AJ is a serial entrepreneur and passionate student of startups.
After a decade of spending countless hours and money building companies, most of which failed, he went back to basics and surrounded himself with entrepreneurs decades further ahead of him.
He ran a deeply connected community of 400 entrepreneurs in the UK and realised how little he knew about the art and science of company building.
At this in ...
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Bernhard Niesner is the founder of Busuu, which sold to Chegg for €436m in 2021, making it the largest EdTech Exit in Europe. However, the company almost died 7 years in which marked a pivotal moment for Bernhard, specifically with how he approached startup culture. _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for company and community building _ _ _ Bernhard was kind enough to share his incredible story and lessons from the rollercoaster ride of Busuu! _ _ _ 📖 Video Chapters 00:00 - Intro 04:19 - Culture Crisis 17:30 - Culture Exercises 21:42 - Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast 32:02 - Team of A Players 38:55 - 100 Rejections From VCs 47:56 - How much to raise? 50:37 - Relationships with investors 58:05 - Evolving our internal chatter 01:02:12 - Success is the struggle 01:05:50 - M&A Learnings 01:17:43 - Post-exit life 01:20:11 - Family : Work Harmony 01:24:10 - What's impossible? 01:28:55 - Unconventional Opinion 01:30:04 - How we can help Bernhard _ _ _ 🍿 WATCH NEXT (Youtube) Pret & Itsu Founder: The One Skill To Build £Billion Brands| Julian Metcalfe Hard Startup Truths; Funding, Team Design, Skills | James Routledge _ _ _ 👉 Follow me on Linkedin _ _ _ 🙋♂️ WHO AM I? If we haven’t met before - Hey 👋 I’m AJ, a serial entrepreneur and community expert who believes that company building should be viewed more through the lens of relationship building. Through my videos on Youtube, the podcast and my writing on Linkedin and in my newsletter, I share stories of successful entrepreneurs and evidence-based strategies and tools to help you create the most sustainable and fulfilling people-centric business! _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for people-centric company building
Katy Turner is a serial startup founder, investor and advisor. She's wise, cool and also incredibly silly. _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for company and community building _ _ _ Katy and I have been close friends since I started running Foundrs and we had so much fun in this conversation with topics ranging from... 📖 Video Chapters 00:00 - Intro (sillyness) 12:18 - The Human Experience 14:02 - Work Isn't A Family 22:56 - Overcoming conflict aversion 29:06 - Creativity in business 37:14 - Culture 48:04 - How To Solidify Values 53:48 - Foundations Of Stories 01:06:31 - Different 'Why's 01:09:35 - Soren Kierkegaard 01:15:21 - Katy's Best Friend 01:17:44 - What's under your bed? 01:18:52 - Katy's influences _ _ _ 🍿 WATCH NEXT (Youtube) Pret & Itsu Founder: The One Skill To Build £Billion Brands| Julian Metcalfe Hard Startup Truths; Funding, Team Design, Skills | James Routledge _ _ _ 👉 Follow me on Linkedin _ _ _ 🙋♂️ WHO AM I? If we haven’t met before - Hey 👋 I’m AJ, a serial entrepreneur and community expert who believes that company building should be viewed more through the lens of relationship building. Through my videos on Youtube, the podcast and my writing on Linkedin and in my newsletter, I share stories of successful entrepreneurs and evidence-based strategies and tools to help you create the most sustainable and fulfilling people-centric business! _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for people-centric company building
Julian Metcalfe founded both Pret A Manger and Itsu, which are together worth over $3 billion! That speaks for itself really... _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for company and community building _ _ _ I visited Julian in the Itsu offices in London where we broke down what it takes to be a unicorn entrepreneur and the operating principles behind building Pret A Manger and Itsu. 📖 Video Chapters 00:00 - Intro 01:20 - The Truth 06:29 - Itsu 09:23 - Innovation 13:55 - Being demanding 16:55 - Passion 20:58 - Beauty 23:06 - What's itsu missing? 26:24 - How Pret changed 27:50 - Pride 30:06 - Trust 34:26 - Itsu's values 35:17 - Evolving 38:51 - Awareness 44:32 - Itsu as a startup 46:53 - Butterfly Club 47:55 - Julian's Drive _ _ _ 🍿 WATCH NEXT (Youtube) Why 93% of Entrepreneurs Fail At Content Creation | Dan Murray-Serter Hard Startup Truths; Funding, Team Design, Skills | James Routledge _ _ _ 👉 Follow me on Linkedin _ _ _ 🙋♂️ WHO AM I? If we haven’t met before - Hey 👋 I’m AJ, a serial entrepreneur and community expert who believes that company building should be viewed more through the lens of relationship building. Through my videos on Youtube, the podcast and my writing on Linkedin and in my newsletter, I share stories of successful entrepreneurs and evidence-based strategies and tools to help you create the most sustainable and fulfilling people-centric business! _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for people-centric company building
Monika Holod has been Head Of Brand for unicorns like BlaBlaCar and Ankorstore as well as VP of Global Brand for OYO (after their $1bn Series E). Since then she has founded a therapy startup called OMA. _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for company and community building _ _ _ In this zen conversation we cover founder wellbeing, startup branding, and scaling culture. 📖 Video Chapters 00:00 - Intro 04:50 - What makes a great brand? 07:07 - What questions to ask? 12:03 - Scaling a brand (AirBnB) 15:14 - Hiring cultures 23:50 - Scaling culture internationally 34:04 - Story of OMA 42:55 - Founder therapist matching 53:13 - Psychology of founders 01:01:13 - Pre-therapy work _ _ _ 🍿 WATCH NEXT (Youtube) Pret & Itsu Founder: The One Skill To Build £Billion Brands| Julian Metcalfe Hard Startup Truths; Funding, Team Design, Skills | James Routledge _ _ _ 👉 Follow me on Linkedin _ _ _ 🙋♂️ WHO AM I? If we haven’t met before - Hey 👋 I’m AJ, a serial entrepreneur and community expert who believes that company building should be viewed more through the lens of relationship building. Through my videos on Youtube, the podcast and my writing on Linkedin and in my newsletter, I share stories of successful entrepreneurs and evidence-based strategies and tools to help you create the most sustainable and fulfilling people-centric business! _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for people-centric company building
Dan Hogan is an epic founder. He co-founded Ember, an automated accountancy and tax startup that recently raised £5m and boasts clients including thousands of small business owners and banks like HSBC. _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for company and community building _ _ _ He's also one of my closest friends, - we clicked at a retreat I was running while at Foundrs (a community of 400 entrepreneurs in the UK), and have since lived together and seen each other's best and worst. Dan is an incredibly wise, kind and diligent founder (he was originally an accountant after all) so this was a detailed, powerful and hilarious conversation where we dove into: 📖 Video Chapters 00:00 - Intro 02:30 - How We Met 05:03 - Ember Story 10:48 - Choosing Cofounders 18:17 - Remote Team Comms 24:18 - Key Internal Documents 37:00 - How To Connect Employees 46:15 - How Vulnerable At Work? 50:54 - Boundaries 59:00 - How To Fire With Care 01:04:02 - Pre-Firing Work 01:08:48 - Founder Resilience 01:10:56 - Building Resilience In Others 01:15:39 - Ember's Fundraise 01:21:09 - Meeting Stripe's Founder 01:23:51 - Shifts In Fundraising Market 01:29:10 - Closing Lesson _ _ _ 🍿 WATCH NEXT (Youtube) Pret & Itsu Founder: The One Skill To Build £Billion Brands| Julian Metcalfe Leadership Styles, Social Apps, Cancer & More | Jack Rogers _ _ _ 👉 Follow me on Linkedin _ _ _ 🙋♂️ WHO AM I? If we haven’t met before - Hey 👋 I’m AJ, a serial entrepreneur and community expert who believes that company building should be viewed more through the lens of relationship building. Through my videos on Youtube, the podcast and my writing on Linkedin and in my newsletter, I share stories of successful entrepreneurs and evidence-based strategies and tools to help you create the most sustainable and fulfilling people-centric business! _ _ _ 👉 Subscribe on Youtube to be first to learn from world class, inspiring entrepreneurs 📧 Subscribe to my newsletter to get exclusive content and timeless frameworks for people-centric company building