Simon Says

In Season 2, Episode 13, Simon talks to Adam Kamani. Adam is an award-winning property entrepreneur, start-up investor, mentor and CEO of Kamani Property Group, KM Capital and YourNxtDoor. He has just launched a next-gen property app called Move Streets.

In Season 2, Episode 12, Simon talks to Tom. Tom Mercer is the Founder of MOMA Foods, a London oat brand. Frustrated with the lack of quality breakfast on the market Tom decided to leave his job in the City and do something about it. MOMA was a genuine grassroots start-up – the first kitchen was under a railway arch in South London and the first retail outlet was a stall (made from a converted filing cabinet) in Waterloo station. MOMA is now the go-to premium porridge brand in the UK, the #1 bircher muesli brand, and a fast-growing player in burgeoning oat milk market

Tom is from a farming family in Staffordshire, read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, and prior to MOMA worked as a management consultant for Bain & Co. In his personal life Tom is a proud husband and dad.

In Season 2, Episode 11, Simon talks Dr Ali Parsa. Ali is a British-Iranian healthcare entrepreneur and engineer. He’s the founder and CEO of Babylon, the revolutionary AI and digital health company. Babylon’s mission is to put an accessible and affordable health service in the hands of every person on earth.

Dr Parsa was listed in The Times 100 people to watch. He was featured in the Maserati 100, a list that recognises game-changing entrepreneurs. He was formerly a UK Cabinet Office Ambassador for Mutuals and the Chair of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Tech Forum. He has a PhD in Engineering Physic.

In Season 2, Episode 10, Simon talks to Alexia Inge. Singularly committed to curating a ‘Beauty Hall of Fame’, featuring only the best hero products from across the globe, Alexia Inge co-founded Cult Beauty with a lifelong passion for beauty and a mission to become the most trusted beauty retailer in the world.

Under Alexia’s leadership since 2014, Cult Beauty has become the place to go for beauty discovery and incubating trends – from the latest scientific wellbeing discoveries to centuries-old remedies that have never been bettered. It has fast become home to some the biggest names and need-to-know burgeoning brands: from being the first independent e-tailer to stock Anastasia Beverly Hills to bringing Milk Makeup across the pond and herding Drunk Elephant into the EU.

In Season 2, Episode 9, Simon talks to Sach Kukadia. Sach is a serial entrepreneur, non-executive director, chairman, board advisor and angel investor. He launched his first start up, SecretSales.com at the age of 22 and over a period of 10 years, raised £18m through leading Venture Capital Institutions and drove annual sales of £47m. He eventually sold the business to a London based Private Equity firm in 2017.

Sach’s current interest lies with Residently, a disruptive Property Tech platform alongside a new D2C business launching in Q2 2022 that allows you to invest in gold. In addition, Sach is Chairman to vintage furniture business Rehaus, and NED to a number of other consumer facing businesses.

In season 2, episode 8, Simon talks to Patrick Tsang. Patrick Tsang is Chairman of Tsangs Group, a fourth-generation China-focused Single Family Office from Hong Kong. Patrick invests in various companies with a positive influence and positive impact. Born and raised in the United Kingdom with deeply-rooted Chinese heritage, he has a robust global network as a seasoned investor.

He has worked on numerous IPO and M&A transactions globally and has successfully made investments in Asia, mainly in Hong Kong and China, North America, and Europe. Patrick holds several prestigious appointments, including the Trade Commissioner of Grenada in Macau, to promote international business and investment.

In Season 2, episode 7, Simon talks to Dan Murray-Serter. Dan is a multi-award winning serial entrepreneur, who talks openly about failure, mental health, mental performance, and 'braincare' - which includes his journey using science to build habits, cultivating a positive mindset & nutrition for optimizing his brain's health. Having started (and failed) the UK's #1 fashion app, Grabble, he is now back building his new company, Heights. In his spare time, he podcasts with both the Braincare podcast for Heights, and Secret Leaders, one of the UK's top business podcasts.

In Season 2, Episode 6 Simon talks to Nick Wheeler. Nick Wheeler first had the idea for Charles Tyrwhitt shirts - to make the best shirts, using only the finest materials, at great value, with unbeatable service - whilst studying Geography at Bristol University in 1986;. He used his middle names - Charles Tyrwhitt – more anonymous (and better sounding!) than “Nick Wheeler shirts” The first brochure was a one-page leaflet with 8 shirts and 8 ties.

The product range has developed from just shirts and ties to suits, shoes and a full casual offering. Today the business is a multi-channel retailer and a leading British brand. The company grew rapidly to sales of £220M in 2018, but then hit Covid…

Charles Tyrwhitt’s mission today remains true to Nick’s founding principles - to provide quality and value, and to deliver them to the customer with unrivalled customer service. Nick is also a non-executive director of The White Company. He is married to Chrissie Rucker, founder of the White Company. They have four children and live in Oxfordshire. Nick was awarded an OBE for services for retail in December 2017.

In season 2, episode 5, Simon talks to Nick Jenkins. After graduation, Nick spent eight years trading sugar in Moscow for Glencore. In 1998 he returned to the UK to study for an MBA at Cranfield, after which he started Moonpig.com, the personalised greeting card retailer. By 2011 the business had over 5 million customers and Nick sold a majority of his holding to Photobox. Nick now divides his time between the charity sector and investing in early stage businesses which led to him joining the panel of BBC2 Dragons’ Den in 2015 and 2016. He now has a portfolio of 19 angel investments, mostly in ed-tech, med tech and e-commerce.

In Season 2, Episode 4, Simon talks to Stepan Galaev. Stepan Galaev identified the growing demand for portfolio management services in the angel investment community while working on the investment portfolio of renowned UK angel investor – Nick Jenkins. After several years of deep-diving in the venture capital environment, he saw an opportunity to build a multi-family office that would cater to individuals with similar business ethics, and the strong belief that investing in young ventures can deliver both social and economic returns.