Riding Unicorns Productions
236 episodes listed below
PRESS PLAY
Riding Unicorns is the go-to podcast for anyone interested in venture capital and high-growth startups. Hosted by VCs James Pringle and Hector Mason, the show explores what it takes to build and back successful tech unicorns.Each episode features candid conversations with top founders, operators, and investors unpacking the strategies, challenges, and insights behind scaling category-defining companies. From fundraising and product-market fit to hiring, growth, and beyond, no topic is off-limits. Whether you're a founder, VC, angel investor, or just curious about the world of startups, you’ll find valuable takeaways in every episode.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Founder interviews become clear studies of product judgment, capital allocation and company-building in fast-moving technology markets.
Riding Unicorns turns founder and investor conversations into practical examinations of how technology companies are built. James Pringle and Hector Mason keep the discussion close to operating decisions, asking guests about product development, funding milestones, team autonomy…
James Pringle and Hector Mason hear "autonomy is a requirement"; you can test that on your team.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A founder interview about hiring hard, shipping carefully, and staying disciplined under scale pressure.
Ben Freeman's conversation on Riding Unicorns focuses on the less polished side of building Omnia: the procurement lesson he picked up at Tessian, why it drew him to the company, and what three and a half years of work looks like while the business keeps changing.
An AI networking product, seen through trust, goodwill, and real introductions.
Andrew D'Souza's talk about Bordy is really about trust: how introductions create value, how networks compound, and why some relationships deserve real goodwill.
A steady conversation that traces the SVB to HSBC transition and a practical view of the ecosystem ahead.
Erin Platts gives a grounded account of a career spent on the banking side and in support of founders. The conversation follows her move from New York and Boston to the UK, then into the deal that ended her SVB chapter and the four-day stretch that came after it, with the…
An AI-first property management story that uses acquisitions as a go-to-market tool.
Riding Unicorns spends this episode on Dwelly's push to build a UK-based, AI-first lettings and property management platform, using acquisitions and partnerships with older agencies to improve service and experience.
A founder story about turning expensive textbooks into Pellego after an early failure.
This episode tracks Gautier Van Malderen from a personal textbook headache to Pellego, with the first attempt failing, a return after another job, and funding that let the idea keep moving.
A grounded founder conversation about capital, focus, and the economics under the pitch.
Paul Becker frames Recap and CapitalOS as a single place for early-stage tech companies to track finances, test scenarios, and line up financing.
A practical look at Go Places' TikTok Shop operating system and the work behind it.
Sam Jacobs uses the conversation to explain how Go Places is building a TikTok Shop operating system for brands in the West, while also pointing out that social commerce has already been part of the playbook in Asia for some time.
A practical AI venture conversation about where product change still gets real.
Akash Bajwa's route into venture is laid out with enough detail to give the episode a steady arc, moving from Barclays to a rotation in corporate venture, then into fintech with Augmentum Fintech and Early Bird.
Frontier technology, seen at civilizational scale.
Water tech, with teeth and numbers.
Consumer brand strategy without the gloss.
Southern startups, capital, and conviction.
Loose, opinionated hallway talk about AI products and craft.
Martin Kassing says Upvest offers investment infrastructure to digital banks, brokers, and wealth managers across Europe, using one API for ETFs, stocks, mutual funds, and other assets.
Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, traces how a history degree, eight years at Deutsche Bank, and consulting work on anti-money-laundering projects led her into blockchain analytics.
David von Rosen, founder of Lottoland and ultra-luxe developer 25 Degrees, says he prefers volatility, high-stakes ownership, and new industries over copying proven models.
James Cadwallader joins Ride the Unicorns to talk through why getting found in AI search results matters.
Lee Veitch starts by thanking the hosts and grounding the conversation in SuperAwesome's mission.
Hosts interview the founder and new CEO of Oyster about their leadership transition and the company's growth in global employment.
An 86 million Series D puts the pressure on.
Matt Wilson is back.
The conversation starts with the wedge.
George Davis lives and breathes payments.
GoodFit starts with Paddle's go-to-market scar tissue.
Ben traces Omnia to a procurement lesson he picked up almost by accident at Tessian.
My stepdad put me on a go-kart at eight, I crashed into a tire wall—my mom said forget racing, but my dad had other plans.
Andrew D'Souza sits down with Rider Unicorns to talk about the AI super connector he is building.
Erin Platt, CEO of Octopus Ventures, recounts her experience leading SVB's UK business during the March 2023 banking collapse.
Dan Lifshitz says Dwelly is a UK-based lettings and property management AI-first platform that grows by acquiring and partnering with traditional agencies.
Gautier traces Pellego back to a simple annoyance: textbooks were too expensive.
Paul Becker, co-founder and CEO of re:cap, describes a Berlin fintech that built CapitalOS for C to Series B tech companies to analyze finances, forecast scenarios, and receive financing on one platform.
Nobody stays at their job anymore — and the numbers prove it.
Sam Jacobs, co-founder of Go Places, says social commerce is moving from a TikTok shop “playground” for social-first brands into a channel enterprise clients now have to understand.
Akash Bajwa, Principal at Earlybird, traces a path from Barclays private bank and Augmentum Fintech to joining Earlybird’s London office in 2022.
Some of the most healthy unit economics I've seen are happening in Africa right now.
Riding Unicorns sits down with Rupert West, founder and managing director of Puma Growth Partners, to unpack how the firm approaches UK growth capital.
Manny Medina joins the show as the founder of Paid.ai and previously the founder and CEO at Outreach.
Kenneth Auchenberg, a partner at AlleyCorp, says the firm invests in AI developer tools and infrastructure while also incubating new companies from New York.
Riding Unicorns speaks with Patrick Hady, co-founder and CEO of Superscale AI.
Paul Anthony, co-founder of Primer and founder of Colossal, describes how Primer moved from a 2020 launch to Series B in 16 months with backing from Seedcamp, Bolderton, XL, and Iconiq.
They didn't know if their product was worth 5K or 100K - so they asked for 100K and got it.
Apostolos Apostolakis, Managing Partner at VentureFriends, explains how a pre-seed and seed European fund grew out of Athens into a team spread across London, Warsaw, Barcelona, and Athens.
A venture capital podcast interviewing a principal from Northzone about the firm's history, approach, and portfolio.
An interview with Carles Reina from Eleven Labs about his career transition from banking to startups and his experience as an angel investor.
Hosts interview the co-founders of StackOne about their Series A fundraise and their middleware platform for B2B SaaS integrations.
A live panel discussion at Capsule Scale Up 50 event featuring founders and investors talking about product, fundraising, culture, and hiring.
Hosts James Pringle and Hector Mason interview Dom from Startup Coalition about UK government policies affecting startups and venture capital.
A venture capital podcast interviews footballer Chris Smalling about his transition into early-stage investing and the launch of the Players Fund.