Curious Business: The B2B Growth Podcast

Justin Megawarne, co-founder of Megaslice and former CTO who champions aligning software with commercial outcomes. He argues the industry is set up to fail clients, critiques time-and-materials and Agile incentives, and makes the case for value pricing, shared risk, and hiring curious generalists. He also explains how to qualify founders and why finding demand before building matters.

How do you build and fund a business built around a mission that life-changing for your community but doesn’t represent a typical 10x opportunity for investors? Meet Kirsten Jack, founder of Uncommon, the online community where neurodivergent young people can connect, find their people, and build the support networks they need. At a crossroads in a her career, Kirsten did more than change jobs. She answered a call she’d felt since childhood. Diagnosed with autism in her teens, she was shaped by years of navigating organisations not built for her. When she became a parent she found that the world’s newfound openness to neurodivergence wasn't translating into real support. She found long waiting lists, a patchwork of under-funded groups, and families left to improvise. That frustration sparked Uncommon, an online community built because Kirsten refused to wait for someone else to act. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other types of neurodiversity aren’t rare. It affects somewhere between 10 and 15% of the population. However, many young people are undiagnosed (especially girls), and are navigating it without even knowing why things feel so hard. The scale of unmet need is significant, and it’s a gap that Uncommon exists to fill. Listen to This Episode to Learn: How she funded the start of the business and absolute must-haves when seeking funding for a purpose-led business How to design a product around your most vulnerable users from day one, and why they pivoted their community focus early on The honest truth about grant funding that has conditions attached - and the NHS contract that taught Kirsten the hard way How Kirsten manages the decision fatigue of being a solo founder - and the simple habit that changed things for her What success actually looks like for a business built around purpose   Chapters 1:00 - Building Uncommon: A Safe Space for Neurodivergent Youth 7:35 - Supporting Neurodivergent Employees in the Workplace 12:21 - Decision-Making Strategies for Solo Founders 14:20 - Building Early Support Systems for Youth Mental Health 16:59 - Challenges Faced by Neurodivergent Students in Mainstream Schools 19:22 - Supporting Neurodivergent Youth Through Flexible Online Programs 23:43 - Targeted Fundraising and Impactful Business Models 28:19 - Supporting Young People Through Clubs, Mentoring, and Fun 33:59 - Empowering Youth Through Safe and Supportive Creative Spaces 38:21 - Strategic Insights and Challenges in Educational Community Building 42:09 - Transformative Impact of Uncommon on Youth and Families   Links and Resources Find out more about Uncommon: https://www.bemoreuncommon.com/ Read the testimonials from grateful parents: https://www.bemoreuncommon.com/testimonials Connect with Kirsten on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-jack/   -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.

While competitors race to scale by loading their products with emulsifiers, humectants and sweeteners - and call it health food - The Protein Ball Company has stayed stubbornly natural, and accepted slower but more sustainable growth. This is an episode about the hard yards of business: logistics, cash flow, risk, scaling production, export paperwork, and the instincts no degree or accelerator will teach you. The Protein Ball Company was born eleven years ago after Matt Hunt spotted the rise of protein snacking at an LA trade show. What began in a small unit with a single machine is now exporting to 14 countries, with listings in Caffe Nero, Black Sheep Coffee and Flying Coffee Bean, and a major UK supermarket listing in the pipeline. In this episode of Curious Business, Matt talks candidly about how Covid tanked their revenue from £4m to £1m overnight. He explains what kept the business alive, and why they’re committed to natural ingredients in a category dominated by the chemistry set - even when everyone told him they'd never scale if they didn't follow suit.  Listen to this episode for some hard lessons about cashflow, hedging your bets, trusting your gut, and the fine margins of business: Why private label manufacturing isn't a compromise, and why having the right private label customers could be what saves your business How Matt sizes a new market without paying for expensive data, and the tests he runs to check his intuition What a branding agency's "graveyard exercise" revealed about decisions they should have made years earlier - and how to apply it to your own business The state of the protein market and why he thinks the ultra-processed food reckoning will eventually prove him right How a business exporting to fourteen countries manages cash flow, liquidity and growth   Links from the episode The Protein Ball Company: https://theproteinballco.com The Protein Ball Company on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/TheProteinBallCo/page/70CB4F6A-D02B-4652-9F25-4931F0329B0B Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthunt001/ Robot Foods and the rebrand: https://www.robot-food.com/work/the-protein-ball-co/   Books mentioned Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill (affiliate link) https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9781785042416 How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie (affiliate link) https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9781785042409   Other episodes mentioned: Curious Business #12 with Ella McKay of Fatso: https://podcast.curiousbusiness.co.uk/e/ella-mckay-fatso-rebellious-branding/   Chapters 0:00:45 - Elevator pitch 0:01:09 - Why he started the business 0:02:06 - Why balls, not bars 0:03:44 - The main phases of growth over 11 years 0:05:32 - What does success actually look like? 0:07:10 - How the Caffe Nero listing came about 0:09:35 - Matt's background - the market, the olives, the degree 0:11:43 - Cash flow, hedging and keeping the business alive 0:12:37 - Why everything is in-house 0:13:41 - What Matt spends his time on 0:17:38 - Throwing some shade on the protein sector 0:20:42 - Trade shows as the engine of growth 0:22:45 - Why brand was deprioritised - and why it was time to rebrand 0:27:55 - New product development - certainty, failure and the kids' range 0:29:55 - Analytics vs. intuition 0:31:11 - Books, podcasts and the "turning the dials" idea 0:33:40 - Goals for the year ahead -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.

Nigel Jay Cooper, writer and founder of Ghostart who helps professionals write authentic LinkedIn content, explains why AI often produces ‘beige’ posts. He shares how he built an AI-backed platform without being a developer. Topics include treating AI as a disciplined dev team, the Beige-ometer for rhythm and emotion, and why launching an imperfect beta accelerated progress.

Stephen Midgley, systems architect who built the LINDA tools after navigating coercive control while caring for his terminally ill mother. He explains the “password problem” that locks people out of help. He shares how AI was used to translate jargon, surface hidden options, and check policies. He describes mapping broken processes and plans open-source tools to augment frontline support.

With ecosystems increasingly outperforming standalone firms, marketing leaders’ key skills may lie in their ability to get their organisations to influence, persuade, enable, and collaborate. In an ever-noisier and more complex market, the companies that can co-create, communicate and change to bring customers value tend to be the winners - but it requires a very different approach.   In this episode, former three-time global CMO Leeya Hendricks makes the case for platform thinking in B2B marketing, where value is co-created across networks of customers, partners and complementors rather than pushed through linear channels.  She shares insights from her new book The Platform Playbook and explains why the CMO is uniquely positioned to orchestrate ecosystem growth - connecting product, technology, data and partners around shared value. What We Cover: Why "platforms over pipelines" is the future of B2B marketing The three misconceptions holding organisations back from platform thinking A practical four-dimension framework for operating marketing as a platform Why the funnel was always just a convenient model, not reality How to measure ecosystem health beyond traditional marketing metrics The unexpected cultural transformation that happens when organisations embrace co-creation Key Takeaways Platforms aren't technology - they're business models and systems of value creation Customers trust ecosystems, not isolated brands Sharing multiplies value in ecosystems, even though leaders fear it dilutes value The CMO's role is to make silos more permeable, not destroy them Think long-term stickiness, not short-term campaigns   About Leeya Hendricks Leeya is the author of The Platform Playbook (Palgrave Macmillan), Managing Director of Hark Consultants, and has served in three global CMO roles across major technology companies including IBM and Oracle. She lectures in digital ecosystems and orchestration, and runs My Barre Vibes, a digital-first fitness platform.   Connect with Leeya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-leeya-hendricks-120b95a/   Order The Platform Playbook (affiliate link): https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15792/9783032080301   Find out more about My Barre Vibes: https://www.mybarrevibes.com/ -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.

What’s it like to be a real legacy business? One with a heritage going back over 100 years? How do you navigate new methods, classic products and changing tastes? This is a masterclass in knowing who you are, who your customers are and what you’re about. Andy Valentine is a food industry veteran who now feels like the proverbial "kid in the sweet shop". He’s responsible for developing direct, B2B and private-label channels for a business that combines traditional handcrafted techniques with state-of-the-art facilities. Stockley's was founded in 1918 in Accrington, Lancashire and has managed to navigate tastes, trends, the second world war, the demise of Woolworths and, more recently, a number of different owners. But how far and fast should you go to open up new channels in a £6bn market dominated by multinationals?   Listen to this episode to discover: The journey from humble premises to 21st century manufacturer The channels and formats bringing new customers to Stockley's Where and what the biggest opportunities are, and how to prioritise Why being a relative minnow might just be their greatest advantage What’s the most divisive product in confectionery   Find out more and buy online: https://stockleys-sweets.co.uk   Connect with Andy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-valentine-1752671/   -- Thanks for listening. Curious Business is here to bring you insights, experiences and ideas from founders, leaders and experts to help you think differently about your business and its marketing. My name is Stephen Morris and I help start-ups and scale-ups get momentum in their marketing and pipeline. Like to know more? Book a discovery call: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/discovery/ Or sign-up to 'The Prompt' my monthly newsletter: https://www.curiousbusiness.co.uk/signup/ If you'd like to talk about how podcasts can build reach, enhance authority and fuel your pipeline, visit: www.curiousbusiness.co.uk.

Huib van Bockel, former marketing head at Red Bull Europe and founder of Tenzing, shares his journey in creating a natural, low-sugar energy drink. He reveals the challenges of launching against big brands, including why he defied traditional sugar norms. Huib discusses the importance of community in building Tenzing, how grassroots engagement helped shape the brand, and his lessons learned about rapid testing and flavor iterations. He also touches on the significance of intuition in decision-making and the pride he takes in balancing work-life priorities.

In this engaging discussion, marketing strategist James Hankins, former Global VP of Marketing Strategy at Sage, shares valuable insights on influencing consumer behavior. He challenges common marketing myths, advocating that understanding market dynamics is crucial for strategy success. Hankins introduces his innovative Hankins Hexagon model, offering a clearer view of the chaotic buyer journey compared to traditional funnels. He dives into the implications of slowing SaaS growth and explores how AI can reshape marketing influence, all while keeping the conversation entertaining and thought-provoking.

Chris Brogan, a ten-time author and strategic advisor, shares his candid insights on leadership and growth. He discusses the importance of embracing failure and how it can lead to a more adaptable organization. Chris reveals lessons learned from helping scale a B2B SaaS company and explores the need for continual learning, including his journey into coding. He offers valuable cold email marketing tips and highlights the traits that define great leaders. With a touch of humor, he reflects on how companies can retain their flexibility amidst rapid growth.