The Engine - Founders Stories

Explore the journeys of today’s most inspiring tech founders on The Engine – Founders Stories, hosted by Donna Owen, founder and fractional GTM leader at The Engine. Discover how visionary entrepreneurs overcame the “founder-led sales” trap to build predictable, scalable revenue engines - and learn how you can do the same for your business.Join Donna as she sits down with C-suite executives, startup pioneers and growth architects behind groundbreaking SaaS and fintech ventures. Each episode unpacks real-world challenges - from recruiting your first sales team to implementing cost-effective tech stacks - and shares the proven tactics that turned early-stage startups into market leaders.Whether you’re a founder ready to scale, a sales leader seeking fresh playbooks, or a startup advisor looking for actionable case studies, The Engine – Founders Stories delivers the insightful conversations and tangible outcomes you need. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform to join the revenue

The Engine - Founders Stories is a business podcast hosted by Donna, with 31 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Donna hosts The Engine - Founders Stories, a business show with 31 episodes published.

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  The Engine - Founders Stories

  ADHD, Hustle, and Building a £60M Recruitment Business With Guy Walker

  Jun 15, 20261h 5mS1

  <p>In this Founder Stories episode, Guy Walker (CEO of Talentia Group) discusses why he’s invited onto many podcasts, what topics he avoids, and his wide portfolio of startups and investments alongside his core education and public sector recruitment business. He explains how he manages time through strong delegation and by focusing on sales, relationships, and problem-solving, and reflects on being memorable and candid. Guy recounts early hustles for money, a work-experience break into IT at 15, moving into hospitality, a failed bar investment, and a record-setting recruitment career before his mother’s rapid death from pancreatic cancer reshaped his prio...

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  The Engine - Founders Stories

  ADHD, Hustle, and Building a £60M Recruitment Business With Guy Walker

  Jun 15, 20261h 5mS1

  In this Founder Stories episode, Guy Walker (CEO of Talentia Group) discusses why he’s invited onto many podcasts, what topics he avoids, and his wide portfolio of startups and investments alongside his core education and public sector recruitment business. He explains how he manages time through strong delegation and by focusing on sales, relationships, and problem-solving, and reflects on being memorable and candid. Guy recounts early hustles for money, a work-experience break into IT at 15, moving into hospitality, a failed bar investment, and a record-setting recruitment career before his mother’s rapid death from pancreatic cancer reshaped his priorities and led him to start Dovetail from a spare bedroom with £15,000. He covers ADHD as a work “superpower” with downsides, scaling through COVID via client partnership, recent health changes, a passion for supporting young people, and advice for founders on loving the work, hard effort, and building a strong network. 00:00 High Energy Intro 00:33 Why Guy Gets Invited 02:05 What He Does Today 04:18 Time Management Secrets 08:41 Early Hustles and Money 11:03 Work Experience Matters 15:04 From IT to Recruitment 20:01 ADHD as Superpower 24:04 Letting Go of Sales Dopamine 29:03 Starting a Business for Real 31:35 Startup Reality Check 32:39 Bootstrapping Costs Systems 33:58 Runway Risk Planning 34:40 Scaling To 60 Million 35:41 COVID Partnership Playbook 37:23 Behind The Scenes Culture 39:03 Health Over Hustle 43:03 Running Travel Routine 46:40 Help Young People 51:41 Happiness Maximum Challenge 54:45 Dreams Exit Impact Fund 01:00:08 Founder Advice Closing

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  The Engine - Founders Stories

  OLIO Co-Founder Tessa Clarke on Fighting Food Waste, Profit with Purpose, and Building a Mission-Obsessed Team

  Jun 3, 20261h 7mS1

  <p>In this Founder Stories episode, Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of OLIO, explains how her farm upbringing and a moving-day experience sparked the idea for a hyper-local app that helps neighbors give away surplus food and household items. She shares key facts about food waste - one third of food globally is wasted, food waste would be the third-largest emitter if a country, and in the UK 60% occurs in homes versus 2% in supermarkets - and describes OLIO’s scale: 9 million users globally, 5 million in the UK, with about £5m of free food and £1–2m of household items shared monthly in the...

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  The Engine - Founders Stories

  Building Fearless, Founder-Led Growth & The Unconventional Path with Dominic McGregor

  May 27, 20261h 6mS1

  <p>In this episode, the host speaks with Dominic McGregor, founder of Fearless Adventures, about what he’s building now and the experiences that shaped him. Dominic explains Fearless as an investment-and-support business that helps founders scale through three areas: people (via an academy and talent pool), funding (investing in companies), and marketing (with an emphasis on founders articulating the brand story). He discusses when founder-led sales is helpful versus limiting, and why early personal branding can pigeonhole service businesses. Dominic shares his upbringing in York, moving to private school, a long friendship with Sam, and how a lack of cr...

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  Episode #6

  Scaling Passion: Building a Multi-Sport Empire With Asher Smith & Jack Pearce

  May 11, 202647 minS1

  <p><b>How do you turn a shared passion for sport into a rapidly scaling business that reaches thousands of children every week?</b></p><p>In this episode of <b>Founder Stories</b>, Donna Owen sits down with <b>Asher Smith</b> and <b>Jack Pearce</b>, the co-founders of <b>The Athlete Group</b>. From their early days as teenage sports coaches to building a multi-brand organization, Asher and Jack share the raw reality of scaling a service-based business while staying true to their core mission: finding the right sport for every child.</p><p>They dive into...

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