Curious Business: The B2B Growth Podcast

Work is fragmenting - many companies are building smaller permanent cores, augmented by project-based freelancers. It makes sense on paper. But do we have the skills, processes, and mindset to make it work for everyone involved? Matthew Knight has spent a decade studying this exact area. In this episode, we explore the real gaps between lean-team theory and practice - and what B2B leaders need to...

How many of the companies or people you admire got where they are by following a process? And how many took advantage of a lucky break or serendipitous pivot? We almost never think about the influence of chance on business strategy  — the randomness in the path to every success. What if the biggest competitive advantage isn't better planning - it's embracing randomness? Looking for the serendipity...

Most B2B software companies are leaving serious money on the table — not because the product isn't good enough, not because the sales team needs more training. It's the pricing strategy. It's not the number you choose, it's everything that comes before it. Roee Hartuv is the founder of Willingness to Pay, a consultancy that helps B2B SaaS companies redesign product pricing and packaging from first...

We Invest In People is the oldest principle in venture capital. It's also, Soma Pirityi argues, the industry's longest-running paradox. 65% of startups fail due to team-related issues, not because they can't sell or find product market fit. So why can't we better measure, predict and guide startup teams to success?  Soma is the founder of ETA Technologies, the Cambridge-based company that's on a m...

You couldn't make it up. But Neil Mullarkey does. He co-founded the World Famous Comedy Store Players with Mike Myers, appeared in the Austin Powers films, and has spent 40 years making things up in front of live audiences. For the last 27 years, he's been sharing those skills in boardrooms, with teams, and even with cybersecurity experts. In this episode, discover why thinking on your feet isn't...

Chris Stone has spent 13 years in the podcast industry, creating audio and video content for major UK publishers like The Telegraph, Evening Standard and New Statesman. He also writes the Podcast Strategy Weekly newsletter. But there's a twist: he doesn't have a podcast of his own. Why? Instead, he's launching Podcast Crew - a vetted marketplace solving a huge B2B gap in podcast production hiring....

After growing up as a programmer, hating school, and being given a chance to follow his passion via an apprenticeship, Justin Megawarne is the co-founder of Megaslice, a technology consultancy with a difference. Justin progressed to consulting, software architecture and CTO roles. However, he became tired of seeing technically excellent work fail commercially. So, along with co-founder Mikal, he b...

How do you build and fund a business built around a mission that life-changing for your community but doesn’t represent a typical 10x opportunity for investors? Meet Kirsten Jack, founder of Uncommon, the online community where neurodivergent young people can connect, find their people, and build the support networks they need. At a crossroads in a her career, Kirsten did more than change jobs. Sh...

While competitors race to scale by loading their products with emulsifiers, humectants and sweeteners - and call it health food - The Protein Ball Company has stayed stubbornly natural, and accepted slower but more sustainable growth. This is an episode about the hard yards of business: logistics, cash flow, risk, scaling production, export paperwork, and the instincts no degree or accelerator wil...

What happens when a professional writer who finds AI-generated content "quite horrific" decides to build an AI writing platform to help people show up more authentically on LinkedIn? With AI as his development team? Nigel Jay Cooper found himself in exactly that position. He'd spent a decade training professionals and teams in employee advocacy to create authentic LinkedIn content. He was also det...

Imagine being told someone you love is dying, and then discovering they have been trapped in a coercive and controlling relationship. You'd turn to a number of agencies to seek help, guidance and justice. But it turns out you often need to know the 'magic words' to unlock that help.   In this episode of Curious Business, Stephen Midgley recounts how he navigated those challenges and leaned on Chat...

With ecosystems increasingly outperforming standalone firms, marketing leaders’ key skills may lie in their ability to get their organisations to influence, persuade, enable, and collaborate. In an ever-noisier and more complex market, the companies that can co-create, communicate and change to bring customers value tend to be the winners - but it requires a very different approach.   In this epis...

What’s it like to be a real legacy business? One with a heritage going back over 100 years? How do you navigate new methods, classic products and changing tastes? This is a masterclass in knowing who you are, who your customers are and what you’re about. Andy Valentine is a food industry veteran who now feels like the proverbial "kid in the sweet shop". He’s responsible for developing direct, B2B...

After eight years as Head of Marketing for Red Bull UK and Europe, Huib van Bockel walked away to build something the industry told him couldn't work - an energy drink made entirely from nature, with 60% less sugar, and no artificial ingredients. Every manufacturer he approached said it wasn't commercially viable, but he found one willing to try. Today, Tenzing is the third-biggest energy drink br...

How much can we influence people with advertising? What’s the best way to understand and model buyer behaviour? How should we set about growing market share? James Hankins has worked in agency, consultant and client roles, tackling these very questions. In this episode, he challenges marketing myths and woolly thinking, and explains why understanding your market matters more than chasing funnels....

Chris Brogan shares some brutally honest insights about leadership, growth and being helpful. He's a self-proclaimed expert at failing, but what does that mean? And how can leaders learn from it to keep their organisations flexible and effective even as they grow at speed? Ten-time author, executive coach, strategic advisor, writer, photographer and co-host of the internet’s Backpack Show and Play...

In this episode of the Curious Business podcast, we meet Ella McKay, founder of Fatso. The provocatively named chocolate brand is bringing unapologetic indulgence to dark chocolate and putting ethical sourcing at its core. Ella shares the story of her journey from corporate marketeer to entrepreneurial risk-taker, and provides invaluable insights into effective business strategy and how to use con...

How do you turn a 15-person tech shop into a £300m global powerhouse? Is it instinct – or experience? What are the tough calls that fuel B2B growth? And how do you keep ahead and keep pushing forward? Over the last 15 years, Simon Haighton-Williams, CEO of The Adaptavist Group, has led the company to annual revenues over £300 million. On a mission to make business work better, the Group now compri...

How do we move beyond AI hype to take advantage of the real opportunities for business strategy? Who’s using AI well already, how does it reshape reality and who can we learn from? What happens when AI upsets your value chain and how can you maintain your competitive advantage?  In this episode of Curious Business, Stephen Morris welcomes Sangeet Paul Choudary, renowned author and business strateg...

What do you do when people won’t pay a sustainable price for the high quality product you’ve worked so hard to produce? How do you get started in your career and find your passion? The co-founder of Hive Mind Mead tells all. Kit Newell, co-founder of the Great Taste Award-winning honey drinks brand, shares how his career in advertising and design prepared him for entrepreneurship - and the key ski...

Is communication a soft skill or is the most powerful tool in your armoury? In this episode of Curious Business, Nima Abu Wardeh, author of The Brilliant Communicator argues that it can easily be the difference between success and failure. Do you deliver your message so in a way that engages your target audience? Do you resonate with what they care about so your message takes root? Speaking from h...

Band logos sit at the intersection of design, culture, and belonging, and can stir up no end of passion, nostalgia, and debate. In the book Logo Rhythm, Jim K Davies and Jamie Ellul have uncovered the stories behind 93 of the best band logos (and a few solo artist logos) of the last 60 years. In this podcast, we talk about how they came about and what business branding can learn. The book lovingly...

Is GenAI a revolution or merely an evolution of data-driven innovation and automation? Dan Klein has been at the forefront of data-driven tech for thirty years. From the timeless principles guiding how he helps organisations and the need to test GenAI’s output, to finding the value and championing curiosity, he provided real food for thought in this conversation with Stephen Morris. As someone who...

It seems we're awash with data these days. It's meant to improve decision-making and outcomes. While sales data tells us what has happened, it rarely tells us why it happened. It also tells us nothing about what didn't happen. Why did a customer walk away? What didn't they choose — and why? In this podcast, I talk to Tessa Stuart who dives into the mysteries of actual consumer behaviour almost eve...

What’s the best way to get employees talking about your business on social media? And is it worth doing? Are people influenced by what people say about their employers? In this episode, Stephen Morris speaks with employee advocacy expert Andrew Seel about the value, tools, benefits and best approaches, as well as its vital role in marketing and brand strategy. Andrew is an accomplished expert in e...