 Mike Butcher from TechCrunch and I'm absolutely honoured to be joined by two legends of the sporting world Jessica in his hill and Matt Who you said to me? What shall I call you Matt? It's going to be Matt Flamini and who does not know these Insanely incredible sports stars. Absolutely insane. What they've done in there in their achievements is amazing Athletes and now entrepreneurs Olympic gold medalist Dane Jessica Hill Jessica when you decided to flip from the sort of sporting world What inspired you to Decide to get into the world of technology Yeah, I think it's such a good question. So as an athlete I was always hugely driven motivated and your whole way of life is is sport So it's the way you eat the way you feel your body the way you recover and you know Every element of your life and that passion and drive doesn't leave you when you retire You're right. So when I retired after the Rio Olympics, I found myself in this phase where you know I knew I wanted to go on to do something different. I wanted to challenge myself in a new way And the way that inspired me the most throughout my life was sport and exercise and also women's health So that kind of led me naturally into this world of you know, delve in a bit deeper into understanding Women's hormonal health how exercise and all those elements play into into it And for me in the company It was just an amazing opportunity to develop a platform an app to reach as many women as possible I want to dig into that a little bit more briefly But in a moment, but Matt you you grew up by the sea and you became inspired by this idea that The sea needs to be you know addressed as a sort of an environmental issue But what made you hit upon your idea and let's hear a little bit more about what you're going to be doing So yes, as you said I grew up by the sea I think the main two reasons to go in that field is first one passion Because obviously I was I was kind of inspired growing growing up by the sea and wanted to also bring a solution and be part of And bring my my contribution the second parties is a challenge as you were saying Jessica I think we are we are competitors. We are fighters and we love to win and The question was was I crazy enough to go in that direction? And as you say I moved to an industry which is a chemical industry and trying to bring my small contribution to accelerate the transition Um, but um You're so you're both sort of you have both have these all these inspiring ideas behind your Your your startups, but one other thing I was amazing. I'm reading about what you're doing is that how little is known about women's health Um, especially in the world realm of sports. I was reading that only six percent of sport and exercise studies Are done using exclusively female participants and it's almost like women aren't really on the map Isn't isn't it? Yeah, it's incredible and as we delve deeper into understanding, you know that gender data gap is is still huge You know, there's very little research done into solely understanding women's physiology And that's from an elite sporting perspective, but also from a general perspective as well There's not enough funding and investment put in this area And you know women are hugely complex beings with very unique physiology that needs to be understanding Understood in a deeper way And for us everything that we're trying to create and and feed our subscribers and women in the app is all about understanding their body and in tuning to you know, they're unique kind of hormonal fluctuations and how they can make You know positive lifestyle interventions to yeah to change their daily moves their energy levels and the way they face those life phases that you go through as women And um now that you're in the tech world Have you found differences in the way that You know the the sort of industry goes about its its place, you know, you're you've been in the sporting world You're you're now in the tech world to some extent obviously um What sort of difference if you know differences you have you noticed? I think there are a lot of a lot of parallel We were talking earlier about the mindset You know when you're an athlete and you have to perform every single day and be at your best I mean this is also a requirement you have to to do you know, like when you are in in the tech world I mean the life of an entrepreneur is made of up and down is very challenging A lot of a lot of pressure So all those parallels, you know, you find them in sport performing under pressure when you play in front of 80 000 people When you're an entrepreneur and you are putting all the resources in in your tech company You have to perform you have to succeed I think also like dedication hard work I mean like giving it all This something which is which is a requirement to be at the top level in sport And this is a requirement to also be like successful and the last part I think is Very much the team spirit the team spirit being able to inspire being able to lead a team But also be able to to listen to to the people around you So all those things are requirement to success which you find in sport But which you also find in a tech world as an entrepreneur Jessica, what's your what's been your experience? Yeah, I think they're two very different worlds But there are there are lots of kind of elements that relate and go very naturally together And I think that's right You know, you have to have all those qualities that we found as sports people to bring into this world as well Resilience is a huge part of success in sport and also into this entrepreneur world I think failure and understanding failure is really important It's something that I learned through sport You know, you can't succeed all the time and you have small wins here You have to learn how to adapt and shift the way you work and the way you move within a sporting world But also in a business world as well Um, so I mean there's so many incredible learnings that you take but again You know, we're in this world where you're constantly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and finding new motivation And that's just incredibly inspiring in itself and and meeting great people along the way Do you do you find when you speak to your your team that That it has there are sorts of echoes of your past perhaps This is not always easy I like to compare, you know top athletes with special forces And as you were mentioning, I mean the the mindset the mental aspect is very important I think we are engineered. We are designed to win and even if Through our career we learn to lose. This is something you never accept So obviously, I think the the approach with your colleagues with your partners in in your in your work I mean have to be deal the little bit different than We used to do like in our in our in our field, I would say like when I used to play football I mean when you play football, uh, you give it all in a way than there is a total commitment Obviously when you interact with your colleague, this is probably not the same Some level of of of dedication even if obviously this is important when you're on a field is is live or die And you know, we are a wolf pack and we have to perform. We have to win Obviously when you know an office and you have to to reach your target Obviously, it's a it's a dedication. You want to make sure everybody's successful But you have to deal with people around you with a bit more delicatess There's a there's obviously that's sort of huge like high performance aspect In the technology world, we're going through an enormous change right now with uh, uh, Twitter is going he's going through enormous changes Elon Musk has just Issued a a note to everyone saying we're going to go hard core But do you think that this sort of management technique is of an older era? Uh, an older sort of time when you know managed with like Beating over there everyone over the head kind of thing. What what do you think? Uh, I mean, I've been through different stages in my career from a sporting context where I think that kind of leadership was quite common at the start of my career So you'd have one person that kind of takes full charge and commands, you know control over the team But actually your team and you as a leader you have to evolve and I think my personal experiences through sport and You know having more understanding of of what you want to achieve and how you achieve it the team aspect and how you work together Is the reason why you create success and change? So for me the learnings from you know, my team experiences within sports and bringing that into the tech world and developing a team Of my own is is hugely important and the way you interact with those members The way you understand personality the psychology behind those individuals is Absolutely imperative to you know, you achieve what you need to do. Yeah, it's it's we're doing it sort of a different here, aren't we? Yeah, I think you have three different ways of seeing it. I mean you could see it as a crisis But I think every crisis is bringing opportunities So going to think is we have been looking about growth I think it's probably time in the tech world to also look at profitability and this is something we are Looking, you know, like in our industry in a chemical industry and the last part. I think You're talking about it on mask and others And and the method of of acting I think is about survival You know, I mean there is like that will the Darwin Theory which is not about the the biggest will survive but the ones who know how to adapt And we're going through a transition when you have to adapt you have to reinvent yourself and you have to To find solution if you want to be there tomorrow So obviously everybody can criticize or you can comment on how to do that But the reality you have to move forward you have to reinvent yourself and it's the instinct of survival So you absolutely you've gone through the sort of whole journey yourselves and by the way, you know The amazing achievements you you had during the Olympics and and and yourself as well during the your sporting career Are absolutely huge and but when it comes down to the nitty gritty doing a technology Company is a a whole other, you know Ballgame to coin the phrase You've raised a 15 million I think pounds or dollars. Is that correct euros euros? I'm whips a lazy euro. Sorry to to address this whole issue of Being a plant based alternative to oil derived chemicals That's the both of you are doing very highly technical Technical things what's what's what's your approach to Dealing with perhaps skeptical investors who perhaps might think that maybe you don't know your stuff You know, you've come from a different world Um, do you do you get that at all from investors? Maybe let me tell you a little bit what I'm what I'm doing in a few words if you don't mind so we started our journey 10 years ago and Sometimes I'm being asked what have you been doing during 10 years? I mean, unfortunately you have industry like dig tech where things take a bit longer So in a few words a lot of people want to address and find solutions to the To the to climate change and to the energy transition. I mean one word which is Where we're not talking enough about that is potentially like the chemistry the chemical world Which is I mean all around us everything we use is being made of raw material is coming from this industry This industry is generating today One third of the old demand and by 2050 it will generate more old demand than transportation meaning track Cars plane. Yeah, this industry is going through a massive Transition and what we're trying to do is to replace harmful chemical coming from The oil industry by plant-based chemicals So in a few words we're trying to deliver More sustainable and safer consumer good consumer good which we are using every day going from shampoo the other hand Pants and we're working with the big guys, you know from the the FMCG companies to the chemical company to help them Accelerate the transition. So as you were saying, yes, I'm a little bit disappointed because it feels like we're not talking about those problems obviously funding is an important aspect but Still in our industry because we are addressing like some serious issue You have capital you have Funding because we have raised a lot of you know, the ESG goals have been an important aspect They are on our agenda of most of the large groups most of the large Government so there is today funding is just a matter of like explaining the problems and making sure, you know, we can together solve it Absolutely, so you know what you're talking about But do you do you get any sort of skepticism Sometimes from investors because you come from such a different industry I think the hardest thing with With our company and trying to gain investment has been around the whole education around Women's health and understanding the importance of investing in that area I think there's so much to draw from different people in different fields And I think within the world of sport, you know, the greatest successful athletes draw from other sports other areas And they learn how they do it and they adapt the way they perform and move forwards And that's something that I think can definitely happen with Sports people coming into the into the tech world as well You know, we all bring different skills and qualities and it's about creating that right team and that environment around you So from our perspective, it has been quite interesting having conversations from the kind of females health physiology side then You know your your previous kind of accreditation Just on that on that point You in there's an ongoing debate that's been going on for years about how women in particular are treated in the technology industry Do you have any thoughts on that that issue? Yeah, I think I think it's changing massively I think we see more women involved in tech in in around, you know Lots of different areas not just one specific area, but I think it's it's a challenge And you know, whether we like it or not there are disparities and There is a huge like I said gender data gap within the the science side of it and there is in the tech side as well And that's something we have to acknowledge. You know, some people talk about femtech very proudly other people think that it's not a word We should use so it's really interesting to see those different relationships But um, yeah, I'm very proud to be able to you know, try and push forward in this area of tech where You know, we need more female founders and we need that diversity amongst what we do because we bring Absolutely different skills. I think that deserves a bit of applause. Perhaps everybody. Yeah, we do daily walking our fans. Absolutely With um, we you know, I mean you you're obviously doing things which is sort of similar to some to some extent um ongoing continuations of your own careers but um What do you feel right now are some of the sort of the big issues that you you see in the tech world to people sort of Do you I mean, how do you sort of keep in touch with what's going on? Are you a an avid reader of technology industry news? First of all, let's not forget and we move forward with a very humble approach. I mean I became A CEO recently I joined I would say the executive team like in last march So I'm still a young a young CEO young entrepreneur I like to be a sponge and to grab as much information possible So yeah, I don't think I'm the best person to to to comment on a tech word Obviously, this is a word which is in a transition This is a word which is evolving very quickly and we have experienced it the past the past six months after I think Investors or entrepreneurs which have been here for longer They have also experienced it in the past. I mean we have been through crisis before we will go through crisis tomorrow I think the most important is to look at our main goal I mean if I take the comparison with with football You start you start the season aiming to to win the league and every three days you have a game And you're going to win one you're going to lose one But you should not lose your objective, which is like winning the league So I think every entrepreneur has an objective every entrepreneur has a vision and he's going to go through difficult time He's going to go through some wins He's going to go through some loses and he has to focus on his own goal. So I think being resilient Keeping strong and keeping his eye on on on the main goal is very important and People have experienced crisis before I think it's important to switch it and to look it also as opportunities So this will be I think my my my few comments as a as a young entrepreneur and as a young as a young CEO the do you do you find that sometimes there's Way too much like almost You know squirrel new brand new thing going on in in this sort of tech world People sort of jumping around rather than sort of focusing perhaps Yeah, I think you have to be you know, you have to be within your field and aware of what's going on around you But I think you know relating back to you know our previous life as well. You have to be Not distracted by everything as well. So you can control what you can control And kind of put everything in the background So I think you have to be aware of what's going and the trends and the movements within technology Of course because you have to move forwards But you also have to be very streamlined and focused and you know Your short-term goals as a company as a brand and your long-term goals and make sure you're moving towards those Keep focused Absolutely. There's the watch word your um, you're part of your what you're doing is is very much in the climate tech field And it's obviously a such a huge issue right now um, what's In terms of climate, uh, what are you? What's your thoughts about? You know where we can go from here. You know, do you feel that your your Efforts are going to be able to address that that massive issue I'm a believer and you have to be when you tackle such an important issue Obviously we we know there is a lot of work ahead of us But it's important to to stay to stay positive even not if you believe we're not going to make it It's already like an additional issue. So we have to ask the question I mean, are we doing enough are we going to do it quick enough? Yeah, but I think you have to onboard everybody if we speak about climate change too many times I'm saying you have to to make it relevant to people You know when you have a family which is like fighting to to put food on a table at the end of the month It's not always easy to think about about climate change But if you are able to empower people if we're able to make it relevant to people I think we will be able to to find a solution But I think those they also you have I mean at least in my industry You have massive pressure coming from the government Putting more and more regulation You have also massive pressure coming from the consumers people like like us Who want safer and more sustainable product and these very much driving change So I think being able to to create awareness being able to communicate around that problem like for example in our industry I mean like I like to say for example in personal care personal care We all buy shampoo we all buy like shower gel our biggest organ is a skin So if you don't realize and every day buying like a shitty, you know Gel douche, you know shower gel or shampoo every day you spread on yourself like chemical product We have which have a negative impact. I mean this is a huge huge huge issue So talking about it engaging with everybody helping people to understand I mean what's better to do instead of doing something else is is is is extremely important those days I would say Yeah, that in other words you in a way you've become spokespeople for your Your sectors and also for your products But you know you were obviously you became used to it in your previous lives as Sporting professionals are having to be spokespeople for your what you were doing How does that translated as in into your work now? I I think is an opportunity I think it's a you know incredible position that we're in and you know to come into a new world and a new area But have some level of profile where you have a voice to elevate what you're talking about if it's something that's passionate towards You know you as a as an individual but also something that's driving change and real positive change in legacy You know we've experienced that in our previous life and that's an incredible thing to be a part of now So for me, I you know I want to use my platform I want to use my voice to to shout about women's health and to you know to get more studies done and raise more money for More products like like ours So you've it's an honor to be honest to be in this position That's that's absolutely one of the best arts have ever heard to that because Because a lot of a lot of the time founders don't realize they've got an incredible voice When you would you know decide to do what you're doing Did you translate any of the that kind of experience into how you sort of present your your company? I think as Jessica was saying we have I mean as an athlete we have a platform And especially we see those days and sport is playing a more and more an important role in our society I mean like those days people are losing trust people are losing hope and I think sport is an industry Which is still able to bring people together Um, so what we like to do and what we're trying to do is to use our platform and social media our voice To sensibilize. I will say the largest the largest audience to to problems such as Jessica is fighting or or like the problems I am fighting So I think every athlete has a social responsibility because every athlete is becoming I would say like A bit of a role model towards the next generations And it is our duty to be able to communicate and to also like Be able to inspire the next generation because most of the the people following us are also young kids So I believe there is a social responsibility we have to embrace and we need to take forward Absolutely, um, you've both been through the the whole venture capital kind of, uh, you know Mill as it were, um, you're supported by makey vc or macky visa. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it Thank you. Yeah, and lots of and also, um, venrex as well. Obviously, um, when you are both dealing with the investor side of things Uh, you know, tell us about your kind of your experiences of dealing with investors and you know, Perhaps how different it was or some of the fun thing funny things that happen to you Yeah, I think it's just a huge learning curve and to be honest if I think about how we started at the beginning of this process When we launched in 2019 to where we are now You know, I've I've learned so much and that's been through having conversations with different types of investors Having conversations with different founders and entrepreneurs as well and and seeing how their journeys have been very similar as well Um, we're very lucky to be supported by makey vc and venrex and they have been like an incredible guiding force of you Know how we go about approaching conversations and and introductions and various things like that So yeah, I mean we've had lots of other conversations with investors that haven't been as great And I think you as an athlete and as a sportsperson and as an entrepreneur You have to kind of create that level of resilience, you know We're starting in a new world from scratch now We have you know, the accolades that we had before and we have the experiences that we had as sports people But we are starting from the bottom again, you know Motivating ourselves and and trying to become successful in a completely different world So, yeah, it's all those learnings of how to adapt and take on, you know feedback Not taking anything to heart and making sure that you move on and Yeah, get the funding that you believe that you deserve for your company And how about you mac? Did you um, have some interesting experiences when you was speaking to your investors? Did you find that did you did you think, you know, do you know who I am kind of thing? Or did you any not have those moments? So first of all, uh, I started 10 years ago. So for 10 years I was investing I mean the money I was making on the field. I was investing it in My tech company and developing technology So maybe to go back a little bit like why join of 10 years because you have to develop the technology and prove the technology in the lab Then when you have proved it in the lab, you have to move to industrial scale So we had to retrofit a plant in order to demonstrate that technology was working on a larger scale Once you achieve that then you have to go through what we call certification In order to be able to commercialize your product once you have done that then you start interacting With with the consumers meaning like the big FMCG company is a big chemical group Then there are the ones validating your product and starting the reformulation. So obviously it takes like a long time So we wanted to in a few words Get to a certain point where bringing investor on board was making sense So now we're in a commercialization phase This is why we raised those 15 million from investors such as sofinova Because we wanted obviously bring some smart money We believe in a in a biotech world in in europe. There are some of the most sophisticated obviously It was an interesting journey I will say because on one side we needed like external money to also validate All the work which has been done for the past 10 years because this is a form of like stamp bringing like some Important investors on the other side. I would like to say that Raising money is not easy In our world Let's say is and you have a competition on that day You have three months six months or if you're an olympic, you know like winner and you know You're going to have the next olympic like in one year two years And every day you're building up and you're going to bed, you know, like kissing the The picture of the of the next of the next game thinking okay in six months three months two months one month I will get there. I mean my experience in raising capital you expect to raise I mean like next week next month or in two months and it never happened every day There is something there is something you have to address every day you have a more and more question every day you have some extra you know Fire to to stop so it's mentally I would say for me it was mentally tiring Because it was never happening like we were expecting it. So I'm glad that we have them on board. It was a great achievement I think it was important in a journey of an entrepreneur to bring some some key investors But it was not simple, but at the end of the day if it was easy, everybody will do it So I think you have to embrace and enjoy the journey also very much Now that you you're both in the tech world And you you know, you're here at slush, which is very the quint very quintessential conference for this industry Do you get the sort of taste of the idea that you might become investors in your own rights and In in other startups or in or in vcs. Do you sort of are you interested in that that world as well? Yeah, I think more than anything I'm just inspired by the number of entrepreneurs that I've met so far and their journey So for me, we're very much at the start of this this journey within our company So I'm so focused and like Matt says there's so many highs and lows and fluctuations in what you do And we've got a big, you know a big ass. We're trying to educate as many, you know Women about their bodies, but also investors and other entrepreneurs as well So I feel we've got a tall order here And we talk about focus. I'm 100 focus in making this work and you know investment is something that May come in the future, but for now it's it's about, you know, creating a company that has legacy Right, so sort of keeping keep your eyes on the prize. What about you? Matt, would you become an investor yourself? Do you think at some point I've done also investment. I joined the angel Angel program of atomico. Yeah, so which is I think also super exciting because in my industry the chemical word I think is an industry. It's a big industry, but it is an industry which is moving very very slowly So what I like to do is to also be able to bring, you know, like the breakthrough the success Full, you know stories which you find in a tech world and also like bring technology in my world So I'm spending my day challenging the scientist challenging the engineers and pushing them to to move forward Quicker than than what is being done until now in in this chemical world. So yes I enjoy like meeting entrepreneurs. I enjoy meeting founders and also like this journey with atomico It's super exciting because there is a lot to learn and also which a lot of learnings You can transfer from the tech world which is moving extremely quickly to our world or at least my world Which is a chemical industry because I think something which has been Experienced and something which is really much happening in a tech world is like the large large groups such as the google from this word Facebook from this word the amazon from this word having the student Innovation doesn't have to come from inside and they have all those incubators and they are bringing the best technology You know in in in their own company in a chemical world We see is and still those big groups believes and innovation still have to come from inside So there are a little bit more I would say like Forward in terms of like bringing those new technology from outside. Yeah, well, I wouldn't be surprised if both of your invest your investors are Would want to sort of get you in front of there There's did you ever find your investors wanting to like call you up? Can you come and speak to a founder you ever find that? Yeah, I think that's one of the most important things as well Like you have to be able to learn from each other and to be able to communicate your Your story and your journey to other founders is is really really useful. Absolutely. Well, I'm afraid we're out of time But that's been brilliant to talk to you Jessica in this hill and Matt Flamini, thank you so much for coming to slush. Thank you. Thank you so much. See you later everyone. Thank you