Brilliance Talks

By Simac Konkader

As a CEO or founder, you’re constantly solving problems—breaking through growth plateaus, managing a growing team, and trying to scale without losing control.

That’s where Brilliance Talks comes in.

... more

· Business

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FAQs about Brilliance Talks:

How many episodes does Brilliance Talks have?

The podcast currently has 32 episodes available.

Brilliance Talks episodes:

January 13, 2026 The Truth About Building a Business With Your Best Friend
Glenn Sanger went from tech apprentice to co-founding a multi-million-pound IT and cybersecurity firm, without investors.
In this episode of Brilliance Talks, Glenn shares what 15 years of bootstrapping taught him about leadership, partnerships, apprenticeships, and building a business that lasts.
No hype. Just real lessons from the trenches.

📝 Show Notes:
02:10 Starting Bunker with two laptops
07:15 Scaling with EOS
09:30 Letting go of the technical identity
11:10 Building client partnerships, not transactions
16:20 Why apprenticeships matter
20:30 Awards, imposter syndrome & growth
25:40 Leading through COVID

About Guest:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennsanger/
Website: https://www.bunker.technology/

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader

...more
31min
January 06, 2026 The AI Mistakes Most Businesses Are Making Right Now
AI didn’t start with ChatGPT, and this episode proves it.
In this episode of Brilliance Talks, we sit down with Vasili Nevlov, founder of Analysium and creator of AIgentic, who’s been building real-world AI systems since 2012, long before AI became mainstream.
We explore what AI looked like in the early days, how Vasili scaled a multi-million-pound data analytics firm, and why AI agents... not chatbots, are the future of intelligent automation for businesses.
A grounded, practical conversation about AI, scale, security, and building systems that actually work.

Shownotes:
02:36 Scaling Analysium to £2M+ Revenue
03:31 Why AI Agents, Why Now
06:02 Why Most AI Implementations Fail
08:19 AI Security Risks You Can’t Ignore
15:44 Where AI Agents Work Best Today
21:48 What Vasili had to unlearn from his first company
22:59 Why AIgentic Is a Media Business

About Vesilij:
Vesilij's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vasilij-nevlev/
Analytium Group: https://analytium.com/

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader
...more
30min
January 01, 2026 If You’re a Business Owner, Watch This Before It’s Too Late
What if the mistakes you’re about to make… have already been made?
In this New Year special episode of Brilliance Talks, we’ve curated the most powerful lessons shared by CEOs and founders we featured this year, the moments that changed their thinking, leadership, and businesses.
These are honest reflections on failure, growth, hiring, health, timing, and what it really takes to build something that lasts.
No hype. No shortcuts. Just lessons learned the hard way.
Perfect listening as you reflect on the year gone, and plan the year ahead.

📝 Show Notes:
00:56 The cost of mistakes (and why they matter)
01:49 Hiring for attitude, not skill
02:51 Why marketers are always last, and what needs to change
05:45 Why “move fast and break things” doesn’t work
07:05 The biggest problems in tech are human
11:10 The reality of scaling a business
11:59 Why experience beats theory every time

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader
...more
14min
December 25, 2025 Before You Set Goals for Next Year, Watch This
What do successful entrepreneurs wish they’d known earlier?
In this Brilliance Talks Christmas Special, we’ve brought together the most powerful insights shared by CEOs and founders featured on the podcast this year.
From fundraising and scaling to leadership, self-belief, and resilience, this episode is a reflection on the realities of building something meaningful.
Whether you’re closing out the year or planning your next move, this episode is designed to give you clarity, perspective, and momentum going into the new year.

📝 Show Notes:
00:00 The future isn’t scary (we’ve been here before)
03:41 The 3 values that actually drive long-term success
05:10 Building with social impact at the core
06:49 The lie social media sells founders
08:00 The habits CEOs don’t talk about
09:18 What actually makes a great CEO
11:20 Giving people chances without lowering standards

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader
...more
13min
December 23, 2025 Why This Lawyer Bet Everything on a Startup
She left a successful career in Big Law to fix one of the most broken systems in the UK.
In this episode of Brilliance Talks, Hannah Nicholson, Founder & CEO of Snapply, shares how she raised £1.5M+, rebuilt her company through a major rebrand, and is creating the Airbnb of home buying.
A candid conversation about courage, fundraising winters, motherhood, and building tech with a human touch.

Show Notes:
02:05 Why Hannah left corporate law
03:28 What Snapply does (simply explained)
06:01 What’s broken in home buying
07:38 Rebranding MoveGenius → Snapply
10:14 Why B2B2C beat D2C
13:22 Raising £1.5M & investor lessons
16:49 Advice for female founders raising capital
22:26 Leadership, culture & motherhood

About Hannah:
Hannah's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-nicholson-64384053/
Snappily: https://www.snappily.co.uk/

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader
...more
30min
December 16, 2025 How Intuition Made Her a Better CEO Than Data Ever Could
Livia Bernardini has built products and brands across Italy, Japan, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and the UK, and now leads Future Platforms, the digital product company behind experiences for BT, EE, McKinsey and more.
We get into intuition (her secret edge), product strategy, innovation traps, branding mistakes, how to build a lovable MVP, and why moving countries forces you to rebuild your identity from scratch.
If you lead teams, build products, or want to make better decisions, this one’s for you.

Shownotes:
02:14 Living abroad reshapes your values
04:42 Too brand for tech, too tech for brand
10:36 What Future Platforms actually does
13:54 Why GTM often fails
16:36 The “lovable MVP” framework
22:07 Innovation teams: horizontal or vertical?
24:43 What makes a world-class panel
27:06 The book that changed everything
28:27 Why she’s considering a PhD in intuition

About Livia:
Livia's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/livia-bernardini/
Future Platforms: https://www.futureplatforms.com/

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader
...more
32min
December 09, 2025The Real Reason Your Landing Page Isn’t Converting
From Metallica to Harvard, Toni Hopponen has quietly built tools used by some of the world’s most iconic brands.
He bootstrapped Flockler, scaled it through pure product-led growth, sold it, and then, instead of retiring, started from zero again.
In this episode of Brilliance Talks, Toni breaks down:
How he landed global brands with no sales team
The emotional cost of selling a company after 12 years
Lessons from rebuilding in the AI era
Why marketers should start before the product
The surprising value of early testers (200+ of them)
What founders consistently get wrong about building in 2025

Shownotes:
01:09 Tony’s journey: Flockler to Landing Rabbit
04:10 Landing Harvard and Metallica
09:49 Selling Flockler: Lessons learned
12:38 Landing Rabbit: The problem it solves
17:32 Demo: AI-powered landing page creation
29:31 Recruiting 200+ early testers

About Tony:
Toni's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonihopponen/
Landing Rabbit: https://landingrabbit.com
Flockler (past company): https://flockler.com

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader
...more
50min
December 02, 2025We Built an AI That Does 3 Years of Consulting in 15 Days | Spendkey CEO
Alex Grundy, co-founder and CEO of Spendkey, shares his journey from corporate procurement expert to AI SaaS founder. Learn how Spendkey automates years of consulting work into days, the mindset shifts required to move from corporate to founder, and how to build a global team with a winning culture.

Key Takeaways:
Turning experience into actionable AI products
Scaling a startup globally while maintaining culture
Using AI to deliver outcomes faster, cheaper, and smarter
Lessons on mindset, resilience, and leadership

Whether you’re a startup founder or enterprise leader, Alex’s story is full of practical insights you can implement today.
...more
46min
November 25, 2025She Built AI That Gives People Their Voice Back
She didn’t plan to change the world — but a single hackathon sparked a technology now giving people new ways to communicate.

Dr. Hadeel Ayoub, the inventor behind BrightSign and Fiddley, joins us to share how she built AI-driven tools that translate hand signs into speech, and how a mission to help one person grew into global impact.
In this episode, we unpack her founder story, the breakthrough moment in Seoul that changed her path forever, the emotional reactions from families, and what it takes to build assistive hardware that truly works in the real world.

If you care about AI, accessibility, innovation or purpose-driven entrepreneurship, this conversation is going to stick with you.

SHOW NOTES:
The moment a hackathon turned into a life mission
How she built AI that reads hand signs
Why BrightSign made international headlines
The emotional emails that changed everything
The journey from university research to real products
Building assistive hardware that solves real problems
How AI + human behaviour shape her inventions
Her vision for the future of communication and accessibility

About Dr. Hadeel Ayoub:
Founder, innovator and CEO behind BrightSign and Fiddley, Hadal merges AI, human behaviour, and hardware design to solve communication challenges for people around the world.

Fiddlie:
Website: https://www.fiddlie.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fiddlietech/

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader
...more
1h
November 18, 2025BUILDING PASTA BRAND AT 40!
At 40, a finance guy walking away from the London Stock Exchange so he could learn to cook pasta.
Sounds wild? It’s only the beginning.
Meet Chris Rensell — former financier turned co-founder of Pasta Evangelists. He built a pasta brand from a kitchen in East London, scaled it into a £30-plus million business, hit Harrods, Ocado and 50+ delivery kitchens, and then got acquired by Barilla.

In this episode you’ll hear:
Why quitting your “safe” job at 40 might be the smartest move you make
How to turn a hobby into a startup empire
The insane pivot during Covid that made the brand explode
How the Barilla acquisition went down behind the scenes
Real talk on burnout, scaling, and building with real people

If you’re building something, thinking of starting something, or just love a wild founder story — you’re in the right place.

Show Notes:
(00:00) Quitting finance & taking the leap
(09:45) The birth of Pasta Evangelists
(16:10) First kitchen in East London
(30:40) Covid pivot & delivery boom
(36:00) 50+ kitchens and national scaling
(52:00) Barilla acquisition story
(1:16:00) Dragons’ Den chaos & PR wins
(1:20:10) Advice for every founder out there

About Chris:
Chris Rensell is the co-founder of Pasta Evangelists, built the brand from scratch after leaving finance, and turned pasta into a national startup success story.

Pasta Evangelists:
Website: https://pastaevangelists.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pastaevangelists/

Connect with us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simac.konkader/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simac-konkader
...more
1h

FAQs about Brilliance Talks:

How many episodes does Brilliance Talks have?

The podcast currently has 32 episodes available.