In the Company of Mavericks

This episode is made possible by Progressive Equity Research , providing freely available engaging research & opportunities to hear from a wide range of small & mid-cap UK-listed companies. This is a catch-up with Alasdair Haynes , founder and CEO of Aquis Exchange . He last appeared in Episode 3 in November 2021, and much has changed in the meantime. Aquis has continued to grow and is now...

This episode is made possible by Progressive Equity Research , providing freely available engaging research & opportunities to hear from a wide range of small & mid-cap UK-listed companies. For today’s episode, I am rejoined by Sukh Chamdal , the founder and CEO of AIM-listed Cake Box .  For background on Sukh and Cake Box, you should listen to episode 2 from November 2021, where Sukh talk...

This episode is made possible by Progressive Equity Research , providing freely available engaging research & opportunities to hear from a wide range of small & mid-cap UK-listed companies. For today’s episode, David Seaman of Alpha Cygni Investment Management joins me for a conversation with James Wilson , fund manager of The Huginn Fund . The Huginn Fund applies the value investing princ...

This episode is made possible by Progressive Equity Research , providing freely available engaging research & opportunities to hear from a wide range of small & mid-cap UK-listed companies. I am joined by private investor Mark Atkinson , host of the Desert Island Investor Podcast, for a conversation with Mark Smithson , the founder and CEO of Marks Electrical .  Marks Electrical is an AIM-...

Today I am joined by two young active UK equity fund managers with distinct investment styles.  Alyx Wood is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Kernow Asset Management . Kernow is a contrarian investor using fundamental analysis and catalyst-driven mean reversion investing. Alyx is a long-short investor.   Laurence Hulse is a Director of Dowgate Wealth . He is the fund manager of the rece...

This episode is made possible by Progressive Equity Research Ltd . A great conversation with two Irishmen with deep domain knowledge in commercialising modern pharmaceutical products. This is a journey into the world of precision medicine and diagnostics. Padraic Dempsey, formerly CCO at Uniphar, joins me for a fascinating conversation with Peter Keeling , the founder and CEO of Diaceutics PLC . D...

Thanks to Progressive Equity Research for making this episode possible. In this episode, Miles talks about the changes he is implementing in the business and the opportunities to grow by product, industry, and geography, both organically and via acquisition. Miles demonstrates a wide-ranging understanding of the markets in which Concurrent operates and foresight of how to raise its growth ambition...

In this episode, Andrew Hollingworth of Holland Advisors discusses what he looks for in the maverick owner managers he invests in. He talks about what he chose to back Mike Ashley of Sports Direct, now Frasers and how he thinks about capital allocation and governance issues. He also runs through his investment thesis on JD Wetherspoon, and other owner-managed scale economy shared businesses like R...

I am joined by franchise industry veteran, Ian Bradley , for a conversation with Stephen Hemsley , Founder and Chairman of Franchise Brands . *** A REQUEST - I support a charity called Level Water which uses the power of swimming to change the lives of children with disabilities. Later this month I will be swimming the 6km from Averton Gifford to Bantham in Devon to help Level Water fund its noble...

This episode is a fascinating insight into the changing mix of our sources of energy from serial entrepreneur Andrew Austin . Andrew is founder and Executive Chairman of Kistos Plc which he founded in 2020. Kistos owns gas assets in the Dutch sector of the North Sea and has agreed to acquire an interest in the Greater Laggan Area, West of Shetland from Total. Andrew talks about how to structure M&...

Renowned stockpicker Rosemary Banyard joins me for a fascinating conversation with Julie Lavington and Ali Hall co-founders and co-CEOs of online women's fashion brand Sosandar . Julie and Ali met in 2006 working at Time Inc. They launched the successful women's high street fashion magazine Look, which had a 300 000 weekly circulation. They identified an opportunity in the online fashion market an...

Brendan D'Souza of Dowgate Capital joins me to talk to Nadeem Raza, CEO of Microlise . Microlise is a dominant software supplier to the UK logistics and road haulage industry. Nadeem has worked his way up from being a software engineer in the late 1980s and gives us a masterclass in how focusing on solving customer problems and taking a long term view of the business opportunity can drive value cr...

Chris Bogart discusses how he started to dabble in litigation finance as a hobby, but the onset of the global financial crisis led to the formation of Burford Capital and a 12-year journey to industry leadership and a listing on the NYSE. Chris describes how culture, risk assessment and the adoption of data science have all played a part in helping Burford drive its competitive advantage in the de...

Gareth Evans of Progressive Equity joins me for a discussion with Jonathan Satchell, Founder and CEO of Learning Technologies . Jonathan talks about his early career, his passion for technology his journey into video training, eLearning and professional development leading to the creation of LTG and AIM IPO in 2013. He discusses how he and his partner, Chairman, Andrew Brode, chose to go the PLC r...

In this fascinating discussion, Morgan talks openly about how his dyslexia shaped his early life and was foundational in his becoming an entrepreneur. He also talks about how the combination of technology and high-performance people can deliver the complex requirements of large companies and financial institutions. He also talks about why his recent decision to decentralise the business was the be...

Hotel Chocolat Co-founder and CEO Angus Thirwell delivers a masterclass in how to develop a customer-led business. We begin with a chat about Angu's early life and the evolution of the Hotel Chocolat brand. Angus talks about the benefits of being a founder-led business which has among other things allowed Hotel Chocolat to build long term sustainable growth by doing the right things and not just t...

A Conversation with Alasdair Haynes , founder and CEO of Aquis Exchange . AIM-listed Aquis is a process innovator in the field of share trading and stock exchange technology. In offering the World's first subscription-based pricing Aquis offers its customers a marginal cost to trade of zero. The platform also reduces toxicity, or the impact cost of trading, improving execution efficiency. Aquis al...

In today's episode, I am joined by Ben McKeown of Dowgate Wealth and we learn about the UK water buffalo, the importance of family values in company culture, what Gandhi said about customer care and how regular exercise stimulates creative thinking. Oh yes, we also learn about the amazing story behind the Amazon of cream cakes and how naughty but nice is returning to a high street near you after a...

James Crawford UK MD of Naked Wines talks about his decision to join the unprofitable business in 2014 after the relative security of Diageo. He explains why his love of wine and his love of Naked's unique business model attracted him to take the plunge. He talks about the challenges of navigating the acquisition by Majestic and then the later sale of that business which allowed Naked to focus its...

In the Company of Mavericks is a series based on interviews with people who dared to be different and succeed. Along with a guest co-host in each episode, I talk to a maverick entrepreneur in an attempt to understand their journey, what makes them different and what we can learn from them. In the first couple of episodes, I talk to the people behind the Netflix of wine and the Amazon of cakes. Epi...