40 Minute Mentor

In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by the incredibly inspiring CEO of Lifted, Rachael Crook. From early internships working to improve conditions for sex workers in Bangladeshi brothels and campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights in Uganda, to her job advising the Prime Minister on youth unemployment, Rachael has spent her career striving to help people who really need it. In 2019 following her mother’s dementia diagnosis, Rachael was inspired to co-found Lifted – a company looking to revolutionise home care by using cutting edge tech to improve not just the lives of those in need of care, but their families, and the carers themselves. Something that is more relevant than ever given the impact the pandemic has had on the care industry. We loved speaking to Rachael about her mission-driven career. She’s one of those enviable entrepreneurs who is always looking to fix meaningful problems, make things better and tackle the big issues in society. We cover some really fascinating topics in our conversation, including: Rachael’s career shift from Government to Consulting and the importance of getting the right skills to structure a rewarding career The benefits of having a Co-Founder and building a start up focused on an industry that she is personally connected to And the importance of being kind to yourself as a start up Founder and to remember to let the ‘fun outweigh the fear’ when you’re scaling. Rachael’s intrinsic drive and passion is so infectious and inspiring, as you’ll hear for yourself today. Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to take your business to the next level or you’re thinking of joining a mission-driven business and want to know how to find the right one for you, we know you’ll take so much from Rachael’s experience and advice in this episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Rachael, check out her LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-crook-4723373b/ If you want to find out more about Lifted you can have a look at their website – https://www.liftedcare.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year everyone! We're very excited to be starting 2021 with a brand-new episode of the 40 Minute Mentor. With the recent announcement of Lockdown 3.0 in England, we can all do with some extra inspiration and motivation and that’s exactly what today’s 40 Minute Mentor is here to do. Just over a decade ago, today’s guest, James Hind, took his passion for cars and turned it into a business that has since grown into one of the Europe’s most popular car buying and reviewing platforms, Carwow. You’ve probably heard of it, or quite possibly used it yourself! Today, Carwow boasts a team of more than 200 people across London, Munich, and Madrid, and raised over $100m in funding since it launched. It can also lay claim to the world’s most popular YouTube car channel with over 5 million subscribers. Having jumped straight from university into running his own business, James has some fascinating insights into the life of a tech founder and what it takes to get a new venture off the ground without a ‘big brand’ CV behind him. In this episode he tells all and shares so much great advice including: How to raise money from VC’s and angel investors when you have no experience and no contacts. The growth story of Carwow and how his approach to hiring world class talent has evolved over time And the challenges of expanding into new territories and the importance of culture and communication when scaling It was such a privilege to speak to James who we’ve got to know well in recent years and respect hugely. It was great to hear his candid perspectives on some of the top issues that so many entrepreneurs struggle with. In the current climate, it was great to hear his optimism and some of the big positives he thinks have come out of the pandemic. So whether you’re thinking about starting your own business, are getting ready for your first round of funding or are looking to scale in 2021, this episode is an absolute must-listen. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about James, take a look at his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshind If you want to find out more about Carwow, have a look at its website and YouTube channel – https://www.carwow.co.uk/ – https://www.youtube.com/c/carwow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we’re heading into a very different holiday season this year, today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode on mental health couldn’t be timelier, and we're so pleased to have gathered such an inspiring panel to discuss a topic that touches so many lives. Although so much progress has been made over the last years, mental health is still a topic that comes with many stigmas, misconceptions, and a discomfort to openly talk about. That’s why it’s so important to actively encourage dialogue, which is something today’s panellists are very passionate about. Our guests in today’s episode are three people who have all experienced and overcome mental health problems, in different ways. They are: wellness expert, psychotherapist and Balance Media founder Sophie Scott, Benevolent AI HR director and Mind ambassador Rohan Kallicharan and author, presenter, mental health campaigner and James Mitra's former drama teacher Carrie Carlisle. In today’s discussion we touch on a lot of points I’m sure many of you will be able to relate to and will appreciate insights and advice on, including: Why silence is so dangerous and why the first step to finding a way forward is by talking to someone you trust Practical advice on how to maintain your wellbeing and what to do if you feel that you need professional support And how you can help a loved one who is suffering from a mental health condition, while also protecting your own wellbeing We may have been talking about a heavy subject, but we left our conversation feeling optimistic that no matter how low you may currently feel it is possible to turn it around and start feeling better again. We hope anyone listening who may be struggling, feels that way too. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Sophie, Rohan and Carrie check out their LinkedIn profiles: Sophie Scott - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-scott/ Rohan Kallicharan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rakallicharan/ Carrie Carlisle - https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-and-clarke-carlisle-765aa749/ And take a look at the organisations they’re part of: Balance Media - https://balance.media/ Benevolent AI - https://www.benevolent.com/ Clarke and Carrie’s Place - https://www.clarkeandcarriesplace.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your Mentor for the next 40 Minutes has had probably the most diverse and interesting career journeys of anyone we’ve ever met. He’s gone from launching some of the most successful bands in the world like the Jonas Brothers in his early music career, to working with Steve Jobs as part of the team that launched iTunes in Europe taking it from revenues of zero to £500m in three years and in more recent times he is best know as a world renown chef and restaurateur, responsible for Cerviche - a business built on his passion for Peruvian food and culture, which at one point was the fastest growing restaurant group in the UK with a turnover of more than £10m. Martin shared some truly inspiring stories with me in today’s episode - from having a hugely successful corporate career to the ups and downs from his start up experience, which including scaling, restructuring and eventually exiting Cerviche. He shared some candid advice, including: How to build a loyal team working towards the same goal, whether that’s launching a singer-songwriter or a central London restaurant The importance of diplomacy when you are driving change in a big organisation and working with tough, uncompromising characters And what it takes to turn your passion into a viable business that can attract investors and, most importantly, customers. Despite his successes Martin is such a humble and lovely man who we’ve had the privilege to get to know a bit in recent times through our respective roles as board advisors at the new for good accelerator Unrest. Martin’s upbringing saw his family flee civil unrest in Peru when he was 11 and has a big part to play in why he has always remained so grounded. It’s also a background that fuels his passion for sustainability, the circular economy and social enterprise something we discuss further in our chat. So if you want to know what it takes to reach the top in a variety of competitive industries while sticking to your principles, you won’t want to miss Martin’s advice in this episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Martin, check out his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmoraleslondon If you want to find out more about Cerviche, have a look at their website – https://www.cevichefamily.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your 40 Minute Mentor today is the fantastic, Jeff Lynn, co-founder of the hugely successful crowdfunding platform Seedrs. Since recording this episode it was also announced that Seedrs will be merging with their biggest competitor Crowdcube to create the worlds largest PE marketplace – an incredibly exciting proposition! Jeff started his career as a lawyer but while doing his MBA at Said Business School he got the entrepreneurial bug and with his co-founder Carlos Silva, created Seedrs 11 years on have helped fund almost over 1200 businesses with more than £1bn has been invested on the platform including funding well known scale ups Revolut, Allplants, Perkbox and FreeAgent amongst many others! Jeff has such an insightful perspective on the start-up world, both from his own journey as a Founder and as the owner of a platform that supports other entrepreneurs following a similar path. In today’s episode, we delve into Jeff’s career and hear some incredible career advice, including: How to approach doing an MBA if your goal is to become an entrepreneur rather than climb the corporate ladder Why a Founder isn’t always the best person to run a start up in the long term, and how he came to the decision to replace himself as CEO of Seedrs in 2017 And we discuss the power of crowd funding and hear which have been some of his favourite startups to come through the Seedrs platform over the years. It was fascinating to hear Jeff’s story and learn more about the incredible startups that Seedrs supports - from those just starting out to established household names. So, whether you’re thinking of starting your own business or are interested in finding out more about crowdfunding, I know you’ll take a lot from this episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Jeff, take a look at his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefflynn/ If you want to find out more about Seedrs, check out their website – https://www.seedrs.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your mentor for the next 40 minutes is the incredible Check Warner, Co-Founder of non-profit organisation Diversity VC and Ada Ventures, a venture capital firm, committed to investing in overlooked founders and markets. It took around 18 months, 67 flights and 300 pitches to raise their first fund and Check shares her learnings through this process in today’s episode. She also shares brilliant insights into what it takes to succeed in the VC sector, including: How her graduate job in advertising gave her experience across a variety of industries and some core skills that helped her as she transitioned into VC Why she is passionate about supporting underrepresented founders and her tips for breaking into VC And how having the right mentor can help you overcome imposter syndrome, recover from knockbacks and keep you focused on your goals D&I and social mobility are topics very close to our hearts, so it was an absolute pleasure to speak to Check about her career and the incredible work she is doing in the VC and tech world to drive much needed change. She’s made us feel much more optimistic about the future of the industry, so whether you’re a Founder fundraising or you’re desperate to break into VC, this episode is packed full of tangible advice that we're sure will be of great benefit. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Check, take a look at her LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/francescawarner/ If you want to find out more about Ada Ventures, have a look at their website – https://www.adaventures.com/ If you want to find out more about Ada Ventures, have a look at their website – https://www.diversity.vc/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your 40 Minute Mentor today is Tessa Clarke Co-Founder and CEO of the food-sharing app Olio. We throw away around one third of the food we buy, while 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. That’s 1 in 9 people on the planet who are starving or malnourished. Every one of them could be sufficiently fed on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the USA, UK and Europe each year. Tessa is on a mission to to change this. In just 5 years Olio has built up almost 2.5 million users in 54 countries and 50,000 ambassadors, who are all cutting waste in their communities by sharing their spare food with their neighbours. Tessa’s success as a founder is built on a high-flying career that’s taken her from consulting to publishing and included four years as MD of eCommerce at Dyson, where she worked directly with founder James Dyson. It was a pleasure to chat to Tessa and learn more about her career journey and what it takes to found and grow a successful social enterprise, like Olio. She shared so many interesting insights in this episode, including: The leadership lessons she learnt from James Dyson, and how she has scaled Olio into the successful business it is today. How Olio’s clear and simple mission and purpose is key for recruiting and retaining a high-performing team. And how investors are short-changing the world by not backing diverse founders; and what we can do to change that. Tessa is a fantastic leader who is so passionate about Olio’s mission, which is incredibly inspiring. So if you’re looking for easy to implement ways to decrease your own food waste or perhaps you’re thinking about joining or starting your own mission-driven business, you’ll definitely want to listen to the great advice Tessa shares in today’s episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Tessa, check out her LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tecook/ If you want to find out more about Olio, have a look at their website and download the app – https://olioex.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s not every day you get to chat to a former COO of Google, but Ben Legg, your 40 Minute Mentor today, is exactly that! Ben spent the first 10 years of his career in the British Army building bomb-proof structures and, occasionally, arm-wrestling members of the French Foreign Legion…. He successfully transitioned into business, working for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Coca Cola and Google as well as the high growth mobility Scale Up Ola and Adknowledge which he grew into one of the largest adtech companies in the US. Since then, Ben has built a portfolio career for himself and has recently founded The Portfolio Collective, a community for portfolio professionals. In this episode we explore the many sides of Ben’s career to date and what he’s learned along the way, including: The skills that he was able to leverage from the military into business, such as the ability to bring order to chaos and stay calm under pressure How he transitioned from a commercial role at Coca Cola to becoming a COO for Google and what it was like to work alongside the Google Founders And the key things you need to consider when you’re recruiting a high performing team in any organisation It was fascinating talking to Ben who is one of the most impressive and productive leaders we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing. He is a real force of nature, with so much knowledge and experience to share. So, if you’re looking to switch sectors, want to start a business of your own or are considering becoming a portfolio professional, we know you’ll get so much from Ben’s insights and fantastic career advice. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Ben, check out his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/benlegg/ If you want to find out more about the Portfolio Collective, have a look at their website – https://portfolio-collective.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest and your mentor for the next 40 minutes is Dan Ziv, CEO at TouchNote, the world’s most popular postcard sending app. Since joining the company in 2016 as Chief Product Officer, they’ve gone from strength to strength and Dan quickly climbed the ladder to CEO. But Dan’s career hasn’t always been plain sailing. A previous tech start up he founded with a friend failed to take off, but with his infectious optimism, he saw the shortcomings as a good way to learn and move forward with his next venture, the last minute table booking app Uncover, which was a huge success. In just over two years Dan and his cofounders proved there was a market for the app, attracted £1m in seed funding and sold it to a competitor. Together, we discuss the ups and downs throughout his career and how they’ve shaped him as an entrepreneur and business leader, including: How taking command of 132 soldiers as a 21-year-old in the Israeli army gave him a crash course in leadership and built his resilience The importance of choosing who you work with carefully and how the complementary skills of his cofounders at Uncover contributed to its success And why he has pivoted TouchNote from eCommerce to communications by focusing on a subscriptions business model. Dan is such an upbeat person with some brilliant insights into how to create a positive culture within an organisation. It was a pleasure talking to him and discovering more about the values that drive him and the wider team at TouchNote. If you’re considering starting your own business or are about to step into your first leadership role, this episode is an absolute must-listen. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Dan, check out his LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/danziv/ If you want to find out more about TouchNote, have a look at their website – https://touchnote.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social mobility is a subject that’s very close to our heart which is why we're so excited to bring you this extra special roundtable episode of the 40 Minute Mentor. In today’s episode you’ll hear from an expert panel, who are all committed to advancing social mobility They are: Mandy Nyarko, Co-founder of Startup Discovery School; Lucy McCarthy-Christofides, Head of Proposition and Range at Tails.com; Ezechi Britton, Co-Founder of digital skills academy Code Untapped and Founding Member and Principal at Impact X Capital; Ruth Penfold, People Practice Lead at BP Launchpad and Euan Blair, Co-founder and CEO at WhiteHat. Every single person on this panel is incredibly passionate about levelling the playing field and providing more opportunities to those from underrepresented communities. It was so interesting to dive deeper into this important topic and we covered a lot of ground, including: The numerous barriers people from underprivileged backgrounds must overcome as they attempt to build a career and we explored what steps business leaders can take to help level the playing field. Why a degree isn’t the be all and end all, and how apprenticeships can play a key role in boosting social mobility. The cultural shift many companies still need to make when it comes to recruiting people from different backgrounds, specifically people who have been on less traditional educational journeys. Plus, why Black Founders are far less likely to gain venture capital funding and what can be done to rebalance this. As you’ll hear, there was so much to discuss and we could easily have gone on for another hour, so we hope that there will be an opportunity for a round 2 soon! Our panel shared personal stories, frustrations, many thought-provoking opinions and provided inspirational advice and ideas on how we can tangibly make a difference. So if you are keen to do more to support those who are underrepresented in your industry or society at large, then this podcast will give you an insight into what can be done right now and what you can do to start making a difference. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode, so please do get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk If you want to find out more about Mandy, Lucy, Ezechi, Ruth and Euan check out their LinkedIn profiles: Mandy Nyarko - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandy-nyarko Lucy McCarthy-Christofides - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucymccarthytails Ezechi Britton - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezechi-britton-452a893/ Ruth Penfold - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthpenfold/ Euan Blair - https://www.linkedin.com/in/euan-blair-54a11925/ And take a look at the organisations they’re part of: Startup Discovery School - https://startupdiscoveryschool.com/ Tails.com - https://tails.com/gb/ Code Untapped - https://codeuntapped.com/ BP Launchpad - https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/what-we-do/technology-at-bp/bp-launchpad.html WhiteHat - https://whitehat.org.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices