Breaking Up with a Co-Founder & Why We Need Fulfilling Work with Dominic Jackson

Tackling Polarisation Within Our Culture and Society with Jess Butcher

Today’s guest is naturally hyper curious - as a technology entrepreneur, angel investor and business advisor, Jess Butcher MBE has many strings to her bow. As the co-founder and CMO of Blippar from 2011-2015, Jess was at the helm during its ascent to become one of the global tech pioneers in the field of Augmented Reality. 

Today, as one of the four recently appointed equality and human rights commissioners in the UK, Jess focuses her time and energy mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs, and public speaking and writing about subjects she’s incredibly passionate about, such as women in tech, work-life balance, and polarisation within our culture and society. 

“The most successful entrepreneurs aren't motivated by money per se, but by impact and the scale of the impact that they can have. And that typically correlates with huge success and huge wealth.”

In this episode of Hyper Curious, we discuss the dilemma that all entrepreneurs have to balance our drive for business impact, versus personal matters, why we women should stop apologising for our decisions, and the need for nuanced conversations in our highly polarised world.

“It's incredibly simplistic and binary, how we talk about women in the workplace. And much of the broader narrative around feminism is very, very binary.”

From building a big beautiful scrappy portfolio career, to co-founding Blippar, finding co-founders, to the self awareness needed to change roles within the organisation, and debunking unconscious gender bias:

“The best way to challenge stereotypes is simply to live beyond them and demonstrate you’re doing that - you are not that stereotype and bollocks to it, quite frankly.”

On today’s podcast:

• The superpower of a scrappy CV
• The Blippar journey
• Finding co-founders
• Why the broader narrative around feminism is binary
• Debunking unconscious bias

Links:

• Twitter:  jessbutcher
• Instagram: jessbutchermbe
• LinkedIn: Jess Butcher
• Book - The Coddling of the American Mind
• Book - The Power Of Bad by John Tierney

Breaking Up with a Co-Founder & Why We Need Fulfilling Work with Dominic Jackson

When we spend over ⅓ of our week working, we need to be alive in what we do and do something that matters to us. Which is why Dominic Jackson founded Escape The City in 2010, with his former co-founder Rob Symington. 

“It's out there for everyone and it's never been more accessible. There's really not much excuse these days to work for a cause that you don't believe in. So find that cause and be excited about it every day.”

In this latest episode, Dom talks about being lost in a large organisation and the process of leaving a corporate job to start your own business. Why our fear of failure increases as our business becomes more successful. And the very difficult moment when you have to break up with your co-founder and deal with all the emotions surrounding that. 

“When you start a business it's like a marriage and you don't ever envisage what it would be like when it ends.”

Dom’s initial purpose with Escape The City was to build a platform to enable 1 million people in the corporate world to transition into fulfilling work. He hasn’t reached this goal yet, but his journey is well underway. 

“There are so many people out there who are working in jobs that they don't like or working for organisations that are really not making the world a better place.”

From the motivation for founding Escape The City, to what drives Dom to get out of bed each morning, to how he sees the working world shifting, how he inspires his team, and going it alone. Don’t miss this incredibly emotional conversation with a very hyper curious entrepreneur. 

On today’s podcast:

• The genesis of Escape The City
• Chasing for impact, not money
• Why his biggest fear is failure
• Moving on from breaking up with a co-founder
• Inspiring his team

Links:

• https://www.escapethecity.org/

How to Build High-Performing Teams by Staying Hungry to Succeed with Lara Morgan

Today’s hyper curious guest is a British entrepreneur, investor in wellbeing products and philanthropist with an amazing track record of delivering accelerated growth: Lara Morgan. Lara is a self-described straight talking, no-nonsense entrepreneur.

“I want to lead a full life, which means that ultimately, I'm curious about everything and I'm constantly learning and that provides endless entertainment and opportunity.”

Lara started her first business, Pacific Direct, at the age of 23 and 17 years later, she sold 99% of her shares for £20 million. A mother of three girls, she's actively engaged with various global nonprofits as a board member or advisor. 

“You've got to enjoy the journey because the journey is relentless. It's brutal. There are some days you feel like crying, but that's okay, it always gets better the next day.”

In this episode, Lara discusses why difficult decisions regarding team members are a must so that you can grow a world class business; the key practice she applies when it comes to hiring salespeople; and the importance of the power of the choices we all have everyday when waking up in the morning:

“My dad gave me a huge gift, he used to say: which side of the bed did you get out of? And what he's saying there is - you've got a choice, right, get out of bed cheerful because who knows what the world is going to offer you.”

On today’s podcast:

• Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard
• How she defines success
• The crossover between sport and business 
• Teach your kids to be tougher
• Use enthusiasm to overcome fear
• Set bigger goals

Links:

• Twitter: @IamLaraMorgan
• LinkedIn: Lara Morgan
• Scentered
• Yogi Bare
• Global Amenities Direct
• KitBrix 
• Gate8 World
• Coppa Feel
• Book - More Balls Than Most Juggling Kit

eSports: The Next Frontier Of Traditional Sports with Robel Efrem

“twitch.tv is twice the size of the biggest sports channel in the world, ESPN. There are about 2.4 billion people gaming on a regular basis.”

If you are curious about eSports, then you don’t want to miss this week’s episode of Hyper Curious with Challengermode CEO and co-founder, Robel Efrem, a curious, determined, funny, kind guy, who’s also very competitive and loves playing computer games. 

Over the last decade, Robel founded two companies, is a three-time nominee for ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year,’ and after a successful exit from his first company co-founded Challengermode in 2014. Today, Challengermode is making waves in the future of sports, because they’re on a mission to make esports truly accessible for all the key stakeholders in the industry - players, organisers and game developers. 

“We believe that [eSports are] going to be the biggest sport in the world. For it to reach its full potential, it needs to become much more accessible than it is right now.”

In today’s episode, Robel talks about why eSports is the next frontier of traditional spots, the experience of exiting a company when you're in your 20s in order to start a new business that's more connected to your passions, and the importance of trust, kindness and data when developing a partnership with your co founder.

“One of the qualities that I value, besides being very confident at your work, is just being a kind human being. It's a very underrated quality, and it captures a lot of what's important for us here.”

On today’s podcast:

• Why eSports are the fastest growing sport in the world
• His passion for eSports
• His experience of selling his first company
• The need for role models in eSports
• Challenge of trying to become a unicorn

Links:

• Robel Efrem
• @RobelEfrem
• Challengermode

How To Create a No-BS DTC Brand with Hugh Thomas

“We got this idea of the ugly truth and built a brand around no fake marketing promises, no BS, no calories, no sugar, no sweeteners, you can just drink it ugly, have no guilt with it at all. It replaces that soda moment.”

Hugh Thomas is the founder of Ugly Drinks, a challenger brand founded in 2015 in the UK, before launching in the US in 2018. Ugly is a hyper curious, super irreverent and rebellious new soda brand disrupting the market, taking on the sugary soda industry by making sparkling water accessible to all. 

“I felt that consumers often get blamed for being overweight. But really, it's the system and the food and drink products that have been shoved down our throats and marketed to us for 100 years that are really causing the problems.”

In today’s episode, Hugh chats about brand building, how to strike the right balance of rebelliousness and familiarity when you’re building your challenger brand:

“I think great branding is a balance of art and science. Ultimately, I think one of the reasons our brand stands out so much is because it's authentic and comes from the soul.”

He also shares his biggest lessons learned from expanding Ugly in the US from the UK, and the importance of working on your mental health when you’re creating a company that is looking to change global consumption of sugar. 

“We started selling in one shop [in the US], same as we did in the UK. And then we built from there. Now we’re in 15,000. So it's like, just keep building.”

On today’s podcast:

• The systemic issues with sugar
• Ugly is about being authentic
• How to expand into US
• Why they’ve stayed lean
• Why you need to separate yourself as a founder from the brand

Links:

• Eating The Big Fish
• Lights Out: Sleep Sugar And Survival