Explore every episode of the podcast Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

For eight years, four-time Winter Olympian Chemmy Alcott deliberately competed at 80% of her potential. Not because she lacked talent, but because she feared giving everything and discovering her best wasn't good enough.

In this Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, I sit down with Chemmy to explore how fear of failure and perfectionism held her back until an unexpected second chance at a World Cup race changed everything.

We discuss the breakthrough performance that came when she stopped playing safe, the lessons she learned from serious injuries, and how she rebuilt her identity beyond professional skiing.

From overcoming setbacks and embracing failure to challenging your limits and finding the courage to start again, Chemmy shares why sometimes the biggest obstacle to success is our own fear of trying.

Key takeaways:

◼️ Fear of failure can hold back even the most talented people. Chemmy admits she deliberately competed at 80% for eight years because she feared discovering her best wasn't enough.

◼️ Perfectionism can prevent progress. Her breakthrough came when she stopped trying to control every aspect of her performance.

◼️ Second chances can change everything. After finishing 31st in a World Cup race, another competitor's disqualification gave Chemmy an unexpected opportunity to race again.

◼️ Your best performance doesn't have to be perfect. Chemmy describes her historic run as perfect precisely because it was imperfect.

◼️ Setbacks can teach lessons that success cannot. Serious injuries challenged Chemmy physically and mentally, shaping her approach to resilience.

◼️ Let others see you fail. Chemmy learned to skateboard at 40 so her children could see her struggle, practise and improve.

◼️ Your identity can evolve. Leaving professional skiing meant redefining herself and discovering new goals beyond elite sport.

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

🎟️ Ready to take your next big step? Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs on 2027. Connect with ambitious founders, learn from successful entrepreneurs and discover new opportunities to grow your business.

👉 Find out more: ⁠https://www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk/⁠

Simon Gray spent 21 years building Boost Drinks into a major challenger brand before selling the business to AG Barr. But instead of retiring, he decided to start again in his fifties.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Alex Chisnall sits down with Simon to explore how he launched Boost with a £30,000 bank loan, took calculated risks and built a successful drinks business from the ground up.

Simon also reveals the emotional reality of selling Boost, including breaking down in tears before announcing the deal to his team, and why he chose to launch another venture, Fizz With Purpose, the company behind It's Giving.

From building a challenger brand and navigating a business exit to rediscovering purpose and starting again, Simon shares the lessons he's learned about entrepreneurship, leadership, resilience and knowing when to take the leap.

Key takeaways

• You don't have to be first to succeed. Simon spotted an opportunity in an established drinks market and built Boost into a challenger brand.

• Calculated risks can create opportunities. He launched Boost with a £30,000 bank loan while initially managing two businesses.

• Knowing when to commit matters. Simon waited for signs of momentum before focusing entirely on Boost.

• Selling a business is deeply personal. After 21 years, the emotional weight of the sale and its impact on employees brought Simon to tears.

• Success can change your identity. Simon discusses the uncertainty of leaving behind a business that had defined much of his professional life.

• It's never too late to start again. Rather than retire, Simon launched Fizz With Purpose in his fifties.

• Building a business requires the right people. Simon explains why leadership, a clear vision and a trusted team are essential for growth."

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

🎟️ Ready to take your next big step? Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs on 3–4 November at the NEC Birmingham. Connect with ambitious founders, learn from successful entrepreneurs and discover new opportunities to grow your business.

👉 Find out more: https://www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk/

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, helping ambitious businesses make international payments, pay overseas suppliers and collect payments from around the world.

🌍 Doing business internationally? Create your free WorldFirst account at: https://www.worldfirst.com

What happens when the one thing that defines you is suddenly taken away?

For Richie Norton, rugby was everything. But serious injuries ended his dreams of a professional career, leaving him struggling with his identity and escaping into the Ibiza party lifestyle.

In this Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, Alex Chisnall sits down with Richie to explore how he rebuilt his life through surfing, yoga, movement and a life-changing move to Australia.

From overcoming injuries and rediscovering his purpose to taking ownership of his future, Richie shares why personal transformation starts with a decision and the courage to take the first step.

A powerful conversation about resilience, reinvention, mental wellbeing and finding your way forward when life doesn't go to plan.

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

🎟️ Ready to take your next big step? Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs on 3–4 November at the NEC Birmingham. Connect with ambitious founders, learn from successful entrepreneurs and discover new opportunities to grow your business.

👉 Find out more: ⁠https://www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk/⁠

Yulia Rorstrom spent two years securing one of Duck & Dry's biggest opportunities: a partnership with Primark, a 3,000 sq ft salon in Birmingham and national media attention.

Three months after opening, she knew it wasn't working. So she walked away.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, I sit down with Yulia to discuss building Duck & Dry from scratch despite having no experience in the hair industry, discovering she was pregnant while launching her first salon, surviving Covid and making difficult decisions as a founder.

We explore why she chose to close the Primark salon despite years of investment, how Duck & Dry went on to secure opportunities with Rosewood, Battersea Power Station, Harvey Nichols and John Lewis, and why her approach became “Go big or go home.”

It's a conversation about resilience, risk, knowing when to persevere and recognising when it's time to change direction.

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

🎟️ Ready to take your next big step? Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs on 3–4 November at the NEC Birmingham. Connect with ambitious founders, learn from successful entrepreneurs and discover new opportunities to grow your business.

👉 Find out more: https://www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk/

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, helping ambitious businesses make international payments, pay overseas suppliers and collect payments from around the world.

🌍 Doing business internationally? Create your free WorldFirst account at: https://www.worldfirst.com

Everyone told him not to do it. He did it anyway.

After 28 years building Ink, Simon Leslie found himself at a crossroads.

Having steered the business through COVID, he realised something had changed. The passion that had driven him for nearly three decades was no longer there.

He didn't have a detailed plan for what came next.

But he did have a boyhood dream.

He wanted to buy a football club.

So he started telling people. Making connections. Putting his ambition out into the world.

Eventually, that journey led him to Eastbourne Borough Football Club.

The response from almost everyone around him?

Don't do it.

They told him it would be a waste of money, time and energy.

But Simon wanted to create something special. Something that could leave a legacy.

In this Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, Simon joins Alex Chisnall to discuss what happens when you walk away from the business that has defined you, trust your instincts and pursue a dream that others don't understand.

In this conversation:

● Why Simon walked away after 28 years building Ink

● Recognising when you've lost your passion

● How telling people about his dream opened unexpected doors

● Why everyone advised against buying Eastbourne Borough

● Creating a legacy through football and community

● Separating your identity from your business

● Staying committed when things don't go to plan

● The importance of being present and letting go of unnecessary worries

Sometimes the biggest risk isn't taking the leap.

It's spending the rest of your life wondering what might have happened if you had.

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

🎟️ Ready to take your next big step? Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs on 3–4 November at the NEC Birmingham. Connect with ambitious founders, learn from successful entrepreneurs and discover new opportunities to grow your business.

👉 Find out more: https://www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk/

What does it take to turn a university side hustle into a multi-million-pound sports brand used by Olympic champions?

Chris Rea started out selling onesies from his student bedroom. Fourteen years later, he and his co-founder Tom have built Y1 into an international hockey brand, with athletes competing at the highest levels of the sport.

But the journey was far from straightforward.

After appearing on Dragons' Den and receiving an offer, Chris knew it was time to take his business seriously. Yet rapid early growth eventually gave way to challenges, burnout and a difficult decision to step back into employment.

That apparent setback became one of the most valuable experiences of his entrepreneurial career.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Chris shares how he rediscovered his direction, learned from ambitious founders, raised investment from his own community and transformed a broad fashion business into a specialist sports brand.

We explore the importance of knowing when to pivot, why being exceptional in a niche can beat trying to appeal to everyone, and how Y1 went from testing hockey sticks with international players to celebrating Olympic gold medals.

In this episode:

● The Dragons' Den moment that changed everything

● Building a business while studying at university

● Burnout, setbacks and returning to employment

● Why specialising in hockey transformed Y1

● Raising investment from customers and supporters

● Building a sports brand trusted by Olympic athletes

● Expanding into padel and international markets

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, helping ambitious businesses make international payments, pay overseas suppliers and collect payments from around the world.

🌍 Doing business internationally? Create your free WorldFirst account at: https://www.worldfirst.com

Charles Black had an idea as a teenager that seemed almost impossible.

He wanted to put cameras in space and broadcast live views of Earth for everyone to see.

The problem? It was around 1990. There was no consumer internet, no streaming technology, broadcasting required government licences, and launching satellites was prohibitively expensive.

Everything was against him.

But Charles never let go of the idea.

In this Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, I revisit my conversation with Charles Black about the extraordinary journey from a teenage dream in Yorkshire to eventually getting cameras into space.

Charles shares why he remained committed to an idea that was decades ahead of its time, how a chance encounter with a four-leaf clover reinforced his belief that he was on the right path, and why he chose to build other businesses while waiting for the opportunity to pursue his original vision.

Along the way, he qualified as a barrister, decided against practising law and launched an internet company from his bedroom.

He even sold his first website before he knew how to build one.

That business eventually became part of a company acquired for around £90 million.

But the dream of putting cameras in space never disappeared.

We discuss how Charles found his way into the space industry, secured an opportunity involving a Russian spacecraft company, and eventually received his first images from space, including a beautiful photograph of Italy.

For Charles, it was the realisation of an idea he had carried with him for decades.

What stayed with me most from this conversation was his willingness to keep moving forward, even when the path was unclear.

Charles also shares his thoughts on resilience, challenging convention, building something from nothing and why ambitious ideas often demand years of persistence.

His advice to anyone sitting on an idea and waiting for the perfect moment?

“Do it. Go for it.”

If you've been putting off starting a business, questioning whether your idea is possible or wondering whether you've missed your opportunity, this conversation is worth hearing.

Sometimes the idea is right. The world simply needs time to catch up.

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders, entrepreneurs and people who turned ambitious ideas into reality.

Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts, and discover the decisions, challenges and turning points behind their journeys.

🎟️ Ready to turn your own big idea into action?

Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, 3–4 November at NEC Birmingham, for two days of founder stories, practical business insights and opportunities to connect with entrepreneurs who are building and scaling businesses.

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Jonny Plein left a comfortable corporate career in his mid-twenties and went from earning around £50,000 to £60,000 a year to paying himself £500 a month to build his first startup.

That business, Pouch, went on Dragon's Den, received offers from all five Dragons and was eventually acquired.

But just months before the sale, everything nearly disappeared.

A £1 million corporate deal collapsed on the day it was supposed to be signed. Jonny and his co-founders had to cut half the team, money was running out and he gave himself six months to either change the trajectory of the company or walk away.

He kept going.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Jonny shares what happened next, why he believes founders are often “three feet from gold”, why starting his second company was psychologically harder than the first, taking a 70% pay cut to go again and what happened when £1 million of funding commitments disappeared in a single day.

We also talk about Dragon's Den, learning to make your own luck, getting comfortable with failure, knowing when to quit, building resilience and why the downside often becomes less frightening once you actually confront it.

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, helping ambitious businesses make international payments, pay overseas suppliers and collect payments from around the world.

Jonny and Yaso are themselves a WorldFirst client, making this a particularly relevant conversation about helping Western brands build and scale their businesses in China.

🌍 Doing business internationally? Create your free WorldFirst account at: https://www.worldfirst.com

Sabrina Stocker realised she wasn't afraid of hard work. She was simply working hard at the wrong thing.

After losing her tennis-events business during lockdown, Sabrina found herself running a new PR company from her local coffee shop.

Then she realised: if she could work from there, she could work from anywhere.

Within a month she'd sold her car, given up her flat, sold everything and moved to Egypt.

In this Founder Classic, Sabrina shares the mindset behind that decision, why staying where she was felt scarier than leaving, and her approach to creating financial, location and time freedom.

🎧 Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders

and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

🎟️ Festival of Entrepreneurs | 3-4 November | NEC Birmingham

Join thousands of founders and entrepreneurs for two days of ideas, connections and action.

Kim Antoniou has built businesses, lost a fortune, started again and spent years developing technology that didn't exist when she first had the idea.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Kim shares the story behind Auris Tech and Fonetti, the reading platform using voice technology to help children develop their reading confidence and skills.

We talk about losing a business, starting again when she thought she was finished with entrepreneurship, building technology from scratch, failing publicly, ignoring advice, finding purpose around the age of 50 and why sometimes you simply have to keep going when everyone else thinks you should stop.

Kim also explains why she believes improving literacy can change a child's life, and why purpose still has to work commercially if you want to create impact at scale.

If you're building something difficult, starting again after failure or still wondering whether it's too late to find the thing you're meant to do, this conversation is for you.

Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders and entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and took action.

Jay Morton wanted Air Troop when he joined the SAS.

Instead, he was sent to Mountain Troop. It was the last posting he wanted and, at the time, he was gutted.

Looking back, that unwanted decision became one of the defining moments of his life. Mountain Troop introduced Jay to climbing, exploration and adventure, eventually taking him towards Everest and a life in the mountains. What felt like the wrong direction turned out to be the one he needed.

In this Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, I revisit my conversation with Jay about that sliding doors moment, the fear of unfulfilled potential, vulnerability and what happens when achievement stops giving you the answers you expected.

Jay also shares what he would tell someone who feels directionless: listen to what you actually want, get outside your comfort zone, make a decision and give yourself enough time to see where it leads.

His Screw It Just DO It moment comes down to something deceptively simple: stick to the decision. Stop obsessing over what you might have lost by choosing one path. Have some faith in what you want and crack on with it.

Key Takeaways

✦ Why getting Mountain Troop instead of Air Troop changed Jay’s life

✦ How an unwanted SAS posting led to his passion for mountains and exploration

✦ Why vulnerability became harder for Jay than physical challenges

✦ The danger of becoming directionless when you do not know what you want

✦ Why leaving your hometown and experiencing different cultures can change your perspective

✦ How sticking to a decision creates momentum

✦ Why your plan does not need to be complicated to give you direction

🎧 Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It for more conversations with founders, entrepreneurs and people who took the decision to stop waiting and act.

🎟️ Festival of Entrepreneurs, 3–4 November at NEC Birmingham

Join thousands of founders, business owners and leaders for two days of practical insight, honest conversations and connections that can move your business forward.

They had the careers most people dream about. Then they moved back in with their parents.

Dom and Phil Kwok had followed the conventional path through top universities and prestigious careers in law and finance.

Then they walked away.

They moved back home, built the first version of EasyA from their childhood bedrooms and spent their early days delivering flyers themselves.

At 3am, covered in bike grease with no revenue coming into the business, they found themselves asking:

“What are we doing?”

Today, EasyA has around 1.3 million users. Dom and Phil say they have raised no external funding and still own 100% of the company, and they have announced plans to take it public.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, we talk about betting on yourself, taking risk, building a network from nothing, the years nobody sees before the “overnight success”, AI and the future of entrepreneurship, and the philosophy that captures their journey perfectly: Action produces information.

In this episode:

• Walking away from prestigious careers
• Moving back in with their parents
• Building EasyA from their childhood bedrooms
• Flyering at 3am with zero revenue
• Why they didn't raise external funding
• Building a network from nothing
• The chance encounter that changed EasyA's trajectory
• Why they believe most people don't take enough risk
• Why long-term business plans can fail startups

🎟️Festival of Entrepreneurs | 3–4 November | NEC Birmingham

Join me and thousands of founders and entrepreneurs for two days of ideas, connections and action.

Get your FREE ticket: festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Laura Fullerton hated being cold.

Then she discovered thousands of people converting chest freezers into DIY ice baths because the product they wanted simply didn't exist.

That was her Screw It Just DO It moment.

Despite never having built hardware or software before, Laura decided:

“I've got to create it.”

In this Founder Classic, we revisit Laura's journey building Munk and the reality behind turning an idea into a physical product.

We get into spotting genuine customer demand, building something you've never built before, fundraising, why your network can become one of your greatest founder assets, relentless drive and the sacrifices people rarely see behind an early-stage business.

In this episode:

• How Laura spotted the opportunity behind Munk

• Why existing customer behaviour can reveal a market

• Building hardware and software for the first time

• The blood, sweat and tears behind getting into production

• Why fundraising became one of her hardest challenges

• Why Laura deliberately invests in her network

• What happens when you actually just go for it

• Developing the relentless drive to keep going

• What founder life really demands behind the scenes

🎟️ Festival of Entrepreneurs | 3–4 November | NEC Birmingham

Join me and thousands of founders and entrepreneurs for two days of ideas, connections and action.

Get your FREE ticket:

festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

#LauraFullerton #Munk #Entrepreneurship #FounderStory #Startups #BusinessIdeas #FemaleFounder #TakeAction #ScrewItJustDoIt #SIJDI

What does more than 50 years in business teach you about knowing when to grow, when to pivot and when to walk away?

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, I sit down with Brad Aspess MBE, founder of Rarewaves, whose career has taken him from the music industry to high-street retail and ultimately global e-commerce.

Brad started at Decca Records in 1973, just after they'd lost the Rolling Stones, and went on to build and scale retail businesses generating more than £60 million annually, before ultimately building Rarewaves into a global e-commerce business selling millions of products around the world.

We talk about what five decades in business have taught him about spotting opportunities, following the cash flow, scaling without relying heavily on debt, empowering people rather than micromanaging them, and adapting before the market forces you to.

One of Brad's central philosophies is simple:

Play to win. Don't play not to lose.

In this episode:

• 50+ years of lessons from music, retail and e-commerce

• Starting at Decca Records in 1973

• Building and scaling major retail businesses

• Why an opportunity only matters if you can expand and grow it

• Why Brad believes you don't need heavy debt to build a business

• Following the cash flow

• Knowing when to shut something down and move on

• Empowering people rather than micromanaging them

• Sticking to what you're great at and outsourcing the rest

• Adapting and pivoting before disruption catches you

• Building Rarewaves into a global e-commerce business

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, helping ambitious businesses make international payments, pay overseas suppliers and collect payments from around the world.

Brad and Rarewaves are themselves a WorldFirst client, making this a particularly relevant conversation about building and operating an international business.

🌍 Doing business internationally? Create your free WorldFirst account at: https://www.worldfirst.com/

🎟️ Festival of Entrepreneurs | 3–4 November | NEC Birmingham

Join me and thousands of founders and entrepreneurs for two days of ideas, connections and action.

Get your FREE ticket:

festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

#BradAspess #Rarewaves #WorldFirst #Entrepreneurship #Ecommerce #BusinessGrowth #Bootstrapping #Leadership #ScrewItJustDoIt #SIJDI

 Thinking about doing something isn't doing it. Planning it isn't doing it. Talking about it isn't doing it. Eventually, you have to do the thing.In this Thursday Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, Antony “Staz” Stazicker, former Special Forces operator and co-founder of ThruDark, shares his uncompromising philosophy on overcoming hesitation and executing under pressure.Staz spent 13 years in the military—including 10 years in the Special Boat Service (SBS) as a Sergeant and Chief Sniper Instructor—before walking away at age 33 to start from scratch in a field he knew nothing about.

In this hard-hitting, 6-to-7-minute Founder Classic, Staz breaks down:• Why thinking, planning, and talking are not substitutes for execution• Leaving Special Forces at the top of his game to embrace a white-belt beginner mindset• The birth of ThruDark on a desert drop zone and starting in a front room with a borrowed whiteboard• Why building a business proved far harder than expected and why "people invest in people"• The military concept of "battle prep": defining the mission, working backwards, and executing without overthinking• The single factor behind making the leap and sustaining success: people

Key Takeaways

• Leap of faith: You don't need all the answers before taking action—commit first

• Eliminate Plan B: Committing 100% to Plan A removes the temptation to settle

• Battle prep your goals: Break intimidating missions down into progressive, executable steps

• People over everything: High performance relies entirely on surrounding yourself with passionate, dedicated teammates

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

From a £2.30 first insurance policy to building a billion-dollar business. Sten Saar started his first business at just 17 in Estonia. By 21, he had a team of 22 and a business generating around $1 million in revenue.

Alongside the success came painful failures. After putting money into projects that collapsed, including money his father had raised against his own home, Sten bought a one-way ticket to London with no Plan B. Years later, while working at Deliveroo, he spotted a glaring problem: delivery drivers were being forced to pay £1,000 upfront for annual insurance before earning a single pound. That problem became Zego.

The first policy sold for just £2.30. Zego went on to achieve unicorn status and raise more than $300 million. But rapid success brought an entirely new set of problems:

• Tripling the team from 200 to 600 people in six months—and why Sten considers it one of his biggest mistakes

• Losing 80% of revenue in three weeks when COVID hit

• Metaphorically "firing himself" seven times as CEO as the business outgrew each stage

• Why reaching unicorn status is merely a "petrol station on the way" and never the final destination

Key Takeaways

• Growth is only valuable if the organizational culture and quality bar underneath can support it

• How asking "why?" repeatedly uncovers multi-million pound market opportunities

• Why founders must continually "fire" their past selves to evolve with the company

• The power of defining the worst-case scenario: "Nothing to lose. Let's do it."

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

When your old life disappears overnight, what do you build next? In this Thursday Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, former Royal Marines officer Steve McCulley shares the powerful story of surviving a targeted IED blast in Afghanistan and rebuilding his entire life from scratch.

After spending three weeks in an induced coma as the most critical patient in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Steve's physio delivered the brutal truth: his military and sporting careers were over. It took Steve just 48 hours to get his head round the news. Rather than taking the expected corporate path into City finance or consultancy, he decided to "Screw It, Just DO It" and go all-in on his childhood passion: bicycles.

In this tight, 10-to-11-minute Founder Classic, Steve breaks down:

• The moment his military career was abruptly ended and why it was "the best thing anyone could have said"

• Rejecting City finance and consulting to retain complete control over his diary and life

• Going all-in with his injury compensation money on prototype carbon frames• How handing out business cards before he even had a functioning business led to his first customer

• Why making the most of your luck is the ultimate founder differentiator

Key Takeaways

• When disaster strikes, accept the reality quickly and immediately ask: "What next?"

• Do not start a business for status, build around something you are genuinely passionate about

• Action forces momentum: committing before you're completely ready creates the reason you have to deliver

• Luck happens, but only those who execute actually capitalise on it

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

How do you know when to abandon the thing that's working to bet everything on something much bigger?In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Ed Klinger shares the extraordinary, unfiltered story of how he built Flock from a university drone project to an £80 million acquisition by Admiral.After four years of grueling work, Flock had captured 51% of the UK drone insurance market—only to realize they had conquered a pond that was too small to build a massive business.

Instead of clinging to comfort, they made the terrifying call: "Screw it, we're closing the drone business."Ed dives deep into the realities of scaling a venture-backed startup:• The 4am rebuttal email that reversed an initial VC rejection and secured their seed round• Why entrepreneurship is 90% terror and 10% euphoria• Navigating near-death cash crunches and getting backed by Chamath Palihapitiya• Negotiating an £80M acquisition while recovering from a serious car crash concussion and preparing for a newborn baby• How a simple thumbs-up emoji on Telegram secured an extra $1,000,000 in funding

Key Takeaways

• Winning a small market isn't enough—have the courage to pivot when you hit the ceiling

• "Rejecting rejection": how challenging an investor's 'no' can change your company's fortunes

• Never ignore your gut feeling when hiring leadership talent• Persistence in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles is the ultimate founder superpower

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Would you walk away from the peak of your career while you were still winning?In this Thursday Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, former England and British & Irish Lions rugby star George Kruis shares why he made the "ballsy call" to retire at age 32 to go all-in on his wellness brand, fourfive. Instead of waiting for physical decline or retirement to figure out what comes next, George built businesses alongside elite sport and chose to "leave the party a touch early.

"In this Founder Classic, George breaks down:• Why you shouldn't wait for one chapter to end before starting the next• Moving from elite sport where everything is done for you to entrepreneurship ("school on steroids")• The £40,000 retail kiosk failure and what real customer validation actually means• How to transition from founder-does-everything to building a specialist team

Key Takeaways

• Don't wait until you're forced to change to figure out your next chapter

• Real validation isn't 3 or 4 people telling you an idea is good—it's real market demand

• Transitioning from elite performer to beginner requires humility and rapid learning

• Leaving on your own terms gives you control over your legacy and future

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

What happens when you decide to jump off a cliff and start a business at 47 as a single mother of two?In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Louise Hill, Co-founder of GoHenry, shares the incredible story of turning a simple parenting headache—her kids spending all her money on iTunes—into a fintech powerhouse serving millions of children across the UK and US.Louise reveals the raw, unvarnished reality of building GoHenry :• Facing 60 to 70 initial rejections and surviving a 103-pitch fundraising round

• Why she has "never balanced" work and family life, and why founder guilt is universal• Discovering her own name was the #1 "Single Point of Failure" in her company• How asking the "dumb question" allowed her team to challenge accepted financial wisdom• The mission to make every kid smart with money and add £7bn to UK GDP

Key Takeaways

• You don't need to know everything before you start—learn by asking questions

• Why testing "fake front doors" beats endless analysis paralysis

• How early financial education buys children time and options for their future

• Why the founder will always be the best storyteller for their business

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

What does it take to walk away from a 21 year Royal Marines career and bet everything on a business you know almost nothing about?

Stephen Howarth, co founder of Jöttnar, shares the story of failing his dream at 17, deliberately toughening himself up at sea, and eventually earning his place in the Royal Marines. Two decades later, he faced a completely different challenge: entrepreneurship.

With his co founder Tommy, Stephen entered the outdoor clothing industry with little commercial experience, despite knowing they realistically needed £3 million to build the business properly. Instead, they started with just £60,000 and went years without a salary.

From failure and resilience to founder pressure, risk, leadership and planning, this is a story about choosing the harder path and turning ambition into action.

“Build your roadmap. Make your map.”

Kareem Raslan went from working in banking to building a global e-commerce business serving over 100,000 customers across 30 countries. In this episode, Kareem shares how he and his co-founder started by selling just 25 pairs of adjustable dumbbells from his parents’ garage during COVID, scaled through Shopify and Amazon, and eventually expanded across Europe. He explains why taking action matters more than finding the perfect business idea, the lessons he learned from expanding internationally, building supplier relationships in China, and the importance of understanding unit economics. Kareem also reveals why he regrets not leaving banking sooner and shares practical lessons for founders looking to scale globally.

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up.
🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

They were already at the top of their sport. Then they removed the safety net.
The Athertons had spent decades becoming one of mountain biking's most successful families.
But rather than simply continuing with the security of a global bike sponsor, they took an enormous risk: build their own.
Atherton Bikes launched in 2019. They developed and raced their own 3D-printed bikes, bought a mountain and forest to create their own bike park — and ultimately put a World Champion on a British-built Atherton bike.
In this Founder Thursday Classic, Rachel Atherton, Dan Atherton and Atherton Bikes CEO Dan Brown talk about obsession, resilience, calculated risk and why sometimes success requires committing everything.
The lesson?
There comes a point where you can't make the outcome certain.
You calculate the risk.
You commit.
And you Screw It Just DO It.

At 17 years old, Thomas Robson-Kanu was told his football career might be over.Instead of accepting it, he researched natural nutrition with his father, created a raw turmeric formula, and went on to play in the Premier League and represent Wales at Euro 2016.When customers started reporting life-changing results from his homemade blend, he decided to launch The Turmeric Co. When manufacturers said his product couldn't be made at scale, he built his own factory. And when football clubs offered him new contracts, he walked away to build a lasting legacy.Key Takeaways• How to pivot when experts tell you your dream is over• Why building your own manufacturing can be the ultimate competitive advantage• How to shift leadership styles from "master chess player" to "master gardener" as you scale• Why over-analysis causes paralysis and how to take immediate actionThis episode is powered by Molten Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm backing ambitious founders from seed through growth.Find out more at https://moltenventures.comJoin us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, 3 and 4 November at the NEC Birmingham.https://festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Before Deliciously Ella became one of the UK's best-known wellness brands, it was simply a community.

In this Founder Classic, Matthew Mills, CEO and co-founder of Deliciously Ella alongside Ella Mills, explains why building trust came before building products—and how putting the community first shaped every stage of the company's growth.

Everyone is talking about AI.
But this conversation isn't really about AI.
It's about something far more valuable.
How founders spot opportunities.
How they recover from failure.
Why they pivot.
And why the best entrepreneurs don't fall in love with their solution—they fall in love with solving a real problem.
In this episode Sammy shares lessons from multiple startups, fundraising, scaling and building Mucka AI.
If you're building a business, the founder lessons in this conversation are far more valuable than the technology itself.

This episode is powered by Molten Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm backing ambitious founders from seed through growth.Find out more at https://moltenventures.comJoin us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, 3 and 4 November at the NEC Birmingham.https://festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Dom McGregor helped build Social Chain into one of the UK's most talked-about businesses.

Behind the success, he was struggling.

In this Founder Classic, Dom opens up about addiction, hitting rock bottom, rebuilding his life and why the hardest day he ever experienced ultimately became the most important.

Charlotte Lee and Olivia Bishop didn't set out to build a swimwear brand—they were simply frustrated customers.

After struggling to find stylish, high-quality swimwear without paying expensive shipping and import duties, one simple question changed everything:

"Why don't we just do it?"

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, they share how they built Toco Swim with no fashion background, while working full-time as accountants, and why taking action before feeling ready made all the difference.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Starting before you're ready.

• Building a business alongside full-time jobs.

• Learning an industry from scratch.

• Growing through customer feedback.

• Choosing sustainable growth over outside investment.

  
  

If you've ever had an idea but questioned whether you were experienced enough, this conversation is for you.

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Most people would never walk away from a secure, high-paying career.Piers Linney did exactly that.In this Founder Classic, Piers shares why he left investment banking to become an entrepreneur, how Richard Branson influenced one of the biggest decisions of his life, and why backing yourself is often the hardest—but most rewarding—decision you'll ever make🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Pete has spent decades helping elite athletes, entrepreneurs and business leaders perform at their best.But this conversation isn't about performance.

It's about grief.It's about identity.It's about what happens when life forces you to stop.After losing his wife Hannah, Pete realised he'd spent years helping everyone else change their lives without ever stopping long enough to understand his own.

This became one of the most honest conversations we've ever had on Screw It Just DO It🎧 This episode is powered by Molten Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm backing ambitious founders from seed through growth. 👉 Find out more at https://moltenventures.com🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

From the outside, Dan Murray-Serter had everything: awards, recognition, and a fast-growing startup. He was being invited to Buckingham Palace every couple of months. His company had just been nominated for Best Mobile Company in Europe.

Behind the scenes, he knew he was building the wrong life.

In this Founder Classic, Dan shares the moment everything changed — a slide about Ikigai at a random event, a burnout he mistook for something else, and an honest conversation with his co-founder on a trip to Sweden that ended with them telling their investors to shut the company down. What happened next surprised everyone, including Dan.

This is the moment he walked away from success — and why it became the best decision he ever made.

🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Adam Stott left school with one GCSE. He was told, repeatedly, that he was never going to achieve anything. His dad lost everything when Adam was ten, and they moved from a six-bedroom house and private school to living behind a transport café, with his mum getting up at 4:30am every day to keep it running.

He had ambition. He had desire. He had absolutely no idea how to close the gap.

Then he walked into a sales job at Powerhouse, discovered commission for the first time, sold a cooker to a stranger without knowing anything about it, and found the thing that would change his life.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Adam tells the full story. The transport café. The burger van he bought and never opened. The £50,000 he pulled from his house at 25 and nearly lost entirely. The friend who helped him fix his messaging and get in the right rooms. And why, if he could go back, the one thing he would tell his younger self is simply: build your skills.

Adam now runs Big Business Events, a £15 million a year business coaching company. He has generated £186 million in revenue across all his businesses. But the episode is not about that. It is about what came before all of it, and why confidence can only ever come from competence.

Key Takeaways

- Why losing everything as a child created the frame of reference that drove everything after

- How discovering commission for the first time at a Powerhouse cooker counter changed Adam's life

- Why motivation without skills is just noise — and how to fix that

- The two skills Adam tells everyone to learn first: sales and marketing

🎧 This episode is powered by Molten Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm backing ambitious founders from seed through growth. 👉 Find out more at moltenventures.com

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Most founders never get told what investors are actually looking for.

In the first episode of the Screw It Just DO It Founder Playbook, Luke Smith from Molten Ventures answers the question founders actually want answered.

What separates someone with a great idea from someone who builds something real? When is the right time to raise? What do investors look for at Series A? What are the biggest misconceptions about fundraising?

Luke has backed founders from pre-seed through to growth, invested in 76-plus businesses with Molten, and brings a scientist’s rigour to evaluating what actually works and what does not.

This is not an investor being diplomatic. This is a direct, practical breakdown of how the best founders think, build, and raise.

Key Takeaways

• The single trait that separates founders who build from founders who talk

• What Molten looks for at Series A: product market fit, go-to-market, and evidence

• The biggest myth about fundraising and why survivorship bias is misleading founders

• How to prepare before you approach investors, and who to approach first🎧 This episode is powered by Molten Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm backing ambitious founders from seed through growth. 👉 Find out more at https://www.moltenventures.com

🎧 Don’t miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🏟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 https://www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Gyve Safavi spent years building brands inside some of the world’s biggest companies before convincing himself he had missed his opportunity to become an entrepreneur.

Then everything changed.

This episode is not simply about building a toothbrush company.

It is about leaving corporate, overcoming self-doubt, starting later than planned and finally backing yourself.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Being told he was overpaid and overqualified.

• Thinking his opportunity had passed.

• Leaving corporate.

• Building SURI.

• Validating the idea through pre-sales.

• Selling 5,000 brushes in weeks.

• Scaling from 15 to 35 people.

• Why sustainability should never mean compromise.

• Why it is never too late to build something meaningful.

This episode is powered by Molten Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm backing ambitious founders from seed through growth.

Find out more at moltenventures.com

Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, 3 and 4 November at the NEC Birmingham.

festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Most people never start because they want something.

Simon Squibb says that is the problem. Wanting is not enough. You have to need it.

In this Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, Simon explains the single mindset shift that has driven every successful business he has built, invested in, or watched succeed. Turn your want into a need. And once you have done that, learn the three things that will multiply your luck: take more risk, know your destination, and never stop.

Simon went from homeless at 15 to building and selling his agency Fluid to PwC. He has invested in 76 businesses. He has 23 million followers. And he believes that entrepreneurs, not politicians, are the ones who will fix the world.

This is a tight, single-lesson episode. One idea. Applied properly, it changes everything.

Key Takeaways

• How to turn a want into a need and why it changes your behaviour immediately

• The three-part formula for luck: risk, destination, and persistence

• Why leaning into fear is a superpower, not a weakness

• Why the harder I work, the luckier I get is actually not true

🎧 Don’t miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🏟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham

👉https://www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Steven Mendel built ManyPets from an idea into one of Europe's leading pet insurance businesses. But this episode isn't about insurance. It's about finally backing yourself. After years building successful businesses inside large organisations, one conversation with his wife changed everything. She gave him one year.

In this episode, Steven discusses:

• Why he left corporate.

• The conversation that changed everything.

• The three times ManyPets nearly failed.

• Why becoming a unicorn didn't matter.

• Building an irresistible employer.

• Starting again with Lateral.

• Why it's never too late to reinvent yourself.

  
  

🎧 This episode is powered by Molten Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm backing ambitious founders from seed through growth. 👉 Find out more at moltenventures.com

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham 👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Jim Cregan was a labourer. He was hosting festival stages dressed as a mermaid. He had no idea what he was doing or where he was going.

Then he went to Australia, walked into a petrol station hungover, and found a ready-to-drink iced coffee.

That was the moment.

In this Founder Classic episode of Screw It Just DO It, Jim tells the complete story of how a single product in a petrol station in Australia changed everything. From writing a delusional email to Farmers Union from his hotmail account, to returning to the UK with Suze and launching Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, to the moment he nearly crashed his car watching a stranger choose Jimmy’s off a supermarket shelf.

This is the real SIJDI moment. Not a strategy, not a business plan. Just a feeling that grabbed him by the horns and would not let go.

Key Takeaways

• How a hangover in Australia became the seed of a £10M+ business

• Why Jim and Suze started without a plan and built it anyway

• What kept them going when nothing was working

• The power of seeing someone choose your product over everyone else’s

🎧 Don’t miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🏟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Alla Ouvarova didn't have experience in food.

She didn't have investors lining up.

She didn't even have an existing category to enter.

Alongside co-founder Anna, she launched Two Chicks and created the liquid egg white category in the UK from scratch.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Alla shares:

- Why everyone rejected their idea

- Starting with £25k instead of £250k

- Creating a category nobody understood

- Nearly losing everything overnight

- Building confidence through action

- Selling a majority stake after 20 years

A brilliant conversation about resilience, confidence and backing yourself before everyone else does.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Tommy Kelly spent years in the Royal Marines operating in some of the harshest environments on earth.

But one lesson carried into business: Do hard things.

This became a conversation around discomfort, resilience, burnout and learning to keep moving when life gets difficult.

In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, Tommy talks about the Arctic exercise that nearly broke his unit, the moment he artificially created chaos to force himself out of the Marines, and the Monday morning he walked into the office and told his co-founder he was done.

Key Takeaways

• Why doing hard things is the most practical form of resilience training

• What the Arctic night from hell taught Tommy about keeping going

• The screw it just do it moment — artificially creating chaos by leaving the Marines

• The burnout no one talks about: 12 years of compounding pressure

• Why being on the right path matters more than being at the destination

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham. Two days of real conversations, practical insight, and founder-led growth.

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Simon Woodroffe left school at 16. He got arrested at 19. He built stages for rock bands, sold TV rights, and spent decades figuring out how the world worked.

Then at 47, with no restaurant experience, he put his entire life savings on the line and opened Yo! Sushi.

It changed everything.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Simon and Alex talk about what it actually means to risk it all, why he believes it is never too late to start, how he negotiated a 1% royalty that made him more than everything else combined, and what 50 years of doing things differently has actually taught him.

We also get into his new autobiography, Yo, Man!, Dragons’ Den, Yotel, and why the unconventional path is often the only one worth taking.

Key Takeaways

• Why starting later in life can be an advantage, not a limitation

• How Simon built a £1 million opening using £200k and a lot of pulled favours

• The 1% royalty he negotiated that outlasted everything else

• Why megalomaniac control at the start is the right strategy

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up.

As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

This episode was recorded when Huel was four years old and doing £14 million in revenue.

You are listening to it knowing what it eventually became.

Julian Hearn started Huel with a simple goal: find 1,000 people willing to pay £45 a month for a nutritionally complete food. Half a million pounds a year. A lifestyle business he could run three days a week.

When they hit £750,000 in year one, he knew that plan was gone.

In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, Julian talks about the early Huel story: the initial product order of £5,000 of stock, the PR that arrived in the first month without asking for it, the customers who started defending the brand online before Julian even had a team, and why he never wrote a proper business plan for any of it.

He also talks about hiring, culture, direct-to-consumer, and why the biggest risk in any product business is manufacturing — not the market.

Key Takeaways

- Why Huel started as a lifestyle business and when Julian realised it was not going to be one

- The 1,000 fans model and why it is the right way to start anything

- Why execution beats business plans, and what Julian did instead

- How building direct-to-consumer gave Huel a weapon that retail-first competitors never had

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Joe Woodward had what most people would call a dream job. Chief Marketing Officer for the Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai. Ten years building things in sport, music and entertainment. Then the pandemic hit, the rug came out from under him, and he moved home.

He sat down to update his CV. He immediately got frustrated.

That frustration became Vizzy — a platform built to replace the 500-year-old document Leonardo da Vinci invented, and give people a genuinely human way to show who they are. Not bullet points and PDFs. Not job titles and logos. Who they actually are.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Joe tells the full story. The flip chart moment with his sister Jess and her husband Chris. The investor conversation with Robert Dodds, Simon Fuller's business partner, that ended with four words: 'That's the idea. I'll back it tomorrow.' The cold start launch. The Instagram DM from a stranger who said Vizzy had just landed them their dream job. And the lesson from Burberry, Louis Vuitton, EY and Tiffany that the future of hiring is not about getting more applicants — it's about getting fewer, better ones.

Key Takeaways

- Why the flip chart moment changed everything — and what that looked like in practice

- How Joe went from zero to Burberry and Louis Vuitton without a hiring background

- Why the best founders are still personally obsessed with hiring at £2 billion

- What Vizzy taught Joe about the difference between instinct and overthinking

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Raj Thiruchelvarajah was running a health and fitness business when his co-founder sent him a document that changed everything. It was an idea about wearable blood flow restriction technology. Within months, Raj had shut down his original company and gone all-in on Hydro.

In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, Raj explains the exact moment he knew they had to pivot — the internal disagreements, the decisive call he had to make as CEO, and why April 2022 was the turning point that blew the business up.

From Leeds Rhinos to Newcastle United, Leicester Tigers and the Washington Commanders, Hydro is now embedded across 80+ elite sports teams globally. This is the story of how focus — not funding — made that possible.

Key Takeaways

• Why trying to serve every customer nearly killed the business

• How one decisive pivot to pro sports transformed growth

• The screw it just do it moment that started it all

• Why experience matters more than age in founding a startup

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Two days of real conversations, practical insight, and founder-led growth.

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

For 20 years Dominic Day knew exactly who he was.

Professional rugby player. Wales international. Saracens. Bath.

Then it stopped.

No changing room. No match day. No structure. Just questions.

Who am I now? Dad? Founder? Ex-player?

In this conversation Dom talks about what it actually feels like when 20 years of identity ends overnight, what the transition from elite sport into business is really like, and why the best opportunities in his life — playing in Japan, moving to Bath, starting FourFive with George Kruis — have always been on the other side of fear.

Key Takeaways:

- Why Dom was wildly unprepared for retirement despite every club having a support system

- The identity question he is still working through years after leaving rugby

- The 30-year regret test he uses for every major decision

- What it actually felt like when three orders came through on a website they'd only just switched on

- Why balancing fatherhood and building FourFive is the hardest thing he has ever had to do

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Daniel Priestley started every one of his businesses on a credit card.

No investor deck. No grant. No seed round. A mentor he shadowed, a sales muscle he built from scratch, and a clear-eyed read of where the economy was heading.

In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, I ask Daniel the one question that cuts to the heart of every founder journey: what was the single thing you needed to go from where you were to where you are now?

His answer is not what most people expect. And the framework he uses to explain why enterprise has become the only factor of production that matters in the digital age is one of the clearest things I have heard on this show.

If you are stuck waiting for the right moment, the right funding, or the right connection, this is the episode that reframes all of it.

Key Takeaways

- Why working for a founder beats any formal business education

- How a credit card became the launchpad for a multi-million pound business

- Why sales is not optional, it is the foundation

- What the shift from the industrial age to the digital age actually means for founders right now

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🔥 If you're serious about growing your business, join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, 3-4 November 2026 at the NEC Birmingham. Two days of real conversations, practical insight, and founder-led growth.

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Danielle Close didn’t just launch another skincare brand.

After working with Charlotte Tilbury and seeing how little the beauty industry was doing around sustainability, she launched My Skin Feels — creating skincare from fermented food waste.

What happened next surprised everyone.

Customers started reporting major improvements in eczema, sensitive skin and skin conditions completely by accident.

In this episode Danielle shares:

• Turning down a £250K investment
• Building a startup completely alone
• Burnout and founder mental health
• The hidden stress of scaling a business
• Dragon’s Den behind-the-scenes
• Building skincare from food waste
• How intuition shaped major business decisions
  

One of the most honest founder conversations we've had on SIJDI.
#Entrepreneurship #Startup #Skincare #FounderStory #MentalHealth #BusinessGrowth

Leroy Kincaide has lived about five lives already.

Undertaker at 17. Professional wrestler. WWE SmackDown. Writer. Director.

But this episode isn't really about any of those things.

It's about what happens when you see mortality up close at a young age — and how that one experience changes the way you view every decision you'll ever make.

In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, Leroy talks about working as an undertaker at 17 and the perspective it gave him on time, instinct, and purpose. He shares the moment he walked into WWE — unannounced — and just knocked the door. And he explains why he ignored years of doubt to make his debut feature film for £27,000, which went on to be picked up by Samuel Goldwyn and land on Hulu.

This is a conversation about listening to the voice that tells you where you're supposed to go. And the cost of ignoring it.

Key Takeaways

• Why working as an undertaker at 17 changed Leroy's relationship with time forever

• The inner calling that wouldn't go away — from wrestler to filmmaker

• The screw it just do it moment at WWE SmackDown

• Why he did the pitch of his life on the same day he lost his grandmother

• The difference between being happy and being content

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Don't miss a moment of entrepreneurial insight. Subscribe to Screw It Just DO It wherever you get your podcasts.

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham. Two days of real conversations, practical insight, and founder-led growth.

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Roei Samuel built his first company at 21. Real Sport was a content creation toolkit for the sports industry — working with the Premier League, NBA and NFL — before being acquired by Gfinity in 2018. Then came the identity crisis. The "who am I now?" moment that every founder dreads.

What followed was Connected: a fractional talent marketplace that has grown from zero to 7,000 customers in just over four years, raised $20 million, and is now operating across five global cities.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, Roei breaks down the exact moment AI became Connected's biggest growth driver — and why it wasn't just productivity that changed, but the entire labour market. He shares why he spoke to 100 people before building anything, how he's generated 7–8 figures from LinkedIn without spending a penny, and why product is no longer the moat for modern founders.

Key Takeaways

• Why AI is driving both productivity gains and mass corporate layoffs — and how Connected benefits from both

• How to validate a startup idea by speaking to 100 people before building

• Why distribution and attention now matter more than product

• The identity crisis every founder faces after an exit

• How weekly therapy has made Roei a better CEO

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up. As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham. Two days of real conversations, practical insight, and founder-led growth.

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk

Eugene Amo-Dadzie has been fast his whole life. He knew it. His teachers knew it. His parents knew it.

He just never actually tried.

From the age of nine, Eugene was the fastest kid in the school. He grew up watching Usain Bolt and dreamed of the track. But running was always just a hobby — something to enjoy, never something to pursue. His parents pushed academics. His culture valued qualifications. And somewhere along the way, Eugene made a quiet peace with never finding out how good he actually was.

For years he was the guy who said: if I had tried, I could have done it.

Then, at 26, standing beside an athletics track in Woodford, his best friend turned to him and said: think you could put a pair of spikes on and beat these guys?

In this Bite-Sized episode of Screw It Just DO It, Eugene tells the story of what happened when he finally said yes. A debut season that ended with a torn hamstring. A British Championship silver medal. A sub-10-second 100 metres. And a semi-final at the World Athletics Championships — where he lined up against the Olympic champion, the World champion, and the Commonwealth champion in the same race.

All of it starting at 26. All of it built around a full-time accounting career, a wife, a daughter, and a job he loves.

Key Takeaways

- Why Eugene spent years believing in his talent without ever testing it — and what finally changed

- What the Parable of the Talents taught him about buried potential

- How to handle a setback that arrives before you have even properly started

- What it takes to balance elite sport with a full-time career, a family, and faith

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🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3-4 at NEC Birmingham

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Carly Meyers was a professional West End dancer. An injury ended her career with no plan B.

That same no-plan-B mentality drove her from Apple business specialist to digital course builder to one of the most practical voices on AI implementation for founders in the UK.

In this episode of Screw It Just DO It, I sit down with Carly to talk about why most founders are getting AI completely wrong, why tools without infrastructure create more problems than they solve, and how her Simplify, Automate, Amplify framework helps founders compete at scale without a large team.

We get into speed to lead, the opportunity quadrant, and why the founders who do not adapt now will find themselves looking up at competitors they did not even know existed.

Key Takeaways

• Why choosing tools over infrastructure is the number one AI mistake founders make

• The Simplify, Automate, Amplify framework explained step by step

• How AI levels the playing field for a team of one

• What happens to founders who wait

🎧 This episode is powered by WorldFirst, specialists in international business payments. If your business pays overseas suppliers or receives payments from abroad, those transaction fees can quickly add up.

As a Screw It Just DO It listener, you can get 50 international transactions completely fee free for 60 days.

👉 Create a free account and claim the offer at worldfirst.com/screwit

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Screw It Just DO It

🎟️ Join us at the Festival of Entrepreneurs, November 3–4 at NEC Birmingham

👉 www.festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk