While competitors race to scale by loading their products with emulsifiers, humectants and sweeteners - and call it health food - The Protein Ball Company has stayed stubbornly natural, and accepted slower but more sustainable growth. This is an episode about the hard yards of business: logistics, cash flow, risk, scaling production, export paperwork, and the instincts no degree or accelerator will teach you.

The Protein Ball Company was born eleven years ago after Matt Hunt spotted the rise of protein snacking at an LA trade show. What began in a small unit with a single machine is now exporting to 14 countries, with listings in Caffe Nero, Black Sheep Coffee and Flying Coffee Bean, and a major UK supermarket listing in the pipeline.

In this episode of Curious Business, Matt talks candidly about how Covid tanked their revenue from £4m to £1m overnight. He explains what kept the business alive, and why they’re committed to natural ingredients in a category dominated by the chemistry set - even when everyone told him they'd never scale if they didn't follow suit. 

Listen to this episode for some hard lessons about cashflow, hedging your bets, trusting your gut, and the fine margins of business:

Links from the episode

The Protein Ball Company:

The Protein Ball Company on Amazon:

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn:

Robot Foods and the rebrand:

Books mentioned

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill (affiliate link)

How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie (affiliate link)

Other episodes mentioned:

Curious Business #12 with Ella McKay of Fatso:

Chapters

0:00:45 - Elevator pitch

0:01:09 - Why he started the business

0:02:06 - Why balls, not bars

0:03:44 - The main phases of growth over 11 years

0:05:32 - What does success actually look like?

0:07:10 - How the Caffe Nero listing came about

0:09:35 - Matt's background - the market, the olives, the degree

0:11:43 - Cash flow, hedging and keeping the business alive

0:12:37 - Why everything is in-house

0:13:41 - What Matt spends his time on

0:17:38 - Throwing some shade on the protein sector

0:20:42 - Trade shows as the engine of growth

0:22:45 - Why brand was deprioritised - and why it was time to rebrand

0:27:55 - New product development - certainty, failure and the kids' range

0:29:55 - Analytics vs. intuition

0:31:11 - Books, podcasts and the "turning the dials" idea

0:33:40 - Goals for the year ahead

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

What happens when a professional writer who finds AI-generated content "quite horrific" decides to build an AI writing platform to help people show up more authentically on LinkedIn? With AI as his development team?

Nigel Jay Cooper found himself in exactly that position. He'd spent a decade training professionals and teams in employee advocacy to create authentic LinkedIn content and was determined to fight the flood of ‘beige’ content generated by ChatGPT et al - thoughtless, generic posts lacking personality and spark.

His first instinct was to fight against AI. But when everyone kept using it anyway, he realised he was fighting the wrong battle. The question wasn't whether people would use AI. The question was: can they use it in a way that reflects their personality, experience and humanity? So he set out to build Ghostart, even though he's not a software developer.

Listen to this episode of Curious Business as Nigel shares how he built Ghostart over the past year, and discusses:

Chapters:

0:01:06 - The Beige Content Problem

0:04:27 - Who Ghost Art Serves

0:09:10 - Building with AI - The Vibe Coding Reality

0:11:47 - Tools and Techniques

0:17:31 - Keeping AI Focused

0:21:20 - The Hardest Parts to Build

0:27:17 - The Beta Launch

0:30:53 - What Users Actually Valued

0:35:47 - Lessons and Success

Links:

More about Ghostart and try it free:

Request a demo:

Connect with Nigel on LinkedIn:

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

Imagine being told someone you love is dying, and then discovering they have been trapped in a coercive and controlling relationship. You'd turn to a number of agencies to seek help, guidance and justice. But it turns out you often need to know the 'magic words' to unlock that help.  

Upon being bounced between agencies, the compassion of frontline staff was undermined by broken processes, so Stephen turned to AI. What began as a query on ChatGPT became a practical set of tools that can help others facing the same awful challenges.

Stephen describes balancing his time between building crude, command-line tools with spending precious hours with his mother. The system he’s developing, named LINDA in memory of his mum, is a translator, memory bank, assistant and also a tool to support charities working in the space. He wants to make hidden pathways visible and give people the options they often aren't told about.

What we cover:

Links and Resources:

Charities mentioned:

Disclaimer: Stephen Midgley is not a legal professional and nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.

Thanks to Jari Worsley for sharing Stephen's 'AI For The Rest of Us' talk with me in the first place:

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

With ecosystems increasingly outperforming standalone firms, marketing leaders’ key skills may lie in their ability to get their organisations to influence, persuade, enable, and collaborate. In an ever-noisier and more complex market, the companies that can co-create, communicate and change to bring customers value tend to be the winners - but it requires a very different approach.  

In this episode, former three-time global CMO Leeya Hendricks makes the case for platform thinking in B2B marketing, where value is co-created across networks of customers, partners and complementors rather than pushed through linear channels. 

She shares insights from her new book The Platform Playbook and explains why the CMO is uniquely positioned to orchestrate ecosystem growth - connecting product, technology, data and partners around shared value.

What We Cover:

Key Takeaways

About Leeya Hendricks

Leeya is the author of The Platform Playbook (Palgrave Macmillan), Managing Director of Hark Consultants, and has served in three global CMO roles across major technology companies including IBM and Oracle. She lectures in digital ecosystems and orchestration, and runs My Barre Vibes, a digital-first fitness platform.

Connect with Leeya on LinkedIn:

Order The Platform Playbook (affiliate link):

Find out more about My Barre Vibes:

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

What’s it like to be a real legacy business? One with a heritage going back over 100 years? How do you navigate new methods, classic products and changing tastes? This is a masterclass in knowing who you are, who your customers are and what you’re about.

Andy Valentine is a food industry veteran who now feels like the proverbial "kid in the sweet shop". He’s responsible for developing direct, B2B and private-label channels for a business that combines traditional handcrafted techniques with state-of-the-art facilities.

Stockley's was founded in 1918 in Accrington, Lancashire and has managed to navigate tastes, trends, the second world war, the demise of Woolworths and, more recently, a number of different owners. But how far and fast should you go to open up new channels in a £6bn market dominated by multinationals?

Listen to this episode to discover:

Find out more and buy online:

Connect with Andy on LinkedIn:

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

After eight years as Head of Marketing for Red Bull UK and Europe, Huib van Bockel walked away to build something the industry told him couldn't work - an energy drink made entirely from nature, with 60% less sugar, and no artificial ingredients. Every manufacturer he approached said it wasn't commercially viable, but he found one willing to try. Today, Tenzing is the third-biggest energy drink brand in Tesco, and number one in London universities and climbing, proving that you can take on the "big dogs" of the soft drinks world.

Former Red Bull marketer Hub Van Bockel tells the story of founding Tenzing, the low‑sugar, all natural ingredient energy drink inspired by Himalayan brews and named with the blessing of Tenzing Norgay’s family. The episode covers Huib's idea, starting-up, early business development and pivoting on flavour, building and growing with communities, retail partnerships, winning major listings (including Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, ASDA) and minority investment by Heineken.

Listen to this episode to find out:

Find out more about Tenzing, buy online:

Connect with Huib on LinkedIn:

Books mentioned and recommended in this episode (affiliate links): 

Daniel Kahneman ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ 

Richard Branson ‘Losing my Virginity’

Phil Knight ‘Show Dog’

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

How much can we influence people with advertising? What’s the best way to understand and model buyer behaviour? How should we set about growing market share?

James Hankins has worked in agency, consultant and client roles, tackling these very questions. In this episode, he challenges marketing myths and woolly thinking, and explains why understanding your market matters more than chasing funnels. The conversation blends practical strategy with behavioural insight to help marketers - and leaders - make better decisions.

I worked at the same media agency as James in the 2000s (Walker Media). Since then, his insights have regularly appeared in the marketing press, at the IPA, and in my LinkedIn feed. He’s a veteran of the UK's major media and advertising groups and, more recently, Global VP Marketing Strategy and Planning for Sage. He’s also the creator of the Share of Search and Hankins Hexagon models. 

Listen to this episode to learn:

All that, and this episode features the podcast’s first mention of devil worship.

The Hankins Hexagon:

If you’re a WARC subscriber, the full paper is here:

More about Share of Search and how to calculate yours:

Connect with James on LinkedIn:

Read James' blog:

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

Chris Brogan shares some brutally honest insights about leadership, growth and being helpful. He's a self-proclaimed expert at failing, but what does that mean? And how can leaders learn from it to keep their organisations flexible and effective even as they grow at speed?

Ten-time author, executive coach, strategic advisor, writer, photographer and co-host of the internet’s Backpack Show and Playing For Time, Chris is a master communicator. As Chief of Staff at Appfire, he most recently helped steer the B2B SaaS company from $10m to $275m of ARR (annually recurring revenue). Despite this, he claims he's never been ‘capable or qualified’ for anything he's done professionally. 

This is a conversation packed with wisdom, experience and smart thinking. And a very dry reference to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers that went right over my head at the time. Listen to discover:

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn:

Sign-up for his newsletter:

Check out that Anthony Kiedis/Red Hot Chilli Peppers reference:

The report about the gender difference in confidence when it comes to apply for roles:

And due credit to The Adaptavist Group's Jari Worsley for the story about his dad training spreadsheet users back in the day. Read more here:

Further reading:

Chris Brogan ‘Social Media 101’ (affiliate link)

Chris Brogan & Julien Smith ‘The Impact Equation’ (affiliate link)

Ryan Holliday ‘ Ego Is The Enemy’ (affiliate link) 

Chris Whipple ‘The Gatekeepers’ (affiliate link)

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

In this episode of the Curious Business podcast, we meet Ella McKay, founder of Fatso. The provocatively named chocolate brand is bringing unapologetic indulgence to dark chocolate and putting ethical sourcing at its core. Ella shares the story of her journey from corporate marketeer to entrepreneurial risk-taker, and provides invaluable insights into effective business strategy and how to use consumer research.

If you’re building a brand in a crowded market, you’ll learn how being provocative and staying true to your values helps you cut through the noise. Sometimes you need to break the rules to make an impact. Hear how Ella established partnerships with cacao farmers in Colombia and why she believes gut instinct, learning by doing, and calculated risk-taking trumps analytics, especially for small businesses trying to innovate and challenge.

Tune in to hear all about:

This episode is perfect for founders, brand builders, food entrepreneurs, and anyone who believes business should be built on passion, ethics, and a healthy disregard for doing things the conventional way.

Buy online from Delli Market:

Buy online from Holly & Co:

Buy online and read more about Fatso ‘from farm to face’:

Find your nearest retailer :

To buy the book ‘Thanks For The Feedback’ (recommended in the podcast):

And visit the Curious Business bookshop:

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.

How do you turn a 15-person tech shop into a £300m global powerhouse? Is it instinct – or experience? What are the tough calls that fuel B2B growth? And how do you keep ahead and keep pushing forward?

Over the last 15 years, Simon Haighton-Williams, CEO of The Adaptavist Group, has led the company to annual revenues over £300 million. On a mission to make business work better, the Group now comprises over 1,000 employees in more than 15 countries, helping companies gain a competitive edge through its software and consultancy services. A staggering 57 million users work with its products, solutions, and services, including more than half of the Fortune 500.

Tune into this leadership podcast to hear:

Learn more about The Adaptavist Group and check the Digital Etiquette reports: www.theadaptavistgroup.com/

Connect with Simon on LinkedIn:

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Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing.