UKTN | The Podcast

Chris Donnelly, co-founder of Searchable, discusses the wild ride of growing a business in a matter of months to a valuation of $85m. He shares his thoughts on the radical overhaul to search announced by Google and offers tips of what every brand, big or small, needs to know in the age of AI and we hear about the not often talked about dark side of starting a business and how it can be undermined by rivals.

Virgin StartUp’s managing director Andy Fishburn discusses how the non-profit is helping a new generation of entrepreneurs. He talks about its programme designed specifically for dyslexic entrepreneurs, what he thinks we need to do to make Britain a better place to scale, and why a simple walk in the park with 100 founders proved to be a powerful experience.

Michael Herron, the CEO of Atos UK and Ireland, discusses what keeps him awake at night, how Atos is moving towards a human/AI agent world and why he is an optimist about his sons’ futures in the job market. Plus, Herron discusses the rising costs of powering AI and Atos’s surprising role in the Premier League, something that has impressed his 14-year-old son far more than his lead job at Atos.

Greg Jackson reflects on his journey building one of the UK’s largest double unicorns Octopus Energy. He reflects on how he wishes he had started the firm earlier and explains some of his unique ways of running a company, from how a telling off in a previous job made him realise the power of people in an organisation to why he has no HR department. Plus, he discusses how the firm is using AI, including a cautionary tale about how an over-enthusiastic AI system started selling customers a product which didn’t exist.

Emily Turner, CEO of HSBC Innovation Banking UK discusses what makes it a go-to bank for start-ups and how her natural optimism means she sees plenty to celebrate in the UK tech scene, from more and more deals happening outside London, to the impact of AI and why she thinks we should celebrate an influx of foreign capital.