Driving Disruption and Innovation

Mads Faurholt founder of Nova Founders Capital tells the Cambridge Judge Entrepreneurship Centre podcast series how he became a serial entrepreneur and investor, now owning 10 companies and investing in 20 others, some now worth billions of pounds, through a concept he terms “creationism” which involves both innovation and destruction. The sectors he works in straddle financial services, professional services, education and conference networking, food and Beveridge and real estate. Now he’s setting up a student founders arm too to help build companies with students who are at University. He proclaims that he dislikes a nine to five routine, “loves” the people he works with and regards himself as a “recruiter” rather than an investor. “Paranoia” he says helps him to be successful and he always compares himself unfavorably with other business leaders. Mads top tip: “I am saying go for it, but go for it with the right business model and that’s really important. A lot of investors will say it’s all about the team. I think it’s really important to have the right team but it’s really important to have the right business model. When you start a business you are most likely to commit to that business for ten years. It’s said that it takes ten years to build an overnight success. The minute you hire people and raise capital you are stuck. You can’t do anything else. You have to make sure you select the right business model. That’s my message to everyone I meet. You can build disruption into that.” Find out more about the Entrepreneurship Centre > https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/entrepreneurship/