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.
When GoHenry's founder hit rock bottom, she was drowning...
She realised that the single point of failure was her. At 6am every morning, that familiar sick thump of dread would hit.
Here's how she built her company from the ground up, faced rejection from her own board, and emerged stronger than ever.
💡 What you'll learn in this episode:
▪️ How to identify and eliminate dangerous "single points of failure" in your business before they drown you
▪️ Why operationalising your values through your entire team is the secret to retaining talent for over a decade
▪️ How to navigate brutal board dynamics and still drive toward what's right for your company
▪️ The 6-month evolution framework that prevents you from running into walls as you scale
▪️ The counterintuitive approach to M&A that led to a successful £125M+ exit to Acorns
📖 Chapters
00:00 - What Keeps You Up At Night?
01:21 - When you are the Single Point of Failure
05:19 - Fixing the system when you're drowning
07:36 - The little Red Handbook!
13:59 - Fixing the Points of failure in practice
15:39 - Realising you might not be needed in a company you built
19:14 - Do they just want a yes man?
23:09 - Control as a leader: When to hold on and when to let go!
27:32 - Developing Finance Function... When and how to do it
30:21 - The board chose someone else to be CEO
35:30 - 2 Points: Identify Your Dragons and Learn The Art of Pre-Present
37:41 - Working with Dragons on your board
39:52 - Three biggest Board meetings, the biggest decisions
43:02 - Fundraising Learning Curves: Raised £125M, Acquiring Pixpay and Being acquired by Acorns
48:01 - How we Acquired Pixpay, finding a similar culture in your acquisition
48:03 - Biggest learnings from 6 rounds of fundraising
52:14 - Generosity within the company culture. A solidifying moment
56:08 - The ROI of paying for a holiday for all the staff
01:00:29 - What in the culture leads to people staying on for so long?
01:03:31 - Going from CEO to Executive Chair of the Board
01:07:44 - Make your passion your mission
01:12:08 - How to choose and win your battles
01:15:38 - What action we need to take
🍿 WATCH NEXT
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🔗 Guest Links https://www.gohenry.com/
LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/louise-hill-5197614
🔗 Affiliate Link Monk Ice Baths: discovermonk.com/SCALEWITHSOUL for £100 discount