Ben Freeman, co-founder and CEO of Omnea, discusses raising $75M for his AI-native platform. The discussion includes insights into scaling B2B SaaS, hiring.
Ben Freeman, co-founder and CEO of Omnea, discusses raising $75M for his AI-native platform. The discussion includes insights into scaling B2B SaaS, hiring practices, and the journey of a founder post-Series B founder.
You've got to have a mindset that you just get on with it. And it sounds trivial, but I spent so long worrying and existential and stressed. And sometimes that was making me work harder, so it was okay. All righty. Hello everyone and welcome to the Dealmaker Show. So today we have an amazing founder. You know, a founder that, you know, it's unbelievable the story. you know, we're going to be, you know, talking about the building, the financing, the the the scaling, I mean, all all of that good stuff that we like to hear. And I think that today you're going to find the conversation quite inspiring. So, without further ado, let's welcome our guest today, Ben Freeman. Welcome to the show. >> Thanks for having me. >> So, originally born there in Manchester, you know, near near Manchester, sorry, there in England. So, give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up for
you? >> Yeah. So, I was actually born in Cheshire. That's where I was brought up, which is about half an hour of Manchester. It's basically, if you've not been, it's kind of British countryside, particularly where I was brought up. So, lots of space around me. So, a very pleasant place to be brought up. Uh, you know, that's why I love nature and animals today. But, you're near enough to Manchester to understand big cities and what's that what that's like. Um, and it's kind of a warm-up to London. You know, it's like a smaller, slightly beta version. Um, if you look at kind of the businesses and the way the economy works there. So no, I love my upbringing and then I I moved to London to study initially but kept my business in Manchester. So lots of traveling for me in the earlier years >> and also lots of uh ideas, lots of projects, you know, even before you turn 18, you were
quite the entrepreneur. What what do you what do you think that drive comes from for you? >> Yeah, it's an interesting one because I honestly as a kid I think I was just obsessed with money. I remember being like I don't know when it started, probably like 11 or 12 when I just thought it was really cool to try and get rich. I'd say that's faded over time. Like now the reasons I do things are less about money and there are there are other parameters you consider, right? But in my earlier years, I just like hustling and trying to make some money. So I was always selling stuff or doing stuff. I think my dad probably ingrained that into me to some degree. He believed in hard work. Like he he's a lawyer, so he he thought I should be a lawyer, but more importantly, he taught me work ethic, but I chose to do that for kind of ways that could at the time make me money, whatever that meant.
Um, and it was weirdly being from kind of Manchester, the businesses are more traditional businesses. You know, a lot of people are in retail or heavy industry. This whole tech and venturebacked thing was totally new to me when I moved to London. Like I have I was clueless at the time. So that meant I I was brought up believing in kind of like proper businesses in inverted commerce, you know, like you have to make a profit, you have to look after people a certain way. So I kind of came from a slightly different background that I've then tried to bring into tech. That's amazing. Now, we'll talk about that in just a little bit. Now, one thing that it will be awesome, you know, because on the on the first real business, you know, you dropped out of school, uh it was this events business. I think that it would be awesome, you know, to really understand what was the biggest takeaway or the
biggest lesson that you learned from from that business. >> Yeah, there's a lot. And this was many years ago now. So, the story there is I so I finished high school and I'd done some side hustles throughout. I was trading vehicle number plates and all sorts of things to kind of make money here and there. Um, and then my first proper business, as I describe it, was in the summer after I graduated from high school and it was this events company. Um, and I ended up doing that for quite a few years. Um, and it kind of I suppose what did I learn from it? Look, we got to a decent scale in many ways. The main thing I learned is that you have to select the business you build to a great degree based on the market and what it can become. Because a lot of people will tell you, you know, follow your passions or do what you understand, solve problems, you know, that's incredibly limiting if you
don't know that much. You know, I was young and you you'd never start a B2B SAS company, right? If you're solving problems for corporates, I didn't know what corporate was. So, like, you know, I think back then I was trying to solve problems I understood. There were so many learnings because at the time I was employing I mean I'll give you a couple of stories but I was I was like employing people much older than me and one problem I had for example was when you run different events you have to run the doors you know you need bouncers or dormant to keep your event secure and it turns out if you go to companies those doormen have deals with the local drug dealers or gangs so they let certain people in and they're controlling your door and they might be making some money on the side. If you're not in control of that you face risk. There could be violence that you don't see coming or they
could take the money or whatever. So I ended up doing that in-house. We built a security company as well and you know I made a little margin on the the the dorman I was kind of renting out. So you kind kind of realized quite young the importance of trust and working with people that you can kind of get on with and it was a weird way to learn the lesson but because I was young and probably looked quite exploitable. I actually think I was looking back I think I was quite savvy and like I looked young and at the time like for Manchester I was basically like a posh kid in Manchester but probably a lot of people were trying to screw me over and so that was a lesson but yeah the main lesson if I have to choose one is just that it was a [ __ ] market. If you look at the most successful events company owners in the world the magnitude of their businesses or you know the scale of the
wealth they create for other people and the economy in general is so much smaller than if you look at even a mid-tier tech company. So I just think there's an element of like choosing your market, decide the impact you want to have on that market, on society, on the economy, on people, and you know, you can put smart people in a [ __ ] market and the the outcome is not going to be that inspiring. >> I mean, I think that you're right on. I think that for founders listening to like choosing a market that is big enough, choosing a market that also is growing at a really nice rate, it makes all the difference. And that's really where magic happens where you're able to plug in an awesome team I guess for you to you know like right after this you ended up moving to London for university. I mean you have great schools in Manchester you know why why going all the way to London?
What what what got you there? >> Yeah well actually I didn't the first time. So I went to I never tell this part of the story but I went to Warrick University to study accounting and finance for all of three and a half weeks and then I dropped out and I just at the time I wasn't ready to really be back in education. I was so bored of doing exams. I'm I'm deeply competitive. So, if I'm going to do an exam, I want to come top and I've never got less than an A. So, I'm not that smart, but I like I'll work hard and I'll get the grade. Um, and I just couldn't be asked going through that process again, jumping straight back into uni. I chosen Warrick because it was number one for accounting and finance that year in the kind of league tables or whatever. And that was the, you know, I suppose it wasn't a deeply thoughtout decision. And I quickly got there and thought, [ __ ]
this. I want to be doing business stuff. I want to be making money. I just felt entrepreneurship resonated with me way more. It was just scary because as I mentioned, my dad's a lawyer. I I kind of brought up in a way that that looked like a failure or like you know, you're supposed to do a clever thing. Most of my mates were doing banking or consulting or law or whatever else. Um so yeah, so I I dropped out of that. I kept the business and then when I that first year of running the events company, I realized, okay, I'm doing quite well. Like financially, I was doing okay. I had good people. I was like, you know, there was there was some good with it. But I realized this wasn't going to be my career. like the problems I was dealing with, the violence, the drugs, the issues you have running an events company. I was like, there was, you know, I'm selling myself short here. So, I then
realized to…