James Reed: all about business

When do you hire, when do you raise, and when is expansion actually the right move?
In this episode of All About Business, James sits down with Forest co-founder Caroline Seton to pull back the curtain on how a London startup scaled to over two million rides a month. From using smart pricing to make customers do the heavy lifting in logistics, to navigating 33 separate sets of local regulations, Caroline breaks down the raw operational tactics and tough strategic trade-offs required to build, survive, and scale an asset-heavy business.
Caroline gives a clear blueprint for turning operational headaches into profit drivers as they explore protecting margins through relentless asset care, knowing exactly when to double down, or kill an idea that isn't working.
Timestamps
01:38 Why Forest Started
10:32 Expanding Across London
15:09 Maintenance at Scale
21:38 Proof It Was Working
31:33 ULEZ and Space Reallocation
38:26 Making London Cycle Capital
44:50 Founder Advice and Tailwinds
Links
Follow James Reed on LinkedIn
Follow Caroline Seton on LinkedIn
Find out more about Forest Bikes and their services HERE
Submit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HERE
All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE
This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk

If your industry is facing a talent shortage or failing to prepare the next generation of workers, the solution isn't to wait for traditional institutions to adapt, it's to build the training infrastructure yourself.
In this episode of All About Business, James sits down with Oscar-nominated film producer Lisa Bryer OBE, and Day One Trust CEO Charlie Kennard MBE. Together, they break down a practical masterclass in rapid business execution, industry-led talent pipelines, and building teams that deliver under high-stakes pressure.
Lisa shares how turning a 24-hour corporate bankruptcy into the birth of Cowboy Films, proved that operational agility outweighs legacy credentials. Charlie details how partnering directly with major global enterprises created a sustainable, job-ready workforce model that prioritizes work-ethic discipline, and real-world execution over academic theory.
This episode gives a clear blueprint for building talent pipelines in your own sector, turning unexpected crises into business momentum, and instilling non-negotiable professional behaviors across your workforce.
Timestamps
02:46 Lisa Builds Cowboy Films
06:17 Charlie Starts The Schools
17:47 Who The School Is For
25:14 Behaviours For Career Success
36:07 Industry Led Curriculum
38:59 Alumni Success Stories
56:26 Advice For Creatives
Links
Follow James Reed on LinkedIn
Follow Charlie Kennard MBE on LinkedIn
Find out more about London Screen Academy and their work
Find out more about Comby Films and their work
Find out more about Day One Trust and their work
Submit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HERE
All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE
This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk

Are you exhausting resources trying to build every system from scratch? You could achieve faster, safer, scale by taking a proven playbook. And executing it better than anyone else.
In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Jake Wilmot-Sitwell, co-founder and COO of Sandbox VR UK. Jake shares how he transitioned from venture capital to entrepreneurship, taking on £10M in capital to scale full-body, immersive VR experiences across the UK and Ireland.
Jake breaks down the core mechanics of their expansion strategy, explaining how a master franchise model eliminated the initial tech-development risk. He details their shift from capital-intensive flagship locations to lean, plug-and-play concession hubs, while sharing actionable frameworks for optimizing yield per square foot, leveraging media partnerships like Netflix, and scaling a frontline workforce.
Timestamps
01:56 Why VR and Entrepreneurship
09:57 Who Comes and Why It Works
22:40 High-End Tech Meets Hospitality
32:42 Hiring Young Teams
41:26 Fixes VAT Wages Rates
51:58 Future IP Partnerships
Links
Follow James Reed on LinkedIn
Follow Jake Wilmot-Sitwell on LinkedIn
Find out more about Sandbox VR and their experiences here
Submit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HERE
All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE
This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk

When your business hits an existential wall, are you willing to rethink your entire financial structure to protect your vision, or will you compromise the mission just to survive?
Most founders believe scaling requires bowing to traditional venture capital and prioritizing short-term margins. COOK proved there is another way by surviving near-bankruptcy, funding its own expansion through an unexpected subsidiary, and scaling past £100 million while keeping absolute control over its mission.
In this episode of All About Business, James Perry, co-founder of COOK and co-founder of B Corp UK joins as guest, and he pulls back the curtain on the messy, high-stakes reality of building a national consumer brand from scratch without burning out or selling out.
They unpack the reality of operational risk, the hard lessons of founder resilience, and how building an inclusive hiring model through the RAW initiative turned a perceived workplace risk into one of their strongest operational assets.
James shares the gritty mechanics behind COOK’s early years: how a loss-making enterprise was kept afloat by a cash-generating bakery, why he turned away standard venture capital, and how leveraging national media attention led to finding the patient, long-term private capital that saved the business. He breaks down how the 2008 financial crash tested their model and why a relentless focus on product integrity built a moat that traditional competitors couldn't cross.
Timestamps
02:08 Cadbury Lessons
10:00 Family Bakery Origins
12:56 Founding Cook
28:48 B Corp Beginnings
37:10 Certifying and Building UK
41:05 RAW Talent Hiring Program
49:19 Systemic Capitalism Glitch
Links
Follow James Reed on LinkedIn
Follow James Perry on LinkedIn
Find out more COOK and their products here
Find out more about B Lab UK and their work here
Submit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HERE
All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE
This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk

Most consumer goods brands ask you to buy more - SURI does the opposite. They designed a sustainable, electric toothbrush made from plant-based materials that is fully recyclable. As a result they scaled to over £50 million worth of sales in just four years.
In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Mark Rushmore, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Sustainable Rituals, SURI. The fast-growing personal care brand that’s disrupting a defended, multi-billion-pound market by proving that daily wellness routines don't have to come at the cost of the planet.
Mark shares his journey from the corporate training ground of Procter & Gamble to navigating extreme burnout after his first agency exit. He explains the business mechanics behind SURI’s rapid scale, and why focusing on a "minimum lovable product" unlocked a viral wave of word-of-mouth growth.
James and Mark explore the strategies behind scaling a highly productive 50-person team, using AI as an operational accelerant rather than a replacement, and the practical frameworks for making tough business decisions. They examine how to establish a values-led culture, why investing in founder relationships with business psychologists is critical to preventing scale-up failure, and what the next generation of consumer brands must do to win.
This leaves us with a compelling question: when building a product for the long term, are you treating your business decisions like a temporary hat, a reversible haircut, or a permanent tattoo?
Timestamps
04:19 Burnout and Life Reset
16:36 Origin Story of SURI
25:08 Pricing Strategy and Lovable Product
31:42 Competing with Giants and Expert Team
37:51 Hiring Values Framework
46:13 Brand Expansion Vision
51:55 Decision Making Lessons
Links
Follow James Reed on LinkedIn
Follow Mark Rushmore on LinkedIn
Find out more SURI and their products here
Submit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HERE
All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE
This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk