Bits, Bytes and Business

Hosted by Bhairav Patel

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295

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Conversations with a range of business owners from across the globe that discuss the challenges, triumphs and failures that are faced when trying to build and grow a business. In addition we talk about the latest trends in tech and generally anything we feel is relevant for today's tech and business savvy audience The companies interviewed operate in a diverse set of industries and are of varying maturity from the new startup to the established multi-national. If you would like to take part in a podcast or would like to learn more then follow the link to Substack or LinkedIn and message us there

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60 recent

October 21, 202639 min

Leading with Courage: Crisis Lessons from the Humanitarian Front Line

About This Episode What does good leadership look like when everything is falling apart? In this episode of Bits, Bytes and Business, Bhairav talks to Dom Courage, who left a career in engineering and project management for humanitarian response with Save the Children, and now works freelance in leadership development and training. Dom’s route in began with an intense five-day crisis simulation in Wales, where he realised he had found his tribe. He went on to support emergency and development programmes around the world, including the Rohingya response, where he stepped into a new leadership role with a team that was blocked from acting while the crisis grew around them. The conversation focuses on leadership under pressure. Dom explains why empathy comes before process, how to move between detail and the bigger picture, and how to lead a frustrated team through change it cannot control. The episode was recorded some time ago and parts of the sector have shifted since, but the leadership lessons translate directly to anyone running a team that is growing fast or under strain. What We Cover How a five-day crisis simulation led Dom into a humanitarian career Why empathy is the starting point for crisis leadership, and why it must be built before a crisis What leaders can learn from BP’s handling of the Deepwater Horizon disaster The “dance floor and balcony” model for switching between detail and context Scaling a response team rapidly over a few months Leading a team that is stuck when outside forces block it from acting Why collaboration with “competitors” matters when everyone shares a purpose Making trade-offs in the grey areas Why industry experience before a humanitarian career can make you more effective Key Takeaways Empathy is the foundation of crisis leadership. Without it, process and planning will not save you. You cannot summon empathy in a crisis. You have to build and protect it beforehand. Good leaders move between the detail and the big picture, and know when to do each. Crisis leadership is not about the leader. It is about the team and the people it serves. Hard trade-offs are part of the job. Avoiding them often means you are not doing enough. Links Bhairav Patel: https://bitsbytesandbusiness.com Dom Courage on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/domcourage/

October 8, 202637 min

Reading Is a Small Act of Rebellion

Toby Muse returns to the podcast for the first time since 2020. Back then we talked about his book Kilo and his years reporting from inside the cocaine trade. This time the conversation shifts to what is happening to journalism, books, and our collective ability to pay attention. Toby is a war correspondent, author, and documentary filmmaker who has spent nearly two decades reporting from Colombia, Syria, and Iraq. He has strong views on where his industry is heading, and very few of them are optimistic. What We Cover - Kilo six years on, the Spanish translation, and why readers still email Toby regularly to say it is one of -their favourite books - Whether books are heading the way of poetry recitals, and what that means for how we think - The economics of journalism and why the money is no longer enough to attract the best people into the profession - Audience capture: why media outlets have stopped challenging their readers and started confirming what they already believe - The difference between punditry and reporting, and why someone still has to go to the places nobody else will - News deserts and the disappearance of local journalism - Why the documentary industry has narrowed to true crime and sports, and what has been lost - The attention economy and what happens when even highly literate people stop reading - Toby's argument that reading a book is now a small act of rebellion - Whether there is any reason for optimism, and what it means to live purposefully in turbulent times Key Takeaways Journalism's crisis is not just financial. It is cultural. If outlets only deliver what their audience already believes, the profession loses its purpose. The publishing industry is in serious trouble, not because people stopped buying books in shops, but because even committed readers are giving in to the pull of the screen. Someone still has to do the expensive, time-consuming work of going to places and reporting. Substacks and podcasts are valuable, but they cannot replace that. Reading builds concentration, patience, and the ability to follow a complex argument. Those are skills, and they are being lost. In times of rapid change, the things you value will not survive by accident. You have to actively protect them. Links Toby Muse: https://www.tobymuse.com/

October 5, 20265 min

Are you deadly serious about becoming a journalist? - Toby Muse Trailer

Toby Muse is back on the podcast for the first time since 2020, and before we get into the main event I put him through the five questions I ask everyone: What is your morning routine? What are you most proud of? What annoys you? What do you do to relax? What advice would you give to someone looking to get into journalism? You will hear why he starts the day with Marcus Aurelius rather than his phone, why a bike ride is where all his best thinking actually happens, and why his first response to any aspiring journalist is to try and talk them out of it. This is the trailer to the main event, where Toby and I sit down to talk about Kilo six years on, the future of journalism and documentary filmmaking, and whether books can survive the age of the endless scroll. Stay tuned. For more info on Toby, check out his website: https://www.tobymuse.com/

October 1, 202623 min

Culture Is What You Tolerate | RWE Podcast

Culture is one of those words that gets thrown around in business without anyone pinning down what it actually means. In this episode of Real World Entrepreneurship, Bhairav and Alan dig into why culture is always set from the top, why most businesses have a culture they didn't deliberately choose, and what happens when nobody addresses the one person who doesn't fit. Bhairav shares a story about working under a CEO whose shouting could be heard from down the street, and how that behaviour cascaded through every layer of management beneath him. Alan draws on his experience working across businesses led by very different personalities and offers a simple definition: culture is what a business tolerates, rewards, and prioritises. Together they explore what it takes to actually shape culture rather than inherit it by accident, how to deal with outliers who undermine it, and why the real test of a company's culture is what happens when something goes wrong. What We Cover - Why culture is always top-down, driven by the leader's behaviour rather than posters on the wall - The difference between culture by accident and culture by design - How toxic leadership patterns get absorbed by junior staff who don't have the experience to recognise them - Why values on a balanced scorecard often mean nothing in practice - Dealing with cultural outliers: when to coach and when to manage someone out - The generational dimension: how different age groups experience and expect workplace culture - Why the real measure of culture is how problems get handled, not how things look when everything is going well Key Takeaways - Every business has a culture. The question is whether it was built deliberately or inherited by default. - Culture is what you tolerate, reward, and prioritise. If you tolerate poor behaviour, that becomes the culture. vIn small businesses and startups, the founder's personality is the culture. There is no separation. - Young employees in their first or second role often can't see a toxic culture because they have nothing to compare it to. - Avoiding a difficult conversation about a cultural outlier doesn't make the problem disappear. It makes it structural. Links Bhairav Patel — https://bitsbytesandbusiness.com Alan Clarke / The Business Growth Partnership — https://tbgp.co.uk

September 24, 202646 min

Fear Is the Problem, Not AI

Podcast-platform show notes for SoundCloud, in your functional reference format and under the 4,000-character limit. Fear is the problem, not AI | Mark Bentley returns | Bits, Bytes and Business with Bhairav Patel About This Episode Mark Bentley's first appearance became the most popular episode Bhairav Patel has released in ten years of podcasting, so he is back for part two. This time the self-awareness conversation runs straight into the middle of the current AI panic. Mark's argument is that the thing everyone fears was never the technology itself. His central idea: you are already running on a "biological AI" trained by your upbringing and education, and self-awareness is what lets you take back the controls. This is also the first filmed episode, so you can watch on YouTube as well as listen. What We Cover Why the difference between artificial and genuine intelligence is not processing power Mark's "biological AI" theory and what it means for how you think Using self-awareness to edit your own conditioning instead of running on autopilot Why trying to stop AI is wasted energy, and the better question to ask What actually changes for your business in the age of AI, and how little is new The one-minute habit for cutting through overwhelm and noise Raising a teenager to think independently in a world built to do it for them Why fear, not the tool, is the real risk Key Takeaways The tool is neutral. AI can build or destroy, and how it is used is the only variable that matters. You cannot halt AI, so spend your energy deciding how it fits your life and work. The fundamentals of a good business have not changed. Customers, execution, and judgement still decide outcomes. Critical thinking and self-awareness matter more now, not less. Manage the overwhelm by slowing down and creating deliberate pauses rather than consuming every update. Links Mark Bentley, breakthrough coaching (Gene Keys and Human Design): markbentley.com.au Watch the full episode on YouTube Listen to Mark's first appearance on the power of self-awareness in business Subscribe to Bits, Bytes and Business for more conversations with Bhairav Patel

September 21, 20264 min

Get Your Feet In the Grass - Mark Bentley Trailer

Mark Bentley is back for part two, and this is the first episode we have filmed. He answers the five questions I ask everyone: What is your morning routine? What are you most proud of? What annoys you? What do you do to relax? What advice would you give to someone struggling with all the AI right now? As ever this is the trailer to the main event, where we pick up the self-awareness thread from Mark's first appearance and bring it right up to date. We get into staying grounded when AI has everyone overwhelmed, why the tool itself is never the problem, raising kids to think for themselves, and Mark's belief that the most powerful AI you will ever manage is the one already running in your own head. The full episode lands in a few days.

September 17, 202644 min

Selling to Private Equity: What They Don't Tell You

Sorcha Lorimer built Trace, a boutique data privacy consultancy, from scratch. She bootstrapped it, landed enterprise clients across the UK, Europe and North America, and sold it to a private equity backed business. In this episode, she talks openly about what that journey actually looked like, from leaving a comfortable corporate role to navigating COVID, scaling as a lean team, and going through the opaque process of selling a business. She also introduces Onyxio, her new venture helping health tech and life sciences companies build confidence in how they use sensitive data. What We Cover - Sorcha's background in the NHS, digital agencies and financial services, and how that mix shaped Trace - The emotional reality of leaving corporate life and building from zero as a solo founder - Why she started with the end in mind and set an eight-year timeline to exit - How Trace pivoted from SaaS-led to consulting-led and what that taught her about business models - Navigating COVID as a small business reliant on enterprise relationships - How her corporate background helped her win enterprise clients and anticipate procurement blockers - The sale process: kissing frogs, dummy runs, knowing your numbers and being ready when the right buyer appears - Why selling to an experienced acquirer matters - Gotchas in deal structures: clawbacks, lock-in periods, IP clauses and leaving money on the table - What Onyxio does: a "passport office" for sensitive data, bringing legal, security and technical lenses together - Why data confidence matters more than ever in the age of AI - Her advice to her younger self: start earlier and stay curious Key Takeaways If you plan to sell, keep your house in order from day one, not just when a buyer appears The zero-to-one phase strips away your corporate identity and you need to be prepared for that Enterprise sales cycles are long, so diversify your client base with well-funded startups too Around 30-38% of deals succeed; many fail on compliance debt and poor documentation Stubbornness is an asset, but you have to be able to read the data and know when to pivot Selling a business is opaque and there is no standard playbook, so treat early conversations as dummy runs Links Sorcha Lorimer on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sorchalorimer Onyxio: onyxio.co

September 15, 20264 min

Are you willing to take the hits? Sorcha Lorimer Trailer

Sorcha Lorimer was the founder of Trace, a data privacy consultancy she bootstrapped, scaled to enterprise clients across the UK, Europe and North America, and sold to a private equity backed business. She's now building Onyxio, which helps health tech and life sciences companies prove their sensitive data is safe to use. She answers the five questions I ask everyone: What is your morning routine? What are you most proud of? What annoys you? What do you do to relax? What advice would you give to someone looking to become an entrepreneur? As ever this is the trailer to the main event. In the full episode, Sorcha and I get into how she built and sold Trace, what she learned about navigating the sale process with private equity, and what she's building now with Onyxio in the world of sensitive data and health tech.

September 10, 202636 min

AI In Recruitment: How can you stand out?

Alfie Elliott is the Director of Select Group, a boutique recruitment business covering IT, business operations and consultancy across the UK and US. Starting as a 16-year-old apprentice in East Croydon, Alfie has spent just under 15 years in the recruitment industry, working primarily across financial services and consulting. In this conversation, Bhairav and Alfie dig into what the UK job market really looks like right now, from graduates with first-class degrees struggling to find work through to senior banking professionals out of a role for over a year. They cover how AI is reshaping hiring at every level, why relationships and proactive networking still outweigh a polished CV, what the over-50s job market actually looks like versus the myths, and where the opportunities are in consulting, financial services and startups. They also talk about Alfie's decision to stop drinking nearly two years ago, how sobriety has changed the way he networks and operates, and what the shift away from alcohol means for business culture more broadly. What We Cover - How AI is filtering candidates out before they ever speak to a human - Why the same networking advice applies whether you're a graduate or a senior executive - The reality of the UK job market for over-50s - LinkedIn as a recruitment tool versus a social media platform - Where the opportunities are right now in consulting, financial services and startups - How the role of a software engineer has changed with AI - Why fractional and consultancy work is growing - Sober networking and the cultural shift away from drinking in business - The physical and mental health impact of giving up alcohol - How Gen Z's relationship with technology is affecting communication skills Key Takeaways The UK job market is tough at every level. Being proactive and building relationships is the single most important thing you can do, regardless of your seniority. At junior level, candidates may not speak to a human until the third or fourth stage of the hiring process. AI screening is now standard. Keeping your technical skills current matters more as you get senior. People who haven't moved with the technology are the ones most at risk in redundancy rounds. Networking is a numbers game at the start and a quality game once you know where your time is best spent. Don't wait for permission — go to events, approach people, follow up. Sobriety doesn't mean opting out of business culture. Non-alcoholic options and the broader cultural shift are making it easier to network without drinking. Links Alfie Elliott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfie-james-elliott/ Select Group: Mentech Select (IT) | Insight Select (Business Operations) | InScope Select (Consultancy)

September 10, 20263 min

Make Yourself Human - Alfie Elliott Trailer

Alfie Elliott is the Director of Select Group, a boutique recruitment business covering IT, business operations and consultancy across the UK and US. He started as a 16-year-old apprentice in East Croydon and has spent just under 15 years in the industry, working across financial services and consulting. He answers the five questions I ask everyone: What is your morning routine? What are you most proud of? What annoys you? What do you do to relax? What advice would you give to someone who's looking to get recruited right now? In the full episode, Alfie and I get into the realities of recruitment in 2025: how AI is filtering candidates before they ever speak to a human, why networking and relationships still matter more than a polished CV, what the job market actually looks like for over-50s, and how sober networking is changing the way business gets done.

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