Some say the best ideas come over a drink, and for these lifelong friends, tequila sparked their entrepreneurial journey. But there’s more to tequila than 3am shooters, sucking a lemon and licking salt. They went all in, quit their day jobs, and went on a wild Mexican adventure. Here's the inspiring story of how they turned a simple idea into a successful startup El Rayo . It’s bonkers and brilliant - and likely to make you ask yourself - what am I waiting for? Key Takeaways - Trust your instinc...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 10
From tragedy to triumph. How a sister's life-saving transplant led to the creation of a natural skincare business. By Sarah London , stands for something much larger, their deeply personal story has sparked a strong sense of mission and purpose when it comes to business - which shines through in this conversation. Key Takeaways - Learn how to shake off imposter syndrome and reframe failure - How to stand out and take on the industry giants. By Sarah London gives 100% transparency in their ingred...
Feb 20, 2023•52 min•Season 4Ep. 9
From losing millions to founding a sustainable fashion brand, Responsible . Hear from Mark Dowds about how to bounce back and find success. Mark is a serial founder and super angel investor who knows the entrepreneurial rollercoaster like the back of his hand. Mark shares his insights on investing in early-stage startups, overcoming entrepreneurial challenges, and the significance of an abundant mindset in business Key Takeaways - The problem you're solving with your startup should be crystal cl...
Feb 06, 2023•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 8
Discover the secret to business success straight from a former intelligence expert. Meet Steve Mason , former Technical Director at GCHQ. Having defended the UK from cyber attacks, he now runs Nova Blue , helping businesses stay safe. But this isn’t a tech conversation - in this episode, Steve shares the key ingredients that help him make business decisions and how he attracts clients and deals with setbacks - including the mistake that almost cost him his business. Key Takeaways - Being a found...
Jan 23, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Unlocking the future of work: How Tally Workspace is revolutionising the way we work. Since Covid, hybrid working has become the norm and workplaces have evolved Laura Beales and her co-founder Jules Robertson , saw the potential to create a platform that makes finding a workspace easy, wherever, whenever. Laura also delves into her biggest failures, lessons learned and the importance of a support network. Key Takeaways - Start with the problem you're solving. Tally Market was born out of a need...
Jan 09, 2023•56 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Rum entrepreneur Edmund Wood quit his job to pursue his dream of starting his own business. He didn’t have a clue what it would be, but he decided he had to ‘leap and look’ for an idea he was passionate about— rum. Belgrove was born. It’s a story about being bold, quick to adapt when plans go pear-shaped and learning you have to be kind to yourself. If you have ever dreamt of quitting your day-to-day and doing something else - this is a must-listen for you. Text us your feedback and feature on t...
Dec 12, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Rupal Patel , former agent, now serial entrepreneur, shares her honest and personal journey of the challenges she faced and how she kept going in high stakes, high-pressurised environments in the field and in the boardroom. Rupal reveals how the CIA mindset teaches you to be resilient and persistent to achieve your goals. She also shares some great advice on ‘tactical ignorance’ and how it can help deal with imposter syndrome and the inner critic. Her book ‘ From CIA to CEO: Unconventional Life ...
Nov 21, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Hear from Mark Panay - Co-founder and MD of one of Bristol’s most prolific software agencies , Simpleweb . Learn Mark's highs and lows of running a business, and how his natural curiosity and fascination for learning has shaped his career. Discover what Mark thinks makes a good start-up investment, and what he sees as the biggest challenges of being the boss. Presented by Laura Rawlings, with analysis from Ollie Collard. Text us your feedback and feature on the show Support the show Proudly spon...
Nov 07, 2022•57 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Meet Simon Squibb , serial entrepreneur, investor and founder of The Purposeful Project . Simon’s mission is to help and inspire 10,000,000 people to startup and scale a business for free. He believes there should be a Start Up Centre to replace the Job Centre - and as an angel investor and entrepreneur, Simon’s got the credentials to make this a reality. In this insightful conversation with Founded and Grounded, Simon reveals how being homeless at 15 made him realise he had what it takes to be ...
Oct 24, 2022•58 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Meet Kelli Fairbrother , co-founder and CEO of xigxag . She has the vision to make audiobooks more engaging. xigxgag has taken on a big global player and forged ahead developing a listen-and-read book, called the x-book. Kelli started in the US army, a place she credits with teaching her the grit and determination required to be an entrepreneur and where she first realised she could be a leader. She then spent 20 years in consumer tech before having the confidence to set up her own business. xig...
Oct 10, 2022•42 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In an age where we have a constant stream of personal data on our wrists, and home testing has become second nature, one UK company is nicely poised to ride the crest of a wellbeing wave. Forth is a digital health business pioneering personalised biomarker profiling. Its founder and CEO, Sarah Bolt, caught up with Founded & Grounded to talk about how Forth are on a mission to improve health and wellbeing and, in particular, close the gender health gap. But it's a conversation as much about t...
May 30, 2022•36 min•Season 3Ep. 17
“If you do what you don't love, that's stress. If you do what you love, that's passion.” Author, Podcaster, Motivational Speaker...and for good reason. Jeff Dewing has a story to tell. He's seen it all in the world of Facilities Management - good and bad. Restless, and far from content with maintaining the status quo, Jeff founded Cloudfm to disrupt the industry for the better. Over 10 years later, he's CEO of an award-winning company that's blazing a trail for the next decade. But, as with all ...
May 16, 2022•49 min•Season 3Ep. 16
They started out in 2018 with no business qualifications, marketing experience, or entrepreneurial background - simply a shared passion and a big idea. 4 years on, they're the pioneering start-up taking drinks bottles to a new and truly sustainable level. Through their company S'wheat , Jake Elliott-Hook and Amee Ritchie have created the world's first reusable bottle made from plant-based materials. Now courted by environmentally-conscious consumers and tech giants alike, S'wheat's growth is bui...
May 01, 2022•46 min•Season 3Ep. 15
What are Venture Capitalists? How do they operate? And what can founders learn from them in the pursuit of backing for their big idea? In this episode, we enter the real dragons' den and put a human face to this influential but little-understood world - in this case, Rob Moffat from Balderton . In a revealing conversation with Ollie, Rob gives us the perspective from the other side of the desk, what founders should be considering when they approach VCs, and the attributes that he and his colleag...
Apr 18, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 14
" You can't buy culture ". In this episode, Founded & Grounded visit the Lost & Grounded brewery and their co-founder Alex Troncoso , as we return to the world of craft beer. With new breweries and their tap rooms popping up on virtually every street corner, it's impossible to ignore the rise in popularity of craft beer. Equally apparent has been the hit taken by the hospitality industry during the Covid pandemic. So how to position yourself in a crowded market - and futureproof the comp...
Apr 04, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 13
The world of insurance is a grey area for many people in more ways than one, so allow Sam White to inject some colour to the proceedings... Setting up in business following a chain of life-changing events, Sam now presides over two successful insurance companies in the UK and Australia who are explicitly putting the consumer at the heart of their proposition. But, as is so often the case, the entrepreneurial journey has been far from straightforward. In a thought-provoking and inspirational epis...
Mar 21, 2022•49 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Besides climate change, the issue of microplastics is one of the biggest environmental challenges facing society. Passionate to put his engineering talent to use, but unable to find a business that matched the scale of his ambitions, Adam Root founded Matter - a company built on the principle of capturing, harvesting and recycling microplastics. In conversation with Founded & Grounded, Adam talks passionately about the origins of Matter, and also how he didn't seek to be an entrepreneur - bu...
Mar 07, 2022•38 min•Season 3Ep. 11
" Information is abundant... wisdom less so. " It's no secret that access to knowledge and mentorship is fundamental to success in many aspects of life, not least business. But, on a Diverse Founders Programme, it became apparent to Dayo Akinrinade that these all-important connections were held within privileged circles - so she decided to set up Wisdom . Wisdom has harnessed the social audio phenomenon to connect knowledge seekers to mentors, for the benefit of people from all backgrounds. For ...
Feb 21, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Meet Steve Neil... 'Brand Protector' and director of The Trademark Helpline . Steve's mission is to ensure that business owners look after their intellectual property and the brands they've started from scratch. But he had to balance that with the challenges of becoming a business owner himself - a tale worthy of a reality TV series. It's '2-for-1' in this latest edition as Steve not only shares his expertise and wisdom in the sometimes overlooked area of trademark/brand protection - including t...
Feb 07, 2022•37 min•Season 3Ep. 9
There are lots of reasons why people become entrepreneurs. Nav Sawhney had three, instilled within him from a young age, and these inspired him to develop a product that would enhance everyday life for the consumers of tomorrow. As our latest guest entrepreneur, Nav explains to Founded & Grounded how the plight of refugees, the central role of women in life, and the intrigue of engineering were the genesis of The Washing Machine Project : producing an off-grid manual washing machine that wou...
Jan 24, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 8
After becoming a Mum, Dominique Woolf wanted to take life in a whole new direction and literally bring some spice to the proceedings. So, using her sales background and Thai heritage, and winning over the local farmers' market in North London, The Woolf's Kitchen got cooking. In our first episode of 2022, Dominique talks through the reality of running a business and being a parent (spoiler alert: there are no easy answers), how Covid provided an unexpected opportunity to improve her product bran...
Jan 10, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Verity owned a sandwich business. Charlie ran nightclub nights. Both were passionate about fast food. Neither had run a takeaway before. 6 weeks later they signed the lease for their first premises, and Oowee was born. In this episode we cover the world of fast food, charting the rise of this Bristol-based business that responded to changing consumer behaviour and food trends, including the growth of Veganism and the launch of Oowee Vegan . From a tiny suburban kitchen to Oowee's present-day sta...
Dec 13, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 6
One piece of advice? "Just do it." Meet Ally. He's got a lot of time for meaningful workplace benefits - less so for Advisors. Ally's the founder of Juno - a business at the vanguard of the wellbeing economy, with the goal of changing how people interact with their employers. An entrepreneur simply because he had to be, Ally shares with Founded & Grounded the bumpy road to creating a business that now has an international client base, and how personal experience has led him to question the w...
Nov 29, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 5
If 'too much information, too little time' is the great problem of our age, this business has a 5-minute solution. Patrick Walker is a veteran of the 'big tech' scene having held senior positions with Facebook and YouTube. But he was moved to go it alone to address the issue of sheer volume of content, and 'hack knowledge' to provide users with briefer and more positive online experiences. Thus, Uptime was born. In an episode full of fantastic insight and advice, Patrick talks about the importan...
Nov 15, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 4
How does it feel to be suicidal? One man who knows is Nick Hussey, founder of Frahm - the business behind high-quality, long-lasting jackets for the real world. Nick stared into the abyss after the collapse of his first company but, with the help of his wife and an old school friend, came back to start and succeed with a new enterprise. True to the ethos of Founded & Grounded, and alongside the business lessons learned, Nick openly shares his own experiences to discuss mental health among en...
Nov 01, 2021•43 min•Season 3Ep. 3
" If you have a great product, your business should succeed." We meet Edgar Thoemmes , co-founder of Virtually There and Canton Tea, about how two very different businesses steadily grew and found their audiences. Edgar describes the seismic impact of Covid (and how Virtually There anticipated the boom in flexible working), how taking the long term view can pay dividends, and being in a position to give something back to the founders of the future. Presented by Andrew Parsonage , with expert ana...
Oct 18, 2021•38 min•Season 3Ep. 2
To kick off Series 3, we meet Banasa Williams - co-founder of Ksoni, who produce plastic-free bathroom wellness products such as shampoo and bodywash. With the global environment high on the agenda this autumn, Banasa talks about the "payoff" required for products and brands to truly call themselves sustainable. We also get to hear about the challenges of supply chain, how you can learn from others in completely different product sectors, and the importance of having a good team. Plus Samantha M...
Sep 27, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 1
In anticipation of Season 3 starting later this September, we welcome back listeners to the podcast which shares the stories and wisdom of early-stage entrepreneurs. There are more great guests on the horizon and new ways to get involved with the show - we're starting by asking for your summer break inspirations and big decisions - plus we welcome a brand new member of the Founded & Grounded team. Presented by Andrew Parsonage and Ollie Collard. (10 minute listen) Text us your feedback and f...
Sep 13, 2021•10 min
For our season 2 finale, we speak with Chris Goodfellow; CEO of content marketing agency, Inkwell . When he left an old employer, Chris did something unconventional - he bought one of their brands and rebooted it to become a successful annual challenge - The Pitch - helping startups raise millions of pounds. In conversation with Ollie, Chris talks throughout about the importance of founders putting themselves in the shoes of their audience, why a simple conversation with someone different each w...
Jul 12, 2021•40 min•Season 2Ep. 17
"Women can have children - and know there's a safe secure way of returning to work." Meet Jess: Mum and co-founder of That Works for Me . When a chance moment - and a gap in the freelance recruitment market - presented itself, Jess took the initiative to serve a large untapped (and talented) audience... that of Mums. 72% of professional women leave the workforce within 3 years of having children - a situation she's tackling head on with the platform that also supports small business and flexible...
Jun 29, 2021•42 min•Season 2Ep. 16
