Bulletproof Entrepreneur

Send us Fan Mail Nigel Shanahan started his working life as a chartered accountancy trainee who "failed miserably", found his feet as an IBM salesman for 12 years, then left with a colleague and £250,000 of business angel funding to launch a text-messaging business at the start of the 2000s. It took another 20 years, one dilution to 5%, one buyback of his own company from the VCs, one moment of clarity at an M40 service station, and one 4:30am deal signing to build Rant and Rave into a busine...

Send us Fan Mail Mark Mills started buying and selling at school — literally, with bags of broken biscuits from the biscuit factory where his aunt worked. Three decades and five businesses later, after a £20,000 debt from the failed pay phone venture that took years to clear, and a publishing business he sold for £1, he built Cardpoint into a £100M-a-year cash machine business turning over £2M a week. He now takes other founders through the 40-step process he ended up writing after selling hi...

Send us Fan Mail Niraj was 30, healthy and getting ready for work when a stroke put him on the bathroom floor and eventually into the stroke unit at St Mary's Hospital in London. Fifteen years on, he has built five businesses across property, meditation, sports tech and now M&A, all while carrying two convictions the health scare gave him: that a useful thought beats a true one, and that energy is a strategy in its own right. His latest venture, DKZ Equity, is out to fix what he see...

Send us Fan Mail Sam Smith spent 24 years building FinCap from a single desk and a phone into a London-listed investment bank, becoming one of the few women to lead a public financial business in the UK. She bet on small caps when the big banks were running for the exit, kept hiring when her own team thought she was reckless, and walked away at her best year ever. Now she's putting everything she learned into Super Scalers, a community helping underrepresented founders scale past £50 million....

Send us Fan Mail Martin Lightbody turned a fourth-generation Scottish bakery into the number one celebration-cake supplier to the UK supermarkets, scaling from 50 staff to 1,200 and £60 to 70 million in turnover. Then he sold up, took the whole idea to America, and won the Hershey licence for the entire country. This is the full arc of a career built on one habit: seeing where the market was heading before anyone else, and betting big when the moment came. In this episode: Why his father refu...

Send us Fan Mail James Ashford sold GoProposal to Sage for an eight-figure sum. People hear that and picture a clean line from idea to payday. It took him two decades, several businesses that died along the way, and one moment where he couldn't afford the fee to shut a company down. He started as a wedding magician, walking straight up to the rowdiest table in the room on purpose. What he learned there became the thing every later business ran on. The failures came too: an agency he loved, go...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Bradley has sat on the other side of the table for more than 50 acquisitions and 27 exits. He knows exactly how private equity firms assess a business, where founders give away their leverage, and why so many walk away from a life-changing deal with far less than they should have. But this conversation is not really about deal mechanics. It is about the journey that got him there. From running a small gym in Adelaide to launching magazines in Sydney, to flying between Lo...

Send us Fan Mail Anton arrived in the UK with £500 in his pocket. Years later, he founded WealthOS. He recently sold it to one of the world's largest banks. In this episode, Alan sits down with the founder of WealthOS to talk through what the journey from arrival to acquisition actually looked like. We hear about the door-knocking days in suburban Surrey, and the decision to leave a senior corporate role with two children in private school and a mortgage to cover. He shares the framework he u...

Send us Fan Mail Darya Simanovich arrived in London 20 years ago with £300, no contacts, and barely any English. Today she runs two businesses, holds a full-time role supporting small business owners across London, mentors 400 founders a year, and has just published her first book. In this episode, Daria breaks down what 15 businesses across completely different industries actually taught her about failure, timing, and the kind of resilience nobody calls resilience to your face. She also shar...

Send us Fan Mail Ian has spent 45 years in the music industry, managing Simply Red, Simple Minds, The Pretenders, and Suede. He started at 17 with a boot full of vinyl and a two-litre Cortina, driving 1,200 miles a week as a sales rep. He went on to oversee the biggest self-released album in history - Simply Red's Home, which outsold most Taylor Swift records and still holds the record today! But Ian's story isn't just about music. It's about what happens when a founder tries to e...

Send us Fan Mail Neil Osmond never set out to be an entrepreneur. He was a pharma executive with a steady job, a young family, and no savings when a friend showed him something on a computer that he couldn't stop thinking about. What followed was a 15-year journey - mapping the London Olympics, pivoting into healthcare, nearly running a glorified lifestyle business, and eventually selling Earthware to a global medical communications group after more than ten first-stage offers. In this ...

Send us Fan Mail He survived a bomb at four years old. Lost everything in his thirties. Then built a group of companies employing nearly 100 people and sold his media business for 32 x EBITDA. I sat down with Belfast-born entrepreneur Andrew Scott for one of the most honest conversations about failure, resilience, and reinvention you’ll hear anywhere. Andrew shares the full story - from growing up during the Troubles, to arriving in London at 18 with nothing, to the moment he sat ...

Send us Fan Mail Scott Ellam started with a £13,000 basic salary, cold-called his way into closing a company acquisition at 22, and then built a thriving international executive search firm from his kitchen in 2014. Then he did something almost no UK founder has done - he put Bitcoin on his business balance sheet, and then took the whole thing public - listing it on the stock market. In this episode, Scott tells the full story: Why he believes the £230 billion sitting in UK business ban...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Overview Rachel Murphy sold her company during lockdown. While building the national COVID-19 digital service. Without ever meeting the buyers in person. This conversation is equal parts masterclass and madness - covering everything from selling timeshare at 13, to negotiating 50% equity in a struggling business, to achieving an eight-figure exit in under three years, to why every founder her acquirer bought has since left. Rachel now runs The Grafter, helping entrepr...

Send us Fan Mail The Autumn Budget landed last week - and while the headlines were busy talking about ‘black holes,’ and ‘fairness,’ the fine print tells a very different story. Nimesh Shah, The CEO of leading tax advisers, Blick Rothenberg didn’t mince words calling it “the most damaging Budget in living memory” If you own a business, if you’re scaling your company, or if you’re even thinking about an exit in the next few years, this Budget will affect your future wealth more than you ...

Send us Fan Mail What if your business isn’t worth what you think it is? What if it’s less than you think? What is it’s more? Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most owner-managed businesses never sell. Not because the founders are lazy or stupid…But because the business just isn’t sellable in the eyes of a buyer. So Today, we’re fixing that. I’m joined by Graham Stephen, CEO and co-founder of a company called Bizval. His team helps entrepreneurs get a proper, defensible valuation. without...

Send us Fan Mail Today on The Bulletproof Entrepreneur, you’re going to hear from a man whose story is almost impossible to compress into a single sentence - because it’s part grit, part luck, part audacity… and entirely remarkable. Sir Tom Hunter grew up in the small Scottish mining village of New Cumnock, where his father ran the local grocery shop. It was there - stacking shelves, serving neighbours, and learning the value of every pound - that Tom absorbed the lessons th...

Send us Fan Mail Today on The Bulletproof Entrepreneur, I’m joined by Brian Hill — ex-soldier, endurance athlete, entrepreneur, and the founder of a business called Pathfinders. Brian’s also just published a fantastic new book called Everyone Exits, which is a step-by-step blueprint for business owners who are scaling towards a successful sale. I read it before we recorded this conversation and I took a lot from It - and I strongly recommend you put it on your own reading list! During o...

Send us Fan Mail My guest today is someone whose story is nothing short of remarkable. From a tough upbringing on a council estate in Oxford to building one of the UK’s most disruptive property management companies - and ultimately achieving an eight-figure exit before the age of 40 - Andrew Hulbert’s journey is one of grit, growth, and gratitude. His story begins with a choice he made as a 16-year-old that changed the course of his life and is a powerful story - a real Sliding Doors mo...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast - reverse engineering your successful business scale, sale and life on the other side. What I’ve learned over the years is that not every founder wants to sell up and exit their business completely - some prefer to take some ‘chips off the table’ and go again to make the most of the opportunities they see. That's where today’s guest comes in. Matt Taylor is the founder and co-owner of Rockpool, a different kind of bus...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to risk everything — your home, your family’s security, and even walk away from a million-pound payday — in pursuit of something bigger? In this episode of The Bulletproof Entrepreneur, Phil shares the raw truth behind decades of building, selling, and reinventing businesses. From sleeping on an office couch to securing one of the UK’s biggest fintech exits, his journey is a masterclass in risk, resilience, and relentless drive. We also get into the tough qu...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast We’ve got a fantastic episode, which turned out to be a masterclass in resilience, reinvention, and the real story of entrepreneurship. My guest today is Gary Abela. Gary grew up in a family of hoteliers, and he was serving breakfast in the family hotel in London’s King’s Cross at the age of seven. After uni, he secured a job in the City and became one of the youngest sales reps in a major US investment firm. He...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to The Bulletproof Entrepreneur, the podcast where we explore what it really takes to build, grow, and successfully exit your business. The podcast is designed to be a helpful resource for business owners as they navigate the challenges of scaling their businesses. One area I’ve been spending time on recently is managing cash within your company's balance sheet. At my firm, we’ve always kept a healthy cash balance, but the interest rates we receive from our bank ...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to The Bulletproof Entrepreneur, the podcast that gives you the mindset, strategies, and tools to build a resilient business and thrive under pressure. Today, I’m joined by a true pioneer in the world of food entrepreneurship – John Stapleton. John is best known as the co-founder of The New Covent Garden Soup Company, where he didn’t just launch a product; he created an entirely new category in the UK food market. He later took that same disruptive energy t...

Send us Fan Mail If you're a business owner or in a leadership role, this episode could genuinely change how you think about running and growing your company. My guest is Mike Paton, an entrepreneur and author who is one of the driving forces behind EOS—the entrepreneurial operating system We implemented EOS at my firm, Capital Partners, a few years ago, and it was truly transformative. So getting the chance to sit down with Mike was not just a privilege - it was personal. Mike explains EOS a...

Send us Fan Mail The pod's strapline is "reverse engineering the formula for successful scale, sale, exit, and life on the other side," and that's exactly what we discuss in this episode—strategically reverse engineering success. My guest today is Damian Connolly, the founder of a boutique accountancy business that focuses specifically on getting founders exit-ready and maximising their business sale value and terms. Most business owners only sell once and are often unprepared for the m...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the latest episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host Alan Smith and right from day one my goal for this pod was to provide a valuable resource for all UK founders and business owners. And therefore I’m delighted today to bring you a masterclass in tax planning from one of the UK’s leading lights in tax advice for successful business owners. Malli Kini is head of the entrepreneur team at Blick Rothenberg, a Top 10 firm having already enjoye...

Send us Fan Mail Hello and welcome back to the latest episode. We took a short break, but now we’re back. We've moved into a proper recording studio and launched our own YouTube channel. So you prefer to watch the discussion, please check out the link below and subscribe to our free newsletter as well. Our guest, Graeme Godfrey, is a successful entrepreneur who sold his business, achieved complete financial security and then crashed. He found himself lacking purpose and drive in h...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the latest episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur - a podcast for founders, owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. As anyone in business knows, things are tough out there. Inflation is driving up the costs of everything, including staff wages, rent, and supplies. Tax is at its highest level in 70 years and is about to rise further. The money in your company's bank account is receiving a very modest return—and even that’s subject to tax! I don’t know about ...

Send us Fan Mail This is the first episode of 2025 and I’m delighted to bring you a really insightful and valuable conversation I had recently with Adam Rossi from Washington DC in the United States. Adam is a born entrepreneur and always knew that he wanted to build his own company and be in control of his destiny. And so he launched a tech startup in the days before it was cool! From a humble husband and wife team, he grew to a business selling billion-dollar software contracts to the CIA...

Send us Fan Mail My guest today is Mac Lackey has a fascinating story and some original insights that I think you’re going to like and get a lot out of, especially if you’re building your company towards an exit - and let’s face it all, business owners are doing that in one form or another. When his original ambition to become a professional football player hit a dead end, Mac started an internet business in the early days of this emerging technology, and that resulted in an eight-figure exi...

Send us Fan Mail You may be familiar with today’s guest, Richard Farleigh, a high-profile entrepreneur, former Dragon on the TV show Dragon’s Den, and member of the Sunday Times Rich List. The successes are well documented - but Richard’s start in life couldn't have been much worse. Born into a family of 11 children with an alcoholic father, they travelled around the Australian outback, living in poverty in 2 tents. Eventually, Richard was taken into the care system at 2 years old, and his...

Send us Fan Mail Paul is a serial entrepreneur who has started, scaled up and sold several businesses, invested in many others, and is now building yet another company. He also advises and mentors several other founders and business owners. Through his personal and business experiences, he’s effectively created a success blueprint for any business owner to adopt and apply within their company. During the conversation, Paul explains. How to build a systematic sales and marketing engin...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to a special episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast. One issue that has been dominating the conversations online and in person for business owners over the last few days has been the budget. October 30th was a very significant day. It was the first labour budget for almost 15 years and the first by a female Chancellor. After three months of speculation and predictions, we finally had the details—and there was a lot to unpack for all business owners. For s...

Send us Fan Mail We’re publishing this episode just before the Autumn 2024 Budget, when Rachel Reeves will share her vision of how she plans to improve the country’s economy. I really hope she understands how valuable the start-up and entrepreneurial economy is in the UK and that she’ll encourage it and ensure its continued success. Today’s guest is a fantastic example of that British entrepreneurial spirit. Magnus Willis hatched a plan with his co-founder during a long walk after they’d...

Send us Fan Mail This show is all about reverse engineering the successful scale, sale, and exit of your business and enjoying life on the other side. And for every successful business owner, smart tax planning is crucial to business growth and future sale. Whether it's corporation tax, PAYE, income tax, dividends, or VAT, , they all play a part and impact decisions you make. When the time comes to sell your business, planning effectively and well ahead of time can have a huge impact on y...

Send us Fan Mail Our guest today is Helen Pattinson, a former lawyer who left behind a promising career to embark on a bold and, at times, uncertain new path—one that would ultimately lead to a flourishing business, Montezuma Chocolate. But this story is far from straightforward. Helen doesn’t just share the wins—she takes us through the moments of doubt, the near-disasters, and the pivotal choices that could have ended it all before the business even started. What would you do...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, and welcome back to the latest episode of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host, Alan Smith. In this episode, I speak with someone I’ve known for many years, and as you’re about to discover, he’s a force of nature! His name is Jason Butler, and although I’ve known him for a long time, I had no idea just how challenging his upbringing was. People talk about a tough childhood and not having the same chances as other people from more privileged back...

Send us Fan Mail My guest, Elizabeth Hopkins, candidly shares her inspiring journey through the ups and downs of life as a founder entrepreneur who has experienced everything that life has to offer, including scaling a business to a multi-million-pound exit, but then having to deal with the worst kind of tragedy immediately after. As Liz mentions, she’s recently become a client of our financial planning business, and in the time I’ve known her, I’ve been blown away by her positivity, resilie...

Send us Fan Mail Our guest, John Rood, hails from Chicago, USA. John and his wife built an education business which they later sold to a private equity firm for a life-changing sum of money. And to some degree, that’s where his problems started... ‘Life after exit’ was far from plain sailing for John, despite the fact that he was now financially secure. He went through a number of changes and realised that he was not prepared for the life transition and new set of challenges he faced as a w...

Send us Fan Mail My guest today, Marc Adams, is the author of a book by the same title and has spent nearly four decades deep in the trenches of business and entrepreneurship. His extensive experience, from a career in corporate life to setting up his own business, has given him a unique perspective on the ups and downs of life as an entrepreneur. A cancer diagnosis in 2020, giving him six months to live, compelled him to write a book about everything he knows about business building, creati...

Send us Fan Mail This podcast is for entrepreneurs, reverse engineering the formula for successful scale, sale, and exit—inspired conversations with world-class entrepreneurs and the specialists who support them. I came up with that strapline when I launched the pod a couple of years ago, as that’s exactly what I wanted to create—a resource that, if you’re a business owner or aspiring entrepreneur, you can tap into and learn from those who were perhaps a few years ahead of you on the journey...

Send us Fan Mail This podcast is for business owners and entrepreneurs - reverse engineering your way to success through inspiring conversations. And the conversation you're about to hear is truly inspiring. I'm conscious that many of the guests I've had on the podcast over the last couple of years have shared stories of incredible success. But anyone who’s been in business for any length of time knows the significant challenges and difficulties of entrepreneurship. And no one knows that...

Send us Fan Mail Joanna Jensen is the founder of Child's Farm, the hugely successful baby and child skincare company that was recently sold for £40m. This is one of the most inspiring conversations I’ve had since we launched the podcast. Joanna is a fabulous storyteller, and her enthusiasm is infectious! Hers is an amazing story of grit, resilience, and sheer determination to succeed against the odds. Joanna battled cancer, surgery, and a divorce, all while building her business. She fun...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast, where we delve into the minds of experienced entrepreneurs and uncover their secrets to success. I’m your host, Alan Smith, and I’m really excited to bring you my conversation with today’s guest, Alexis Sikorsky. Alexis is an entrepreneur who built a software business from the ground up and eventually negotiated a sale to private equity for over $100m. I’ve just read his new book, "Cashing Out: A Business Owner’s Guide...

Send us Fan Mail If you’re a business owner who plans to sell your business one day, this episode is essential listening. Picture this: You've poured years of your life into a business, helping to build it from the ground up, and then the business is sold. As a result, you receive a seven-figure sum, and you’re financially secure. Or at least you hoped so. But then you take the proceeds, decide to invest in a new company, and lose it all. That’s the situation today’s guest, Jim McLaughl...

Send us Fan Mail Peter Cowley is one of Europe’s best-known angel investors and active supporters of entrepreneurship. He studied computer science at Cambridge and founded his first company in 1984. Since then, he’s launched no less than 12 companies, some of which he exited from successfully, some of which failed, and one that is still going over 40 years later. As one of the UK’s most successful business angels, he’s invested in 76 technology companies, and his book, The Invested Investor...

Send us Fan Mail I’m pleased to share a fascinating conversation I had recently with Jeremy Harbour, one of the most successful and experienced entrepreneurs around. Jeremy is a born entrepreneur who started selling jeans, watches, and even Cadbury creme eggs at age 11! He left school at 15 and has gone on to build, buy, and sell multiple companies. He’s currently more active than ever through his company and network, The Harbour Club. Jeremy has deep insight into the strategies and...

Send us Fan Mail Let me set the scene by telling you that one of my all-time favourite TV shows is "Succession”. It's a fascinating tale of a wealthy family wrapped up in the complexities of their business empire led by the founder and patriarch, Logan Roy, brilliantly portrayed by the actor Brian Cox. If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend you do. But let me give you a quick overview: "Succession" is not just about wealth and power; it's a saga of business intrigue, sibling rival...

Send us Fan Mail Let me start by sharing some statistics with you, which I find rather shocking. 90% of SMEs are unsellable50% close down for zero valueOnly one in 2,000 are sold for the full market value. It was today’s guest, Christine Nicholson, who shared that data with me, and as awful as the numbers are, the good news is that she’s developed a business owner’s toolkit to ensure that you’ve got the best chance of being that 1 in 2000 who do have a successful exit. Christine is an e...

Send us Fan Mail Alex Chisnall is the creator and host of one of the UK’s leading podcasts called Screw It Just Do It and is now a highly successful entrepreneur in the content creation space. The name of his podcast is a reference to the time he spent working at Virgin and observing his then-boss, Sir Richard Branson, at close quarters. Screw It Let’s Do It was a phrase often used by Sir Richard and the title of one of his books. During our conversation, Alex talked in depth about the resil...

Send us Fan Mail My guest today, Rand Fishkin, is the author of one of the best business books I’ve ever read, and trust me, I’ve read a lot of business books! It’s called Lost and Founder, and it charts his journey as a marketing tech business entrepreneur who raised money from Venture Capital investors and was growing at 100% year on year. It’s a ruthlessly honest book in which Rand breaks down the details and behind-the-scenes experiences of an entrepreneur. I think it’s essential readin...

Send us Fan Mail Hello, and welcome back to the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast, the first of 2024. We’ve got something special for you to kick off the New Year! ‘Bitconned” is currently one of the top shows streaming on Netflix around the world is and it features my guest Ray Trapani. It tells the story of 3 young hustlers who get caught up in the murky world of crypto investing and ultimately create a criminal enterprise and make millions. There are so many twists and turns, and i...

Send us Fan Mail Most business owners that I know aren't entirely focused on making money or on the financial rewards, but nevertheless, creating economic security for you and your family is a vital part of why you started your business in the first place. So whether you sell your business in the future or simply use it as a vehicle to build your personal wealth, having some deep insight into the world of money and financial success can never be underestimated. So, I couldn't think of anyon...

Send us Fan Mail I was in Cape Town a couple of months ago, speaking at a conference, and I was in the audience to witness one of the best keynote speeches I’ve ever seen, certainly the best keynote on the subject of entrepreneurship. The speaker was Bruce Whitfield, who is a big-name broadcaster in South Africa, hosts his own daily business show and is a writer, journalist, podcaster, and incredible storyteller. During his career, he’s met with, interviewed, and spent time with some of the...

Send us Fan Mail In my ‘day job’, when I speak with entrepreneurs and ask them what their single biggest financial concern is once they sold their business and received a capital sum, the answer is often ‘I don't want to lose it - I don’t want to mess this up!’ So I started this podcast as a resource for founders and business owners - those who’ve taken the leap, created a business and are now in the process of growing it or possibly already sold and exited. Anyone who’s started...

Send us Fan Mail Since I began the podcast as a resource for business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs, I’ve aimed for a blend of real-life conversations with founders and owners as well as practical ideas and insights from the people who can help and support entrepreneurs, such as lawyers, accountants, wealth advisors, and bankers. But my favourite episodes are the entrepreneur stories. The real-life experiences of those who had a spark of an idea and began working on it to create somethin...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever had an idea for a business but thought there were too many challenges and barriers to getting started? Whether it's access to funding or more importantly, access to good quality business advice and mentoring, Or maybe you've been in business for a year or two and you’re facing some headwinds- the economy is challenging, getting access to capital is harder than ever, and finding reliable sources of high-quality impartial advice is difficult. Or it could even be...

Send us Fan Mail Lee Robertson is a serial entrepreneur, having founded no less than 3 companies to date. One didn’t work out and is no longer around; one became a huge success, and he sold it to his colleagues in a management buyout; and the third one is currently thriving and keeping him busy. Lee, who came from humble beginnings and spent his early career in the Royal Navy, entered the financial services industry as a direct salesman in his twenties. In the days before Google, he made col...

Send us Fan Mail Gurinder is the founder and CEO of Otto Car, the company that provides cars and finance to most Uber drivers in London. Currently, over 5,000 vehicles on the road are provided through the services of Otto. In the few years since the business was founded and they were operating out of offices in shipping containers in a West London car park, they’ve hit £50 million in annual revenue and are growing faster than ever - and they've done it all without having to give up any equi...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is a first. After 35 episodes of the Bulletproof Entrepreneur podcast, I thought it was time we explored the dynamics where a husband and wife set up in business and have to manage two different relationships - the business partners working together and the life partners raising a family and having a quality home life away from the business. Richard and Sonia Dixon met when they were young and started working together at a small travel agent in a less salubrious...

Send us Fan Mail Roheel Ahmad is the co-founder of Forsythe Barnes, a recruitment company, but not just any recruitment company. The business has been listed on the FT250 Fastest Growing Business list for three years running. In under 8 years, it’s grown from zero to almost £100m in revenue, has a team of 80 and has recently opened an office in New York with plans for LA and Dubai. And they’re just getting started. During the conversation, Roheel shared the 7 key ingredients that make up the ...

Send us Fan Mail This is a special episode as it’s the last episode of Season 2 and so we’ve put together a compilation of the greatest hits covering some of the key ideas, insights, and themes that have emerged from the conversations I’ve had so far. This podcast is produced by Tribunista Sponsored by Capital Partners

Send us Fan Mail You probably know Piers Linney from the TV show Dragon’s Den, where he appeared for two seasons, giving advice and investing his own money in startup companies. Something of a reluctant celebrity, he left the Den and has gone on to start several other businesses in technology, media, and communications, including his latest venture, Implement AI. During our conversation, he explained The importance of storytelling when pitching your business to raise finance, find investors, ...

Send us Fan Mail Bob has enjoyed 100% launch success returning over $1 billion to his investors. He’s founded six companies, sold four and is still running two. He’s grown two startups to $100m and $156m in sales in 5 years and 3 years respectively. During our conversation, Bob explains The vital importance of having a crystal clear vision for your company and what the 11 elements of a successful vision are that comprise what he calls his Vision Pie.The main reasons that startups fail (the mo...

Send us Fan Mail Ian is an entrepreneur who built and, after 7 years, sold a highly successful marketing agency for £23 million. In this episode, he shares the lessons learned on his journey so far. Ian had a postcard on the wall beside his desk at his first job with 2 words on it - “Question Everything” - and he’s lived his life by that mantra ever since. A deep thinking entrepreneur who has always challenged conventional thinking, and so I let the tape run as he was sharing so ...

Send us Fan Mail My conversation this time is a little different and rather intriguing. Ruth Sturkey spent her career advising entrepreneurs and executives about their big life transitions, such as selling their businesses and retiring. And then was faced with planning her own business sale and retirement - or at least the next chapter of her life. By her admission, and despite having advised clients for years, she admits she felt somewhat unprepared and is now happy to share he...

Send us Fan Mail Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last year, you’ll be all too aware of something called artificial intelligence. AI’s not new, it’s been around for years, and you've probably been using applications like Alexa and Siri to tell you what the weather’s like, turn on your music, or even order a pizza. But all of a sudden, the speed of innovation seems to have changed, and it's become a lot more serious and relevant to business owners. I first heard of an...

Send us Fan Mail Today's guest is Jeremy Tobias Tarsh who is one of the original inspirations behind my launching this podcast. Jeremy is happy to share that he’s been a client of our firm for many years and it was during one of our many deep-dive conversations about the complex challenges faced by him and other entrepreneurs that I thought I should launch something. I told him that I would have loved to have recorded the long chats we had so others could benefit from his unique exper...

Send us Fan Mail Jodie and Jenny are cofounders of a hugely successful agency called The Marketing Pod, and 11 years ago they decided to tread that well-known entrepreneurial path, took a big risk and walked away from a comfortable corporate life to start their business. Why? Because, as is often the case, they were frustrated that what they were looking for didn't exist, and they knew there was a demand. They also wanted to create something that was more in line with their own lifestyles a...

Send us Fan Mail To celebrate the landmark 25th episode of the podcast, I was delighted to be able to speak with the Co-Founder and CEO of BrewDog, James Watt. BrewDog is valued at over $1,500,000,000 and is one of the UK’s leading Unicorn companies... However, it’s been far from a smooth ride. Having decided that a career as a lawyer ‘in a cheap suit doing glorified admin’ wasn't for him, he spent several years working on a North Atlantic fishing boat and that’s where a lot of his business...

Send us Fan Mail Henry is the co-founder of the fast-food restaurant chain Leon with the unforgettable strapline ‘If God did fast food..’ From humble beginnings, with one small shop in Carnaby Street in London to a national and international brand which eventually sold for a reported £100 million Henry is undoubtedly a bulletproof entrepreneur. During our conversation, he explained: How they came up with the memorable name Leon and the vital importance of getting your business name right fr...

Send us Fan Mail One of the original ideas behind the podcast was to create a repository of essential insights, experiences, and information. A knowledge hub that you can dip in and out of whenever you needed to be reminded of key issues throughout your business journey. One thing is certain and that is that you’ll need to work with a lawyer at some point, and judging from conversations I’ve had with previous guests, understanding the role of a corporate lawyer, and finding a good one is a v...

Send us Fan Mail I’ve been following an anonymous account on Twitter for some time, and I’ve really enjoyed a lot of the content and thoughts shared on some of my favourite topics such as entrepreneurship, mergers & acquisitions, and intelligent investing. The Twitter handle is an anonymous one - The Secret Accountant, but I can now officially reveal the identity of this mysterious business expert as being none other than Mr Craig Richardson. There’s a good reason for the nom de p...

Send us Fan Mail You've heard of a ‘horse whisperer’, perhaps a ‘dog whisperer’, but you’ve probably never heard of a ‘seller whisperer’ - but that’s exactly what Denise has become known as. With a background as a mental health professional turned lawyer who went on to build her own legal practice, she then sold her business. Rather unsuccessfully, in her own words. During this time, she learned a lot of lessons and has now carved out a role as a specialist adviser, coach, consultant,...

Send us Fan Mail Alan Smith www.capital.co.uk www.bulletproofentrepreneur.net https://www.linkedin.com/in/alancapital Twitter @alanjlsmith This podcast is produced by Tribunista Sponsored by Capital Partners

Send us Fan Mail As we kick off Season 2 of the podcast, I’m taking the opportunity to share a little of my own journey, both personal and professional. For most of us, our childhood experiences shape our thoughts and actions as we get older and I’m no exception. A happy childhood in Scotland was interrupted by some personal and family challenges that have been influential on me and the decisions I’ve taken. A very average student who dropped out of college attracted to the bright light...

Send us Fan Mail Robin is a journalist at the Financial Times and is the editor of the popular column Alphaville. He’s also the author of a fabulous new book called Trillions. As a business owner, one thing is certain - you’re going to leave your business one day. Whether that’s through a sale of the company or through retirement and you’re going to need to know how to best invest your capital to provide for your family’s long-term future. This conversation with Robin will provide you with cl...

Send us Fan Mail I’ve described this podcast as being ‘inspired conversations at the intersection of money, business, family, and life’ and none better sum up that complex blend than the one I had recently with Brian Portnoy. Brian is a coach, consultant, entrepreneur, and author of one of the best books I’ve ever read on all things financial and our behaviour around money. - The Geometry of Wealth. A recent study confirmed that 73% of people say money is the most stressful factor in life - m...

Send us Fan Mail This is a special episode as it’s the last episode of Season 1 and so we’ve put together a compilation of the greatest hits covering some of the key ideas, insights, and themes that have emerged from the 15 conversations I’ve had so far. In this episode, you’ll find the best comments, quotes and thoughts from the world-class entrepreneurs and experts I’ve spoken with over the last 6 months. The subtitle of the podcast is "Inspired Conversations" and obviously, I'm biased, b...

Send us Fan Mail Let me start by sharing a statistic that’s quite shocking- less than 2% of Venture Capital funding goes to all female founder teams. So those female founders who’ve managed to get started, and raise some capital are rare in the extreme. Those who’ve done it multiple times and had successful exits are even rarer - so Louise really is something special. A born entrepreneur who started working in her father’s store as a schoolgirl and then after college started her own b...

Send us Fan Mail I attended a conference run by a friend of mine Andy Hart called Humans Under Management - it focuses on the behavioural side of wealth and is one of the best financial or business conferences out there. I did a little fireside chat thing on stage but while I was at the event, I had quite a few people who came up to me and told me that they enjoyed the podcast and I even had one guy explain that it had helped him with a client who was currently going through a £10m exi...

Send us Fan Mail This time I’m trying something different. First, I’m speaking with two co-founders, Damian Milkins and Simon Hancock who built a hugely successful tech business called Control Circle and led it to a $65m exit. I let this one run longer than the usual 60 minutes because the guys were in full flow and there was no way I was going to cut this short - there were just too many interesting stories and valuable words of wisdom. What you’ll hear is Damian and Simon explaining...

Send us Fan Mail According to the Department of Business and Industry, there are 5.6 million businesses in the UK. But get this - out of the 5.6 million businesses, 4.2 million had no employees - they are sole traders. And 99.2% of all businesses have less than 49 employees. Only 4% of businesses ever hit £1m turnover. And yet, SMEs account for three-fifths of all employment and around half of the turnover in the UK private sector. Last year total employment in SMEs was 16.3 ...

Send us Fan Mail Every now and again you hear a story that stops you in your tracks because it deeply touches a part of you whilst at the same time is uplifting and inspiring. Stefan Wissenbach is a serial entrepreneur and has built and sold 4 financial services businesses before launching his current company which is a technology business focused on helping entrepreneurs to create more engaged teams. He has also coached numerous business owners and helped them to define what suc...

Send us Fan Mail I think one of the reasons that this podcast is proving to be popular is that most of the stories follow that classic ‘Hero's Journey’’ narrative arc. Our hero, the Founder is dissatisfied with the status quo of their current situation, sets off on a bold journey of discovery - starts a company, and faces insurmountable problems, huge challenges and fierce obstacles. Eventually against all the odds, finds success and lives happily ever after! If you watch almost any Hol...

Send us Fan Mail Don Fraser is something of a legend in the financial planning and wealth management sector – he’s been working with entrepreneurs for well over 30 years and he’s got a deep understanding of not only the financial issues but perhaps more importantly the personal and human ones. During our conversation, Don explains the vital importance of timing when you’re planning your exit, and the need to be clear on the big question - How Much is Enough? He explains the actual process tha...

Send us Fan Mail Richard Bridgwood was the founder of Contender which was a media and film distribution company which he and his team built from scratch over 12 years and sold to one of the biggest entertainment and media companies in the world, Entertainment One. If you’ve got kids, you’ll be familiar with one of his companies’ creations, Peppa Pig which nowadays is a global sensation worth hundreds of millions if not a billion dollars. There’s a lot of money in children’s entertainment! So,...

Send us Fan Mail Hi and welcome back to the Entrepreneur Transition podcast - the only podcast that explores the uniquely human journey involved in building a business, selling it and crucially, life on the other side. In 20 years of working with and advising entrepreneurs, I’ve come to realise that it’s a transition more than it is a transaction and there are so many issues and challenges that a business owner will have to navigate to maximise their success from a financial but more importan...

Send us Fan Mail This Inspired Conversation is in many ways why I launched the podcast in the first place - to explore the human side of the entrepreneurial journey, every bit as much as the financial side. Let me share a quick true story to give you some context: Did you hear about the entrepreneur who sold his business and made a fortune and was miserable? Markus Persson is a Swedish tech entrepreneur and inventor of the wildly popular game Minecraft. Starting on a laptop ...

Send us Fan Mail From a council estate in Hackney, London to an ‘8-figure exit’ by age 27. The most inspirational founder conversation you will hear in a long time. I’ve met a lot of entrepreneurs over the years but few are as impressive as Tim Armoo - or Timo as he’s better known. He knew he didn’t want to be poor and decided from an early age that being an entrepreneur and starting his own business was the way to create his own financial security. He started his first business while still a...

Send us Fan Mail Tom Manwaring is at the top of his game. He’s the leading Mergers & Acquisition advisor in the UK focused on the media sector and in particular television production companies. He’s advised hundreds of owners and completed almost 50 deals (including 13 in the last 2 years which is some going considering what’s been going on). The combined sale value is in excess of £1 billion so he’s definitely someone worth listening to. You’ll have watched many of the shows created by t...

Send us Fan Mail My name is Alan Smith and I’m a founder, entrepreneur, investor, wealth manager and yes now a podcast host! Over nearly 20 years, my team and I have established our business, Capital Asset Management as the leading independent wealth advice business in the UK, focused on working with successful business owners. In that time, I’ve worked with hundreds of founders and have always been fascinated by their entrepreneurial journey and what’s got them to where they are today. I wan...

Send us Fan Mail For this episode, we go to the Emerald Isle to speak with a serial entrepreneur from Ireland called Donal Daly. A self-confessed tech geek, he founded, scaled and sold 5 companies and is now on his 6th, most, the most exciting, and certainly on a personal basis the most rewarding. Over his 30-year entrepreneurial journey, he’s bootstrapped his start-ups, he’s raised external funding, and he’s bought a business from one of the biggest tech companies in the world. He’s gone on ...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is about courage. From the outside looking in, the life of an entrepreneur seems exciting and fun. Starting a business and growing it towards a successful exit appears to be fairly straightforward. However the statistics confirm that very few ever manage to do that. Nigel Shanahan is an extraordinary entrepreneur. Through tremendous ups and downs, he grew his tech startup to a £50m exit. Coming from a fairly traditional corporate role, he had the seed of an idea ...

Send us Fan Mail Mark Mills was- as he refers to it himself ‘one of those annoying kids at school, who started businesses buying and selling stuff - and he’s been building them ever since. But there were several failures along the way. Listen to him talk about the opportunity he had back in 1999 to open the first franchise for Starbucks in Europe - and why he turned it down! He admitted that wasn't his best decision - but he's done OK since then. He eventually started a business a...