Anne Boden, founder of UK neobank Starling, is working on her next big thing — although she says she’s probably not going to be a sole founder again.
“It’s very unlikely I would be a CEO founder again — although if something really brilliant comes along, I could do it,” she told the Sifted Summit on Wednesday.
“I’m going to try to find five companies over the next five years and hope that at least one of them can turn into a £10bn company. And I’m going to try to find those businesses that I have a huge commitment to and feel that they can actually do something about changing the world.”
Since stepping down as Starling CEO last year, after running the bank for nine years, and stepping down from its board this summer, Boden has been “studying and listening” and testing out some new ideas.
“I’ve started a couple of things, and figured out they’re not going to work and stopped them,” she said.
Boden said she expects her new venture will be underway within “the next three years” — but stressed that she’s in no rush.
Second-time founders
When she does start whatever comes next, she said she hopes to avoid the trap that many second-time founders fall into.
“Second-time founders can be really arrogant,” said Boden. “It’s easier for them to raise money, they’re overconfident, and that makes people make stupid decisions, and that’s why I’m not rushing, I’m learning, I’m out there listening to what people have to say.”
Amongst other things, she said she’s taken a course on AI at MIT and been polishing up her maths (Boden is a computer scientist by training).
“I think it’s very, very important to be on the receiving end of all this information rather than being arrogant going out there saying I know how to do it again.”
She said she’s not actively looking for a cofounder — but is looking for a team. “You only create businesses with teams and some of those teams work and some of those teams don’t work. I think it’s quite a fluid process of spotting people, working with people, having the passion and then figuring out if you can actually have a commercial relationship with them.”
Not another bank
Whatever she ends up doing, it’s not going to be Starling 2.0, Boden said. “I’m not going to start another bank.”
“I’m very interested in healthtech; I think that drug discovery is very interesting and I’m looking at lots of things in that space,” she said; getting new drugs to market much faster is one area of interest.
“I’m also very interested in publishing — and long-form AI. There’s a lot of people working in short-form AI — you put a lot of data in and short things come out,” she said — but having written several books, including most recently the Female Founders’ Playbook, a collection of stories and advice from female founders, she’s keen to see what AI can do for longer works.
Raising millions for Starling hasn’t put her off raising from VCs, she said. “I’ve always been quite honest … I would take VC funding [again] but I’m only going to take VC funding if I’m absolutely certain that it can be done.
“When you start it, you must be absolutely convinced — you must have conviction — otherwise you shouldn’t do it.
“Having an investor gives you discipline,” she added.
Not becoming an angel, or a VC, or a politician
Since leaving Starling, Boden has also chaired a UK government taskforce looking into women-led high-growth enterprises.
It convinced her that she wouldn’t like a role in politics, she said — and later added: “Being a second time founder does not give you the right to interfere in UK politics.”
It also gave her an insight into the life of a VC. “I got to see the other side of the curtain at lots of VCs,” she said. “They’re all under pressure to invest in companies because they need to get money out, take out bets that might return the fund and then they have difficulties exiting as well.
“I came to the conclusion that that sort of investing and that sort of initiative is not for me… and I’m not going to go into venture capital.”
Also on the list of things Boden won’t be getting into: angel investing. “I’m not going to be an angel investor scattering money far and wide.”
Instead, she’s focused on finding and building those five big new bets. “Entrepreneurship is really really hard. Changing industries is really hard. Nothing comes without pain and I would like to be able to help the sector and the UK get to a situation where we have more unicorns.”
