Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast!

This week, on the podcast, I’m really excited to bring you a very special episode, with a friend and an old client of mine, Julian Hearn, founder of Huel. Julian started Huel six years ago, following two previous businesses; one successful, the other, not so, but the latter led to the launch of Huel.

He talked to me really openly about his business journey, the sacrifices he’s had to make and the original plan for Huel. He danced around the subject of the business IPOing this year, but either way, they have announced that they’ve done over £100million in revenue. This is an extraordinary achievement for a business that’s hardly raised any money and Julian still has a huge amount of the equity of the business. You’ll see the brand everywhere, from social media to t-shirts and the culture of the business is so special. Julian is an incredibly impressive, thoughtful and kind man, with so many exciting new thoughts and ideas. I really hope you enjoy this special episode.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast!

Today’s episode was recorded live in London, at the Hoxton in Southwark, with LG Gram, an amazing part of the LG business, who I’ve been working with as part of their Hustle Hub, a Facebook community where entrepreneurs can come together to chat and share stories and advice. 

I’ve been really lucky to be working with them this year and as a part of this work, I was fortunate enough to record this very special episode live with Tommy Mallet, founder of Mallet London.

You may know Tommy from his role on reality show, TOWIE, but Tommy and I sat down to discuss his incredible apparel brand, which is now worth over £10million, with stores all over the UK and global expansion well underway. Tommy was recently named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. His business journey is far from normal and it was incredibly fascinating to hear him talk about his drive and how he created the business. He talked to me about how disappointed he was with how he was represented on TOWIE and how he thought he’d be an instant success on the show. He talks openly about finding the balance between his family and his business and managing relationships both in person and online. He’s got an insatiable drive for success and spoke openly about what happened when he became a millionaire, his mental health, his family and the tensions that many entrepreneurs feel. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Busi-ness Podcast.

Today I am joined by Chris Sheldrick, Co-founder & CEO of what3words.

With a background in the music industry, Chris noticed that traditional addresses for venues and precise stage doors or loading bays were not accurate enough. As a result, he set out to make a simpler version of addresses using just three words…meet what3words.

Working with co-founders comes with swings and roundabouts but Chris explains how his team had an ideal natural balance, with everyone responsible for their separate areas of business.

Faced with a unique proposition, Chris unusually felt he wasn’t faced with direct competitors. Instead, Chris spent his time understanding what his consumers currently use and how he can simplify this.

Partnering with large companies such as Lamborghini is an essential part of what3words’ strategy. It’s evident that even though not everyone owns a Lamborghini, consideration, awareness, and credibility can be built through strategic partnerships.

Focusing on the entire world, Chris and his co-founders faced a huge challenge during targeting. Receiving lots of opinion on where to direct the business, the team identified a combination of these which worked for them.

Having never fundraised previously, Chris explains that there’s no written playbook and talks through just some examples of funding which may be suitable for some businesses.

There’s a lot to learn from such an industry changing business in a unique space.

I hope you enjoy this episode of The Busi-ness Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the The Busi-ness Podcast.

Today I am joined by Amanda Harrington, founder of InParlour and Amanda Harrington London. Driven by skin cancer running in her family, Amanda’s mission is to provide an alternative and safe means to tanning. 

Stretched, overworked and exhausted from balancing mum-life combined with flying around the world to spray tan VIPs, contemporaries encouraged Amanda to bring out her own line of products to increase her reach… meet Amanda Harrington London. 

Eight years in the making, Amanda discusses the unmentioned length of time that launching a business can take, including the two years that it took to get out of her at-the-time role in InParlour.

Finding a reliable manufacturer who believes in what you do is a long-road. Amanda likens the search to finding a life-partner and emphasises the importance in this. She explains this was just a tiny part of the big switch from a service-based business to product.

Aiming to stand out, Amanda explains how applying a different technique to mainstream brands allowed her to build a desirable brand with results of consumers raving about her products.

Slowed-down supplied chains, forced to shut InParlour and faced with huge challenges, Amanda explains how she turned around the pandemic to work in her favour despite setbacks.

I learnt a lot speaking to Amanda and I hope you will to. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I am joined by Simone De La Rue, Founder & CEO of Body by Simone, a dance-based fitness business. Simone has run her US business for over a decade and has trained some of the world’s most famous celebrities, as well as appearing on Khloe Kardashian’s Revenue Body.

With a passion for dance and a love of moving her body, Simone identified the need for consumers to have easy access to exercise and cardio, that doesn’t feel like a chore. 

Reflecting on the last 18 months with her business all but shutting down, the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in Simone’s four studios quickly turning to two. Heartbroken, Simone reminds us that this was a harsh reality check on how misleading social media can be.

We talked about marketing + how receiving lots of press coverage in the early days fast tracked Simone’s business but she explains that celebrity endorsement is not something to rely on – it’s all in the product being sold. Starting her business, Simone says she felt ‘clueless’. 

10 years on, Body by Simone focuses on content to stay relevant amongst constantly emerging health and fitness ‘fads’. 

Her biggest challenges include retaining highly-skilled staff whilst juggling the emotions and many personalities of employees. 

I ask what productivity means to Simone and in response, she explains what she means by ‘run your day not let your day run you’ 

I hope you can take some of Simone’s words of wisdom and apply them to your endeavours. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast.

Today, I speak to Venetia Archer, Founder and CEO of on-demand beauty booking platform, Ruuby. Venetia launched Ruuby in 2015, at a time where on-demand tech platforms such as Deliveroo and Uber were taking off in the UK. Taking a leap from her career as a Geopolitical Risk Analyst in to the Beauty industry, Venetia earned a spot in Forbes 30 Under 30 2017 list and today, Ruuby connects over 500 highly skilled beauty professionals with clients across London, offering a host of services, including blowdries, massages, manicures and makeup, with plenty more exciting things in the pipeline. The business kicked off their regional rollout this year, launching Ruuby in Manchester.

Venetia spared a moment between running a business and being a mum to a young baby, to chat to me about how she defines success and why focusing too much on the competition can hinder your growth. We discussed learning resilience in the face of rejection, celebrating the wins and reminding yourself that what you're doing is fun. She shared with me why she started off by applying for a start up loan, rather than diving straight into a fundraise and how she went on to acquire another business within 3 years of Ruuby launching. We chatted about the advantages and disadvantages of being a sole founder, the importance of sharing your problems and why it's best to keep things simple in order to stay organised. It was so great to finally catch up with Venetia and I hope you can take some practical and inspirational tips from her story.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast.

Andy Shovel is my guest this week. Serial entrepreneur, he founded his fourth business, THIS, IN 2019. After realising we should all be eating less meat and noticing how bad the current offering was, Andy and his co-founder Pete, wanted to create a business that tasted great, impacted the planet and made it easier for everyone to switch to meat alternatives. Andy kindly gave up his time on a Sunday to chat to me and we covered topics such as how to work with a partner, how to raise money and where to raise it from, why a sense of humour is a critical trait for those working at THIS, why entrepreneurialism isn't for everyone and what the future of the meat-free market looks like. Andy is hugely likeable and thoughtful and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting to him about his exciting business.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast.

My guests today are Simon Polet and Benoit Fortpied, co-founders of sustainable merchandise business, Merchery. Childhood friends, Simon and Benoit always knew they wanted to build a business together and three years ago, they launched a side project selling reusable water bottles, alongside their respective jobs. After becoming hugely popular with businesses on the hunt for branded bottles, the pair noticed a huge gap in the corporate merchandise market for beautiful and sustainable products and Merchery was born. Since launching in May 2020, Merchery has created stunning and sustainable merch for brands such as Deliveroo, Spotify and Oatley, with plenty of exciting projects in the pipeline, including expansion in the US and some serious tech development to improve the customer experience even more.

We covered several topics, including the moment they realised their project was more than just a side hustle and the advantages and disadvantages of launching a business in the midst of a global pandemic. We chatted about the corporate merchandise industry and how Merchery is shaking it up with sustainability and modern tech at the forefront of its mission. The pair spoke openly about their relationship as both friends and co-founders, their attitude towards competition and what success means to them. It was so interesting to chat to Benoit and Simon and hear their honest and refreshing insights and experience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast.

This week, I chat to Ariel Booker and Josh White, co-founders of Europe’s leading canned water brand, CanO Water. After an eye-opening trip to Thailand, which left them shocked by the amount of litter on the beaches, Josh and Ariel, along with their third co-founder Perry Fielding, were determined to find a more sustainable alternative to single-use plastic bottles and CanO Water was born. Launching in 2015, the brand has grown exponentially, down to the founders passion, authenticity and guerrilla approach. Since then, the brand has sold over 20million cans and is currently celebrating a mega fundraising round, with backing from the former European President of Heineken. This year, Ariel, Josh and Perry made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and the brand is making serious moves in the food and drinks sector, but remains dedicated to their core mission of making a difference. 

We talked about how authenticity is at the core of the brand’s messaging and how the how the concept came to fruition. We discussed their hardcore guerrilla approach, the importance of showing up everywhere and how they remained focused in getting the brand seen. Ariel and Josh spoke honestly about their relationship as co-founders and how they would make things happen, no matter what people told them. Naturally, we discussed sustainability, originality and being the first in their sector to do something different. I was fortunate enough to know and work with the boys at their launch several years ago, and I’m so excited to have been able to capture this conversation and share it with you

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.