84 How the macroeconomy affects venture capital investments with Ewan MacKinnon of Maven

<p>While there is much discussion in the media of the macro-economy, its effect on startups is not always a obvious as it is for quoted companies. Ewan MacKinnon, a Partner at Maven, has been investing for almost a decade and half and draws on this experience to give us some insights.</p><p>In the discussion we focus on three big areas:</p><ul><li>recruitment and wages: we talk about the tightness in the job market and how the effect on startups has changed over the past year. We also talk about hybrid working and how the balance of power in negotiating terms seems to be changing.</li><li>inflation and pricing power: Ewan discusses the different ways that inflation and its various causes are affecting different companies. We also look at pricing power and how startups set prices and negotiate with customers.</li><li>funding: interest rates and the money supply both affect the availability of funding for SMEs. We discuss the lending market and how that has evolved, particularly the difficulty of getting bank funding.</li></ul><br/><p>Finally, we look forward to how the economy will develop over the next couple of years and whether founder optimism is justified.</p><p>01:00 Ewan introduces himself</p><p>04:00 what Maven does</p><p>06:30 how the macro economy affects startups</p><p>10:00 recruitment challenges</p><p>13:00 knock on from big tech redundancies</p><p>15:00 hybrid working and trends</p><p>21:30 Inflation - differential effect, supply chains</p><p>23:40 price setting and price raising - push back, </p><p>27:00 different client types - SME vs enterprise </p><p>32:40 Interest rates, money supply, ease of funding</p><p>34:30 difficulty of bank funding</p><p>40:25 Looking forward</p><p>44:50 Favourite questions</p><p><strong>Links</strong></p><p>Maven website - <a href="https://www.mavencp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.mavencp.com/</a></p><p>Subscribe to the EIS Navigator podcast on most services here: <a href="https://the-eis-navigator.captivate.fm/listen" rel="noopener noreferr