Tamara Lohan MBE: From idea to exit - the scaling story of the iconic Mr & Mrs Smith travel brand

In today’s 40 Minute Mentor episode, we’re joined by Tamara Lohan MBE, Co-Founder and CEO of boutique hotel travel specialists Mr & Mrs Smith. Tamara founded Mr & Mrs Smith together with her husband James in 2002. Since then, the pair have been on an incredible journey, including scaling the business to over 1.5 million members worldwide, growing their distributed team, being awarded with an MBE for their services to the British travel industry, getting B Corp certified and being acquired by Hyatt in 2023. In today’s episode, you’ll find out what it takes to build such an iconic brand and lots of actionable mentorship on how Tamara transitioned from CTO to COO and CEO. 📚 Episode Chapters: ➡️ Childhood influences and early aspirations [05:20] ➡️ The idea that sparked Mr & Mrs Smith [08:00] ➡️ Challenges in the early days [13:00] ➡️ Transitioning from CTO to COO [19:30] ➡️ Transforming Leadership & navigating Covid [20:00] ➡️ Learn more about today’s sponsors [24:00] ➡️ Building an iconic brand [28:00] ➡️ Hiring lessons [32:00] ➡️ Building a remote culture [35:00] ➡️ The resilience of the travel industry [38:00] 🔍 Find out more: ✨ Connect with Tamara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamaralohan ✨ More about Mr & Mrs Smith: https://www.mrandmrssmith.com/ 📣Learn more about today’s sponsor: Today’s episode is sponsored by Foundation Partners, an Amplified People Group company. Foundation Partners is reinventing how ambitious, early-stage companies access People & Talent support. They offer a fully flexible, fractional People & Talent team with specialist skillsets and hands-on delivery that starts driving impact in just 2 weeks. As a 40 Minute Mentor listener, you can book a FREE 1-hour advisory call with a Managing Partner. Just head to www.foundationpartners.co.uk/contact and reference 40 Minute Mentor. ⭐Enjoyed this episode?⭐️ Keep up to date with all our latest episodes by hitting the subscribe button on your favourite podcast platform. And for any feedback on what you enjoy the most and ideas on what we can do to make 40 Minute Mentor even better, please leave us a review at https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm 🎧 You may also enjoy: Simon Franks: The truth behind exiting to Amazon and investing in hyper growth Startups with Redbus Ventures Radha Vyas: From £20m revenues to bankruptcy & rebuilding Flash Pack 2.0 Ben Stephenson: Building A Remote-First Startup Disrupting Travel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices