Inspirational founder Sam White will tell her story at FUEL Manchester next week.
From being raised by an alcoholic mother to fighting off a sex pest and coming out as gay at the age of 30, White has faced more challenges than most.
The CEO of Stella Insurance, a female-focused motor insurance business with offices in Manchester and Australia, featured on our 2026 Northern Leaders list – published this week – and was also among our Founder 250 stars earlier in the year.
On Wednesday 28th October, she will speak on the breakfast panel at FUEL Manchester – you can sign up for free at the link below – while a select group of founders will also pick her brains in the following invite-only people & performance masterclasses.
Register for breakfast panel & networking
White brings a new meaning to the phrase ‘straight talking’ and has appeared on BBC Morning Live, Wake Up To Money and Sky News. She told BusinessCloud’s Naked Founder Podcast this year that her tough upbringing led to her resilience.
After showing her entrepreneurial flair from an early age by washing cars, she launched a claims business called Action 365 at the age of 24 from her sister’s conservatory. She grew it to 220 people before it eventually went into administration.
White was in her early 20s when she suffered her first anxiety attack, which she links to her traumatic childhood in Manchester. “Your immediate assumption is that you’re dying. The sensation of a panic attack is absolute terror. The kind of terror that you’ve never experienced.
“Scary movies don’t frighten me. Rollercoasters don’t frighten me but this feeling was just abject terror and an absolute belief that I was about to die.”
She transformed her health by quitting smoking and drinking and losing several stone in weight, and has also spoken openly about working with therapists.
In 2020, White founded Stella Insurance in Australia before launching it in the UK in 2022. She has since grown Stella into a multi-million-pound business employing around 50 people.
Today, she is a mother-of-two and happily married to Jennie, a children’s book author and divorce coach, who is currently making a documentary on the rape reporting process in the UK.
White adds: “I do genuinely believe that anything is possible and my life has taught me that to be true. I’ve had lots of adventures and experiences.”
FUEL Manchester is sponsored by GM Business Growth Hub, S&W and Nybble, with support from Bruntwood SciTech.