Advertise on podcast: First Time Founder by Rich Wilson

Michael Brennan has a truly unique story. He started a business staright from school with no prior industry experience. His ability to learn, fail and learn some more is inspiring. A nust-listen episode.

Wes Beard has an incredible story taht will resonate with many people. He had an idea while working his 9-5. He then had the drive to turn that idea into a business. By building an MVP and early customer adoption he built konversable, a glagow start-up doing big things.

James wrote the book on raising start-up funding. Literally. James share shis story of how a pivot created success for Robot Mascot. James also shares amazing insight into raising funding as a tech start-up in the UK. A must listen episode for any founder looking to raise money.  

Adam Gordon is a truly inspiring founder and is a fascinating to listen to. Adam has founded many succesful businesses with the most prominent being Candidate.ID which was aquired last year. Adam share his experiejnce in building an MVP, brand building and much more. If you listen to one podcast on start-ups, make it this one!

GoSwag are disrupting a mult-billion dollar industry all from Glasgow in Scotland! Conor McKenna share the amazing story of bootrstapping GoSwag as a side-hustle into a thriving business. Conor had a product background prior to GoSwag so it is no surprise he built a very effective MVP super early and then refined further. This episode will wlak through building an MVP, winning huge clients and growing without external funding. Hope you enjoy.    

Daniel Cocking shares his brilliant story of being involved in designing some of the most famous trainers that you are probably wearing right now! Daniel started Laceless as a community on Instagram as a side-hustle and became a thriving business. Daniel talks MVP's, marketplaces, funding and much more in this episode, well worth a listen.

Fliss is the co-founder of Ordo which is a fast growing Fintech based in London. Fliss was a pleasure to interview and was so honest in her experience. Fliss trained as a lawyer before getting into financial regulation. She shares how Ordo built and funded their MVP. Also it was interesting hearing a company with more than 2 co-founders and why that worked really well. Fliss was also very inspirational in how she stays mentally healthy while building a start-up. I hope you enjoy.

I met Rob wehen he was a judge at the SIA Shark Tank Competition in Dallas last year. I had amired his progress for afar and it was brilliant to get to know him. Rob built a £100m company from a class project at Harvard Business School. That company was Catalant which is a real pioneer in talent platforms and works with many Fortune 500 companies. Rob shares his insights building Catalant. To add to this Rob recently created a VC fund called Assymetric which invests in early stage B2B SaaS companies in the US and UK. Rob shares what he looks for in a company. This is a must-listen episode whether you are a brand new founder or have built traction and looking for investment. This episode is supported by Gigged.AI and Startup Grind Scotland.

Nikki Gibson built a succesful events company but the pandemic caused demand to slowdown. Nikki had an idea for SWURF during lockdown and decided to start networking to test out the idea. SWURF has gone from strength to strength since then. In this epidsode Nikki shares how she built an MVP with little tech skills and funded the business. This is such an inspirational story and worth a listen for any aspiring founder. SWURF and Gigged.AI now partner to provide great spaces for remote workers to do their best work throughout the UK.      

The headline is that Neil Logan is the Co-Founder of Incremental Group who sold to Telefonica Tech in a deal reported by Insider.co.uk to be around £175m. In this episode Neil shares his story from Software Developer through to forming Incremental Group. This episode focusses on vision, execution, board creation and mental health. This is a must listen for any founder or CEO. Not just early stage. This is an honest account of building a company rapidly with a strong culture, vision and value prop. This episode is sponsored by Gigged.AI, as a listener please use the code RICH50 for half price fees when hiring on-demand tech talent for your company.

Chris Bone is building one of the leading recruitment tech companies from Newcastle in England. After a long career in recruitment Chris spotted a gap in the market for how companies hire full-time software developers. Chris shares how he sourced his founding team and how important that was to the success of Haystack. We cover building an MVP with awesome UX annd also funding. Chris gives an amazing insight into what it is like building a start-up with a young family and some of the sacrifices he had to make. Real honestly here which is so powerful. This episode is a must for any aspiring HR tech founder!   This episode if sponsored by Gigged.AI who help start-ups build products and market them through matching you to on-demand tech talent for short and sharp projects. Use the code RICH50 for half price fees. Thank you to our partner Startup Grind Scotland.

I me Jack in 2020 as Deeper Insights were a key partner when developed our MVP. Jack has developed a world class AI firm over the last few years and his journey is fascinating.   Jack built ahis first business at 20 then sold it at 25. He went onto build Deeper Insights and is a Deal Maker for the Department of International Trade. Jack share his increible story and is well worth a listen.