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.
The "ruthless" business world tells us kindness is weakness – but what if that's backwards?
Marcus Exall has built a reputation as one of the most respected angel investors in the world, not through aggression, but through genuine care for founders.
His approach challenges everything we think we know about succeeding in startups.
🧠 What You'll Learn
▪️ Why treating kindness as strength (not weakness) creates better investment returns
▪️ The 6-month founder evaluation process that's led to 2.5x returns across 31 investments
▪️ How to build resilience through saying problems out loud instead of carrying them alone
▪️ How to separate exceptional founders from good ones through focus and vulnerability
▪️ Why obsessing over product features (not problems) kills most early-stage startups
▪️ The storytelling framework that makes impossible visions feel inevitable
📖 Chapters
00:00 - Intro
01:03 - From Tokyo Diner to 31 Angel Investments
03:07 - What Japanese Culture Taught Me About Company Building
13:08 - Balancing Kindness with Ruthless Business Decisions
17:22 - The Swan Problem: Creating Safe Spaces for Founders to Be Real
24:45 - Why Marcus Doesn't Invest Primarily for Money
33:21 - How to Spot Exceptional Focus in Founders
39:06 - Building Resilience: Why You Must Keep Getting Up
42:03 - The £150k Mistake Most Founders Make
01:02:07 - The Choice Between Health and Building Big Business
01:03:28 - Marcus's Mum on Raising a Future Angel Investor
🍿 WATCH NEXT
If you liked this conversation, you'll love this one too:
Shazam Founder Interview: Secrets of Luck, Persistence & Success (Ep. 1)
👉 Subscribe for weekly interviews and deeply practical videos on how to scale with soul
📧 Get exclusive insights, timeless frameworks & founder tools in my newsletter
Affiliate Link
Monk Ice Bath For a £100 discount on the world's first smart ice bath, visit - www.discovermonk.com/SCALEWITHSOUL