40 Minute Mentor

40 Minute Mentor is back with a brand new series, filled with mentorship from Founders of some of the world’s fastest growing businesses and future unicorns as well as a number of world class leaders from other industries.

To get a little preview of what's coming your way, hit play on our trailer.

And if you've enjoyed the past 6 series, please leave us a review over on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm - we absolutely love hearing your feedback and really appreciate all the support we get from our listeners.

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

Today’s ‘Where Are They Now’ episode is our last one before we launch Series 7 - and we’re definitely finishing on a high, as we catch up with the amazing Ezechi Britton MBE, Co-Founder of Code Untapped and Founding Member and Principal at Impact X. 

2 years after his appearance on our 40 Minute Mentor social mobility special, Ez tells us about what it felt like to find out he received an MBE at the start of 2022 and we talk about the progress he’s seen in social mobility in Tech and VC, and what else needs to happen to level the playing field. 

Helpful links: 

For Ezechi’s feature in our Social Mobility feature episode, head to - 

https://jbmc.co.uk/insights/40-minute-mentor/levelling-the-playing-field-a-social-mobility-special/

To find out more about Ezechi, check out his profile on - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezechi-britton-mbe-452a893/

And for more info on Code Untapped and Impact X, head to - https://codeuntapped.com/ and https://www.impactxcapital.com/

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

In this ‘Where Are They Now’ feature mini episode, we catch up with the brilliant Juliet Davenport OBE, Founder and former CEO of Good Energy Group. 

A year after coming onto 40 Minute Mentor, Juliet chats to us about her decision to step down as CEO of Good Energy, what she wishes she had known before her switch to a portfolio career, and she tells us what she’s been up to since. Plus, Juliet shares some candid insights into the changing energy market and how we can all play our part in moving to net-zero emissions. 

Helpful links:

For Juliet’s full 40 Minute Mentor episode on building the UK’s first 100% renewable electricity company, head over to - https://jbmc.co.uk/insights/40-minute-mentor/building-the-uks-first-100-renewable-electricity-company-with-juliet-davenport/

And to find out more about Juliet, check out her LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliet-davenport-643564/

Plus, listen to her ‘Great Green Questions’ podcast over on https://great-green-questions.simplecast.com/

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

In this ‘Where Are They Now’ feature mini episode, we catch up with the brilliant Sophie Adelman, Co-Founder and CEO of The Garden and Co-Founder and former President of Multiverse. 

2 years after coming onto 40 Minute Mentor, we chat to Sophie about her decision to leave hypergrowth EdTech Scaleup, Multiverse and we find out more about her exciting new venture, The Garden. Plus, Sophie shares some brilliant advice for anyone looking to make a career pivot or start their own business. 

Helpful links: 

For Sophie's full 40 Minute Mentor episode on her journey with Multiverse, head to - https://jbmc.co.uk/insights/40-minute-mentor/creating-access-to-opportunities-for-everyone-with-sophie-adelman/

To find out more about Sophie, check out - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sophie-adelman1

And to sign up to The Garden, head to-https://onegarden.com/

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

In this special ‘Where Are They Now’ feature mini episode, we catch up with one of our very first 40 Minute Mentors we welcomed onto the podcast, the brilliant Kresse Wesling CBE. We talk about her journey with Kresse & Elvis since 2019, why they’re building a one-of-a-kind regenerative farm in Kent, and why now is the time for all of us to be environmentally focused and help reduce waste.

Helpful links:

For Kresse’s full 40 Minute Mentor episode on building an award-winning business from waste, head to https://jbmc.co.uk/insights/40-minute-mentor/building-an-award-winning-business-from-waste-with-kresse-wesling/

To find out more about Kresse & Elvis, check out https://www.elvisandkresse.com/

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

Series 6 of 40 Minute Mentor might have come to a close earlier this month, but with another Series filled to the brim with advice and Scaleup insights, we thought we’d add a little something to your pre-Holiday playlist.

In this special roundup episode, we focus on a topic we often get asked about here at JBM - VC and Fundraising. Whether you’re wondering how to get into the industry or you’re a fellow Founder about to embark on your next fundraising journey, this episode features some of the movers and shakers in VC as well as first-hand insights from industry leaders and their fundraising journeys, including:

• Cleo Sham, a JBM SOS Board Advisor and Partner at Stride.VC

• Dominic McGregor, Founder and Former COO of Social Chain and Founding Partner of Fearless Adventures

• Daisy Onubogu, widely regarded as the Queen of Community, Head of Network & Community at BACKED VC and COO of Diversity VC

• Tom Foster-Carter, Former COO of Monzo and Founder and CEO of Lollipop

• Ben Stephenson, Founder and CEO of travel platform Impala

• And Ham Serunjogi, the Co-Founder and CEO of Chipper Cash, our brilliant sponsors of Series 6.

We can’t thank all of our guests and listeners enough for another amazing Series. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you check out the full 40 minutes with each of today’s featured guests, as well as our remaining amazing guests across Series 6 and beyond.

Enjoyed this episode?

We are always keen to hear your thought and ideas for 40 Minute Mentor, so whether you have feedback on any of the existing episodes or ideas for our next Series, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm or get in touch at [email protected]

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

In this final 40 Minute Mentor episode of Series 6, we’re joined by the Founder and former COO of Social Chain, and now a Founding Partner of Fearless Adventures, the brilliant Dominic McGregor.

A lot of you will be familiar with the incredible journey Social Chain and their team have been on. At a very young age, both Dominic and his Co-Founder Steven Bartlett, have built a unique company culture, based on the drive to make it work for their team, even if that meant ripping up the corporate rule book and setting new standards within the industry.

Although not an easy journey, they saw some great success over the years having grown Social Chain to over 750 employees across 24 offices worldwide, and ultimately taking it to IPO.

We loved having Dominic on the podcast – he spoke with such humility and honesty, and we managed to dig deeper into some really interesting topics, including:

Social Chain’s journey to IPO including some of the hardest challenges they had to overcome alongside their growth journey.

Dominic’s candid advice for any fellow COOs and his personal insights into making the relationship between Co-Founders work.

And his personal struggles along the way, including his battle with his alcohol addiction.

Whether you’re a Founder or an aspiring COO looking to join a high-performing business, we know you’ll take so much great advice from this episode with Dominic.

And a special thank you to our sponsors for this Series – Chipper Cash. The team have been on an incredible journey, having launched their borderless way to send money across Africa and beyond, in 8 countries so far and are widely considered to be Africa’s most valuable Startup. To find out more, head over to their website, or tune into our 40 Minute Mentor episode with their Co-Founder and CEO, Ham Serunjogi.

Enjoyed this episode?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm or get in touch at [email protected]

If you want to find out more about Dominic, take a look at his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpjmcgregor/

If you want to find out more about Fearless Adventures, head over to - https://fearlessadventures.co.uk/

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by former COO of Monzo and Founder and CEO of Lollipop, Tom Foster-Carter.

Tom started his career in consulting before embarking on his Operations journey - first as Founder of both Osper and Curve, and then as Monzo’s COO where he scaled the business to 4 million customers and the team from 30 to 1,000, in just 2 years.

In May 2020, Tom decided to take yet another entrepreneurial leap and launched his latest venture Lollipop – a grocery Startup widely known as “the Monzo of supermarkets”.

With his wealth of experience in launching and scaling rocketships, Tom was a great 40 Minute Mentor, and shares some really interesting insights in this episode, including:

-How he scaled the Monzo team from 30 to 1,000 and his advice for any aspiring COOs wanting to embark on a similar journey.

-And the importance of not defaulting to always putting work first and his own experience of learning to strike a better balance.

Whether you’re a Founder yourself, an aspiring COO or a seasoned COO about to make the switch to CEO – Tom shares some incredible useful advice for your next chapter ahead.

And a special thank you to our sponsors for this Series – Chipper Cash. The team have been on an incredible journey, having launched their borderless way to send money across Africa and beyond, in 8 countries so far and are widely considered to be Africa’s most valuable Startup. To find out more, head over to their website, or tune into our 40 Minute Mentor episode with their Co-Founder and CEO, Ham Serunjogi.

Enjoyed this episode? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm or get in touch at [email protected]

If you want to find out more about Tom, take a look at his LinkedIn profile –

And to find out more about Lollipop and sign up, simply head to - https://www.lollipopai.com/

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by Team GB hockey legends and Olympic Gold Medallists Kate & Helen Richardson-Walsh.

Kate and Helen have been on an incredible journey, playing Hockey when it wasn’t really a viable career choice and continuing to represent Team GB at the Olympics, resulting in winning Gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016. While being teammates, Kate and Helen’s win on the Olympic podium also represented a big step in sporting history, as they became the first same sex married couple to share the Olympic podium.

In the years since, they’ve become inspirational ambassadors and speakers, and have published their book, Winning Together: An Olympic-Winning Approach to Building Better Teams.

In today’s episode, Kate and Helen share some really invaluable insights, including:

The highs and lows of their road to the Olympics – discussing the setbacks they faced and how they continued pushing forward to succeed.

How to deal with the often scary emptiness after a big win, such as the Olympics, and how to figure out what to do next.

And what needs to happen for sport to really break down barriers and become accessible for all, no matter your gender, race, sexuality, or ability.

We absolutely loved having Helen and Kate on our podcast and we know you’ll take so much great advice from this episode. Whether you’re a big sport fan, you’re about to make a big career change or you’re building a high-performing team, you won’t want to miss this episode.

And a special thank you to our sponsors for this Series – Chipper Cash. The team have been on an incredible journey, having launched their borderless way to send money across Africa and beyond, in 8 countries so far and are widely considered to be Africa’s most valuable Startup. To find out more, head over to their website, or tune into our 40 Minute Mentor episode with their Co-Founder and CEO, Ham Serunjogi.

Enjoyed this episode?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm or get in touch at [email protected]

If you want to find out more about Kate and Helen, take a look at their LinkedIn profiles –

And make sure you buy their book “Winning Together: An Olympic-Winning Approach to Building Better Teams” in your local bookstore or over at - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Winning-Together-Olympic-Lessons-Difference/dp/1529316146/

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.

In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by our very own JBM SOS Board Advisor, Partner at Stride.VC and former Director of Operations at Uber, Cleo Sham.

Cleo has had an incredible career, spanning from building Uber’s Guangzhou city business and team from the ground up to becoming Uber’s largest city business globally and the first city to reach 1 million weekly trips, to leading the sales, operations, strategy and marketing functions as Spotahome’s COO, and transitioning into VC as a Partner at Stride.VC.

Speaking to Cleo was an absolute joy and she shares so much great advice in this episode, including:

The importance of not focusing on having the right or wrong answers as a COO but being decisive, and other crucial skills, any aspiring COOs should be adding to their toolbelt.

How you can make the transition from being an Operator to VC – and how the skills gained in a high-growth Ops career can be very useful when assessing businesses to invest in.

And what needs to be done, specifically in VC, including efforts from investors and Founders alike, to level the DE&I playing field.

Whether you’re an Operator looking to become an Investor, an aspiring COO, or a Founder looking for your next round of investment – you won’t want to miss the crucial advice Cleo shares in this episode.

And a special thank you to our sponsors for this Series – Chipper Cash. The team have been on an incredible journey, having launched their borderless way to send money across Africa and beyond, in 8 countries so far and are widely considered to be Africa’s most valuable Startup. To find out more, head over to their website, or tune into our 40 Minute Mentor episode with their Co-Founder and CEO, Ham Serunjogi.

Enjoyed this episode?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm or get in touch at [email protected]

And if you want to find out more about Cleo, take a look at her LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/cleosham/

If you want to find out more about Stride.VC, head over to – https://stride.vc/

Enjoyed this episode?

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review.