Joining us this episode is Marcus Exall, serial founder, angel investor, and investor in residence at Virgin Startup. In this episode, Marcus shares his journey from building and exiting a digital advertising company to supporting countless founders along the way. We dive into his early days as an entrepreneur, from running a paper round as a kid t…

Storytelling is one of the most underrated founder skills! It’s critical for motivating your team, selling to customers, and of course, raising investment. It can also position you as a thought leader, which yes, helps all those things too. But it’s one of the things that trips sooo many founders up. From pitches that make it obvious they were crea…

Have you ever wondered how to stay on top of the hottest new tech tools and trends as a founder? Curious how you can leverage platforms like TikTok and Instagram to market your B2B startup in a fun, engaging way? Get ready to learn because in this episode I'm joined by Ghita El Haitmy, the smart and sassy founder of Tech Bible, which empowers profe…

Have you ever found yourself drowning in fundraising legals and language? This is the interview you’ve been waiting for… In this episode, we're joined by the brilliant Sam Simpson, Co-founder of FounderCatalyst, who's on a mission to simplify and accelerate the early-stage investment legal journey. Sam's not just talking the talk; he's walked the w…

🚀 What’s it like to go Corporate Employee> Founder > Founder > Corporate Employee? At Not My First Guess we love a squiggly career path! 🏁 That’s why we’re so excited to have serial founder, and once again corporate employee, Adam Goodall share his journey and lessons learned, from taking the first leap into full-time entrepreneurship, to deciding …

Are you worried you’re not using enough AI as a founder? I promise you’re not alone. In fact, after interviewing our incredible guest today, I went away and automated a LOAD of my own processes - sometimes you just need to understand the art of the possible! This episode is a GREAT start - we’re joined by AI advocate Cien Solon, who is on a mission…

As well as being “Business Barbie” to her followers on instagram, Rachel Harris, is an award-winning content creator, author, speaker, business owner, and most importantly, an accountant extraordinaire. Named as one to watch on the 35 under 35 list and recently crowned as the First Intuition Apprenticeship Mentor of the Year for 2023, Rachel is a t…

Ever wonder what it takes to transform from a passionate leader into a successful startup founder? In this episode, we'll uncover the secrets to building an innovative, AI-powered solution that's revolutionising the way managers drive team performance. Joining us today is Sarah Touzani, the brilliant mind behind Waggle, an AI co-pilot empowering ma…

Joining us in this episode is Charlie Rosier, a seasoned entrepreneur and fourth-time founder. Her latest venture, Babbu, disrupts the early childhood education space with an innovative online platform tailored for children aged 0-5. Driven by personal experience and insights gained during lockdown conversations with fellow parents, Charlie recogni…

This episode we are joined by Simi Lindgren Founder of Yuty. Some of you may recognise Simi from our special episode on fundraising as an underrepresented founder, where she was joined by two other incredible guests. But we wanted to take the time to dive deeper into Simi’s story and insights building an AI startup. Simi initially went to med schoo…

This episode we are joined by Kate Berski, Co-Founder of Curlsmith, a high performance, inclusive haircare brand which she started with her husband in 2018. It soon became one of the fastest growing textured hair brands and would go on to retail at Ulta Beauty, Target, Boots and many more. The idea for Curlsmith was formed out of a family struggle …

This episode, we are joined by Tess Cosad, the CEO and Co-Founder of Béa Fertility. As someone who takes much of her inspiration from injustice, Tess saw the pain and difficulties that many people were going through in their attempts to build a family, with access and affordability making the journey even more stressful and heartbreaking for many. …

This episode, we are joined by Andy Ayim MBE, a serial founder and Angel Investor who is known for his human centered approach to business. Over a decade ago, Andy cofounded Mixtape Madness, a proudly bootstrapped 7 figure business. When he left day to day operations there, he dove into Product Management with high growth startups such as WorldFirs…

This episode we are joined by Nicola Ward, Co-Founder of CakeDrop. Having both worked in the City, Nicola and her sister Anna had a conversation about how awkward office birthdays can be. Often forgetting to buy a cake and having to resort to a cheap last minute one from the shop around the corner. They felt that something needed to be done to impr…

This episode we are joined by Felicity Halstead, founder of the company GoodWork. GoodWork is a not-for-profit that works with employers to create employment opportunities for young people from marginalised communities. Having had experience in youth programmes, as well as working with social mobility organisations and supporting entry-level recrui…

This episode, we are joined by Robert Hayward, founder of GoodFX, an international payments B Corp that turns currency conversion into social good, using the profits they make every time their customers trade FX, to support charities and create meaningful job opportunities for refugees. For anyone who doesn’t know, The foreign exchange market, comm…

This episode, we are joined by the founders of Future Kind Collective, Alicia Grimes and Natalie Pierce. Having initially met when Natalie interviewed Alicia for a job, the two found themselves working in the same company on strategy and service design projects focused on culture change. What started as a working relationship soon blossomed into a …

In this episode we’re joined by James Roycroft-Davis. James is a Serial Founder, Angel Investor and Host of the UK’s #1 Founder and Investor Mental Health Podcast - Vulnerable. He’s previously started businesses around weightless and dog training, but hadn’t yet found his purpose and the business he wanted to build for the next 10 years, until in M…

This episode, we're joined by Tim Deeson, serial founder and angel investor with over 20 years of experience building companies. He started his first company Deeson, which grew to be a multi-million pound digital agency, at age just 20. Tim successfully exited Deeson to co-found GreenShoot Labs, an innovative conversational AI consulting and produc…

In this episode we’re joined by Amardeep Parmar, Co-founder of The Bae HQ which is the number one community for British Asian Entrepreneurs; curator of the Tedx Chigwell programme, and host of the Entrepreneurs Handbook. As if that wasn't enough, having written and edited hundreds of Articles around the subject of entrepreneurship, Amar is also an …

Today I’m joined by Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, a social entrepreneur and educationalist, and co-founder of Liquify, an invoice marketplace that enables SMEs in emerging markets to get quick access to affordable cash. Having started her career building deep expertise in the financial world, Alberta left banking in 2018 to pursue a career in impact inves…

This episode is a little bit special. We're doing our second fundraising compilation, taking different tips and hard won lessons from our founders we've interviewed before. In this episode, we're going to focus on five founders: 1. Jay Richards: At the time of interview, Jay's company Imagen had 25, 000 community members across 111 countries, havin…

Today I’m joined by Jasmin Thomas, Serial Founder & Angel Investor. After a successful career building the first teams of unicorns like Deliveroo, Algemy, Improbable and Dark Trace, Jasmin turned her hand to her own business. Having been diagnosed with MS, Jasmin had experienced the benefits of CBD oil first hand, from relieving period cramps to fl…

Today I’m joined by Jacqui Patton, Founder of Ink Blot Creative. After training as an actress, Jacqui’s life took some twists and turns, including an eye-watering stint as the lady behind the number dishing out hair removal emergency advice at Veet, before finding her way into the world of marketing. A truly natural and masterful communicator, it’s…

Today I’m joined by Abi Foster, Founder of Elent. After becoming a qualified ACA Chartered Accountant, Abi began her professional career in the luxury magazine sector at Condé Nast, before moving on to Hearst Publishing's finance department. She enjoyed spending time outside of work supporting colleagues and friends to better understand their own p…

Today I’m joined by Martha Silcott, Founder of FabLittleBag. Martha invented FabLittleBag after she was forced to smuggle her used tampon from the bathroom to her handbag at a friends dinner party when faced without a bin in their downstairs loo. The experience was so awful that she decided to do something about it and the more she looked into it, …

Today I’m joined by Farah Kabir, Co-founder of HANX. One day, while enjoying a stable career in Asset Management at Goldman Sachs, Farah stood in line at her local Boots ready purchase a box of condoms when she realised her boss was standing behind her. Utterly mortified, Farah felt the very relatable pang of shame rise within her until… she sudden…

Today I'm very excited because we are doing a special episode all about fundraising. This is a topic I get asked about all the time from founders wanting to know who they should go to for investment, what investors are really looking for, and what they should be asking investors in turn. It's a topic we've talked about a ton on this podcast. We've …

Today I’m joined by Sanya Rajpal, Founder and CEO of AdagioVR. Sanya is an Activist, International Development Expert and Serial Entrepreneur dedicated to transforming systems that unleash individual potential - and a truly remarkable individual in her own right. She built her first company while at Law School, Dignifly, with the goal to empower pe…

Today I’m joined by Milly Tamati, founder and CEO of Generalist World. After growing up on a farm in rural New Zealand, Milly set herself the North Star of travelling the world in her twenties. Driven by a deep desire to keep moving, she found herself venturing down the path of entrepreneurship as a way of funding her wanderlust. Along her journey,…

Today I’m joined by Victoria Armstrong, Angel Investor, Advisor and Mentor. Victoria is an inspiring player on and off the pitch with an impressive entrepreneurial background of 20 years worth of experience in rapidly growing start-ups including Biotech, Mental health and SaaS, and has the stories to prove it. She’s invested her journey across thre…

Today I’m joined by Emmie Faust, Serial Entrepreneur, Investor, Advisor, Mum of four, Host of The Growth Podcast with Emmie Faust and Founder of Female Founders Rise. Emmie is an experienced exited entrepreneur with over 20 years in digital marketing, having personally scaled and sold not one, not two, but three businesses. She also has the rare an…

Today I’m joined by Lauren Currie (OBE) Founder of UPFRONT and Host of the podcast UPFRONT Moment with Lauren Currie. UPFRONT is an organisation dedicated to changing confidence, visibility, and power for 1 million women and non-binary people. The idea was born of Laurens own frustration with the lack of women speakers and the dominance of all-male…

Today I’m joined by Jessica Alderson, Co-founder and CEO of So Syncd. So Syncd is a dating app and website that matches compatible personality types. Based on the 16 personality types theory, So Syncd is the first dating app to connect compatible personality types by pairing couples who have just enough similarities to understand each other and jus…

Today I’m joined by Joyeeta Das, Co-founder & CEO of Samudra Oceans. Joy is a serial deep-tech entrepreneur who’s founded five startups, three of which have had successful exits. She’s also an influential and active member of the wider startup community with additional roles as an advisor and investor. She’s scaled projects to hundreds of million o…

This episode is a little flashback for us, jumping back to a conversation Hattie had with Matt Meeker, Co-Founder, Executive Chairman and CEO (that’s Canine Enrichment Officer) at Bark, and former founder of Meetup. Today, when she’s teaching founders how to test their ideas in the early stages, Hattie still comes back to how Matt tested both Meetu…

Copy Club is a community for marketers who want to help each other do great things. And there’s a lot of them out there with the Copy Club community having grown to over 1000 members from over 800 brands since Lottie founded it in 2014. After working with massive global brands including Proctor & Gamble, Lacoste, and Dolce & Gabbana, Lottie created…

Porto and Bello are an accessible clothing brand that seeks to help ease some of the fear and anxiety around cancer treatment by focusing on the person and not just the patient. Alexia launched Porto and Bello in 2021, with husband Josh, following her own experience of being treated for breast cancer which she was diagnosed with at 29, 34 weeks pre…

Daye are on a mission: to close the gender pain gap, and overcome historical gender biases in medical research and product innovation. They launched their first product, CBD tampons in 2019, with a focus on sustainability and pain relief, and have since branched out to other products supporting vaginal health, including their latest product- vagina…

Most founders dream of going public- but what happens after you ring the bell, if share prices tank, and the company you used to leap out of bed to run is destroying your mental health? For anyone who hasn’t heard of Eve mattresses, they were one of the first companies in the UK to offer a mattress in a box- and the countries fastest retail IPO at …

Recorded live from Sifted Summit, this episode unpacks the challenges of fundraising as a diverse founder, practical tips on fundraising, and what we can do at individual, organisational, and systems levels to fix inequities in the startup ecosystem. Our incredible guests are: Simi Lindgren is the founder of Yuty, tackling bias in AI to match custo…

What is a female urinal and why does it matter? Ever walked past a massive queue for the ladies, while the queue for the mens is non-existent and wondered why? Ever wondered what the solution is? Women have to urinate more often and on average for longer than men. Plus, we have more reason to visit the loo (typically we take on more care duties for…

Meet serial entrepreneur, angel investor, musician, physicist and self-professed big geek Chris Howard! Chris has raised millions in investment for his own startups, taught entrepreneurship by giving founders £100 and a raspberry pie, and started to invent an "anti-accelerator" at his new startup, The Rattle. In this episode Chris shares: How he wr…

Meet Foong, reformed Consultant turned Founder, who loved her colleagues at PWC, but found she lacked Purpose in her work. When Foong made the leap, it was to Matchable, a company intent on helping people like her find more purpose by volunteering their specialist skills to startups and charities; which are impact heavy but resource poor. Today, Ma…

How do you test a blood testing business, when none of the co-founders come from a clinical background? What happens when your entire investor pipeline disappears overnight? What do you do when customers just aren't buying? And what's it like scaling a health tech startup from 0 to 130 staff, and over a 100k customers? The person to ask is Eliot Br…

What do you have to do to make your customers love you so much, they'll get a tattoo of your logo? Especially when it's a "boring" B2B tool for writing better cold emails... Lavender's founder William Ballance may not quite have gotten his own head around why customers love them this much; but he's certainly cracked building a product and brand cus…

Design thinking is a buzzword we hear a lot in the startup space- but what is it really all about? Should you be trying it? Is it too late to get started? And how might it speed up your route to market and loyal customers who keep coming back for more? In this episode, Hattie is joined by Nirish Shakya, a design thinking and user experience design …

After earning few thousand euros selling toasties at school, you may think founding a company would have been Anieke's first stop post university. But a horrendous hackathon experience initially put her off the no sleep, stinky side of entrepreneurship. Instead, she started out in the corporate world, though quickly made her way into Venture Capita…

This week's interviewee, Emily Cummin, is carving out a new industry- not quite Death Tech, but Grief Tech instead. Her platform, Untangle was founded to help people dealing with big loss, whether bereavement or divorce, to cope with the emotional and practical fall out. Untangle are still pre-revenue, but are just about to turn on a series of inco…

How do you unlock the opinions of a generation? And what does it change when you can tap into qualitative research at scale? The person to ask is Jay Richards, co-founder of Imagen Insights, which helps big brands like Amazon Prime, Sky, Puma, the NFL, Pepsico and many more, to access thousands of Gen Z opinions, within 48 hours. Not coming from a …