Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

"It was at that moment that I realised that a buyer and seller had a need, and that the current operators in that market weren't fulfilling that need, for whatever reason. It really got me thinking about the secondary ticket market...and I actually stumbled across this £3 Billion opportunity. Twenty-Four year old tech entrepreneur Luke Massie sold his first business aged just 17 for £96,000. Having invested £50,000 of that in his next startup, Vibe Tickets is now valued at over £6,000,000. With over 200,000 fans on social media and investment from Matt Newing, Scott Fletcher and Richard Branson, this "Air BNB" for concert tickets" is on a mission to stop ticket touts for good. We talk tickets, touts..and Ed Sheeran... Let's StartUp!

"I went to Manchster Met to study business management and I didn't register, but went down to where I thought my lecture was meant to be. I sat in the room for about half an hour and got very, very bored. I was convinced I was in the wrong room and I never went back. I went back to my halls of residence and I went down to the University and dropped out." Steven Bartlett, Co-Founder of Social Chain. See Steven Bartlett's Social Chain co-founder 'live' in Manchester on March 21st 2018 here:http://bit.ly/2FlewvR Social Chain is an award-winning and hugely innovative social media marketing agency, with a collective reach of over 200 million millennials across their platforms and an enviable global client portfolio that includes Apple, McDonalds, and the BBC. Social Chain was set up in 2014 by two young entrepreneurs - Steve Bartlett and Dom McGregor - who dropped out of university to pursue their business venture. Dom McGregor, Social Chain Co-Founder, tells us how they made it. How it all began Steven Bartlett moved to Manchester to enroll on a Business Management course at Manchester Metropolitan University, but that didn’t last long with the business vision he had on the side. Steven wanted to create a social media-assisted platform based on common interests and university life, designed to connect students in the same city. He envisioned it as a place where students from the same cities could connect, to share anything from advertising an event to selling old textbooks; a Gumtree for students. So with that in mind, he dropped out of university to focus His energy on Wallpark. Whilst working to grow Wallpark, one of the main things Steven learnt more about was the behavior of young people on social media, on Twitter in particular. During this time Steven stumbled upon a Twitter page aimed at students run by a student at Edinburgh University; his name was Dominic McGregor. Dom was posting extremely funny and relatable student content that in turn attracted thousands of followers. He saw the opportunity to use these platforms to connect a brand with its audience. If there was a way to weave a brand’s message seamlessly into the page, and engagement and following wouldn’t suffer, Steven wanted to create it. Steven got in touch with Dom and shared his vision, and soon enough he ended up ditching his studies too. Together they set up Social Chain...  

"I think I had done what I wanted to do out of that. I didn't feel like I needed to prove myself in anythig so I think I could take more risks. It didn't really matter in a personal sense at that time. It matters enormously to me now but in that sense it was a bit of an experiement and if it didn't work then there was plenty of consulting out there, etc..it gave me some freedom to think about it in that way." On today's show I welcome Ed Molyneux, founder of Freeagent. Microbusinesses constitute 98% of all businesses, and most of them hate having to manage their finances. Meet Ed Molyneux, former RAF figher pilot turned Freeagent founder, an online accounting system for freelancers and small businesses like you and me. Ed originally trained with the US Airforce in Texas before two tours of duty in the Balkans with the RAF. He left to set up as a defence technology consultant, beore becoming frustrated with the lack of bookeeping software for small businesses and finally getting a tax bill at the end of the year, which came as a bit of a shock. Fast forward to 2018 and Ed has now floated Freeagent on the AIM, raising over £10 million and prior to that raised £9 million through a combination of crowdfunding, angel investment and bank loans. We talk risk, growth and of course...fighet jets. Let's startup! 

"Finance was the last thing I ever thought I'd get involved with. I was at college doing 'A' levels, got very bored and then got kicked out of college". On todays show I welcome Luke Davis, founder of IW Capital. Luke has taken the unusual step of going from Ibiza nightclub promoter to stockbroker, to private investment house. Given a large number of the show's listeners are entrepreneurs, startups and scale-ups I thought it would be really interesting to get someone from the investment side of the coin in to talk.   IW Capital have helped a number of different businesses including Brewhouse & Kitchen, Ubamarket, Weswap and Unbound riae millions of pounds to help scale their SME's.  Lule and I talk about what an investor is looking for when investing in a startup, the types of business they're investing in, as well as staging events, and of course..Ibiza."

"When we set out on this road we we'ren't looking for a product . It was very much a 'how do we make this simpler, how do we bring something new to watchmaking. Is there something we can explore at the fundamental process of how the human interacts with the chronometer". On today's show I welcome the founders of Swiss Reimagined - the Singularity watch - Stephen Mansfield and Daniel Bluncschi. Stephen and Daniel started with the idea of a patented one-hand time-piece, which was originally written on the back of a beer mat following their first meeting - in the pub. Inspiration can strike in the most unlikely places. . Swiss Reimagined is the brainchild of trained engineer Stephen and watch industry veteran Daniel. What they've created is the world's first chronometer that has the ability to accuraely display both hours and minutes with a single moving hand. As a new brand they've decided to levaerage the crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which offers great marketing opportunities, as well as offering people the chance to vote with their money. Let's Start-Up!

"For me I was just done making money for other people. I'm a good sales and marketing pro, that's what I've always done. So I was making this guy a ton of money and I was doing ok out of it, but I could have been doing a whole lot better - if i'd been focused in on doing my own thing. So that's exactly what I did and I never looked back, ever. Ever". On today's show I welcome back one of the most popular guests of 2017, Chris Ducker.  Chris is a serial entrepreneur, business mentor, blogger, podcaster, and best-selling author of the book 'Virtual Freedom' and features in publications such as Forbes, Inc and Entrepreneur. When I heard that Chris was launching a second book I put the call out to get him back on the show. Chris's new book is entitled 'Rise of the Youpreneur': The Definitive Guide to Beocoming the Go-To Leader in Your Industry and building a Future-Proof Business. After a decade as an entrepreneur and as an authoruty in this space, with three different companies under one umbrealla and with over 450 employees, I started by asking Chris why he decided to become an entrepreneur. Let's Start-Up!

"When you really get far away from a problem, whether it's physically or mentally, you can see things really clearly. It just occured to me that I was bashing my head against this wall. The doors just weren't opening. I was trying to do this law thing and actually, I wanted to spend my life doing what I enjoyed the most, which was cooking. And I  kind of in that instant made a decision that I wanted to do something in food, and I didn't know exactly what it was going to be. I didn't know if I wanted to be a chef or a writer or whatever. But it didn't really matter, it was making that decision to do the thing that I loved the most." On today's show I speak to Margie Broadhead, professional chef, cookery writer, podcast host of 'Desert Island Dishes' and writer of the 'Made by Margie' blog.  Not only has Margie cooked for some of the biggest names in the fashion industry, but she has also interviewed some of the biggest names in the food industry for her podcast, inclusing Levi Roots to name but one. On 'Desert Island Dishes' margie talks to her guests about their life with food and this goes through choosing their favourite childhood dishes, the dishes they eat most often, the ones that mean the most to them and what their last dish would be before being cast off to the desert island. I started by asking Margie about a quote from her blog: "Life is sometimes a pot noodle. Life isn't a perfectly styled photo that you see on Instagram feeds." Let's StartUp!

"Our target consumer is 18-40 year olds who are beginning to read more and more about what they're eating and drinking. And maybe they're tired of what's happening in politics with fake news and alternative facts and not knowing what is true anymore. We have that strong tone of voice and what we're seeing is people get that and feel that. They're reading about nutrition and becoming fans of what we do and the movement we're trying to be a part of." I speak to Hugh Thomas, Co-founder of Ugly Drinks, a range of fruit flavoured sparkling waters with no sugar, sweeter, calories and no artificial ingredients.  Hugh and co-founder Joe Benn launched Ugly as a response to a soft drinks industry that they felt was overly sweetened and frustrated by the deceptive branding of many of them. Now many think sugary and sweetened drinks cause many of the issues associated with diabetes and obesity. Hugh and Joe decided to do something about it and create a healthy, affordable and fun alternative with Ugly Drinks where the beauty is all on the inside." Let's startup.

"Originally he tried to get me for gross misconduct for starting up a rival business, but my contract was an older contract, so it didn't have that clause in it. So in the end I got put on gardening leave for a month and and had to make ends month. It was rough but it was the best thing that could have happened. It was rough, really rough for a few months. I was really worried for a while... Charles Richer from Love Beer is a great example of knowing what you want, and going out and making it happen. Just two years ago Charles was earning less then the minimum wage, washing dishes for an employment agency, leaving him, in his own words, very downtrodden. Fast forward and... not happy working for someone else, he spotted an opportunity in the craft ale business and is now focusing on working with grass roots local brewers and bringing their products into your hands.  From installing bars into restaurants, pubs, homes, offices, and focusing especially on craft beers, this Bud is DEFINITELY not or you. Let's startup.

"I didn't really understand anything about business, so I just researched the concept and how money flowed around the world and thought this could be interesting. I went home to my wife and said 'I think I really want to resign and create this money-swapping thing'. She said 'ok, I believe in you, let's do it'. Then I told her we had to sell the house." Jared was a currency trader who thought that there must be a cheaper way to get your travel money rather having to queue at a desk at an airport before jumping on a flight for your holiday. So he created 'WeSwap' which works by getting users to swap money with each other. Since launching in 2015 he's had over 300,000 customers and swapped over £130 million in over 16 different currencies and over 18 different countries.