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25 Years of Building Startups Explained in 17 Minutes | TaleTree, Matt Hagger

EO17:15Added Aug 31, 2026

Meet Matt Hagger, Founder & CEO of Taletree and a veteran serial entrepreneur who spent 25 years building companies from the UK to Silicon Valley. He was the...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00Over the last 20 years, I've been a
  3. 00:01serial [music] entrepreneur in the UK
  4. 00:04and then Silicon Valley in Los Angeles.
  5. 00:06The second company was Scatter, which
  6. 00:08was the photo sharing product. I wanted
  7. 00:10it to become something that every member
  8. 00:12of the world would access and use. When
  9. 00:15you're working on something that means
  10. 00:17everything to you at the time, you're
  11. 00:19putting your heart in it, your soul.
  12. 00:22Unfortunately, 95%
  13. 00:26of all startups end in failure. Scatter
  14. 00:29did not become the Instagram, Tik Tok or
  15. 00:32X that we see today because it's not
  16. 00:35existing [music] right now. When you
  17. 00:36climb that high, the fall is equally as
  18. 00:39heavy. But I think going through failure
  19. 00:42or feeling failure gives [music] you
  20. 00:45great weaponry for the future, gives you
  21. 00:47a an armor. I think for entrepreneurs,
  22. 00:50most of the time you're falling out of
  23. 00:52the plane without a knowing how to open
  24. 00:54the parachute. And as you get closer to
  25. 00:56the floor, [music] you finally work it
  26. 00:58out. And I think that is something that
  27. 01:00I learned growing up, which gave [music]
  28. 01:03me a little bit of courage. Courage
  29. 01:06comes from taking a [music] leap,
  30. 01:07throwing yourself in because we don't
  31. 01:10know the solution. We don't know the
  32. 01:11answer. I think my father threw me in
  33. 01:13knowing that he was there, I guess, if I
  34. 01:16went wrong, but made me feel like I was
  35. 01:18on my own doing it. And that [music] was
  36. 01:20powerful. You just need that one person
  37. 01:24to say, "I believe in you. You can do
  38. 01:26it. You're good enough." [music] These
  39. 01:29acts of empowerment are so important.
  40. 01:32What we need to do is we need to try and
  41. 01:35think [music] how can we be like a
  42. 01:38kindergarten kid for life. [music] They
  43. 01:40don't give up. They stand up again. True
  44. 01:42entrepreneurs will always come back.
  45. 01:51Hi everyone, my name is Matt Hager. I'm
  46. 01:53the founder and [music] CEO of Tail
  47. 01:54Tree. Tailtree empowers children in a
  48. 01:57post AI era to hold on to the precious
  49. 02:00gift of imagination and creativity. So
  50. 02:02when you arrive at Tailree and you
  51. 02:04[music] adopt your companion, you will
  52. 02:06start brainstorming and imagining and
  53. 02:09coming [music] up with ideas. So it's a
  54. 02:11free space for children to explore
  55. 02:14what's on their heart, [music]
  56. 02:15what they care about, their interests.
  57. 02:18Prior to that, over the last 20 years,
  58. 02:20I've been a serial entrepreneur in the
  59. 02:22[music] UK and then Silicon Valley in
  60. 02:24Los Angeles in Eman Venture Labs,
  61. 02:26helping [music] founders turn their
  62. 02:27ideas into products and into successful

  63. Say "Yes" When Everybody Says "No"

  64. 02:30companies.
  65. 02:35When everybody thinks your idea is
  66. 02:37crazy, you should take it very, very
  67. 02:38serious. That's more important than
  68. 02:40having everybody agree with your idea
  69. 02:43because everybody agrees with your idea,
  70. 02:45it's probably too late and somebody's
  71. 02:47already done it. So I went to a school
  72. 02:49in England in Cambridge here, primary
  73. 02:51and secondary educations. There were
  74. 02:53certain times [music] at school that I
  75. 02:55enjoyed writing stories, drama, art,
  76. 02:58stuff like that where I could be
  77. 03:00creative. But one of the hardest things
  78. 03:02for me about going to school [music] was
  79. 03:04the bell ringing when I was working on
  80. 03:06something. I remember once I wouldn't
  81. 03:08leave the classroom cuz I needed to get
  82. 03:09my [music] story finished and I was in
  83. 03:12the flow of creativity and my teacher
  84. 03:15was like, "Matt, you you've got to go to
  85. 03:18mathematics now, but I can't leave the
  86. 03:20classroom because I'm working on
  87. 03:21something." I found the answer. You
  88. 03:24know, I realized that I wasn't going to
  89. 03:26have the creative freedom that I had
  90. 03:28when I was uh in kindergarten. My
  91. 03:30childhood was challenging but as soon as
  92. 03:33I found the internet I became incredibly
  93. 03:36excited about the idea. The way I start
  94. 03:38companies it comes from an inherent
  95. 03:40problem that I am trying to solve. A
  96. 03:43pain that I have. Every time we used to
  97. 03:45connect to the internet dialup internet
  98. 03:47it would crackle and it would load up
  99. 03:49the web pages and I would often visit my
  100. 03:51favorite website which was obviously my
  101. 03:53football team. I would see that nothing
  102. 03:56had changed on that website. I need to
  103. 03:58solve this problem because I'm costing
  104. 03:59my mother a lot of money every time I
  105. 04:01dial up. I'm costing a a fortune in the
  106. 04:03telephone bill. So, she would present me
  107. 04:05with this telephone bill and say,
  108. 04:06"Listen, you're going to have to pay for
  109. 04:08this because you're using the internet
  110. 04:10far too much." My response was, "Right,
  111. 04:12I'm going to build something that
  112. 04:13prevents this from happening for me and
  113. 04:14everybody else." So, this desktop news
  114. 04:16alerts protocol was built as soon as you
  115. 04:19connect to the internet. It would go
  116. 04:21straight to your favorite website, check
  117. 04:22to see if there was any breaking news.
  118. 04:25if there was it would deliver that
  119. 04:26breaking news to your desktop. And that
  120. 04:28simple idea was a big one. I got a
  121. 04:31feasibility study grant from Cambridge
  122. 04:33University Science Park and ended up
  123. 04:35going on this huge journey and it was an
  124. 04:38invention that everybody wanted to uh
  125. 04:41implement and it ended up being rolled
  126. 04:42out as Sky Sports News alerts platform
  127. 04:45with Premier League football teams and
  128. 04:47breaking news at Sky and that's a
  129. 04:49broadcast media corporation in the UK.
  130. 04:51It was a very exciting period of my
  131. 04:53life. The only thing is I didn't
  132. 04:55understand what venture capital was. I
  133. 04:57didn't understand what entrepreneurship
  134. 04:59was. I just knew I was solving a problem
  135. 05:01for myself. So these two episodes made
  136. 05:04me realize that if I was going to
  137. 05:06progress in life, it was going to be
  138. 05:08through my own curiosity and my own
  139. 05:11ideas as opposed to following the status

  140. Never start a startup without THIS

  141. 05:14quo.
  142. 05:19I have to be honest about it. It is not
  143. 05:21for everybody. If you don't have a deep
  144. 05:24and meaningful passion that scratch that
  145. 05:26you want to itch, you should [music] not
  146. 05:27do it because when you get into that
  147. 05:29struggle, it is going to be extremely
  148. 05:31hard. You can lose sight of where you're
  149. 05:34going. So my childhood does have a
  150. 05:36direct correlation to tail tree and why
  151. 05:39I'm building talry. I feel like
  152. 05:41sometimes I'm building tree for the
  153. 05:42child inside me. Even though the school
  154. 05:45[music] curriculum didn't suit me, my
  155. 05:48dad acknowledged that and used to help
  156. 05:51me learn through challenges. Courage
  157. 05:54comes from [music]
  158. 05:54taking a leap, throwing yourself in
  159. 05:57because we don't know the solution. We
  160. 05:58don't know the answer. I think my father
  161. 06:00threw [music] me in knowing that he was
  162. 06:02there, I guess, if I went wrong, but
  163. 06:04made me feel like I was on my own doing
  164. 06:07it. And that was powerful. We [music]
  165. 06:08used to go and watch soccer together and
  166. 06:11travel all over the country supporting
  167. 06:13our team. He would enable me [music] to
  168. 06:15open up the map, find out where the city
  169. 06:18was, and I would be directing my father,
  170. 06:20and then I would learn about the city
  171. 06:22that we were visiting and the [music]
  172. 06:24history behind it. Then he would ask me
  173. 06:26about the team and statistics, [music]
  174. 06:29all the different things that had
  175. 06:30happened during the game. And I felt
  176. 06:31like I was learning through [music]
  177. 06:33something that I love, and that was
  178. 06:34really, really powerful for me. What I'm
  179. 06:37doing now with Tower Tree is essentially
  180. 06:39an extension of [music] that. As a
  181. 06:41child, I realized that I wanted to help
  182. 06:44empower humanity to [music] think
  183. 06:46creatively with authenticity with
  184. 06:49purpose. I wanted all of humanity
  185. 06:51[music] to be able to call upon their
  186. 06:53authenticity and spiritual gifts and
  187. 06:54serve others with that. [music] This big
  188. 06:57thinking, this curiosity, the
  189. 06:59imagination and creativity and wonder of
  190. 07:02a child, we all possess [music] that.
  191. 07:04It's just as we've grown up and we've
  192. 07:06gone through the system, [music]
  193. 07:08we have lost that spark. It's not that
  194. 07:12the spark is not there. It's just we're
  195. 07:14not training that spark. Even through
  196. 07:16the Head Start program that was [music]
  197. 07:18piloted by George Land at NASA where he
  198. 07:20tested creativity on 5-year-olds and
  199. 07:23then repeated that test [music] at 10,
  200. 07:2515, and 30. The average genius level
  201. 07:28creativity [music] in children, 98% of
  202. 07:31all kids that were tested were deemed as
  203. 07:33geniuses. But by the time these children
  204. 07:35[music] reach the age of 30, it goes
  205. 07:37down to 2%. Between the age of 5 and 30,
  206. 07:40the light of learning, the light [music]
  207. 07:42of curiosity, the light of imagination,
  208. 07:45it dims down. It goes off. And it goes
  209. 07:47[music] off because we're not encouraged
  210. 07:49to pursue that side of ourselves. We're
  211. 07:52encouraged [music] to memorize, be
  212. 07:54graded upon our knowledge, our ability
  213. 07:56to perform well in examinations, and
  214. 07:58[music] to become experts in a field
  215. 08:02that we're supposed to [music] upskill
  216. 08:03ourselves to be able to perform those
  217. 08:05duties in societies. If I held up this
  218. 08:08pen [music] and said, "How many uses of
  219. 08:11this pen can you think of?" And on
  220. 08:13[music] average, kids came up with 15 to
  221. 08:1520 uses of this pen, whereas adults came
  222. 08:18up with [music] between one and three
  223. 08:20uses of this pen. But for a kid, this
  224. 08:22could be anything. This could be a
  225. 08:23sword. It could be [music] a lightsaber.
  226. 08:25It could be a rocket. It could be a
  227. 08:27paper clip. Even kids just need [music]
  228. 08:30that one person to say, "I believe in
  229. 08:32you. You can do it. You're good enough."
  230. 08:36These acts of empowerment are so
  231. 08:39important. And that is essentially why
  232. 08:41Teltree provides children [music] with
  233. 08:43this global community of kind and
  234. 08:45creative kids. Our mission is that kids
  235. 08:47all over the world can share their works
  236. 08:50of art with one another. Kids all over
  237. 08:51[music] the world can communicate,
  238. 08:53compliment and share. We allow children
  239. 08:56to feel liberated. [music]
  240. 08:58Having supportive community around you
  241. 09:01is very very important for
  242. 09:02entrepreneurs, for creative people cuz
  243. 09:05without community [music] I think we
  244. 09:07would struggle. So when you make the
  245. 09:10decision to become an entrepreneur, it's
  246. 09:13so important that you are deeply in love
  247. 09:15with the problem that you're solving.

  248. Why I Only Invest in Failed Founders

  249. 09:23The ideas that started in Eman Venture
  250. 09:25Labs will always invest in a an
  251. 09:28entrepreneur that's failed [music] three
  252. 09:29or four times because of the learnings
  253. 09:31that they get from the failure. They're
  254. 09:33closer to their success with every
  255. 09:35iteration. And of course some of the
  256. 09:37companies succeeds the first time has a
  257. 09:40lot of luck but 95%
  258. 09:43[music] of all startups end in failure.
  259. 09:46Around 2005 2006 it was just at the
  260. 09:50beginning of the smartphone era say
  261. 09:51Windows Mobile had a a [music]
  262. 09:53smartphone and there was this rumor that
  263. 09:55iPhone and Android were coming. I was
  264. 09:58playing around with a Windows mobile and
  265. 10:00I realized that the power of a camera
  266. 10:02was gave us extraordinary abilities as
  267. 10:05humans that we could share what we saw
  268. 10:07in real time that I made the decision I
  269. 10:10was going to work on that problem and I
  270. 10:11was going to actually build scatter
  271. 10:13which was one of the first ever
  272. 10:15photosharing smartphone apps. I was
  273. 10:17incredibly excited about the potential
  274. 10:20of what I was building. Of course, with
  275. 10:22any startup, you need to raise capital
  276. 10:24and you need support because the
  277. 10:26smartphone era was at the very
  278. 10:29beginning. I found it very very hard to
  279. 10:31explain to people what I was trying to
  280. 10:33do. It was like this will never take
  281. 10:35off. People take their photos, they get
  282. 10:37them developed, they share them with
  283. 10:38their family. Nobody wants to see other
  284. 10:41people's media. One thing which is
  285. 10:43really interesting is that scatter did
  286. 10:45feel like a contrarian truth. you know,
  287. 10:47you're sitting on a good idea when
  288. 10:50everybody thinks it's crazy. So, all of
  289. 10:52these issues [music] I was I was being
  290. 10:55faced with was just very negative and I
  291. 10:57couldn't really see how in the UK I
  292. 11:00could get my business going. Luck and
  293. 11:02timing are hugely important. Having a
  294. 11:04product that country or that market
  295. 11:07wants to adopt, having access to the
  296. 11:09technology that will enable you to
  297. 11:11distribute it. So I decided to take a
  298. 11:14bold leap
  299. 11:16in the US particularly in San Francisco
  300. 11:18and Silicon Valley. I saw so much
  301. 11:21positivity around new ideas. The people,
  302. 11:24the support, [music] the way people
  303. 11:26encourage me and get behind my ideas.
  304. 11:30The whole ecosystem was just incredible.
  305. 11:32And if I hadn't have gone out there, I
  306. 11:34don't think I would have [music] been
  307. 11:35able to achieve what I achieved with
  308. 11:38Scatter. One of the greatest things that
  309. 11:40occurred with scatter was that Android
  310. 11:42had just launched and there was just six
  311. 11:45people in the team and I met uh one of
  312. 11:47the Android team members who were
  313. 11:49working under Sergey Brin the founder of
  314. 11:51Google on this project. So they invited
  315. 11:53me into their cohort of innovators and I
  316. 11:56ended up getting the first G1 Android
  317. 11:59device and Android 1 was dropped where
  318. 12:01it wasn't even launched the Android
  319. 12:03ecosystem. It was just a beta. So we got
  320. 12:06access to the developer kit and we could
  321. 12:07start building. It was an incredible
  322. 12:09experience to be able to [music] connect
  323. 12:11my native app and access the camera. We
  324. 12:13launched Scatter on Android market.
  325. 12:16There was like $150 apps on the app
  326. 12:18[music] store. So we raised in excess of
  327. 12:19a million dollars to preede the company
  328. 12:23but we were too early. Scatter did not
  329. 12:26become the Instagram, Tik Tok or X that
  330. 12:29we see today because it's not existing
  331. 12:31right now. We didn't have access to
  332. 12:33distribution because the app stores were
  333. 12:36new and we were launching and helping
  334. 12:38these ecosystems to evolve. All the
  335. 12:40technical resources required to continue
  336. 12:42to iterate and build on unstable systems
  337. 12:45[music] meant it to be very costly,
  338. 12:47timeconuming and heavy. And what the
  339. 12:49biggest takeaway from some of this is
  340. 12:51that just because you have an idea
  341. 12:53that's so profound, if you don't have an
  342. 12:55addressable market or the ability to
  343. 12:57distribute your idea, you might end up
  344. 12:59being eaten by somebody that arrives on
  345. 13:02time. The product life cycle is very
  346. 13:05very important and being in the right
  347. 13:06place at the right time with the right
  348. 13:08technology. You often become an R&D lab
  349. 13:12for somebody that can take your idea and
  350. 13:15launch a better version of it because
  351. 13:17they are on time. When you're working on
  352. 13:20something that means everything to you
  353. 13:23at the time you're putting your heart in
  354. 13:25it, your soul, all your attention and
  355. 13:28passion is going into it. It becomes a
  356. 13:30way of life. When you climb that high,
  357. 13:32the fall is equally as heavy. I felt
  358. 13:35very very down and and depressed [music]
  359. 13:38because I wanted it to become something
  360. 13:40that every member of the world would
  361. 13:42access to my product. But I think
  362. 13:44failure is great feedback. It tells you
  363. 13:47all the things [music] that you don't
  364. 13:49want to be doing next time. Failure
  365. 13:51means you tried. Means you were actually
  366. 13:53the man in the arena, not the voice in
  367. 13:57the crowd. You were doing it. [music]
  368. 13:59You put yourself out there. You were
  369. 14:00vulnerable enough to take the risk.
  370. 14:02you're prepared to be judged and
  371. 14:05observed for what you're doing. Which is
  372. 14:07why our relationship with failure needs
  373. 14:09to change. What we need to do is we need
  374. 14:12to try and think how can we be like a
  375. 14:16kindergarten kid for life. They're not
  376. 14:18scared to fail. Nature is not scared to
  377. 14:21fail. Unfortunately, with adults, when
  378. 14:23we fall on the floor, we often run away
  379. 14:25and we never come back. Why? Because of
  380. 14:27shame, embarrassment, through all these
  381. 14:30things. It's so hard and so brutal when
  382. 14:32you fail. But there definitely needs to
  383. 14:34be a greater acknowledgement and
  384. 14:37understanding that this is part of the
  385. 14:39journey and I'm not finished yet.

  386. The Key Difference: Good vs Great Founder

  387. 14:47I always say work on the business not
  388. 14:50[music] in the business. If you work
  389. 14:52inside it for too long, you can
  390. 14:54suffocate [music] and stifle the growth
  391. 14:56of the business because you are trying
  392. 14:58to be every member of your team. [music]
  393. 15:00You're trying to overont control the
  394. 15:03outcome and the destination of what's
  395. 15:04going on. It can suck the energy from
  396. 15:07you and everybody that's in the company.
  397. 15:10When you're building a company, company
  398. 15:12means company, right? Doesn't mean you.
  399. 15:14It means a bunch of [music] people all
  400. 15:17going in the right direction, all with
  401. 15:19the same aims and objectives. [music]
  402. 15:21There are certain founders that are
  403. 15:22really good at scaling their business.
  404. 15:24They're really good at working on the
  405. 15:26business. I think they make great chief
  406. 15:28happiness officers [music] as opposed to
  407. 15:30chief executive officers because they
  408. 15:32have the ability to bring people in and
  409. 15:35understand the type of people that their
  410. 15:37company needs when they need it and
  411. 15:39empower those people to [music] do their
  412. 15:41best work. I think working on the
  413. 15:42business is working on a mission where
  414. 15:45everybody [music] that joins your
  415. 15:46company feel like it's their mission
  416. 15:48too. For example, I'm building tail
  417. 15:50tree. I'm going to make sure that from
  418. 15:52the chief financial officer, chief legal
  419. 15:54officer, anybody down to the head of
  420. 15:57well-being, [music] the person who would
  421. 15:59potentially be preparing food for the
  422. 16:01company, they would all have a deep and
  423. 16:03meaningful [music]
  424. 16:04connection to the problem that we're
  425. 16:05solving. have the vision and break
  426. 16:08[music] down the miracle of the vision
  427. 16:12into bite-sized moments. Every single
  428. 16:15day has its own problems. Tomorrow you
  429. 16:18have another set of problems. [music]
  430. 16:20You just have to try and break this
  431. 16:22overwhelming vision down into bite-sized
  432. 16:25pieces [music] and feel accomplished
  433. 16:28every time you achieve these small
  434. 16:31little milestones. And I always say
  435. 16:34miracles come from momentum. Momentum
  436. 16:36come from a [music] succession of
  437. 16:38moments. So every day as you're
  438. 16:41completing [music] and getting further
  439. 16:43towards the end goal, you're creating
  440. 16:45this momentum through continuing to
  441. 16:48attack [music] every day the same and
  442. 16:51breaking things down. Working on that
  443. 16:53company always as I think the difference
  444. 16:56between [music]
  445. 16:57being good and being great. These are
  446. 17:00the things that I've used [music] to
  447. 17:02help me on my journey as an
  448. 17:04entrepreneur.