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 intersection of relationships and company building is where AJ has found the key to success.
If we don't understand people, we don't understand business.
But people are hard to understand....
Which is why this show exists!
scale with soul is a deep dive intro how the best entrepreneurs alive build and manage the relationships that lead to startup success.
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 intersection of relationships and company building is where AJ has found the key to success.
If we don't understand people, we don't understand business.
But people are hard to understand....
Which is why this show exists!
scale with soul is a deep dive intro how the best entrepreneurs alive build and manage the relationships that lead to startup success.
Most founders don't realise the biggest barrier to scaling isn't capital or talent — it's learning when to let go.
Carolyn Dawson built a 10,000-person founder community by understanding this one truth:
The best leaders know exactly when to stop being indispensable.In this interview you’ll discover what is needed to choose between entering the US vs Europe startup sector.
🧠 What You'll Learn:
▪️ Why European founders' "humanity" in hiring decisions might actually be holding back the ecosystem
▪️ How celebrating failure accelerated growth at Supercell (and why most founders get this backwards)
▪️ The curation secrets behind building the UK's most exclusive founder community
▪️ Why "founder mode" becomes dangerous after Series B and when to transition
▪️ The internal vs external balance that separates unicorn founders from the rest
📖 Chapters
00:00 - UK vs US: The Narrative Problem
06:27 - When Founders Should Actually Exit Their Companies
11:43 - Building a People-Driven Business at Scale
22:46 - The Stories Behind Closed Funding Rounds
24:15 - What Separates the Top 1% of Founders
31:03 - The Quality vs Speed Trade-off in Company Building
33:22 - Building Loyalty: The Team That Follows You Everywhere
39:13 - From Control Freak to Strategic Leader
42:05 - The External vs Internal Balance Every Founder Must Master
45:21 - What Information to Share vs Keep Private
47:37 - European vs US Firing Culture: The Speed vs Humanity Debate
57:28 - Going Global: Boots on Ground vs Remote
59:09 - The Inner Voice That Builds Resilience
62:06 - Taking Yourself Too Seriously: The Success Trap
🍿 WATCH NEXT
If you liked this conversation, you'll love this one too:
Hard Startups Truths; Funding, Team Design, Skills | James Routledge
https://youtu.be/XcBwsq-KzmI?si=-WhZcPjyXXLWZYMq
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