Welcome to our award winning podcast where I speak with founders, entrepreneurs and notable individuals who have overcome barriers both mentally and physically to become the successes they are today!
Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and mild ADHD, those were my barriers, I overcame them, but how do others cope, what motivates someone to go the extra mile and why do people risk it all? Join me as I try and find out.
I hope you enjoy the show. Wherever you are listening from please hit the subscribe button!
This Success Is In The Mind and I am Oliver Bruce
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Building an AI agent starts with one thing most people skip. Purpose. Get that right and the platform choice becomes obvious.
In this episode of The Unlock, Oliver Bruce walks through the workflow he has refined over six months of building agents and platforms on OpenClaw, Manus and Lovable, all anchored in a single Claude project.
It starts with the Three Ps Framework. Purpose is what your agent is for. Product is how you package that into something you could explain to a client. Prompt is the detailed brief that drives the build. Skip the purpose and you get hallucinations and code you never asked for.
The hub for all of it is a Claude project. You upload your knowledge documents and your prompt, then tell the project to treat that prompt as the heartbeat of the build. From there you use Claude Code as a consultant, running a two way loop between the code and your terminal to keep the agent on track.
Oliver breaks down where each platform fits. OpenClaw is the most robust and operational, but it needs a Mac mini that stays on and carries some security exposure. Manus, acquired by Meta in late 2025, is the creative engine that plugs into Instagram, Gmail and Nano Banana, but it burns credits fast. Lovable is the lowest barrier to entry and the quickest to monetise, because it ships a real platform you can charge a SaaS fee for.
The thread through all three is the same. Start small. Set tight parameters. Ship slowly and methodically.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: Get the purpose, product and prompt right and Claude will tell you which platform to build on. Start small and ship slowly.
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More from Oliver:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliverbrucefounder/
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PinPoint Media: https://pinpoint-media.global/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-unlock-with-oliver-bruce/id1526266908
Connect with Oliver: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverbruceonline/
Stop starting from zero every morning. Build a Claude project that acts as a living knowledge bank for your business and every piece of copy, strategy and decision gets better the longer you use it.
In this episode of The Unlock, Oliver Bruce breaks down why most businesses get zero compounding value from AI, how to build a Claude Projects workspace that acts as a second brain, and the iteration loop that makes that knowledge bank smarter over time.
Most businesses use AI like a search engine. Every morning you open a new chat, spend 20 minutes explaining your context, get something usable, then repeat it tomorrow. That is not leverage. That is Groundhog Day. AI outputs sound robotic because the model has no context for what you stand for or what you have tried before.
The fix is Claude Projects. A project is a dedicated workspace where you upload your core business documentation and train the model on how your business actually operates. Oliver shares how he did this at Pinpoint Media, uploading brand guidelines, tone of voice docs, case studies, onboarding materials and sales call transcripts, then writing a master prompt that turned the project into a strategic sparring partner rather than a yes machine.
The real power is iteration. Every campaign result and strategic breakthrough gets dropped back into the project, so it compounds into a living record of what works. It also lets new senior hires quiz the project on day one and compress months of onboarding into days.
Oliver shares the five step playbook. Gather your foundational documents. Create the project and upload them. Write the master prompt. Use it for a week and refine. Then feed it results to get the compounding effect.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: Stop starting from zero. Build your brain, feed it with data, and never explain who you are again.
Sponsored by Incard. Sign up now. All your finances. One platform. For 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped. Here's your promo code: UNLOCK2026
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More from Oliver:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliverbrucefounder/
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PinPoint Media: https://pinpoint-media.global/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-unlock-with-oliver-bruce/id1526266908
Connect with Oliver: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverbruceonline/
Stop trying to make one perfect ad. The brands winning on paid social are building a machine that makes 50 or 100 good videos and letting the data decide what scales.
In this episode of The Unlock, Oliver Bruce breaks down why the old model of one big hero ad is dying, how AI tools like Opus Clips have changed the economics of creative production, and the exact testing framework for deploying high volume creative on Meta.
The old paid social playbook was simple. Build one hero video, put your budget behind it, let it run for months. Try that today and you burn through budget in a week. The algorithm cares about engagement, retention and relevance, not your production cost. Creative lifespan is now measured in days and hours. You do not need one perfect ad. You need 50.
Meta and TikTok are content hungry machines. Give them two videos and the audience exhausts fast, then your cost per acquisition skyrockets. That is ad fatigue. Give them 50 or 100 different hooks and the algorithm finds pockets of profitability across your total addressable market.
The friction is production. Opus Clips solves it. It turns one long form recording into 15, 20 or 40 short form clips with dynamic captions, speaker framing and virality scoring. Record one 30 minute conversation and you have a month of creative in half an hour.
Oliver shares the four step loop. Record dense anchor content. Extract clips with Opus Clips and quality control the hooks. Run a dynamic creative testing matrix on Meta with small budgets. Then double down on the winners and feed the insight back into your next recording.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: The brands dominating paid social are not the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones with the fastest iteration cycles.
Sponsored by Incard. Sign up now. All your finances. One platform. For 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped. Here's your promo code: UNLOCK2026
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More from Oliver:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliverbrucefounder/
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PinPoint Media: https://pinpoint-media.global/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-unlock-with-oliver-bruce/id1526266908
Connect with Oliver: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverbruceonline/
Treat YouTube as your most powerful evergreen sales asset, not an entertainment channel, and it becomes a discovery engine that generates high intent leads on autopilot.
In this episode of The Unlock, Oliver Bruce breaks down why YouTube is the most underused channel for B2B and high ticket B2C sales, and how to turn it into a revenue generating asset using a simple four step playbook.
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, owned by the largest. A long form video that solves a high value problem gets indexed and searched for years. Someone finds it at the exact moment they need the answer. That is high intent discovery.
YouTube Shorts changed the model. Shorts push high retention content to people who have never heard of you. They earn attention. Long form earns trust. Most brands do one or the other and fail. You need both. Shorts for reach and discovery, long form for depth, authority and conversion.
Oliver shares the four step playbook. Define the core problem your ideal client searches for. Record a 20 minute anchor video that solves it. Extract the sharpest moments as vertical shorts. Run a distribution loop that links viewers back to the long form video. By the time a viewer books a call, they are pre sold.
If you are a CMO, a business owner or a founder selling a high ticket offer, you do not need a million views. You need 500 of the right people.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: YouTube is not for vloggers. It is a scalable, evergreen sales asset that turns your expertise into high intent leads on repeat.
Sponsored by Incard. Sign up now. All your finances. One platform. For 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped. Here's your promo code: UNLOCK2026
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More from Oliver:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliverbrucefounder/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheUnlockOliverBruce
PinPoint Media: https://pinpoint-media.global/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-unlock-with-oliver-bruce/id1526266908
Connect with Oliver: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverbruceonline/
Oliver Bruce breaks down the biggest shift in marketing since the internet: you are no longer writing only for humans. You are also writing for AI agents. Google crawlers, ChatGPT web readers, Perplexity indexing systems and autonomous procurement bots that research vendors before a human is ever involved.
The problem is these two audiences want opposite things. Humans buy on emotion. They respond to story, humour, design and a little ambiguity. AI agents have no emotion. They want clarity, structured facts, verifiable claims and consensus across the wider internet. Optimise only for the human and AI cannot understand you. Optimise only for AI and the human feels nothing. Most brands sit in the middle doing neither well.
Oliver gives a seven-step framework for serving both from the same page without compromising either. How to audit your pages for dual audience readiness, how to write an AI executive summary that orients the machine without disrupting the human, how to use structured data, headings and formatting that both audiences pick up, and how to build the verified consensus that makes AI trust your claims.
This is a concrete action plan you can start executing this week.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway:
The brands that win in 2026 will be bilingual. They will speak the language of human emotion and the language of machine structure from the same page.
Sponsored by Incard. Sign up now. All your finances. One platform. For 2% Cashback for year 1 on Ads, SaaS, Travel and other everyday business expenses. Uncapped. Here's your promo code: UNLOCK2026
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More from Oliver:
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PinPoint Media: https://pinpoint-media.global/
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-unlock-with-oliver-bruce/id1526266908
Connect with Oliver: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverbruceonline/
Oliver Bruce breaks down the real difference between SEO, AEO and GEO: search engine optimisation, answer engine optimisation and generative engine optimisation. Most marketers and most agencies treat these as the same thing with different names. They are not. They work on different surfaces, need different strategies and are measured with completely different KPIs.
The stakes are simple. In the first four months of 2026, 68% of Google searches ended without a single click. Across 680 million AI citations, just 15 domains captured 68% of all citation share. This is a winner takes all environment. If your brand is not in the top tier of cited sources for your category, you are invisible to AI.
Oliver walks through a step-by-step action plan for each discipline. How to fix your technical foundation and build topical authority for SEO. How to win featured snippets and zero click answers with AEO. How to become the source that ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google Gemini trust, cite and recommend with GEO.
This is a concrete playbook you can start executing this week.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway:
The brands that win the next decade of search will run SEO, AEO and GEO in parallel. The ones still selling the 2022 playbook will disappear from the conversation.
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If you are a founder preparing to raise capital, this episode is a practical guide to getting investor-ready before you ever walk into the room.
Oliver Bruce sits down with Connor Wells, founder of Caplia. Connor spent eight years inside one of the world's largest beauty businesses, moved into engineering-led innovation at Dyson, then ran PrimeTime as MD before building Caplia to fix the problem that nearly broke him: fundraising.
The venture ecosystem is more fragmented than ever. Capital is flooding in. Founder numbers have tripled since the nineties. Yet rounds are still run like it is 1995, investors are drowning in noise, and great deals get missed because signal is buried inside manual pitch deck reviews.
Connor's answer is capital readiness. Caplia turns your pitch deck into a Cap Passport in 60 seconds, giving investors decision-ready signal at their fingertips with your data room one click away. Its agentic AI, Iris, acts as a fundraising mentor that learns your process and deploys it. The goal is simple. Put every founder on the front foot from day one.
Connor also gets honest about the human cost of raising. The 50 percent of your time it consumes. The relentless rejection. The resilience it demands. And why the right co-founder, the right early signal and a genuinely strategic cap table matter more than proximity to money.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: The founders who win the next decade of fundraising will be the ones who turn up ready, with clear signal, real credibility and confidence from day one.
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How to turn one 20 minute recording into 100 pieces of content that actually cut through.
Content is king. Distribution is the kingdom. But volume only works when it stays engaging and native to each channel. In this episode of The Unlock, Oliver Bruce walks founders and business owners through the exact versioning workflow that takes you from producing no content to producing volume content that performs, without spamming your audience or burning your time.
Record once. Version everything. One 20 minute sitting becomes one long form video, 50 plus shorts, one podcast, one piece of audio, and one GEO and SEO optimised blog. You sweat a single asset instead of recording a hundred from scratch.
Oliver breaks down the full stack and the channel logic most founders get wrong. Opus Clips does the heavy lifting, turning long form into hook-led, subtitled shorts, then scheduling and writing channel-native copy. Manus builds out the GEO strategy, transcripts, and blogs. TikTok is your testing bed for volume. Instagram takes only the proven winners because it punishes spam. YouTube is the real engine because it carries long form, short form, and audio first, all feeding a search platform surfaced on Google, ChatGPT, and Claude.
In this episode you will learn:
Key takeaway: One 20 minute sitting, recorded with intent and versioned well, gives you a hundred assets that work harder than a hundred recordings ever could.
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AI agents only work when you build them with a clear framework. This episode gives founders, CMOs and business owners the exact process, tested over six months, for shipping agents that actually do the job.
Oliver walks through the Three Ps Framework: Purpose, Product, Prompt. Define the purpose of the agent. Shape it into a product you could explain to a client. Write the prompt that briefs the platform. Skip any of the three and the agent breaks.
He then shows how to set up a Claude project as the brain of every build, so every tool you reach for stays anchored to the same source of truth. Claude Code becomes the consultant briefing every other platform you use.
From there, Oliver breaks down which platform fits which job. OpenClaw for automation and scale, the operational backbone for admin and deep tasks. Manus for creative output, content and scheduling. Lovable for shipping platforms and apps you can charge for from day one. He also covers how to stack all three into one workflow, and which combinations actually work.
Oliver closes with how to start small, ship fast and scale the build once the agent is doing its job. The founders winning with AI agents are not the ones running the biggest stacks. They are the ones with the clearest process.
If you have been circling AI agents for months without shipping anything, this episode is the build process that gets you moving.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: Founders who ship working AI agents anchor every build to a Claude project, brief Claude Code like a consultant and pick the platform that fits the job.
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Most founders think you need funding to build something worth selling. Oliver Bruce just proved otherwise.
In this episode of The Unlock, the tables turn. Oliver is interviewed by Bruno Artis, content lead at sponsor Incard, on the full arc of Pinpoint Media. From a £50 gym video shot at college, to a multimillion pound agency, to the exit signed on 23 December 2025. No funding. No backing. Just a decade of compounding decisions.
This one is built for founders who want the actual playbook, not the highlight reel.
Oliver lays out the Four Founder Pillars every entrepreneur eventually needs to internalise: scale a business, buy a business, invest in businesses, raise capital. Then Oliver gets specific on the three moves that mattered most. Get your shareholder paperwork tight from day one, even if it is a back-of-the-fag-packet draft built with Claude. Hire your weakest function first, which for most founders means finance, not sales. Treat listening as a hireable skill, because the founders who interrupt the least usually scale the fastest.
The second half is a tactical performance marketing playbook you can apply this week.
Oliver breaks down the Winning Ad Set vs Learning Ad Set structure his team runs on Meta. Sixty to eighty percent of budget into proven creative, the rest into a learning pool that feeds the winners. Most founders kill campaigns at week one. Oliver runs them for four to six weeks before making any call.
Oliver also reframes social media as interest media. People do not scroll to be social anymore. They scroll to be interested. That single shift changes how you brief creators, what you boost, and when.
Oliver makes the case for GEO: Generative Engine Optimisation as the single most underpriced marketing channel available to founders in 2026. ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity do not yet serve paid ads in the UK. Whoever shows up in those answers now will own discovery for the next five years.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: The founders who win are the ones who pair tight data with real listening. Strip the processes, hire your weakest function first, and put volume out before you pay to amplify anything.
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From rock and roll stage designer, to opening a million pound restaurant on credit, to sitting on the original Dragons' Den panel, and now launching his memoir Yo Man at 74.
Simon Woodroffe operating principle is simple. Say Yes first, figure out how to deliver second. He also breaks down the Three Fs funding model: friends, family and fools. Why he put 100 percent of his own money on the line before raising. Why selling 30 percent to a VC quietly saved Yo! Sushi from running out of cash. And why a 1 percent royalty has earned him more than every shareholding combined.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: The founders who go the distance say yes first and figure out how second.
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Oliver Bruce sits down with Callum Woodcock, founder and CEO of WineFi, to unpack how he turned a Wix landing page and a LinkedIn post into a venture-backed fine wine investment business.
Callum walks through the real numbers. £470k raised at pre-seed. £1.5m pre-money valuation. A seed round closed off the back of ten-minute investor calls. He shares why he treated WineFi like an FCA regulated business from day one even though he was not required to, and why that decision is now compounding into one of the most credible names in fine wine investing.
This is not the usual founder mythology. It is methodical, honest and built for operators who want to grow a real business in a low-trust market.
Key topics covered:
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Follow on YouTube for deep-dives & video episodes: www.youtube.com/@TheUnlockOliverBruce
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Oliver unpacks what actually makes an agency acquirable, why retained revenue shifts your valuation, and how he now thinks about AI agents, creative at volume and the skills that will still matter in five years. The through line: founders who use AI will replace those who don't, but empathy, taste and judgement stay human.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: The next decade belongs to founders who pair machine scale with human empathy. Everything else becomes commodity.
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If you are creating content but not learning from it, you are leaving money on the table. Every post you publish is a question you are asking your market, and the answers are already there if you know where to look.
In this episode, Oliver Bruce breaks down why content is the most powerful and most overlooked form of market research available to entrepreneurs today. He explains why most founders get stuck chasing perfection instead of publishing, why your audience's attention is more honest than any survey, and how a simple weekly rhythm can turn raw content into a data engine that compounds over time. It is honest, practical and built for founders who are ready to stop overthinking and start posting.
Oliver shares the Start with Ugly framework, a three-step method for getting past the perfectionist mindset that keeps most entrepreneurs invisible. He also introduces the 70% Rule and a four-metric content scorecard that turns every post into a measurable experiment.
Key topics covered:
Key takeaway: The willingness to be ugly beats talent that stays hidden every single time.
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Follow on YouTube for deep-dives & video episodes: www.youtube.com/@TheUnlockOliverBruce
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While most entrepreneurs are fighting for attention on Instagram, TikTok and X, LinkedIn has quietly become the single most underused sales and branding platform on the internet.
In this episode, Oliver Bruce breaks down why LinkedIn is a genuine cheat code for entrepreneurs in 2026, how a brand new AI system called 360 Brew has completely rewritten the algorithm, and exactly how to start using the platform to build an audience, generate inbound leads and grow your business, even if the last thing you posted was updating your job title three years ago.
Oliver unpacks how 360 Brew rewards dwell time, comment quality, saves and topic consistency, meaning real expertise now outperforms big followings. He makes the case for video as the highest-leverage format on the platform, and lays out a practical playbook to get started this week.
Key topics covered:
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What if the next unfair advantage in business wasn’t more budget, more people, or more content, but understanding how AI decides who to recommend?
In this episode, Oliver Bruce breaks down the five-step framework behind GEO: Generative Engine Optimisation, the new discipline helping businesses show up in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude and other AI search tools.
Search is changing fast. Traditional traffic is getting squeezed, AI-generated answers are becoming the new front door, and the brands that move early will have a serious advantage. The opportunity is that the rules are still new, so founders and smaller businesses can compete on a far more level playing field.
Oliver shares how to restructure your content so AI can understand it, how to create original material that makes your business uncopiable, how to make sure AI crawlers can actually access your website, and how to build credibility across the wider internet. He also explains why freshness matters more than volume, and why maintaining a small number of strong assets can outperform a huge bank of outdated content.
If you want your business to be recommended when people ask AI tools who to trust in your space, this episode is a practical place to start.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Key takeaway:
The brands that win in the next era of search will be the ones AI can find, trust, cite and keep seeing.
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This episode explores how to create higher-quality leads, improve landing page performance, reduce hesitation in the buying journey and build flows that are easier to scale. Oliver also touches on ICP clarity, pre-qualifying prospects through ad creative, simplifying forms, and creating a customer journey that feels obvious from first click to final action.
Oliver Bruce breaks down why broad messaging, generic websites and cluttered customer journeys quietly kill conversion, and why the real unlock is building focused ads and landing pages that speak to one audience, one problem and one promise.
Key topics covered:
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If you are trying to grow a direct-to-consumer business with limited cash, this episode is a practical blueprint for doing exactly that.
Oliver Bruce breaks down the COPPER Framework a simple but powerful growth model for founders who have already built the product, launched the Shopify store and now need traction without burning through budget. It is honest, actionable and built for real-world operators, not theory.
The framework is straightforward:
**Capture. Organic. Paid. Performance. Educate. Repeat.
Key topics covered:**
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In this episode, Oliver breaks down the realities of scaling Meta ads, when to push harder, when to pull back, and how to avoid the costly mistakes many founders make (including his own).
Oliver dives into how to identify winning creative, refine your CTA, and choose the right attribution window, all while protecting your budget and managing burn effectively. Expect practical, actionable insights you can apply immediately.
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Louise Hill is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of GoHenry, a groundbreaking financial education app and prepaid debit card designed to empower kids and teens with essential money skills. Launched in 2012 after Louise spotted a gap in children’s understanding of digital spending, GoHenry now supports over 2 million users across the UK, US, and Europe.
With a background in e-commerce and operations at major retailers like John Lewis and Debenhams, Louise brought a wealth of experience to the fintech space. Under her leadership, GoHenry has pioneered youth financial literacy, raised millions through record-breaking crowdfunding, and recently merged with U.S. fintech Acorns to expand its global footprint.
Louise is a vocal advocate for practical, early-stage financial education and continues to shape the conversation around money management for the next generation.
In this episode, we sit down with Lucas London, the dynamic founder and CEO of Lick, the brand that’s shaking up the outdated world of home decor and paint. From launching during a pandemic to building a purpose-driven business that champions sustainability and customer empowerment, Lucas shares the bold vision behind Lick’s rise—and what it takes to disrupt a centuries-old industry.
We dive into his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges of scaling a DTC brand in a traditional market, and how Lick is using community, content, and color to inspire a new generation of decorators. Whether you’re a startup founder, a design lover, or just curious about the business of brand-building, this episode is packed with insights, lessons, and a splash of creativity.
🎧 Tune in to hear:
Tugce Bulut is a distinguished entrepreneur and data expert, renowned for her contributions to the fields of artificial intelligence and consumer intelligence. She is the co-founder and CEO of Eloquent AI, a company dedicated to advancing AI technologies to revolutionise human-computer interactions.
Prior to her role at Eloquent AI, Bulut founded Streetbees in 2015, serving as its CEO. Streetbees is a global intelligence platform that analyzes real-life moments from users worldwide to provide deep insights into human behavior, surpassing traditional survey methodologies.
Bulut's academic background includes a Master's degree from the University of Cambridge, where she specialised in poverty alleviation and global living standards. Before venturing into entrepreneurship, she spent six years as a strategy consultant, advising technology and consumer companies on accelerating growth in international markets.
Under her leadership, Streetbees expanded its user base to over 3.5 million individuals across 189 countries, enabling brands to access rich, real-time consumer insights. The platform's innovative approach attracted significant investment, including a £30 million Series B round led by Lakestar in October 2020.
In this episode, we sit down with Sokratis Papafloratos, a seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor renowned for his significant contributions to the tech and digital health sectors.
Sokratis's journey began with an academic foundation in electronic engineering from the University of York, followed by a master's in information processing from King's College London. He commenced his career at Vodafone Group, focusing on strategy and business integration.
His entrepreneurial ventures include:
In 2018, Sokratis founded Numan, a digital health clinic for men, aiming to provide accessible medical treatments and knowledge. Under his leadership, Numan has empowered over 400,000 individuals to take control of their well-being, offering services that address various aspects of men's health.
Beyond his ventures, Sokratis is an active angel investor, backing innovative companies like Calm, the world's first mental health unicorn. His career is marked by a commitment to innovation, a focus on destigmatising health issues, and a vision to use technology for social good.
Join us as we delve into Sokratis's experiences, exploring his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges he's overcome, and his insights into the evolving landscape of digital health and technology.
James Griffith, CEO and co-founder of Mous—a tech accessories brand renowned for its innovative approach to product design. Founded in 2014, Mous emerged from a desire to revolutionise the tech accessories market by offering products that seamlessly blend functionality, performance, and style. Under James's leadership, the company has grown exponentially, captivating a global audience with its commitment to quality and innovation.
James's entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to excellence have been instrumental in Mous's success. His vision has led to the development of products that not only protect but also enhance the user experience, setting new standards in the industry. Beyond his professional achievements, James is an avid watersports enthusiast, often sharing his passion for kitesurfing and other aquatic adventures.
In this conversation, we explore James's path from the inception of Mous to its current status as a leader in tech accessories. We discuss the challenges faced, the innovations introduced, and the lessons learned along the way.
George Taylor is the visionary founder and CEO of Frive, formerly known as Lions Prep, the UK's leading chef-cooked meal plan service. Established in December 2016, Frive has delivered over seven million meals, evolving from a brand initially catering to gym-goers and fitness enthusiasts to one that appeals to a broader audience seeking convenient, nutritious meal options.
Under George's leadership, Frive underwent a significant rebranding in 2024, collaborating with creative agency Among Equals to transform its identity. The rebrand aimed to position Frive as a mainstream ready-to-eat meal brand, moving beyond its original fitness-focused image. The new name, an abbreviation of 'food to thrive,' reflects the company's commitment to providing meals that promote well-being and convenience.
Frive's subscription-based service offers flexible meal plans, ranging from three to six days per week, with prices starting at £35. The microwaveable meals are crafted from real, whole foods, free from ultra-processed ingredients and artificial additives, aligning with George's mission to inspire busy individuals to eat well and live better.
George's innovative approach and dedication have positioned Frive as a leader in the UK's meal delivery industry, continually adapting to meet the evolving needs of health-conscious consumers.
Co-founder of Misfits Henry hasn't always been an entrepreneur, in fact in a previous life he worked for Aston Martin, so why the jump into entrepreneurship?
From a passion for fitness Henry and his co-founder forged a career in the indulgent protein market but nearly lost it all when focusing exclusively on female only nutrition. A quick pivot in 2020 saw Misfits re-strategise and refocus and in 2021 sold over 7 million protein bars with the vision "to create indulgent, plant-based snacks that EVERYONE can enjoy"
With annual revenues in excess of £10m and an untapped Misfits market in America, what's on the horizon for scale-up brand Misfits in 2023?
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Produced by PinPoint Media. www.pinpoint-media.global
Marietta Hickman recently founded Cheeky Nibble whilsy working out of a disused RAF hanger. UK Young Innovator of the year winner, Marietta produces her delicious handmade cereal with little more than an idea, a big bowl and spoonfuls of passion! Marietta admits "this is the first time in my life I have not been bored!"
So, how difficult is it as a solo, female entrepreneur with aspergers and a passion for baking to bring a product to market? With Cheeky Nibble's striking packaging and the generous portions that come in a box, the flavour development through to the illustration and branding was all the brainchild of Marietta's.
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Episode Sponsor Hux Health. Use discount code SUCCESS for 30% off. www.huxhealth.com
Produced by PinPoint Media. www.pinpoint-media.global
From being able to focus on tasks that matter through to benefiting from a good night's sleep, Damien Bryne and his co-founders at Hux Health have developed and brought to market one of the 'coolest' and most accessible superfoods, nootropics, sleep and beauty supplements around.
From undergoing investment rounds through to developing a product that not only works but is designed to also look great when sat on your kitchen shelf to boys at Hux Health spanned varying walks of life before coming together to go into business.
With varying personalities at the top but a shared goal and vision, Damien shares how best to manage the differing skill sets when striving for the same end goal which, ultimately is inspiring people to find their daily edge by making complex nutrition simple...
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Episode Sponsor Hux Health. Use discount code SUCCESS for 30% off. www.huxhealth.com
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The behemoth that is Huel started off as a convenience idea and fast became a necessity for so many. James Collier a former NHS Dietitian was wholly responsible for the formulas and nutritious benefits of Huel in the early days.
A nutritionist by trade James joined Oliver to discuss how Huel was once just an idea around his co-founder Julian Hearn's kitchen table before becoming the recognised 'go to' brand it is today. James also reveals the title, background and context of his new book 'Thought for food' which is available to buy late 2023 early 2024.
In an episode that delves into the nuances of health and wellbeing as well as growing and scaling a succesful business it would be remiss of you to skip this one...
Huel products are nutritionally complete foods, formulated to include all the protein, carbs, fats, vitamins and minerals, along with phytonutrients, that your body needs. Huel provides optimal amounts of recommended requirements for all nutrients.
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Co-founder of Mixtons, Xav struggled with Dyslexia from an early age, ultimately discovering music as his form of expression as a teenager. With Dyslexia forming Xav's unique outlook on life he tried, and sometimes failed in business, that was, until the 3 co-founders of Mixtons came together...
One third of Mixtons, Ranj, trained as an engineer before becoming a cocktail mixer in a local bar ultimately finding his love for hospitality and the perfect pour.
It wasn't until the 2019 pandemic that Mixtons took off. From making the perfect cocktail in their co-founder Sim's kitchen, Ranj and Xav managed to scale in little under 2 years the brand from zero to hero bringing on investors spanning the world of food, drink and influencer from Calfreezy through to the founders of Goat and dare we say it, even Oliver's invested in Mixtons on their latest round which values the business well into severn figures.
So, how do 3 friends come together to work so seamlessly on scaling a business in a world only one third of them had ever experienced? When is the right time to raise outside money? And when is the right time to move out of your mates kitchen and into something a little more professional...?
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From Africa to Spain and everywhere in between, co-founder of UniTaskr Joe Black has had a varied life from an early age. Part of an entrepreneurial family, Joe found himself at a young age plotting the line of lost golf balls from a Spanish golf resort, cleaning and re-selling those same balls to the players.
Realising that students and peer-to-peer work stems innovation, gives experience but is an often overlooked resource by business and individuals alike, UniTaskr launched and recently became a Startup 100 business in 2023. The model of UniTaskr is simple. Enable students with no money to monetize their free time and undertake small, simple tasks for those willing to pay. From building an Ikea wardrobe to populating lines of data on a spreadsheet, UniTaskr is empowering the students of today.
Not only does this innovative model enable students to keep the wolf from the door and earn some cash on the side but UniTaskr recently launched Shout the world's largest nano-influencer platform harnessing the breadth of it's student resource through social.
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Beer But Better, it's true! Oliver Bruce sits down with Harvy Armstrong and Sam Holmes to discuss why Harv left his highflying job in the city and Sam decided to give up working with private jets with a clear vision to bring caffeine infused and low calorie lager to the UK.
First time founders but with entrepreneurial backgrounds, Harvy and Sam who notably have appeared on reality TV show Made In Chelsea have, off their own backs, raised capital, built a brand and become listed in some of Londons most loved venues, but how?
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Episode Sponsor Huel. huel.com/success for your free shaker and t-shirt.
Produced by PinPoint Media. www.pinpoint-media.global
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From over 100 staff with Design My Night and an 8 figure exit to building what could be a unicorn Oliver speaks with Nick Telson now of Trumpet.app
Exiting a business and starting again takes some doing, however, Nick and his 2 co-founders have been on a warpath of funding, development and scaling since late 2022 for their new vision and venture Trumpet, the sales app.
Nick a serial investor himself talks to Oliver about what he looks for when investing his own money in others, what he suggest founders look for from their co-founders and how he managed to scale for sale his first business and why he's decided to go at it again, this time with a larger price tag at the end of the tunnel.
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From living in America as a child and shovelling show to earn some extra pocket money Jesse had very little entrepreneurial heritage but that doesn't seem to have stopped him growing a brand that can now be found in pubs, bars and restaurants across the UK.
With Jesse's Dad being a Vicar and his mum a French teacher, how did Jesse build such a strong beer brand with such little knowledge.
Jesse graduated from University and ended up working for Mars, this however wasn't for him. An idea he baked up on his Uni ski trip for an 'Apres Beer' kept nibbling away at him, so much so, Jesse was developing the concept of Jubel Beer, the apres beer, alongside his job at Mars.
Once Jesse could see that his brand and flavour would take off, Jesse left his life in the corporate world and started to scale the brand and business.
With Jesse's background of Mars and PWC, albeit brief, Oliver asks him what the perfect investment deck looks like, and with a recent funding round in 2022 of £2.7million Jesse clearly knows what he's doing!
Watch this episode on our NEW website: https://www.successpodcast.co.uk/
Sponsored by Capsule Cover
Produced by PinPoint Media
Available on all Virgin Atlantic flights via their inflight entertainment
Founder of GRIND Coffee David Abrahamovitch grew up watching his dad build multiple businesses as a child ultimately inspiring him to go it alone. It didn't however start with coffee!
Having turned his Dad's business around and pivoted it into new sectors, David speaks to Oliver about how there's a seismic culture shift in today's world about what being an 'entrepreneur' actually is.
David started his first 'proper' business at University at aged 22 whilst studying UCL. David and his co-founders found themselves pitching for seed capital around a boardroom table before even graduating, the business he was pitching for capital still trades today.
GRIND took on the giants of Costa Coffee and Starbucks and, in time, started to win. Having arranged external investment for GRIND it was still just a side hustle. David ended up jumping ship from his University founded business to go into GRIND full time.
It was during the start of the 2019 pandemic that everything changed for David and the GRIND team.
GRIND, a business that was turning over c£10m at the time, had no choice but to close it's high street coffee shops overnight, ultimately leading to David exploring new avenues for revenue. It was this world first, D2C compostable pod offering that doubled GRIND’s turnover in less than 12 months to over £20m.
Still going strong, GRIND and David are looking to take on the US.
Ecologi, one of only a few businesses in the world genuinely striving for economical change. Planting over 100,000 trees PER DAY, Elliot came up with the idea for a subscription based environmentally focused business whilst on his morning commute. He thought, "what is the cost of a coffee per day could be put into changing the planet?" The rest was history.
Having suffered from burnout in his previous job Elliot never set out to become an entrepreneur but had an idea that he believed would make a genuine difference and change the world. He wasn't wrong.
Oliver speaks with the very humble Elliot in this episode of Success Is In The Mind unearthing some eyeopening stats and an inspiring roadmap for Ecologi, could this be the world's first $1bn environmentally focused subscription business and will we see an IPO in the years to come?
Watch this episode on our NEW website: https://www.successpodcast.co.uk/
Sponsored by Capsule Cover
Produced by PinPoint Media
Available on all Virgin Atlantic flights via their inflight entertainment
In this live on location recording, Oliver caught up with Andy Shovel co-founder of vegan food brand THIS at their London HQ.
A born entrepreneur Andy’s hit the headlines recently for his slightly ‘out there’ marketing stunts, one of which included a life size naked statue of Piers Morgan in Leicester Square with his ‘THIS’ product housed around Piers’ nether regions… That said, the self proclaimed ‘un-cool’ entrepreneur that is Andy, co-created his first business with a group of mates whilst at University. Ironically quite a ‘cool’ clubbing night called ‘cash throw events’ and yes the clue is in the name, it didn’t take off financially but opened Andy’s eyes to the possible.
From University to founding a recruitment business which he later exited through to finance, insurance and everything in between Andy has built and sold multiple businesses.
Not all of Andy’s business ideas however have succeeded. One such flop was ‘Equity Fish’, a business similar to what Crowdcube is today. Andy left this idea behind after being “outgunned by the legal system” - It didn’t stop there however, Andy also ventured into advertising on escalator handles however, that too also didn’t work…
Relentless and not knowing when to stop, Andy has since learnt, thankfully, when to say ‘no’. Clearly however, and contrary to that, he said ‘yes’ at exactly the right time when launching THIS, his most recent business.
Having overfunded on multiple occasions and recently rolled out vegan THIS sandwiches into WHSmith and other high street stores, Andy’s vision of a mass market vegan brand is coming to fruition as their current market value is circa £75million.
Watch the full episode on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/BULhsd5cgg0
Sponsored by Capsule Cover
Produced by PinPoint Media
Paul's Father ran away leaving his Mother to contemplate taking him to an orphanage. His Father returned, a 'wheeler dealer', Paul's father ended up as a market trader. As a teenager Paul ended up working for his Father in Waste and Disposal. There's money in muck as they say selling for millions just before his Father passed away. Paul's business acumen served him well growing and exiting multiple Waste brands. Paul was number 3 at sportswear brand Gymshark after the co-founders approached Paul in a Birmingham gym. Paul was critical in taking Gymshark to the £1bn valuation it is today.
Paul became Chairman of Birmingham City Football Club later on in his career and after just 6 months of joining managed to get then promoted, but how? Paul joins Oliver to talk about upbringing, perceptions and determination not forgetting of course Paul's recent acquisition HERA Clothing which he wants to build into a £100m brand in under 3 years!
Watch the full episode on Youtube here:
Sponsored by Capsule Cover
Produced by PinPoint Media
After dropping out of school with no qualifications aged 16, Daniel Hegarty got signed to the same label as Boy George and went touring with his punk band for just £100 a week. He then spent the next ten years carving out a career as a working musician in LA, writing for and performing with the likes of S Club 7, Robbie Williams and the Sugababes, before returning to the UK to be one of the first employees at Wonga, where he became fully immersed in the world of tech startups. Dan became frustrated with the whole property buying process after almost losing the house he was trying to buy due to mistakes made by his solicitors. He realised there was huge potential for change in the mortgage and property market, and in 2016, Habito was born. Habito is a tech startup that is dedicated to ending ‘mortgage hell’ and aims to streamline the whole process, cutting down the average transaction time from 21 days to just 10. Since its founding six years ago, Habito has seen rapid growth, from sorting just 245 mortgages in 2016 to a whopping £4 billion worth of mortgages in 2020. With £80 million of funding raised so far, Habito had recently expanded into lending their own mortgages, streamlining the process even further. In this week’s episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver Bruce sits down with Daniel to ask, how do you set up a business with no experience and raise millions in funding? Was dropping out of school the best decision he ever made? And what does the future of mortgage broking look like? Watch the best bits here - https://bit.ly/3tqDcyq Listen to the full podcast – https://link.chtbl.com/lsgRUCSI For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance Produced by: PinPoint Media
Growing up on a farm in rural Suffolk, sisters Alice and Rosie never pictured a career in the fashion industry. After they both headed off to uni, they both started working the corporate life in London, and when a jacket made by their mother got a hugely positive response at a wedding, they decided to start Hicks & Brown together. Whilst originally focused on selling jackets at events, the sisters soon realised that although the jackets weren’t selling out, the hats were a huge hit, selling out every time. This spurred them to pivot to focusing on the hats, and when Kate Middleton was pictured wearing a Hicks & Brown Suffolk fedora in 2020, the brand shot to fame overnight, taking orders from royal fans across the globe. In less than two weeks, sales from the ‘Kate hat’ meant that they had already surpassed their turnover for the previous year. In this week’s episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver Bruce asks, how do you get a fashion brand off the ground with little to no money? How important are big events to brands like Hicks & Brown? Just how powerful is the ‘Kate Effect’, and how did the sisters capitalise on the unexpected opportunity? Watch the best bits here - LINK Listen to the full podcast – https://link.chtbl.com/lsgRUCSI For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance Produced by: PinPoint Media
After being diagnosed at 18 with an autoimmune disease, Molly Johnson-Jones was fired from her job in investment banking after requesting to work from home one day a week. Molly then met Maurice O’Brien on the dating app Hinge, and after five dates they decided to start a business together which would provide a platform for people like them who wanted more flexibility in their jobs. From this idea, Flexa was born. Flexa is a website which only allows companies with flexible working environments to advertise jobs on its jobs platform. Flexa has introduced a benchmarking index of hundreds of companies to measure their flexibility, and the most flexible of these get put on the ‘Flexa100’ list. Since its founding in 2019, over 1200 businesses have advertised jobs on the platform and the company manages 10 million transactions and $3bn of business a year. In this episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver Bruce asks, should you give away shares of the company in the early days when you don’t have the cash? How do you start a business with someone you’ve just started dating? And has the traditional working week been replaced completely by a new world of remote working? Watch the best bits here - https://bit.ly/3sQBUwa
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance Produced by: PinPoint Media
From an early age, Hannah Chappatte was surrounded by successful family members, but her initial confidence took a knock when her teachers told her she had dyslexia. Despite this, she went on the secure As and A*s across the board in her A-Levels, before spending a globe-hopping year working in intern roles in various companies around the world. While studying English Literature and Language in Bristol, Hannah spotted a huge gap in the market for a platform that would provide reputable student accommodation, as well as help and support to students renting from private landlords in the tricky and often murky world of student housing. Thus in 2019 HYBR was born, and Hannah quickly won several competitions which gave her the initial seed funding she needed to get HYBR off the ground. Fast forward to 2022, and HYBR has hundreds of properties listed in 8 cities across the UK, and with a fresh round of funding that garnered £600k, it’s only up from here for HYBR. In this episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver Bruce asks - how do you go it alone as a founder of a company fresh out of university? How do you build a middle ground between students and landlords who mistrust one another? And who can you turn to for support when you’re in the lonely position of founder?
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance Produced by: PinPoint Media
Serial entrepreneur Martin Bysh started his journey living in East London with a passion for programming games. Seeking amusement and enjoyment in everything Martin did he built 20 top 10 games before he was 30. Having never worked for anybody, Martin founded, grew and exited multiple online businesses before the online space was comodosited by the arrival of the Apps. He even beat Facebook to it by founding MakeFriendsOnline in the early 00’s. Having co-founded Huboo which is tipped to be the next Unicorn of 2022, Martin Bysh tells Oliver how he’s set up businesses for exit, built a successful funding campaign raising nearly £100m (at point of recording) in seed capital and how the team at Huboo have gone from £0 to nearly £1bn+ in little over 3 years? Exclusive Content –
Young, naive and forgetting tax!: https://bit.ly/3JNqVJw Commercial importance in a business: https://bit.ly/3vcwCNc Obsessive startup mentality: https://bit.ly/3thPkAH "We aren't holding back on any opportunities": https://bit.ly/3s9LMRv
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance Produced by: PinPoint Media
Jamie Barber is a prolific restaurateur and founder of the Hush Collection who started out as a lawyer and musician signed to George Michael’s record label. Myleene Klass started out in showbiz and in pop group Hear’Say, before turning her attention to the world of business when she founded her own children’s clothing brand, My K. After months of lockdown had given them both “extreme kitchen fatigue”, they decided to team up to launch My Supper Hero, a recipe box delivery service that provides gourmet meals in the comfort of your own home. Since launching in April last year, they’ve used their combined business experience to raise half a million pounds of funding and they already offer over a dozen different gourmet meals for delivery across London, with more on the way. In this week’s episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver talks to Jamie and Myleene about their beginnings, the pressures of business and fame, the balance of work and family, and how to turn failures into lessons for the future.
Exclusive Content –
The way we consume media now is fast: https://bit.ly/34Y1Dt4
Learning through failure: https://bit.ly/3LAS83R
"I don't get it all right": https://bit.ly/3rS7Dws
There's no silver bullet: https://bit.ly/3sEZsCZ
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
Rory Sweet, Founder of Halo, who originally featured in Series 1 of Success Is In The Mind, has recently sold his business for a huge $715 million. Now, Rory returns to the podcast to discuss how he did it, and what’s next for him.
In this slightly shorter episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver catches up with Rory to ask what it feels like to sell a company, how to decide who the right buyer is and where Rory’s going with his next venture.
Exclusive Content –
Snippet 1: https://youtu.be/xddFYlAg5fY
Snippet 2: https://youtu.be/3nTpI2jOjbI
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
Annabel Makin-Jones is a third generation Yorkshire farmer and Founder of Tame & Wild Drinks. Starting out at a young age helping out on her family farm, Annabel then went to Harper Adams to study Agri-Food Marketing with Business Studies, before returning to the farm to start growing strawberries and launch Annabel’s Deliciously British. After getting her strawberries stocked in several high-end retailers, Annabel realised that it was time to ‘diversify or die’ and began branching out into different products like jams, daffodils and gin. Then, in 2020, Annabel launched Tame & Wild, a range of sophisticated non-alcoholic drinks using strawberries grown on her own farm. In this episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver Bruce asks, how do you successfully diversify your business, how to balance raising children and running a farm, and how to never take no for an answer when trying to get your products into the market. Exclusive Content –
How to get into bed with Ocado: https://bit.ly/3ufJK3A
Diversify or die: https://bit.ly/3oglUB5
Stretching the truth: https://bit.ly/3KZwciI
How to pitch to a food buyer: https://bit.ly/3rkA4Dk
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
Freddy Ward is the Co-Founder of Wild Cosmetics, a direct-to-consumer subscription based deodorant company, with a heavy focus on using natural ingredients and cutting down on plastic waste with refillable deodorants. Starting out as the fifth ever employee at Hello Fresh in 2012, Freddy worked his way up to Marketing Director before deciding to start his own company, Wild, with a lifelong friend. Wild now has a loyal following of over 100,000 customers, after selling over 300,000 deodorants in their first 18 months. In this episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver asks, what are the pros and cons of crowdfunding your brand, how much does dyslexia affect a career in business, and what is the experience of building a brand with a close friend? Exclusive Content –
The positives of dyslexia https://bit.ly/3tRZ8mK
Customers in the London Underground https://bit.ly/3rQ58tn
"If you're going to start a business..." https://bit.ly/3tYIh1I
Difficult being a good dad and CEO (link) https://bit.ly/3KAYf85
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
Trigger warning: this weeks episode contains references to suicide.
William Chase is a serial entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience running businesses. After a string of bad luck which resulted in him declaring bankruptcy and almost losing his family farm, William turned it all around when he began using rejected potatoes to create the hugely successful Tyrrells Crisps. In the following years, Tyrrells turned over millions of pounds and after selling the company to Langholm Capital for £30 million, William didn’t stop there, investing the money into a huge distillery which now produces Chase Gin and Chase Vodka. Even that was not enough for William Chase, who after recently selling Chase Distillery, is now already on to his next venture, Willy’s Apple Cider Vinegar. In this episode of Success Is In The Mind, Oliver Bruce asks how to navigate the treacherous world of getting your product stocked in supermarkets, and how to keep pushing for success even in the face of complete failure.
“Don’t let the corporate in” https://bit.ly/3Ac9lLV
“Dealing with mental health problems” https://bit.ly/3FDXqYu
“I’ll never be happy wherever i am” https://bit.ly/3nCN9pc
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
Josh White, Co-founder of CanO Water, launched the brand after returning from a holiday in Thailand where they had been inspired to drive change after seeing the dire state of plastic bottles lining the beach and what started out as an eye-opening trip abroad became a mission to reduce single use plastic. Since launching in 2015, CanO Water has sold over 15 million cans in the UK and Ireland. Propelled by increasing consumer demand for more sustainable alternatives to plastic bottled water, CanO Water has built a national presence across multiple channels in the UK and Ireland, continuing its growth in new territories as the plastic problem becomes more globally recognised. Cut to 2022 and the brand is experiencing another exciting chapter with a seven-figure investment secured to drive the brand’s already exponential growth & a new Non-Exec Chairman, the former European President at Heineken. In this podcast Oliver Bruce asks, how do you launch a brand when people don’t believe in it for the first three years and how to trust your vision and remain tenacious in the pursuit of success?
Exclusive Content –
“no one wants to be the first or last” https://bit.ly/31VpkBq
“failure is so important” https://bit.ly/3zQ40cO
your water tastes a bit weird https://bit.ly/3qig3MU
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
Entrepreneur Ellie Webb spotted a gap in the market when asked to be the designated driver. Ellie realised that there were no exciting alcohol-free options available at the venue, this got her thinking. Wanting a beverage with a little more punch, no alcohol but still grown-up, Caleño was born! As a solo female entrepreneur Ellie has come up against the ‘funding’ glass ceiling, a number of times but through research and hard work Ellie in just a few short months has managed to raise over £1 million to launch her business. Ellie’s first order of 1,000 bottles didn’t quite go to plan, when they turned up just before Christmas with bubbles in the label it took Ellie and her sister most of the festive week to print out and hand stick them all! That’s commitment! From giving out bottles at festivals to being stocked in Sainsbury’s, Caleño is now stocked in supermarkets nationwide. In this podcast Oliver Bruce asks, how do you develop a successful alcohol-free brand? What are the challenges of launching a business as a solo female and how do you raise funding when people keep saying no!
Exclusive Content –
Women entrepreneurs get less funding - https://bit.ly/3HwBjEu
Nobody teaches you how to launch a brand - https://bit.ly/3sWYG62
Launching a brand is hard on your own - https://bit.ly/3JL0iWL
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/32eboTi
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance https://www.capsulecover.com/
After weathering the storm that was the rural crisis of the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001, the pandemic was no problem for Corry Taylor.
The founder, CEO and MD of outdoor clothing re-seller, Bradshaw Taylor, oversees 9 iconic outdoor clothing brands including Schoffel, Le Chameu, Keen and Sherpa.
In this podcast Corry joins Oliver to discuss how his board helps him keep his feet on the ground and how and why he doubled down on Shoffel’s digital presence to stay ahead during the pandemic.
From losses to acquisition, crisis to stability, Oliver asks, how does one weather a storm successfully or acquire a business, and can you really learn entrepreneurism?
Exclusive Content –
Business is always risky - https://bit.ly/3yR9lQJ
The iconic gilet inception - https://bit.ly/3qlnNg7
We doubled down and went for it - https://bit.ly/3H446jv
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3pi2z3g
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
Son of Mark Constantine founder of Lush, Simon Constantine stepped into the world of fragrance and entrepreneurialism launching ånd fragrance months before the pandemic. In this Christmas episode, Oliver Bruce asks the big question; what even is Frankincense?! Going from one of the world’s favourite cosmetic brands to launching his own start-up, Simon Constantine brings a unique approach to his perfumery, ånd fragrance, by focusing on grassroots projects, stemming from his role as Head of Ethical Buying at Lush. Growing up with entrepreneurial parents who eventually built a billion pound brand, how did this impact Simons’ entrepreneurial flair, appetite for risk and life ambitions? Simon is a man on a mission to help indigenous communities to preserve their endangered ecosystems by sustainably sourcing raw materials. Exclusive Content –
What is Frankincense? - https://bit.ly/3EkQFdc
I saw Lush grow from nothing - https://bit.ly/3edqt9V
How hard is it to fill a bottle? - https://bit.ly/3qiLzcs
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3J7meLh
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
After burning out and quitting his job due to the poor selection of employee benefits when he needed support with his mental health, Ally Fekaiki founded Juno, the company reimagining how we access support from our employers. Conscious of the seemingly accepted notion that stress, and burnout are an endemic of work, Ally set out to improve employees’ lives inside and outside of work. Replacing forced company lunches and team building torture with personalised benefits that suit the needs of individual employees has proved extremely successful so far as the wellness tech platform have experienced exponential growth with revenues up 600% during the pandemic. Believing that when advice is non-contextual it can’t add the same value, Ally shares his thoughts on doing business differently, creating a modernised working culture. Looking after mental health isn’t a “perk”, and prioritising employees’ wellbeing is on the rise... with the help of Juno. Exclusive Content –
Supporting mental health isn’t a perk - https://bit.ly/3dNdPyc
Sacking people isn’t always the answer - https://bit.ly/3GvE0Wu
Offices aren’t collaborative - https://bit.ly/31ZScb5
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3s51HAS
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance
Earlier in 2021 the co-founders of Thursday (the dating app) boldly announced to LinkedIn that over the next 12 months they would take their start-up from a valuation of £0 to some £50m; brave to say the least. Where do you even start? What started as a dating app called HoneyPot, founded in an Officers’ Mess whilst Matt was serving in the British Army, is now undergoing a Series A fund for £20m (Dec 2021) - the two schoolmates (co-founders) George and Matthew have seen over 250,000 downloads in just 9 months. This Thursday (a unique day for us to release a podcast) Oliver Bruce chats to co-founder Matt McNeill Love about the ‘pointless pints’ behind the company’s infamous guerrilla marketing techniques and how they built a brand on just £500! Why did they rename their app ‘Thursday’ and why focus solely on 1 day of the week and not the remaining 6? It’s not all cardboard signs, pink balloons and reactive marketing in London, in fact most of what the team at Thursday do is incredibly proactive. From ensuring people get home safe on the night tube via push notifications to hosting parties for singletons in venues throughout the city, Thursday are 100% on the ‘ones to watch’ list…! Enjoy. Exclusive Content –
How to fuel guerrilla marketing - https://bit.ly/31BgKaj
Top 10 apps in the App Store - https://bit.ly/3y0Hc9m
How to get the best when developing tech - https://bit.ly/3DBpt9M
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3lDwH76
Sponsor - Capsule Insurance - https://bit.ly/3oroa96
How do you build what is fast becoming the nation's favourite nut butter brand? With a creative mind, dyslexia but no clear career plan, founder Pip Murray launched her business off the back of a Government Startup grant. With a love for marathons, nut butter and health, the three go hand in hand and Pip & Nut was born!
Founder of Pip & Nut launched her nut butters into the relatively untouched market in the UK. Wanting to introduce people to her healthy, protein filled product was one of her first challenges. This, followed by a lack of commercial knowhow, cash flow problems, and years of hard graft didn’t sway Pip from growing what is fast becoming the nations favorite nut butter brand.
Even though the start-up life isn’t glamorous, Pip & Nut has recently been going from strength to strength, with new investors, advisors, supporters and team members Pip & Nut has seen significant growth over the past 18 months!
With the CEO of Vita Coco, Giles Brook, on her board, Pip has built Pip & Nut to an authentic, B Corp Certified consumer brand that is still scaling. Pick up a jar of nut butter and see how it’s done better.
Exclusive Content –
Dyslexia helped me! - https://bit.ly/3G5yGsN
Getting over imposter syndrome - https://bit.ly/3d1rEbI
Business is a marathon - https://bit.ly/3d0PUuz
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3d4JhHS
With aspirations of becoming a dinner lady, Cathy Moseley was born into a family with very little. Poverty however didn’t stop her, Cathy forged a career in the City trading commodities. Working her way up the corporate ladder Cathy eventually decided to pack her job of 25 years in and follow her passion for food... What began as a kitchen experiment due to a diagnosis affecting her gut health turned into a flourishing healthy snack brand, Boundless Activated Snacking.
Boundless produces Amazon’s No.1 gut health snack and is stocked in the likes of Sainsbury’s, Selfridges and Holland & Barrett. Cathy Moseley doesn’t forget her working class roots, and recalls how her parents enforced a strong work ethic in her.
Gaining a rhinoceros thick skin from taking the ‘banter’ during her 25 years in the city, Cathy’s idea of success is now firmly rooted in teamwork making the dream work.
Exclusive Content –
Rob from Peter to pay Paul - https://bit.ly/3l1ufHl
Beg, borrow, try not to steal - https://bit.ly/3xfFXCO
Cock-up or Start Up? - https://bit.ly/3xhgEQM
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3r2CtTp
From a milkround to Cambridge University and now founder and CEO of one of Europe's largest energy providers, Greg Jackson of Octopus Energy knows a thing or two about disrupting a market.
A 21st century energy provider, Octopus put innovation and sustainability at the forefront of everything they do to drive a faster, green and cheaper solution for their customers. It’s clearly an approach that is working, as their new market valuation of $4.6bn makes them the highest valued brand we’ve welcomed onto the podcast!
As a business that puts the planet, customers and their staff first (despite not having an HR department), Oliver talks to Greg about the power of disruption, how to scale and what the future of energy might look like.
Exclusive Content –
Are you wedded to an established customer pattern? - https://bit.ly/3wOQswZ
Do you really need a Human resources department? - https://bit.ly/3qIbPic
Is your gran your target customer? - https://bit.ly/3cf7cnF
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/31TtAkv
Closing Series 4 with a bang Oliver has hand-picked his favourite nuggets, or what he calls “the tapas of conversations” so you can recap and refresh!
From making £1bn in a year to not paying the VAT. Oliver’s spoken with entrepreneurs long in the tooth and those just starting out. From S4Capital to MOMA Foods, UpTime to Tenzing, we’ve covered failures and successes across multiple industries.
With ‘Season X’ launching on November 17th 2021, we kick off our new unique 52 part season with Greg Jackson, Founder and CEO of Octopus Energy. With more investment into the podcast, more marketing, more staff, more conversation, new sponsors and more innovation, we’ve episodes with the likes of Boundless Snacks, Pip & Nut, Juno, CanO Water, Lush and many more, dropping a new episode every Wednesday at 8:00am GMT for 52 weeks solidly!
Thank you for your continued support!
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3woIL00
Sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
In this episode we go deep into the revolution that’s sweeping the world, that of the Oat Milk revolution. Founded in 2006 by Tom Mercer from a stall at Waterloo East and now, over a decade on, MOMA Foods has recently won a great taste award for it’s oat milk barista edition. Tom, whose market research strategy was nothing short of ingenious, discovered 4 years after MOMA’s founding in 2010 that he had MS and incidentally lost vision in one of his eyes. This however didn’t stopped Tom from growing a multimillion-pound business and kicking on. So, from humble beginnings on a market stall in East London, is Tom the Lord Sugar of the Oat world?
Exclusive Content –
Traffic cone through a window - https://bit.ly/3EwVK2C
Passion, objectivity and planning - https://bit.ly/3mAcoZc
Loss making for 7 years - https://bit.ly/3jUpgY7
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3GwYwXq
Sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
Husband and wife duo Johnny and Pauline Paterson founded much loved brand Dr. PAWPAW in 2013 after their daughter was diagnosed with Eczema. Their main mission was to create multi-use products for use across everybody’s face and body. The brand which turnover c£5m tells Oliver how in business you can have a win-win situation, how they’re looking to scale to c£30m in the next 5 years and how opening up in the US seems like the natural next step even if they didn’t realise quite how expensive that would be… Pioneers of the skincare meets cosmetic movement, Dr. PAWPAW products aim to make you look and feel good whilst improving the skin and giving back, with a % of their annual sales being donated to Teenage Cancer Trust. Now stocked in high-street stores such as Boots, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Superdrug, and New Look, in this podcast they share how hard it is to bring a skincare product to market and whether the death of the high-street has impacted beauty sales. Exclusive Content –
Using UGC and TikTok - https://bit.ly/3bdoTDs
Going Stateside - https://bit.ly/3pF40JS
Why it pays to be nice in business - https://bit.ly/3pAnZt7
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3mauzUZ
Sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
From his parents having meetings around their breakfast table, Thomas Wynne was born into the world of Insurance. In 2020 the business his parents built (Kingsbridge Insurance) sold for an aggregated total £168m in total. In 2020, mid pandemic, Thomas Wynne decided it was a good idea to fly the nest and founded Capsule with his business partner Liam. A true disruptor in the insurance world and a business less than 6 months old at the time of this podcast, Tom is on a mission to deliver better insurance for high growth scale-ups and make insurance ‘sexy’... With 35,000 ‘scale-ups’ in the UK ranging from the likes of Gymshark to Monzo how do you take a business from concept to profit? With Tom’s first cohort of staff joining imminently this is an encapsulating conversation and a snapshot into the life of a true start-up. Exclusive Content –
An unusual first hire - https://bit.ly/3APInbG
Jordan Belfort or Tom Wynne? - https://bit.ly/3aSaBIe
Being an underdog - https://bit.ly/3BWpIMJ
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3nbmMFG
Sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
Famed for being labeled ‘England’s leading adman’, Johnny Hornby founder of The&Partnership spoke to Oliver about how he founded and runs the now global agency. With some 1,400 staff, working on some of the globe's biggest campaigns it wasn’t all jets, whisky and red carpets. Johnny, who struggled for the first 6 months to make any sales then forgot to pay the VAT and instead bought a ping pong table. He recounts how in business the best way to learn is to “fu it up”. Things improved for Johnny and his team who later successfully delivered Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ campaign, won contracts from Tango, Tetley and the Telegraph, sold a 49% stake in the business for £60m to WPP and was recently appointed as Chairman of Prince Harry’s charity Sentinel alongside his day job at The&Partnership. So, how do you take a startup with 3 blokes in a room above a phone shop to a global business with over 1,400 staff?
Exclusive Content –
I f***ed it up over and over again - https://bit.ly/3mMOJn7
Do I pay VAT or hire a PA? - https://bit.ly/3mGu8AU
Piers Morgan's global rebrand - https://bit.ly/3BEypel
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube -https://bit.ly/3Dw2ehK
Sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
Former Scottish footballers Mark Corcoran and Steven Robb launched their clothing line Bee Inspired as a bedroom brand in 2013. From then their social presence has grown to have nearly 1 million followers on Facebook, and 250,000 on Instagram! With the likes of Lionel Messi and Craig David donning their streetwear designs, Oliver chats with the co-founders about why they exited the world of football and entered the fashion industry with just £300. Listen to this episode for lessons learned and how it’s possible to go from football to fashion successfully, but not without hiccoughs!
Exclusive Content –
From professional footballers to clothing entrepreneurs - https://bit.ly/3CJWQHw
How Bee Inspired was born - https://bit.ly/39HqmBh
Using footballers as influencers - https://bit.ly/3zRvFIS
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube -https://bit.ly/3lYIv2Y
Sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
Serial entrepreneur Jamie True set up his first business at the age of 17 turning over circa £6 million! Over the past 20 years Jamie founded a further 8 successful businesses and invested in 4 before launching his latest venture Uptime in 2020. It’s clear Jamie has an entrepreneurial spirit in his blood and, despite the ups and downs, across his multiple businesses he is on an upward trajectory. No stranger to business in the face of adversity, he has a proven track record of growing technology companies from the ground up. The UpTime app shares thousands of 5-minute Knowledge Hacks from the world’s best books, courses and documentaries. This business model offers a win-win for the app users as well as the content creators. With the global online education market estimated to be worth $319+ Billion by 2025, is UpTime a future proof business proposition? Listen to find out.
Exclusive Content –
The most exciting project yet - https://bit.ly/3Avn2or
When your first attempt goes wrong - https://bit.ly/3lIoz4y
Jamie’s approach as an entrepreneur - https://bit.ly/39to5t2
For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3nSKubZ
Sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
Popcorneur, Co-Founder and Director of Joe & Sephs, Adam Sopher didn’t follow the normal route to the kitchen. With a background in corporate businesses such as Adam Smith, Company Law International, Deliotte and Dixons, founding a gourmet popcorn company was unconventional to say the least.
But it was clearly a winning idea as now Joe & Sephs produce the self-proclaimed ‘best tasting popcorn in the world’ with over 50 flavours of popcorn, 10 caramel sauces and a staggering 40+ Great taste awards.
Adam ‘popped’ onto our podcast to talk about how he went from founding a family business in 2010 to a turnover of £6m with products stocked in Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Waitrose, Selfridges, Wholefoods and more. Listen to find out more.
Treat yourself to the ‘best tasting popcorn in the world’ with 20% off! Pop to www.joeandsephs.co.uk, fill up your basket and use the code ‘SUCCESS20’ to enjoy. From Pumpkin Spice to Gin & Tonic, there’s a flavour for every palate!
T&Cs: This code is only valid when spending £12 on our website. To redeem this code please enter at checkout. This code cannot be combined with any other code or any other offer, discount or promotion offered by Joe & Seph’s. This code can only be used once throughout the duration of the promotion by the intended recipient. This code is valid on popcorn, caramel sauces, gifts and excludes subscriptions, personalised products and international shipping charges. Expires on 10/12/2021 or while stocks last.Exclusive Content –
Undercutting the school tuck shop - https://bit.ly/3zlfELf
Becoming the Willy Wonka of popcorn - https://bit.ly/3EcIzVr
Meeting Bill Gates - https://bit.ly/3lmW3VZ For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/2X1N0Sg
We're thrilled to be sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP for the 4th series of this award-winning podcast series. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
Ex-professional rugby player Elliott Herrod-Taylor’s career was cut short thanks to a spider’s bite! He founded his first business UP4 Events whilst at university thanks to his love of music and juggled this alongside his degree and starting The Bunch.
As the designated bill payer in his university house Elliott dealt with the frustrations of setting up contracts with utility providers and knew there was a better way! The Bunch, founded in 2017 helps students and letting agencies compile their multiple bills in an easy to manage one off payment.
Now The Bunch has expanded to help 3,000+ customers per year and works with massive names such as Virgin Media and Ovo Energy. For someone that had already founded 2 companies by the age of 23, what’s next for Elliott? Find out in this podcast.
We're thrilled to be sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP for the 4th series of this award-winning podcast series.
The former Head of Marketing at Red Bull in Europe, Huib van Bockel quit his high-profile job to create a brand with purpose and an energising drink that was plant-based, low-calorie & sustainable. He shares how he got started, dealt with knock backs and his plans for the future!
Over the past 20 years, Huib has worked in the fashion, television and consumer brand world. Now he is taking on the big dogs of the soft drinks world!
From the belief that there was a need for an energy drink free from artificial ingredients and stacks of sugar, to climbing Everest for the naming inspiration, TENZING has tripled in size annually since its founding in 2016 and now has a turnover in excess of £10m.
With the energy drink market expected to grow to over $80 billion by 2026 and the health food market on the rise, is TENZING literally liquid gold? Find out in this podcast.
Exclusive Content – * Taking on the energy drink space – https://bit.ly/3zz5lDY * The difficulties of starting a business – https://bit.ly/38vBy3j * Dealing with doubts – https://bit.ly/2Wx5B7X * For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/3BFW8dZ
We're thrilled to be sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP for the 4th series of this award-winning podcast series. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
Sir Martin Sorrell, famed for 'inventing the earn-out', taking over WPP and aggressively scaling the largest Ad Agency in the world talks to Oliver about his greatest successes and biggest regrets.
Founding S4 Capital Group in 2018, Sir Martin grew a Unicorn (£1bn company) in under a year, he tells Oliver about his 'twenty squared' strategy and the future of the economy, why D&I is critical for all business and how to build, merge, manage and scale a business of the future!
This episode is not just insightful to entrepreneurs but leaders and CEO's alike. Exclusive Content - * Martin's Unique Business Model - https://bit.ly/3Dn8B7K * The Earn-out doesn't make any sense - https://bit.ly/2Y1iJ64 * Why Martin left WPP - https://bit.ly/3mCv9vo * For more exclusive content visit Oliver's YouTube - https://bit.ly/38ieswM
We're thrilled to be sponsored by Coronation Wealth Management LLP for the 4th series of this award-winning podcast series. Coronation Wealth Management, an Appointed Representative of St. James's Place Wealth Management, provides a wide range of services to their clients to help them build, grow, protect, or preserve their wealth.
Series 3 saw the winning of awards, international conversations, tonnes of bloopers and even more inspiration. Join Oliver as he looks back at some of the best (and worst) takes of the last series.
With the inauguration of the new studio, the winning the Business Media Podcast of the Year award and an abundance of wisdom from fascinating guests, the series has been jam-packed with energy💪
From travel to Gen Z trends, Avatars to Finance, Success Is In The Mind has seen an eclectic mix of entrepreneurs sharing their insights into what success looks like for them, and anecdotes from their experiences at the forefront of business.
Thank you to everyone who has listened, subscribed and reviewed us - we’ll be back better than ever for Series 4 soon!💥
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
As a founding team member and Head of Avatar SDK and API at Genies, Izzy Pollak is no stranger to the technology startup world. 💥
Branded as ‘the next generation of humans’ and allowing you to create the ‘fantasy version of you’, Genies avatar creator allows you to bring your personality to the digital space. With a background in film and television production and an interest in technology, there was no one better trained than Izzy to build the emotional expression for the tech 😎
Izzy believes you can navigate around problems and cut out things that are not moving you forward, by looking at the problem you’re trying to solve and always maintaining your core values and mission. Positive and motivated, Izzy is committed to the noise the company makes.
After all, as Izzy tells Oliver, no limits exist in the digital world.
Find out more about Genies via their website https://genies.com/
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
For our charity special podcast episode, Oliver Bruce chats to Julie Kent MBE about how she is a self-proclaimed go-giver 🥰 👏
“Always giving”, Julie is the Vice Chair at the Pied Piper Appeal, a Trustee for Goals Beyond Grass and Chairman for Cheltenham Open Door 🤯 Born and bred in Gloucester and now a pillar of the Gloucestershire charitable community, she emphasises the importance of giving locally.
Approaching her 60th birthday, she makes her £100,000 fundraising target for the year sound not only manageable, but easy 💪 In this truly inspiring chat, Julie clearly lives the mantra that if you believe, you can achieve!
Find out more about Julie via her website - https://juliekentmbe.com
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global
Oliver Bruce talks all things startup with Alizé Marchand, co-founder and CEO of Impresm; a marketing company specialising in helping the financial industry build solid online presence in order to engage with millennials and Gen Z in the digital age 💻 📱
Dialling in from Switzerland, Ali’s American charm began at odds with the culture she found herself in, but she quickly started to change conversations in finance and engage with sustainability in the sector 🌍
Ali realised there’s a big difference with how the next generation wants to deal with their money management… In order to “Impress ‘em”, you should be getting tips from Impresm! 💪
https://www.impresm.com/
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
Ann Perkins, co-founder and CEO of health snack brand Perkier, started out making healthy snack bars with co-founder Steve Turner in their kitchen to help with her gluten and dairy free diet. Jumping ship from global food brand Kraft Heinz to pursue her passion for not only tasty but ethical food, Ann saw the gap in the market and proceeded to launch Perkier into it. 🌍 💚
By managing cash carefully, Perkier turned a profit within a year and their products are now stocked in Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons. Despite bringing in investors to help them double their team in the next twelve months, Ann is determined to maintain the truly independent British business she and co-founder Steve have built up.
Ann Perkins is in it for the long haul with Perkier; she’s in the name after all! 💪
Perkier is a young independent British company on a mission to make the healthiest snacks on the planet!
https://perkier.co.uk/
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
From being handed the reins to a business turning over £700k in 1995 and growing it in 4 years to £2.5m turnover, SLG brands (as it's now known) currently boasts a turnover of some £32m+ with over 120 staff and are currently undergoing rapid expansion into the US. 🇺🇸
Oliver sits down with Miles Dunkley owner of SLG and an entrepreneur investor himself to talk about how in 1995 he received a call from his Dad asking him to join the family firm, little did Miles know, he was being pitted against other job applicants for the position.
Miles joined the business and immediately put it all on the line financially (including his Dad's house) to acquire a business which assisted with the growth and name change from Synlatex to SLG. Through the combination of the acquisition, product diversification and a focus on leading with design Miles and his team grew SLG to a turnover of £32m+.
From investing in his staff through one of the biggest open plan offices in the South West to investing in SLG Brands despite the pandemic, Miles leads by example.
SLG Brands is a creator, maker and distributor of some of the high street's most fashionable beauty and male grooming brands.
https://www.slgbrands.com/
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
Now a Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni and one of 5 children from a migrant family, Jay had a rebellious start to life whilst at school. The born salesman, Jay sold Beats by Dr Dre to his peers for a small markup, however, It was with the support of his mother and this natural ability to sell that saw Jay and his business partner found Imagen Insights, a business harnessing the power of Generation Z to shape, influence and build the brands of tomorrow. 🧠 🚀
Despite not originally fitting the mould of education Jay has managed in 16 months to influence brands such as Gymshark, the NFL, Ebay and BBH through his innovative and influential business model. 💥
As well as his role as CEO, Jay is also a Forbes 30 Under 30 Alumni and Diversity Council Member of Publicis Groupe.
Imagen Insights is trusted by brands such as eBay, Gymshark and PepsiCo.
https://imageninsights.com/
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
From hiding behind her desk in an operational role, to backing out last minute on a move to Frankfurt, redundancy and entering the male dominated tech world, Lorrin White is a trailblazer! 🔥
Despite texting being her only knowledge of mobiles, over the last 20 years, she has risen through the business to become the CEO of Bamboo Technologies.
As well as her role as CEO, Lorrin is a female leader, mentor, local enterprise board member and NED! 💪
She's now diversifying even more with Business in Rhyme, where she writes poetry as a digestible and fun way to share her years of experience.
https://www.bamboo.tech/
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
Having left a comfortable career with a management consultancy business Jay and his co-founder Henry decided it was a good idea to start a last minute travel business in the height of a pandemic.💪
As management consultants Jay's background is analytical, number driven, metric orientated and process led. This analytical and detailed approach however is the backbone to this startup.
Jay and Henry each invested £5,000 before undergoing a bootstrap round. Staze which is still under 18 months old is undergoing an aggressive scale in what looks to be the perfect storm... ☀️
Staze plans your last minute trip for you, unlike so many other holiday get away applications where you need to know where you want to go, Staze thrives on spontaneity! Jay realised that in the UK alone at any one time has 45% of the time holiday rentals sat empty, this was the birth of Staze.
https://staze.com/
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
Sophia Proctor who in a former life worked in PR for British Airways before being made redundant just before the 2020 pandemic used her redundancy payoff to change her life forever. 🚀
Sophia conceptualised, designed, manufactured and started to distribute her innovative children's mealtime toy at the hight of a global pandemic using entirely UK manufacturers. With a wealth of knowledge in the PR world for a global brand Sophia's business and startup experience consisted of little more than a book, an idea and a small amount of money!
With a young child, a new business, a global pandemic and international uncertainty Sophia learnt by just doing. Munchy Play are now one of the Sunday Times Startups to watch in 2021.
https://www.munchyplay.com/
A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/
Becoming the worlds largest podcast collaboration platform wasn't where it all started Audry's co-founders...
Niklas' initial business idea conceptually was sound, however, in hindsight, one small adaptation from the likes of Instagram and their business would be no more. It was this realisation and acceptance that lead Niklas and his business partner to start the 'Tinder' of podcast platforms - Audry.io and what a decision that was!
Now with over 8,000 active users and a recent re-brand in 2021 Audry.io will go from startup idea into industry leader in a world that is incredibly up and coming, could this be the next Spotify or Tinder for podcasters?
Audry.io is the backbone to many of the podcasts you listen to and love including ours!
From a life in the city to selling second handbags, not the route to entrepreneurialism one might imagine.
James, since founding Cudoni (luxury goods and fashion resale service) through the power of LinkedIn and the odd bit of stalking has raised in excess of £7million in seed capital to get his concept off the ground.
Oliver asks how an idea of selling posh goods, second hand garments and your mothers old necklace can take off in the way Cudoni has?
How do you instil confidence in those with millions to trust those with an idea? With investors and mentors such as the founder of Capital One and the founder/CEO of Pets At Home James has built a formidable team of advisors in an online world set for great expansion.
Could this be the next Ebay...?
From spending all of his personal savings on an inexperienced developer, followed by putting all of his trust into 1 marketing agency, which took full advantage with little to no outcome, Joe's eco friendly e-scooter rental business - ZWINGS - started off with something of an uphill battle!
Since founding ZWINGS in 2019, Joe found himself in pole position to assist with the COVID-19 transport requirements and tenders, which orientated around distancing, that the UK Government put in place for so many people in 2020.
Since winning a handful of large national tenders over the last 12 months, ZWINGS has since become the UK market leader in micro-mobility, a sector only 3 years old and forecast to be worth in excess of £150bn.
Joe Lewin, 24, has proved that age need not be a barrier in business, and that passion, persistence and determination is all that's needed to forge a way in a multibillion pound up and coming industry!
EXCLUSIVE PODCAST DISCOUNT CODE: 15 Minutes FREE national e-scooter rental with discount code OLIVERBRUCE15
Lifetime entrepreneur Richard Lowden started his career working under an alias for his Dad's business so his colleagues didn't realise he was the Chairmans son...
As Richard absorbed and grew within the firm one day his father summoned him into the boardroom and fired him. Why? Because he had been taught all he could learn, it was time to spread his wings and go it alone!
This, in the late 80s was the start of Richards entrepreneurial career. Now CEO and founder of one of the largest car rental brands in the world Green Motion, Richard has franchises in over 200 countries and has some 50,000 rentable vehicles internationally.
Founded in 2017 the duo behind Big Bake London would be more likely to be found in a glass fronted boardroom than a kitchen full of icing sugar.
Prior to the pair's entrepreneurial endeavours, Adam & Eloise had climbed the corporate ladder in the world of Aerospace and Marketing. Throwing the towel in on a six figure salary to bake cakes takes some guts!
In this Christmas special, multi-award winners Adam & Eloise speak about how they've grown Big Bake London from an idea into a viable business turning over in excess of £850,000 in year 3.
The icing on this cake for Adam and Eloise and the pinnacle of their career to date however is Oliver's excellent Christmas quiz. Who will win a Bruce Beer and who will have to brush up on their festive knowledge?
Find out in this episode of Success Is In The Mind not only how to start a business but many many things you didn't know about Christmas that you probably want to...!
Happy Christmas!
SUCCESS for 15% OFF all products at www.beaufortandblake.com - available until 31st December 2020.
Before visiting a mate at University for a pint Ed worked on Saville Row cutting his teeth in the world of tailoring. It was over a beer at the infamous Royal Agriculturally University that Ed decided to sew a Union Jack to the back of his dress shirt for a 'Best Of British' themed party, this was the birth of Beaufort & Blake.
Like all entrepreneurs Ed travelled the length and breadth of the UK selling his new innovative (shirt) to people far and wide, well 50 people... - Sadly however the shirts were't manufactured correctly and kept falling apart, this teamed with the niche market of dress shirts meant it was a rocky start for Ed.
Having persevered and moved his operations from a pigsty (quite literally) to Battersea London, Ed's overheads exploded and a downturn in sales saw him and his business partner nearly say goodbye to Beaufort & Blake as they faced bankruptcy. It was quick thinking that got Ed out the other side.
Beaufort & Blake expect to see a turnover of circa £3million in 2021 having onboarded 2 highly influential fashion investors and diversified their product offering. Hear it from the horse's mouth in this episode!
For 15% off all products mentioned in this podcast use discount code CAMSUCCESS
Hospitalised aged 21 from one of the most common skin conditions, eczema, Camille decided she wanted to empower and inspire other 'warriors' going through similar experiences.
It was this want and drive to inspire and empower that led Camille to founding her first business as well as writing 2 best selling books "The Beauty of Eating Well" and "The Beauty of Eczema" available on Amazon UK.
Camille is now not only a best selling author and entrepreneur but an influencer also, so, what does it take to run a successful health and beauty business at such a young age?
Oliver Bruce interviews Rory Sweet, the British version of The Wolf of Wall Street...
Rory Sweet founded RBR Networks from his London flat in his early 20s and within 6 months had turned over more than £1million, he's now estimated to be worth £700m, not bad, but how can a bedroom startup selling grey kit become one of Europe's largest IT distributors?
Rory speaks about how having 'fun' has always been at the forefront of his mind! From crossing the North Pole in record breaking time to playing tug of war with crocodiles and shooting his 'mates' with paintballs from helicopters in the African bush Rory's take on life is refreshing.
With over £1bn worth of interviews in Series 2 we've the great and good of entrepreneurial Britain discussing what it takes to turn a dream into a reality.
Launching November 4th 2020.
In this podcast we look back over the last 8 inspirational and highly entrepreneurial episodes.
From gin and hand sanitiser to influencer marketing and alcoholic sweets, series 1 has been a lot of fun with some really inspiring, eyeopening and motivating stories shared by some of the UK's most watched up and coming owner entrepreneurs!
We will be back on November the 4th 2020 with an all new lineup.
Thanks to the Great British Entrepreneur Awards for their support this series.
After being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2015 Jasmine Thomas said to her mother "there's no point in crying over spilt milk" alas this belief and ethic has enables Jas to become the business leader she is today!
Jasmine continued after her diagnosis to work for a large London City firm. It wasn't until Jasmine's discovery of cannabis and other CBD/alternative products & therapies that her MS started to become more controlled.
Not only inspiring, this interview showcases what belief, passion and determination can achieve in the face of adversity.
Jasmin has now been trading for just over 2 years and has developed 3 product lines also raising £170,000 through private investment.
From bouncy castles to gun slips followed by a trip to Spain to start a shoe business which ultimately led to a court settlement... Starting a business isn't as easy as it may seem, it certainly wasn't for the Fairfax and Favor boys.
Felix talks to Oliver about how his assumption in the early days nearly cost him and his business partner their business. What was the turning point for Fairfax and Favor, when did their breakthrough design moment occur and what quintessentially British designed products have they on the horizon?
💥September 2020 ONLY!💥 Fairfax and Favor 10% discount code available when you listen to this podcast! 🎉🙌
From Director of Opportunities at the Royal Mail through to Editor in Chief at Woman in Business Magazine, Susannah Scofield's corporate career spanned nearly two decades. Susannah picked up an OBE from HRH in the New Years Honours List and now sits as the Director General for the Direct Selling Association though whilst it was once six figure salaries and recognition from royalty she packed it all in selling her Rolex watch and RangeRover to invest in her brainchild and passion PitchDMM.
Having initially raised just over £150,000 and just recently raised a further £1.5million, Susannah tells us why she would never crowdfund again and always go 'private'.
One of the most jammed packed podcasts to date you will walk away (we hope) feeling inspired, motivated and full of passion!
Initially a byproduct of a dating board game (pre Tinder/Bumble) Smith & Sinclair brought to market alcoholic gummy sweets. 3 days after launching Smith & Sinclair landed an order for over 20,000 sweets. With little infrastructure, no kitchen facilities or manufacturing arm Melanie, her family and her friends spent 2 months hand making their first sizeable order!
After leaving her job in the events space Melanie sold a family heirloom for what she thought would be a few thousand pounds, it wasn't... This seed capital is what set Smith & Sinclair off on the right foot.
Manufacturing alcoholic sweets however come with it's complexities. From having stock held ransom by their first manufacturer to learning how to expand into the USA as well as brokering deals with some of the UK's biggest luxury stores Melanie and her team have really come up against almost every hurdle.
Smith & Sinclair recently diversified into CBD products selling and buying back their business in the space of the last 12 months (2019/2020)
How do you make £1million of revenue in 1 week during a global pandemic? Hugo Tilmouth tells us how...
University engineering graduate turned entrepreneur Hugo Tilmouth, like many of us, never predicted the global pandemic of 2020.
Raising £3.5million in seed funding after graduating from university, Hugo launched ChargedUp, a mobile phone charging station allowing users to rent battery packs and return them to venues of their choice. In March of 2020 his 'normal' business halted rather abruptly putting everything on the line...
Pivoting swiftly and rebranding to 'CleanedUp' Hugo and his team turned their potentially doomed business into a proposition offering hand sanitiser stations manufactured through their network and distributed to venues across the UK. In their first week of trading CleanedUp generated over £1m worth of revenue.
CleanedUp has since sold over 30,000 sanitiser stations to locations across the UK whilst hiring an additional 25 staff and going through a rebrand. ChargedUp is still very much operational.
How do father and son team Chris and James Horne turn their hobby and ultimately vision of an online sporting broker into a reality?
Having not turned profit for over 10 years and struggled to make payroll on multiple occasions it was only in the last 18 months that the biggest online sporting broker GunsOnPegs finally became 'profitable'
James Horne, who sold his previous business before becoming CEO of James Purdey & Sons (a business over 200 years old) decided to venture into the world of start-up alongside his Financial Analyst son Chris Horne.
Having nearly lost it all on multiple occasions this is a story of persistence, passion and enjoyment in times of huge illation as well as that of occasional deflation!
What does it take to grow a gin brand with no distilling license in a market flooded with competition and very little knowledge? Felix and his 3 siblings founded Sibling Gin before most of them could legally drink alcohol. Having never run a business, been to University or worked in the food and beverage industry before, all 4 of them took the plunge in 2013 and formed family owned brand Sibling Distillery.
Having enjoyed the boom of the gin market as it became 'cool' in the early years, the recent pandemic saw Felix and his team have to pivot their business from the supply of gin into the supply of hand sanitiser and pure alcohol for use within the NHS. Facing tough times like so many business Felix looks back on what have been an exciting few years and a turbulent few months.
At 25 years old and with over 120 staff Harry Hugo seems to be doing everything right. Aged 18 he raised £25million to start his second business after being turned down earlier on by the Bournemouth Echo for being 'too young' to write for them.
Now Harry is one of 3 founding partners at the influencer marketing agency Goat and with offices in London, New York and Singapore Harry talks to Oliver about how COVID-19 and enormous overheads left them with 3 options; to sell, raise funding or trade out the crisis.