TEMPLE CYCLES LTD

Working with a great team to build a sustainable, profitable and timeless bike brand.

Finance & Business Manager

Open House Community Church

Managing Finances & Operations | Join the Community 👉🏽 openhousecc.com

Built financial process from the ground up. 
Manage bookkeeping, payment runs, cashflow, gift aid claims, event & facilities management.

Treasurer

Good Fruit Ventures

Free discipleship resources for young Christians & church leaders, with a primary focus on financial education.

Company Director

Cut hedges, mowed lawns, painted houses, renovated bathrooms.
Paid the bills whilst (attempting) to build an e-commerce business.

Painter, Gardener, Labourer

Little Kids Room UK

It was a good learning experience building this first online business from scratch. 
Failed a bunch, learned more than 4 years study a business degree.

Built an ecommerce retail business selling children's bedroom furniture to parents based in the UK. 
Built a Shopify store, negotiated contracts with product suppliers, built out organic & paid marketing channels (Google & Meta Ads, Social Media Pages, SEO, Content Creation) and the customer service experience.

Co-Founder

Crowdcube

Helped entrepreneurs with great ideas fundraise investment from retail investors.
Scripted, Directed and Produced a series of Founder Interviews.

Equity Fundraising Advisor

Equity Campaigns Manager

Equity Campaigns Executive

Investor Operations Executive

Completion Operations Executive

Arrowtown Drinks

Supporting founder friends with their start-up drinks company.

Sales and Events Support

Business Manager within Regulatory Management, for a team spread across UK, Europe, Asia & Americas.

Asset Management Industrial Placement

Hollister Co.

Retail Associate

Carwow

Intern

Building a Church & a Startup Business | 🧵 Sharing Stories about the Process

I am a business operator and I enjoy bringing order & systems to startup businesses and churches.

Currently working with an awesome team to grow Temple Cycles into a sustainable, profitable and timeless bike brand.

I also help run Open House Community Church, in Bristol, UK.

If not at my desk, probably gone surfing.

-

P.S.

I also create free video content for young Christians & church leaders on money management.

See more -> https://www.goodfruitfinance.com

Henry Baines

Endgame Capital

Founding team member at Endgame Capital, investing in 'climate-denier-proof' early stage climate tech startups. 

Hmu... thomas (dot) panton (at) endgamecapital (dot) vc 🔥

Founding Associate

hubble

Advising on everything startup fundraising, climate tech strategy, and early-stage founder therapy.

Advisor

Undaunted (formerly the Centre for Climate Change Innovation)

Advising and mentoring the next generation of climate tech founders 🌳

Startup Mentor

Techstars

Mentoring the world's best preseed tech startups 🔥

Queen Mary Social Venture Fund

Advising and mentoring students working for the Queen Mary Social Venture Fund - the first student-led social impact venture capital fund investing in student-led social ventures in the UK.

Business Mentor

Virgin StartUp

Advising and mentoring mission-driven entrepreneurs 🔥

Startup Advisor

Self

Active:
- Ecologi
- Crowdcube
- OxWash
- &SISTERS
- OceanSaver
- Ethosa
- Storiboard

Exited:
- Freetrade (exit to IG Group)
- Wearth London (exit to Veo World)

Closed:
- Circa5000 (closed)
- Beagle Button (closed)
- Novus World (closed)

Angel Investor

Public speaker at major events including London Climate Technology Show, Retail Without Borders, Blue Earth Summit, Ideas Fest, Full Charged Live, BBC Radio, and more.

Public Speaker

Intro

Offering founders and startups advice on various topics 📣

Expert on Intro | Book a 1:1 Session Now ⬇️

Canopey

The home for buying better®

Streamlining ethical consumerism.

Asset sale to BRiMM in 2024.

Founder & CEO

3 x Founder | Techstars Mentor | LinkedIn Top Green Voice | Ex-Greenpeace | MSc Climate Change | Ex-International Swimmer | Muslim Revert ☪️

Climate Tech VC | 3 x venture-backed founder | Startup mentor | ex-international swimmer | ex-Greenpeace

Views are my own and not representative of my company or any associated organisations. 

I don’t often reply to LinkedIn messages, better to connect with me via email or a mutual. If you send me a connection request, please add a note for context. 

Looking for mentoring/advising for your startup? Go here: https://www.hubble.social/thomaspanton

Read more here: https://www.thomaspanton.com/

TLDR:
- Climate tech VC
- 3 x founder
- Startup Mentor @ Techstars, Imperial College London, Virgin Startup, and more
- Climate is intersectional, and I talk about this
- Ex-international swimmer.

Worked for the world's largest independent environmental organisation Greenpeace for half a decade, and directly onboarded 10s of 1000s of people into the climate movement.

———

Currently:

💰 Climate tech VC @ Endgame Capital investing in near commercialisation, low capex, climate denier proof climate tech.

👨🏼‍🏫 Mentor & advisor to founders and students @ Techstars, The Greenhouse (Imperial College), Virgin Startup, UCL, and UEA Student Enterprise.

🗣️ Keynote speaker at events including London Climate Tech Week, Fully Charged Live, Blue Earth Summit, Retail Without Borders, BBC, and more.

Previously:

🌳 Founder & CEO of Canopey.com. The home for better buying™. The only platform to completely streamline the sustainable shopping journey.

💚 Greenpeace UK, experience with speaking, fundraising, events, and campaigning.

♻️ Founder & CEO of Festovers, upcycling leftover consumer waste. One of IQ Mag's Green Guardians. BBC Oxford's expert on festival tent waste and sustainability.

📣 Co-creator of The Topic, with Nadiah Arif. A podcast that talks about everything from climate change to human rights, raising awareness on these important issues and educating people on how to get more involved in challenging the status quo.

⛺️ NED for Pitched For You Ltd, the first circular economy solution to the festival tent crisis.

🎓 BA International Relations and Politics (2014-2018) // MSc in Climate Change and International Development (2021-23)

🤝🏻  Norfolk Business Climate Leader & Advisor for Norfolk Chambers of Commerce

💡 UEA student career and entrepreneur mentor

Thomas Panton

I was part of Playfair's Female Founder Office Hours, and I got told I was part of the problem for doing it...

🤷🏼‍♂️ And yet everyone I spoke to on the day followed up and said how valuable it was.

Someone in the community space I sometimes use overheard that I was contributing my time to Playfair's FFOH initiative.

👉🏼 For context: FFOH is where investors give their time to speak to female founders at all stages of startup - ideally in thesis to our funds, but not specifically. This sometimes leads to investment, but it's not the aim.

The idea is that you can ask the difficult questions to the investors, get some candid feedback and advice, and ideally push you forward along the lines to build great businesses.

But I was berated for this by someone who does not partake in the sessions. 

"We don't need advice, we need money"

And I hear you. 

Female founders, particularly non-white female founders, and particularly non-white, Muslim, female founders, are chronically underfunded.

🤔 But does this render Female Founder Office Hours pointless? 
🤔 Why do the two things have to be mutually exclusive?

The FFOH initiative is valuable. 

📣 Don't take it from me - listen to the founders who I spoke to. The candid feedback, the offer to open some doors, the ability to question a real investor.

These are things EVERY founders needs, not just capital. 

💰 So yes, we need more funding for female founders building great businesses.
👉🏼 In the same way we need more funding for non-white founders building great businesses.
👉🏼 In the same way we need more funding for Muslim founders building great businesses.

But just because that's an issue that needs solving, doesn't mean we should not offer time to give insights to founders from our perspective too.

Congrats to Playfair on another brilliant FFOH, and impressed by the calibre of  founders I spoke to pushing new solutions into important markets!

#FemaleFounders
#OfficeHours
#FFOH
#Mentoring
#Funding
#Startups

Thomas Panton 🍉

Climate tech VC | Stealth Founder | Techstars Startup Mentor

There are two ways to build AI agents. The true winner will be verticalised. 

📈 Route 1: Generalist agents - Explosive hockey stick.

These startups are building something quick, and growing quick. And that's the moat.

Get as many users as possible. Scale to millions in ARR, and hope it stays sticky. 

Sometimes these companies then innovate in the background and actually build moats, but often they don't. 

This is what we're seeing mostly at the moment. Most of these will be pushed out over time.

🪏 Route 2: Verticalised agents - Reversed hockey stick.

These founders come from the market they're building for, they understand the complexities, and build to reflect that. Their moat is in specificity and accuracy.

A tie of deep market expertise with exceptional technical expertise.

Build with a handful of users. It's slower, it's not immediately headline worthy. But every user is sticky, every customer feels integrated.

As more users come, the more scalable their platform and onboarding becomes. The flywheel starts. Then they scale - extremely quickly.

These are the startups which will knock generalists out of the market over time.

👇🏼 Let's use VC as an example. 

There are A LOT of startups building generalist agents to help with sourcing, screening, due diligence, memo writing etc. Almost all of them do exactly the same thing and are not built by sector experts (consultants>VCs).

That's not to say they don't work. They do a job, but don't expect the accuracy that an Associate at your own fund will hit.

I know one of the verticalised plays that is going to blow everyone out of the water in this market. They're testing with their first users and iterating quickly.

Happy to share with those funds interested in trust, accuracy, and true value-add.

#VerticalAI
#AI
#VentureCapital
#AIAgents
#Stealth
#StealthStartup

The lessons I carry from Islam into every deal, every pitch, and every room I enter.

📚 Narrated 'Aishah: "The Messenger of Allah was asked about this Ayah: 'It is He who sent down to you the Book. In it are Ayat that are entirely clear... (3:7)' until the end of the Ayah. So the Messenger of Allah said: 'When you see those who seek what is not entirely clear thereof, then it is they whom Allah has described, so beware of them" - Jamiat-Tirmidhi (2994)  

This Hadith is a reminder that not all knowledge is equal - and not all who claim to teach are sincere.

Some chase the unclear.
Not to understand it - but to manipulate it.
To confuse, divide, or distract.

The Prophet (pbuh) warns us to be careful of these people - not because complexity is dangerous, but because twisting complexity for personal gain is.

For me, this Hadith carries three reminders:

📖 Seek clarity over confusion
Islam doesn’t ask us to know everything. But it does ask us to seek knowledge with sincerity - and to stay close to the verses and scholars that bring us closer to Allah, not further from truth.

🧠 Respond with patience, not provocation
Whether in faith, business, or life - there are always people who provoke for the sake of chaos. This Hadith reminds us: control your emotions. Stay grounded. Keep character intact, especially when it’s hardest.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏼 Trust comes with responsibility
 If you’ve been given a platform - whether in leadership, teaching, or influence - use it wisely. There is amanah in guiding others, especially when the topics are complex or emotionally charged.

In the world of startups, investing, and leadership, I’ve seen how easy it is to posture as an expert in things you don’t fully understand. 

This Hadith reminds me to stay grounded. To ask. To admit when I don’t know. 

And to be cautious of those who use knowledge to build ego, not serve truth.

Jumu’ah Mubarak 🤍

May we be among those who seek clarity, hold firm to sincerity, and build our lives with patience and humility.

#FaithInVenture
#IslamicReflections 
#Hadith
#Knowledge
#MuslimVC

📸 Putra Mosque, Putajaya, Malaysia

We’re an exclusive club,

👉🏼 Climate denier proof technologies only.

Our belief is that the best way to solve the climate crisis is to build solutions that even the climate deniers would buy.

It’s a win win win.

🦄 Win for the startup: more clients
🚀 Win for the client: faster, cheaper, better
🌍 Win for the planet: action with or without intent

So, you think you’re part of the club?

Drop us a line and come join the party!

John Mairlot Jinna Li Endgame Capital  

#ClimateChange
#ClimateDenierProof
#EndgameCapital
#FutureProof
#ClimateTech
#VentureCapital

With the first close behind us, we’re actively deploying into commercial-first climate tech.

👉🏼 If you’re building something better, faster, cheaper than today’s incumbents…

👉🏼 If you’re within 2 years of commercialization…

👉🏼 If your tech can deliver 50+ million tons of annual decarb potential…

…then we should talk.

At Endgame Capital, we invest where climate meets execution. 

If you’re preparing a raise now or soon, or know a team that is, we’d love to connect early.

Founders, scouts, operators: DMs open.

#Decarbonization
#ClimateTech
#DeepTech
#Commercial
#NoGreenwashing

We’re Endgame Capital - backing climate-denier-proof startups that scale like software and hit like infrastructure.

Follow Jinna Li, John Mairlot, and Thomas Panton 🍉 for sharp takes on climate, venture, and what’s actually working.

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Thomas Panton

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