Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter & Chris Donnelly
Leaders Media
Dan Murray-Serter and Chris Donnelly are two serial entrepreneurs who've built, sold, scaled & failed companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In Secret Leaders we get inside the greatest minds and greatest moments in business, because we believe the best way to learn about business is to hear from the people who make it happen.Sponsored by Wise Business and Vanta.Contact: hello@secretleaders.com
Why Dominos gave away free Rolex’s & reacting to cringe CEOs
Did you know Domino’s used to give out Rolex watches to top-performing franchise owners? Or that LEGO rewarded its employees with solid gold bricks? Some companies go above and beyond to take care of their people. In this episode of Leaders Chat, we break down some of the most surprising employee perks—from Airbnb’s $2,000 annual travel credit to Zappos’ bold “Pay to Quit” policy.Dan also shares his full-body health analysis, covering everything from vitamin tests to cancer screenings. How does
The Bricklayer Who Built a $40M Empire Selling Honey
From a humble bricklayer to building a $40 million honey empire, Scott Davies is living proof that with relentless determination and a never-say-die mentality, anything is possible.Scott’s journey, which began with self-doubt and uncertainty, evolved into the story of an entrepreneur who overcame immense challenges to transform his business into what it is today. Now, his honey is stocked in over 500 Tesco stores across the UK, and his company proudly produces 25% of Britain’s honey supply.This
Deepseek vs ChatGPT, YouTube Dating? & Beating Bill Gates
Is Chris more influential than Bill Gates?This week, we explore Chris's rise to the top as LinkedIn’s number one ranked creator and dive into the ongoing battle between Deepseek and ChatGPT. Plus, did you know YouTube started out as a dating site?!We’re also excited to introduce a brand new segment to the show, where we react to some of the wildest LinkedIn posts shared by the popular creator behind "State of LinkedIn."______________________________________Sign up to Wise Business banking:https:
Wealth Expert: Unlock This Mentality to Make $10K a Month - Sahil Bloom
Everyone wants to make money, and many view it as the ultimate path to happiness. But for Sahil Bloom, money is merely the by product of discovering what truly brings you joy and fulfilment. In this incredibly insightful episode, we sit down with Sahil, a wealth expert, to explore the deeper side of success. Sahil shares how financial wealth is not the goal, but a natural outcome of pursuing your passion and aligning your life with what genuinely makes you happy.We delve into the mindset require
Title: Wealth Expert: Unlock This Mentality to Make $10K a Month - Sahil Bloom
Everyone wants to make money, and many view it as the ultimate path to happiness. But for Sahil Bloom, money is merely the by product of discovering what truly brings you joy and fulfilment. In this incredibly insightful episode, we sit down with Sahil, a wealth expert, to explore the deeper side of success. Sahil shares how financial wealth is not the goal, but a natural outcome of pursuing your passion and aligning your life with what genuinely makes you happy.We delve into the mindset require
$25,369,000 EXIT: The Brutal Truths Of Selling My Business
No one truly understands the brutal truth of going through an exit process and this week Chris gives us a raw insight into the reality of what really happens behind the scenes of seeing the company you have put your life into build suddenly in someone else's hands.Everyone will always look at the financial side of this discussion, but it is always a lot deeper than it seems.______________________________________Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/uk/business/?utm_source=secretleade
The $1BN CEO who has beat Nike and Adidas in 9 years
Tom Beahon, the co-founder of Castore, reveals how he took on global giants Nike and Adidas—and won—in just 9 years.Tom takes us behind the scenes of Castore’s rise, revealing what really goes on in the world of sports sponsorship deals and how he navigated a highly competitive industry.He also tells the fascinating story of how he convinced tennis legend Andy Murray to sign with Castore over more established brands, even when no one had heard of them. From the challenges of building a brand fro
The Strangest Businesses You Didn’t know Existed
In this fascinating episode, we dive into some of the strangest businesses you never knew existed! From companies that allow you to hire bridesmaids to look the part at your wedding, to services where you can literally rent someone's time to stand in line for you, these unusual ventures are taking the business world by storm.We explore the creativity behind these unique ideas, the surprising demand they fill, and how their founders turned seemingly bizarre concepts into thriving businesses. This
Omaze: The Unicorn Business Giving Millions to People and Charities
Matthew Pohlson has built Omaze into a unicorn business through some pretty unconventional ways - convincing the Pope to sell his Lamborghini, sending someone to space with Richard Branson and giving away multi-million dollar mansions for $10. All whilst giving away over $300M to charity.This is one of our favourite interviews ever. From a business burning cash into a multi billion dollar business that actually does good, Matthew's journey has been incredible, and you haven't even heard about h
How this one change made my Business £1M a month
In this episode, Dan shares the incredible journey behind the recent success of his company, Heights, now generating $1.5 million per month in revenue.He reveals the one simple change that transformed the business and led to this massive growth.Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to scale your own company or just curious about the secret to success, this episode will offer valuable insights you can apply to your own journey______________________________________Sign up to Wise Busines
Andy Coulson: Most powerful man in British Media to a national disgrace
Andy Coulson was once the face and leader of the most powerful newspaper in the country, News Of The World, and later became the Prime Minister’s right-hand man as Director of Communications. Then he lost it all.After scandals and a prison sentence, Andy founded his own consultancy, Coulson Partners, helping people navigate personal crises and reputational attacks.In this episode, Andy shares his unique insights into managing a crisis, drawing from his own experiences. He breaks down what a cris
Why We Stopped Caring About Politics
In this week’s Leaders Chat, we discuss Trumps upcoming inauguration and why we have simply stopped caring about politics.We also debate an interesting question: should CEOs earn 196x more than their employees? We break down what drives these massive pay differences and ask if they’re truly justified. Is the value CEOs bring really worth such a huge pay gap, or is it an outdated model of corporate leadership?Join us for an eye-opening discussion on leadership, politics, and inequality.———————Sig
I built a $2bn Company By Paying Everybody The Same As Me - Nicola Kilner
In this episode, we sit down with Nicola Kilner, former CEO of The Ordinary, to dive deep into the unique story behind her journey in building a $2 billion company. Nicola shares the highs and lows of her path to success, including the challenges she faced as a leader and the pivotal moments that shaped her career.We discuss why her Co-CEO fired her and what that experience was like as well as revealing her leadership superpower and why she decided to pay everyone in C-suite the same sa
Everything You Need To Know To Start A Business In 2025
In this episode Chris Donnelly and Dan Murray Serter, each with over 17 years in the game, share the ultimate guide to starting a business in 2025. They cover everything from identifying the best industries to enter, to building a team and scaling your idea into a thriving company.If you're wondering where the biggest opportunities lie in 2025, or how to navigate the new market landscape, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you succeed. Whether you’re just getting st
Hermann Hauser: The Man Who Saved Apple from Bankruptcy
In this episode, we sit down with the entrepreneur who built the UK’s biggest company, worth an astonishing $176 billion, from an initial $50 investment.He shares the exact steps and strategies he used to scale a small startup into one of the world’s largest companies, proving that massive success can come from the smallest beginnings.He also reveals how he played a pivotal role in saving Apple, and what it was really like working with Steve Jobs during that critical time in the tech gi
Is AI going to ruin the world? Experts & Entrepreneurs discuss…
In this video, leading entrepreneurs and experts dive deep into one of the most pressing questions of our time: Is artificial intelligence going to ruin the world? With AI evolving faster than ever, concerns about its impact on jobs, society, and our future are growing.This insightful discussion covers the benefits, risks, and ethical challenges of AI, exploring whether it's a force for progress or a threat to humanity. Whether you're an entrepreneur, business leader, or simply curious
Compilation: These UNTOLD Stories Will Blow Your Mind
In this episode, we dive into three incredible stories that blew our minds. Lionel Barber recounts his chilling experience interviewing Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, giving us a rare insight into what it’s like to sit face-to-face with one of the world’s most powerful leaders.James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog, shares the shocking moment when he lost $50 million and Finally, Deborah Meaden takes us back to her early days, offering a fascinating glimpse into her entrepreneurial life befo
8 Life-Changing Books To Read In 2025
Looking for the best books to fuel your success in 2025? In this video, we dive into the top books that have shaped our entrepreneurial journey and made a lasting impact on our lives. Whether you're just starting out or you're a seasoned business owner, these books offer invaluable lessons on leadership, strategy, mindset, and growth.We’ll discuss how each book transformed our thinking, improved our decision-making, and helped us navigate the ups and downs of building a business. From t
How I disrupted a $671 billion industry from my bedroom
Every entrepreneur dreams of disrupting an industry, but few have done it as boldly as today's guest. In this episode, we dive into the story of a visionary who took on billion-dollar skincare giants like L'Oréal and Nivea—without any prior industry experience—and became the #1 men's skincare brand in France. He rejected conventional practices, bypassed traditional retail, and found success by challenging the status quo in one of the most established markets imaginable.What makes this c
Our Regrets On Interviewing James Watt
As series 7 draws to a close, in this episode we sit down to chat about some of our favourite episodes, our personal highlights, some of our regrets and how Dan got rejected by Deborah Meaden.____________Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/gb/business/?utm_sou...Thanks to HP our sponsor for this episode. For 10% off the HP Omnibook UltraFlip with built-in AI, use code 'HPLOVEWORK'. Valid until 31st January 2025, UK only. T&Cs apply. https://bit.ly/HPOmnibook-SLQ424Join
How Creators AND Businesses Can Win In The New Economy- Caspar Lee
In this episode, Caspar Lee opens up about why he decided to leave his YouTube career behind, despite having 7 million followers, to focus on a new, exciting chapter: becoming a successful entrepreneur.Caspar reveals the challenges he faced as a content creator and how his passion shifted towards helping other YouTubers build long-term financial security.Now, he's using his experience to invest in fellow creators, helping them turn their earnings into sustainable wealth. Discover Caspar
Diary Of A CEO Embarrassing Moment, Selling Feet Pics & Our NEW STUDIO
In this episode we discuss Dan’s embarrassing moment as the first guest on diary of a CEO, we reflect on some of our recent episodes and discuss How Lily Allen and Kate Nash are making the most of OF and we do it all in our brand new studio!____________Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/gb/business/?utm_sou...Thanks to HP our sponsor for this episode. For 10% off the HP Omnibook UltraFlip with built-in AI, use code 'HPLOVEWORK'. Valid until 31st January 2025, UK only. T&a
Why creators risk losing their audience - Dom Smales
In this eye-opening episode, we sit down with Dom Smales, founder of Gleam Futures, to discuss why the creator economy is on the verge of collapse and what creators must do to avoid losing their audiences. With a wealth of experience managing some of the biggest names in the industry, including Zoella, Dom shares his insights on the shifting dynamics of the creator landscape.We explore why creators are at risk of losing their influence if they don’t adapt, and how they can successfully
Why DECIEM'S Black Friday Boycott Works
Dan and Chris speak with the Founder of a £2 billion brand that takes the bold step of shutting down on Black Friday — the biggest shopping day of the year — and how they continue to thrive!____________Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/gb/business/?utm_sou...Thanks to HP our sponsor for this episode. For 10% off the HP Omnibook UltraFlip with built-in AI, use code 'HPLOVEWORK'. Valid until 31st January 2025, UK only. T&Cs apply. https://bit.ly/HPOmnibook-SLQ424Join V
Why Mumsnet founder is suing Open AI for stealing
AI bots have scraped 6 billion words of content from Mumsnet.Justine Roberts (Founder of Mumsnet) isn't going away without a fight. In this episode she reveals why she’s suing AI and warns of its potential to destroy the future of content creators.She also reacts to the unfair treatment of women entrepreneurs and shares the challenges she’s faced throughout her own entrepreneurial journey.Plus, she breaks down why Mumsnet’s 9 million users hold significant influence over UK elections. D
Padel With Max Verstappen, Reacting to Losing £50m and Entrepreneurs' ADHD
Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/gb/business/?utm_sou...Thanks to HP our sponsor for this episode. For 10% off the HP Omnibook UltraFlip with built-in AI, use code 'HPLOVEWORK'. Valid until 31st January 2025, UK only. T&Cs apply. https://bit.ly/HPOmnibook-SLQ424Join Vanta and recieve $1000 off:http://vanta.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Brewdog: World’s Most Controversial Boss
In this episode, we sit down with BrewDog founder James Watt to dive into the story behind one of the world’s most disruptive beer brands. From bold marketing stunts to growing BrewDog into a global craft beer giant, James shares the entrepreneurial insights that helped him take the company to the next level.James also opens up about the constant media scrutiny he faces, why BrewDog often attracts bad press, and how he handles the challenges of being in the spotlight. Whether you're an
How Dubai Changed The World In 64 Years
This Episode is sponsored by Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism (DET). Discover why Dubai is the ultimate business hotspot here: http://www.dubaibeyondpossible.com ADIn just 64 years, Dubai transformed from a small fishing village into a global hub for trade, technology, and innovation. This video explores what drove Dubai's rapid evolution thanks to its world-class infrastructure and business-friendly policies.We dive into Dubai’s status as a magnet for global talent with initia
8 Business lessons from $5.3bn Entrepreneur - Richard Hapin, Homeserve
Richard Harpin turned a simple home repair service into a $5.3 billion empire with Homeserve.Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or seasoned business owner, Richard reveals the secrets behind scaling, leadership, and resilience and shares the 8 crucial business lessons that will help you achieve long-term success.Get ready for actionable insights from one of the UK's top entrepreneurs!_________________Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/gb/business/?utm_sou...Thanks to
Why Elon’s Twitter will NEVER be profitable
In this episode, we dive deep into the whirlwind that’s been Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and why it might be his most advantageous move to date. From making headlines with his partnership with President Donald Trump during the election to dominating the news cycle ever since—Elon’s influence is skyrocketing.But why did he buy Twitter? What’s his master plan? We break down the history of Twitter, the motivations behind the $44 billion deal, and speculate on what Elon might be plot
Deborah Meaden: What You Don't See On Dragons' Den
In this episode, we sit down with the legendary Deborah Meaden to dive into her incredible entrepreneurial journey—from her early days starting up in business to becoming a household name on Dragons' Den.Deborah shares candid stories from her time on the show, offers invaluable tips for aspiring entrepreneurs, and reveals key lessons she’s learned along the way.We also explore her passion project: a brand-new book aimed at teaching kids about money management at a young age.If you’re lo
Entrepreneurs react to UK Budget - Will This Fix Britains Debt Disaster?
In this episode, we dive deep into the UK's 2024 Autumn Budget, a pivotal moment in British history. With Labour delivering their first budget in 14 years and the first female Chancellor leading the charge, there’s a lot to unpack.We discuss the £22 billion black hole in the nation's finances, the biggest tax shake-up in a generation, and Labour's promise to avoid raising taxes on working people—meaning no increases in VAT, National Insurance, or Income Tax.But what does this really mea
Building a $1bn business after Dragons' Den REJECTION - Timo Boldt, Gousto
Timo Boldt's journey to turning Gousto into a billion-dollar company is a remarkable tale of resilience. Despite facing rejection on Dragons' Den, Timo founded Gousto in 2012 from his one-bedroom flat with a vision to revolutionize home cooking using technology and data. Today, the meal kit delivery service delivers over 1.5 million meals each month, showcasing significant growth potential in a market projected to reach $27.33 billion by 2028.In this interview, Timo shares insights on h
How to Earn Millions by charging $0
In this episode, we dive into the unique business model of Sam Harris, a philosopher, neuroscientist, and best-selling author who’s redefining how to make millions—by charging nothing.We break down how Sam has built a thriving platform by offering his content for free, while giving his audience the option to support his work through voluntary contributions.Learn the psychology behind this bold strategy, how it’s reshaping the traditional business landscape, and why it’s a model more ent
Spencer Matthews: How pushing my body to the limit changed my life
In this video, Spencer Matthews shares the life-changing experience of running 30 marathons in 30 days.He opens up about the intense physical and mental challenges he faced, revealing how pushing his body to the limit reshaped his mindset and transformed his life. More than just a personal challenge, Spencer reflects on how this feat has shifted people's perceptions of him—allowing him to inspire others through his journey.Beyond the marathons, Spencer discusses the highs and lows he's
Elon's Best Week Ever?!
In this video, we break down what might just be Elon Musk's greatest week yet!From unveiling groundbreaking new products like the Tesla Cab and the futuristic Tesla Robot, to a jaw-dropping SpaceX launch where Musk helped to save stranded the astronauts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Billionaire Secrets Exposed and my chilling encounter with Vladimir Putin
In this gripping interview, former Financial Times editor Lionel Barber reveals the secrets behind billionaire Masayoshi Son and shares chilling details about his unforgettable encounter with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.Lionel offers exclusive insights from his new book 'Gambling Man,' diving into his time spent with Masa Son and recounting some of his most impactful interviews as editor of the Financial Times.Discover untold stories about global power players, insider business tactic
10 Richest People You’ve never heard of
In this episode, we dive into the stories of the ultra-wealthy who’ve quietly built empires and amassed fortunes, all while staying under the radar. From groundbreaking industries to niche businesses, these individuals have become some of the richest people in the world.Discover the incredible businesses they’ve built, the secrets to their success, and how they’ve managed to stay off the mainstream wealth radar. This episode is packed with insights and surprises that will leave you thin
The Man Who Made $115M by travelling The World - Tony Wheeler, Lonely Planet
Imagine traveling the world with nothing but a backpack, turning your passion for discovery into a business empire, and selling it for $115 million. That’s exactly what Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet, did. In this captivating interview, Tony shares how he and his wife Maureen went from writing travel guides on kitchen tables to creating one of the most iconic travel brands in history. If you love stories of adventure, entrepreneurship, and the bold steps it takes to follow yo
How Airbnb & Uber Took Over the World
In this episode, we’ll break down exactly how to set up a marketplace business in just 41 minutes. You’ll learn what a marketplace business really is, key strategies to get it off the ground, and the roadblocks you're likely to face. I’m sharing my personal journey of building a marketplace, the wins, the losses, and everything in between. Whether you're thinking of starting your own or just curious about how these businesses thrive, this video has everything you need to kickstart your
WeTransfer Boss Reveals All Since Selling for $500M+ - Damian Bradfield Exclusive
In this exclusive interview, WeTransfer founder Damian Bradfield shares the story behind his 9-figure exit and breaks down how he built a brand that millions of people around the world trust every day. Damian reveals the real strategies he used to scale WeTransfer from a simple idea to a global sensation—PLUS, he drops actionable tips you can use to build and sell your own brand.———————Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/gb/business/?utm_source=secretleaders&utm_medium
Mr Beast's Lunchly is a DISASTER - Entrepreneurs react
Today, we're diving into the latest controversy surrounding Mr Beast's new Lunchly product—a kid-focused meal kit that’s stirring up some serious discussions. As influencers turn their young fans into customers, are they crossing the line?Join entrepreneurs Dan Murray-Serter and Chris Donnelly as they dissect how Mr Beast, with his massive reach, is reshaping the food landscape for kids.Is this a genius marketing move or a dangerous trend that promotes unhealthy eating habits?__________
From building a Unicorn to Leading a Nation during Covid - Nadhim Zahawi
Nadhim Zahawi uncovers the secrets of working in government as he gives his hot take on Boris Johnson, the pandemic, and his feelings about the Partygate and Matt Hancock scandal!He also dives into the challenges of navigating Covid-19, sharing candid insights about the highs and lows of decision-making in a crisis.Zahawi reveals how his experience building a billion-dollar company played a crucial role in scaling the successful vaccine rollout. If you're curious about leadership, resil
Wtf is Oracle and why do 97% of companies use it? Larry Ellison's $457bn gamble
Alright, WTF is Oracle and why is it worth a massive $457 billion? In this video, we dive into how Oracle became the backbone of the internet. Spoiler: 97% of companies would crumble without it. From powering your favourite apps to securing your data, Oracle is the silent force keeping the digital world running. But what even is it? Let’s break it down for you. ________________Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/gb/business/?utm_sou...Thanks to HP our sponsor for this epis
22 Years as a Money Making Expert - How Anyone can make $10K+ a month - Daniel Priestley
In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Priestley, the guy who knows how to turn ideas into money. He’s dropping his ultimate playbook on how YOU can build a successful business and hit that first $10K – no fluff, just real talk. Want to know how to make real money and crush it in the business world? This episode is packed with actionable tips, mindset hacks, and strategies that anyone can apply. Don't miss it!________________Sign up to Wise Business banking:https://wise.com/gb/busines
Founders Reveal All! - Drunken Hires, Billion Dollar Clients & Partying With Royalty!
In this episode, Dan and Chris share their rollercoaster 30+ year journey in the world of business. From wild, unexpected moments like making hires over drinks, to unforgettable experiences like meeting the Queen, and landing some of the world’s most prestigious luxury brands, including Bugatti.This episode is packed with jaw-dropping stories and valuable insights. Tune in for an inspiring conversation filled with lessons on resilience, bold decisions, and the ups and downs of buildin
Simon Squibb Generates BILLIONS Of Views By Investing In Strangers!
Discover how entrepreneur Simon Squibb is taking the world by storm with his unique approach to business. With billions of views on TikTok and over a million YouTube subscribers, Simon is breaking all the rules by investing in total strangers, helping them achieve their dreams.In this episode, we dive into Simon’s inspiring mission, his strategy for generating viral content, and why he believes this is the future of entrepreneurship.If you’re curious about how to create viral videos, in
We want to hear from you
We’re taking a short production break while we prepare for the next season, but while we’re preparing, we want your feedback on the show and what you want us to cover.Fill out this form to let us know what you want to hear from us on the next season of Secret Leaders and check us out on YouTube Thank you for your suggestions and for listening Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Business without a company? - Timothy Armoo
What happens after that coveted exit? What does life look like for a founder who's achieved what so many others are striving for?Today, we're diving deep into that very question with Timothy Armoo, a serial entrepreneur who sold his influencer marketing company, Fanbytes, in a multi-million pound deal at the age of 27. But this isn't a story about how to build and sell a successful startup - it's about what comes next.What's truly captivating about Tim’s current chapter is his unconvent
How To Exit Using Private Equity - Alexis Sikorsky
In the world of entrepreneurship, we dream about the BIG EXIT. We talk about mergers, acquisitions and IPOs… But there's one exit strategy that's often whispered aboutSelling to private equity. Today, we're pulling back the curtain on this mysterious world with someone who's not only been through it, but has come out the other side a fan.…SponsorsVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersPersonio - all in one HR platform: https:/
Building Social Chain Almost Broke Me - Dom McGregor
Dominic McGregor was riding high as the co-founder of Social Chain, a social media agency that exploded from scrappy startup to global player in just a few short years. But as the company grew, so did Dom's drinking problem - until it all came crashing down.In this conversation, Dom shares the inside story of his battle with addiction, from the red flags he ignored to the moment he hit rock bottom, and the painful but transformative journey of getting sober and rebuilding his life. The
Succession planning for Founder-CEO’s - Evgeny Shadchnev
Imagine building a company from the ground up, pouring your heart and soul into it for years, only to reach a point where you realise it's time to step aside as CEO. How do you know when it's the right time? How do you navigate that transition while setting the company up for continued success? And what comes next for you as a founder?These are the crucial questions we're diving into today with Evgeny Shadchnev, a founder who has lived through this very journey.Evgeny is an author and c
Founding The Super-Human Olympics - Christian Angermayer
The first time Christian Angermayer took psychedelics in 2014, it changed the trajectory of his life. Nearly a decade later, he has become one of the most influential voices in the world of biotech, crypto, and anti-aging. People look to him for guidance on the next big thing, they invest in his ventures hoping to be a part of something groundbreaking, and they listen to his bold ideas about pushing the boundaries of human potential. It is not hyperbole to say that Christian Angermayer
My Favourite Failure: Make Yourself Redundant - Andy Brown
Andy Brown, a seasoned leadership coach, shares his journey as a founder of a once-thriving marketing agency. He reveals how the business's rapid growth and his own ambition led him down a path of loss of focus and personal burnout.As the company took on more clients and expanded its services, Andy found himself stretched thin, trying to be involved in every aspect of the business. His belief that he was indispensable ultimately became a double-edged sword, leading to a lack of trust in
The Algebra of Wealth - Scott Galloway
Scott Galloway, serial entrepreneur, NYU professor, and author of "The Algebra of Wealth," shares his hard-won insights on building lasting, meaningful wealth as a founder.Scott and Dan discuss the key components of his wealth-building philosophy: focus, stoicism, time, and diversification. He dives deep into the practical strategies behind each pillar, sharing personal anecdotes and counterintuitive wisdom that challenges conventional notions of success.He argues that true wealth is ab
My Favourite Failure: The Great Underwear Fiasco - Joel Primus
What does it take to bounce back from a business blunder that nearly costs you everything? Ask Joel Primus, the Founder who went from a mortifying moment on Dragon's Den to a multi-million dollar exit - and then found himself on the brink of bankruptcy when a global pandemic hit.Joel takes us behind the scenes of ill-fated underwear launch that left him red-faced on national television and scrambling to save his company. Through it all, Joel emerges with a newfound appreciation for the
Become Unstressable - Mo Gawdat and Alice Law
Discover the Secrets to Becoming "Unstressable" with Mo Gawdat and Alice LawFormer Google X executive Mo Gawdat and stress management expert Alice Law share their revolutionary approach to thriving under pressure.Mo and Alice challenge the notion that stress is inevitable for success. They explore the far-reaching impacts of chronic stress, practical strategies for building resilience, and the transformative power of purpose and authenticity.Whether you're an entrepreneur seeking peak p
My Favourite Failure: One Founder's Journey to Sobriety and Success - Jim Frawley
From hitting rock bottom to tripling his business overnight!Executive development specialist Jim reveals how admitting his shortcomings to his wife became the catalyst for transformation, leading him to quit drinking and embark on a path of self-discovery. Whether you're battling your own demons or simply seeking inspiration to reach your full potential, Jim's story offers a compelling testament to the power of vulnerability, authenticity, and the courage to change."…SponsorsVanta - get
Resident Advisor: Bootstrapping a Global Music Empire - Nick Sabine
Nick Sabine, Co-Founder of Resident Advisor (RA), shares his journey of self-discovery and the transformative power of authenticity in leadership and life.From his early inspiration in the electronic music scene to the challenges of growing a global brand, Nick candidly discusses the struggles of maintaining authenticity, navigating co-founder relationships, and leading through crisis.A life-altering divorce and a period of self-reflection, including embracing boredom and solitude, led
My Favourite Failure: How a Navy SEAL Transforms Failure into Opportunity - Alden Mills
In the face of failure, do you quit or persevere?Alden Mills, a former Navy SEAL who has navigated the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Alden shares the invaluable lessons he learned about failure during his time in the SEALs and how he applied them to his business ventures.From the brink of bankruptcy to generating nearly $100 million in sales, Alden's journey is a testament to the power of resilience and the importance of staying connected to your passion and purpose.SponsorsVanta -
Everything you need to know about building a personal brand - Chris Donnelly
Success isn't just about having a great product or service.You know that standing out in a crowded market is tough. But what if you could cut through the noise and build a loyal following that drives real results for your business? Enter the power of personal branding.Chris Donnelly, Founder of Verb and Lottie, shares his insights on leveraging your personal brand to supercharge your entrepreneurial journey. With over 35 million content views per week, Chris has cracked the code on auth
My Favourite Failure: The dangers of diversification - Emmanuel Arnaud
What happens when a successful home exchange company tries to launch a rental business?
Emmanuel Arnault, CEO of Home Exchange, shares his experience of investing a million dollars in a new rental venture that ultimately failed. Emmanuel dives into the strategic mistakes they made, the challenges of balancing a flagship business with a new side project, and the important lessons he learned about leadership and resource allocation along the way.
From the initial planning stages to the final decis
Jake Humphrey- Is High Performance Really About Achievement?
Can you achieve high performance without losing yourself?Jake Humphrey, top sports broadcaster, believes the key to high performance is inner contentment.He shares his radical approach to happiness and achievement. From overcoming bullying to battling imposter syndrome, he's learned that true success isn't about accolades, but about being true to yourself.Through personal stories and practical tips, Jake offers a roadmap for redefining success on your own terms. Discover the mindset shi
My Favourite Failure: How Knockoffs Killed the Leisure Suit Revolution - Jerry Rosengarten
Jerry Rosengarten is a seasoned, serial entrepreneur and designer who, somewhat unexpectedly, created a revolution in menswear when he designed the leisure suit. However, the leisure suit's success was short-lived. Jerry reveals how knockoffs and cheaper fabrics flooded the market, ultimately leading to the downfall of his business.Through his experiences, Jerry imparts valuable lessons for entrepreneurs, emphasising the importance of pivoting in the face of challenges and having a reli
Become an expert in uncertainty (w/ Sam Conniff )
As a founder, uncertainty is the air you breathe.Sam Conniff, entrepreneur, bestselling author, and co-creator of the Uncertainty Experts, shares his invaluable insights and strategies for navigating the unknown and transforming your relationship with risk.Drawing from his experience and the Uncertainty Experts program, Conniff breaks down the mental models and techniques that can help you find stillness and comfort in the face of uncertainty—and reveals how anyone can build their uncer
My Favourite Failure: Balancing Parenthood and Entrepreneurship - Alyson Caffrey
Alison Caffrey opens up about the perfect storm she faced as a new mom and entrepreneur. With her business reliant on her time and her husband losing his income, Alison found herself answering client emails mere hours after giving birth. She shares her emotional journey, from using alcohol to cope with stress to the realisation that her business needed a complete overhaul. …SponsorsVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersPersoni
Mastering the Art of Communication ( w/ Charles Duhigg )
As a leader, your number one job is to be an effective communicator., Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Charles Duhigg shares his incredible insights and practical strategies for mastering the art and science of effective communication. Drawing from his new book, "Supercommunicators," Duhigg breaks down the techniques that set apart those rare individuals who seem to have a magic touch when it comes to conversations and connections—and reveals how anyone can tap into those sa
My Favourite Failure: How to fail without getting knocked out - Tom McLeod
Tom McLeod, a serial entrepreneur, shares his wild journey of building 5 companies and surviving a dozen failures. From spy camera apps to failed iPhone tossing games, Tom's story is a masterclass in resilience and failing fast. He reveals the gut-wrenching story of his startup Omni, which despite a successful exit, fell short of his ambitious vision. Tom's key lesson? Take loads of shots, learn from failures, and avoid getting knocked out.…SponsorsVanta - get 20% off security certifica
A Founder's guide to navigating the law (w/Daniel van Binsbergen)
There is a problem.Lawyers and Founders have misaligned incentives.Daniel van Binsbergen, lawyer turned founder, shares his perspective on tackling legal challenges in the startup world. Having Founded and exited Lexoo, a legal marketplace, DVB bridges the gap between the legal world and the entrepreneurial mindset.From prioritising legal matters and managing risk tolerance, to fostering a productive relationship with your lawyer and adapting to the fast-paced startup environment - expe
My Favourite Failure: Giving up my dream opera career - Caroline Dowd-Higgins
Failing Forward! An Opera Singer's Lessons in Resilience and ReinventionFrom the opera stage to executive coaching, Caroline Dowd Higgins exemplifies resilience and courage. She recounts her promising opera career's harsh realities, including a pivotal breakdown and questioning if the sacrifices were worth the suffering. With wisdom, Caroline shares lessons on recognising when to pivot, seeking feedback, and embracing her mantra: "The suffering is optional."…SponsorCheck out Personio -
The simple path to great strategy: Alex Smith
“99% of successful businesses don’t have a strategy”Alex Smith, a renowned business strategist who argues that real strategic skill isn't about getting caught up in overwhelming complexity, but about identifying key differences that set you apart from competitors. To bring these ideas into reality, Alex and Dan break down brilliant yet straightforward strategies used by companies like Southwest Airlines, Nintendo, Grenade bars, and 5-hour Energy drinks. Learn more about your ad choices.
My Favourite Failure: We built something our customers said they wanted- Jessica Dante
Jess Dante, the Founder of Love and London, shares her company's cautionary tale of attempting to launch a new product based on customer demand. Despite months of hard work and a compelling marketing push, the much-anticipated launch fell flat, leaving them with a mere single booking in the first 24 hours. What went wrong?…SponsorCheck out Personio - the all in one HR platform: https://personio.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The secret key to increase your productivity - Ali Abdaal
What if the secret to getting more done, is having more fun?In this episode we speak with Ali Abdaal - YouTuber, doctor, author and Founder who has built a business around his own personal brand. Ali shares his approach to being more productive by simply making work feel like play.Ali explains the science behind why we're more motivated when something feels like a game rather than a chore. He provides practical tips for turning boring tasks into engaging challenges by reframing them wit
My Favourite Failure: It should’ve been a slam dunk - Andrew Wordsworth
Andrew Wordsworth is the Managing Partner of Sustainable Ventures, an investment fund which has developed Europe's largest cluster of sustainability startups. But the first venture he backed (and was the Chairman of) was a disaster - and what’s strange is it had all the ingredients to be a mega business...--Check out Personio - the all in one HR platform: https://personio.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How to find the right Co-Founder & idea in 90 days | Entrepreneur First’s Alice Bentinck
Finding the ideal Co-Founder is one of the most critical decisions a Founder will make.In this episode, Alice Bentinck, CEO and Co-Founder of Entrepreneur First, shares how to create world class productive partnerships and finding your market edge. With over a decade of experience building entrepreneurial teams that have created businesses worth billions, Alice has seen what it really takes to get a business of the ground in the first 90 days.From identifying complementary skills, to co
My Favourite Failure: I made a big bet on the wrong product -Mussayab Ehtesham
Mussayab Ehtesham sunk $30,000 of his savings into an e-commerce product that completely flopped. Instead of quitting, his obsession with entrepreneurial freedom drove him to learn from that costly failure and iterate relentlessly until he cracked the code and built a $1M private label business.--Check out Personio - the all in one HR platform: https://personio.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
My Favourite Failure: I didn't know my limitations - Mike Connolly
Mike Connelly was a top telecoms salesman who decided to strike out on his own. His new venture, Simple Cloud Communications, quickly landed clients thanks to Mike's sales prowess. But he struggled immensely to service those customers without strong technical operations skills.Mike learned first-hand that even star employees can falter as solo Founders if their skillsets are too one-dimensional, but by embracing the right partner to fill knowledge gaps, a business can finally find its f
My Favourite Failure: From The Apprentice, to the teacher - Joseph Valente
After winning The Apprentice, Joseph Valente expanded his plumbing and gas business to a national scale. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the markets changes and Joseph had to rebuild his new business from the ground up.He followed in the footsteps of his mentor, became his apprentice, and has gone on to teach others how to avoid his failures and replicate his successes.--Check out Personio - the all in one HR platform: https://personio.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad cho
The Pillars of Peak Performance - Lara Menke
Leading a team to peak performance begins within.In this episode, Lara Menke; business Psychologist, CEO and Co-Founder of leadership coaching firm CAIA, gives us the keys to unlock our self-awareness and reach peak performance. From feedback and coaching techniques, to the confidence conundrum, to striking the ideal inclusive yet decisive leadership balance - expect practical models you can instantly apply paired with thoughtful reflection on leading people amidst the pressures and str
My Favourite Failure: Do what is meaningful - Tom Foxley
Tom Foxley, Founder of the Adventurepreneur Collective, spent years building his lifestyle and coaching business. He had reliable clients, a team he loved and the business was bring in six-figures. All of this felt like "success", until a breakdown on his honeymoon revealed the deep misalignment between his work and his passion for adventure.This is when he fully realised that; If you don't do what is meaningful, you won't regret it for the rest of your life.--To get a better handle on
£100M Exit - How Human Psychology Built Ella's Kitchen- Paul Lindley
Building a thriving business takes more than just getting the economics right - it requires truly understanding human psychology and what motivates people. In this episode, Paul Lindley, Founder of kids' healthy food brand Ella's Kitchen, provides a rare glimpse into the human dynamics, vision and motivation at the heart of one of the biggest success stories in the UK startup space. Paul reveals his secrets for:- Mastering company culture and the psychology behind hiring and leadership-
My Favourite Failure: Lessons from a Dot-Com Crash Survivor - Sharath Jeevan OBE
In the midst of the dot-com bubble, Sharath Jeevan OBE, Founder of Intrinsic Labs, was convinced by investors to pursue rapid growth and prioritise the consumer market.However, after the dot-com bubble popped; he realised that as a leader, he had to learn to follow his internal compass not just the funding market--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.
Why Founders need therapy - Sophie Scott
Founders have a lot on their plates - how do they navigate it all without losing track of what’s important? In this episode, we chat with Sophie Scott - a Founder and psychotherapist who’s on a mission to help Founders discover their purpose, cultivate sustainable self-care practices, and answer the question, “why do Founders need therapy?"Just as a disclaimer; Sophie mentions some of her clients' experiences. These accounts are composite and anonymous.--SponsorsVorboss - get better int
My Favourite Failure: Build in private, fail in public -Faisal Abid
Faisal Abid, The Co-Founder of Eirene Cremations, spent two years developing the product for his first business. He thought after all of his planning and developing his company would be a hit, once it finally launched.He soon realised; building a product isn’t the same as building a company. --To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How to grow your startup - Ex PayPal growth strategist Matt Lerner
Is there anything harder in business than growing your company? Probably not and that's why we're speaking to one of the best in the growth game - Matt Lerner. He explains how to find the 10% of things that will actually grow your startup, how to hire growth people, how to prioritise growth experiments (it's not the usual way) and lots of other things that can change your company's future.--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersPersonio - all in one HR
My Favourite Failure: Losing £500k on an event that should’ve been the start of my new career - Amanda Brock
Amanda Brock, the CEO of Open UK, took a decade too long to jump from her legal career to what she really craved - the frenzy of entrepreneurship. She stayed in law too long because she’d experienced a sobering failure years ago - running an event which lost half a million pounds. What happened?--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Numan Founder: One exit, one failure and one tbc - Sokratis Papafloratos
Sokratis Papafloratos is the Founder of Numan who are tackling a lot of male healthcare problems like erectile dysfunction, hair loss, sleep and weight issues. This isn't his first rodeo. Sokratis exited with his first startup, albeit at great personal cost. His second one failed. And now he's leading Numan. What's going to be his fate this time?--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersPersonio - all in one HR platform: https://personio.com/secretleaders
My Favourite Failure: Disasters with hiring and being hired - and I’m a recruiter - Ken Schmitt
Ken Schmitt is the Founder and CEO of a high end executive search firm, which is ironic because we’re going through his biggest career failures and they all revolve around hiring. Well, hiring or being hired because Ken went through a period where he kept being fired.--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
SpareRoom Founder - I turned down an offer I couldn't refuse, plus how we fix rental market crisis | Rupert Hunt
SpareRoom is a business you've probably heard of - bringing together strangers and putting roofs over their heads. It's a bootstrapped business and its Founder Rupert Hunt still finds his housemates through it today. Rupert could've sold up years ago - he turned down an offer he says he couldn't refuse. Why on earth did he do that?--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersPersonio - all in one HR platform: https://personio.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20%
My Favourite Failure: Collapse of my business left me unable to pay for my daughter’s open heart surgery - Brian Will
Brian Will is a seasoned entrepreneur who’s sold several businesses, but his first one was a baptism of fire. Brian had a difficult childhood. He was a D student who failed high school, got kicked out of home at 18 and joined the military. He had a chip on his shoulder and struggled with discipline - he lost rank twice. And then his first business went under at the worst possible time for him and his family.--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovat
How Fanfix Founders exited for £52m in 10 months whilst graduating
Can you imagine graduating university and exiting for tens of millions at the same time? Cue Harry Gestetner and Simon Pompan, the Founders of Fanfix, a platform that helps creators better monetise their content. They built the business for mobile-first, multi-channel Gen-Z creators and their audiences (a bit like Patreon for Gen Z) - and their traction was so strong that SuperOrdinary bought them just 10 months after launch. Here's how.
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My Favourite Failure: In 24 hours I went from leading the rocketship to the gig being over, in my own company - Adam Weber
Adam Weber is a multi exited Founder, podcaster and the SVP of Community for 15Five, a performance management software company. What’s fascinating is he ended up making it in a very different role to what he thought he was good at. Adam had been a salesman until the biggest deal of his life collapsed, along with the plan for his future. --To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide. Learn more about your ad
Farmers to Founders: Tyrrells crisps, Chase spirits, Willy's apple cider vinegar and BAZ & CO all in one family
Clarkson's Farm taught us that being a farmer is tough, and from this podcast we've learnt how tough it is to become a successful Founder. James Chase's family has done both. His father was up against it as a farmer so started Tyrrells crisps before launching Chase spirits followed by Willy's apple cider vinegar (all consumed by Dan). Now James is building his own thing, a skincare for men brand called BAZ & CO. How do you build multiple well known B2C brands?--SponsorsVorboss - get
My Favourite Failure: 4 big failures which nearly cost me everything - Joel Gandara
Joel Gandara sold his businesses a few months ago, is retired, doing what he enjoys - so he’s feeling pretty good about his life choices. But a few years ago, it was a very different story. It seemed more likely that Joel would find himself back where he’d begun - and Joel didn't have the easiest start to life.--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm
My Favourite Failure: Validated in my ivory tower but we didn’t have product market fit - Better Nature Tempeh Founder
Doctor Driando Ahnan-Winarno is the CTO at Better Nature Tempeh, but he’s not just any CTO - he is a Chief Tempeh Officer. Tempeh is a type of food that's really popular in Indonesia, where Dr Driando grew up, so he tried bringing it to the UK. He got early validation but had to give up on his original vision. Here's how it went wrong - and what he learnt from it.--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide
Lovevery: How Jessica Rolph built $800m giant after $300m Danone exit in <10 years
Jessica Rolph is the Co-Founder and CEO or Lovevery which makes play kit subscription boxes for kids - and is one of Dan's favourite kids brands. It's also massive, valued at $800 million at the last count - and it came pretty quickly off the back of a challenging earnout she experienced with Danone having sold her previous company Happy Family for about $300 million. How has she done it?--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders.Vanta - get 20% off secur
My Favourite Failure: Unpaid payments nearly destroyed my business despite UK legal system & rock solid contracts - Neil Ambikar
Neil Ambikar says you can't rely on the UK legal system. Neil is the Founder of B2Bpay and Narvi Payments - and B2Bpay is lucky to still be here. The company was taken to the brink by a sequence of events that led to Neil questioning the legal system in the UK. He says he did everything right but ended up losing. This is how the game is really played.--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide. Learn more
How $4b Webflow Founder failed 3 times before getting it right - Vlad Magdalin
Vlad Magdalin is the Founder of Webflow, a no-code platform which allows people who aren't software engineers to build complex websites. They were valued at $4b at the last count but amazingly he tried doing the business three times before getting it right. He wouldn't advise a friend to take the same risks he did - despite the enormous pay off. Here's why.--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders.Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001
My Favourite Failure: Given a settlement and pushed out after declaring disability | Molly Johnson-Jones
Molly Johnson-Jones is the Founder of Flexa, a global directory of flexible companies. The idea was born out of the worst moment in Molly’s career, which left her doubting her worth and ability to be in a workplace.--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their free Quick Start Guide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How to manage your stress response when you're up against it - Sensate Co-Founder Anna Gudmundson
Anna Gudmundson is the Co-Founder of Sensate: a pebble like device you can put on your chest which tones (vibrates) the vagus nerve, which helps control your stress response. Anna is fascinated by stress and how we can handle it (75% of the world are anxious - go figure). She explains some some of the science and tactics to manage your stress response, and of course it's a subject Dan love being Mr Vagus Nerve.Sensate: https://www.getsensate.com/--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet:
My Favourite Failure: I lost my company, job, had to sell my cars, house & move back in with my mum | Tay Sweat
Tay Sweat is retired today having put a lot of the earnings from his fitness and supplement business into the stock market. But that was actually his second attempt at that business. He failed on his first go, and that knocked him back decades - back to an even worse position than he'd been in when he was a teenager. It would’ve broken a lot of people but Tay, well, he likes to sweat. --To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their
Ticket Tailor - Bootstrapping to £6m after selling business to TimeOut and buying it back
Jonny White is the Founder of Ticket Tailor. He was a software engineer who spotted a gap in the market for ticketing systems before building a white labelled service to sell to companies. TimeOut got interested in the tech and that was the start of his wild ride in entrepreneurship.--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders.Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders.Vertice - save on your SaaS or c
My Favourite Failure: Chef who got rave reviews, celeb diners and a bustling business but couldn't sustain it
Sameer Vaswani is the Co-Founder of Prodigy Chocolate, a company that’s taking classics like Snickers and making them more modern and child friendly, like less sugar and more eco packaging. Before this venture, he built a very successful food manufacturing business in West Africa - but before all of that - he failed. He set up a restaurant which boomed for a few years - he was living his dream life. But gradually that dream slipped away.--To get a better handle on your security, check o
Cobra beer Founder - how to get through crises having nearly lost his business three times | Lord Karan Bilimoria
Lord Karan Bilimoria is the Co-Founder of Cobra beer, the best selling beer in Indian restaurants around the UK.We all pray for those moments we find a gap in a market we can exploit. That’s exactly what happened to Karan in 1989, realising the UK needed a better lager that complemented pan-asian food.He’s now a member of the House of Lords, having joined in 2006 and sits as a cross-bench peer, helping in particular with the Covid response.Over the years he’s almost lost the business 3
My Favourite Failure: Entering a death spiral - Rico Mandel
Sometimes in business you pass the point of no return and you don't even know it. Someone who knows all too well is Rico Mandel, the Founder of Miz En Place, a successful foodie marketplace... but Rico only got into food after his marketing agency business went bust. This is how Rico failed, what he learnt from it - and a simple hack to make you feel better about your life, however bad things seem.--To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and do
How to know if it's the right time to sell - UK's greatest record producer behind Sade, Sting, Clapton etc. | Sir Robin Millar
Sir Robin Millar is arguably the UK's leading record producer, having worked with the likes of Sade, Randy Crawford, Eric Clapton, Sting, The Grateful Dead and many others.He produced the Atlanta Olympic Games opening ceremony in 1996, has had over 160 gold & platinum discs - including 44 No. 1 hits. He's got a great CV.He's also a blind man and in today's episode we learn what that's really like, how to make great music - and how to build a successful music business. Sir Robin is f
My Favourite Failure: From the outside my lingerie business looked amazing but I’d got the key numbers wrong - Emma Parker
Emma Parker is the Founder of Playful Promises, a company behind a few lingerie and swimwear brands - including a lingerie brand of the same name.What’s funny though is she lost that business despite the outside world thinking it was going amazingly well.This is how Emma failed and how she recovered - and what you can learn from it about building businesses. ---------------------------To get a better handle on your security, check out https://npsa.gov.uk/innovation and download their fr
Shane Parrish: How to think clearer & make better decisions
Is there a more important skill for business leaders than making good decisions? We’re not sure there is. Yeah, you need vision, communication skills and hopefully some empathy - but without good decision-making you won’t get very far. In today’s episode we’ve got arguably the world’s most popular decision-making expert Shane Parrish, Founder of Fanham Street, to explain the key principles of clear thinking and great decision-making.--SponsorsGet better internet through Vorboss: https:/
My Favourite Failure: Debt collectors at the door after over-extending too fast - Alex Chisnall
Sometimes we put on a brave face when it's the opposite of what we should be doing.Alex Chisnall is the Founder of a Podpreneur, a podcast agency, and the host of the Screw It Just Do it podcast. He’s built a great business and loves what he does, but his first foray into entrepreneurship was a disaster.After a debt collector knocked on his door, blocked his car and refused to leave, it resulted in him having to come clean to his wife about the extent of his business’s problems. It was
How to fail well (to become a better entrepreneur) | Author and psychologist Amy Edmondson
Amy Edmondson has spent her life dedicated to studying failure and psychological safety. It’s her belief that the most successful cultures are those in which you can fail openly, without your mistakes being held against you. Amy is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School and has been named by Thinkers50 as the most influential management thinker in the world. Her work has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Fin
Games Workshop Founder: ‘I’d rather be a nerd than follow the herd’ | The Power of Play with Sir Ian Livingstone
If you’ve visited a high street in the last 40 years there’s a good chance you’ve seen Games Workshop, a British institution that’s stood the test of time. One of its Founders, Sir Ian Livingstone, sold out of the company in the 90s but continued to make an unbelievable impact in the games industry, alongside being an angel investor and a best-selling fantasy author. He’s had a hand in Tomb Raider, Hitman, Championship Manager, Fall Guys and Golf Clash to name just a few. So you’ve abso
Depop: $1.6 billion exit to Etsy & now he’s starting from 0 again I Founder, Simon Beckerman
2011 was the beginning for Depop, an app that lets you buy and sell your own clothes on a marketplace, Depop attracted GenZ and created a boom for vintage clothing. Simon Beckerman wanted to create a community behind his marketplace, somewhere users could create virtual stores from a device in their pocket.Fast forward 10 years, Simon sold Depop to Etsy for $1.6bn.But he didn’t stop there.Instead of taking time off, Simon decided to get straight back into the game. This time, he’s takin
Managing Europe's biggest YouTubers The Sidemen - to succeed become dispensable | Jordan Schwarzenburger
If you’ve been online in the last 10 years, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of The Sidemen.7 guys from the UK, all successful YouTubers in their own right, who grouped together to create one of the most successful YouTube collectives in the world. With over 240 million monthly views and 19 million subscribers, the Sidemen have branched out well beyond content - launching their own fast food chicken franchise (Sides) and premium vodka brand (XIX Vodka).Whilst these 7 guys are immensel
Exclusive: Planet Organic Founder reveals being pushed out & forced to sign gag orders before saving broken co | Renée Elliott
Would you go back to save the business you started, when you’d already walked away? Renée Elliott had to fight for her business, Planet Organic, right from the start. Two years after they launched in 1995, her then-business partner tried to force her out, which culminated in a High Court battle. Renée won and along with her husband Brian who came on as Managing Director, took back control of the business. They ran it together for ten years. Then, in 2009 they decided to step away from t
Dan Murray-Serter: How to build a personal brand whilst running a business (and why you should too)
If you're a Founder, or if you've just got big career ambitions, building your personal brand is becoming less and less optional.It's what potential employees or investors or Co-Founders or employers look at when deciding whether work with you.It's also one of the things that our usual host Dan is best at. He's just passed 150k followers whilst running three businesses so today he's spilling the secrets of how to do it. Yes, we really mean the secrets - the stuff people don't talk about
‘Unicorn status? It’s meaningless!’ And why entrepreneurs are born not made | Evidation Founder Christine Lemke
Being comfortable with different opens your mind…Those are the words of our guest today, Christine Lemke, she’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Evidation. Christine’s story is a unique one, she was adopted from South Korea as a baby into a strict Lutheran household in South Dakota. Several start-ups later, Christine was encouraged by her own chronic pain to co-found Evidation,an app which uses points as rewards for daily activity, education, and health monitoring. Once users get enough points
My Favourite Failure: Pro baseball player who lost childhood dream & nearly lost gym business at critical moment - Burn Boot Camp Founder Devan Kline
Former professional baseballer, Devan Kline founded fitness company Burn Boot Camp with his wife Morgan. From starting out in a parking lot with only 600 dollars in his bank account, they are now operating in 42 states and have 375 gyms across the country. But we wouldn't be talking to Devan if everything had all gone up and to the right. In the early days he made a serious mistake that put the whole company at risk. What happened?---------------------------If you have any feedback, we’
Vinted: 2am house party idea that became Lithuania’s first unicorn | Co-Founder Milda Mitkute
How long would you spend before launching your business? Milda Mitkute was at a party in 2008 when she ended up chatting to developer Justas Janauskus. She’d come up with the idea for Vinted after she found herself with too many clothes for the small flat that she moved to for university. They decided then and there to turn the idea into a reality and launched the website just two weeks later…Only to forget one critical detail. A decade later, despite many bumps in the road, Vinted was
My Favourite Failure: I should’ve listened to my gut! Lucy Cohen
Lucy Cohen is the Co-Founder of Mazuma, the UK's first subscription tax advisory firm and one of the country’s leading online accountants for small and micro businesses. They have over a thousand clients across the UK and have moved into the US market.But, in their early days, it all came so close to falling apart. What happened?---------------------------If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?hello@secretleaders.com Sponsor links:personio.com/se
Lying to the Secret Service, working for Obama & choosing NOT to be a unicorn | Dan Siroker, Co-Founder of Optimizely & Rewind AI
Have you found your ‘calling’ in life? Do you think you ever will? Today’s interview is with Rewind AI Co-Founder and CEO Dan Siroker. After leaving Google to take on the role as director of analytics in the 2008 Obama campaign, Dan knew his purpose was elsewhere. Having gone deaf in his 20s and later getting a hearing aid, he felt superpowered. This inspired him to try and augment human existence with new powers, senses and abilities. He co-founded Optimizely in 2009, growing it to $12
My Favourite Failure: "We signed a deal with the devil" Glenn Poulos
Glenn Poulos is a successful founder, who exited from his company in 2022. But that was his second exit. His first, 15 years before, was a very different story.He thought he had achieved the entrepreneur's dream, an eight-figure exit, after selling his business to a public company. With the shares he got in return he was going to be a multi-millionaire.Instead, he was left with hardly anything, and no job, after having to fire a hundred people.What happened?---------------------------If
Leon Founder: “Imprisoned” by big mistake & how to figure out your best role | John Vincent
Have you ever questioned what kind of leader you are and which roles truly suit you? Today’s interview is with Leon Co-Founder and Former CEO John Vincent. Named after John’s father, Leon was founded in 2004. John became CEO ten years later in 2014 after his co-founder Henry Dimbleby stepped down. In 2017, Leon was named on The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list, which ranks Britain's 100 private companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years. In 2021, the company was
My Favourite Failure: Making millions after failing seven businesses in four years - Peter Kell
Peter Kell is a serial entrepreneur and successful marketer who has gone from being a millionaire to losing it all to being a millionaire again.As a teenager he was obsessed with the idea of getting rick quick. So he set about to do it, he hustled, setting up seven businesses in four years.But each one of them failed.He was left with nothing; completely broke, his car repossessed, evicted from his flat.How did he pick himself up and turn his life around?---------------------------If you
Theragun: Hacked together in 10/10 pain - the $400m garage invention
In 2008 Dr Jason Wersland was in crippling chronic pain after a motorbike accident. He was in a dark place. A trained chiropractor, he knew what kind of relief he needed, and searched the market for a product that could give it to him. But when he came up empty handed, desperate, he decided to make one himself.By 2019 the Theragun was being used by over 250 professional sports teams and by 2022, Therabody, the company Jason founded, generated nearly $400 millions in revenue. Woof.How di
My Favourite Failure: We were too young, idealistic and couldn’t turn it off - Young Han
"Every single major tech company that you know of has this story where they battled it to the bitter end."Young Han grew up in Silicon Valley and worked in tech before moving to Texas a few years ago for a slower way of life. In this most recent chapter he’s really got into small businesses, like a pool cleaning company which he scaled to $1m in revenue in 10 months. He’s a coach, tech consultant, and Founder himself. He’s a fan of taking as many shots as you can and failing fast....wel
How to win at business and make a dent, with serial entrepreneur Daniel Priestley
Daniel Priestley is a serial entrepreneur and one hell of a thinker who we first spoke to on the podcast in 2017, for just our 9th episode. How the time flies.Daniel is prolific. He’s the bestselling author of books like Key Person of Influence, 24 Assets and Oversubscribed. He’s a lecturer and an excellent teacher of entrepreneurship. He’s also the co-founder and CEO of consulting agency Dent Global - and the Founder of ScoreApp.You’ll hear some of his entrepreneurial gems today which
My Favourite Failure: Happiness expert who was desperately unhappy running a happiness startup - Jennifer Moss
Jennifer Moss is a workplace happiness writer, speaker and strategist. Having moved back to Canada from Silicon Valley in 2012, she co-founded a company called Plasitcity Labs with her husband. They developed happiness strategies for companies and got some big clients like LuluLemon. On the cusp of signing a transformative deal in 2019, they got blind-sided days before signing which fatally crippled morale.And in the midst of all this, it didn’t escape Jennifer that she was running a ha
Elemis Founder: How UK's #1 skin brand got built after previous company went bankrupt - Sean Harrington
Sean Harrington is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elemis, one of the best-known skincare brands in the UK. Before being bought by L’Occitane four years ago for $990 million, they were the number one British skincare brand in the world.
Sean spent time as a bouncer, taxi driver and worked for his dad’s suntanning business before it was bankrupted in the recession of 1989, leaving him destitute in the process.
Thankfully, one of his former clients saw something in Sean and made a point of investing in
My Favourite Failure: Knowing when to give up is one of the hardest decisions you’ll face - Anita Abildgaard
Anita Abildgaard is the Founder and CEO of Iris AI, a company helping humans make sense of the world’s scientific knowledge. She’d always wanted to be a Founder and lead companies. In fact that was her specific goal after finishing her MBA. She achieved that, but her first venture ended in failure, as did the next.She went through two bruising startup experiences in a row.So what did she learn from it?And what did she learn about walking away? That’s something we don’t talk about enough
Klarna Founder: Even $45.6 billion can’t buy happiness - Niklas Adalberth
Niklas Adalberth is the co-founder and former Deputy CEO of Klarna. The massive Swedish fintech provides payment services for online shops like ASOS being able to offer their customers buy now pay later.Although Klarna has been hugely successful, Niklas found himself hitting an emotional rock bottom after he came to the infamous realisation that money doesn’t buy happiness. After some soul searching, Niklas left Klarna and founded his next venture: Norrsken Foundation. It's a non-profit
My Favourite Failure: Burnt out twice and unable to make the most basic decisions - Oliva Co-Founder Sançar Sahin
Sançar Sahin is the Co-Founder of Oliva, a mental health startup which has just raised £4.3 million at the time of putting this together.It’s a B2B which helps companies give mental health support to their employees, like on-demand therapy and coaching.Like our host Dan, with his company Heights, there’s a very clear line of sight from Sançar’s personal health crisis to starting his company. At his low points, he found himself stripped of confidence, unable to make the simplest decision
IMDb Founder: Jeff Bezos's best advice & learnings from watching 15,000 films - Col Needham
Did you know that IMDb was one of the first 100 websites EVER? Yeah it's mad, and it's still going - and it's always in the top 50 most visited sites in the world.Welcome to the mad world of IMDb Founder Col Needham, the movie buff you want to take to the pub to ask him all the trivia and best-of questions you can imagine.But this is also a great business story. IMDb was one of the first ever acquisitions from Amazon, making Col one of Amazon's earliest employees.He got to work alongsid
My Favourite Failure: Estonia’s first CIO who needed open heart surgery after institutional failures pushed him to the brink - Taavi Kotka
Taavi Kotka is the Founder and CEO of Koos.io but he shot to fame as the CEO of one of the largest software development companies in the Baltics.After he sold the company in a big money deal in 2012, he had a non compete which left him with time when he couldn’t work in the private sector.He was appointed the first Chief Innovation Officer of Estonia whose role is basically to drive technological progress in the country. It gave him the opportunity to make a massive impact - a national
My Favourite Failure: The side business which cost me £150k, my appetite, and my mental health - Gope Walker
Gope Walker is the Founder and CEO of Data Kraken, a data consultancy that helps companies make valuable, data-driven decisions.But whilst Data Kraken is making more money than ever today, the venture downstairs is another story.Gope wanted to create a cafe that brought people together. But instead, it left him with depression, loss of appetite, and a £150,000 hole. He thought he was creating something valuable but customers didn’t see it that way. And when the council had the chance to
My Favourite Failure: Startup lessons from several failures that added up to a unicorn - Wayflyer Co-Founder Aidan Corbett
Entrepreneurs need to reframe failure as the norm, says Aidan Corbett.He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wayflyer, a unicorn which provides funding for ecommerce companies.Not too shabby, and along the way, he has tried and failed with various initiatives. His failures didn’t all come in one go, but what he learnt added up to some pretty good startup lessons. What happened?If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?
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Admiral: How to be a better boss from Co-Founder of £7 billion insurer - Henry Engelhardt
Henry Engelhardt is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Admiral Group. They’re one of Britain’s most valuable companies – currently valued at over £7 billion – and also the only FTSE 100 company in Wales. Chances are, you’ve used one of their many brands at some point: Admiral Insurance, Bell Insurance, Elephant Insurance, Diamond Insurance, Veygo Insurance… if you’ve ever purchased insurance, basically. Or even if you’ve just run a search on Confused.com or Compare.com. In fact, they laun
My Favourite Failure: We built cool stuff but it didn’t solve problems - Kim Little
Being really productive isn’t enough to win at startups.Kim Little is the Co-Founder and CEO of Moments of Space, a successful meditation app, but about 10 years ago he was in a very different space.He was living in Australia, having co-founded a semantic driven products company (yeah we get onto what that means). He put $400,000 Australian of his own money into the company and they launched a series of cool sounding products.But they never got anywhere.What went wrong? ----------------
COOK: Nearly bust to £100m a year revenue - with brother and sister in charge I Co-CEOs Ed Perry & Rosie Brown
Ed Perry and Rosie Brown are the Co-CEOs in charge of high-end ready meal company, COOK. Their USP is using the same ingredients and methods a normal person would use in their kitchens to create ready meals that actually feel home-cooked. A company run by Co-CEOs is pretty unusual but Ed and Rosie are especially unusual because they’re also brother and sister. Ed co-founded the company with Dale Penfold in 1997. His sister Rosie Brown joined the company soon after and then became Co-CEO
My Favourite Failure: On the cusp of losing my company, marriage and myself - Mike Dunn
Mike Dunn is the Founder and MD of Excel TLM Group, a telemarketing and lead generation company for construction businesses. Excel today is a solid, growing business but they came within a whisper of collapse - as did Mike himself. It all came to a head on a family holiday they’d saved for years for. Mike thought he could lose everything, including his family. He felt like he’d hurt and failed everyone. What happened and what did he learn from it?------------------If you have any feedba
Just acquired Blinkist Founder on life-changing books, mistakes & finding your ikigai - Holger Seim
Holger Seim is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Blinkist, a subscription service that summarises non-fiction books in 15 minute explainers. The company was started because Holger and his Co-Founders wanted to find a way to read more books in less time whilst together at college in 2012.Blinkist has been downloaded 26 million times and was acquired by Go1 in May 2023, with Holger staying on as Chief Operating Officer.We don’t know how much they were bought for, but Go1 CEO, Andrew Barnes
My Favourite Failure: Bombing on stage at a startup pitch final - AJ Keller
AJ Keller is the Co-Founder of Neurosity, who make brain imaging devices you can use at home. But before that he experienced an epic fail that put him on the path to where he is today. AJ’s first foray into brain imagining brought him to a point in the Summer of 2017 when everything was riding on him and his teammates winning an NYU startup pitch competition. If they won, they would get the funding they needed to turn their company into a real thing. Fail, however, and their venture wou
Elon Musk’s favourite blogger Tim Urban on how to build an audience, no matter your product
Tim Urban is the writer/illustrator behind Wait But Why, a blog he founded with his business partner, Andrew Finn, as well as the man behind one of our favourite TED Talks of all time on procrastination. Tim writes long-form articles covering topics from outer space to love to artificial intelligence. As he puts it, he writes about “almost everything actually”. Each post is also accompanied with Tim’s now-iconic doodles. Content creation is one of the hardest things to monetise effectiv
My Favourite Failure: How House of Holland was forced to bring in the administrators
Henry Holland is the man behind fashion brand ‘House of Holland’, known for its signature rhyming slogan t-shirts such as 'Cause me pain Hedi Slimane' and ‘“I’ll Tell You Who’s Boss Kate Moss’. At one point they had over a 100 stockists all over the world. Henry produced special collections for Debenhams and Habitat. But at the start of the pandemic, Henry called in the administrators and left the world of fashion to go into ceramics.What happened?If you have any feedback, we’d love to
Will AI save us or destroy us, and when? | Mo Gawdat
Mo Gawdat is legendary builder, thinker and now one of the leading voices in the emerging field of AI. This is a topic we want learn more about because it’s going to change our world.Mo spent over a decade as Chief Business Officer for Google X. He’s also the bestselling author of the books Solve for Happy, and most recently, Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World.He’s extremely thoughtful about the positives and negatives we face as a species.
Sweetgreen: How to make a $1b farm-to-table restaurant chain, with Founder Jonathan Neman
Jonathan Neman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sweetgreen, a farm-to-table restaurant chain making fast food healthy.Unless you’re one of our American listeners, you probably won’t be familiar with Sweetgreen but they’re a staple of the LA, New York and Washington food scenes. They’ve got over 200 sites across the country.You probably don’t think of salad and tech in the same sentence but Sweetgreen love a bit of tech.They’ve run pilots to test the viability of blockchain technology to tra
The tricky first year being public - Dan Murray Serter, Chapter 5
Every few months we interview our host Dan to find out what it’s really like being a Founder because his day job is running his VC backed startup Heights. If this is the first episode like this you’ve heard then please stop what you’re doing and search for Dan Chapter 1 in the Secret Leaders feed. He’s got a good origin story. If you’re up to date, in the previous episode with Dan a few months ago we learnt how to develop a product and bring it to market. That’s where we are today. Dan
How I Failed: I closed my business because my heart wasn’t in it - Jess Salamanca
Jess Salamanca is the Founder of Moxie Club, a community for female Founders.But before Moxie there was another business Jess started which could’ve been BIG. She had the opportunity to take it to a whole new level but instead decided to close it down.What really happened?--If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?
hello@secretleaders.com --Sponsor links:otta.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Waze Founder - why you should teach your children to fail | Uri Levine
Fall in love with the problem; not the solution - that’s the philosophy of Uri Levine, the serial entrepreneur behind more than ten startups including two unicorns. His best-known success is Waze, the traffic navigation app he Co-Founded in 2007 and sold to Google for over $1 billion six years later. Uri is a well-known speaker but he added “author” to his CV earlier this year, with the release of his book, taking its title directly from his philosophy. He wrote the book to spread entre
How I Failed: nearly dying, quitting singing career & losing $150k on book launch - David Wood
David Wood is a high performance coach. He’s been doing that for 25 years, and has recently taken up acting - but his life has been peppered with failure and tragedy. David will tell you that failure is a part of a life-well-lived because it means you’re pushing yourself. The people you’ve really gotta worry about are the people who never fail because they’re the ones who never try.David has tried a LOT of things and succeeded in several. But we’re here to learn from his most memorable
Why you shouldn't be an entrepreneur - Vorboss CEO and Founder Timothy Creswick
Timothy Creswick is the CEO and Founder of Vorboss. They're an internet service provider for businesses which might not sound riveting but that's only until you hear the story of how it came together and what they’re actually doing.Timothy saw a gaping opportunity that the market had missed because of distractions caused by COVID and he seized upon it.Vorboss have secured £250 million of investment. Their goal is to turn that into £1 billion by deploying the UK’s only dedicated fibre ne
How to become wealthy - Secret Leaders X Making Money
We've just launched a new podcast at Kindling Media (we make Secret Leaders) helping people learn how to build wealth. It's called Making Money and it's the financial education we wish we'd had. This is the first episode, but dropped into the Secret Leaders feed.You can listen to the rest of the show here: https://link.chtbl.com/secretleaders-mmOr search for Making Money wherever you listen to your pods.Hope you enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How I Failed: I became an arrogant, egotistical knobhead - Dave Foreman, Managing Partner at Praetura Ventures
Dave Foreman is the Managing Partner at Praetura Ventures.He’s not here to talk about a failure in business like normal, although his failure did seep into his work. Instead, he’s here to tell us about a failure of character. Dave used to be a knobhead. His words, not ours. This is how he turned his life - and himself - around.--If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?
hello@secretleaders.com --Sponsor links:otta.com/secretleaders Learn more abou
Linktree Founder - spinning side project into one of top 3 fastest growing companies in the world | Alex Zaccaria
Alex Zaccaria is the Co-Founder & CEO of Linktree, a product that's so simple it’s difficult to imagine nobody thought of it before. It’s a kick yourself kind of product, especially now they are worth over a billion dollars. Linktree solves a unique problem in the social media age. Most social sites like Instagram only allow you to have one link in your bio. For successful people, in all kinds of industries like music, picking that one link is a nightmare. Do you want to send your f
How I Failed: Losing my temper, my marriage and needing emergency psychiatric help - Lisa Collinson
Lisa Collinson is one of the best guests we’ve spoken to in a while. She has been through the ringer, but fortunately, has come out the other side. She’s here to tell us what happened and how you can pull yourself out of the grimmest pits that life can throw you in. Lisa today is the Chief People Officer & Country Manager in the UK of The Next We, a company helping other organisations improve the mindsets of their employees.But before that she was in Berlin, leading the People team
Extending human life, with Humanity Co-Founder and CEO Pete Ward
We’re talking to Pete Ward, the Co-Founder and CEO of Humanity. Until now, the thought of slowing or even reversing the ageing process has been pure science fiction. But using readily available technology, Humanity are out to change that. As a society, we’ve fallen prey to the idea that there’s a one size-fits-all methodology that will improve people’s health -exercise more, eat healthier, drink less - you’ve heard it all before. But Humanity, have recognised that everyone is built diff
How I Failed: I walked into a room and fired 30 of the 38 people in the company - Retention.com Founder Adam Robinson
Adam Robinson is the Founder and CEO of Retention.com, a SAAS business which is on an insane growth trajectory. But, before Retention.com, Adam failed. In fact, like most successful people, he had a bunch of failures. The one that sticks out most to him is what we’re talking about today, when he walked into a room and fired most of the people at his company.What happened?--If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?
hello@secretleaders.com --Sponsor
The secret to hiring the best - and getting hired - with Otta Co-founder, Sam Franklin
Do you want to get better at hiring, or being hired? Sam Franklin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Otta, a job search platform that wants to make the experience of job seekers in the tech industry way, way better.Recruitment and jobs boards might not seem the most exciting areas to disrupt but the subject of hiring is so important and can be very nuanced. All businesses succeed because of their people.At Otta, they’re really leaning into the power of the job seeker. And in the fast-growing
How I Failed: Multi-gold winning Paralympian Natasha Baker - having the most embarrassing fail you can imagine
Natasha Baker is a British dressage rider with 5 Paralympic golds to her name and a load of other top medals.She experienced a very public failure which left her in tears. And then, a few years later, the thing she was most scared of happening in the world, happened. What’s it like when you fall off the literal horse on the big stage? And what did it teach her about failure that we can all learn from?--If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?
hell
War Paint Founder: I used to steal women’s makeup because of shame, hell of body dysmorphia & turning down all 5 Dragons - Danny Gray
This conversation with Danny Gray is one of our all-time favourites.Danny had a childhood filled with bullying, trauma and mental disorders. It left him with scars that no one else could see, and eventually led him to starting War Paint, a men’s makeup brand that is on an unbelievable growth path. They’re creating a new category. In fact, they’ve already created it and are fast becoming an iconic brand.Plus, Danny went on Dragons Den, got offers from all 5 Dragons and then ultimately tu
Startup armageddon: Bank of England was going to allow SVB failure to kill UK startup industry until Founders & VCs stepped in
You probably heard SVB collapsed, but what you probably don’t know is how close the UK startup ecosystem came to collapsing all together.This is the inside story of how a small group of Founders and VCs fought to save the industry.How do we know? Because our host Dan was a small part of it.If the story we’re telling today hadn’t happened, then Dan would be sitting here without a company. This is how the crisis really played out.--If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What woul
Wise Co-Founder: Being Skype's first employee and the difference between winners and losers
Taavet Hinrikus is the Co-Founder and former Chairman of Wise, the unicorn fintech which used to be called TransferWise.He’s now the Co-Founder of Plural, an investment platform for early stage capital built by founders and real operators like Taavet.Oh, and he was also the first ever employee at Skype.Basically, he’s one of the top startup dogs in Europe so we had to get him on to learn what the difference is between great companies and the rest.It’s always amazing hearing about the ea
How I Failed: Pasta Evangelists Founder - previous luxury smartphone company was just too big a mountain to climb
Alessandro, or 'Alex' Savelli, is the Co-Founder of Pasta Evangelists - a brand you’ve probably come across. Their pasta is delicious and everywhere.But, before he was getting his hands in the proverbial pasta dough, he tried to climb a much tougher mountain - building a luxury smartphone brand. We’re talking hardware and software to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung but bedecked in precious metals and jewels.They had some big wins, but it didn’t work out - and we’re here to f
Teenage prodigy who turned down Facebook as a 15 YO to take them on in VR - Unai Founder Maxim Perumal
Maxim Perumal is the Founder of Unai and we think he’s a certifiable genius.He’s certainly one of the most exciting Founders we’ve ever spoken to - he built the world’s most popular open source VR headset when he was 15 years old, and turned down working at Meta.His company Unai is building a VR headset and virtual world to make human expression in VR feel magical, which is a bold claim but he’s got the people to do it. Maxim has managed to bring together a crack team of ridiculously qu
How I Failed: forced to walk away with £5k in the bank and no shares - Matteo Grassi
That’s Matteo Grassi, the Co-Founder of Pop-Up, a thriving no code eCommerce platform.But before all this, there was another period in his life - a much darker period. He left Shopify in 2016 to become a partner in a company, which Matteo has asked to keep anonymous. The idea was they would quickly spin up dozens of D2C ecommerce shops, connecting customers with cool products. They would be the middleman and they absolutely exploded. It was a paid marketing masterclass. One of their sh
How I Failed: death threats and journalists knocking on the door after growing too fast, with Matt Kelly
Matt Kelly, the Founder of Spacegoods (really cool company btw) experienced one of the fastest rises and falls with a bootstrapped business we’ve ever seen.He grew Neon Beach, a DTC neon sign brand, to £7m in revenue in a year. He got to £10m in 18 months - from his bedroom, in lockdown - basically just him, his laptop and freelancers.But then he made one big mistake which cost him more than this business. What the hell happened? --If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What wo
Former Welsh rugby captain Sam Warburton learns from golfing legend Paul McGinley - Secret Leaders X Captains
We're linking up with our mates at Crowd Network to introduce you to one of their new podcasts, Captains with Sam Warburton.Whether you’re big into your sports or not, this show has plenty of leadership gems to be taken into your life and career. Sam is joined weekly by a successful sporting leader, who explain what it takes to be the very best.To listen to the rest of this chat, search for ‘Captains with Sam Warburton’ in your favourite podcast app, or hit this link: https://pod.fo/e/1
How I Failed: dumped two weeks before my dream wedding, with MBA Professor Cassie Holmes
Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, where she teaches the immensely popular MBA course, Applying the Science of Happiness to Life Design. She’s also the author of Happier Hour, a new book that gives us the tools to be happier, some of which we’ll dive into later today. Cassie’s understanding of happiness was born out of a deeply unhappy period, sparked by an intensely personal failure. The failure of her impending marriage to her childhood sweetheart.Wh
Childs Farm: Beating Johnson & Johnson with a skincare brand started in a kitchen - Founder Joanna Jensen
Joanna Jensen is the Founder and former CEO of Childs Farm, a baby & child skincare brand. The company began at home after Joanna grew frustrated with the lack of choice for her young daughter’s sensitive, eczema-prone skin, so she started to make her own products. When those worked she got a thousand bottles made and went up and down the country selling them at trade fairs, country shows, anywhere she thought potential customers might be. It was the start of something magical.They
How I Failed: “He is a cancer on what could be a great organisation” - Teach First Founder Brett Wigdortz on the worst feedback he’s ever received.
Brett Wigdortz is the Co-Founder of Teach First. He started the business in 2002 after seeing how the UK education system was failing miserably. The company has gone on to be a massive success but it was incredibly close to imploding because of how he operated in the early days. When Brett asked for feedback from his staff, a small moment turned into a big moment that would change the course of Teach First, the lives of its employees and its thousands of future teachers and students.Wha
Why 50% of A&E visits are avoidable and how to solve the social care crisis - Cera Co-Founder Dr Ben Maruthappu
Dr Ben Maruthappu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cera, a digital-first home healthcare company. In just over six years, Cera has established itself as one of the biggest providers of healthcare at home in the UK, as well as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe. Cera currently makes almost 50,000 visits a day to people’s homes in the UK. That’s the equivalent capacity of around 50 hospitals. After launching in 2016, they have raised over $400 million and are generating over £250
How I Failed: huge traction but held hostage by the business, with Christie Ellis
Christie Ellis founded one of the first human quality pet food companies, The Healthy Pet Gourmet. Her aim was to revolutionise how we feed our pets by helping them live longer and happier. She was going to build the next IAMS. The press went mad, customers loved it. She was on World News Tonight, the Today show, and top-end magazines. She had high profile clients, one who designed her kitchen for all her pet food. On paper, the business was doing well. The product was selling, and then
Life-changing session with world's top CEO coach Matt Mochary & Georgia Dienst - Dan Murray Serter
What do the Founders and CEOs of Coinbase, OpenAI, Reddit, Brex, Notion… and even everyone’s favourite modern day venture capitalist0cum-philosopher Naval - have in common? They all have the same coach.Matt Mochary is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, the author of the brilliant book The Great CEO within, which we highly recommend. But he is probably best known as one of the most in demand coaches on the planet. He has designed his own coaching framework called 'the Mochary Method' which he and h
How I Failed: From $250 million to 0, with Shyp Founder Kevin Gibbon
Shyp started in 2013 when Kevin Gibbon had the idea of taking the Uber model and using it for shipping. He created an on-demand service where customers would take a picture of what they wanted to send, a courier would come pick it up and then take it to a warehouse to be packaged and delivered using major shipping companies. There was huge excitement when they launched. They were featured on the front pages of newspapers and Kevin was hailed as the ‘next Steve Jobs’. They were a hit wi
How to improve your performance by looking after your brain and gut, with UK's top dietitian Sophie Medlin and leading neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart
Did you know that looking after your brain is one of the best ways to be more productive? And your gut is central to the decisions you make? This episode brings insights from two professionals at the cutting edge of their fields, to give actionable steps on how to be more effective, improving your life at work and at home. Dr Tara is a world-leading neuroscientist and best selling author of ‘The Source’. She has a PhD in neuropharmacology, was a medical doctor and child psychologist, ha
How I Failed: Drinking to forget what was going on - Dom McGregor, Social Chain Co-Founder
Dom McGregor co-founded Social Chain with Steven Bartlett, host of the hit podcast Diary of a CEO. Their business didn’t fail, in fact, it sky-rocketed. When they exited the company after six years in 2020, they’d built it to hundreds of employees, with clients like Apple, McDonald's, the BBC, and Boohoo, and taken it public the year before with a value of about £250 million. But the pressure on Dom was immense, and the way he coped left him feeling like he’d failed. He had turned to al
What do you do when you get $300m? Start tackling the real problems facing humanity - Kernel Founder & CEO, Bryan Johnson
What do you want to do with your life? Do you have a plan?Bryan Johnson knew from a young age he wanted to have a big impact on the world and set out to do it. His plan was simple, he wanted to make enough money so that he could focus on really making a difference to the world. And he did it. Not by doing anything flashy but by building a payments platform, bootstrapping it for years, and through understanding a hell of a lot about human psychology he got it to the point where he sold h
Key habits for growing your wealth, why finance should be as easy as learning to drive, and choosing renting over buying - author of bestseller 'How to Own the World' and Founder, Andrew Craig
What are your new year’s resolutions? Is money on your mind? Being an entrepreneur can be a bit of an all or nothing game when it comes to money. You're into the creation process and are willing to sacrifice a lot. It can cost you much more than you earn, especially at the beginning, and often you have nothing for a long time. But, admitting that you want money and understanding how to take control of it can be difficult, it can feel like a taboo. That’s why this episode features bestse
Deliciously Ella: making new year habits stick, the issues of #girlboss culture and why she doesn’t see herself as an influencer - with Founder Ella Mills
Ella Mills started a plant-based food blog, Deliciously Ella, in 2012 after chronic illness left her physically and mentally depleted. The blog blew up and its popularity led to her first recipe book, which was released in January 2015. It became the fastest-selling debut cookbook of all time in the UK and spent eight weeks at number one on Amazon, across all categories. Deliciously Ella now has 40 plant-based food products, stocked in more than 6,000 stores across the UK, an app, more
How I Failed: Trying to please the wrong people, with Founder Rob Fitzpatrick
How do you know what to do when you’re just starting out? In 2007, Rob Fitzpatrick and his two co-founders, were in their early twenties. They were programmers just out of academia and had an idea for a business. They were accepted to YCombinator in the same cohort as teams like Dropbox and Songkick. They got deals with big companies like Sony Music, MTV, and the BBC, were on national talk shows, got great press coverage and moved to London to be in the centre of their industry. But the
Who Gives A Crap: Going viral on a toilet and selling 300 million rolls of toilet paper, with Co-Founder Simon Griffiths
Where were you when you came up with the idea for your business?Simon Griffiths was sitting on a toilet when he had the idea for Who Gives A Crap, a subscription-based toilet paper brand that donates 50% of its profits to help build toilets in the developing world.Since they launched in 2012, they’ve sold more than 300 million rolls of toilet paper and donated more than 11 million Australian dollars - just over £6 million - to charity. They now have more than 200 employees spread across
How I Failed: “We were like a cockroach company, we wouldn’t die”, with Founder Steven Renwick
What happens when your business pivots so much you end up in a completely different industry?Steven Renwick founded Satago, a platform that helps businesses get paid faster, in 2012. It was actually one of the first companies to raise money on the equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs. Whilst it started out as a way to crowdsource data about when companies were getting paid and use that to make real time credit reports, Steven had to pivot the business multiple times, meaning it went from
The Black Farmer: managing your fear is the key to success, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones MBE
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones grew up in poverty in Birmingham, having come with his parents from Jamaica as part of the Windrush generation. One of nine children, and as the oldest boy, it was his job to help his father on their allotment, which they used to supplement the family income. And it was on that allotment he first dreamt of owning his own farm. His drive to change his circumstances was relentless, which was needed, because he had to excel at several different career stages just to
How I Failed: 250 VCs and not a single yes, with Pluto Co-Founder Alex Rainey
Do you want to learn about raising capital from someone who has been through the wringer and reflected on his mistakes?Alex Rainey is the Co-Founder of travel insurer and planning app Pluto, which he founded in 2018. They raised a total of £1.3 million, and grew to be the UK’s second highest rated travel insurer and one of the top-3 travel planning apps on the app store. But in September 2022, just a couple of months before we recorded this episode, Alex and his Co-Founder sold the comp
Back Market: From middle manager to $5b Founder, with Co-Founder & CEO Thibaud Hug de Larauze.
Do you risk it all when the odds are stacked against you?As a founder it’s very hard to take that first leap into the unknown and even more so when you’re in a job you love.The stakes are rarely higher and it’s so difficult to do it well. But that’s exactly what Thibaud Hug de Larauze did when he left his job to found Back Market, a marketplace for refurbished devices, in 2014. They have grown massively since then, raising over a billion dollars, including $335 million in May 2022 - at
How I Failed: Losing $1.5 million on someone else’s dream, with entrepreneur Simon Squibb
Simon Squibb is a multi-millionaire entrepreneur and angel investor. After being homeless at 15, he has gone on to found 19 businesses and invest in 76 companies to date. After selling his business to PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) he retired at 40 and is now on a mission to help 10 million people start their own businesses through the Purposeful Project.But it wasn’t a straight line to success, and one of those businesses, a comic book business, failed, losing $1.5 million.What went wron
How 7 interviews changed my life - our 200th episode, with Dan Murray-Serter
This is Secret Leader’s 200th episode! Over the last 5 years we've featured over 50 unicorn leaders and household names such as Monzo, Slack, Duolingo, Brewdog, Lastminute.com.In today’s episode host Dan Murray-Serter takes listeners through the interviews that have had the biggest impact on him. Guests include host of Diary of a CEO, entrepreneur, and angel investor, Steven Bartlett; Co-Founder of Little Moons Vivien Wong on how they went viral during the pandemic; Eve Sleep Kuba Wiecz
How I failed: So close to achieving my dream and then walking away, with Emma Sexton
In 2013 Emma set up strategic brand agency Hands Down in her spare bedroom, on her laptop, with just £1,000 in savings. She’d never run a business before and had been an employee for the past twenty years, since she was 18. Learning on the job, she put all her energy into growing the business over the next ten years. She had one goal in mind, to make £1 million a year. Despite the pandemic, the business was on set to reach this goal in 2022…but in July she decided to close Hands Down do
The biggest problem in business - property legend and Yoo Co-Founder John Hitchcox
John Hitchcox is the Chairman and Founder of Yoo Group, the property company behind the £1.3 billion pound regeneration of Olympia London and considered by many the global leader in the branded residence space. John founded Yoo in 1999 with one of the world’s most famous designers, Philippe Starck. Together they have grown Yoo to where it is today, operating in over fifty cities and thirty countries worldwide. John has been in the property market since the early eighties, when he was ju
An Uncommon Criminal - Bad Money X Secret Leaders
This a new one for us - we've just launched our first true crime show at Kindling Media (we make Secret Leaders).It's called Bad Money and it's about the Hong Kong gangster, Big Spender. Obsessed with money, he went further than anyone before to get rich. In fact, he became so wealthy he could've had his own episode on Secret Leaders.This is a story of how money and power really work - and this is the first episode.You can listen to the rest of the show here: https://link.chtbl.com/badm
How I failed: Half a million in debt and living in my car, with Founder Konrad Bergström
Konrad Bergström is the founder of Swedish electric boat manufacturer X Shore and Zound Industries, the Swedish tech giant that sells consumer electronics for Marshall Amplification and Adidas. But before that, he was half a million euros in debt and living out of his car after his previous business, Megascine Agency, failed. Konrad set up the business which distributed brands like Quicksilver and Burton in Sweden in the late 90s. The company grew quickly and made a name for themselves,
'I was 5 the first time I heard the word drugs': Nikki Wicks, CEO of The Body Coach and brother of Joe Wicks.
Nikki Wicks is the CEO of The Body Coach and the older brother of Joe Wicks. Joe, aka The Body Coach, is a household name. He’s a fitness coach with a massive online following and the author of one of the best selling cookbooks of all time ‘Lean In 15’, having sold over a million copies in its first year alone. During the pandemic Joe became known as the ‘Nation’s PE teacher’, delivering exercise sessions on YouTube for children every week. One class of PE with Joe was live-streamed by
How I failed: ‘Never go in with the idea of money first’, with Founder Kurt Davis.
Kurt Davis has spent twenty years in Silicon Valley and Asia, working in venture capital and business development for technology startups, focusing on deals with companies like Apple, Microsoft, Spotify, and Sony. But he experienced failure, with his very first business, a mobile game company. Kurt was living in Hong Kong in the early 2000s and from there he witnessed the beginning of a wave of innovation in China, especially in tech. Alibaba, Tencent, Baibu, all of them were launched a
Ignore the press, why you should be excited about the world - billionaire psychedelic investor Christian Angermayer
Christian Angermayer is a German-born billionaire. He’s on the Sunday Times rich list, and has accumulated a lot of wealth from his work as an investor, film producer and founder. But Christian is about much more than money…From his family office, Apeiron Investment Group, he invests and starts companies in areas from psychedelics to fintech, cryptocurrency, biotech, and artificial intelligence. In fact, he’s been called the world’s first ‘psychedelic billionaire’. That might seem a bit
How I failed: We were playing the wrong game, with Jonathan Anderson
Jonathan Anderson is the co-founder and CEO of Candu, a no-code platform that helps people build their own products. They are used by companies likeAdobe, Thought Industries, and Gorgias and have raised over five million dollars.But his first business wasn’t such a success. In 2011, when Jonathan was a student at Stanford University in a CleanTech programme, he came up with the idea for a smart thermostat controlled by your smartphone with a couple of his fellow students. The problem th
Duolingo Founder: Being a genius, inventing CAPTCHA & getting 500m users - Luis Von Ahn
If you’re not one of their 500 million users, Duolingo is a phenomenally successful app where you practise a language in small chunks every day. Launched in 2012, it has become the number one language learning app and the most downloaded education app in the world. The company floated in 2021 and currently has a market cap of just under 4 billion dollars. It’s rare for a founder to be brilliant at both invention and business but Luis Von Ahn, the Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo, is one o
How I failed: Leaving my high paying job for my doomed startup with Jay Radia
Jay Radia has built three businesses worth over half a billion pounds and currently runs an accelerator focusing on increasing happiness in the workplace. But before all that, he founded a company called Mobi RF, which failed. The idea behind the company was to allow anyone with a smartphone to start selling their photos to businesses, like iStock or Getty Images for your smartphone. Jay had this spark of inspiration back in 2012 when Instagram was taking off and everyone was taking mor
How I failed: Not knowing when to accept defeat, with Mark Joseph
Before Mark Joseph founded his current marketing agency, Vouch Global, he experienced failure with another agency called Testify Digital. Their clients included brands like Universal, Wonderbra, Shock Absorber and Lenovo. He loved the projects they came up with, including the world’s first award judged on social media for the Mobo Awards. They got to £1m in revenue and Mark ran the company for five years before he reached the point where he felt he had to walk away. So, what went wrong?
How I failed: Good options but not enough focus, with Yorkshire Meatball Co Founder Gareth Atkinson
Gareth Atkinson launched the Yorkshire Meatball Company in 2014 with his father after they recognised a gap in the market for a premium meatball product. They opened a restaurant in Harrogate, won awards, were listed as one of the UK’s top 100 startups, and ended up being stocked in 300 supermarkets across the country. Like all good entrepreneurs, they’d even built a brand that had the potential and scope to stretch into other markets.So what went wrong? Listen to find out. If you have
Improbable: Inside the UK’s most secretive unicorn, with Co-Founder Herman Narula
How do you build a metaverse? Long before Facebook changed to Meta, Improbable, a British game and technology company, was working on the idea of a kind of metaverse, even if they didn’t call it that. Now, they are at the forefront of making virtual worlds (where you can go to work, socialise, have experiences) a reality. Improbable was born in 2012 after Herman Narula met Co-Founder Rob Whitehead whilst they were both studying computer science at Cambridge University. They had a dream:
How I failed: On the cusp of greatness when everything falls apart with Flash Pack Founder Radha Vyas
Would you fight for your business even after you’d put it into administration? Radha Vyas co-founded Flash Pack, an adventure holiday company, with her husband Lee, after realising there was an untapped market for solo entrepreneurs in their thirties and forties. They slowly built their company and were just entering an exciting first fundraising round when the pandemic hit, decimating their company and the entire travel industry. They had to put the company into administration but then
Dan Murray-Serter, Chapter 4: How to cross the chasm from idea to product
You want to launch a new product. But how do you decide on exactly what you’re going to develop? How do you build a community when you don’t have anything to sell them? How do you test demand? These are important questions that Dan Murray-Serter, the usual host of Secret Leaders, will be answering this week.This is the fourth chapter in our semi-regular series with Dan where we put him in the hot seat. If you haven’t listened to the previous three it’s worth doing that now because you’l
How I Failed: Unable to keep staff, with Founder Hayden Bloomfield
Do you struggle to maintain good relationships with your employees? Hayden Bloomfield managed to grow his grounds maintenance company during the pandemic. At its height, it had a team of ten and was turning over £25,000 - £30,000 a month. But during a period of two years, Hayden went through thirty members of staff. He couldn’t focus on building the big picture because he regularly had to cover some staff not turning up for work. Why couldn’t he stop his staff from leaving? Listen to fi
Fiverr: “Stop focusing on f*cking valuations, they mean nothing!” says Co-Founder Micha Kaufman
Micha Kaufman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fiverr, the global online marketplace for freelancers. Let’s say you’re a designer. You can list your services and display your portfolio. And then companies who want stuff designed like a new website can find you and hire you to do the work.It's called Fiverr because at the beginning all the tasks cost 5 dollars. Though the pricing has changed, the name has stayed and the platform is currently used by 4.2 million customers in 160 countries wor
How I failed: The danger of doing business with friends, with Footlights Founder Jo Fisher
Would you go into business with a friend? Jo Fisher is the Founder and CEO of Footlights, a performing arts company, which has 17 franchises and works with schools across the north of England. She got into business at a ridiculously young age. As a young child she used to sit in the entrance to her house and sell items her neighbours no longer wanted to make money for sweets. She left school at 14 to work full-time and launched her first business, an underwear business, when she was jus
The Newsette's Daniella Pierson on how to prove your haters wrong
Daniella Pierson is the CEO and Founder of the Newsette, a women-focused newsletter which she started when she was at university at just 19 years old. Now 27, she was recently named by Forbes as one of the wealthiest women of colour in the United States. The newsletter now has more than 500,000 subscribers, whilst revenue grew from $1million in 2019 to $40 million in 2021. Within the company she also started a creative agency, Newland, which works with Fortune 500 brands. According to I
How I failed: “When people try to take things off you, you gotta fight back!” with Natterjack Whisky Founder Aidan Mehigan
For this episode of ‘How I Failed’ we follow the story of Aidan Mehigan’s fight to save his business, as it happened. We first spoke to Aidan earlier this year when he was in the middle of a fundraise and court battle to keep control of his whisky business. When growing his company in 2018, Natterjack Whisky, Aidan had taken out a convertible loan note to fund his business. Then Covid hit, by the end of 2021, cash was low, their sales were almost non-existent on the international market
THIS Co-Founder shares secret to making plant-based food that doesn’t suck - Andy Shovel
THIS is currently the fastest-growing meat alternative brand in the UK. After launching in 2019, it was recently valued at £150 million. But Co-Founders Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman didn’t always want to help people eat less meat. In fact, before THIS they ran a successful beef burger company. Andy knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur from a young age and sold his first business at 21. But far from feeling proud of himself, he really struggled. He hardly left his room for three weeks. S
What it was really like building Apple with Steve Jobs, with Founder & CEO of FNDR James Vincent
James Vincent has helped develop brands for some of the biggest companies in the world. For 11 years he met Steve Jobs every week to come up with some of the iconic campaigns for Apple’s products. And then to launch the very first iPhone, James started Media Arts Lab, Apple’s exclusive brand agency, along with Lee Clow and other co-founders, which he ran for over eight years.For someone who had a big part to play in constructing Apple’s narrative, James Vincent is a relatively unknown f
SumUp: how to stumble into building an €8b company, with Co-Founder Marc-Alexander Christ
How much of your success is down to luck? Marc-Alexander Christ is the Co-Founder of SumUp, which was recently valued at €8b. He says being in the right place at the right time was a big factor in him starting the company. SumUp is a fintech best known for supplying card readers to small businesses so they can take payments. You may have seen them, and have probably used them because they work with over four million merchants worldwide. It hasn’t always gone their way though. As well as
Octopus Energy: how to run a massive company with no HR function, with Founder and CEO Greg Jackson
Greg Jackson started Octopus Energy, a green energy supplier, in 2015. Since then it has enjoyed huge growth. It is now the fourth largest energy retailer in the UK, supplying over 3 million homes in the country, as well as homes in Germany, the USA, Japan, Spain, Italy, France and New Zealand. They were valued at nearly 5 billion dollars at the end of 2021. Greg is clearly passionate about climate change and says he went into business to drive change. Octopus Energy is a fascinating bu
Little Moons: how to become an overnight success - in 12 years, with Co-Founder Vivien Wong
Going viral is something many businesses would kill for but having to scale up your business to meet rocketing demand is not easy. Little Moons makes mochi ice cream, a type of Japanese rice cake with an ice cream filling. Vivien Wong co-founded the business with her brother in 2010 after spending two years developing the product with her father in her parents' bakery. Over the next decade the company grew steadily and surely, until the company went viral on TikTok during the pandemic a
How I failed: Launching a website no one visited with Founder Chris Donnelly
Last year Chris sold a creative marketing agency he’d founded called Verb and he’s now the Co-Founder of Lottie, which just raised £6 million on a £45 million valuation.But before these successes, he experienced failure with his website the Real Uni Guide, which aimed to match students with the right universities for them. Along with his co-founder brother, he spent over a year building the website but when they launched, hardly anyone visited. Find out what happened and what Chris lear
Sweatcoin: how to turn your worst moments into your best, with Co-Founder Oleg Fomenko
What makes you want to exercise? Would you do it more if you were paid to do it?Oleg Fomenko thinks we aren’t naturally disposed to want to exercise, that we have evolved to preserve our store of calories rather than spend them. So, he built Sweatcoin, along with his Co-Founder Anton Derlyatka, an app that will literally pay you for taking steps outside. Specifically it will pay you a certain amount of ‘sweatcoin’ for every thousand steps you take. This digital currency can then be swit
How I failed: the gym business which went under, with Shares Co-Founder Benjamin Chemla
Benjamin Chemla has been an entrepreneur for over a decade. He co-founded the massive on-demand delivery service Stuart in 2015 and currently he is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shares, a just-launched app which makes investing a social experience. But between his successes, there was a high profile failure. Benjamin founded a group of gyms in New York City called Fithouse in 2017. Everything started great, classes running on everything from yoga to boxing. Investors had put up $10 million
Fanbytes: from growing up poor to selling for millions at 27, with Co-Founder Timothy Armoo
What were you doing at 17?When he was that age, Timothy Armoo had already sold his first startup. Now 27, he has just sold his second startup, Fanbytes, a social media and influencer marketing agency, to digital advertising company, Brainlabs, for eight figures.Timothy, or Timo as he is known, grew up on a council estate in Hackney and it was the realisation that he was poor when he was a teenager that motivated him to become an entrepreneur. He started Fanbytes with his co-founders in
How I failed: not able to pay suppliers, staff or my mortgage with Founder Matt Jones
Finding investment is a necessity for many entrepreneurs, but things don’t always work out the way they're supposed to. Matt Jones started his business Rubix Advertising in 2009, with the help of an investor. It started well and the business, a full service media advertising company, grew quickly. But only two years later, Matt had to close his business down.What happened? And how did he turn that failure into a seven figure success story? Listen to find out.If you have any feedback, we
The man who predicted the rise of the influencer, with Gleam Futures Founder Dom Smales
Dom Smales is the exited Founder of Gleam Futures, which was one of the first social media talent agencies in the world - and the first in the UK. When Gleam was founded back in 2010, influencers weren’t even a thing, but Dom saw the potential power bloggers could have. He went on to play a big part in the rise of the first Youtube stars, like Zoe Sugg, better known as Zoella; Tanya Burr; and the Pixiwoo sisters, Sam and Nicola Chapman. Dom exited in 2020 but it wasn't what he thought i
How I failed: “I didn’t actually believe in the business, I just wanted to work for myself”, with Founder Amelia Sordell
Today, Amelia Sordell runs a booming personal branding agency called Klowt, but back in 2015, aged 21, she had just founded Eitherside, a fashion brand for women who wanted to dress up for a night out - but without the luxury price tag. Only eight months after starting the company, Amelia was faced with taking out a loan she would have to personally guarantee, or shutting it down. She chose the latter. Listen to find out what went wrong, and how she finally overcame that failure after n
Dan Murray-Serter, Chapter 3: ‘I’d decided life was meaningless’ - my battle with bulimia, anxiety, depression and insomnia
You wouldn’t sign up for a terrible experience but they’re a breeding ground for the best stories, and the most personal growth. It’s no different for today’s guest and the usual host of Secret Leaders, Dan Murray-Serter, who opens up about his biggest traumas… which became the biggest turning points in his life.This is the third chapter in our semi-regular series with Dan. If you haven’t listened to the first or second it’s worth doing that now because you’ll understand the periods he’
How I failed: “We were so convinced that we were among the few that would make it to IPO”, with multi-exit entrepreneur Touraj Parang
Touraj Parang today has multiple exits under his belt, has sat on both sides of the deal table - and has written a book literally called "Exit Path: How to Win the Startup End Game". But the reason he’s become such an authority on exits is what we’re discussing today - his failed startup Jaxtr.Jaxtr was a way to make phone calls over the internet in the period 2005 - 2009, before stuff like Whatsapp calling was really a thing. They’d done really well according to some metrics - they had
GoHenry: Creating a new category with other parents after kids racked up bills, with Co-Founder & COO Louise Hill
Louise Hill is the Co-Founder and COO of GoHenry, a debit card and financial education app for children which has two million users. The starting point for Louise was noticing her kids buying stuff on iTunes without her permission. She then found out other children were spending money on all sorts of things without them or their parents realising it. So, after chatting with two dads whose kids went to the same school, they decided to do something about it. This is the story of how Louis
How I failed: “I didn’t want to tell them I’ve reached the end of my rope”, with journalist Emma Gunavardhana
Emma Gunavardhana, or Emma Guns as she’s often known started her career with a bang. She landed her dream job early doors - editing OK Magazine back when that was a really big deal. But when she left the comfort of that job to make it as a solopreneur, everything went to pot. Wind forward four years and Emma was at her lowest ebb, considering selling her car and moving back in with her parents at the age of 38 - a has-been who couldn’t make it in London.Find out what happened and what s
What3Words: Why an injury can be the best thing to happen to you, with Co-Founder & CEO Chris Sheldrick
We normally can’t see it at the time but bad things often play a critical role in good things happening. As Steve Jobs famously said, it’ll make sense looking backwards. This is exactly what happened to Chris Sheldrick who had plans to be a professional bassoonist but a freak injury changed the course of life.Chris is now the Co-Founder and CEO of What3Words, an alarmingly simple solution to a complex problem you didn’t know we had - addresses.Lots of places don’t have addresses - like
How I failed: short-form video platform that got crushed by TikTok, with Jess Butcher MBE
Ok, ok - it’s not all about your name or your competitors - but Jess Butcher was kicking herself when she came across TikTok shortly after launching Tick.Done. with her Co-Founders in 2018. Tick.Done. was also a short form video platform which made things confusing. Jess’s friends regularly congratulated her on her success, only for Jess to admit that TikTok, the thing they were hearing about everywhere, wasn’t her business. And pretty quickly it was the end for them.Jess is a legend -
How I failed: the non-alcoholic drink which got pulled from the shelves, with Richard Clark, Founder of Drynks
Richard Clark is now the Founder and MD of Drynks, a non-alcoholic drinks business which raised money on Dragons Den and is growing strongly. But a few years ago he launched another non alcoholic drink, Iron Press, which had a very different outcome. Having enjoyed huge success at Halewood International with Crabbie’s Ginger Beer, Richard and his team found it easy to get into retailers, but it was then the problems started.Find out what went wrong and what he learnt from it. ...We'd lo
How I failed: 37 jobs by the age of 24, with Krisi Smith, Founder of Bird & Blend
We’ve all made mistakes. Many of us have had short-lived jobs. And many of us have been fired. But getting through 37 jobs by the time you’re 24 is quite a haul. That’s what happened to Krisi Smith, the Founder of Bird & Blend, a booming tea company. But before she found her groove, she found she couldn’t hold down a job.This is the story of what happened and what she learnt from it....We'd love your feedback:
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Beyond: shorting your rival’s stock for $700m but losing the war, with Founder & CEO Ian Strang
80% to 90% of startups fail. But what those stats don't tell you is how you can do loads of things right and still fail. This is what happened to Ian Strang and the company he founded, Beyond, who tried to shake up the death industry - offering price comparisons, wills, funerals, probate - those kinds of things. They certainly managed to do that. They landed some blows, but ultimately they lost the war.This is Ian’s story, told a few months after his company failed. He and his team came
How I failed: Chris Cabrera on getting fired, getting pissed, and getting even
By the time he was 37, Chris Cabrera had managed his career very well. He was a leader in a public company - and he knew what strategy the company should take to seize the future. But then he got fired. This is the story of what happened and what he did next. ...We'd love your feedback:
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How the fat kid did it: Vikas Shah MBE on getting over obesity shame and suicide attempts - and what people get wrong about entrepreneurship
Vikas Shah MBE looks like the picture of success today. He’s got an MBE. He advises the government on business matters. He’s an NED, investor - he’s someone you look up to. But it wasn’t always like this. He was a fat kid at school, and when he realised he was obese - was disgusted by himself.He lost his identity when his first business failed. He tried to commit suicide four times. The last one got very close to succeeding.But we’re here talking with Vikas-the-success today, and that’s
How I failed: Alex Farrell on winding down her startup after taking on a new industry
Alex Farrell is a successful entrepreneur, NED and investor but amongst the successes, there have also been some losses. Alex founded Gift Wink in 2015, a platform where users could get timely and excellent gift ideas. So when your Mum’s birthday was coming up, you’d actually get her something awesome which arrived on time.That was the idea anyway, but four years later, after pushing against headwinds, Alex was forced to let the staff go and close the business.Find out what happened…...
Tackling a problem that will affect half the planet as a first-time Founder, with Vira Health Co-Founder Andrea Berchowitz
Andrea Berchowitz is the Co-Founder of Vira Health, a tech startup taking on problems in women’s health, starting with menopause.Andrea worked at McKinsey and then the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation but this is her first time as a Founder. What’s tougher than she expected? What’s surprised her about the switch? And what would she advise others thinking of making the move?Plus we discuss:
How to pick what to do with your career
The reality of menopause
Stereotypes of engineers
The
How I failed: Giles Harrison quit his job to start his own thing but hit a big reality check
Giles Harrison, the Co-Founder of Sculpd, is riding high now but his first startup ground to a painful halt. Having quit his job in a bullish mood to found a matcha tea business, he soon found out how difficult startups are - and how much more difficult physical goods businesses are compared to digital ones.Find out how he failed - what went wrong - and what he learnt from it. ...We'd love your feedback:
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The Sandbox: wtf is the metaverse and how will it change the world, with Co-Founder and COO Sebastien Borget
So you’ve heard people talking about the metaverse and have been wondering what they’re on about? You think you get it one minute but then someone else says something and you’re none the wiser? Yeah, sounds about right.This is why we’re pumped to be interviewing Sebastien Borger, the Co-Founder and COO of The Sandbox, who are a market leader in the metaverse. The Sandbox is the place where brands like Starbucks, Gucci and Nike have been buying virtual land so they can deliver experience
How I failed: Amanda Perry went bankrupt after losing her baking business
Amanda Perry tells us what it’s like to go bankrupt after flying high with her baking business. She’d been featured in Vogue; her cupcakes were flying off the shelves - she thought business was easy. Until it wasn’t, and it was her who was personally on the hook…How do you even go bankrupt from starting a company? What impact does it have on you? And how do you recover from something like that? Amanda’s now the successful Founder of Soup Agency but this is a cautionary tale for anyone t
Outbrain: closing a funding round with gunfire in the background -Co-Founder & Co-CEO Yaron Galai
It’s pretty rare that investors have to ask the Founder they’re speaking to if they’re in a warzone, or insist they have to leave their country for somewhere a little more ‘peaceful’ but that’s exactly what happened to Yaron Galai, the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Outbrain. Yaron was a captain in the Israeli Navy before smashing it out the park with a few startups he founded. Yaron’s latest company Outbrain (founded in 2006) is one you may not have heard of but you’ve probably used - they p
How I failed: Steve Witt on losing everything… twice
Steve Witt knows what it’s like to make a lot of money… and lose it all. He knows what it’s like to go from sipping mai tais on the proverbial Caribbean island to sleeping on your mate’s sofa because you’ve got nowhere else to go. And he’s gone through that twice.Find out what happened and how he picked himself up again....We'd love your feedback:
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BorrowMyDoggy: how to get people to trust strangers, with Founder and CEO Rikke Rosenlund
BorrowMyDoggy is the kind of brand that just sticks in your brain. Once you’ve heard it you can’t unhear it. Today we’re talking with its Founder and CEO Rikke Rosenlund who had an idyllic Danish childhood but still doesn’t own a dog.Find out how she built the company bit by bit - and how they're helping the 25% of dogs who are depressed.We talk about:
What your parents say behind your back
The issues with dog care in the UK
People finding love through pet sitting
Real reason women foun
How I failed: Trinny Woodall on the fall of her first internet startup
This is the first episode in our new bitesize series (10/15-minute episodes) dedicated to failure.Trinny Woodall’s an A-lister now, and the Founder of Trinny London, but before all the success she experienced a soul-crushing failure around the dotcom boom.Find out what happened, what she learnt from it - and how you should think about failure....We'd love your feedback:
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Finimize: what you should’ve been taught in school about personal finance, with the FTSE 100’s youngest Exec and Founder/CEO Max Rofagha
What we’re taught at schools is a real pet peeve here at Secret Leaders. Why are we mucking about learning Latin when we could be learning about stuff like nutrition and personal finance - genuinely useful subjects that will help us lead happier, more fulfilling lives?That’s what Max Rofagha thought when, after exiting his previous startup, he didn’t know what to do with his new found wealth. The content on the internet, the advice he was getting, just didn’t cut it - so he founded Fini
Tripadvisor: how to lead a company for 22 years, with Founder and CEO Steve Kaufer
If you’ve been on holiday - if you’ve been anywhere you’ve Googled - you’ve probably used Tripadvisor. It’s just one of those names synonymous with the internet, and it’s not just because their SEO has been amazing - they’ve been going for 22 years. Extraordinarily it’s had the same person leading it all this time - Steve Kaufer, who’s finally stepping down this year. Tripadvisor has been through a variety of management changes along the way, which have forced Steve to adapt but he’s st
MasterClass: how to get over a stutter and attract A-listers like Anna Wintour and Martin Scorsese, with Founder & CEO David Rogier
When you’re first dreaming up a business idea, you imagine it at its best - as if your execution was perfect and your resources unlimited. When your friends ask at a dinner party, you say you’ll have Gordon Ramsey teaching cooking and Christina Aguilera teaching singing. Your friends laugh, you cheers each other - and carry on with your meal. But in the case of today’s guest, David Rogier, he’s turned that dream into a reality.Everyone thought he was mad, and pointed it out to him at va
Summit: how to pull off insane ideas like buying a ski resort - with Co-Founder Elliott Bisnow
How do you buy a ski mountain? How much does it cost? And how do you turn it into the biggest ski resort in North America - Powder Mountain?That’s the kind of thing we wanted to know when we sat down with Elliott Bisnow, who shot to startup fame as Co-Founder of Summit, a now legendary events series which attracted speakers like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Jessica Alba.He’s now the proud Co-Founder of Powder Mountain which is insanely cool. And not bad for a college dropout, althoug
“He offered me $1m and I was much more interested in that than being sued again” - Kieran O'Neill, Co-Founder and CEO of Thread
It’s not often you meet real life prodigies but Kieran O’Neill might just be one. By the time he was 19 he’d been sued by Disney and his company had been bought by Carl Page, the brother of Google Co-Founder Larry Page. And then he dropped out of university to start another successful business, because, why not?“At that point I discovered what I want to do for the rest of my life - build things. And I began building a tool that would track which of my housemates was best at a particular
How to come up with the right business idea - Dan Murray-Serter, Chapter 2
Building a successful startup is about lots of things but a tonne of people get the first step wrong - picking the right business to launch. So how do you pick the right one? Well, our host and the Co-Founder of Heights Dan Murray-Serter is in the hot seat today answering that very question. This is the second episode in our semi-regular series with Dan, showing what it’s really like to be a Founder, warts and all. The first episode was released on January 18 and we left things at a cri
Motorway: How to combine the best of bootstrapped and VC-backed thinking in one startup, with Co-Founder & CEO Tom Leathes
One of the extraordinary things about the startup ecosystem is the kind of company that gets celebrated. Most of the time, they don’t make money. They bounce from one funding round to the next, and only a tiny % eventually make it. They’re the kinds of businesses that would’ve made our grandparents shake their heads.Today’s guest, Tom Leathes, the Co-Founder and CEO of used car marketplace Motorway, is different. The first few companies he built were bootstrapped, profitable and he sold
Pip & Nut: How to take your business from your kitchen table to most major supermarkets, with Founder & CEO Pip Murray
If you’re in the UK and you like your peanut butter, you’ve probably come across Pip & Nut, the brand named after its Founder and today’s guest, Pip Murray.Pip started the business when she was 24, at her kitchen table, with a blender and some nuts. But plenty of people start businesses like that so what makes her special? How has she managed it? Oh, and we’ve also got the return of the king, Rich Martell, Co-Founder of Secret Leaders, who went to university with Pip and was one of
Ukrainian Founder Aleksandr Volodarsky on running a company in wartime
It’s amazing how important business seems until something really important happens, like a war breaks out.For Aleksandr Volodarsky, Founder of Lemon.io, which connects companies with software engineers, although he and his colleagues had gotten used to operating in a conflict situation since 2014, he was still stunned when Russia invaded. And the most useful thing he can do now is to keep the business going so it can support the war effort - including his employees who’ve gone off to fi
MedMen: what went wrong at the cannabis industry’s first unicorn, with Founder and former CEO Adam Bierman
Look, we’re going to tell you straight - this is a blinding episode - and that’s because we’re talking to a man who is unflinchingly honest about his Founder experience.On the outside it looked like Adam Bierman had it all. He was the Co-Founder and CEO of MedMen, a cult phenomenon and the world’s first cannabis unicorn. They were seen as the Apple of weed and they looked unstoppable. But in 2019, a year after hitting its all time high on the Canadian stock market, the company had lost
DesignMyNight Co-Founder Nick Telson on gay shame and taking the business to exit… exactly as they planned
What’s particularly shocking about Nick Telson’s success with DesignMyNight is how deliberate it all seemed. They set themselves a target each year, achieved it and moved onto the next one until they’d hit the numbers they needed for the exit they wanted. How many businesses do that? And it was the first startup he’d ever founded…Nick explains how they sold the business - the actual steps they took - which isn’t a process that most people know about unless they’ve been lucky enough to g
How to go from a side hustle to a multi-billion market leader, with Houzz CEO & Co-Founder Adi Tatarko
It’s the stuff entrepreneurs dream of. Houzz, a marketplace for home renovations, evolved from an evenings and weekends passion project into a multi-billion dollar company with investors queuing up to get a slice of their proverbial pie. So how did the two Co-Founders, husband and wife Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen, do it?“I think, in retrospect, delaying it and bootstrapping it, the way we bootstrapped it without even understanding that this is what it is back then helped us tremendously
When your mental health forces you to leave the company you’ve just started - with Faire Co-Founder & COO Jeffrey Kolovson
Life is the sum of your choices, says Jeffrey Kolovson, COO and Co-Founder of Faire, an online wholesale marketplace for retailers and brands. At the end of the day, it’s not what you say, it's what you do and the choices you make and the accumulation of those over time that matters. “I once had a mentor tell me that the prize for winning the donut eating competition is more donuts. And that kind of stuck with me, as things don't necessarily get easier. And the more you do, the more you
“He threatened to kill my parents and I had to get a restraining order” - the real Dan Murray-Serter, Chapter 1
Cocaine, £1,000 on roulette, sleeping with the client, a boss demanding bail out of a Malaysian prison, a restraining order - and that’s just one of the stories in this special episode where we turn the microphone on our host, Dan Murray-Serter.This is the start of a semi-regular series where we interview Dan roughly every three months because:
If you listen to the podcast regularly we thought you might want to get to know him better. Who is this guy in your ears every week?
Dan is the
“By the end of 2015 we were just about out of money” - and now they’re worth $4B. How did Vuori do it, with CEO & Founder Joe Kudla
Having grown up poor, Founder and CEO of Vuori Joe Kudla always wondered what it would be like to have money and go on holiday, so he spent the first chapter of his career proving to himself that he could make money. But then he started to make life decisions differently.“I see myself on my deathbed. And I am coming to terms with that moment, am I going to look back and feel like I went for it, like I seized the day? Did I live a life in alignment with my passions, my heart, my interest
Curve: Building an $800m FinTech after being laughed out of the room by Mastercard, with CEO & Founder, Shachar Bialick
Curve CEO and founder Shachar Bialick is a multi-exit entrepreneur with a background in the Israeli Defense Force special forces.“There's a joke in Israel: how do you win a competition in racing? You start as fast as you can, and you slowly increase the pace.”Curve brings all your credit cards and debit cards into one app and card. The idea first came to Shachar in 2006, but he knew that launching a business is all about timing. And so he waited until 2014 to pick it back up, when he kn
Curve: Building an $800m FinTech Business After Mastercard Laughed Him Out of the Room with CEO & Founder, Shachar Bialick
Growing up in Israel instilled a grit and perseverance mentality in Curve CEO and founder, Shachar Bialick. A multi-exit, serial entrepreneur with a background in the Israeli Defence Force special forces, Shachar is no stranger to hard work.
“There's a joke in Israel: how do you win a competition in racing? You start as fast as you can, and you slowly increase the pace.”
While the idea for FinTech company Curve, a bank card and an app that allows users to keep all of their finances in one place,
NetSuite: How Evan Goldberg scaled one of the world’s first cloud companies to a $9.3 billion exit
How did NetSuite grow from its humble beginnings above a hairdressers in 1998 to almost 20,000 employees 23 years later, and selling to Oracle for $9.3 billion dollars? Today we’re speaking to Evan Goldberg, founder and EVP of NetSuite who make software which helps businesses with stuff like accountancy and inventory management. “We provide [services] for businesses that are fast growing, that have increasing complexity, they've outgrown the simple systems that they were using to help t
Welcome to the death industry, with Farewill’s Co-Founder and CEO, Dan Garrett
The only certainty in life is death (and taxes!) And yet the industry of death had remained largely unmodernised by the time Farewill was co-founded by Dan Garrett in 2015.“Out of 100, losing a spouse, or a parent or a best friend, is the 100 out of 100 worst thing you ever go through. And what a great funeral can do is bring back some of that connection that you have with someone.”Dan says that despite death affecting every single one of us it’s also historically lacked the kind of cus
I went to sleep one day... and woke up gasping for air - Morning Brew Co-Founder Alex Lieberman
Being a Founder takes its toll on you - even if it looks like everything is rosy from the outside.Today we’re learning from Alex Lieberman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew, which became a darling in the media industry because it actually became commercially successful.But whilst everyone else was applauding the company’s success, for Alex at least, he was trying to cope with anxiety and panic attacks. The company sold late last year to Insider Inc (of Business Insider)
Vivino - how to disrupt a $400 billion industry that no one had really cracked, with Co-Founder Heini Zachariassen
How many times have you stood in front of a wall of wine in a supermarket and taken a punt on one because the bottle looked nicer than the others? We’ve all done it… and often been disappointed by results. So, in 2009 Heini Zachariassen, Co-Founder, Former CEO and current board member of Vivino, decided to fix the problem.“Why is wine something that nobody has disrupted? And why is wine something where the only thing I can base my decision on is looking at a label.”Vivino’s mission is t
They had two weeks of runway left and are now worth $1.5b - Loom Co-Founder and CTO Vinay Hiremath
Growing a company to 14 million users and a valuation of $1.5 billion should be cause for celebration, but, like so many founders, for Vinay Hiremath, Co-Founder and CTO of Loom, it’s difficult to enjoy your successes. In fact it’s the failures that tend to stick with you.Loom, a video communication tool for businesses, wouldn’t be here today if Vinay and his Co-Founders hadn’t had their ‘sliding doors’ moment which revealed what they should be building right before they were going to h
When you think Google might sue you but instead they hire you as a 17 YO - Larry Gadea, CEO & Founder of Envoy
Larry Gadea built the world's biggest Pikachu pictures website at 12 years old, was recruited by Google at 17, joined Twitter after college and then left to found Envoy in 2013. He did all this after getting smuggled out of Romania as a young child in the late 1980s and watching his parents have to restart their lives several times. Normally childhoods filled with upheaval breed an aversion to risk - but not in Larry.Envoy is a workplace management tool that helps with things like letti
You don't start your company to end up in court, with Michelle You, Co-Founder and CEO of Supercritical and former Co-Founder of Songkick
After exiting Songkick, Michelle You was burnt out. It felt like failure and grief (her words). She spent a year backpacking around the world, living on $2 per day, trying to figure out what it took to make her happy, to figure out what mattered to her and what her next business move was.“I went camping and hiking and surfing and climbing for the first time. And it was that that made me fall in love with nature. And that was my gateway drug into the climate change crisis.”Michelle is de
Why do we clean our bottoms with toilet paper? With serial entrepreneur and Founder of Tushy Miki Agrawal
Miki Agrawal was forced to become an entrepreneur having started her career, in her own words, as an awful employee: “I got fired from pretty much all of my jobs growing up, because I just wasn't listening, or I was questioning or I was talking back or I was running in the hall or I was eating while on the job or giving away smoothies to friends. Whatever job I had, I did something wrong.”The daughter of an immigrant who came to the US with $5 in his pocket, Miki learned early that if y
Kraken - from growing up poor to founding Europe’s largest crypto exchange, with Co-Founder & CEO Jesse Powell
Jesse Powell grew up poor and hustling from a young age. First, he sold physical gaming cards, then he sold virtual ‘gold’ in the game World of Warcraft - and now he’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Kraken, Europe’s largest crypto exchange - with talk of going public for $20 billion. How did he make the jump? “Bitcoin, when I read about it, I thought it was interesting. I first saw it and just thought it was like another World of Warcraft gold that we can sell on the website.”Jesse has been
Killing Kittens - the world famous sex party turning into a tech business, with Founder & CEO Emma Sayle
“Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten, and I went ‘right, that's it, that's what I'm calling my business.’”This is the story of Killing Kittens, the cult-like sex party, founded by Emma Sayle. “Everyone starts talking to each other and mingling and then you'll see maybe a few couples disappear off into a room, or you know a group of girls go off. One minute you've got a packed bar and the next minute it's only 10 people in the bar and everyone's gone off into different rooms, g
When and why to pivot your life, with doctor-turned-YouTuber Ali Abdaal
How do you live a happier, healthier, more productive life? This is the question that doctor-turned-YouTuber Ali Abdaal is obsessed with.“Most of my childhood was spent chasing this dream of making magical internet money that mostly didn't work out. And it was like a string of failures. But when I did end up making magical internet money, I felt that a lot of the failures from childhood had been worth it.”Ali’s first business, 6Med, which he started in university in 2013, helps people g
The startup that all other startups will want to succeed - MicroAcquire, with Founder & CEO Andrew Gazdecki
“It’s really hard for companies to get acquired. I was shocked at how many entrepreneurs reached out to me after we announced the acquisition [of Bizness Apps], like ‘how did you get acquired?’”With a couple of exits already under his belt, Andrew Gazdecki saw first-hand how broken the process of selling a company was. He used that experience to start MicroAcquire in January 2020, a platform that helps startups get acquired by connecting them with buyers within 30 days. The goal is to g
Lora DiCarlo - the sex tech startup that made Cara Delevingne orgasm three times in six minutes and got banned for being ‘obscene’ at CES 2019
“When I was about 28 or 29 I had a squirting orgasm, I completely lost my mind. I couldn't tell if I was having a religious moment or a seizure, or maybe both or neither. As I lay there on the cold tile floor staring at the ceiling, all I could think was, oh my god, how do I do that again? And more importantly, how do I do that again by myself?”Lora DiCarlo is the founder of the sex tech startup also called Lora DiCarlo, and is determined to change the face of sex products.Having won an
Saved from the Nazis, she started a unicorn software company in the 1960s staffed with only women and just £6 - Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley
Dame Stephanie Shirley, known as ‘Steve’ for reasons explained in the podcast, escaped Nazi persecution before founding a software startup in 1962 with just £6 which provided employment to hundreds of women when they weren’t taken seriously in the workplace.“I remember selling a six figure software project to a junior minister, and he was trying to pinch my bottom. It was very hard to maintain a sort of professionalism.” Steve’s story is one that reminds us both how much the world has m
How exponential technologies will change the world - with founder, journalist and author, Azeem Azhar
“Technology does not appear from nowhere, it is closely allied to the shape of society. And if you have exponentially changing technologies, they will force changes on society, or create a gap.” Humans coming second best to technology isn’t a new subject but our guest today, Azeem Azhar, has a new, thoroughly researched take on it which goes further than anything we’ve seen before. Azeem is a founder, journalist, speaker and now author of the book ‘Exponential: How Accelerating Techno
Ethereum fallout - how the second biggest cryptocurrency in the world nearly didn’t happen, with Anthony Di Iorio, Co-Founder of Ethereum and Decentral
How many of us are kicking ourselves for not investing $100 in Bitcoin in 2010 - it would be worth almost $48 million today. Anthony Di Iorio, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, the massive open-source blockchain, which is home to Ether, the second biggest cryptocurrency in the world after Bitcoin, is not kicking himself.Anthony was an early investor in Bitcoin putting in $8,000 back in 2012. With the proceeds of his first sale of Bitcoin, Anthony was able to initially fund Ethereum wi
The other way to build a massive tech company - doing it slowly, with Airtable Co-Founder and CEO Howie Liu
Most investors didn’t understand the concept. Most non-technical entrepreneurs at the time didn’t get it either. But Howie Liu, Co-Founder and CEO of multi-billion dollar tech juggernaut Airtable, had the conviction to bet the next 10 years of his life on it.“I didn't come up with Airtable as an idea, on a lark, it was informed by a lot of the research I did, a lot of the observations I had of the enterprise software landscape, of looking back at other companies that did similar things.
How to build a business at 16, recover from a $1b dollar deal collapsing, and walk on hot coals, with multi-exit entrepreneur Norman Crowley
What would you do if you sold your business and effectively retired at the ripe, old age of 28? Phenomenally successful serial entrepreneur Norman Crowley took just three weeks before jumping back into business. “A business isn't just a vehicle to make money. A vehicle is an expression of your creativity, it's working with friends. And then the thing nobody warns you about is that when it's sold, you just end up with a bank balance, and the friends are gone, the mission has gone.”Norman
Overcoming crippling anxiety and how to get work/life balance right, with Mathilde Collin, Co-Founder and CEO of Front
Mathilde Collin is the co-founder and CEO of Front, a communications platform that has developed a cult following - despite having to stop working at one point because her anxiety had become so debilitating. Find out how Mathilde learned to overcome burnout, an incapacitated co-founder, and a serious case of competitiveness that almost let work take over her whole life. Front has grown quickly since its founding in 2013, amassing a cult following, and recently announced a huge series C
Breaking startup scandal: how blood pressure medtech TLT scammed investors out of millions, with investigating reporter Sara McCorquodale
Tarilian Laser Technologies (TLT) was a medtech company founded by husband and wife team, Dr Sandeep and Nita Shah, who bamboozled everyone from the UK government to PWC. They claimed to have a revolutionary wearable blood pressure monitor, powered by a secret, proprietary algorithm. They raised millions, before everything came crashing down. This is an audio exclusive with the journalist who just broke the story in The Sunday Times, Sara McCorquodale, founder and CEO of CORQ. When Sara
The American fixing the race problem in UK venture capital - Eric Collins, star of Channel 4’s The Money Maker and CEO of Impact X
“Impact X exists because I'm tired. And there are a lot of people who are tired of asking the question - what to do to improve the lives of black Britain? We've been having this conversation for a long, long time.”Meet Eric Collins. He’s done some work for President Obama, built some of the world’s biggest tech companies, is the host of a new TV show on Channel 4 called ‘The Money Maker’, and is the CEO of Impact X, a venture capital fund in the UK for underrepresented founders. How did
How to build a $65b company, with Twilio Co-Founder and CEO Jeff Lawson
Today’s guest is at the helm of probably the biggest company we’ve ever had on Secret Leaders. Jeff Lawson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Twilio, a cloud communication platform that helps businesses use everything from text to video calls in their sites and apps.Since its founding in 2008, Twilio has grown to 4,500 employees, annual revenue of $1.74 billion, and is valued at $65 billion. Yup, $65 billion. Woof.All this despite investors not being interested at the beginning which forced J
Fighting P Diddy, managing Gwen Stefani & Nas, what Roger Moore said in Monaco, and turning the music industry on its head, with Steve Stoute, Founder and CEO of United Masters
Before he was the manager for Nas and Gwen Stefani, before he was the producer for the film 8 Mile, before he was getting into fights with P Diddy and 50 Cent, Steve Stoute was an entrepreneur. He’s always been an entrepreneur - starting out shovelling snow and selling mortgages. And boy has he got some stories to tell, like what Roger Moore said to him when 007 met Steve and Bono in a bar in Monaco. Find out how Steve is turning the music industry on its head as the founder of United M
Building world’s best elite match-making service, with Rachel MacLynn, Founder and CEO of Vida
“I came across a job advert for a psychologist to join a matchmaking agency. I wouldn't describe myself as a spiritual person, but it just felt like my dad had sent [me] this opportunity. I had butterflies in my stomach. That was the moment that changed my life.”Are you unlucky in love? Or perhaps you’re exploring a very niche entrepreneurial path, then don’t miss Rachel Vida MacLynn, the founder of The Vida Consultancy, widely considered the best elite matchmaking agency in the world,
Learn the art of negotiation with Chris Voss, FBI’s former chief international hostage and kidnapping negotiator, and author of Never Split the Difference
Want to know what it’s like to negotiate for a person’s life? Want to learn the secrets of great negotiation? Want to find out why a deal can break down with no warning?“The deal-killers are as important as the decision maker”, explains Chris Voss. “We've changed our hostage negotiation strategies to take the people not at the table into account. And we found the exact same dynamic in business.”If you feel like your negotiation skills need sharpening, you’ll like this episode with Chris
How Gorillas became Europe’s fastest ever unicorn and what it means for your supermarket shopping, with Co-Founder and CEO Kağan Sümer
“We were 100% sure about one thing: if you go to the fucking moon, you shouldn't go to the supermarket. We have the technology to go to space and we’re still going to the supermarket? This is counter intuitive.”Kağan Sümer is the founder and CEO of Gorillas, a grocery delivery service which promises to have your order delivered to your door in under 10 minutes, at retail prices. They’ve been blowing up. Recently launched in the UK, they’re the quickest ever European startup to be valued
Healthily: Building a “moonshot” for the health of a billion people, with Co-Founder & CEO Matteo Berlucchi
Most of the founders we speak to have already achieved much of their startup’s mission, but today’s Secret Leader is in the midst of a much longer journey with his company. Meet Matteo Berlucchi, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Healthily which has spent several years building their product to a point where they can play for the ‘big prize’. “Healthily is a moonshot, it’s the textbook definition of a moonshot. The idea behind Healthily is to use technology to enable people to ma
Myprotein: How to bootstrap a £500 overdraft into a £350m exit, with Founder Oliver Cookson
“I was a keen gym goer and I used to buy protein powder from what was the leading sports nutrition company in the UK at the time. And about six months in I looked at the back and thought, ‘what actually is this?’”Oliver Cookson founded the sports nutrition business Myprotein in 2004 with just a £500 overdraft, selling it to The Hut Group seven years later having kept 100% equity. The deal ended up being worth north of £350m for him. So how did he pull it off?“I don't live with regrets b
Double Jeffardy: the story of Seedrs and its vetoed Crowdcube merger, with Co-Founder Jeff Lynn and CEO Jeff Kelisky
How did two Americans called Jeff come to lead Seedrs, one of the UK’s leading crowdfunding platforms? And why did their planned merger with bitter rivals Crowdcube get blocked? In today’s ‘Double Jeffardy’ episode, Seedrs Co-Founder Jeff Lynn and CEO Jeff Kelisky share their experiences and learnings - from the biggest missed opportunities when scaling, to what the CMA got wrong with the merger.“The CMA has chosen to take an exceedingly aggressive stance on anything that looks like a t
After his startup IPOd in record time everything fell apart, with Eve Sleep co-founder Kuba Wieczorek
Founders dream of being early to market, garnering flattering press, watching their product fly off the shelves and IPOing in record time. For Kuba Wieczorek, Co-Founder and former Chief Marketing Officer of Eve Sleep, the dream became a reality. And then the wheels came off.Kuba founded DTC mattress company Eve Sleep in 2015 with his cousin Jas, and they quickly started experiencing explosive growth. Within just two years they’d raised £35 million and were valued at £140 million. To to
Bolt: Markus Villig skipped university at 19 to take on Uber and become the youngest unicorn founder in Europe
Markus Villig was 19 when he decided to spend the $5,000 his parents had saved up for university on starting a business instead. His initial goal for Bolt, then called Taxify, was to solve Tallinn’s (Estonia) taxi problem. By 25 he was the youngest unicorn founder in Europe and had shown that Uber wasn’t going to win everywhere.“Today, Bolt is the fastest growing mobility company in the world. We have more than 50 million customers on the platform. We operate in more than 40 countries.
A startup Covid tale: how accuRx got to ⅓ of UK vaccine bookings and 99% market share of GPs, with Co-Founder and CTO Laurence Bargery
You might not have heard of today’s guest or his company, but if you’ve had a Covid jab in the UK (or are going to) there’s a good chance you’ve used their tech. Laurence Bargery is co-founder of accuRx, a healthtech supplier trusted by 99% of GPs, and with ⅓ of all vaccine bookings in the UK now taking place through their systems.“Within about four or six weeks of us releasing this suite of Covid tools we'd gone up from that 50% point to about 99% of GPs using us.”Laurence and co-found
Insights from 12 world class founders & thinkers for our 100th episode
We’ve been making the UK’s startup podcast since 2017 and this is our 100th episode. To celebrate, we’re doing something a little different and bringing you a bunch of the most powerful stories and insights from some of the amazing guests we’ve had the honour of talking to over the years. In celebration of this milestone, we’re also giving away a pair of Apple Airpod Pros to a lucky Secret Leaders subscriber/follower. Entering is super simple and takes just a few seconds - go to www.sec
How to land LeBron James & Michael Phelps in your first 100 customers - Will Ahmed, Founder of Whoop
As the captain of the Harvard squash team, Will Ahmed trained and prepared as best he could. But, whatever he tried, his body kept breaking down. He didn't know why so he started researching the human body, devouring medical papers. Now, several years later, those personal frustrations have grown into Whoop, a wearable tech startup you can see on the wrists of NFL players, pro golfers and Navy Seals - despite being consistently told his strategy was wrong.“The vision for Whoop has alway
Trinny Woodall reveals her surprising, untold startup journey - from dotcom bust to beauty boom today
Most people recognise Trinny Woodall for being one half of Trinny and Susannah from their breakout TV show: What Not To Wear, but not many people know this side of her story. Trinny is a serial entrepreneur. She was a founder in the dotcom bubble back in the day, and is the founder of soaring makeup startup, Trinny London, which booked £42m of revenue in the last year. What happened? How did she get here?In today’s episode of Secret Leaders, Trinny shares her really surprising entrepren
Bloom & Wild: building world’s fastest growing flower company with Co-Founder & CEO Aron Gelbard
How big can a flower company really be? Well, the industry processes over a billion transactions every year and Bloom & Wild is leading the charge to become the dominant player. In today’s show we talk to Co-Founder and CEO Aron Gelbard about how it all nearly failed before it had even begun, and how much of that market they can really take.“We're doing a few million of those. So we've made meaningful headway. But there's a huge way to go around the world.”That’s not bad for a compa
Four top female founders reveal what it’s really like in the startup hot seat
To mark Women’s History Month, we’re serving you the secret sauce of four incredible female founders: Alice Bentinck, co-founder of Entrepreneur First; Debbie Wosskow, co-founder of AllBright; Saasha Celestial-One, co-founder of Olio; and Tamara Lohan, co-founder of Mr and Mrs Smith.Although the numbers for female-founded businesses are improving, it still remains that of the 6 million businesses in the UK, only 1/5 are run by women. There are twice as many male entrepreneurs as female
World’s youngest Dragon, with Michele Romanow, Co-Founder of Clearbanc
You can’t take your ears off our guest today. Born and raised in Canada, Michele Romanow has been building startups since university (a cafe which still operates today) followed by a venture in an industry she knew nothing about - caviar - right when the 2008 financial crisis struck.“There I am, 21 years old, selling the world's most unnecessary luxury product. I realised the world owes you absolutely nothing, that everything can fall apart in a second, that it can be your fault. It can
From living on benefits to the American dream, with Pipe Co-Founder Harry Hurst
“I was a young kid with a family on government benefits living off £600 a month. I was surrounded by people that could afford private school. And from a naive child's perspective, they seemed to have everything that I didn't have when I went home to my reality. But I think that was the formation of Harry Hurst, the hungry, ambitious, immigrant entrepreneur.”Today’s Secret Leader, Harry Hurst, has been hustling ever since he was kid - and he’s had to. He credits his poor upbringing for h
Former Monzo CEO Tom Blomfield on falling out of love with your work
Get you own unique referral link: https://www.secretleaders.com/hypeTom Blomfield, the former CEO and Co-Founder of Monzo, and Co-Founder of GoCardless, knows a thing or two about the fintech industry. “We wanted to create something different than existing banks. We believed that the banks weren't serving customers particularly well at that moment. Customer expectations had been raised dramatically by things like Spotify, Uber and Airbnb, in terms of the user experience and functionalit
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CERN scientist turned founder - Natural Cycles CEO Elina Berglund
“There's no birth control method that is 100% effective and Natural Cycles is as similarly effective as the pill. So it's 93% effective with typical use, and 98% effective with perfect use, meaning that you use protection on the days that the app says.”Before becoming CEO and co-founder of Natural Cycles, the world’s first and only app to be certified as a contraception both in Europe and in the US, today’s Secret Leader, Dr Elina Berglund, was part of the team that discovered the Higgs
Grace Beverley, 23, author, influencer & founder of TALA & SHREDDY
“Both my businesses have really strong values. And those have evolved pretty naturally from my growth coming into those interests of sustainability, of ethics, and saying, well, if I'm consuming something, that's one thing, but if I'm selling it, that's a whole other thing.”Today’s guest on Secret Leaders is not your average 23 year old. Grace Beverley is a Natwest GBEA Young Entrepreneur of the Year and founder of two brands, Tala and Shreddy. A successful female entrepreneur, Grace is
16-year battle to £100m esports team, with Fnatic Founder Sam Mathews
If you’re in need of inspiration and ideas for how to succeed in the eSports world, then don’t miss this insightful episode with the co-founder and CEO of Fnatic, Sam Mathews. “I'm probably more like the Glazers than I am Alex Ferguson, because I'm kind of running the whole business.”Fnatic is one of the leading eSports teams in the world, and currently, the eSports industry is blowing up, not just because of Sam, but he has definitely contributed towards its success. But what is eSport
From launch to IPO in 4 years, with Lemonade CEO Daniel Schreiber
“Once you see it, you can't unsee it. [Insurance] is something that is 11% of GDP, $5 trillion worldwide, 100% household penetration. And you're like, wow, this has been hiding in plain sight. It’s such a dull industry that nobody's noticed it. Nobody's thought to tackle it.”Until Daniel Schreiber. That is. So what made a law graduate with no prior knowledge of the insurance industry decide to co-found an insurtech startup in 2016, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange just 4 sho
Sir Ronnie Cohen: Refugee to father of British venture capital
If you’re a budding entrepreneur, you can’t learn to swim by doing exercises on the beach, says Sir Ronald Cohen. “You can't keep preparing yourself for an entrepreneurial career. You learn by doing. And by your mid to late 20s, you're ready to do that. You don't have to prepare beyond that.”Sir Ronald is Chairman of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and The Portland Trust. He is a co-founder director of Social Finance UK, USA, and Israel, and co-founder Chair of Bridges F
Samantha Moyo - addict-turned-shaman who created sober raving
How do you get sober when AA isn’t working for you? Well, if you’re Samantha Moyo, you found the global sober raving movement, Morning Gloryville. A business designed to get people to wake up at 6am and go dancing, sober, to famous DJs such as Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx and Carl Cox. She sold just 26 tickets to their first event, but such is Sam’s desire to challenge the status quo, she grew the business to a community of 200,000 within 18 months, across 23 cities. Morning Gloryville wa
DECIEM - a tale of tragedy and beauty with CEO Nicola Kilner
The massive beauty disruptor, DECIEM, was founded in 2013 by “the beauty world’s most exciting disruptor”, Brandon Truaxe, and co-CEO Nicola Kilner. From the beginning, they weren't like any other cosmetic company, they acted more like a startup incubator launching 10 brands in rapid succession. They were hugely successful, did everything in house, outstripped the competition and grew wildly popular brands like The Ordinary. What Nicola wasn’t prepared for, however, was Brandon’s very p
Could a startup solve homelessness? With Beam CEO Alex Stephany
Wondering what to give as an unusual gift this year? How about donating in someone’s name to a social enterprise solving homelessness? Simply purchase a gift card for someone from Beam, and help a homeless person get back on their feet. “There's billions of pounds being spent on homelessness. More than 1,000 organisations are tackling homelessness. There are millions of people in London who care about this issue. And yet still, despite all of this, people are literally dying outside of
HubSpot - how to build a SAAS titan with CEO Brian Halligan
“I think today, if I look at the companies that are doing really well and kind of came out of nowhere, it's when their customer experience is 10 times better than the competition.”If you run a b2b, there’s a high possibility that you’re already a customer of today’s Secret Leader, CEO and founder of HubSpot, Brian Halligan. Founded in 2006, HubSpot has grown to annual revenues of over half a billion dollars, 3000 employees, 70,000+ customers across 100 countries.Brian is also an author
Tabitha Goldstaub - AI, pivots and losing your identity
If you’re concerned about AI and how it could affect your future, then don’t miss Tabitha Goldstaub on this week’s episode of Secret Leaders. Tabitha is a serial tech entrepreneur, an artificial intelligence industry expert who is chair of the UK government's AI Council, and co founder of CognitionX, which was before COVID, the biggest AI conference in the world, but has understandably had to pivot to an expert advice platform.“It was really clear that there were so many better experts
Jim Collins - best business author of his generation
“Bill [Lazier] would always remind our students, the most important thing is to do work you love, with people you love. And if you do work you love, with people you love, you win.”Jim Collins is an entrepreneurial researcher, however he’s most well known for being a best selling author of multiple books that frankly, if you're listening to this podcast and you haven't read, you've definitely got your priorities all wrong. We celebrate all things entrepreneur on Secret Leaders, having be
Atomic Habits - Little things can transform your life
If you've not read Atomic Habits by James Clear, we urge you to stop what you’re doing and go and get it. It's one of those books that once you've read it, you start to think about how those ideas can change your reality. “The book’s been out almost two years now and has sold over two million copies. And for me, the most gratifying thing is that the ideas are useful. The best thing is to see people using them to build better habits in their own life or to break habits that they've been
Alain de Botton & Anne-Marie Huby: How to do good, better
With host Dan Murray laid up in hospital, this special live episode is hosted by none other than the feisty, joyous force of nature, Resi founder, Alex Depledge. “We have a foundation at Resi that does pro bono work for architecture. People look at me a little bit sceptical, like, what's the motivation? You can't really earn a profit and do good at the same time. So why is building a for profit company better for society than building a charity?”Alex, alongside special guests Anne-Marie
Arlan Hamilton - from homeless to VC founder in 3 years
We are all for throwing two fingers up at the establishment, and who better to do that than an LGBTQ, black, woman investor? Meet Arlan Hamilton, Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital. Backstage Capital is a fund that invests in under-estimated founders that are defined as women, people of colour and members of the LGBTQ community, who together represent the biggest economic opportunity for investment.Arlan’s latest book, It’s About Damn Time has been received with critical
Damian Bradfield & Matt ‘Mills’ Miller: Mental Health and Entrepreneurship Live
Mental health disorders are the global epidemic of our times and according to WHO, the instances of anxiety, depression and suicide rates are climbing, globally. On this special live episode of Secret Leaders, two amazing guests, Damian Bradfield and Mills, open up about their personal experiences with mental health. “I've come to realise now that everyone has some form of mental health without a doubt. And actually, the more I talk openly about it, the more I realise that many people a
John Cleese: How creativity can be applied to business
As an entrepreneur, creativity is the name of your game. And who better to hear from than the king of creativity himself, Mr John Cleese. Yes, that’s right. John. Cleese. You’re welcome. Where do we begin? John’s (Mr Cleese?) talents are boundless - actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer and author. The co-founder of the infamous Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the creator and star of Fawlty Towers has taken the time to look back on his writing processes and accomplishments as a series o
Series 6 - Coming Soon
Welcome back to your favorite place to listen in to brilliant leadership and the UK's #1 business podcast!We learned last season that people really love hearing more on a specific topic from experts, so we've listened. We'll learn about using creativity to make business decisions from John Cleese, building better habits with James Clear, creating winning customer experiences with Brian Halligan, and so much more.Tune in... or you'll miss out.
Represented Episode 8: Wrapping Up
Our eight episode of Represented, by Secret Leaders, a funding pitch podcast. We're wrapping up the series for now, with an update on Define.
Represented Episode 7: Pitch for Afrocenchix from Joycelyn Mate
Our seventh episode of Represented, by Secret Leaders, a funding pitch podcast. We will hear about Afrocenchix, a company formulating and manufacturing natural products for afro hair, co-founded by Joycelyn Mate and Rachael Corson.
Represented Episode 6: Pitch for SPCE from Leon Ifayemi
Our sixth episode of Represented, by Secret Leaders, a funding pitch podcast. We will hear about SPCE, a real estate-oriented software and data company, supporting non-profit and public sector organisations, founded by Leon Ifayemi
Represented Episode 5: Pitch for Arthronica from Letizia Gionfrida & Keith Green
Our fifth episode of Represented, by Secret Leaders, a funding pitch podcast. We will hear about Arthronica, an AI-powered pain management software company, founded by Letizia Gionfrida and Keith Green.
Beauty Pie: Meet The Forrest Gump Of Serial Entrepreneurs
Marcia Kilgore is a serial entrepreneur in the truest sense of the term. Not content with creating just one globally renowned brand, Marcia is responsible for Bliss Spa, Soap and Glory, FitFlop, Soaper Duper and now Beauty Pie. But how did she become Queen of Startups?Bliss Spa, her first startup in NYC, saw her give facials to Demi Moore, Courtney Love, Christy Turlington, Bette Midler and Calvin Klein to name drop but a few regulars. She sold this to world leader in luxury products LV
Represented Episode 4: Pitch for Bold Health from Jossy Obi Onwude & Elena Mustatea
Our fourth episode of Represented, by Secret Leaders, a funding pitch podcast. We will hear about Bold Health, a digital therapeutic company that delivers personalized behavioral medicine, founded by Jossy Obi Onwude and Elena Mustatea.
Basecamp: The One Stop Shop For Remote Working
If you created one of the world’s most popular programming frameworks, a framework on which hundreds of thousands of programmers rely to build applications such as Github, Shopify, Airbnb, Kickstarter, to name but a few, would you make it open source? Because that’s what David Heinemeier Hansson decided to do. DHH (to his friends and everyone on Twitter) is the creator of Ruby on Rails. But that’s not all he’s done. He’s also the cofounder and CTO at Basecamp. Oh, and he’s a best-sellin
Represented Episode 3: Pitch for ApTap from Nadal Sarkytbayev
Our third episode of Represented, by Secret Leaders, a funding pitch podcast. We will hear about ApTap, a bill and subscription management tool, founded by Nadal Sarkytbayev, Isa Ibrahim, and Will Billingsley.
Pleo: The Startup That Became A Major European Company
Pleo is a fundamentally new way to manage company expenses (not to mention being one of the sponsors of this illustrious podcast). Founded in early 2015 by fintech veterans Jeppe Rindom and Niccolo Perra, core listeners may have a good understanding of who Pleo are, but how much do you know about their actual journey?“It was all about the product in the beginning. And we were just figuring out what are the tangible pain points out there? And how can we bring a solution? We didn't think
Represented Episode 2: Pitch for Bleep from Ygor Francisco and Caroline Anjorin
Our second episode of Represented, by Secret Leaders, a funding pitch podcast. We will hear about Bleep, a mobile social TV watching experience app, founded by Ygor Francisco and Caroline Anjorin.
Bulb: Starting The UK’s Fastest Growing Private Company
Do you want to cut your carbon emissions to zero and save money on your energy bills? Introducing Bulb, a green energy company founded in 2015 by Hayden Wood and co-founder, Amit Gudka. Together they wanted to change the energy industry, to make it better, by making energy simpler, cheaper and greener. “We saw all the new technology from solar panels and batteries and smart meters changing the relationship that homes have with the grid. The home of the future [has] solar panels on the r
Represented Episode 1: Pitch for Define from Nnamdi Emelifeonwu and team
Our first episode of Represented, by Secret Leaders, a funding pitch podcast. We will hear about Define, a Microsoft Word plugin for lawyers, founded by Nnamdi Emelifeonwu.
GoCardless: Finding The Hockey Stick Growth Curve
If you’ve ever wondered how entrepreneurs without a specific idea go on to found a unicorn startup from their bedrooms, then this episode of Secret Leaders is for you. “One of the things that really strikes me that's changed over the course of the last 10 years is the level of awareness of what's possible. When we decided to start GoCardless, most of our friends just thought we were unemployed and couldn't get a job.”Today’s guest is one third of the British equivalent of the PayPal maf
Introducing Represented: A new pitch show by Secret Leaders
Launching Sunday 5th July 2020.Join us in our new pitch show featuring the best black and under-represented founders building big, scalable business, looking for funding to help change our world.
Charity: Water: From Club Promoter To Clean Water For 11 Million People
“When have you actually been thirsty? We have water everywhere around us. There are taps, there are showers. It's this infinite resource for most people, yet for the marginalised 10% of the world, it's something that they've never known.”Scott Harrison is a former club promoter turned CEO of Charity: Water, a hyper transparent non profit organisation that in 13 years has raised over $500 million and brought clean drinking water to 11 million people. You’d think with these numbers under
Black Lives Matter - Represented by Secret Leaders
Coming Sunday 28th June 2020
Karma & Olio: Capitalists Can Care About The Environment Too
Have you seen your household food waste increase exponentially during the pandemic? You’re not alone. “Food waste in homes is more under scrutiny now than ever because people are not used to cooking at home, seven days a week. It's the perfect storm for trying to figure out your cooking schedule and using everything and that definitely produces food waste, at least initially until you've found your equilibrium.”Chatting all things food waste on this episode of Secret Leaders are two ent
The Lowdown: Benedict Evans of Entrepreneur First and Mosaic Ventures and Anu Adebajo of British Patient Capital
The Lowdown: Benedict Evans, venture partner at Entrepreneur First and Mosaic Ventures, and Anu Adebajo, investment manager at British Patient Capital.
Superior: Delving Into The Murky Science Of Racism
With the world now confronting issues of race, and more specifically, Black Lives Matter, we felt it right to bring on an award winning science journalist, author and broadcaster and the first ever guest we've had that is not an entrepreneur of a wildly successful company. Angela Saini may not have the battle scars, nor learned the painful lessons that you, our audience, have become accustomed to hearing on Secret Leaders, but what she has to say might be even more pertinent for you.We
The Lowdown: Ladi Greenstreet of Accenture and Azeem Azhar of Exponential View
The Lowdown: Ladi Greenstreet, Head of European Investments at Accenture, and Azeem Azhar, Founder of Exponential View.
Secret Sales: the naked truth behind their entrepreneurial journey
If you think now’s not a great time to start up a business, take this advice from seasoned entrepreneur Sach Kukadia: “There is never a good time to start anything, particularly a startup. There's always a list of reasons as to why you shouldn't do it. And the older you get, the more that list grows. If you're going to start anything, whether it's a start up or do something, you need to just do it now. Because it'll only ever get harder.”Wise words from someone who’s never earned any mo
The Lowdown: Yessi Bello Perez of The Next Web and Check Warner of Ada Ventures
The Lowdown: Yessi Bello Perez, Senior Writer at The Next Web, and Check Warner, Founder and Partner at Ada Ventures.
One Billion Happy: Learning To Be Happy In A Pandemic
Learning to be happy is hard enough. Learning to be happy in the middle of a pandemic should be nigh on impossible. Not so, according to Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer of Google [X], serial entrepreneur and author of “Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy” (2017). Mo’s famous for bringing Google to 4 billion new users, but that’s not all he’s done. Throughout his career he’s also co-founded over 25 businesses (7 still survive today). He starts businesses that fascinate
The Lowdown: Debbie Wosskow of Love Home Swap & AllBright, Sarah-Jane Mee of Sky News & The Sarah-Jane Mee Show
The Lowdown: Debbie Wosskow, former CEO of Love Home Swap and co-founder of AllBright, and Sarah-Jane Mee, presenter at Sky News and anchor of The Sarah-Jane Mee Show.
The Lowdown: Paul Murphy of Northzone and Amy Lewin of Sifted
The Lowdown: Paul Murphy, General Partner at Northzone, and Amy Lewin, Deputy Editor at Sifted.
BrewDog: From Salty Sea Dog to Rebellious Beer Captain
From salty sea dog to captain of BrewDog in the space of a year. James Watt is the founder of the rocket ship brewery and brand known as BrewDog. Now valued at over $1 billion, this incredible startup began life in co-founder Martin Dickie’s mum’s garage. “No one wanted to buy our beer. Everyone told us to make beer with less flavour, with less bitterness, with less hops, that our labels looked stupid, like nobody wanted to know and we were working almost 24/7, sleeping on sacks of malt
allplants & Mindful Chef: Keeping The Nation Fed Through Covid-19
It's a tough time for many businesses right now, but one sector in particular is thriving - the world of delicious food delivered to your doorstep. Unlike the vast majority of businesses, these companies are growing exponentially, because of the lockdown.“Literally overnight, it's [Covid-19] essentially forced consumers who have never bought one grocery shop online to go, ‘Well, I might as well try this because there's queues around the block for my supermarket, which has got nothing in
The Lowdown: Alex Depledge of Resi and James Hurley of The Times
The Lowdown: Alex Depledge, Founder & CEO at Resi, and James Hurley, Enterprise Editor at The Times.
Stride.VC: Funding and Financing During A Pandemic
If you’ve been caught out raising money for your startup during this complicated time, then you’ve come to the right place - you’re in good company. In this episode of Secret Leaders we’ve pinned down VC extraordinaire, Fred Destin who is primed to answer not just our questions, but your questions too. Why should you take advice from Fred? Because he’s the founder of Stride.VC, a £100 million seed stage fund focused on operating in London and Paris. Before starting Stride, Fred was a ge
The Lowdown: Matt Clifford of Entrepreneur First and Steve O’Hear of Techcrunch
The Lowdown: Matt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneur First and Steve O’Hear, reporter at Techcrunch discuss the UK Government's recently announced Future Fund.
Slack: How to Work Remotely and Stay Productive with Cal Henderson
Today’s guest is someone we’ve had on the show before, in fact, he kicked off season 4 for us. So don’t be confused and think we’ve got our seasons muddled up. We thought we’d invite Cal Henderson back onto the podcast because his company, Slack, is one of only a few companies that aren’t in a tailspin currently. They’re facing an entirely different dilemma - they’re scrambling to keep up with demand, what with the majority of the world now in self-isolation and having to work from home
The Lowdown: Martha Lane Fox of Lastminute.com and Mike Butcher of TechCrunch
In this week's episode of The Lowdown we are joined by Martha Lane Fox who was the co-founder of dot com success story, LastMinute.com. She can now be found in some of the biggest boardrooms including Twitter, Channel 4 and even a Baroness in the House of Lords. Alongside her is Mike Butcher MBE, Editor at Large of Techcrunch. Known for his straight talking style the episode doesn't disappoint.We talk about:An update on the Save Our Startups (SOS) CampaignWhat the government should be doing for
Tech Will Save Us & Koru Kids: Educating Children at Home Through Covid-19
If you’re wondering how on earth you’re going to hold down a full time job while working from home AND educating your kids for the foreseeable future, then you need to listen to Koru Kids founder Rachel Carrell and Tech Will Save Us co-founder Bethany Koby. “Lower [your] impossible expectations. It is not possible to work full time and also homeschool kids full time, at the same time. It's just not possible. And just don't listen to anyone who implies that it is. We are working really h
The Lowdown: SOS with Peter Evans, Senior business correspondent at The Sunday Times
In our first episode of The Lowdown we are joined by Peter Evans, Enterprise Editor of The Sunday Times, to chew the fat on some of the key talking points in the business world today.We talk about:The Save Our Startups (SOS) CampaignAre the government schemes going far enoughHow the Sunday Times is trying to keep up to speed with covering the crisisAnd a roundup of the good news from startups
Ali Parsa and Dr Rangan Chatterjee: The Global Impact of Coronavirus
Kicking off series 5 of Secret Leaders are two fantastic guests - Ali Parsa (CEO and founder of Babylon) and Dr Ranjan Chatterjee. Ali has been on the show several times before - firstly on his own, and secondly for one of our live events where he shared the stage with Michael Acton-Smith, founder of Calm. In the light of the current global crisis, nobody knows what the world is going to be like when the dust settles at the end of this pandemic. And this is what we discuss in this episo
Series 5 - Secret Leaders in Crisis - Coming Soon
Coming back to you much sooner than planned we are bringing you Secret Leaders in Crisis Mode. As the world changes with the COVID-19 pandemic we have accelerated our next series to bring interviews with leading founders and CEO's who are fighting day and night to keep their businesses alive.
We also are bringing together a series of episodes focussed at directly answering your questions by some of the top business brains out there.
Deliveroo: The Rise Of The Delivery Unicorn Company
We’ve all been there - back from a hard night’s boozing and hungry. Most of us would simply eat some toast and hit the hay, but then most of us aren’t Will Shu, founder and CEO of Deliveroo. “I was like, wow, you know, you can't get any decent food delivered here when you've been boozing. Then I was like, wait a minute, maybe I should start something that is a late night delivery service for food that you can get in like half an hour. You want it for McDonald's or BK.”And so from a late
Planet Organic, Hassle, Skimlinks & Seedcamp: Female Leadership and Equality for International Women's Day
“I think the worst thing is every morning when you wake up as a founder and you pick up your phone, you think what will I discover that will ruin my day?”While your business might not care what your gender is, significant discrepancies still exist between the number of female and male entrepreneurs. As Baroness Martha Lane Fox quite rightly proclaimed, ‘you cannot be what you cannot see’. And so we’ve gone and put four female entrepreneur powerhouses together on the same live stage. We’
Allbright: Connecting women, what’s the worst that can happen?
If you found the film ‘The Holiday’ so inspirational it kickstarted a business that you went on to sell for over £50 million, then you’re in good company. You didn’t? Well you missed a trick. Not so Debbie Wosskow, co-founder of AllBright and former CEO of LoveHomeSwap (a subscription based home exchange business) who on a plane home from a ‘holiday’ in the Caribbean watched the movie and thought, ‘does this even exist?’But LoveHomeSwap wasn’t Debbie’s first successful business, nor was
LoveFilm: Selling to Amazon - The Deal From Both Sides of The Table
You may know that LoveFilm became Amazon Prime Video, that part of the deal was public knowledge. What you may not be familiar with is the wrangling, the deal making and the allegiance swapping that went on behind the scenes to get the deal across the table. In this very special live episode of Secret Leaders we once again sit down with serial entrepreneur and angel investor, best known for creating Lovefilm and being an early investor in Secret Escapes, ‘the subscription guy’ William R
OakNorth: The pathway to building a unicorn with Rishi Khosla
Today’s guest has been a high achiever since he was a kid, completing his computer science GCSE at 11, his A-levels at 13, and receiving a Masters from LSE by the time he was 20. Some child geniuses burnout before they achieve great things, not Rishi Khosla. Rishi, according to LL Cool J, is something of a phenomenon in the world of entrepreneurship, and we are wont to agree with him. Co-founding OakNorth, Europe's highest valued FinTech company having raised over a billion dollars in f
Alain de Botton: Finding Answers to Life’s Tricky Questions
Have you ever wondered what the meaning of life is? Of course you have, you’re only human after all. Well, today’s guest, Alain de Botton, philosopher and founder of The School of Life, has not only wondered the same thing too, philosophising this age old dilemma, he’s also written a book on the subject. Actually, he’s written well over 15 books as a solo author and collaborated on countless others. “I was a young man who really wanted to know the meaning of life. I wanted guidance in t
Mumsnet and Jo Malone: Lifting the Lid on Life as a Female Entrepreneur
Here at Secret Leaders we are all about bringing you the best entrepreneurs in the world - those people who you wouldn’t ordinarily hear from, but who have inspiring stories to tell. They share their highs and more importantly their lows, with the aim of sparking a fire in you to follow in their footsteps, or accelerate the path you’re already on. Because let’s be honest, success stories are all good and well, but it’s the failures that shape us; it’s how we handle adversity that makes
FabFitFun: Creating A Celebrity Swagbag Subscription Box Model
Founded in 2010 in the USA by Co-CEOs brothers Dan and Michael Broukhim and Editor-in-Chief Katie Echevarria Rosen Kitchens, the wildly successful lifestyle subscription platform FabFitFun is a lifestyle membership that inspires happiness and well being. Their flagship product, the FabFitFun box (now available in the UK), delivers a curated collection of full-size products across beauty, fashion, wellness, fitness, home, tech and more - to over 1 million members each season. And as well
Calm.com and Babylon Health: The Future of Healthcare
In this live podcast episode we talk about what makes a healthy body, a healthy mind and the future of technology enabled healthcare. We’ve previously talked to both of today’s guests - Michael Acton-Smith, founder of Mind Candy, Firebox and Calm.com in Series One of Secret Leaders and Ali Parsa, founder and CEO of Babylon Health in Series Two. But to have both of these guys (who are revolutionising healthcare), sit down together and go through pertinent health issues of the day was too
Starling Bank, Resi and Just Eat: Funding and Financing Startups
Secret Leaders is all about hearing from founders and CEOs of some of the world’s most successful startups. We grill each guest on the highs and more importantly lows of starting and running a startup, and one of the biggest hurdles for any startup to overcome is financing and funding.“Leave investors with two or three messages that are really clear what is special about your business, what's great about you and your founders, and how this thing is ever going to make money. They're prob
Secret Leaders Season 4 Continuing January 7
We're taking a short break over the Christmas and holiday period, with the remainder of Season 4 continuing on January 7.Upcoming, we have Daniel Broukhim & Katie Kitchens of Fab Fit Fun, Alain De Botton, Rishi Khosla of Oaknorth, Will Shu from Deliveroo, and so much more.We'll see you in 2020, and remember: Tune in, or you'll miss out.
Grenade: Disrupting the FMCG Industry with Alan and Juliet Barratt
If you’re an entrepreneur in the FMCG industry, this episode of Secret Leaders is one you don’t want to miss. Today we talk to the founders of Grenade, one of the fastest growing companies in the UK, featured in the Sunday Times Fast Track Top 100 companies four out of five consecutive years. Launched in 2009 as a hobby company, “we were only ever planning on launching one product, but then it did so well that customers and retailers were asking us for more”, and getting down to just £2
Blippar and Shazam: A live chat with visionaries Jess Butcher and Dhiraj Mukherjee
If you want to know what it takes to start and run a technology company, then you need to listen to two of our most pioneering guests discuss their experiences live, as they started visionary companies in every single sense of the word. In this special episode we talk live to Jess Butcher, co-founder of Blippar - the augmented reality giant, and Dhiraj Mukherjee, co-founder of Shazam - the app that lets you discover the media playing all around you. Jess was one of our first guests in S
Huel: How to Become a Food and Drink Millionaire with Julian Hearn
Want to know what it takes to become a food and drink millionaire? Of course you do. That’s why you need to listen to Julian Hearn talking about how and why he founded the powdered food product Huel.Huel is marketed as a super convenient, nutritionally complete meal replacement. With sales of £14 million last year and a projection for 2019 at more than £40 million, this makes Huel one of Britain's fastest growing businesses - full stop.But Huel wasn’t Julian’s first foray into entrepren
Photobox and Moonpig: Selling to your competitor and the art of the exit
Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes when one well-known start up buys another well-known start up? Well, wonder no more. You’ve heard us talk to both Nick Jenkins (founder of Moonpig) and Graham Hobson (founder of Photobox) in Series One. But we thought it would be fun to bring them together and have a Q&A with them, side by side. So that’s just what we did. Because you normally only hear the side of the story from the founder who sold their company. You rarely, if ever, hear
Slack: Cal Henderson - An Engineer’s Fairytale Story
Welcome back to series 4 - what a season have we got lined up for you!Kicking us off is Cal Henderson, co-founder and CTO of one of this decade’s most famous tech companies - the team communications platform the majority of companies couldn’t be without, Slack.But Cal hasn’t always been CTO of Slack, he cut his teeth as co-founder and VP Eng for Glitch, a web-based massively multiplayer game, before that, he was the Director of Engineering for Flickr at Ludicorp (where he first met Slac
ClassPass: How Payal Kadakia Built A Fitness Empire
Today’s guest is Payal Kadakia, founder and executive chairman of ClassPass. Payal started ClassPass in 2011 a business that was born out of her love for dance, which she has been doing since the age of 3.Prior to founding ClassPass, Payal worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and in Warner Music Group’s Digital Strategy and Business Development Group. However in 2010 Payal realised that her two lives (working at Warner and running her dance class side hustle) weren’t gelling and
Vicki Saunders: On being a SheEO extraordinaire and implementing #radicalgenerosity
Investment funds for female entrepreneurs are not exactly commonplace in the world of finance. But today’s guest, SheEO founder and Canadian entrepreneurial powerhouse, Vicki Saunders, has been on a one woman crusade to change that.Her mammoth task has involved championing the term ‘radical generosity’, which means allowing people (men and women) to share capital in order to help like-minded women turn their light bulb moment into a successful company.Since launching SheEO in Canada in
Founders4Schools and Scale Up Institute: Meet Sherry Coutu CBE, a Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor Turned Philanthropist.
Sherry Coutu CBE is a serial entrepreneur, former CEO, angel investor and non-executive director based in Cambridge, UK but originally from Canada. She is best known for investing in Lovefilm, Zoopla and for sitting on the advisory board of LinkedIn.A self-confessed techie, Sherry has now turned her hand to philanthropy, having learned first hand that the number one problem for scaling businesses is finding great talent with the necessary skill sets, to enable startup businesses to grow
Lovefilm - The Subscription King You Won’t Have Heard Of
Serial tech entrepreneur William Reeve realised early on that he wasn’t quite techy enough to be a techy, and so focused on the business side of tech businesses. And without this early enlightenment, we might not have seen the likes of Zoopla, Dunelm, Secret Escapes, Lovefilm or Graze, to name but a few of the businesses that have benefitted from William’s involvement.At the tender age of 23, having recently graduated from Oxford University with a degree in engineering and having just s
Lastminute.com: meet Martha Lane Fox, the Baroness of tech who refuses to let her past define her future
Martha Lane Fox is a digital entrepreneur who is not only passionate about the world of tech, but Chancellor of the Open University, a philanthropist and a public servant to boot. Martha can be thanked for making our everyday lives easier, as well as the lives of children, and even prisoners.Martha’s resume is as lengthy as they come, and whilst she is notably the youngest female member the House of Lords has ever had, you will probably know her best as the founder of lastminute.com.How
Saasha Celestial-One: Tackling food waste through startup Olio
Saasha Celestial-One may sound like a band formed in the swinging sixties, but she’s actually one half of a food waste startup looking to sign up 1 billion users to food sharing app, Olio, by 2025.Born and raised by hippy parents in Iowa, Saasha cut her teeth upcycling and tackling food waste from a very early age. Having grown up with not very much, she set her mind on building a bulletproof CV and worked hard to de-risk her professional career - she admits she was really seeking finan
Founder of Stellar, Ripple and Mt Gox Jed McCaleb: On Cryptocurrency and the Hardships of Entrepreneurship
Jed McCaleb is a cryptocurrency legend. He's been involved in some of the most high profile organizations in crypto including Mt. Gox, Ripple, and now his current rocket ship, Stellar.org. But the journey from Little Rock, Arkansas to number 40 in the Forbes rich list has not been a smooth ride.He struggled his whole life with trying to find a balance between wanting to do something huge and wanting to just go chill at the beach and surf. Luckily for the rest of us, he opted to work har
Candy Crush: creator Riccardo Zacconi on what it means to be the king of King
Riccardo Zacconi is an Italian entrepreneur best known as the CEO of King, the company behind the most popular game of our generation: Candy Crush Saga.Riccardo cut his teeth in the tech startup world during the dotcom boom of the late 90s, when he joined Swedish messaging startup Spray. He left Spray to become vice-president of European sales and marketing at uDate, leaving shortly after it was acquired by Match.com, to set up King in 2003.The rest they say, is history.But we aren’t go
Uber's first invester - Jason Calacanis the GREATEST angel investor of all time (his words) and host of This Week In Startups
Today’s guest, Jason Calacanis, is best known for his podcast This Week In Startups and for investing in unicorn companies such as Uber, Thumbtack and Robin Hood; as well as selling shares in Facebook (whilst telling Mark Zuckerberg what he thought of him) and working alongside investors such as Elon Musk.But it took him awhile to get here.Jason was the Founder and CEO of Rising Tide Studios and Weblogs Inc (which he sold to AOL in 2005 for $25m), before turning his hand to angel invest
Clara Brenner: the VC investing in social entrepreneurs for a better urban future
Clara Brenner is co-founder and Managing Partner of the Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm she established to invest in the future of cities. She had a vision to empower entrepreneurs keen to solve urban problems, and so with business partner Julie Lein, she is helping grow tomorrow’s most valued companies.The UIF provides seed capital and regulatory support to social entrepreneurs looking to create solutions to tough urban challenges, such as transportation, work force, hous
Tim Draper: The Jedi Master of Venture Capital
Tim Draper is the world’s most famous venture capital investor who’s backed many companies like Hotmail, Twitter or Tesla. He is a ridiculously nice and charming guy (it might be all that Bitcoin he owns, who knows?), he’s full of amazing advice and has a voice like chocolate silk - which, if it did exist, he could probably afford to buy.Tim founded DJF, Draper Associates and Draper University. All you need to know if you’re listening outside the Valley is that Tim is one of the great l
Allbirds Co-Founder Tim Brown: Designing and Manufacturing the World’s Most Comfortable Shoes
Tim Brown is an ex-professional New Zealand footballer turned American shoemaker entrepreneur.After a successful football career, Tim got injured. This caused a career turning point and he looked outside the sporting world at a business future.He first obtained a master’s from LSC, and then he entered into a partnership with Joey Zwillinger. The result? Allbirds, a sustainable tech and science-led footwear that has a huge A-list Hollywood following and that’s creating massive waves in t
Mumsnet: Justine Roberts on Saving Parents’ Lives
Described as one of the world’s most influential women and CEOs, Justine Roberts is at the helm of one of the world’s most talked about forums, Mumsnet.Loved by many and the cause of many heated discussions, Justine has created a place for open and frank conversations for a wide sector of the public.As a wife and mother of four, including twins, Justine has had the exact experience of how hard it is to be a working mum.Recognized for her impact on the economy and ultimately being awarde
Starling Bank: Anne Boden Founder & CEO, an Innovative Challenger Bank That’s Exciting the Market
Growing up in Swansea with two hard-working parents, Anne Boden couldn’t have dreamt of the future ahead of her. After going on to study Chemistry and Computer Sciences at Swansea University, she made the big move to London to work for Lloyds Bank.Jump forward 35 years and positions at UBS, RBS and ABN AMRO, Anne has put herself out there as a forward-thinking banker who has spotted huge potential in the world of digital banking.Unable to have her vision realized as Allied Irish Banks’
WeTransfer: Damian Bradfield tells us about the art of the stunningly straightforward file sharing
WeTransfer started in late 2009 and today it has over 45 million active monthly users. It’s one of the world’s most trusted online brands, helping people to discover and share in every country around the globe.Damian Bradfield, an advertising and marketing specialist who cut his teeth at various agencies, teamed up with Nalden, a famous Dutch design and media blogger.From creating the disarmingly straightforward file transfer service WeTransfer to curating an interactive art installatio
Secret Leaders Season 3 Coming January 30th
We're back after a break to work on Series 3. It's coming on 30th January so stay tuned and visit secretleaders.com for more info!
Jo Malone: The Alchemist Devoted to Spreading the Poetry of Scent
Today’s Secret Leader is Jo Malone CBE, founder of her namesake and more recently Jo Loves. Of all the guests we’ve had the wonderful fortune of interviewing, Jo has one of the biggest reputations preceding her, but worry not, it’s an entirely positive one.From battles with dyslexia to cancer Jo is well known for being authentic, inspiring, and a true hero to young entrepreneurs everywhere.We chat about:
Growing up in a council house, looking after her mother, and putting her sister thr
Vijay Eswaran: From Taxi Driver to Billionaire
Vijay Eswaran is the Executive Chairman of the QI Group of Companies. Born in Penang, Malaysia, in 1960, to hardworking parents, Vijay had a childhood filled with moves around his native country.His education brought him to the UK, and in 1984, Eswaran graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Socioeconomics. In 1998, Eswaran returned to Malaysia after several years of work that stretched globally, and he co-founded the multilevel marketing company that has grown in
JustGiving: Anne-Marie Huby, Always Guided by a Deep Sense of Purpose
From a business desk at the Birmingham Post to the world’s fastest-growing tech-for-good platform, Belgium-born Anne-Marie Huby is one of UK’s most innovative entrepreneurs, creating the first online fundraising platform in the UK in 2000.She started her career in journalism in Belgium, and later joined the UK arm of Doctors Without Borders (aka Médecins Sans Frontières), where she worked for ten years.In 1994, Anne-Marie was in Congo with MSF, not long after the genocide which saw Rwan
Rankin: Seeing the World with Fresh Eyes
Rankin is arguably Britain’s most successful export to the fashion industry, and one of the world’s leading portrait photographers. He is also well known for his phenomenal work ethic, his charitable pursuits within fashion and his fearlessness when creating art.Rankin made his name in publishing by founding the seminal monthly magazine Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack in 1991. Dazed & Confused has now progressed into Dazed Media, which in itself is a brand synonymous with l
Planet Organic: How Founder Renée Elliott Wove Together Love and Food
From the pages of a wine magazine to the UK’s largest certified organic haven of delicious produce, Mississippi-born Renée Elliott moved to the UK in 1986. Nine years later, Renée launched Planet Organic having followed her heart.Planet Organic became the first store certified by the Soil Association, and now it has seven outlets. Inspired by the tutelage of Craig Sams, founder of Whole Earth Foods and Green & Black’s, Renée absorbed a wealth of knowledge of fuelled nutrition and ev
Shazam: How Dhiraj Mukherjee Built One of the Most Downloaded Apps of All Time
Our esteemed guest this week is Dhiraj Mukerjee, co-founder of Shazam, the app that has literally put more songs on the record than anyone else in the world. Dhiraj is not a fan of being praised or of receiving any kind of popular commendations of his AMAZING efforts, so we won’t do any of that today.Today we offer you the story that led four people to build one of the world’s most innovative products of all time.Long story short: Shazam was created in 1999 by co-founders Chris Barton,
Babylon Health: How Founder and CEO Dr Ali Parsa Plans to Make Healthcare a Utility for Every Human on Earth
Our guest this week is the very inspirational Ali Parsa, founder and CEO of Babylon Health. Babylon is the world’s largest healthcare app successfully changing the way we as humans are getting access to healthcare.Their mission? To provide affordable healthcare to the world and to be, in Ali’s own words, “the Google of healthcare”.We don’t say this often, but get ready to have your mind blown at the scale of his ambition and, even more importantly, his execution.So tune in or you’ll mis
Hassle.com: How Alex Depledge Co-Founded a Company that Sold for €32 Million
Left work on a Friday and gave birth on a Saturday: already our guest this week is pretty much a rockstar. 2014 Tech City’s Entrepreneur of the Year Alex Depledge is a straight-talking British businesswoman best known for being the driving force behind hassle.com.Alex launched her career in the US after completing her master’s degree at the Uni of Chicago, working on the campaign team of a major US politician. In 2006 she returned to the UK to become a consultant for Accenture, where sh
Charles Tyrwhitt: How Founder Nicholas Wheeler Went From an Aston Martin to Global Domination
Here to share with us his journey from owning an Aston Martin to owning a multi-million-pound shirt company is Nicholas Charles Tyrwhitt Wheeler, one of UK’s most successful entrepreneurs.After being left £8,000 from a great aunt, Nick used the money to purchase the English dream: an Aston Martin DB1. One year later he sold the same car for an eye-watering £75,000 profit. This profit became the funding that set Nick up to become the powerhouse he is now.Nick founded Charles Tyrwhitt as
Not On The Highstreet Co-Founder Holly Tucker
Today we are delighted to bring you Holly Tucker, the co-founder of the first marketplace of its kind, notonthehighstreet.com, the place to pick up fantastic inspiration and bespoke gifts. Side note: notonthehighstreet.com is also very helpful when you’re trying to get back into your mum’s good books and make her happy with a thoughtful hand-designed gift. Just saying! Since stepping away from day to day operations she's now championing creative business owners through her new venture -
ustwo Co-Founder Mills on Building a Fampany (aka Family Company)
Our guest today is on the more unconventional side. For starters, he wouldn’t necessarily choose to call himself a “leader”, so what better set-up for a secret leader?Mills, aka Matt Miller, is the co-founder of the fampany (read: family company) ustwo, a design studio occupying the ground floor of the Tea Building in Shoreditch, famous for hosting many of UK’s most creative brands.Mills started his career at design studio Animal, where his first and only ever boss demonstrated to him j
Café Rouge: How Co-Founder Karen Jones Creates Brands People Come Back To
Today we have an audio feast for you as our guest is Karen Jones, most well-known as the co-founder of the Café Rouge chain of restaurants. Her career is a textbook story of entrepreneurship.Karen was born in Lancashire, in northern England, and raised in Yorkshire, London, and Switzerland, before studying English and American Literature at the University of East Anglia, where she has now come full circle to serve as their Chancellor.As the Café Rouge brand grew, Karen and her co-founde
Songkick: Pete Finlay on Burnout and Growing Too Fast
Today you are going to hear the story of Songkick led by Pete Finlay, formerly known as Pete Smith.You’re going to learn about the ups and downs of a very brutal story. Songkick was once one of the startup darlings of the UK, they raised a ton of cash, grew exponentially quickly, and, as Pete will share in today’s episode, really grew too fast for them to really understand how to manage this beast properly.Pete ended up leaving Songkick and starting Silicon Milkroundabout. This had its
Project Everyone: How Gail Gallie reached 7 billion people in 7 days
If you are the type of person who is into sustainability, philanthropy, giving back, purpose, any of these things, our guest today is the crème de la crème. Meet Gail Gallie, co-founder of Project Everyone.Today we go through Gail’s entire story from when she was a producer at Radio 1, to becoming CEO of ad agency Fallon, and eventually working with Kate Garvey and Richard Curtis of Four Weddings and Notting Hill fame on Project Everyone, a communications house for the UN Sustainable De
Just Eat: How David Buttress Co-Founded and Built a £5.5bn Company
For the last 11 years, David has done nothing but think about takeaway. Sounds like a dream, right? But that’s the reality for the former CEO of food giant Just Eat, still part of the board to this day.Described as one of UK’s standout entrepreneurs of the last decade, David got a taste for delivery-based businesses when he created his own newspaper-delivering service at the age of 11.Just Eat helped restaurants deliver almost 100 million orders last year, from anything from curries to
Draper Esprit: The first ever public VC fund - Simon Cook
Today’s special guest is one of the key Venture Capital investors in the UK, the CEO and Founder of Draper Esprit, Mr Simon Cook. Most recently, Simon has focused on disrupting the traditional VC structure by taking his company public on an IPO that raised over £100m of ‘permanent capital’ as he calls it which he intends to use to grow the UK’s influence globally. He has been involved in some of the best known deals in the UK including LoveFilm, Graze and Trust Pilot.--SponsorsVorboss -
Unruly - From lecturer to millionaire. Sarah Wood tells all.
Today we are joined by one of the best known, and certainly most liked entrepreneurs in the UK - Sarah Wood from Unruly Media. The tl;dr on Sarah is that she went to University of Cambridge, then became a lecturer at the University of Sussex, then she Co Founded Unruly, sold it for £114m to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp a few years later, and now teaches a course back at Cambridge whilst maintaining a role as CEO at the company she helped build. In this episode you'll find out what Unruly
Traffic & Copy: Vincent Dignan on how to growth hack your way to success
Today’s guest is the self styled Jesus Christ Superstar of the organic viral growth world, Vincent Dignan. He puts the M in Millennial, the G in Growth and the WTF in Fashion. A man who very much practices what he preaches, and a true obsessive for the American personal branding school of thought - he knows that to stand out, you have to really stand out. And he does this to perfection. In his own words - his mission is to help as many founders and companies grow in the fastest way poss
Mr & Mrs Smith: Tamara Lohan MBE taking on Expedia and Booking.com
Tamara Lohan MBE is the co-founder and CTO of Mr & Mrs Smith Hotels. She started Mr and Mrs Smith with her husband James 14 years ago, and has been at the heart of one of the best loved internet brands in Britain, but it in fact started as a publishing business; a guidebook for people like her who wanted to explore the luxury boutiques across the country and discovering the real gems and stylish weekends away in unique hotels. They sold 10,000 copies in their first 6 weeks, but fast
Vorsprung Durch Technik - Sir John Hegarty (BBH) tells us where that came from!
Our guest this week is the advertising giant Sir John Hegarty. As the co-founder of ad agency BBH and creator of acclaimed campaigns for brands such as Levi’s, Audi, BA and Johnnie Walker, Hegarty has been a leader in the advertising industry for more than 50 years. In our interview with him he reveals some of his creative tricks (lose the headphones) and “when the world zigs, zag” – words which went on to become the BBH’s mantra.--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.
Skimlinks: Alicia Navarro on how to build an advertising giant
Our second Australian guest in a row for our 10th episode of Secret Lives of Leaders. This episode we have the pleasure of hosting Alicia Navarro - the co-founder and CEO of Skimlinks. Known for her energy and enthusiasm, Alicia has been in the heart of the tech scene in London for over a decade. Her company has gone through many highs and lows along the way as well as receiving over $20m in venture funding. Alicia gives us an insight into running starting and then running a high growth
Daniel Priestley -- Bestselling Author & Entrepreneur (Key Person of Influence, 24 Assets, Oversubscribed)
Our guest in episode 9 is the bestselling author Daniel Priestley. Hailing from Australia Daniel was already a success before he moved to Europe. He used writing as a way to get his thought process down while running his own business and along the way his books is what he is most well known for. His catalogue includes the titles “24 Assets”, “Oversubscribed” and “Key Person of Influence”. Along the way Daniel has built huge businesses, advised celebrated entrepreneurs, broken world reco
Seedcamp: Reshma Sohoni tells us how to be a successful VC
Our guest this week is one of the best networked ladies in UK tech, as the Co Founder of not only the first ever, but also arguably the most successful Seed Fund in Europe, Seedcamp. By only part-selling their stake in their most successful investment, they’ve already returned their entire fund back, as the high profile FinTech unicorn Transferwise was originally developed before Reshma’s eyes and with her support and brainpower. With over 200 investments to her name, its not fair to fo
Social Chain: Steve Bartlett is young and hungry
Our guest in this episode is probably responsible for the funny tweets you saw, or that ridiculously viral campaign that captured your imagination. At 24, he’s one of those guys who has already had the life experience of most 40 year olds, with offices in Manchester, Berlin and New York, plus spending a small stint living in San Francisco as an Entrepreneur in Residence advising Bebo for their relaunch, he’s accomplished a great deal in a short period of time and shows no signs of slowi
Calm.com - Michael Acton Smith tells the story behind Calm, Moshi Monsters and Mind Candy,
Michael Acton Smith OBE is a man who's been described as the ‘tech version of Willy Wonka’. From setting up popular e-commerce websites with university friends to extravagant online games Michael Acton Smith has always had a drive as a maker. His biggest success, Moshi Monsters, grew to over 100 million registered users and expanded to over 150 countries around the world. It’s not all been plain sailing though. His businesses have come within days of missing payroll and after booming su
Blippar: Jess Butcher building a business and a family
Jess Butcher is the co-founder of Blippar - the augmented reality giant. Founded in 2011, Jess has over 250 colleagues and as of 2016 raised a total of $100m valuing the business at a reputed $1bn and it’s also reported that they turned down an acquisition of £1.5bn. Jess gives us an insight into the founding days of Blippar and also what it's like building a behemoth of a business while also raising a family. This episode of The Secret Lives of Leaders was recorded at Stockton House in
Prince Andrew on supporting the UK's next big companies
In this episode you will learn;
How his journey from 20 years in the navy eventually led to him starting Pitch at Palace
How he became fascinated with people and psychology - from education to growth and business success
The importance of being able to sell your business in a 3 minute pitch
How a conversation with Tom Hulme of Google Ventures led to him thinking of himself as an ‘accelerant’ and focus on adding value and amplifying entrepreneurs’ success rate
How Pitch at Palace has never r
Photobox: Graham Hobson (Co-Founder) on how he built a £400m business
In this episode you will learn;
Why he started Photobox, and what it was like running a startup over the dotcom boom and bust, within the first year of it’s inception.
The complexity of their raising funds, from trying and failing; from growing fast to scaling all the way back, what that felt like for them at the time.
The process of buying and selling companies as a means to grow
How to manage culture when absorbing other companies
What it’s like starting as CEO, then hiring someone to
Entrepreneur First: How to build unicorns with Alice Bentinck
In this episode you will learn;
Where the idea for Entrepreneur First came from originally, and how
that’s evolved through the years
How to start a business with no
business model whatsoever
The best and worst company ideas she’s ever
been pitched.
What they look for in individuals that gives them the
confidence to just give them cash and help them to develop valuable
ideas
And lots more of course...--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20
Moonpig: Nick Jenkins and the £120m card company
In this episode you will learn;
How he started his career in Russia working for the infamous Mark
Rich as an ‘intrapreneur’ and what that process taught him about
business.
The value of being a sole founder
His definitions on focus, and how important that can be for someone who describes himself as ‘easily distracted’.
How he started an MBA knowing he’d most likely
come towards the bottom of the class but still be one of the only
people to start an actual business - and he was right on