From Dragon's Den to a food tech unicorn – Timo Boldt, CEO, Gousto

09/30/24 • 29 min

Timo Boldt, founder and CEO of Gousto discusses growing his business from a Dragon's Den pitch to a market leader, how sustainability has always been at the heart of Gousto and the importance of new founders finding good mentors.

Gousto is a startup that sends pre-packaged meal kits with ingredients in the exact proportions required for the recipe. The company uses algorithms to tailor recipes to consumers' tastes, health requirements and to reduce food waste. Boldt pitched the startup on Dragon's Den in 2013 while suffering from food poisoning, and after rejecting two offers on the show, he grew the company to a valuation of almost $2bn.

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Why the UK remains a fintech giant – James Codling, managing partner, Volution

James Codling, managing partner at Volution discusses how despite a slowdown in funding and concerns over profits, the UK is still seen globally as a massive hub for fintech, how the hype around British fintech successes is not always spread evenly and why building a bank is the most difficult category of fintech one can pursue.

Volution is a London-based venture capital investor that focuses largely on fintech and software-as-a-service companies that have progressed past the seed and Series A stages. Codling explains that in the UK, there have been incredible efforts to support startups to get to the Series A level, but there has been a myth that once they get there, they can manage alone. Codling calls for a holistic approach from the public and private sectors when looking to support businesses.

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How Apple and Google abuse the app market – Gene Burrus, global policy council, CAF

Gene Burrus, global policy council at the Coalition for App Fairness, discusses how Apple and Google use their dominant position in the app store market to unfairly treat app developers and the legal battle taking place over this.

Burrus joined the Coalition for App Fairness – a group of app developers advocating for a competitive and fair marketplace – after his work at Spotify (a CAF member) introduced him to the complex struggle between app stores and apps. CAF contains members from early-stage startups to global powerhouses, including Fortnite developer Epic Games. Burrus explains the various legal challenges made against Apple and Google and the progress from global competition regulators in breaking up the app store monopoly, described by Burrus as being akin to Microsoft’s domination of the software market in the 90s before anti-trust lawsuits came into place.