In this 40 Minute Mentor episode, James is joined by two leading voices in the talent ecosystem to unpack one of the biggest make-or-break factors in startup success: building high-performing teams in the AI era.

Between them, Sandra Schwarzer from Index Ventures and Charles Guillemet from Lovable have worked with some of the most ambitious Founders and fastest-scaling businesses in the world. 

Together, they share a candid and practical look at what hiring and team-building really looks like in 2026: How the best Founders attract exceptional talent, why speed matters more than ever, what companies get wrong when scaling, and how AI is changing the way high-performing organisations hire, operate and grow.

Whether you’re a Founder, Operator, Investor or Talent Leader, this episode is packed with actionable insight on hiring, culture, performance and leadership in a fast-changing market.

📚 Episode Chapters: 

➡️ 03:50 - Lessons from Elon Musk and what exceptional Founders look for in talent

➡️ 09:30 - Building AI-native teams and why speed is now a competitive advantage

➡️ 18:15 -  How to avoid expensive hiring mistakes

➡️ 31:15 - Predictions for 2026: AI, talent strategy and the future of high-performing teams

🤝A big thank you to our episode sponsors: 

To bring this conversation and event to life, we partnered with the team at Penfold - a modern workplace pension designed for today’s growing companies and their teams. While traditional pension providers often see engagement as low as 5-10%, resulting in a benefit that does almost nothing for your team’s financial wellbeing, Penfold is built to make pensions clear, intuitive, and genuinely useful, with over 80% employee engagement. 

Trusted by thousands of companies including the likes of Anthropic, Airwallex, Lendable and Capital on Tap, Penfold helps employees easily consolidate old pensions, choose funds that actually fit them, and understand how today’s decisions shape their retirement.. Companies benefit from dedicated support with fewer questions and less admin.  

Switching to Penfold only takes minutes, so take a look at how you can offer a pension that’s truly a benefit.

Season 14 of 40 Minute Mentor has been one of our most special seasons yet, and in this short wrap-up episode, James reflects on the pocket-sized mentorship moments throughout this season and over the last 14 seasons. 

In this season alone, we’ve had some incredible guests joining us, and we covered everything from Co-Founder dynamics, High Performance, the realities of hyper-growth, AI and the importance of diversity in leadership. 

If you haven’t caught up on Season 14 yet, or you’re new to the podcast, make sure you dig through the archives of over 310 episodes. 

In today’s episode, you’ll also find out more about what’s next for 40 Minute Mentor and how you can get even more involved and benefit from our pocket-sized mentorship  in 2026….

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Subscribe to our 40 Minute Mentor emails

✨ Follow JBM on LinkedIn

✨ Subscribe to the 40 Minute Mentor YouTube channel

🎧 You may also like:

Alex Depledge MBE on taking a Founder’s Mind into the Government & why the UK is a great place to scale

Shimona Mehta on scaling Shopify Plus to $1B & transitioning into the CEO role at F11

Murvah Iqbal on scaling one of Europe’s fastest-growing startups and disruption a billion dollar industry with Hived 

What does it really take to build and scale Startups in the UK, even when the odds feel stacked against you?

Find out from today’s 40 Minute Mentor, Alex Depledge MBE, serial entrepreneur, Co-Founder and CEO of Resi, and Entrepreneurship Advisor to the Chancellor of the Exchequer - the first time an entrepreneur has ever sat at the heart of the UK Treasury.

After co-founding Hassle.com and scaling it to £8m in revenue across four countries in just two years, Alex sold it for €32m and not long after decided to jump straight back into the Founder seat. This time with Resi, the UK’s largest residential architectural firm, using technology to help solve the country’s housing challenges through extensions and renovations.

In today’s episode, Alex shares her journey from growing to building category-defining companies, why resilience and stoicism have shaped her leadership style, and why she believes the UK is brilliant at starting businesses, and we’re just about to see the next wave of change with doubling down on Scaleups. 

📚Episode Chapters:

➡️ Building resilience early on [05:20]

➡️ Choosing yourself & changing the narrative [08:20] 

➡️ Why the UK is a great place for Startups [14:40] 

➡️ Going again and building Resi [16:50]

➡️ Inside the Treasury [24:10]

➡️ The biggest blockers for UK Scaleups [28:30]

➡️ What changed in the Budget & why it matters for Founders  [30:50]

➡️ The emotional cost of entrepreneurship [39:30]

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Connect with Alex

✨ Find out more about Resi

⭐ Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm 

🎧 You may also like:

Talent Predictions for 2026: How to attract and hire the best talent in the year ahead with Amplified People Group’s Sophie Graci, Zach Rose, James Adams and Lisa Crane

Behind The Doors Of Number 10 Downing Street with Sam Gyimah 

Downing Street, Death Threats and DE&I with Baroness Oona King 

What does the hiring landscape really look like for 2026, and how can founders attract and retain exceptional talent in a market that’s evolving faster than ever?

Continuing on from Wednesday’s episode on People Predictions for 2026, James Mitra is joined by more Amplified People Group team members, Sophie Graci and Zach Rose from JBM, James Adams and Lisa Crane from Foundation Partners, to unpack the biggest shifts shaping the talent market heading into 2026.

From the rise of player-coach leaders, to the renewed importance of human connection in an AI-enabled world, the team share their front-line insights on how founders can scale smarter, avoid costly hiring mistakes, and stand out to top candidates.

They also dive deep into the growing role of fractional talent, why alignment and clarity are still the most underrated parts of hiring, and how candidates can differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market.

If you're hiring in 2026, or gearing up for your next role, this conversation is full of practical and actionable advice.

📚Episode Chapters:
➡️ The biggest shifts in hiring throughout 2025 [03:20]

➡️ The most common hiring mistakes [07:30]

➡️ Employer brand & attracting the best talent [12:30]

➡️ Fractional hiring - and when it doesn’t work  [17:20]

➡️ Scaling in 2026: Advice for founders preparing to grow  [34:00]

➡️ How candidates can stand out in a competitive market [37:00]

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Find out more about Foundation Partners

✨ Find out more about JBM

⭐ Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm 

🎧 You may also like:

People Predictions for 2026: The Future of Leadership and High-Performing Teams with Amplified Group’s Sophie Matthews, Nat Falconer, Mikael Nilsson and Logan Black

Alan Cairns on hiring in hyper-growth & a guide to culture and performance

Neda Sahebelm & Carla Hoppe: How to make fractional hiring & careers work

What does the year ahead really hold for leaders, founders and people teams?

In this special 40 Minute Mentor roundtable, James Mitra is joined by Amplified Group’s people experts, Sophie Matthews, Nat Falconer and Mikael Nilsson from Foundation Partners, and Logan Black from Unleashed, to explore the biggest people and talent trends shaping 2026.

From leaner organisations and the rise of fractional talent, to more focus on high-performing cultures, the team unpack what high performance will actually look like next year, and why middle managers may become the most influential layer in your organisation.

If you’re looking to scale your team, embed new technology or simply want no-BS guidance on hiring and retaining top talent, then this episode is for you. 

📚Episode Chapters:

➡️ The rise of leaner and more efficient teams [05:10]

➡️ AI hype vs reality [12:00] 

➡️ Defining high performance [25:45] 

➡️ The biggest people challenges heading into 2026 [31:00] 

➡️ What top candidates are really looking for [35:00] 

➡️ Bold people predictions for the year ahead [40:00] 

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Find out more about Foundation Partners

✨ Find out more about Unleashed

⭐Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm 

🎧 You may also like:

Murvah Iqbal on scaling one of Europe’s fastest-growing startups and disruption a billion dollar industry with Hived

Tamara Lohan MBE on scaling the iconic Mr & Mrs Smith travel brand from idea to exit 

Andrew Richardson on building high-performing businesses & leadership teams with Amplified Group

What does it take to build one of Europe’s fastest-growing startups in a legacy industry? 

Find out from today’s 40 Minute Mentor, Murvah Iqbal, Co-Founder and CEO of Hived, the UK’s first customer-centric, all-electric, tech-enabled parcel delivery company designed for modern e-commerce.

Long before raising a $42 million Series B and rolling out an 100% electric fleet across eight UK cities, Murvah was captaining Manchester City’s women’s youth team, running marketing for her family’s fast-food chain, and hustling entrepreneurial ideas. 

Today, she leads a team transforming parcel delivery through world-class technology, operational excellence and a relentless belief that there had to be a better way.

This episode is a masterclass in leadership grit, co-founder dynamics, building high-performing teams, and scaling a moonshot idea from two founders on bikes to millions of parcels delivered for some of the UK’s biggest brands.

📚Episode Chapters:

➡️ Transferrable skills from football to entrepreneurship [06:05] 

➡️ The Silicon Valley spark that led to building Hived [08:00] 

➡️ Co-Founder dynamics & complementary strengths [13:00] 

➡️ From bikes to millions of parcels delivered [15:00] 

➡️ Fundraising realities [24:00] 

➡️ Scaling hiring and culture [30:00] 

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Connect with Murvah

✨ Find out more about Hived

⭐Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm

What does it really take to build an inclusive, high-performance culture in a fast-growing scaleup?

Today’s 40 Minute Minute Mentor is Alan Cairns, serial Chief People Officer and most recently CPO at GoCardless, the FinTech helping over 100,000 businesses get paid on time through bank payments and open banking. 

With 30+ years across operations, people and talent, Alan has led some of the UK’s most recognisable brands through intense growth and change, from Chapter 11 restructuring and mass redundancies to category creation and hyper-growth.

In today’s episode, he shares candid lessons from his journey from mechanical engineering to CPO and COO, and unpacks what high performance actually looks like in practice. 

📚Episode Chapters:

➡️ From mechanical engineering to People & Talent [01:20] 

➡️ The power of delegating and letting go [05:00] 

➡️ What great Founders have in common [10:40] 

➡️ CPO skills & building trust in the C-Suite [14:00] 

➡️ Moving from CPO to COO [20:00] 

➡️ What high performance really means [32:00] 

➡️ What makes or breaks culture in hypergrowth [39:00] 

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Connect with Alan

⭐ Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm 

🎧 You may also like:

Shimona Mehta on scaling Shopify Plus to $1B & transitioning into the CEO role at F11

Jevan Soo Lenox on building AI-first cultures & high-performing teams at fast-growth Unicorn WRITER 

Dinika Mahtani on going from Operator at Uber to backing early-stage startups at Cherry Ventures

Today’s 40 Minute Mentor is Shimona Mehta, CEO at F11 - the one-stop platform for digital advertising.

Prior to joining F11, Shimona spent 6 years at Shopify, working across the Revenue function and becoming Managing Director of EMEA, where she built the rocketship commercial offering Shopify Plus from 0 to $1 billion. 

It doesn’t take a lot of digging through Shimona’s CV or many conversations with her to see that the underlying drive to the great career she’s built is her passion for building high-performing teams. 

In this candid live recording, we discuss the powerful lessons Shimona learned on scaling sustainably, and why humility, clarity and trust are the true accelerators of growth. 

📚Episode Chapters:

➡️ Scaling Shopify Plus to $1B  [04:10] 

➡️ The biggest challenges of hyper-scale growth [07:00] 

➡️ How Shimona progressed so quickly at Shopify [13:20] 

➡️ Why choosing the right people opens every door [14:00] 

➡️ Why F11 and the art of taking over as CEO [19:10] 

➡️ A playbook for high-performing teams [32:00] 

➡️ Why diverse leadership teams win [37:30]

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Connect with Shimona

✨ More about F11

⭐ Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️
Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm

Today’s 40 Minute Mentor is Duncan Clark, Head of EMEA at Canva, the world-leading visual-communication platform on a mission to empower the world to design. 

Before joining Canva, Duncan co-founded Flourish, the data-storytelling platform used by newsrooms and organisations worldwide to bring data to life. 

Duncan’s journey from data journalist at The Guardian to first-time founder, selling to Canva, and now leading EMEA, is packed with lessons on building sustainably, scaling with trust, and staying true to your mission. 

📚Episode Chapters:

➡️ Duncan’s path into journalism [01:35] 

➡️ First-time Founder lessons [10:00] 

➡️ Scaling lean & staying profitable [17:10] 

➡️ Selling to Canva & building Canva EMEA from scratch [18:45] 

➡️ Culture & Leadership at scale [29:30] 

➡️ Hiring for impact [35:00] 

⭐ Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm 

Today’s 40 Minute Mentor is Asi Sharabi, Co-Founder and CEO of Wonderbly, the world’s leading personalised publishing company. 

Founded in 2012, Wonderbly is on a mission to inspire boundless self-belief in children through clever and sophisticated personalisation. 

Over the last decade, Asi and the team have gone from strength to strength, raising money from some of the biggest investors in the industry, winning multiple awards, growing the team and shipping over 10 million books. 

In this episode, Asi opens up about the reality behind this fast-growth journey, from raising capital to taking back ownership and scaling the team while keeping a strong culture at the core. 

📚Episode Chapters:

➡️ The moment it all started [02:00] 

➡️ Hypergrowth & fundraising lessons [10:00] 

➡️ Building a high-performing culture without burning people out [13:30] 

➡️ Why proximity still matters in a remote world [23:20] 

➡️ Selling to Penguin Random House [26:30] 

➡️ The hard side of being a Founder [32:20] 

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Connect with Asi

✨ More about Wonderbly

✨ Asi’s book recommendation

⭐ Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm

Today’s 40 Minute Mentor is Thomas Plantenga, the CEO of Vinted - Europe’s largest secondhand marketplace and Lithuania’s first-ever unicorn. 

What started as a small Lithuanian startup in 2008 has evolved into a fast-growth business with millions of users, 2,000+ employees and a €5 billion valuation. 

In today’s conversation, Thomas shares the ins and outs of his journey with Vinted, how it became such a global success, the biggest leadership lessons he learnt along the way and what’s next for the business with the launch of Vinted Ventures. 

If you’re a founder or operator navigating scaleup challenges, this episode is a masterclass in turnaround strategy, culture building and leading with humility. 

📚Episode Chapters:

➡️ Early years & the call that changed everything  [07:30]

➡️ Realising Vinted was in trouble [16:00] 

➡️ Spotting the first signs of growth [20:00] 

➡️ The hardest leadership lessons [23:00] 

➡️ The art of hiring at scale & psychological safety [27:00] 

➡️ Launching Vinted Ventures [36:40] 

🔍 Find out more: 

✨ Connect with Thomas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-p-19651414/?originalSubdomain=lt 

✨ More about Vinted: https://www.vinted.co.uk/ 

⭐ Enjoyed this episode? ⭐️

Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform.

And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm