logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
59m 30s

20VC: From Penniless Printing Shop Offic...

Harry Stebbings
About this episode

Founder and CEO of LADbible Group, Solly Solomou has built one of the largest and most engaged digital media entertainment companies in the world. Under his leadership, LADbible has grown to reach two-thirds of 18-34-year-olds in the UK, with a global audience of over 494 million followers, including 141 million in the US. The company’s content now has a total reach of over 1 billion people worldwide.

In Today’s Episode We Discuss:

From Printer Shop Office to Ringing the IPO Bell:

  • How did Solly start LADbible with no money and no experience?

  • How did a moment with Kevin Hart and Ice Cube show Solly that he had something special with LADbible?

  • In the expansion of the business, what new products did not work? What did Solly learn from the failures of products?

  • Why did Solly always want to build the business without an external funding? 

  • What are the top 3 pieces of advice Solly gives to young entrepreneurs starting a business today?

The Future of Content and Social Media:

  • How does Solly see wearables changing the future of media and social?

  • Does Solly agree that the friendship graph has been eradicated by interest graphs?

  • Does Solly think TikTok should be banned?

  • Why does Solly think TikTok Shop is the most interesting product in social today?

Europe vs US: Is Europe F******:

  • What are the single biggest differences between doing business in the US vs Europe?

  • Why did Solly decide to go public in London on The London Stock Exchange?

  • How tough is it being a public company in London?

  • How important are local liquidity markets if Europe is to regain competitiveness?

  • If Solly were advising Keir Starmer on how to stimulate growth in the UK, what would he say and advise?

 

Up next
Aug 21
20VC: Databricks at $100BN | Chamath’s SPAC Revival: Peak Mania? | OpenAI Staff Cash Out Billions & Sam Altman Will Spend Trillions | CoreWeave’s $11B Debt Bet & Nubank’s $2.5B Profit Shocker
Agenda: 00:00 – Databricks hits $100B: Bubble or just the beginning? 03:15 – Is Databricks actually undervalued at 25x revenue? 07:40 – Are we on the verge of the biggest IPO wave ever? 11:30 – Can Andreessen’s Databricks bet return $30B+? 18:10 – Who really gets rich when mega-u ... Show More
1h 27m
Aug 18
20VC: Lovable CEO Anton Osika on $120M in ARR in 7 Months | The Honest Truth About Defensibility and Unit Economics for AI Startups | The State of Foundation Models: Long Grok, Short OpenAI, Why | Replit vs Lovable vs Bolt: What Happens
Anton Osika is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Lovable, the fastest growing company on the planet. In just 7 months, they have scaled from $0 to $120M in ARR. They have raised over $200M in funding from some of the best including Accel, Creandum and 20VC. Their latest round priced the c ... Show More
1h 8m
Aug 15
20VC: 15 Term Sheets in 7 Days and Choosing Benchmark | Harvey vs Legora: Who Wins Legal and How to Play When You Have $600M Less Funding | Are AI Models Plateauing Today | Building a 9-9-6 Culture From Stockholm with Max Junestrand
Max Junestrand is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Legora, the collaborative AI powering the next generation of lawyers. Now this is an insane story for many reasons; first, Max turned down a multi-million dollar career in gaming to build Legora. Second, he has raised from the best of th ... Show More
1h 20m
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2025
AI, Social Shopping, and the Future of Media | GaryVee Q&A with New York Post
I sat down with Lydia Moynihan from the New York Post to dive into some of the biggest shifts happening in business, media, and technology. We get into the explosion of social shopping, how AI is changing the content game, and why traditional media is struggling to keep up.We als ... Show More
48m 1s
May 7
Forget Algorithms — Here’s How to Actually Grow in 2025 | GaryVee Keynote BizX
This one’s for the real entrepreneurs—the ones in the trenches building something that matters. In this keynote from the BizX conference, I go deep on the real traits of successful business owners: resilience, adaptability, and the relentless pursuit of attention through content. ... Show More
42m 55s
Sep 2024
Business Daily meets: DHL's CEO Tobias Meyer
One of the world's biggest logistics firms sits down with us to talk about freight costs, the German economy and his route to success. DHL employs more than half a million people globally. It was as US-based logistics firm when it started out, but by 2001 was owned by Deutsche Po ... Show More
17m 29s
Apr 2025
Why is Europe falling behind the US?
Even before there was talk of a trade war between the US and EU, Europe was on the economic backfoot. But it wasn’t always the case. In 2008, the EU was the world’s biggest economy - today, the US economy is $9.5 trillion bigger than the EUs. So what has happened?Presented and pr ... Show More
19m 3s
Jun 11
Why Big Tech Is Spending Millions to Partner with Smart AI Startups
What if the next big wave in marketing isn’t about targeting people at all—but impressing their AI agents instead?Abhay Parasnis, CEO of Typeface and former CTO at Adobe, joins us to explain why the future of brand discovery is less “search bar” and more “autonomous agents doing ... Show More
1h 9m
Jan 2025
Why Nasdaq's CEO sees IPO market growth ahead: FROM DAVOS
The IPO market was mixed at best in 2024 despite strong showings by Reddit (RDDT), Viking (VIK), and Rubrik (RBRK). IPOs raised about $123 billion last year compared to a peak of $594 billion in 2021, according to Dealogic data. A total of 150 companies went public last year, per ... Show More
25m 38s
Apr 2025
Ep 57: The Head of Instagram for Business reveals how to *actually* Grow
In today's episode, I sit down with Thomas Finetto, the head of creative for Instagram for Business—yes, the account with over 20 million followers helping business owners grow on Instagram (@instagramforbusiness). We talk about what it actually takes to win on Instagram today, f ... Show More
27m 49s
Jun 2024
865. News: The biggest stories from Money20/20 featuring bunq, Marqeta, Papara and Mastercard
Join host David M. Brear and some great guests as we discuss the biggest announcements from this year's Money20/20 Europe conference live in Amsterdam. Topics covered include: Mastercard and bunq announcing a partnership to create an open banking and AI tool; Marqeta announcing a ... Show More
48m 23s
Jan 2025
932. Insights: How Zilch CEO Philip Belamant built a profitable fintech with over 4.5M customers
On this week's insights show, we're taking a deep dive into one of the most interesting fintech success stories in recent years - Zilch!Host Kate Moody is joined by Zilch Co-Founder and CEO Philip Belamant to discuss how the company went from raising its Series A funding during t ... Show More
49m 25s
Apr 2025
The Harsh Truth About Modern Marketing (And Why You're Still Losing Attention) | GaryVee Elevate Event Throwback Keynote
In this throwback keynote from Elevate 2017 in Copenhagen — the first 40 minutes of it — I lay out the real game of business in today’s world:🎯 It’s not about who’s got the best product. 📲 It’s about who’s best at grabbing and keeping attention.Whether you’re in SaaS, hospitali ... Show More
41m 49s