Building A 400,000-Strong Tech Careers Community

We talk with Roxanne and Joanna, co-founders of Tech Talk and Reslink, about building a careers community to 400,000 people and why a video CV link can create the human connection that job seekers are missing. We also dig into co-founder trust, what we have learned from entrepreneurship, and the habits that keep execution going when motivation drops. 
• building Tech Talk as a tech careers community and scaling an audience organically 
• creating Reslink as a video resume and video CV platform to reach hiring managers directly 
• why traditional applications and the CV alone feel less effective now 
• how our co-founder relationship works through trust and complementary skill sets 
• entrepreneurship influences from family, corporate life, and environment 
• honest reflections on female founder barriers as internal versus external factors 
• what we gain from Canopy through pitch feedback, mentors, and founder network 
• lessons from founding multiple businesses, including listening, empathy, and compromise 
• choosing systems and processes over relying on motivation 

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet The Founders

Stewart Noakes 0:01

Hello and welcome to episode three of series five of Founder Friday. Brilliant to have you both here. Could you please introduce yourselves and let everybody know what you're working on?

Roxanne Taku 0:11

Nice, yeah, I'll go first. So thank you, first of all, so much for having us. Um, you know, it's always really nice to interact with you, Stuart, and the Canopy community. Um, so my name's Roxanne, um, and I'm the co-founder of both Tech Talk and Reslink. Um, and in a quick nutshell, what Tech Talk does is that we're essentially a career community who help people get jobs in the tech industry. Um, and then off the back of that, essentially off of helping so many job seekers get roles in the job market, um, we realized that one of the biggest pains that job seekers were having was essentially the human connection and actually getting touch with hiring managers. Things like the traditional applications just aren't working as much. Like the power of the CV isn't as powerful as it used to be a couple of years ago. Um, and so this actually off the back of that, we created Reslink, which is a video resume platform or video CV platform for job seekers here in the UK, which is essentially a CV where you can add a video on top of it. Um, it's all in the form of a link, which you can then share with recruiters and hiring managers directly. And like the whole ethos of that is to create more of a human connection between you, the job seeker, and the hiring teams, which increases the conversion of interviews and eventually landing an offer.

Joana Rocha 1:19

And we're just gonna say I'm Joanna, the other co-founder, but Rox already explained everything, so we'll go

From Uni Friends To Co-Founders

Joana Rocha 1:27

there.

Stewart Noakes 1:27

And how do you two know each other? What's your origin story as a co-founding fan?

Joana Rocha 1:31

We met at uni actually. Um, so here in London, because I come from Brazil, and then Rox um also come from a couple of different places. But yeah, essentially we went to uni together here in London, we did business together, and then we met in Mandarin class, and then we lived in China together, and yeah, that's when everything started.

Stewart Noakes 1:49

Mandarin class, amazing. Okay, so you you guys have got some skills, right? Because uh when we first met, we met at Web Summit, right? We met at Elizabeth's uh event at Web Summit, and you were telling me about tech talk and the scale that you'd achieved pretty organically, right? So it takes some skills to do Mandarin, it takes some skills to do that as well. What's the what's the growth curve look like

Growing Tech Talk To 400,000

Stewart Noakes 2:09

at the moment? How far has tech talk got to you?

Joana Rocha 2:12

Uh in the last, I mean, we initially started about two years and a half ago. Um, we were doing it full-time with our other job as well, but officially full-time in the last year. But I would say that in the past like two years and a half, we were able to like grow um our following in our community to over 400,000, which is really, really good. Um, and on the back of that, we launched as well like a more like gated community too, when we have like yeah, more than 7,000 people inside our proper community. Um, so yeah, we've been growing a lot very quickly, which is great, but it comes with its challenges as well.

Stewart Noakes 2:47

And is this the full-time thing for both of you doing tech talk and res link, or are you doing something else as well? I can't imagine you've got time for it, but you know, just to check.

Roxanne Taku 2:55

Yeah, I think tech talk and res link is already good for now.

Trust And Complementary Strengths

Stewart Noakes 3:01

Yeah. So just those what makes what makes you good co-founding pairs? Like what are you what are you each strong at that the other one's bad at? How does it fit together for you?

Roxanne Taku 3:10

Yeah, I think we're complimentary in a lot of ways, to be honest. Um, well, first before even the skill sets, I think is the trust that we have. I think that's that's really, really big. The fact that we've known each other for so long, I think means that we know each other as people, like we know what makes each other tick, we know what our motivations are, which I always see that as a bit of a blessing because if I were like I think we'd always be able to work together, but if we were to like start as co-founders, for example, it'd probably take a little bit longer for us to understand each other. And so probably that means like the working relationship wouldn't have been as fruitful as it is now. The fact that we already know each other so well in terms of people, I think that's massive. Um, but in terms of skill sets, I mean, Joanna is like a marketing genius. Um, like, I mean, she's been doing this for like a couple of years now. She's extremely good at it. So, like, you know, even when she was talking about like social media growing to 400,000, I mean, you know, she's like the strategy behind that. I'm just the one that she tells me to execute it. I'm like, okay, it's done. Um, but yeah, she's definitely a marketing genius. She's really, really good at that. She's also very good at, I would say, operational things as well and processes. Um, on my side, I'm more good at like the sales and the commercial. So anything related to like partnerships I handle, anything related to yeah, essentially client-facing, kind of building relationships. Um, and I would also say good at like the strategic thinking. So I'm more like the big vision long-term thinker. Joanna is more the like, okay, now like let's take that vision and like what are the things that we need to do, you know, this week, this month, this quarter to like actually make that happen. Um, and so yeah, I think we complement each other pretty well in that sense.

Stewart Noakes 4:44

What do you think, China? She got that right.

Joana Rocha 4:47

Yeah, yeah, I completely agree with that. Um, I we always I always say this, like Rox is like the the visionary. She likes she she knows like where we need to go and and how we go there. And I'm more like the executioner. Um, so I think like in that sense, we we balance each other very well, both on TikTok and Raslink as well. Because on Raslink we have a third founder, um, and he always he also compliments us uh very well. Um, because he's a little bit of both, I would say.

Stewart Noakes 5:16

I mean, when I first met you, you're both uh very charismatic people. Like there's an instant sort of likability quality about you, but I think what I noticed is that you like each other. And I think that's a really nice part of being a co-founder, like it's not just a transactional thing, right? You're in a relationship with somebody, it's kind of a quite an intimate relationship. You know each other, good, bad, and ugly, through through different things, and you seem to really like each other as you walk around. I don't know if you're faking it, but you look like you like each other.

Roxanne Taku 5:42

No, I mean it's a good observation. Like, I generally think the trust is is like really strong. And like if you really think about it, because we we met like in 2016, 2017. So like we met basically 10 years ago, and a lot of our lives, like we'd done the first first together, right? Like, so the first time leaving home, the first time like living away from family, the first time, well, for me, the first time going to university for you, Joanna, was technically this the second time because you already started a bit university in Brazil, but like the first time, for example, living in China, the first time finding our first boyfriends, like the first time going through like so many stages of life like in parallel, like the first time getting our first job, the first time asking for promotion, asking for a raise. Like there's just a lot of like firsts, especially in our adult life, that we've done like in parallel and that we've always like been there for each other for. And like going back to like that trust piece, like yeah, we just we just know each other quite well. So, like even if there's a time, for example, where I don't know, one of us is like in a bad mood or something, like it's never really personal because we just like, oh, okay, we know how like this person is. Um, so I really do think like that's a big thing because you know, I feel like if you don't know the person that well, there's just like a lot of like assumptions, like try to figure out somebody, which which doesn't always like I think is just like a little bit of like a distraction of like what uh uh it is that you're actually trying to build. Um and actually Joanna and I have also worked previously on a business together. So like Tech Talk isn't even tech talk and resin aren't even like the first times that we're working together. Like we previously before tech talk, we had um we did like an air purifying business for a bit with like a third uh a third friend of ours, and like that was kind of our first time working together as like business people. And I think that was also the first time we kind of figured out each other's strengths and like what are our weaknesses, things like that, which like lended itself really well when we built tech talk because it was just like, oh, we already know each other, it's like where we stand kind of thing, almost without having to talk about it because we'd already experienced it. Um, so yeah, I think it's I think it's passive.

Stewart Noakes 7:41

Um you're kind of layering up, right? Sort of building on the experiences of each other. That's

Entrepreneurship Roots And Female Founder Realities

Stewart Noakes 7:46

nice. So I mean, do either of you have entrepreneurship in your background or in your education or anything?

Joana Rocha 7:53

I do, I do, um, in my family because my mother, she is uh an entrepreneur, um, and she had her own business. She was telling me that she quit her job to do her business the same age that I did. So when she was 20. Yeah. So she basically like I'm following like a very similar path um than she did. So I always saw like how like flexible like her life was, and like how she yeah, was basically like in control of like what she did and like what are the projects she was working on. So I feel like in the back of my head, I always had that as a reference. And the other side of my family is also very independent because they're all like doctors, and like when you're a doctor, like a surgeon, you also kind of control your own time. So I think like this notion of like a nine to five and like you being employed and like not having the flexibility was always something that I don't know I was always like pulling away from. I'm like, I don't know if I like that.

Roxanne Taku 8:53

Yeah, on my side, um, I mean, my family is a bit more like traditional, like my mom's a teacher. Um, my dad worked in corporates um his whole life. However, he was always you he always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I think he kind of had the golden handcuffs type of situation because he always told me, like, you know, if I could start over, like I would do a business. And he always told me, like, Roxanne, you need to like build a business, like that's how you should be thinking in life. So like he he was always very open to it, I would say. And it was never something to like shy away from. I mean, we also studied international business at school, not that I necessarily think that's like a skill that makes you an entrepreneur, but like it kind of just shows that we both leaned into it already from the beginning, and like it was always in the back of my mind that one day, you know, I did want to be an entrepreneur. But yeah, like I don't really have any entrepreneurs in my family apart from like I think people that wanted to be entrepreneurs. So even when I was making the leap going from corporate to full-time, like my dad was like, Yeah, go for it. Like, this is it, like you gotta take risks in life, like you know, like go for it, like you gotta take like the uh hold of like your destiny with your both hands, so like, yeah, definitely very supportive, even though I technically don't have any entrepreneurs in my family.

Stewart Noakes 10:08

He sounds amazing. I'd really like to meet him as a point. It sounds really cheerleader like on the sidelines for you. That's amazing.

Roxanne Taku 10:16

Yeah, he is.

Stewart Noakes 10:18

I mean, would you would you say as female founders that you face any uh additional barriers or burdens uh compared to other founders that you know? Or do you think it's kind of like it's just difficult doing entrepreneurship?

Joana Rocha 10:32

I don't think like me personally, like I don't think us being like female founders was something that was like harmful in any way or like something that made a difference. Um, I think like in our space we're very lucky to like have a lot of female founders as well. So like we know a lot of businesses where it's either two female founders or like one female founder. So I feel like we are in a space where yeah, we're surrounded by female founders. Um so and like on tech talk, for example, like we didn't have to do to go through like raising or like we were completely bootstrapped. So that also didn't make that much of an impact. Um, so I think like in yeah, in my lenses, like it, yeah, it was um pretty even out. I don't know, Rox, if you have anything to add.

Roxanne Taku 11:17

Yeah, no, I actually agree. Like, I think considering we're like in the careers space, um, I do think it's that there's a lot of females in here. And I think it's also something we don't like think about too much. Like, I know obviously there's like a lot of stats out there about like the difficulties of of fundraising, for example, as a female, um, or or even just like being a female entrepreneur, but I think it's probably something that yeah, we just try not to ponder on too much, um, and rather just like focus on like what we can control, which is just like you know, focusing on the business, focusing on the execution, focusing on the growth. Um, but yeah, I'd be curious. I mean, what do you think Stu? Like, what have you heard from like other female founders? Are we just a bit delusional in how we think God?

Stewart Noakes 12:05

Like, I have a general belief that entrepreneurship is hard, regardless of what background you come from or what gender you are, etc. Um, I've been stunned how many stories I've been told of people's difficulties, some internal and some external, and some of those external ones have been the ones that stunned me the most, I think. Uh, where I was surprised that in this day and age those those kind of problems still existed. Um, but some of the internal ones as well, like people I really respect as founders literally had crisis of confidence in themselves, and it was very deep rooted in their being as a woman, and sometimes a woman of colour. But things uh like I was told by one of my friends, and she said, you know, I really struggled to raise money because I just didn't feel I was worth it. And I tried to close the money on it, even though I was being offered it because the idea was there and everything was going well, but I just couldn't personally bring myself to close the money because I didn't feel inside like I was worth it. And I'll say, you know, it stunned me when I when I was sat with her. I was like, you know, she's an amazing person, really well educated. You know, I love her to bits, and I just couldn't understand how she felt like that about stuff. But then I've got male entrepreneur friends who actually feel similar. So you know, I just think there's a lot of stuff that we've all got as people that we're carrying around, and sometimes that is emphasized by your gender and sometimes it's just stuff, right? You just got to get through it.

Roxanne Taku 13:22

Yeah, I think you made a good distinction there about like the external and internal. Like one, I do think industry matters a lot, right? So the fact that we're in careers, like there are a lot more women than, for example, other industries. Like if we were in fintech, it'd be a different story. And and I wouldn't be surprised if like our answer was a little bit different. But I do think the internal thing is also like very important, like how many limiting beliefs you have about like yourself or like about the situation and about what it is that you're you're actually winning with. But funnily enough, I actually think I had more limiting beliefs when I was in corporate about, for example, being a black woman in a corporate space, working in like fintech, for example, than I do now. And again, I actually think it's more because of my surroundings because when I was working in tech, I worked for like two fintech companies and just one more like big tech company. Um, and yeah, you were like, I was more like the one of few, like especially when you have like an office of like, you know, 80, 90 people and you're like one of the only black women, and like just the way that I guess communication happened is different. So, like those limiting beliefs, I actually recognized those more while I was in corporate than here. But then again, if you think about who I'm surrounded with now, like I'm surrounded with, you know, my best friend and co-founder who like we're very equal in how we speak to each other and like very similar in how we speak to each other. Like, also, like I guess, like again, looking considering in the career space, like the rooms we step into are wouldn't say male female dominated, but there's more of an equilibrium of a female and male in comparison to, for example, if we go to like a payments conference or fintech conference. Actually, funnily enough, Joanna and I went to a payments conference um like right before I started my last corporate job, which was in payments. Um, and we went to like uh yeah, like one of the biggest competitors or one of the biggest players in the payment space, um, because Joanna also worked in payments. And like we were the only women, like genuinely one of the few only women there within a room of like hundreds of men. So it's interesting. Like, I think the like for my case at least, like I had more limiting beliefs before, I think, just because of those particular surroundings, and maybe I had than I have in my specific scenario now. Now, again, Joanna also mentioned a good point that like for tech talk, we've been bootstrapped, so we haven't actually had to fundraise um so far. So, like we haven't really put ourselves in that scenario. Um, and to be honest, for Reslink, like it's actually our co-founder in the US who's fundraising, mostly because he's in the US, and so you know, ticket sizes there are nice and healthy. So, like he's kind of leading that part. Um, so even that we haven't actually been exposed to that that much. So, yeah, I guess maybe maybe our answer would be different in five years, but at least for the now, I think it's not something that I feel holds us back.

What Canopy Adds Through Feedback

Stewart Noakes 16:12

Okay, no, fantastic. I mean, I loved it when when we met at Elizabeth's event uh Web Summit, and that evening you came along to our demo night and kind of got to meet some other folks, and then in London you came and gave a demo and got your People's Choice Award for Wrestling and stuff at uh City St. George's, which is also amazing. And has anything else happened for you as part of being a canopy? You know, what what do you get out of being in the community? Because we get a lot from knowing you and like you're incredible role models in the community. So is are we adding any value to you yet?

Roxanne Taku 16:42

Yeah, I think um like some of the relationships have been really helpful and like the feedback. So, for example, when we did that the pitch night at the canopy community, like even just getting the feedback from the judges on like us doing that pitch for the first time, even us just revising that pitch for the first time, I think was it was really, really good, like having to say it in like three or five minutes or something, um, and then getting those types of questions for them from the judges and the crowd as well, because they looked at it from an angle that we just never really thought of. Like, I guess us as three co-founders is obviously our baby, so we think we're poking tons of holes in it, and we're like, Yeah, like look at us, we're challenging ourselves so much. But then you have somebody else who's like clicking it for the first time and they're like, Well, how is this gonna work? Or like what is this person gonna think about this? So I think that was super valuable um in terms of just getting other types of feedback, and like we made some good connections um off the back of that as well. So I think that the network is definitely the valuable part of Canopy.

Stewart Noakes 17:39

Okay, fantastic. Joanna, is anybody special that you've met so far? I don't know if you've had any of the mentoring sessions with Pedro or anything, but is there anybody anybody out there that you remember meeting in Canopy?

Joana Rocha 17:50

Uh I'm not gonna remember by names, um, but there are a lot of people that um we met that were, I mean, even the people that were doing like the the pitches um with us as well. So like the other um people that were were pitching. Um there was someone that we yeah, we met there that she just won like Forbes as well on 30 under 30, which is like really impressive. So it's just like the caliber of people that like we were meeting and we were talking to. So a lot of interesting people that yeah, like we connected on LinkedIn and Pedro was one of them. We exchanged a bit like uh last year. So I think is like Rox was saying, like having those different people and having different perspectives um of what we're building from people that are building as well. I think that's also like very valuable.

Stewart Noakes 18:36

Amazing,

Founding 11 Businesses And Listening

Stewart Noakes 18:37

amazing. Now we tend to finish these things out by asking, you know, what's your best advice for a first-time founder? But as I promised you before we got here, if there's anything you want to ask me, I'm totally you know, turn around just fair play in these things. If you want to ask me any question, I'll do my best to answer it.

Roxanne Taku 18:52

Yeah, I mean, what do you because have you have you founded a business before? Let me just stop with that.

Stewart Noakes 18:58

Uh I just just founded my 11th, which is the investment fund. So nice. Uh yeah.

Roxanne Taku 19:04

Nice. Okay. So you founded quite a few. Uh did you have a favorite out of those 11?

Stewart Noakes 19:12

Uh that's like asking me which of my children I like the most impossible, right? Each of them has been a journey. Uh, some have made more money than others, some have been horrendous failures. Uh, I've been a good, bad, and indifferent co-founder in those in those ones, and I've worked with good, bad, and indifferent, and the relationships are the things that you remember after all the all the stuff is done. It's like um, you know, to be able to go through uh not just those 11 businesses, but I've actually sat. I think on my LinkedIn, somebody counted out from the other day, I've done 54 different board positions now. So I've I've kind of had these uh I say I use the word like you do, like it's intimate relationships with people where you're working really hard on really difficult stuff and you're having to argue with each other and find the best in each other and uh deal with the worst of each other in all these different settings now. So, you know, 54 different uh situations where I feel very privileged to have been invited into those rooms or created those rooms myself, and then very privileged to have actually done those journeys, you know. It's kind of it's kind of special. I started building when I was 26. I'm 53 now, I've been doing this for 27 years, you know. I literally haven't had a proper job in 27 years. It's uh it's insane, right? But but also one of life's blessings for me to be able to do that.

Joana Rocha 20:30

You know, and what I was gonna just ask, what is your biggest learning from uh founding 11 businesses?

Stewart Noakes 20:40

Well, in the mechanics of doing entrepreneurship, it's like uh listening to people is like a really super skill, right? It's not just to be overlooked, right? And you know, Dale Carnegie says it really well when I had to do when I was doing the teaching and I had to do a lot more reading. You know, you pick up these things like uh in one of his original texts he says, if you if you listen to your customer hard enough, they'll teach you how to sell to them. But ultimately, if you listen to them hard enough, they teach you what they need, right? And then you can actually build it for them if you keep building what you think is awesome. It's very rare that it actually latches perfectly with the customer, unless you are the customer. Um, so I learned some of those lessons for the hard way. Uh I'm an only child, so I have a lot of voices in my head, but I don't necessarily listen to other people's that as well as I should. Um, I learned a lot about empathy, and uh my favorite word in Portuguese is empathy. So it's kind of you know, it sits in my head a lot, and keep looking for that empathy and those uh relationships in the boards and relationship with the co-founders and relationship with the customers. And I learned a lot about myself, like you know, the business is a mirror on you, right? So what you're good, bad, and indifferent at will be exposed during those businesses and in those critical moments. And I've been taught by my co founders things about relationships and things which I didn't know before I was in those rooms, you know. And um I I owe a lot to my first co founders who were uh um a husband and wife, and you know, one of the things They taught me was the ability to compromise in a way that internally really hurts, but actually creates better value for everybody. So to be able to sit in a room and say, you know, they said it to me first, like we really don't agree with you. But we can see how absolutely convinced you are. So let's go for it. And we'll throw both boots into that as well. And we'll never tell you I told you so. But if it goes wrong, you know, we'll cry with you. And if it goes well, we'll high five together. And just kind of like stepped into that moment with me. And that's that's a very special thing to learn.

Roxanne Taku 22:31

Yeah, I think I didn't.

Stewart Noakes 22:32

I didn't actually realize it at the time. I only knew it like six months later. I was like, Jesus, what did they do? That's amazing.

Roxanne Taku 22:38

It's like the making of decision and committing together as like a group. Um, I think is huge. Out of those 11 businesses, were there any ones that you were driving like at the same time? And like what was that balance like? And did did the business like marry each other? As in, like, did one benefit the other, or were they kind of like in different fields? Like, I guess I'm curious because we're doing tech talk and wrestling at the same time.

Running Multiple Builds Across Countries

Stewart Noakes 23:02

Yeah, I mean, I can tell you, uh, one of the hardest stints of stuff was when I was building incubators. So I built two incubators with two different teams in two different countries simultaneously over 18 months. So that was really that was quite a tough uh stint. Uh, they were both um projects of kind of giving impact back to those cities. So one was in Boston and one was in uh Bangalore, and it's kind of the origin story of Canopy, it's sort of a bit of a bit of a flow. But over that 18 months, we basically stood up two properties, like physical properties, two teams, two co-founding teams, the dynamics in two different countries, the visas, the sort of microfinancing to get it to work, the promotion, all that stuff. And I was literally like for 18 months flying to Bangalore for a week, then coming back, then flying to Boston for a week, then coming back. And it was the same stuff in two different territories with two different dynamics of two different types of maturity. And at that point, I'd never built an incubator before, so we were kind of like learning everything from new. There was a lot of trust and a lot of like uh trying to parachute into places and do things over three or four days and then get back on a plane and go again. So the overlapping was hard work. Like, literally, my body clock was so screwed over that period, I literally had no idea what I was doing day or night. Um, because Bangalore is four and a half hours that way, and then Boston was five hours that way. So, like I literally was on an international can't sleep, won't sleep for most of that time.

Roxanne Taku 24:32

Yeah, that's dedication. Like doing that type of traveling every single week is tough, like not just mentally, like physically on your body and everything.

Stewart Noakes 24:42

Yeah, and they were they were startup projects as well. So I did all that in coach, like you know, I'm six foot six, and I was I was jamming myself into those coach seats, and I was flying via Dubai because it was cheaper to get to Bangalore doing it that way and all that kind of stuff, like making those choices and then still doing it for like four days on the ground and coming back. But it that was what it took to get it done, and it was either that or do it slower, and I wasn't in the mood for doing it slower, so we did it that way. I probably could have done it better if we'd have done it slower, but uh yeah, you kind of make the choices and you and you step into everything.

Roxanne Taku 25:14

Yeah, love that.

Stewart Noakes 25:17

Great question. You got anything else you want to ask me? I'll I'd do my best to answer them.

Joana Rocha 25:22

Um, have you founded a business by yourself, or were all of them of course?

Roxanne Taku 25:27

I was gonna ask that.

Solo Founder Mindset And Co-Founder Dynamics

Stewart Noakes 25:28

So the my first one I started by myself, and then my my co-founders came in sort of six weeks later. So all the kind of origination was me, and then uh one in particular, so the husband of the of the two, he brought into the idea very quickly and he sort of called me up on a Saturday and said, you know, I'd love to build this with you. He was my biggest skeptic and critic at the start, so I'd given him the first website to review, and he kind of seen what I was trying to achieve, and he had a desire to build stuff as well. And they they kind of came in together with their half of the business and uh matched me with funding and stuff and got on with it. But yeah, the original bit was literally I just set up with my laptop on my bedroom floor and started. And I had no idea what I was doing, I didn't even know how to calculate VAT and stuff. I was just kind of like, let's just go. And uh I resigned from my consulting job. I was only 26, I hadn't worked for very long, and I literally started the business during my notice period and just got gone.

Joana Rocha 26:21

Do you think it's easier to start a business by yourself or with someone else?

Stewart Noakes 26:28

I'm an only child, of course. I think it's easier to start by myself. I mean, one of the peculiarities you get as an only child is a or I got as an only child is a mindset that um everything starts and finishes with you. So, you know, I don't I don't wait for somebody to tell me what my opinion is. I have an opinion and I might adjust it, but I have an opinion from the start, and I have a desire and I have a vision and I have an expectation and I have rules. And part of what is I'm now told is my ADHD is basically I don't do well with other people's rules because I feel they're imposed on me because I'm used to creating my own rooms, which is why I build businesses rather than work for other people, because they will operate on my operating system, not somebody else's. I literally get angry when I'm in this presence of rules that I don't agree with that I can't change. I just can't, I just get fussy and I just have to move. Um one of the other pluses though is that it's a big self-reliance. So when the pressure's on, you're still just looking to yourself to sort it. Um one of the biggest weaknesses is you know, I've had to learn proper empathy. I've had to really respect how people have tried to teach me and how life has taught me those lessons. And I think I'm gonna work on that for a very long time still. Like it's not a natural innate talent, if you see what I mean.

Roxanne Taku 27:44

Yeah, I'm just picturing like what the when you have like a debate with your co-founders, like what that would look like, considering what you just mentioned.

Stewart Noakes 27:52

It can be robust.

Roxanne Taku 27:54

Yeah, they can be robust.

Stewart Noakes 27:59

But uh, you know, you what I tend to find is that the people that I'm friends with over the long term are very strong people in themselves, and that they see the way I am as something to meet rather than something that's crushing. Um, and I'm better than I was, you know. I was very arrogant, particularly at the beginning, in terms of the way I dealt with stuff, and I didn't have nuance or how I interpret it for others and stuff. I'm I'm better, but not perfect in that stuff. I need equals.

Roxanne Taku 28:29

Yeah, yeah, I think that's key. And what keeps you going? Because I mean, you'd think after 11 businesses, you can you can just you know rest. Just think I'm just gonna travel for the rest of my life now. Um, so yeah, like what what keeps you going?

Stewart Noakes 28:44

Uh I

What Keeps A Founder Going

Stewart Noakes 28:45

still have things I want to do. You know, it's in there to get it done. Um, when I run out of vision, then I'll then I'll probably stop, right?

Roxanne Taku 28:54

Do you think you'll ever run out of vision? Doesn't sound like it.

Stewart Noakes 28:56

I don't know. I'm getting I'm getting old now, so there's probably not time to run out. You know, this this fund is really big for us, and this is actually like in speaking to the the discussion we've had, um doing the fund is something I can't do without the other two. And we've talked about this together as a three. Like literally, it falls apart if any one of the three of us don't turn up. So that's really vulnerable for me. That's really difficult. Normally, I'm like, I can do all this this stuff, and other people are with me, that's great. But I've got it. This is like I haven't got it if you two don't show up. So we've verbalized it, we've been really clear with each other that that's the way it is, and it for all three of us is like that. We have a genuine belief in what we're doing, we're struggling with the administration and some of the things we have to go through to get the fund up and running. And it's literally like in my American East, it's a ball ache. It's like uh it's really hard to get this stuff to work, and uh, and that's not that we we believe though in the type of founder we want to support and in the way we want to support them, so we're we're holding that as the North Star and just letting this stuff sort itself out, but it's uh yeah, that's vision, I guess. It's like having that.

Roxanne Taku 30:06

Yeah.

Stewart Noakes 30:07

Well, see, that's a 10-year journey, so I'll be 63 by the time we finish that, right?

Roxanne Taku 30:13

Yeah, true.

Stewart Noakes 30:16

All right, well, you've quizzed me enough. I'm gonna I'm gonna let you finish out today. Thank you so much for these brilliant questions. I'm gonna have to watch this one back and see what I've said in retrospect.

Roxanne Taku 30:26

You're like how much you're like, I didn't keep my cards close to my chest enough.

Stewart Noakes 30:31

No, no, you've had the authentic response, definitely. They were great questions, appreciate it. As role models, as people's choice winners, as amazing entrepreneurs in your own right, what is your best advice for a first-line founder who's watching this?

Practical Advice For First-Time Founders

Stewart Noakes 30:43

What do you think they should be thinking about in their brains or doing in their actions?

Joana Rocha 30:48

I mean, I think it's something that you already spoke about at the beginning, which is, I mean, everything you build, you're building to solve a problem for someone. And if you don't like really understand your customer, it's gonna be really hard for you to build something on your own assumptions. So I think like at the beginning, and this is something that we did um a lot when we started, is like we talked a lot to our customers, even before they were customers, because we're trying to understand what are your pain points, what are things that you're you're looking for that you're not getting in the market, like where are the gaps that we can fill. And I think a lot of people go on assumptions on what they think people want as opposed to really doing that research and really talking to people. So I think that is a really big one, which is really understanding your audience. Um, and I think people underestimate that a lot.

Roxanne Taku 31:40

Yeah, I think, well, I'm personally pro very like having a co-founder because I think it's like really good to basically, I'm very team-oriented, so I think it's always nice to basically work with somebody alongside you, um, and basically just making sure that if you do have a co-founder or a partner, like it doesn't necessarily need to be a co-founder, that you're making sure you're going for complementary skill sets rather than the same skill sets. Because I mean, I have spoken with a couple of co-founders where they tend to have difficulties because they're basically both working on the same thing and like both owning the same thing, and then there's a little bit of clash there because yeah, I guess each one wants to be the driver of like that same project. So I think just making sure that like you choose your partner very wisely, you don't just choose them because you know they're friends or just because um, yeah, I don't know, like they they're really good at like like they have like a certain background or something, but I think definitely be being complimentary with them is a massive thing. Um, and and yeah, I would say that's probably my main one. Also relying on systems rather than motivation, I think is another one because motivation comes and goes by the day, by the week, by the month. But if you have more like systems and processes, you focus more on execution rather than like your intrinsic motivation, which I think you really need as a founder.

Stewart Noakes 33:00

Amazing, amazing insights, and thank you for being part of the community. Thank you for bringing your story today, and thank you for the amazing energy that you bring into every room that I see you in. It's always phenomenal to see you. You're you're a pair of people that every time I walk up to you, I find myself intrinsically smiling. Oh god, like these two are amazing. It's wonderful to see you again. So thanks for being here today.

Roxanne Taku 33:19

Thank you for having us for having us.