Founder & Chief Podcast

In this episode of the Founder & Chief podcast, Paul McGlone is joined by Francis Toye, Founder and CEO of Unilink.

Unilink is a world leader in prisoner self-service and offender management software. Unilink’s main product supplied is the award winning prisoner self-service product currently carrying out around 200 million prisoner transactions every year helping prisoners to take more responsibility for their own lives and reducing prison officers’ workload.

Paul and Francis discuss Francis’ background and career, the founding and evolution of the business, becoming an international enterprise and growth plans for the future.

In this episode of the Founder & Chief podcast, Paul McGlone is joined by Ryan Dean, CEO & Founder of RD Content.

RD Content is an award-winning global video production agency with an impressive client list. They specialise in offering strategic media planning, creative ideation, onset film work and post production editing, sound and animation all under one roof. Founded in 2009, RD Content has grown from a very small team to an international company with offices in Singapore, London and Abu Dhabi.

Paul and Ryan discuss Ryan’s background and career, the founding of the business, key differentiators for the business model, and how the industry is evolving.

In this episode of the Founder & Chief podcast, Paul McGlone is joined by David Craig, CEO of Iceotope.

Iceotope is a Sheffield-based technology business specialising in patented precision immersion cooling. Iceotope help their customers to become more sustainable by reducing their energy and water consumption and reducing the cost of data centre design, build and operations. Their technology offers extreme cooling performance whilst isolating and protecting the critical IT from the surrounding environment and atmosphere.

Paul and David discuss David’s background and career, how Iceotope’s technology works and how it can revolutionise the design of data centres, the future of data storage and how Iceotope can help their customers achieve net zero carbon emissions.

Read more about David’s charity Educate the Kids here: https://www.educatethekids.com/.

In this episode of the Founder & Chief podcast, Paul McGlone is joined by George Richardson, CEO and Founder of AeroCloud.

AeroCloud is a management platform using cutting-edge technology to optimise flight management, situational awareness, and passenger prediction. Using AI, real-time data and data visualisation to drive efficiencies in the global airport industry.

Before founding AeroCloud, George was a professional racing driver for 10 years. George believes that this experience has been invaluable in his journey, founding and building AeroCloud as successful company.

In this episode of the Founder & Chief podcast, Paul McGlone is joined by Lee Hartley, CEO and Founder of Fairstone.

Fairstone is a privately-owned full-service wealth management firm with £15bn of client investment funds and employing over 1100 people. Their aim is to bring intelligent wealth management solutions to their clients across a lifetime financial journey.

Lee founded Fairstone in 2008, growing the business from a start up to market leader. Lee talks about his background, how he founded Fairstone, how scale brings advantages and the impact of recent political volatility and market instability on the business.

In this episode of the Founder & Chief podcast, Paul McGlone is joined by Charlie Cook, Founder and CEO of Rightcharge.

Rightcharge is a platform which enables great chargepoint installations to allow customers to move to an electric vehicle easily and smoothly. Rightcharge technology recommends customers the right home charger for their needs, matches them with verified installers and finds the best energy deals to save them money.

Charlie explains his entrepreneurial background, how and why he founded Rightcharge and offers insights into what it’s like to start a company in a new, growing market.

In this episode of the Founder & Chief podcast, Paul McGlone is joined by Ian Minton, CEO and Founder of Happy Drinks.

Happy Drinks is on a mission to remove artificial sweeteners from soft drinks by delivering the next generation of drinks with natural ingredients only. One of Happy Drinks Co’s brands, Eden Bay, is the third biggest brand of tonic in the UK and Ireland and sells a can every 1.3 seconds.

Ian explains his personal motivation behind the brand, the importance of Stevia in making flavoursome plant-based drinks and explains how and why the company diversified into manufacturing.

In this episode of the Founder and Chief Podcast, Paul McGlone talks to James Hind, Founder & CEO of carwow.

James explains how his passion for cars led him to start a car review aggregator and the journey from content-creator to online motor retailer. Now with over 12 million subscribers and 7.4 million YouTube subscribers, carwow employs over 250 people in the UK, Germany and Spain and partners with over 3,000 dealer partners to offer their customers a full range of vehicle brands.

James and his team have raised over £150 million to date and are an international, tech-enabled UK success story.

In this episode, Zeus’ Paul McGlone talks to Gurinder Dhillon, Founder and Managing Director of Otto Car.

Otto Car is London’s largest private-hire rental fleet, and has the largest number of PCO cars (that’s taxis to most people) for sale or hire. Founded by ex-cabby Gurinder, Otto Car pride themselves on being upfront and honest; helping their clients to go from strength to strength and achieve their own aims.

Gurinder shares how Otto Car survived covid and why their core company values are centred around making their mums proud.

What is the future for virtual reality and gaming?

In this episode, Paul talks to Patrick O’Luanaigh, CEO and Founder of nDreams. nDreams is a games publisher and developer and has been at the forefront of VR gaming innovation since 2013.

Patrick explains what Virtual Reality is, how the industry is changing, main players, investment strategies and what to look out for in the next five years.

In this episode of the Founder and Chief Podcast, Paul McGlone talks to Chris Yates, Chief Executive of FFX.  Chris hadn’t been near a power tool in his life. So why did he come out of retirement to be CEO of FFX, an online supplier of power tools and building supplies? How does he cope running the £100 million business today?

Chris may not know tools, but he certainly knows ecommerce; as he’s seen it develop over a career spanning decades at Sainsburys and other online retail businesses. He knows the importance of understanding client buying habits, getting to know their needs and building channels for communicating openly with clients.

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in a co-founder power couple?

Manav Thapar of LoveRaw gave Zeus’ Paul McGlone some insights on what it’s like to have a great business idea with his wife and co-founder, Rimi. From starting their company in a family kitchen, to Dragons Den and changing nappies on the board room table, Rimi and Manav have got it covered.

Founded in 2013, LoveRaw produces indulgent chocolate, which just happens to be vegan. It is available in supermarkets, health food shops and direct to consumer via the LoveRaw website.

In this episode of Founder & Chief Paul talks to Strix’s CEO, Mark Bartlett

Strix is a global leader in temperature controls, steam management and water filtration technologies, and on any normal day, Strix’s kettle controls are used by over 1.2 billion people.

Paul catches up with Mark in Italy, to discuss Mark’s career starting out, how he turned down Strix repeatedly before joining the company, the journey to IPO and how it’s changed the company. Mark also reveals his dream dinner party guests.

Building a business is an adventure, from the very beginning; through the highs and lows, from inflection points to motivation. We get to know the people behind the businesses.

This is Founder and Chief, a Zeus podcast.

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