The Start-Up Diaries Podcast

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Join us for an inspiring episode of The Start-Up Diaries as we sit down with Richard Potter, co-founder and CEO of Peak.

🤖 Building a Global AI Leader: Richard Potter on Peak's Mission and Growth
Richard shares his incredible journey from the world of semiconductors to leading a cutting-edge AI platform that helps global brands optimise key business decisions. Discover how Richard’s passion for data, his early coding experiences, and his unique approach to democratising AI have shaped Peak into the AI powerhouse it is today.

In this episode, we dive into the challenges of scaling a tech business in Manchester, navigating the evolving AI landscape, and how Peak is pioneering AI applications that are transforming industries. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, entrepreneur, or AI professional, this episode offers valuable insights into building a purpose-driven business in one of the most exciting sectors of our time.

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💪 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝘁𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀?

Discover how Mike Skaife, Head of Engineering at Ultimate Performance, is revolutionising the fitness industry with cutting-edge tech strategies and leadership.

🎙️ 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝘂𝗯 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗭𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗦𝗸𝗮𝗶𝗳𝗲 @ 𝗨𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲.

Join us as Mike shares his unique journey from Jaguar Land Rover to leading tech innovation at Ultimate Performance. Learn about the challenges of transitioning from a large team to a more intimate setup, how he’s mentoring the next generation of engineers, and the strategies he’s employing to integrate tech into a global fitness powerhouse with 21 locations across 9 countries.

Mike is a DevOps expert and a skilled leader in aligning technical strategy with business objectives. He has played a crucial role in scaling JLR's digital hub from zero to nearly 100 engineers across development, testing, security, and more.

In this episode, we delve into Mike's unique journey, transitioning from a large team at Jaguar Land Rover to leading a smaller, dynamic team at Ultimate Performance. We explore the challenges he faced in his first 90 days, his approach to leadership, and how he navigates the complexities of integrating technology into a global fitness business. Mike also shares insights on the importance of handling failures, building trust within senior management, and the exciting future plans for Ultimate Performance.

Whether you're interested in tech, fitness, or leadership, there's something for everyone in this conversation. Stay tuned as we uncover the story behind Mike Skaife and his vision for Ultimate Performance!

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💡 Ready to elevate your leadership?

Not your typical Chief People Officer, JooBee Yeow is a trained Systems Engineer with a PhD in Leadership Development. Throughout her extensive career, she's worked with 2, 20 and 200-year-old companies with revenues ranging from 10m, 100m to £1 billion.

JooBee’s primary focus is guiding founders and start-up leaders to transition from the 'STARTing to Build' phase to 'BUILDing to Scale' – all while achieving organisational growth rate of 15% YoY, 15% QoQ and even 15% MoM.

The creator of the ‘Scaling Start-Ups’ blog series and newsletter, as well as the ‘Learngility Open Source,’ JooBee believes in the accessibility of knowledge. As such, she contributes extensively to the start-up community’s collective knowledge base via Sifted, Notion Capital, Atomico, Balderton, Forestay and Offbeat among many other publications, communities and VCs.

Discover how JooBee is empowering leaders to break through growth barriers and accelerate performance.

🎙️ Leadership 101: JooBee Yeow on scaling teams and effective feedback loops

Join us as JooBee dives into her extensive experience in organisational psychology and business strategy. We explore how she helps leaders navigate the complexities of scaling teams from 200 to 500, the critical role of 360-degree feedback loops, and the meta-competencies essential for sustainable leadership. JooBee also shares her expertise on fostering a culture of continuous learning, handling leadership challenges, and leveraging limited resources for maximum impact.

Whether you’re leading a start-up, managing a growing team, or striving to enhance your leadership skills, this episode offers invaluable insights and actionable advice.

Tune in to learn from JooBee Yeow’s proven strategies and elevate your leadership game!

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In this episode, Livvie Holt sits down with Stephen Bell, Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, and Frankie Woodhead, Group Chief Product Officer, from the Bank of London.

A unicorn status attained at time of launch, and second clearing bank to launch in the UK in 250 years; The business has taken the fintech sector by storm, landing into the top 10 of the nation’s most valuable FinTechs in 2021 – trailblazing since.

The Bank of London is different. They don’t lend, invest, or leverage your deposits like other banks do, so they're not impacted by traditional ‘bank-runs’. They simply hold all deposits in full and unencumbered at the Bank of England, always keeping them fully available upon demand - 'safer banking for business Britain, the way it should be.'
We delve into the bank's unique vision and strategy that disrupts traditional banking by focusing solely on payment settlement, clearing, and agency banking without lending or investing.

Stephen and Frankie share insights into the challenges and triumphs of launching and growing a startup in the highly regulated banking sector. They highlight the importance of inclusivity being a the heart of the business, resilience, and a customer-centric approach in driving their success.

Tune in to hear about their journeys, the innovative solutions they bring to the table, and their advice for other disruptors in the industry.

Whether you're a startup enthusiast or a banking professional, this episode offers valuable lessons on navigating and succeeding in disrupting a traditional market, with purpose.

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Join us for an insightful episode as Chris McGowan sits down with Ben Booth to explore the remarkable evolution of MaxContact. Ben shares his compelling journey from working in a family-run business to leading major transformations, including innovative product development and strategic rebranding efforts. This episode offers an in-depth look at the critical importance of leveraging data, scaling operations while maintaining a robust company culture, and navigating intricate business transitions such as management buyouts and succession planning.

Discover how MaxContact has adapted to the rapidly evolving tech landscape, the strategies they’ve employed for market adaptation, and the lessons learned along the way. Ben shares his passions for building strong professional relationships and nurturing internal talent to become the best in the market. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business leader, this episode is packed with actionable insights and practical strategies to help you thrive in the fast-paced tech industry.

Key takeaways:

Ben’s transformative journey at MaxContact
Leveraging data and maintaining culture during growth
Navigating management buyouts and succession planning
Implementing structural changes like rebranding and product sourcing
Effective strategies for market adaptation and business growth
Preparing for business exits and securing private equity investment
Building strong relationships and seeking expert guidance

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Join us for a fascinating conversation with tech leader, Alidad Moghaddam, CEO of Blue Light Card, in an episode of tech growth mastery. From Navigating MoneySuperMarkets Acquisition, to scaling Trainline 400%, Alidad shares his remarkable journey and multicultural upbringing to leading a mission-driven organization that supports NHS workers, emergency services, social care, and armed forces personnel, Blue Light Card. Discover his experiences at American Express, Bain & Company, MoneySuperMarket, and Trainline, and how they shaped his approach to growth and innovation in the technology market.

Key Takeaways:

Alidad’s multicultural background and its influence on his career
Transition from American Express to the tech sector during a pivotal time of technological developments (smart phones).
Challenges and learnings from the 2008 financial crisis
Key strategies for driving growth and innovation in tech businesses
The mission and impact of Blue Light Card on everyday heroes
The importance of IQ and EQ in leadership
Insights on building and maintaining company culture in hyper-growth environments
The importance of being customer-centric and agile in business
Vision for the future at Blue Light Card

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In this episode, Ben Whately, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Memrise, shares his journey from experimenting with neural networks to founding an innovative language learning platform.

Memrise is a platform that leverages memory techniques, deep understanding of neuroscience and novel approaches to second language acquisition to make learning a language dramatically easier and faster.

Ben discusses:

The challenges of disrupting the Ed-Tech market
The role of AI in education, and the growth of Memrise to 80 million users.
The psychological theories driving Memrise.
His personal focus on angel investing in sustainability and climate tech startups
Practical advice for founders on navigating the startup ecosystem, understanding customer needs, and staying adaptable.
Mental frameworks to adopt for agility in business development and growth (anti-fragile mentalities).
How people from non traditional backgrounds can still flourish and have great success in the technology sector.
What type of founder Ben looks to invest in.
Counteracting innate bias to try to change the investment landscape and build a better technology ecosystem for the future.

And much, much more...

Tune in for insights on education, psychology, technology, and sustainable innovation.

Download Burns Sheehan's annual Technology Hiring Report 2024here.

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In this episode, Phil Goffin, CEO and co-founder of ZILO, shares his journey from early computing enthusiast to innovating in the fin-tech space, currently through leading a pioneering software company, ZILO.

ZILO, founded in 2020, aims to revolutionise the asset and wealth management industry with innovative software solutions. Phil explains the company's mission to modernise systems managing over $60 trillion in assets, which were previously based on outdated pre-internet technology. They're on a mission to be a global software giant.

ZILO has a strong focus on artificial intelligence, with 20% of their engineers dedicated to AI development; Phil discusses the challenges of AI adoption in the finance sector, AI's developments and how we protect and evolve the talent in the tech market, and how ZILO have a 1/1000 success rate in joining their world class teams.

Having secured £25 million in funding earlier this year (totalling circa £50 million of funding), Phil also sheds light on the challenges of the fundraising journey and advice for other entrepreneurs.

Phil also reflects on how his ADHD has influenced his creative problem-solving and offers his own experience on how he has been managing this, reframing it as his super-power over a limitation.

Beyond ZILO, Phil has founded multiple successful businesses, including Calastone, which was sold for £350 million.

He shares lessons learned from these ventures, emphasising the importance of passion over just profit and offers final advice for integrating AI into business from the ground up, rather than as an afterthought.

This episode provides a wealth of insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts alike.

💡📚The annual Technology Hiring Report by Burns Sheehan is now LIVE! Packed with salary benchmarks, market trends, founder advice, investment insights and more... Get your copy here.

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Ann O'Neill walks us through her brilliant career and how it's lead her to build a UK leading female health product focused on the menopause, Adora Health.

Ann's brilliant and diverse career started in marketing over in radio. Having previously worked on the UK's biggest ever radio broadcast deal with Bob Geldof..and worked with/for flagship music and radio brands such as MTV UK, RH1, and Capital Radio to name a few.

After taking a career break to raise her children, Ann experience first hand how women desperately needed (and continue to need) more support in the workplace when dealing with menopausal symptoms, be that through perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause. She took the matter into her own hands, and made the leap into entrepeneurialism.

Ann has co-founded a start-up that is an expert-led, health and wellbeing platform for menopause, provided by employers in the workplace, and is leading the way in this area of the FemTech sector.

You'll hear more on:

How it's possible to get into the technology sector when not having a tech background
Funding reflections as a female entrepreneur; Ann joins the '2% club', the 2% of female entrepreneurs who successfully secure investment in the technology sector.
Developing a public and private sector product
Marketing strategy and its place in a start-up
Advice for founders

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In this episode we have Sadra Hosseini, the CEO and co-founder of Ryft, a payment platform business taking the fintech sector by storm, Helping software businesses become payments businesses by monetising transactions.

Sadra's entrepreneurial journey is nothing short of inspiring, and today we'll dive into how he's transforming the landscape of digital payments. The episode covers:

Funding and Strategy - Ryft raised 2 million in seed funding and received an Innovate UK grant, and are currently raising series A.
Hollistic Hiring - Sadrahires based on cultural fit and drive rather than just skills and explains why.
Partnerships - Mentions one of their most proud partners, American Express, and how they developed this partnership.
Angel Investing - Sadra personally angel invests in fintech businesses on the UK scene!
Advice for first time founders from a third time founder!

And much, much more.

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On today’s episode, we have Jason Iliffe, CEO and Co-Founder at CLIQ!

CLIQ is a community & social networking app aimed a connecting like-minded individuals together to join interest-based clubs and events; Connecting communities online and more importantly, offline.

Jason is a tech entrepreneur who started by coding his first marketplace website — an online beauty marketplace for freelance beauty professionals, AMB, was the UK's fastest-growing platform and voted the number one beauty/tech business start-up in 2021. AMB's success led to its acquisition by Revolution Beauty PLC, which lead to the creation of MY REV which was a SaaS/marketplace platform.

The second time founder delves into how he exited his first business, and walks us through a 'start-up 101' of the practical processes he faced and overcome in the process of building a successful tech driven business. Jason reflects on fundraising challenges first time around, alongside navigating difficult conversations on investment with his co-founder and partner Nicola Gunby. Jason highlights the valuable and powerful combination of having a technical and non technical co-foundership, and talks to us about how they’re pursuing the mission of reaching and impacting 1 billion lives for the better.

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In this episode we have Justin Taylor, CTO of the mobile banking solution, Suits Me.

Suits Me is the hassle free alternative to traditional banking. It's a personal account that does exactly what it says on the card. It's built to suit you. Their service has been built around ease of access, and so there's no verified proof of address needed, no photo ID, and no credit checks, and has particular features to support those UK banking scene.

Justin is a highly experienced technologist with a rich background in building and scaling tech teams and infrastructures. With a degree in Computer Science and AI from Aberystwyth University, and since has spent his career moving up the ranks in the tech industry, from Senior Support Engineer to CTO.

Justin leads the technological vision and strategy. His expertise spans agile development, replatforming, and innovative tech solutions. Justin is also known for his ability to manage tech operations under non-technical founders, ensuring clear communication and effective implementation of business-focused technology solutions.

In this episode, Justin will share insights and learnings from his career journey, discuss the latest tech trends, and offer valuable advice for those looking to scale their tech teams and infrastructures.

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In this episode, we're talking to Adam Warburton, Chief Product Officer, and Philippa Peasland from Vypr, the UK's leading product intelligence and performance accelerator. Vypr connects products to consumers by testing elements of product propositions with thousands of consumers via smartphone.

Adam, with 12 years in product management, started at O2 in customer service and led teams at Asda, Walmart, and Travelex before joining Vypr. Pippa, head of product and delivery at Vypr, transitioned from marketing to product management through her experience with the Government Digital Service (GDS).

They discuss their move from established corporations to the startup environment, highlighting the challenges and rewards of agile methodologies and scaling teams. They delve into Vypr's mission to revolutionise product development through consumer insights and behavioural science.

Adam and Pippa reveal how they build high-performance product teams and what they look for in candidates. They offer advice on transitioning from large organisations to startups, emphasising the importance of business sustainability, flexibility, and resilience.

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In this episode, Rob Bowley, Fractional CPTO at his own consultancy Pragmatic Partners, and Fractional CTO / CPTO for multiple tech start-ups such as Eco Surv, Enthuse, Doc Abode and Financielle, among many other mentorships and advisory positions.

A seasoned tech leader, Rob shares his journey from a self-taught software engineer during the dot-com boom to a leadership consultant. His career has spanned various roles, from hands-on engineering at early internet companies like Lycos to strategic positions at large organisations like the Co-op and Money Supermarket.

Rob discusses transitioning to consultancy to leverage his experience in helping startups and scale-ups refine their technology strategies. He highlights:

The shared challenges across company sizes
The importance of agile methodologies
The role of Northstar metrics in aligning business strategies
Effective leadership
The nuances of software development crucial for founders

and more.

The conversation also covers Rob's involvement in mentoring and supporting the tech startup ecosystem in Manchester and through programs like the Baltic Ventures scheme in Liverpool. He provides insights into effective leadership and emphasises his commitment to fostering growth and innovation within the tech community in the north of England.

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With 160 million children in child labour globally, a number that is increasing, Eleanor has a visionary approach to tackling the issue; using data and AI to power the Child Labour Index, a solution to enable investors to identify child labour risk in their portfolio companies and engage effectively.

HACE's Child Labour Index is an AI-powered specialised ESG rating, scoring companies and portfolios in relation to three performance indicators in the specific area of child labour.

Eleanor was named as the ‘Woman of the Year: 2022’ at the FDM’s everywoman in Tech Award for her tireless work in advocating for adequate representation of women in the Tech and AI field.

Eleanor’s mission: Data Changing Child Labour is to eradicate child labour in company supply chains. She has 13 years of experience in the field, with extensive commodity-specific work in the cotton, fishing and ready-made garment industries. Eleanor has contributed to international UN literature surrounding child labour including Delta 8.7’s ‘Markets’ Policy Guides and the recent Code 8.7 Symposium. She also sits on the UN’s UK Global Compact Child Labour Working Group.HACE is supported by the likes of KPNG, NatWest, Innovate UK and more, with data points across 55,000 publicly listed companies.
This episode covers:

How Eleanor has harnessed AI to scale her business working on a Child Labour Index
Technology's role in Social Justice
Diversity in Tech and The Need for Diversity at Build Stage
HACE's Funding Journey, and the Female Founder Journey
Purpose in Business

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In today's live recording from the buzzing seminar suite of Queen Mary University London, as part of their vibrant International Women's Day celebrations, we bring you a visionary of university life and co-founder of the 'Youni' app — Georgia Gibson.

Georgia, Co-Founder, Chief creative director + commnity builder at Youni, is not just shaping the way students socialise; she's architecting a digital community.

With Youni's innovative app, the once fragmented world of university societies, social events, and meet-ups come together into a vibrant hub of real-time connectivity. It's the pulse of campus life, right in your pocket.

As a distinguished member of the prestigious Sigma Squared Society, Georgia stands among the globe's brightest young minds who dare to tackle the world's grand challenges. Her mission? To weave the digital with the physical, fostering a tapestry of genuine connections in an often isolated digital age for university students across the UK.

Covering community marketing, female foundership, community building and building a start-up, join the movement, and discover how Georgia and her team at Youni are not just chasing innovation — they're leading it.

The Start-Up Podcast Diaries Season 9 is proudly partnered with UK Cyber Week 2024.

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This episode dives into the entrepreneurial journey of Eddy Herman, the co-founder and CTO of Slip—a digital receipt and retail technology company aimed at transforming the retail landscape. Eddy's from Manchester with a background in electronic engineering and with experience at leading companies like Darktrace and The Hut Group, Eddy shares his transition from corporate security to launching his own startup.

Key Takeaways:

Turning an Idea into Reality: Learn about the conceptualisation of Slip, from an idea about enhancing digital receipts to a functioning business that aims to revolutionise retail tech.
Challenges of Starting Up: Eddy shares the challenges and exhilarations of moving from a secure job to the unpredictable world of startups, including the hurdles of fundraising during different economic climates.
Company Culture and Management: Insight into creating a company culture and management style that fosters innovation and flexibility, highlighting the practical challenges and solutions in implementing policies like unlimited holidays, commonly seen in the start-up world.
Future of Retail and Digital Receipts: Eddie discusses the potential impact of Slip on the retail industry and consumer behaviour, emphasising the importance of customer and data management.

Eddy's journey is a testament to the risks and rewards of leaving a stable career to pursue a startup dream, offering valuable lessons on resilience and strategic thinking, and demonstrates how technological innovations can disrupt traditional industries.

Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a tech enthusiast, or someone interested in the dynamics of starting and running a business, this episode is for you.

The Start-Up Podcast Diaries Season 9 is proudly partnered with UK Cyber Week 2024. Taking place on 17th-18th April 2024 at Olympia London, join 3000+ cyber tech professionals, to explore the latest developments and equip attendees with the knowledge to protect their businesses. Get your free ticket here.

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In this podcast episode, guest Charlotte Ashton, shares her insights and advice into the investment landscape and financial industry particularly focusing on strategic finance and private equity. Charlotte has built her expertise as a board advisor, business coach and investor over a 20+ year career in the corporate finance and private equity sectors.

Her business, Implicit, empowers founders of privately owned businesses to gain freedom and successfully crystallise wealth through proactive succession and sale planning, and provides independent, founder-focused education, coaching and peer-to-peer support she was unable to source in her role as Head of Origination at a £1bn AUM mid-market fund.

The episode covers:

Founder Focus: Understand the importance of maintaining control as a founder, aligning business strategies with personal goals, and the critical aspects of exit planning.

Common Pitfalls: Discover the typical traps business owners fall into during the sale process and how to navigate negotiations with investors for successful outcomes.

Exit Strategies: Gain knowledge on various exit strategies, their implications, and how to choose the best path for your business.

Choosing Advisors: The significance of selecting the right advisors to support your journey and the benefits of engaging in peer groups for additional support.

and more!

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In this episode we have two investment managers from Mercia Ventures, Adam Lovell (Series A Investor) and Kiran Mehta (Seed Investor).

Mercia Ventures are Venture capital investment for ambitious businesses. They invest into vibrant early-stage and scale up businesses across the UK.

They talk about their roles and experiences in investing, particularly in the fields of software, deep tech, and life sciences. Adam and Kiran share insights into Mercia Ventures' approach to investment, detailing their focus on seed and Series A stages and what they typically look for in companies at these stages.

They also touch upon the importance of team structures, go-to-market strategies, and the challenges startups face in securing investment. The conversation reveals their advice for entrepreneurs seeking investment, emphasising realism, passion for the problem being solved, and the significance of aligning with the right investors.

This episode provides a comprehensive overview of venture capital investment from the perspective of seasoned investors.

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Dr Natalie Getreu and the Hertility Team are revolutionising the female health landscape, providing personalised reproductive health solutions tailored to each woman's unique needs, from menstruation to menopause, offering customised testing and services based on individual circumstances through their letterbox home test kits and trailblazing research teams.

Hertility collaborates with companies like Channel Four and Edelman to provide reproductive health benefits for employees, including testing, services, and education, as well as providing the invaluable service direct to consumers.

Australian born Dr Natalie Getreu talks through her personal journey of how she got to developing this product and service, highlighting the importance of supporting women of all ages in the workplace through valuable and impactful modern-day benefits such as Hertility, as well as unpacking the journey for her customers. A business with both a B2B and D2C offering, Natalie unpacks the challenges faced on the development of her businesses from inception to launch, including:

Raising capital for a female oriented product in a male dominated investment world
The hurdles in developing a medical device
Why tracking female reproductive organs and hormones is just as important as tracking any other aspect of your health
The importance of diversity in your team
How to balance holding onto what you love doing as a Founder vs other business demands
Work life balance
The culture shift in businesses slowly addressing the taboo subject of appropriately supporting women in the workplace

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In this episode, Josh Garnham of Packfleet recounts his journey of building a B-Corp tackling sustainable delivery services from the ground up with his fellow co-founders.

Packfleet was founded in 2021 by a trio of former Monzo employees that include the neobank's former VP of Design Hugo Cornejo, VP of marketing and communications Tristan Thomas and engineering manager Josh Garnham. From dropping out of the renowned Cambridge university to launching his net-positive logistics firm, Joshua reccounts how his skills and product development approach have been influenced by roles at tech giants Monzo and Apple.

Together with co-founders, motivated by delivery frustrations, they aim to improve service for all stakeholders, prioritising ethics and sustainability. Targeting expansion beyond London's M25, Packfleet's commitment to B-Corp principles reflects its focus on ethical practices and corporate culture. Joshua stresses the value of small beginnings, collaboration, and shared values in entrepreneurial ventures, underlining Packfleet's dedication to innovative, sustainable logistics and a positive workplace culture.

Some Key Takeaway's:

Entrepreneurial Journey and Team Building: Listeners will learn about Josh Garnham's transition from academia to the tech industry, his experiences at Monzo and Apple, and the dynamics of co-founding Packfleet with a strong team ethos.
Tech-Driven Logistics Innovation: The episode delves into how Packfleet leverages technology to revolutionise the logistics and delivery industry, emphasising their unique approach to improving delivery success rates and customer satisfaction.
Sustainability in Business Operations: Insight into Packfleet's commitment to being a B Corp, focusing on sustainable practices, ethical employment, and their vision for environmentally conscious logistics.
Company Culture and Employee Well-being: The discussion highlights the importance of cultivating a positive, empathetic work environment, illustrating how Packfleet prioritizes its team's welfare and fosters a culture of inclusivity and collaboration to the highest levels.
Strategic Growth and Industry Impact: An exploration of Packfleet's business model, growth strategy within and beyond the M25, and their broader vision to influence the e-commerce and logistics sectors positively.

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In this episode, we explore the intersection of innovation and financial health. Join us as we delve into the story of Ophelos, a startup born at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Founded by Amon Ghaiumy and his co-founders, Ophelos leverages cutting-edge technology to address the back end of financial services, focusing on debt management and consumer empowerment.

Ophelos are a new kind of debt collection agency - one with a social purpose and mission.

Learn how they've harnessed AI to transform debt collection into a supportive and efficient process, and discover their journey through acquisition and beyond, all while maintaining a commitment to positive impact and technological advancement. In September 2023, Ophelos announced has agreed to join forces with Intrum, the market leader in Credit Management Services in Europe.

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Featuring our first 'expert topic' episode whereby we invite experts from the sectors we specialise in to share their insights and experiences. In this episode we shine a spotlight on the Cyber Security field.

Miguel Clarke, a former FBI agent and a current cybersecurity and GRC evangelist at Armor Defense, a cloud-first cybersecurity company, shares insights from his fascinating career journey, starting from his unexpected entry into the FBI following a casual comment at a party, to his current role in cybersecurity at Armor.

Miguel highlights the shift in the cybersecurity industry towards resilience, emphasizing preparation and response to incidents over mere prevention. He recounts his experiences and challenges faced during his time with the FBI, including the intense process of becoming an agent and handling significant crises like the September 11 attacks and the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

The discussion also covers Miguel's transition to the private sector, where he applies his unique perspective on problem-solving and leadership developed in the FBI. He emphasizes the importance of being proactive and well-informed to combat cybersecurity threats effectively, particularly against sophisticated tactics like business email compromise.

Miguel delves into his journey overcoming public speaking fears, becoming an international keynote speaker, and his approach to leadership and personal development.

He concludes by highlighting key values that small to medium-sized businesses should be focused on to build and retain top-tier teams.

The episode offers valuable insights into resilience in cybersecurity, the nuances of leadership, and the importance of personal growth and adaptability in one's career… and you won’t want to miss it.

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The Start-Up Diaries Podcast Season 9… is officially on its way!🥁⏰

Launching next week, we're pulling back the curtain on a captivating lineup of the UK's most groundbreaking and fast-growing start-ups, scale-ups and new to the start-up diaries - 'expert topic' episodes from seasoned subject matter experts.

Get ready to dive headfirst into their stories of resilience, ambition, and the relentless pursuit of building businesses, products, teams...your inner-leader.

From inspirational stories, the latest innovative products, to game-changing business strategies, we're serving up a sneak peek of what we’ve got in store for you 👇🎬

It's only getting bigger and better... 💥

With just one week to go, the countdown has begun! Mark your calendars & set your reminders as we unveil the next chapter of #TheStartUpDiariesPodcast 🙌

Catch up on any episodes you've missed so far, and buckle up for the best series yet.

Are you ready?

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Join us as Nevine Coutry, Founder and CEO of Playdate unravels the true trials and tribulations behind the creation of the UK's very first dating app designed for single parents!

Paired with an in-app baby-sitting service, Navine's product 'Playdate' creates a perfect solution to an ongoing hurdle in many single parents lives, which is meeting 'the right person, and in the same breath, having access to dependable child-care options which would enable single parents to date.

Nevine shares the compelling story behind Playdate, from its inception rooted in her personal journey as a single parent facing the dating world's challenges, to its development into a thriving platform that fills a significant gap in the market.

With twists and turns along the way, including devastating cyber scam attempts, and building a technical app based product without a technological background - learn how Nevine doubled down on her strengths in marketing and her personal network to build out her product and team - including creating an incredible branding opportunity alongside ITV's 'My Mum,Your Dad' series hosted by Davina McCall.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

Inspiration Behind Playdate: Discover how personal experiences can fuel innovation and meet unaddressed needs in the market.
Resilience in Entrepreneurship: Naveen's journey is a testament to the power of resilience, showcasing how to overcome adversity and emerge stronger.
Building Support Networks: Learn about the importance of community and support for entrepreneurs, particularly for women in tech.
Strategic Partnerships: Insight into how innovative partnerships can enhance user experience and address key challenges.
Navigating Fundraising: Naveen shares invaluable insights on the fundraising journey, highlighting the perseverance needed to secure investment.

Navine's story is not just about the creation of a unique platform but also a narrative of resilience, innovation, and the relentless pursuit of success. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a single parent, or anyone interested in how personal experiences shape professional endeavours, this episode offers hugely valuable lessons, and inspiration.

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Join us as Tim Chong, Co-founder and CEO of Yonder, talks through the creation of a revolutionary lifestyle credit card designed for the modern city dweller. Discover how Yonder is breaking barriers by offering credit based on cash flow, not just credit history. Dive into Tim's journey from his tech beginnings to the M-Pesa projects in Kenya, which inspired a credit solution that's breathing new life into a dormant market with rewards that go beyond transactions.

In this episode, you'll hear how Tim tackled the challenges of fundraising during economic downturns and built a powerhouse team that truly represents Yonder's core values. He shares insights on the importance of continuous learning and striking the right balance between celebrating wins, savouring the moment, and continuously striving for excellence.

We cover:

The ins and outs of launching a fintech game-changer
Cultivating a strong, principled company culture
The distinction between a 'kind' not 'nice' company environment
Navigating the rollercoaster of startup life
The critical impact of attention to detail - the magic, and graft, of the 0.01%
How Yonder's mission goes beyond shaking up the market to genuinely seeking to enrich daily life

Tune in to get inspired by a story of innovation, tenacity, and the quest to make a meaningful difference in the fintech world with Yonder.

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For the dog lovers, this one's for you. This man has found a way to potentially expand your dogs life by 32 months with his innovative product, Tuggs.

In today’s episode we have Harry Bremner, Founder of Tuggs. Tuggs is an award-winning pet wellness startup creating freshly-prepared dog food in a sustainable way. But there’s a twist - their secret super power is insects, providing a sustainable edge to their product whilst not compromising on protein or minerals.

In this episode, Harry talks about his entrepreneurial journey of founding multiple business, including a student storage service, an events company, and a digital marketing agency, before creating Tuggs. We dive into his interest for sustainable food sources and his research into entomophagy (insects as a food source), after learning about the EU regulations allowing insects to be used in aqua feed in 2017 – demonstrating how understanding changing regulatory landscapes can spark innovation.

The environmental impacts from the pet food industry is astounding and Harry’s episode makes for a really interesting listen; He elaborates as to why insects as a protein source are sustainable, requiring significantly less land, water and emit few carbon emissions compared to the meat used from traditional livestock and the process of making kibble.

Tuggs have proved that personalisation and attention to sustainability can be significant differentiators in a crowded market, offering a unique selling proposition.

Harry shares insights on fundraising and the importance of warm introductions in the venture capital world, which Chris McGowan at Burns Sheehan has actively contributed to. He also discusses the challenges of finding a manufacturing partner and advises on being conservative with launch timelines.

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In this episode of the Startup Diaries co-host Livvie Holt sits down with Rajiv Tanna, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Birdie, a global home healthcare technology company.Birdie is a technology partner for homecare, with mobile and desktop software for managing care delivery, rostering and invoicing.
Rajiv shares Birdie's mission to revolutionise the ageing journey for care recipients and their families by navigating the UK's underfunded social care system through innovative software solutions.

Discussing his background in banking and technology, Raj reflects on his journey from early aspirations to build a business to leading a company aimed at making significant impacts in healthcare. He delves into the importance of customer-centric product development, the challenges of managing a fast-growing team, and Birdie's commitment to transparency and social enterprise values.

As Birdie expands internationally and explores generative AI to enhance patient care, Raj imparts wisdom on the balance between personal life and the demands of nurturing a startup with a profound social mission.

5 key takeaways:

Align with Your Why: Choose or create a business venture that resonates deeply with your personal values and life goals, as this alignment will be a source of strength and perseverance.
Embrace Customer Feedback: Develop products that are deeply informed by customer insights and feedback, ensuring that the customer's voice directly influences the evolution of your offerings.
Cultivate a Strong Culture: As your business scales, actively shape and nurture your company culture to ensure that it supports your mission and empowers your employees.
Balance and Well-being: Incorporate practices that promote personal well-being and work-life balance, recognizing that long-term success is built on a foundation of sustainable work habits.
Consider Your Role: Reflect on whether founding a startup is the best route for you, or if you could make a significant impact by joining forces with an existing mission-driven organization.

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In this episode, we're excited to welcome Mike Jones, the CTO of loveholidays. loveholidays are not only the fastest growing travel agent in the UK, but also one of the UK's fastest growing businesses in the last five years (2019). They're on a mission to open up the world to everyone. They offer unlimited choice, unmatched ease and unmissable value, and are harnessing tech to be the go to platform in the holiday industry.

Mike talks about his transformative role at the renowned price comparison site Uswitch, where he helped scale the company significantly - exemplifying his expertise in growing startups. At loveholidays, Mike uses his experience to drive innovation. We talk about the impact of partnering with Google to catapult loveholidays operational reach, improving technology infrastructure, and harnessing AI to enhance customer service.

Mike talks on resilience, strategy and creating a supportive business culture and shares insights on the challenges of taking loveholidays global. Mike's the man to listen to on what to consider when scaling a business, and he delves into the dynamics of startup growth, technologies role in scaling, and the personal philosophies guiding his successful career to date.

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In this episode we have Ben Leonard, a three-time founder/ co-founder and entrepreneur with a journey packed full of success. Ben built up his sports equipment business, Beast Gear to be a 7 figure business and exited the ‘holy grail’ exit of 3 years. He then co-founded Ecom brokers, in the midst of going solo as an e-commerce consultant (Ben Leonard Pro), and writing his book 'Quit Stalling and Build Your Brand, You Don’t Need an MBA to Crush It in Ecommerce', which offers insights and guidance for aspiring e-commerce entrepreneurs.

Beast Gear offer a total fitness solution for all of your gyms needs including providing equipment and design.

Ben shares top tier advice on business strategy, how he pushed his multi-million pound mindset, importance of quality in e-commerce, and building your brand and follower network, and more.

Ben also expands on his talk delivered recently when supporting the renowned Steven Bartlett, host and founder of Diary of a CEO podcast.

This episode is for anyone looking for insights into:
📈 Rapid business growth

🔐 Founding businesses in e-commerce

😍 Exiting a business at the right time

🔄 B2B to B2C shifts

🙌 Developing company brand through your supporters

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In this episode, we're joined by Joshua Spriggs, Founder and CEO of Enferm, and is a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone interested in the intersection of technology and personal development. Packed with real-world lessons on leadership, personal growth, cultural adaptability, and the art of building a successful tech-driven business amidst evolving market demands.

Enferm helps secure nursing shifts for nurses that want more control over where and when they work. They are an NHS and Health board trusted shift provider, revolutionising the way nurses access and assess the work available to their specialisms. But it didn't start out that way - Joshua has evolved enferm from what was a recruitment provider for the health care services, into the innovative product, creating an ecosystem to empower nurses.
In this episodes you'll come away with insight into:

✔ 'The Power of the Pivot': Enferm's journey from a recruitment agency to a technology-focused company highlights the importance of adaptability in business pathways.

💥 Influences on Leadership: How Joshua's multicultural upbringing and exposure to entrepreneurial parents significantly shaped his journey and approach.

🔄 Switching Career Paths is Possible: Joshua's transition from hands-on roles like labouring and construction sites to embracing technology underscores the value of continuous learning and embracing change.

💛 Personal Growth and Self-Care: Emphasising self-care and personal growth, Joshua speaks on how looking after yourself both mentally and physically is crucial for sustained success.

🧠 Communication: How ensuring a communication style that resonates and filtrates clearly to your team is crucial to move in the same direction.

💪 Building a Team and Culture: Insights into attracting top talent from renowned companies and the challenges of merging different cultures into one cohesive team offers valuable lessons on leadership and team dynamics.

Don't miss out on these invaluable lessons in leadership, personal growth, and technological innovation. Listen to this inspiring episode on your preferred podcast platform and join us on this enlightening journey.

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In this episode, we're joined by key members of the eComplete team - Anna Graham, Managing Director and Les Yates, Strategy Director. They bring a wealth of experience to the conversation, honed by their individual paths in e-commerce and startup environments.

eComplete is a talent led and data-driven eCommerce growth partner and capital investor. They scale eCommerce businesses through the power of data, talent and global infrastructure. Leveraging their in-house data platform they identify and implement rapid growth strategies, providing partners with access to scale and talent which is typically afforded to eCommerce giants. Their in house private equity arm, eComplete Capital, also provides investment in high growth potential eCommerce brands.

In this session, you'll learn about the dramatic impact eComplete can make on a business's growth journey, their distinct approach to private equity investments, and the importance of building the right team from the start. They extensively discuss their unique offerings such as data and insights, global infrastructure, and specialized talent provision. Tune in for their insights on managing challenges, understanding customers, and keeping a healthy company culture.

In this episode, you’ll walk away with key insights into:

· The importance of data and insights in business growth and profitability.

· The significance of having a skilled and specialized in-house team for successful business operations.

· The necessity of understanding your target audience for a sustainable growth strategy.

· How a business can save significantly by optimizing their supply chain.

· The value of maintaining a positive company culture and hiring the right people as the business scales.

Not to be missed by anyone thinking about scaling a business in the e-commerce industry.

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In this short mini-clip we welcome new London co-host, Livvie Holt to The Start-Up Diaries.

We feature a short 2023 'wrapped' of the podcast this year, shouting out a handful of our most listened to episodes and most importantly thanking all of our listeners, and guests, for supporting the podcast in it's third year.

This year we tripled our listenership - and it's all thanks to our dedicated listeners - so a tremendous thank you from everyone here at The Start-Up Diaries.

The Start-Up Diaries is powered by Burns Sheehan, a leading tech recruitment specialist who provide market leading reports and insights to the tech community. Visit our website to find The Start-Up Diaries Hub, and more information on Burns Sheehan.

We will take a one week break of episodes this week and you can expect to find your usual Tuesday morning commute filled with our latest episode from the 2nd January 2024.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy festive period,

Chris and Liv @ The Start-Up Diaries

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In this episode, we chat with Phil Denton, CEO and founder of Evaluate-Ed - a school improvement solution that streamlines self-evaluation and school improvement planning through the software.

Phil made a career transition from being a head teacher to becoming an entrepreneur in the ed-tech start-up world. He shares insights about his journey, including how he got the taste for the ed-tech business world whilst writing a book alongside Tranmere Rovers football manager, Micky Mellon, called ‘The First 100 Days’ - which takes anecdotes from Premier League managers about being successful over your first 100 days and how we can apply this in a role and beyond.

He discusses the challenges he faced and the key learnings he gained along the way in starting a business in the ed-tech field. We also dive into the Evaluate-Ed product and its benefits for schools, as well as the vision for the future of the business.

Topics covered:

Career Shifts and Making it Happen for You
Book Project Insights: Strategic People Management and Purpose Driven Missions
Core Values Driving Business Ventures
Vision for Growth
Leadership Lessons
The Importance of Your Network
Entrepreneurial Advice

Tune in for an inspiring conversation about the intersection of education and entrepreneurship.

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In this insightful episode of Startup Diaries, we welcome Daniel Yubi, CEO and (co)-founder of Payable - a successful fintech platform that helps businesses manage their financial transactions more efficiently.

Daniel offers a deep dive into his journey, from his diverse career path that led him from being a lawyer in Mexico, to building a huge Youtube following, to becoming a tech entrepreneur in London, to starting his own co-founded business - Payable. Before Daniel founded Payable, he spent 10+ years building platform products for leading fintech brands such as Klarna, Revolut, and Mollie at Checkout.com.

Throughout the conversation, Daniel and host Chris McGowan, Managing Director of the North @ Burns Sheehan discuss:

The challenges of starting a business
Landing $6 million in funding
The importance of cultivating the right team
How vital it is to be passionate about your work
Building a successful YouTube Channel
Advice to entrepeneurs...

Daniel shares intriguing stories and practical advice, making this episode a must-listen for anyone interested in entrepreneurship, fintech or those just eager to learn from someone else's hugely successful journey.

Psst.. Listen until the end to find out his 3 top tips for budding entrepreneurs or those looking to scale their business.

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In this episode we have George Lineker, the Co-Founder of YourBusinessNumber a service that provides users with a second virtual UK mobile number, enabling them to use both WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business on the same phone.

George is widely known as the son of the famous Gary Lineker OBE , the English sports broadcaster and former professional footballer. But in this episode, we delve into how George has carved his own way as a start-up entrepreneur, and his most recent co-foundership at YourBusinessNumber.

In this episode, we explore:

Challenges and Opportunities in Market Awareness
Why George chose Entrepreneurialism over Football
Learnings from Past Failed Business Ventures
Why he Chose to Create his Own Businesses
The Importance of the Right Partnership
Outsourcing Marketing and Why it can be the Right Choice Early On or Throughout your Journey

Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupdiariespodcast/

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In this episode we have Mat Ilic, the Co-Founder and CEO at Greenworkx - a new climate EdTech startup tackling the green skills emergency, and are building the net-zero workforce. Their mission is simple, to get 10 million people into green jobs in 10 years, through building an app to be the talent portal for green jobs with green job discovery, opportunity-matching, and social community.

Did you know, that to deliver net-zero, over 30 million more green workers are needed globally by 2030? Greenworkx are actively working towards meeting that need, by harnessing manual trades and introducing green skills.

Matt draws from his government, policy and social impact expertise to walk us through how Greenworkx came to fruition.

In this episode…

Intro to Mat's background; Having advised both ex-PM's Borris Johnson and Teresa May on all matters justice and home affairs, get insider insights into Matt's interesting background including advising parliament.
Why Greenworkx is both a passion and business for Matt and fellow co-founders.
Green infrastructure and workforce development.
Product development and challenges around this.
How the pandemic impacted the labour market.
Leadership, and the personal development required to get you where you want to be.

Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupdiariespodcast/

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In this session, we get the low down from Darren Westall, CEO and Co-Founder of Paiger. Paiger helps recruiters build personal brands, identify new business opportunities, attract candidates, and have better conversations.

Paiger was born when co-founders Darren and Rohit Kapoor noticed a shift in the way people prospected, communicated & built their businesses.

Much like the beginnings of any start-up, the business started at home - or more accurately, in Darren's shed! Fast forward to today and Paiger supports businesses in multiple countries, and has won multiple awards.

In this episode, we cover:

The Importance of Technical Skills in Tech Start-UpBusiness Development: Darrens ability to build and adapt the Pager platform himself, responding quickly to customer feedback, was a key factor in the success of his business.

Personal Branding and Utilising LinkedIn for Business Growth: Darren shares how building a strong online presence helped him connect with his target audience and grow his business without relying on traditional sales methods.

The Role of Sales and Product in Business Strategy: Darren's experience shows that understanding the differences between being sales-led and product-led in business; These dynamics are crucial for business expansion and adapting to new markets.

Challenges of Fundraising and Bootstrapping: Darren shares insights from his experience with bootstrapping Pager and later going through Series A funding.

Leadership and Team Management: Darren discusses his journey from a developer to a CTO, and managing a large team at a young age and what helped him develop along the way.

Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupdiariespodcast/

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In this session, we feature Harry Hubble, Founder of Pally. Pally connects social messaging, planning, and relationship management to help you build stronger relationships, supercharged by AI.

In this episode, we introduce a remarkable guest, a 25-year-old London-based founder with a unique journey. He skipped the traditional academic route, diving into the professional world at just 14 and establishing their first company at 15 years old.

What's truly exceptional is their mastery of the business language, finance. By 20, he became the world's youngest chartered management accountant, and by 22, they held the prestigious position of Chief Financial Officer in a 200-person company.

Harry is part of Sigma Squared Society, a global community of 900+ of the most ambitious, young entrepreneurs who are on a mission to push boundaries, transcend industries and develop cutting-edge innovations to foster change.

But the journey continues. In the past 18 months, they embarked on a new adventure with Pally, a social product reimagining how we connect. Pally isn't your ordinary messaging app; it's a social operating system that enriches relationships and fosters long-lasting plans. Today, we explore Harry’s inspiring journey, from seizing opportunities to understanding the power of persistence and belief.

He’s on a mission to transform social connection with one another through the power of intuitive tech, which adds value and meaning for it’s user - instead of feeding into the modern ‘scroll culture’. Join us for an incredible episode, as we delve into this extraordinary journey of redefining social connectivity.

Themes covered:
Product Development, Profitability, Hiring, People and Culture, Advice.

Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupdiariespodcast/
Follow our page on Linkedin: https://shorturl.at/qSW56

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Tomorrow’s Journey is an award-winning platform that helps fleet operators launch pay per use mobility businesses in rapid time.

In this episode, Co-Founder and CEO Chris Kirby talks through his jump from the corporate world to founding a start-up and shares his views on the glamorisation of tech entrepreneurship and how it actually compares to his experience as a technical founder.

Chris shares how he initially built the business in a way that doesn’t rely on VC funding, but why now they are ready to seek investment. And finally, Chris discusses his experience adjusting to the role of a founder and he has had to adapt to not having that ‘boss’ figure above him. It truly covers all things start-ups: from investment journeys, to team building, to the dark days, and the 'pick me up' pitches.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Tomorrow’s Journey
2. Going from a corporate job with plenty of experience, leaping in to the uncertainties of a start-up, what made you take that plunge?
3. Something that you mentioned, and a topic that we like to demystify a lot on this show, is that of the glamorisation of tech entrepreneurship. What are your views on this how does it compare to your actual experience as a technical founder?
4. You mentioned that initially you built the business in a way that didn’t rely on VC funding, but are now doing a round of fundraising. What changed and why did you decide to look for investment?
5. What has your experience with VC investment been like?
6. When we were putting this episode, you mentioned that one of the toughest parts has been coping as a Founder when things don’t necessarily go to plan, and not having that ‘boss’ above you that you can turn to. How have you dealt with this and what advice would you share with other founders going through a similar experience?
7. How has this impacted how you’ve built your culture and the team around you?
8. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
9. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking start their own business or to join a start-up?

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In this episode we have Zally, a Manchester-based deep tech company on a mission to confirm you are you, continuously. They offer e-commerce stores a simple and secure way to authenticate visitors, resulting in happy customers, higher conversions and increased revenue. Overall, they’re on a mission to abolish passwords.

In this episode, CEO of Zally, Patrick Smith, talks to us about the mission of building the password free society, finding the right place for you in the journey of growing businesses, disruptive marketing, personal balance, and finding the verticals to scale businesses using digital marketing.

In this episode we explore:
1. Intro to Patrick and Zally
2. Have you always had an entrepreneurial drive from a young age?
3. You’ve exited businesses in the past, can you talk us through the experience of exiting a business you’ve built?
4. After leaving your Digital Agency you then invested a significant amount of money into a research project – what drove this? Was this the start of Zally?
5. You’re building a B2B & B2C business – can you talk us through what this means?
6. Culturally you are trying to bring a digital agency feel to a tech business, how are you doing this?
7. Diversity is key on the agenda to your recent growth phase, how are you approaching this? What are the benefits for you as a business?
8. You used the phrase that you want to “make Manchester proud”, what do you mean by this and why is Manchester your “home”?
9. What is the biggest challenge in your career to date?
10. What is the one bit of advice you would give to someone starting their own business?
11. Finally – we know you are starting your own podcast, can you give us some information about this?

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In this session we have Active Profile, an integrated Marketing and PR agency like no other, who also run the well known 'Tech Climbers' initiative, of which Burns Sheehan partner with.

In this episode we delve into Tech Climbers, the exciting initiative, which supports scaling tech businesses in the Liverpool, Yorkshire regions swell as launching more recently in Manchester. Tech climbers showcase scalable, innovative, product-led technology businesses. As the flagship for tech in the north, tech climbers provide a platform through events and their publicised Tech Climbers list, they’re are on mission to shine a light on the trailblazing businesses within the tech community and raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities within the local regions.

In this episode, we have Anna Heyes - CEO, of Active profile and Frankie Hutton, who is the client operations and growth manager at Active Profile as well as Project Lead for Tech Climbers. With both of them being PR and marketing experts, we wanted to pick their brains on the advice they give their clients particularly in the start-up space. We think it’s a brilliant episode, we hope you enjoy it!

In this episode, we explore:

Can you give us an intro to yourselves and the story behind Active Profile and what inspired you to launch Tech Climbers?
Why did you choose the Manchester tech scene this year & why are initiatives like these so important?
For future applications - what makes an ideal business for the list and why should someone apply?
Let’s dive into the list, who’s made it onto this years’?
Are there any brands that you are particularly excited about this year, any real ones to watch?
Moving to Active Profile - While prepping for this episode you mentioned brand and demand and the importance of balancing the two in start-ups. Can you tell the listeners what you meant by that?
You’re all about supporting the Northern Tech start-up scene, for those listening what are the key mistakes you see businesses making with their marketing and PR?
What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
What one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to launch their own start-up?

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Red Flag alert are the UK's leading provider of business data intelligence and analytics to predict growth, global compliance risk and insolvency, based in Manchester.

In this episode, Richard West talks to us about working his way up in Red Flag alert from sales operations to Managing Director and share holder, how he helped build a start-up from a PLC to a powerhouse with the mission of becoming the UK leader in business data analytics.

Richard gives insights from being the youngest regional director at 22 years old, and his career path started selling forklifts. He shares how to pick the right funding (of which Red Flag have secured 4.5 million£ investment from Foresight and Uncapped) how to scale effectively, and what the backbone of their success is.

Questions asked:

Do you want to start by telling us a bit about yourself and your journey with Red Flag A!ert?
In our planning call you mentioned not going to uni and moving down under to become youngest regional director at 22, what made you decide to take this plunge and not take a possibly easier route of joining your dad’s business?
Coming from a heavy sales background, how do you think this has impacted you launching Red Flag A!ert?
Can you talk us through your investment story and your experience behind your decisions to take investment when you did?
You mentioned when getting investment, it’s important to pick the fund don’t let the fund pick you, how did you decide you’d picked the right funding and if you were to go back and do it again, would you have done anything differently?
How did you handle the transition from pre to post investment and what did the 100 days post investment look like for you and red flag alert?
Can you tell us a bit about your initial go to market strategy & how you managed to take your product out to companies similar to the one you’ve just come out from?
So 24 months ago you only had 11 employees, and now you’ve just launched your 4th salesforce, how did you go about scaling your business and sustaining the growth?
When expanding, how did you go about attracting decent talent to join your team with a relatively small budget?
What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking start their own business or to join a start-up?

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Slinger is a job platform offering fun and fair hospitality shifts to side-hustlers, students and hospitality professionals around the UK.

In this episode, Founder & CEO Theo Lee Houston talks us through how he has built business entirely self utilising his network, already acquiring over 5000 workers and 600 businesses as users of the app. Theo shares his thoughts on the power of the ‘network effect’ and how using this concept he plans to build the app as a recruitment tool.

Theo shares his experience as a non-technical solo founder, and how receiving the Google Black Founder’s Fund has impacted his vision for the business going forward.

Finally, Theo shares his experience fundraising in a market downturn and building out his entire team in just one month, as well as wrapping up with his experience with mentoring and why he believes its so crucial in driving careers.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Slinger
2. You mentioned when we were putting the episode together that you built the business entirely self utilising your network, and from this you’ve already acquired 5000 workers and 600 businesses as users of the app. Can you talk us through how you did that?
3. Building on this idea of the ‘networking effect’, you also mentioned that more recently you’ve taken on a slightly new concept for the app, based on the solid network of users you’ve got - both in terms of workers and businesses. Can you explain how the idea of utilising the app as a recruitment tool came about and what the vision is going forward?
4. What has your experience been like as a solo, non-technical founder? How have you navigated that?
5. You’ve recently received the Google Black Founders Fund. Can you talk us through what that has meant for you as a business and how it’s impacted the vision going forward?
6. You’re also about to close on your fist round of investment. What has that fundraising journey been like, particularly in a market downturn?
7. You also mentioned that in the last month you’ve built out your whole team. What does that mean for you as a founder in terms of your role and day to day responsibilities and how did you adjust to the culture change of such rapid expansion?
8. You’re very passionate about mentoring and personally dedicate a significant amount of time out of your schedule to mentoring others. Why is mentoring so important to you and what do you think other founders and entrepreneurs can get from doing it?
9. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
10. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business or join a start-up?

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MyoMaster is a sports tech company created by athletes and is the only recovery brand in the world in which every single product created is rigorously tested by their community of elite athletes and physiotherapists.

In this episode, Co-Founder & CEO Lottie Whyte talk us through the story behind MyoMaster, how she envisions the industry to evolve and how MyoMaster will stay ahead of the competition.

Lottie discusses how she has personally scaled herself a leader and first-time Founder, and how she went about building an e-commerce business as a non-technical founder.

Finally, Lottie shares how and why she’s intentionally kept her team incredibly lean and talks us the impact of having just received investment from the Google Black Founder’s Fund.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind MyoMaster
2. You mentioned that injury is the 2nd biggest issue putting pressure on the NHS. With the scale of the problem that you are aiming to solve being so vast, how do you envision the industry to evolve, and how do you aim to stay ahead of the competition?
3. You’ve always been a part of scaling businesses, but this is your first time as a founder. How have you had to scale yourself up a leader and are they any particular challenges that you’ve had to overcome?
4. As a non-technical founder, how did you go about building an e-commerce business?
5. When we were putting this episode together you mentioned that you’ve intentionally kept your team very lean, with there being 2 of you full time. Can you talk us through why you’ve decided to build your team this way?
6. You’ve just received investment from the Google Black Founders’ Fund. Can you talk us through the impact that his has had on the vision for the business?
7. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
8. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business?

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Piper is the manager enablement platform that is committed to empowering anyone to be a great manager. Piper combines state of the art technology with expert led coaching to create the next generation of managers.

In this episode, Founder Sathya Smith shares her story from spending 11 years rising through the ranks at Google, and what is was like to leave that journey, to ‘reluctantly’ becoming a founder when faced with other opportunities such as the VC world…

Sathya then dives into why she decided to solve the problem of management training and development before finally sharing her experience with managers and role models earlier in her career, as well as now as a female solo founder.

Questions asked:
1. Intro to Sathya and Piper HQ
2. You spent 11 years rising through the ranks at Google, what was it like when you left? What did you have to learn?
3. When you talk through your journey to entrepreneurship it sounds like you were a “reluctant founder”, you hit a crossroads where you could have been a VC, work in a startup OR become a founder. What led to you setting up Piper?
4. Why have you tried to solve management training and development?
5. Can you talk me through how the product manages generational differences?
6. How have you built a category defining product?
7. I’d love to understand what your managers and role models were like in your career? (leading into – being a female founder, you’re now the role model , can you tell me about how you approach this to inspire others?)
8. What is the biggest challenge in your career to date? (Sales/Marketing and Solo Foundership?)
9. What one bit of advice would you give to someone starting their own business tomorrow?

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Sharesy is a venue hire platform for local communities where venues can finally take control of their earning potential, hiring out their spaces with a hassle-free solution.

In this episode, Founder & CEO Felix Atkin, who talks us through his journey from working in the corporate world for the likes of PlayStation and BT to why he founded his own business during the first COVID lockdown.

Felix discusses his experience with Angel investors and shares his advice for those looking to approach investors. He then dives into how he has been able to grow the number of venues using the platform, with a small marketing spend.

Finally, Felix speaks very only about being a ‘high functioning anxious person’ and how he has learnt to manage stress and anxiety as a Founder.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Sharesy’s Journey
2. Going from a corporate job working for enterprises like BT & PlayStation, to launching a social enterprise during the first lockdown, what made you take that plunge?
3. You mentioned that initially you built the business using angel investors. What has your experience with angel investment been like? & do you have any advice for start-ups on approaching angels & preparing investor and forecast decks?
5. You mentioned deciding to grow your venues on the platform vs the users booking the venues. What was the decision process behind this and how have you gone about doing this with a small marketing spend?
6. When we were planning for this episode, you spoke quite openly about being a ‘high functioning anxious person’ and the importance of mental health. How have you learned to manage your anxiety, what would you say has helped you most when dealing with the stress of managing a start-up?
7. You mentioned having to take a step back from your business to help support your son, how did you ensure you had the right team in place to maintain your business?
8. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
9. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking start their own business or to join a start-up?

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Bubble is the UK's #1 trusted family support platform and childcare app connecting parents with babysitters and nannies their friends already know, use and trust.

In this episode, we have Sarah Hesz, Chief Commercial Officer of Bubble discussing the story behind Bubble and her background in parent tech, and the challenges around building a product in such a high trust area.

Aș a parent herself, Sarah talks through how as a parent herself she balanced the responsibilities of being a founder with motherhood, and her experience fundraising whilst pregnant.

Finally, she talks us through Bubble’s exciting new partnership with Uber, how it came about and the idea behind it.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Bubble
2. Obviously, this is a high trust area, how do you gain that trust from users?
3. As a parent yourself, how have you balanced the responsibilities of being a founder with motherhood?
4. You’ve been pregnant and fundraised at the same time, what was that experience like?
5. What has your fundraising experience in the parent tech space been like?
6. You’ve just a launched a partnership with Uber, can you tell us a bit about this and the idea behind it?
7. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
8. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to start a start-up?

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ufurnish is search and comparison website for home furniture and furnishings that brings 110+ furniture retailers and all of their products into one place.

In this episode, we have Co-Founder & CEO Deirdre Mc Gettrick, who talks us through what made her take the plunge and leave a six-figure salary in banking to start her own business.

She talks us through the interesting dynamic of co-founding a business with her then boyfriend now husband, and how they’ve raised over £5 million from individuals, rather than institutions.

Finally, Deidre talks through some of the challenges she’s faced when it comes to hiring and how she ensures that her team cares as much about the product as she does.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind ufurnish.com.
2. What made you take the plunge and leave a six-figure salary in banking to start your own business?
3. What is it like co-founding a business your boyfriend, now husband? What do you think is the key to a successful co-founder dynamic?
4. You’ve raised over £5 million from individuals, rather than institutions. Could you talk us through why you decided to go down this route and what your experience has been like?
5. You’ve partnered with some exciting and successful businesses, how have you managed to build up your partnerships?
6. You mentioned that one of your biggest pain points along the journey has been hiring - can you talk us through some of the challenges you’ve experienced and how you’ve overcome them?
7. How have you ensured that your team cares as much about the business as you do?
8. What’s next for the business and your customers?
9. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
10. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business?

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Numan provides healthcare for men to treat common health conditions through personalised plans. They offer integrated care - including diagnostics, medication & supplements, 1-1 clinical care, and digital programs - in one digital platform, to help patients take control of their health.

In this episode, CTO Jamie Smith Webb discusses how Numan transitioned from an e-commerce business, into a service, diving into the technical challenges behind it.

Jamie talks through the challenges around digitising the health sector, particularly around regulations and innovation.

Jamie then touches on how the nature of the product has impacted the diversity of their employees, and their plans for growth in the near future.

Finally, Chris asks Jamie about his impressive career to date, as he talks through how he adapted to progressing through the various levels of leadership, including the jump to managing managers.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Numan
2. You mentioned that the business transitioned from being an e-commerce business into a service - how did you do this and were there any key challenges?
3. It sounds like you'll be growing the company again, with possible more rounds of funding, what challenges do you see ahead to achieve that growth? If you do go raise more funds, how much do you think it will differ from previous rounds?
4. With the product being specifically for men’s health, has this had an effect on how diverse the business is?
5. Being in HealthTech, what are the key challenges to overcome when it comes to digitising the health sector? (Discussion around regulation & innovation, technical strategy)
6. You’ve had a very impressive career to date, can you talk us through how you adapted to progressing through the various levels of leadership, particularly when it comes to managing managers?
7. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
8. What is the best investment you've made in your career to date? (Discussion around coaching and mentoring)
9. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone joining a start-up?

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AppLearn is a leading digital adoption platform vendor that helps enterprises improve the data quality and productivity of their key internal systems.

In this episode, Andrew Avanessian, CEO of AppLearn, talks through the incredible business they’ve built, from how they chose their core values, to being voted the 5th best tech business to work for and rank in the "Best Companies" list, and what they did to achieve this.

Andrew then dives into how they have broken down silos within the business to get different departments to work closely together, and the impact this has had on the product.

Finally, Andrew talks through changing from a service business to a SaaS product, as well as touching on their US investment and the key to targeting the US market.

Questions asked:
1. Intro to Andrew and Applearn
2. Applearn isn't the first tech scale-up you've worked for, you previously worked for Avecto (now Beyond Trust) what did you bring with you to Applearn that you learnt at Avecto?
3. You were recently voted as the 5th best tech business to work for and rank in the "Best Companies" list. What have you done to achieve this? What does it mean to you as CEO?
4. What are the core values that sit at the heart of Applearn? Why did you pick them?
5. One of the things we discussed when putting the podcast together was breaking down silos within the business and getting different departments to work closely with each other - what have you achieved in doing this?
6. You've turned Applearn from a Services business to SaaS, can you talk us through this? What were the challenges on the way?
7. Your main investors sit in the US, why did you go to the USA for this?
8. What was the experience like in raising investment over in the US?
9. One of the key markets that you've sold to in your career is the US. Can you tell us a bit about targeting US businesses?
10. What's the biggest challenge in your career to date?
11. What's the one bit of advice you would give to someone moving to join a start up?

Who doesn't love a Summer Friday?
What happens when we reimagine business, culture, and life? Start by asking the questions.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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Flash Pack is an award-winning adventure travel company that brings together solo travellers in their 30s and 40s.

In the episode, Morgan Sadr-Hashemi, Chief Product and Technology Officer, discusses how he built the tech team at Flash Pack from scratch, talking us through his starting point and what he had to consider. He then dives into the challenges that he’s faced whilst building a product that is so unique within the industry.

Morgan gives his thoughts on where he thinks the CTPO role is best suited, versus when the role should be separated, as well as what his biggest learnings have been taking on a C-Suite title.

Finally, Morgan also talks us through founding his own business Helm, his very own training programme for Engineering Managers, and how this has helped numerous amounts of Engineers decipher if management is the right path for them, versus sticking with the IC route.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Flash Pack
2. You mentioned that you run an Engineering Leadership course called Helm outside of work. Can you tell us a bit about the course and what inspired you to start your own training course?
3. You built the tech team at Flash Pack from scratch - where did you start and what did you have to consider?
4. What are some of the challenges that come with building a product that is so unique within its industry?
5. As a CTPO, where do you think your role is best suited, and in what cases do you think the role should be separated?
6. What have been some of the biggest learning curves taking on such a C-Level title?
7. What has been your biggest challenge in your career to date?
8. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone thinking of taking the leap into a start-up?

AVL's Reimagine Mobility Podcast
Our podcast balances general mobility topics with technical deep dives. We invite you...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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Infer gives analysts machine-learning powers like never before. It gives users the ability to find insights, make predictions, and identify patterns through its easy-to-use but powerful SQL commands.

In the episode, Co-Founders Ryan Garland and Erik Mathiesen-Dreyfus talk through their unique path to founding Infer, going from boss and employee to co-founders, and how they’ve been able to shift the dynamic between them.

They then dive into their recent funding journey and the challenges they’ve had to overcome, and finally why they decided to create the values for the business before they’d even finished building the product, and why they are so important to them.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourselves and the story behind Infer
2. What problem does Infer aim to solve?
3. How has the dynamic between the two you changed going from boss and employee to co-founders?
4. You’re currently pitching to VCs for funding, how is it all going and is there any advice that you’d share or things that you’ve learnt about the process along the way?
5. You mentioned previously that you created the values for the business before you even had a product, why are values so important to you and how have you gone about implementing them throughout the business?
6. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
7. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own business?

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ECO Surv is the leading software provider for the Energy Efficiency, Retrofit and Renewables Industry.

In the episode, Founding Director, Nathaniel Butters, discusses why now, 10 years downline the line, the business has started to look for investment, as he dives into the vision for the business and their potential in the market.

Nathaniel also talks us through what it was like to replatform the product - covering the challenges and solutions and what ultimately caused them to decide to replatform.

Finally, Nathaniel covers his growth and self-development journey, sharing his tips and practical advice for anyone looking to level up both as an individual and as a leader.

Questions asked:
1. Intro to yourself and Eco-Surv
2. You’re now 10 years down the line with the business, why is now the right time for you to be looking at investment?
3. Can you tell us about the vision for the business?
4. What potential is there in the market for Eco Surv?
5. I know that you’ve just been through a replatforming of the product, can you tell us about this and the reasons behind it?
6. If you could start all over, what would you do differently?
7. When we were preparing for this podcast you told me that the journey so far has been constant learning, can you tell me what you mean about this and what you do to ensure you are growing personally?
8. What’s the biggest challenge in your career to date?
9. What advice would you give to someone starting their own business?

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TUBR is a predictive analytics platform helping business leaders turn data into action, fast. It gives businesses the power to make informed actions and predictions from complete and incomplete data sets.

In the episode, Founder & CEO, Dash Tabor dives into how TUBR tackles common problems that businesses face with raw data, and gives her advice on where to start if you’re feeling overwhelmed with your data and where to start when it come to building a data strategy.

Dash then gives a very honest account of her experience fundraising as a female founder, and some of the very troubling experiences she faced in comparison her male co-founder, sharing her advice to other female founders going through investment rounds and how the VC community can make meaningful change going forward.

Questions asked:
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind TUBR
2. What is raw data?
3. How does TUBR tackle the problems that you’ve been seeing?
4. What advice would you give to a business who is feeling overwhelmed with their data and doesn’t know where to start when it comes to building a data strategy?
5. What’s the vision for the future of TUBR?
6. What has your fundraising experience been like, particularly as female founder?
7. What have you learnt from your experience and what advice would you give to someone who is about to go through the journey themselves?
8. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
9. And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business?

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In this episode we have Chieu Cao, Founder and CEO of Mintago, and former Co-Founder of Perkbox. Mintago is a financial wellbeing platform, helping businesses adapt and support their employees in changing economic conditions.

In the episode, Chieu discusses his route into entrepreneurship and his motivations behind both starting and exiting Perkbox. He then dives into the concept of financial wellbeing and why this is more important now than ever, and how he hopes Mintago can be a help as a trailblazer in this space.

Finally, Chieu discusses his learnings from Perkbox, and the changes he has made a second-time founder, as well as how he has actively worked to develop his skills as a leader.

Questions asked:

Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Mintago
You’ve worked for some incredible businesses in their early days, can you tell us what you learnt from working within those businesses that set you up for being an entrepreneur?
You’ve stepped down from Perkbox and are now an advisor, was there a specific catalyst for you to finally realise it was time to move on?
What is financial wellbeing?
What is Mintago’s approach to financial wellbeing and how are you trailblazing in this space?
As a second time founder, what learnings have you taken from your first venture into your second? Are there any mistakes that you have learnt from or things that you have done differently?
How have you developed your skills as a Founder and a leader?
What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
What one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business?

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Whether you’re a pet owner or not, you’ve more than likely heard of Pets At Home. Far from a start-up, this well-established retail company was founded back in 1991 and specialises in pet care products and services.

So you might be wondering why their former Chief Data Officer is on The 'Start-Up' Diaries podcast...

Joining the business in 2018, with huge ambition for how they could use their data to better serve their customers, Robert Kent joined as CDO. His aim was to cultivate a start-up mentality with the data function and win the hearts and minds of the wider business as to the pivotal role that data could play in the evolution of the business.

In this episode, Robert dives into how he built a multidisciplinary team across Data and Analytics and what these teams need to thrive. He also discusses challenges he faced surrounding buy-in from other leaders in the business.

Robert also covers his risk based approach to Data Governance, how he built his team to 70+ people and finally, he debates the pros and cons of having the Chief Data Officer sit on The Board.

Questions Asked:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to Pets at Home
You’ve built a multi-disciplinary team across Data and Analytics - what functions do these teams need these days and how are those needs evolving?
When you joined Pets at Home, they were already an established business but did not have a Data function. How did you invoke a Start-Up culture within the Data team in a business that was already doing well?
How did you win the hearts and minds of the wider business when doing this and what challenges did you face - potentially from other leaders in the business - and how did you overcome them?
You grew the function to circa 70 people from scratch and within that made some really key hires. What did you look for specifically in key data hires?
Data governance is becoming increasingly important – you mentioned you took a ‘risk based’ approach to it – how did you do this successfully?
As CDO at Pets at Home you currently sit on the board, but you also mentioned that you’ve previously operated as CDO without a seat on the board - what do you think are the benefits to having a CDO on the board?
What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to a business who is thinking about building a data function for the first time?

THE CAMPFIRE CIRCLE | Thought Leadership, Brand Storytelling & Linkedin Marketing
Grow your business through brand storytelling and community building on LinkedIn.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

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In this episode, we hear from Eric Fulwiler, Co-Founder & CEO of Rival, a growth consultancy that builds challenger brands, strategies, and capabilities to change categories.

Eric has helped build some of the biggest brands in the world, from billion-dollar start-ups to Fortune 50 enterprises. Before co-founding Rival in 2021 he was the Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer of 11:FS, a challenger fintech consultancy for nearly three years.

He was also one of the first 15 employees and MD, EMEA of VaynerMedia reporting directly to Gary Vaynerchuk for seven years. If you're in the world of marketing, there's a strong chance you've heard of Gary Vee, the social media sensation known for sharing his marketing and entrepreneurial tips online.

Eric discusses what is was like to work with Gary Vee and dives into what he learnt during his time at VaynerMedia, as well as sharing his insights into when start-ups should start thinking about their marketing and how to go about developing a strategy.

Eric explains the difference between a challenger brand and an incumbent brand, and how to find and own a point of difference in a crowded market.

Finally, Eric discusses his experience as a Founder and what he's learnt along the journey, as well as debunking some of the LinkedIn myths that you see all too often around entrepreneurship.

Questions asked:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your career journey to date
You’ve previously worked directly with Gary V, what was that like? What did you learn?
From your experience, when do you think is the right time for start-ups to start thinking about their marketing and how should they go about developing a strategy?
What is the difference between a challenger brand and an incumbent brand?
You’ve always a bart of an early-stage businesses but haven’t founded one of your own until 2021, what are some of the key differences that you’ve noticed.
One thing we are passionate on the show is de-bunking LinkedIn myths about Foundership, what are your thoughts on the matter, is this something you’ve noticed and do you post content yourself?
You’re now 14 months into running your own business, what have you learnt so far and what have been some of the significant challenges?
What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business or join a start-up?

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trumpet is the tool for B2B Sales Teams that want to stand out from the crowd. trumpet held you wow prospects with personalised Pods (microsites) to get your foot in the door, then convert them with a collaborative digital workspace. All with one trumpet link.

In this episode, Co-Founder and CEO of trumpet Rory Sadler discusses the story behind trumpet and their B2C approach to B2B sales…

Building the product alongside former Founder of Design My Night, Nick Telson, Rory talks us through how the pair have taken their previous experience and learnings selling software and being a buyer into the sales strategy at trumpet.

He talks us through their approach to pitching the product to businesses who are embedded with other competing tools and why they are the best product to solve the problem.

Rory also dives into how pivotal customer voice is to the product and how they able to reward their customers for giving feedback, as well as how they are able to drive early stage traction for the product and generate a waiting list of over 4000 people.

Questions asked:

Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind trumpet
You’ve mentioned that you take a B2C mindset when it comes to sales despite being a B2B product. Can you talk us through your approach to sales in the early days, particularly when you are selling to enterprise?
As Founders, you all have previous experience selling software and being a buyer - what learnings did you take and implement within the sales strategy for trumpet?
trumpet’s offering is incredibly unique, but it’s very rare to have a brand without any form of competitors, how do you approach pitching the product to businesses who are embedded with other competing tools & why do you believe that you’re the best product or company to solve the problem?
What are your company values and what have you done to ensure that the team you’re building care as much as you as you do about the business?
You’ve mentioned that customer voice is really important to you as a business and you’ve really made a conscious effort to not only make it easy to receive customer feedback but also to reward customers for giving their feedback. Can you talk us through how you’ve done this and the impact it’s had on the product.
You currently have over 4000 people on the waiting list for the product, how have you managed to build that level of traction for the product without spending a lot of money on marketing?
What does the future of trumpet look like? How do you see the product developing?
What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own business?

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Plytime Learning is a totally new concept in tutoring that makes learning more engaging and effective for children, more affordable and accessible for parents and more efficient for tutors. What began as a maths board game for their own children, is now an online learning platform aiming to make tutoring accessible for everyone.

In this episode, Co-Founders and husband and wife Ian and Lisa McCartney talk us through the journey behind Plytime and how they unexpectedly became founders of a tech start-up…

They discuss the challenges around building a remote company culture and how to know if you’re finding the right ‘fit’ when hiring, as well as their fundraising journey and navigating it all as non-technical founders.

Questions asked:

Tell us a bit about yourselves and the story behind Plytime
What’s the vision for the future of Plytime?
What’s it like co-founding a business with your partner?
How have you navigated being non-technical founders?
You’re currently trying to fundraise at the moment, how have you found the process and have you come across any challenges?
You mentioned that you’re really passionate about getting the culture of the business right, especially as a fully remote company. As you’re starting to hire developers, how have you ensured that you’re finding the right fit your business?
What has been your biggest challenge in your career to date?
And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone wanting to start their own business?

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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. Gousto’s core purpose has always been to build products that have a positive impact on people and the planet – and that includes their technology. 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 product is, how the idea came about and the journey that they’ve been on to get to where they are now.

Mitch shares how the product developed along the way and their 'aha' moment, in which they discovered the unmet demand in the market that Bento was born to meet...

He dives into how they established product market fit, gaining early-stage traction, and challenges in the current market. Mitch shares what drives his team and how he motivates them, as well as some of his standout wow moments in the journey so far.

Questions asked:

Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Bento
What is the demand for the product and how did you establish product market fit?
How did you go about gaining early-stage traction? Were there any challenges around this?
Has the current market affected the plan for Bento at all or presented any specific challenges for the product?
What makes your team the best to build the solution that Bento provides?
What drives you and your team? How do you motivate and guide them?
Are they any key ‘wow’ moments along the journey that have stood out to you?
What’s next for Bento, what can customers expect?
What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date?
And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone thinking about joining a start-up?

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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 that they’ve faced building something as important as UNDO with the guard-rails of a start-up.

Finally, the pair cover how they get customs to really care about the mission, where their money goes and how they are making a difference, as well as other challenges they face as a climate tech business, such as climate deniers, lack of understanding and ultimately how they remain optimistic.

Questions asked:

Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind UNDO
Can you talk us through where tech comes into the business?
Can you talk us through the mission of the business and why that’s its so important to you?
How have you found building something as important as UNDO within the guard-rails of a start-up? What have the challenges been?
You mentioned previously that the carbon credit offsetting industry is very diverse and unregulated, but also quite misunderstood. Has this presented any challenges along the way and how have you overcome them?
How do you get customers to really care about where their money and sponsorship is going and if it’s really making a difference?
You’re working in an industry that is very polarised at a macro level along with the likes of climate deniers. How do you cope with that? Does it every make it challenging to maintain optimistic in the work that you’re doing?
And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to join a start-up?

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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 competition.

In this episode, Mike Seville sits down with Chris to discuss the pivotal role that data plays at Dojo and the future of data teams…

Mike talks through how his role as Chief Data Officer has recently pivoted to reflect the way that data is moving, and what he thinks the future the CDO role holds.

Mike then dives into the fundamentals of building and scaling a data team, as well as the importance of having support a buy-in to the role of data from other C-Suite roles within an organisation.

Questions asked:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey at Dojo
When we were preparing this episode you talked through how data is the foundation of the product and the future of the business. Can you talk us through this and the data platforms at Dojo?
Your role as Chief Data Officer has recently pivoted slightly, can you talk us through how and why you decided to make this change?
What does this mean for you career wise and what are your thoughts on the future of CDO role?
What do you think are the fundamentals to building a data team and getting them up and running?
What are the growing pains of scaling a data team?
In order to have a good partnership with other functions within the business, what do you need, as a data team, from the other c-suite roles? How do you get them brought into the data function and the value that you deliver?
When we were putting this episode together, we spoke about how data seems to change more than any other areas in tech, do you think this is a good thing and what do you think the future of data teams looks like, particularly as data is becoming more accessible and easy to deploy?
What has been your biggest challenge in your career to date?
And finally, what piece of advice would you give to a data leader thinking about joining a scale-up?

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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 you 👇🎬

It's only getting bigger and better... 💥

With just one week to go, the countdown has begun! Mark your calendars & set your reminders as we unveil the next chapter of #TheStartUpDiariesPodcast 🙌

Are you ready to be part of the journey?

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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 market between then and now. He discusses the recent redundancies that we've seen in the market and whether or not he thinks this will continue into the rest of 2023...

He then talks through what he looks for in a founder when investing and finally what his thoughts are on the North West tech and investment scene.

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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 feedback
LinkedIn etiquette and strategy as a Founder
'Vanity metrics' and why you shouldn't be chasing them...
The dangers of scaling too quickly
Investing in your product vs. marketing

You can read more about The New London Agency's full service offerings here.

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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 suggesting sustainable switches users can then make to reduce their impact further.

In the episode, Will talks through the journey to building a banking platform, coming from a non-financial background. He discusses the decision to find a Co-Founder and what the onboarding process of a Co-Founder is like, as well as some of the challenges they faced along the way.

Will then talks through how they balance sharing hard hitting information and insight with customers about their spending along with ensuring that they are providing a positive user experience.

Finally, Will shares their journey to becoming B-Corp certified pending and the changes that they needed to make in order to make this a reality.

Thank you again to Queen Mary University for hosting this live recording and to all of the audience members that attended!

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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...

Greg talks through their decision to use low-code and no-code tools such as Bubble to build the platform and Sam discusses their two-fold strategy to acquiring users.

The pair touch upon their experience with accelerator programmes and how this has impacted their product's journey, and finally Sam talks through how they have been able to market the product without spending a penny...

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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 wi-Q and tech's place in the hospitality ecosystem and what the future of this looks like. She then discusses wi-Q's decision to target enterprise customers from the get go and how they were able to do this successfully.

Finally, Patience discusses how wi-Q are able to maintain a start-up mentality, despite the business being in its 8th year, and the benefits of manifesting this outlook for as long as possible.

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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 building products through a male lens.

Sahana talks through her unique path into Product Management and how she transitioned from her career as a Strength and Conditioning Coach for British Swimming.

Finally, Sahana discusses how she is able to navigate her leadership position as someone who is non-technical, how Wild.ai have built a team that has a female majority and is intentionally lean, and, how this has impacted their capabilities for product growth.

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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 the Net Zero transition. He talks through how they rate Carbon Credits & why ratings are so important.

Tommy then discusses the role that tech plays in the business and talks through how he was able to raise $50 Million in Series B funding in Silicon Valley, sharing what the experience was like and where he sees the business going post-investment.

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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 what it’s really like to be part of a rapidly scaling business and the realities of growing at such pace.

Frankie discusses their approach to business development and what that looked like in the earlier days, covering some of the challenges, including meeting with 40 banks over a 6 week period as well as onboarding 70,000 new customers in one day…

He also dives into the logistical and cultural challenges that come with scaling from 100 to 500 people in one year and how 10X were able to scale at such pace, even during periods in stealth mode.

Finally, Frankie talks through the talent market within the FinTech space at the moment and 10X’s approach to being competitive when it comes to hiring the top talent.

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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 hired CEO, as well as his fundraising journey and experience as a current National Finalist for Tech Nation's Rising Stars and what this means for the future of the business.

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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 and her advice for how to scale yourself up personally as a leader within a hyper-growth start-up.

She talks us through the challenges that she has faced as an operational leader and how she has had to overcome the toughest of situations including mass redundancies and the cultural impact of letting people go.

Finally, Rona discusses her current career path as a Partner at Ventures Together and what early stage Angel Investors look for within their portfolio.

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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 ambitious first sale the Vietnamese education system and how you start selling to a county & what you need to consider when going global. He then dives into what it’s like to found a business in Liverpool and touches upon his experience as one of the Tech Nation’s North West’s Rising Stars City winners.

Finally, Tom discusses his experience as a solo Founder and his unique approach to developing a diverse hiring panel for his future hiring plans.

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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 impacted how he runs his business.

George also talks through his recent Series A round, his experience with raising the investment and the challenges. He dives into why he views AeroCloud's place in the airport market as 'old lock, new key' and how they are disrupting it.

Chris and George also discuss the common debate of paying remote workers geographically vs. the 'going rate' for their role, and which side George falls on!

Finally, George has an open conversation around the lack of female representation that he had within his leadership roles and the initiatives that he has put in place to address this.

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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, as well as traditional models to investment - as he explains the unique way in which Pharmacy Innovation Lab has secured its funding... and from who!

Paul also discusses the challenges and frustrations he sees within current investment and incubator models and how his new investment model aims to change that. He also explains how the model benefits the product by having such a heavy input from the pharmacy community itself - and how this will impact it's future!

Finally, Paul recounts his career as a serial entrepreneur and the most common mistakes he sees start-ups make as well as the toll that entrepreneurship can take on your personal life, reflecting on what he would have done differently. A great episodes with plenty of learnings shared.

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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 from four co-workers to co-founders and how this dynamic works. Dally also dives into how he chose the right tech stack for the business in order to balance scalability with current candidate market demands.

He also dives into their decision to bring in a development agency in the early stages vs. building in-house.

Harry & Dally then talk through their experience with looking for pre-seed investment during a market downturn and touch on their experience as current regional finalist for Tech Nation's Rising Stars 5.0 for the North West of England.

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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 managed to secure partnerships with General Motors, Microsoft and Palantir, all through the power of being persistent and building great relationships - even if it it entails flying to Detroit for coffee 43 times...

He discusses how the business has pivoted over the years and how he has navigated change as a leader, including tough decision making during the pandemic.

Finally, Richard gives some truly insightful and honest advice about what it takes to be a great Founder, to get your business off the ground and how to build a great team, all of which has led Wejo to being the incredibly successful business that it is today!

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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 & we'll be back next week with a brand new episode to kick off Season 6!

Advice shared (in order) from:
- Mark Mullen, CEO of Atom Bank
- Dave Tucker, Founder & CEO of Glean
- Simon Rohrbach, Co-Founder & CEO of Plain.com
- Michael Letchford & Nathan Deamer, SVP of Product Management & Principal Engineer at Go City
- Peter Ridlington, Co-Founder & CEO of Ningi
- Aleksa Vukotic, CTO of The Start-Up Factory
- Hayley Roberts, CEO of Distology
- Anna Keren, CTPO of Thirdfort
- Julien Lavigne du Cadet, VP of Engineering at Zoe
- Lizzie Lord, Raise Ventures Manager at PwC Raise
- Ben Brown, CTO of Onto

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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 invest in its tech team and how he went about scaling it. We also cover the challenges around developing a single market product as well as the challenges that come with having a physical product.

Finally, Ben discusses the idea of 'disrupting' the market vs. 'collaborating' as a sustainable tech company and the value of creating partnerships for a sustainable future.

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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 process.

Lizzie shares her top tips when it comes to pitch decks, financial models, the different types of fundraising and term sheets negotiation, giving examples of where businesses commonly go wrong as well as what 'good' looks like.

She then shares her advice for fundraising in a downturn, the market trends she is currently seeing when it comes to investment and the biggest challenge she see's start-up face...

You'll need a pen & paper for this one as it's jam-packed with insider tips & advice!

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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 discusses how the Engineering function has developed into what is today, how they've built a culture & how Julien believes Software Engineers can become the best and more efficient at what they do.

He also discusses how to get customers to search for a product that they don’t necessarily know exists, and how to build a system in a way that can be maintained but also evolve rapidly.

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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 approach that best enables hyper growth.

Anna then talks through what she believes to be the ingredients for scaling-up a tech led business, as well as discussion around how processes can enable innovation and growth rather than stifle it.

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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 and she Chris discuss where the tech industry is currently in terms of diversity & inclusion as well as how the tech industry can improve.

Finally, Hayley discusses the impact of the recession on Distology and how the current economic situation is impacting tech's longstanding supply vs. demand problem.

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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-stage hires, how to know if you are making the right hire and what to look out for in a candidate during those early stages, unpicking what leaders think they want in a hire vs. what they actually need...

Aleksa then dives into what he thinks can be done to bring the tech community in Manchester together and facilitate more ‘Manchester made’ businesses, and how Manchester could produce more C-Suite level figures.

Finally, Aleksa covers how early stage businesses can match an investors appetite, including the mistakes he often sees being made and the advice he would give to founders who are feeling the pressure for results from their investor.

A really great episode with lots of tangible advice!

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Ningi is the single, integrated tech platform that helps financial zoadvisers 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, discussing the pros and limitations of this approach and what you need to look out for in those key first stage hires when it comes to shaping culture.

He also talks through how they found and hired their first CTO and how they knew it was the right time to bring them onboard.

Peter then discusses their unique funding journey: going from investment, to then changing their business plan in order to bootstrap... to then fundraise again!

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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 City's recent transformation to becoming a more technical, data-driven and customer-led business. They talk through how they led the transformation within their various departments & the different considerations they needed to make at different stages of the transformation, as well as how they navigated getting team members on board, without them feeling challenged.

The pair then share their experiences transitioning from a large organisation to a smaller scale-up like Go City, discussing the benefits and challenges of leaping into a smaller business, both in a product sense as well as culturally.

Finally, Michael & Nathan discuss how they balance the delivery of features vs. the functionality of the product and the biggest challenges they've faced during their time at Go City.

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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 way that he has built the Plain.com team, both in the sense that he has built an intentionally small team and is actively trying to keep the business below a few dozen employees, as well as the fact that everyone in the business comes from a technical background.

Finally, Simon explains how open the business is internally, and his decision to share things like salary brackets, founder salaries, monthly burn and the company’s bank balance with all employees.

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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, built on a single government funded market to launching in colleges & universities across the U.S, all whilst bootstrapping.

Dave discusses the challenges around re-branding and establishing product market fit as well as how they successfully raised their profile in the U.S and Glean’s exciting growth plans.

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We're back with Season 5 of The Start-Up Diaries and its safe to say that we're back with a bang!

To kick things off, Chris sits down with Mark Mullen, CEO of Atom Bank, a Soonicorn & the UK's fist app-based bank.

In this episode, Mark talks us through Atom Banks decision to implement a 4 day working week: from the logistics & the trial period to the outcomes and why the business has decided to implement the 4 day week permanently.

Mark also discusses his approach to assessing risks and flipping the narrative to 'what might go wrong if you don't act?'. He also gives his thoughts on the Tech scene in the Northeast of England and the advantages and disadvantages of growing a business like Atom Bank outside of London.

A great episode to kick of the season and a business to keep an eye on, with a very exciting future ahead!

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In this bitesize episode, Ryan Sorby - Head of North & Scotland for UK-based independent asset manager 'Boost&Co' talks through the difference between debt & equity, as well as exits & what they can look like.

Catch the full episode in Season 4.

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Sean Brown is a seasoned entrepreneur, starting out his career by founding Hatch.Social, then shortly joining The Social Chain as Head of Product, along side Steven Bartlett. He then went on to found several other start-ups, from Meracto all the way to his current business venture, Versori

Versori has developed the highly innovative Switchboard, a no-code automation platform for large businesses that allows citizen developers to integrate enterprise-class applications and Any-to-Any workflows quickly and at scale.

In this episode, Sean sits down with Chris to discuss his journey as an entrepreneur and ultimately, what makes a good leader... and what makes a bad one. Sharing his previous mistakes & learnings, Sean covers everything from why you shouldn't view entrepreneurship as a job, to becoming a 'toxic boss' to why first time founders are never leaders.

A truly insightful episode to end this season with a bang, it's not one to miss!

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In this bitesize Insights episode, Founder & CEO of Witco - Eliana Lugassy - talks through how they scaled their product globally, launching in the UK, Spain & Germany all at the same time! She discusses her key learnings from each country as well as the challenges she faced when hiring internationally.

Like what you hear? You can catch Eliane's full episode back in season 3!

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Slalom is a global consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. 4 years ago they introduced Slalom Build, Slalom’s brand for builders that blends design, product engineering, analytics, and automation to create the modern technology products of tomorrow.

In this episode, Chris is joined by Senior Director of Slalom Build, Cath Trotter. After openly discussing her non-technical background & journey into the industry, Cath talks us through how she has helped to build not one, but two start-ups within larger corporations.

She also dives into her experience with career mentoring, how she find the right mentors and how they impacted her career from leadership advice to dealing with Imposter Syndrome.

Cath discusses everything from the war for talent & the future of work to dealing with changes in digital expectations and getting to grips with sales. A great episode packed with tangible advice!

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In this insights episode, Rob Brockington - CEO of Financial Coaching App Claro Money - explains how despite a 3x increase in downloads of personal finance apps, they were able to market their product to get users onto the platform through unique positioning & marketing strategies,

Want to hear more? You can listen to Rob's full length episode back in season 3!

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Further are one of the newest crowdfunding platforms on the market, which allows consumers to discover, compare and back funds with cheques starting from “as little” as £1,000. They are working on making the process of investing in VC less complicated, less expensive and more “democratic” for individuals who can also afford to take the risks involved.

In this episode, Co-Founder & CEO Rob Tominey talks through how he set-up a start-up as non-technical founder and the pros and cons of coming from a non-technical background. He also discussed their approach to networking and brand building as a B2C business, their fundraising journey & how they have overcome challenges, as well as their decision to use all in-house software.

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In this episode Chris is joined by Issa Patel, Co-Founder & CEO of Connect Care, a young start-up using digital tools & insights to empower patients to manage their medications and enable carers and clinicians to optimise their patients’ treatment regimes in real-time.

Issa discusses what it's like to work with the public sector and how he has gone about approaching the market and building a network within it. He also talks through his advice for companies looking to apply for government grants, as well as how to source them.

Issa dives into how he has managed to retain 12 members of staff over 12 months, and what he learnt from loosing his very first hire. He discusses how Connect Care have had established their culture being a remote-first business, and how being a HealthTech has shaped this.

📆 15.09.22 @ 6:30pm - Sign-up for ourAnalytics Engineering Meet-Up here: https://www.burnssheehan.co.uk/events/data-meetup-analytics-engineering-the-life-cycle/s107469/

📆 22.09.22 @ 6pm - Sign-up for ourProduct Management Meet-Up here: https://www.burnssheehan.co.uk/events/product-meetup-scale-fast-or-fail-slow/s107422/

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In this insights episode, Rob Black - Technology Director at Beauty Bay - talks through how he went about winning hearts and minds of an established team when he first joined Beauty Bay. He discusses how to build rapport and gain the ability to influence a team that is already high performing, and how to demonstrate real leadership skills that will allow you to make a real impact and take the team to the next level.

Check out Rob's full episode in Season 3 for more insights into Beauty Bay's tech team.

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BOOST&Co are a UK-based independent asset manager, specialising in growth-lending solutions of £2m to £10m for high-tech, high-growth SMEs. Their goal is to empower creative, innovative and disruptive SMEs to accelerate their growth while preserving equity.
In this episode, their Head of North & Scotland - Ryan Sorby - shares in detail how you can get your business investment ready, as well as what to expect from the experience.
Ryan also covers what the difference is between debt and equity, what exits are and what they can look like, as well as sharing his insight into what advisors can offer and if you really need one.
Finally, Ryan dives into the current market conditions and how this might effect investment opportunities over the coming year and the trends he has spotted recently within his portfolio.

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In this bitesize moment from our episode with Naeem Alvi-Assinder, Founder of Tech branding agency Notepad, Naeem talks through when is (and isn't) the right time to invest money into a branding agency as a Start-Up.
For insight into the biggest mistakes start-ups make when it comes to marketing & branding, as well as how to position yourself against competitors, avoiding common 'boring' marketing methods and becoming too product focused, check out Naeem's full episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5GP2iQ5YqwxJtsa4IuKOAX?si=rUn5h3AASWSyxd91qb20Zg

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Brett Shanley is the Founder & CEO of Knoma, which stands for 'The Knowledge Market'. This FinTech business offers an ethical finance solution and marketplace for people looking to future proof their career or move into new areas of work via digital courses.
In this episode, Brett explains how he started Knoma after returning from Australia, with no contacts, no network and no prior technical experience... He dives into the challenges of being a non-technical solo Founder and hiring for technical roles, as well as approaching investment & debt for a product with no userbase.
Brett also talks us through how Knoma is utilising open banking to change the future of education and better inform students on their future career prospects.

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We can't believe we've made it to two whole years of The Start-Up Diaries Podcast! We'd like to say a massive thank you to all of the guests we've had on the show so far, to all of the guests we've got to come & a big big thank you to all of our listeners. We couldn't keep going without you!
To celebrate such a momentous occasion, we've flipped the switch and thrown host Chris into the hot seat! In this episode, producer Beth will be chatting to Chris all about the current recruitment market in the tech industry, from uncertainty and lay-offs, to preparing a hiring strategy and landing VC investment in a downturn.
Chris also gives us an insight into the story behind The Start-Up Diaries podcast, his career in tech recruitment & journey to becoming Managing Director as well as how he is seeing both clients and Private Equity houses respond to the current macroeconomic situation.
Of course, just as Chris got his big moment as interviewee we ran into some technical problems... so we apologise in advance for him sounding a little quieter than usual. We promise it wasn't nerves!
For more info on Burns Sheehan & our recruitment solutions, head over to www.burnssheehan.co.uk & follow us on LinkedIn.

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Engineius is the leading vehicle movement service in the UK. The business was founded in 2018 on the belief that it should be as easy to book and manage vehicle movements as it is to buy from Amazon or ride with Uber.

In this episode, Managing Director Calum Slowther discusses their pivot from a tech platform to a tech enabled service and the decision making process that led to that transformation. As the very first hire for the business, Calum talks us through his journey to becoming MD, as well as the tech team's secrets to building a successful platform that has NEVER crashed!

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In this insights episode, Head of Investment for GC Angels, Jess Jackson talks through what 'cash runway' actually means and her advice for defining and adapting your action plan for it. She also talks through the most common pitfalls she experiences when it comes to pitching for investment. For more advice on all areas of the investment process and insider tips & insight, check out Jess' full length episode in Season 1!

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Whereby is a video conferencing tool that incorporates screen sharing, recording, chat, live reactions and integrations with Google Drive, Trello, Miro and YouTube. In this episode, Chris is joined by CTO, Andy Tyra and COO, Jessica Zwaan to discuss Whereby and it's decade long history.

Undoubtedly a successful scale-up, Whereby is currently undergoing a shift back to a 'Start-Up' mindset. Andy & Jess explain not only why, but how they have undergone such a pivot across the business both structurally and from a customer perspective, as well as their experience with change management as business leaders.

Jess and Andy also discuss how Whereby has had to deal with competition & volatility within the video conferencing marketplace as well us giving us plenty of insight and tangible advice from their incredibly interesting and diverse career histories. A fantastic episode that really dives into the technical stuff, not one to miss!

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In this bitesize episode, Chloe Barrett the Founder of EdTech Start-Up Immersify Education, shares her best advice for keeping your cool whilst pitching - from mindset, to preparation, to follow-ups. A quick 101 on not letting nerves get the better of you!

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What's the biggest mistake that start-ups make when it comes to marketing & branding? In this episode, Founder of Tech Branding Agency Notepad, Naeem Alvi-Assinder tells all - from how to position yourself against competitors, to avoiding common 'boring' marketing methods and becoming too product focused.
Naeem also dives into his experience with & advice around building conditions for people to do their best creative work, as well as his opinion on what's wrong with the creative industry. Finally he gives his honest opinion on when is the right time for a start-up to invest in a branding agency.

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Commenting on his experience with fundraising & investment, Ashely Lockwood - Co-Founder & COO of Oya Kitchens - shares his top tips for gaining early stage traction from investors, as well as the dos and don'ts of raising.

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We're back with Season 4 of the The Start-Up Diaries podcast! To kick off the series, Chris is joined by Sho Sugihara, Co-Founder & CEO of Pave, the app that's on a mission to become the world's best credit builder.
In this episode, Sho takes us back to his previous career in consultancy at McKinsey & delves into what inspired him to leave such a stable job and become an entrepreneur. However making such a large career U-turn didn't come without its consequences, as Sho touches upon his experience with Imposter Syndrome, where it comes from & how to tackle it.
We also dive into the more technical aspects of the product, what open banking is and how it's set to change the FinTech market.
Finally, Sho opens up about what it's really like to be a Founder, the mental & personal challenges that come with it & shares his advice for anyone wanting to take the leap themselves.

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In this Insights episode Dom Raban, Co-Founder & CEO of Xploro, talks through how to pitch a tech for good business to investors, helping them to understand their ROI & ultimately how to decide if an investor is right for your mission.

Xploro is a mobile application that uses augmented reality, gameplay and artificial intelligence to deliver health information to patients, reducing the stress and anxiety associated with hospitalisation, improving health literacy and fostering better engagement with health services.

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In the Season 3 finale of the Start-Up Diaries, Chris sat down with the Head of Tech Services at Beauty Bay - Rob Black. Beauty Bay are beauty focused e-commerce platform, that source hard-to-find brands and products for customers, with over 7000 products on site with new launches every week.

In this episode, Rob talks us through his decision to leave his comfortable job in an established business to take on the challenge of a scale-up. He also dives into the challenge of influencing a team with an established culture and how he went about winning hearts and minds. Rob explains how he went about instilling mission-led values that his team live and work by and how Beauty Bay demonstrate what 'good' looks like to junior staff. He also shares one of the biggest challenges he’s faced during his time at Beauty Bay when it came to an influencer with over 2 million followers sharing a link to their website. It’s definitely an interesting one and hope you enjoy!

Questions covered:

Tell us about yourself and your background in tech?
When making the decision to join Beauty Bay you jumped in with both feet, coming from what could be seen as a comfortable position in an established business. What made you take on the challenge of a scale-up?
What made you join Beauty Bay over other opportunities?
You’ve joined an established team within the business, how as a leader do you go about winning hearts and minds?
You mentioned that you’re passionate about creating a mission with your team and building standards and values that they can live & work by. Why was this so important for you to build and how did you go about doing this?
When preparing for the podcast you spoke about teaching junior people “what good looks like”, what do you mean by this and why do you enjoy doing it?
Previously you’ve scaled teams from 14-40 people whilst restructuring to align with business growth as you go, can you talk us through this? (We have people scaling teams listening and I’d like for you to explain your method).
For those listening who might currently be in comfortable job roles or well established companies, can you give some advice or even a sell for jumping into the challenge of a scale-up?

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In this Insights episode, CTO of Modern Milkman James Renshaw talks through how they planned their roadmap for national expansion of their platform, as well as how they prepared their architecture for scaling. A great insight from an exciting start-up that's constantly in the headlines - for all the right reasons!

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Today's guest, Eliane Lugassy is the Founder and CEO of French-based business Witco, an all-in-one app for more serviced and collaborative spaces such as offices, co-working, co-living, residences and student housing to improve communication, community and provide a one-stop shop for all of a building’s services and amenities.

In this episode, Eliane talks through her decision to leap into entrepreneurship and has a very honest conversation about the challenges that she has faced as an entrepreneur, particularly as female, and how she has overcome them. We also dive into what Witco is and how the pandemic and hybrid working transformed their offering, as well as her experience launching in multiple countries at one time including the UK, Spain and Germany and the challenges that come with hiring internationally.
Questions covered:

Tell us a bit about yourself and the story behind Witco
What made you make the decision to leap into entrepreneurship?
With your product being about being in the office how did the normalisation of hybrid working change it?
You’ve launched your product in multiple other countries, including the UK, France, Spain and Germany. How did you approach international launch? What were the key learning points from launching in multiple countries?
Have you faced any challenges when it comes to hiring internationally?
What challenges have you faced as an entrepreneur and how have you overcome them?
Do you think being a female entrepreneur has its own challenges?
And finally, what one piece of advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business?

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A bitesize moment from our episode with Lydia Jones, Founder & CEO of Housemate, sharing her insight into how to handle & overcome challenging situations as a business leader. From learning when to switch the emotion off, to knowing when or if it's time to involve the wider business, Lydia discusses everything she's learnt about navigating your organisation through a crisis.

We want to hear from you! If you have any requests for topics or guests, or if you fancy being a guest on the show yourself, please get in touch by emailing betho@burnssheehan.co.uk

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Anish Kapoor, CEO of AccessPay has retired not once... but twice. After working on a series of successful disruptor tech businesses that have solved some of the most prominent problems in tech, Anish was tempted for a third time by the concept of AccessPay. AccessPay are the corporate-to-bank integration platform transforming finance and treasury operations, providing a secure digital connection to thousands of banks and payment schemes worldwide and are the fastest growing FinTech outside of London.

In this episode Chris sat down with Anish and delve into the unique culture at AccessPay, how their decision to give everyone shares in the business has had an impact, as well as the future of the FinTech market in Manchester and the North-West. A great episode from a very inspiring leader!

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In this episode, Chris sits down with James Davison, Chief Technology Officer of Mobysoft, a business that provides software & data driven insights that help social housing providers manage rent arrears efficiently. Coming from a background in large enterprises such as ITV, Thoughtworks and RazorFish, taking on the challenge of the CTO position at tech for good start-up was no small task.

From technical challenges to developing a culture based on social responsibility, all whilst working largely remotely, James talked us through it all. He also touches on the importance of their mission as a tech for good business and how they seek to challenge the perception of social housing organisations.

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In our latest 'Insights' episode, Laura Pomfret - Co-Founder of financial wellness app Financielle - explains how you can determine if taking investment is the right thing for your business, and, how to know if it's the right time to do so. After initially bootstrapping her business, Laura talks through how she became open to the idea of Angel investment despite currently having a 'debt-free' business, exploring the pros and cons of seeking investors.

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In this episode, Chris is joined by Rob Brockington, CEO of Claro Money, a start-up wealth management platform aiming to create a new generation of investors who are both ethically and financially informed.

Rob spent 12 years working on the trade floor of banks and climbing the corporate ladder, until 2019, when he decided to take the leap into start-up life. The inception of Claro Money was far from straightforward, as Rob discusses in the episode. But through a strong belief in his idea and the courage to make a series of daring decisions, Rob has built a product that is set to make serious waves in the increasingly crowded FinTech market.

With a 3x increase in downloads of personal finance apps post-pandemic, Rob talked us through the unique strategy Claro took when it came to marketing their product and getting users onto the platform. As well as the challenges that have come along with it.

If you're interested in being a guest on the Start-Up Diaries podcast, we'd love to hear from you! Please get in touch by emailing hello@burnssheehan.co.uk or via our LinkedIn Page.

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In the first episode back since our short hiatus, Chris is joined by Richard Mabey, Co-Founder & CEO of Juro, an all-in-one contract automation platform that helps legal counsel and their teams to agree and manage contracts in one unified workspace. Juro has a glittering list of clients including Deliveroo and Cazoo.

Juro was recently voted the no.1 start-up to work for in London for 2022, and in this episode, Richard dived into exactly what makes Juro such a great place to work - from their exceptionally crafted culture, to their award winning methods for attracting the right employees to the business.

He also discusses how a strong customer success function has been integral to their success as a SaaS business and how they have navigated the pressure for rapid growth that often occurs post VC investment.

This was a really great episode with an engaging and incredibly people-focused founder, give it a listen and hope you enjoy!

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A bitesize moment from our episode with Jessica Jackson, giving you inside knowledge from an Investment Director on how to land your first round of fundraising. Including the do's, the don'ts and how to formulate an engaging pitch deck. If you want to hear more insider tips, listen to the full 'VC's Guide to Fundraising' episode back in Season 1!

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In this bonus 'Insights' episode,CEO & Co-Founder of The Data Shed, Anna Sutton shares how to build a 'value-led' organisation and how to select & implement the right personal values for your business. She also gives her insight into spotting this value-led mindset within candidates when hiring and what to look out for.

Interested in being on Season 4 of the show? Get in touch with our host Chris McGowan, Head of Manchester at Burns Sheehan on LinkedIn!

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In this bonus episode, Co-Founder of PixelMax, Shay O'Carroll shares his insights into finding the right Hybrid working balance for your business as well as how to ensure staff wellbeing whilst working remotely. PixelMark is one of the hottest start-ups in Manchester right now and offers a 3D & fully immersive hybrid working platform & are taking the industry by storm.

Interested in being on Season 4 of the show? Get in touch with our host Chris McGowan, Head of Manchester at Burns Sheehan on LinkedIn!

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In this bonus episode, James Lomas, CTO of Bionic & former CTO of Compare the Market gives his insights into creating accountability in the workforce and how to build this into a successful career framework.

Interested in being on Season 4 of the show? Get in touch with our host Chris McGowan, Head of Manchester at Burns Sheehan on LinkedIn!

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In our second 'Insights' episode, Founder & CEO of no-code platform Zaptic shares how to develop & maintain a culture to be proud of across your business & how you can spot attributes in potential candidates that compliment your culture.

Interested in being on Season 4 of the show? Get in touch with our host Chris McGowan, Head of Manchester at Burns Sheehan on LinkedIn!

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After successfully monetising her financial wellness plan on Instagram, Laura Pomfret decided to leave her well paid job to bootstrap her very own start-up: Financielle. Based on 'The Financielle Playbook', the app offers a step by step guide to taking taking control of your money and being financially well. In this episode, Laura chatted to Chris about the idea behind was she terms 'The Couch to 5K' for money, and why she decided to take a leap into entrepreneurship... even if it was reluctantly. She also talked through how she transitioned from a non-tech background to becoming a tech-leader and her experience with the North-West tech world. As well as discussing decision making around product market placement and how to avoid chasing competitors.

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Richard Milnes is the Co-Founder & CEO of Zaptic, the no-code platform connecting frontline manufacturing teams. Unlike some other founders, Richard didn't have his 'big moment' on his first try as entrepreneur, or even his second... or third. Zaptic was the product of 5 pivots, and a 'dangerously agile' planning methodology that has since become a firm part of the company culture. In this episode, Richard talked us through the method behind the madness in his radical planning techniques, as well as why he turned down VC funding... and then changed his mind. A truly refreshing taking on foundership and shaping a start-up culture!

To sign-up to be the first to get your hands on the Winter Edition of Technology Market Report & Salary Guide, follow the link below and it’ll be sent straight to your inbox upon release!
https://burnssheehansurvey.typeform.com/to/b5S8x50v

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This is the first in our series of 'Diversity Talks'. Like us, many businesses are on a journey to become more diverse and inclusive. We hope by having these open and candid conversations we can learn from each other and help facilitate genuine change amongst the tech industry.

This October, in Black History month, we kicked off the conversation on racial diversity in the workplace. Our panel shared practical advice and initiatives around how businesses can foster a more inclusive workplace culture for their racially diverse employees and how this in turn, directly effects attraction and retention.

Topics discussed include:
- Building a racially inclusive culture
- Nurturing diversity from the bottom up
- Diversity fatigue - relieving the burden
- Establishing workplace allies
- Sharing practical initiatives & ideas

We'd like to say a big thank you to our amazing panel:
- April Williams, Founder of Can?Did!
- Kankemwa Ishaku, Software Engineering Tech Lead at Adaptavist
- Tio Brome, Principal Delivery Manager at Just Eat
- Jessie Auguste, Software Engineer at Cybsafe and member of the Coding Black Females Senior Leadership Team
+ One final panellist to be announced!

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PixelMax are the 3D technology software business revolutionising the hybrid working experience through the power of their fully immersive 3D worlds. From delivering box office branded virtual events, to recreating your office floor, PixelMax are a start-up hot on everyone’s radar right now. In this episode, Chris sat down with Co-Founder Shay O’Carroll to hear all about the whirlwind story behind PixelMax and how they’ve taken both the events and hybrid working industry by storm. Shay also chatted through some of the challenges he faced in the early stages around investment and the pitfalls to look out for. We also delved into the future of hybrid working and its effect of employee wellbeing, launching in the US and his unique approach to team feedback.

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In our first episode of Season 3, we’re joined by James Lomas, the newest CTO at Bionic, a B2B comparison platform for business essentials. Bionic are a long-term onsite recruitment partner of ours and in this episode we’ll be talking through their transition into becoming a tech-centric business, the war for Tech talent and the topical question of flexible working-policies. James also delved into his vision for the future of the businesses and his reasons for leaving Compare the Market after 10 incredibly successful years.

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Host Chris McGowan reflects on the key takeaways from just some of our incredible guests across season 1 & 2 , including Michael Brennan, Jessica Jackson, Mo Aldalou, Lydia Jones, Heather & Tom Staff, Chloe Barrett, Dom Raban, Anna Sutton, Andy Still & Ashley Lockwood.

This episode will cover key areas within the Start-Up journey including culture, funding & investment, mental health, some of our guests biggest challenges & advice for future founders.

Thank you all for your support, comments, shares and reviews over the past year. We couldn't do it without you!

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For most start-up businesses, the pandemic has been a difficult wave to ride, with many unfortunately not making through to the other side. But what if your business idea fit perfectly into the ‘new normal’? With the introduction of working from home and the ban on hospitality during lockdowns, Ashley Lockwood had not one, but two businesses that prospered in the post-COVID era. Desk Mate, a standing desk business, and Oya, an organisation that connects unused or under-utilised commercial space for short term use, have both grown exponentially under the new conditions we now find ourselves in. In this final episode of the series, Ashely sat down with Chris and talked us through how he has managed to balance two successful start-ups through periods of exponential growth, including discussion around outsourcing, investment, hiring and delegation. He also chatted about the challenges around gaining fundraising and knowing when the right time is to move on from one project to another. You’ll also discover what a ‘dark kitchen’ is and how it might be paving the way for the future of the catering industry.

Want to get involved in our Futures Programme? We're looking for inspirational & inspiring leaders in Tech to join our mentoring scheme, to help accelerate the learning environment for the future leaders in the Tech Community. If you fancy being a mentor or a mentee, get in touch by emailing betho@burnssheehan.co.uk, or head over to the Burns Sheehan LinkedIn page for more details!

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Netacea is one of the leading bot management solutions on the market. But for this Manchester-born start-up, securing a spot amongst industry leaders was no small challenge, as they entered a mature market dominated by the U.S. In this episode, Andy Still, CTO of Netacea, sat down with us to discuss their journey from spinning out of Intechnica, to the challenges around becoming a serious voice in the U.S market. He also talks us through the challenges around gaining long-term buy-in from customers as a new product and building and maintaining a collaborative workplace culture.

To download Burns Sheehan's 'Technology Salary Benchmarking Guide & Market Report: 2021 Spring Edit' head to burnssheehan.co.uk and click on the banner at the bottom of the screen to secure your copy!

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Making good friends at university has often been put down to how you fare in the social ‘lottery’ that is first year halls of residence. But with 40% of all university dropouts in the UK being due to loneliness, it’s in the best interest of the universities as well as their students to improve social experiences in the first instance. Enter Umii, an app that facilitates the first introduction between university students who share interests and personality traits. A recent graduate herself, Georgia Wheadon stepped in as Founder & CEO after falling in love with the concept of Umii during her student placement year. In this episode, Georgia talked us through how her own student experience and insight allowed her to be the perfect person to take over a Start-Up at such a young age, as well as how she has adapted to the demanding responsibilities of founding a product and dealing with imposter syndrome. We also discuss her mindset shift from selling to challenging clients and the balancing act of building both a client and user base for a product.

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With most services now available to us at the touch of a button, it’s surprising that the hairdressing & beauty industry had not ventured into on-demand tech solutions to reach their customers sooner. However, Sam Lowe, Founder of Barba & Beautey saw the gap in the market and is in the process of building a product that does just that. Aiming to bring these industries into the twenty-first century, Barba & Beautey function for both professionals and customers, allowing mobile services to be booked through an app, taking the waiting game out of the equation. In this episode, Sam talks us through the idea behind Barba & Beautey and the testing process for a product with two user bases. We also discuss the tricky business of valuing a company that hasn’t launched, gaining buy-in during the early stages of a start-up and navigating delegation as a founder.

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Leeds-based data consultancy business, The Data Shed, prides itself on being a value-driven organisation, so much so that their values underpin the very essence of what they do and who they hire. But how do you determine the values that set the tone of your entire organisation, and how do you find likeminded people that will truly live and breathe them too? In this week’s episode, CEO & Co-Founder Anna Sutton talks us though her decision to put personal values at the heart of her business and how this translates into The Data Shed’s working practises. She discusses what it means to be a ‘Shedder’ and how to spot the right attributes in potential candidates. We also talk through the challenge of making somebody feel part of a team whilst remote onboarding, balancing entrepreneurship with motherhood as well as the growing Tech eco-system that Leeds has to offer.

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Dom Raban, Co-Founder and CEO of Xploro set out on a mission-driven tech project to build a product that could bridge the gap in communication between paediatric patients and their consultants around what they can expect from their hospital experience. It is fair to say that Dom has well and truly achieved his goal with Xploro, a mobile application that uses augmented reality, gameplay and artificial intelligence to communicate healthcare information to children, reducing their stress and anxiety associated with hospitalisation. In this episode, Dom discusses the challenges that come with working on a mission-based project and pitching them to investors, as well as how to determine who the right investor is when it comes to a tech-for-good product. We also delve into Xploro’s unique board of advisors, the benefits of spinning out from an agency and the challenges surrounding adapting a product for the global market.

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Starting a £4 million NET turnover business from your living room sounds too good to be true… but Hanna Putjato made it her reality when she spotted a gap in the eyelash extension distribution market. Originally moving to the UK unable to speak any English, Hanna trained as a lash technician with the ambition of learning the language, never dreaming that she would walk away as the Founder & Managing Director of London Lash Pro. In this episode, we were joined by Paul Waite, Director of Rowan Executive Search as a special guest co-host alongside Chris. Hanna talked us through her incredible journey from factory worker to multi-million pound businesses owner and her self-taught approach to entrepreneurship. She discusses her unique attitude to problem solving as a founder and how she built a killer marketing strategy off the back of a Google search! As we take a step back from the technical, this episode dives into developing business strategies as an industry novice, as well as the effects of Brexit and COVID-19 on international supply chains and the power of having the right idea at the right time.

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The Modern Milkman was created with a clear vision - to revitalise the traditional milkround on a mission to reduce plastic waste, after being inspired and disheartened by David Attenborough’s Blue Planet. Having secured Series A funding at the start of the year, the tech for good business are gearing up for national expansion and are in the process of rebuilding their tech platform to support aggressive scaling plans. We sat down with the man in charge of the project, CTO James Renshaw. We spoke to James about the drive towards candidates ‘tech for good’ and what he looks for in the ‘DNA’ of potential hires, how the team are taking a data-driven approach to improve their customer experience and an insight into the due-diligence process when preparing for funding.

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Pitching can be daunting on a good day, but pitching to the United Nations was just a part of the process for EdTech company Near Life, an immersive and creative learning platform that was initially created as a humanitarian project. Five years later, Near Life is preparing to launch Near Life Creative, a VR product in partnership with the World Health Organisation that is so versatile it can be used by any sector, anywhere in the world – hence why it’s being released globally! In this episode, Founder and CEO Mike Todd discussed the challenges that come with financing a launch on a world-wide scale, as well as the pros and cons of project-based investment. Mike also touches on the caveats to seeking investment early, the advancement of the North’s VC Angel scene and why surrounding yourself with advisors is so crucial in the early stages of development.

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The Start-Up Diaries is back with a bang! In the first episode of series two we welcomed start-up Founder Chole Barrett to the show as we discussed all things business, her background in dressage, dentistry and law! An incredibly ambitious founder, Chloe has a love for learning which ultimately steered her into creating Immersify Education, the company that harnesses augmented reality, interactive animation, gamification and personalisation to develop modern resources aligned with educational curriculums. Chloe reflects on how her sporting background prepared her for her career as a businesswoman, as well as touching on how her competitiveness can also be a double-edged sword when it comes to mental wellbeing. She also shares her tips for best practice when pitching, why she has not one, but two degrees and the value of learning.

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It’s not every day that your business gets sued by James Bond… but for Street Group, their newly launched product was too good for them not to fight back! In this week’s episode, we caught up with Heather and Tom Staff, the brother and sister duo behind Spectre Sales and Lettings, an estate agency canvassing tool that is revolutionising the property industry. Tom & Heather discussed what led them to join forces and develop what is now the UK’s leading PropTech software and shared their experiences of founding a business with their sibling. The pair also shed light on the challenges they’ve faced whilst launching remotely and how they’ve had to adapt to the impact of COVID-19 on the housing market. We also discussed the pros and cons of bootstrapping vs. investment, dealing with threats as an entrepreneur and the challenges that come with rapid growth – all to make for an incredibly interesting final episode the year!

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In this week’s episode, we sat down with Lydia Jones, CEO & Founder of Housemates, a student-first digital housing platform, to hear all about her journey into tech and the story behind her entrepreneurial mindset – from selling turkeys, to building fitness apps, to changing the UK’s student renting industry! Lydia talked us through the importance of having a clear vision for your businesses at leadership level and how this can be vital in prepping your team for success. She also discussed the benefits of implementing a collective culture in order to stay ahead of the game and the personal traits one needs to possess to thrive within a start-up environment. In this info-packed episode, Lydia also covers her routines and behaviors that keep her grounded as a founder and how she stays resilient when overcoming unforeseen challenges, plus, her experiences with fundraising during COVID-19. An incredibly insightful listen with a young founder wise beyond her years!

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If you’re working in Tech, it’s more than likely you'll have heard of Tech Nation: the national network and growth platform for tech entrepreneurs. We had the opportunity to sit down with their very own Mo Aldalou, Entrepreneur Engagement Manager, to get the inside scoop on all things Tech in the North-West. Mo shared his insider knowledge on the current state of the North-West eco system and took us through some of the pros and cons of starting a tech business in the North, as well as where the Northern Tech scene needs to improve its offerings. We also discussed the potential challenges facing Start-Ups born out of the COVID-19 era and what it really means to have ‘a head quarters in the cloud’. Lending his advice on preparing investor decks, recapping Tech Nation success stories and forecasting the ones to watch, as well as breaking down the notorious Manchester vs. London rivalry within the Tech sphere, Mo really left no stone unturned in this info packed episode!

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In this week’s episode of The Start-Up Diaries, we’re joined by Chi-Chi Ekweozor, Founder of Assenty. After spotting an opportunity to provide a solution for a gap in the events market, Chi-Chi has developed a simple Q&A function device into an audience interaction and live virtual polling tool, proving that often the most straightforward ideas are the most effective. Chi-Chi talked us through how she has been able to make the most of the opportunities lockdown has thrown her way, and how Assenty has thrived during the Pandemic by keeping people connected. Chi-Chi is also the founder of #FemaleTechFounder, a series of events hosted in Manchester – and now virtually – that brings aspiring female founders and women in tech together to hear from successful founders within the tech space, passing on their challenges, highlights and biggest lessons. Chi-Chi is a strong advocate for encouraging more girls into Tech and discussed with us why she feels the investment sector can be seen as intimidating to many women, as well as why and how the lack of female representation in the tech community needs to be addressed at a grassroots level.

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In this weeks episode we were joined by Manoj Varsani & Marco Ferrari, Co-Founders of the property finance platform Hammock. Having recently raised £1million in seed funding, the team are preparing to launch their brand new current account for landlords. Sitting down with Oli Lochhead from our London office, the pair talked us through the processes they have in place that have enabled them to scale the Hammock platform so quickly and how they use customer feedback and insights to shape the product to what it is today - a renting platform made by landlords for landlords!

During lockdown the Hammock team took on a brand new not-for-profit venture in the form of SOS Supplies, in response to the national PPE crisis. SOS Supplies connects charities and organisations in need of urgent PPE with suppliers who can offer stock with fast delivery in the UK. Running the charitable organisation alongside Hammock, Manoj & Marco tell us how they reacted to the situation so quickly, the challenges they faced when pivoting their approach and why the project turned out to be a huge morale booster for their team during the more difficult times.

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How do you scale a multi-million pound business without any external investment? Co-Founder of video animation platform Viddyoze, Joey Xoto, talked us through how he and his Co-Founders utilised the power of their networks to create an incredibly successful affiliate programme that enabled their business to gain over 100,000 customers in under 5 years. Talking us through some of their major decisions, we discussed why the team feel now is the right time for outside investment and de-risking, finding the right non-execs for the business and when to hand over the reigns in order for the business to grow. Joey also shared his experience of racism within his professional career and highlighted what more needs to be done to make people accountable for their actions online.

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In our latest episode we sat down with Investment Director at GC Angels, Jess Jackson. GC Angels are one of the leading early stage investors in Greater Manchester and have invested in 22 businesses since 2018, so Jess and her team know exactly what to look out for and what NOT to do when approaching your first round of investment.

Jess took us through:
-What to consider when approaching your first round
-When to consider fundraising options
-Her take on VC personality and culture fit
-Addressing the imbalance of funding for Female and Minority Founders
-Debunking 'cash-runway' - what does it actually mean!
-The most common pitfalls in companies looking for investment and post-investment
-A shout out of some of the most exciting businesses to look out for in the North at the moment

Jargon-busting, myth debunking & answering some of the most common questions Founders ask when approaching fundraising, we hope this episode helps answer some of your investment dilemmas!

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The uncomfortable truth is that the technology industry today is not a place in which everyone, of any gender, race, disability, religion, sexuality, socio-economic background, can thrive and succeed. We will be exploring areas to understand how and when we can improve opportunities to create greater pathways for diverse communities.

Whether you already have a fully formed strategy, or you’re thinking about D&I for the first time, our panel took us through how to approach the matter from all levels of the business from Hiring Managers to job spec writers to Leadership.

Facilitated by Head of Onsite Partnerships, Oliver Lochhead we were joined by:
- Kate Pljaskovova, Founder & CEO of Fair HQ
- Jackie Kinsey, Leadership Coach and Director & Founder of Kinsey People solutions
- Sean Allen, Recruitment Manager & D&I Champion at BJSS
- Chloë Davies, Head of PR & Partnerships at myGwork - LGBT+ professionals & allies

Core discussion topics:
-Where to begin... the very first steps 4mins 10secs
-Attracting a diverse pool of candidates 14mins 10secs
-Creating an inclusive culture & employer brand 29mins 24secs
-Leaders driving change 42mins 25secs

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Erin took us through some of the biggest challenges he’s faced throughout his experience of founding a company. From working with stakeholders, MVP vs MSP, sales tactics and techniques and the physical and emotional toll that starting and running a business can have on your mental health. Listen to the full episode to hear all about Erin’s journey and his proudest wins along the way.

Having worked as a lorry driver after leaving the army and studying for a Business Degree, Erin became frustrated with the outdated haulage sector, often experiencing lower wages, higher fees, poor communication, and wasted time.

Noticing an opportunity to bridge the gap and improve the lifestyle and earning potential of HGV drivers in the UK, the concept of Avail was born and Erin spent the rest of his degree focusing on how to turn it into a reality.

Founded 3 years ago, Avail is disrupting the ‘old war horse’ haulage industry with an app that connects lorry drivers looking for work, to hauliers looking for drivers.

Having received 350,000 investment in 2019 and gearing up for an explosive period of growth post-Covid, we sat down with CEO & Co-Founder, Erin Short, to find out more.

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Collabco are a pioneering EdTech business providing flexible technology solutions for universities and schools around the globe through their core product, myday.

At the start of the year Collabco were gearing up for an exciting period of growth when the world was suddenly put on hold by Covid-19. Sitting down with CEO Andrew Taylor, Chris McGowan will be finding out how Collabco have used their time throughout the pandemic to restructure and buildout the business for an accelerated period of growth.

Andrew joined Collabco back in 2018 as Sales Director before taking the reigns as the company CEO. He'll be discussing the highs and lows of driving a business through a pandemic, and why he believes Collabco will ultimately come out of this period much stronger as a business and a team.

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When Broadstone was founded in 2016, it's three Co-Founders, Tom Pickersgill, James Doyle & Nick Groves, had a clear mission: to power the hourly paid workforce community and make hiring better people both faster and more transparent.

In our latest episode of the Start-Up Diaries, Chris McGowan sat down with CEO & Co-Founder, Tom Pickersgill, to talk about Orka's impressive zero attrition, the future of 'WorkerTech' and advice on building and fostering a great culture in the office and remote.

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Raising capital, scaling teams & the hurdles that come with being Founder & CEO of one of the UK's most exciting early stage start-ups. Our Director of Manchester, Chris McGowan, sat down with Co-Founder & CEO of Tootoot, Michael Brennan, to hear about his investment journey when scaling Tootoot and the challenges, hurdles and lessons he faced along the way.

Tootoot is the pupil voice and safeguarding app trusted by over 15,000 teachers. Michael founded Tootoot back in 2015 with Co-Founder Kieran Innes. Drawing on his own experience of being bullied when he was younger, Michael & Kieran built an app to give children being bullied a voice, and have now helped over half a million children and young people in the UK.

The Start-Up Diaries Podcast: Recent Episodes

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