Strategy & Tragedy: CEO Stories with Steph Melodia

Turn your sales conversations into your competitive advantage with Gong.io: https://www.gong.io/demo/?utm_campaign=demo&utm_medium=tpv&utm_source=ceo-st-podcast Ben Coomber is a multi-award winning high performance coach, bestselling author of 'How to Live an Awesome Life,' and the Founder & CEO of Awesome Supplements. (Strategy & Tragedy listeners get an exclusive 15% off...

Ready to turn your sales conversations into your competitive advantage? Check out Gong.io and see why thousands of revenue teams trust their growth to Revenue AI. https://www.gong.io/demo/?utm_campaign=demo&utm_medium=tpv&utm_source=ceo-st-podcast Digital Voices was named the 13th fastest-growing agency by AdWeek, and is officially the fastest-growing Influencer Marketing agency in the wor...

Power up your commercial strategy with AI-powered insights driving every sales decision for predictable revenue growth with GONG: https://www.gong.io/demo/?utm_campaign=demo&utm_medium=tpv&utm_source=ceo-st-podcast In this week's episode, Stephanie Melodia interviews Yang Li, the Co-Founder of Cosine - a multi-agent AI tool designed to do compound tasks in complex codebases with a 72%...

Power up your commercial strategy with AI-powered insights driving every sales decision for predictable revenue growth with GONG: https://www.gong.io/demo/?utm_campaign=demo&utm_medium=tpv&utm_source=ceo-st-podcast In this week's episode, Stephanie Melodia interviews Tash Rebuck, the sales expert and founder of TR Sales Consultancy, specialising in B2B sales strategy and training for g...

Crush sales with one tool that puts your LinkedIn & email outreach on autopilot with Dripify: https://try.dripify.com/hdoriziho14r In this episode, Stephanie Melodia interviews Kat Thorne; the positive habits queen whose high-flying career made her crash & burn, forcing her to reassess how she was treating her own body. She now helps other high-performers achieve success in a sustainable w...

Automatically turn long videos into viral shorts in just one click with Opus: https://www.opus.pro/?via=dcec02In this week's episode, Stephanie Melodia interviews Saba Yussouf, exited founder and investor specialising in STEM revolutions - from reinventing food systems to democratising infection prevention and battling environmental threats. As a high-agency venture capitalist, Saba bets on founde...

Automatically turn long videos into viral shorts in just one click with Opus: https://www.opus.pro/?via=dcec02 Crush sales with a single LinkedIn & email autopilot tool - Dripify: https://try.dripify.com/hdoriziho14r Best known as the founder of Trunki, the iconic ride-on suitcase for kids, Rob Law turned one of the most famous rejections on BBC's Dragons' Den into a global success, se...

This episode is dedicated to Kieran! Jodie Cook is the Forbes 30 Under 30 Founder of Coachvox, following the 7-figure exit of her own social media agency which she started fresh out of uni. Jodie is a Forbes senior contributor with 19M+ article reads. She has also competed in powerlifting for Team GB 9 times and lived in 35 cities as a digital nomad. (Everything she own fits in one suitcase!)In th...

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Mona Tiesler is an investor at tokentus, a leading VC firm in the German blockchain ecosystem, where she invests in startups that leverage blockchain technology globally. She has several years of experience in venture capital, and has been involved in pre-seed to Series A deals across Europe, USA, UAE and Asia. With a background in strategy consulting, venture building, and entrepreneurship, Mona...

Olivia Parkes is the Founder & CEO of Persi, making fashion personalisation actually personal! With Persi, retailers can deliver highly personalised product recommendations based on what each customer owns, loves, and actually wears. In this interview, you'll hear about... 👗 The £176K post: How Olivia raised almost £200k from a single LinkedIn post for her female-first cap table 👗 Resil...

Stuart Trevor is the founder of AllSaints, the high street brand he launched in 1994 and scaled to £15M turnover business & household brand name.  Now, the fashion entrepreneur is on a mission to create the world’s most sustainable fashion brand, clothing brand that doesn't produce any clothes. Discover more here: https://stuarttrevor.com/ In this interview, Steph and Stuart cover: 🖤 His...

Andy Ayim MBE is the founder of Angel Investing School, which has trained over 500 angels who have invested $5,000,000 globally, including the Black Angel Group's run out of Google's Black Network, which has invested over 3,500,000.0 in over 30 startups. Andy himself has personally invested in 17 startups, including Farmland, Patch, and Unplugged with 70% led by diverse founders.  In thi...

Trisha Wing is the Co-Founder & CEO of SuLe (https://www.sule.io/), a first-of-its-kind legal platform supporting startups at every stage of their growth. SuLe is the smart legal hub that cuts legal costs 90%. Book a free call here: https://calendly.com/d/cq55-w8f-wsg/introductory-call?month=2025-07 In this interview, Steph and Trisha cover: 👩🏼‍⚖️ Jargon-free legal wisdom - from company owne...

Get £50 off your Unplugged stay: UPMSTEPHMELODIA50 Hector Hughes is the Co-Founder & CEO of Unplugged, the platform for digital detox cabins as featured in The Times, Cosmopolitan, The Telegraph, and Evening Standard with over 12,000 guests served to date. In this interview, you'll hear about: 🏕️ The benefits of digital minimalism 🏕️ Contrarian takes on the Lean Startup model 🏕️ Hector&ap...

Claudia Gasson is a Business Psychologist & Talent Strategist at the psychology-backed culture consultancy, Bailey & French. She is also a seasoned recruiter and former founder, with her own talent consultancy, Ortus. In this interview, host Stephanie Melodia and Claudia cover: - Insights from 10+ years in recruitment (including the top reason people leave their jobs 👀) - The psychology o...

Steve Peralta is the Co-founder of Unmind, helping over 2.5M employees prioritise mental health and build cultures where people thrive. He is also a keynote speaker and coach, helping purpose-driven leaders bring out the best in themselves and their teams. Tune in to hear about: 👉 The moment that changed everything for Steve 👉 Why human-centred leadership is the way forward in an AI world 👉 Con...

Thomas Panton is a serial entrepreneur and now Venture Fellow at Endgame Capital, investing in early-stage 'climate-change-denier-proof' tech startups. In this interview, Steph and Thomas discuss: - What happened with the eco marketplace he co-founded, Canopey - The key lessons from Canopey's post-mortem - and how he's applying them to his new stealth startup - Co-founder align...

Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen is an award-winning entrepreneur, bestselling author and TedX speaker. She's listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and closing the gender investment gap with FemaleInvest by educating women on investing and personal finance through educational events, e-learning and strategic partnerships. In this interview, Steph and Anna cover: 💰 Why getting more women into investin...

TW: Contains themes of mental health including depression and suicide. Founder of StoryCast®. Leadership Communication Expert. Global Keynote Speaker. Award-Winning Author of GLOW IN THE DARK 💡 Mark Leruste helps leaders harness the power of their stories to build trust and inspire action. He’s worked with the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Nike to communicate and connect in a way that resonates...

Nina Briance is the Founder & CEO of CULT MIA, the values-driven luxury fashion platform that retails conversation-starting, standout pieces with sustainability and minority-empowerment at its core.  In this episode, Steph and Nina discuss: 🖤 The marketing mistake that taught Nina an unforgettable lesson 🖤 "Your network is your net worth" - the value of connections 🖤 How Nina took...

Varun Bhanot is the Co-founder & CEO of MAGIC AI, the at-home personal fitness system crowned one of TIME's best inventions and featured in Sifted's top high-growth startups. In this interview, we replay the first time Steph & Varun sat down to record in 2023, and catch up at the 31:34 mark, on... 🪞 What's been the biggest game changer for MAGIC AI 🪞 What Varun has now lea...

Kim Innes Is the Founder & CEO of Humble Crumble - the country's most loved dessert that went viral! She is also a Forbes 30 under 30 winner of the Everywoman Scale Up award, and one of NatWest x Telegraph’s Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch. In this interview, Steph and Kim cover... 🧁 Kim's passion for baking and particular love of crumble  🧁 Applying 'The Lean Startup&ap...

Meet the first female CEO of a city stockbroking firm; Sam Smith. Founder and ex-CEO of finnCap, Sam is now the Co-Founder of SuperScalers and no. 1 bestselling author of The Secret Sauce: How to SuperScale.  In this interview, you'll hear about... 🚀 Taking finncap public on the London Stock Exchange during tumultuous times 🚀 Top growth levers to go from £1m turnover a year to £1m turnover...

Akash Mehta is the Forbes 30 under 30 CEO of Fable & Mane, an Ayurvedic-inspired hair brand, which he Co-Founded with his sister, Niki, making it the first Indian beauty brand co-founded by siblings.  Akash harks from beauty & fashion household names including Burberry, Estée Lauder, and Dior, before launching his own business with Fable & Mane in 2019, now stocked in the likes of Seph...