COO Secrets

Kevin Huang, COO at Voy, has done it multiple times. He joined DoorDash as employee #9 and its first GM, scaled it internationally over 7 years, led 600 people and billions in revenue, then went on to become COO at Berlin-based unicorn Choco before taking the helm as COO at UK health-tech Voy.

In this episode of COO Secrets, James Mitra sits down with Kevin to unpack the real playbook behind hyper-scaling startups – from the operating principles he learned at DoorDash, to how he approaches cross-functional leadership, talent, and the CEO-COO partnership.

In this COO Secrets episode, we’re joined by David Fogel, fractional COO/CCO and Co-Founder of Alma Angels and Bramble. 

David is a former VC, turned COO with a wealth of experience across the startup ecosystem. 

He spent over 7 years at Wefarm, the world’s largest platform for small-scale farmers, before co-founding Alma Angels, an inclusive community of angel investors who are passionate about actively investing in and supporting ambitious female Founders building Tech driven startups, with a global scale. 

Most recently, David co-founded Bramble, offering actionable insights, practical guidance and personal advice for Founders and leaders stepping into the next phase of their growth journey.

In this COO Secrets episode, we’re joined by Tom Fraine, COO at Zoa – the consumer energy management platform, helping energy suppliers and consumers work hand-in-hand to tackle the climate crisis.

With a background in People functions, we discuss the ins and outs of Tom’s journey into the COO role, including…

In this COO Secrets episode, we’re joined by Sophie Theen, Startup COO & CPO, and speaker at this year’s Operations Nation cONference.

In this COO Secrets episode, we’re joined by Sabrina Castiglione, COO at Pento.  

Pento is an all-in-one payroll solution that combines exceptional support and advice with an easy-to-use payroll automation platform. 

In this latest COO Secrets episode, we’re joined by Lucy Minton, the Co-Founder and COO of Kitt. 

Kitt is a full-service office platform that finds, designs, fits out and manages office space, taking the pain away from businesses. Kitt’s spaces are designed to elevate your brand, culture and team productivity, whilst removing the hassle of managing real estate. 

In this COO Secrets episode, we’re joined by the brilliant Sarah Touzani, the former COO of Creditspring, angel investor and advisor.

We dive into Sarah’s career journey, from consulting and banking within some of Europe’s biggest names, to jumping into the FinTech Startup world.

Sarah shares some of the biggest challenges she had to overcome as a COO and tells us a bit more about what the future of the COO role may look like.

For all of this and more, make sure you hit play below and listen to the brilliant insights Sarah shares with us in this episode.

In this latest instalment of our COO Secrets series, we had the pleasure of talking to Alicia Levine, the COO of Chipper Cash.

We were fortunate enough to have Chipper’s Co-Founder and CEO, Ham Serunjogi on our 40 Minute Mentor podcast before and they have also become a sponsor of our podcast.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Chipper Cash before, they’re an African cross-border payments company trusted by over 4 million users and is widely considered as the most valuable African FinTech.

In today’s episode, Alicia describes her path to COO, what a typical day can look like for her, what it’s been like to scale Chipper and why it’s such a great time to join the business.

For all of this and more, make sure you hit play below and listen to the brilliant insights Alicia shares with us.

In episode 20 of our COO Secrets series, we’re joined by the brilliant Jessica Oppetit, COO of Flipdish.

Flipdish is a global leader for white label digital ordering solutions, offering their partners a digital ordering and marketing system that builds brands, grows profits and turns customers into regulars. They currently have thousands of restaurants using their platforms, with feet on the ground in six countries and are currently operational in 30 countries. During a recent investment round, they raised $100 million and reached a $1.2 billion valuation.

In today’s interview, Jessica tells us more about how Flipdish came to exist, her own path to Flipdish and her COO title and shares some brilliant advice for any aspiring COOs out there.

In episode 19 of our COO Secrets series, we’re joined by the incredible Seb Barker, COO of Beam.  

Beam is an award-winning social impact platform that uses tech to help homeless people for the long term. Combining talented case workers with public crowdfunded donations, Beam’s goal is to remove all barriers to getting out of homelessness – whether that’s help finding a job or sourcing a stable home.

If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know that we’re big fans of Beam – they’re one of the charities we support as a team and we’ve also had the pleasure of welcoming their Founder and CEO, Alex Stephany onto our 40 Minute Mentor podcast.

And now we’re fortunate enough to also welcome Seb to our COO Secrets series. After noticing the increasing issue of homelessness in both London and Cambridge, Seb has been passionate about making a real difference since his early twenties. Having worked with homeless charities over the years, he decided to team up with tech CEO, Alex Stephany, to create Beam.

In today’s episode, Seb tells us about his journey to becoming a COO and explains the importance of efficient operations when working in a social impact business.

In episode 18 of our COO Secrets series, we catch up with the amazing Karen Kerrigan, COO of Moneybox.  

Moneybox is an award-winning Series C personal finance app, helping hundreds of thousands of people save and invest for their future.

Karen is extremely passionate about the potential for technology in financial services. As a former lawyer and an innovative thinker, she was on the founding Exec Co of the Disruptive GC Network and participates in various advisory boards for tech ScaleUp initiatives. Before joining Moneybox, Karen was COO of Seedrs, as it scaled from StartUp to the leading equity crowdfunding platform it is today.

In this video, Karen delves deeper into her motto: ‘To think broadly but learn deeply’ and how it applies to the role of a COO. Karen also explains how the COO role is generally thought of as the glue that binds the company together and the crucial skills any aspiring COO needs.