Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered

Govind Balakrishnan grew up in India wanting to be a physicist. Instead, he joined the strategy team for BBC News and it was working with war reporters that sparked his idea for Curio, the narrated journalism app. 

Robert Caplan is co-founder of First Wealth, a financial planning business based in London. Founded in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, he built First Wealth on the belief that there had to be a better way of doing things.  Last year he also launched Thrive Money, a financial education and wellbeing platform. On today’s episode of Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered, we hear how to s...

Caroline Marshall is a force to be reckoned with. After building a successful career as an award-winning virtual assistant (VA), she launched Upsource in 2020 while in lockdown, pregnant, and acting as the primary caregiver for her toddler. Through maternity leave, having a sick baby, and dealing with PTSD, Caroline found the resilience to grow her fledgling business to 30 virtual assistants—all w...

Poppy Mardall is the amazing founder of Poppy's Funerals, a super innovative funeral company based in London. Poppy's all about bringing a fresh, modern perspective to end-of-life care, and she's changing the game in the funeral industry. While recovering after being struck down with typhoid for 8 months, Poppy became interested in a series of television exposés highlighting issues...

Leanne Pero is an entrepreneur, model, former dancer, author, mentor, and breast cancer survivor. She started her dance company, The Movement Factory, when she was just 15 and went on to become the first community ambassador for iconic dance studio Pineapple. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, Leanne founded Black Women Rising, an initiative that provides support for black women dea...

Lucy Greenwood is CEO and co-founder of ethical fashion brand, Lucy and Yak. Together with her partner and co-founder Chris, Lucy went from selling out 30 dungarees on Depop to becoming one of the UK’s best-loved ethical clothing brands with three brick-and-mortar shopfronts.  This is the unfiltered story of what it really takes to build an ethical brand, with transparency and community at its cor...

Award-winning former rugby player Bryan Habana is known for his speed, intercepts and try-scoring ability in the sporting world. But he brings that same energy, heart, and enthusiasm into play off the pitch as an accomplished business owner. In this episode of Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered, he shares what he’s learned from switching careers, starting a business just before a pandemic, and...

After building a successful career as a corporate lawyer, Michelle Kennedy became co-CEO of dating app giant Badoo before launching Peanut. To date, the app has helped more than 2.7 million women find community at every life stage, from fertility and pregnancy to menopause.  On this episode of Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered, Michelle talks us through how she raised over $23 million to buil...

In the second part of our chat with founder of GoProposal James Ashford, he gives us his bulletproof tips on how to make your business recession-proof, get your pricing right, and get your processes so tight your business can run without you.

James Ashford is founder of GoProposal, the platform helping accountants charge the right amount for their services. In this episode, serial entrepreneur and former magician James shares his practical advice for building a resilient mindset.

Fisayo Longe is founder and CEO of inclusive fashion brand KAI Collective, and she’s a force of nature. After starting out her professional life in the world of accounting, she changed course to follow her passion for fashion—and she’s already been recognised on the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Art & Culture for her work. In just two years, Fisayo increased her revenue by a jaw-dropping 535% and sa...

Gush Mundae moved to the UK from Delhi in the 1970s, aged five. As an immigrant, he felt he was never ‘invited in’ and had to hustle from day one. This is the raw story of how he found his tribe, then founded Bulletproof Design with just £2,000.

Renée Elliott started Planet Organic, the UK’s first organic supermarket, aged 30. But two years in, her co-founder tried to cut her out of the business she'd built. Here's her unfiltered advice on what to do when your business partner goes bad. 

Byron Dixon was raised on a Leicester council estate by his single mother, a Jamaican immigrant. This is how he forged his own path to success, and created the multi-million-pound brand Micro-Fresh, loved by the likes of John Lewis, Next, and Adidas.

After losing his three-year old daughter to sepsis, Sunny Araf set up a charity to help families going through hard times. This is the story of how going through grief has changed his outlook on life, work, and giving back.

Julie Deane talks to Bex and Steve Hare, the CEO of Sage, about the wildly inspiring start-up story of The Cambridge Satchel Company and how she overcame some mind-boggling setbacks and drove its success. (The SMB Barometer we refer to is here ). 

What's more important; the ability to make, or the ability to sell? Both, says the co-founder of Hiut Denim. Here's how he built a global brand from nothing.

 Covert discrimination, invisible barriers, being broke, raising a million, feminism, intersectionality - if you want to reach your next business milestone, then you NEED this episode with the inspirational founder of WAH Nails and The Stack World. 

We know tax can be scary and numbers daunting but don't worry, this episode features 5 small business owners laying out the fundamentals to getting tax right – and what they've learned from some hairy moments…

Dream of a design-based business that takes off online? From cashflow to finding customers, the founder of Plumb and Rabbitts shares an incredibly honest insight into growing her bespoke cake and design start ups with five children in Northumberland.

The super-personal story of how ex-Red Bull marketeer set up shampoo brand Nut and Noggin from her farmhouse table in 18 months, to 'look after our heads’. Share your burn-out-to-start-up stories during Mental Health Awareness Week on Twitter @sageuk

Season finale klaxon! Our brilliant host Bex is off on maternity leave so she's asked long-time friend and journalist Kate Bassett to step in for season two, and have a good old gossip about how they both set up successful freelance businesses. 

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. How do you make your passion project into a profitable business, and keep your sanity? Enter the founder of Gutsy Girls, Natalie Bannister. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

The founder of Bud, a fintech startup, on how he wasn't afraid to evolve his business strategy to ensure long term success. 

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. The Teemill founders had £200, instantly regretted wasting £100 on business cards, but were soon building robots in a shed with old eBay parts. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify