In short
Mark Stuart (co-founder of Stuart Energy, founded 2017) discusses building a UK-wide multi-million-pound power generator business with his father Fred and brother Lee, including family dynamics, bootstrapping, early cashflow problems, sustainability strategy (battery up to 1MW and hydrogen R&D), and hiring for “attitude” (including a restaurant test for politeness).
Guest backgrounds
Mark Stuart is a founder from a power-generation family; his father Fred Stewart previously built and exited a generators business (started with a van and £250; exited for high eight figures). Mark’s sister Jane Stewart Putnam joined in 2024 as Director of Strategic Partnerships after a 17-year higher-education career.
Key claims
Family “tram-line” separation (Fred at work, dad at home) prevents family issues entering decisions; adversity drove creativity; “work second, family first” culture; recruiting for attitude over skill; green tech investment is essential for future carbon taxation.
Notable examples
Barclays account-opening coffee incident (“Stewie Books” flask); first orders requiring cash and fuel bought on personal credit cards; sister Jane’s second-hand car enabling nationwide sales (140,000 miles); recruitment restaurant where rude ordering disqualifies candidates.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe Hard Truth of Entrepreneurship
0:45 to 2:15
Mark Stuart discusses the hard work and luck involved in founding a business.
“which is, what didn't they tell you about founding a business that you wish you'd known before?”
Pressure of Family Legacy
2:15 to 4:05
Mark explains the pressures of following in his father's successful footsteps.
“because your dad's founded and exited a business.”
Work Ethic and Standards
4:05 to 6:00
Exploration of how family influences work ethic and standards in the business.
“He certainly held Lee and I to a very hard standard, a very high standard.”
Demarcation in Family Business
6:00 to 7:50
Mark shares the importance of separating personal and professional roles with his father.
“And is it simply a question of, if you were picking your dad up from home and driving in a car, you call him dad all the way, you drive into the gates, and then he's Fred.”
Fred's Perspective on Founding Again
7:50 to 11:10
Fred discusses his experience founding a business with his children after exiting his previous one.
“challenge of setting the facility up again.”
A Young Entrepreneur's Journey
11:10 to 13:00
Mark recounts his early entrepreneurial venture of recovering and selling golf balls.
Lessons from Early Ventures
13:00 to 14:01
Mark reflects on the lessons learned from his first business experiences.
Mark's Early Car Experience
14:01 to 15:30
Mark shares his experience of buying his first Porsche and the lessons learned.
“And I went to Bolton and I went out as a passenger with the salesman.”
Founding Stuart Energy
15:31 to 17:41
Mark discusses the inception of Stuart Energy and the problems they aimed to solve.
“So, 2017 you started it with your brother and your dad.”
Power's Essential Role
17:42 to 19:12
An exploration of the importance of electricity in various sectors and daily life.
“Here we have the reception where we've got several rugby shirts up etc.”
Show all 24 chapters
Bootstrapping the Business
19:13 to 21:54
Mark recounts the challenges of bootstrapping Stuart Energy and early financial hurdles.
“from our store's equipment, we have our store's guy in here.”
Family Support in Business
21:55 to 24:13
Mark shares how family support played a crucial role in the early days of Stuart Energy.
“But then that created another problem because the week later, we took on an engineer to look after them, but we couldn't really afford his wages.”
Frugality and Business Lessons
24:14 to 26:51
A humorous story about Mark's father's frugality and its lessons for business.
“We go to Barclays, Fed deposits a bit of money into the bank account.”
Jane's Journey to the Family Business
26:52 to 28:00
Jane discusses her transition from higher education to joining Stuart Energy.
“I'm going to introduce your sister, Jane Stewart Putnam, who joined Stewart Energy in 2024 as the director of strategic partnerships.”
Joining the Family Business
28:00 to 29:01
Learn about the personal journey of joining a family-run business and the importance of family values.
“and what was your reason for joining then?”
Growing Up with Mark Stewart
29:01 to 30:28
Explore the childhood dynamics between siblings and the entrepreneurial spirit fostered in their family.
“This is the Naked Founder podcast and we heard from your brother Mark Stewart earlier.”
Imposter Syndrome and Self-Perception
30:28 to 31:45
Discuss the concept of imposter syndrome and its effects on founders and their self-view.
“You know, when you hear Mark talk, he talks with knowledge and passion.”
Family First, Work Second Philosophy
31:45 to 32:41
Understand the core values that drive the company culture at Stuart Energy, emphasizing family over work.
“So Mark, I'm going to come back to you now.”
Continuous Improvement and Growth
32:41 to 33:59
Hear about the drive for improvement and the philosophy of not resting on past achievements.
“the bonds you've made are strong, the tough, the together, the trust you have with each other.”
Commitment to Sustainability
33:59 to 35:34
Discover how Stuart Energy invests in green technologies and their approach to sustainability.
“You've invested heavily in that, green power, reducing pollution.”
Innovative Recruitment Strategies
35:34 to 40:23
Learn about the unique three-step recruitment process that emphasizes interpersonal skills.
Shifting Dynamics in Leadership
40:23 to 41:51
Discuss the evolving role of leadership within family businesses over time.
“You can look at their qualifications, but you can't teach attitude.”
Aiming for Power Generation Leadership
42:00 to 42:28
Mark discusses his goals and recognition in the power generation sector.
Lessons from the Journey: A Letter to Himself
42:28 to 44:33
Mark shares a heartfelt letter with advice for himself as a young founder.
“If you were writing a letter to yourself, or you were writing a letter to another founder based on your experiences at the start of that journey, what would you write?”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Lee Stuart:So here we are in Scammersdale next to the M58 at Stuart Energy. Great family and business, founded in 2017. It's really interesting this business because imagine setting up a business with your dad, you know, which is what Mark Stuart and his brother did back in 2017. Their sisters now join the business. Fantastic operation. Operates UK wide, really ambitious, high growth, great place to work. You know, Mark's been shortlisted in the LDC's one to watch list as well. So really looking forward to interviewing Mark Stewart, founder of Stewart Energy. So here we are at Stewart Energy. You can hear the M50A in the background.
0:36Lee Stuart:Delighted to be joined by Mark Stewart, one of the co-founders of the business. Mark, thank you for welcoming us.
0:41Mark Stuart:Thank you for coming, guys. It's great to see you.
0:43Lee Stuart:First question we always start every episode of the Naked Founder podcast is the same, which is, what didn't they tell you about founding a business that you wish you'd known before?
0:52Mark Stuart:Wow, crikey. It's got to be how much hard work it would be. but also, Siobhan, I wish someone had said to me, you need a huge tablespoon of luck to be successful.
1:07Lee Stuart:It's interesting because your father, Fred, who we're hoping to speak to today, he founded a business before. We're talking about generators. This is your business, generators, power generators. He founded a business. He exited it. You'd seen the long evenings, the early mornings that he'd done, but when you founded your own business, it was different.
1:25Mark Stuart:Yeah, totally different. I think as a child watching your father work so hard, he's not there a lot. You don't really understand, you know, what effort he's putting in. Because, yes, dad's not at home. He's not always at work. But because you're not involved in the business because you're a small child, you don't really understand what that work entails until you actually develop and then you go into the business yourself. Then you're into the business and you start a business yourself. You actually realise he must have absolutely bled sweat and tears. You know, it's real hard work to get any business from a fledgling business to a successful business.
2:02Mark Stuart:To reach over the miles of a million pounds turnover to get to multi-millions is an incredible journey for anyone. And to do it with family is great, but it's so difficult and so hard.
2:13Lee Stuart:When you founded Stuart Energy with your dad and also your brother as well, it's a different sort of pressure. because your dad's founded and exited a business. Yes. So what's the reality of founding Stuart Energy with your dad, Fred?
2:30Mark Stuart:I think, really, it's the analogy of you see great footballers which have sons that go into football and you're never as good as your father. You won't be ever as good as your father. There's a bit of stigma attached to that. When you've had a successful father like we have, who's been very successful in power generation, let's not forget, he started his business with a B-Bed Escort van and£250 in his pocket and he exited for high eight figures. Yeah. You know, that journey's incredible. To replicate that journey, we've got massive boots to fill. And for us, the pressure we felt, that pressure, was immense.
3:04Mark Stuart:It's really intense. But, you know, that pressure, you can either go one or two ways. You can either fold on the pressure or use it as fuel to really push yourself, to really become or try and fill his boots.
3:18Lee Stuart:Do you think your dad and parents generally, Do you think they hold their children to a higher standard?
3:23Mark Stuart:Ultimately, yes, 100%. Fred always held Lee and I to a higher standard to the other employees, a much higher standard. He was stricter on us than anybody else because we represent him at the end of the day. We represent his standards. So for us, it was a real hard battle and a real hard journey and he was stricter on us. And now, as we go down this process where maybe our siblings, sorry, our children want to come into the business, that's going to be even harder.
3:57Lee Stuart:We're going to speak to your sister, Jane. Yes. OK, so she's not in the room. OK, do you think he held you and your brother to a higher standard than your sister?
4:05Mark Stuart:I think it was different for my sister. He certainly held Lee and I to a very hard standard, a very high standard. But this industry is very much a muck and bullets type industry. It's construction, it's rough, it's tough. And I think the relationship of a father and a daughter is very different to a father and a son. And I think, although Jane is very, very good at what she does and she's very skilled at what she does, I don't think my dad wants her out on sight, which I can understand from having a daughter myself. I wouldn't want my daughter to go out on sight. I have to see what it's like.
4:39Mark Stuart:But Jane is dynamic in her own way.
4:42Lee Stuart:You use a phrase, and your sister uses a phrase, which comes from your dad, which is work or want. Correct, yeah. So from a very early age, if you want something,
4:49Mark Stuart:you've got to work for it. Yeah, massive. I mean, as I told you before, my father started a business with£200 in his pocket and it was sheer hard work determination graph that got him to where he was to exit for eight figures. And the figure and the feeling when we were kids certainly is, you know, it was work or one. If you wanted something, you had to work for it. And that type of work ethic stuck with us, but not just from my dad. We're actually half Chinese and half Scottish, but that's a Scotsman. Mum's Chinese. And that work ethic of the Chinese workforce, the Chinese work ethic, is very strong generally in Chinese people.
5:27Mark Stuart:And a little story is that when I was going through school, we'd do homework for school, but we'd do homework for Mum as well. And that wasn't just me, that was Leanne Jane. We'd do homework for my mother as well because she would always instil hard work into us to create excellence and to create good things.
5:45Lee Stuart:This is the Naked Founder podcast. And I think the thing we're focusing in on is family-run businesses and founding a business with a parent. You call your dad Fred in the business. Yeah, of course, yeah. And you call him dad outside the business. Yeah. How important is that demarcation? And is it simply a question of, if you were picking your dad up from home and driving in a car, you call him dad all the way, you drive into the gates, and then he's Fred.
6:09Mark Stuart:Yeah, of course. And he wants that as well. He wants that as well. he actually he didn't start it Lee and I came up with the idea to do that because you've got to keep the lines very separate because it's very easy in a family business to blur the lines when you blur the lines external things that happen within the family come into the business that's no good for anybody you've got to keep the lines completely rigid almost like tram lines so at work he's Fred but at home he's dad and and that demarcation that separation helps us massively because if there's some decisions to be made which are tough fred makes the decision it's not dad who's made the decision yeah fred whereas at home he's dad you know i have a saying sometimes he's like a lion in the boardroom he really is but at home he's a pussycat yeah you know and that's the difference it's very much work mode home mode i think everyone has that to a next time.
7:05Lee Stuart:Fred, this is the Naked Founder podcast. It's the podcast where nothing's hidden. So we've spoken to your son, Mark, about founding a business with his brother and his dad, and the challenges and the highs and the lows that come with it. What was it like for you, as an exited founder, to go again and found a business with your children, and then for your daughter Jane to join the business?
7:31Fred Stuart:Well a bit of mixed feelings really obviously I had been in under pressure from my wife of I had sort of retired multiple times so she wasn't particularly too taken when I restarted but again once I got into it I very much enjoyed it and it was a challenge of setting the facility up again. What actually helped us is we didn't sort of try and poach customers from previous clients, but they did come to us, as did staff from companies that we'd run in the past. And we just had a very good sort of work crew and it really built from that.
8:21Lee Stuart:A lot of people talk about parents who work with their children and they hold their children to a higher standard. Do you think you hold and you hold your children to a higher standard than people who weren't your children? Yeah, very much so. You know, I look at what I've done in the past.
8:43Fred Stuart:I look at what my parents tried to do in the past. You always want to go forward. You always want to improve. and I felt that that's what they had to do and to be fair they've done so and obviously we've got situations here where the Times has said we're one of the best companies to work for small companies and that's really through the hard work of really Mark and Lee and more recently Jane who's come in to help us on the marketing side etc so yeah I expect a lot of them but I know they're
9:17Lee Stuart:well capable of doing it. It must give you a huge sense of satisfaction to see them develop if you like and step out of the shadow your shadow.
9:27Fred Stuart:Yeah very much so and I do accept you know with my age you do reach the stage where your abilities fade a bit. I'm no different to anybody else. Perhaps I should have backed out by now and that's something my wife is very strong about but it is what it is. I'm very happy with the company. We're trying to expand the company, take it forward. That will now be 100 % their task. This year for various reasons and in the early part of the year I've got to move away from the business but I'm very confident they can run it in a professional manner. Keep expanding the business and we have a great work crew here.
10:13Fred Stuart:The staff here are tremendous and that's without patronising them. They are. We're lucky to have them. So I'm quite confident, happy going forward. And how I can adjust to not work, I found it a little bit challenging in 2016. When you exited your last business? When I exited the last business, 2016. So that was a little bit of a challenge, but it's where needs must, isn't it?
10:40Lee Stuart:Okay. And just one final thing. your children call you Fred in the business and outside the business is dad you're completely cool with that
10:47Fred Stuart:absolutely, I think if they're in the business here they could be in front of clients or that and referring to me as dad there's nothing wrong with it but it doesn't sound very professional so it's better if they're actually calling me the matrician name isn't it, I've no doubt they use other names behind my back but we'll settle with that
11:09Lee Stuart:well I haven't heard any but Fred Stewart thanks very much not at all okay so stuart energy which we'll come back to you co-founded that yeah not the first business you founded because when you're a teenager you're king golfer yeah um what do you play off at the moment so six six playoff six okay you have an idea great idea because anyone who's played golf knows how easy it is to lose golf balls yeah
11:34Mark Stuart:tell us the idea that you had so really it's work or want goes back to that at university i was skin like most students are skin but I didn't want to come out with massive load of student debt and I'm a keen golfer and at the time there's a golf ball if golfers are watching this called the Pro V1 golf ball come out and they were very expensive at the time they're like four pound a ball this is 20 years ago which was expensive I couldn't afford to buy 12 balls effectively so I thought there must be a way to get these cheaper so then I realized in the states they were basically diving in lakes and pulling golf balls out as lake balls and selling them which brought them to an idea so I actually went on and found some keen scuba divers from local subacqua club and I said to them if you dive in some lakes for me and do some water training that would you be able to pull the golf balls out for me I thought there might be market though I could sell them but that was the first idea but then I approached local golf courses around the leeds area because i went to university of leeds and to see and the midlands to see if we could do that and the golf course managers weren't really interested but what i did notice is that still water creates algae and if you don't have the water turning that aerated correctly it can be damaged for the local wildlife and one of the key components of that is you have a filter inside the water of the still water that keeps the air moving but they clog up with weeds and grass etc so i created a solution i said to the guys the golf manager well if we clean your poms and clean the filters and they'll do all the messy bit uh can we take the golf balls out the lake while we're down there yeah of course you can so that's the solution to the problem for free and then what i did is i gave them 300 golf balls out the find to sell in the pro shop so they got revenue from it so it it snowballed overnight and my first warehouse was my sister's garage by the way yeah
13:30Lee Stuart:so yeah i mean the interesting thing about that though is that what it teaches you teaches about supply and demand yeah it teaches you about selling the solution it teaches you about cash flow yeah okay and also when you've made money you you always had an ambition i think to drive a porsche yeah that was always your ambition it was yeah and after a few years of doing this you could afford to buy a porsche that's right but as soon as you drove out the showroom you didn't feel like
13:56Mark Stuart:you thought you were going to fail yeah uh touching on that it was quite surreal really i got it i was a young 24 year old guy uh i actually saved up enough money to buy one and i think my father saw saw that and he said listen you've saved up enough but you're not going to buy it all and he put 70 towards it because he sold me save up and the rest of the 30 i put towards and they pay for insurance etc but it was quite funny when i went to the dealership I wasn't old enough to test drive one. I was 24. You have to be 25 at that time. And I went to Bolton and I went out as a passenger with the salesman.
14:32Mark Stuart:And we went round Bolton and he came back and said, yeah, I'll have it. And he said, oh, great. It wasn't a brand new one. It was a second hand one, about 12 months old. It was a good used one. And I got it. And all the lead up to getting the Porsche, I was driving down to the dealership in the night time, looking through the window at the car, et cetera. And I was, you know, really excited. but then actually I got the car and I drove out the showroom and I thought I'd feel different and I didn't and I thought that's strange why don't I feel different and I think it's from an early age I understood I was in love with the process and the game rather than the end result
15:09Lee Stuart:a lot of founders and entrepreneurs generally talk about well I asked them how did you feel when that first million pound dropped into your account yeah when you exited a business and they all said, I thought I would feel different. A lot of people spoke about the feeling that they sold a child, because what they loved was the chase, and that's what you found. So, let me take you back. You started Stuart Energy when? 2017. So, 2017 you started it with your brother and your dad. Okay, what problem were you trying to fix with Stuart Energy?
15:40Mark Stuart:So, when I sketched the logo on my kitchen table...
15:44Lee Stuart:Your wife couldn't have been happy when you sketched the logo, didn't you? No, she wasn't.
15:47Mark Stuart:I thought to myself, word do we go from here what do we do and never in my dreams i think we were we are today as a brand when i sketch the logo but i think the issue was servicing the industry when we exited started to decline and i didn't like that because these people had helped the family do what we wanted to do and get where we wanted to be in life and have a nice thing from being a very tough childhood and I think where we saw that problems in the industry, we wanted to come and help the industry with sustainability, noise pollution, and we created certain products to do that.
16:26Lee Stuart:So you started business in 2017 and a lot of people won't necessarily realise just how many developments you're in. So you go to Manchester, you see all these big cranes in the sky. If you go down to the bottom of the cranes, they're probably powered by a sewer energy generator.
Read the full transcript
16:42Mark Stuart:Yeah, that's correct. okay and the sectors are you working are what so we work in construction we work in infrastructure we work in nuclear we work in rail we're looking hospitality we work internationally so it's anyone who requires power so you look around everyone requires electricity everyone requires power that's our game so whoever requires power that's the sectors we work in you know on another level people don't realize that power how essential power is to people and you know the only analogy I can put it is, if I took your mobile phone off you now, you'd be lost within 20 minutes. You'd be thinking, where's my phone?
17:18Lee Stuart:Well, I got lost early today, actually, and you had to find me. The thing is, if you couldn't charge your phone
17:25Mark Stuart:because there's no electricity, it's the end of the world virtually. You need to find a charger, and that is how essential power is to people. But it's only when it goes wrong does it highlight as an issue. And we've got to be confident in the fact here as a business that power we can't be so egotistical to think that power is the most important thing on site because the guys building skyscrapers they've got problems on the roof they've got problems with the building with the walls but when that problem of power goes off it's a huge problem
17:57Lee Stuart:so here we are at stewart energy nice to see you okay got the m58 next door just give us a tour
18:13Mark Stuart:What's that step Dan? Here we have the reception where we've got several rugby shirts up etc. Who's your team Mark? My team's going to be Scotland because of our heritage. Our fathers are Scotland so it's going to be Scotland for me. So we walk through, this is our general hire operations, a couple of guys on lunch at the moment. We have the kitchen behind us there. my sister sits in this office which is she's a partnership this is Chris our operations director hello Chris it's just one of our marketing ladies and this is our accounts office these ladies are our accounts office in here we're quite strict on health and safety so I can only take you into the workshop to a certain point because you don't have safety footwear on but come with me it's our dirty workshop we do a lot of major repairs we just stop it here guys We do a lot of major repairs in here, we do a lot of, you know, mastery things.
19:09Mark Stuart:We get right into the carcass, deep inside the machines. Behind us here we have our small store selection, from our store's equipment, we have our store's guy in here. Er, Paul, which is... Say hello Paul. This is Paul, our store's guy. And you see all the filters, etc. We need for our machines on a daily basis.
19:32Lee Stuart:one of the fascinating things about your story is that you mentioned it earlier your dad exited the previous business nice figure nice check size yeah given a lot of it away to support you know charities and stuff but we'll talk about that later but you treated steward energy as a as a as a startup yeah as and you bootstrapped it so i think i'm right in saying that when the furniture arrived in flat packs you assembled it didn't you yeah i built it yeah i built it was all hands to
19:59Mark Stuart:the pump uh there was only three of us yeah that's liam and myself that was it so if we weren't going to build it who was going to build it you know so we built it i who we hoovered the floor we slept here overnight li and i you know just to get things going and and really yeah we bootstrap although we had our contacts it was strange chris because people still treated us as a brand new business although we had pedigree we were unproven because we were the sons we're not proven whereas fed was proven or dad was proven we weren't so because we weren't proven we found it very hard to get finance we found it hard to get people to think of serious you know and it was it was
20:37Lee Stuart:literally all hands to the pump yeah so you start the business you bootstrap it no frills no just applying great service yeah i think the first order you got was for two machines in birmingham Yeah, it was. You couldn't get credit to buy the machines. That's right.
20:52Mark Stuart:So we'd been dealt with the company previously in our old business of Madden's Shirts, giving them orders for 180 machines, well over a million pounds, where they put on credit for us. We got an order in Birmingham. We went to the same supplier and said, we need two generators. I think it was£28 ,000 to buy the two generators. To put on a hire for six months, can we take them? We said, oh, you can take them, but you need to pay for them. from our first problem. We didn't have any cash. So although Fred was exited for a good figure, we still treat this business as a startup business. And I think that was to create adversity because we're very big advocates that adversity creates creativity.
21:33Mark Stuart:When you hit with adversity, it makes you creative.
21:36Lee Stuart:When your backs are against the wall,
21:37Mark Stuart:you have to think for yourself. Chips are down, that's it. When your backs are against the wall, you'd rather do one or two things. You go down or you come out fighting.
21:43Lee Stuart:So what was your solution to not being able to get these two machines on credit? Well, we had to buy them.
21:48Mark Stuart:And we had to scrape the money together to buy them. So, you know, we scraped the money together to buy them. We bought the two machines. But then that created another problem because the week later, we took on an engineer to look after them, but we couldn't really afford his wages. We bought a van, we took him on, and then he said to us, we need fuel to put in the van. And I was like, okay, we'll just use your car. We don't have a fuel card, Mark. Okay. I couldn't ring Fred because Fred was on holiday. He disappeared. So I said to Lee Wright, what have we got? So we had our personal credit cards and we put fuel in the van with our credit cards to get it going.
22:24Mark Stuart:And it's still well from there.
22:26Lee Stuart:There's a story that I like a lot. So your sister Jane, when you started the business, she gave you her second-hand car. It's a nice car, but you ended up hitting 140 ,000 miles on the clock. So you were basically going out selling. So you were driving all over the country. and what did that teach you as a founder of a business i thought i'm gonna get emotional
22:48Mark Stuart:talking about this now chris so what about a second hand car no about about the story so obviously setting up the business we want to set up the business and it was you know we're going to bootstrap it it was going to be uh then you know jane was still working somewhere else we couldn't afford to bring jane into the business straight away quite frankly because we'd now have enough money in the pot to meet Jane in and support another wage. Jane wanted to come in, herself didn't have any money effectively because dad's a Scot and he's quite frugal or you know careful with his money I should say but she had a six-year-old car and she said to me I haven't got money Mark but I'll give you something so she gave me a six-year-old car so I could go repping it and that car means everything to me so she gave up her own personal car to give it to me so we could go and rep and I could go and rep and with my brother we both could go out and sell to actually get you know machines out and hire.
23:46Mark Stuart:Was the fact it was a second-hand car important? No the fact it was her only motor transport was important she gave up her only motor transport to give it to me yeah so we could further and better the life of the family.
23:57Lee Stuart:But that's the family business isn't it? That's it. That's the family business. Your dad you mentioned that your dad is is careful with his money yeah you know my dad was careful with his money as well i think parents i think historically are as well um great story when you set up the bank account the business bank account forced your energy in barclays yeah and then your dad went to a well-known coffee chain yeah might have been called starbucks afterwards tell us what happened
24:22Mark Stuart:next i don't know how you know that story but literally i'll tell you what happened uh we go In the very early days, we go to the bank to open a bank account. We go to Barclays, Fed deposits a bit of money into the bank account. I'm on a high because we've got a business bank account. We're starting a business. It's great. It's phenomenal. It's exciting. We had to go away from the bank for about an hour while they got the paperwork ready so we could be able to be signatures on the account. So we said, well, we'll go and get a coffee. So I'm thinking, great. bear in mind Fred's executive for an eight-figure son only a couple years previous we walk into this coffee shop Starbucks and all my friends are in there in the queue happen to be in the queue oh Mark how are you doing oh great thanks so I'm proud as punch oh I've just been a set of bank accounts up we're going over again and again in business and all that and they're like oh well you know it's okay now they know through the circles and friend circles what my dad's exit for something oh it's okay for him we get to the till and i said oh can i have two lattes please and i think it's how much is venti grande tall and i said uh and i thought well i don't know what dad's like with coffee prices i best go for for for grande size or you can't go for venti he'll go mad yeah and the lady said oh it's seven pounds sixty for two coffees and my dad i can't do his actions just got he said uh oh no dear i don't want to pay for everyone's coffee in the Q, I just want two.
25:50Mark Stuart:And at that, I went absolutely scarlet. And she went, no, that is right. It's only for two. She said, oh, so we'll leave it, thanks. It's too expensive. And promptly turned around to walk out, which I look at all my friends, and all my friends are laughing. They head off and open the sides because, you know, and essentially you didn't want to get ripped off with the price of coffee. So I think that's rubbed off on me. I bring a flask into work every day. Whenever I go out selling, I take a flask with me. and I call it Stewie Books rather than Starbucks.
26:20Lee Stuart:Well, can I just say that that's probably ruled out Starbucks as a sponsor of the Naked Founder podcast. But, yeah, the lesson that teaches you, what, look after the pennies and the pounds and look after themselves?
26:31Mark Stuart:I think it does. But also, you know, I think my father sees it as a coffee is, you know, it probably costs five or six pence to make. Don't be ripped off. Yeah. You know, don't be ripped off with things. You don't mind paying for nice things, but don't be ripped off with things.
26:45Lee Stuart:Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. And I think a lot of the mistakes that a lot of founders make is they spend money on the surroundings and the salaries and the cars before they've got an MVP and before they're cash generative. I'm going to introduce your sister, Jane Stewart Putnam, who joined Stewart Energy in 2024 as the director of strategic partnerships. so jane stewart putnam um when your siblings and your dad launched your energy and you were still working at university of bolton as it was then did you feel you were missing out did you feel like you were the only member of the family not involved in the business back then no not really
27:28Fred Stuart:i think i've always grown up around power generation that's what we've grown up with My dad did it both overseas and in the UK. So I heard a lot about what was going on anyway, just from normal family conversations about how the business was going, how they wanted to grow it. But no, I didn't ever, because people would say, why don't you go into the family business? And everything's about timing, really.
27:51Lee Stuart:There's a certain expectation, though, isn't there? If there's a family business, that everybody in the family will join that business. But it was all about the timing. 2024 came, the opportunity came for you to join the business. Did you need much persuading? and what was your reason for joining then?
28:05Fred Stuart:Well, you know, in terms of was it an easy decision, was it difficult? Probably a little bit of both, I would say. Why did I join? I actually took some time out of the workplace. My niece had been poorly, so I actually had three months where I stepped away from the workplace and I was spending a lot of time with hospital visits and actually that time was really precious. like family and family values is at the heart of everything that I do especially for my family so having that time was really important but it was a little bit difficult because I've stepped away from working in higher education I built a career for nearly 17 years but ultimately you know sometimes you look at things you reframe the decision and it has been the right decision it was the right time for me to step into the business and bring some of the skills and experience that I'd learned working in higher education into a workplace.
29:02Lee Stuart:This is the Naked Founder podcast and we heard from your brother Mark Stewart earlier. He mentioned actually his first business was about finding golf balls and then I think he used to use your garage to clean them.
29:13Fred Stuart:That was the headquarters.
29:14Lee Stuart:That was the headquarters, your garage was the headquarters of the business. He's spoken about you.
29:19Fred Stuart:Yes.
29:20Lee Stuart:But how would you describe Mark as a founder and a driver within the business because you've grown up with your dad fred who's still very much part of the business but mark is is now probably more front and center how do you describe him yeah even as a young child
29:38Fred Stuart:he was very annoying aren't all family members at some stage ambitious driven very determined obviously mark and i the seven years between us with me being the older one but um actually in having all these businesses, because it wasn't just a golf ball business, there was a car mats business. There's been several businesses. We were always brought up, it was work all ones. I've had a job since the age of 11. But Mark had multiple businesses, albeit small ones. And actually, he's just grown his love and been very entrepreneurial and grown that into the business that we have today.
30:18Lee Stuart:People talk about imposter syndrome. and I often think women are more open about having imposter syndrome. I think most men have it but deny it. You know, when you hear Mark talk, he talks with knowledge and passion. At the end, you know, we were talking earlier and you could almost hear, like, the emotion in his voice as well. Is imposter syndrome something you see in him? And only his sister could say that. and do you see it in yourself?
30:51Fred Stuart:I don't actually see imposter syndrome. I think sometimes people don't give themselves enough credit for what they do and I'd read something the other week and it was saying that imposter syndrome, people being really nervous, is it not your inner person giving you that round of applause? You know, is it nervous? Is it excitement? It could be a bit of both but I don't know. I mean, I suppose anyone who is good at the job could be a little bit critical. you always want to do something a little bit bigger, a little bit better. But I don't see that imposter syndrome in him. I mean, for myself, every day is a school day, so it's not necessarily imposter syndrome, but they've had a lot more experience in the business, and I'm just open to learning.
31:32Fred Stuart:Sometimes it takes someone from a completely different sector to come into a business and ask questions that people may not have thought about. So we're developing other areas of the business with me bringing my own experience.
31:45Lee Stuart:Every day is a school day.
31:46Fred Stuart:Every day is a school day.
31:50Lee Stuart:So Mark, I'm going to come back to you now. When I want to talk to you about Stuart Energy's values, you don't want people to leave you ever. Work second, family first.
31:58Mark Stuart:Yeah, I think that goes back to our upbringing of maybe a mixed race upbringing where family is very essential to everything. Family is so important to Eastern culture as well as Western culture. We have this saying of family first, work second, because the family that we're creating here, the Stuart Energy family here, is just as important as our home family. 35 members of staff? Yep, 35 members of staff. And we have a saying within the Senior Leadership Team, we have 35 families to feed. And, you know, that's what it is. And family first works second because when your back's against the wall and you've got nothing else to turn to, you can always rely on your family.
32:40Mark Stuart:And you're strong. the bonds you've made are strong, the tough, the together, the trust you have with each other. And it's that culture, really, that gets you through.
32:49Lee Stuart:We've got a sign in the background. Sunday Times, best place to work. Yeah. 2025, small organisation, 8th. That's right, yeah. If we looked behind us, we'd see the 2024 sign. That's right. Which was 8th. That's right. OK, and 2026, hopefully, you'll be above 8th as well. Definitely. OK, what is your mantra when you walk in to that door every morning, So really, it's family first, work second.
33:14Mark Stuart:Just touching on that, by the way. I think we're the only company in power generation ever to do it back to back.
33:22Lee Stuart:You're like the Luke Littler of power generation. Maybe. I'm chubbier than him.
33:27Mark Stuart:But literally, we need to be, for me, better than eighth. We were delighted to get eighth in 2024 out of 6.9 million businesses. It was phenomenal. But to get eighth again, I was disappointed. Other parts of the team were like, delighted, we've got eighth mark, it's great. I said, it's not good. We're not impressive last year. So for me, it will only be good if it was, you know, better than eighth. It shows we've progressed.
33:53Lee Stuart:Yeah, but that's the founder who's not willing to rest on his laurels.
33:56Mark Stuart:No, yeah, of course, yeah.
33:58Lee Stuart:And Mark, I want to talk to you about Stuart Energy's approach to sustainability. You've invested heavily in that, green power, reducing pollution. Clearly, there's always going to be a need for fossil fuel-based generators. How important is it that you invest in the new technology generators?
34:14Mark Stuart:It's massively important for us, Chris. New technology to reduce carbon emissions in the UK is an absolute must. It's essential. But aside from that, the reduction of use of fossil fuels is huge. We have invested heavily in battery technology, but not small batteries, all the way up to one megawatt of power, which is a phenomenal size. There's not many people in the UK doing that. But we also look at different technologies within that. We're also heavily involved in a hydrogen project at the moment, to the hydrogen fuel for power generation. And really, R &D is the key to us. We spend a lot of money on R &D a year, you know, a seven-figure sum a year, on finding solutions to environmentally friendly products.
34:57Lee Stuart:But that shows to me that as a founder, you're looking to constantly come up with new iterations of the business. Because obviously, it's a bit like car manufacturers who only ever supply diesel vehicles and don't think about EV vehicles as well. So is that the thing that keeps you awake at night?
35:17Mark Stuart:Yes. I want to keep evolving the business and I keep offering a product range which is suitable for all. but really the green credentials for us is really something we're really passionate about i really want to push our esg further forward jane's really heavily involved with our esg as an organization but the battery pack scenario and also the carbon reduction uh products that we have to offer will get bigger and bigger because in the future we're probably going to get taxed on our carbon emissions and as a business as we can offer that now at the start of the curve and be located within the sectors and within the area in the market first we can have a good foothold to go and grow that business in those areas i want to talk to
36:02Lee Stuart:you about your recruitment process right which i think is fascinating okay you've got this three step recruitment process yeah yeah just touch on one and two but the third part is really interesting because you go to a restaurant with the candidate i do and you watch the way they order food and they speak to the waitresses and waiters yeah and if they don't if they're rude you don't want them
36:23Mark Stuart:so just explain that process so uh really we used to recruit in a way where we'd have one or two interviews it was great the guys would come in and i sat and i watched and i observe i watch a lot chris i like people watching um yeah and i noticed and i thought what's really essential to our business what is really the key things with our business and people going forward well really i really go out and sell on site anymore I wish I did because I love that but maybe my role is more strategic now but if you remove me from this business the business will still continue okay and really what's the three main important people within our business the person who cleans our office keeps all free for disease the cleaner the sales guy to go out and see people but also the most important thing is we have machinery mechanical machinery mechanical machinery fails from time to time just the nature of the beast so when you've got heightened tensions of a site manager or project manager on site and he's at his extreme stress levels if you get a guy turned up to fix that service engineer which is rude or polite or doesn't know the right things to say de-escalate the situation you're going to be not in business very long so i changed our interview process to be a little bit different and i think when we first had to do that my dad thought it absolutely potted and lost my marbles but he said okay son give it a whirl see what you think see what happens so i did so the first process is i'll sit in the corner of the interview and say nothing and three other guys will interview uh the candidate if it's an engineering role and they pass that first interview we'll go into practical interview where people who are going to work with they're going to work with they either fettle a machine so it's got a problem and they say right troubleshoot that machine that's your practical part of the interview i sit there and i watch i don't say anything i just watch again and they actually probably think i'm the t-boy in the corner because i'm in the corner generally the third stage of the interview we take them to a local hotel or restaurant and we ask them and we meet them there for the third part of the interview and it's an informal chat and we dress it as an informal chat but i'm there then and that's where i come in and i'll say to them for example it was a guy called charlie who was having interviewed Charlie I'll have a club sandwich and chips with a side of green veg please can you order it for me please in fact you can order for the whole table and it's not a test to see if you can remember what the order is it's a test to see how he interacts with the waitress or waiter it's a way to see how he orders is he polite, does he speak to them well if there's a problem with the food then they don't have that how does he handle that objection and it's only then if they do the right process do I take them on because being polite and being true is really important to me.
39:18Lee Stuart:You've got a really low churn rate, but you can pass stage one and two.
39:22Mark Stuart:Yeah.
39:22Lee Stuart:But if you're rude to the waiters or don't say please or thank you, that's it, you don't want them in Stuart Energy.
39:27Mark Stuart:I don't want them in Stuart Energy because, you know, I think people fail a lot in businesses, and this is my own personal opinion, that they have a guy who is a great sales guy, top sales guy, but he's not a nice guy.
39:42Lee Stuart:Yeah.
39:42Mark Stuart:That ruins the culture for everybody.
39:44Lee Stuart:Yeah.
39:45Mark Stuart:And actually, you don't want them guys in your business. You don't want them in your business at all. Internal terrorists, some people call them. Yeah, internal terrorists. I mean, there's a great saying that the British Special Forces use, the British military uses. If you had a guy who's at the peak of his abilities, but he's untrustworthy, you couldn't trust him with your wife. Do you want him? No. No. They would want a guy who's probably lower middle abilities, but you can trust him with your family and kids. That's who they want in there because they can train them for that. And that, to me, is something we take into our business where we recruit for attitude, we train for skill.
40:22Lee Stuart:Attitude is the word that just came to mind. You can employ anybody. You can look at their qualifications, but you can't teach attitude. You've either got it or you haven't. You started Stuart Energy with your dad and your brother. as well. And it would be wrong to say you're in the shadow of your dad, but your dad had the pedigree of having set up an exited previous business. Do you feel now that, like, nearly 10 years on, do you feel like the dynamic has changed? And do you feel like... Because your dad comes into the office a couple of days a week.
40:51Mark Stuart:Yeah, he does. He still keeps an eye on things. Listen, he'll always be the boss. I'll always defer to him. We'll always defer to him about decisions within the business. He does let us get on with it. he likes to keep a hold of the reins one hand on the reins I would say we've got the hands on the reins as well
41:09Lee Stuart:because you've made a million pound turnover business now growing quick
41:12Mark Stuart:yeah we are going fast and he likes to keep his hand on the reins but you know I've noticed over the past two years we'll look at a project and instead of saying no we're not going to do that what do you think about this Mark he'll ask our opinion never used to do that before I think now he's getting older he's coming up to 80 this year he's still involved in the business he's still a big figurehead in the business but he's he understands that it's now us going forward going growing the business and he's got to really not take a step back but be there to help shape us and guide us and what's the long-term vision for steward energy long-term vision energy is we would love this business to continue legacy i'd love my children to come into the business you know i'd really like to grow the business to international status and actually i have one goal in mind to be the number one power generation business within
42:06Lee Stuart:europe well in the background you've got you identified by ldc yeah as being like one to watch a rising star as well um so i think you're doing all the i think you're doing all the main things right the we always end the naked founder podcast with a question right and the question it's a tradition which comes out of the us where the outgoing president will write a letter to the you know, the incoming president as well. If you were writing a letter to yourself, or you were writing a letter to another founder based on your experiences at the start of that journey, what would you write?
42:38Mark Stuart:I thought you would ask that question, so I've written one.
42:41Lee Stuart:You've written an answer, okay. You want to hear it? Yeah, I do, I do. All right, one second, let me go and get it.
42:45Mark Stuart:Okay. Dear Mark, congratulations, you've reached chapter 35 in your life, and you've taken the leap of faith to start your own business. Over the next eight years, there's going to be a lot of tears, a lot of ups, a lot of downs, a lot of laughs. Pretty much like a roller coaster. But that's okay. It shapes you into the business leader you are today. A bit of advice. Be true to yourself and others. Be kind, honest and thoughtful. If you make a mistake, it's okay. Own it. Don't shy away from it, but fix it. Don't let egos ruin relationships. And don't try and fix the others that don't want to be fixed.
43:25align yourself with the people the same mindset as you when you're speaking in public or giving
43:31Mark Stuart:presentations if you make a mistake that's okay because there's only you that know the script be mindful that it's you that shapes the culture of the business you are the business culture breeder if there's a if the business culture is flawed or fractured fix it it's your fault be grateful for the small things the small things make those numbers big things do not listen to the people around you which are negative that say you can't deliver this project you can't do a certain then you'll go for it give it your all just do it go to every networking event possible you can go to because you never know where it'll lead to.
44:16Mark Stuart:Contacts are everything. Lastly, the early days, the long nights, the early starts, the tears, the blood, the sweat, they're the good days. Have fun with yourself, Mark. Because one day, it'll all be over.
44:35Lee Stuart:You know, you can see just listening to it, listening to you, it comes from here. Yeah, of course. And that's you being authentic as well. Mark Stewart, thanks for inviting us in and thanks taking part in the Naked Founder podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please tell your friends and family, listen to it, press the subscribe button. And my name, as always, is Chris McGuire.
45:17Thank you.
From the publisher
Mark Stuart is on a mission to make Stuart Energy Europe’s leading power generation business.
He founded Stuart Energy in 2017 alongside his father Fred and brother Lee, and the company has been named in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list for three consecutive years.
But following in the footsteps of a successful parent comes with its own pressures.
“You see great footballers that have sons that go into football and you’re never as good as your father,” he said. “There’s a bit of stigma attached to that.”
In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, Mark discusses
Launching Stuart Energy with his dad Fred and brother Lee and working alongside his sister Jane Why the company puts ‘family first, work second’ The importance of bootstrapping a business Growing up with a ‘work or want’ mentality Stuart Energy’s unusual three-stage recruitment process The Naked Founder is a BusinessCloud podcast. It is sponsored by Financielle, the home of money for women, and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.
