Unicorn Podcast

Unicorn Podcast Trailer by Simon Squibb

Chris Barton is a well-respected entrepreneur and one of the masterminds behind the music recognition app, Shazam. Shazam was created in London over 20years ago and caught the interest of Apple who went on to purchase the technology for a speculated $400 million in 2017. The app is now among the most popular apps on both iPhone and Android with over 1 billion downloads to date.

Chris’ career also includes companies such as Google where he worked for 8 years and Dropbox, where he held the position of head of mobile operators' business development. He has collected a wealth of knowledge and experience through his journey to make him a leading entrepreneur within the digital field and more specifically, mobile applications. He is now embarking on creating a new startup focused on machine learning and computer vision.

In today’s special episode of The Unicorn Podcast, Chris tells his story of building software that was so ahead of it’s time, as well as giving you all the highs and lows of his career, so you have the knowledge you need to replicate his success for yourself.

"Things take longer than you expect. You hit different hurdles and unknown things happen. Early revenue in your business is like oxygen. Make revenue for your business a priority from day one. If I had realised how important that was, even if it meant delaying my main vision, it would have been a better route to take."

Topics:

How Chris became an entrepreneur

Chris’ unconventional start-up approach

Shazam - How it went from an idea to a reality

Shazam - Finding an engineer to ‘invent’ the technology

Shazam - The four co-founders and their partnership dynamic

Shazam - Allocating job roles

Shazam - Raising funding

Persistence + Timing

Hiring CEO’s + getting out of your own way

Chris’ new company ‘Guard’

Apple’s acquisition of Shazam

What is it like after selling a company?

Why Guard?

One piece of advice to your younger self

Chris Barton:

https://chrisjbarton.com/

📚 FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com

John Roberts is the Founder and CEO of AO World, the online retailer specialising in household appliances and electricals. AO operates following John’s two personal mottos of ‘treat every customer like your gran’ and ‘make your mum proud’, which has allowed the company to attain more 5* reviews than any other electrical retailer.

John started AO in 2000 after a friend bet him £1 to set up a business. He had previously been working as a kitchen salesman, and the internet was just reaching mainstream utility, so he decided to set up a company that would sell appliances online. In 2014, Roberts led AO World’s listing on the London Stock Exchange, valued at the time at £1.2 billion.

John has also supported Bolton Lads and Girls Club for 25 years, he’s a chairman at OnSide Youth Zones and a councillor at OneYoungWorld. Each of these organisations supports young people and aligns with John’s mission to leave the world a better place. In this episode, John gives us an in-depth insight into his life and career, as well as what it takes to build a billion-dollar company.

“Be really clear about what it is that you’re going to do, and be awesome at it. Obsess about being awesome, and be clear on what problems you’re solving because If you’re going to be average at it… Well, there's a lot of average in the graveyard.”

Topics:

John’s early life

The importance of learning

Relationships and treating people fairly

The £1 bet

Why being interesting is everything

Taking AO public

The Metaverse/Web 3.0

John Roberts: https://twitter.com/johnrobertsao

AO: https://twitter.com/ao

Anne Boden is the Founder and CEO of Starling Bank, a modern British bank that brings new technology to the forefront, delivering a more engaging experience for customers than traditional high-street banks. Since 2014, Anne’s vision has served more than 2.5 million customers as Starling continues to grow into one of the UK’s leading banks.

In January of 2014, Anne decided to quit her job to pursue her vision of creating a better bank, defying all stereotypes of women in their 50s with a corporate background. Starting a bank is one of the most challenging businesses to launch, and people thought she was crazy, but Anne was determined to make it work.

“I felt silly, I felt people would laugh at me for having this audacious goal. I didn’t just want to create a new bank, I wanted to create one that had the very best technology right from scratch, treated customers very fairly, with a new way of doing things and engaging with customers. Nobody believed me. Nobody thought it was possible.”

Topics:

Starling’s first steps

Raising money + building a team

Being a sole founder

Building the technology

‘Banking on it’ - Book

Securing the $48m investment

Crypto

What success looks like for Anne

Work/life balance

Are entrepreneurs born or bred?

Luck

Advice to her younger self

Anne:

https://www.instagram.com/anneboden/

https://twitter.com/anneboden

Anne's book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BANKING-How-I-Disrupted-Industry-ebook/dp/B084H6N2GS

Starling Bank:

https://www.starlingbank.com/

📚 FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com

Say Goodbye - We've now moved! by Simon Squibb

In episode Adam Kamani 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.