The Founders Playbook
Real Stories. Real People. Not from Silicon Valley.
Hosted by Neil Marshall, Development Director at ChangeSchool
Forget the Silicon Valley playbook. This podcast features founders building world-changing deep tech companies right here in the UK – navigating different capital markets, different ecosystems, and different rules. Honest, in-depth conversations with the entrepreneurs proving that breakthrough innovation happens everywhere.
Drawn from over 10 years of working with entrepreneurs around the world, ChangeSchool goes beyond the headlines to explore the real challenges of building a venture outside the Valley.
Latest Episode Spotlight
Nobody Was Measuring the Dose:
How Guesswork Is Costing the NHS £2 Billion a Year
Jason Norman
Founder, FlexiSense
In the NHS, the treatment already exists - FlexiSense is just making sure it actually works.
Jason Norman is not the kind of founder who set out to build a company. The problem FlexiSense is solving sounds almost too simple: compression therapy, wrapping a bandage around a leg to treat venous ulcers, is done entirely by feel. The NHS is spending roughly £2 billion a year on wound care, with a small minority of chronic patients driving most of that cost. Jason's sensor goes under the bandage and tells clinicians exactly what is happening; quality assurance for a treatment that, right now, is pure guesswork.
This conversation is about the part of the spin-out journey that nobody packages into a framework. Jason talks about discovering his real market by walking into NHS clinics and following what nurses complain about when they think no one is listening.
He reflects on the difference between advice from people who have done it and advice from people who talk about it. And he shares what he would do differently. It is a conversation for anyone at the early, uncertain stage of a hard tech company who wants to know what this actually looks and feels like from the inside.
Listen to the Episodes
Real words from real journeys - outside Silicon Valley
"Space is an area really for everyone and that's something I do want people to know, to understand. Anyone can have a future, anyone can have a career in space and do meaningful change."
Sara Alao, Founder of Stars Edge
"We really want to get the best out of each battery. Make every battery count is what I say."
Mahfuz Kamal, CEO RecoVolt
When we put our minds to it, we can actually make a big difference."
Lucy Hughes, Founder & COO MarinaTex
"We're challenging the 200-year-old needle-based technology with a novel, painless, and self-administered solution that can save lives and reduce health inequalities globally."
Henry Dunne, Founder Microneedle Solutions (MNS)
