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The Naked Founder episodes
- Sean Brown: People don't see the sacrifices founders make
Sean Brown is the founder of tech startup Versori, which was acquired earlier this year by US tech giant Avalara.
The deal was remarkable because Brown and Daniel Jones had only founded the next-generation integration platform specialist four years earlier.
However, success has not come without significant sacrifices. Brown recalls leaving his wife and newborn child to attend the Y Combinator programme in San Francisco for three months.
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, Brown discusses:
- Working alongside Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett in his early days
- How a skydive saved him from being skint in Australia
- Launching his own cryptocurrency, SeanCoin – but only for people called Sean
- Understanding the importance of having the right team
- Why he still gets a buzz from building things
- How a Post-it note bearing the words 'profit' and 'purpose' drives his decision-making
The Naked Founder is sponsored by Financielle and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.Chapters:00:00 – The Story That Just Got Acquired by US Tech Giant Avalara:00:24 – What Nobody Told Him: It's Not About You, It's About the Team01:52 – Why He Doesn't Call Himself Resilient - He Just Likes to Build02:33 – Happy Place: Maldives at 2am, Laptop Out, Waves in the Background03:51 – Broke in Australia, Sniffing Bakeries & Raffling a Skydive He Didn't Own06:41 – Growing Up Above Rough Pubs: Why His Relationship With Risk Is Completely Inverted07:52 – Psychometric Test Says: Unemployable. He Agrees.09:08 – Social Scuba, $6,000 & Learning to Code From YouTube at 2010:56 – Working With Steven Bartlett Before Anyone Knew Who He Was13:44 – Sean Coin: Why He Launched His Own Cryptocurrency15:45 – 24 Staff, Millions in Revenue - and How He Learned to Be a Terrible Boss17:28 – Leadership Flaws19:10 – The Problem That Built The Story20:26 – Building a Connector Engine Instead of Pre-Built Connectors23:45 – 50% of Pipeline Comes From Conferences - Here's Exactly How He Works a Room25:53 – We Don't Fish, We Hunt27:08 – 100% Close Rate From Qualified Meetings: Why Cold Calls Are a Waste of Time28:01 – Four Weeks Post-ACL Surgery, Flew to San Francisco, Knee Blown Up29:07 – 310% Growth, Y Combinator & the Who's Who of Startup Validation30:18 – Three Months in San Francisco, Newborn at Home, House Already Sold to Fund It31:11 – 260 Investor Calls in Three Weeks: Refining the Pitch 1% at a Time32:04 – Raising - Term Sheet Signed in Austin on a Wednesday33:16 – Why the Avalara Acquisition Felt Like a Match Made in Heaven35:41 – Family First, Then Keep Building: Why He Said Yes to the Deal37:50 – Five Identical Sweatshirts, One Post-It Note: The Mind That Doesn't Waste a Thought38:48 – No More Existential Dread: What It Feels Like to Found Inside a Huge Company39:30 – Profit and Purpose: The Two Words on His Post-It Note That Drive Everything41:04 – Why Profit Comes First - and What That Means for the Letter He'd Write to His Sons41 min - Simon Swan: How I got Michael Vaughan to join my startup
Simon Swan is on track to create a one-man £1m+ startup, with a little help from former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan.
Two-time founder Swan is the latest guest on The Naked Founder podcast and his second business, Uthful, is already profitable after less than six months.
Uthful is a health supplement business and it’s a far cry from Swan’s previous enterprise, Manchester-based talent marketplace Hiring Hub.
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, Simon discusses:
How he persuaded cricket legend Michael Vaughan to become an investor
Growing a £1m business with just one member of staffChanging the face of the health supplement marketHow the idea for Uthful came to him on a bike rideThe importance of being authenticInspiring his childrenWhy he wants Uthful to be different from Hiring HubThe Naked Founder is a BusinessCloud podcast. It is sponsored by Financielle, the home of money for women, and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.Chapters:
00:00 – 14-Year Overnight Success, Then Going Again at 45: Meet Simon Swan01:06 – What He Wished He'd Known First Time Round02:28 – Calm on Top, Furiously Paddling Underneath03:16 – Cricket, Michael Vaughan & How Uthful Got Its First Investor04:22 – 24 Vitamins, One Drink: The Problem He Was Solving for Himself05:34 – Meeting Michael Vaughan06:22 – No Website, No Product — Just a Name and a Napkin Pitch07:05 – What Hiring Hub Actually Was (and Why He Hated Being Called a Recruiter)07:51 – Designing the Logo on His Honeymoon09:06 – Two People, One Office, One Phone — Fake It Til You Make It10:27 – The Lessons He Carried Out of Hiring Hub and Into Everything Since11:03 – Founder vs CEO: The Moment Hiring Hub Stopped Being His12:38 – Burn the Boats: Why He Had to Remove the Safety Net Completely14:05 – Gary Neville, Reinvention & Not Wanting One Thing to Define You Forever14:50 – Loving the Building Phase: Why Year 11 Felt Nothing Like Year One15:54 – The Apple Moment: Why Packaging and Brand Image Matter From Day One16:50 – Solo Founder, One Dog, No Office: Is This the Future of Startups?17:51 – Six Months Riding His Bike Across Spain, Waiting for the Idea to Come18:12 – Lying in Bed on GoDaddy: The Night Uthful Became Real20:01 – The Pub in the Peak District He Nearly Bought Instead21:02 – What Humans Will Still Value in a World Run by AI22:20 – Idea to First Sample in Eight Weeks: The Speed of Starting Now23:00 – His Advice to Anyone With an Idea: Just Test It First24:08 – Transparent Founder Content: Why He Posts the Bad Days Too24:53 – The Day Meta Stopped Working and 3,000 Boxes Came Back Wrong26:38 – Kids Watching Dad Build From Scratch: The Best Lesson He Can Give Them28:56 – Could Uthful Be a £100M Business?30:06 – Has Founding a Business Made Him Unemployable? Probably, Yeah31:04 – The Hardest Part of Being a Solo Founder: Loneliness, and How He Beats It32:46 – Letter to His Younger Self33:29 – Never Too High, Never Too Low: The Emotional Steadiness That Defines Him33:50 – Happy Place: 140km on a Bike Through the Spanish Countryside35 min - Tom Dunlop: Why founders should always be paranoid
Tom Dunlop turned his back on an Olympic dream to launch LegalTech Summize and said a degree of paranoia is healthy in business.
Earlier this year, Summize raised £40m in a Series B investment round and has just acquired the key assets and staff from Seattle consultancy InnoLaw Group.
After swapping a successful badminton career for a legal one, he became an in-house lawyer at AppSense, where he met high-profile entrepreneur Charles Sharland.
While working as a lawyer, Dunlop recognised how technology could speed up legal processes, so he launched Summize, and Sharland became an early investor.
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, Tom discusses:
- Why paranoia can be good in business
- How he turned his back on an Olympic dream
- How he struggled when he lost at badminton
- Why he can never forget his children's names
- The lessons he took from elite sport into high-performance business
- Raising $50m
- The difference in mindset between the UK and the US
The Naked Founder is a BusinessCloud podcast. It is sponsored by Financielle, the home of money for women, and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.Chapters00:00 – Thinking Long-Term From Day One02:45 – The Year or Two He Could Have Shaved Off Just by Planning Five Years Ahead04:13 – Three Kids, Three Tattoos04:29 – Europe's Number One Badminton Player05:51 – Untouchable: The 15-Match Winning Run That Made Him "The Killer"06:59 – Turning Down the Olympics for Law School: The Decision That Changed Everything07:44 – Going From Invincible Junior to Getting Exposed by the Far East09:13 – From Superstitious Socks to 1% Marginal Gains: What Sport Taught Him About Business10:24 – ABCD: Codifying Culture So Every Employee Knows the Mission11:55 – The Lesson in Being a Founder People Listen To13:22 – Healthy Paranoia: Why You Should Never Feel Comfortable13:55 – Office Tour14:58 – The Elevator Pitch Booth (and the Original Pitch Line)16:04 – One Team, One Board: Keeping Three Offices in Sync17:00 – £1,000 a Month for the Best 1% Idea17:37 – Meet the Nameless, Eyeless Office Giraffe18:35 – The Gong, the Clocks & the Mural: Building Culture Through Physical Symbols19:36 – Highlighting Contracts by Hand: How Summize Was Actually Born21:45 – From Point Tool to Full Platform: What Summize Does Today22:59 – Why San Diego Over LA or San Francisco: Choosing Offices on Culture, Not Just Cash24:25 – 250 Pitches, Four Funding Rounds: What Investors Actually Back at Pre-Seed27:06 – Hurt Money: Quitting His Job, Moving House & Having a Baby in the Same Month29:08 – The Polish Badminton Players Who Had No Plan B — and Why That Stuck With Him31:24 – Burn-and-Raise vs. Build It Right: The Philosophy Between Series A and B33:52 – UK vs. US Founders: The Ceiling of Ambition Difference35:42 – "Could You 10x?" — Why US and UK Investors Ask Completely Different Questions37:00 – From Silicon Valley Podcasts to Trusting His Own Gut39:24 – Letter to a Young Founder: Build Your Network, Raise Your Ceiling00:00 – Thinking Long-Term From Day One02:45 – The Year or Two He Could Have Shaved Off Just by Planning Five Years Ahead04:13 – Three Kids, Three Tattoos04:29 – Europe's Number One Badminton Player05:51 – Untouchable: The 15-Match Winning Run That Made Him "The Killer"06:59 – Turning Down the Olympics for Law School: The Decision That Changed Everything07:44 – Going From Invincible Junior to Getting Exposed by the Far East09:13 – From Superstitious Socks to 1% Marginal Gains: What Sport Taught Him About Business10:24 – ABCD: Codifying Culture So Every Employee Knows the Mission11:55 – The Lesson in Being a Founder People Listen To13:22 – Healthy Paranoia: Why You Should Never Feel Comfortable13:55 – Office Tour14:58 – The Elevator Pitch Booth (and the Original Pitch Line)16:04 – One Team, One Board: Keeping Three Offices in Sync17:00 – £1,000 a Month for the Best 1% Idea17:37 – Meet the Nameless, Eyeless Office Giraffe18:35 – The Gong, the Clocks & the Mural: Building Culture Through Physical Symbols19:36 – Highlighting Contracts by Hand: How Summize Was Actually Born21:45 – From Point Tool to Full Platform: What Summize Does Today22:59 – Why San Diego Over LA or San Francisco: Choosing Offices on Culture, Not Just Cash24:25 – 250 Pitches, Four Funding Rounds: What Investors Actually Back at Pre-Seed27:06 – Hurt Money: Quitting His Job, Moving House & Having a Baby in the Same Month29:08 – The Polish Badminton Players Who Had No Plan B — and Why That Stuck With Him31:24 – Burn-and-Raise vs. Build It Right: The Philosophy Between Series A and B33:52 – UK vs. US Founders: The Ceiling of Ambition Difference35:42 – "Could You 10x?" — Why US and UK Investors Ask Completely Different Questions37:00 – From Silicon Valley Podcasts to Trusting His Own Gut39:24 – Letter to a Young Founder: Build Your Network, Raise Your Ceiling41 min - Mark Stuart: Building a multi-million pound business with Dad
Mark Stuart is on a mission to make Stuart Energy Europe’s leading power generation business.
He founded Stuart Energy in 2017 alongside his father Fred and brother Lee, and the company has been named in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list for three consecutive years.
But following in the footsteps of a successful parent comes with its own pressures.
“You see great footballers that have sons that go into football and you’re never as good as your father,” he said. “There’s a bit of stigma attached to that.”
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, Mark discusses
Launching Stuart Energy with his dad Fred and brother Lee and working alongside his sister Jane
Why the company puts ‘family first, work second’The importance of bootstrapping a businessGrowing up with a ‘work or want’ mentalityStuart Energy’s unusual three-stage recruitment processThe Naked Founder is a BusinessCloud podcast. It is sponsored by Financielle, the home of money for women, and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.46 min - Episode 12: From Trauma to triumph: Sam White's founder journey
From being raised by an alcoholic mother to fighting off a sex pest and coming out as gay at the age of 30, Sam White has faced more challenges than most.
She is the award-winning CEO of female-focused motor insurance business Stella Insurance, which has offices in Manchester and Australia, and is the latest guest on The Naked Founder Podcast.
No-nonsense White brings a new meaning to the phrase 'straight talking' and has appeared on BBC Morning Live, Wake Up To Money and Sky News.
In this episode of The Naked Founder, White also discusses:
• Living with an alcoholic mother
• Launching her first business at the age of 24, only for it to go into administration
• Dealing with crippling panic attacks
• Kneeing a sex pest in the ‘balls’
• Turning Stella Insurance into a multi-million-pound business
• Her dream of creating a fund for female founders
This episode of The Naked Founder is a product of BusinessCloud. It is sponsored by Financielle, the home of money for women, and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.
Chapters:
00:00 – What Nobody Told Her at 2401:48 – Raised by No One: The Dysfunctional Childhood That Made Her Strong03:28 – Why the Best Entrepreneurs Usually Have the Hardest Upbringings04:22 – From Sister's Conservatory to Beverly Hills: The Rise and Fall of Action 36506:27 – The Exit Plan Question She Used to Think Was Stupid06:54 – Four or Five Panic Attacks a Day09:49 – Coming Out at 3011:44 – When She First Realised She Was Attracted to Women - and Why She Wasn't Shocked13:33 – The CEO Who Asked "What Lights You Up?" - and Accidentally Started Stella15:31 – How Big Is Stella Now?16:52 – The Speaking Coach, the Keynotes & Getting Out of Her Own Way19:10 – LinkedIn, Media Appearances & Why She Built Her Profile on Purpose20:53 – "Your Friends Will Never Tell You the Truth"23:31 – Size 24 to Six Stone Lighter: The Weight Loss Nobody Made Her Do24:03 – Her Mum, Alcohol & the Nervous Relationship She Had With Drinking for Years26:52 – Two Kids and a Clearer Head: Why She Finally Quit for Good in 202227:05 – The Investor Who Booked a Joining Hotel Room and Got Kneed in the Balls29:26 – Misogyny in Business: Still There, Just Harder to Call Out30:00 – The Hardest Part of Being a Founder: Feeling Like the Only Adult in the Room31:32 – Exit in Two to Three Years, a Fund for Female Founders & a Bit More Balance35:17 – Letter to Her Younger Self: Start With the End in Mind37 min - Derry Green: I had no idea Dragons' Den would do this
Derry Green knew his Dragons' Den appearance would transform the fortunes of his business, The Secret Garden Glamping, but even he underestimated its power.
Green had become a social media sensation when he built a glamping pod for his kids in his back garden during Covid and turned it into a business.
The success of The Secret Garden Glamping saved Green from financial ruin, but even he had no idea what would happen when he walked into TV's most famous Den in 2023.
In this episode of The Naked Founder, Green also discusses:
• The REAL reason he went on Dragons' Den
• How appearing in the Den changed his life• Why The Secret Garden Glamping saved him from financial wipeout• How wanting to spend more time with his kids resulted in a multi-million-pound business• Overcoming his fear of public speaking• What he'd say on his deathbedThis episode of The Naked Founder is a product of BusinessCloud. It is sponsored by Financielle, the home of money for women, and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.
Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome to The Secret Garden: Glamping on Location01:04 – What He Wishes He'd Known Before Starting01:59 – Building Dens in the Woods as a Kid02:50 – When He Started Treating It Like a Business, He Stopped Enjoying It04:23 – Before the Glamping: The Haulage Company04:50 – Christmas Day, Sky News, Half a Million Gone: The Citilink Collapse07:37 – Building the Den That Started Everything08:44 – Lad Bible, 10 Million Views & 150 Airbnb Bookings Overnight09:59 – Why He Went on Dragon's Den10:49 – "I Want to Make Less Money" - The Pitch That Won Over Four Dragons12:01 – One Site, Half a Million Turnover: The State of Play Before the Den12:34 – What Deborah Meaden Actually Brought to the Business13:25 – Five Sites, 47 Staff, Nearly £2M Turnover - and Six More in the Pipeline14:26 – Why He Doesn't Think of It as a Glamping Business14:48 – Competing With Everyone Making Content, Not Other Glamping Sites16:09 – Never Spent a Penny on Advertising: UGC Methodology18:10 – The Site Tour: Treehouse, Tiki Bar & Why Units Cost What They Do19:50 – Inside the Retreat: Hot Tubs, Outdoor TVs & What Guests Actually Share22:21 – Boot Fair Décor, Three-Quid Props & When to Actually Spend Money23:45 – The Guest Who Couldn't Get In - and Became His Partner24:59 – The Hardest Part: Letting Go of Control26:17 – How AI Fits In (and Where It Doesn't)27:15 – Why Mums on School Hours Make the Perfect Workforce28:14 – Public Speaking Terrifies Him - So He Keeps Doing It29:10 – Letter to His Younger Self: Chase Passion, Not Money30:25 – The Netflix Series31:18 – 47 Guests on Site, Haven't Seen One: Why He'll Never Overcrowd It31:50 – Wrap-Up33 min - Laura Earnshaw's mission to rethink mental health
Vicar's daughter. Accidental entrepreneur. Published author. Founder. Award winner. Disruptor.
There are plenty of ways to describe myHappymind CEO Laura Earnshaw. Another would be: in demand.
Last year, 16 investors wanted to back myHappymind before Earnshaw eventually chose LDC.
She has also spoken out about the lack of women in the investment world and her mission to equip every child with the mental health skills they need to thrive.
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, Earnshaw also discusses:
• Why she walked away from a successful corporate career to launch myHappymind
• Why founders should ignore advice from people who haven't done what they're trying to do
• How she secured investment in just four months
• Going from a kitchen table startup to a multi-million-pound business
• Why assumptions about female founders still persist
This episode of The Naked Founder is a product of BusinessCloud. It is sponsored by Financielle - The Home of Money for Women - and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.
To sponsor the show, email [email protected].
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction – Laura Earneshaw, founder of My Happy Mind (and Max, Head of Happiness)
0:30 What didn't they tell you about founding a business?0:46 Working every weekend for 10 years and never switching off1:12 The M25 moment: visiting a loved one in a mental health hospital and deciding to act2:09 Career before My Happy Mind - Accenture, AstraZeneca, PwC, and meeting her husband in Swindon3:53 Quitting a six-figure salary at 35 to fix a problem nobody was preventing4:31 Prevention over cure: why all the money goes to fixing mental health, not stopping it5:28 From kitchen table to Alderley Edge offices - the early days of winging it6:16 Purpose before profit: led by passion, and the profit followed7:36 'My Happy Mind' cards8:33 The science behind the cards9:38 From 2 pilot schools to over 2,00010:05 Resilience and focus: never take advice from someone who hasn't done what you're trying to do10:46 Was there ever a moment she wanted to quit?11:05 Female founder, mother of two, no nanny - and bootstrapping by choice12:22 How she'd describe herself13:49 NHS endorsement15:45 The My Happy Mind book published by Penguin - and why they came to her17:00 Husband Tim joining as COO - rules, balance, and making it work18:14 The King's Award - Windsor Castle, a scroll, and 100 schools celebrating together19:52 Raising investment: 16 offers, exclusivity to LDC on 1st December, deal closed the 23rd21:16 No one will ever drive her harder than she drives herself21:21 How LDC have been as an investor - and why terms matter more than promises22:45 Assumptions made about female founders - and how she squashed them quickly24:21 The gender investment gap and the shortage of female investors in the room25:51 Vision for My Happy Mind: every child, every school in the UK - and going global26:50 Letter to a younger Laura26:59 Wrap-up28 min - Jen Atkinson: The self-belief gap holding female founders back
Jen Atkinson is a legend in the travel industry and has grown her business, Travel Seen, to nearly £60m turnover.
She told The Naked Founder podcast that female founders need more self-belief if they want to scale their business.
“One of the reasons that women particularly struggle in the world of scaling a business is investment and that self-belief that they can ask for £10m and get £15m, as opposed to asking for £5m and getting £1m,” she said. “Women tend to struggle with asking in a way that men don’t.”
Atkinson made her name at ITC Travel Group, where she grew turnover from £40m to £90m.
2020 marked Atkinson’s professional and personal ‘annus horribilis’, which saw her split from her husband and take a huge financial hit from Covid.
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, she also discusses:
• Going from marketing manager to CEO at ITC Travel
• Having to make 40 redundancies to turn around ITC’s fortunes
• Why so many female founders get divorced
• Becoming a first-time founder at 48
• Why founders should always ask for more investment than they need
• Dealing with imposter syndrome, ADHD and the menopause
This episode is a product of BusinessCloud. It was sponsored by ‘Financielle – The Home of Money for Women’ and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.
To sponsor the show, email [email protected]
Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Jen Atkinson & Travel Scene
00:36 What They Don't Tell You About Founding a Business01:03 Would You Do It All Over Again?01:33 Founding a Business vs. Running Someone Else's01:56 Having a Dog Is Like Starting a Business03:40 Are You Impulsive? The Entrepreneurial Trait04:15 A Million Reasons Not to Launch — Why She Did It Anyway05:07 The Idea: A Social-Led Community in Travel06:42 The USP: Building Travel Scene on Instagram08:43 From Zero to £20M Turnover: The Buy & Build Model09:11 Growing Up in Leeds: Mum, Dad & Where It All Came From10:18 The Mentor Who Changed Everything: Drew Foster at ITC11:30 Women, Self-Belief & Asking for More Money12:02 Starting at ITC as Marketing Manager, Becoming CEO12:24 Making 40 People Redundant as a First-Time CEO12:42 Making Tough Decisions: It's in Her DNA13:26 Always Choosing the Hard Option14:08 Living Without Regrets: Lessons from Dad15:44 Growing ITC from £40M to £90M — Then COVID Hit16:24 Losing Millions in COVID & a Marriage Falling Apart17:51 Why So Many Successful Female Entrepreneurs Are Divorced19:02 Hiding Under a Stone or Launching a Business?19:46 Why She Was Unemployable & Had to Go Again21:16 ADHD as a Superpower22:48 Imposter Syndrome, the Menopause & Being Open About It23:35 Are Female Founders More Emotionally Open Than Men?24:55 Being a Role Model to Her Son and Daughter26:12 How Do You Deal With Failure?27:20 Failure Is Just a Signpost on the Way to Success28:41 Targeting £100M in Two Years: Weight or Ambition?30:16 Key Lessons for Founders: Funding, Your Why & Your Team32:09 Pick People You'd Go Over the Top With33:06 Letter to a Founder: Back Yourself Above All Else35 min - Matthew Scullion: AI is coming for £100m companies
Matthew Scullion is the founder of British unicorn Matillion and told The Naked Founder about the ‘crazy’ world of AI.
His business joined an exclusive club of only 41 UK unicorns in 2021 when a $150m Series E funding round took its valuation beyond the magical $1bn mark.
He estimates Matillion has invested ‘many, many tens of millions into Maia’, which is its AI data automation platform.
Scullion predicted that AI could mean multi-million turnover companies could have only one or two members of staff, and that established hundred million pound companies could disappear because AI makes their business model irrelevant.
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, he discusses:
• Starting his first business aged 17
• Proving his GCSE French teacher wrong• Why AI will change businesses forever• Why achieving unicorn status was just ‘a moment in time’• The relentless nature of being a founder• Why his wife is behind his successThis episode is a product of BusinessCloud. It was sponsored by ‘Financielle – The Home of Money for Women’ and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.
To sponsor the show, email [email protected]
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction – Matthew Scullion, co-founder of Matillion, Manchester's last unicorn0:49 Opening question: what didn't they tell you about founding a business?1:59 15 years of overnight success – and a career in software entrepreneurialism since age 172:41 What is Maia? The AI data automation platform that Matillion has reinvented itself around6:14 Why AI agents need data and context – and how Maia provides it at machine scale7:00 Will we say "Maia that" instead of "Google it"?7:37 Mrs Scullion's physiotherapy website: built from scratch in two hours using AI tools16:25 Multi-million pound companies with one staff member – and the macro impact of AI21:24 Jack Dorsey halving Block's workforce and where AI disruption is really heading22:25 The French GCSE story: E forecast, 24 hours of cramming, A grade24:50 Founding his first software business at 17 – and how he thinks about risk27:13 Pivoting vs staying relevant – and the corporate graveyard of companies that didn't28:41 Inside the Matillion Manchester office: a 2026 Victorian factory for software29:31 Giving up a six-figure salary in 2011 to launch Matillion with co-founder Ed Thompson30:32 What you're really signing up for: all in, every ounce of energy, for as long as it takes34:13 The real risk isn't failure – it's living to regret not doing it at all35:29 What drives him: building something beautiful that makes a dent in the universe37:09 Nine digits of recurring revenue and 400-500 staff – how Matillion got here37:40 The three acts of Matillion: managed services, then ISV software, now Maia40:42 Fewer unicorn CEOs than people who've been to space – and what the moment really felt like44:36 Do UK founders sell too early? The cultural and structural reasons Britain doesn't build big48:34 "There are two types of problems in business – people problems, and people problems you haven't spotted yet"52:14 Letter to a founder: make sure you really want this, then start – and don't stop55:19 Roger Federer only wins 54% of points – and what that means for building a business56:22 Wrap-up57 min - Russell Teale: The 'heart attack' that was actually a panic attack
Russell Teale was juggling the pressures of business and family life when he thought he was having a heart attack.
Tests later revealed he was having a panic attack but the near-miss changed his life and his outlook.
He’s the founder and CEO of Vivify, which today employs 500 people and is set to grow turnover from £8m to £12m this year.
At the same time, the startup has given more than £10m back to schools and raised £2m in investment.
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast he discusses:
• Living with panic attacks
• Having former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy as an investor• Coping with the death of his mum while building Vivify• Giving £10m back to schools• Why your network is your net worthChapters:
0:00 Introduction – Russell Teale, founder & CEO of Vivify0:43 Opening question: what didn't they tell you about founding a business?1:42 The highest of highs and lowest of lows – what founding really feels like2:04 Fitter: the Uber-style fitness app, hockey stick projections, and the brutal reality of traction3:54 Money running out, wife pregnant, and a terrifying thud in the chest4:22 Panic attacks in his early thirties – and learning they never fully go away5:33 How panic attacks manifest and how he manages them now6:02 School Letting Solutions: landing on his feet, then made redundant when it went into liquidation6:46 What he learned from failure and why there's no point looking backwards7:39 Founding Vivify in 2020 – the problem: 27,000 schools full of empty facilities9:48 Where the name Vivify came from – meaning "to breathe life into"10:12 Mum Janice: single parent, two jobs, rehoming stray cats, and a lesson in resilience11:58 Janice dies of blood cancer on New Year's Day 2022, aged just 5612:25 How do you manage personal trauma, COVID, a startup, and a young family? You just get on with it13:04 Co-founders leaving, bootstrapping, and raising £1m from Arete in 202213:44 Choosing the right investor and the full-circle moment of pitching to the former Tesco CEO15:26 Founder vs CEO – two very different skill sets16:47 Total Fitness, rising through the ranks, and how far Vivify has still to go17:43 The global opportunity: 27,000 schools in the UK, and the same problem everywhere18:30 Do's and don'ts for scaling: never lose sight of cash19:16 The importance of a commercially-minded CFO20:02 Hiring for passion and pride over skill set – and why attitude always wins21:19 Building a network from scratch and the power of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year programme22:53 Founders he admires and why ego-led founders put him off24:21 Letter to a younger Russell: go easy on yourself24:56 Wrap-up26 min
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