Virgin StartUp Changemakers

Meet Founder to Founder, another podcast from Virgin StartUp exploring the role mentorship and community can play in building and scaling a business.

Hosted by Virgin StartUp Mentor and PACK'D founder Luke Johnstone, the series features candid conversations with founders including David Abrahamovitch of Grind, Pip Murray of Pip & Nut, Alex Partridge of UNILAD and LADBible, Olivia Jenkins of D.LOUISE, Andy McNulty of Touch Stay and Abi Selby of Spabreaks.com.

Hear their lessons on startup growth, leadership, resilience and the people who helped them along the way.

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 bonus episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, we sit down with Confident and Killing It founder Tiwalola Adebayo to explore how founders can build the confidence to pursue ambitious ideas without waiting for fear and self-doubt to disappear.

From posting her first confidence video despite wanting to delete it to building a global community, writing a book and working with organisations including Google, Meta and Morgan Stanley, Tiwa shares how taking action shaped her entrepreneurial journey. She explores finding your strengths, building alongside your community, navigating setbacks and developing a mindset that helps you keep moving when entrepreneurship doesn't go to plan.

Whether you're struggling to take the first step, building a business alongside your day job or questioning whether you're ready for your next opportunity, this episode offers practical founder lessons on confidence, community and learning as you go.

In this episode:

• Why confidence doesn't mean eliminating fear or self-doubt
• Taking action before you feel completely ready
• Finding your "power circle" of strengths, passions and values
• Building a startup alongside a full-time job
• Rebuilding when Covid disrupted Tiwa's original business plan
• Turning free content into a community and sustainable business model
• Why founders should build with their community, not in isolation
• Reframing imposter syndrome by remembering what you've already achieved
• Why knowledge and capability aren't the same thing
• Developing a mindset of learning and levelling up

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 Too Good To Go co-founder Jamie Crummie to explore how a simple idea for tackling food waste grew into a global technology business with purpose built into its model.

From witnessing food being thrown away while working at events to building an early website and convincing businesses to take a chance on the idea, Jamie shares the lessons behind Too Good To Go’s growth. He explores finding your first major partners, building a purpose-led team, measuring impact and why keeping things simple can help founders tackle even the biggest problems.

Whether you're building a sustainability startup, developing a marketplace or trying to scale a purpose-led business, this episode offers practical founder lessons on resilience, partnerships, impact and turning a problem you care deeply about into a scalable business.

In this episode:

• Turning first-hand experience of food waste into a business idea
• Why being young and inexperienced gave Jamie the freedom to fail
• How purpose can help founders build resilience through difficult moments
• Growing from startup generalists to a team of specialists
• Landing Too Good To Go's first major partnership with YO! Sushi
• How internal champions can help startups break into bigger businesses
• Building a brand that organisations want to partner with
• Measuring environmental impact without overcomplicating it
• Aligning commercial growth directly with positive impact
• Why food waste is becoming an increasingly important part of the climate conversation

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, Virgin StartUp Managing Director Andy Fishburn sits down with TRIP co-founder Olivia Ferdi to explore how a personal discovery became one of the UK’s fastest-growing wellness brands.

From developing their first drinks with supermarket ingredients to getting TRIP into Selfridges, Soho House and major supermarkets, Olivia shares how instinct, customer feedback and distinctive branding helped turn an unfamiliar wellness ingredient into an accessible consumer proposition. She also explores sampling, word of mouth, retail growth, building a team and what it means to scale a business alongside your husband and co-founder.

Whether you're developing a food or drink product, building a consumer brand or trying to turn early customer enthusiasm into serious growth, this episode offers practical founder lessons on getting started, creating demand and building a brand people want to talk about.

In this episode:

• Turning a personal experience into a startup opportunity
• Building an accessible brand around an unfamiliar product category
• Developing and testing your first physical product
• Why getting your product into customers' hands matters so much
• Using customer feedback and word of mouth to build momentum
• Finding your first retail stockists and getting in front of buyers
• Building an authentic community around a consumer brand
• Growing from a family-run startup into an international team
• Working with your partner as a co-founder
• Protecting your mental wellbeing while scaling 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 fashion designer and founder Olivia Rubin to explore what happens when you stop measuring business success by how fast and how big you can grow.

From creating her first rainbow skirt after stepping away from fashion to building an instantly recognisable brand stocked by major retailers, Olivia shares how creativity, community and social media shaped her unconventional founder journey. She also explains why she chose to slow the business down, produce less and rethink what growth, sustainability and success actually mean to her.

Whether you're building a creative business, feeling the pressure to keep scaling or questioning what success should look like for you, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on creating a business that supports your ambitions without letting the industry define them.

In this episode:

• How rediscovering creativity led to the Olivia Rubin brand
• Building a business organically without starting with a traditional business plan
• Creating a distinctive brand through colour and personal identity
• Using social media to build community, test products and drive sales
• Why founder-led content can be difficult to outsource
• Rethinking overproduction and sustainability in fashion
• Introducing rental and giving existing designs a longer life
• Why Olivia decided to step away from the pressure of constant collections
• Defining success on your own terms rather than chasing endless growth
• Learning to recognise and celebrate the wins along the way

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 Wild co-founder and CMO Charlie Bowes-Lyon to explore how sustainability, standout branding and a strong product can combine to create rapid startup growth.

From identifying an overlooked opportunity in the bathroom to launching during Covid and selling millions of deodorant refills, Charlie shares how Wild created demand in a market investors initially thought was too small. He explores finding product-market fit, building a loyal community, creating memorable marketing, navigating the co-founder relationship and why sustainability has to be embedded in the business rather than added as an afterthought.

Whether you're building a consumer brand, launching a sustainable product or trying to stand out in a crowded market, this episode offers practical founder lessons on customer experience, brand building, resilience and scaling with purpose.

In this episode:

• Finding an opportunity to disrupt an overlooked product category
• Why Wild chose deodorant as its first sustainable bathroom product
• Creating a new market when investors don't believe one exists
• Finding product-market fit while launching during Covid
• Turning your earliest customers into brand advocates
• Building a strong co-founder relationship and navigating disagreements
• Creating marketing people actually remember
• Why not everything needs to be scalable in the early days
• Building culture as your startup team grows
• Why sustainability needs to sit at the heart of the product and business model

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 special live episode of Virgin StartUp Changemakers, Holly Branson sits down with bestselling author and leadership thinker Simon Sinek to explore purpose, optimism and what it takes to build a business for the long term.

Recorded as part of Virgin StartUp’s 10th birthday celebrations, Simon reflects on finding your why, asking for help as a leader and adopting an infinite mindset that focuses less on beating competitors and more on continually improving. Together, Holly and Simon explore the role businesses can play in society, why founders have an opportunity to provide the vision and leadership people are looking for, and how optimism can become a practical force for navigating uncertainty.

Whether you're defining the purpose behind your startup, developing as a leader or thinking about the kind of business you want to build over the next decade, this episode offers a thought-provoking perspective on leadership, vision and building something that lasts.

In this episode:

• Finding and articulating the purpose behind your business
• Why asking for help can make you a stronger founder
• The difference between finite and infinite approaches to business
• Why your competitors can become valuable "worthy rivals"
• Developing a vision bigger than individual products or goals
• The role founders and business leaders can play in society
• Why optimism doesn't mean ignoring difficult realities
• Building belonging and purpose through company culture
• Why founders should focus on early adopters rather than convincing everyone
• The three pieces of advice Simon would give startup founders

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 Grind founder and CEO David Abrahamovitch to explore how a single coffee shop became a multi-channel brand spanning hospitality, home delivery and major partnerships.

From taking over his dad’s old phone shop and opening the first Grind to making a crucial investment in ecommerce just before Covid, David shares the strategic decisions and moments of luck that shaped the business. He also explores building a team and culture as you scale, earning customer trust, raising capital through everything from crowdfunding to angel investment and why the founder’s role has to evolve as the company becomes more complex.

Whether you're growing a consumer brand, expanding into new revenue streams or navigating the shift from founder-does-everything to leading a larger organisation, this episode offers practical lessons on brand building, business growth, people and funding.

In this episode:

• Turning a family phone shop into the first Grind
• Why Grind expanded beyond physical coffee shops
• The strategic decision that helped the business survive and grow through Covid
• Building direct-to-consumer revenue alongside a hospitality business
• Why brand and company culture are inseparable
• Hiring people who can grow with the business
• Building customer trust through the decisions nobody sees
• Raising capital through bootstrapping, angel investment and crowdfunding
• How the founder's role changes as a company scales
• What becoming an angel investor taught David about raising money

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 Ocean Bottle co-founder Will Pearson to explore how founders can build environmental impact into the commercial model of a growing business.

From witnessing the scale of ocean plastic pollution first-hand to building a brand that has funded the collection of more than one billion plastic bottles in weight, Will shares how Ocean Bottle combines product, purpose and profit. He also explores building a recognisable brand, landing major corporate partnerships, fundraising, surviving a 90% revenue drop during Covid and staying focused when there are countless problems you want your business to solve.

Whether you're building a sustainable startup, developing a purpose-led consumer brand or working out how to scale without diluting your impact, this episode offers practical founder lessons on focus, partnerships, funding and turning purpose into a business model.

In this episode:

• Turning first-hand experience of ocean plastic into a startup idea
• Building environmental and social impact into your business model
• Why businesses need to make sustainable choices easier for customers
• Building a brand with the longevity to support a long-term mission
• How corporate partnerships became an unexpected growth channel
• Staying focused when your mission creates countless opportunities
• Finding investors who genuinely align with your purpose
• Surviving a 90% fall in revenue during Covid
• Why founders need peers who understand the realities of entrepreneurship
• Scaling impact alongside commercial growth

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 Self Space co-founder and therapist Chance Marshall to explore what changes when we stop treating mental health support as something reserved for moments of crisis.

Chance shares the personal experiences that led him towards therapy and how Self Space grew from a tiny two-room site in Shoreditch into a mental health business bringing therapy onto the high street. The conversation explores making therapy more accessible, building a brand that challenges traditional perceptions of mental healthcare, navigating co-founder relationships and protecting your own wellbeing while growing a purpose-led business.

Whether you're building a business around a deeply personal mission, thinking about your own mental health as a founder or trying to create a brand capable of changing behaviour, this episode offers a candid perspective on growth, purpose and making space for the human side of entrepreneurship.

In this episode:

• Why mental health support shouldn't begin only when things go wrong
• How Chance's personal experiences shaped his journey into therapy
• Taking therapy out of the traditional therapy room and onto the high street
• How Self Space grew without a conventional marketing strategy
• Building a human brand around a traditionally stigmatised subject
• Navigating a co-founder relationship with honesty and self-awareness
• Balancing purpose with the commercial realities of scaling a business
• Why founders shouldn't mistake perfection for progress
• Chance's approach to mental maintenance and protecting his own wellbeing
• Why moments of joy matter when building a business is hard

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.