Episode #516 - Standing Out In A Very Busy Industry, Whilst Maintaining Integrity - with Sam Jukes
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Sam Jukes, the founder of CACTO Drinks – the UK’s first cactus water brand using real prickly pear puree. What started as a spark of inspiration from a TV programme turned into a multi-year journey of innovation, market education, and bold ambition. CACTO Drinks offers a sustainable, healthy alternative to coconut water and is on a mission to break into an industry dominated by big players – with an exotic but approachable drink that's already gaining nationwide traction. This conversation is packed with insight and inspiration,...
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Episode #515 - Creating Truly Inclusive Events – With Gail Walker
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Gail Walker, the inspirational founder of Diverse Minds Events Limited – a company dedicated to making events truly accessible and neuro-inclusive. Born out of Gail’s personal experience as the parent of an autistic child, the business has grown since its inception in 2019 into a recognised leader in inclusive event support, even in the face of the pandemic. From mobile sensory buses to pop-up sensory spaces like igloo domes and bell tents, Diverse Minds Events is reshaping how event organisers think about accessibility. Gail...
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Episode #514 - Turning Adversity into Innovation and Changing Lives One Sensory Product at a Time - with Andrew Western
ScaleUp Radio
Hi, I’m Granger Forson. You can always find me at or on LinkedIn. On this episode of ScaleUp Radio, I had the pleasure of speaking with Andy Western, founder of AJW Solutions and Sam Boards. Andy’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, and remarkable innovation. From a five-million-pound management buyout falling through to starting AJW Solutions in 2007, he carved a niche in the defence and aerospace industry. Supplying the MOD within months of launching, Andy built a trusted reputation in engineering, project management, and ground support...
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Episode #513 - ScaleUp Club - Sales In, Sales Out – How to Build Funnels That Work - Mark Day
ScaleUp Radio
In this ScaleUp VIP Club session, we focused on the crucial topic of building high-performing sales funnels – and cutting through the noise to make your marketing really work. We kicked off with our new monthly segment, the AI Pulse, delivered by Paul Rhodes. Paul shared actionable insights on building an “AI Brain” – using custom GPTs to extract knowledge from the founder’s head, reduce team dependency, and supercharge productivity. A standout quote: "AI is not about replacing humans, it's about humans with AI versus humans without." Paul highlighted how combining good documentation...
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Episode #512 - ScaleUp Club - Leading with Specialism, Integrity and Authenticity in Recruitment - with Kelly Cartwright
ScaleUp Radio
This episode of ScaleUp Radio brings a fresh twist – a live Q&A from one of our ScaleUp Club sessions, featuring returning guest Kelly Cartwright, founder of Core Recruiter Ltd. Kelly joined us to share honest, down-to-earth insights on building a values-driven, specialist recruitment agency in the highly competitive construction sector. Kelly first appeared on ScaleUp Radio to share her business journey – and this time, she’s back to dive deeper into the practical realities of scaling, culture-fit hiring, navigating economic cycles, and maintaining a human touch in an often...
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Episode #511 - Democratising Data Science for Agencies – with Matias Carpio
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Matias Carpio, co-founder of Onlyscience – a soon-to-launch SaaS platform on a mission to make advanced marketing analytics accessible to agencies of all sizes. Onlyscience is building an AI-powered analytics tool that enables marketing agencies to quantify and optimise campaign performance – all without needing a technical background. The platform, which includes a storytelling layer for actionable insights, aims to help agencies move beyond spreadsheets and guesswork with a simplified yet powerful solution. Though the business is...
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Episode #510 - From Kitchen Experiments to Award-Winning Curry Kits - with Aliza Ratnayaka
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, host Kevin Brent sits down with Aliza Ratnayaka, co-founder of Little Big Flavour Kits — a business that grew from humble beginnings during the pandemic into a multi-award-winning food brand bringing authentic Sri Lankan curry kits to UK kitchens. Aliza shares how she transformed packaging spices for friends into a niche, sustainable product sourced directly from Sri Lankan farmers, including a long-standing partnership with SDS Spice, a family-run cinnamon plantation. Along the way, she’s tackled the challenges of educating customers on Sri Lankan...
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Episode #509 - Pixels with Purpose: Building a Purpose-Driven Creative Collective - with Wes Henstock
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Wes Henstock, founder of Confid3ntial – a purpose-led design and brand strategy agency with a global reach and a truly distinctive structure. Launched in 2006 after an unexpected layoff, Confid3ntial began as a white-label service provider for creative agencies. It has since evolved into a remote-first collective of creatives, united by the mission of delivering "pixels with purpose" – where branding is driven by meaning, not just aesthetics. In their conversation, Wes shares his views on how purpose should infuse every part of a...
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Episode #508 - ScaleUp Club - Turning Customer Service into a Strategic Growth Lever - with Logan Naidu
ScaleUp Radio
This month’s special edition of ScaleUp Radio is a deep dive into what it really means to make customer service a powerful driver of business growth. Recorded live at our monthly ScaleUp Club session, we welcome back Logan Naidu, founder of Kernel Groups and a previous guest on the podcast, for an exclusive Q&A. Logan shares powerful insights from his journey scaling a business that’s not just growing in numbers but creating real impact in the market — particularly through customer service excellence. His firm, Kernel Groups, operates with over 280 employees across the globe and is...
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Episode #507 - From a £10 Startup to Strategic Growth: The Orange Notebook Journey
- with Corina Calugaru and Alina Stancu
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Corina Calugaru and Alina Stancu, the dynamic duo behind The Orange Notebook – a business that started during the pandemic with just £10 in the bank and a whole lot of passion. From a modest marketing agency, it has evolved into a strategy-led consultancy offering business coaching, outsourced marketing, and rebranding services. We delve into how they turned an idea sketched in an orange notebook into a thriving business, and the insights they’ve gained helping other entrepreneurs scale. The conversation is structured in three...
info_outlineOn this episode of ScaleUp Radio we, once again, bring you a compilation of some great business advice that we’ve heard throughout 2021.
There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s been another challenging year for so many, and we’ve heard some great insights and advice along the way that have helped many of us, and will continue to help us as we face the new year.
We’ve been lucky enough to have a real range of conversations in the past year - from accountants, lawyers, marketers and IT support right through to restaurant owners, franchisees, funeral directors and gin makers.
With all of this diversity it’s been really interesting to see how much common ground there is. At the end of the day the key challenges to building and scaling up a business are not unique to any particular industry or sector. Sure, there are differences, but the key things remain the same. All of our guests have provided some great lessons that they have learned along the way, that can be of real benefit to all of us.
No matter the size of your business - large or small - make sure that you celebrate the wins that you have achieved this year. Small and medium businesses are the backbone of any successful economy and you don’t need me to tell you that it can be hard at times.
But hold onto the reasons that you started out in the first place. You set out to achieve something, and we have all achieved something special; something to be proud of.
Hold onto that star that guides you and drives and work out how you are going to get that little bit closer to it next year.
The links to all of the episodes that these pieces of advice are from are below, so you can spend time getting to know each business owner better.
This is the last episode of ScaleUp Radio for this year. I want to thank you for your continued support for ScaleUp Radio. We are now being listened to in 59 countries across the globe, with more of you listening and downloading now than ever before.
We’ll be back with a new episode on Monday, 10th January. In the meantime, enjoy this excerpts of advice from our episodes in 2021.
Links to episodes featured in this compilation:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Eddie_Perks_2.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Caroline_Butcher_2.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Faith_Guest.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Ben_King.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Greg_Baldwin.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Hollie_Whittles.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Steve_Harris.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Helen_Jones.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Darren_Wilkins.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Paul_McCafferty.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Daniel_Walton.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Kerry_Perkins.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Aasia_Baig.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Celia_Felgate.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Oliver_Percival.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Tom_Field.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Ian_Jarvis.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Peter_Chatterly.mp3
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/scaleupradio/Duncan_Gilroy.mp3
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