Honey, I Blew Up The Business

Tamara Littleton is the CEO & founder of The Social Element, a 20-year-old global social media agency that works with global brands. Yet when she launched her business, social media wasn't even really a thing. And she nearly blew it all up before it started….What happened?! How did she cope?! Listen in and find out! In this episode, discover what an ambivert is. The importance of facing y...

Emily Cummin is founder & CEO of Untangle, a tech platform providing support and community for dealing with death and grief. Yet the idea was born from an overwhelming moment. While Emily was building her early corporate career her parents divorced, and her grandpa - with whom she was very close - passed away. This truly tested the “Queen of Coping”. So, just how did she turn this moment of co...

Paul Archer is a Guinness World Record holding adventurer, best selling author and serial tech entrepreneur. Taking his swash buckling approach to life into his business career things looked great, until they didn’t as things came crashing down… at the launch party. So how did he dust himself off and continue building his next startup adventure? Listen in and find out. Discover how to take advanta...

Jodie Rogers is an expert in mental fitness, the author of Amazon best-seller “The Hidden Edge: Why Mental Fitness is the Only Advantage That Matters in Business”. She’s also an entrepreneur teaching teams from the world’s leading corporations human behaviour, psychology, and communications. But during the pandemic, Jodie had to eat her own pudding. Her mental fitness was put to the test in what s...

Mark White is the founder of men’s mental health app MEUS Practice. He also leads Run Grateful - a global running initiative, based on gratitude. His previous community building startup got him into Red Bull’s Amaphiko project, which champions social purpose entrepreneurs. Yet Mark’s drive has emerged from a dark place, of addiction and burnout. Just how has he transformed darkness into light? Lis...

Debbie Wosskow OBE is a serial entrepreneur, author, international ass kicker and co-Founder of AllBright, the incredible on-and-off-line career network for women. But after an illustrious career - and global expansion plans - Debbie hit a force even stronger than her: a global lockdown. The pandemic presented her with “by far the worst time in my career, by a long way.” So how did she navigate it...

Russell Dalgleish is a serial entrepreneur and leading global community builder. He’s the co-founder and chair of Scottish Business Network - comprising over 8000 people in 5 continents - and founder and Managing Partner at Exolta Capital Partner. He’s also a columnist and international speaker, and was listed by the UN as one of the UK's top 100 most influential entrepreneurs. He’s a powerho...

Suki Fuller was named by Financial Times as one of the Top 100 Black, Asian, Minority, Ethnic Leaders in UK Tech and by Computer Weekly as one of the Most Influential Women in UK IT. She’s also an entrepreneur, international speaker and expert in strategic and competitive intelligence. Travelling the world growing up, Suki found a unique perspective. One that was consolidated by serving over a dec...

Jeremy Basset is the CEO of CO:CUBED, a company that helps corporate businesses like Adidas, Vodafone, and Coca-Cola work with startups. Prior to this he was Head of Unilever Foundry - a startup programme he launched - and which saw over 200 startup collaborations. But he only learnt the right way to innovate after learning the hard way - going through £40m of funding - and 22 failed businesses -...

Beta Lucca is the Co-Founder & Non-Exec Director of Bossa Studios, a BAFTA-winning video game developer. She’s a multi-creative entrepreneur: YouTuber, keynote speaker, startup investor and frequent media-appearer. But back in 2010, after leaving a successful career in her native Rio de Janeiro, she landed in the UK to… culture shock and depression. How did she turn it around? Listen in and fi...

Steven Hoffman - a.k.a. Captain Hoff - is the Chairman & CEO of Founders Space, a global innovation hub for entrepreneurs, corporations, and investors based in San Francisco. He’s an investor, multiple time author, prolific podcaster and global public speaker. Plus a serial startup founder with a decades-long career from Silicon Valley to Hollywood. On the podcast we get into a rollercoaster r...

When our host Dan Kirby - who’s day job is running The Tech Dept - announced his intention to run in the Marathon Des Sables (MDS), everyone thought he was crazy. Yet, on the 25th March 2022, he undertook this legendary survival race, dodging scorpions in sand dunes with all his food and equipment strapped to his back. And he completed it - raising £14,000 for charity KidsOut with his team. The MD...

Nicole Yershon has been called “the disruptor’s disruptor” having built the pioneering innovation business: Ogilvy Labs. Now founder & CEO of innovation consultancy The NY Collective, she’s a best selling author and named one of the 25 women who shaped the digital industry in the past 25 years. But what happens when your life of disruptive innovation hits a period of massive disruption? Listen...

Anna Hemmings is a two-time Olympian, six-times world champion kayaker with 11 World and European medals - nine of them gold. She’s Britain’s most successful ever female kayaker, and was awarded an MBE for services to sport. Now she’s a leader in the psychology of high performance with a specialist consultancy and motivational speaking career. But this illustrious career nearly never happened. At...

Matt Lerner spent 15 years in Silicon Valley - including a decade leading the growth of PayPal - before becoming a venture capitalist with legendary investors 500 Startups. He’s now CEO of Startup Core Strengths, which helps early-stage startups boost growth. Listen in as we discover how Matt leverages his addiction to learning - from often painful failure - to create rapid growth in business. In...

Jay Bhayani is the founder and Managing Director of a specialist law firm with offices across the UK. In 2021 she was named as one of Britain’s top 10 HR advisers. But her journey has not been straightforward. Having to deal with a malevolent business partner she went through four years of hell - fighting for her name. Literally for the use of her name. And saving her industry reputation. This cam...

Spencer Gallagher is an entrepreneur, best-selling author and the UK’s leading creative agency growth expert. Spencer and Dan met five years ago in Austin, Texas - where Dan was wearing a wrestling outfit (listen and find out why!). Spencer has helped boost thousands of the world’s most innovative companies and he walks the walk with them. In this inspiring conversation we learn how this path took...

Nik Govier is the Founder & CEO of Blurred - a fast global management, communication, and creative consultancy. She is a regular feature in PR Week’s Top 10 Power List and in 2021 was named PR Communicator of the Year. But the last 5 years have been a whirlwind of personal challenges and change. From facing leaving a business with nothing (after building it for 12 years) to facing a cancer sca...

Guy Remond is a transatlantic entrepreneur, investor, adviser and podcaster. Back in 2017 he met our host Dan over a cup of tea in Toronto. In that same year Dan nearly lost his business while Guy sold his… to Disney. Guy’s team went on to build the backbone for the streaming service Disney+. So, what happened?! Dan wanted to know - so on this podcast we find out the true back story - the high-sta...

Vikas Shah is the Managing Director & CEO of Swiscot Group, venture investor, philanthropist, author, interviewer, artist, and poet. He is the author of “Thought Economics” & “3650” and has interviewed the likes of Ryan Halliday, Sadhguru, and Hans Zimmer on his own podcast. In 2018, Vikas was awarded an MBE for Services to Business and the Economy in Her Majesty the Queen’s New Year’s Hon...

Martyn Ware is an interdisciplinary innovator: musician (with his band Heaven 17), record producer (with Tina Turner, Erasure + many more), 3D soundscape designer, university lecturer and host of the podcast Electronically Yours. Plus he created a sound design business - Sonic ID - with our host Dan! Back in 1978 he founded pioneering electronic act The Human League, and was famously kicked out of...

Kerstin Robinson is the co-founder of Nix & Kix, which was established in 2014 to “banish the boredom and put some healthy excitement back into the world of soft drinks.” At this year’s Great British Entrepreneur Awards, Kerstin emerged a finalist in the “Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year” category. Kerstin pursued her MSc in finance from the London School of Economics and then began climbing...

Margaret Manning is an “unashamed geek”, serial international entrepreneur and winner of multiple awards, including an OBE. In the 90s, when Bill Gates - and the rest of the world - thought the internet was a fad, she gave up a sensible accountancy career to set up an internet business. Everything was on the line. If she messed it up she would lose everything. And while she’s now got her gongs, ge...

Helen O’Donnell is the CEO and Director of Partnerships at Children’s University Trust: “the largest university in the UK after the Open University”. A strong, feisty, outspoken woman who has “never gone about things the way that most normal people would go about things”. A midlife crisis prompted an unexpected career change that horrified Helen’s parents. Turning her back against the status quo,...

Katy Howell is CEO of Immediate Future, “one of the UK’s most respected social media agencies”. She was named the fourth most influential social media marketing expert by The Drum, PRovoke’s Innovator 25 EMEA in 2020, and is amongst the Top 100 Asian Tech Entrepreneurs in the UK. After an epic crash during the 2008 financial crisis she experienced a period of rapid growth. But rather than creating...