The Mergers Podcast
The official podcast of The Mergers! Listen to learn from those currently rising up the ranks in High Finance and from those who have already built their empire! Frequent guest episodes including those who run their own Private Equity, Family Office or Venture Capital Firms! We cover:
- Industry Insights into: Investment Banking, Private Equity, Venture Capital
- Bulge Brackets to Niche: Goldman Sachs & Blackrock to Sports & Media Private Equity.
- Career Advice for how to get ahead.
Expect a healthy mix of anecdotes, advice and laughs from those at the top of their game!
The Mergers Podcast
Reflecting on a career picking unicorns (Ft. Jon Coker - Co-Founder, Eka Ventures)
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Jon Coker is the Founding Partner at Eka Ventures - the UK's largest early-stage impact VC, which has just closed an £80M Fund II. Before founding Eka, Jon spent 11 years at MMC Ventures, rising from analyst to Co-Managing Partner and backing some of Europe's most iconic consumer companies: Interactive Investor (£1.7B exit), Gousto, Bloom & Wild, and Mubi. In this episode, he breaks down the frameworks behind those picks; why the road less travelled is often safer; and the counterintuitive reason sustainability and commercial returns aren't just compatible - they're companions.
What you'll learn:
- Why Jon quit a JP Morgan flow desk in 2007 with no job lined up
- The founder assessment process Eka uses that most VCs completely ignore
- Why 70% of Eka's Fund I investments had no competing term sheet - and why that's a feature, not a bug
- How to spot "patterns of outperformance" in founders from their teenage years
- The real reason market upheaval from tariffs actually helps early-stage companies
- Career advice for anyone with the itch to leave a big institution - at any age
Chapter Summaries:
- 00:00: Introducing Jon Coker, Eka Ventures & the unicorn track record
- 06:30: Quitting JP Morgan's Investment Bank in 2007
- 10:50: Joining MMC Ventures, climbing to Co-Managing Partner & backing Interactive Investor
- 16:10: Why consumer investing became Jon's edge & the Gousto box disaster
- 22:04: Tariffs, protectionism & why market upheaval is a net advantage for early-stage companies
- 27:15: Competing for deals: the two truths in venture that completely contradict each other
- 29:54: Eka's thesis, the founder assessment & the deal Jon lost that still stings
- 36:06: Patterns of outperformance: Murvah at Hived & the Floyd Mayweather story
- 38:21: How Eka does Impact Investing better than the rest
- 43:51: Career advice, AI & the one that got away: Lindus Health
The Mergers Podcast: Honest conversations with the investors and founders shaping European tech.
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