40 Minute Mentor

“Where it does become an issue for you, the people around you, your team and your family, is when you are burning out, getting stressed and ill, because you’re not finding any balance at all.”  In this second part of our new 40 Minute Mentor mini-series, we learn more about the lessons our Founder, CEO and host of this podcast, James Mitra, learned over the last 10 years of building and scaling JB...

“I’m ashamed to say I was a bit embarrassed at times when I went to dinner parties and told people what I did for a living. There was always this reputation of sharky, dishonest recruiters.”  This week, we’re launching the first of a special two-part Series on 40 Minute Mentor.  JBM turned 10 years old this year and we’re officially turning the microphone and sharing our own Startup story.  In tod...

“I realised that for the first time in my career, I reported to a board and investors, but the decisions were on me. It was all on me.”  In this week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by Stuart Packham, CEO of our Series Sponsor’s Alchemist, JBM board advisor and longtime mentor and friend of team JBM.  Our host, James Mitra, and Stu have known each other for years, dating back to their day...

Series 8 of 40 Minute Mentor has officially come to a close.  It’s been 12 weeks of brilliant mentorship from some of the best in the industry, including: ➡️ Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson , Britain's greatest Paralympian and Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords  ➡️ Graham Hobson , Founder of Photobox ➡️ Molly Johnson-Jones , Co-Founder and CEO of Flexa ➡️ Sho Sugihara , Founder and CEO of Pave ➡️...

“When people say that money doesn't make you happy, they've often not experienced both extremes." For our final 40 Minute Mentor episode of this Series, we’re joined by Ellie McKay, property entrepreneur and host of the popular ‘On A Mission’ Podcast.  Not long ago, Ellie’s life was barely recognisable - raising three children under the age of five, battling postnatal depression and facing redunda...

“Don't think because you perhaps don't have a typical background for VC, that you're not welcomed. That's actually far from the truth.” In our penultimate episode of this 40 Minute Mentor series, we’re joined by Eleanor Kaye, Executive Director at Newton Venture Program.  Newton is a joint venture between London Business School and Local Globe VC, on a mission to ensure the next generation of VCs...

“It’s okay not to know. It’s not okay not to learn.”  The Metaverse often makes headlines, but what does it really mean?  In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by Joe Robinson, the CEO of Improbable Defence. Improbable is a British Metaverse technology Scaleup and Unicorn, that partners with video game developers, entertainment companies and defence institutions to help them bring to l...

“We don’t just recruit for mission alignment, but for mission obsession. You can spot a mission obsessed person from a mile away - they almost can’t contain it within them.”  In this week’s bite-sized 40 Minute Mentor episode, we talk about all things hiring - the importance of getting hiring right and how hiring for values can help with that.  In almost every conversation we have with Founders, h...

“Write what you know. Two black girls from South London wrote a book that resonates with 1000s of people around the world.” In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by Elizabeth Uviebinené, the multi-award-winning author, columnist at The Financial Times, and Founder of Storia.  After starting her career in marketing, Elizabeth went on to publish five books, including her debut Bestseller...

“The beauty of a portfolio career is that it gives you lots of flexibility and variety. And that’s been the number one reason a lot of people are choosing this path.”  In this bite-sized 40 Minute Mentor episode, we discuss a topic which has increasingly become more popular amongst our candidates - portfolio careers.  You’ll find out:  ➡️ Why this has become such an interesting option for high-per...

“I’ve been rejected by every ideal university I imagined I wanted to go to, at least 50 jobs I interviewed for and by 130 VC funds in fundraising so far.” In this 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by James Lo, Co-Founder and CEO of Mana - the app designed to help everyone make a living by sharing their passion.  James started his entrepreneurial journey early, founding an educational social e...

“Within 24 hours, we said goodbye to all our corporate partners and set off on a new path.”  In this week’s bite-sized 40 Minute Mentor episode, we chat more about the pivot that turned JBM into the search firm it is today.  James Mitra, Founder of JBM and Host of 40 Minute Mentor, talks us through why he decided to pivot the business, the drastic decision he had to make and why transparency, empa...

“Even CEOs have those moments of doubt and vulnerability. I continually have to work on making sure that I'm balancing the journey with enjoying the journey.”  This week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode features Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, a FinTech helping businesses make the crypto economy a safe place to transact and invest by managing financial crime in crypto.  Having had the pleasure of working...

“There is nothing wrong with doubting yourself. Having a bit of self doubt is good, because it means you’re constantly trying to improve, grow and evolve.”  In this week’s bite-sized 40 Minute Mentor episode, we tackle a topic that is often discussed amongst Founders and leaders - imposter syndrome.  Having experienced imposter syndrome on many occasions over the last 10 years of leading JBM, our...

“If you're not in a situation where you can safely take a year or two to start your own business, you probably shouldn't do it.” In this week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by the brilliant Job van der Voort, Co-Founder and CEO of Remote, the FinTech empowering companies of all sizes to pay and manage workers in 50+ countries all over the world.  Having always had a desire to start his o...

“When your values are so set and embedded in what you do, then anything that doesn’t line up with them, is a ‘No’.”  This 40 Minute Mentor episode, is the live recording we were honoured to host at this year’s Sifted Summit in London .  Our panel discussion was all about putting purpose over profit and accelerating impact - a topic that has gained a lot of traction over the last years.  Gone are t...

“There's a very long list of these iconic companies that actually weren't started by first time Founders.” In this week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by the brilliant Ian Hogarth , a hugely accomplished Entrepreneur, Angel Investor and Co-Founder of Plural Platform , an exciting new early-stage platform dedicated to investing in Europe’s next generation of tech companies with global amb...

“The more we talk about mental health, the more we normalise it and hopefully help save lives.”   This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is ‘making mental health and wellbeing a global priority for all’ - something we’ve spoken about a lot on 40 Minute Mentor over the years.  Whether it’s our mental health panel discussions, the day to day lived experience of mental health of the Founders we ch...

“If we’re trying to say that the only way to find answers and the only way to fund climate issues is through equity based investment, it’s just not going to work. It doesn’t suit every type of business.”  In this week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by the brilliant Amali de Alwis, CEO of Subak, the world’s first not-for-profit accelerator that scales climate impact through data, policy a...

“Sometimes you can use difficult times to come up with incredible new ideas. It’s a great opportunity to get your team to think creatively and empower them to come to you with suggestions and try new things. It's probably going to be pretty scrappy, but you never know, it might just be the making of your business.”  In this week’s bite-sized 40 Minute Mentor episode, we talk about navigating chall...

“It's really demotivating in the early days to keep building, keep building but nothing seems to happen. You need tenacity and planning skills to get you through that.”  In this week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by the brilliant Sho Sugihara, Founder and CEO of Pave, the FinTech-for-good helping customers improve their credit score and history with bill monitoring and credit building. ...

40 Minute Mentor LIVE and in person!  We’re attending Sifted Summit on Thursday, October 6th , to record a live panel discussion with some of the most inspiring purpose-driven Founders and Investors.  If you haven’t heard of Sifted Summit before, it’s the Startup event of the year, bringing startup Europe under one roof with new perspectives, new opportunities and new chances to collaborate.  Our...

“The biggest shift in the candidate market is that people care just as much about how they work as what they do.”  In this week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by the brilliant Molly Johnson-Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Flexa.  Flexa is a global directory of verified flexible companies that lists companies by vacancies and flexibility percentage scores, benchmarked against thousands of da...

“We’ve really found that added flexibility has been an amazing way to attract talent, retain talent, and give everybody a chance to work in a way they want to work.”  In this week’s bite-sized 40 Minute Mentor episode, we talk about all things flexible working and the way in which we’ve implemented more flexible ways of working here at JBM.  We touch on the various benefits we introduced to the JB...

“Entrepreneurship is a process of natural selection. You can't ever guarantee that the playbook you're going to follow is going to guarantee success.”  In this week’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by Graham Hobson, the Founder of Photobox, a photo printing company that acquired Moonpig and was later sold for a reported £400 million. Today, Graham is an angel investor, mentor and advisor,...