The Smarter Podcast with Emily Austen

Marcia Kilgore is a serial entrepreneur. She sold her first business LVMH in 2004 for a rumoured £25 million. Next up was Soap & Glory, which she sold to Boots in 2014 with over £100 million in revenue. Soaper Duper and Fitflop are globally successful businesses. Marcia’s latest mission, is Netflix for Beauty, and she wants you to have a piece of the Beauty Pie. It’s the first business Marcia...

Conna Walker is the real deal. She started her now multi million pound brand as a teenager, and now, over a decade later, House of CB is one of the most successful online retailers in this space. Conna, splitting her time between London and LA, spoke candidly with me about how she's launched the iconic affordable luxury brand, with collections loved by Beyonce, J-Lo and Kylie Jenner, to name but a...

Georgie Coleridge Cole founded Sheerluxe in 2007. As a lifestyle and fashion content platform, Sheerluxe has amassed a dedicated readership, most recently sending the brand viral on Tik Tok. It's accessible, aspirational and relatable advice and content has resonated with young people, and Georgie talks openly about her business journey. How she started, how it has had to evolve, what she looks fo...

Albert Hill and Matt Gibbert founded their hugely successful business, The Modern House, in 2008. The Modern House is a British estate agent that specialises in the sale and promotion of Modernist and 20th century architecture. We chatted about the challenges of keeping a brand relevant in the quest for long term business success, focused on hiring and how it can make or break a business, and how...

Eva Alexandridis founded 111 Skin with her husband, the hugely successful Dr Yannis. The brand started as a solution for aftercare for patients who had undergone surgical procedures. With a BA in International Business + a Masters, learning and travelling shaped Eva's world view. 111 Skin has grown to become a huge global brand. In over 85 luxury hotel spas, a list of enviable celebrities that swe...

This week, Harper’s Bazaar commissioned Emily to write a piece about how the the Spring 2023 Budget will affect entrepreneurs and business owners in the UK. As a cause close to her heart, Emily jumped at the opportunity and has recorded a special podcast episode, reading in full the published article, that can be found below: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/people-parties/bazaar-at-work/a43334748...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast! In this episode, I’m joined by Dan Warne, CEO and founder of Sessions. Prior to Sessions, Dan was the Managing Director at Deliveroo, an app you’ve probably heard of. He was part of the business during a time of exponential growth, ultimately leading to IPO, which was met with mixed reviews. We talked a lot about growing and scaling businesses, and what...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast! I’m thrilled this week to bring you a really interesting, honest podcast with my friend Namrata, the founder of cult skincare brand, Plenaire. You’ve probably seen Plenaire all over your Instagram feeds and popping up in a variety of amazing retailers across the UK. Whilst it’s an incredibly exciting time for businesses like Plenaire, it is absolutely not without...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast! In this week’s episode, I speak with Amy Liu, founder and CEO of clean beauty brand, Tower 28 Beauty. Whilst growing up, Amy had suffered with severe eczema and struggled to find products that worked for her. After several years working in the beauty industry, Amy set out to create products that worked for her and launched Tower 28 Beauty. We spoke about entering...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast! Today, I chatted with Will Sandbach and Abbie Roden, co-founders of D2C wine brand, Amie Wine.  Amie was born in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the brainchild of Abbie, a marketer and photographer, and Will, who’d recently left his previous job as a director in the wine business. Launching the business in the June of the first lockdown, the pair seized t...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast! Haeni Kim, founder of cult clothing brand KITRI, began her business journey in luxury fashion. Stemming from a desire to create lifelong, unique pieces, Haeni launched KITRI in 2017, bridging the gap between high street and hero pieces that don't put you out of pocket. Five years later, the brand has had an army of KITRI girls. The brand is a firm favourite of cel...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast! This week, on the podcast, I’m really excited to bring you a very special episode, with a friend and an old client of mine, Julian Hearn, founder of Huel. Julian started Huel six years ago, following two previous businesses; one successful, the other, not so, but the latter led to the launch of Huel. He talked to me really openly about his business journey, the sa...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast! Today’s episode was recorded live in London, at the Hoxton in Southwark, with LG Gram, an amazing part of the LG business, who I’ve been working with as part of their Hustle Hub, a Facebook community where entrepreneurs can come together to chat and share stories and advice.  I’ve been really lucky to be working with them this year and as a part of this work,...

Welcome to The Busi-ness Podcast.    This week on the podcast I chat to Akash Mehta, founder of modern hair wellness brand, Fable and Mane.   Akash graduated from Imperial College in electrical engineering, but has since worked for global businesses within LVMH, has done campaign work for PETA, and is currently the global guardian for UNICEF.   Despite being the epitome of busy...

Welcome to The Busi-ness Podcast. Today I am joined by Chris Sheldrick, Co-founder & CEO of what3words. With a background in the music industry, Chris noticed that traditional addresses for venues and precise stage doors or loading bays were not accurate enough. As a result, he set out to make a simpler version of addresses using just three words…meet what3words. Working with co-founders comes...

Welcome to the The Busi-ness Podcast. Today I am joined by Amanda Harrington, founder of InParlour and Amanda Harrington London. Driven by skin cancer running in her family, Amanda’s mission is to provide an alternative and safe means to tanning.  Stretched, overworked and exhausted from balancing mum-life combined with flying around the world to spray tan VIPs, contemporaries encouraged Aman...

Today I am joined by Simone De La Rue, Founder & CEO of Body by Simone, a dance-based fitness business. Simone has run her US business for over a decade and has trained some of the world’s most famous celebrities, as well as appearing on Khloe Kardashian’s Revenue Body. With a passion for dance and a love of moving her body, Simone identified the need for consumers to have easy access to exerc...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast. Today, I speak to Venetia Archer, Founder and CEO of on-demand beauty booking platform, Ruuby. Venetia launched Ruuby in 2015, at a time where on-demand tech platforms such as Deliveroo and Uber were taking off in the UK. Taking a leap from her career as a Geopolitical Risk Analyst in to the Beauty industry, Venetia earned a spot in Forbes 30 Under 30 2017 list an...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast. Andy Shovel is my guest this week. Serial entrepreneur, he founded his fourth business, THIS, IN 2019. After realising we should all be eating less meat and noticing how bad the current offering was, Andy and his co-founder Pete, wanted to create a business that tasted great, impacted the planet and made it easier for everyone to switch to meat alternatives. Andy...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast. My guests today are Simon Polet and Benoit Fortpied, co-founders of sustainable merchandise business, Merchery. Childhood friends, Simon and Benoit always knew they wanted to build a business together and three years ago, they launched a side project selling reusable water bottles, alongside their respective jobs. After becoming hugely popular with businesses on t...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast. This week, I chat to Ariel Booker and Josh White, co-founders of Europe’s leading canned water brand, CanO Water. After an eye-opening trip to Thailand, which left them shocked by the amount of litter on the beaches, Josh and Ariel, along with their third co-founder Perry Fielding, were determined to find a more sustainable alternative to single-use plastic bottle...

Welcome to The Busi-ness Podcast! Prior to launching cult stationery brand Papier in 2015, Taymoor Atighetchi started his business journey as an antiques dealer on Portobello Road Market. During his time at university, Taymoor then co-founded student news outlet The Tab, which is where his love for building brands began. Combining a love for art, design and beautiful stationery with a de...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast. Brand and retail expert Millie Kendall co-founded the British Beauty Council in 2018, on the back of an impressive 20 year career. Having been instrumental in the success of brands such as L’Occitane and Aveda, launching her own cosmetics brand Ruby and Millie, running her own PR and Communications agency and receiving an MBE for her services to the cosm...

Welcome to the Busi-ness Podcast. Jessica Mason launched bedding and sleepwear brand Piglet in 2017, following an impressive career in marketing and PR, working with global brands such as Nike, Rayban + Aesop. Born out of Jessica's desire for high-quality basics in her home that were both cosy and beautiful, Piglet started small, but has since grown rapidly. Jessica chatted to me about having the...

Welcome to The Busi-ness Podcast. When Pip Black made the move from advertising to launch cult fitness studio chain Frame with co-founder Joan Murphy in 2009, their mission was simple: to stop exercise feeling like a chore and put the fun back in fitness. Stemming from the desire for commitment free exercise that was actually enjoyable, Pip and Joan dedicated themselves to creating a fitness conce...