The Unlock with Oliver Bruce

From hiding behind her desk in an operational role, to backing out last minute on a move to Frankfurt, redundancy and entering the male dominated tech world, Lorrin White is a trailblazer! 🔥

Despite texting being her only knowledge of mobiles, over the last 20 years, she has risen through the business to become the CEO of Bamboo Technologies.

As well as her role as CEO, Lorrin is a female leader, mentor, local enterprise board member and NED! 💪  

She's now diversifying even more with Business in Rhyme, where she writes poetry as a digestible and fun way to share her years of experience.

https://www.bamboo.tech/

A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/ 

Having left a comfortable career with a management consultancy business Jay and his co-founder Henry decided it was a good idea to start a last minute travel business in the height of a pandemic.💪

As management consultants Jay's background is analytical, number driven, metric orientated and process led. This analytical and detailed approach however is the backbone to this startup.

Jay and Henry each invested £5,000 before undergoing a bootstrap round. Staze which is still under 18 months old is undergoing an aggressive scale in what looks to be the perfect storm... ☀️

Staze plans your last minute trip for you, unlike so many other holiday get away applications where you need to know where you want to go, Staze thrives on spontaneity! Jay realised that in the UK alone at any one time has 45% of the time holiday rentals sat empty, this was the birth of Staze. 

https://staze.com/

A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/ 

Sophia Proctor who in a former life worked in PR for British Airways before being made redundant just before the 2020 pandemic used her redundancy payoff to change her life forever. 🚀

Sophia conceptualised, designed, manufactured and started to distribute her innovative children's mealtime toy at the hight of a global pandemic using entirely UK manufacturers. With a wealth of knowledge in the PR world for a global brand Sophia's business and startup experience consisted of little more than a book, an idea and a small amount of money! 

With a young child, a new business, a global pandemic and international uncertainty Sophia learnt by just doing. Munchy Play are now one of the Sunday Times Startups to watch in 2021. 

https://www.munchyplay.com/

A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/ 

A PinPoint Media podcast production https://pinpoint-media.global/ 

Becoming the worlds largest podcast collaboration platform wasn't where it all started Audry's co-founders... 

Niklas' initial business idea conceptually was sound, however, in hindsight, one small adaptation from the likes of Instagram and their business would be no more. It was this realisation and acceptance that lead Niklas and his business partner to start the 'Tinder' of podcast platforms - Audry.io and what a decision that was! 

Now with over 8,000 active users and a recent re-brand in 2021 Audry.io will go from startup idea into industry leader in a world that is incredibly up and coming, could this be the next Spotify or Tinder for podcasters? 

Audry.io is the backbone to many of the podcasts you listen to and love including ours! 

From a life in the city to selling second handbags, not the route to entrepreneurialism one might imagine. 

James, since founding Cudoni (luxury goods and fashion resale service)  through the power of LinkedIn and the odd bit of stalking has raised in excess of £7million in seed capital to get his concept off the ground. 

Oliver asks how an idea of selling posh goods, second hand garments and your mothers old necklace can take off in the way Cudoni has? 

How do you instil confidence in those with millions to trust those with an idea? With investors and mentors such as the founder of Capital One and the founder/CEO of Pets At Home James has built a formidable team of advisors in an online world set for great expansion. 

Could this be the next Ebay...? 

From spending all of his personal savings on an inexperienced developer, followed by putting all of his trust into 1 marketing agency, which took full advantage with little to no outcome, Joe's eco friendly e-scooter rental business -  ZWINGS - started off with something of an uphill battle! 

Since founding ZWINGS in 2019, Joe found himself in pole position to assist with the COVID-19 transport requirements and tenders, which orientated around distancing,  that the UK Government put in place for so many people in 2020. 

Since winning a handful of large national tenders over the last 12 months, ZWINGS has since become the UK market leader in micro-mobility, a sector only 3 years old and forecast to be worth in excess of £150bn.

Joe Lewin, 24, has proved that age need not be a barrier in business, and that passion, persistence and determination is all that's needed to forge a way in a multibillion pound up and coming industry! 

EXCLUSIVE PODCAST DISCOUNT CODE: 15 Minutes FREE national e-scooter rental with discount code OLIVERBRUCE15 

Lifetime entrepreneur Richard Lowden started his career working under an alias for his Dad's business so his colleagues didn't realise he was the Chairmans son... 

As Richard absorbed and grew within the firm one day his father summoned him into the boardroom and fired him. Why? Because he had been taught all he could learn, it was time to spread his wings and go it alone!

This, in the late 80s was the start of Richards entrepreneurial career. Now CEO and founder of one of the largest car rental brands in the world Green Motion, Richard has franchises in over 200 countries and has some 50,000 rentable vehicles internationally. 

Founded in 2017 the duo behind Big Bake London would be more likely to be found in a glass fronted boardroom than a kitchen full of icing sugar. 

Prior to the pair's entrepreneurial endeavours, Adam & Eloise had climbed the corporate ladder in the world of Aerospace and Marketing. Throwing the towel in on a six figure salary to bake cakes takes some guts! 

In this Christmas special, multi-award winners Adam & Eloise speak about how they've grown Big Bake London from an idea into a viable business turning over in excess of £850,000 in year 3. 

The icing on this cake for Adam and Eloise and the pinnacle of their career to date however is Oliver's excellent Christmas quiz. Who will win a Bruce Beer and who will have to brush up on their festive knowledge? 

Find out in this episode of Success Is In The Mind not only how to start a business but many many things you didn't know about Christmas that you probably want to...!

Happy Christmas!  
 

SUCCESS for 15% OFF all products at www.beaufortandblake.com - available until 31st December 2020. 

Before visiting a mate at University for a pint Ed worked on Saville Row cutting his teeth in the world of tailoring. It was over a beer at the infamous Royal Agriculturally University that Ed decided to sew a Union Jack to the back of his dress shirt for a 'Best Of British' themed party, this was the birth of Beaufort & Blake.

Like all entrepreneurs Ed travelled the length and breadth of the UK selling his new innovative (shirt) to people far and wide, well 50 people... - Sadly however the shirts were't manufactured correctly and kept falling apart, this teamed with the niche market of dress shirts meant it was a rocky start for Ed.

Having persevered and moved his operations from a pigsty (quite literally) to Battersea London, Ed's overheads exploded and a downturn in sales saw him and his business partner nearly say goodbye to Beaufort & Blake as they faced bankruptcy. It was quick thinking that got Ed out the other side. 

Beaufort & Blake expect to see a turnover of circa £3million in 2021 having onboarded 2 highly influential fashion investors and diversified their product offering. Hear it from the horse's mouth in this episode!