Episode 1

Developed scalable practices + leadership capabilities for start ups.

⇨ Industry: Venture Capital
⇨ Location: London
⇨ Stage at kick off: Seed stage investors
⇨ Starting headcount: c. 40 Portfolio business across 2 funds
visit website
share this

Episode 1 are a seed stage Venture Capital fund, investing £500k – £2m in early stage software companies in the UK. Their eight strong team is a combination of former entrepreneurs + experienced investors.

They are passionate about the technologies, the ideas and the business models that are reshaping the world. But most of all, they love the dreamers, the technologists + the creators that are making this happen. 

The Challenge 

The vast majority of investments that Episode 1 make are with businesses that are very early stage. The founders of these startups are typically inexperienced when it comes to building and leading a business. This means that they need significant support in both developing scalable practices and in developing their management + leadership capabilities. 

The Solution

Episode 1 have engaged Unleashed as a retained partner for 8 days per month to provide significant + expert value to their portfolio for everything People, Talent, Culture + Leadership. 

Unleashed run a Leadership Development programme, People Clinics, Culture + Values creations, crafting People + Culture practices, developing People related infrastructure, and support on ad hoc requests as they come up. 


“We always introduce Unleashed to each new portfolio company around the time of first investing. Together we have developed an onboarding process which really helps our new portfolio company and its founders in multiple ways. It’s great to work this way with Tom, Anouk and the whole team and we expect the relationship to continue for the long term!”

Simon Murdoch
Managing Partner of Episode 1

“Episode 1's partnership with Unleashed is an unbelievable benefit for any Startup. We've used Unleashed to support across a wide range of HR topics, particularly helping us improve our team communications, improve our Feedback process and completely revamp our benefits system. Could not recommend highly enough”

Paul Bennett
Co-Founder + CEO of portfolio company Perchpeek


“Unleashed supported us through different periods of growth and gave us invaluable support in preparing to scale. The team helped us navigate organisational design, company values, policies, underperformance and more, saving us from mistakes we could have easily made along the way. They have become our go to for people ops issues and given us the foundations to build a strong company culture”

Charlotte Guzzo
Co-Founder + COO of portfolio company Sano Genetics



more case studies...

Creating a people-first org without internal bandwidth or expertise

Hatch are on a mission to build a better world through entrepreneurship.

⇨ Industry: entrepreneurship support
⇨ Location: London
⇨ Stage at kick off: Charity
⇨ Starting headcount: 5-30 People

Identified people framework opportunities + redefined values

Fatmap are on a mission to provide detailed 3D maps that allow people to plan, track and share adventures.

⇨ Industry: adventuretech
⇨ Location: France
⇨ Stage at kick off: Series a
⇨ Starting headcount: 5-30 People

Hired a senior People person to scale successfully + sustainably

Perchpeek are on a mission to to make employee relocation happier, quicker, and cheaper.

⇨ Industry: HR Tech
⇨ Location: London
⇨ Stage at kick off: Series A
⇨ Starting headcount: 60-100 People

Building a people function fit for the future + creating a clear vision

Chattermill offer a unified customer experience analytics platform, enabling companies to analyse customer feedback at scale.

⇨ Industry: Data analytics
⇨ Location: UK/EU (remotely distributed)
⇨ Stage at kick off: Series A
⇨ Starting headcount: 55 People

Built a prioritised roadmap tailored to the needs of the business.

Urban Jungle is a UK insurance technology business built for a new generation of customers.

⇨ Industry: InsurTech
⇨ Location: London
⇨ Stage at kick off: Seed
⇨ Starting headcount: 14 People