Founders Matter

Jase wants to know how entrepreneurs should define success on their own terms - not by unicorns, hype, or external validation.

Romain Pouzou explains how the narrative is rigged to focus on the needs of the tiny minority of businesses, rather than the overwhelming majority.

And why the most sustainable founders start small, measure risk, and stay connected to their original purpose.

We discuss how geography, culture, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem shape the journey, especially in Mexico, and why the hardest transition is often moving from founder mode into CEO mode.

The reflection we hope listeners will take away

You have more chance of winning the lottery than becoming a unicorn. So why is everyone told that is what they should aspire to be?

Timestamps

01:06 — Why entrepreneurs celebrate fundraising, growth, and external recognition
01:50 — Success depends on the entrepreneur’s personal goals
03:35 — Why success rarely feels final in the entrepreneurial ecosystem
05:24 — Returning to your “why” through introspection
06:56 — Entrepreneurship is risky, but risk should be controlled
07:26 — Why blitz scaling can be a dangerous model
08:19 — Measuring risk through profitability and cash flow
09:52 — The main challenges facing entrepreneurs in today’s volatile world
11:13 — Start small, validate, and scale with profit
12:29 — The hardest internal challenge: moving from entrepreneur to CEO
13:30 — External pressure from the ecosystem and vanity metrics
15:23 — Why entrepreneurship looks different in France and Mexico
16:23 — Family business culture and low wages in Mexico
18:13 — The romanticized story of entrepreneurship versus reality
19:10 — Why breaking even and paying taxes matter
20:33 — Why the current entrepreneurship narrative is broken
22:42 — Why founders should not fear failure—but should calculate risk
25:15 — What Mexico does well in social entrepreneurship
27:09 — How finance became more creative inside entrepreneurship
29:31 — Early cash injection versus waiting until viability is proven

Who is Romain?

Romain Pouzou holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the European Business School in Bordeaux, France, and a Master’s degree in Financial Engineering from Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is currently pursuing his PhD at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

He has worked as an entrepreneur and CFO for several startups—including Limonetik, which is ranked among Forbes' top 100 technology companies.

Since 2012, he has been affiliated with the Tecnológico de Monterrey, serving as an instructor and consultant in finance and entrepreneurship, as the Regional Director of Social Entrepreneurship for the South-Central region, and currently as a faculty member at the School of Entrepreneurship.

Additionally, he has served as a consultant for the social entrepreneurship incubator "México Irrazonable" since 2013 and is the co-author of the books *México: 10 emprendedores sociales* and *Emprendimiento en acción*.

He has been recognised three times by the QS-Wharton Reimagine Education Awards for his work in educational innovation - as a finalist (2019 and 2023) and a third-place global winner (2021) - and was named a Distinguished Professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey School of Business in 2022 and 2023.

Furthermore, he serves as a Lead Facilitator for continuing education, developing and implementing courses on financial reasoning for decision-making aimed at business leaders.

Pablo speaks with Gladis Nair and Apoorv Arora about what gets valued, who gets supported, and how success is actually measured.

We discuss how Indian startups are often judged by valuation, pedigree, and investor attention, while the people working inside the ecosystem argue that real success is closer to survival, sustainability, and impact.

Timestamps
00:33 - Why this episode focuses on entrepreneurship in India
01:14 - Introductions: ISBAP and entrepreneurship research in India
02:47 - What entrepreneurship success looks like in India
03:35 - Why valuation and funding often overshadow business sustainability
07:40 - Pedigree, investor bias, and why elite credentials matter
08:57 - Rural founders, brownie points, and co-incubation support
10:46 - How incubators evaluate whether a startup is genuinely viable
12:11 - Training, pitching, and funding decisions inside incubation programs
13:06 - Why many startup ideas die after college or under family pressure
14:31 - What “societal pressure” means for Indian entrepreneurs
16:14 - Why neighbourhood attitudes often dismiss entrepreneurship as a career
17:04 - Family resistance, gender expectations, and women founders
19:17 - Common metrics used to measure startup success
20:21 - Measuring impact through lives changed and jobs created
22:17 - Whether metrics reflect what founders actually care about
23:58 - Emotional investment, satisfaction, and knowing when to quit
25:01 - Founder mental health as a taboo topic
26:01 - Team conflict, trust, and the role of incubation support
27:54 - How teams form and why friendship does not guarantee partnership
29:42 - Supporting hidden entrepreneurs through grants and outreach
31:12 - Rural schools, student projects, and early entrepreneurial exposure
33:27 - School entrepreneurship curriculum and government-funded projects
34:29 - Tinkering labs, student competitions, and rewards for prototypes
35:21 - Why entrepreneurship education matters in the AI era
36:53 - Skill development beyond degrees and qualifications
37:40 - What school-age students actually value in entrepreneurship
39:26 - How Indian entrepreneurship has shifted over the last decade
41:05 - India’s young population, long-term solutions, and the value of jugaad

Who is Gladis?

Gladis Nair is Head of Operations for Indian STEPs and Business Incubators Association (ISBA)
She leads operations and strategic execution, working closely with incubators, accelerators, government bodies, corporates and ecosystem partners to strengthen India’s incubation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
ISBA: https://isba.in
LinkedIn:  https://in.linkedin.com/in/gladis-nair-a44135119

Who is Apoorv?

Apoorv is a PhD researcher focused on driving lasting change to the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem through education and innovation.

An example of how he has brought research into practical long-term interventions is building self-sustainable maker ecosystems in rural communities, fuelled by the belief that equipping rural kids with the skills and resources they need to become makers and problem-solvers, we can create a brighter future for entire communities.

As a business owner in one of the happiest countries in the world (Denmark), Jase wanted to know how Peter defines and responds to success and failure, personally and professionally.

Overview of episode

This episode is a conversation about the real emotional mechanics of entrepreneurship: success, failure, pressure, and identity. Peter Kofler shares a grounded view of what it takes to build a business without losing yourself, including why mental resources matter as much as cash runway.

The reflection we hope listeners will take away

Build your own dream instead of someone else’s.

Timestamps

00:00 - What this conversation is really about: success, pressure, and entrepreneurship
01:03 - The half-empty mindset and why founders often become their own harshest critic
02:00 - When external success and internal motivation stop matching
03:27 - Freedom, positive change, and building your own dream
04:42 - Why success is not a final destination
06:12 - How Peter learned to reduce emotional extremes
07:10 - The “rule of five” and protecting your inner life
08:53 - Why business and personal life can support each other, but should not collide
09:36 - Teaching kids, founders, and teams to live with uncertainty
10:35 - Why certainty is a myth and entrepreneurs must enjoy the fog
12:03 - Vulnerability, mental resources, and hidden runway
13:32 - Why people rarely ask founders how they feel
15:21 - External crisis as opportunity, internal crisis as danger
16:57 - Why a third place matters outside work and family
18:33 - Learning more from failure than from success
19:24 - Breaking the taboo around all the emotions of building a business
20:50 - Why founders are a rare species that need active support
22:40 - Denmark’s safety net, ambition, and risk-taking culture
23:40 - What hygge does and does not do for entrepreneurs
25:04 - How different cultures treat failure and ambition
26:53 - Small-market thinking and building globally from day one
28:25 - What Peter would tell his younger self

Who is Peter?

Peter is a leading advocate for startups, shaping policy and growth in Denmark and beyond.

Peter has spent more than two decades at the forefront of entrepreneurship and business growth. For 21 years, he has worked to empower startups and scaleups, first through the business initiative IVÆKST, and for the past seven years as Chairman of Danish Entrepreneurs, where he has played a key role in shaping the voice of the Danish start-up ecosystem, and entrepreneurs.

Earlier in his career, Peter worked as a management consultant, advising on strategy and analysis across the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors. His expertise has been sought at the highest levels, including the European Commission, as well as Denmark’s Ministry of Higher Education and Science and Ministry of Culture, where he contributed to developing forward-looking digital scenarios.

Today, Peter focuses on public affairs and strategic relations, working to strengthen the conditions for entrepreneurs, both in Denmark and internationally. His work bridges policy, business, and innovation, making him a powerful advocate for the next generation of companies.

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Find out about courses and UK coalition here: https://mindyourbusiness.uk/

Get a four step self-guided journey of information and activities to your inbox over a week: https://mailchi.mp/mindyourbusiness/free-four-step-taster

We want to hear from someone in the UK who has started, run and sold many successful businesses and helped many other people do the same.

What are the key things to focus on that propel you forward and hold you back from success in work and life?

Overview of episode

Kat talks with Liza Knight about the hidden conditioning that shapes how business owners think, work, and define success.

We discuss the mental cages entrepreneurs build for themselves, why freedom matters more than following conventional rules, and how to strip away beliefs that keep founders stuck.

Liza also explains why entrepreneurship can be a path out of poverty, burnout, or misalignment, especially for women and for people who have never seen someone like them run a business.

The reflection we hope listeners will take away

Entrepreneurship is a path OUT of what DOESN’T work for you. The key, deep work is deciding and implementing what you want entrepreneurship to be a path IN to, for what DOES work for you.

Who is Liza?

Liza Knight is a Business Coach, Mentor and Director of Mint Business Club.

She has more than 20 years’ experience of running and growing small businesses, alongside an ILM Level 7 qualification in Coaching and Mentoring.

Through Mint Business Club, she works with small business owners to help them make clearer commercial decisions, understand what is getting in their way, and build businesses that work for their brains, values, capacity and lives.

A big part of her  work is what she calls semi-feral business: interrogating the inherited rules about how business is “supposed” to be done, looking at what those rules are actually trying to achieve, and deliberately choosing the structures and standards that fit the founder and the business.

She is particularly interested in founder self-trust, sustainable business, neurodivergence, decision-making, boundaries, and creating businesses that support health, wealth, happiness and choice.

Mint Business Club: https://mintbusinessclub.co.uk/
About me: https://mintbusinessclub.co.uk/about-liza
1:1 coaching: https://mintbusinessclub.co.uk/1-1-coaching
Join Mint Business Club for free: https://mintbusinessclub.co.uk/joinmint

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Subscribe now to get all episodes of Founders Matter.

Find out about courses and UK coalition here: https://mindyourbusiness.uk/

Get a four step self-guided journey of information and activities to your inbox over a week: https://mailchi.mp/mindyourbusiness/free-four-step-taster

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Connect with the hosts on LinkedIn:

Jase Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jase-smith-zero78training/

Pablo Munoz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablomunozroman/

Kat Sykes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-sykes-business-not-as-usual/

There is no fixed job spec, so the real work is figuring out your strengths, your gaps, and the networks that can support you.

It matters because the founder journey is different for everyone, and trying to copy a generic entrepreneur template can lead to frustration, inauthenticity, and a suspicious amount of time spent pretending to enjoy networking.

The discussion focuses on self-awareness, skills-gap analysis, and building small, useful networks that help with technical, emotional, and business needs.

Timestamps

00:00 - What founders really need instead of a job spec
00:34 - Why a founder role cannot be defined like a corporate job
01:35 - Every business is different, even in the same trade
02:05 - The “never-ending toilet roll” problem of founder responsibilities
03:03 - Why rigid specifications work in traditional workplaces but not for founders
03:59 - Authenticity as the foundation of trust
04:56 - A better approach: skills gap analysis
05:49 - Knowing when to learn, when to get help, and when to outsource
07:00 - Technical skills versus social and emotional skills
07:58 - Confidence gaps and speaking about your business
08:27 - What a founder person spec should really say
09:27 - Why “authentic” is the most important founder trait
10:27 - Adapting your presentation to the audience without faking it
12:06 - Why founder support networks matter
13:02 - How to build a core network without forcing it
14:00 - Networking as a two-way relationship
15:08 - Different networks for technical, emotional, and practical support
16:34 - Why founders need time alone as well as time with others
17:33 - What a founder should be doing, in one answer
18:37 - The freedom of doing what feels right for you

Who is Jase?

Jase spent over 35 years in the military and has more than 20 years’ experience designing and delivering training in leadership, management, mental health, wellbeing and resilience.

Jase draws on his multinational training and organisational development experience to equip trainers with everything they need to meet MYB’s high standards, ensuring theory translates into practical, real-world impact.

Jase is the Jackanory of Mind Your Business®. He brings a bank of relatable and often amusing anecdotes to bring theory to life. He also has a rare gift for distilling complex ideas into simple, memorable sentences, making change feel achievable.

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Subscribe now to listen to all episodes of Founders Matter.

Find out about courses and UK coalition here: https://mindyourbusiness.uk/

Get a four step self-guided journey of information and activities to your inbox over a week: https://mailchi.mp/mindyourbusiness/free-four-step-taster

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Connect with the hosts on LinkedIn:

Jase Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jase-smith-zero78training/

Pablo Munoz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablomunozroman/

Kat Sykes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-sykes-business-not-as-usual/

There are many arguments for teaching entrepreneurial skills at school.

Pablo asks Kat questions based on her experience as a former primary school teacher and current business owner.

Discussions include:

1. The trigger game Pablo and Kat play because we like seeing each get on our high horse about subjects we believe in

2. What did you have to unlearn from your previous jobs when you became a founder?

3. 'Entrepreneur' is supposed to be used as a verb, not a noun.

4. The curriculum and SATs measure the wrong things, and that is severely harmful to kids' development. Hence the current “behaviour crisis”.

5. The curriculum is built for government, not kids

6. Enterprising skills could help re-engage kids with the point of being at school

7. Why is enterprise education in schools always based on Dragons Den, when real life as a founder is not about competition, but collaboration?

8. How Kat would design enterprise education that matches the real life experience of a founder

9. How enterprise skills are useful for everyone in education, not just people who want their own business

10. Enterprise skills learned in school will help people be INtrepreneurial in someone else's business, not just ENtrepreneurial in their own.

11. NASA did a study. Decades ago. The results were jaw-dropping. But no-one knows about it and acts on the findings...Let's change that.

This is what Kat hopes Andy Burnham knows about what the UK curriculum and business owners really need.

Do you agree? What would you add to the discussion?

Who is Kat?

Kat has been described by clients as the Mary Poppins for Projects. In her varied career, she has been:

• a primary school teacher, specialising in emotional and behavioural barriers to learning,

• a construction project manager in London, delivering projects ranging from £1m to £75m,

• and a regional digital change project manager in the NHS

Kat’s professional background, personal experience of depression as a teenager, and her journey through the uncertainty of business ownership shape her contribution to Mind Your Business®. She ensures the content and delivery are practical, engaging and tailored to individuals, helping participants translate insight into meaningful action.

Her work is all about engaging others (and yourself) to do what needs doing.

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Subscribe now to listen to all episodes of Founders Matter.

Find out about courses and UK coalition here: https://mindyourbusiness.uk/

Get a four step self-guided journey of information and activities to your inbox over a week: https://mailchi.mp/mindyourbusiness/free-four-step-taster

-----

Connect with the hosts on LinkedIn:

Jase Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jase-smith-zero78training/

Pablo Munoz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablomunozroman/

Kat Sykes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-sykes-business-not-as-usual/

What we want to find out in this discussion

Cultural norms and values affect the performance of founders. Which cultural factors are helpful? Which ones are detrimental?

How can we create and foster more helpful cultural factors? And how can we dispel less helpful ones?

Overview of episode

This episode explores entrepreneurship as a culture rather than just a startup category. Pablo speaks with Ewald Kibler, sociologist and entrepreneurship scholar at Aalto University, about how norms, values, and local context shape who gets counted as an entrepreneur, who gets left out, and why the dominant founder story still centres high-growth startups.

Key topics

·        In this episode, Ewald Kibler explains why entrepreneurship should be understood as a set of cultural meanings, norms, expectations, and values, not just a business model.

·        The conversation digs into the persistence of regional differences, including moral norms around entrepreneurship and why some places sustain higher entrepreneurial activity over long periods.

·        Ewald argues that the current founder narrative overvalues high-growth startups and creates pressure on entrepreneurs to become “big” instead of simply building useful, sustainable businesses.

·        He discusses how venture capital, media, and founder celebrity reinforce a narrow image of entrepreneurship, while small and medium-sized businesses are often overlooked despite their long-term importance.

·        The episode also examines the “hero founder” myth and why society needs to celebrate different kinds of entrepreneurial contribution, including community-based and social entrepreneurship.

·        Ewald highlights overlooked groups such as late-career entrepreneurs, migrant entrepreneurs, refugee entrepreneurs, and women founders, and explains why each deserves more attention in research and support systems.

·        The discussion closes with the case for a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem that lowers the threshold for participation and better reflects how entrepreneurship actually works in everyday life.

The reflection we hope listeners will take away

Entrepreneurship is not mainly about startups. So why do UK policy makers and mass media treat it like it is?

Who is Ewald?

Ewald Kibler is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Head of the Entrepreneurship Unit (ENTU) at Aalto University School of Business.

His research and teaching focus on how entrepreneurship shapes people, organisations, and society, with particular interests in entrepreneurial wellbeing, new venture creation, business failure and recovery, prosocial entrepreneurship, and regional development.

He also works closely with policymakers and international organisations to translate entrepreneurship research into practice.

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Subscribe now to listen to all episodes of Founders Matter.

Find out about courses and UK coalition here: https://mindyourbusiness.uk/

Get a four step self-guided journey of information and activities to your inbox over a week: https://mailchi.mp/mindyourbusiness/free-four-step-taster

Pablo has been doing work in Mexico and India. Jase and I have been doing work in Denmark.

It’s fascinating to see similarities and differences between them and the UK. Social expectations. Cultural narratives. Support systems. Markets.

So, Season 2 of the Founders Matter podcast is all about typical founders look like in different continents.

What are the universal and unique challenges? What troubles them? What does success look like for them?

In this video

We predict from our recent observations what we think we will find from the discussions. If you want to know what we actually find, you’ll need to watch the episodes.

Who is Jase?

Jase spent over 35 years in the military and has more than 20 years’ experience designing and delivering training in leadership, management, mental health, wellbeing and resilience.

Jase draws on his multinational training and organisational development experience to equip trainers with everything they need to meet MYB’s high standards, ensuring theory translates into practical, real-world impact.

Jase is the Jackanory of Mind Your Business®. He brings a bank of relatable and often amusing anecdotes to bring theory to life. He also has a rare gift for distilling complex ideas into simple, memorable sentences, making change feel achievable.

Who is Kat?

Kat has been described by clients as the Mary Poppins for Projects. In her varied career, she has been:

• a primary school teacher, specialising in emotional and behavioural barriers to learning,

• a construction project manager in London, delivering projects ranging from £1m to £75m,

• and a regional digital change project manager in the NHS

Kat’s professional background, personal experience of depression as a teenager, and her journey through the uncertainty of business ownership shape her contribution to Mind Your Business®. She ensures the content and delivery are practical, engaging and tailored to individuals, helping participants translate insight into meaningful action.

Her work is all about engaging others (and yourself) to do what needs doing.

 -----

Subscribe now to listen to all episodes of Founders Matter.

Find out about courses and UK coalition here: https://mindyourbusiness.uk/

Get a four step self-guided journey of information and activities to your inbox over a week: https://mailchi.mp/mindyourbusiness/free-four-step-taster

-----

Connect with the hosts on LinkedIn:

Jase Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jase-smith-zero78training/

Pablo Munoz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablomunozroman/

Kat Sykes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-sykes-business-not-as-usual/

Welcome to the Founders Matter Podcast.

The podcast where we talk openly about what it really means to build a business on your own terms.

In this episode, Jase Smith and Pablo Muñoz explore how founders approach growth, risk and business modelling, and why so many startups are still shaped using frameworks designed for large corporations rather than early-stage ventures.

Drawing on research into founder wellbeing and entrepreneurial thinking, the conversation examines the limits of traditional risk management when applied to startup environments. While established organisations often operate in relatively knowable conditions, founders are creating businesses in spaces shaped by uncertainty, reaction and constant change. As a result, planning tools based on prediction, control and fixed outcomes can often feel misaligned with the lived reality of building a business from scratch.

The episode explores the difference between causal and effectual thinking, showing how founders can make decisions based not on perfect forecasts, but on the means already available to them, including their experience, knowledge, relationships and resources. Jase and Pablo also reflect on how using models that do not fit the realities of entrepreneurship can affect confidence, self-worth and the connection founders feel to the businesses they are trying to build.

Rather than encouraging founders to follow someone else’s formula for success, the discussion highlights the importance of shaping a business in a way that reflects who they are, what they value, and what is realistically within their control. In doing so, the episode challenges the assumption that every startup should be run as a small version of a corporation and instead offers a more grounded way of thinking about growth, risk and sustainability.

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Subscribe now to listen to all episodes of Founders Matter.

Find out about courses and UK coalition here: https://mindyourbusiness.uk/

Get a four step self-guided journey of information and activities to your inbox over a week: https://mailchi.mp/mindyourbusiness/free-four-step-taster

-----

Connect with the hosts on LinkedIn:

Jase Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jase-smith-zero78training/

Pablo Munoz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablomunozroman/

Kat Sykes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-sykes-business-not-as-usual/

Welcome to the Founders Matter Podcast.

The podcast where we talk openly about what it really means to build a business on your own terms.

In this episode, Jase Smith speaks with Kat Sykes about KPIs, targets and goals, and why so many founders end up measuring their businesses in ways that do not reflect what really matters to them.

Drawing on her experience in the corporate world, including project work in the NHS, Kat explains how traditional KPIs often measure the wrong things. In many organisations, there is a disconnect between the targets handed down from above and the actions that actually create meaningful change. When founders leave employment and start their own businesses, they often carry those same inherited ideas about performance with them, even though they now have the freedom to define success differently.

The conversation explores what happens when founders rely on goals that are shaped by investor expectations, external advice or societal conditioning rather than their own values. When business owners try to make themselves or their businesses fit someone else’s model of success, it can create frustration, misalignment and a loss of purpose.

Instead, Jase and Kat discuss how founders can start with their values and their “why”, then work outward to create goals and KPIs that genuinely support the business and life they want to build. By focusing on the parts of the process they can actually influence, rather than outcomes that sit outside their control, founders can create measures of success that feel more meaningful, motivating and sustainable.

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Subscribe now to listen to all episodes of Founders Matter.

Find out about courses and UK coalition here: https://mindyourbusiness.uk/

Get a four step self-guided journey of information and activities to your inbox over a week: https://mailchi.mp/mindyourbusiness/free-four-step-taster

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Connect with the hosts on LinkedIn:

Jase Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jase-smith-zero78training/

Pablo Munoz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablomunozroman/

Kat Sykes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-sykes-business-not-as-usual/