Secret Leaders

Founded in 2010 in the USA by Co-CEOs brothers Dan and Michael Broukhim and Editor-in-Chief Katie Echevarria Rosen Kitchens, the wildly successful lifestyle subscription platform FabFitFun is a lifestyle membership that inspires happiness and well being. Their flagship product, the FabFitFun box (now available in the UK), delivers a curated collection of full-size products across beauty, fashion, wellness, fitness, home, tech and more - to over 1 million members each season. And as well as the box, members have access to FabFitFunTV, their digital lifestyle magazine, a robust online community, members-only shopping experiences, exclusive perks, events, and their mobile app.Now in their 10th year of trading and having surpassed $200 million in revenue, they have recently closed the most remarkably whopping series A of $80 million, led by some of the best venture capitalists in America. But it hasn’t always been plain sailing. “We were $1 million in debt when we closed our financing the first time. And we were running the business on credit cards, stretching every single payment, the first million that came in went right out the door.”We chat about: How FabFitFun came to fruition Why newsletters are making a comeback Exploring finance options to fund the business The future for FabFitFun The self doubts and personal challenges that each founder faces What they’d change if they could do over Why you should never underestimate the importance of company culture --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

In this live podcast episode we talk about what makes a healthy body, a healthy mind and the future of technology enabled healthcare. We’ve previously talked to both of today’s guests - Michael Acton-Smith, founder of Mind Candy, Firebox and Calm.com in Series One of Secret Leaders and Ali Parsa, founder and CEO of Babylon Health in Series Two. But to have both of these guys (who are revolutionising healthcare), sit down together and go through pertinent health issues of the day was too good an opportunity to pass up. Yes, Michael Acton Smith OBE, once described as the ‘tech version of Willy Wonka,’ may not seem an obvious choice to talk all things healthcare with, but this esteemed guest has focused his recent attention on raising awareness and building businesses in the mental health space, an arena that we are still very much lacking information. And Ali Parsa, well Ali is a one man war on healthcare. He’s a refugee who has set up the world’s largest healthcare app successfully changing the way we as humans are getting access to healthcare.Get ready to be blown away by the ambition of these two superhumans, and all for the benefit of the human race. We chat about: What healthy means to each of them Why we don’t have a healthcare system as such, we have a sick-care system How technology and AI is and will enable a better healthcare system Everything affects your life, and nothing affects your life - your genetics are what they are The obesity epidemic The current mental health crisis Conquering aging - we die because we age Links: https://www.secretleaders.com/ali-parsa https://www.secretleaders.com/michael-acton-smith --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

Secret Leaders is all about hearing from founders and CEOs of some of the world’s most successful startups. We grill each guest on the highs and more importantly lows of starting and running a startup, and one of the biggest hurdles for any startup to overcome is financing and funding.“Leave investors with two or three messages that are really clear what is special about your business, what's great about you and your founders, and how this thing is ever going to make money. They're probably the only three things that [they’re] going to remember from [a] 45 minutes or an hour [pitch]. Sometimes you feel when making a deck that more is more, it really isn't.”Financing and funding a startup seems to be the biggest sticking point for so many businesses. So much so, we invited back three incredible human beings - Anne Boden, founder and CEO of innovative challenger bank Starling Bank, Alex Depledge, co-founder of Resi and formerly Hassle.com (since sold to Helpling) and David Buttress, ex-CEO and co-founder of Just Eat to discuss their experiences.All three have had very different experiences of finance and raising funds, and so they are the perfect trio to discuss how they did it, what they were hoping to achieve and more importantly, how they handled the process, including how they coped when they came face to face with the urban legends that are in fact actual funding horror stories - because believe it or not, even the most successful entrepreneurs still face discrimination.We chat about: Raising money before you need it What it’s like in the lead up to going public Inner demons and horror stories that actually happen when you raise funds Raising money as a single founder vs being a co-founder Practical processes to set up for successful funding Links: Starling Bank www.helpling.com https://resi.co.uk/ Just Eat UK --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

If you’re an entrepreneur in the FMCG industry, this episode of Secret Leaders is one you don’t want to miss. Today we talk to the founders of Grenade, one of the fastest growing companies in the UK, featured in the Sunday Times Fast Track Top 100 companies four out of five consecutive years. Launched in 2009 as a hobby company, “we were only ever planning on launching one product, but then it did so well that customers and retailers were asking us for more”, and getting down to just £27 in the bank at one point, Grenade was sold in 2018 for £72 million. So how did this husband and wife team start and grow such a successful company, developing it into a global lifestyle brand? Alan says, “one of the things that I think has been a real strength at Grenade is that people have enjoyed working with us, whether it's a supplier or customer, or the team, treat people how you'd like to be treated yourself.”It’s honest insights like these that make Alan and Juliet Barratt so listenable. They’re funny, inspiring and willing to help the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed, as long as the entrepreneur is hungry for success. “You choose your own luck. We think luck is where opportunity meets preparedness.”We chat about: Why and how Alan and Juliet set up in business together Where the name Grenade came from The cost of setting up in business  Why disruption doesn’t need to be expensive Why the perfect work/life balance doesn’t exist --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

If you want to know what it takes to start and run a technology company, then you need to listen to two of our most pioneering guests discuss their experiences live, as they started visionary companies in every single sense of the word. In this special episode we talk live to Jess Butcher, co-founder of Blippar - the augmented reality giant, and Dhiraj Mukherjee, co-founder of Shazam - the app that lets you discover the media playing all around you. Jess was one of our first guests in Season One, and Dhiraj was interviewed for Season Two. We thought we’d bring them back on to the podcast for a catch up, only this time we’d interview them in a live setting. We know, first hand, how hard it is to be an entrepreneur and get a business off the ground. Which is kind of the main reason we started this podcast, to help entrepreneurs, like us. Because the more we sat down with successful founders and picked their brains, the more we discovered that getting from zero to anywhere wasn’t always the glossy and incredible experience that it’s made out to be. In these in-depth live events you’ll get more of an understanding about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, the challenges and the constant grind that is required to get any venture started, as well as learn best practice tips from the experts who’ve been there before. We hope you enjoy listening to this live episode as much as we did making it. We chat with Jess about: How the Blippar vision has evolved over time Finding the balance between motherhood and running a tech company The advantages of being a woman in tech The highs and lows of co-founding Blippar We chat with Dhiraj about: How four people got together to create Shazam How they got around any law infringements to get the music Getting early adoption through smart marketing Making the decision to leave Shazam Links: https://www.secretleaders.com/jess-butcher https://www.secretleaders.com/dhiraj-mukherjee --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

Julian Hearn, founder of Huel, shares his journey from a failed venture to building a £40 million business. He discusses the thinking behind Huel's branding, challenges in finding a food manufacturer, and why he hired a CEO. Additionally, he talks about the potential of Huel to solve world hunger and how the company has been financed.

Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes when one well-known start up buys another well-known start up? Well, wonder no more. You’ve heard us talk to both Nick Jenkins (founder of Moonpig) and Graham Hobson (founder of Photobox) in Series One. But we thought it would be fun to bring them together and have a Q&A with them, side by side. So that’s just what we did. Because you normally only hear the side of the story from the founder who sold their company. You rarely, if ever, hear the story from the founder who bought the company being sold. In this case the wildly successful personalised e-card company, Moonpig.com, that sold for £120m to photo printing giants, Photobox in 2011, which then itself went onto sell for a reported £400m+.You’re in for a treat today - you get to hear from both sides - the good, the bad and the ugly of what happens during a M&A. That and you get a bucket load of advice from two Angel investors who between them have sunk a lot of money into the next generation of start ups. So grab a cuppa and sit down to hear not one, but two entrepreneurial powerhouses talk about how they started and how they became millionaires. Listen out, there are tips aplenty. We chat about: The 4 crap ideas that came before Moonpig What happened when Nick and Graham first met  Selling your business to your main rival Top tips on securing an exit  The dribble and shake theory Negotiating the deal, going through M&A The importance of culture integration What it’s like to actually buy a company The pros and cons of being a Dragon The art of Angel investing Links: Nick Jenkins - Moonpig Graham Hobson - Photobox --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

Welcome back to series 4 - what a season have we got lined up for you!Kicking us off is Cal Henderson, co-founder and CTO of one of this decade’s most famous tech companies - the team communications platform the majority of companies couldn’t be without, Slack.But Cal hasn’t always been CTO of Slack, he cut his teeth as co-founder and VP Eng for Glitch, a web-based massively multiplayer game, before that, he was the Director of Engineering for Flickr at Ludicorp (where he first met Slack fellow co-founder Stewart Butterfield) and then Yahoo.As you will shortly hear, Cal is considered to be one of Britain's finest exports. Although it's probably fair to say that he divides people much less than Marmite. Now residing in San Francisco where Slack is headquartered, Cal grew up in the humble county of Bedfordshire, England.After completing a computer science degree from Birmingham City University, he moved to the US in 2003, but not before landing a job after hacking into the email system of the company he wanted to work for and telling his future bosses that he could help them fix the problems they were having.This is a guy who it would appear got lucky, several times over. But in truth, all of Cal’s success has been down to hard work and his first love - computers.“From the first time I got a computer, I was like, this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. This is what I want to do for work.”We chat about: How he met Stewart Butterfield How he got a job through hacking the company he wanted to work for Why investors Accel and Andreessen Horowitz didn’t mind them failing How on Slack launch day they had 8,000 companies sign up to use Slack The advice he’d give to his 15 year old self Links:www.Glitchthegame.com--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

Today’s guest is Payal Kadakia, founder and executive chairman of ClassPass. Payal started ClassPass in 2011 a business that was born out of her love for dance, which she has been doing since the age of 3.Prior to founding ClassPass, Payal worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and in Warner Music Group’s Digital Strategy and Business Development Group. However in 2010 Payal realised that her two lives (working at Warner and running her dance class side hustle) weren’t gelling and she wasn’t being authentic to either. It was the push she needed to dedicate herself to ClassPass full time.Fast forward to today and ClassPass is a monthly fitness membership program worth over $500m. It lets you take classes at different studios and gyms in your local area. It's one membership and with that you get credits that you can use to go to a spin class, a yoga class or a dance class for example, anytime and anywhere.We chat with Payal about: How learning to dance at a young age gave her a way of life and a way to think about the challenges that lay ahead. Why there were crickets when they initially launched ClassPass. How she brought her team in and the importance of passionate generalists (in the beginning). How to hand over the CEO reins and move into a new role in the company. If she could run any business, what it would be. Links:https://classpass.com/Resources: Venture Deals Zoc Doc Favourite book: The Alchemist --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

Investment funds for female entrepreneurs are not exactly commonplace in the world of finance. But today’s guest, SheEO founder and Canadian entrepreneurial powerhouse, Vicki Saunders, has been on a one woman crusade to change that.Her mammoth task has involved championing the term ‘radical generosity’, which means allowing people (men and women) to share capital in order to help like-minded women turn their light bulb moment into a successful company.Since launching SheEO in Canada in 2015, Vicki has successfully built up a network spanning numerous countries and sectors, with ambitious plans to raise $1bn of funding for one million women, by 2026, she is well on her way.How? Find out as we chat about: Her favourite quote - everything's broken, what a great time to be alive. How the SheEO fund works. How they’ve achieved a 100% payback rate. What path took her to founding SheEO. Why her favourite book is Winners Take All. What it’s like for someone to get investment through SheEO. How people can get involved if they want to help. Why meditation helps her cut through all the noise. Why she lives by the motto - energy input equals impact you’re having. Links: Winners Take All SheEO Think Like A SheEO --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