Nishant Sharma built Rutland Square Spirit, the gin, rum and whisky business named after the Edinburgh square that houses the Indian consulate, from £20 in his bank account and a heart attack. He talks through a childhood split between a joint family in Assam and a struggling household in Punjab, three jobs worked simultaneously in his first week in Glasgow, a run of failed ventures including a bespoke leather shoe line and a BBC drama deal killed by COVID, and the funeral that reset his direction.

He details the cardiac arrest that hit him at 130kg and under sustained stress in early 2023, the 2024 cash crisis that came down to a five-hour ultimatum to an investor, and the plan now underway: a hydrogen-powered whisky distillery and 200-bed hotel in Midlothian. He also speaks candidly about entrepreneurial loneliness, why he keeps his problems to himself, and his ambition to eventually set up a capital fund for other founders.

• Growing up in a joint family in Assam, and the move to Punjab at 12 that changed the family's financial position
• Being bullied and treated as a misfit at school for what his family couldn't afford
• Side hustles as necessity, not ambition, from his teens
• Moving to Glasgow in 2007 with £500 and working three jobs in his first week
• Flipping imported iPhones back to India for a margin
• A failed international business degree, a switch to filmmaking, and Highland Cow Productions Limited
• The near-miss BBC drama deal killed by COVID, and the collapse that followed
• A failed bespoke leather shoe venture and an exit from a property business with his father-in-law
• His grandmother's death and cremation in India as the turning point
• Why whisky was the dream but gin, then rum, came first
• How Rutland Square got its name, and why Chai Spice is the flavour thread through the range
• Taking the gin to market solo in 2022 and 2023, one bottle and one event at a time
• The heart attack: two Fridays of chest pain, a COVID-vaccine blood clot, and a doctor's warning the next morning
• Recovery: down from 130kg to 120kg, a target of 85kg by next summer, and adding paddle and swimming back in
• Scaling to a 25-person team across Edinburgh and India
• The ten-year warehouse lease mistake, and why consolidation now drives every property decision
• The hydrogen-powered whisky distillery and 200-bed hotel plan for Midlothian, and why the hotel has to come first
• The 2024 cash crisis: £20 in the account, a payroll due, and a five-hour ultimatum to an investor
• Why he doesn't talk to anyone about his problems, and his view of entrepreneurial loneliness
• Mental health, isolation, and why he thinks a podcast conversation like this one functions as therapy
• The plan to eventually take a partial exit and start a capital fund to back other entrepreneurs
• Legacy plans: a coffee table book for the brand, and a family memoir

About The Burnout Files

Hosted by John Glover. Every episode explores the side of entrepreneurship that doesn't make the highlight reel: the setbacks, the sacrifices, and the very human stories behind building something from nothing.

Subscribe:

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About Nishant Sharma

Nishant Sharma is the founder and CEO of Rutland Square Spirit, an Edinburgh-based drinks company producing Chai Spice gin and rum, with whiskey in development. The business runs a roughly 25-person team across Edinburgh and India and supplies buyers including Avolta's travel retail network.

Sharma is also developing a hydrogen-powered whiskey distillery and 200-bed hotel project in Midlothian.

Follow Nishant Sharma on LinkedIn:

Follow Rutland Square Spirits:

Mark Scott is a serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Bella & Duke, and now building Torus Tree: a man who left school with no qualifications, spent years selling door-to-door out of a bag, and only found out at nearly fifty why none of that early failure to "keep up" was ever about intelligence.

He was taken from his mother at four, raised by his grandparents, and diagnosed dyslexic only last year — after a childhood of being called dumb, distracted, a daydreamer.

He built Bella & Duke into one of the UK's top 100 fastest-growing companies, sparked by nothing more than reading the ingredients list on a bag of dog food and refusing to accept the answer.

But that's only part of the story. What this conversation gets into is what happened before any of that: the version of Mark who, in his early forties, stopped sleeping, started shaking, and told his business partner he was done.

He describes it without softening it — a storm-felled tree in his front garden that he went out and chopped, day after day, not for exercise but because he needed a reason to get up. Looking back now, he doesn't call it burnout. He calls it "full-blown darkness".

He rebuilt from there, and when Bella & Duke hit its own pressure point, a fast-growing company navigating COVID and a factory that couldn't afford to shut, he didn't repeat the collapse. Not because the stress was smaller, but because, this time, he'd built the tools to carry it.

In this episode:

• Being taken from his mother at four and raised by his grandparents
• Growing up undiagnosed dyslexic, and only finding out last year
• Leaving school with no qualifications (highest grade: a D)
• Learning to sell door-to-door out of a bag at 20
• The moment his body forced him to stop: no sleep, shaking, quitting at 40
• Chopping down a storm-felled tree every day, and calling that period "suicidal dark"
• The idea for Bella & Duke, sparked by reading a dog food label
• Building Bella & Duke into a top-100 fastest-growing UK company
• Navigating a second high-stress period during COVID, without repeating the collapse
• A week at Dan Peña's castle, and what he took from it versus what he rejected
• Breaking generational trauma, and identifying which wounds are actually his
• Why he now works as a coach and mentor through Torus Tree

About The Burnout Files

Hosted by John Glover. Every episode explores the side of entrepreneurship that doesn't make the highlight reel: the setbacks, the sacrifices, and the very human stories behind building something from nothing.

Subscribe: https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-burnout-files

Instagram / LinkedIn / TikTok: @theburnoutfiles_

About Mark Scott

Mark Scott is the co-founder of Bella & Duke, the raw and natural pet food company he built from a door-to-door pitch into one of the UK's fastest-growing businesses.

He is now building Torus Tree, a venture focused on community and entrepreneur support in Perthshire. Undiagnosed dyslexic through his entire school career, he left with no formal qualifications and built his career instead on sales, instinct, and, as he puts it, learning everything the hard way.

Follow Mark Scott on LinkedIn

Mark-Paul Buckingham is a multi-exit founder, PhD engineer, chair of a mental health charity, and a man who has spent his entire career building things the world wasn't ready for yet. The suspension system he developed in 2001 turned up in Audis in 2015. The wireless charging technology he built in 2008 is now everywhere. He designed the isolated power tool handle used across the industry. He didn't get to capitalise on most of it: the patents lapsed, the market wasn't there, the timing was wrong.

But that's only part of the story. What this conversation really gets into is what two decades of that relentless pace, four hours of sleep a night, carrying everything alone, wearing a face for the world while quietly falling apart, eventually did to him.

In his early forties, after years of pushing through, Mark-Paul hit the wall. Not burnout as a term you put in a LinkedIn post. Full blown darkness. Not wanting to be around. He describes being there in body but completely gone mentally: a man who could step back from any business decision with cold clarity, but who was entirely blind to what was happening inside himself until it was too late.

Takeaways:

• Mark Paul Buckingham's entrepreneurial journey highlights the critical importance of resilience and perseverance in overcoming challenges.
• The complexities of mental health issues and burnout are frequently overlooked in the fast-paced startup world, warranting greater awareness and dialogue.
• Effective leadership necessitates the ability to make difficult decisions, even when faced with emotional strain and personal adversity.
• The evolving landscape of technology and business requires founders to adapt, learn from failures, and embrace new strategies for success.
• Building a supportive company culture that prioritises mental well-being can lead to improved productivity and employee satisfaction.
• The significance of childhood experiences in shaping one’s work ethic and approach to business is a recurring theme in Mark's narrative.

About The Burnout Files

Hosted by John Glover. Every episode explores the side of entrepreneurship that doesn't make the highlight reel: the setbacks, the sacrifices, and the very human stories behind building something from nothing.

Subscribe: https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-burnout-filesInstagram / LinkedIn / TikTok: @theburnoutfiles_

About Mark-Paul Buckingham

Mark-Paul Buckingham is a serial entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor who has spent over two decades building technology that was consistently ahead of its time.

He founded Reactec, a data and wearable technology company focused on workforce safety in the construction sector, which he grew over nearly two decades before selling to Ideagen in 2025.

He simultaneously co-founded and ran other ventures, including Xi consulting, which he continues to be involved with. He holds a PhD alongside his undergraduate engineering degree, having started both his doctorate and his first serious company at the same time.

In this episode of The Burnout Files, host John Glover sits down with Tony Crolla, founder of the Vittoria Group: one of Edinburgh's most enduring hospitality businesses, now in its second generation.

Tony's parents came to Scotland from Italy in 1967 with nothing. They opened a café on Leith Walk. Tony was working the floor at 12 years old. By his mid-twenties he was married, running the business, and responsible for a legacy that wasn't entirely his yet: and making it his own.

He's been doing it for 35 years. And he's never really stopped to talk about what it cost him.

This conversation goes to the places most founder stories don't. Tony talks candidly about the years he carried the weight entirely alone, the sleepless nights, the bad investments, the people who let him down and the ones he let down.

About the period in 2013, 14, 15 when the business had expanded faster than he could lead it and he felt, in his own words, that things weren't right but couldn't articulate it or take control. About the back injury that forced him to stop, and accidentally unlocked the next decade of growth.

He talks about what it does to a father to hand his sons not just a business but a life — and the fear that without care, love and succession planning, you hand your children a bomb.

He opens up about stress eating his way through the hard years, quietly putting on 15, 20 kilos in the difficult stretches, and only seeing it clearly in old photographs years later.

And right at the very end of the conversation, almost as an aside, he said something that stopped the room:

"When you add time as an asset to anything, time fixes everything. The darkest hour is always the one before sunrise."

If you've ever wondered what's really behind a family business that looks like it has it together, and what it actually takes to keep going for half a century, this one's for you.

Subscribe for more honest conversations about the real cost of building a business.

ABOUT THE BURNOUT FILES

The Burnout Files is hosted by John Glover. Every episode explores the side of entrepreneurship that doesn't make the highlight reel: the setbacks, the sacrifices, and the very human stories behind building something from nothing.

Subscribe for new episodes: https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-burnout-files/

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theburnoutfiles_/

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theburnoutfiles/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theburnoutfiles_

ABOUT TONY CROLLA

Tony Crolla is the founder of the Vittoria Group, a multi-site hospitality and property business based in Edinburgh.

The group was started by his parents in 1970 on Leith Walk and has grown under Tony's leadership over 35 years into one of the city's most respected independent restaurant groups.

Tony handed the day-to-day running of the hospitality side to his sons in 2020 and continues as the group's overarching director and investor.

Follow the Vittoria Group and Tony Crolla on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/vittoria-group/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonycrolla/

In this episode of The Burnout Files, host John Glover sits down with Danny Campbell, founder of Hoko Design, architect, and judge on BBC Scotland's Home of the Year.

Danny started Hoko because he became obsessed with one idea: that home is where the most important moments of your life happen, and architects have been ignoring the people who live in them.

He launched the practice before he was fully qualified, no safety net, just a clear purpose and a strategic first hire. That obsession turned into a business. But the journey nearly broke him.

This conversation goes to places most founder stories don't. Danny talks candidly about the employment tribunal he nearly didn't survive, the contractor who walked off multiple sites at once and left Hoko holding the financial wreckage, and a regulatory hearing that threatened to end his career publicly: all while his brother was dying.

He "cried every day on the way to work and every day on the way home". And he kept going.

Danny opens up about the mental health crisis running through the architecture profession, the third most likely to die by suicide, and why the industry's culture of silence makes it worse.

He talks about ego, about stripping materialism out of his life, about why he wears Crocs to every meeting. And he shares what his brother taught him about facing the worst with grace.

If you've ever wondered what's really happening behind a founder who looks like they have it together: this one's for you.

Subscribe for more honest conversations about the real cost of building a business.

The Burnout Files is hosted by John Glover. Every episode explores the side of entrepreneurship that doesn't make the highlight reel: the setbacks, the sacrifices, and the very human stories behind building something from nothing.

Subscribe for new episodes: https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-burnout-files/

Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theburnoutfiles_/

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theburnoutfiles/

Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theburnoutfiles_

Danny Campbell is the founder of Hoko Design, an architecture and design practice based in Scotland focused on helping homeowners create spaces that actually mean something. He is also a judge on BBC Scotland's Home of the Year.

He launched the business at 25 before completing his qualifications, and has spent the years since learning the hard way what it takes to build something that lasts.

Follow Hoko Design on LinkedIn, and Instagram

Follow Danny Campbell on Instagram

THE BURNOUT FILES

"What The F*** Am I Doing?" — Colin Frame, Founder of Stellar Omada

Host: John Glover

Duration: 1 hour 23 minutes

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EPISODE SUMMARY

Colin Frame built Stellar Omada from nothing in 2018. No investors, no safety net. Today it's one of Scotland's fastest-growing consultancies and he's targeting £50 million revenue by 2027. He's also the British Business Entrepreneur of the Year.

But none of that is what this conversation is about.

In this episode, Colin talks about the £200,000 cash flow crisis that nearly ended Stellar in its first year. The two companies he built and watched fail before he got it right. The divorce he went through while trying to scale a business.

The night he found himself walking to a freezing log cabin in rural Scotland with only his phone torch, wondering what on earth he was doing. He's been to the edge more than once. This is what brought him back.

If you're a founder, an entrepreneur, or you've ever wondered what the success stories leave out — this one's for you. Subscribe for more honest conversations about the real cost of building a business.

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IN THIS EPISODE

— Growing up in a caravan in rural Scotland and what it quietly did to his relationship with risk and failure

— Two failed startups before Stellar Omada — and why he's glad they happened

— The Friday afternoon his mum called to say they needed £200,000 by close of business

— How he's walked into boardrooms on the worst days of his life — and why compartmentalising isn't the same as coping

— Losing good people, avoiding conversations, and the leadership mistakes that still sit with him

— Going through a divorce while running a fast-growing company — and ending up in a freezing log cabin in October

— Why 72% of entrepreneurs are affected by mental health issues, and most never say a word

— What it felt like to be handed Entrepreneur of the Year by Bob Geldof

ABOUT THE BURNOUT FILES

The Burnout Files is hosted by John Glover. Every episode explores the side of entrepreneurship that doesn't make the highlight reel — the setbacks, the sacrifices, and the very human stories behind building something from nothing.

Subscribe for new episodes: https://feeds.captivate.fm/the-burnout-files/ Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theburnoutfiles_/ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theburnoutfiles/ Follow us on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@theburnoutfiles_

ABOUT COLIN FRAME

Colin Frame is the founder and CEO of Stellar Omada, one of the UK's fastest-growing technology and assurance consultancies. Named British Business Entrepreneur of the Year, Colin started Stellar Omada in Edinburgh in 2018 and is backed by the British Growth Fund.

Follow Colin on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-frame-21a94915/

Stellar Omada: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stellar-omada/

What does it really cost to build something from nothing?

The Burnout Files is a new podcast hosted by John Glover — honest conversations with founders and entrepreneurs about the side of business that doesn't make the highlight reel. The setbacks, the sacrifices, and the very human stories behind building a company.

New episodes coming soon.

Subscribe so you don't miss the first episode: