Lord Jamie Borwick

"If I'd have said, 'The first thing I'm going to do is sell battery-powered vans to Tesco, everybody would have told me I was ridiculous. But that's exactly what I did – and it was definitely worth a party!" Lord Jamie Borwick tells us how he's built a £9m-turnover global business manufacturing zero-emission commerical vehicles.

Simon Calver

“Three or four years ago, when I spoke to people about LoveFilm.com, they’d look at me in a strange way and wonder what my night-time activities were on the internet!" Simon Calver, boss of DVD rental website LoveFilm.com, explains how he's shaken up the film industry and created a £70m business.

Hiro Harjani

When Hiro Harjani stepped off the plane from India, he had no contacts, no cash and zero business experience. So how on earth did he build a global fashion brand with 5,000 international trade accounts, sales of £25m and celebrity endorsements from Lisa Snowden and Helen Mirren?

Angus Thirlwell

"My father's an entrepreneur and I grew up watching his success. When I was a boy, I was always dreaming up new ideas and inventions." Angus Thirlwell started out with £5,000 and a packet of mints. Today, his luxury brand Hotel Chocolat has sales of £40m and has just launched Stateside. This business is no chocolate teapot.

James Murray Wells

"We're recession proof. You need glasses – and we deliver them cheaper than anyone else. I'm bullish and so are our investors. We've just raised another £2.5m." James Murray Wells, the young entrepreneur behind Glasses Direct, explains why his start up caused chaos on the high street and how he's beating the downturn.

Wilfred Emmanuel Jones

"People look at The Black Farmer packaging and think, 'Whoa, is this politically correct?'. I wanted to make sure it was controversial. Am I using my colour to sell sausages? Yes. All brands have to have an element of risk." Wilfred Emmanuel Jones reveals how he's created a brand worth an estimated £6m by "sticking two fingers up at the system".

Will King

"I didn’t have the £2,000 to bottle the first set of oils, so I spent two weeks hand-bottling 9,600. My girlfriend did 500, even her ironing lady did 100!” With sensitive skin and no money, Will King set about competing against Gillette. Hear how the “King of Shaves” took on the industry giants and how he plans to build a £200m-turnover business by 2012.

Sarah McVittie and Thomas Roberts

"We went from earning a big, fat corporate salary to cycling everywhere and living off beans on toast." Motorbike fanatic Sarah McVittie and self-confessed “mobile phone tart” Thomas Roberts tell us why they quit their high-flying City jobs to set up question-and-answer SMS service Texperts – and why they still don't flash the cash.

Charlie Mullins

"I'm very fussy about who I employ. I want top plumbers, not layabouts. Let's face it: no one wants a sloppy bastard with his arse hanging out his pants wandering around their house." Charlie Mullins, the founder of £15m-turnover Pimlico Plumbers, talks about builders' bums, female plumbers and unblocking Gordon Ramsay's drains.

James Caan

"I didn’t have a lot of money. I didn’t own a house. And I didn’t have any savings. So I went to the bank and tried to convince them to give me a loan. They turned me down."

He's a serial entrepreneur, a venture capitalist and the multi-millionaire star of Dragons' Den – but even the smooth-talking James Caan had trouble funding his first business. Here the CEO of private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw talks about start-ups, set-backs and success.