Curiosity: Inside startups 360 - Scaling stripe from 8 to 30 people in 12 mths, mentoring early stage founders + angel investing w Tom Richardson, Head of Startups @ Stripe

The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

Hear from Tom Richardson, Head of Startups & SMB for APAC + Japan @ Stripe. We take you inisde: the exciting world of startups and specifically the 3 roles Tom plays, what they are, how they look in practise and his biggest learnings.

Learn about how Tom joined Stripe and what his focuses are as head of startups for APAC & Japan, his biggest learning from scaling the team from 8 to 30 people in 12 months. I asked Tom how he’s gone about using his experiences at Stripe and previously in various markets to now mentor startup founders and what it looks like in practise. And the 3rd aspect of this flywheel you’ll learn about is how Angel Investing became another avenue for Tom to be of service to startups and some examples of founders he’s helped and how.

Please enjoy exploring your curiosity as I did mine through this conversation!

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KEY POINTS COVERED

03:40 - How did Tom join Stripe?

05:25 - What does a head of startups role mean?

06:50 - Biggest learning in scaling Stripe from 8 people to 30 people

11:40 - Using his leadership and operator knowledge to mentor startup founders

14:50 - Which areas can Tom help startup founders with and how?

17:55 - What does mentoring founders look in practise?

21:00 - Mentoring is not a transaction

22:45 - How did Tom start Angel Investing?

27:30 - Balancing value add vs cheque size as an angel investor?

29:40 - How to contact Tom for mentoring / support

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Find out more about Curiosity Center at www.curiositycenter.xyz

Find out more about Tom Richardson at https://www.tomrichardson.info/

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