Founder to Founder

In this episode of Founder to Founder, Luke Johnstone sits down with Abi Selby, founder of Spabreaks.com , to explore how she built the UK's leading spa booking platform while staying true to a mission of making wellness more accessible, inclusive and meaningful. What began as a simple idea grew into a £36 million business that now sends more than 16,000 people to spas every week. Along the way, A...

In this episode of Founder to Founder, Luke Johnstone sits down with Pip Murray, founder of Pip & Nut , to explore how a simple idea born from marathon training became one of the UK's best-known challenger food brands. What started with homemade nut butter, a blender and weekend market stalls grew into a multi-million-pound business stocked in major supermarkets across the UK. Pip shares the r...

In this episode of Founder to Founder, Luke Johnstone sits down with Andy McNulty, co-founder of Touch Stay , to explore the journey of building, scaling and ultimately selling a SaaS business with no technical background. Before founding Touch Stay, Andy held senior leadership roles at brands including Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Victoria Beckham. But it was a frustrating holiday rental experien...

In this episode of Founder to Founder, Luke Johnstone sits down with Olivia Jenkins, founder of D.LOUISE , to discuss how she built one of the UK's fastest-growing jewellery brands from scratch with no industry experience, no business background and a powerful personal mission. After losing her mother and facing a period of uncertainty during the pandemic, Olivia channelled her energy into creatin...

In this episode of Founder to Founder, Luke Johnstone sits down with David Abrahamovitch, founder and CEO of GRIND , to explore what it really takes to build and scale a modern consumer brand. David shares how he transformed his late father's old mobile phone shop on Old Street into one of London's most recognisable coffee brands, before expanding into direct-to-consumer, retail, grocery and hospi...

What happens when an ADHD diagnosis helps explain your entire founder journey? In this episode of Founder to Founder, Luke Johnstone sits down with Alex Partridge, founder of UNILAD, co-founder of LADbible, host of the ADHD Chatter podcast and Virgin StartUp Mentor. Alex shares the highs and lows of building some of the UK's biggest media brands, the legal battle that nearly cost him everything, a...

Take a look at our lineup for our new podcast launching next week!   We’ve been behind the scenes with some of the UK’s boldest business minds - who all happen to be Virgin StartUp Mentors — David Abrahamovitch (GRIND), Pip Murray (Pip & Nut), Olivia Jenkins (D. Louise), Andy McNulty (Touch Stay), Abi Selby (Spabreaks.com), and Alex Partridge (UniLad & LADBible) — to talk growth, grit...