Doing Good: A Tech Startup Journey with GoodBreach
In this episode of Tech Startup Stories, Natalie Binns speaks with Richa Gupta, founder and CEO of GoodBreach, a behavioural fintech startup helping young adults reduce impulse spending and build healthier saving habits.
Drawing from her background in engineering, enterprise sales, and fintech, Richa shares how a personal experience with her younger sister inspired the creation of GoodBreach, a platform designed to intervene before unnecessary purchases happen. Rather than focusing on budgeting after the fact, the app uses behavioural insights, spending analysis, and real-time nudges to help users redirect money towards meaningful financial goals.
The conversation explores the realities of building a fintech startup from scratch, including conducting user research, finding the right developers, navigating FCA compliance, and balancing product iteration with long-term vision. Richa also discusses the wider ambition behind GoodBreach, including the future of “Save Now, Buy Later” technology and how behavioural finance could reshape consumer spending.
This episode is ideal for founders, fintech professionals, behavioural product designers, and anyone interested in startup building, financial wellbeing, and AI-driven consumer technology.
Darkest before the Dawn: A Tech Startup Journey with First Concepts
In this episode of Tech Startup Stories, Natalie Binns speaks with Polina Sali, co-founder and CPO of First Concepts, about building a product at the intersection of creativity, design, and artificial intelligence.
Polina shares her non-linear journey from architecture to startups, shaped by global disruption, experimentation across disciplines, and a deep curiosity about how creative and technical thinking can work together. The conversation explores how First Concepts is addressing the fragmentation of creative workflows by providing a centralised space for ideas, references, and execution.
The episode also examines how AI is being applied in a more intentional way, supporting rather than replacing creative work, and how founders can navigate uncertainty, financial pressure, and pivotal moments that redefine their path.
For founders, designers, and product builders, this episode offers valuable insight into building in emerging spaces, creating tools for creatives, and developing products that align with how people actually think and work.
Don't Underestimate the Power of Time: A Tech Startup Journey with GAIO Tech
In this episode of Tech Startup Stories, Natalie Binns speaks with Sophie Carr, founder and CEO of GAIO Tech, about building a startup in the rapidly evolving world of generative AI.
Sophie shares her journey from early-stage failures and pivoting away from an EdTech startup, to identifying a new opportunity in Generative AI Optimisation (GAIO). Drawing on her background in SEO and content strategy, she explains how brands can influence AI-generated responses and why this represents a fundamental shift in digital visibility.
The conversation explores the realities of startup building, including the importance of resilience, finding the right co-founder, and learning when to pivot based on market signals. Sophie also breaks down her approach to scaling, why focusing on fewer, high-quality clients can outperform rapid growth, and how building a product-led business requires a different mindset from service-based work.
This episode is ideal for founders, marketers, and operators interested in AI, SEO, and the practical challenges of building a tech startup from the ground up.
Trust your Vision: A Tech Startup Journey with Trust Verified
This week on Tech Startup Stories, Natalie Binns is joined by Chloe Scott, founder of Trust Verified, to discuss building a trust and verification platform in an industry where credibility is often assumed rather than proven. Chloe reflects on her experience in the property investment space and the lack of oversight that leaves investors exposed, which led her to create a product centred on verified identity, compliance, and evidenced professional references.
The discussion covers shaping the idea through early validation, choosing a lean MVP over premature scale, and building the platform alongside a small group of founding members. Chloe also shares honest insights into navigating the journey without a technical background, resisting shortcuts that conflict with personal values, and learning to trust her own judgement as a first-time founder.
This episode offers a grounded look at building trust as infrastructure, making deliberate trade-offs in the early stages, and growing a tech business with integrity in markets where accountability is often missing.
From Big Tech to Deep Tech: A Tech Startup Journey with PVML
In this episode of Tech Startup Stories, Natalie Binns speaks with Rina Galperin, CTO and co-founder of PVML, about the transition from big tech to building a deep-tech startup from scratch. Reena shares how a real privacy and compliance problem at Microsoft became the foundation for PVML, the early mistakes technical founders make by over-selling technology instead of pain, and how the team identified CIOs as their true buyers. The conversation explores co-founder dynamics, early hiring, the realities of deep-tech timelines, and the personal cost of building a startup in highly regulated industries.
Building Channels for Success: A Tech Startup Journey with Souk
This episode of the Tech Startup Stories podcast features an in depth conversation with Sofia Hamilton, co-founder and COO of Souk, a partnership management platform designed to help companies discover, manage, and pay partners at scale.
The discussion explores Souk’s rapid journey from Antler accelerator to early revenue, customer traction, and ISO 27001 certification, alongside practical lessons on co-founder dynamics, partnership led growth, and validating a problem before scaling a solution.
Listeners gain insight into how modern SaaS companies can treat partnerships as a core go to market channel, the infrastructure required to support trust and compliance, and the realities of building and selling simultaneously in the early stages.
This episode is valuable for founders, operators, and investors interested in SaaS growth, partnerships, and early stage execution.
Transforming HealthTech Across Africa: A Tech Startup Journey with Drdogood
This episode of the Tech Startup Stories podcast features an in depth conversation with Emmanuella Tordman, co-founder of Drdogood, a healthtech platform focused on improving access, affordability, and continuity of care across African healthcare systems.
The discussion covers the origins of Drdogood, rooted in personal experience with delayed diagnosis and fragmented medical records, and explores how the company is addressing telemedicine, healthcare financing, caregiver support, provider trust, and data protection.
Listeners gain insight into the challenges of building and scaling healthtech in Africa, including regulatory complexity, cultural nuance, provider onboarding, and the realities of operating in under-resourced healthcare environments.
This episode offers valuable perspective for founders, operators, and investors interested in healthtech, emerging markets, and mission driven technology built for real world impact.
Growing a Mission Led Startup: A Tech Startup Story from Niyo Labs
In this episode, we explore how Oyinkansola Adebayo built Niyo Labs into a mission led tech company transforming access to skills, opportunity, and economic mobility. From early community roots to a scalable gamified learning platform, Oyin shares the realities of growing with purpose, navigating challenges, and staying true to the people she serves. A powerful and honest look at what it means to build a startup that puts impact at the centre.
The Scary Task of Helping 350,000: A Tech Startup Story with Oprising
In episode 9 of Tech Startup Stories, Michelle Coombs, founder of Oprising, shares her journey from MSP consultant to SaaS founder, explaining how she built a platform with 380 assessment questions and 1,400 pre-built actions to help managed service providers optimize their operations. Michelle discusses bootstrapping her MVP with a £10K grant from the Greater Things program, balancing product development with running her consultancy and single parenthood, and setting an ambitious goal to help 350,000 people in tech by 2032 through scalable technology rather than one-on-one consulting.
Having the Energy for the Long Game: A Tech Startup Story with Adelan
“Having the Energy for the Long Game: A Tech Startup Story with Adelan” explores how Dr Michaela Kendall has led Adelan from fuel cell research to a scalable commercial business. The episode focuses on selecting the first market you can win, building a resilient supply chain, and standing up the first factory to hit price points that drive adoption. We discuss how to move from prototype economics to volume economics, how to frame customer value around total cost of ownership and reliability, and how to time demand generation so capacity can deliver. Dr Kendall shares funding realities for UK cleantech, the trade-offs between manufacturing in Britain and the United States, and the leadership habits that keep a deep tech company moving through long cycles. This conversation is practical for founders and operators in climate tech, energy, and industrial hardware who want clear guidance on turning science into repeatable value propositions, aligning operations and buyers to reduce unit cost, and scaling with financial discipline while staying close to the customer.