Simon Swan: How I got Michael Vaughan to join my startup

Simon Swan is on track to create a one-man £1m+ startup, with a little help from former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan.

Two-time founder Swan is the latest guest on The Naked Founder podcast and his second business, Uthful, is already profitable after less than six months.

Uthful is a health supplement business and it’s a far cry from Swan’s previous enterprise, Manchester-based talent marketplace Hiring Hub.

In this episode of The Naked Founder podcast, Simon discusses:

How he persuaded cricket legend Michael Vaughan to become an investor
Growing a £1m business with just one member of staff
Changing the face of the health supplement market
How the idea for Uthful came to him on a bike ride
The importance of being authentic
Inspiring his children
Why he wants Uthful to be different from Hiring Hub
The Naked Founder is a BusinessCloud podcast. It is sponsored by Financielle, the home of money for women, and produced by Dan Brown of Renowned.

Chapters:
00:00 – 14-Year Overnight Success, Then Going Again at 45: Meet Simon Swan
01:06 – What He Wished He'd Known First Time Round
02:28 – Calm on Top, Furiously Paddling Underneath
03:16 – Cricket, Michael Vaughan & How Uthful Got Its First Investor
04:22 – 24 Vitamins, One Drink: The Problem He Was Solving for Himself
05:34 – Meeting Michael Vaughan
06:22 – No Website, No Product — Just a Name and a Napkin Pitch
07:05 – What Hiring Hub Actually Was (and Why He Hated Being Called a Recruiter)
07:51 – Designing the Logo on His Honeymoon
09:06 – Two People, One Office, One Phone — Fake It Til You Make It
10:27 – The Lessons He Carried Out of Hiring Hub and Into Everything Since
11:03 – Founder vs CEO: The Moment Hiring Hub Stopped Being His
12:38 – Burn the Boats: Why He Had to Remove the Safety Net Completely
14:05 – Gary Neville, Reinvention & Not Wanting One Thing to Define You Forever
14:50 – Loving the Building Phase: Why Year 11 Felt Nothing Like Year One
15:54 – The Apple Moment: Why Packaging and Brand Image Matter From Day One
16:50 – Solo Founder, One Dog, No Office: Is This the Future of Startups?
17:51 – Six Months Riding His Bike Across Spain, Waiting for the Idea to Come
18:12 – Lying in Bed on GoDaddy: The Night Uthful Became Real
20:01 – The Pub in the Peak District He Nearly Bought Instead
21:02 – What Humans Will Still Value in a World Run by AI
22:20 – Idea to First Sample in Eight Weeks: The Speed of Starting Now
23:00 – His Advice to Anyone With an Idea: Just Test It First
24:08 – Transparent Founder Content: Why He Posts the Bad Days Too
24:53 – The Day Meta Stopped Working and 3,000 Boxes Came Back Wrong
26:38 – Kids Watching Dad Build From Scratch: The Best Lesson He Can Give Them
28:56 – Could Uthful Be a £100M Business? 
30:06 – Has Founding a Business Made Him Unemployable? Probably, Yeah
31:04 – The Hardest Part of Being a Solo Founder: Loneliness, and How He Beats It
32:46 – Letter to His Younger Self
33:29 – Never Too High, Never Too Low: The Emotional Steadiness That Defines Him
33:50 – Happy Place: 140km on a Bike Through the Spanish Countryside