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PODCAST

Business Leader

Business Leader

Richard Harpin grew his business HomeServe from a single idea to a £4.1bn sale. On the Business Leader Podcast, he speaks to entrepreneurs and business leaders about the moments that shaped their success and failure, unlocking original advice and practical insights for anyone building or leading a business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

business entrepreneurship

All Episodes

51:21

Ben Askins of Gaia: Scaling and exiting with a...

Business Leader ·

2026/02/24

Ben Askins is the co-founder of Gaia, a green technology company that builds online tools for companies within the environmental space. But he cut his teeth as an entrepreneur by creating a digital marketing business for luxury brands, which he scaled and successfully exited. He shares with Richard Harpin practical advice on interview techniques to hire the best candidates, building an engaged and happy workforce and how to scale a start-up with a future exit in mind. Hosted on Acast. See

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39:00

Sam Stoffel and Outplayed: Betting against yourself...

Business Leader ·

2026/02/17

Sam Stoffel is the entrepreneur who founded the matched betting platformOutplayed, taking a punt on the online betting space. He explains to Richard Harpin how he bootstrapped a simple idea into amulti-million pound enterpriseby copying and refining existing business models and masteringdigital marketing. He shares the leadership lessons he picked up along the way, including the dangers of"shiny object syndrome". The interview explores the technicalities ofsubscription-based revenue, the risks of

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53:21

Tenzing: How to scale a challenger energy drink

Business Leader ·

2026/02/10

Hub van Bockelshares his story with Richard Harpin about foundingTenzing, a natural energy drink brand inspired by Himalayan sherpas. Drawing on his marketing background atUnilever, MTV, and Red Bull, van Bockel explains how he identified a gap in the market for low-sugar, plant-based alternatives to artificial energy drinks. But how do you take on incumbents in such a competitive space? He explains hisbootstrapping strategy, which to begin with focused onniche communities like climbing and running

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44:31

Caspar Lee: ‘How I turned attention into business...

Business Leader ·

2026/02/03

In this episode of The Business Leader podcast, Richard Harpin interviews Caspar Lee, the YouTube pioneer who successfully transitioned from influencer to powerhouse entrepreneur. Lee reveals the strategies behind co-founding Influencer.com, a marketing agency with multi-million pound revenues and his subsequent move into venture capital with Creator Ventures. The conversation explores vital insights for scaling businesses. Lee explains why hiring 'big company' veterans can backfire in mid-sized

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43:25

Rory Sutherland: The advertising guru's tips to scale...

Business Leader ·

2026/01/27

Is cost cutting really a strategy or is it quietly holding businesses back? In this episode of the Business Leader podcast, Sir Richard Harpin sits down with advertising and marketing legend Rory Sutherland. Sutherland challenges some of the most deeply held assumptions in modern business, from efficiency and procurement to marketing, pricing, and customer experience – all through the lens of a marketer. Drawing on decades of experience at the advertising group Ogilvy and in behavioural science,

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39:04

Rohan Blacker: Learning the lessons from Sofa.com

Business Leader ·

2026/01/22

Rohan Blacker is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Sofa.com. Blacker shares his journey with host Dougal Shaw, from an unfulfilling legal career to becoming a pioneer in UK e-commerce. He left Sofa.com in 2015 when a private equity firm took over. Today he’s still very much in furniture retail, running Pooky.com and Schplendid sofas. Blacker tells the story behind acquiring the Sofa.com domain name, explaining why he and his co-founder felt a "nuts name" was essential for success, in the brave

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44:55

Skin + Me: James Mishreki on scaling a UK skincare...

Business Leader ·

2026/01/20

James Mishreki is the founder of the UK-based, fast-growing skincare brand Skin + Me. In this episode Mishreki discusses with host Richard Harpin his unconventional entrepreneurial journey. It began in childhood with selling copied CDs at school and included a stint as a professional poker player, a role he credits with building his resilience. The conversation explores how Skin + Me aims to disrupt a £140bn beauty and cosmetics market plagued by a 55% customer dissatisfaction rate. Mishreki details

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56:40

The FlightStory ‘sisters’ helping Steven Bartlett...

Business Leader ·

2026/01/13

FlightStory CEO Georgie Holt and Chief Revenue Officer Christiana Brenton discuss with Dougal Shaw how they are pioneeringpodcasts and new mediaalongside Steven Bartlett, creator and host of The Diary of a CEO. Moving beyond traditional audio, they operate anend-to-end studioscaling global IP across newsletters, live events, and commerce. The duo explains how they"kill the guesswork"using proprietary technology likeGuest RadarandCreator Radarto identify high-potential talent through data. They delve

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31:15

The banking CEO helping 'extraordinary' people afford...

Business Leader ·

2026/01/08

Sue Hayes, CEO of Nottingham Building Society, joins Dougal Shaw on the Business Leader podcast to explore how she’s been transforming a 175-year-old institution into a modern mutual. Hayes discusses her key strategy, defined as "together we fight for the extraordinary". Her mission is to target underserved borrowers, like Gen Z and side hustlers with irregular incomes, and help them buy homes. She explains how her building society leverages AI and fintech partnerships to modernise mortgages while

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35:34

The AA

Business Leader ·

2026/01/06

Few businesses have more than 17 million customers and can say the Queen was one of them. But that's the AA. However, it has had a difficult time recently. It was drowning under £2.7 billion of debt and was taken off public markets following a takeover by the private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Towerbrook. Since then chief executive Jakob Pfaudler has been working on a turnaround of this unique business. This is the story of the AA and that turnaround... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

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32:50

Sanjay Poonen: Getting fired was the best thing to...

Business Leader ·

2025/12/23

He leads a US tech firm valued at $8bn, but Sanjay Poonen puts his success down to a major career setback. Poonen is CEO of US cybersecurity and AI company Cohesity, based in Silicon Valley. He grew up in Bangalore, India, but a scholarship to Dartmouth College in the US to study computer science brought him to the US. On graduation, he rose up the ranks of a Who’s Who of Silicon Valley tech companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Symantec, SAP and VMware. It was while he was vice president of

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39:20

From elite sport to elite business: Bob Skinstad’s...

Business Leader ·

2025/12/18

In this episode, host Josh Dornbrack speaks with Bob Skinstad, former Springbok and Rugby World Cup winner, about leadership, elite performance and transitioning from professional sport into business. He shares lessons from rugby, venture capital, consulting and building winning teams in high-pressure environments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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45:17

The revival of Debenhams

Business Leader ·

2025/12/16

The department store chain Debenhams was founded in 1778 but went bust in 2020, leading to thousands of job losses and the disappearance of one of Britain's best-known high street names. But now it is back, reimagined for the digital age. In this episode of the Business Leader Podcast, Debenhams chief executive Dan Finley tells the story behind this turnaround. Dan Finley was appointed the boss of Debenhams in 2022 after the brand was bought by Boohoo. Now he is chief executive of the whole Boohoo

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23:13

Alibaba.com's president explains how AI tools let...

Business Leader ·

2025/12/11

It’s a magnet for side hustlers around Europe. The CoCreate event was held this November in London, the first time it’s come to Europe. It’s an event run by Alibaba.com, a global online marketplace for b2b wholesale trade. Small businesses use it to source in bulk products from manufacturers and trading companies to then sell to consumers themselves. Alibaba.com is part of Alibaba Group founded by Jack Ma in China in 1999. Alibaba.com now connects 50 million buyers with 200,000 global suppliers,

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34:45

Katharine Viner: The editor taking the Guardian into...

Business Leader ·

2025/12/09

Many prime ministers don’t make it to 10 years in office. US presidents only get eight at most to secure their legacy. Katharine Viner has had a decade and counting as editor-in-chief at the Guardian newspaper. She is also the first woman to hold the role. She’s made radical changes to an institution more than two centuries old, while returning it to profit. Dougal Shaw took a trip to the Guardian HQ in London to learn about the reader revenue model that took everyone by surprise, commercial

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46:08

Viral video to viral brand

Business Leader ·

2025/12/04

In this episode, Lucie Macloud reveals the unexpected story behind Hair Syrup’s meteoric rise—from a homemade solution shared on TikTok to a multi-million-pound beauty brand. In this episode of the Business Leader podcast, she joins Lucy McPhee and Josh Dornbrack to talk about battling self-doubt, navigating Dragons’ Den, handling explosive growth and learning how to lead long before she felt ready. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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45:17

Mountain Warehouse and Mark Neale

Business Leader ·

2025/12/02

The story of how one of the best-known high street chains was built. Mountain Warehouse now has more than 400 shops and generates more than £450m in annual revenue. But, as founder and chief executive Mark Neale tells Graham Ruddick, this story starts with a shop selling roller blades... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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34:17

Thea Green: The beauty entrepreneur who nailed it

Business Leader ·

2025/11/27

Thea Green, the founder of Nails.INC, is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs in the beauty and self-care space. Her early background was in journalism, but she spotted a gap in the fashion market back in the late 1990s –and grabbed the opportunity. When the world was crazy about everything “dot com” and coffee shops, she saw that the UK hadn’t caught up yet with the American trend for getting a regular manicure at nail bars. She first built her beauty empire around nail bars on the high

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35:25

The business funding SMEs

Business Leader ·

2025/11/25

Iwoca is one of the UK's most promising new businesses. It has a fascinating mission - to finance one-million small businesses. Christoph Rieche and James Dear founded Iwoca in 2011 to solve one of the biggest problems facing the UK economy - how to get more funding to small and medium-sized businesses to help them grow. As Christoph Rieche tells Graham Ruddick, they are making real progress, but this is just the start... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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46:17

The truth about personal branding and what leaders...

Business Leader ·

2025/11/20

Most people measure success in likes and views — but not Amelia Sordell. In this unfiltered discussion, she sits down with Lucy McPhee and Josh Dornbrack to explain why virality is meaningless without credibility and connection. Sordell shares the frameworks she uses with CEOs, founders and global enterprises to turn content into clients. She also demystifies what actually works on platforms like LinkedIn and reveals why leaders must stop outsourcing their voice. Learn how to build a brand that

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197 results

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