Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter & Chris Donnelly

James Vincent has helped develop brands for some of the biggest companies in the world. For 11 years he met Steve Jobs every week to come up with some of the iconic campaigns for Apple’s products. And then to launch the very first iPhone, James started Media Arts Lab, Apple’s exclusive brand agency, along with Lee Clow and other co-founders, which he ran for over eight years.For someone who had a big part to play in constructing Apple’s narrative, James Vincent is a relatively unknown figure. Maybe because he hasn't ever really put himself in the spotlight. He can be pretty self-deprecating about his career but he’s helped some absolute icons. As well as Steve Jobs, he’s worked with Brian Chesky at AirBnB and in his most recent company FNDR he’s working with the next generation of unicorns. Clients have included Evan Spiegal at Snapchap and José Neves at Farfetch. Find out how a young boy from Sheffield ended up in the inner circle of some of the world's most iconic brands. --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

How much of your success is down to luck? Marc-Alexander Christ is the Co-Founder of SumUp, which was recently valued at €8b. He says being in the right place at the right time was a big factor in him starting the company. SumUp is a fintech best known for supplying card readers to small businesses so they can take payments. You may have seen them, and have probably used them because they work with over four million merchants worldwide. It hasn’t always gone their way though. As well as some early mistakes that could have proved fatal, they were initially hit hard by the pandemic, which saw their revenue drop around 80% almost overnight.Find out how they managed to adapt and how Marc says you can make the most of the luck you get dealt in life. --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

Greg Jackson started Octopus Energy, a green energy supplier, in 2015. Since then it has enjoyed huge growth. It is now the fourth largest energy retailer in the UK, supplying over 3 million homes in the country, as well as homes in Germany, the USA, Japan, Spain, Italy, France and New Zealand. They were valued at nearly 5 billion dollars at the end of 2021. Greg is clearly passionate about climate change and says he went into business to drive change. Octopus Energy is a fascinating business, not only because of its growth in a highly competitive industry but also because Greg has rejected traditional business structures. Despite having three and a half thousand staff, Octopus Energy has no HR department. Listen to find out why he wanted to create a completely new organisational structure; how that system coped when an unprecedented event like the pandemic happened; and what is it like being the CEO of an energy supplier during an energy crisis. --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

Going viral is something many businesses would kill for but having to scale up your business to meet rocketing demand is not easy. Little Moons makes mochi ice cream, a type of Japanese rice cake with an ice cream filling. Vivien Wong co-founded the business with her brother in 2010 after spending two years developing the product with her father in her parents' bakery. Over the next decade the company grew steadily and surely, until the company went viral on TikTok during the pandemic and sales suddenly rocketed. However, after being hit by supply chain woes and Brexit, they had hardly any stock left to meet the demand. Listen to find out how they got through it and grew their revenue from 7 to 27 million in just two 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

Last year Chris sold a creative marketing agency he’d founded called Verb and he’s now the Co-Founder of Lottie, which just raised £6 million on a £45 million valuation.But before these successes, he experienced failure with his website the Real Uni Guide, which aimed to match students with the right universities for them. Along with his co-founder brother, he spent over a year building the website but when they launched, hardly anyone visited. Find out what happened and what Chris learnt from this failure that defined his career. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com Sponsor links:yotpo.com/secret

What makes you want to exercise? Would you do it more if you were paid to do it?Oleg Fomenko thinks we aren’t naturally disposed to want to exercise, that we have evolved to preserve our store of calories rather than spend them. So, he built Sweatcoin, along with his Co-Founder Anton Derlyatka, an app that will literally pay you for taking steps outside. Specifically it will pay you a certain amount of ‘sweatcoin’ for every thousand steps you take. This digital currency can then be switched for products, as well as their new cryptocurrency, SWEAT.Oleg came up with Sweatcoin in 2015 when he was struggling to find the motivation to exercise after his startup, a music streaming service called Bloom.fm, suddenly went under. Recovering from the end of that company also led him to a key realisation that he says is important for every entrepreneur to know. And it must work, because Sweatcoin is growing fast. It currently has over 100 millions users, and has no signs of slowing down. Listen to find out: how the current war in Ukraine is affecting him as a Russian-born entrepreneur; why cryptocurrencies are going to change the face of Sweatcoin; and what advice he would give to other entrepreneurs that want to replicate his success.--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

Benjamin Chemla has been an entrepreneur for over a decade. He co-founded the massive on-demand delivery service Stuart in 2015 and currently he is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shares, a just-launched app which makes investing a social experience. But between his successes, there was a high profile failure. Benjamin founded a group of gyms in New York City called Fithouse in 2017. Everything started great, classes running on everything from yoga to boxing. Investors had put up $10 million and he was turning a profit. But then came the pandemic…Find out what happened next and why Benjamin decided it was better to walk away than stay and fight. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com Sponsor links:yotpo.com/secret

What were you doing at 17?When he was that age, Timothy Armoo had already sold his first startup. Now 27, he has just sold his second startup, Fanbytes, a social media and influencer marketing agency, to digital advertising company, Brainlabs, for eight figures.Timothy, or Timo as he is known, grew up on a council estate in Hackney and it was the realisation that he was poor when he was a teenager that motivated him to become an entrepreneur. He started Fanbytes with his co-founders in 2017 and the company, which connects social media influencers to big brands, has gone on to employ 65 people. Part of the work Fanbytes does, finding up-and-coming influencers, is done by its algorithm, built by Co-Founder Ambrose Cooke - meaning that Fanbytes can sign potential talent before anyone else. We talked about: What happened after he lost almost half the money he got selling his first business in just three months What a lead gangster told him that helped him as an entrepreneur How the death of his father in his early twenties was a pivotal moment in deciding how he was going to grow Fanbytes How he doesn’t feel his next business has to be bigger than his previous one What advice he has for other young entrepreneurs…you might be surprised by what he says! --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

Finding investment is a necessity for many entrepreneurs, but things don’t always work out the way they're supposed to. Matt Jones started his business Rubix Advertising in 2009, with the help of an investor. It started well and the business, a full service media advertising company, grew quickly. But only two years later, Matt had to close his business down.What happened? And how did he turn that failure into a seven figure success story? Listen to find out.If you have any feedback, we want to hear it. What would make the show better? Email us at hello@secretleaders.com Sponsor links:yotpo.com/secret

Dom Smales is the exited Founder of Gleam Futures, which was one of the first social media talent agencies in the world - and the first in the UK. When Gleam was founded back in 2010, influencers weren’t even a thing, but Dom saw the potential power bloggers could have. He went on to play a big part in the rise of the first Youtube stars, like Zoe Sugg, better known as Zoella; Tanya Burr; and the Pixiwoo sisters, Sam and Nicola Chapman. Dom exited in 2020 but it wasn't what he thought it would be.We talk about: What it was like being the agent for the UK’s biggest social media stars His tips on how to manage a successful exit, Dom left the company in 2021 Why selling your company might not be all you hope for What he really thinks of the influencer industry today --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