Sháá Wasmund MBE

I’ve never been good at being who other people thought I should be.

Entrepreneur. Investor. Author. Advisor.

From a council estate
to rooms and rings I wasn’t meant to be in.

01

Boxing

At 21 I started working with Chris Eubank Snr and became the UK’s first licensed female boxing agent.

02

Business

Serial entrepreneur.
#1 bestselling author.
Investor. MBE. Made the mistakes, learned the lessons and celebrated the wins.

03

Boxing again

Back in the ring.
Building something new.

30+

Years building businesses

5

#1 bestselling business books

500K+

Books sold

MBE

For services to business and entrepreneurship

5

Portfolio investments

Thirty years later, I’m back in boxing.

If you’d like to talk, say what you need.

Contact

I started in boxing.
Thirty years later,
I’m back.

The short version is that I have never been good at staying in the lane people expected me to stay in. That has not changed.

I grew up on a council estate, raised by a single parent. I studied economics at the London School of Economics, and then ignored everything the curriculum suggested I should do next.

Act One. The Ring.

At 21, I became the UK’s first licensed female boxing agent. I worked with world champion Chris Eubank Snr. I negotiated title fights. I managed 22 championship bouts. I was the only woman in almost every room I walked into. I stopped noticing after a while.

Nobody handed me that room. I walked into it because I could see what most people could not yet see: that great representation changes what is possible for a person, and that the person doing the representing does not have to look a particular way.

Act Two. Thirty Years.

I helped grow the Dyson brand from James’s kitchen table, before most people knew what a bagless vacuum cleaner was. I co-founded Deckchair.com with Bob Geldof. I built MyKindaPlace, one of the UK’s first social networks. First exit.

I was Co-CEO of a $150 million technology fund. Sitting on the other side of the table from entrepreneurs asking for investment turned out to be the best possible education for when I would be asking for it myself.

I founded Smarta, which became the UK’s #1 resource for small businesses, in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis. We survived. Just. Smarta is the one that got away, and I say that with affection and no self-pity. We were 10 years ahead of our time. The world wasn’t ready. It is very ready now.

I’ve written five #1 business books. Stop Talking, Start Doing became a Sunday Times bestseller and stayed at the top of the WHSmith business charts for 14 consecutive months, breaking their records. Half a million copies sold.

In 2015, the Queen awarded me an MBE for services to business and entrepreneurship.

At least one proper failure I am genuinely proud of. And one consistent regret.

Act Three. The Return.

Thirty years of interviews. One question every time: what is your biggest regret in business?

My answer never changed. I never set up a sports agency when I had the opportunity.

I’m fixing that.

One Shot Group →

Backing the entrepreneurs who are building what’s next.

I’ve sat on both sides of the investment table. That changes everything.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve raised money, been turned down, rebuilt and raised again.

As Co-CEO of Bright Station Ventures, a $150 million technology investment fund, I sat across from hundreds of entrepreneurs asking for capital. That experience changed how I think about backing people.

What I look for now is entrepreneurs who have seen things, survived things, and are building from lived experience. I’m interested in businesses at the intersection of sport, media and community, and in entrepreneurs who are being overlooked by the people who should be backing them.

I invest time before I invest money. I want to understand the business, the person and the problem before any conversation about terms.

This isn’t just about making money. It’s about levelling the playing field and making investment available to everyone, especially people with big ideas and even bigger missions to change their industries, and the world, for good.

Portfolio

Neutonic
ScoreApp
Autm AI
Implement AI
Tallow + Ash
Neutonic product
Tallow + Ash product

If you’re building something I should take a look at, let me know.

Get in touch

Books that move people to action.

Five consecutive #1 bestsellers. One Sunday Times bestseller.
Half a million copies sold. Written from doing it, not studying it.

Stop Talking, Start Doing
01

Stop Talking, Start Doing

Sunday Times bestseller

The book that started it all. On the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it, and how to close it. 14 consecutive months at the top of the WHSmith business charts, breaking their records.

Buy the book →
Stop Talking, Start Doing: The Action Book
02

Stop Talking, Start Doing: The Action Book

The companion. Practical tools to make the ideas in the first book stick.

Buy the book →
Do Less, Get More
03

Do Less, Get More

My personal favourite

On what actually matters and how to stop confusing being busy with being productive. How to get the life, business and results you want. Fast.

Buy the book →
How to Fix Your Sh*t
04

How to Fix Your Sh*t

The book I probably needed to write most. On the practical, uncomfortable work of sorting your business and yourself out.

Buy the book →
Stop Talking, Start Doing: 10th Anniversary Edition
05

Stop Talking, Start Doing: 10th Anniversary Edition

A decade on. Still the same message. Still the most important one I know how to give. Updated, and back in the bestseller charts.

Buy the book →
06

Book Six

Coming 2027

Watch this space.

Performance advice for serious operators.

Leaders. Entrepreneurs. Athletes. Brands.
For people who don’t need convincing, just results.

Not personal development. Not life coaching. Straight-talking advice for people who already know how to succeed and want to go further.

I work with a small number of people and brands each year. Entrepreneurs who are disrupting and scaling and need someone who’s done it. Leaders who are tired of advice from people who haven’t built anything. Brands intent on being best in class.

What you get is 30 years of pattern recognition from someone who’s worked with some of the biggest names and brands, and on some of the biggest deals in business.

Who this is for.

People and brands who are already successful and know what they want next. Ready for their next chapter. In front of the cameras. With the world watching.

You’ll get straight answers, not cheerleading. But I’m in your corner, and we’ll come out winning.

Who this is not for.

If you’re at the start of your journey and looking for inspiration, read the books first. They’ll do more for you than I will.

Get in touch

Talks that change how a room thinks.

Every talk I give comes back to the same idea. What’s stopping you, and is that reason real?

NatWest
Vodafone
O2
BBC
Veuve Clicquot

Shared stages with Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss, Dan Martell and Lewis Howes.

The Courage to Become

On reinvention, refusing to play small, and the radical idea that becoming who you were meant to be has no expiry date.

Built from thirty years of building, losing, rebuilding and not stopping. The talk I give most often. Lands hardest with mid-career audiences and rooms full of women who’ve been told they’ve missed their window.

The Long Game

What it actually takes to build something that lasts, told by someone who has done it, lost it, and done it again.

Thirty years of building businesses. The exits, the failures, the one that got away. For audiences who are tired of overnight-success stories.

The Deal

High-stakes deal-making from both sides of the table.

As an entrepreneur raising capital. As a Co-CEO deploying it. In my 50s, closing eight-figure deals. What changes when the stakes get higher, and what stays the same.

The Boardroom

Where women’s sport goes from here.

Women’s sport is rising in audience, in commercial value and in cultural significance. But we don’t just need more women on the pitch and in the ring. We need them in the boardroom too. We need women making the decisions, running the businesses and owning what they’ve built.

Discuss a booking

Back to boxing… in a big way

Sháá Wasmund with Dana White
With Dana White, Zuffa Boxing

Behind the scenes, I’ve been working closely with Sky on its multi-year partnership with Zuffa Boxing. Which puts me back where I started: ringside.

This is the part of the story I didn’t see coming, which makes it the best part. Thirty years after I started, I’m back in the sport as a licensed agent and promoter.

One Shot Group.

One Shot Group is the sports agency changing who gets seen, backed and valued. We started in boxing, the most male-dominated sport in the world, because if we can do it there, we can do it anywhere.

Women in sport isn’t just about who’s on the pitch or in the ring. It’s about who’s in the boardroom too.

Get in touch

For journalists, editors and media partners.

The bios below are written in the third person. Lift them directly. For photography, interview requests or anything else, use the contact form.

Short Biography

~90 words. For use in copy.

Sháá Wasmund MBE is an entrepreneur, author and speaker. At 21 she became the UK’s first licensed female boxing agent, working with world champion Chris Eubank Snr. She went on to build and exit businesses, serve as Co-CEO of a $150 million technology investment fund, and write five consecutive number one bestsellers, including the Sunday Times bestseller Stop Talking, Start Doing, with half a million copies sold. In 2015 the Queen awarded her an MBE for services to business and entrepreneurship. Today she is back in boxing, building One Shot Group.

Long Biography

~290 words. For features and profiles.

Sháá Wasmund MBE grew up on a council estate, raised by a single parent, studied economics at the London School of Economics, and promptly ignored everything the curriculum suggested she should do next.

At 21, she became the UK’s first licensed female boxing agent, working with world champion Chris Eubank Snr and managing twenty-two championship fights. It was the first chapter of a story that would come full circle thirty years later.

She left the boxing world and spent the next three decades building. She helped grow the Dyson brand from a kitchen table, co-founded Deckchair.com with Bob Geldof, and built MyKindaPlace, one of the UK’s first social networks. She went on to serve as Co-CEO of Bright Station Ventures, a $150 million technology investment fund, before founding Smarta, which became the UK’s number one resource for small businesses.

She is the author of five consecutive number one bestsellers. Stop Talking, Start Doing, a Sunday Times bestseller, sat at the top of the WHSmith business charts for fourteen consecutive months, breaking their records. Half a million copies have been sold across international markets. A sixth book is due in 2027.

In 2015, the Queen awarded Sháá an MBE for services to business and entrepreneurship. She has been named one of the UK’s Top 20 Most Influential Entrepreneurs by the Sunday Times and one of the most connected women in Britain by the Institute of Directors.

A sought-after international speaker, she has addressed audiences at NatWest, Vodafone, O2, the BBC and Veuve Clicquot, and shared stages with Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss, Dan Martell and Lewis Howes.

Thirty years after her career began, Sháá is back in boxing. She brokered Sky Sports’ multi-year boxing partnership with TKO and is building One Shot Group, the sports agency changing who gets seen, backed and valued.

Photography & interview requests

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Contact

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