“Dominic Cummings broke the rules, the country can see that, and it’s shocked the Government cannot. The longer ministers and the Prime Minister tell us he worked within them, the more angry the response to this scandal seems likely to become. He was the man, remember, who political commentators said always got the public mood, and tagged the label of ‘elite’ on those who disagreed. He should understand that public mood now. One of fury, contempt and anguish. Critics say he has made those who struggled to keep to the rules feel like fools, and has allowed many more to assume they can now flout them. The Prime Minister knows all this, but despite the resignation of one minister, growing unease from his backbenchers, a dramatic early warning from the polls, and a deep national disquiet, Boris Johnson has chosen to ignore it. Tonight we consider what this blind loyalty tells us about the workings of Number 10.”

About Steve O’Hear
Steve O’Hear is best known as a technology journalist, currently at TechCrunch where he focuses on European startups, companies and products. Along with TechCrunch, Steve has written for numerous publications, including ZDNet (where he wrote the well-respected blog ‘The Social Web’), The Guardian, Macworld, TES, Last100 and ReadWriteWeb. He also wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Silicon Valley documentary ‘In Search of the Valley’, which was released in September 2006. In 2002, Steve was made a fellow of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

I was reminded today that I once interviewed the founder and some early employees of Propellerhead Software, maker of Rebirth and, of course, the equally groundbreaking Reason music making software. I ‘spelunked’ my in-box and found the remote Q&A from July 2002! Here it is published in full.

Ernst Nathorst-Böös: One of the 3 founders of Propellerhead Software, Product Manager and also Managing Director.

Tage Widsell: Marketing Manager, Support and Webmaster

Niels Larsen: International Sales Manager

1) What was the inspiration behind the ‘all in one’ approach of Reason, when VST instruments were being established and are so popular / established today?

Ernst: Our background wasn’t in plug-ins. We had already done ReBirth, and part of the success of that program was the all-in-one approach. It meant that people could get started making music with just this one app, share songs via the Internet etc.

Reason is ten times as big an app like ReBirth, but follows in the same tradition. There was no way we could fit all that usability and power into a plug-in.

We also have ReWire, which as far as the user is concerned, offers the same functionality as plug-ins, but actually with better usability.

Niels: I think its quite obvious when you have worked with Reason the the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. There is no way that you could achieve the kind of inter-connectivity in a confined plug-in environment that we have in Reason.

We also believe that the efficiency of our code is best appreciated in an application. Many plug-ins are not optimised to the level that we do, and that’s why many users can run even quite comprehensive setups without too much strain on their CPU.

2) Who is Reason aimed at? Any possibilities of a ‘cut down’ low cost Reason… Like the iMovie / Final Cut Pro model?

Ernst: There are no such plans at this point in time. Our target customer is anyone who has music as a major interest in life, regardless of whether it pays the rent or not. As we see it, anyone considering buying a hardware synth or sampler to complement their computer should take a serious look at Reason. It offers the same quality of result as the best hardware out there, but with better usability than any other hardware or software solution.

We see the proof of this in numerous contacts with our users. They say that the big difference is that with Reason, they simply make more (and sometimes even better!) music, more finished songs and spend less time configuring, adjusting and figuring out how to get from A to B.

3) ReBirth has an almost ‘cult’ following on the internet. Was this just luck? Or was it part of the company’s intention to foster an online
community?

Tage: It would be cool to say it was our plan from day one, but it wasn’t. The interest that ReBirth generated caught us (and our ISP) a little off guard. Months before releasing ReBirth, we put up an early alpha version on our web site and promoted it in a few news groups etc. This was on a Friday. By Sunday, we had the ISPs CEO screaming on the phone asking us to stop doing whatever we were doing. Their servers and bandwidth had maxed out due to the many downloads. That was the start of our internet following.

ReBirth users started sending us songs, so we opened a song archive where users could share music. Other users started hacking the application to exchange the graphics and drum sounds. We got hold of some of the hacked versions, decided they were cool and put them up for download. Later, we added support for user modifications in the program itself.

You can say that we didn’t plan all this from the start, but we have always been aware of the enormous importance of a dedicated user community, and we have done what we can to help supporting this community with our online services.

4) Reason sticks very closely to the analogy of a traditional recording
studio… And looks cool. How important was this to the user experience and has it limited the UI in anyway? e.g. Being constrained to the ‘studio’
metaphor.

Tage: One can certainly argue that using a hardware metaphor in software is rather limiting in terms of flexibility, but the gains are just so much greater. To have a user interface where anyone who knows just a little about music technology feels instantly at home is a great advantage. Also, the the intuitive workflow it allows for helps people create more and create faster!

To put it in the words of a pretty overweight producer I met at a trade show: ‘This is great! A studio where I don’t have to get out of my chair to reach the backside if the rack. And it has undo too!’.

Ernst: The philosopher Hegel said that freedom is the full realisation of restrictions. Often a guided solution offers more flexibility than what is traditionally called a “flexible” solution.

My colleague Marcus Zetterquist once said: “If they really want flexible,
why don’t we just send them the C compiler” :-).

We try to think very hard about the work flow and from which point to another the users goes, and then try to see how we can minimise the number of steps between those points. In this case, working with a hardware metaphor gave us the most usable interface we could think of.

However, we’re not religious about this. Look at ReCycle for example, it does not use a hardware metaphor at all. Each problem requires its own solution.

5) What’s next for Propeller Heads?

Ernst: Yesh, yeah :-). We can’t tell, can we? :-)

6) You are obviously a company that has embraced the internet from very early on and I think benefited greatly from doing so. You are a technology company that is at the heart of music too. How do you guys feel about the whole file sharing / fair use / DMCA war that’s taking place? Any advice for the recording industry based on your experiences of selling online?

Tage: Not really. We know that file sharing and copying will always happen. We have a reasonable copy protection in our applications, but there will never be a perfect copy protection. No matter what you do, there will either be a way around it or it becomes so intrusive that it only enrages the people who have actually paid for the product, while the people who are using the cracked version stays out of trouble.

What we try to do is to make owning the product more desirable than just having it. Owning Reason should feel good! What we have done is to enforce a very tight control over program licenses. The ownership is tied to a user account on our web site. As an owner, you get access to upgrades, technical support, program updates, song publishing in our song archive, special offers etc. Without the ownership, you can only watch the other kids eating their candy. This is in a way a positive copy protection. Protection by use of carrot, not stick.

I think the recording industry haven’t really caught up on this idea (and frankly, it must be hard to value-enrich an $18 CD much). But I think that if they want to fight this war, it will have to be fought by other methods than what it is doing right now.

Niels: What’s interesting about the internet is that it gives us the possibility to sell the right to use a product whether its software, music or maybe even a third category. Think about all the millions of CD’s that have been sold to people first on vinyl and second on CD. The truth is, they had already bought the right to play the music once, only the format changed. With the internet we have the opportunity to sell the content once and maybe back it up with other services in the future. This in my view, is only good news for the consumer.

The important thing for the music industry to do, is to figure out how to add value to a music purchase. This is the big challenge for the justification of record companies in the future, in my view.

7) Thanks for bringing out an OSX version of Reason so quickly. How good is OSX for audio / music apps? What will it offer to musicians in the future? And what do you think about Apple’s purchase of Emagic?

Ernst: It is too early for us to comment on the Emagic affair. We are hoping for Apple to provide the market with more information as soon as possible so that all us ISVs are able redraw our maps, make sure we have the same map and feel confident that that map won’t change too drastically too often.

OS X is fantastic for music. It is fast and reliable. There are good standards for audio and MIDI and it allows for things like ultra-low latency. We are totally committed to X.

Disclaimer: I now count ThreeTom’s Tom Verschooten as an online friend and he partly blames me for starting a modular development company. However, I paid full price for my ‘Steve’s MS-22' module (I was the first customer) and the views expressed here are my own.

‘Come for the filter sweep, stay for the modulation matrix,’ might well be an apt description of Steve’s MS-22 from ThreeTom Modular. At just 4hp wide, the Eurorack filter is deceptively small for such a large palette of potential sound shaping possibilities.

At its heart is a dual filter — one 12 dB/oct low-pass and the other a 6 dB/oct high-pass — configured in series, with the low-pass going into the high-pass. The filter’s topology is inspired by the OTA-based version found in the later Korg MS-20. And, although Steve’s MS-22 isn’t a straight up clone (for starters, the MS-20’s two filters are configured high into low), as its name suggests, it can breach MS territory with ease.

Set the gain to no more than half way and dial in resonance to taste, and the low pass filter is capable of producing warm squelchy bass lines and 70s-inspired eerie leads. Crank up the gain further and push the resonance closer to self oscillation and Steve’s MS-22 can be made to scream like a new-born baby possessed.

Counterintuitively (and a well-known trick used on the original MS-20), the high pass can be employed to add extra bass because of its ability to create an additional resonance peak at a desired frequency. ThreeTom’s decision to break with convention and place the high pass filter last in series means its resonance is more pronounced too.

More conventionally, with minimal resonance settings, the high pass can be used to remove bass and enable a patch to sit more easily within a mix. Meanwhile, in bandpass mode (employed via the link switch), Steve’s MS-22 is able to produce more throaty, almost formant-like ‘vocal’ sounds.

A lot of filters are limited by their ‘sweet spots’, which, when strayed too far from, can be disappointing, resulting in a one trick pony (the TB-303, anyone?). For the most part, Steve’s MS-22 doesn’t suffer this fate. No doubt that’s partly due to its MS-20 heritage but also the rather ingenious modulation matrix that — at times, mindfuckingly — packs in more CV control than modules three times its size.

As the manual states, “the modulation matrix lets you route whatever modulation source you have connected to the auxiliary CV input (e.g. an external envelope, LFO, S&H etc) to any or all of the following: HPF cutoff frequency, resonance amount, and input gain amount, either inverted or not”.

Due to its size, the modulation matrix mostly relies on a single socket and attenuator, with routing and inverting done by a series of 3-way switches, which encourages greater experimentation without the need to always reach for a patch cable or overly intellectualise an idea before committing to it. Quite brilliantly, this has resulted in more ‘happy accidents’ and ‘what if’ moments than any other Eurorack filter I’ve owned.

However, the ingeniousness of the modulation matrix also betrays one of the MS-22’s only potential shortcomings. And, perversely, that is its small size, the very thing ThreeTom’s unique design set out to achieve.

As Eurorack has found a home in live performances, smaller modules and cases are currently in vogue and for this reason the module’s 4hp demeanour will certainly appeal to many (this reviewer included). Thanks to the modulation matrix, the MS-22 is also an incredibly playable filter, in every sense of the word, but the closeness of its controls can sometimes feel a little too cramped. With so much latent power, I can’t help think there could be room for a larger ‘plus’ version of Steve’s MS-22 in the future. If that were to happen, Tom can gladly blame me once again.

SOH: When I first approached you with the idea of making an album, in a poorly disguised ruse to ‘get the band back together’, how did you feel at the time and has it turned out differently than your initial expectations?

Christopher Budd (bass): I was cautiously excited that you were throwing yourself back into music. After playing in the band, you and I had begun a few different musical projects, but not many had been seen through to completion. I had a sense that something might be different this time, but that it would take a group effort to put a whole album together. Although it was very strong for a while, the particular romance of playing in a band has faded somewhat for me in the intervening years, and it’s not really something that I, as a middle aged musician, would really aspire to now. That being said, I’ll pick up my bass and play with you any time, any place.

I’ve actually really enjoyed the whole experience, probably more than any other creative piece of work we’ve ever worked on together, and I’m very proud of the final product. And on reflection it does feel important that the core of our old band all have their moments on the disc. I don’t think I’d ever want to be involved in this sort of very personal project without them.

Dan Tucker (vocals): I was a bit nervous, but also excited. Most of all by the idea… in that the whole album had a narrative focus and that the subject was real, relatable and raw. In terms of playing with the ol’ guys, that was really nice, especially as everyone else has developed musically. It was different to when we were in a band though. Very different. This felt like a project and it involved more collaboration, planning and iterating than we had ever undertaken before. I had not expected that and in the most part enjoyed it more. I also felt like I was working more closely with Steve than ever before and having honest and moving conversations about the music and the subject of the songs.

Dave McCall (guitar): Very happy — always loved that Blues Brothers “the band..? The BAND!!!” moment! Things I didn’t foresee: Steve’s emergence as a serious lyricist; the range of genres and instrumentation on the album, but it all hanging together in a certain style — probably more classic soul than I thought it would be, but absolutely no problem with that here!

SOH: Otis ‘Max’ Load and the Thirteen Persons is a solo album, in the sense that, unlike our old band, I had final say on all creative decisions and led the writing and production. What was it like working for Otis and how would you describe your contribution?

CB: I expanded my contribution from bass payer to being involved in some of the technical and creative production of the record, and even snuck in a couple of songwriting credits. I’ve done plenty of session work so I know not to get too attached to anything I record and I know that a project can really only have one boss, so I was happy to bring my best contributions to everything we did and hope they ended up on the record. I don’t think I realised, until we spoke about it, how much you had been incorporating my ideas and making sure I had a voice on the whole project out of respect for my input, and I was touched by that. They were all bloody great ideas though.

DT: Otis is still Steve. And Steve has always had strong ideas and opinions about the creative direction and components of a song! I liked working with the Otis-Steve and although it was owned by him it still felt very collaborative. However it was great to have him say yes or no to the never ending multitude of changes I kept bringing with melody or lyrics. This process worked for me. Although I would have liked more time to experiment… but isn’t that always the way!

DM: A pleasure. Otis knew what he wanted and was patient when it didn’t arrive right away — he gave you the freedom to find it. It’s not his style to be autocratic, he just gently lets you know when something you’ve done is dogshit.

SOH: The recording process was also very different to the way we recorded our old band, where we all tended to be in the same room at the same time, and had to pretty much record ‘as live’. In contrast, In Between Floors makes extensive use of multitracking and was largely recorded ‘round robin’. What was it like working that way and how do you think that changed the final recording?

CB: Of course not being on the studio clock is wonderful, if you can be disciplined enough to sign off your work. I don’t mind working like that — in this case it gave me an opportunity to really concentrate on getting the best take. And I don’t mind recording myself either, I think I’m enough of a perfectionist to be able to be artist and recording engineer at the same time. But I realised early on that to produce a whole record like this we’d need to create as many opportunities as possible to introduce randomness into the recordings — happy accidents, things that went off grid, even things that went wrong. It all helped to give the record life. Later as the mix progressed I realised there were instrumental recordings I’d like to revisit for creative or technical reasons, but I resisted the temptation to disappear down that particular rabbit hole.

I think, with all the work we put in, that the blueprint is now invisible and the record as a whole really feels like a band in a room. At least I hope it does.

DT: I liked the fact that the process meant more chances to re-record and try different things, but I [also] missed the vibe of playing with others. The final recording feels like a studio album for sure. Lots of multi-tracked vocals and clever arrangements.

DM: It was tricky at times in that you never really knew what you were working towards, but that was also exciting and liberating. Perhaps the only thing I missed was a bit of the spontaneity and spark on solos and the like that can come with playing with others, but on the whole I enjoyed this way of working.

SOH: I feel like the sound of Otis ‘Max’ Load has obvious musical lineage with our old band, and not just in terms of personnel. Musically, how do connect the dots and where is there an obvious deviation?

CB: All our old influences are in there, it’s just that those influences are now from 50 years ago instead of 25. And since your songwriting and Hammond organ was such a feature of the band years, this feels like a natural continuation, with growth. If we’ve lost a step in terms of youthful energy we’ve gained two in maturity and taste.

DT: It feels a lot less guitar driven than the songs from the band we were in before. Also less complex, in a good way! However there is a lineage with the funkier, more Meters-esque side of what we were doing back in the band. I think that’s because that often came from Steve in the first place. Also there is a plurality of voices. Which is good. I liked the other vocal performances and the mix of backing too.

DM: Definitely a natural progression from Open Road, our second EP, with the soully sound — but much tighter song construction, and I also think it’s the first thing we’ve recorded where we’ve individually let the music breathe — we always had a bit of a tendency to overplay (especially yours truly!) probably thanks to starting out as a foot-to-the-floor acid jazz band — but we’ve learned to leave some room with age and experience and the songs are that much better for it — that’s perhaps the thing I’m most proud of about with this album, both of myself and us collectively.

SOH: From a recording or writing point of view, what is the track on In Between Floors that you enjoyed working on the most and why?

CB: The track I enjoyed working on most was ‘Sorry’. That one changed a lot, and required a lot of crafting, almost having to get mixed in two different ways. I really enjoyed that challenge and seeing the track come alive. It was also the only time on the record I got to engineer a session recording someone else, in this case Paula, who turned up at just the right time and fit right in to the record.

DT: I like seeing and hearing ‘Bump’ develop and be refined. I also liked the vibe of that song from the outset. ‘We Want It Always’ is the best track for me in terms of my contribution I think. I also enjoyed the studio days on that one a lot. But ‘Everything’ was the track for me that has the best memories as it was when Steve and I spoke the most about the content and worked together most closely. Although I can’t take credit for the melody as it came from Chris.

DM: I loved doing ‘Bump’, but overall, I’m most happy with my playing on ‘Worry Too Much’.

SOH: What is your favourite track from a listening point of view and why?

CB: Before the mix started I would have said ‘It’s A Pity’ — it showcases everything the album is about and it was the first track that really came alive for me. But for sheer listening pleasure I never tire of ‘I’ll Be’. It’s such an original sound and it’s just got so much integrity. So much soul.

DT: I really like ‘Worry Too Much’. The soulful singing and the arrangement of the horns. That and ‘Sorry’ are two of the best songs I feel. Really tight and really effective musically and lyrically. But I also really like the lazy funk of ‘We Want It Always’ and the deep groove of ‘Duplicity’.

DM: Difficult… I do think ‘Worry Too Much’ is a lovely song. I love the vibe of ‘Everything’. I also like ‘We Want It Always’, mainly because I just can’t believe we finally finished it! And it’s tight!

SOH: What musical influences do you feel you individually brought to the project?

CB: It was really nice to spend time in the world of soul music and I revisited a lot of Bill Withers, a lot of Al Green, stuff that I listened to religiously back in the ’90s but that I’d maybe put slightly on the back burner (and I’ve been back on a soul tip ever since so thanks Otis!). And of course that meant I drew a lot from Melvin Dunlap and Leroy Hodges in the bass parts. When we started tracking I’d just taken delivery of a Hagstrom Viking, which may not be the first choice for 70s-inspired lyrical funk lines, but I used it on the whole project and it added a different feel and made me interpret those influences differently. On ‘Everything’ I wanted to do something quite Traffic-y with the lyrics which sort of happened but it took on a life of its own too.

DT: I was listening to and thinking a lot about Lou Reed, JJ Cale and the Ramones when we were making ‘Bump’ and I think that has definitely found its way on to the track. The same with Beck during ‘We Want It Always’. I hope I helped to bring another sound and some other musical influences and that my interpretation of Steve’s story resonates with listeners.

DM: I’d like to think a bit of classic late 60s/early 70s blues rock because that’s my thing — so perhaps some of that, and a bit of funk/disco in places, too — Sly and the Family Stone, The Meters — that sort of thing.

SOH: Lyrically and musically, I’ve described the album’s ten songs as heartfelt retrospection combined with funk-fueled optimism, which is obviously contradictory! How would you encapsulate In Between Floors?

CB: More than anything else, it has an authorial voice, and it’s a story, honestly told, of one person’s experience of a love affair. And all those musical influences were just waiting to tell that story. Nothing particularly groundbreaking in that, but that’s what gives it universal appeal.

DT: I think it’s like its creator, funky, thoughtful and able to be sad and soulful in its reminiscence of a painful time. It’s not necessarily contradictory to have a sad message in an uptempo or groove focused song. In fact I think a lot of our mutual influences make or made music that way and its come through on to this record.

DM: Catharsis, probably for all of us!

You can listen to the album on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/6G0FdXcAWX7c1aferBO6Xv?si=QE5aBm81RpGrEidJi6yFSQ

You can now listen to In Between Floors via on Spotify via Otismax.com (or search on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer etc.)

‘In Between Floors’, the debut album by Otis ‘Max’ Load and the Thirteen Persons, has apparently sprung effortlessly and fully-formed from the mind of Steve O’Hear. But of course it’s never that simple. To address some of the mysteries of how the technology journalist had his love of music rekindled on a grand scale and poured several years of work into this project, bass player and co-producer Christopher Budd pitched some questions to his old friend Steve O’Hear aka Otis.

CB: Who is In Between Floors for?

SOH: Conceptually, In Between Floors is for anybody who is at an ‘in between’ time in their life — perhaps after a breakup but it doesn’t have to be — and is going through a period of retrospection in the pursuit of closure. It’s also a romantic record in the broadest sense, as I tend to see romance everywhere in life, and the album is quite positive and forward looking at times.

I think whenever you self-release any creative work, whether that be a record, book or film, you leave yourself open to accusations of self-indulgence and in some ways that is true.

On a practical level, making this record inadvertently put much of our previous band back together after almost 20 years, albeit in a different context and only temporarily. It also created some amazing new friendships along the way. I think there’s something especially romantic about the way music brings people together and I hope the record conveys some of that also.

CB: Before starting work on this album you had a long break from music-making. Why was that and what made you decide to return to it?

SOH: In my late teens and early 20s, being in a band was an important part of my identity and filled a lot of my time, so when the band ended it was hard to adjust. Without realising it, I sort of fell out of love with music. It didn’t happen right away but over a few years and after a couple of aborted post-band projects, I stopped writing music and listened to a lot less music, too.

However, although I had mixed feelings about investing emotionally in music again, and I wasn’t even sure if I’d be physically able to play well-enough anymore because of my disability, I always felt we had unfinished business. Our band never got to make a full album and whenever we recorded it was always rushed because we couldn’t afford enough studio time.

Then a few years ago my friend Jimi Lyons booked some time at a local studio and invited me to sit in on the rehearsal, even though I wasn’t ready to take part. I almost didn’t go, but another close friend, Milo Lapis, insisted we at least pop our heads in. I really liked the track they were rehearsing and Jimi had assembled a very friendly group of talented musicians. When I got home I just thought, ‘I need some of this in my life again’. Four of the musicians who were in the room that day — Jimi, MIRI, Milo, and Lenny Edwards — would end up appearing on In Between Floors.

I had also recently come out of a relationship, which had left me a bit devastated but also feeling extremely creative. It’s a bit of a cliche, I know, but I guess I finally had something musical to say again.

CB: Why did you choose to create a pseudonym to release this album? Who is Otis ‘Max’ Load?

SOH: I knew I didn’t want to release a ‘solo’ album in the strictest sense, even if I did want to produce it and have creative control. And because the album has many co-writing credits I thought a concept album freed us all up a bit more to explore subjects beyond just my own personal experiences. Meanwhile, Otis ‘Maximum’ Load and the Thirteen Persons was a fictional band name a family friend came up with when I was a kid because I spent a lot of time in elevators and the name basically stuck. If you really push me, I’d say Otis ‘Max’ Load is mostly but not always me.

CB: A lot of people know you as a technology journalist and they’re going to be surprised to see a different side of you. What skills have you honed in your journalism career that helped you in putting this album together?

SOH: I would likely frame it the other way round; being in a band and navigating some aspects of the music business back in the day has fed into my journalism. Because I am one, I think I understand other creative people, including entrepreneurs. I believe almost all the best products are a team effort, where a team gets behind a strong vision. Meanwhile, the process itself is almost always a lot more messy than the end result depicts!

CB: What are the main musical influences on the record, and how do you navigate your influences while also striving for a unique voice?

SOH: Almost all of the music I write has its roots in blues — for me it’s the musical gift that keeps on giving — but In Between Floors is more of a soul record, I guess. If I had to name check particularly strong influences when I was writing much of the material, it would span classics like the Meters, Dr. John, Al Green, Rolling Stones, and Traffic but also perhaps later artists such as Lenny Kravitz, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, certainly in thinking about how you draw on those older influences but still make a new, original record.

CB: Although this is very much a concept album about your own experience, you’re not the sole writer. How did you get involved with other songwriters and what did they bring to the table?

SOH: As already mentioned, the core lineup is really our old band, and so it was natural to share co-writing credits to varying degrees as I can sketch out an idea and almost know telepathically what a particular ex-band member will bring to the track.

I’m also quite new to lyric writing and so found it helpful to co-write a lot of the lyrics and cathartic to have somebody else help put into words some of the ideas and feelings I wanted to explore on this record.

I fondly remember the first writing session with MIRI for the track Worry Too Much. We got the first verse lyrics down really quickly but when faced with writing a second more difficult verse she sat opposite me and said something like, ‘right, what else have you got?’ We then just talked openly for a while until the next set of lyrics practically wrote themselves.

It is also often a more fruitful process when working with a singer to have them write or co-write lyrics as they can then record from a more invested place.

CB: Back in the ’90s you recorded in some commercial studios including BBC Maida Vale, but the relative affordability of modern studio technology allowed you to produce a good portion of this album in your own project studio. How do the old ways compare to the new ways, recording-wise?

SOH: Maida Vale sessions were recorded almost entirely live, with us all in the same room at the same time, and when our band was at its gigging peak. In Between Floors is orders of magnitude more of a studio album, making extensive use of multi-tracking and overdubbing. We recorded much more ‘round robin’, and in some instances I worked with musicians remotely. I think both approaches have pros and cons and it’s important not to overcook in the studio, which, of course, is exactly what having unlimited studio time can encourage. Hopefully we struck a good balance with this record.

We tried to keep it as live as possible and still take full advantage of having our own equipment and being able to re-record or evolve tracks within a production environment.

As a first-time producer/mix engineer, there was a huge learning curve on my part, which I probably underestimated and is one of the reasons the record took three years.

CB: As well as releasing the album on streaming services you’re crowdfunding a short-run vinyl pressing. Given the musical influences on the record, is it fair to say that vinyl is its natural home?

SOH: Yes! I, for one, can’t wait to do that first needle drop and I even bought a used early 80s record player for the occasion. In Between Floors was always conceived as an album, to be listened to as an entire long-play piece. I know that flies in the face of the way people consume music these days but if I was going to make an album I had to make an actual album.

CB: What‘s next for Otis ‘Max’ Load and the Thirteen Persons?

SOH: Aside from promoting this album, including a full streaming and digital download launch later this year, I’ve already begun sketching out new musical ideas, including exploring more electronic sounds and the use of modular synthesisers. Whether that will result in an Otis ‘Max’ future release or a different project, we’ll have to see. Right now I’m enjoying the freedom to just play with sound again.

You learn more about In Between Floors via Otismax.com or search Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer etc.

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Opening thought: I love it when a plan comes together

I’m writing this week’s ITK on a late Saturday afternoon and I’m absolutely shattered. It’s been an especially long week, but one, it’s fair to say, that has seen a couple of decent wins.

On the news reporting front, I managed two decent scoops. The first was news that British wunderkind Nick D’Aloisio, who famously sold his startup Summly to Yahoo aged 17 for a reported $30 million, has raised investment for a new app that promises to help you find and instantly chat to experts on a range of topics.

From sources, and by combining info from Companies House, I understand that Sphere Knowledge, as the new ventured is called, has raised $11.8 million in seed and Series A funding. Investors include LocalGlobe and Index Ventures, which isn’t bad going for a startup that remains in stealth mode and hasn’t publicly launched yet.

I actually got tipped off that D’Aloisio had raised investment for something new in the summer but it took me over two and a half months to reel this one in (this was a story D’Aloisio and his longtime PR handler definitely didn’t want written). During that time I was able to second source some of the info and wait patiently for a regulatory filing to confirm the amount raised, all the while paranoid that someone would beat me to the story.

Best of all I published the resulting piece an hour before Business Insider unveiled its UK Tech 100 list, which, let’s just say — and given I wasn’t sure if I was on the list this year — was no coincidence!

The second scoop this week came together in a matter of hours, even if I was first tipped off a few weeks ago: Secret Escapes, the members-only travel club, has raised Series D funding. Again, my info was a combination of original sourcing and a regulatory filing, but I only got part of the story. I reported that the round would be £52 million, including correctly identifying the lead investor, when in actual fact there is also additional debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, bringing the total to £83 million when debt is included.

Things I wrote

Digital wealth manager Moneyfarm acquires tech behind fintech chatbot Ernest

techcrunch.com

Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, though I understand that, along with the tech, this is an acqui-hire of sorts, seeing London-based Ernest’s CTO Lorenzo Sicilia join Moneyfarm to oversee technology integration.

Secret Escapes, the members-only travel club, closing in on £50M Series D

techcrunch.com

According to sources, the London-headquartered company has raised a £50 million plus funding round.

Nick D’Aloisio, who sold startup to Yahoo aged 17, has raised funding for a new app

techcrunch.com

Nick D’Aloisio, who previously founded news summary app Summly, which he famously sold to Yahoo aged 17 for a reported $30 million, has raised funding for a new stealthy startup.

21Buttons, a social-commerce app dedicated to fashion, closes $10M Series A

techcrunch.com

21Buttons, a social-commerce app that lets fashion influencers share their wardrobe, has closed $10 million in Series A funding.

European on-demand delivery startup Glovo raises €30 million Series B

techcrunch.com

Late last month, Spanish media got wind that the Barcelona-based on-demand delivery app Glovo had closed Series B funding, but now the company is making the news official.

MessageBird, a European cloud comms platform that competes with Twilio, raises $60M Series A

techcrunch.com

The round is being led by Accel in the U.S., with Atomico, the VC firm founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström, leading in Europe.

LocalGlobe backs augmented and virtual reality content startup Curiscope

techcrunch.com

Curiscope, a U.K. augmented and virtual reality content startup, has raised a $1 million seed round led by LocalGlobe, the seed VC firm founded by Saul and Robin Klein.

Fintech startup Curve partners with accounting software Xero to make filing expenses ‘frictionless’

techcrunch.com

The move is part of the newly-launched ‘Curve Connect’ feature that will see Curve connect to a growing list of third-party apps and services.

Closing thought: My ears popped

They say your ears burn when you’re being talked about. Well, on Thursday night at Business Insider’s UK Tech 100 party held at the top of The Gherkin, my ears popped, literally. I actually had to take three elevators to get to the top floor restaurant where the event was held, from which the views of London are stunning.

The party itself was a lot of fun (and not just because I made the Tech 100 list for the second year running, albeit 15 places lower than last year!). Journalism, especially when you work from home, can be quite a solitary business and I think events like these are a nice reminder that those of us who work in tech, including the media, are part of something bigger.

As usual, I got to catch up with colleagues I haven’t seen in a while, as well as meet lots of people who I’ve previously only communicated with online or on the phone, which is always great. This included most of the Business Insider tech crew, who, it has to be said, were great hosts.

Aside from seeing my name on a staircase, the most surreal moment of the night came fairly early on after arriving and while I was still feeling a bit combobulated post-elevators and in the rush to arrive on time. I was chatting away to a friend when a photo of me wearing my trademark black hat and glasses appeared on a very large screen behind us. ‘That’s me,’ I said outloud, entirely redundantly.

At this point I remembered how I’d been trolled by Business Insider tech editor James Cook when we met for coffee in the summer. I’d asked mischievously (and slightly vainly) if I was going to be on this year’s list. ‘Maybe, still deciding,’ he replied poker faced, which prompted me to spend the next five minutes accidentally trying to talk myself off the list. ‘I haven’t really achieved anything of note this year,’ I recall saying. Luckily for me, Cook and the rest of the BI team took a different view.

Get in touch

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Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues who might also enjoy it. More subscribers and better open rates makes me happy.

Till next time,

Steve

Opening thought: Playing it long

As readers of this newsletter will be aware, a fortnight ago I was stressing to finish a 4,500 word feature for TechCrunch: The subject was a profile of GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi who, just over a year ago, was involved in a serious road accident that has left him paralysed below his chest and unable to walk again.

The resulting piece centred around an exclusive interview with Takeuchi — his first with the tech or business press since the accident — but also included interviews with three of GoCardless’ investors — from Balderton, Notion and Passion — GoCardless co-founder Matt Robinson, and Takeuchi’s wife Rachel Swidenbank.

However, what you won’t be aware of, even if you’ve already read the feature, is that it wasn’t my original intention to go so deep or interview five people, which eventually amounted to transcribing over 8,000 words (which I learned is no fun at all).

I was approached in late July by GoCardless’ PR firm asking if I would be interested in interviewing Takeuchi for his first and potentially only on-record discussion of the accident, the events and challenges that followed and to get an update on the company. I didn’t hesitate to say yes, even though at this point I didn’t have a clue what the eventual piece may look like. This was then followed by a brief call with Takeuchi to get a sense of what he had in mind and for me to gauge if there were going to be any red lines. I also made the decision that the interview should take place face to face: I’d need to visit the GoCardless offices for creative inspiration and to see how Takeuchi was holding up for myself.

The only other real preparation I did prior to my visit a few weeks later was to have a call with Matt Robinson, GoCardless co-founder and Takeuchi’s close friend, who I’d kept in semi-regular contact with over the past year, mainly to cover his own startup Nested but also to check how Takeuchi was doing. My intention was just to get a feel for the kind of things I perhaps should or shouldn’t ask, given that I wanted to handle the subject sensitively whilst still staying as close to the truth as possible. This was someone’s life I was going to be writing about after all.

The call with Robinson was short and basically amounted to him asking me to keep in mind that Takeuchi can be very open (‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to stitch him up!’ I assured him). In a challenge of sorts, he also pressed home that this was an opportunity to write a very different piece to my bread and butter output on TechCrunch.

After visiting and interviewing Takeuchi, however, and then electing to interview five other people, including Robinson himself, who didn’t really want to be in the limelight, when I sat down to write the resulting feature I had a hard time figuring out what the story should be, even though I knew right from the start the kind of piece I didn’t want to write.

As inspiring as Takeuchi’s story is, I didn’t want to produce a piece of inspiration porn that told an overly simple story of one man’s triumph over adversity, devoid of the subtle reality of living and coming to terms with a major disability. That was undoubtedly based of my own experience of disability and as a lifelong student of how the media portrays people with disabilities. Nor did I want to brush aside the challenges faced and overcome by Takeuchi and those he continues to confront and will do for the rest of his life. “It’s hard,” are words he used on more than one occasion during the interview.

But in the end I realised that above all, his is a story of friendship and, related to this, loyalty. Between husband and wife, between co-founders and the closest of friends, between investors and founders, between founder and startup. And, perhaps more than anything else, Takeuchi’s loyalty to himself to not let the accident change him too much. I hope I went some way to capturing that aspect of the narrative.

As a writer it was undoubtedly an opportunity to challenge myself and overall a creative endeavour that I really enjoyed. That’s not to say it wasn’t quite stressful — at times, it was — and by the end I was just relieved that Takeuchi and Swidenbank were happy with the piece. Neither asked to see it before it was published either, which demonstrated a significant amount of trust.

Feedback after I hit publish has been really positive. I’ve been quite taken aback by all of the public and private messages I’ve had and it was nice to see the piece so widely read. Hard work sometimes does get its just rewards.

It also got me thinking about why Takeuchi chose to have me write the feature and to trace back how I first got to know him and GoCardless. If I recall correctly, the first time I made contact with him and Robinson was to run a slightly negative story about GoCardless losing a second co-founder. This then led to my inviting Takeuchi to be the first guest on my ‘Talk is cheap’ audio interview format for TechCrunch and I’ve subsequently covered both GoCardless and Robinson’s Nested a few times. I guess what I’m trying to say is that even a negative story — or at least a story that not everyone wants told at that time — can be handled in a way that doesn’t burn bridges.

Lastly, this might surprise a few people but I’m not always the most confident writer. I’ve always considered myself to be a really good communicator, but writer, in the sense of going beyond simple prose, not so much. A long-form piece, with all of its storytelling and structural challenges, really tested my writing skills and the way it was received has given me confidence to experiment more with longer content and in different settings.

One thing that came through loud and clear was that people enjoy my conversational style and are crying out for more reporting on the human side of startup life or how tech is impacting lives from a human interest point of view. That is definitely something I want to focus more on, although I doubt I’ll come across many stories as compelling as Takeuchi’s or one that I was quite so uniquely placed to write.

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Things I wrote

GoCardless CEO: ‘I still feel like I’m the same person’

techcrunch.com

It has nearly been a year since GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi was involved in a serious road accident that left him paralysed below his chest, and unable to walk again. Based on multiple interviews, including with Takeuchi himself, we tell the story of his journey back to startup life and the many challenges faced along the way.

Pi Labs, a ‘pre-Series A’ property tech VC based in London, closes $10M second fund

techcrunch.com

Property Innovation Labs (Pi Labs), an accelerator-turned-early-stage VC fund that invests in property tech startups ‘pre-Series A’, has closed a second fund of $10 million.

Inkitt, a ‘reader powered’ book publisher, raises $3.9M to discover the next best-selling author

techcrunch.com

The Berlin-based startup is part writing and reading community, and part publishing house, with one aspect feeding the other.

Photo marketplace Picfair raises £1.5M, aims to ‘weaponise’ photographers

techcrunch.com

Picfair, the London-based photo marketplace founded by ex-journalist Benji Lanyado, has raised £1.5 million in new funding, capital it plans to use to market its “fair trade photography” proposition to the plethora of companies that need authentic photo content.

Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding, now valued at ‘over $2 Billion’

techcrunch.com

Deliveroo, the London headquartered restaurant food delivery startup, has raised $385 million in new funding, giving it a valuation of “over $2 billion,” according to the company.

London and Antwerp-based Hummingbird Ventures closes new $95M fund

techcrunch.com

London and Antwerp-based Hummingbird Ventures, which counts Deliveroo and Showpad in its portfolio, has closed a new $95 million fund to invest in tech startups at the “late Seed and Series A” stage.

DogBuddy, the European dog sitting marketplace, scores €5M Series A

techcrunch.com

Backing the London-headquartered startup in this round is existing investor Sweet Capital, the investment fund started by the founders of King.com, and a number of new unnamed private investors. It brings total raised by DogBuddy to €10 million.

Pointy, a startup that lets local retailers easily put stock online with a simple gadget, raises​ ​$6M

techcrunch.com

The round is being led by Frontline Ventures, alongside Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, Draper Associates and a number of notable angel investors.

8fit, a health and fitness app that offers tailored workout and meal plans, closes $7M Series A

techcrunch.com

It small scoop from me: Backing the round are VCs Creandum and Eight Roads Ventures. It brings total funding for the Berlin-based startup to $10 million. Read More

BP Ventures, BP’s investment arm, leads $20M in private jet charter marketplace Victor

techcrunch.com

Victor, which bills itself as the “largest ‘on-demand’ marketplace for private jet charter,” has raised $20 million in new funding, bringing total raised to date to $44.45 million since launching in 2011.

Funnel raises $10M led by Balderton Capital to help companies analyse online marketing spend

techcrunch.com

London VC Balderton Capital led the round, with participation from existing investors including Industrifonden and Zobito.

GoCardless, a fintech that makes recurring payments easy for subscription businesses, raises $22.5M

techcrunch.com

When I interviewed CEO Hiroki Takeuchi a few weeks ago, he wouldn’t be drawn on if the hot London fintech was raising a new round. The company has since announced $22.5 million in new funding!

Closing thought: Where next?

In a Kanban board hosted on Zenkit (the project management tool that makes Trello look like a toy), I’ve created a list of potential features and long-form story ideas, which I’d happily share with ITK subscribers if it wasn’t for the fact that Business Insider’s James Cook reads this newsletter, along with many rival journalists at other esteemed publications.

However, to give you a flavour, the ideas range from profiles of interesting startup founders, yet untold stories of VC betrayal, an in depth look at a particular sector of tech and the fierce competition surrounding it, and profiling a number of the more interesting VC firms (along the lines of the piece I recently did on LocalGlobe).

But there’s room for more — and this is where you come in. What are the bigger stories in European tech that I’m missing? Who are the interesting personalities that warrant some investigation and a possible profile? What are the human stories that haven’t been told? As always, send me your thoughts and suggestions, but please don’t just pitch me (yes, PRs, I’m talking to you). I want this to be a genuine conversation.

As inspiration, I’ll leave you with the words of one VC at a leading London venture firm, who recently emailed:

I think, really, it’s about the humanity behind the tech world. Too much time is spent focusing on the technology itself or the financial aspect of what our industry does. Obviously as an engineer turned investor I get why, but I think it’s the social application of all of this that is interesting — whether it’s the impact on the people who are affected by the tech (I have seen very few articles about what it’s like to be an Uber driver — I mean really follow an actual driver who’s left a family, moved somewhere, is struggling to get by, using services like Uber to build a new life, etc) or the people who move tech, and the hidden parts of their lives.

Get in touch

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Till next time,

Steve

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Opening thought: Hard things are hard

I’ve often said — albeit, in slight jest — that writing about technology would be the best job in the world if it wasn’t for the writing.

The point I’m making is it is almost always fun (and sometimes even a privilege) talking to entrepreneurs and, more broadly, those who are building the future, but what people seem to forget is that the subsequent article that appears online doesn’t write itself. And when the words aren’t flowing — coupled with an inbox full of people ‘circling back’ wanting you to write about their thing — it’s hard.

I find it particularly challenging when I’m writing something more long-form instead of a pithy news piece. Not only does it (for me at least) require a very different mindset, workflow and level of creativity e.g. interviews, transcribing, finding the overall angle and story arc, but it also simply takes more time.

The only solution I’ve come up with is to try to ignore everything else and not put myself under too much pressure so that the creative neurones start firing, which is what I’ve mostly done over the last couple of weeks as I finally filed a soon-to-be-published 4,500+ word feature, including neglecting to write this newsletter!

The Hoff backs EF!

No, not that Hoff. The big news in London this week is that company builder Entrepreneur First has raised $12.4 million in new funding led by Silicon Valley’s Greylock Partners.

The fundraise — which is for operational costs and separate from EF’s investment fund — also sees Greylock partner and co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman join the EF board. I managed to secure an exclusive interview with Hoffman prior to breaking the news, which was fun.

Despite never talking to Hoffman before, it was actually a pretty easy interview, given that I knew the subject really well — having covered EF and their unique “talent first” investment model almost right from the start — and that Hoffman undoubtedly knows his stuff.

This was followed at the end of the week by EF’s Demo Day for its eighth London cohort. I’ve waxed lyrical in this newsletter about EF before (see ‘The Magic Pony effect’), but what makes the company builder interesting is that it backs individuals “pre-team, pre-idea” — meaning that, as far as I understand, none of the companies pitching on Friday existed just six months ago.

Based on the quality of pitching startups (within the limitations of a 3–4 minute presentation), I remain bullish on EF, although I’d love to see more data and analysis on how well its portfolio is doing further up the funnel.

Here’s an excerpt from my coverage of Demo Day:

To date, EF says it has helped more than 500 individuals on its program, who have built more than 100 companies with a total (mostly on paper) valuation exceeding $1 billion. As far as I know, it doesn’t break out additional numbers regarding the fundraising success rate of its startups or how many, if any, no longer exist to this day. Now into its sixth year, the program has been running long enough to make that data interesting and potentially quite meaningful, although it is also worth keeping in mind that EF has iterated and grown quite a lot since those humble cohort one and two beginnings.

Flying taxis

We were promised flying cars and we got flying taxis? Ok, that’s not true quite yet, but Munich-based Lilium is at least attempting to build something along those lines. The in-development five-seater Lilium jet promises to be a new kind of all-electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) device that you’ll be able book almost as conveniently as an Uber.

The company recently raised $90 million in Series B funding, and in covering the news I managed to bag an exclusive english language interview with the otherwise quite media shy Lilium co-founder and CEO, Daniel Wiegand.

Although a commercial launch is several years away, Wiegand told me that Lilium aims to be “the leading company enabling every person to take a jet instead of using the car and be five times faster to their destination… There’s going to be an app and from day one you’ll be able to book this airplane as a service”.

Who said European tech lacked ambition?

Things I wrote

Meet the startups that just pitched at EF’s 8th Demo Day in London

techcrunch.com

Entrepreneur First (EF), the company builder and “talent first” investor, has just held Demo Day for its eighth London cohort, seeing 14 newly-formed startups pitch their wares onstage to investors, press and other actors in the European tech scene.

Starling Bank launches Marketplace, integrates with itemised receipt and rewards startup Flux

techcrunch.com

A number of challenger banks are skating to where the puck is going, including Starling Bank, which today is launching the Starling Marketplace.

Company builder Entrepreneur First raises $12.4M led by Greylock, Reid Hoffman joins board

techcrunch.com

Well, this is quite a coup. Entrepreneur First (EF), the London-headquartered company builder that invests in individuals “pre-team, pre-idea” to help create new technology startups, has raised $12.4 million in new funding led by Silicon Valley’s Greylock Partners.

European ‘social eating platform’ VizEat acquires U.S.-based EatWith

techcrunch.com

VizEat, the European “social eating platform” that connects travellers and local hosts around authentic food experiences has acquired EatWith, a similar startup headquartered in San Francisco.

BandLab​ ​Technologies​ acquires Chew.tv, a video streaming service for DJs

techcrunch.com

Terms of the deal are undisclosed, though it was widely known that Chew.tv, which has been described as ‘Twitch for DJs,’ had been struggling financially over the last six months.

Atomico promotes Tom Wehmeier, the European VC firm’s Head of Research, to Partner

techcrunch.com

Atomico, the European VC fund founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström, has made another promotion. Tom Wehmeier, the firm’s Head of Research and already an existing member of the investment team, is making the step up to Partner.

Aifloo, a Swedish startup that sells a ‘smart wristband’ to help care for the elderly, raises €5.1M

techcrunch.com

Aifloo, a Swedish startup that combines hardware sensors and AI to offer a ‘smart wristband’ to help care for the elderly, has raised €5.1 million in new funding.

Lilium raises $90M Series B for all-electric flying taxi

techcrunch.com

Imagine some time in the not-so-distant future. After making your way to the nearest community landing strip, you’ll pull out your phone, and, with a single tap, hail the closest air taxi to take you to your chosen destination.

Cowboy is a new e-bike startup from founders of Take Eat Easy

techcrunch.com

Dubbed Cowboy, the company is building a new electronic bicycle that it claims will address issues that have historically stopped e-bikes from becoming a “fully fledged mobility solution”.

Habito, an app that helps you find the right mortgage, raises £18.5M Series B led by Atomico

techcrunch.com

Habito, a London startup that is bringing the entire mortgage process online, has raised £18.5 million in Series B funding.

Homelike, a German startup that lets business travelers find an apartment, picks up €4M Series A

techcrunch.com

One growing sector we can add to the travel accommodation list is long term stays for business travellers.

Veo uses AI to let amateur soccer clubs video matches without the need for a camera operator

techcrunch.com

By taking advantage of developments in AI and video camera technology, the company offers a solution for amateur soccer clubs that want to video and stream matches and training sessions without the need for a camera operator or vision mixer/editor.

BunkerEx is an online marketplace for shipping companies that need to buy fuel

techcrunch.com

BunkerEx is a newly-funded startup out of London that is building an online marketplace to change the way shipping companies buy fuel, or ‘bunkers,’ to use the correct industry term.

Bunch wants to be ‘Google Analytics for company culture’

techcrunch.com

Berlin startup offers a SaaS to let companies measure internal company culture, and then use this data as the basis to screen job candidates to help ensure that they will also be a good fit.

Skidos offers an SDK to turn mobile games into ‘learning apps’

techcrunch.com

Skidos, an edtech startup based in Copenhagen after relocating its HQ from New Delhi, offers an SDK to help games developers turn casual games into “learning apps”.

Closing thought: Making a difference

Readers of this newsletter and/or TechCrunch may remember Izzy Wheels, the Irish startup I covered that sells a range of wheelchair spoke guards created by independent designers and illustrators. Well, it turns out that my article was somewhat of a tipping point for the young company.

Izzy Wheels founder and Creative Director Ailbhe Keane emailed me last month with an update since being featured. “Everything really really blew up for us after TechCrunch! We got hundreds and hundreds of messages from all over the world from all sorts of interesting people,” she writes.

“The exposure on TechCrunch caught the attention of lots of other global platforms including INSIDER, Instagram, Adobe and Microsoft. Someone from INSIDER saw the article and and made this video about us which then got 2 million views in 24 hours and 11 million views in a week. We were also picked up by Instagram, who saw your article, and asked us to be their story for 24 hours (225 million followers) and posted this photo. Now 80% of our sales are coming from the USA. TechCrunch was explosive for us!! Still riding the wave after it and the orders are flying in”.

With great power comes great responsibility. In all seriousness, it’s nice to be able to make a difference.

Get in touch

Want to continue the conversation? Just hit reply to this email — I answer every single ITK email I receive.

Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues who might also enjoy it. More subscribers and better open rates makes me happy.

Till next time,

Steve

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Opening thought: I’m not good at vacations

Let me start this week’s ITK with a public service announcement: I’m currently on leave till the week beginning 24th July, so apologies in advance if I’m slow to respond on email (especially to pitches) or seem a little disconnected. That’s sort of the whole point.

With that said, because I’m slightly insane, I’ve agreed to do two work-related things while I’m off work.

Startup Grind Summer Party

The first is Thursday 13th of July when I’ll be hosting a fireside chat with investor Robin Klein — who some have dubbed the UK’s ‘godfather of VC’ — at Startup Grind’s London Summer Party, which I’m pretty excited about.

Despite knowing him by reputation for many years, it was only last month that we met in person for the first time when I visited LocalGlobe, the seed-stage VC firm Robin founded with his son Saul Klein, to do a feature for TechCrunch.

This time I get up to an hour to put questions to Robin alone, instead of shared with five other members of the LocalGlobe team, so we should be able to go pretty deep. If there is anything you think I should ask him (I have already thought up a few insightful questions), drop me a line.

TechCrunch London Meetup

The following week, on the 19th of July, TechCrunch is hosting a Meetup + Pitch-off in conjunction with the Unbound conference in London. I’m still planning to be there (and I know we have a great lineup of pitching companies and judges), so why not grab a ticket, come along and say hello.

Recording studio booked!

Outside of tech, I’ll be catching up with friends and visiting family, and I’ve booked a day at New Rose Studios in North London to continue work on the album I’m writing and producing.

Most of the record has been recorded at my house and a couple of friends’ project studios, but because we are recording a conga player and percussionist we decided we needed a better live room. New Rose Studios, which used to be called Zed One, has fond memories as it is the studio my defunct band ZUBAIDA used to regularly rehearse in. The owner is an old friend, too.

Good times.

Bonus: Which London fintech is closing in on a multimillion round of Series A funding? I’m planning on breaking at least one story while I’m on leave, so keep an eye on my Twitter stream.

Things I wrote

Tonsser, the social app for youth soccer players, collaborates with Nike and raises new funding

techcrunch.com

Tonsser, the Copenhagen-based startup that offers a vertical social network aimed at youth soccer players who want to build their own online profile and potentially get discovered by a bigger club, continues to grow at a clip, both in terms of signups but also the influence it wants to have on the beautiful game.

UVeye raises $4.5M to use computer vision to inspect underside of vehicles at security checkpoints

techcrunch.com

UVeye, an Israeli startup that is building computer vision and machine learning technology to be used to help detect security threats by scanning the underside of passing vehicles, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding.

Push Doctor, an app that lets you video call a doctor, raises $26.1M Series B

techcrunch.com

Push Doctor, a U.K.-based startup that lets you book a video consultation with a doctor and manage other aspects of your health digitally, has raised $26.1 million in Series B funding.

Ohpen, a cloud-based ‘core banking provider’, scores €15M Series B at €100M valuation

techcrunch.com

Ohpen, a Netherlands-based company that has built cloud-based core banking software, has raised €15 million in Series B funding, which I understand gives it a valuation of €100 million.

Curve now lets you ‘go back in time’ and switch the card you paid with retroactively

techcrunch.com

Curve, the mobile wallet and all-your-cards-in-one app, is rolling out a nifty new feature today that lets you retroactively switch the card you used to pay.

Get in touch

Want to continue the conversation? Just hit reply to this email — I answer every single ITK email I receive.

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Till next time,

Steve

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Opening thought: Tone deaf

Perhaps Martin Bryant, ex-Editor at Large at The Next Web, summed it up best when he tweeted “Drip, drip, flood” in reference to a slew of stories coming out of Silicon Valley regarding inappropriate behaviour by VCs towards female founders and/or prospective female hires.

The first was alleged sexual misconduct at the venture capital firm Binary Capital by its co-founder Justin Caldbeck, a story carefully broken by The Information, which I’m told had been months in the making.

This was then followed by a similar story in The New York Times, this time involving alleged misconduct at other VC firms, including naming Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital, and Dave McClure of 500 Startups. Notably, the report was based on interviews, both on and off the record, with 12 women in the tech startup industry.

That in itself is telling of how far the story has come already, since it is often prohibitive for women entrepreneurs to speak out in the Valley (or in any other tight knit community) for fear of retaliation, including in this instance the perceived or real threat of being blacklisted by investors in the future.

But perhaps more than anything else, I’m struck by how tone deaf some of the responses by the tech industry in the U.S. has been, not least by the accused in their subsequent mea culpas.

Caldbeck, for example, manages to open his apology, issued in a statement to TechCrunch, by explaining that “the past 24 hours have been the darkest of my life,” which is in danger of making himself out to be the victim.

Then we have a long Medium post by Chris Sacca — put out before and without originally referencing that The New York Times had contacted him — where he says sorry a lot of times, although it is never quite clear what it is he is specifically apologizing for.

As one female friend in tech put it to me, the post comes across as mansplaining the issues and the multiple references to the braveness of women that speak out feels quite condescending, even if it probably wasn’t intended to be.

Finally, 500 Startups’ new CEO Christine Tsai — for it would seem McClure was already replaced a while ago, even if nobody told the fund’s LPs — issued a statement saying that McClure’s behaviour was not reflective of 500’s culture and values (which is at least questionable, given how large a personality McClure is) and that “he’s been attending counseling to work on changing his perspectives and preventing his previous unacceptable behavior”. (As an aside, why is it that whenever someone allegedly misbehaves, the remedy is professional help, as if it was some kind of out of body experience that happened to them, not by them).

Maybe it’s a cultural thing, lost in translation, or as one PR said to me, simply a case of crisis comms. However, for once, a simple sorry, no excuses, no pontification, no indulgent self-reflection via a Medium post, or claiming of victim status, is the only acceptable response.

Things I wrote

Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store — techcrunch.com

A feature I wrote: To paraphrase science fiction writer William Gibson, the farm of the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.

Your.MD raises $10M to grow AI-driven health information service and marketplace

techcrunch.com

Your.MD, an AI-driven health information service delivered via a bot, has raised $10 million in new funding.

Capnamic closes €115M fund for ‘digital transformation’ of Germany, counts Cisco and Axa as LPs

techcrunch.com

Capnamic Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Berlin and Cologne, is announcing the final closing of a new €115 million tech fund.

Monese, the mobile current account banking app, expands to Europe

techcrunch.com

You wait all day for a multi-currency account and three come along at once. Give or take a month or so, that’s appears to be the case with news that Monese, the London fintech that offers a mobile banking app and current account, is adding support for Euro accounts.

Diffblue, a University of Oxford spin-out, raises $22M Series A to bring AI to software development

techcrunch.com

The U.K.’s Oxford University continues to be a hotbed of AI talent, fuelling not just academic research into AI but also the ambitions of startups and large technology companies alike.

Company builder Entrepreneur First hires ex-Yahoo and Googler as new London head

techcrunch.com

EF is announcing a “strengthening and restructuring” of its leadership team as it focuses on scaling its programmes in London and Singapore.

Wefox acquires digital insurance carrier One

techcrunch.com

Wefox, the insurance platform that enables customers, insurance brokers and insurance providers to transact and manage insurance products digitally, has acquired One, a fully digital and newly launched insurance provider.

Starling Bank passports to Europe, first stop Ireland

techcrunch.com

London-based Starling Bank is continuing to gather momentum. After a staggered launch of its current account kicked off in March, the digital-only bank is announcing imminent expansion to Europe, starting with the Republic of Ireland where it has attained a so-called “banking passport”.

TrueLayer raises $3M Series A to provide fintech companies with easy access to bank APIs

techcrunch.com

TrueLayer, a London startup that’s built a developer platform to make it easy for fintech companies to access bank APIs — and ride the PSD2 gravy train — has raised $3 million in Series A funding.

Construction tech company Aproplan closes €5 million Series A

techcrunch.com

Brussels-based Aproplan bills itself as akin to “Salesforce for construction”.

Language learning startup Lingokids scores $4M funding and partners with Oxford University Press

techcrunch.com

Madrid, Spain-based (and U.S. incorporated) edtech startup Lingokids is on a mission to get young kids learning a second language.

Soldo, a London fintech startup that offers a multi-user spending account, raises $11M led by Accel

techcrunch.com

Soldo, the London-based fintech startup that offers a multi-user spending account, first launched for consumers and since tailored to businesses too, has raised $11 million in Series A funding.

AimBrain, a startup that uses biometric authentication to fight fintech fraud, raises £4M Series A

techcrunch.com

AimBrain, a London startup that offers “biometric identity” as a service to help fintech companies and other financial institutions fight fraud, has raised £4 million in Series A funding.

Meltwater acquires Hong Kong-based Klarity to boost social media monitoring in Asia

techcrunch.com

Meltwater has acquired Hong Kong-Based startup Klarity to enhance its social media monitoring and analytics capabilities in Asia.

Closing thought: Could it happen here?

The question on a lot of people’s minds in the European startup, investor and tech journalist community, and specifically in London/UK, is could a story similar to Justin Caldbeck and Binary Capital happen here?

In numerous discussions I’ve had with founders, investors and journalists in recent days, we’ve been asking ourselves not if inappropriate behaviour by men towards female founders and women in the tech industry more generally happens — there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to unequivocally suggest it does — but whether or not the climate and available outlets here would allow women to speak out in the way that has happened only very recently in Silicon Valley.

The conclusion by most people I’ve had discussions with is that fear of being ostracised would be even greater in Europe because of how few sources of funding there are compared to the Valley, and, although fragmented, ours is still small world.

If true — and I’ve yet to have any reason to doubt what people are telling me — that is very sad and something I try hard to rally against as a journalist, following up every whisper, however faint, whilst always protecting sources and being careful not to spread unfounded rumours in the process.

At our best, we the media really do hold power to account, but we can only do so with your help. As always, you know where to find me.

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Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues who might also enjoy it. More subscribers and better open rates makes me happy.

Till next time,

Steve