Eileen Burbidge MBE - From early Skype employee to becoming the Queen of British VC

40 Minute Mentor

“I think 2024 is a great opportunity to back fantastic people and get more attention on things that are undervalued or don’t get enough attention to invest in.”

Described as the ‘Queen of British VC’ by Fortune magazine, we are kicking off our new VC feature series with the brilliant Eileen Burbidge MBE.

Eileen is a Founding Partner at Passion Capital, the pre-eminent early-stage technology venture fund based in London, where she backed some of the most successful Tech businesses, including Monzo Bank, Marshmallow, and many more. She is currently also Director at Fertifa, the UK and Europe’s leading reproductive benefits provider.

Outside of Passion and Fertifa, Eileen has also served as the UK Treasurer's Special Envoy for FinTech for 8 years, was Tech Ambassador for the Mayor of London’s office and served on the former UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s Business Advisory Group.

Eileen has extensive operational and investment experience, from roles at Tech giants including Yahoo!, Skype and Apple, so there is plenty to dive into in today’s episode.

Episode Chapters:

➡️ Her proudest moment of backing Monzo Bank [2:11]

➡️ Busting the biggest myths in VC [4:33]

➡️ Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago & her perception of ‘diversity’ [7:59]

➡️ Falling in love with Tech and working at Apple [11:33]

➡️ Shazam V Skype: A Tech standoff [15:24]

➡️ Being one of the first employees at Skype & reflections on being fired [17:04]

➡️ Leadership lessons from Niklas Zennström [20:31]

➡️ Journey from Operator to VC [24:00]

➡️ Her early stage investment thesis & focusing on people [27:56]

➡️ Indexing on integrity & trust when assessing Founders [30:59]

➡️ Stepping into interim CEO roles [34:46]

➡️ Why she feels like the board let Tom Blomfield down & succession plans [38:04]

➡️ Stepping back into an executive role at Fertifa [42:26]

➡️ Hiring advice for Founders [47:15]

➡️ Taking a hard look at ourselves to improve DE&I [49:21]

➡️ What to look forward to in 2024 [51:59]

⛳ Helpful links:

➡️ Connect with Eileen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eileenburbidge/

➡️ Find out more about Passion Capital: https://www.linkedin.com/company/passion-capital/

➡️ Explore the work of Fertifa: https://www.fertifa.com/

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