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The Start-Up Diaries Podcast
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Join us for an inspiring episode of The Start-Up Diaries as we sit down with Richard Potter, co-founder and CEO of Peak. 🤖 Building a Global AI Leader: Richard Potter on Peak's Mission and Growth Richard shares his incredible journey from the world of semiconductors to leading a cutting-edge AI platform that helps global brands optimise key business decisions. Discover how Richard’s passion for data, his early coding experiences, and his unique approach to democratising AI have shaped Peak...
💡 Ready to elevate your leadership? Not your typical Chief People Officer, JooBee Yeow is a trained Systems Engineer with a PhD in Leadership Development. Throughout her extensive career, she's worked with 2, 20 and 200-year-old companies with revenues ranging from 10m, 100m to £1 billion. JooBee’s primary focus is guiding founders and start-up leaders to transition from the 'STARTing to Build' phase to 'BUILDing to Scale' – all while achieving organisational growth rate of 15% YoY, 15% QoQ a...
In this episode, Livvie Holt sits down with Stephen Bell, Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, and Frankie Woodhead, Group Chief Product Officer, from the Bank of London. A unicorn status attained at time of launch, and second clearing bank to launch in the UK in 250 years; The business has taken the fintech sector by storm, landing into the top 10 of the nation’s most valuable FinTechs in 2021 – trailblazing since. The Bank of London is different. They don’t lend, invest, o...
Join us for an insightful episode as Chris McGowan sits down with Ben Booth to explore the remarkable evolution of MaxContact. Ben shares his compelling journey from working in a family-run business to leading major transformations, including innovative product development and strategic rebranding efforts. This episode offers an in-depth look at the critical importance of leveraging data, scaling operations while maintaining a robust company culture, and navigating intricate business transiti...
Join us for a fascinating conversation with tech leader, Alidad Moghaddam, CEO of Blue Light Card, in an episode of tech growth mastery. From Navigating MoneySuperMarkets Acquisition, to scaling Trainline 400%, Alidad shares his remarkable journey and multicultural upbringing to leading a mission-driven organization that supports NHS workers, emergency services, social care, and armed forces personnel, Blue Light Card. Discover his experiences at American Express, Bain & Company, MoneySup...
In this episode, Ben Whately, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Memrise, shares his journey from experimenting with neural networks to founding an innovative language learning platform. Memrise is a platform that leverages memory techniques, deep understanding of neuroscience and novel approaches to second language acquisition to make learning a language dramatically easier and faster. Ben discusses: The challenges of disrupting the Ed-Tech marketThe role of AI in education, and the...
In this episode, Phil Goffin, CEO and co-founder of ZILO, shares his journey from early computing enthusiast to innovating in the fin-tech space, currently through leading a pioneering software company, ZILO. ZILO, founded in 2020, aims to revolutionise the asset and wealth management industry with innovative software solutions. Phil explains the company's mission to modernise systems managing over $60 trillion in assets, which were previously based on outdated pre-internet technology. They'...
In this episode we have Sadra Hosseini, the CEO and co-founder of Ryft, a payment platform business taking the fintech sector by storm, Helping software businesses become payments businesses by monetising transactions. Sadra's entrepreneurial journey is nothing short of inspiring, and today we'll dive into how he's transforming the landscape of digital payments. The episode covers: Funding and Strategy - Ryft raised 2 million in seed funding and received an Innovate UK grant, and are cu...
On today’s episode, we have Jason Iliffe, CEO and Co-Founder at CLIQ! CLIQ is a community & social networking app aimed a connecting like-minded individuals together to join interest-based clubs and events; Connecting communities online and more importantly, offline. Jason is a tech entrepreneur who started by coding his first marketplace website — an online beauty marketplace for freelance beauty professionals, AMB, was the UK's fastest-growing platform and voted the number one b...
In this episode we have Justin Taylor, CTO of the mobile banking solution, Suits Me. Suits Me is the hassle free alternative to traditional banking for both personal and corporate pre-paid e-money account cards, aiding ease of access to a payment card for people employees on temporary contracts, and workers from overseas, who might otherwise struggle to secure a high street financial account. They're taking the Fin Tech market by storm with their app based service, recently winning SME News'...
In this episode, we're talking to Adam Warburton, Chief Product Officer, and Philippa Peasland from Vypr, the UK's leading product intelligence and performance accelerator. Vypr connects products to consumers by testing elements of product propositions with thousands of consumers via smartphone. Adam, with 12 years in product management, started at O2 in customer service and led teams at Asda, Walmart, and Travelex before joining Vypr. Pippa, head of product and delivery at Vypr, transitioned...
In this episode, Rob Bowley, Fractional CPTO at his own consultancy Pragmatic Partners, and Fractional CTO / CPTO for multiple tech start-ups such as Eco Surv, Enthuse, Doc Abode and Financielle, among many other mentorships and advisory positions. A seasoned tech leader, Rob shares his journey from a self-taught software engineer during the dot-com boom to a leadership consultant. His career has spanned various roles, from hands-on engineering at early internet companies like Lycos to stra...
With 160 million children in child labour globally, a number that is increasing, Eleanor has a visionary approach to tackling the issue; using data and AI to power the Child Labour Index, a solution to enable investors to identify child labour risk in their portfolio companies and engage effectively. HACE's Child Labour Index is an AI-powered specialised ESG rating, scoring companies and portfolios in relation to three performance indicators in the specific area of child labour. Eleanor wa...
In today's live recording from the buzzing seminar suite of Queen Mary University London, as part of their vibrant International Women's Day celebrations, we bring you a visionary of university life and co-founder of the 'Youni' app — Georgia Gibson. Georgia, Co-Founder, Chief creative director + commnity builder at Youni, is not just shaping the way students socialise; she's architecting a digital community. With Youni's innovative app, the once fragmented world of university societies, soc...
This episode dives into the entrepreneurial journey of Eddy Herman, the co-founder and CTO of Slip—a digital receipt and retail technology company aimed at transforming the retail landscape. Eddy's from Manchester with a background in electronic engineering and with experience at leading companies like Darktrace and The Hut Group, Eddy shares his transition from corporate security to launching his own startup. Key Takeaways: Turning an Idea into Reality: Learn about the conceptualisatio...
In this podcast episode, guest Charlotte Ashton, shares her insights and advice into the investment landscape and financial industry particularly focusing on strategic finance and private equity. Charlotte has built her expertise as a board advisor, business coach and investor over a 20+ year career in the corporate finance and private equity sectors. Her business, Implicit, empowers founders of privately owned businesses to gain freedom and successfully crystallise wealth through proactive s...
In this episode we have two investment managers from Mercia Ventures, Adam Lovell (Series A Investor) and Kiran Mehta (Seed Investor). Mercia Ventures are Venture capital investment for ambitious businesses. They invest into vibrant early-stage and scale up businesses across the UK. They talk about their roles and experiences in investing, particularly in the fields of software, deep tech, and life sciences. Adam and Kiran share insights into Mercia Ventures' approach to investment, detaili...
Dr Natalie Getreu and the Hertility Team are revolutionising the female health landscape, providing personalised reproductive health solutions tailored to each woman's unique needs, from menstruation to menopause, offering customised testing and services based on individual circumstances through their letterbox home test kits and trailblazing research teams. Hertility collaborates with companies like Channel Four and Edelman to provide reproductive health benefits for employees, including te...
In this episode, we explore the intersection of innovation and financial health. Join us as we delve into the story of Ophelos, a startup born at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Founded by Amon Ghaiumy and his co-founders, Ophelos leverages cutting-edge technology to address the back end of financial services, focusing on debt management and consumer empowerment. Ophelos are a new kind of debt collection agency - one with a social purpose and mission. Learn how they've harnessed AI to t...
Featuring our first 'expert topic' episode whereby we invite experts from the sectors we specialise in to share their insights and experiences. In this episode we shine a spotlight on the Cyber Security field. Miguel Clarke, a former FBI agent and a current cybersecurity and GRC evangelist at Armor Defense, a cloud-first cybersecurity company, shares insights from his fascinating career journey, starting from his unexpected entry into the FBI following a casual comment at a party, to hi...



















