Coffee with Tony Margiotta
“The startup whisperer!”
Who is Tony Margiotta?
From an Instructor in the British military to tech entrepreneur. Tony Margiotta previously worked for London & Partners and now the Barclays Accelerator, now known as Rise.
Tony sits down to talk about his career and future of the Fintech world.
As always, Tony looks like a stylish mix of Bond movie villian and tech entrepreneur.
Settling into coffee is the perfect opportunity to talk through Tony’s career – an interesting collective of different paths that come together as one.
As he’s asked about his beginnings in the military and his path to now, he laughs. “It is a massive jump”. He continues, “People often remark ‘you were in the Marines, the Fusiliers, you were a commando trainer and you were involved in different conflicts around the world? And now look after entrepreneurs and startup founders?
An obvious question to follow is… how exactly did this happen? How does a military man who spent many years in service, training young officers become an “startup whisperer”?
“After I left the military, I went to LA for 2 years and started a couple of nonprofits”, he remarks.
Moving back to London, he became involved in the start-up world. Joining Central Working, a co-working business with a difference. Tony started working alongside the CEO and serial entrepreneur James Layfield.
Working in the offices in Bloomsbury and Whitechapel he began to learn what it was to be surrounded by entrepreneurs, “we realised that we had what we like to call the ‘secret sauce’, which is the way we treat and care for our members. We would really get under the skin of our members by connecting the community”. This is how every co-working space presently likes to market their brand but it very rarely is the truth, mostly it's bums on seats. Central Working had and a more community/family feel which is mostly down to the staff, like Tony, connecting the dots.
Tony's unique background, a combination of operations and, most importantly, the ability to speak to anyone and find out what the individual challenges are, helped build a community for startups across the Central Working echo system.
IS THERE OVER-SATURATION OF THE CO-WORKING SECTOR IN LONDON?
I raised the question; “Is there over-saturation of the co-working sector in London? How many is too many?”
Some stats on the London Co-working sector
London remains the global capital for co-working spaces, ahead of New York
Central London saw 2.5m sq ft leased to flexible workspace providers, a 190% increase on last year
WeWork has become the largest corporate office occupier in Central London
Over 800 Co-working offices in London - hubblehq.com
Tony responds, “there is definitely over-saturation at the moment if you’re in the business of pure co-working. You have to really look at your model and think, okay, what am I offering? What are my rates? What differentiates us from the rest? If you’re a customer of these spaces, it’s great..its a buyers market” You have a choice.
Tony has also recently worked for London & Partners, the official agency that promotes London on behalf of the Mayor of London. They cover, new business, major tech events, etc. During Tony’s time there, he worked alongside both Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan. “I went from Central Working to advise and consult to London & Partners, helping with promoting London as a destination for International startups to launch and grow”
It was from there that Tony set up worked on the ground breaking “Cities to Cities” project an initiative about finding people or organisations that really care about their businesses ecosystem, in different cities around the world, forming a relationship and then helping to internationalise from those connecting cities. A true community feel which Tony seems to apply to any project he works on.
Tony now works for a Fintech incubator. Formally known as Barclays Accelerator, now known as Rise, this organisation solely looks at Fintech. Co-working spaces are traditionally known for their mix of any industry, any organisation, that come together and share a space. Rise does things differently by looking at more sector specific criteria.
WHAT NEXT FOR CO-WORKING/INCUBATORS IN LONDON?
Personally, I feel this is the next evolution of the Co-working/Incubator sector. It will have to be more industry or function specific to really build a community, we have already seen this with Level 39 and Rise for Fintech or Cylonlab the Cyber Coworking space in Hammersmith.
“Smart tech people and businesses, specifically in this wonderful city, will want something more focused. They want to be around a community that connects within an industry sector, to share ideas and similar challenges.”
The RISE members are curated Fintech businesses connecting a shared wisdom- which goes back to what you just said about being sector-specific. For example, at Rise, everyone is Fintech, so we are all generally operating and thinking along the same lines. So when they're having a coffee, or at the end of week members' drinks, they all can communicate on the same level as opposed to someone in RetailTech talk to someone in MedTech.”
“As soon as a Rise member walks into the club, they know they are coming in that day for an experience. There's a lot of love going on there, "How can we help you grow today? Give us a shout, What do you need?” You know that the team at Rise is working alongside and behind the scenes to help growth.”
It’s clear that Tony knows a thing or two about how to build successful teams, from the Military with life or death on the line to helping startups create, build a team, and to help with growth!
BREXIT AND FINTECH
Q: “Do you think Brexit will slow down the growth of Fintech in London?”
A: Brexit is on the mind of almost every business owner in the UK, with the deadline approaching at rapid speed. “Having spoken to a number of people who run big business and founders of smaller Fintech startups, they say we’ve all had to diversify. We’ve had to change directions many times and Brexit is just another curve ball we have to manage. Probably the core question I am hearing is ‘how am I going to continue to get what I look for when it comes to hiring the right people?’
He goes on to mention that some business owners are thinking about smaller satellite offices to hedge any talent challenges, with Berlin/Amsterdam/Dublin all mentioned with no one specific location as clear winner. Although at this point he has not seen any grand relocation plans, maybe a desk or 2 in one of the EU cities.
The bit we copy from Tim Ferris
Your morning routine?
My routine has been built from my military days. I wake up 5:30am, My Google assistant wakes me up. It tells me the weather. How long it’s going to take me to get to work, get a black coffee - then I either go for a run or go to the gym for a kettle bells session. 15 minutes of meditation. I started out using Headspace because the CEO was actually in Central Working for a while and then I moved onto Waking Up App by Sam Harris.
Always a two egg omelette for breakfast and then I get ready to cycle. I'll ride to work for about 8:00.
(Tony has more energy and enthusiasm than most 20 year olds)
What bike are you riding into work?
The one I commute on now is a Condor, which is a British company and that’s a 15 speed bike that goes like a rocket.
Favourite Podcast?
Joe Rogan is my favourite. He’s brilliant.
What are you reading at the moment?
I’m reading a book about mental illness at the moment which someone recommended to me. It’s something I’m really interested in. People in business and people around me, are suffering but you don’t know about it. I also love all the motivational books, I have 60 or so at home.
Favourite restaurant?
The M Bar and Grill in Victoria.
Shoes versus trainers in the office?
I mean I should be trainers in the office. I’m wearing some now, some Nike deep purple ones that are a bit funky but I like shoes but not too formal for the office.
Apple Watch or classic.
Rolex GMT Batman and also Apple Watch
