# startup
21 moments across 19 episodes. Click any moment to jump straight to that part of the episode.
60:17Workplace Surgery: When the toxic person is the founderAl Elliott: I think people need to go and listen to your podcast right now. No, not right now because we've got one last question. Um, and so we get a lot of questions around about toxic managers. We've had toxic superstEP 318 · 14 Jul 2026·workplace surgery· 60:17–66:204:15Meeting Jeffrey 2011 — why he built OfficeVibeAl Elliott: Tell us, 15 years ago, you started OfficeVibe. And now, what, 15 years later, you are now working on Hoogly or working with Hoogly. What did you hope to, what problem did you hope to fix when you started OffiEP 285 · 19 Mar 2026·interview· 4:15–7:170:00Intro: The 57th hire at The Facebook and Tom's extraordinary lifeAl Elliott: You're the 57th person hired at a little-known startup. The company is a small startup called The Facebook. You might have heard of it. You're 50 years old. Everyone else is 20. The founder's 19 years old. AnEP 281 · 5 Mar 2026·intro· 0:00–1:259:03What Tom was actually hired to doAl Elliott: So what were you doing? What were you employed to actually do? Tom LeNoble: We would, at the time, it was fascinating because we had this system that was sort of halfway useful. You know how it is at startup EP 281 · 5 Mar 2026·interview· 9:03–11:020:00Introducing Studio XAG and its foundersAl Elliott: This week we're doing something a little bit different. We've got 2 guests. They're a married couple who also happen to run a business together. That sounds terrible, Leanne Leanne Elliott: It sounds familiarEP 271 · 29 Jan 2026·intro· 0:00–3:447:18The early days — launching during COVID as a side hustleLeanne Elliott: How was that for, for you? Because it sounds like you said it started this little side hustle during COVID during a time where there was, there was so much and also so little going on to have this idea. AEP 253 · 27 Nov 2025·interview· 7:18–9:1521:41Al's booze delivery startup in 2002Leanne Elliott: Yeah Al Elliott: So yeah, those kids. So anyone who's over the age of 40 will know, in the UK will know, you never used to be able to buy alcohol. So this solved the problem. Basically, I'd sell it over tEP 218 · 29 Jul 2025·other· 21:41–29:264:49Interviewing leaders you've never been managed byAl Elliott: Let's stick with Reid for a second then, because he's obviously quite a famous sort of startup guy. Is there a difference between someone who's perhaps a sort of like a manager for IBM or someone like Reid whEP 217 · 24 Jul 2025·interview· 4:49–6:150:00Who is James Hawkins and intro to PostHogJames Hawkins: I'm James Hawkins. I'm the co-CEO alongside Tim, my co-founder of PostHog. We are a dev tools company. I've never worked for Facebook or Google or Netflix or somewhere sexy. I've kind of always worked for EP 189 · 17 Apr 2025·interview· 0:00–1:1430:59Workplace Surgery: Scaling company culture during rapid growthLeanne Elliott: Congratulations on your rapid, rapid growth, Techstarter Al Elliott: We've gone from 15 to 50 employees, 5-0, in just 18 months. And while I'm— whilst I'm thrilled with our success, I'm struggling to mainEP 130 · 24 Sept 2024·workplace surgery· 30:59–36:376:03Starting Smart Clinic in 2015 with no industry experienceAl Elliott: Yeah Harry Cramer: So being a little bit younger and a little bit braver and a little bit more naive than I am now, I thought, well, if the right thing isn't there, let's go and start it. And here we are 10 yEP 129 · 19 Sept 2024·interview· 6:03–6:164:25How Paul started MAP at 27, riding the cloud accounting waveAl Elliott: So Paul, take us back to the beginning. What you said, it was 11 years ago. How did you start MAP? What happened? It was really weird, actually. I used to work on the High Street in Levenshulme, uh, near MancEP 127 · 12 Sept 2024·other· 4:25–7:154:07How Ed met Jamie Laing and started the businessLeanne Elliott: How did you meet, Jamie? How did this business partnership start? Ed Williams: It was through mutual friends after university. So I was in I was interested in design and marketing. I studied industrial deEP 125 · 5 Sept 2024·interview· 4:07–6:5312:40The Valley of Death — the 10–12 employee crunchAl Elliott: See, when an organization starts growing, it can be really exciting, but there's also a point to which it all starts to feel like it's falling apart. Lots of people talk about this, including Daniel PriestleyEP 104 · 6 Jun 2024·interview· 12:40–25:2217:57Outsetter's choose-your-own-adventure compensation modelAl Elliott: What I love is that Leanne's basically going, I don't want to hear about it now. Shut up, Al. We were talking about this, this Jeff guy. So on Twitter/X, I don't know how to call it. I suppose I should be calEP 101 · 28 May 2024·news roundup· 17:57–22:474:36What is Ivee.jobs?Lydia & Amelia (Ivee co-founders, merged ch): Hi, I'm Lydia, and this is my sister Amelia, and we are the co-founders of Ivee, which is a platform that helps women return to work after taking a career break. The reason tEP 94 · 2 May 2024·interview· 4:36–5:2124:16"There's got to be a scalable tech solution"Al Elliott: So seeing a problem, identifying the solution, and then not being able to find something suitable that's available on the market at the moment This is what entrepreneurs live for, and as Lydia explains, this EP 94 · 2 May 2024·interview· 24:16–27:072:03Introducing Ben Branson-GateleyLeanne Elliott: Let me tell you about today's amazing guest, Ben Branson-Gateley. Ben is the co-founder and CEO of CharlieHR, the HR software for small businesses. While dyslexia made his time at school, tough, he persevEP 89 · 11 Apr 2024·intro· 2:03–3:233:34How Wistia started — fun baked in from day oneAl Elliott: Absolutely. We're going to start off by talking about how Wistia started. Uh, we've talked about how fun is baked into the culture, why creating values doesn't always work. Uh, how COVID influenced their remoEP 68 · 8 Dec 2023·interview· 3:34–5:2613:07Bernard Brogan: The PepTalk Story and StatsLeanne Elliott: No, I'm done Al Elliott: Brilliant, loved it. So Bernard Brogan, ex-GAA footballer, ex-accountant, uh, now co-founder of Pep Talk. Well, why am I introducing him? Let's get him introduce himself Bernard BEP 48 · 20 Jul 2023·interview· 13:07–17:1323:24Why Stella built pirkxAl Elliott: Yeah, well, I think it's for everybody, um, it's the short answer, that doesn't have access to this stuff. So there's around 3.2 billion workers in the world, um, only 9% of them have access to workplace wellEP 33 · 5 Apr 2023·other· 23:24–25:15
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