---
title: "Interview with Phil Sears, Founder of Sportive Breaks"
id: "18396"
type: "post"
slug: "interview-with-sportive-breaks-founder-phil-sears"
published_at: "2019-02-01T12:15:56+00:00"
modified_at: "2019-02-01T13:15:56+00:00"
url: "https://seedlegals.com/ie/resources/interview-with-sportive-breaks-founder-phil-sears/"
markdown_url: "https://seedlegals.com/ie/resources/interview-with-sportive-breaks-founder-phil-sears.md"
excerpt: "We caught up with Phil Sears, founder of Sportive Breaks which launched 2015, selling sportive entries and the best cycle-friendly hotels for events in Europe."
taxonomy_category:
  - "Founder Stories"
---

2 min read

# Interview with Phil Sears, Founder of Sportive Breaks

Published: Feb 1, 2019

[Noelle Baquiche](https://seedlegals.com/ie/resources/author/noelle/)

*I caught up with Phil Sears, founder of* [Sportive Breaks](https://sportivebreaks.com/)
 *which launched 2015, selling sportive entries and the best cycle-friendly hotels for events such as the Etape du Tour and Paris-Roubaix sportive.*

‍

#### What does your Sportive Breaks do?

Sportive Breaks creates  
 dream cycling holidays to the top destinations & events in Europe.

#### What made you start your company – was it a personal passion, or a problem you identified, or a market opportunity?

Largely trying to overcome the problems that come up time and  
 time again with trying to arrange a cycling holiday – finding a bike friendly  
 hotel, understanding the best places to ride and dealing with the painful stuff  
 like finding a good local bike rental company or getting your bike from the  
 airport.

#### What funding have you received so far?

We started in year one with £60k from a couple of early Angel  
 investors and then raised a further £130k last year.

#### How did you find your investors, and were they angels or VCs?

We started with friends and then used their  
 networks in the next round.

#### Do you think your investors invested in the idea, the product, the founders, or the team?

The market  
 was so under served and we had a different solution to our competitors  
 which was easy to understand. Ultimately, at our stage everyone is investing  
 based on the people first and the opportunity second.

#### Any advice for the perfect pitch deck?

Don’t get stuck in the detail, your investors just need to  
 know your solution works. Tell them the story of you, the market and how your  
 solution can grow in this market.

#### What was the hardest thing about doing your funding round?

Spending time on the deck, the meetings etc  
 while keeping on top of the daily activity in the business.

#### If there were three things you could tell a founder looking to do their round, what would they be?

The process is both ways, you need to be happy with the investors as  
 much as they need to be happy with you. Be clear and set realistic  
 expectations. Set a clear channel of communication that works for everyone – a  
 good investor / director can be worth their weight in gold.

#### How did you hear about SeedLegals, and how was your experience?

Through one of our original Angels. It was  
 so easy, our previous experience was slow and expensive, SeedLegals could do  
 things in a day that took a week in our first round.

#### What’s next on the horizon for Sportive Breaks?

We are launching a new tool to allow people  
 to find and book amazing custom cycling trips online, this will be the first in  
 the market and we are pretty excited to roll this out to our customers.

## Related posts

[3 min read Bippit: the financial planning app for students and young professionals Meet Bippit, the financial planning app for students and young professionals Noelle Baquiche](https://seedlegals.com/ie/resources/bippit/)

[4 min read Meet Katerina Pascoulis, CEO of Personably - the HRtech startup automating employee onboarding Personably helps fast growing teams onboard their new employees. Noelle Baquiche](https://seedlegals.com/ie/resources/katerina-pascoulis-personably-the-hrtech-startup/)

[3 min read Interview with Ishaan Hemnani, Founder of Bunkerex BunkerEx is an online marketplace for shipping companies to buy fuel. It’s a huge market - with approximately 50k mercha... Noelle Baquiche](https://seedlegals.com/ie/resources/interview-with-ishaan-hemnani-founder-of-bunkerex/)