Nick Telson

trumpet

Co-Founder

sequel

First Check Investor/Ideator

Horseplay Ventures

Horseplay Ventures is a Startup Playground for the new generation of startup founders. As recently exited founders we understand the pressures of being a founder and what it takes to scale and exit. Horseplay incorporates Pre-Seed/Seed Angel Investing, a free investor syndicate, a podcast and free tools for founders to use.

Co-Founder - Angel Investor

Pitch Deck - @pitchdeckpod

Pitch Deck:

- Top 10 Global Business Podcast
- Top 10 Global New Podcast
- Top 5 UK Career/Entrepreneurship Podcast 

Real investors, real founders, real pitches. In each episode, a startup founder has 10 minutes to pitch their business to Nick and guest Angel Investors/Mentors. They then all discuss the pitch and the business itself, asking questions an Investor would ask in a real pitch. The guest Angel and Nick then discuss what they make of the business and investment opportunity.

Podcaster

Proud Ventures

Member

London & Partners

Business Mentor

Virgin StartUp

Delighted to be an official mentor on the Virgin StartUp Programme; a not-for-profit organisation that exists to help founders start up and thrive.  

They provide funding, straight talk and useful advice to make the entrepreneurial road less bumpy and access to a supportive and dynamic community to help founders have some fun along the way.

Mentor

EMW Global | Sports & Entertainment

EMW Global is an international sports and entertainment marketing agency with offices in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and São Paulo. They matchmake top class rights holders and athletes with global brands and entertainment IP. Some clients include the Brasilian National Team, Clube Flamingo, Dani Alves, Douglas Costa, Emerson and Marco Materazzi.

Advisor

The Access Group

Co-Founder of DesignMyNight . Acquired by The Access Group in December 2017. Remaining at DesignMyNight.

Co-Founder DesignMyNight

WFL Media LTD | www.designmynight.com

I am co-founder of UKs fastest growing nightlife website www.designmynight.com. Receiving over 6.5 million monthly views and several industry leading B2B softwares including Tonic, our DesignMyNight ticket platform and Collins; the first booking and enquiry management software for casual dining restaurants, bars and pubs. DesignMyNight was acquired by The Access Group in 2017.

Founder DesignMyNight (Acquired '19) 🍹 | Co-Founder trumpet 🎺 | Investor in 55+ Startups (Currently not investing in new deals) 😇 | Podcaster 🎙️| 🏳️‍🌈

Hey!

I’m a London-based entrepreneur, angel investor, podcaster, startup mentor and public speaker, whose speciality lies in talking no-nonsense founder/investor advice and help. I'm currently co-founder of new B2B sales tool, trumpet, host of Pitch Deck podcast and co-founder of an angel investing venture-arm, Horseplay Ventures

I previously co-founded DesignMyNight, back in 2010 and managed to grow that over 7 years with minimal angel funding, to 100+ employees, 15,000 SaaS customers and 8m monthly uniques on the website. We exited to Access Group in 2017.

I live for the early stages of startups - building the brand, finding product market fit, iterating quickly and building out a team. Most of my content is centred around this, as well as tips from an angel investor. Even after exiting to financial freedom, I caught the founder bug again and have co-founded my next startup, trumpet, in 2022; looking to disrupt B2B sales and kill the sales pdf deck. Follow me on here while we build out this new journey in public.

Please feel free to ask for any advice or help, whether a founder, startup employee or investor and I will always endeavour to do what I can. I'm also a regular guest on podcasts, startup speaking gigs and webinars, so feel free to reach out to me if you are looking for guests/speakers. 

I do respectfully ask not to be pitched for investment in my Linkedin DMs and instead go through Horseplay Ventures. Hopefully my podcast is also a treasure trove of information for those looking to raise early-stage investment, thinking about it or just interested in it - search for Pitch Deck by Nick Telson.

Nick Telson-Sillett

When we hit $1M ARR at both my startups, I thought we’d made it. 
I was wrong.

That milestone didn’t feel like success, it actually felt like survival.
Everyone told us $1M was “product-market fit.”

But all I saw behind the scenes was a brittle system held together by caffeine and duct tape!

Our pricing didn’t match value.
Our ICP was fuzzy.
Our team was doing too much of everything and mastering nothing.

The truth?
$1M ARR isn’t validation. It’s the starting line of the real company.

That’s where you stop experimenting and start operationalizing.
If I could go back, I’d systemize earlier and faster.

Milestones don’t necessarily mean stability. 
They mean responsibility.
Time to step up.

Co-Founder trumpet 🎺 | Founder DesignMyNight (Acquired '19) 🍹 | Investor in 55+ Startups 🤑 🏳️‍🌈

Every founder says, “We’re product-led.”
Most aren’t.

They’re product-first. Which is not the same thing.

Product-first means: “We’ll build what we think is awesome and hope they come.”
Product-led means: “The product is the growth engine, not just the feature list.”

A truly product-led company designs moments where the user experiences success before a salesperson ever shows up.

That might be a personalized trial that nails the buyer’s use case or a dashboard that instantly quantifies value or a shareable artifact that helps your champion explain the ROI to their boss.

Those are the product-led mechanisms that sell for you while you sleep.

Because people don’t buy just products anymore, they buy internal momentum.

And your product should be the one creating it.

If your product can make someone feel the win before they buy, you’re already halfway to closing them.

AI drop #4 of our AI-Suite.
Let me introduce you to Spark AI.

Write. Re-write. Ask Anything.

This is not just the usual AI writing tool that says "make it more concise"

Built directly into every Pod, Spark AI helps teams create deal-ready content in seconds, without tab-hopping, rewrites, or guesswork.

Our AI doesn’t just write, it understands who you are and who you're writing for, adapting every message to the buyer, persona, and stage of the deal.

↳ Rewrites Pod content for any audience, from CFOs to Champions.
↳ Summarises, translates, and localises content instantly.
↳ 30+ pre-trained prompts for Sales and Success teams
↳ Refines messaging with live buyer context 
↳ Helps handle objections or strengthens ROI messaging in one click.
↳ Keeps tone and quality consistent across every buyer touchpoint.

Spark AI brings the context to make that the AI efficiency meaningful.

From follow-ups to onboarding plans, it helps every team speak with precision, confidence, and intent.

Context built in. Clarity guaranteed.

I speak to 100s of founders and "growth" is what they say they are searching. Few admit they’re addicted to motion instead.

In our early GTM days, I kept mistaking speed for progress.

We were testing every channel, hiring faster than our process could handle, rewriting the strategy too regularly.

Slack looked alive. The dashboards were busy. But we weren’t actually taking big steps forward; just sideways, very quickly.

Here’s what I eventually learned:

- Most GTM problems are focus problems wearing different clothes.
- Growth isn’t found in “what else can we do?” it’s in “what can we stop doing?”
- A bloated strategy doc usually signals insecurity, not ambition.
- The best teams don’t chase motion; they compound signal.

When we started cutting; clarity returned.

Deals closed faster. Messaging sharpened. The team felt lighter and more confident.

The sharpest GTMs aren’t the biggest. They’re the most precise.

🎥 Gabriel Isserlis

SuperScout

Upgrade your private location database!

Our software helps you: 
- manage and search through your personal locations database with a map or keywords
- share beautiful shortlists with clients and colleagues
- never do the same research twice! 

Prettier than Dropbox; More secure than SmugMug. More functional than both. 

Built from the ground up for location scouts, managers, and production companies.

Founder & CEO

Boardwave

The Boardwave network is a powerful community of Founders, CEOs, Chairs, Independent NEDs & Investors from across Europe, representing companies at every stage of development in the tech industry.The Boardwave network is a powerful community of Founders, CEOs, Chairs, Independent NEDs & Investors from across Europe, representing companies at every stage of development in the tech industry.

Boardwave member

Tutti

Tutti is building technology to give creatives more time to create.

Today, we are a SaaS enabled marketplace for amazing creative venues - places for film/photo shoots, rehearsals, live-streams, concerts, and more. Traditionally it can take days or weeks to find and book these places, but on Tutti, creators find and message 1000+ spaces in minutes.
Simultaneously, our software helps amazing, unusual venues automate their booking processes and save countless hours on admin.

Learn more: https://www.tutti.space

Tutti was launched at the Founder Institute, London (www.fi.co) in 2018.
Supported by the Rattle Collective 2019-2021 (now closed).
Supported by the CultTech Accelerator in 2023. 

Funding: 
Self funded: 2018 - 2022
Raised £295k from 356 people (crowd) in 2022.

Techstars

Founder Institute

Successfully graduated as a member of the London Winter 2018 cohort of the Founder Institute - the world’s premier idea-stage accelerator and startup launch program.

Top 3% Graduate & Mentor

Marketplace Risk

Today, the Marketplace Risk platform is the most comprehensive source of education, networking and information sharing for marketplace, sharing, gig, peer-to-peer and collaborative economy startups to learn risk management, trust & safety, compliance and legal strategy necessary to launch, grow and exit successfully. From our blog, e-newsletter, Platform Podcast, Slack Forum and Live Event & Webinar Series, to our conferences and summits, Marketplace Risk is the first and only dedicated resource for startups to take their businesses to the next level.

Advisory Board Member

Founders Pledge

As a member of the Founders Pledge community I’m committed to leveraging my success for good. Founders Pledge enables entrepreneurs and investors to give back, give more, and give effectively, by pledging a portion of future exit proceeds to charity. They provide charity research, organise events with thought leaders in social impact, and handle the administrative burden of donating to globally.

Pledger

OPUS

OPUS is a community that provides opportunities for emerging leaders who recognize the value of peer-to-peer relationships as a powerful catalyst for positive change in the world.

Home Grown Club

A members' club for entrepreneurs, investors, performance business leaders and the change makers of tomorrow. Happy to refer new members - DM me for details

Founding Member

Culttech Accelerator

Graduate

Unlocking space for creativity: Founder/CEO of Tutti

My expertise lies at the intersection of creativity and technology, which has inspired 
1. Tutti: "AirBnB for creative spaces" 
2. SuperScout: "Your personal database of locations, supercharged with AI" 

(Side note: I won't accept connection requests unless you give me a compelling reason, or I've met you in person)

With degrees in film making and software development, as well as a decade of work in music, theatre, and photography, and years building tech startups, I have a unique set of insights. 

These have inspired creative technical solutions to problems I have experienced first hand in the creative industries, one of the fastest growing sectors that is already worth more than $3tr to humanity. 

Follow Tutti & SuperScout to see those ideas become a reality

www.tutti.space - www.superscout.ai

Follow me here to get honest stories, insights, and thoughts about the highs, lows, and in-betweens of building a startup: 

- It's not an easy or quick journey, but it's a bloody rewarding one. 

- You can't do it alone. If you think you can, you're kidding yourself. 

- You don't know what you don't know - you'll always be learning things you never knew you needed to know.

- Everything is about relationships. Start building them early and often. You never know who might be able to help you. 


Lastly, this is me behind the companies and experience: 
I love to: 
- Invent solutions
- Design product (UX - I'm great at functional, not so good at pretty)
- Support other founders (it's a bloody difficult journey)
- Inspire others
- Dream up & build the future!

Received a lovely message this morning. 

4 of our customers were at Filming in England's mixer at #pinewoodstudios last night, and Gary Kinch messaged me this morning to say:

"There was lots of love in the room for SuperScout last night! All 4 of us, very happy!!" 

It's been an absolute pleasure working with you all so far. Looking forward to what the future holds. 

#locations #filmoffices #filminginengland 

Photo credit to Gary Kinch as I wasn't there myself unfortunately.

Empowering filmmakers with radically better software (SuperScout); Dad, Founder, Mentor, Cat Dad

Remember when I used to share an awesome venue on Tutti (visit www.tutti.space) every week? 

Well, I'm going to try and get back to that, except with SuperScout because we recently launched our Showcase tier, where users can use our tech to show off their incredible locations to the world. 

We have some incredible early showcase sites of customers across England, Czech Republic, Wales, Rep of Ireland, and the US and I can't wait to show off what they have, from castles to cliffs, harbours to homes, mansions, military museums, and even an upside down house! 

If you want to see some incredible locations for film/tv, give me a follow! 
(You'll have to put up with a sprinkling of dad/founder posts too) 

Here's a quick teaser - a literal castle in north Wales! 
DM Richard Williams-Bulkeley if you want to learn more or shoot there! 

#locations #film #showcase

We received another glowing review this week, courtesy of Richard Williams-Bulkeley:  

"For a couple of years I have been looking for a way to manage my locations and their associated images to then communicate them to the Film and Media Industry. I investigated building a website, SmugMug and other image related options but nothing gave me what I wanted. My requirements were:

 - Easy to use
 - Flexible
 - Function rich
 - Slick
 - Fast
 - Professional looking
 - Mapping fully integrated, including Google Maps and W3W
 - Reasonably priced

At last I have found what I have been searching for and more! 

SuperScout met all my requirements. After 2 short sessions I have got to grips with the functionality (and I am a 57 year old location owner!) and am seeing the benefits every time I use the system. It really is fantastic, so simple and intuitive but bursting with really great features for location owners, location managers and scouts alike. It has exceeded my expectations in every way.

In addition they have provided superb support and added some great functionality I hadn't expected, for example the Past Productions Page. The speed of their development is brilliant and their team really understand the Film and TV locations world, its needs and challenges. 

SuperScout is a joy to use!" 


Here's an early version of Richard's new site, powered by SuperScout: 
https://lnkd.in/eV3JAviu

It's fantastic to have you on board Richard! 

#customerlove #filmlocations #product

SuperScout received another brilliant testimonial yesterday! 

SuperScout is everything we’ve been looking for in a location platform and we can’t recommend them enough. Their team have really set the bar when it comes to customer support and are always listening to the needs of the industry.

The location platform provides a clean and simple design that is easy to navigate and offers a customisable design to suit your branding. Uploading new locations is quick and easy, whether it’s from a laptop or while on the go from your phone. It’s also hassle-free for location owners to use when uploading their own locations, which makes the whole process much easier and quicker. No stress.

The AI function is a key feature of SuperScout. We often get very specific location briefs from productions, and the AI generated keywords are a really helpful tool for narrowingdown the search. Not only does this save us and industry a lot of time, it also helps to increase the presence of our locations and hopefully generate further interest. 

SuperScout has been a game-changer for us and we’re excited to see how the platform evolves in the future.

Thank you Vicki & Surrey Film Office. 
Thrilled to be working with you! 

#locations #filmoffice #testimonials

This past week was really quite insane. I experienced all parts of my new normal in just a few days.

During the week I helped onboard some new customers including one who owns a castle (seriously cool!), and pushed new functions to SuperScout (with the help of Dharmil Trivedi). 

I've recently started coding more with the help of Cursor and Wispr Flow, but it's not 100% perfect, so I'm very happy to have Dharmil's expertise on hand to polish it off. 

I took my son out, either for walks or to play group to give my wife extra time to practise. She had a concert Sunday in Germany, that was going to be recorded for the radio, so... no pressure. 

Then we flew off to Germany. First to a place near Regensburg Saturday for rehearsals, and then Weiden Sunday for the concert: Schumann Quartet & Mozart Quintet. Very memorable programme. 

The concert was recorded by BR Klassik and will be broadcast on 2 Mar, if anyone reading this is in Germany and wants to tune in then! Their group's name is the "Barbican Quartet." 

And it's back to normal life (or as normal as it gets now...) today. Demo calls for potential clients in Hong Kong and Czech Republic for SuperScout, finalising onboarding for an awesome customer in England, and preparing for our big event in December. 

It's certainly not a boring life... 

#dad #travel #performance

🌊 This lighthouse pioneered the first failed toilet in maritime history—but the views are incredible.

Trwyn Du Lighthouse sits on Black Point at Anglesey's eastern tip (North Wales):
⚫ 29m tower with distinctive three black bands
🌊 Sea-washed stepped base designed for wave management
🏝️ Views across to Puffin Island and the Menai Strait
🚗 Small toll road access with nearby parking

What makes it work: Built in 1838 as a prototype for larger sea-washed towers, this is coastal drama with proper maritime architecture. The stepped base and rocky shoreline give you natural texture, and the contrast between the striped tower and surrounding seascape delivers strong composition options.

Previously shot here: House of the Dragon Season 3 (coming soon)

Get in touch with Richard (link in comments) to learn more.

SuperScout also received a wonderful review from our first US film office, who have seen literal hours of time saved every time they scout a new location! 

"SuperScout combines many elements of our locations workflow into one attractive tool, streamlining our processes. 

Last week, we toured a terrific location for the first time. Within moments of leaving the location, our photos were uploaded to SuperScout and shareable; they were tagged and searchable and had our contact info attached. 

With our previous workflow, we would have had at least six manual steps to complete in order to share the photos in a useful way, including uploading and downloading and re-uploading the photos. 

SuperScout realistically reduced the time we have to dedicate to managing new location photos from hours to minutes. 

SuperScout is a vital tool in our ongoing mission to highlight our region and both differentiate ourselves from and compete with national production hubs. 

Gabriel and the team at SuperScout are incredibly responsive, always ready to help us maximize the elements of SuperScout that we use most, and keeping us up to date on new features and enhancements that are being added regularly."

Thank you Tim Banach & Nora Brown. It's wonderful to be working with you! 

#customerlove #filmlocations #startup

We have some amazing evangelists helping share our product! 

Last week alone, I had 3 amazing experiences of this.  

❤️ Someone I reached out to (I thought cold) had seen one of our customers using SuperScout on set, and wondered what it was! Apparently that customer then showed the whole team a quick demo! 

💙 Another person I contacted is in an association with a bunch of our customers and have consistently heard good things from multiple people over the past 10 months. She really wants a demo now. 

🥰 Last year I gave a demo to a room of industry people, and someone who had been in that audience has been following our journey. He heard some of his former colleagues were considering buying from one of our competitors, and he told them to consider ours, and reached out to me on the company whatsapp, to connect us. He did not have to! At all! But he went out of his way to try and help us, which is amazing! 

In fact none of these customers sharing our product have to. At the moment our network capabilities are limited, so it doesn't benefit (also doesn't hurt) our customers to have others using it. 

But people are going out of their way to help share the value of SuperScout, which is incredible!

Thank you to everyone talking about SuperScout and sharing it with colleagues. It's time for there to be a new standard in software for the locations industry. 

Time to Ditch Dropbox & Scrap SmugMug. They're not build for this industry, SuperScout is! 

#customerlove #filmlocations #locationscouts

In what would normally be most people's downtime from their startup, I'm running around Europe working as "Dad" and occasional videographer. 

My wife is a professional violinist, and the quartet she started 10 years ago with 3 friends at university (which is much like a startup) has become one of the leading groups in Europe in recent years. 

They won ARD, the most prestigious competition for quartets in Europe, 2 years ago, and now have agents in multiple countries. (It'd be like getting A-Tier VC funding after years of bootstrapping.)

So when I'm not running SuperScout, I'm busy helping her however I can, making her dreams a reality. 

Most of the time that means taking care of our little one while she's in rehearsals (which allows me to do a surprising amount of work) or on stage.

But she's recently given me another job: videographer. Using my little one as a counterbalance ("steadicam weight") I spend a lot of time filming behind the scenes of the amazing places they travel. Because she's now set herself a goal: to create a short daily vlog of her travels, because they really are fascinating. 

So I thought I'd share one (with almost entirely my camera work): 

IF you like this and want to see more of her travels / work, you can find her on
❤️  YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eRDGvmtP
💜  Instagram: https://lnkd.in/ewPZ2pQe
💙  TikTok: https://lnkd.in/evddT8My

(This also explains why I've entirely stopped going to startup events in London...) 

#contentcreator #dadlife #founderlife

Quick demo: Uploading locations to SuperScout 🎬

Whether you're managing a single location or thousands, here's how easy it is to get your files in to your database:

→ Drag and drop your files (photos, videos, PDFs)
→ Set addresses with autocomplete
→ Add private notes and details only your team sees
→ Set default public info—hide exact addresses, use a radius, control what gets shared

Built for location managers, scouts, production companies, and film offices who need to organise locations fast without the headache.

#locationscout #locationmanager #filmlocations

That awkward moment when your zoom view is disrupted by family! 

I did my best to hide the fact that I was working from my bed, because I'm currently on tour with my wife & son, and there's no available desk in the house. 

But then my wife unexpectedly asked me to take my son during the middle of the meeting. So I had to crawl to the edge of the bed (barriers on both sides for son), mid-meeting, and there's no hiding that... 

Then I had to hold my son on the call (pretty standard at this point - so that was fine) but I suddenly saw that the covers, my pyjamas, and the pillows and headboard were all in view... Oh dear!

Fortunately I don't think my potential clients are going to hold it against me - they're excited about our software, not worrying about where I have to hold meetings! But still, not what I'd intended. 



#dadlife 
#founderlife 
#customercalls

🏠 An upside-down house where gravity-defying scenes come naturally—and IKEA furnished the whole thing.

The Lakeside Upside Down House offers instant visual impact for contemporary productions:
🎨 Red wine-colored exterior with high-gloss finish
🛋️ IKEA-designed interiors with furniture mounted on ceilings
📍 Located in Lakeside Shopping Centre car park (easy crew access)
🔄 Mind-bending perspective shifts for unique shot composition

What makes it work: This isn't set dressing—it's a fully realized inverted environment where production can achieve impossible-looking shots in-camera. The compact footprint means fast setups, while the shopping center location provides nearby amenities for extended shoots. Perfect for commercials, music videos, or any production needing surreal visual hooks.

Get in touch with Gary Kinch at Essex Film Office to learn more about shooting here! (link in comments)

#FilmLocation #LocationScouting #UKFilming

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The Battle

Nick Telson-Sillett

🎥 Gabriel Isserlis

Followers

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Performance ScoreNick Telson-Sillett's LinkedIn Performance

Performance Score🎥 Gabriel Isserlis's LinkedIn Performance

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The Battle

Nick Telson-Sillett

🎥 Gabriel Isserlis

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nick Telson-Sillett's LinkedIn Performance

Performance Score🎥 Gabriel Isserlis's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreNick Telson-Sillett's LinkedIn Performance