Founded & Grounded | Podcast Guru

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Tired of startup hype? So are we. Ranked in the top 2.5% of podcasts globally and a top 5 startup podcast in Europe, Founded & Grounded gives unseen founders the mic, where real stories rise above the noise. Our unique 3-part format blends founder interviews, co-host analysis, and actionable takeaways you can use right now. We go beyond the highlight reel to explore the human, unvarnished side of building a business, from emotional well-being strategies to exploring the paradoxes of entrepreneurship. If you’re an early-stage founder, welcome home. You’ve found your people. Apply to feature 👇 foundedandgrounded.com YouTube 👇 https://www.youtube.com/@FoundedandGroundedPod Spotify 👇 https://open.spotify.com/show/26LBRTAS1epLbLGMWkzasd?si=fb01a80d59e94913 Apple 👇 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/founded-grounded/id1486339606

Recent Episodes

Purpose Built Films: From American Sniper Extra to Accidental Founder

This week: the filmmaker who had an arrow aimed at his crew, then inherited a business he never asked for. Adam Laister went from reluctant salesman and Moroccan surf photographer to American Sniper extra, then camera operator for Vice and National Geographic. A month after becoming director of Purpose Built Films, his business partner left, and the company became his. He shares the Amazon roadblock that ended with his kit set on fire, losing his dad mid-shoot, why broadcast TV is shrinking, and whether we'll ever watch films made entirely by AI. A story about why dead ends aren't stopping points.

78 MIN

Pinpoint Media: One GCSE. Seven Schools. He Sold His Agency.

This week: the founder with one GCSE who bootstrapped his way to a full agency exit. Oliver Bruce left school with one GCSE after seven schools and a neurodiversity diagnosis nobody acted on. He bootstrapped Pinpoint Media from a failed university app into a search, social and creative agency, never raised a penny, and sold it in December 2025. He gets honest about losing 110K chasing a pandemic side venture, nearly missing payroll, the exit playbook, the burnout behind his 14-month podcast pause, and his all-in bet on agentic AI. The kid nobody believed in built the thing everybody wants.

81 MIN

Mezze: A Client Worried He Looked Too "Free-Spirited." His Software Now Handles £10M of Orders a Month.

Simon Bos spent 25 years building other people's startups at Bristol venture studio Gravitywell before finding his own gap: a food giant taking thousands of daily sandwich orders by phone. That absurdity became Mezze, now processing over £10M of orders a month for brands like Pieminister and Samworth Brothers. A conversation about cheap builds that break founders' hearts, why one-to-many content is the introvert's superpower, being told he looked "too free-spirited," and the perspective that only comes from stepping back.

85 MIN

Founders Unplugged: The No Bullsh*t Adviser: Kicked Out of School at 15. Advising Banks by 20. Now 1,000+ Founders Ask Him for the Truth

Kicked out of school at 15, consulting for Oxford's restaurants by 18, and now mentor to over 1,000 founders worldwide: Greg McCallum has built a brand on brutal honesty. The No Bullsh*t Adviser shares the mistake almost every founder makes, why sales is about listening rather than pitching, the AI data secret behind his new startup, Peer, and the real cost of founder life, from dark mental health years to the friendships that never got made. Contains strong language throughout.

95 MIN

Sunny & Luna: From Modelling on 800 Calories a Day to Building a Pasta Brand That Celebrates Food.

Giulia Berretti went from modelling in New York on 800 calories a day to building Sunny & Luna, the fresh pasta brand she started in her own kitchen during COVID, selling first on Nextdoor and winning over Whole Foods with four gnocchi in a plastic bag. Recorded as she closed her first funding round, and released now with the brand on Sainsbury's and Ocado shelves, it's a story about refusing to compromise on quality, respecting your dream, and why persistence only works with patience.

98 MIN