Tech Startup Stories

In this episode of the Tech Startup Stories podcast, Natalie Binns speaks with Emmanuella Tordman, also known as Khadijah, co-founder of Drdogood, about building a healthtech company designed for the realities of African healthcare systems.

The conversation explores how Khadijah’s own delayed diagnosis revealed structural gaps in medical record keeping, continuity of care, and healthcare affordability, and how those experiences shaped Drdogood’s mission to make care more accessible, accountable, and financially transparent.

Together they discuss trust in healthcare technology, building platforms for both patients and providers, navigating regulation and data protection, co-founding across cultures, and what it really takes to scale a startup in emerging markets where the problems are urgent and deeply personal.

This episode offers a grounded and thoughtful look at HealthTech built from lived experience rather than theory.

This episode is a little different.

Natalie Binns is under the spotlight as Donna St. John steps in as guest host for a behind the scenes reflection on the first year of Tech Startup Stories. Together, they talk about why the podcast started, what Natalie’s learned from speaking to founders across industries and geographies, and how those conversations have shaped her perspective as a founder and marketer. It’s an honest look at the realities of building a startup, from funding and focus to growth, hiring, and learning to stay comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Renting should be simple, predictable and stress free, yet most renters face the same routine: multiple bill setups, scattered logins, confusing dates and rising costs. In this episode, founder Hussein Akins joins Tech Startup Stories to share how he is reinventing the renting experience through Bills Included.

Hussein talks about the moment he realised the problem was bigger than his own frustration, how he secured early partnerships that validated the idea and why he decided to leave his full time job just two weeks before recording this episode. He also opens up about the role of community, the importance of social impact and his vision for a rental market built on transparency and convenience.

A great listen for early stage founders, proptech enthusiasts and anyone who has ever struggled with household bills.

What happens when a landlord, engineer, sales leader and legislator builds a startup to fix one problem… and ends up transforming an entire industry?

In this episode, Founder and CEO John Bradford reveals how he bootstrapped Petscreening into a nationwide platform used across long-term rentals, student housing, manufactured housing, vacation rentals, and even US military bases.

John talks candidly about:

• How a single incident sparked the idea for Petscreening

• Building the MVP and testing it on his own company

• Growing a dog-friendly culture with strong core values

• Navigating regulation and the rise of emotional-support animals

• Scaling a startup while serving in public office

• Why doing good must sit at the heart of every business

A high-energy, insightful story for founders, operators, and tech lovers.

PocketTrainer founder Janos Laszlo joins us to talk about building a startup around one simple idea: small wins create long term change. We discuss how he shaped the product, what he learned from early users, the reality of staying motivated as a founder, and why focusing on incremental progress has been his most effective strategy.

In this episode, we explore how Oyinkansola Adebayo built Niyo Labs into a mission led tech company transforming access to skills, opportunity, and economic mobility. From early community roots to a scalable gamified learning platform, Oyin shares the realities of growing with purpose, navigating challenges, and staying true to the people she serves. A powerful and honest look at what it means to build a startup that puts impact at the centre.

In this episode of Tech Startup Stories, join host Natalie Binns as she talks with Max Greenwald, CEO and founder of Warmly, about how a failed Tinder-for-co-founders app accidentally launched his career in sales and marketing technology. Max shares the unconventional path from Google engineer to startup founder, why he believes building products is easier than getting messaging right, and how Warmly's AI agents are helping B2B companies find warm leads and book meetings without cold outreach. Hear about his open-close framework for testing messaging, why he refuses to hire from big tech companies, and his blunt advice for anyone considering leaving corporate to start something new.

Ken Rapp, CEO of BluStream, shares the story behind building a platform that solves the biggest gap in customer experience: what happens after the box arrives at your door. After his own guitar cracked from lack of humidity care, Ken realized brands have all the product knowledge customers need but no way to deliver it at the right moment. In this conversation, he explains how BluStream creates dynamic product journeys that drive 90% retention rates, why he pivoted from IoT sensors to pure SaaS after a decade, and his hard-won advice for founders on validating problems early, building flexible teams, and choosing the right investors for the long haul.

Savannah Price never expected to end up in fintech. After six years as a professional show jumper, a family mental health crisis led her to discover that bank statement data could predict when her siblings were struggling. That insight became Serene, an AI platform helping financial institutions support vulnerable customers. Savannah shares the emotional reality of founder life, how she paired social impact with regulatory requirements to open doors, why 40-60% of customers show vulnerability characteristics, and what she learned from a co-founder breakup. Discover how lived experience became her greatest asset in building a purpose-driven fintech startup.

Michelle Coombs needed to scale her MSP consultancy without cloning herself, so she built Oprising, a platform helping managed service providers optimise their service delivery. In this episode, Michelle shares how she went from working on a help desk in the late 90s to building a SaaS startup while balancing client work and single parenthood, including her experience bootstrapping with a £10K grant, running 90-day accelerators for feedback, and why her advice to founders is simple: build fast, fail fast, reiterate, and most importantly, enjoy the journey.