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- The Business Leader Podcast with Sir Richard Harpin
132 episodes
The Business Leader Podcast with Sir Richard Harpin
by Business Leader · English
Sir 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.
Latest episodes
All episodes
How to Scale a Business to £1 Billion in the UK | Octopus Energy & HomeServe Founders
How UK founders scaled businesses to £1B+ valuations, focusing on ambition, scalable models, hiring, flat org design, international expansion, and UK capital/policy conditions.
10 Nov 2026 · 1h 9m · 28 chaptersHow Shamil Thakrar built Dishoom into one of Britain's best-loved restaurants
How Dishoom’s co-founder Shamil Thakrar built Dishoom from a 2008 Covent Garden cafe into a UK restaurant group (12–13 sites; £130m+ annual turnover), using storytelling, quality-first economics, and…
27 Oct 2026 · 51m · 24 chaptersHow Helen Cannon turned a crisis into a £70M business opportunity
Helen Cannon explains how she founded and scaled Ison Travel from a self-funded start in 2013 into a £70M, multi-country travel management business by making bold decisions during crises (especially…
20 Oct 2026 · 42m · 19 chaptersSimon Mellin built Modern Milkman to £50m - then nearly ran out of cash
Simon Mellin explains how Modern Milkman reinvented the milk round to cut plastic and supply-chain waste, then scaled from the UK into the US.
13 Oct 2026 · 43m · 25 chapters
700% in one year: How Kate Prince built Ancient + Brave into a £54m brand
Kate Prince, founder/CEO of Ancient + Brave, explains how her wellness supplement brand scaled 700% in 2023 (from about £1m to £10m revenue), reaching over £54m sales, and aims for £100m in the next…
6 Oct 2026 · 52m · 26 chapters
"Never let a good crisis go to waste": Trustpilot CEO on AI, trust and scale
Trustpilot CEO Adrian Blair discusses how online trust is built and defended amid AI-driven search, misinformation crises, and the need to scale profitably.
29 Sep 2026 · 42m · 17 chapters
Eric Ries: Lean Startup author on why every founder needs to be Incorruptible
Eric Ries argues that startups and growing companies get “ground down” by financial gravity—pressures from governance norms, regulation, and “best practices” that incentivize cost-cutting and…
22 Sep 2026 · 1h 3m · 27 chapters
She raised £6.5mn then everything changed - Sharmadean Reid MBE | Part 2
Sharmadean Reid’s pivot lessons after raising £6.5m for Beauty Stack; how she built investor-ready traction via a tech-enabled Soho salon, then survived pandemic/George Floyd-era disruption by…
15 Sep 2026 · 34m · 16 chapters
From £5 an hour to £1000 a day: How Sharmadean Reid MBE built her career | Part 1
Sharmadean Reid MBE’s career-building journey from early jobs in Wolverhampton to founding and scaling nail and beauty businesses, then moving into tech/venture capital.
8 Sep 2026 · 41m · 19 chapters
PizzaExpress CEO: "You Need To Obsess About Your Product"
Paula McKenzie, CEO of Pizza Express (since 2022), discusses turning around the 60+ year brand after debt restructuring, Covid, and frequent CEO changes.
1 Sep 2026 · 50m · 29 chapters
How Quooker UK Built a £100m business out of hot water taps
Stephen Johnson (KUKA UK) explains how he built KUKA hot-water tap sales into a ~£100m UK business by replicating a Netherlands dealer model, creating direct-to-consumer demand, and scaling…
25 Aug 2026 · 44m · 23 chapters
Emmie Faust secured a Dragons' Den deal - now she's helping Female Founders Rise
Emmy Faust discusses bootstrapping vs investment, her Dragon’s Den experience, and how she built Female Founders Rise to help women reach profitable businesses and raise funding.
18 Aug 2026 · 46m · 21 chapters
How a Police Officer built a £100m business: Mehma Bridgen's Fuel Store
How Memma Bridgen, a former police officer, co-founded Birmingham fuel-and-fleet card provider The Fuel Store and scaled it from scratch to £100m+ revenue using disciplined focus, end-to-end customer…
11 Aug 2026 · 37m · 17 chapters
Moonpig Founder Nick Jenkins: "We Came Close To Failing Several Times"
Nick Jenkins, founder of Moonpig, explains how the personalized greetings-card business survived near bankruptcy, fixed pricing, scaled marketing (especially TV), expanded products, and later sold…
4 Aug 2026 · 44m · 27 chapters
Dame Irene Hays: “Never one penny of debt” | How Hays Travel reached £3 Billion
How Dame Irene Hays built Hays Travel into a UK-leading independent agency (over £3bn annual turnover) without taking on debt, and how she navigated two shocks in 2020: Thomas Cook’s collapse (Sept…
28 Jul 2026 · 51m · 18 chapters
She turned £6k into a £1bn business
Mia Drennan explains how she built Glass from £6,000 capital in 2011 into a £1bn+ global platform servicing institutional debt, after spotting a post-2009 crisis opportunity where banks were…
21 Jul 2026 · 46m · 21 chapters
Loveholidays CEO: From Covid to £350m revenue and the road to IPO
Donat Retief, CEO of Loveholidays, explains how the company scaled from a UK-focused online travel agent into a global, tech-led package-holiday marketplace through COVID, Middle East disruption, and…
14 Jul 2026 · 43m · 19 chapters
Barclays CEO Venkat: business turnaround, cancer, capital requirements and an £800m crisis
Barclays CEO Venkat (Venkatakrishnan) discusses turning around the bank after skepticism, his personal cancer diagnosis during the early CEO period, and how regulation/capital rules and the UK…
5 Jul 2026 · 45m · 25 chapters
Seams Impossible: How Nadine Merabi built a £40m fashion brand
Nadine Merabi’s rise from self-taught dressmaker to a ~£40m fashion brand, built on early wholesale success (Selfridges), pivoting during COVID, and using social/influencer momentum plus omnichannel…
30 Jun 2026 · 46m · 25 chapters
The CEO who doubled Blue Light Card membership in 3 years
Alidad Mohadam, CEO of Blue Light Card, explains how the frontline-worker discount platform scaled from 3 million to 6+ million members in just over three years, doubling membership, and how to grow…
23 Jun 2026 · 42m · 28 chapters
How Little Moons went from family bakery to TikTok star
Vivian Wong explains how Little Moons (mochi ice cream) scaled from her family bakery into a UK retail and international brand, including the COVID factory expansion, viral TikTok demand spike, and…
16 Jun 2026 · 37m · 26 chapters
Vinted nearly went bust, now it's worth €8 billion
Vinted’s turnaround from near-bankruptcy to a profitable €8B valuation, and how it scales a low-friction C2C secondhand marketplace globally (26 markets, testing the US).
9 Jun 2026 · 38m · 28 chapters
How Humble Crumble went from viral video to stores across London
How Humble Crumble (started as a £3,000 side hustle selling crumble at London markets in 2018) scaled into multiple London stores, using customer feedback, pivots during COVID, and a viral product…
2 Jun 2026 · 38m · 19 chapters
How to build an AI startup in the UK
How Nnamdi Emily Fonwu built Definely, an AI legal-tech startup in the UK, from a disability-driven problem to a global B2B SaaS used by major enterprises, including lessons on funding, product…
26 May 2026 · 46m · 25 chaptersWe use cookies.They keep VO running smoothly and help us improve it. Privacy policy