Entrepreneurship and Leadership

Father Steve Katsouros, founder and CEO of the Come To Believe Network, shares the inspirational story of the founding of Arrupe College at Loyola University Chicago which has been recognized as a national model for increasing the college graduation rates for low-income students of color. Arrupe operates as a two-year, liberal arts college within the University that has been able to quadruple the national graduation rate for high-need students to obtain an associate’s degree by integrating a set of best practices: a year-round cohort, intensive faculty advising, wraparound support services and building a strong sense of community. Fr. Katsouros left Arrupe last year to found the Come to Believe Network that is now seeking to replicate the Arrupe model nationally with partner universities. He is also the author of Come to Believe: How Jesuits Are Reinventing Education (Again) (Orbis, 2017).

David Finegold is the president of Chatham University.

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David Nothacker, the founder Sennder - a logistics startup from Berlin that is now valued more than a billion Euros. This podcast was recorded back in 2016, way before the idea that this might be worth more than a billion Euro. Learn about the four “Fs” of fund-raising, and how supportive Roland Berger were when David decided not to return their after business school.

Sennder took an innovative approach on delivery business, allowing customers to get the package faster and cheaper than with current alternative, by using spare capacity on buses. This interview was recorded in 2016, way before the company achieved its stellar valuation. When we were recording the interview the valuation range was in range of three to five million Euros.

See if you can spot the characteristics that led this company to become a European success story.

This podcast was originally published as part of Project Kazimierz podcast recorded with Sam Cooke that was migrated onto the NBN in 2020. Some of the content reflects this fact.

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In this episode we dig into Grzegorz Róg’s history and background, and how he established the largest Polish online education platform, and many other ventures. The biggest lesson to take from this podcast is important. Automation has explosive potential to transform organisations. The move towards No Code and APIs which connect “best of class” software applications creates tremendous opportunities for productivity enhancements in companies that embrace this way of doing things. It used to be said you should fear competitors who love what they do. Grzegorz’s version of this idea is that you should fear competitors who know how to automate. This podcast is a convincing explanation of why this is true.

About our guest

Developing smarter, tech-driven online education. Serial entrepreneur running multiple online ventures. A great proponent of automation and no-code movement using robots to help grow online businesses. Fortune 500 companies consultant, author of over a hundred courses, books and articles. Goal oriented and always learning. Some of his projects:

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal story of our carefully selected guests aiming for the atmosphere of an informal conversation in a bar or over a cup of coffee. 

About Kimon Fountoukidis Twitter Linkedin

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR. Both companies were founded in the mid 90s with zero capital and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. Listen to his story here,

About Richard Lucas Twitter Linkedin

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including investments in Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network. Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre- to business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here,

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In this episode we dig into Dori Molitor’s remarkable childhood - growing up with her 12 siblings, going to the One Room Schoolhouse, where most of the few other pupils were family members. We hear about she and her brothers and sisters worked on the family farm from their early days, even driving a tractor in a bikini to get a sun tan!. Her desire to have significance and impact was partly a reaction against her own father’s lack of self esteem - which manifested in him saying “well what do I know, I’m just a dumb farmer, and how her first ambition was to “be the secretary for someone important”. Her tenacity and persistence shine through, her early jobs, in Washington, big business and then her breakthrough into developing an independent marketing consultancy founded on the insight that brands that want to sell to women, better understand how women think.

We hear about the personal tragedy that led her to winding up her business, and then making a radical change into both reinventing herself and giving advice and coaching to women to help them find their purpose in life.

About our guest

An entrepreneur for more than 30 years, Dori was the founder and CEO of WomanWise® specializing in uncovering women’s subconscious needs and aspirations. a featured speaker on multiple stages, including a TEDx Talk. Her opinions and articles have been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Forbes and other leading publications. Dori thought she had it all – an influential voice, a successful career she was proud of, a loving family, and a wonderful lifestyle. And then, a tragic life-changing event woke her up to the fact that helping corporations market to women no longer gave her life the meaning it once did. Dori’s personal wake-up call led to a transformational journey of self-discovery and learning. She now inspires women to take ownership of their own voice, step into their power, and live the life they were called to live. At the age of 62, she launched a business devoted to guiding women to live a purposeful life that brings them happiness and fulfillment.

Dori’s TEDxTC talk Women Are Re-calibrating the American Dream.

Learn more about Dori’s training and coaching: Unlock Your Purpose™ transformational experience; Aging with Power™ series for women 

Connect on LinkedIn.

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal story of our carefully selected guests aiming for the atmosphere of an informal conversation in a bar or over a cup of coffee.

About Kimon Fountoukidis Twitter Linkedin

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR. Both companies were founded in the mid 90s with zero capital and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. Listen to his story here,

About Richard Lucas Twitter Linkedin

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including investments in Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network. Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre- to business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here.

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/entrepreneurship-and-leadership

David Hieatt explains the importance of telling stories in brand building and how he applied the skills he learned in advertising to build globally recognised brands. His life is so unusual that it's hard to be sure what our listeners will take away, but he is clearly grounded in what he is doing now, recognised as successful in the eyes of his peers, and has built a brand, business and events that have impact and meaning for him, and others and his local community in Wales.

He co-founded Howies which was acquired by Timberland, later The Hiut Denim Co, whose mission was and is to bring jeans making back to his hometown in Wales, and a popular & unique event called "The Do Lectures" which attendees say is better than TED and/or Burning Man.

While taking us through some of the big moments in his life, he shares how his interest in brands got him into advertising, how he managed to position himself as an expert in marketing sports brands to young consumers at the age of 13, and to lose half his father's savings when he was 16.

We hear about the power of persistence, doing things that other people don't do, and counter intuitive episodes in his life. We hear how half the people in his company were happy when he sold Howies to Timberland because he drove things too hard, and the exit made him unhappy. How he showed up with his friend for job interviews and was rejected 150 times and moved from living on "beans on toast" to a senior position in a global advertising agency through working all hours, studying hard, and taking the jobs that nobody else wanted. We get some insights into the "Mad Men" alcohol fuelled culture of "chaos with bright people". He asks an important question for any entrepreneur "Why would you sell something you love for money?".

We learn how a good entrepreneur who wants to build a brand needs to have two factories: one producing the product, the other producing the stories.

If you listen to this episode you may learn where you should never ever underestimate the power of a sticker.

We hear about the challenges of success associated with the Do lectures event which, despite being expensive, sell out, and from which amazing people have to be turned away. Perhaps in 2022 they will have randomised selection.

About David Hieatt and other links

Read interviews with David life here and here

David’s Linkedin

The Do Lectures "The idea is a simple one: To gather together the world’s DOers, disruptors and change makers, experts and pioneers, to share their stories, and encourage others to go and DO."

The Hiiutt Denim Company "We make jeans. Nothing else. No distractions. No bobble caps. No perfumes. We focus on doing one thing well."

To compare Do Lectures events with TEDx- check the global TEDx or look at articles about how TEDxKazimierz is organised by Richard Lucas Getting a ticket to TEDxKazimierz ,

Getting to speak at TEDxKazimierz and How to build community at events

About Kimon Fountoukidis Twitter Linkedin Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR Both companies were founded in the mid 90s with zero capital and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. Listen to his story here

About Richard Lucas Twitter Linkedin Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including investments in Argos Multilingual, PMR https://www.pmrmarketexperts.com/en and, in 2020, the New Books Network. Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre- to business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here.

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/entrepreneurship-and-leadership

In this episode Smith Yewell share’s his route into translation and we hear how Smith’s personal life intertwined with his need to communicate in other languages. We learn how his ROTC Military Scholarship was an entrepreneurial decision, and how the experience of combat helped harden him for coping with the pressures of the entrepreneurial journey. The impact of his military service on his awareness of leadership, leading him to conclude that everyone is a leader, which he defines as the ability to inspire others to achieve what they previously thought was impossible.

He shares stories of a highly entrepreneurial childhood, cleaning out the yard, mowing lawns, selling goods at the side of the road, and the strong competitive ethic that stays with him even through the 2020/21 pandemic.

He takes us through the “Welocalize” story, how is first client just wanted one word translated, and how his early insight into the potential of the internet, led him to set up an online marketplace which he was able to sell just before the first bubble burst, giving him to capital to make the first of many acquisitions. Thanks to translation memory technology he was able to be faster and lower cost than competitors, winning big contracts. The four pillars of the company are and were innovation, global teamwork, quality and customer service. Final advice was to always aim to work yourself out of a job, and at some stage, just “do it”, or as Smith puts it, at some stage you have to “Jump in the pool”.

About Smith Yewell

Smith Yewell is CEO of Welocalize, which he co-founded with Julia Yewell in 1997. Prior to establishing the company, Smith served as a Field Artillery Officer in the US Army and received a Bronze Star for service in Operation Desert Storm. Smith serves on the board of The Aslan Foundation and Color Me A Cure Foundation. He’s also the lead guitarist in a band called Fuzzy Match, a nod to the industry

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal story of our carefully selected guests aiming for the atmosphere of an informal conversation in a bar or over a cup of coffee.

About Kimon Fountoukidis Twitter Linkedin

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR. Both companies were founded in the mid 90s with zero capital and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. Listen to his story here,

About Richard Lucas Twitter Linkedin

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including investments in Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network. Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre- to business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here.

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/entrepreneurship-and-leadership

In this episode, Annette Lawlor of Lion People Global shares her story of getting jobs from the age of 13 when she lied about her age, through multiple sales jobs, selling advertising, tampon vending machines, technology solutions, and recruitment services on both sides of the Atlantic, before setting up jewellery shops and Aerobics classes. She explains her preference for flat organisations, a results oriented work culture, decentralisation, based on trust, and empowering her staff. She tells us how important it is to take action, and be ready to take risks, and is not afraid to share about how little she knew about the localisation industry when she took the plunge to form what has become one of the leading specialist recruitment companies in the industry. We hear an industry event being described as “Linkedin on Legs”, how important forming real relationships has been in her business success, and the basic secret of how to make good openings when phoning up people she wants to do business with. Her final call to action for those who want an entrepreneurial life is one that every driven person will identify with.

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal story of our carefully selected guests aiming for the atmosphere of an informal conversation in a bar or over a cup of coffee.

About Kimon Fountoukidis Twitter Linkedin

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR. Both companies were founded in the mid 90s with zero capital and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. Listen to his story here,

About Richard Lucas Twitter Linkedin

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including investments in Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network. Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre- to business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here,

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/entrepreneurship-and-leadership

In this episode Kimon and Richard discuss the role of ego among entrepreneurs: how while self confidence is necessary and positive, entrepreneurs who put themselves and their own personality at the centre of everything often hold the company back. They discuss the impact of ego in sales, where entrepreneurs must be able to face and embrace rejection, and in the recruitment, motivation and retention of talent, where a good leader needs to hand over authority and delegate power. They also discuss the importance and difficulty of good communication, and how important it is to be able to trust your team.

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal story of our carefully selected guests aiming for the atmosphere of an informal conversation in a bar or over a cup of coffee.

Find links to past episodes here

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the personal story of our carefully selected guests aiming for the atmosphere of an informal conversation in a bar or over a cup of coffee.

About the NBN

The New Books Network was founded in 2007 as a podcast interviewing the authors of academic books, and has grown to the largest author interview podcast in the world publishing 12 podcasts a day in more than 90 specialist areas, with over a million downloads a month. Read about the founder Marshall Poe and the NBN here. In recent years it has expanded beyond its “author interview origins”. Historically NBN only did audio recordings. E&L is the first NBN podcast distributed on Youtube. See this episode here.

About Kimon Fountoukidis Twitter Linkedin

Kimon is the founder of both Argos Multilingual and PMR. Both companies were founded in the mid 90s with zero capital and both have gone on to become market leaders in their respective sectors. Kimon was born in New York and moved to Krakow, Poland in 1993. Listen to his story here,

About Richard Lucas Twitter Linkedin

Richard is a business and social entrepreneur who founded or invested in more than 30 businesses, including investments in Argos Multilingual, PMR and, in 2020, the New Books Network. Richard has been a TEDx event organiser, supports the pro-entrepreneurship ecosystem, and leads entrepreneurship workshops at all levels: from pre- to business schools. Richard was born in Oxford and moved to Poland in 1991. Read more here. Listen to his story in an autobiographical TEDx talk here,

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/entrepreneurship-and-leadership

Martin Frost, CEO and co-founder of CMR Surgical, joins us this week. Martin is passionate about supporting technology based start-ups that make a difference in people’s lives, and has great experience raising venture and company development. In this podcast, he talks about his early corporate life licensing breakthrough tech and how this led him into entrepreneurship. He co-founded Red Cloud, a mobile money platform, which has transformed the lives of millions of people in emerging markets. Martin continues to transform lives with CMR’s robotic surgical solutions based in Cambridge. He has his sights set firmly on the global market with the new robotic platform, Versius. Martin’s honest insights into the needs of an entrepreneur are not only engaging, but are straightforward and hugely valuable too. 

To read the podcast transcription please CLICK HERE 

Martin is CEO and one of the founders of CMR Surgical, the British medical devices company that recently revealed the new surgical robotic platform, Versius, which it aims to bring to the market shortly. Versius has been designed to extend the benefits of minimal access surgery to millions of people worldwide and to transform the way we think about surgery. In June CMR Surgical announced the completion of the largest ever Series B financing of a private European devices start-up. The company has doubled in size in the past year, employing over 250 people, and continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Prior to CMR, Martin was Group CEO at Sagentia. Over the last 20 years and prior to CMR Martin has been involved in numerous start-ups, both spun out of Sagentia and on his own account. Martin graduated from Cambridge University and is a trustee of the Peek Vision Foundation. Produced by Mark Cotton, Twitter. Podcast links: LinkedIn

CMR Surgical Peek Vision Foundation

Martin Frost, CEO at CMR Surgical, talks about the Versius surgical robotic system and how it will help deliver greater access to minimal access surgery to more patients around the world.

CMR Surgical News

Martin Frost named CEO of the year at Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards CMR Surgical CEO Martin Frost wins Disruptor award at regional EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019 

The NBN Entrepreneurship and Leadership podcast aims to educate and entertain, sharing insights based on the stories of carefully selected guests - entrepreneurs and leaders - in the atmosphere of an informal conversation. 

About Peter Cowley 

Peter Cowley, a Cambridge university technology graduate, founded and ran over a dozen businesses in technology and property over the last 40 years. He has built up a portfolio of 75 angel investments with nine good exits (including one that is 107X his investment and returned all the cash he has invested) and thirteen failures. He is a board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN), President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), former chair of the Cambridge Business Angels and was UK Angel of the Year 2014. He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and is on the board of nine startups. In 2011, he founded and ran Martlet: a Corporate VC, investing (currently £10M) from the balance sheet of Marshall, a £2.5bn revenue Cambridge engineering company. He is a fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is on the investment committee of the UK Angel Co-fund. He has also had 16 years’ experience as chair, treasurer and trustee of the boards of seven charities. With his son, Alan, Peter is sharing his and others’ experience and anecdotes in order to educate angels and entrepreneurs via The Invested Investor which publishes two books and 75+ podcasts. A selection of Invested Investor podcasts are republished here on the Entrepreneurship and Leadership channel on the NBN. This is one of them. Peter is a public speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing throughout the world. Linkedin Peter’s webpage.

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Jonathan Milner's second Invested Investor podcast details his experience as Cambridge Angel. Since he began in 2002 he has invested in forty different companies, very often leading deals as well. In this episode he shares his most important tips learned from an extensive entrepreneurial and investing history: from shouldering the burden of turning around a company in dire straits, to simplifying the decision of who to invest in. 

To read the podcast transcription please CLICK HERE - Powered by Speechmatics

Jonathan, co-Founder and currently Deputy Chairman of Abcam plc, is an entrepreneur and investor and is passionate about supporting UK life science and high-tech start-ups. He has provided considerable investment and support to over 40 companies and has assisted three technology companies to IPO on the London AIM Stock exchange. Jonathan gained his doctorate in Molecular Genetics at Leicester University after graduating in Applied Biology at Bath. From 1992–95, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Bath, following which he worked at the University of Cambridge in the lab of Professor Tony Kouzarides researching the molecular basis of breast cancer. He identified the market opportunity for supplying high-quality antibodies to support protein interaction studies, and in 1998, founded Abcam with David Cleevely and Professor Tony Kouzarides. Jonathan is also a non-executive director of Repositive, HealX and Syndicate Room. He is also Chairman of Axol Bioscience, Cambridge Allergy Therapy, and PhoreMost. In 2015 Jonathan, with Professor Tony Kouzarides, co-founded the Milner Therapeutics Institute at the University of Cambridge. Also in 2015 he co-founded, with Professor Laurence Hurst, the Milner Institute for Evolution at the University of Bath. Produced by Mark Cotton, Twitter.

Podcast links:

Cambridge Angels - a leading UK business angel network with international connections.

Abcam - assay kits, reagents, and antibodies. An innovator in reagents and tools, they provide the research and clinical communities with tools and scientific support.

SyndicateRoom - connecting ambitious investors with the country’s most trailblazing companies.

The Milner Therapeutics Institute - at the University of Cambridge is dedicated to the conversion of groundbreaking science into therapies.

Milner Centre for Evolution - a unique, cross-faculty research centre atthe University of Bath bridging biology, health, and education.

About Peter Cowley

Peter Cowley, a Cambridge university technology graduate, founded and ran over a dozen businesses in technology and property over the last 40 years. He has built up a portfolio of 75 angel investments with nine good exits (including one that is 107X his investment and returned all the cash he has invested) and thirteen failures. He is a board member of the Global Business Angel Network (GBAN), President Emeritus of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN), former chair of the Cambridge Business Angels and was UK Angel of the Year 2014. He has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and is on the board of nine startups.

In 2011, he founded and ran Martlet: a Corporate VC, investing (currently £10M) from the balance sheet of Marshall, a £2.5bn revenue Cambridge engineering company. He is a fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Cambridge Judge Business School and is on the investment committee of the UK Angel Co-fund. He has also had 16 years’ experience as chair, treasurer and trustee of the boards of seven charities.

With his son, Alan, Peter is sharing his and others’ experience and anecdotes in order to educate angels and entrepreneurs via The Invested Investor which publishes two books and 75+ podcasts. A selection of Invested Investor podcasts are republished here on the Entrepreneurship and Leadership channel on the NBN. This is one of them. Peter is a public speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing throughout the world. Linkedin Peter’s webpage.

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/entrepreneurship-and-leadership