When Rachel Harris – better known as Accountant_she – realised the accounting industry didn’t reflect who she was, she didn’t shrink to fit it. She built something better.

From starting as a 17-year-old apprentice to founding striveX, Rachel has grown a 7-figure, bootstrapped accountancy firm while simultaneously turning her personal brand into a million-pound business.

In this episode, Rachel shares how she spotted a gap in professional services, used Instagram to scale in public, and built systems inspired by McDonald’s to create consistency, performance and profit. She talks candidly about hiring too early (and too cheaply), over-investing in team, and why feedback loops and data dashboards are non-negotiable if you want to scale properly.

We also dive into the power of financial education, building recurring revenue without giving away equity, monetising a personal brand beyond vanity metrics, and why being “good at numbers” can unlock real freedom and choice. Rachel opens up about bootstrapping everything, launching a new tech product for accountants, and her long-term mission to make financial literacy more visible – especially for young women who don’t see themselves reflected in traditional business stereotypes.

This episode is perfect for founders building service businesses, creators looking to monetise properly, or anyone who wants a transparent look at what scaling really involves behind the scenes.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Aine Kilkenny and her co-founder Fiona couldn’t find a single tampon at home, they didn’t just complain – they created Riley, a 100% organic cotton period care brand now stocked in bathrooms and retailers across Europe.

In this episode, Aine shares how Riley grew from a kitchen table in West Cork to 400+ corporate clients, including Google and KPMG, replacing millions of single-use plastic period products with organic, biodegradable alternatives and expanding into the US. She talks candidly about shifting from DTC to a B2B-led model, crowdfunding on Seedrs, and why profit, sustainability and access all have to work together.

We also dive into the human side of scaling: building a team around integrity, kindness and respect; finding the right balance between remote work and office hubs; getting onboarding right in a fast-moving startup; and learning to celebrate milestones instead of just sprinting to the next problem.

Perfect for anyone interested in women’s health, sustainable consumer products, or what it really takes to build a purpose-driven brand in a crowded category.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve all had those “should I actually do this?” moments, but not all of us follow through.

This is the story of someone who did.

A founder who, while sitting in a pub, took out a five-figure personal loan and decided to back himself. And years later, it paid off.

In this episode of Take the Plunge, Playter founder & CEO Jamie Beaumont talks through the real journey... the detours, the bad timing, the mistakes, and the moments that forced him to start again. From an HR tech startup wiped out by Covid to building a lending platform that helps thousands of small businesses manage cash flow, Jamie takes us inside:

- The pub-side NatWest loan that kicked everything off

- The failed HR platform that led to Playter

- The nerves behind sending Playter’s very first loan

- Rethinking invoice finance with Playter Pay & Playter Boost

- Why PPC and cold outbound didn’t work, and how brokers changed everything

- The messy reality of 24/7 founder life

- His “high-agency” hiring test (the escalator question)

- What it’s really like raising both equity and debt

If you’re building something, rebuilding something, or thinking about taking a leap, this conversation is full of grounded, honest lessons about resilience, distribution, and the people you surround yourself with.

About Playter

Playter helps UK SMEs manage cash flow by spreading key bills and accessing flexible funding through products like Playter Pay and Playter Boost.

About Take the Plunge

Take the Plunge is the podcast from Swoop where founders share what pushed them to stop what they were doing and build something new. From the first spark to the scaling phase, and everything messy in between.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.