Startup Breakdown

Caroline Sumners, Milly Barker
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Scaling a business can feel like a rollercoaster - and Startup Breakdown is here to ride it with you. Hosted by Caroline, a marketing strategist and Milly, a strategy and operations expert, this podcast combines real-world business advice with the hilarious and messy reality of running a startup. With decades of practical experience, more than a few war wounds, and hundreds of millions of pounds raised between them, Milly and Caroline bring you the insights you need to grow your business - without losing your mind. Expect practical tips, candid stories, and plenty of laughs.

  1. 3D AGO

    Startup Breakdown Episode 54: Is it a pyramid scheme or a C-U-L-T?

    In this episode, we talk about NHS treatment, communication and the women's health waitlist, in what was a very busy week for Caroline. We also talk networking and particularly BNI. We really tried to be upbeat this week - not sure we were really. In business content we discussed how to get everyone out of the weeds and seeing the 'big picture.' Who are your hosts? Milly: I'm a serial COO with an MBA from Imperial College London. I'm the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I've got the knowledge you need to take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room. I help companies across all industries build simple strategic frameworks to help them grow by focussing on the most important tasks without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for help to fight the overwhelm, communicate with your team, or raise money for your business give me a shout and we can have a free, no-strings Discovery Call over at www.payasyougocoo.com.  Caroline: I’m  a marketing strategist and coach with a passion for making marketing simple, effective, and actually fun. I help entrepreneurs and small business owners cut through the noise, get crystal clear on their messaging, and create smarter strategies that actually move the needle. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan that feels good and gets results, you can work with me 1:1 through coaching or join the Smarter Marketing Club,  my community packed with training, support, and real-world marketing know-how. Head over to carolinesumners.com to find out more and book a free Discovery Call. This podcast is expertly edited by James Ede. You can check out his services at beheardproductions https://www.beheard.org.uk/ If you’re scaling your business or just surviving your latest breakdown, we’d love to hear from you, send us a message at startup.breakdown.podcast@gmail.com.

    55 min

  2. MAR 5

    Startup Breakdown Episode 53: F**k Everything, F**k It All

    We may have promised slightly cheerier content this week but unfortunately that is not what you got! We tried but well we couldn't quite manage it. We are British so we talk about the weather a lot. We marvel at our changing social conversations when you get to mid life and we Milly had some very sad news about Milly's lovely dog Milo. We are for sure in the breakdown element of the podcast at the moment. Also if you are a UK founder if you see a lot of aggressive efficiency advice from the US, you might be wondering how do I implement really good operations that still feel 'UK-friendly' and human-centric? Well, Milly has the answer! Who are your hosts? Milly: I'm a serial COO with an MBA from Imperial College London. I'm the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I've got the knowledge you need to take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room. I help companies across all industries build simple strategic frameworks to help them grow by focussing on the most important tasks without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for help to fight the overwhelm, communicate with your team, or raise money for your business give me a shout and we can have a free, no-strings Discovery Call over at www.payasyougocoo.com.  Caroline: I’m  a marketing strategist and coach with a passion for making marketing simple, effective, and actually fun. I help entrepreneurs and small business owners cut through the noise, get crystal clear on their messaging, and create smarter strategies that actually move the needle. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan that feels good and gets results, you can work with me 1:1 through coaching or join the Smarter Marketing Club,  my community packed with training, support, and real-world marketing know-how. Head over to carolinesumners.com to find out more and book a free Discovery Call. This podcast is expertly edited by James Ede. You can check out his services at beheardproductions https://www.beheard.org.uk/ If you’re scaling your business or just surviving your latest breakdown, we’d love to hear from you, send us a message at startup.breakdown.podcast@gmail.com.

    58 min

  3. FEB 25

    Startup Breakdown Episode 52: The Cure For Everything is Salt

    This week we are both full of cold, and generally both feeling the breakdown part of this podcast. So we generally apologise for the vibe. Once we got ourselves together we managed to talk about Milly's new website and SEO, and genuinely in trying to finish on a positive note, we believe that the cure for everything is salt. We talk about overwhelm with marketing channels and how you should move on from trying to do everything, and be comfortable with what you are doing. Take away the should, and do what you will implement consistently within your customer value journey. Who are your hosts? Milly: I'm a serial COO with an MBA from Imperial College London. I'm the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I've got the knowledge you need to take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room. I help companies across all industries build simple strategic frameworks to help them grow by focussing on the most important tasks without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for help to fight the overwhelm, communicate with your team, or raise money for your business give me a shout and we can have a free, no-strings Discovery Call over at www.payasyougocoo.com.  Caroline: I’m  a marketing strategist and coach with a passion for making marketing simple, effective, and actually fun. I help entrepreneurs and small business owners cut through the noise, get crystal clear on their messaging, and create smarter strategies that actually move the needle. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan that feels good and gets results, you can work with me 1:1 through coaching or join the Smarter Marketing Club,  my community packed with training, support, and real-world marketing know-how. Head over to carolinesumners.com to find out more and book a free Discovery Call. This podcast is expertly edited by James Ede. You can check out his services at beheardproductions https://www.beheard.org.uk/ If you’re scaling your business or just surviving your latest breakdown, we’d love to hear from you, send us a message at startup.breakdown.podcast@gmail.com.

    51 min

  4. FEB 19

    Startup Breakdown Episode 51: COO Is A State Of Mind

    It has pretty much all fallen apart this week, because content warning, we came in early by discussing Thrush in this episode! The challenges of Urban foxes, Yoga practice, time-blocking your day to get back on track. And we talk about How to become a COO and how to deal with the challenge of an agency and white label software, who maybe are not up to the job! Who are your hosts? Milly: I'm a serial COO with an MBA from Imperial College London. I'm the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I've got the knowledge you need to take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room. I help companies across all industries build simple strategic frameworks to help them grow by focussing on the most important tasks without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for help to fight the overwhelm, communicate with your team, or raise money for your business give me a shout and we can have a free, no-strings Discovery Call over at www.payasyougocoo.com.  Caroline: I’m  a marketing strategist and coach with a passion for making marketing simple, effective, and actually fun. I help entrepreneurs and small business owners cut through the noise, get crystal clear on their messaging, and create smarter strategies that actually move the needle. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan that feels good and gets results, you can work with me 1:1 through coaching or join the Smarter Marketing Club,  my community packed with training, support, and real-world marketing know-how. Head over to carolinesumners.com to find out more and book a free Discovery Call. This podcast is expertly edited by James Ede. You can check out his services at beheardproductions https://www.beheard.org.uk/ If you’re scaling your business or just surviving your latest breakdown, we’d love to hear from you, send us a message at startup.breakdown.podcast@gmail.com.

    53 min

  5. FEB 12

    Startup Breakdown Episode 50: It’s episode 50!

    Can you believe we got to Episode 50, and yet still it took us 6 tries to get this recording going. You would think after 50 episodes we would be more profesh by now! But genuinely we had a long conversation about how to scale or outsource within your business. It is so hard. How to refocus when overwhelmed, the age old problem of feast of famine of business. And of course more puppy talk. In genuine business questions we talked about whether there any issues that we see come up time and time again with small businesses and their marketing, and having mapped out your Strategy you have too many things to do. What can you do? Who are your hosts? Milly: I'm a serial COO with an MBA from Imperial College London. I'm the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I've got the knowledge you need to take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room. I help companies across all industries build simple strategic frameworks to help them grow by focussing on the most important tasks without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for help to fight the overwhelm, communicate with your team, or raise money for your business give me a shout and we can have a free, no-strings Discovery Call over at www.payasyougocoo.com.  Caroline: I’m  a marketing strategist and coach with a passion for making marketing simple, effective, and actually fun. I help entrepreneurs and small business owners cut through the noise, get crystal clear on their messaging, and create smarter strategies that actually move the needle. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan that feels good and gets results, you can work with me 1:1 through coaching or join the Smarter Marketing Club,  my community packed with training, support, and real-world marketing know-how. Head over to carolinesumners.com to find out more and book a free Discovery Call. This podcast is expertly edited by James Ede. You can check out his services at beheardproductions https://www.beheard.org.uk/ If you’re scaling your business or just surviving your latest breakdown, we’d love to hear from you, send us a message at startup.breakdown.podcast@gmail.com.

    1 hr

  6. FEB 5

    Startup Breakdown Episode 49: The Early Night Club

    In this episode of Startup Breakdown we talk about the challenges of rehoming a dog, paint colours and what a lovely customer acquisition process Coat Paints have. We also talk about being a female entrepreneur without kids and how we all need to have community spaces that speak to us and our position. We also have a fairly lengthy conversation about being single. We talk when is the right time to invest on paid advertising, so that we don't waste money.  Percy's Instagram can be found at https://www.instagram.com/percyandrufus/ Who are your hosts? Milly: I'm a serial COO with an MBA from Imperial College London. I'm the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I've got the knowledge you need to take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room. I help companies across all industries build simple strategic frameworks to help them grow by focussing on the most important tasks without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for help to fight the overwhelm, communicate with your team, or raise money for your business give me a shout and we can have a free, no-strings Discovery Call over at ⁠⁠www.payasyougocoo.com⁠⁠.  Caroline: I’m  a marketing strategist and coach with a passion for making marketing simple, effective, and actually fun. I help entrepreneurs and small business owners cut through the noise, get crystal clear on their messaging, and create smarter strategies that actually move the needle. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan that feels good and gets results, you can work with me 1:1 through coaching or join the Smarter Marketing Club,  my community packed with training, support, and real-world marketing know-how. Head over to ⁠⁠carolinesumners.com⁠⁠ to find out more and book a free Discovery Call. This podcast is expertly edited by James Ede. You can check out his services at beheardproductions ⁠⁠https://www.beheard.org.uk/⁠⁠ If you’re scaling your business or just surviving your latest breakdown, we’d love to hear from you, send us a message at startup.breakdown.podcast@gmail.com.

    54 min

  7. JAN 29

    Startup Breakdown Episode 48: More Mediocre White Men

    In this episode we talk Caroline getting over Covid, and we inevitably talk about Stephen Bartlett and the unhinged advice from hustle bros. This slightly unhinged episode covered a lot of topics and eventually we got to questions, and Milly covers Mission Statements, and what are their purpose. Who are your hosts? Milly: I'm a serial COO with an MBA from Imperial College London. I'm the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I've got the knowledge you need to take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room. I help companies across all industries build simple strategic frameworks to help them grow by focussing on the most important tasks without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for help to fight the overwhelm, communicate with your team, or raise money for your business give me a shout and we can have a free, no-strings Discovery Call over at ⁠www.payasyougocoo.com⁠.  Caroline: I’m  a marketing strategist and coach with a passion for making marketing simple, effective, and actually fun. I help entrepreneurs and small business owners cut through the noise, get crystal clear on their messaging, and create smarter strategies that actually move the needle. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan that feels good and gets results, you can work with me 1:1 through coaching or join the Smarter Marketing Club,  my community packed with training, support, and real-world marketing know-how. Head over to ⁠carolinesumners.com⁠ to find out more and book a free Discovery Call. This podcast is expertly edited by James Ede. You can check out his services at beheardproductions ⁠https://www.beheard.org.uk/⁠ If you’re scaling your business or just surviving your latest breakdown, we’d love to hear from you, send us a message at startup.breakdown.podcast@gmail.com.

    58 min

  8. JAN 22

    Startup Breakdown Episode 47: We are back & Milo's in the house

    Chaos reigns in the first episode of 2026, we meet Milo the rescue pup, who is the new arrival in Milly's house. We also talk about Caroline's new hobby - pottery. Fair warning there is a lot of chat and, we should probably refocus this podcast as a dog, tv and menopause podcast. We also talk about our plans for 2026 and where we are going to focus this year. Welcome back! Who are your hosts? Milly: I'm a serial COO with an MBA from Imperial College London. I'm the ultimate cheerleader for early-stage companies and I've got the knowledge you need to take your brilliant ideas from the drawing board to the board room. I help companies across all industries build simple strategic frameworks to help them grow by focussing on the most important tasks without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for help to fight the overwhelm, communicate with your team, or raise money for your business give me a shout and we can have a free, no-strings Discovery Call over at www.payasyougocoo.com.  Caroline: I’m  a marketing strategist and coach with a passion for making marketing simple, effective, and actually fun. I help entrepreneurs and small business owners cut through the noise, get crystal clear on their messaging, and create smarter strategies that actually move the needle. If you’re ready to build a marketing plan that feels good and gets results, you can work with me 1:1 through coaching or join the Smarter Marketing Club,  my community packed with training, support, and real-world marketing know-how. Head over to carolinesumners.com to find out more and book a free Discovery Call. This podcast is expertly edited by James Ede. You can check out his services at beheardproductions https://www.beheard.org.uk/ If you’re scaling your business or just surviving your latest breakdown, we’d love to hear from you, send us a message at startup.breakdown.podcast@gmail.com.

    1h 3m
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Ratings & Reviews

About

Scaling a business can feel like a rollercoaster - and Startup Breakdown is here to ride it with you. Hosted by Caroline, a marketing strategist and Milly, a strategy and operations expert, this podcast combines real-world business advice with the hilarious and messy reality of running a startup. With decades of practical experience, more than a few war wounds, and hundreds of millions of pounds raised between them, Milly and Caroline bring you the insights you need to grow your business - without losing your mind. Expect practical tips, candid stories, and plenty of laughs.

Information

  • Creator
    Caroline Sumners, Milly Barker
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    56
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Caroline Sumners, Milly Barker
  • Show Website
    Startup Breakdown

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