Ruth Rogers, founder of the River Cafe: ”Never hire someone without going to a restaurant with them first…”

Ruth Rogers is the founder of the River Cafe — London's last true power restaurant, and a bastion of brilliant Italian comfort cooking. But the only thing harder than getting a reservation here, perhaps, is getting a seat on her new podcast, 'Table 4.' The brilliant new interview show, helmed by Rogers herself, uses food as the jumping off point for a series of candid, strikingly honest interview with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Iger, David Beckham, Edward Enninful and Pete Davidson. We were lucky enough to sit down with Ruth for half an hour just before lunch service down at the River Cafe. Here — as the knives are sharpened, the onions cut, and the seabass  filleted — she tells us how the restaurant originally came about almost by chance; her first memories of coming to England; what her ultimate comfort food is; and why you should always have a meal with someone before you hire them.

Ben Francis, CEO of Gymshark: “We made more money in half an hour than we had done in the entire history of the business…”

Ben Francis is the founder and CEO of GymShark, a fitness company he started with some school friends back in 2012, drop-shipping supplements to their pals in the bodybuilding community. The first thing Ben sold was a £52 pound tub of USN Hyperbolic Mass protein powder — an order that earned ben a whopping £2 profit, but which left him, in his own words, dancing around his bedroom. A few years later, a single event caused one of Gymshark's tracksuits to go viral, and the young company went from selling £300 of clothes a day, to making £30,000 of revenue in just half a single hour. But it wasn’t until last year, perhaps, that the company became a true household name, and the 29-year-old Ben became a poster boy for modern British entrepreneurship — after General Atlantic invested more than $260 million in the business, valuing it at over a billion pounds. 

In a highly enjoyable episode of the podcast, we sat down with Ben up at company's  Solihull campus to discuss why humility is the best trait of all; the time Ben suffered a total ‘ego death,’ and how we should always feel like we’re winging it, all of the time. Enjoy. 

”Naivety is our greatest weapon” — Jamie Laing, founder of Candy Kittens

Our guest today is Jamie Laing, the founder of Candy Kittens, former star of Strictly Come Dancing and Made in Chelsea, and now author of a new memoir: I Can Explain. Jamie is one of the most open and honest and energetic guests we’ve ever had on the show. A natural entrepreneur with infectious enthusiasm, in his early twenties he walked into a meeting with Harvey Nichols to pitch his new business Candy Kittens — and walked away with a £150,000 purchase order, despite never having produced a single sweet. When he was a kid, Jamie’s friends used to joke that everything he touched came with L.A.T: Laing Added Tax. But more than that, he’s a true entertainer — and a thoughtful commentator on topics of mental health, popular culture, and the perils of social media. 

In a wonderful episode of the Gentleman’s Journal podcast, Jamie tells us why he originally thought Made in Chelsea might be the biggest mistake of his life; the problem with the label ‘posh’; how he always used to worry that a swarm of wasps might turn up and ruin the party; and why we should all tell our parents we love them as much as possible. 

Scooter Braun, music mogul: “There is no retreat. We’re going to figure this out, or we’re going to die here”

Scooter Braun is a media proprietor, record executive, investor and manager, best known, perhaps, as the mastermind behind the careers of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and many others. He started his career selling Fake IDs at Emory University, before becoming one of the most successful club promoters in Atlanta. After dropping out of college, Scooter jumped headfirst into the music industry — where he discovered an angelic young street busker called Justin Bieber while scrolling through YouTube one evening. The rest, as they say, is history — but that leaves out all the wild highs and lows of the years that followed: the way that the music industry bigwigs described the pair as “that internet kid and his crazy manager”; the trials and tribulations of fame and success; and the succession of canny deals that turned Scooter Braun into one of the most formidable forces in his field today.  

In a fascinating and candid interview, Scooter talks to us how he slept with a gun by his bedside for years; why he loves founders with a ‘burn the ships’ mentality; and how he’s finally re-claiming his real name, Scott, once and for all. 

Charlie Bigham: “If everyone’s doing one thing, perhaps you should do the opposite…”

Charlie Bigham is the man behind the gourmet food brand that bears his name — and the saviour of many a weekday dinner time. Known for his wholesome takes on British classics, Charlie’s eponymous company — which celebrates its quarter century this year — sells 80,000 meals every single week, and will likely hit £100 million pounds in sales this year alone.

But for Charlie, you sense that the finances are much less important than the food — and in a fascinating episode of the podcast, the founder tells us how a night on the Iran-Pakistan border provided his lightbulb moment; how the financial crisis of 2007 nearly scuppered the business; why he resents his food being called ‘posh’; and what happened when a noted food critic tasted his lasagne.

“The next Coco Chanel will be a programmer” — Federico Marchetti, founder and chairman of YOOX-NET-A-PORTER

Federico Marchetti is the founder and Chairman of YOOX-Net-a-Porter. He grew up in Ravenna, an ancient town in Northern Italy, which is home to some of the most historically significant mosaics in the world. And Federico describes his career, in fact, like a giant mosaic — a long process of placing building blocks on top of building blocks, slowly working towards a grand design.

After an early career in finance, Federico hit upon the idea of a luxury e-commerce site in 1999, at the height of the Dot Com boom. Most people thought he was crazy for attempting to fuse these two worlds — but after cold calling Italy’s most famous venture capitalist, Federico quickly managed to get the idea off the ground — and the rest, of course, is history. Today, YOOX-Net-a-Porter is one of the biggest e-commerce players in the world, with customers in over 180 countries. 

In a fascinating episode, Federico describes how Apple took some of its inspiration from Italian typewriters; why none of us will be using mobile phones in five years time; and how the next Coco Chanel won’t be a designer — but a programmer.

“The opposite of a good idea is often a great idea” — Marcia Kilgore, founder of Beauty Pie

Most of us would be content to have one big hit in our lifetimes, and to milk it for all its worth. But Marcia Kilgore has had four resounding successes with four separate businesses — Bliss, a range of New York beauty spas, of which she sold a majority stake to LVMH for a reported $30million in 2004; Soap & Glory, a toiletries brand thar Boots bought acquired in 2014 and has hundreds of millions in annual revenues; FitFlop, the ingenious ergonomic footwear brand; and now Beauty Pie, a subscription cosmetics service which may well turn the beauty industry on its head. In a fascinating and highly enjoyable episode, we discussed the unique atmosphere of New York in the late 1980s; why bullshit is the enemy of success; and how the opposite of a good idea is almost always a great idea.  

“Fundamentally, culture comes from our streets” — Inside the retail revolution, with Ross Bailey, Luca Faloni and Archie Hewlett

On a special episode of the podcast we talk to three figures from the world of retail about the quiet revolution taking place on our streets. Ross Bailey is the founder of Appear Here, the venue marketplace for shops, pop-ups, and just about anything else; Luca Faloni is the founder of the beautiful Italian outfitter that shares his name; and Archie Hewlett is the founder of London footwear label Duke + Dexter. It is a fascinating conversation with three entrepreneurs who live and breathe these issues every day — and they tell us how our high streets might look in the near future; why certain brands have ridden out the storm and others have sunk; the shopping gimmicks that they're tired of seeing; and why, in fact, we should cancel the word ‘retail’ altogether. 

“For our meeting with Rupert Murdoch, I didn’t even have any shoes…” — Jack Rivlin, Founder of The Tab

Jack Rivlin is the founder and former CEO of the Tab — a network of student newspapers. Started while Jack was at Cambridge, the Tab hoped to bring energy, levity, and a tabloid edge to the dull and worthy university papers — and used volunteer student journalists to report on the things that actually mattered to them.

It soon grew to plenty of other universities in the UK, and in 2016 Jack raised a few million pounds of investment from none other than Rupert Murdoch himself, who Jack and his partner met the week after Glastonbury, with glitter still stuck to their faces. After expansion into the US, the Tab’s fortunes began gradually to wane; until Jack decided to sell up entirely at the start of 2020 — a process that became a fascinating ordeal in its own right.

In a wonderfully honest episode, Jack tell us just how hungover he was for that infamous meeting with Rupert Murdoch; give us the inside scoop on the Aziz Ansari story that broke the internet; tells us how one of the Tab’s early legal corrections is now used in Journalism textbooks; warns against the perils of the Facebook algorithm; and discusses why newsletters have become the media outlet of the moment.    

“There’s a reason why I talk to other people for a living…” — Louis Theroux, documentary filmmaker

Louis Theroux is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, broadcaster, national treasure, and latterly podcast host. Louis joined us on the podcast to talk about the release of his brilliant new documentary Shooting Joe Exotic, in which he revisits the star of last year's Tiger King documentary — but the conversation soon became about so much more: the state of America right now; the trouble with social media; the poignancy of shooting horses; the perils of podcast coziness — and the very art of interviewing itself. 

Louis Theroux: Shooting Joe Exotic is now available on BBC iPlayer