Most entrepreneurs have one curious trait in common: a desperate lack of time combined with a constant desire for self-improvement. Perhaps that’s why the podcast, with its quick, easily- digestible format, has become such fertile territory for entrepreneurial thinking.
But, with this ever-growing cacophony of voices pleading for your attention, it can be hard to know whose advice to take. With that in mind, we’ve curated a quick playlist of the five entrepreneurial podcasts that we swear by over at Gentleman’s Journal HQ. Turn on, tune in, and make your fortune.
An engrossing nuts-and-bolts breakdown of the classic start-up journey. In a series of interviews with various company founders and CEOs, How I Built This takes its listeners from the very germ of an idea through to the failures and triumphs and right up to the present day.
The detail, candour and verve with which these entrepreneurs recount their stories is daunting and inspiring in equal measure, but the general effect after each episode is an overwhelming desire to get out there and do it – whatever “it” happens to be. Recent highlights include an interview with Five Guys founder Jerry Murrell, who tells us the unlikely story of how he built his mother’s motto – “you can always make money if you know how to make a good burger” – into an international super chain.
Another candid interview show that reveals the inner workings of the industry, the Start Up Stories podcast approaches entrepreneurship with all the pragmatism and balance that you’d expect from the Pink Pages. Jonathan Moules’ show is particularly interested in the businesses that don’t perhaps often make the headlines – the quiet, industrious and ingenious enterprises that can tell us much more about real working life than the well-worn stories of Uber, Snapchat or Facebook.
The BBC’s Bottom Line leverages all its institutional clout to gather together a bewildering and varied cast of business leaders and world famous entrepreneurs. Nimbly hosted by Newsnight’s Evan Davis, the podcast digs deep into the business issues that really matter, and is rarely afraid to put its guests on the spot. Topics range from corporate espionage to the UK space industry to the warring world of fast food giants, and everything in between.
Gary Vaynerchuk’s bro-inflected, over-enunciated, slightly-sweary schtick might wrankle as many as it inspires, but the original start up guru knows his stuff. His podcast is an ever-growing, daily-updated mish mash of interviews with CEOs and founders, stirring speeches, scattered meditations and his own bittersweet start up stories. A good antidote to the microscopic analysis of other business podcasts, Gary Vee’s show provides a healthy dose of daily motivation.
And then, of course, comes our own humble podcast. We like to think that what sets our our new in-depth interview series apart from the competition is the sheer calibre of the guests. A bit like eavesdropping on the world’s most interesting power lunches, the Gentleman’s Journal Podcast brings you unprecedented access to the upper echelons of business success.
In each episode, we interview the men of influence that other shows can’t reach. Men like Nicholas Coleridge of Conde Nast, Pierre LaGrange of Huntsman, Henry Porter of Vanity Fair, and Paul Smith of, well, Paul Smith. Spend half an hour in their company, and it’s hard not to come away sounding, feeling and thinking smarter.
You can find the Gentleman’s Journal Podcast here, or by searching “Gentleman’s Journal” in the podcast app. New episodes every fortnight.
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