You’ve most likely heard of Gousto, the meal prep delivery box that took the nation by storm. Gousto built the technology needed to get to over 100% growth year on year. And by 2022, more than 2 million meals were being delivered every single week. The team knew that if more companies used their tech, there’d be less engineering waste in the world. And so, Bento was born. In this episode we have Mitch Beard, Director of Product and Technology at Bento Tech. Mitch talks us through what the Bento ...
Jun 12, 2023•27 min•Season 7Ep. 3
In this episode, we have Jim Mann CEO and Founder of UNDO, alongside Matthew Meredith Director of Technology at UNDO. UNDO develops pioneering carbon removal that can capture huge amounts of CO2 from our atmosphere. Their nature-based technologies lock away carbon permanently and start immediately. In the episode, we dive into how tech plays a part in UNDOs carbon removal process and why their business is so integral to the future of climate change. Jim and Mat then share some of the challenges ...
Jun 05, 2023•31 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Welcome back to a brand new season of The Start-Up Diaries Podcast! To kick off the new season, we sat down with Mike Seville, Chief Data Officer at Dojo. Founded with a deep understanding of the UK payment industry at its core, Dojo’s goal is to empower hard-working businesses to focus on the things that really matter to them – by seamlessly taking care of the things that don’t. Dojo provides businesses with a sleek, next-gen card machine that lets you take payments 80% faster than the competit...
May 29, 2023•30 min•Season 7Ep. 1
The Start-Up Diaries Podcast Season 7… is officially on its way!🥁⏰ The wait is finally over! Launching next week, we're pulling back the curtain on a captivating lineup of the UK's most groundbreaking and fast-growing start-ups. Get ready to dive headfirst into their stories of resilience, ambition, and the relentless pursuit of building a business from the ground up. From disruptive technologies to game-changing business strategies, we're serving up a sneak peek of what we’ve got in store for ...
May 24, 2023•55 sec0
Praetura are a venture capital firm in the North West, who invest in early-stage businesses and provide 'more than money' support. They have developed a reputation for being a supportive and proactive investor who injects more than just capital. In this episode, Managing Partner David Foreman sat down with Chris to dispel some of the common myths that exist about the venture capital word. David talks through why 2021 was such a record year for investment and the differences he is seeing in the m...
May 01, 2023•46 min•Season 6Ep. 15
The New London Agency is a data driven growth marketing agency which helps to deliver explosive growth for clients’ bottom line by implementing bespoke plans that increase both revenue and customer growth. In the second part of our live recording specials at Queen Mary University, Chris sits down with Marc Simpson & Ozzy Amir, Co-Founders of The New London Agency as they walk through their top tips & biggest learnings for new Founders. Marc & Ozzy cover: The importance of customer fe...
Apr 24, 2023•43 min•Season 6Ep. 14
In a very special episode recorded live in front of a student audience at Queen Mary University, Chris is joined by Will Smith (no, not that one!) - Co-Founder of Banking Platform Tred. Tred is the UK's only carbon-neutral neobank and the only FinTech in Europe to be both B-Corp pending and a member of 1% For The Planet. Tred calculates a users personalised carbon footprint based on their spending and highlights which aspects of their lifestyle are having the biggest impact, as well as suggestin...
Apr 17, 2023•27 min•Season 6Ep. 13
SoSquared provides the infrastructure behind creating successful influencer marketing and user-generated content campaigns. Their mission is to connect businesses directly with creators to establish more transparent relationships, resulting in superior collaboration results. In this episode, Chris sat down with Co-Founders Sam Royle (CEO) and Greg Donnelly (CTO) of SoSquared to hear all about the story behind their platform and how they were able to Co-Found business without ever having met... G...
Apr 10, 2023•38 min•Season 6Ep. 12
wi-Q is the multi-award-winning, cloud-based mobile ordering solution for digital guest engagement. With no app to download, your customers can instantly order and pay from your menu of services by scanning a QR code, entering a URL or being redirected upon accessing your WiFi. In this episode, Chris sat down with CEO of the business, Patience Tucker to discuss her journey from leaving a comfortable job to becoming the CEO of a start-up, as a Non-Founder. Patience dives into the mission behind w...
Apr 04, 2023•23 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Wild.ai is the app that helps women optimise their daily training intensity, duration and recovery. Users receive nutrition adjustments around their training, based on their hormonal fluctuations and learn how their body and physiological needs change across their cycles and life stages. In this episode, Head of Product Sahana Gopal, PhD, sat down with Chris to discuss how Wild.ai are breaking the mould by putting women at the forefront of their technology and are consciously moving away from bu...
Mar 28, 2023•21 min•Season 6Ep. 10
BeZero Carbon is a ratings agency for the Voluntary Carbon Market. Combining expertise across climate science, finance and policy, it provides ratings, risk and data tools that improve information accessibility and decision making. In this episode, CEO & Co-Founder Tommy Ricketts sits down with Chris to share the story behind his climate Tech start-up and the role they are playing in the Net Zero Transition. Tommy starts by explaining exactly what a carbon credit is and what role it plays in...
Mar 21, 2023•21 min•Season 6Ep. 9
10X Banking is a cloud-native core banking platform that's making banking 10x better for customers, banks, and society by enabling client banks and providers of financial services to give their customers more timely and relevant experiences and insights when it comes to managing money. In this episode, Chris is joined by Frankie Woodhead, a Product & Engineering Director at 10X Banking and one of the first 40 employees in the business that now has over 500 employees… Frankie talks through wh...
Mar 14, 2023•29 min•Season 6Ep. 8
VidiVet's purpose is to make vet expertise more affordable and accessible to every pet parent; allowing them to ask anything about their pet at anytime, from anywhere in the world instantly, without violating their wallet! In this episode, Founder Ben Sweeney, chatted to Chris about his journey from Vet to founding a start-up, discussing the challenges that come with being a non-technical founder of a tech-centric business. Ben gives his thoughts on the pros and cons of a Founding CEO vs. a hire...
Mar 07, 2023•44 min•Season 6Ep. 7
As former VP of Customer Operations at Monzo and a current Partner at Ventures Together, Rona Ruthen has a glittering career background within the operational tech space. In this episode, Rona delves into the important relationship between operations and tech within a business, what makes a great operational leader, and the common challenges that operations teams can expect to face... Covering her time at Monzo, Rona discusses her experience going from leading a team of 250 people to 1200 people...
Feb 28, 2023•28 min•Season 6Ep. 6
EdenFiftyOne promotes the 51 universal skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening within English language education. Their mission is to make global English language teaching, learning and assessment easier and to improve experience, outcomes and opportunities for everyone, everywhere. In this episode, Founder & CEO Tom Reynolds joins Chris to talk through how he went from Assistant Head Teacher to building an Ed Tech and his journey to becoming a B Corp. He talks through his ambitio...
Feb 21, 2023•27 min•Season 6Ep. 5
AeroCloud is an airport management platform is built on leading-edge technology & uses predictive AI & machine learning. Combined with common-use passenger processing & self-service solutions, they deliver an innovative answer to the complex operational challenges experienced by airports across the globe. In this episode, Co-Founder & CEO George Richardson sits down with Chris to discuss his journey from professional racing driver to tech Founder, and how his former career has im...
Feb 14, 2023•34 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Pharmacy Innovation Lab is working alongside pharmacists to develop new technologies aimed at solving real issues currently being faced in the pharmacy every day. Being over 50% owned by pharmacists, they provide a unique community working towards resolving shared problems within the industry. In this episode, Paul Billington, Founder of both Pharmacy Innovation Lab and it's powerhouse Project 808, sits down with Chris to discuss how he is disrupting the pharmaceutical industry with technology, ...
Feb 07, 2023•37 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Boodil is a cardless payments solution that offers merchants a more secure, cost effective payment proposition with instant access to funds whilst rewarding customers for every purchase they make. In this episode, two of the four Co-Founders of Boodil - Dally Singh (CTO) & Harry Luscombe (CEO) - sit down with Chris to discuss their journey as an early stage start-up on the journey to disrupt the banking industry with their open banking solution. The pair talk through their unique journey fro...
Jan 31, 2023•30 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Wejo is a data, analytics and software-as-a-service provider that analyses connected and electric vehicle data to create real-time insights. Founded in Manchester back in 2014, the business went public back in 2021 in a deal that valued the business at $800 million. In the first episode of Season 6, Chris sits down with Founder & CEO of Wejo, Richard Barlow, to hear all about his journey from starting to out, to the IPO and where the business is set to go. Richard talks through how he manage...
Jan 24, 2023•25 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Thinking about starting your own business? Or maybe you're considering taking the plunge from corporate to start-up life... In this season finale we've gathered a round-up of the best advice shared from start-up Founders & leaders across Season 5 of the show, detailing what you must consider if you're thinking about setting up shop on your own, or, if you're thinking about taking a new and possibly uncertain opportunity at a growing start-up... Thank you for all of your continued support &am...
Jan 17, 2023•23 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Onto is Europe's largest electric car subscription service. For a flat monthly fee, Onto customers get the latest electric cars with insurance, servicing, breakdown cover and free public charging at over 11,000 locations across the UK. In this episode CTO of Onto, Ben Brown, talks us through his journey at Onto and taking on the CTO position, discussing the challenges and adjustments that come with it. Ben then dives into what it was like to join a business that had previously struggled to inves...
Jan 10, 2023•28 min•Season 5Ep. 11
PwC Raise helps fast-growing, early-stage companies looking to raise between £1m - £30m in funding by providing support and expertise throughout their investment investment journeys. In this episode, Raise Ventures Manager Lizzie Lord talks through everything the Raise Programme (£1-5 Million) and Raise Growth (£5 Million+) has to offer early stage start-ups, from getting you investor ready, to facilitating introductions, offering their market-leading expertise and guiding you throughout the pro...
Jan 03, 2023•26 min•Season 5Ep. 10
ZOE is a nutritional science start-up harnessing the power of scientific research, software engineering and artificial intelligence. Their mission is to help people eat with confidence by enabling customers to understand their unique biological response to food. In this episode, VP of Engineering Julien Lavigne du Cadet shares how Zoe's app went from 0 to 1 Million users in just 36 hours... Julien talks through his journey at Zoe, joining when the company had no product, only a vision. He discus...
Dec 20, 2022•41 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Thirdfort protects life’s big transactions so businesses and their clients can move fearlessly. Powered by Open Banking and transaction specific data, Thirdfort rapidly informs professionals of any risks associated with verifying their individual and corporate clients. In this episode, Chris is joined by Chief Technology and Product Officer of Thirdfort, Anna Keren. Anna discusses her journey to becoming a CTPO, covering her journey into leadership and her thoughts around the type of leadership ...
Dec 13, 2022•23 min•Season 5Ep. 8
In this episode, Chris is joined by Hayley Roberts, CEO of award-winning cloud security distributor Distology. Having recently acquired Squareball, Hayley discusses her experience with acquisitions and shares her advice around what to expect and how to prepare. Hayley also dives into her career path that led her to becoming CEO of Distology, and how coming from a non-technical background has impacted her career in technology. Hayley is incredibly passionate about diversifying the tech industry a...
Dec 06, 2022•21 min•Season 5Ep. 7
The Start-Up Factory works with entrepreneurs, early stage startups and investors to help articulate, define and realise their vision, utilising a partial sweat equity model to help these start-ups get to the next stage of their journey, including Proof-of-Concept (PoC) and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) builds. In this episode, CTO Aleksa Vukotic discusses exactly what early stage start-ups can expect from The Start-Up Factory & what their process looks like. He then discusses crucial early-s...
Nov 29, 2022•32 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Ningi is the single, integrated tech platform that helps financial advisers work more efficiently and provide a more engaging experience to their clients by bringing everything into a single low cost tech platform. Founder & CEO Peter Ridlington joined Chris and dived into the challenges they've faced as an early-stage, remote first start-up. Peters talks through how to know if and when it's the right time to start looking beyond your network of connections when it comes to early stage hires...
Nov 22, 2022•36 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Go City is the largest multi-attraction pass business in the world, with an estimated 65% market share and operating in 25+ cities and five continents. Their growing teams in London, Boston, Singapore and New York help millions of sightseers enjoy new cities, incredible attractions, tours, experiences, activities and great savings. In this episode, Chris is joined by both Michael Letchford, SVP of Product Management, and Nathan Deamer, Principal Engineer at Go City. Together, the pair discuss Go...
Nov 15, 2022•22 min•Season 5Ep. 4
In today’s episode we are joined by Simon Rohrbach, Co-Founder and CEO of Plain.com , an API-first customer service platform for modern companies. In this episode, Simon discusses why he decided to target the customer service market and many unique and interesting challenges it presents. He also outlines the maturity of the customer service market, and how from day 1 he’s been competing with the maturity and feature parity of companies that are over 10 years old. He then dives into the unique wa...
Nov 09, 2022•41 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Glean is the leading learning technology business that helps to unlock students’ learning potential by helping them overcome information overload. In this episode, Founder & CEO Dave Tucker sat down with Chris to discuss his 13 year journey as Founder, starting back in 2009 alongside his father, through to the product’s re-brand as ‘Glean’ and how they utilised this to enter new markets & crack the U.S. Dave talks through how Glean went from being one of the most recommended products, bu...
Nov 01, 2022•37 min•Season 5Ep. 2
