The ideaSpace Podcast

The ideaSpace Podcast is a selection of interviews, talks and discussions with successful founders and business leaders, and is for anyone interested in business, innovation and entrepreneurship. In the Start-up Stories episodes we try to ...more

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About the Show

The ideaSpace Podcast is a selection of interviews, talks and discussions with successful founders and business leaders, and is for anyone interested in business, innovation and entrepreneurship.

In the Start-up Stories episodes we try to focus on the journey of the entreprenuer, and in Business Basics we concentrate on specific business topics. Either way the podcasts are designed to be entertaining, revealing, and interesting, and our guests talk honestly and openly about the trials and tribulations of founding a business; as well as the gains and successes, they discuss their past business failures in order to help anyone else avoid the same mistakes!

ideaSpace is a community of founders and entrepreneurs based at the University of Cambridge, where members share knowledge, experience and expertise to help themselves, and others, in their high-impact venture creation.

Meet our Hosts

Ben Hartley

Ben Hartley

Ben Hartley has had an eclectic career to date; after a post-grad in music production and experience working in the music industry, Ben trained as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy. After a 16-year career, he left the Navy and co-founded a specialist casting agency, working on some of the world’s biggest film and television franchises, such as Star Wars, Mission Impossible, and The Crown. Ben subsequently started an events company which supported the launch of feature films by creating experiential events for social media influencers. During this time, Ben also co-founded Higgs & Crick, a high-end crystal barware brand, which is an official brand partner of the Kingsman film franchise. Ben took over as Head of ideaSpace in 2020; ideaSpace is an incubator at the University of Cambridge, helping start-ups and spinouts grow their high-impact ventures. Ben's claim to fame is that he played the Star Wars character Harb Binli (Red Seven) in Rogue One: A Star Wars story!