about and you have some expertise in that as well. You know, I'm quite generalist so like I haven't, I haven't done that, but I've seen it, I've seen how, you know, how useful that can be if you're trying to also, if you're trying to launch your own fund, there's a lot of money available for very specific, very narrowly focused, first time funds if focusing on specific sector and so on. Yeah, I've come across quite a few strategic investors who, strategic LPs who only want, who's like kind of only want to do gaming or only want to do like farming analytics or something like that. And they just again, you have to want to invest in those things. But it's just something to bear in mind because if you're trying to build up a much more generalist track record, it probably takes, takes longer. So that's, you know, that's just a random bit of advice.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Oh, you just mentioned that you're generalist. So I was Going to ask if there are any verticals that you consider more strongly.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, I mean, I'm sort of generalist within Deep Tech, but like as I mentioned earlier, like we kind of, you know, we've looked at. Well, I can list the types of companies we've invested in so far, so quite a few kind of sound recognition, computer vision, ML focused companies. We've invested in the clean meats or lab grown meat business, soil analytics, so agtech, two diagnostics companies. One is. This one is a MRI type technology. The other one is microfluidic chips for serology. What else? AI drug discovery as well, which is a company called Lab Genius in the uk. That's, that's doing really well. But yeah, generally speaking it's kind of the kind of nexus of tech and diagnostics or tech and life sciences and food and agriculture as well.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Thank you.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

No problem. Yeah, we've got a few more minutes, so if anyone.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

I just, my computer just got kicked out, so hopefully it didn't interrupt anything.

[Participant / Commentator]

Where it was still.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Okay.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, yeah, I just said you're the host now.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Oh, okay, got it. I think it's still, I think it's still recorded everything, but yes, we got like three minutes. You know, I always ask a question and feel free to answer it in any way you know you want to, but it's, it's really, you know, any piece of just general advice that you receive from a mentor or just someone that inspires you. And you know, if you want to pass that on to us, you know, that would be awesome. If you have anything from maybe a professor or somebody you work for in the past or just somebody that you look up to. I've just gotten some amazing nuggets of advice just asking that question. So. And I always hear something new. So anything that you have.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, well, it would definitely not be anything new. It's pretty, I think it's probably something people, I've heard like many times. But like, yeah, I think like I, so I had a, I had a professor at MIT who kind of.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Well.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

He commented on the fact that like I wouldn't like, I wanted something from him and I wouldn't leave him alone. And he was like, you know, you're kind of, you're kind of annoying. But like, this is, this is, this is, you know, this is the right approach and this will serve you well. Because he said, he said that like, you know, a lot of the people who he's seen who are successful are not necessarily the smartest, but they are the most persistent and you know, if you don't give up and everyone else does, then by default you win. And so that was an interesting piece of advice. And like, if you think of it from that perspective, it just makes sense rationally. It's not like, it's not some sort of, like, you know, you can, you can rephrase it in a more sort of like cheesy, heroic way, but it's just like if you want something so much and then, you know, to the extent that like everyone else who wants it doesn't actually want it as much in the end, and you're the only, you're the last person standing, then you will, you will by default get it. So that's kind of how I've, you know, how I approach things even now. And like, you know, with, with Beast Ventures, we're still, as I said earlier, we're still like nowhere near where we want to be. We're getting there slowly. And so I hope, you know, hoping if I have this similar conversation in five years time, yeah, we'll be a lot closer to what we've, what we've envisioned. But you know, you've got to enjoy the journey as well, obviously.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Well, hey, that was amazing advice and super simple and really helpful. So really appreciate you taking the time, I guess. Last call. Any final questions or comments?

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

You know, I wanted to add something. When I was little, I realized that, you know, parents always said no and oh no, not one time did they say Y E S. Yes, that would be yes. I actually wrote a column about it because I learned at a young age, even before I knew the word acronym, that no was an acronym. If you just change the talking points. Just keep changing the talking points. So. And it worked even as a kid, and I think it still works. Just change, just change the talking points. So it's exactly what you're saying. No is an acronym. Yeah, it stands for not ordinarily, by the way.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

Thank you, Patrick.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

Well, thank you, thanks, Bonnie, for that additional nugget. And Patrick, hey man, thanks for hopping on and I'm excited to meet a new friend on Clubhouse and really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your wisdom.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

No, it's been a pleasure. It's great to meet you all. Bonnie, I'll be following you on Clubhouse.

[Bonnie (Journalist, newsletter writer, Clubhouse user)]

I was going to have to go and stalk you and find you. Thank you.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Yeah, thank you guys.

[Participant / Commentator]

Yep.

[Moderator / Interviewer]

See you guys.

[Patrick (VC from UK, founder of Beast Ventures)]

Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Barry.

[Sports Commentator]

Do you think that they are good at what they do? Yeah, I think so. Will Stefanski two type coach of the year, Andrew Barry. I don't know. Who do we blame the Haslams for the Deshaun Watson debacle? The questions and the criticisms are more about ownership than anybody on the sideline or in the gm. He's the head coach of a franchise owned by Jimmy Haslam, so who knows? If you put them in a more stable situation with a less volatile compound in the owner's box, maybe you get.

[Radio Host]

More the Ken Carmen show with Anthony Lima on Apple podcasts, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.