That’s Matteo Grassi, the Co-Founder of Pop-Up, a thriving no code eCommerce platform.But before all this, there was another period in his life - a much darker period. He left Shopify in 2016 to become a partner in a company, which Matteo has asked to keep anonymous. The idea was they would quickly spin up dozens of D2C ecommerce shops, connecting customers with cool products.  They would be the middleman and they absolutely exploded. It was a paid marketing masterclass. One of their shops got to 12 million in revenue in months. But as you know, that’s not how things ended because we’re not here to talk about success stories. We’re here to learn from Founders’ toughest moments. What happened?If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com --Sponsor links:otta.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Kelly, the Founder of Spacegoods (really cool company btw) experienced one of the fastest rises and falls with a bootstrapped business we’ve ever seen.He grew Neon Beach, a DTC neon sign brand, to £7m in revenue in a year. He got to £10m in 18 months - from his bedroom, in lockdown - basically just him, his laptop and freelancers.But then he made one big mistake which cost him more than this business. What the hell happened? --If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com --Sponsor links:otta.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're linking up with our mates at Crowd Network to introduce you to one of their new podcasts, Captains with Sam Warburton.Whether you’re big into your sports or not, this show has plenty of leadership gems to be taken into your life and career. Sam is joined weekly by a successful sporting leader, who explain what it takes to be the very best.To listen to the rest of this chat, search for ‘Captains with Sam Warburton’ in your favourite podcast app, or hit this link: https://pod.fo/e/15f4e5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, where she teaches the immensely popular MBA course, Applying the Science of Happiness to Life Design. She’s also the author of Happier Hour, a new book that gives us the tools to be happier, some of which we’ll dive into later today. Cassie’s understanding of happiness was born out of a deeply unhappy period, sparked by an intensely personal failure. The failure of her impending marriage to her childhood sweetheart.What happened?--If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com --Sponsor links:otta.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joanna Jensen is the Founder and former CEO of Childs Farm, a baby & child skincare brand.  The company began at home after Joanna grew frustrated with the lack of choice for her young daughter’s sensitive, eczema-prone skin, so she started to make her own products. When those worked she got a thousand bottles made and went up and down the country selling them at trade fairs, country shows, anywhere she thought potential customers might be. It was the start of something magical.They got their first listings in Boots in 2014 and then two years later the brand blew up. They went viral after customers started posting ‘before and after’ photos of their children’s sensitive skin.They went viral again the year after, and by 2019, their sales exceeded Johnson & Johnson in the UK. Quite an incredible thing for someone who started out making body lotion in a freezing cold barn.In March 2022, the company was sold for 40 million pounds to PZ Cussons Plc.How did she do it?--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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brett Wigdortz is the Co-Founder of Teach First. He started the business in 2002 after seeing how the UK education system was failing miserably. The company has gone on to be a massive success but it was incredibly close to imploding because of how he operated in the early days. When Brett asked for feedback from his staff, a small moment turned into a big moment that would change the course of Teach First, the lives of its employees and its thousands of future teachers and students.What happened?Listen to find out.--If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com --Sponsor links:otta.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr Ben Maruthappu is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cera, a digital-first home healthcare company. In just over six years, Cera has established itself as one of the biggest providers of healthcare at home in the UK, as well as one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe. Cera currently makes almost 50,000 visits a day to people’s homes in the UK. That’s the equivalent capacity of around 50 hospitals. After launching in 2016, they have raised over $400 million and are generating over £250 million of annualised revenue. They’ve scaled, expanding to Germany, where they are growing over a hundred percent year on year. The care sector and healthcare in general were in a state of crisis even before the pandemic. Normally, if a sector needs change, entrepreneurs step in, disrupting the norm. But doing this in the care sector in the UK is notoriously difficult, even for well funded companies. Ben is well aware of the issues having worked in A&E and then spending three years advising the CEO of NHS England. He’s not just jumping on the hot medtech trends. And that’s allowed him to avoid the implosion in healthcare that has seen once lauded startups fall. That takes a lot of resilience and conviction. He is the first person from British healthcare to ever be included in Forbes' 30 under 30. What is it like to scale at that speed with no experience ever managing anyone before? And how do they use data to keep people out of hospital?Listen to find out. --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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christie Ellis founded one of the first human quality pet food companies, The Healthy Pet Gourmet. Her aim was to revolutionise how we feed our pets by helping them live longer and happier. She was going to build the next IAMS. The press went mad, customers loved it. She was on World News Tonight, the Today show, and top-end magazines. She had high profile clients, one who designed her kitchen for all her pet food. On paper, the business was doing well. The product was selling, and then Whole Foods expressed interest in stocking it. But the business failed… Why?Listen to find out.If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com Sponsor links:otta.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shyp started in 2013 when Kevin Gibbon had the idea of taking the Uber model and using it for shipping. He created an on-demand service where customers would take a picture of what they wanted to send, a courier would come pick it up and then take it to a warehouse to be packaged and delivered using major shipping companies.  There was huge excitement when they launched. They were featured on the front pages of newspapers and Kevin was hailed as the ‘next Steve Jobs’. They were a hit with investors, raising their seed round within three months, their Series A the following year and their Series B the year after that. At their peak they were valued at $250 million dollars. But the company failed. So, what went wrong? Listen to find out.If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com Sponsor links:otta.com/secretleaders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that looking after your brain is one of the best ways to be more productive? And your gut is central to the decisions you make? This episode brings insights from two professionals at the cutting edge of their fields, to give actionable steps on how to be more effective, improving your life at work and at home. Dr Tara is a world-leading neuroscientist and best selling author of ‘The Source’. She has a PhD in neuropharmacology, was a medical doctor and child psychologist, having trained at Oxford University. She has spent the last decade coaching leaders and CEOs from across the world and is also a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan, where she teaches classes on how understanding the brain and neuroscience can lead to better business performance. She doesn’t just understand the brain inside out, she knows how to communicate what you need to know about it - to help you build better habits and have a bigger impact.Sophie Medlin is one of the UK’s most respected gut experts. She’s a medically trained nutrition professional, a senior lecturer at King's College, the Chair of the British Dietietic Association for London and star of Channel 4s new show ‘Know your Shit’. She explains how looking after your gut can enable you to be the best leader you can be.They are both colleagues of our host Dan at his company Heights. We talk about:  How you know when your brain isn’t being looked after What is neuroplasticity? How our brains actually work. The best habits for your brain to start doing The non-negotiable priorities for looking after your brain What is the gut microbiome and why is it so important? Why looking after your gut can keep your immune system healthier and stop you getting sick How, cell for cell, we are more bacteria than human How drinking diet sodas might mean you actually consume more calories Their tips for optimising the brain and gut for peak performance. --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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices