This episode is a collaboration with brand agency 2050 London. It take exerts from a conversation with Matt Cooper Ad industry veteran and founder of Little Black Book Online. This episode goes through the golden era of advertising when Charles Saatchi would scrap on the company floor, through to what makes a successful creative endeavour.
James is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Bright Network which helps young grads from all backgrounds get into their best careers. The network has over 500,000 members and 80 million data points on what the building of a strong career looks like. From humble beginnings James has strived forward with an infectious enthusiasm. His life changed when a teacher saw the potential in him at 16 and he's never looked back. He is now on a mission to even the playing field for people from underprivileg...
Founder of Fusion Energy Insights and head of communications for Tokamak Energy takes us on a riveting journey through the world of Nuclear Fusion. From ITER (the gigantic international fusion collaboration) to private companies searching for this holy grail it appears the next decade might be rather a big one. Fusion offers an exciting and sustainable future that rests on one crucial element - net positive energy output. This episode tells us how we might get there.
Ben Saunders is an English Polar Explorer, endurance athlete, and motivational speaker. He led the first return journey to the South Pole on foot via Shackleton and Scott's route in 2013–14, and skied solo to the North Pole in 2004. He takes us on an incredible journey of what you need to conquer the most inhospitable places on planet earth and what it means to conquer them. Ben reminds us that sometimes it's the simple things that are the hardest come by.
Scott is a life long learner and believer in Innovation as a force for good. From humble beginnings as a journalist during web 1.0. He now consults some of the world's biggest companies on Innovation from Disney to Amazon and lego. He takes us on a whistle stop tour through it all.
In this episode we are joined by Tom McGillycuddy. From early beginnings as a graduate at Barclays Wealth Tom knew he was destined for something bigger. A chance elevator ride with Eric Ries changed his life forever. Through Tickr Tom has devoted himself to encouraging a new wave of investors into impact. He shares with us what it means to start a company with such a strong mission at its core and shares his optimism for how capitalism can help climate change.
Scott opens up a fascinating discussion with us encompassing everything from tailoring to tech supremacy. He discusses Inc's continued mission to empower the small business owners in America from the grass roots up. Inc are empowering a generation of entrepreneurs to change the world and it is reassuring to know Scott is at the helm of that ship.
At the end of 2020, Olly was interviewed by Kevin Tyler on the Next 12 Podcast and we’ve decided to share that interview here. Olly gets the opportunity to discuss elmo - a company he co-founded with Luke Gavin in 2019. elmo is net zero and all-inclusive subscription platform for electric cars - with a mission to reimagine car leasing to suit the needs of the modern consumer while accelerating mass adoption of electric cars and helping to reduce transport carbon emissions. Olly talks about the c...
David is the CEO and founder of business messaging unicorn Symphony. He is one of the pioneers of IP communications. In other words, he is one of the reasons platforms like Zoom even exist. Starting as an engineer for France Telecom to pitching projects to Bill Gates, David has dedicated his life to helping the world connect through the internet. This episode is a journey through those experiences. By the end you'll understand how much David has given of himself, so that we have the technologica...
Recorded remotely while safely ensconced in a Scottish castle, Freddy talks us through Cuvva’s master plan for fixing a broken insurance industry. Their unique, consumer-first and flexible approach to insurance offers a glimpse of what the future of consumer insurance products will look like and has won the company huge popularity among customers and investors alike. https://www.cuvva.com/about
In this episode, we go back to where we started nearly 3 years ago with the brilliant Anthony Rose, founder of Seedlegals. In Anthony's signature style, we romp through the company's extraordinary progress over the last 3 years and explore the future of startup fundraising.
Gabi is the Programme Director for the ATI Boeing Accelerator launched earlier in the year for aerospace startups and now in its second cohort. As an ex-founder and veteran of several accelerator programmes (including Ignite and Techstars), she has been tasked with designing the best programme for companies building the future of UK aerospace.
Robert has walked many paths and worn many guises in his extraordinary career. Known for portraying Kryten in Red Dwarf, as the presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, but now best known for the FullyCharged Show - a YouTube channel which he launched 10 years ago to advocate electric vehicles and renewable energy systems. The channel now has over 600,000 subscribers, gets 2M hits a week and stages packed-out live shows in the UK and US. For avid followers of Fullycharged, this conversation will add fu...
Renée grew up a country girl in Mississippi, but fell in love with an Englishman on a night bus and moved to the UK. She brought with her not only an unshakeable self-belief and a drive to find meaning and purpose in life, but also a concern for food provenance after being horrified by meat farming back in the US. This led her to found Planet Organic in 1994 and open the UK’s first all-organic supermarket in Nottinghill the following year. This is the story of that journey and ultimately, how he...
Ari is the founder of Bubble, an on-demand childcare platform, helping thousands of parents quickly and conveniently arrange trusted childcare. We discuss the marketplace problem, the stigma around how you should look after your children and the value of patient capital. With investors including the founders of BetFair, Boohoo.com and Photobox and several hundred thousand active users to date, Ari and Bubble are on an exciting trajectory.
Steve is the founder and CEO of Black Swan, one of the most exciting and fastest-growing tech companies in Europe. Black Swan uses AI to predict the next big trend. By analysing the incessant stream of social media conversations, the product is able to predict what customers will want in 12-18 months time. Steve, who studied cognitive science and describes himself as the ‘accidental CEO’, was previously a house DJ, lost his dad’s pension on a music business and came up with the idea for Black Sw...
Mark’s life ‘itch’ during over 30 years as a clinical psychologist and leadership consultant has been understanding people and understanding character. Now, as CEO and founder of CharacterScope, he is digitising all of his and his team’s experience to build advanced psychological tools which help companies to develop teams with optimal cultures and team members with strong leadership qualities. Defining those terms is something discussed at length throughout the conversation.
Against the advice of family and friends, Lord Bilimoria started Cobra Beer in 1989 from a thirst for a truly exceptional beer to go with Indian food. Cobra now has a market share of 98% of all licensed Indian restaurants in the UK. But the journey was no easy ride, with the business a hair’s breadth from failure on no less than three occasions over the years. This is the fascinating story of passion, ingenuity and determination to realise the dream of building one of the world’s best beer brand...
Stephen is the founder and CEO of the Business Growth Fund. Under his management the BGF has invested over £2bn into growth businesses in the UK and Ireland, making it the largest fund of its kind, in the world. Stephen talks us through the founding story which involved raising £2bn from some of the biggest banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis. He also provides an insightful and optimistic take on the UK’s business outlook for the future, whatever happens in whatever Brexit takes place...
Rod is the MD of the UK Business Angels Association. The UKBAA is the national trade association representing the interests of business angels and the early-stage investment space. The mission is to connect the angel investment eco-system into a coherent landscape for financing high-potential entrepreneurs. Rod talks through his experiences as an investor, how that lead to his current role and why the work they are doing at the UKBAA is so important for the future of our industry and our country...
Luke is the founder of Testcard, an award-winning and venture-backed medtech startup which allows users to test themselves for a number of medical conditions at home and receive instant results. Luke is a highly experienced founder and he gives us a candid and humorous account of the successes, failures and learnings that have led him to this point in his career.
Lu is the founder and CEO of Blooming Founders, a co-working space and support network focused on nurturing and scaling women-led businesses. She is also the author of ‘Dear Female Founder’, a collection of letters written to their younger selves by female founders around the world. Our discussion focuses on Lu’s experiences as a female founder and the particular challenges faced by the growing number of female entrepreneurs in the business community.
Rupert is the founder of Spareroom which he started in 1999. He had moved to London seeking fame and fortune as a musician with the best band name of all time. But the biggest struggle he faced was finding somewhere great to live. He is one of the seminal examples of a startup founder solving their own problem. 20 years later Spareroom has 2 million visitors a month, is rapidly expanding in the US and has never raised a penny of investment…
Jack is the founder of the Centre for Human Health and Performance on Harley Street in London. Formally trained as a doctor but not constrained by it, Jack vexed his superiors by persistently dabbling in ‘silly computer stuff’ and spending time with Douglas Adams, creating the universe in ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. This 'silly computer stuff' turned into several venture-backed companies and couple of exits. But the 160-hour working weeks it required to be a doctor and an entrepreneu...
Pär is the founder of Sting, an eco-system for startups based in Stockholm that empowers entrepreneurs to build global companies. Since 2002, Sting has supported 241 startups (an astonishing 70% of which are still active), helping them attract a combined 429M euros in private capital. We discuss Sting’s systems-based approach to startup coaching and their innovative financing vehicles improving outcomes for entrepreneurs, investors and even the Swedish government. We also talk about why Sweden h...
Nikolai is the co-founder and COO of wealth management platform EXO Investing which he started with school friend Lennart Asshoff in 2016. Backed to the tune of €16.5M at seed by ETS Factory and Ariane De Rothschild, their mission is to unlock private banking for everyone. The platform allows users to build a unique portfolio and keep it optimised daily by using AI algorithms built over 30 years at ETS Factory. But as we discover, the EXO platform is only the first step on a greater mission to b...
Will is the founder and CEO of Hummingbird Technologies. The vision for which came to him on a hospital bed during a two-year fight with cancer. Happily recovered, Will is now realising that vision, using the most advanced machine learning and computer vision techniques to deliver actionable insights on crop health. The company, which is backed by investors including James Dyson and Horizons Ventures, has won numerous awards including the CogX Best AI AgTech Product and the 2019 KPMG Best Britis...
Julien founded e-commerce giant Made.com in 2010 alongside Brent Hoberman, Chloe Macintosh and Ning Li. The company posted revenues of £173 million in 2018 up 37% from the previous year as it continues to expand geographically and refine its service in existing territories. He stepped back from his executive role at Made in 2017. He now works as a mentor, advisor and investor for promising entrepreneurs and their startups. Julien gives a meticulous account of the Made.com journey from concept to...
Andy was one of the early employees at Spotify. In his 5 years at the company, he helped launch it to the UK, US and Singapore and saw the company go from just a handful of early users to over 50 million in 2014. After Spotify and a trip to Burning Man, he launched airport app, Flio, before stepping back from his executive role there to start Sherpr in 2017. Sherpr is a door-to-door delivery and concierge service for sports equipment partnered with the likes of IronMan, Rapha and the British Hea...
WeFarm is the world’s first peer-to-peer knowledge sharing platform for farmers. In just a few years, 1.5 million farmers have signed up and over 260 million messages have been exchanged leading to tangible improvements in farming outcomes and quality of life in some of the most challenging places in the world. Backed by a host of impressive investors including Local Globe, Silicon Valley-based True Ventures and Skype & Atomico founder Niklas Zennström, the vision is to become the global net...
