Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

"The scales were tipping, so I was doing more artwork and becoming more and more disengaged with a career in medicine. But then I broke my leg one winter and I couldn't stand up to paint anymore. So I had to change to painting watercolours and I sat down and painted, put it online...and it went viral." On today's landmark 50th episode I welcome Laloa's Liz Murray. We helped her start out with a Virgin StartUp loan and mentoring so it's apt that she's my interview on my 50th show. She had a lifelong love of art, inspired by her grandfather, which lay dormant while she studied and then became a doctor. However, an accident resulting in a broken leg rekindled her interest and she's now proving that you can 'screw it, just do it' and turn a hobby into a full-time job. Let's startup!

" A lot of people within the industry, friends, family and wider, thought we were just crazy. So we were going to launch a business with 14 people, we weren't going to have any call centres, we weren't going to have any shops, we were going to be online only, and our members will do all the stuff, like get more members to join, will help with member queries... And people just didn't think it could work." On today's show I welcome Tom Rainsford, co-founder and brand director of telecommunications disruptor Giff Gaff. As one of the original founders Tom started with the simple idea of 'making mobile better'. They are the David among Goliath's in mobile-land, they have members, not customers, and don't tie them down with lengthy contracts. They were Uswitch's 2017 network of the year,  and just had one of their video's voted in Youtube's Top 10 video's for 2017. Tom and I talk about how they were able to compete in such a competitive market, how their members drive the business for them and how they even paid their members over £11 million for their services..let's startup!

"We've just brought out a documentary with two fighters from the area we're from south London, he's got a fight coming up in two weeks time at the O2. We filmed a documentary about him two years ago and we never released it. Its almost like we had the eye to see that he was going to be successful one day..We literally completed it this week." On this week's show I welcome Josh, Patrick and Jerry, otherwise known as JPJ Media, a young London startup founded by three cousins. Since pooling their skills and resources back in 2016 they applied and received a Virgin StartUp loan and launched JPJ Media. In just 18 months they have already worked with London Fashion Week, MTV, Nike, Boo Hoo, the Saatchi Awards Gallery and the Mobo Awards. I found out with the three of them to find out how they have got to work with such an amazing client list. 

"It was selling slower than we thought, only because we were still only letting tech businesses in. So we had recruiters turn up, agencies, and we told them we couldn't accommodate them because we were focused on creating an atmosphere for tech businesses. And that was hard to do when available funds in the bank were at one point two thousand pounds and we had quite a lot of bills to pay..and that's available funds..we were deep into overdraft." On today's show I speak to David Galsworthy, co-founder of Techspace, Europe's co-working space for tech scale-ups in London and Berlin. Tech space now has six properties in London with a community of over 1,500 people and has recently opened a new space in Berlin. David's first forays as an entrepreneur were in the wild west of Ecuador over twenty years ago. He's now the proud co-owner of some of the best looking and best value co-working spaces i've seen.  And with demand outstripping supply he believes we're still nowhere near saturation point.  Tonight we're also 'live' at Thisworkspace in Bournemouth with Xero co-founder Gary Turner and the Richmond Group's James Benamor.Go to the StartUPU eventbrite page to come down and ask YOUR questions!

"The scariest bit is committing to it. Once you've done that each day is fine. People think it's this terrifying thing but if you didn't have a job for two months you'd manage. And after two months if it wasn't going that well you can apply for normal jobs...or if it is going well, take each day as it comes." On today's show I welcome Tom Putnam, co-founder of beeline, a startup making a smart navigation system for urban cyclists alongside a community platform to enable people to share and inspire great experiences. Beeline have an army of investors from successful crowdfunding campaigns on both Kickstarter and Seedrs including tennis star Andy Murray. I caught up with Tom to find out how they raised the money, what they did with it and how they have built their team. Screw it, Just do it 'live'! Tickets available http://bit.ly/2FUnkJJ  

"So that is absolutely the right thing to do...that is what we have refused to do each and every time. Partly because we're foolish and partly because we like a challenge. But also because it doesn't feel like the most effective way to test the market proposition. So you're much less likely to succeed if you don't have probably 50% of whatever your target is pre-agreed upfront. If you don't have all your backers lined up which we didn't you'll probably fail." On today's show I welcome the duo behind Thomas Clipper who are disrupting the male grooming industry scene, one crowdfunded product after another. Matt Brown and Antonio Weiss have crowdfunded their grooming products six times since they started nearly four years ago. From their initial classic old school razor to last years cologne launch they have sold their male grooming products in over 44 countries as they look to improve our morning shaving rituals.  I caught up with both to find out more - let's StartUp!

"It was fairly difficult. It was more difficult to retain our first customers  than get them onboard. Acquiring the first few customers wasn't a big thing.  It was retaining them and stopping the churn rate them. It was one of our downfalls at the start, we didn't onboard them fully. We didn't have our customer support in place. What we quickly understood was that getting customers was isn't as hard as retaining them." On today's episode of StartUp Saturday I welcome Dominic Chapman, co-founder of StemX.  StemX are a video interviewing platform for recruiters, HR teams and business owners. Designed to enhance and simplify both employer and employee experiences online. Dom's mission is to disrupt the recruitment industry where candidates are assessed on more important qualities than what's just written on a CV.  Let's StartUp!

'I wanted to become a millionaire so I could help a lot of people. But then I realised that I could use my knowledge to build something, and as it scales, it can create impact. If I can make money in the process then I can invest in other young entrepreneurs and their ideas as people have been doing with me. I would like to give back to society, not only with the product but with knowledge and capital. I think this way, if everything goes well, I can achieve it." On today's show I welcome Marco Barbosa, founder of E-Solidar, which is a global, giving marketplace that allows people to shop, sell and donate to their favourite charitable causes. Now, many charities have yet to fully grasp the opportunity that technology offers and we obviously live in a world where we all use the internet to do a variety of things such as shopping, dating and consuming a variety of products and services. Yet, only a small percentage of charitable giving occurs online.  So, E-Solidar's goal is to provide a platform that allows all members of the charitable community to interact in a single marketplace. To date, they've raised just under €1,000,000 and were recently named in the Forbes '30 under 30' list for social entrepreneurship.  Let's startup!

"It's been absolutely brilliant. I've had the best year. If you'd have asked me if I'd be in this position last year I'd have said absolutely not and I feel very lucky. I have worked incredibly hard over the last 12 months but we went into the Liberty store a few weeks ago..and it's a nice journey to be on at the moment." Happy New Year! on today's show I welcome Hayley Measures from Born Nouli - Greek for 'being born fearless". Hayley initially supplied base layers to the British ski and snowboard association and which has now evolved into gym and yoga activewear leggings. Hayley shares how she quit her day job after she got sick of buying 'How to' books on Amazon.  For those of you still thinking about starting a business, Hayley tells of her struggles juggling a career, motherhood and a long-distance relationship with her partner in the French Alps, and going all-in with Born Nouli: Being born fearless.

"We're in this stage where you have no money again. And we've had the same problem twelve times. We've run out of money every single time we've done it. I wish someone had turned around to me at some point and gone 'listen, process, absorb'. Just listen to people. At the end of the day everybody turned round to me and said you're going to run out of cash...and I said 'no, no, no we're not going to run out of cash at all'. And..we ran out of cash. We ran out of cash three times until I realised that there's a lot more to running a restaurant and running a business than meets the eye." On today's show I bring you a taste of one of our 'live' events in anticipation of our first 'live' events of 2018 starting later this month. I welcome Andy Lennox from Koh Thai Tapas. Koh was founded in 2009 at the height of the recession when he had a choice of properties with low rent, but the challenge of having no capital from the banks. Andy opened the first restaurant in Bournemouth in 2009, winning restaurant of the year in its first year. This led to many more restaurant openings, fast forward to 2018 and they now have thirteen locations across the south of England. Andy started with £7,000 and three staff and a first year turnover of £20,000. In 2018 they now have 350 staff and a turnover of £12,000,000. Here's how he did it.