Episode #496 - Putting People First in HR - with Claire Loftus
Release Date: 07/09/2025
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...
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Episode #506 - Evolving From Handmade Gifts To A Successful Wellness & Lifestyle Brand - with Edith Peterhegyi
ScaleUp Radio
On this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Edith Peterhegyi, the creative force behind Eden Collection, a rapidly growing wellness and lifestyle brand that began as a lockdown hobby and is now a thriving business offering beautifully crafted, all-natural products. From Buzz Bombs to shower mists, facial oils, and home fragrances, Eden Collection has built a loyal customer base through a combination of aesthetic excellence, product quality, and uplifting hidden messages. But this isn’t just a story of pretty packaging—Edith shares the realities of scaling a product-based...
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Episode #505 - Disrupting Home Services: How WarmZilla Is Scaling with Tech, Branding, and Bold Ambition - with Matthew Powell
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent speaks with Matthew Powell, the founder of WarmZilla – a fast-growing disruptor in the UK home services market. From boilers to EV chargers and air conditioning, WarmZilla has built a 24/7 online platform that delivers next-day installations across the nation. Over just two and a half years, Matthew scaled the business to multi-million pound revenues, all without external funding - and they are now in their 7th year. But now, with an eye on £50 million turnover within five years, he’s exploring new frontiers – from international...
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Episode #504 - Finding A Competitive Advantage In An AI World - with Sameer Rahman
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Sameer Rahman, the CEO of Datamonet – a consultancy helping organisations build data and AI strategies that drive commercial value. With a background in data science and years of experience across sectors, Sameer shares his insights into how small and medium businesses can get smarter with data without needing to become tech giants. Sameer founded Datamonet to tackle a problem he saw time and again – decision-makers who were data-rich but insight-poor. Through tailored consulting, from “power hours” to deep-dive strategy...
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Episode #503 - Why Knowing Your Ideal Customer Changes Everything for Growth - with David Allen
ScaleUp Radio
Hi, I’m Granger Forson, business coach at . You can also find me on LinkedIn. In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, I’m joined by Dave Allen, Managing Director of Square One Network, a B2B telecoms provider based in Bristol. Dave’s journey is a great example of leadership growth in action. Having fallen into the telecoms world in the late 90s, Dave has built his career around the belief that communication is at the heart of all good business. Since becoming MD of Square One Network, he’s steered the company through significant cultural shifts, focusing on building a...
info_outlineIn this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Claire Loftus, the dynamic founder of Evolve, a people-first HR consultancy operating across Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland.
Claire shares her journey from working in HR and navigating personal health challenges to founding Evolve in 2017. With a team of nine working remotely, Evolve offers flexible, pragmatic HR support tailored to a diverse range of clients – from startups to large corporates – across multiple jurisdictions.
🔍 Episode Highlights:
- The Evolve Ethos: A refreshingly human approach to HR that blends practical solutions with strong relationship-building.
- Unique Model: Evolve offers accessible, flexible retainers starting from just £100/month, as well as ad-hoc support and investigations.
- Entrepreneurial Roots: Claire draws inspiration from a family of entrepreneurs and shares how pregnancy just six months in and the COVID-19 pandemic shaped the business’s early growth.
- Facing HR Head-On: From managing employee disputes to leveraging personality profiling like DISC, Claire gives honest insight into common HR pitfalls – and how to avoid them.
- Growth & Self-Awareness: A recent ADHD diagnosis has shifted Claire’s perspective on leadership, leading to greater self-awareness and a stronger emphasis on autonomy for her team.
- Looking Ahead: Evolve is eyeing growth to a 20-person team, preparing for economic shifts, embracing AI cautiously, and exploring a five-year exit plan.
Make sure you don’t miss any future episodes by subscribing to ScaleUp Radio wherever you like to listen to your podcasts.
For now, continue listening for the full story from Claire.
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Kevin's Latest Book Is Available!
Drawing on BizSmart’s own research and experiences of working with hundreds of owner-managers, Kevin Brent explores the key reasons why most organisations do not scale and how the challenges change as they reach different milestones on the ScaleUp Journey. He then details a practical step by step guide to successfully navigate between the milestones in the form of ESUS - a proven system for entrepreneurs to scale up.
More on the Book HERE - https://www.esusgroup.co.uk/
Claire can be found here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/claireloftus/
https://go-evolve.co.uk/contact/
Resources:
Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/rebel-ideas-the-power-of-thinking-differently-matthew-syed/4848192?ean=9781529348408
Outwitting The Devil by Napoleon Hill - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/outwitting-the-devil-with-study-guide-original-1938-classic-napoleon-hill/7758595?ean=9781722507213
Breathe - https://www.breathehr.com/en-gb/hr-software/hr-management-app
Remarkable - https://remarkable.com/