Scale-up Confessions

Matthew Phelan is Co-CEO of The Happiness Index, a SaaS platform that helps organisations measure their key employee engagement and happiness drivers. Matt is also a speaker and business adviser. Prior to the Happiness Index, he founded, scaled and sold a digital marketing agency called 4Ps Marketing (which serviced over 100 brands such as Selfridges, M&S, Nissan and L'Oréal). In this episode...

Alfie Lambert is a Co-Founder (Product and Growth Lead) at BizCrunch, an advanced off-market deal discovery platform which helps business users identify potential companies to acquire, providing vital metrics and key contact data. With over 10 years’ experience working with startups and scale-ups, primarily in B2B data, AI & Data Science, Alfie has co-founded two startups and successfully pitc...

Freddie Szydlowski is a CoFounder of Embargo, the UK's & Poland's no1 plug&play digital loyalty wallet & CRM platform helping coffee shops, restaurants, bakeries, dessert parlours & deli's boost repeat revenues and customer loyalty across walk-ins, delivery and pickup ordering.  Santiago Gamboa and  Victor Gamboa  are Cofounders of Hemanos, Colombian Coffee Roasters...

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, host Rob Liddiard explains how the Six Key Components of EOS (Vision; People; Data; Issues; Process; and Traction) impacted his life and business as the Cofounder CEO of Yapster (a software company with 100,000 paid users, serving companies such as Brewdog, Caffe Nero, Krispy Kreme, Next and Wagamama). Rob spent 5 years (2015-2020) running Yapste...

Ashley Harris is an experienced Operations Leader used to working in fast-growing and high-pressure companies. He spent 5 years working at Tesla, where he rose to a management role for European Operations and Logistics. He's currently Director of Operations for Clearview, a pioneering company in the Machine Vision space, where he works with the Managing Director and Senior Leadership Team to help...

In 4 years, Eddie Whittingham went from working 9-5 (first as a policeman and then as a lawyer), to bootstrapping a cyber-security startup as a sole founder and selling it to a NASDAQ-listed company in a multi-million pound exit. Since then, he's bought an 1891 chapel and converted it into a premium co-working space in Greater Manchester, founded GoFounder.com (accountability for high-potential fo...

Do you know what a great early-stage customer looks like?   Customer-side Visionaries like Dara Howley of the RAF Museum (speaking In this episode with Ashley Staines about her selection of Volunteero ) might not be common, but they are evenly distributed across society. If you're doing and saying the right things in any market, you will get opportunities to execute your Vision by serving the...

Eyal Malinger is a Partner at Resurge Growth Partners, helping growth businesses thrive in a market where capital is scarce. He takes a more active investment approach than traditional venture capital firms, backing businesses that may have fallen off the VC flight path but still deserve to be funded. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Eyal explains the structure of Venture Capita...

Andrew Lynch is a well-known X (formerly Twitter) finance thought leader with experience in companies of all sizes and a wide range of industries industries. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Andrew explains the building blocks of a finance function (as illustrated in a recent SecretCFO newsletter https://www.cfosecrets.io/p/first-foundation-finance ); how a first-time founder sh...

Kris Ingham is the Founder of https://liquidation.store/ , the excess stock e-retailer which saves good stock from landfill via flash sales, offering consumers up to 75% off big brands. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Kris reflects on the failure of his first venture, Rejuvenation Water (which he managed to get stocked in 5 of the top 6 UK Grocers) and what he learned from the...

Rob Smith is Co-founder at Slick, the fastest growing online booking solution for Hair and Beauty. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Rob shares learnings from his experience building complex business software for low-tech, highly-creative Hair & Beauty industry users.  Interested listeners can reach Rob Smith via his LinkedIn ( https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robert-wp-smith...

Michael Tingsager is Co-Founder of Pulse Kitchen (The plant-rich meal solution for Food Service) and Host of Hospitality Mavericks Podcast Show. With a lifetime of experience in the hospitality industry behind him, Michael is known for his passion for making a positive impact on people, communities, and the planet through service businesses.  In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast...

Steve Sharp is Founder and Managing Director of Nuvo, a leading firm of Chartered Certified Accountants providing accountancy services for owner managed businesses. Nuvo was recently recognised as a UK Top 100 accounting practice, following a sustained period of organic and acquisition-driven growth. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Steve shares his experiences implementing the...

Scott Brown is Founder & CVO of Heriot Brown In-House Legal Recruitment and host of the Lessons I Learned In Law podcast. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Scott shares how he made the transition from Corporate Lawyer to business owner and the hard lessons he learned about himself as a Leader and Manager along the way!   Interested viewers can reach Scott - https://www.l...

Meg Payne was EOS Integrator and Operations Director for Yapster when it was acquired by Sona with Google backing in 2022. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Meg explains why the Entrepreneurial Operating System(EOS)’s Process component matters for startups and how it contributed to Yapster’s success, including how processes helped in getting the company acquired. Interested liste...

Ian Jones is Managing Director at Care & Independence Limited, a venture-capital-backed company which provides a range of products to aid mobility, independence and improve daily life for the elderly and less able. Ian is a qualified Accountant and experienced Finance Leader by background, and in this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast he shares how and why he chose The Entrepreneurial...

Adam Johnson is the owner of The Plough, Harborne - "The place where people feel good".   In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Adam shares his story of how, after years of delivering great hospitality, quality food and a bustling but easy-going atmosphere, The Plough 'hit the ceiling' and he turned to The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to rediscover his passion for - an...

John Mason is a serial entrepreneur, currently on a mission to make workplace learning more spontaneous, inclusive and continuous through his technology company, Sideways. Prior to Sideways, John founded a range of software and services businesses that were ahead of their time (for example, a peer-to-peer knowledge sharing app for the frontline economy and a virtual golf coach, both long before sm...

Stephen Phillips is a passionate restaurant professional, with a reputation for driving standards and bottom-line targets for the UK's favourite casual dining brands. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast Steve shares key learnings for first-time hospitality founders - how to select sites, shape menus, build great teams and generally increase a new hospitality business' chances of sur...

Alan Williamson is an experienced Chief Technology Officer and provider of operating partner services in technical and data analytics for private equity and investment companies. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast Alan shares his experience from mentoring numerous CTOs who have been catapulted  by private equity investment and acquisition from 'a founder's most technical mate'...

Rob Dumbleton is a B2B SaaS expert and entrepreneur, with a focus on high growth stage (start-up and scale-up) SaaS, who has successfully started, led, raised finance and sold software businesses. In this episode of the First-time Founders podcast, Rob explains how he learned first-hand the importance of taking a scientific, data-led approach to customer discovery and product positioning. Interest...

Jeremy Dunderdale is an IT and Security leader, with experience working for top Hospitality companies such as TGI Fridays, Cote and Sodexo. In this episode of the First-time Founders podcast, Jeremy talks about how he selected and partnered with entrepreneurial suppliers over the years to deliver digital transformation in the hospitality sector. Interested listeners can reach Jeremy via LinkedIn a...

Matthew Dashper-Hughes is International Director and a Business Coach for GunnerCooke, the UK's fastest growing law firm. Prior to his role with Gunnercooke, Matthew held a wide range of executive leadership positions including serving as Chief Operating Officer for Ryman Stationers, the nationwide UK retailer, where he was one of Yapster's first Founder Customers. Matthews specialisms include exe...

Lina Olea is a mission-driven Marketer, currently serving as Marketing Director for UK Hospitality wifi and data insights provider, Wireless Social. Lina is well known professionally for her creativity and resilience, having worked in seven different countries and now spent 5 years in the tech start-up world. However, in this episode of the First-time Founders podcast, she talks about one of her l...

Steve Carpenter spent 30 years leading people functions for fast-growth businesses like TGI Fridays, Pret A Manger, Caffè Nero, Hotel Chocolat, and Krispy Kreme (Caffè Nero grew ten-fold in his decade as their HR lead and Krispy Kreme doubled in size whilst Steve was their People & Culture Director), hiring thousands of people and procuring a wide range of products and services along the way....