I sat down with Mike Saraswat, Co Founder and CEO of Stoa, an entrepreneur who went from building a marketing agency to taking on one of the hardest challenges in fintech.His latest chapter took almost 30 months of fundraising, around 2,000 investor approaches and 300 meetings before Stoa closed its $2.4M pre seed round.But that resilience was built much earlier.Mike tells the story of spending nine days at Cannes being rejected while trying to finance a film, nearly losing his life in a motorway accident, then getting back into the car, driving to his meeting and winning the project.We also explore what years of chasing difficult problems taught him about failure, momentum, founder obsession and coming back faster when things go wrong.Today, he is building Stoa, a fintech challenging the way people think about idle cash and giving customers a different way to get value from money sitting in their accounts.Timestamps00:00 Introduction00:38 Raising $2.4M after 30 months of fundraising01:09 2,000 investors, 300 calls and mostly rejection03:33 Who Mike was before becoming an entrepreneur06:15 Why he has always chased difficult problems08:39 Starting his first agency in his early 20s09:23 Why raising money for a movie nearly broke him12:33 What he learned from successful fintech founders14:58 Why founder obsession matters17:21 Why success is not only about money21:02 The difficult moments that shaped Mike23:01 Facing serious illness in his early 20s24:03 Nine days of rejection at Cannes26:00 How to shorten the window of despair28:10 Resilience, momentum and coming back faster31:19 The motorway crash he walked away from34:10 He survived the crash and still won the project34:29 Why defeat only becomes defeat when you stop35:00 From agency owner to building Stoa36:00 The enormous problem of idle cash39:22 How Stoa actually works41:13 More than 200 benefits and the future of the platform42:44 ClosingJoin the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform.👉 Join the community and waiting list: https://www.execdna.comMario RivasFounder of ExecDNAHost of ExecDNA PodcastLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariorivassanchezMike SaraswatCo Founder and CEO of StoaWebsite: https://stoa.moneyWatch ExecDNA Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0XrGG1gNRsev6DlU#execdna #entrepreneurship #fintech #founderstory #businessmindset

Alan Shang's career has taken him from running restaurants to becoming an Airbnb executive, building startups, navigating extreme financial pressure, completing an acquisition and exit, and starting again in FinTech.

In this episode of ExecDNA, Alan shares the decisions, failures and transformations that shaped him as an entrepreneur and leader.Most founders struggle when their role shifts from day-to-day operator to global leader. In this conversation, Alan breaks down the reality of scaling a business, from building 50 restaurants to expanding Airbnb across Asian markets.

You will learn the specific leadership lessons he gained from nearly missing payroll by less than two business days and how that pressure changed his approach to business growth.

We discuss the difficult decisions involved in a founder journey, the mistakes that nearly cost him everything, and the strategy behind his eventual exit. Whether you are currently navigating financial pressure or planning your next venture, these insights into the reality of entrepreneurship are essential for anyone scaling a team.

Subscribe for more weekly leadership breakdowns.

Timestamp for you:

00:00 Trailer

01:03 Introduction

01:36 The Payroll Problem

04:01 Growing Up in a Family Restaurant

06:33 Building 50 Restaurants

12:19 From Restaurants to Airbnb

14:17 Expanding Airbnb Across Asia

17:16 From Operator to Global Leader

20:30 The Biggest Business Mistake

24:54 Growing Out of Cash

26:59 What the Crisis Changed

30:51 The Exit

34:39 Building Patch

38:15 Turning a Crisis Into an Inconvenience

38:53 Alan’s ExecDNA

Join the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform.

👉 Join the community & waiting list: https://www.execdna.com

#MarioRivas – Founder of ExecDNAHost of ExecDNA

PodcastLinkedln: / mariorivassanchez

Alan Chang – Co-Founder & CEO of Patch

SystemsLinkedln:https://www.linkedin.com/in/changalang/Company

LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/patchsystems/

Company website: https://trypatch.com/

Watch 'ExecDNA' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0...

#businessgrowth #execdna #businessmindset #careergrowth #ukpodcast

Building a sustainable cybersecurity career path requires more than just technical certifications and initial training.After 26 years in the industry, Robby Tyrie joins us to discuss how he navigated the complexities of information security management. This interview moves past entry-level advice to examine the mindset needed to maintain relevance when industry standards evolve. We analyses the practical reality of professional growth, focusing on how a seasoned practitioner adapts to shifts in technology and corporate requirements over nearly three decades.Throughout our discussion, we look specifically at the ISO 27001 certification and how it functions as a pillar for senior roles. If you are aiming to transition into high-level security management, this conversation provides a realistic roadmap for long-term endurance. You will learn why a cybersecurity expert must balance tactical skills with strategic planning to avoid burnout and stay competitive in a crowded market.Timestamp for you00:00 Why were you risking by starting again?01:16 What do you think you would be by thirty?01:52 How was Robbie like at school?02:30 What was your first proper job?03:25 Three decisions that accelerated his career 04:05 Story of JPMorgan's software security06:00 How to lead others07:41 He is only been in cybersecurity for the last 15 years.08:05 THE TWO BIGGEST MISTAKES OF HIS CAREER09:14 THE HARDEST 12 MONTHS OF HIS CAREER10:30 REINVENTION12:00 LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY13:50 When he move from corporate to be an entrepreneur15:49 BUSINESS GOALS16:44 AI + CYBERSECURITY18:22 How can weak security put a six or seven figure contract at risk?19:12 Will AI take over the Cybersecurity work?20:21 Three Important AI cyber numbers 21:30 Dynamic with the C-suite team23:17 How to grow in 202624:07 HOW HE BECAME C-SUITE27:36 THE NEXT VERSION OF ROBBIE28:24 Robbie's EXEC DNAJoin the ExecDNA community and get early access to the platform.👉 Join the community & waiting list: https://www.execdna.com#Mariorivas – Founder of ExecDNAHost of ExecDNA PodcastLinkedln: / mariorivassanchez Robbie Tyrie – Founder of Torridon CyberLinkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyrie/Watch 'ExecDNA' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0...#businessgrowth #execdna #businessmindset #careergrowth #cybersecurity #technology

I sat down with Mark Hedley, Co-Founder of Adeus — and the rare corporate executive who walked away from twenty-five years in the boardroom to start over at zero. He's lived and worked across four continents, held senior roles at Citibank, Deutsche Bank, and Corn Ferry, and built a career that started with a university dropout and a one-way ticket, not a plan.Timestamp for you:00:00 Introduction00:25 Growing up between the UK and Australia02:16 Why school didn't shape his career path03:47 The curiosity that took him to India, Korea, Indonesia & Hong Kong05:40 The key skills that built his career08:32 The moment that changed his career trajectory11:44 The hard skills behind the soft skills13:43 Why he decided to build his own business15:27 "Why am I building somebody else's dream?"17:34 Building Adeus — wills and legacy planning, reimagined19:36 A career failure: leaving university21:21 The visa crisis that sent him to Singapore22:26 Spent $150,000, went to MBA23:42 What most executives get wrong about hiring25:26 Why skills degrade fast in the age of AI26:35 What Activity to do to staying in shape as a founder28:47 Building a legacy company, and what legacy really means29:41 Why 60% of people still don't have a will32:07 Mark's exact DNA33:22 Closing#MarioRivas – Founder of ExecDNAHost of ExecDNA PodcastLinkedln: / mariorivassanchez Mark Hedley – Co-Founder & COO of AdeusLinkedln: / markjhedley Watch 'ExecDNA' Podcast on Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/3804Om0...#businessgrowth #execdna #businessmindset #careergrowth #ukpodcast

After 20+ years coaching hundreds of executives, from first-time founders to seasoned CEOs, Nicole Alos kept seeing the same gap: leaders left coaching sessions feeling confident, but froze the moment a real high-stakes conversation began.In this episode of Exec DNA, Nicole joins Mario Rivas to unpack why communication, not technical skill, separates exceptional leaders from competent managers. She shares how she built Socratyc Sidekick, an AI-powered practice tool that lets founders and executives rehearse investor pitches, layoffs, board updates, and difficult co-founder conversations before they happen for real.

Nicole opens up about the most common communication failures she's seen across hundreds of leaders on three continents, why "leaders don't need more information, they need more readiness," what psychological safety actually requires from a leader, and why she believes AI will never fully replace human coaches, even as it changes what coaching looks like.Mario also shares his own experience delivering one of the hardest conversations of his career: telling 500 employees a turnaround effort hadn't worked.Connect with Nicole Alos:🔗 nicolealos.com🔗 socratycsidekick.aiChapters:00:00 – Welcome to Exec DNA & introducing Nicole Alos

01:03 – From executive coaching to building an AI product

04:26 – Where Socratyc Sidekick stands today (beta, Sept 1 launch)07:14 – 100+ executives coached: the patterns she's seen

08:19 – Young founders raising millions without the experience to match

09:41 – "Leaders don't need more information, they need more readiness"

10:39 – Can AI ever become an executive coach?

13:00 – The most common communication mistakes leaders make

15:04 – Avoiding hard conversations until they explode

16:43 – Direct vs. kind feedback — and getting it wrong both ways

17:28 – The power of clear non-negotiables

18:47 – The hardest conversation every CEO has to face

20:05 – Mario's story: telling 500 people the turnaround didn't work

23:23 – Why you should never have a high-stakes conversation "for the first time" live

24:09 – Why human skills matter more as AI automates the rest

25:07 – B2B vs. B2C: how Socratyc Sidekick actually works

27:08 – Building as a solo founder with no-code tools

28:56 – What surprised Nicole most about launching the product

32:46 – The hardest truth she's told a CEO

35:17 – Psychological safety without losing accountability

37:19 – Where to find Nicole and try the product

38:48 – Closing advice: get curious with your team

Amrit Dhaliwal, founder of Walfinch, left hospitality, bought a franchise and spotted what most entrepreneurs completely overlooked: a £68 billion UK home care market with almost no one thinking seriously about scale, quality or wellness. Six years later, Walfinch operates across 40 locations nationwide, serves over 1,000 clients and is on track for £25M in network revenue in 2025. In this startup and scaleup masterclass, Amrit breaks down the franchise model that is taking him to £100M, why boring businesses outperform sexy ones, and the leadership principles that work in restaurants, retail and healthcare alike.Walfinch is not just a care business.

Amrit is actively rebranding how the UK thinks about aging, building proprietary AI tools alongside third party platforms, and running a franchise support system that graduates operators from zero to £80K a month. He reveals what separates top performers from average franchisees, how he attracts and retains carers in the most talent-starved sector in the country, and why the future of home care looks a lot more like a wellness brand than a traditional care agency.

00:00 Introduction to Home Care and Franchising

01:51 Transition from Hospitality to Home Care

06:32 Understanding the Home Care Business Model

10:52 Challenges and Opportunities in Home Care

18:14 The Role of AI in Home Care

27:45 Building a High-Impact Care Business

33:11 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Alessandro Hatami has spent 25 years at the heart of global fintech and banking, holding senior leadership roles at PayPal Europe, Lloyds Banking Group and GE Capital before founding Pacemakers and serving nearly a decade as an FCA regulated non-executive director. In this fintech and board governance masterclass, he breaks down why incumbents have proven far more resilient than anyone predicted, what boards are getting dangerously wrong about AI liability, and why the NED role is fundamentally misunderstood by most executives who transition into it.

Alessandro argues that board governance is quietly becoming one of the most significant challengers of AI implementation inside financial institutions, not because boards are obstructive, but because they carry personal legal liability for technology decisions that most of them are not yet equipped to evaluate. He also unpacks how Pacemakers operates as an executive search firm for fintech partnerships and why the adapt, evolve, transform framework determines which banks survive the next wave of disruption.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction: Alessandro Hatami and 25 Years Across PayPal, Lloyds and GE Capital

01:58 What Has Fundamentally Changed in Banking Over 25 Years

03:08 The Innovators Dilemma: Why Incumbents Struggle to Move at Fintech Speed

05:21 Why Nobody Is Actually Closing Their Lloyds Account for Revolut

09:46 When Will Challengers Truly Overtake Incumbent Banks

12:21 How Pacemakers Matches Banks With the Right Fintech Partners

19:28 The Biggest Challenges Boards Face as AI Enters Financial Services

25:52 What Most Executives Get Wrong When They Become a Non-Executive Director

27:11 How to Challenge a CEO Without Overstepping as a NED

29:02 What Separates a High Performance Board from One That Just Meets

33:08 Key Questions Boards Are Asking About AI Governance Right Now

37:38 The Toughest Board Decision Alessandro Has Ever Faced

🎙 New episodes every Tuesday at 11:00 UK🌐 https://execdna.com🎧 Available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.🤝 Join the ExecDNA Community on LinkedIn and WhatsApp.

Music licensed through Soundstripe.Code: MB11LKLDVUWQOLI0

Steven Pivnik failed his first two startups, built his third into a $40M revenue business operating across 20 countries, and sold it in 2020 completing due diligence in just 30 days. Now, as an exit advisor and author of Built to Finish, he has helped founders generate over $1.1 billion in exit value across 38 transactions.

In this startup and scaleup masterclass, Steven breaks down exactly what founders must fix before approaching any acquirer and why most exit processes fail before they even begin.The mistakes that cost founders millions at the table are almost always avoidable: founder dependency, customer concentration, weak recurring revenue, and an underprepared finance function.

Steven reveals his three-part exit readiness assessment covering psychological, financial, and enterprise value drivers, and explains why average exit preparation takes three years and why AI is already reshaping how acquirers evaluate differentiation and IP.

Hosted by Mario Rivas

About Startup Scaleup People

Real stories from startup, scaleup & enterprise leaders. From boardrooms to founder garages, we cover growth, leadership, funding, exits, governance, AI, fintech, SaaS, and business transformation.

New episodes every Sunday at 4PM UK time.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: Steven Pivnik and $1.1B in Founder Exit Value

01:30 Failing Twice: What Steven Did Differently on Startup Number Three

02:41 Building to $40M Revenue Across 12 Countries

03:07 Three Valuation Drivers Acquirers Look for Every Time

05:39 How Long a Proper Exit Process Really Takes

08:21 Earning the Trust of Microsoft, IBM and Google as a Startup

10:40 The Valuation Killers Founders Almost Always Overlook

12:37 Negotiation Tactics: When the Seller Has the Leverage

15:33 Exit Readiness Assessment: Three Angles Every Founder Needs

20:40 Why Endurance Sports and Business Success Feed Each Other

24:48 How AI Is Changing Due Diligence and Company Valuation

27:44 Replacing Yourself as Founder: The COO to CEO Move

40% of Executive Transitions Fail, Navid Nazemian on the Leadership Gap.

Navid Nazemian, executive transition coach and author of Mastering Executive Transitions, has coached 350+ senior leaders across 7 industries over 26 years and the data is stark: 4 in 10 executive transitions fail. In this startup and scaleup leadership masterclass, he reveals why technical skills get you promoted into the C-suite and why the lack of soft skills gets you fired, and how leaders can use his Double Diamond Framework to onboard successfully before costly mistakes derail the transition.

With only 1% of leaders reporting confidence in deploying AI and CEOs saying the role has changed more in the past year than in the previous 25, Navid breaks down the leadership paradox at the heart of today's organisations. He also reveals the world's first executive transition intelligence LLM, built on 12 years of coaching transcripts, book citations, and 116 podcast episodes, designed to give every executive access to world-class transition coaching at scale.

Chapters:

00:35 Introduction to Leadership and Coaching

08:48 Executive Transition Challenges

15:04 Qualities of Exceptional Leaders

20:31 Understanding Executive Presence

25:01 The Impact of AI on Leadership34:45 Cultural Differences in Leadership

In this episode of Startup Scaleup People, Mario speaks with Cory Blumenfeld, serial entrepreneur, founder, investor-backed startup builder, and entrepreneur with multiple successful exits.

Cory shares lessons learned from launching businesses in industries where he had no prior experience, raising millions in funding, building startups from scratch, and eventually creating systems that allow founders to delegate, automate, and scale.

The conversation explores founder psychology, leadership, documentation, hiring, virtual assistants, delegation, and why building a business that runs without you is one of the most valuable assets you can create.

Whether you're launching your first startup or leading a growing company, this episode offers practical advice on building systems that free your time while helping your business grow faster.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Background

04:45 Key Lessons from Exiting Businesses

09:05 Recognizing Bottlenecks in Business

18:41 Overview of Blue Mosso and Virtual Assistance

24:16 AI and Virtual Assistants: A Symbiotic Relationship

31:01 Empowering Business Owners: Taking Back Time