Roei Samuel, CEO at Connectd: Connectd is one of the fastest growing companies in Europe with 17m ARR

0:00Roei Samuel:Hello and welcome back to the Scaling Europe show presented by DLM Seb Johnson. Today I'm joined by Roei Samuel, founder and CEO of Connected. Thank you for joining me today. How are you doing? Seb, thanks so much for having me, man. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. No, my absolute pleasure. It's interesting. I feel like we've been watching each other on LinkedIn for some time now, so it's great to like get, you know, get this in and do it. But tell me a bit about yourself. What is Connected? What have you built? yeah cool well i mean personally i've been playing around with technology from a young age youtube came out when i was 13 so video content creation very much the obsession after school unfortunately wasn't necessarily good looking enough to be the influencer myself so it was more on the the back end of content creation uh fast forward to 2013 built my first proper tech company that business or that product was essentially a content creation toolkit helping people great podcast videos we applied it to sports and gaming got really fortunate scaled up to about six million monthly users ended up working with the premier league nba nfl really fun journey uh we were acquired by a big gaming company called gfinity in 2018 crazy experience going from small scrappy startup in a papa john's basement in kilburn onto the pl onto the senior management team of a plc at 26 and everything that went with that and during that time i started to invest in startups and also advise startups as well.

1:17So I was doing some board advisory, did a non-exec role, did some fractional CRO, fractional CMO, and I became obsessed with the idea that the future of work would be fractional. Since then, big societal and technological shifts have come in, recreated the perfect conditions for fractional work to thrive. And that's what Connected does is it helps senior professionals start, manage and grow their fractional careers through our technology, which is connected in a nutshell. Amazing.

1:44Roei Samuel:How's it going? I know that you share revenue updates on LinkedIn. Give us a bit of a flavor. How's it going? Yeah, we've been super fortunate, man. So we launched in January 2022. We're just touching 17 million ARR. Amazing. Yeah, it's been an awesome growth journey. We're one of the fastest growing companies in Europe, which has been really exciting, man. I mean, our mission is we want to help as many people break free from corporate as possible. so if we can do something really special in that way help these people uh no longer be dependent on one full-time job against the landscape of ai where that is riskier than ever we'll do some good amazing can you touch a bit about the profile of the people on the platform like is there a set cookie cutter type of person who does this is there a really wide range and then also want to get onto the geographical strip between the the us and europe uk because i know that there's been some interesting stuff there as well.

2:39Yeah, totally. So I think really it breaks down to three main groups. So one is individuals who have done 20 years in a corporate career, couldn't think of anything worse than doing another 20 years in a corporate career, and want to start getting out of that and expanding out into working for themselves, being a bit more entrepreneurial and exploring what else is out there. The second one is individuals who are fractional by choice. They, again, feel entrepreneurial. They want to do their own thing. They don't see themselves as a corporate person. They've got amazing skills, not necessarily ready to become a business owner, but want to work for themselves in that way.

3:13And the third is people who feel like maybe their corporate career has stagnated a little bit. Maybe they're not getting the opportunities they want. Again, they've got great skill sets and knowledge. So adding some more strings to their bow, starting doing some fractional stuff, might expose them to a few more career opportunities, might help them leverage their CV into something better. And to also, you know, of course, earned some extra income as well. Amazing. And let's touch on that growth and like touching 17 million AR, one of the fastest growing companies around. Where's that growth come from?

3:42So we're like 60 % UK, 40 % US. We launched in the UK in January 2022 and launched in the US in January 2024. It's about two years later. We've had some amazing growth. We're really fortunate that the nature of our network lends itself to a big cross-border network effect. If I'm a startup which is looking for a fractional performance marketing leader who's got experience in international payments and paid marketing campaigns on LinkedIn, and I want them a day a week, I don't care if they're London, Dubai, Miami, New York. So the first individual that we acquired, the first fractional who joined us in Miami in January 2024, their demand was supplied by the companies we already had in the UK.

4:26So we've really benefited from that cross-border network effect, which has allowed us to achieve that scalability, overcome the cold start problem every time we go to a new location and really, really, you know, being a big driver of that growth.

4:37Roei Samuel:And when you talk about locations, what does that look like? You know, you mentioned that you've just been in Miami and that's kind of where you first went. Does this model work based on geographic geographies? Did you go city by city, coast by coast? How did you think about expansion? How are you thinking about it today? Yeah, I mean, we really just looked at where the waitlists were starting to build. So we had startups who were using the technology to distribute this to other individuals they're working with. We had some amazing network bridges. So some of the advisors who joined Connected were working with companies in lots of different locations.

5:11And we could just see by the way that they were distributing the technology. And we started to build waitlists in different areas. That was really what allowed us to follow. Amazing. We retained that strategy to this day.

5:21Roei Samuel:and why did you want to get back in the ring you know like you'd obviously had a successful exit early on you built a business and the gap when i was looking at linkedin the gap between your last business and this business wasn't that long you know it wasn't as if you sort of like took five ten years off you got a bit bored you know why were you quite quick to come back into the arena well i was 26 when we were acquired the first time around so there was no part of me that thought my adhd would allow me to put my feet up i'd enjoy any semblance of time off but i mean i got straight back into right with angel investing as i think most people do post first exit and i just saw this amazing opportunity for myself to work in this way and i think post covid this big societal shift of course of now suddenly geographic sensitivity is irrelevant big technological shifts of like zoom and motion a standard i know it's so obvious now but it wasn't necessarily the case six seven years ago and those changes made that that fractional way of working viable companies so it was no longer just attractive to the individual, it became viable for companies.

6:23Now, obviously, with AI and automation, that's bigger than ever. But when I saw that, it just happened super organically and just made sense.

6:30Roei Samuel:And you mentioned, you know, after the exit, you went straight into some angel investing. What's that the biggest mistake you made when you started your investing career? I think it's really difficult to not be dragged into being an operator and not assuming that you can operate from the outside right first check i i wrote was a 75 grand check into a mental health technology company which i was really passionate about as a business and because you can see so clearly how you're going to make things happen you assume you know the founders are going to think the same way obviously it's not the case at all um so yeah i think you just you it's a really really different and difficult shift in methodologies in the way that you think about outcome and the way you think about growth when you're observing from the sidelines versus being in the thick of it, right?

7:22So I think that's quite a natural one.

7:24Roei Samuel:And are you still investing to this day? Is that something you still spend time on? Are you more focused on the business or are you able to do both? Yeah, I think, so I do a mix. I sort of do most of my investing through syndicates where deal flow and diligence is carried out elsewhere, but I have a really amazing network now of founders that I've backed because I've known them for a while. I just invested in Greenweaver, founded by Arnie, who's an amazing guy. I've just invested in Muck AI, Sammy again, you know, sort of exited founder. So when you build up a network of founders yourself over 10 years, especially when you're writing a pre-seed check, anything other than investing in the founder is just irrelevant, right?

8:02So I've got a good network of people around me.

8:04Roei Samuel:Amazing. And how are you thinking about the state of investments at the moment you know you are you you know you i guess you've accurately predicted that the way was moving in a sense of fractional talent you're quite early on that trend we're now seeing lots of other trends kind of come up and out whether it's ai and um whether the application layer the model layer we're seeing more hardware we're seeing more defense are you trying to stay close to all those industries and try and make similar predictions to the one that you've made in your own sort of industry or are you sort of I don't know are you taking a more broad approach and investing where you think there's a great founder oh man realistically I am an expert in the field that I know and very little else you know so I think for me it's definitely network driven and backing founders that I know personally and then going through syndicates as well so when you've got some amazing syndicates out there ground floor benches together you know one which I'm looking more sense to rely on people who are all in on that.

9:06I'm also doing venture scouting as well right now. So I'm an operating partner for Hatch, so looking at their portfolio and what they're doing. So absolutely, if I can rely on the expertise and focus of others, I absolutely will do that on the investing front or backing founders that I know and have a good relationship with.

9:23Roei Samuel:And let's talk about that exit. You know, you said you're 26, I mean, you've got an exit. It's pretty young. How did that affect your change you? it's a good question well i think an exit is a it's like a it's supposed to be this really cathartic moment right it's supposed to be this moment where everything clicks and everything makes sense and then post exit or at exit you realize oh all the problems that i had are still here you know pretty much apart from maybe the the the financial one but what what's happening on the outside was reflection reflection on the inside and i think i was very very chaotic i was very very i was very young right i was very young so i think it forced me to then go on a journey of self-introspection to say right why has achieved this has achieving this exit not led to the happiness not led to the life that you want and you learn a lot you sacrifice a lot that first time around absolutely so when you sacrifice friendships and you sacrifice relationships and you sacrifice health and all those things it's not actually surprising to the point that exit comes around you're not feeling how you should be feeling so i think it's a really amazing opportunity to look deeper at what's going on for us why hasn't that made me happy and then you know really build back up from that what did you learn about yourself in that process you know i imagine it was a lot of introspection a lot of looking in to kind of find the things in your own life that give you meaning and purpose.

10:52Roei Samuel:What did you learn about yourself?

10:56Garbage in, garbage out, right? That is exactly it. And I think when you are trying to fuel yourself for the founder journey, you are borrowing from tomorrow, like no one's business, right? Whatever you need, especially as an ADHD founder, right? Where it's all about dopamine control. It's all about how you use dopamine for focus you can get dopamine from good places and bad places and it's very cyclical when you're into a bad cycle of dopamine hunting yeah and that was really what i was for like five years as a first time founder so i think um you know you realize that you can't build those foundations and i genuinely believe we would have taken that business further and got a bigger exit had me and my co-founder at the time who were both you know early 20s not really thinking about it had taken a better approach to looking after ourselves and i think a lot goes with that right the first time you're a founder i wasn't a micromanager but certainly i needed to be in the loop i had to be in the loop with what was going on which you can't be to go for serious scale you know you have to relinquish that and how do i relinquish that probably makes more space to look after yourself a bit better so i've definitely tried to do things the other way around with connected

12:06Roei Samuel:that's super interesting and are there any other things that like i think that's a really interesting point about delegating and relinquishing control to help other people just manage and help the business scale are there other lessons that like that that you've learned from building and scaling and selling your business first time around that you're now applying second time around well one of the most sobering experiences you can go through as an entrepreneur is your disclosure letter on exit when you're literally looking back and saying oh right we made this mistake this is bad the things are coming off the consideration price because you did this so when you're then going into founding something and as you said Seb you know it was 18 months between exit and refounding it's like right I know what we got hit on last time this is where like risks are good this is where risks are really going to hurt you so you learn a lot in that exit process which is an amazing foundation and it makes me see why and it used to piss me off can I swear on this it's really annoying me as a first-time founder why investors say we back second-time founders and exited founders and it's because of that like brutal experience of literally having to to you know make disposures and then warranties right you're going to sell the company but warranties are going to hold over your head for three years after selling and some of them can be big depending on how big risks you took so i think there's so much to be learned from that that's so interesting i've never heard anybody talk about it like that those that almost like marking down your homework type thing it's like it's like what have you done wrong that we're gonna like knock a couple points off um how did you find that process again like you're going into the weeds of it of like you know again like you don't have to share anything confidential but how did you find it personally of going through i guess that negotiation and again like being so young 26 being in a room with somebody who's telling you your business is worth x amount but we want it how did you find that process of getting to a number that you're happy with and and dealing with a partner that you're going to hand this thing over to that you'd been building well it was a really eye-opening experience the ceo across us the ceo of gfinity was a guy called gary cook gary had previously been the ceo of man city during their takeover from the mansoor family he was on the board of the ufc uh but it was a vp at nike so it's like was really going up against someone uh with so much mma experience and it's such a different level to you so we learned a lot that way you know it was amazing to learn And the other thing I'll say is, I don't know if you remember this, but back in like 2015, 2016, you had massive companies like LabBible who were being valued on clicks and views and they had massive, massive eyeballs, but they never really managed to monetize.

14:43And overnight, the valuation fell in a big way. RealSport was a similar company in that early days we were valued massively on traffic and engagement. We had millions, millions of monthly active users, but we never really nailed subscription. so when we were going through an exit we were in a difficult moment you know it wasn't the best exit again we were in a difficult moment and it was very very like if this exit doesn't happen i don't know what's gonna happen so that period was just anxiety you know when you get like a really shitty email right now and you sit for maybe like 20 minutes in despair of like how am i going to deal with this like i've made a bad it was that for like three months just despair for like three months so um yeah it was a tough one man but yeah you learn a lot interesting i

15:29Roei Samuel:think it's so interesting to um it must have been such a valuable experience to go through in your 20s to prepare you for like a long career of entrepreneurship must have been absolutely invaluable and i also want to touch on your experience building with dyslexia and adhd something you've spoken about a lot let's focus on like adhd how do you think that has changed or molded or in some way determined the type of founder that you are well i think when you find something that you're truly passionate about and driven by adhd is this like unending a well of energy in a really positive way and it's and it's awesome because you can get into a level of hyper focus which is not normal right it's not normal and it's great it's very very useful i think the downside is like my biggest fear in life is when the to-do list ends because then all life is azhd management but when you've got nothing to do all there is to do is manage your aghd and all the things that come with that so it's a great trait for staying busy and what being a founder is in 2026 you can definitely always stay busy and so it's been a really really powerful symbiotic relationship with what i'm doing in the outside world and what's going on in my head but i will never retire out of fear you know because for that reason and And then dyslexia is, again, less than a curse, right?

16:54It makes you amazing at pattern recognition. It means that you can look at a financial model and understand, even if you don't understand why, know when something's off and know where it is. So there's so many useful things for pattern recognition on that side. But it means that my Slack messages can be hard to decipher if I don't have Grammarly on, that's for sure. and any advice that you'd give to to you know people operating or building or founding with it on where to lean in or manage it yeah well i think bad and good sources of dopamine and understanding those is it's super important because you'll burn out quickly by borrowing from tomorrow with the ways that you seek dopamine so alcohol is a big one ultra processed foods caffeine like you know you can drink 10 coffees a day on adhd and just really lean into like the power of of dopamine and adrenaline with with that brain but actually if you can achieve the same things through training and the boring stuff there's no fun answer to this but if you can manage that then you can get into a really really healthy cycle of dopamine generation using that for focus um without burning out amazing and look let's get before we finish i want to go back to connected

18:10Roei Samuel:you know you're you're scaling rapidly you know every time you post about ARR you're at another master and how big do you think this is going to get this year well we like to think about it in terms of how many people can we help you know revenue is important of course but it's a secondary to our mission so right now we've got an active network of about 6 000 fractionals yeah which are are driving the revenue and that we're supporting as they start growing and manage their fractional career, we'll be at 17 ,000 for the end of the year. So I think we'll be into a really strong moment. And how do you see Connected changing and evolving?

18:49Roei Samuel:Could this become a bigger play for fractional people? Five, 10 years down the line, what does this business look like? Yeah, so I think there's two major evolutions that we'll see. One, right now, we tend to serve is the scale-up and startup market and their needs fractional. But we're starting to see some really interesting use cases of bigger enterprise companies wanting to augment their leadership with fractional. So we have a Monster Energy, you know, we can talk about them. It's a great testimonial that we've got from them. They're using us to augment some of their leadership team with the fractional support.

19:23So for example, they could bring in a fractional CFO to support their full-time CFO because if they're looking at like a transaction in Canada and they need a specialist who's got that background, That's not the case in Once at Energy Drink. I'll just caveat. But that's the sort of example of how they might use this. And then secondly, OECD says by 2030, 50 % of people will have to have portfolio careers. You know, the numbers are astounding. Two weeks ago, can you guess which company our biggest source of inbound inquiries is from? No idea. Block. And the week before was Amazon, right? It's this interesting proxy of AI-led restructuring and layoffs, or the perception of, equals interest in being my own boss, making myself a bit more defensible, and not putting all my eggs in the traditional employment basket at a time where we're going through the biggest disruption since the Industrial Revolution.

20:25right no it would be hard to argue against that so we just want to be that destination to say to people look you don't need to go quietly out of employment go and make yourself um you know more attracted to your employer more attainable to your employer or more defensible by just having other things lined up so going fractional is a beautiful way and you don't need to quit your job to do it right you can do this on the side you can start slowly before this tsunami i believe of individuals

20:53Roei Samuel:enter this market start building now that's so interesting so you're seeing people double up in one role so it's not as if like oh you haven't got enough budget for you you haven't got enough to do for one full role actually you've got a full role but now you're bringing in like a specialist to help on the side and then at the same time i guess yeah this this transition from ai so interesting and um yeah and i think ai generally is commoditizing a lot of the generalist roles so you need people with really specific specific specialized skills and there's also the sort of interesting trend that people are reducing headcount massively which really helps their share price but actually you know i think i know that i've experienced this in startups that i've worked out that then ended up sort of backfilling it with a fractional person so it's like oh maybe we don't need a team of 10 but maybe we need one person part-time helping us out with this so you have this interesting case but you have this huge pool of people who are now looking for this type of work bigger demand from the companies themselves underpinned by this overall move to specialization yeah the tailwinds are behind you that is for sure that that's it man the the you know the doing will be automated yeah the guidance the steering the judgment that's what people need so i believe that you're going to see most companies operating with 20 to 30 percent full-time you know heavy heavily leveraging automation but then with revolving teams of specialists helping them guide and steer that automation and that's that's we're going to be the category leader for that well i Can't wait to see it.

22:18Roei Samuel:Well, look, thank you so much for joining me. Best of luck. You guys are absolutely crushing it. I can't wait to see more and more updates on LinkedIn about the ARR trajectory. Legend. Thank you, man. Appreciate you.