Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter & Chris Donnelly

Former pro baseball player Devan Kline, founder of Burn Boot Camp, shares his journey from nearly losing his gym business to growing it across 42 states. He discusses overcoming failure, the challenges of expanding the gym business, the importance of establishing relationships, and transforming his worst day into his best by adapting to the challenges of 2020.

How long would you spend before launching your business? Milda Mitkute was at a party in 2008 when she ended up chatting to developer Justas Janauskus. She’d come up with the idea for Vinted after she found herself with too many clothes for the small flat that she moved to for university. They decided then and there to turn the idea into a reality and launched the website just two weeks later…Only to forget one critical detail. A decade later, despite many bumps in the road, Vinted was valued at $1 billion, making it Lithuania’s first ever unicorn. Two years later, in 2021, their valuation sored to to $4.5 billion. It’s now Europe’s number one second-hand marketplace, with over 75 million users spanning 16 countries.And it was all sparked by an unexpected exchange at a time and place where good ideas normally die.--SponsorsVorboss - 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--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/.You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes.

Lucy Cohen, Co-Founder of Mazuma, discusses the challenges and growth of their tax advisory firm, finding someone with a strong network who could help expand their business, trusting the wrong person who unexpectedly disappeared, taking a big commitment without enough clients and learning to trust her gut in business partnerships.

Dan Siroker, Co-Founder of Optimizely & Rewind AI, talks about leaving Google for the 2008 Obama campaign, co-founding Optimizely, A/B testing, achieving security frameworks, and the pressures of being a unicorn startup.

Glenn Poulos, a successful founder, shares his experience of a disastrous acquisition, financial strain, and deception. He talks about how he went from being a potential multimillionaire to broke and starting a new business with resilience. Poulos also discusses the importance of core values in business and selling a business for a higher amount.

Have you ever questioned what kind of leader you are and which roles truly suit you? Today’s interview is with Leon Co-Founder and Former CEO John Vincent. Named after John’s father, Leon was founded in 2004. John became CEO ten years later in 2014 after his co-founder Henry Dimbleby stepped down. In 2017, Leon was named on The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list, which ranks Britain's 100 private companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years. In 2021, the company was sold for a reported £100 million to the billionaire Issa brothers. But look behind this success, and you’ll find a lot of lessons along the way.John talks about: How to identify your personality type and which roles might suit you best as a founder Why every business needs disruptors, scalers and executors What John did wrong as a disruptive CEO  Coming up with the idea for ‘healthy’ fast-food Their big mistake early on  Why wise investors keep Founders in the driving seat His relationship with his co-founder What to do if you give away too much equity early on  How much he actually made when they sold the business Why he wrote the book ‘Winning not Fighting’ which draws on the philosophy of Wing Tsun, an ancient Chinese martial art How identifying your fears can help you understand your desires Why he thinks it's unhealthy to have too many regrets --SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodesvanta.com/secretleaders

Peter Kell is a serial entrepreneur and successful marketer who has gone from being a millionaire to losing it all to being a millionaire again.As a teenager he was obsessed with the idea of getting rick quick. So he set about to do it, he hustled, setting up seven businesses in four years.But each one of them failed.He was left with nothing; completely broke, his car repossessed, evicted from his flat.How did he pick himself up and turn his life around?---------------------------If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?hello@secretleaders.com Sponsor links:personio.com/secretleaders

In 2008 Dr Jason Wersland was in crippling chronic pain after a motorbike accident. He was in a dark place. A trained chiropractor, he knew what kind of relief he needed, and searched the market for a product that could give it to him. But when he came up empty handed, desperate, he decided to make one himself.By 2019 the Theragun was being used by over 250 professional sports teams and by 2022, Therabody, the company Jason founded, generated nearly $400 millions in revenue. Woof.How did he do it? And how did he attract so many celebrity clients?--SponsorsVorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleadersVanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleadersVertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders--NewsletterSign up here: https://secretleaders.email/You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

"Every single major tech company that you know of has this story where they battled it to the bitter end."Young Han grew up in Silicon Valley and worked in tech before moving to Texas a few years ago for a slower way of life. In this most recent chapter he’s really got into small businesses, like a pool cleaning company which he scaled to $1m in revenue in 10 months. He’s a coach, tech consultant, and Founder himself. He’s a fan of taking as many shots as you can and failing fast....well now he is.Because one of his companies, GoVolunteer, didn’t fail fast. In fact, it took him and his Co-Founders 9 years to go from deciding it wasn’t working to actually switching it off.What did that teach him about when to walk away?---------------------------If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better?hello@secretleaders.com Sponsor links:personio.com/secretleaders

Serial entrepreneur and bestselling author Daniel Priestley discusses the potential impact of AI on society, the predictable steps of the entrepreneurial journey, the importance of security frameworks for startups, and the significance of team alignment and data-driven decisions in building a successful business. They also reflect on unexpected lessons learned and the prioritization of friendship over money.