92. When should you hire, raise or expand? The lessons from Forest Bikes | Caroline Seton

When do you hire, when do you raise, and when is expansion actually the right move?

In this episode of All About Business, James sits down with Forest co-founder Caroline Seton to pull back the curtain on how a London startup scaled to over two million rides a month. From using smart pricing to make customers do the heavy lifting in logistics, to navigating 33 separate sets of local regulations, Caroline breaks down the raw operational tactics and tough strategic trade-offs required to build, survive, and scale an asset-heavy business.

Caroline gives a clear blueprint for turning operational headaches into profit drivers as they explore protecting margins through relentless asset care, knowing exactly when to double down, or kill an idea that isn't working.

Timestamps

01:38 Why Forest Started

10:32 Expanding Across London

15:09 Maintenance at Scale

21:38 Proof It Was Working

31:33 ULEZ and Space Reallocation

38:26 Making London Cycle Capital

44:50 Founder Advice and Tailwinds

Links