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.

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. This is how barristers clerk Rob Abrahams retrained and took jobs in his spare time to set up RJA Plumbing business. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

Talking to Bex from a houseboat, the King of Shaves founder reminisces how redundancy and a book about essential oils drove him to start his Gillette challenger brand and be his own boss. 

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. Hazel Reynolds took the plunge, quit, and crowdfunded her board game business, selling 130,000 and turning over £1.3m. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

Liz Cottam quit her six-figure corporate job for her foodie hobby. To get to the BBC Masterchef semi-finals and fundraise £250k to open a restaurant, she ‘learned to live in the 90%’ - not the 10% of things that could go wrong - to do it.

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. The Gener8 founder and Dragons’ Den best-ever pitcher couldn’t code and had an idea on a bit of paper, but he had a strategy…and shares it here. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

It’s a classic start-up story. A tech entrepreneur has an idea. Drops out of university to pursue it. Works night and day. And it doesn’t work. So how did he pick himself up, and create a multi-million idea called SoPost, instead?

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. Steve Oliver co-founded musicMagpie in his garage and turned it into the world’s most popular eBay shop, with an annual group turnover of £150m. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

At 21, we wanted to be millionaires, so we asked, "how can we get there as quickly as possible?"’ It's a question that former Burton Albion FC players Jack Dyer and James Wren tackled with their nan's sewing machine, a roll of neoprene, and £60.

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. Her tutor told her she was ‘too business minded’. Her parents said she was mad. That didn’t stop Jess Gohl from launching her creative business. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

Growing up in Transylvania under communism Dana Denis-Smith never dreamed she could be an entrepreneur. And then she started a law firm with £500 while pregnant. 

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. After a South-American sabbatical, accountant Mike ditched the suit and tie to help founders be that bit smarter with their money. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

The founder of cheesegeek quit his finance job, set up a website with £500, and scaled his startup by converting his spreadsheets to an algorithm. Here's how he did it – and impressed Dragons Den's Steven Bartlett in the process.

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. The co-founder of ice cream chain Pan-N-Ice has a massive 1.3 million followers on TikTok, and tells us how he converts them to customers. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

The co-founder of Field & Flower gets into the meat of building a top subscription business. From selling direct-to-consumer and finding your Billy Brisket customer, to dealing with sneaky rivals, price setting and learning the art of butchery.

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. The founder of Gapsquare shares how venture capitalists assumed she was a waitress - when she was there to pitch for £1m. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

Bath bombs, baking and wax melts were among some of Rebecca Cole’s first experiments before she founded a personal safety business, Fearless Keychains. Learn how this one-woman business sold 4,000 keychains and made six figures in just year one. 

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. The founder of Bio-Bean and Skyroom wants to flip the emphasis on having that first idea, to how you incrementally turn that spark into reality. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

Making multi-million-pound deals on a handshake, failed business ventures and not taking your own advice, Jack Parsons has embraced all of his mistakes while founding The Youth Group— a business now making £10 million.

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. The founder of Plumb and Rabbitts candidly describes how she felt like quitting her incredible cake business when she experienced casual racism.   Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

Accelerators, grants, VCs, angel backing – funding your business can be a minefield. The 'recovering' founder of Yoller shares the pros and cons of not only investment options but startup life generally, and how to survive it.

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. The founder of beauty business Nut and Noggin shares how obsessing about perfecting your product will only lead to missed opportunities. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

Whether recruiting personalities rather than CVs full of GCSEs, having pet bereavement days, or funding IVF journeys for staff, Sir John Timpson is adamant that the secret of growing his 150-year-old family business is it’s rule breaking culture.

Sound Advice is known for truth-telling and our mini-sodes give more insight from our star entrepreneurs. The founder of Borough22 tells how he went from baking doughnuts at home for local customers, to quitting his job and supplying Selfridges. Listen to the full episode here: Apple Spotify

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 ).