A baseball Capped and hairy David “Wolverine” Johnson, the UK Editor of Maddyness, calls in from the wilds of the Berkshire countryside, to tell us all about the joys of lockdown where he decided to swap life from edgy Harlesden in central London, for a lovely barn “doer upper”, in the sticks.

David talks about a newly found fondness for DIY & unusually, from a Tech perspective… wiring. But, more to the point …..he also updates us on his excellent work, that all budding FOUNDstars should read… the leading Tech publication Maddyness UK. David is the UK Editor of this fine read and is doing a grand job as Captain of this ship.

Providing some context, Maddyness launched 10 years ago in France and it’s goal is to provide useful information for founders. They are the leading online media for Start-Ups in France. David joined in September 2019 to launch the UK edition of Maddyness and his leadership has led to strong growth in both circulation and support for this daily on-line rag.

The site aims to bring together all elements of the UK Start-up ecosystem, with a focus on trying to do things in a more differentiated way, compared to other On line Tech publications. It’s also had a brand re-fresh recently, to become even more like a digital broadsheet, which you can see HERE .

David talks predictions: highlighting that 2021 will be the year of Greentech, Sustainability and Agritech, with France seeing strong growth in innovation and investment in these segments. David also pinpoints Sex-Tech as another 2021 area of interest, with Maddyness’s new Podcast “The Voice”, Series 1, comprehensively tackling the “Joy of Sex” that the Tech can bring!

Moving forward, the current focus for Maddyness UK, is the whole European ecosystem, where they have big plans to grow their local reach through offices in several European locations, to focus each office specifically, on the ecosystem in each region.

In conclusion, it’s a really fascinating catch-up, that also touches upon: a debate on the amount of start-ups created in Europe, tips about starting a business in Covid-19 times, an overview on the world of VC which David thinks is “well sexy” and how hard and stressful he has found it to hire people during lockdown 3 (note this was recorded in February 2021).

Finally, as a shout out – David says: “If you are FOUNDstar, just get in touch directly with David with an angle, through the social media”…