Dr David Garley: I Asked a Sleep Doctor How to Stay Awake for 57 Hours. Then I Broke a World Record

Meet the sleep doctor who briefed Ollie for a world record attempt recorded four weeks before it began. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary."There is that point at 3 AM where your brain really feels like it's shut down. You can barely keep your eyes open, and you're actually freezing cold. And these are all very classic signs of the lowest point of your circadian rhythm."That's Dr David Garley, GP and sleep doctor, warning Ollie about what was coming.This conversation was recorded live on LinkedIn and YouTube on 14 August, four weeks before Ollie attempted the world record for the longest interview marathon. The record stood at 56 hours 10 minutes. The goal was 59 hours, at Films@59 in Bristol, raising money for Talk Club, the men's mental fitness charity. Ollie went on to break the record by 34 minutes. This is the conversation that got him ready.David is director of The Better Sleep Clinic, the online, doctor-led clinic he built with his partner Jess after leaving a secure NHS career. It now has a team of around 25 and works with several Premier League football teams, Women's Super League teams, Olympic squads and Formula One. Before that came respiratory medicine and frontline work in refugee camps in Greece, in India and on the pandemic response in Malawi.Ollie asks him everything: how long a nap should be, whether a nappuccino works, what to do when 3 AM hits, which supplements are worth taking, and what David's non-negotiables are. Along the way, David explains why better sleep begins long before bedtime, why worrying about sleep keeps you awake, and why so many founders build themselves a prison. His one piece of advice for founders: stop making yourself so central to the business.This episode is general information, not medical advice. If you're worried about your sleep, speak to your GP or a sleep doctor.3 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Sleep is built during the day. Daylight in the first hour after waking, movement, stress and routine shape your night as much as anything you do in bed. And don't overstate the importance of sleep: "The more you think about sleep, the more you worry about sleep, the less likely it is to happen."2. Plan for fatigue, don't fight it. Sleep deprivation hits physical, cognitive and emotional performance, especially the last two. Expect the circadian low around 3 AM, keep naps to 20 minutes to avoid feeling like a zombie, spread caffeine out in small doses (its half-life can range from one hour to nine), and get moving.3. Don't be the single point of failure. Running your own business can quietly become a pressure cooker where nothing works without you. David's advice is to start working yourself out of responsibilities early, before the habit sets in and you find yourself thinking about work in every spare minute.WHAT WE COVER• How a respiratory doctor became a sleep doctor, and what obstructive sleep apnoea really is• Why 85% of people with sleep apnoea are undiagnosed, according to David• Frontline medicine in Greece, India and Malawi, and what it showed him• Leaving the NHS "oil tanker" to build an online sleep clinic with his wife• Why some specialties are better done by generalists• Sleep and elite sport: late kick-offs, caffeine and athletes who can't switch off• CQC registration, indemnity and why patient safety is a hard floor• Heat waves, new babies and why sleep disorders are so hard to explain• Building a sleep business cost him sleep, and the idea of "reverse procrastination"• The record prep: how many hours you really need, the 3 AM wall, naps, nappuccinos and caffeine strategy• BCAAs, lion's mane, green tea, ashwagandha and CBD: David is a supplements naysayer• Blue light glasses, bright light and a windowless studio• Coming down afterwards: "tired but wired" and booking time to think about it tomorrow• His one piece of advice for founders💬 Over to you: what's your typical fix when you hit a slump? A nap, a coffee, a walk? Tell us in the comments or vote in our LinkedIn poll.Guest: Dr David GarleyThe Better Sleep Clinic: https://www.thebettersleepclinic.co.uk | LinkedIn: Dr David GarleyHosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard.🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player.👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps the show grow.#FoundedAndGrounded #BeHeard #WorldRecord #SleepHealth #FounderMentalHealth Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Meet the filmmaker who had an arrow aimed at his crew in the Amazon, then inherited a business he never asked for. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary."This young lad with his shirt off, with a bow and arrow, pulls it tight and aims it at Gus's head. And at that point, Charlie grabs the camera, yanks it down: 'Look behind you, mate. We need to get out of here.'"That's how this episode opens. It's one chapter in one of the most winding routes to running a business we've ever heard.Adam Laister was told to study something with a fallback because his parents didn't think he'd make it in photography. He failed at a sales job, tried to sell surf photos to tourists in Morocco until the locals ran him off the beach, ended up as an extra in American Sniper, and broke his leg two days before Christmas. Then a friend asked if he'd ever thought about being a runner. Seven years at Bristol's Icon Films took him from making teas to filming hippos fighting in Malawi, and on to shoots for Vice and National Geographic.When the TV industry shrank, he co-founded Purpose Built Films to tell the stories that never make the main edit. A month after Adam was made a director, his business partner took a new job and left. The company was suddenly his.In this episode, Adam talks about the Amazon roadblock that ended with his kit smashed and set on fire, losing his dad while filming in the Guyanese jungle, why broadcast TV's middle ground has collapsed, whether audiences will ever watch fully AI-made films, and how he's building a values-led business with a network of freelancers instead of a traditional team.Please note: this episode includes a story about bereavement and a threatening encounter with weapons.3 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Dead ends aren't stopping points. As Becky puts it, they're opportunities to pivot. Morocco, a broken leg and a closed production company all looked like endings at the time. Looking back, each one pointed to the next step.2. Surround yourself with amplifiers, not blockers. Adam's break came from a camera operator who said, "You crack on, mate", instead of taking the shot himself. When you build your own business, you get to choose your people, so pick the ones who move your work forward.3. Adapt without losing your values. Adam's industry is being disrupted by streaming, YouTube and AI. His response is to adapt the format and the funding while keeping the purpose: environmental stories, told by real people, with integrity.WHAT WE COVER- "Something to fall back on": the parents who didn't think he'd make it- Failing at sales, and getting run off a Moroccan beach selling surf photos- Two weeks as an extra in American Sniper, then a broken leg on 23 December- Runner to camera operator at Icon Films, and the hippo shot that made the title sequence- The Amazon roadblock: surrounded, kit smashed and burned, and the one camera that survived- Losing his dad during a jungle shoot in Guyana, and the van named Joni- Becoming a director in November, then sole owner in December: inheriting a business- Funding films for charities and conservation when nobody has a budget- Building with a network of freelancers instead of a traditional team- Why the mid-budget TV world has collapsed, and "adapt or perish"- AI and filmmaking: the 3D cinema comparison, and does it matter if a story is real?- His advice: get help, invest in yourself, and build alongside your freelance work💬 Adam has a question for you: would you watch content made entirely by AI? Vote in our LinkedIn poll or tell us in the comments.Guest: Adam Laister, Purpose Built Films (Bristol)https://www.purposebuiltfilms.comLinkedIn: Adam LaisterHosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard and Dr Becky Sage.🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player.👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps the show grow.#FoundedAndGrounded #StartupPodcast #Entrepreneurship #Filmmaking #AccidentalFounder Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week: the founder with one GCSE who bootstrapped his way from roadside marrows to a full agency exit. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary."No one thought I'm gonna get through school. No one thought I'm gonna go to college. No one thought I'm gonna get to university. F*** it, I'm gonna do a business, 'cause no one's gonna think that either."That's how this episode opens, and it's the engine behind everything Oliver Bruce has built.A military kid who went to seven schools and was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia in an era when teachers just told him to stop being stupid, Oliver left school with a single GCSE in art. At 13, he was selling marrows on the roadside for 20p. At university, he built an app nobody downloaded, noticed businesses would pay for the videos instead, and pivoted into what became Pinpoint Media: a search, social and creative agency he bootstrapped for over a decade without raising a penny, then sold in December 2025.It wasn't a straight line. Oliver gets honest about losing 110K during the pandemic chasing a side venture instead of focusing on the main business, and why even founders of rocket-ship companies have stared down payroll and wondered if they'd make it.Then he opens up on the exit itself: why both sides used professional dealmakers, why he'll never negotiate his own deal again, and the 18 to 24 months of relationship-building that made the sale possible. Plus why retained revenue made the business sellable, what joining a big board has taught him, the burnout that paused his podcast for 14 months, his all-in bet on agentic AI, and the small matter of training to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.Please note: this episode contains strong language.3 KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Ask for help as early as possible. Don't grind through it alone to prove a point. Asking is a quick hack; people genuinely want to help, and the founders who ask compound faster than the founders who don't.2. Selling is a fair exchange, not a pitch. From marrows at 13 to agency retainers, Oliver's sales lessons come back to the same thing: trust, timing, and a clear understanding of what the other person actually needs. Get those right and confidence in your price follows.3. Focus is what buys you freedom. Oliver's pandemic side venture brought in lots of turnover and no money. What actually built the business was staying on the core, building recurring revenue, and now learning to use AI well. That stability gives founders the freedom they were chasing in the first place.WHAT WE COVER- Selling marrows at 13, pricing confidence, and why every founder must learn to sell- Cultural differences in selling: the US vs UK gap, from an Alex Hormozi event in Vegas- Seven schools, one GCSE, and the neurodiversity the system missed- The university app that failed, and the accidental agency it became- Bootstrapping for a decade: reinvest everything, raise nothing- Why distribution and strategy matter more than content alone- Losing 110K in the pandemic, and the cost of getting distracted from the mothership- Failure as feedback: "I have failed more times than I have succeeded"- Nearly missing payroll, and why it's far more common than founders admit- The exit: dealmakers, relationships built 18 to 24 months early, and staying friends with your buyer- Why retained revenue makes a business sellable- Life after exit: what a big board teaches you, and how to build one- Burnout, the 14-month podcast pause, and relaunching as The Unlock- Agentic AI, running content with agents, and rowing the Atlantic- His curveball answer: why bother at all?💬 Oliver has a question for you: what's your biggest fear around AI agents? Vote in our LinkedIn poll or tell us in the comments.Guest: Oliver BrucePinpoint Media: https://pinpoint-media.globalWebsite: https://oliverbruce.co.uk | LinkedIn: Oliver BruceThe Unlock podcast: Spotify, Apple and all podcast playersHosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard and Dr Becky Sage.🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player.👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps the show grow.#FoundedAndGrounded #StartupPodcast #Entrepreneurship #Bootstrapping #FounderStory Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The introvert who was told he looked too free-spirited, and whose software now runs ordering for the UK's biggest food brands. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. "This poor lady had to say to me, 'There are concerns that you look a bit free-spirited.' They were worried I was suddenly gonna disappear and become a yoga teacher in Goa or something." Simon Bos has spent more than 20 years building other people's startups at Gravitywell, his Bristol venture studio, watching entrepreneurs' hearts break over cheap builds that couldn't be rescued, and learning exactly what separates the products that work from the ones that die. Then he found his own gap: one of the UK's largest food-to-go manufacturers taking thousands of daily sandwich orders through a call centre. "Three BLTs, two chicken and bacon... no, three chicken and bacon." On the phone. Every day. That absurdity became Mezze, the B2B ordering platform for food manufacturers. Since we recorded this conversation, it has grown into exactly what Simon describes planning here: the platform now handles over £10M of orders a month for names like Samworth Brothers, Pieminister and The Real Wrap Co. It has expanded into AI features and the US market. The playbook he lays out in this episode is the playbook that worked. Along the way: a prime example of being an introvert founder, from months without networking to discovering that one-to-many content is the introvert's cheat code, plus the no-suit mantra, the three-month reset in Laos, and the client work (including the ADHD Love app) that reminds him why any of it matters. 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Cheap builds break hearts. Simon has had to tell founders "there's no way of fixing this, it's gone." Under-investing in your foundation doesn't save money; a bad build is often unrescuable, and rebuilding costs more than doing it properly once. 2. Introversion is a design constraint, not a defect. Simon went months without networking and felt guilty. The fix wasn't forcing himself into rooms; it was one-to-many: content, talks, a strong product. Build the version of visibility that suits your wiring. 3. Perspective is a tool you have to schedule. From regular stakeholder mapping to three months in Laos, Simon's pattern is to step back deliberately. When the day-to-day consumes you, you can't see the business; distance is what shows you where you actually sit in the ecosystem. WHAT WE COVER - 25+ years of Gravitywell: what building hundreds of products teaches you about founders - "Entrepreneurs' hearts breaking": the truth about unrescuable builds - The call-centre absurdity which became Mezze - Spotting your place in the supply chain instead of trying to be the big thing - The introvert founder: networking guilt, one-to-many, and deep 1:1s over room-working - "You look a bit free-spirited": appearance bias, procurement, and the no-suit mantra - The ADHD Love app, body doubling, and the messages that say "it changed my life" - Three months in Laos and what stepping back showed him - Asking for help with an explicit ask, and failure as raw material - Simon's question for you: is introversion a barrier or a gift? 💬 Answer Simon's question in the comments or vote in our LinkedIn poll. Guest: Simon Bos Mezze: https://mezze.io | Gravitywell: https://gravitywell.co.uk | LinkedIn: Simon Bos https://www.linkedin.com/in/sibos/ Hosted by Ollie Collard and Dr Becky Sage. 🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player. 👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps the show grow. #FoundedAndGrounded #StartupPodcast #Entrepreneurship #SaaS #IntrovertFounder Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Meet Greg, the adviser who built a career on saying what 1,000+ founders didn't want to hear. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. The opener to this episode tells you two things about Greg McCallum: he's funnier than most business advisers, and he's more honest about the cost of the founder life than almost anyone we've had on the show. 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Ask strangers, not friends. The most common founder mistake is failing to ask prospective customers whether the idea is good. Do it early and you're not just validating, you're building a pipeline, learning the language that sells, and writing your first sales playbook for free. 2. Sales is listening, not pitching. Professional sales hires get a three- to six-month ramp before anyone expects a deal, so give yourself the same grace. Never ask for the sale. Understand the need, demonstrate the solution, and let them ask you. 3. Honesty is the strategy. With customers, with investors, and hardest of all with yourself. Audit the skills you actually lack before you buy the domain or design the logo. Self-awareness is cheaper than failure. Greg got kicked out of school at 15. By 16, he was running a restaurant floor. By 18, he'd quietly consulted for almost every bar and restaurant in Oxford. By his mid-twenties, banks were asking him into the boardroom. Then he deliberately took a soul-destroying telemarketing job for a year, because nobody would take his sales advice seriously until he'd done the hard yards himself. That decision led to sales leadership at Booksy (now unicorn status), C-suite roles across startups, and a mentoring practice that has helped over 1,000 founders worldwide, under a name he's turned into a brand: The No Bullshit Adviser. In this episode, Greg gets honest about the mistake almost every founder makes, why working in sales won't teach you founder sales, the AI industry's dirty data secret his new startup Peer is built to solve, and the part nobody talks about: the anxiety, the dark years, and the alliances entrepreneurship never lets you make. Because when it all goes wrong, the question that matters is who you actually call. Please note: this episode contains strong language throughout. Greg is called the No Bullshit Adviser for a reason. WHAT WE COVER - Kicked out of school, child of immigrant entrepreneurs, and managing hospitality floors at 16 - Accidentally becoming Oxford's teenage restaurant consultant - A year of telemarketing to earn the right to give sales advice - Booksy, C-suite roles, and 1,000+ founders mentored - The one bad Trustpilot review that's secretly a five-star review - Why psychometric tests are (mostly) bullshit, and skills audits beat personality labels - Founders Unplugged: the podcast born from client calls that ran three hours over - Peer and the dirty secret of AI: the data ceiling nobody talks about - "Stop preaching work-life balance": Greg's unfiltered take - Anxiety, depression, CBT, and becoming your own therapist - The real sacrifice: friendship, founder loneliness, and why your support network is a survival mechanism - The SaaS bubble, the bootstrapping comeback, and his one piece of advice: two words 💬 Greg's story got us thinking: when it all goes wrong, who is the one person you'd call? Tell us in the comments. Greg also offers a free one-hour, no-strings advisory session to founders and executives. Details on his site below. Guest: Greg McCallum The No Bullshit Adviser: https://www.gregrcmccallum.com/the-no-bs-session Founders Unplugged: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/founders-unplugged/id1688034102 Peer - https://peerlab.ai/peer Hosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard and Dr Becky Sage. 🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player. 👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps the show grow. #FoundedAndGrounded #StartupPodcast #Entrepreneurship #Sales #FounderAdvice Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The ex-model who turned an exploding kitchen of cauliflower into the pasta brand. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. "My husband was just like, 'What's happening?' The kitchen was just an explosion of cauliflower." That's how Sunny & Luna started, and this episode opens with it. Giulia Berretti spent her teens modelling in New York on as little as 800 calories a day, inside an industry that treated food as the enemy. The daughter of a winemaker and a restaurateur, taught to make pasta by her nonna, she walked away. When COVID hit, she rebuilt her relationship with food into a business: vegetable-packed fresh pasta, born in her own kitchen. She sold her first batches to neighbours on Nextdoor, pitched at the Bread & Jam festival with four gnocchi in a plastic bag, and Whole Foods and Planet Organic loved it. She then spent six months knocking on the doors of Italian manufacturers who kept asking "who are you?" until one said yes. When we recorded this conversation, Giulia was days from her first national listing and closing a £500K angel round. Today, Sunny & Luna is on the shelves of Sainsbury's, Ocado, Whole Foods and Planet Organic. Proof that everything she talks about in this episode worked. 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Never compromise on your non-negotiables. When the Ukraine war sent costs spiralling, Giulia held her quality line and raised prices instead of cutting corners, and customers rewarded her for it. Know what you won't trade, and price accordingly. 2. Passion plus authenticity beats playbooks. She built a standout brand in a category nobody had disrupted (fresh pasta) by staying close to what she genuinely knows and loves. Innovation came from her story, not from copying someone else's. 3. Persistence needs patience. "When the train is coming, you don't have to jump straight away." Ups and downs are the job. The founders who make it are the ones who keep going without rushing decisions that compromise the long-term vision. WHAT WE COVER - Modelling in New York at 18: the money, the pressure, and restricting to 800 calories a day - Nonna's kitchen: the pasta-making childhood that became the business - Testing demand on Nextdoor, and pitching retailers with a plastic bag of gnocchi - Six months driving around Italy to find a manufacturer, and selling them the dream - Why she'd never compromise on quality, even when costs exploded - Two days of maternity leave, pitching Ocado ten days after giving birth, and the lesson in slowing down - "A company fails when the founder is tired": mental health, therapy, and switching off - Funding: bootstrapped on modelling savings, then a £500K round from angels who back her - The future of food: real ingredients over fake meat, and Sunny & Luna as a lifestyle brand - Why the business is named after her cats 💬 Giulia has a question for you. See the pinned comment and tell us your favourite. Guest: Giulia Berretti Sunny & Luna: https://sunnyandluna.co.uk | Instagram: @sunnyandlunaeats Hosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard and Dr. Becky Sage. 🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player. 👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps the show grow. #FoundedAndGrounded #StartupPodcast #Entrepreneurship #FoodStartup #FemaleFounder Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nobody would give Hannah a room. So Hannah decided to control who gets one.Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. "I cold called all of the landlords I'd ever met at Bristol and got horribly rejected by most. Definitely cried a lot in the first few weeks." That's how Hannah Chappatte started hybr and this episode opens with it. Rejected by the University of Bristol on her predicted grades, she proved them wrong, got in, got a first, then skipped the consulting grad schemes to fix the thing every student complains about: finding a house. Fast forward, hybr has raised a £3.24M seed round and is building the one-stop rental platform for the UK's 3 million students, first-time renters drowning in jargon, deprioritised by agents, and at risk of exploitation. This is a masterclass in validation, resilience and focus from a founder who did it with no network, no funding and no playbook, and who'll tell you straight: if you can avoid raising money, avoid it. 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Rejection is the R&D. Every landlord "no" became a rewritten pitch and a rebuttal, until the yeses came. Persistence isn't gritting your teeth; it's a feedback loop. Validate by selling, not by building in silence. 2. Focus is a system, not a feeling. Two company objectives per quarter, one North Star metric. If a project doesn't ladder into them, it doesn't get worked on, however shiny. 3. Build sustainably from day one. Validate on the smallest possible scale with minimal tech investment, prove the problem and market are big enough, and design for profitability early; it de-risks everything that comes after. And it applies to you too: Hannah calls out the sleep-under-the-desk myth. Sprints are real; burnout kills businesses.  WHAT WE COVER - Cold-calling landlords, crying through rejections, and rewriting the pitch every time - The consulting grad-scheme escape and throwing herself in 100% after graduation - Going from co-founder to sole founder after three months , and why her next business will have one - Both sides of the marketplace: what students and landlords actually need - Raising a £3.24M seed in a market where 2% of funding goes to women - The worst advice ever: the VC who'd only invest if she pivoted to food - The power of being underestimated - The event where 100 people RSVP'd and one turned up - Radical Candor, building a team of 15, and rejecting hustle culture - Gen Z, mental hygiene, remote-vs-office, and her vision: no empty rooms in the UK  💬 Hannah has a question for you , see the pinned comment and tell us your answer. Guest: Hannah Chappatte LinkedIn: Hannah Chappatte | HYBR: https://hybr.co.uk Socials: @hybr.uk on TikTok, Instagram and X Hosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard and Dr. Becky Sage.  🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player. 👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts , it genuinely helps the show grow. #FoundedAndGrounded #StartupPodcast #Entrepreneurship #PropTech #FemaleFounder Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Surviving crisis - from a Beirut hostage ordeal to losing every client overnight. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary.  Dave Mason has survived two crises most people never face: being held hostage in Beirut and every client cancelling in a single afternoon. Now he helps companies survive theirs.  ⚠️ Note: this episode contains a first-hand account of violence and trauma (a hostage situation and PTSD).  Listener discretion advised. In 2006, Dave Mason was reporting on displaced families in Beirut when his car was surrounded by a mob. Dave and his colleague held on in the back of that car, fighting for their lives, punched, robbed, and threatened- before, of all groups, Hezbollah ended up getting them to safety, and he was taken to meet the Prime Minister of Lebanon.  This is not the only crisis Dave has survived. From a media-obsessed teenager -  fired up by a single teacher's offhand comment - Dave built a 30-year career spanning local radio (he founded the much-loved Orchard FM), GMTV breakfast TV and NATO media training. Then he backed himself, financing a management buyout against his own pension to buy the agency he worked for. Three months later, COVID hit and every single client cancelled in one afternoon. This is how he rebuilt in 48 hours, turned crisis into a four-day-week business, and spun out Splutter -  a real-time social media crisis simulator now used in one of the world's largest financial-sector crisis exercises (1,000+ participants, Hong Kong).  Along the way: honest financial advice for freelancers, why local media still matters, what AI really means for PR, and why your health is worth more than the money. If you're a founder weighing up a risky bet, a management buyout, or how to survive when the market disappears overnight, this one's for you.  KEY TAKEAWAYS  1. Resilience is adaptability. Dave didn't survive COVID by waiting it out,  he rebuilt in 48 hours and pivoted his media training into a digital-first product. When the market vanishes, the move is to reshape what you offer, fast.  2. Use AI to amplify people, not replace them. 3. Your health is the real wealth. Dave's line "if you've got your health, you are a millionaire" rings so true. Money is the trade-off freelancers make; protecting your wellbeing is what makes the success sustainable.  WHAT WE COVER - Beirut, 2006: 45 minutes that became a near-death experience - and the PTSD treatment that followed - The teacher's comment that lit the fire, and breaking into media with cold letters as a 15-year-old (75 rejection letters kept to this day) - Founding Orchard FM - why local radio mattered, and what we lost when the corporates took over - The freelance reality: "no show, no dough", saving for sickness, and the holiday that costs double - Financing a management buyout against your pension - and what the regulators put him through - The COVID afternoon every client vanished - and the 48-hour pivot that saved the business - Building Splutter: simulating thousands of hostile avatars to stress-test real organisations - What AI really means for PR, focus vs adaptability, and why careers only make sense looking backwards  💬 Over to you: what's the toughest crisis you've had to navigate in your business? Tell us in the comments.  Guest: Dave Mason LinkedIn: Dave Mason | X: @DaveMasonTV Splutter: https://splutter.training Mentor Media Training: https://mentormediatraining.co.uk Hosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard and Dr. Becky Sage.  🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player. 👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it genuinely helps the show grow. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

They bought an office in lockdown when nobody else was buying. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. Two mates met on a rugby pitch, became accountant and client, then bought an office building in the middle of lockdown, when no one else was buying. In this episode, Ollie speaks to Rhys Jones (The Online Accountant) and Olly Ladbrooke (Moose Studios), business partners behind the Bristol Office Hub, about going from corporate life to running multiple businesses side by side. They get honest about the mindset shift from employee to serial entrepreneur, the brutal moment a down-valuation left them scraping to fund a leaking roof, why complementary skills beat codified roles, and how community and referrals (not contrived networking) quietly built everything. Plus, we explore AI in accountancy and marketing, and why "just show up and take action" still wins. Whether you're a solo founder feeling the isolation or weighing up a big risk, this one's for you. LISTENER TAKEAWAYS 1. Resilience isn't a trait; it's a position. Their first building ran "like a dream", which is exactly what gave them the confidence and cushion to survive a brutal down-valuation on the second. 2. Cash buys you calm. Build six to twelve months of runway in the first two years, keep it lean, and you stop pouring energy into chasing bills instead of growing. 3. Action beats overthinking. No scaremongering about AI, these business partners just show up, make the call, and move forward. 90% of success is being there and taking the next step. GUESTS Rhys Jones, accountant and co-founder of The Online Accountant and The Property Accountant. Left corporate life to go solo, took on Olly as client number one, now runs a six-person practice. Olly Ladbrooke, chartered surveyor (ex-BNP Paribas) and founder of Moose Studios, a marketing agency with offices in Bristol and London. Together they own and run the Bristol Office Hub. Bristol Office Hub — bristolofficehub.co.uk (195–197 Whiteladies Road, Bristol) Moose Studios - moosestudios.co.uk The Online Accountant - theonlineaccountant.com Have questions about this episode? Ask our hosts, chat now via our website Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is software dead, or just being rebuilt? Ollie spent two weeks obsessing over Claude Cowork and turned 100 episodes of Founded & Grounded into a content engine. Becky spoke alongside the legendary Steve Blank. We break down agentic AI, SaaS valuations, customer development, pricing as conversation, and why human connection is the moat that AI cannot copy. This will leave you wanting to experiment right now. Key takeaways - Agentic AI is not a tool you add. It's the sand between your existing software stack, doing the connective work while you sleep, so you stop running the business by hand. - Pricing is a conversation, not a number. Steve Blank's lesson is simple. Ask the customer the question, listen to the answer, then build the proposal. Skip that step, and you're guessing with someone else's money. - AI raises the floor on output. It does nothing for trust. The founders who win the next cycle are the ones in rooms without laptops, building relationships that agents cannot fake.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.