Virgin StartUp Changemakers

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with GoHenry co-founder Louise Hill to explore what it takes to build a business that doesn't just solve a customer problem, but sets out to change the system around it.

After seeing her own children struggle to understand the value of money in an increasingly digital world, Louise helped create GoHenry to give young people a practical way to learn by doing. She shares how questioning accepted industry rules helped the team enter financial services without a traditional banking background, why founders need to know when to push through scepticism and how GoHenry expanded its mission beyond its paying customers by campaigning for financial education in schools.

Whether you're challenging an established industry, building a purpose-led business or trying to turn a deeply held mission into meaningful change, this episode offers practical founder lessons on persistence, leadership, culture and having the confidence to ask why things can't be done differently.

In this episode:

• Spotting a business opportunity through a problem Louise experienced as a parent
• Validating whether a personal frustration represents a wider customer need
• Entering financial services without a traditional banking background
• Why founders should ask to see the rule when they're told something can't be done
• How permission to fail can build entrepreneurial confidence
• Turning "making every kid smart with money" into a mission beyond GoHenry's paying customers
• Convincing the board that commercial growth and campaigning for change could coexist
• GoHenry's role in campaigning for financial education in schools
• Building a company culture around family, flexibility and transparency
• Why founders shouldn't apologise for asking for help, introductions or investment
• Knowing when to listen to criticism and when to trust your conviction
• What the original Pocket Money brand taught the team about naming a business
• How GoHenry got its name from its first child customer

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with UNROOTED founder Nathan Clemes to explore how you build demand for a product when most of your customers have never heard of its hero ingredient.

From leaving a career in finance to building a functional drinks brand around baobab, Nathan shares how UNROOTED turned an unfamiliar African fruit into a proposition customers and retailers could understand. He explores finding what makes your product genuinely distinctive, educating without overwhelming people, starting with smaller stockists before approaching major retailers and why even the most compelling founder story sometimes needs to be distilled into just a few words.

Whether you're introducing a new product, creating a category or trying to convince customers to care about something unfamiliar, this episode offers practical founder lessons on positioning, customer education, retail growth and turning a complex story into a clear proposition.

In this episode:

• Knowing when you're ready to leave your career and back a startup idea
• Finding the opportunity between growing consumer trends
• Why UNROOTED chose baobab as its hero ingredient
• Identifying what makes your product genuinely different
• Educating customers about an ingredient they've never encountered before
• Finding the right hook when your product has dozens of potential benefits
• Why smaller retailers can be the best place to test and learn
• Building evidence of customer demand before approaching major stockists
• Launching a consumer brand just as Covid disrupted the original plan
• Adapting from a retail-first launch to ecommerce and Amazon
• Growing from early stockists into Sainsbury's and airline partnerships
• Building positive impact into the baobab supply chain
• Why founders need to turn a big story into one message customers can remember

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with COAT Paints co-founder Rob Abrahams to explore how a startup can take on an established industry without trying to compete with everyone in it.

From spotting a frustrating customer experience in a market dominated by longstanding brands to building a made-to-order paint business around a clearly defined audience, Rob shares why narrowing your focus can give challengers an advantage. He explores finding the right co-founder, listening closely to customers, raising venture capital, scaling sustainably and why building a bigger business can sometimes be harder than starting one.

Whether you're entering a crowded market, building a challenger brand or deciding how ambitious you want your startup to become, this episode offers practical founder lessons on differentiation, customer insight, funding, sustainability and staying focused as you scale.

In this episode:

• Finding the right idea after exploring plenty of wrong ones
• Why founder-market fit helped Rob and his co-founder choose COAT
• Combining complementary skills when choosing a co-founder
• Taking on established competitors without trying to win the entire market
• Why narrowing your audience can make a challenger brand stronger
• Starting with founder instinct, then evolving through customer feedback
• Why COAT doesn't think of itself as simply selling paint
• Choosing between building a profitable independent business and pursuing venture-backed growth
• What changed after taking institutional investment
• Why becoming profitable was a major milestone after raising capital
• Building a made-to-order model around reducing waste
• Protecting sustainability commitments when cheaper alternatives emerge
• Why Rob believes scaling can be harder than starting
• The founder mental health conversations that startup culture needs to have more often

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with Pretty Little Marketer founder Sophie Miller to explore how listening to your audience, experimenting in public and building genuine connection can turn an online following into a thriving business.

What started as an Instagram page Sophie created while feeling lost about her own marketing career has grown into a community reaching more than half a million people. Sophie shares how she built Pretty Little Marketer without a traditional business plan, responded to what her audience actually needed and eventually turned years of trust and community-building into a sustainable business. She also explores choosing the right social platforms, getting comfortable with being seen trying and why the systems behind your business matter long before you think you'll need them.

Whether you're building an audience, growing a founder-led brand or trying to turn an engaged community into a viable business, this episode offers practical lessons on social media, experimentation, advocacy and building around the people you want to serve.

In this episode:

• Starting before you know exactly what your business will become
• Getting comfortable with the cringe of trying something new in public
• Turning an Instagram audience into a genuine community
• Why Sophie built Pretty Little Marketer by responding to what people asked for
• The difference between building an audience and building a community
• Creating connection between your customers, not just between them and your brand
• Why community advocacy can become a powerful growth channel
• Being an advocate for your business without making yourself the entire brand
• Choosing social platforms based on what you want to be known for and who you want to reach
• Why doing one platform well can beat trying to be everywhere
• Using new platforms as a sandbox for experimentation
• Why systems and processes can future-proof a founder-led business when life doesn't go to plan

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with Desmond & Dempsey co-founder Molly Goddard to explore how a simple idea around pyjamas became a brand built around something much bigger: taking more pleasure in slowing down.

From making their first 100 sets in London while working other jobs to collaborations with brands including H&M and the Natural History Museum, Molly shares how storytelling, curiosity and a willingness to ask for help shaped Desmond & Dempsey. She explores building a brand before perfecting the product, balancing creativity with commercial reality, working alongside her husband and co-founder and creating a culture where play and hard work can coexist.

Whether you're building a consumer brand, turning a creative idea into a viable business or trying to protect what makes your brand distinctive as it grows, this episode offers practical founder lessons on storytelling, product, culture and building with curiosity.

In this episode:

• Spotting the gap that became Desmond & Dempsey
• Why a little naivety can be an advantage when starting a business
• Asking for help when you don't know how an industry works
• Testing demand with the first 100 sets of pyjamas
• Building the brand story before the finished product existed
• Why storytelling and product quality play different roles in customer loyalty
• Keeping your purpose consistent while evolving how you communicate it
• Balancing creative integrity with the need to build a profitable business
• Creating rituals that bring play, celebration and curiosity into company culture
• What Molly has learned from building a business with her husband and co-founder
• Why co-founders need to align on risk, work and integrity
• Treating mistakes as learning, as long as you don't make the same one twice
• The collaborations and milestones that created some of Desmond & Dempsey's biggest "pinch me" moments

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with Fanbytes founder Timothy Armoo to explore why building a successful business isn't just about how hard you work, but choosing the right opportunity to work on in the first place.

From starting his first business at 14 to launching Fanbytes at university and eventually selling the influencer marketing company in an eight-figure exit, Timothy shares the mindset and lessons behind his entrepreneurial journey. He explores learning from failed businesses, building valuable skills, experimenting without becoming attached to the outcome and why founders should look for growing markets where demand is already emerging.

Whether you're searching for a startup idea, building your first business or trying to work out where to focus next, this episode offers practical founder lessons on resilience, opportunity, experimentation and increasing your chances of building something people genuinely want.

In this episode:

• Finding the "third door" when traditional routes to an opportunity are closed
• What Timothy's first failed business taught him at 14
• Why every big business starts with a small first transaction
• Treating failed ideas as training for the business that eventually works
• Building the skills your next stage of growth requires
• Why your business doesn't have to become your identity
• Using "it's not that deep" to navigate setbacks and founder pressure
• What happened when a £500,000 investment fell through at the last minute
• Why you should expect to act before you feel completely ready
• Building a network when you don't already have one
• Why Timothy doesn't believe founders need completely original ideas
• Using "wave picking" to identify growing markets and better startup opportunities
• Why what you choose to work on can matter more than how hard you work

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with Childs Farm founder Joanna Jensen to explore how deep customer understanding, strong relationships and relentless persistence helped turn a personal problem into a major British skincare brand.

Inspired by her daughter's eczema-prone skin, Joanna developed products she believed could better serve families like hers, testing early samples with parents before fighting to get Childs Farm onto the shelves of retailers including Waitrose and Boots. She shares how genuine customer recommendations transformed the business, why suppliers should be treated as part of your team and what founders need to understand before taking investment and eventually selling their company.

Whether you're developing a consumer product, trying to win your first major retailer or preparing to scale a growing brand, this episode offers practical founder lessons on customer research, word of mouth, relationships, investment and building a business around a problem you genuinely understand.

In this episode:

• Turning a personal problem into an opportunity to challenge an established category
• Testing early products with real customers before going to market
• How persistence helped Childs Farm break into Waitrose and Boots
• Creating a point of difference through clinical and user trials
• The customer Facebook post that helped transform the business
• Building a marketing strategy around standout packaging, sampling and word of mouth
• Why genuine customer advocacy can be more powerful than paid influence
• Treating manufacturers and suppliers as an extension of your team
• How a strong supplier relationship helped Childs Farm through a major funding crisis
• What changes when you take money from external investors
• Navigating the decision to sell a deeply personal business
• Why Joanna's most important founder advice is to know your customer inside out

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with Hertility co-founder Dr Helen O’Neill to explore what happens when scientific expertise, lived experience and a refusal to accept the status quo come together.

From starting Hertility as a clinical trial to building a platform designed to give women better answers about their reproductive health, Helen shares why women’s healthcare has been held back by poor data, delayed diagnoses and systems that often intervene too late. She also explores funding a women’s health startup, building trust in a high-stakes category and why education is just as important as access when it comes to helping people understand their bodies.

Whether you’re building in healthtech, solving a problem rooted in lived experience or trying to create change in an industry that has overlooked its customers for too long, this episode offers practical founder lessons on evidence, trust, resilience and building with purpose.

In this episode:

• Why Hertility started as a clinical trial rather than a traditional startup
• Turning scientific expertise into a solution for an underserved healthcare problem
• Why women are often asked to wait too long for answers about their reproductive health
• What 7,000 expressions of interest revealed about unmet demand
• Building a healthcare product when there is no room for a careless MVP
• What founders can achieve before seeking external investment
• Why bringing potential critics into the process early can build trust
• The funding challenges facing women’s health businesses
• How Hertility is building better data on female reproductive health
• What emerging data suggests about vaping and reproductive hormones
• Why reproductive health education is still missing from so many people’s lives
• Building a founding team around science, law and operations

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with Nice and Serious co-founder Tom Tapper to explore how founders can turn purpose from something they talk about into something that actively shapes how they run their business.

From landing a first project with Sky with no agency experience to building a purpose-led creative agency over 17 years, Tom shares why Nice and Serious is defined as much by the work it turns down as the work it takes on. He explores giving employees a genuine say in business decisions, creating campaigns that cut through, experimenting with ideas and why growing slowly can sometimes be smarter than chasing somebody else's version of success.

Whether you're building a purpose-led business, developing your brand or trying to create marketing that people actually notice, this episode offers practical founder lessons on values, creativity, company culture and staying true to what your business exists to do.

In this episode:

• Turning an unexpected first opportunity into a creative agency
• Why your purpose should guide what you say no to as well as what you pursue
• How Nice and Serious uses its Moral Compass to let employees vote on prospective client briefs
• Why turning down lucrative work can strengthen your brand
• Giving employees meaningful ownership over important business decisions
• Building a values-led team without compromising on talent and quality
• Why surprise is one of the most powerful tools in marketing
• Creating distinctive campaigns without a huge marketing budget
• Testing ideas rather than putting everything behind one big campaign
• Finding the intersection that makes your founder or brand voice distinctive
• What an expensive expansion into New York taught Tom about chasing other people's definitions of success
• Why protecting the quality of your work can matter more than growing quickly

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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

In this live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Natalie Pearce sits down with Mous co-founder James Griffith to explore how relentless product development and attention-grabbing marketing helped turn an early failure into a global tech accessories brand.

From losing their savings on the first version of Mous to moving to China to learn how to build better products, James shares why founders need to get the fundamentals right before chasing growth. He explores crowdfunding, testing marketing ideas, building viral content, delegating to a team you trust and why failure can become an invaluable source of learning when you're prepared to keep going.

Whether you're developing a physical product, experimenting with startup marketing or trying to build a team capable of scaling with you, this episode offers practical founder lessons on product development, resilience, testing and creating a brand that gets noticed.

In this episode:

• How dyslexia influenced James's route into entrepreneurship
• Why founders should build teams around complementary strengths
• Learning to delegate rather than trying to control everything
• What went wrong with the first version of Mous
• Moving to China and getting paid to learn from earlier product mistakes
• Why product quality needs to come before founder thought leadership
• Testing products with real customers throughout development
• Turning crowdfunding into a launchpad for Mous
• How testing multiple ideas led to Mous's distinctive viral marketing
• Why founders shouldn't be afraid of looking ridiculous when experimenting
• Building healthy disagreement into co-founder relationships
• Developing new products around capabilities rather than chasing unrelated opportunities

Changemakers is brought to you by Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit organisation helping founders start and scale the businesses they're passionate about.

Recorded live at Virgin StartUp's Changemakers events, every episode features honest conversations with entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders sharing the lessons, challenges and ideas shaping the future of business.

Looking to start or grow your own business?

Find out more at virginstartup.org

Brought to you in partnership with our friends at Virgin Money - the home of brighter business banking.

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