Goalhanger has been named Britain’s fastest growing private company in the latest Sunday Times 100 rankings.
The London based media producer, known for The Rest Is Politics, The Rest Is Football and We Have Ways of Making You Talk, took the top position in the fifth annual list, which highlights the country’s fastest growing entrepreneurial businesses.
The company recorded £37.9 million in sales during 2025 and achieved average annual growth of 321.25% over the past three years. According to Goalhanger, its long form audio and video content is expected to reach one billion people this year.
Goalhanger was founded by Tony Pastor, former ITV sport controller, alongside audio producer Jack Davenport and former England footballer Gary Lineker. The business employs 80 people at its London headquarters, with the founders retaining a large majority stake.
The company’s growth comes despite launching at a time when the UK podcast market was still relatively small.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Tony Pastor said: “We were forced to think much more entrepreneurially about how we could build the business. With our first podcast we had ads, host read partnerships, and then a membership scheme for fans to join, a live festival and then started selling T-shirts. We built it out iteratively.”
The Sunday Times 100 excludes companies that sell their own technology, which are featured separately in The Sunday Times 100 Tech ranking. The list is published online today and will also appear in a supplement with the newspaper on 7 June.
Research carried out for the ranking found that the 100 companies featured increased sales by an average of 108% a year over the past three years, generating a combined £4 billion in revenue. Together, the businesses employ 13,700 people and created 8,900 jobs during the same period.
Goalhanger was one of 45 London based companies included in this year’s ranking.
