Unicorn Podcast

In this episode of The Unicorn Podcast, Simon Squibb sits down with Rishi Khosla as they dive deep into the highs and lows of building a bank worth $5 BILLION, as well as what it takes to disrupt an industry that is stuck in its traditional ways. Rishi Khosla is the CEO and co-founder of OakNorth. He started his first business, Copal Partners, a financial research company, in 2002 with just $60k....

In this episode of The Unicorn Podcast, Simon Squibb sits down with Rob Schimek, CEO of Bolttech, the groundbreaking unicorn insuretech company that has been making waves in the insurance industry. Simon and Rob delve into the rapid growth and success of Bolttech, discussing how it shot from startup to $1.6B valuation in such a short time frame. Rob shares the unique story behind Bolttech, reveali...

Meet The Man Who Changed The Hotel Industry Forever Girish Jhunihnuwala is the Founder and CEO of Ovolo Group. He is famous for disrupting the hotel industry across Asia and Australia.

In this episode, we delve into the mind of Philip Belamant, the visionary Co-Founder and CEO of Zilch, a groundbreaking fintech company revolutionizing the way we think about and interact with finance. Zilch has become the fastest European company EVER to reach double unicorn status, and in this episode, Simon and Philip go deep into the core values and mission that enabled Zilch to reach this hug...

In this episode of The Unicorn Podcast, Simon sits down with James Watt, the co-founder of BrewDog, one of the fastest-growing craft beer companies in the world. James shares the truth behind the controversy surrounding his brand, as well as his revealing his marketing secrets. We explore James's unique leadership style and the company's unconventional approach to business, including their plans t...

Tessa Wijaya is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Xendit. She graduated from The University of Sydney, has vast experience in the field of private equity from large companies such as Principia and Mizuho and grew up in Indonesia. Tessa describes herself as “a unicorn among unicorns among unicorns.” There are a lot of people in her family who are entrepreneurs who ran small canteens and...

We had the opportunity to interview John Caudwell LIVE on stage at Ideas Fest 2022. John founded Caudwell Group, the telco company which included Phones 4U, the UK’s largest independent mobile phone retailer with over 600 stores across the country. When he sold Caudwell Group in 2006, the business was selling 26 phones a minute! But after all of his success, John says that “Nothing gives him the s...

Yat Siu is an entrepreneur and angel investor. Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, he moved to Hong Kong in 1996 to set up Hong Kong Cybercity, the first free web page and email provider in Asia. Before Hong Kong, he landed his first job at Atari in Germany, and later at graphic software company Lexicor, where he served as director and head of the U.S. East Coast division. In the late ‘90s, he set...

Steven Lam is the co-founder, executive director & co-CEO of GOGOX Holdings Limited, the first app-based logistics platform in Asia committed to providing extensive logistics services through innovative technology. Steven built the company with the vision of “Simplify Logistics”, aiming to resolve logistics inefficiencies and enable users to enjoy seamless logistics services. Over the years, GOGOX...

Max Li is Co-founder and Head of Design of Airwallex , where he provides the creative vision for the business, and is responsible for developing and managing Airwallex’s product design initiatives. Leading a global team, Max drives the implementation for designing functional and human-centric products that enable quality user experience in every market where Airwallex operates. Previously,  Max wa...

Tony was born in Beirut, Lebanon, during a violent civil war, and was lucky enough to travel to France at the age of seventeen to study for a computer sciences degree, then attended the IMD Business School in Switzerland.  After graduating, Tony founded Nexmo, a pioneer in the Communications Platform as a Service (“CPaaS”) category. Nexmo made it easy for software developers to add essential commu...

Tech titan Michele Romanow is the Co-founder and CEO of Canadian unicorn, Clearco - the world's largest e-commerce investor. The company has invested $3.2 billion in over 7,000 ecommerce and SaaS companies. Michele is a serial entrepreneur having started six companies before her 35th birthday. In addition to her work as an entrepreneur, Michele is a “Dragon” on the Canadian hit TV show Dragons’ De...

Suneera Madhani is a payments innovator who has disrupted the industry with her unicorn company Stax. After seeing the need for a better payment experience for merchants, her entrepreneurial spirit took hold and she decided to solve the problem herself. She built Stax from the ground up, providing a sophisticated and business-friendly platform Stax is a subscription-based payments processor that c...

Tony Fadell is the creator of the iPod, co-creator of the iPhone, and founder of Nest Labs, which was acquired by Google for $3.2 Billion. Named as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2014, Tony believes that instead of building artificial platforms like the Metaverse, we need to focus on building products that fix and improve the real world. Tony’s first jo...

Unicorn Podcast Trailer by Simon Squibb

Chris Barton is a well-respected entrepreneur and one of the masterminds behind the music recognition app, Shazam. Shazam was created in London over 20years ago and caught the interest of Apple who went on to purchase the technology for a speculated $400 million in 2017. The app is now among the most popular apps on both iPhone and Android with over 1 billion downloads to date. Chris’ career also...

John Roberts is the Founder and CEO of AO World, the online retailer specialising in household appliances and electricals. AO operates following John’s two personal mottos of ‘treat every customer like your gran’ and ‘make your mum proud’, which has allowed the company to attain more 5* reviews than any other electrical retailer. John started AO in 2000 after a friend bet him £1 to set up a busine...

Anne Boden is the Founder and CEO of Starling Bank, a modern British bank that brings new technology to the forefront, delivering a more engaging experience for customers than traditional high-street banks. Since 2014, Anne’s vision has served more than 2.5 million customers as Starling continues to grow into one of the UK’s leading banks. In January of 2014, Anne decided to quit her job to pursue...

In episode Adam Kamani is an award-winning property entrepreneur, start-up investor, mentor and CEO of Kamani Property Group, KM Capital and YourNxtDoor. He has just launched a next-gen property app called Move Streets.

In Season 2, Episode 12, Simon talks to Tom. Tom Mercer is the Founder of MOMA Foods, a London oat brand. Frustrated with the lack of quality breakfast on the market Tom decided to leave his job in the City and do something about it. MOMA was a genuine grassroots start-up – the first kitchen was under a railway arch in South London and the first retail outlet was a stall (made from a converted fil...

In Season 2, Episode 11, Simon talks Dr Ali Parsa. Ali is a British-Iranian healthcare entrepreneur and engineer. He’s the founder and CEO of Babylon, the revolutionary AI and digital health company. Babylon’s mission is to put an accessible and affordable health service in the hands of every person on earth. Dr Parsa was listed in The Times 100 people to watch. He was featured in the Maserati 100...

In Season 2, Episode 10, Simon talks to Alexia Inge. Singularly committed to curating a ‘Beauty Hall of Fame’, featuring only the best hero products from across the globe, Alexia Inge co-founded Cult Beauty with a lifelong passion for beauty and a mission to become the most trusted beauty retailer in the world. Under Alexia’s leadership since 2014, Cult Beauty has become the place to go for beauty...

In Season 2, Episode 9, Simon talks to Sach Kukadia. Sach is a serial entrepreneur, non-executive director, chairman, board advisor and angel investor. He launched his first start up, SecretSales.com at the age of 22 and over a period of 10 years, raised £18m through leading Venture Capital Institutions and drove annual sales of £47m. He eventually sold the business to a London based Private Equit...

In season 2, episode 8, Simon talks to Patrick Tsang. Patrick Tsang is Chairman of Tsangs Group, a fourth-generation China-focused Single Family Office from Hong Kong. Patrick invests in various companies with a positive influence and positive impact. Born and raised in the United Kingdom with deeply-rooted Chinese heritage, he has a robust global network as a seasoned investor. He has worked on n...

In Season 2, episode 7, Simon talks to Dan Murray-Serter. Dan is a multi-award winning serial entrepreneur, who talks openly about failure, mental health, mental performance, and 'braincare' - which includes his journey using science to build habits, cultivating a positive mindset & nutrition for optimizing his brain's health. Having started (and failed) the UK's #1 fashion app, Grabble, he is...