Secret Leaders

Taavi Kotka is the Founder and CEO of Koos.io but he shot to fame as the CEO of one of the largest software development companies in the Baltics. After he sold the company in a big money deal in 2012, he had a non compete which left him with time when he couldn’t work in the private sector. He was appointed the first Chief Innovation Officer of Estonia whose role is basically to drive technological progress in the country. It gave him the opportunity to make a massive impact - a national one. He and his team delivered in many areas but it came at great personal cost. What happened? --------------------- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Gope Walker is the Founder and CEO of Data Kraken, a data consultancy that helps companies make valuable, data-driven decisions. But whilst Data Kraken is making more money than ever today, the venture downstairs is another story. Gope wanted to create a cafe that brought people together. But instead, it left him with depression, loss of appetite, and a £150,000 hole. He thought he was creating something valuable but customers didn’t see it that way. And when the council had the chance to save the business, they gave the cafe the cold shoulder. What happened? If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Entrepreneurs need to reframe failure as the norm, says Aidan Corbett. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wayflyer, a unicorn which provides funding for ecommerce companies. Not too shabby, and along the way, he has tried and failed with various initiatives. His failures didn’t all come in one go, but what he learnt added up to some pretty good startup lessons. What happened? If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Henry Engelhardt is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Admiral Group. They’re one of Britain’s most valuable companies – currently valued at over £7 billion – and also the only FTSE 100 company in Wales. Chances are, you’ve used one of their many brands at some point: Admiral Insurance, Bell Insurance, Elephant Insurance, Diamond Insurance, Veygo Insurance… if you’ve ever purchased insurance, basically. Or even if you’ve just run a search on Confused.com or Compare.com. In fact, they launched the UK’s first ever search comparison site. Henry is full of stories and lessons. Not only was he headhunted to found Admiral, but he ultimately had to fight to keep everything that was owed to him once he made the company what it is. His first book, Think Lead Succeed: The Admiral Way, was released in January 2021 and now, he’s back with a follow up: Be a Better Boss: Learn to build great teams and lead any organization to success. We speak about what it really means to be a better boss and how to avoid falling into a leadership style of hypocrisy to how all of life’s experiences offer opportunities to learn. Henry has always been very open about Admiral’s innovations - the one thing he can’t understand is why none of their competitors ever try to copy them. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Being really productive isn’t enough to win at startups. Kim Little is the Co-Founder and CEO of Moments of Space, a successful meditation app, but about 10 years ago he was in a very different space. He was living in Australia, having co-founded a semantic driven products company (yeah we get onto what that means). He put $400,000 Australian of his own money into the company and they launched a series of cool sounding products. But they never got anywhere. What went wrong? ------------------ If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Ed Perry and Rosie Brown are the Co-CEOs in charge of high-end ready meal company, COOK. Their USP is using the same ingredients and methods a normal person would use in their kitchens to create ready meals that actually feel home-cooked. A company run by Co-CEOs is pretty unusual but Ed and Rosie are especially unusual because they’re also brother and sister. Ed co-founded the company with Dale Penfold in 1997. His sister Rosie Brown joined the company soon after and then became Co-CEO in 2018. They’ve steered the company through tough times like the cost of living crisis and credit crunch which took the company to the edge of bankruptcy. Now, COOK's products are available in 850 stores across the UK not including the 94 COOK shops and turnover is £100 million. Just like a great recipe, Rosie believes COOK's success is down to a number of high-quality ingredients like strong principles, valuing people properly and the influence of faith. Yup, faith. For instructions on how to prepare, put your headphones and turn the volume up to 8... -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Mike Dunn is the Founder and MD of Excel TLM Group, a telemarketing and lead generation company for construction businesses. Excel today is a solid, growing business but they came within a whisper of collapse - as did Mike himself. It all came to a head on a family holiday they’d saved for years for. Mike thought he could lose everything, including his family. He felt like he’d hurt and failed everyone. What happened and what did he learn from it? ------------------ If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Holger Seim is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Blinkist, a subscription service that summarises non-fiction books in 15 minute explainers. The company was started because Holger and his Co-Founders wanted to find a way to read more books in less time whilst together at college in 2012. Blinkist has been downloaded 26 million times and was acquired by Go1 in May 2023, with Holger staying on as Chief Operating Officer. We don’t know how much they were bought for, but Go1 CEO, Andrew Barnes, has implied it was “significantly bigger” than the company’s previous $160 million valuation. So, how did they do it? -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

AJ Keller is the Co-Founder of Neurosity, who make brain imaging devices you can use at home. But before that he experienced an epic fail that put him on the path to where he is today. AJ’s first foray into brain imagining brought him to a point in the Summer of 2017 when everything was riding on him and his teammates winning an NYU startup pitch competition. If they won, they would get the funding they needed to turn their company into a real thing. Fail, however, and their venture would be over. What happened? ------------------ If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Tim Urban is the writer/illustrator behind Wait But Why, a blog he founded with his business partner, Andrew Finn, as well as the man behind one of our favourite TED Talks of all time on procrastination. Tim writes long-form articles covering topics from outer space to love to artificial intelligence. As he puts it, he writes about “almost everything actually”. Each post is also accompanied with Tim’s now-iconic doodles. Content creation is one of the hardest things to monetise effectively, but Tim hasn’t just managed to make a living from stick figures; he’s also used it to network with the most influential people on the planet, including Elon Musk. His new book, What’s Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies is the fruit of Tim’s six-year exploration into what exactly is going wrong with society right now. In short: he thinks we’ve lost the nuances and lays out how we can start to rebuild the bridges that have been damaged in recent years. What are the simple things all societies need to do to kick on from where we are? How do you monetise well when you’re a content creator going after a niche audience? And what’s Elon actually like in person? Let's find out... -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Henry Holland is the man behind fashion brand ‘House of Holland’, known for its signature rhyming slogan t-shirts such as 'Cause me pain Hedi Slimane' and ‘“I’ll Tell You Who’s Boss Kate Moss’. At one point they had over a 100 stockists all over the world. Henry produced special collections for Debenhams and Habitat. But at the start of the pandemic, Henry called in the administrators and left the world of fashion to go into ceramics. What happened? If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Mo Gawdat is legendary builder, thinker and now one of the leading voices in the emerging field of AI. This is a topic we want learn more about because it’s going to change our world. Mo spent over a decade as Chief Business Officer for Google X. He’s also the bestselling author of the books Solve for Happy, and most recently, Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World. He’s extremely thoughtful about the positives and negatives we face as a species. As Mo says: “The shit has already hit the fan”. AI is coming whether we like it or not. And in a universe where AI is becoming increasingly prevalent, it’s more important than ever to find the value you can bring to the world. We face a future beyond anyone’s comprehension, but Mo knows better than most what challenges we face. That’s why this conversation is so important: no one is coming to save us. But it’s not all doom and gloom - we can save ourselves, if we just start treating each other better. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Jonathan Neman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sweetgreen, a farm-to-table restaurant chain making fast food healthy. Unless you’re one of our American listeners, you probably won’t be familiar with Sweetgreen but they’re a staple of the LA, New York and Washington food scenes. They’ve got over 200 sites across the country. You probably don’t think of salad and tech in the same sentence but Sweetgreen love a bit of tech. They’ve run pilots to test the viability of blockchain technology to track and trace their ingredients and stock. And, having acquired a robotics startup in 2021, they’re now creating an automated restaurant where robots will prepare ingredients which are then assembled by human chefs. Pretty wild. Where is the restaurant industry heading? -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Every few months we interview our host Dan to find out what it’s really like being a Founder because his day job is running his VC backed startup Heights. If this is the first episode like this you’ve heard then please stop what you’re doing and search for Dan Chapter 1 in the Secret Leaders feed. He’s got a good origin story. If you’re up to date, in the previous episode with Dan a few months ago we learnt how to develop a product and bring it to market. That’s where we are today. Dan and his Co-Founder Joel have developed the Heights Braincare supplement but now they need to scale it. They need to scale the business. This is the tricky first year of being public. They need to negotiate their way out of the valley they’re in now, into the larger valley next door. How did they do it? -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Jess Salamanca is the Founder of Moxie Club, a community for female Founders. But before Moxie there was another business Jess started which could’ve been BIG. She had the opportunity to take it to a whole new level but instead decided to close it down. What really happened? -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Fall in love with the problem; not the solution - that’s the philosophy of Uri Levine, the serial entrepreneur behind more than ten startups including two unicorns. His best-known success is Waze, the traffic navigation app he Co-Founded in 2007 and sold to Google for over $1 billion six years later. Uri is a well-known speaker but he added “author” to his CV earlier this year, with the release of his book, taking its title directly from his philosophy. He wrote the book to spread entrepreneurial success as far as possible. It covers everything from the importance of failure, to the best approaches to hiring, to why it's so important to 'date' your ideas but fall in love with your problems. Why should you focus on product/market fit above all else? Why is every decision you make by definition the right decision? And how do we know that our next episode is going to be the best one we’ve ever made? Tune in to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

David Wood is a high performance coach. He’s been doing that for 25 years, and has recently taken up acting - but his life has been peppered with failure and tragedy. David will tell you that failure is a part of a life-well-lived because it means you’re pushing yourself. The people you’ve really gotta worry about are the people who never fail because they’re the ones who never try. David has tried a LOT of things and succeeded in several. But we’re here to learn from his most memorable failures, including one which nearly killed him. What happened and what did it teach him? -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Timothy Creswick is the CEO and Founder of Vorboss. They're an internet service provider for businesses which might not sound riveting but that's only until you hear the story of how it came together and what they’re actually doing. Timothy saw a gaping opportunity that the market had missed because of distractions caused by COVID and he seized upon it. Vorboss have secured £250 million of investment. Their goal is to turn that into £1 billion by deploying the UK’s only dedicated fibre network for businesses throughout Central London. They’ve discreetly laid over 500km of fibre optics since 2020 without many people noticing - and that has been a key part of their master plan... -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

We've just launched a new podcast at Kindling Media (we make Secret Leaders) helping people learn how to build wealth. It's called Making Money and it's the financial education we wish we'd had. This is the first episode, but dropped into the Secret Leaders feed. You can listen to the rest of the show here: https://link.chtbl.com/secretleaders-mm Or search for Making Money wherever you listen to your pods. Hope you enjoy!

Dave Foreman is the Managing Partner at Praetura Ventures. He’s not here to talk about a failure in business like normal, although his failure did seep into his work. Instead, he’s here to tell us about a failure of character. Dave used to be a knobhead. His words, not ours. This is how he turned his life - and himself - around. -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Alex Zaccaria is the Co-Founder & CEO of Linktree, a product that's so simple it’s difficult to imagine nobody thought of it before. It’s a kick yourself kind of product, especially now they are worth over a billion dollars. Linktree solves a unique problem in the social media age. Most social sites like Instagram only allow you to have one link in your bio. For successful people, in all kinds of industries like music, picking that one link is a nightmare. Do you want to send your followers to your merchandise, to your website, to your tickets or wherever? Linktree solves the problem by having one link to rule them all. You put your Linktree in your bio which when clicked on, displays various links to various things that you might want to promote. Alex, his brother Anthony, and their business partner Nick Humphreys, created Linktree because they saw how much time they were wasting having to update individual bio links for their clients at their digital agency, Bolster. After running the operation as a boot-strapped side-hustle for several years, things snowballed when singer-songwriter Alicia Keys joined the platform. How the hell have did they turn that link site, a side project, into one of the top three fastest growing company in the world? -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Lisa Collinson is one of the best guests we’ve spoken to in a while. She has been through the ringer, but fortunately, has come out the other side. She’s here to tell us what happened and how you can pull yourself out of the grimmest pits that life can throw you in. Lisa today is the Chief People Officer & Country Manager in the UK of The Next We, a company helping other organisations improve the mindsets of their employees. But before that she was in Berlin, leading the People team at a startup, when her life collapsed. What happened? -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

We’re talking to Pete Ward, the Co-Founder and CEO of Humanity. Until now, the thought of slowing or even reversing the ageing process has been pure science fiction. But using readily available technology, Humanity are out to change that. As a society, we’ve fallen prey to the idea that there’s a one size-fits-all methodology that will improve people’s health -exercise more, eat healthier, drink less - you’ve heard it all before. But Humanity, have recognised that everyone is built differently. By using their app to track your nutrition, movement and mind, Humanity say you can compare yourself against the global datasets, revealing what you, specifically, should do to improve your personal health. Before Humanity, Pete had several successes behind him.One of his earliest was WAYN.com, which he also Co-Founded. They were the largest social travel network for over 13 years before he sold it to to lastminute.com in 2016. And now, with Humanity, he wants to have a more meaningful impact on the world. Pete’s story is fascinating, and he’s got advice on mentorships, why you probably have more leverage than you realise and how you should always think twice before giving up in the face of adversity. You can’t change your chronological age, but can you really change your biological one? Listen to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Adam Robinson is the Founder and CEO of Retention.com, a SAAS business which is on an insane growth trajectory. But, before Retention.com, Adam failed. In fact, like most successful people, he had a bunch of failures. The one that sticks out most to him is what we’re talking about today, when he walked into a room and fired most of the people at his company. What happened? -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Do you want to get better at hiring, or being hired? Sam Franklin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Otta, a job search platform that wants to make the experience of job seekers in the tech industry way, way better. Recruitment and jobs boards might not seem the most exciting areas to disrupt but the subject of hiring is so important and can be very nuanced. All businesses succeed because of their people. At Otta, they’re really leaning into the power of the job seeker. And in the fast-growing tech industry, where demand for the best talent is very high, that has turned out to be a strong strategy. Sam got a taste of what it takes to build a fast growing startup when working at the prop-tech Nested. It was at Nested, as Head of People, and doing over 30 hours of interviews a week, that he realised how soul-destroying the recruitment process can be for many people. That was the start of Otta. If you want to get better at recruitment, either as an employer or job hunter, then there are some gems in this episode. Sam shares his tips for hiring, including stuff we’ve never thought of before. Why does he say that companies should avoid trying to be the best? What are the biggest mistakes companies make? And, what is his advice to founders trying to disrupt a stuffy industry? Listen to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Natasha Baker is a British dressage rider with 5 Paralympic golds to her name and a load of other top medals. She experienced a very public failure which left her in tears. And then, a few years later, the thing she was most scared of happening in the world, happened. What’s it like when you fall off the literal horse on the big stage? And what did it teach her about failure that we can all learn from? -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

This conversation with Danny Gray is one of our all-time favourites. Danny had a childhood filled with bullying, trauma and mental disorders. It left him with scars that no one else could see, and eventually led him to starting War Paint, a men’s makeup brand that is on an unbelievable growth path. They’re creating a new category. In fact, they’ve already created it and are fast becoming an iconic brand. Plus, Danny went on Dragons Den, got offers from all 5 Dragons and then ultimately turned them down. Madness. In this episode, we find out what really happened, behind the cameras. Danny is also the Founder of Jaaq, a mental health platform which covers everything from depression to addiction, hair loss to periods. They’ve managed to get A-listers like Alastair Campbell to bare their souls, explaining the toughest things they’ve been through. The theory is that hearing from people with lived experience is a key part of feeling understood and ultimately being able to tackle your demons. Danny looks and sounds like a 'Jack The Lad'. He says that was his image - but it really was all an image. So what happened in his childhood that crushed his confidence? -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

You probably heard SVB collapsed, but what you probably don’t know is how close the UK startup ecosystem came to collapsing all together. This is the inside story of how a small group of Founders and VCs fought to save the industry. How do we know? Because our host Dan was a small part of it. If the story we’re telling today hadn’t happened, then Dan would be sitting here without a company. This is how the crisis really played out. -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Taavet Hinrikus is the Co-Founder and former Chairman of Wise, the unicorn fintech which used to be called TransferWise. He’s now the Co-Founder of Plural, an investment platform for early stage capital built by founders and real operators like Taavet. Oh, and he was also the first ever employee at Skype. Basically, he’s one of the top startup dogs in Europe so we had to get him on to learn what the difference is between great companies and the rest. It’s always amazing hearing about the early days of companies which become absolutely massive like Wise, or Skype. These are the days when they’re signing up tens of users, rather than tens of thousands - and they’re wondering if they’re barking up the wrong tree. All startups begin with 0 real users and it’s fascinating how the best navigate their way from there to the top. Taavet is part of the group of Estonian entrepreneurs who’ve had a GDP level impact on the country. Let's find out why he's been so successful. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Alessandro, or 'Alex' Savelli, is the Co-Founder of Pasta Evangelists - a brand you’ve probably come across. Their pasta is delicious and everywhere. But, before he was getting his hands in the proverbial pasta dough, he tried to climb a much tougher mountain - building a luxury smartphone brand. We’re talking hardware and software to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung but bedecked in precious metals and jewels. They had some big wins, but it didn’t work out - and we’re here to find out why. -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Maxim Perumal is the Founder of Unai and we think he’s a certifiable genius. He’s certainly one of the most exciting Founders we’ve ever spoken to - he built the world’s most popular open source VR headset when he was 15 years old, and turned down working at Meta. His company Unai is building a VR headset and virtual world to make human expression in VR feel magical, which is a bold claim but he’s got the people to do it. Maxim has managed to bring together a crack team of ridiculously qualified VR talent who believe in him, a young man who’s only just able to drink in the States. We think you’ll find him compelling too. He’s got a great explanation for why the likes of Meta have been failing with VR and their version of the metaverse. But he also hints at a more exciting alternative. Listen to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

That’s Matteo Grassi, the Co-Founder of Pop-Up, a thriving no code eCommerce platform. But before all this, there was another period in his life - a much darker period. He left Shopify in 2016 to become a partner in a company, which Matteo has asked to keep anonymous. The idea was they would quickly spin up dozens of D2C ecommerce shops, connecting customers with cool products. They would be the middleman and they absolutely exploded. It was a paid marketing masterclass. One of their shops got to 12 million in revenue in months. But as you know, that’s not how things ended because we’re not here to talk about success stories. We’re here to learn from Founders’ toughest moments. What happened? If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Matt Kelly, the Founder of Spacegoods (really cool company btw) experienced one of the fastest rises and falls with a bootstrapped business we’ve ever seen. He grew Neon Beach, a DTC neon sign brand, to £7m in revenue in a year. He got to £10m in 18 months - from his bedroom, in lockdown - basically just him, his laptop and freelancers. But then he made one big mistake which cost him more than this business. What the hell happened? -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

We're linking up with our mates at Crowd Network to introduce you to one of their new podcasts, Captains with Sam Warburton. Whether you’re big into your sports or not, this show has plenty of leadership gems to be taken into your life and career. Sam is joined weekly by a successful sporting leader, who explain what it takes to be the very best. To listen to the rest of this chat, search for ‘Captains with Sam Warburton’ in your favourite podcast app, or hit this link: https://pod.fo/e/15f4e5

Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, where she teaches the immensely popular MBA course, Applying the Science of Happiness to Life Design. She’s also the author of Happier Hour, a new book that gives us the tools to be happier, some of which we’ll dive into later today. Cassie’s understanding of happiness was born out of a deeply unhappy period, sparked by an intensely personal failure. The failure of her impending marriage to her childhood sweetheart. What happened? -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Joanna Jensen is the Founder and former CEO of Childs Farm, a baby & child skincare brand. The company began at home after Joanna grew frustrated with the lack of choice for her young daughter’s sensitive, eczema-prone skin, so she started to make her own products. When those worked she got a thousand bottles made and went up and down the country selling them at trade fairs, country shows, anywhere she thought potential customers might be. It was the start of something magical. They got their first listings in Boots in 2014 and then two years later the brand blew up. They went viral after customers started posting ‘before and after’ photos of their children’s sensitive skin. They went viral again the year after, and by 2019, their sales exceeded Johnson & Johnson in the UK. Quite an incredible thing for someone who started out making body lotion in a freezing cold barn. In March 2022, the company was sold for 40 million pounds to PZ Cussons Plc. How did she do it? -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Brett Wigdortz is the Co-Founder of Teach First. He started the business in 2002 after seeing how the UK education system was failing miserably. The company has gone on to be a massive success but it was incredibly close to imploding because of how he operated in the early days. When Brett asked for feedback from his staff, a small moment turned into a big moment that would change the course of Teach First, the lives of its employees and its thousands of future teachers and students. What happened? Listen to find out. -- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] -- Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Dr Ben Maruthappu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cera, a digital-first home healthcare company. In just over six years, Cera has established itself as one of the biggest providers of healthcare at home in the UK, as well as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe. Cera currently makes almost 50,000 visits a day to people’s homes in the UK. That’s the equivalent capacity of around 50 hospitals. After launching in 2016, they have raised over $400 million and are generating over £250 million of annualised revenue. They’ve scaled, expanding to Germany, where they are growing over a hundred percent year on year. The care sector and healthcare in general were in a state of crisis even before the pandemic. Normally, if a sector needs change, entrepreneurs step in, disrupting the norm. But doing this in the care sector in the UK is notoriously difficult, even for well funded companies. Ben is well aware of the issues having worked in A&E and then spending three years advising the CEO of NHS England. He’s not just jumping on the hot medtech trends. And that’s allowed him to avoid the implosion in healthcare that has seen once lauded startups fall. That takes a lot of resilience and conviction. He is the first person from British healthcare to ever be included in Forbes' 30 under 30. What is it like to scale at that speed with no experience ever managing anyone before? And how do they use data to keep people out of hospital? Listen to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Christie Ellis founded one of the first human quality pet food companies, The Healthy Pet Gourmet. Her aim was to revolutionise how we feed our pets by helping them live longer and happier. She was going to build the next IAMS. The press went mad, customers loved it. She was on World News Tonight, the Today show, and top-end magazines. She had high profile clients, one who designed her kitchen for all her pet food. On paper, the business was doing well. The product was selling, and then Whole Foods expressed interest in stocking it. But the business failed… Why? Listen to find out. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Shyp started in 2013 when Kevin Gibbon had the idea of taking the Uber model and using it for shipping. He created an on-demand service where customers would take a picture of what they wanted to send, a courier would come pick it up and then take it to a warehouse to be packaged and delivered using major shipping companies. There was huge excitement when they launched. They were featured on the front pages of newspapers and Kevin was hailed as the ‘next Steve Jobs’. They were a hit with investors, raising their seed round within three months, their Series A the following year and their Series B the year after that. At their peak they were valued at $250 million dollars. But the company failed. So, what went wrong? Listen to find out. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

Did you know that looking after your brain is one of the best ways to be more productive? And your gut is central to the decisions you make? This episode brings insights from two professionals at the cutting edge of their fields, to give actionable steps on how to be more effective, improving your life at work and at home. Dr Tara is a world-leading neuroscientist and best selling author of ‘The Source’. She has a PhD in neuropharmacology, was a medical doctor and child psychologist, having trained at Oxford University. She has spent the last decade coaching leaders and CEOs from across the world and is also a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan, where she teaches classes on how understanding the brain and neuroscience can lead to better business performance. She doesn’t just understand the brain inside out, she knows how to communicate what you need to know about it - to help you build better habits and have a bigger impact. Sophie Medlin is one of the UK’s most respected gut experts. She’s a medically trained nutrition professional, a senior lecturer at King's College, the Chair of the British Dietietic Association for London and star of Channel 4s new show ‘Know your Shit’. She explains how looking after your gut can enable you to be the best leader you can be. They are both colleagues of our host Dan at his company Heights. We talk about: How you know when your brain isn’t being looked after What is neuroplasticity? How our brains actually work. The best habits for your brain to start doing The non-negotiable priorities for looking after your brain What is the gut microbiome and why is it so important? Why looking after your gut can keep your immune system healthier and stop you getting sick How, cell for cell, we are more bacteria than human How drinking diet sodas might mean you actually consume more calories Their tips for optimising the brain and gut for peak performance. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Dom McGregor co-founded Social Chain with Steven Bartlett, host of the hit podcast Diary of a CEO. Their business didn’t fail, in fact, it sky-rocketed. When they exited the company after six years in 2020, they’d built it to hundreds of employees, with clients like Apple, McDonald's, the BBC, and Boohoo, and taken it public the year before with a value of about £250 million. But the pressure on Dom was immense, and the way he coped left him feeling like he’d failed. He had turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism to deal with both the highs and lows of being a young founder in a fast-growing business. Exacerbated by his feeling of imposter syndrome, this toxic relationship with alcohol ended up nearly costing him his role in the business. Drinkline is the national alcohol helpline. If you're worried about your own or someone else's drinking, you can call this free helpline in complete confidence. Call 0300 123 1110 (weekdays 9am to 8pm, weekends 11am to 4pm). You can find more information on alcohol support on the NHS website. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: otta.com/secretleaders

What do you want to do with your life? Do you have a plan? Bryan Johnson knew from a young age he wanted to have a big impact on the world and set out to do it. His plan was simple, he wanted to make enough money so that he could focus on really making a difference to the world. And he did it. Not by doing anything flashy but by building a payments platform, bootstrapping it for years, and through understanding a hell of a lot about human psychology he got it to the point where he sold his company, Braintree Venmo , for $800 million to Paypal. He personally got $300 million. With that money he went on to found Kernel, a company that designs and manufactures brain-scanning technology with the aim to improve life expectancy by combating age-related issues, in 2016. Since then, Bryan has continued to look at how human beings can be and do better, including himself. In 2021 he started Project Blueprint, where he is working to reverse his body’s ageing. It involves measuring his seventy plus organs and then using that data to try to reverse the biological age of each as much as possible. He follows a strict diet and gives up all of the decisions around what he eats to this algorithm. As well as diet the regime also involves taking 25 supplements a day, and a strict exercise, skincare and sleep routine. We talk about: What it was like growing up in a Mormon community Why learning about compounding at 7 years old was key to his success What he felt the day he sold Braintree Venmo to Paypal for $800 million How being rich has changed how he parents What he is doing to reverse his body’s ageing Why he believes we must improve human intelligence His advice to entrepreneurs -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

What are your new year’s resolutions? Is money on your mind? Being an entrepreneur can be a bit of an all or nothing game when it comes to money. You're into the creation process and are willing to sacrifice a lot. It can cost you much more than you earn, especially at the beginning, and often you have nothing for a long time. But, admitting that you want money and understanding how to take control of it can be difficult, it can feel like a taboo. That’s why this episode features bestselling author of 'How to Own the World' and Founder of Plain English Finance, Andrew Craig. 'How to Own the World' is in its third edition and rarely out of the top books for personal finance on Amazon. Andrew originally self-published the book after becoming frustrated with the fact that so many people don’t understand the nuts and bolts of personal finance. He says we can all grow wealthier by developing some simple habits over the long term. A founder himself, Andrew understands the pressures entrepreneurs face but believes that everyone can better control their finances. What does it mean to ‘own the world’? What is the ‘100 minus your age’ rule? And why does Andrew think it's better to rent rather than buy? Listen to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Ella Mills started a plant-based food blog, Deliciously Ella, in 2012 after chronic illness left her physically and mentally depleted. The blog blew up and its popularity led to her first recipe book, which was released in January 2015. It became the fastest-selling debut cookbook of all time in the UK and spent eight weeks at number one on Amazon, across all categories. Deliciously Ella now has 40 plant-based food products, stocked in more than 6,000 stores across the UK, an app, more bestselling cookbooks, a deli, and in 2022 had an expected turnover of 20 million pounds. It hasn’t always been a smooth ride though…which we’ll get into. Ella has over 2 million followers on Instagram. Social media has played a big role in the growth of the business, but even though many would describe her as one of the original UK influencers, she doesn’t see herself that way. How did she handle that fame along with the growth of the business brand? What advice would she give to other entrepreneurs building a disruptive consumer brand? And, what does she think about the wellness industry and the desire for quick fixes? Listen to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

How do you know what to do when you’re just starting out? In 2007, Rob Fitzpatrick and his two co-founders, were in their early twenties. They were programmers just out of academia and had an idea for a business. They were accepted to YCombinator in the same cohort as teams like Dropbox and Songkick. They got deals with big companies like Sony Music, MTV, and the BBC, were on national talk shows, got great press coverage and moved to London to be in the centre of their industry. But they died in their fourth year… What went wrong? Listen to find out. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders

Where were you when you came up with the idea for your business? Simon Griffiths was sitting on a toilet when he had the idea for Who Gives A Crap, a subscription-based toilet paper brand that donates 50% of its profits to help build toilets in the developing world. Since they launched in 2012, they’ve sold more than 300 million rolls of toilet paper and donated more than 11 million Australian dollars - just over £6 million - to charity. They now have more than 200 employees spread across 7 countries selling into the USA, Europe and Australia. In September 2021 they raised over $40 million in their first fundraising round. It’s taken a lot to get to this point. They bootstrapped for the first 9 years and spent 3 years before that working on the product before launching. Simon didn’t get paid for the first 18 months of trading. What does it take to build a brand that actually tries to change the world? Is entrepreneurship really for everyone? And does Simon fold or scrunch his toilet paper? Listen to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

What happens when your business pivots so much you end up in a completely different industry? Steven Renwick founded Satago, a platform that helps businesses get paid faster, in 2012. It was actually one of the first companies to raise money on the equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs. Whilst it started out as a way to crowdsource data about when companies were getting paid and use that to make real time credit reports, Steven had to pivot the business multiple times, meaning it went from a technology to a finance business. The more the company grew, the more they needed investment, plus Steven was now in an industry he had no experience in. They raised nearly £3 million in total. But, in 2017, Steven had to try to sell Satago after it became insolvent. What went wrong? Listen to find out. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones grew up in poverty in Birmingham, having come with his parents from Jamaica as part of the Windrush generation. One of nine children, and as the oldest boy, it was his job to help his father on their allotment, which they used to supplement the family income. And it was on that allotment he first dreamt of owning his own farm. His drive to change his circumstances was relentless, which was needed, because he had to excel at several different career stages just to give himself the chance of building his company. Wilfred gave Gordon Ramsey his big break in television, having been given his own break in TV, thanks to his raw persistence. Then after finally buying his farm, he set up The Black Farmer, a name coined by neighbours of his farm in Devon. He’s written a book, called ‘Jeopardy - The Dangers of Playing it Safe’, so has really thought about the things that have made him successful - the stuff we want to know about. How did he hone his mindset and achieve his lifelong dream? Why does he celebrate being an outsider? And why is fear so important for entrepreneurs? Listen to find out. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Do you want to learn about raising capital from someone who has been through the wringer and reflected on his mistakes? Alex Rainey is the Co-Founder of travel insurer and planning app Pluto, which he founded in 2018. They raised a total of £1.3 million, and grew to be the UK’s second highest rated travel insurer and one of the top-3 travel planning apps on the app store. But in September 2022, just a couple of months before we recorded this episode, Alex and his Co-Founder sold the company after failing to raise in a brutal fundraise. What went wrong? Listen to find out. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? [email protected] Sponsor links: quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders