Designed for Life - In conversation with Larry Sullivan

Larry Sullivan is a serial entrepreneur, business founder, angel investor and social philanthropist. In this podcast, we track Larry's journey from humble beginnings growing up in Essex to a sudden awakening to academia in sixth form, leading him to be the first in his family to attend university. 

A chance conversation led him to travel to America during his summer break with BUNAC https://bunac.org an experience that he feels offered as much, or more, to his personal development than his university experience alone. 

This podcast has taught me that entrepreneurship can be taught, and skills can be improved and fine-tuned, but that entrepreneurial spirit is carried within people born to work for themselves and create a new business entity. Larry's first business saw a gap in the market and successfully met a need; this later led to the creation of COINS Global https://www.coins-global.com, a company that Larry led and nurtured for over two decades before recently exiting "in the right manner". 

Larry Sullivan is a successful businessman, no doubt, but what differentiates him is his desire for business to "be a force for good". He views business as an essential tool to help make the world a better place and, over the years, has put his money where his mouth is in this respect and continues to do so. He founded the Coins Foundation in 2006 (now Leolion Foundation) https://www.leolionfoundation.org and, through this, has worked with carefully selected third-sector partners, including Habitat for Humanity https://www.habitat.org and PEAS https://www.peas.org.uk

Several books and links are mentioned in the podcast, including:

• How much land does a man need - Leo Tolstoy 
• Post Corona from crisis to opportunity - Scott Galloway
• Eat the Rich - P.J. O'rourke
• The fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid - C.K Prahlad
• The Bottom Billion - Paul Collier
• Freebird Films - https://www.freebirdfilm.tv/
• Future of capitalism competition - https://www.borntoengineer.com/future-of-capitalism-competition-new-tech-startup-competition

If you want to see the difference Stepping Stones school has made to the lives of young people who attended, please do check out these alumni case studies https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1-rDCXeAPfJe78WV6XFt4Glx93IowIMp&si=cFVMvRaDPgRhSc0R

I have known Larry for years and not only enjoyed recording this podcast but learned from it. I hope and feel you will, too. Let us know what you think!