We’re incredibly excited to welcome Dave Haynes to our team. He’ll be taking on a Business Development role as well as heading up Academy and Seedhack. Dave joins us from Makeshift and was an early hire at SoundCloud, making him ideally placed to help our startups grow and prosper.
Dave Haynes, Business Development
Introduce yourself in a 40-word elevator pitch
With an entrepreneurial background in the music/tech industry, I now love helping startups. I was part of the early team at SoundCloud and created events such as MusicHackDay. Most recently I was at Makeshift helping grow multiple products into startups.
What are you most looking forward to in your role at Seedcamp?
There’s almost too many things to mention. But ultimately I love connecting people and ideas to make bigger, better or more magical things happen. I also think people do their best work when they’re passionate about what they’re doing and are surrounded by good people. I’ve only been here a few days, but it feels like this is the case at Seedcamp.
When not working, what are you most likely to be doing?
Well, I have a young family with two boys (aged 2 and 6), so I try and spend as much time as possible with them and my wife. This means I probably play way too much Lego and Minecraft for a 34-yr old. But I like to travel too and recently setup a semi-regular trip called Planned Outage with my friend @stef. We curate a group of like-minded entrepreneurial/creative folk and disappear off the grid for a few days to recharge the batteries and come back feeling fresh. The first trip saw us kayaking in the Norwegian fjords, it was breathtaking.
Who was your childhood hero?
That’s a tough one. A lot of my early heroes were musicians. As a young kid that meant listening to whatever my parents were playing in the car. But in my teens I religiously followed artists and DJ’s like Gilles Peterson, Coldcut, James Lavelle and Goldie. I was always obsessed with the latest and newest music and secretly spent all my school dinner money on vinyl! In the end, our local record store closed down, so my brother and I setup our own and a record label as well, which meant I could work with and meet many of those heroes later in life.
What’s your specialist subject outside of work?
Well, after five intense years at a fast-growing startup like SoundCloud, I realised that I needed to restore my health a little and found a sanctuary in running. Just eighteen months ago, I was terribly out of shape and wouldn’t even run for a train, but recently I completed my second half-marathon and am totally obsessed. I’m not sure I’d call myself a specialist though, I still need to get a lot faster.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a startup?
It sounds obvious but I think a lot of startup teams don’t quite appreciate how much work it takes. It’s a real journey, so if you’re just starting out then make sure that both yourself and your co-founder are committed to this for the long-haul. Startup isn’t just a lifestyle or something that you plan to flip in 18 months. It can be of course, but it turns out best when you’re commited to changing something in the world or solving a real problem that you’re determined to fix. But remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint, so equip yourself for the long-haul.