One of the biggest names in British business, Piers Linney is an award-winning entrepreneur who鈥檚 illustrious career was recognised in the 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in Tech. Highly acclaimed for his role on Dragons鈥� Den, where he invested in promising entrepreneurs, Piers continues to offer his invaluable advice as a corporate keynote speaker, and founder of #StartUp #ScaleUp, his online course.
With over 76 lessons and 10+ hours of content, the course provides step-by-step practical guidance to help individuals build a successful business from the ground up. In this exclusive interview with Champions Speakers, Piers shares his motivation behind #StartUp #ScaleUp.
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How did you come up with the idea for #StartUp and #ScaleUp?
鈥淚 get asked for business advice all the time, and what surprised me was that people were always asking for the same advice. So, I decided to create videos for social media and YouTube to respond to people鈥檚 requests, but I couldn鈥檛 keep up! To answer a lot of the commonly asked questions, I decided to put it into a course. The #StartUp #ScaleUp courses are designed for anyone who is starting a business or wants to grow a new business.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not purely for start-ups however, it鈥檚 really for anybody who wants to grow a reasonably new business 鈥� it covers everything from the question 鈥榮hould I start a business?鈥�, to the research, all the way through to accounts and taxation. The course has grown from an idea into ten plus hours and seventy-six lessons.鈥�
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How are you different?
鈥淕ranted there is a lot of content on the internet, so a lot of people say it鈥檚 already all out there, which is kind of true, but what I have done however, is collate all my own insight and experience.
鈥淚鈥檓 an entrepreneur, a qualified venture capital lawyer, an investment banker and I鈥檝e got an accounting degree. I have been a director, founder, chairman, lender, equity investor, fund manager, venture capital fund manager, and a hedge fund manager. I have sat at every side of the table and that means I have an all-round perspective of what it鈥檚 like to start a business that most people don鈥檛 have. What I decided to do was condense all that know-how into a course.
鈥淧eople often say to me; 鈥楶iers, can I go for coffee with you?鈥� Or someone will say, 鈥業 know, Piers, he鈥檒l give you a bit of advice.鈥� So it鈥檚 like having those chats with me, but having about 200 of them at one time. The course doesn鈥檛 answer all the questions, but what it does do is give you enough information, insight and confidence to know what you need to know, where you need to go and any advice you might need on top of that.
鈥淎lso, you can come back to the course at any point, it鈥檚 not linear. If you see something you don鈥檛 fully understand, you can dip in and out. There are few people with my all-around expertise 鈥� without blowing my own trumpet!鈥�
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What have you learnt?
鈥淲hen you make courses like this, you never quite know what the response is going to be. So I looked at other courses online and narrowed it down to what I thought people wanted to know 鈥� and the feedback, and this is honest feedback, has been tremendous. It has been amazing, actually. People have said to me that the course has helped them start their business and helped them save money- which is great!
鈥淲hat I have learnt is that people really want practical advice. If you go on the internet, a lot of the advice is aspirational, which is great but it鈥檚 not helpful. What I realised was, and what I really focused the course on, was practical, no nonsense advice to prevent people falling into obvious potholes on their entrepreneurial journey. What the course delivers is exactly that 鈥� practical advice, that actually helps them make more money and save money.鈥�
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What can we hope to see from you in the future?
鈥淚 am launching my course again in partnership with the Festival of Startups next week.
鈥淗ere is a discount link for 20% off the course: 鈥�
Piers Linney is available to book as a keynote speaker for virtual events, live events and brand work via .
