Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter & Chris Donnelly

Gareth Atkinson launched the Yorkshire Meatball Company in 2014 with his father after they recognised a gap in the market for a premium meatball product. They opened a restaurant in Harrogate, won awards, were listed as one of the UK’s top 100 startups, and ended up being stocked in 300 supermarkets across the country. Like all good entrepreneurs, they’d even built a brand that had the potential and scope to stretch into other markets.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:quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders

How do you build a metaverse? Long before Facebook changed to Meta, Improbable, a British game and technology company, was working on the idea of a kind of metaverse, even if they didn’t call it that. Now, they are at the forefront of making virtual worlds (where you can go to work, socialise, have experiences) a reality. Improbable was born in 2012 after Herman Narula met Co-Founder Rob Whitehead whilst they were both studying computer science at Cambridge University. They had a dream: they loved computer games and wanted to go live there. They spent over a decade working on how to do that and became a unicorn without anyone really knowing what they did.But it’s not all about entertainment, they also have another side of their business that has applications in defence and public policy. They build models of real world countries which can be used to solve a whole host of problems; from what would happen if a particular response to coronavirus is implemented, to how climate change might require the electrification of a grid. Herman is obviously a key part of the company’s success but he doesn’t want it to be all about him and warns against falling into the trap of the cult of personality such as that of Elon Musk. Instead, he says, if you are building an ambitious company, you need to be able to be open to failure and understand your limitations. And, he says, they have made many mistakes over the past decade but they were lucky because they were funded at a time when people could invest in technology companies that didn’t have a business model. Listen to find out why young tech companies that are looking to grow now shouldn’t expect the same luck; how virtual worlds will change the way we live our lives entirely; and why he says that the era of consolidated monopolies, such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, may be coming to an end. --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

Would you fight for your business even after you’d put it into administration? Radha Vyas co-founded Flash Pack, an adventure holiday company, with her husband Lee, after realising there was an untapped market for solo entrepreneurs in their thirties and forties. They slowly built their company and were just entering an exciting first fundraising round when the pandemic hit, decimating their company and the entire travel industry. They had to put the company into administration but then were offered a ray of hope which meant they might be able to get their business back.What happened next? 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:quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders

You want to launch a new product. But how do you decide on exactly what you’re going to develop? How do you build a community when you don’t have anything to sell them? How do you test demand? These are important questions that Dan Murray-Serter, the usual host of Secret Leaders, will be answering this week.This is the fourth chapter in our semi-regular series with Dan where we put him in the hot seat. If you haven’t listened to the previous three it’s worth doing that now because you’ll understand more about what he talks about in this episode. Dan is a founder himself. His day job is running his VC-backed company Heights. For this episode we are going back to the beginning of Heights. Well, actually, before the beginning, because whilst Heights is now a braincare supplement company, it didn’t start out as one. After the failure of their previous company in 2018, Dan and his co-founder Joel decided they wanted to focus on building a consumer goods company in the mental health field. They knew where they were pointing roughly and they were in the rare situation where they had money left over from their previous business, essentially their seed money. But how do you get from there to a product that people love?--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

Do you struggle to maintain good relationships with your employees? Hayden Bloomfield managed to grow his grounds maintenance company during the pandemic. At its height, it had a team of ten and was turning over £25,000 - £30,000 a month. But during a period of two years, Hayden went through thirty members of staff. He couldn’t focus on building the big picture because he regularly had to cover some staff not turning up for work. Why couldn’t he stop his staff from leaving? 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:quickbooks.co.uk/secretleadersIf you want to know more about Hayden's failures, check out his podcast, Benevolent Business.

Micha Kaufman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fiverr, the global online marketplace for freelancers. Let’s say you’re a designer. You can list your services and display your portfolio. And then companies who want stuff designed like a new website can find you and hire you to do the work.It's called Fiverr because at the beginning all the tasks cost 5 dollars. Though the pricing has changed, the name has stayed and the platform is currently used by 4.2 million customers in 160 countries worldwide. The company launched in 2010 but Micha was committed to growing it organically so spent nothing on marketing for the first five or six years. And that is even more incredible when you think that Fiverr, which went public in 2019, has a current market cap of just under 1.4 billion dollars and revenue of over 160 million dollars this year so far. Micha says it’s three times larger than it was when it floated. But during the pandemic, they skyrocketed to a market cap of 11 billion dollars….yeah, we get into that period!As well as that, Micha tells me how being featured on Yahoo nearly ended Fiverr when it first launched; why he says their success is down to luck, and much more.--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

Would you go into business with a friend? Jo Fisher is the Founder and CEO of Footlights, a performing arts company, which has 17 franchises and works with schools across the north of England. She got into business at a ridiculously young age. As a young child she used to sit in the entrance to her house and sell items her neighbours no longer wanted to make money for sweets. She left school at 14 to work full-time and launched her first business, an underwear business, when she was just 18. When it started to grow she decided to bring in her best friend as a partner…and that’s when things started to go wrong. 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:quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders

Daniella Pierson is the CEO and Founder of the Newsette, a women-focused newsletter which she started when she was at university at just 19 years old. Now 27, she was recently named by Forbes as one of the wealthiest women of colour in the United States. The newsletter now has more than 500,000 subscribers, whilst revenue grew from $1million in 2019 to $40 million in 2021. Within the company she also started a creative agency, Newland, which works with Fortune 500 brands. According to Inc., the Newsette is the16th most successful company in America, based on its growth over the last three years of over 16,000%. Last year, Daniella, who has ADHD, OCD, and depression, co-founded mental health company Wondermind with Selena Gomez and Selena’s mother Mandy Teefey. It was recently valued at 100 million dollars. But Daniella did not grow up believing she could make it as an entrepreneur. She used all the ways people brought her down to fuel her desire to make her business a success but says there were many times she nearly didn’t make it. Find out how she did it. *This episode contains references to suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know is affected by these or other issues Daniella speaks about you can get help in the UK by visiting samaritans.org*--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

For this episode of ‘How I Failed’ we follow the story of Aidan Mehigan’s fight to save his business, as it happened. We first spoke to Aidan earlier this year when he was in the middle of a fundraise and court battle to keep control of his whisky business. When growing his company in 2018, Natterjack Whisky, Aidan had taken out a convertible loan note to fund his business. Then Covid hit, by the end of 2021, cash was low, their sales were almost non-existent on the international market and the Irish market just wasn’t big enough to support them. The convertible loan note holder wanted their money, and Aidan couldn’t pay it back…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:quickbooks.co.uk/secretleaders

THIS is currently the fastest-growing meat alternative brand in the UK. After launching in 2019, it was recently valued at £150 million. But Co-Founders Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman didn’t always want to help people eat less meat. In fact, before THIS they ran a successful beef burger company. Andy knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur from a young age and sold his first business at 21. But far from feeling proud of himself, he really struggled. He hardly left his room for three weeks. Surrounded by friends in stable jobs, he felt lonely, scared that he didn’t know what to do next. A chance visit to a new restaurant startup gave him the direction he needed, he would go into the “rock and roll” world of food.THIS definitely pushes the boundaries. Their early traction, says Andy, came from their PR stunts. In 2021, they did a takeover of the town of Quorn, rumoured to be where the meat-free brand, their main competitor, got its name from. THIS sponsored the football team, the pubs, the bingo hall…even the branded paper in the fish and chip shop. They’ve done a deep-fake of the Queen’s speech and got an Ed Sheeran look-alike to hand out chicken nuggets. But not all campaigns have gone to plan…one stunt saw Special Branch raid their offices and Andy almost taken away!Find out why and what Andy has learnt as a people leader taking a business from £0 to £17 million in revenue in three years. --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