Secret Leaders

If you’ve visited a high street in the last 40 years there’s a good chance you’ve seen Games Workshop, a British institution that’s stood the test of time. One of its Founders, Sir Ian Livingstone, sold out of the company in the 90s but continued to make an unbelievable impact in the games industry, alongside being an angel investor and a best-selling fantasy author.  He’s had a hand in Tomb Raider, Hitman, Championship Manager, Fall Guys and Golf Clash to name just a few. So you’ve absolutely played something he’s helped bring to market. Last year Ian released his memoir, Dice Men, which tells the story of the early days of Games Workshop and he has recently opened his own academy in Bournemouth. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders. Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders. Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretlea

2011 was the beginning for Depop, an app that lets you buy and sell your own clothes on a marketplace, Depop attracted GenZ and created a boom for vintage clothing. Simon Beckerman wanted to create a community behind his marketplace, somewhere users could create virtual stores from a device in their pocket. Fast forward 10 years, Simon sold Depop to Etsy for $1.6bn. But he didn’t stop there. Instead of taking time off, Simon decided to get straight back into the game. This time, he’s taking on the food industry with DELLI, an app that lets you buy and sell a curated mix of locally sourced and produced food and drinks. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders. Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders. Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/. You can find our h

If you’ve been online in the last 10 years, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of The Sidemen. 7 guys from the UK, all successful YouTubers in their own right, who grouped together to create one of the most successful YouTube collectives in the world. With over 240 million monthly views and 19 million subscribers, the Sidemen have branched out well beyond content - launching their own fast food chicken franchise (Sides) and premium vodka brand (XIX Vodka). Whilst these 7 guys are immensely talented creators, they needed structure and a strategy to exploit their commercial potential - and that’s where Jordan Schwarzenberger and Arcade Media came in. Jordan started his career as a creative at VICE and LADBible before he became the Chief Creative Officer at YMU Group, Europe's largest talent management company.  Having being introduced to the Sidemen by his friends and co-founders,Jordan now manages the group in all their endeavors. In fact,The Sidemen are Arcade Media’s only client. In this episode you’ll hear

Would you go back to save the business you started, when you’d already walked away?  Renée Elliott had to fight for her business, Planet Organic, right from the start. Two years after they launched in 1995, her then-business partner tried to force her out, which culminated in a High Court battle. Renée won and along with her husband Brian who came on as Managing Director, took back control of the business. They ran it together for ten years.  Then, in 2009 they decided to step away from the business to raise their children. They moved to Italy, then returned to the UK, where Renée started a coaching and wellbeing business, Beluga Bean. Nine years after she stepped back from the business, Renée sold the majority of her shares in Planet Organic.  She'd done it, achieved the entrepreneur's dream, built a business, sold it and could now relax… or that’s what everyone thought.  In May 2023 Renée made headlines when she led a bid to buy Planet Organic after it was announced the company was going into administration

If you're a Founder, or if you've just got big career ambitions, building your personal brand is becoming less and less optional. It's what potential employees or investors or Co-Founders or employers look at when deciding whether work with you. It's also one of the things that our usual host Dan is best at. He's just passed 150k followers whilst running three businesses so today he's spilling the secrets of how to do it. Yes, we really mean the secrets - the stuff people don't talk about but is key to success. Let's find out what's behind the curtain. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders. Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders. Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/. You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes.

Being comfortable with different opens your mind… Those are the words of our guest today, Christine Lemke, she’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Evidation. Christine’s story is a unique one, she was adopted from South Korea as a baby into a strict Lutheran household in South Dakota.  Several start-ups later, Christine was encouraged by her own chronic pain to co-found Evidation,an app which uses points as rewards for daily activity, education, and health monitoring. Once users get enough points, they can redeem them for cold hard cash. They reached unicorn status recently, joining the big leagues, but Christine says she doesn’t care about reaching this milestone. Why?  -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: http

Former professional baseballer, Devan Kline founded fitness company Burn Boot Camp with his wife Morgan. From starting out in a parking lot with only 600 dollars in his bank account, they are now operating in 42 states and have 375 gyms across the country.  But we wouldn't be talking to Devan if everything had all gone up and to the right. In the early days he made a serious mistake that put the whole company at risk.  What happened? --------------------------- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com  Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

How long would you spend before launching your business?  Milda Mitkute was at a party in 2008 when she ended up chatting to developer Justas Janauskus. She’d come up with the idea for Vinted after she found herself with too many clothes for the small flat that she moved to for university. They decided then and there to turn the idea into a reality and launched the website just two weeks later…Only to forget one critical detail.  A decade later, despite many bumps in the road, Vinted was valued at $1 billion, making it Lithuania’s first ever unicorn. Two years later, in 2021, their valuation sored to to $4.5 billion. It’s now Europe’s number one second-hand marketplace, with over 75 million users spanning 16 countries. And it was all sparked by an unexpected exchange at a time and place where good ideas normally die. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders. Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders. Vertice - save o

Lucy Cohen is the Co-Founder of Mazuma, the UK's first subscription tax advisory firm and one of the country’s leading online accountants for small and micro businesses. They have over a thousand clients across the UK and have moved into the US market. But, in their early days, it all came so close to falling apart.  What happened? --------------------------- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com  Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Have you found your ‘calling’ in life? Do you think you ever will?  Today’s interview is with Rewind AI Co-Founder and CEO Dan Siroker. After leaving Google to take on the role as director of analytics in the 2008 Obama campaign, Dan knew his purpose was elsewhere. Having gone deaf in his 20s and later getting a hearing aid, he felt superpowered. This inspired him to try and augment human existence with new powers, senses and abilities. He co-founded Optimizely in 2009, growing it to $120M in annual revenue and 450 employees before leaving in 2020 to start Rewind AI, a program that remembers everything you’ve seen online, giving you instant access to everything you’ve ever looked at on your phone or computer. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l

Glenn Poulos is a successful founder, who exited from his company in 2022. But that was his second exit. His first, 15 years before, was a very different story. He thought he had achieved the entrepreneur's dream, an eight-figure exit, after selling his business to a public company. With the shares he got in return he was going to be a multi-millionaire. Instead, he was left with hardly anything, and no job, after having to fire a hundred people. What happened? --------------------------- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com  Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Have you ever questioned what kind of leader you are and which roles truly suit you?  Today’s interview is with Leon Co-Founder and Former CEO John Vincent. Named after John’s father, Leon was founded in 2004. John became CEO ten years later in 2014 after his co-founder Henry Dimbleby stepped down. In 2017, Leon was named on The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list, which ranks Britain's 100 private companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years. In 2021, the company was sold for a reported £100 million to the billionaire Issa brothers.  But look behind this success, and you’ll find a lot of lessons along the way. John talks about: How to identify your personality type and which roles might suit you best as a founder Why every business needs disruptors, scalers and executors What John did wrong as a disruptive CEO  Coming up with the idea for ‘healthy’ fast-food Their big mistake early on  Why wise investors keep Founders in the driving seat His relationship with his co-founder What to

Peter Kell is a serial entrepreneur and successful marketer who has gone from being a millionaire to losing it all to being a millionaire again. As a teenager he was obsessed with the idea of getting rick quick. So he set about to do it, he hustled, setting up seven businesses in four years. But each one of them failed. He was left with nothing; completely broke, his car repossessed, evicted from his flat. How did he pick himself up and turn his life around? --------------------------- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com  Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

In 2008 Dr Jason Wersland was in crippling chronic pain after a motorbike accident. He was in a dark place. A trained chiropractor, he knew what kind of relief he needed, and searched the market for a product that could give it to him. But when he came up empty handed, desperate, he decided to make one himself. By 2019 the Theragun was being used by over 250 professional sports teams and by 2022, Therabody, the company Jason founded, generated nearly $400 millions in revenue. Woof. How did he do it? And how did he attract so many celebrity clients? -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders -- Newsletter Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/ You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

"Every single major tech company that you know of has this story where they battled it to the bitter end." Young Han grew up in Silicon Valley and worked in tech before moving to Texas a few years ago for a slower way of life. In this most recent chapter he’s really got into small businesses, like a pool cleaning company which he scaled to $1m in revenue in 10 months.  He’s a coach, tech consultant, and Founder himself. He’s a fan of taking as many shots as you can and failing fast....well now he is. Because one of his companies, GoVolunteer, didn’t fail fast. In fact, it took him and his Co-Founders 9 years to go from deciding it wasn’t working to actually switching it off. What did that teach him about when to walk away? --------------------------- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com  Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Daniel Priestley is a serial entrepreneur and one hell of a thinker who we first spoke to on the podcast in 2017, for just our 9th episode. How the time flies. Daniel is prolific. He’s the bestselling author of books like Key Person of Influence, 24 Assets and Oversubscribed. He’s a lecturer and an excellent teacher of entrepreneurship. He’s also the co-founder and CEO of consulting agency Dent Global - and the Founder of ScoreApp. You’ll hear some of his entrepreneurial gems today which we hope will make you a better business builder.  In fact, we think there are more lessons in this episode about business building than we’ve done in a while. Hope you like it. It’s time for round two. What would make the show better? Please tell us :) hello@secretleaders.com -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) usin

Jennifer Moss is a workplace happiness writer, speaker and strategist.  Having moved back to Canada from Silicon Valley in 2012, she co-founded a company called Plasitcity Labs with her husband.  They developed happiness strategies for companies and got some big clients like LuluLemon. On the cusp of signing a transformative deal in 2019, they got blind-sided days before signing which fatally crippled morale. And in the midst of all this, it didn’t escape Jennifer that she was running a happiness startup but was desperately unhappy. What happened? --------------------------- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com  Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Sean Harrington is the Co-Founder and CEO of Elemis, one of the best-known skincare brands in the UK. Before being bought by L’Occitane four years ago for $990 million, they were the number one British skincare brand in the world. Sean spent time as a bouncer, taxi driver and worked for his dad’s suntanning business before it was bankrupted in the recession of 1989, leaving him destitute in the process.  Thankfully, one of his former clients saw something in Sean and made a point of investing in him. Through them, he found himself in a new role, co-founding a company alongside Noella Gabriel and Oriele Frank. To this day, he cites their individual strengths as the reason Elemis succeeded.  The goal was always to create something global and their products are now available in 45 countries. We get into how he built Elemis into what it is, from launching their products to the landmark L’Occitane sale. Plus, how cancer made him live differently but not how most people expect. What would make the show better? Plea

Anita Abildgaard is the Founder and CEO of Iris AI, a company helping humans make sense of the world’s scientific knowledge.  She’d always wanted to be a Founder and lead companies. In fact that was her specific goal after finishing her MBA.  She achieved that, but her first venture ended in failure, as did the next. She went through two bruising startup experiences in a row. So what did she learn from it? And what did she learn about walking away? That’s something we don’t talk about enough in startup circles. --------------------------- If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it. What would make the show better? hello@secretleaders.com  Sponsor links: personio.com/secretleaders

Niklas Adalberth is the co-founder and former Deputy CEO of Klarna. The massive Swedish fintech provides payment services for online shops like ASOS being able to offer their customers buy now pay later. Although Klarna has been hugely successful, Niklas found himself hitting an emotional rock bottom after he came to the infamous realisation that money doesn’t buy happiness.  After some soul searching, Niklas left Klarna and founded his next venture: Norrsken Foundation. It's a non-profit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs solve the world’s greatest challenges like poverty, famine, mental health, pollution, climate change, or something else entirely. Niklas is now less interested in unicorns than he is in impact unicorns – companies that positively impact one billion lives.  We want to know if 'typical' entrepreneurial success is even worth it. -- Sponsors Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secr