In this episode, I spoke with Karl Lokko, the Chairmain at Black Seed. They are a community led by Black founders, for Black founders. Rooted in Brixton, with global ambition. They empower Black founders to build the impossible.

Karl is a former gang leader turned activist, poet, influencer and public speaker. Having grown up on a gang-ridden estate in South London, he has managed to harness his life experiences which has propelled and uniquely situated him as an activist/influencer within the U.K and globally.

The episode shows the story of his incredible transformation, combined with his unique ability to connect with people on a human level, makes Karl one of the most potent voices in the country, allowing him to bridge the gap and unite communities.

We spoke about:

• How Karl originally became involved with gangs and how he quickly rose to the top of his gang, the physical and mental scars he still carries to this day

• The difficulty he faced in eventually leaving the gang, both from external and internal pressures

• Why he decided to create Black Seed to harness his ‘acquired nepotism’ to empower his community

You can find out more about Black Seed here: https://www.blackseed.ventures/

You can find out more about Karl Lokko here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-lokko-92696088/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the 8th episode of Inside the TeqDen, the podcast about successful entrepreneurs and the unadulterated stories about how they managed to become the innovators of today. I am your host Sina Sadrzadeh and this podcast is powered by LIFE Ventures. In this episode I spoke to Simone Koo Ishikawa, a previous investment banker at JP Morgan turned entrepreneur becoming the director of customer success at Oaknorth to now advising multiple startups and tutoring on the MBA scheme at Oxford University Business School.

We covered:

• Why Simone decided to move into the startup space and outlines the value she can bring in an advisory capacity to startups having not been a founder herself
• Common mistakes student startups make within her university tutoring experience and how to address them
• How to adapt going from a large corporate to innovating and growing successfully within a startup

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we spoke to Yasmine El-Mehairy, entrepreneur of two start-ups in her native Egypt, one that was successfully acquired in the media space and the other failed. She is now an entrepreneurship expert at Saïd Business School in the University of Oxford, as well as an innovation strategist at Citi bank.

We covered:

• How she simultaneously made history when one of her start-ups was acquired whilst the other was in the process of collapsing

• Yasmine’s experience of a worsening relationship between herself and her co-founder

• How entrepreneurship differs in a start-up setting versus a corporate environment

You can find out more about Yasmine El-Mehairy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmineelmehairy/

You can find out more about TeqDen here: https://teqden.com/

You can find out more about LiFE Ventures here: https://lifeventures.tech/

You can find out more about Sina Sadrzadeh here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sinasadrzadeh/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.