James Mishreki went from professional poker player to building Skin+Me, a personalised prescription skincare company now valued at £160 million. But what really drives someone to keep playing when the stakes get this high?

In this episode, James talks about how poker taught him to detach from outcomes and make decisions with incomplete information. We get into the weekend Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and he thought he'd lost everything — £13 million gone overnight — and the 20-30 minutes where he felt "completely lost" before the founder community rallied.

He explains why he believes resilience can't be taught, and why if you have to convince yourself to start a company, you probably shouldn't. He describes going on BBC News "looking like a ghost" after two days without sleep, and why he now calls himself "addicted to company building," comparing entrepreneurship to a dopamine hit he can't quit.

skinandme.com

Michelle Kluz is the CEO of Stila Cosmetics, the 31-year-old heritage beauty brand known for its cult liquid eyeliner. Before Stila, Michelle worked at Boston Consulting Group, held multiple CEO roles including running a billion-dollar business in her mid-thirties, and founded her own athleisure brand Urban Savage after moving to Australia.

In this episode, we discuss the misconception that corporate careers are rigid and soulless, why being a founder was humbling after years in senior leadership, and how Michelle's self-diagnosed ADHD means she actually thrives in complex corporate environments rather than the deep-focus work required of early-stage founders. Michelle shares the personal connection that drew her to Stila, her approach to repositioning a heritage brand, and a candid account of being told she didn't "look credible enough" for a CEO role—then turning down the same company when they came back six months later. We also get into the mental health realities of entrepreneurship that rarely get discussed.

stila.co.uk

Dr Olivia Ahn is the co-founder of Fluus, the world's first flushable, microplastic-free period pad. A medical doctor turned entrepreneur, she built the company alongside her partner Aaron Koshy after they met at Imperial College London. What started as a conversation about sustainable guilt and the lack of innovation in period care became a mission to create a product that didn't force consumers to choose between convenience and the planet.

In this episode, Olivia talks about her endometriosis diagnosis and how it sparked her search for better products, the toilet paper moment that led to her eureka idea, and the three technical challenges the industry said were impossible to solve. She explains how COVID forced them to build their own manufacturing machine when the industry shut down, and shares what it's really been like launching into Boots and Tesco as a small player in a market dominated by giants.

We also discuss the emotional rollercoaster of building a business with your partner, learning to manage a team for the first time, and why "sanitary pad" is a banned word at Fluus.

Find Fluus at wearefluus.com or in Boots and Tesco stores nationwide.