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.
What does it really takes to SCALE (not just grow...)?
Neda Sahebelm was an early joiner at Multiverse, achieving 98% retention and 50% diversity in her teams, whilst delivering multiple £20M quarters.
Growth is doing more with more.
Scale is doing more with less.
In this episode she reveals the system that transforms chaos into high-performing teams.
🧠 What You'll Learn
▪️ Growth vs Scale: The difference between success and chaos
▪️ "Operation Thrive": How to flip a toxic team culture in 6 months
▪️ The hiring system that achieved 98% retention and radical diversity
▪️ The 3-pillar framework: Org Design, Recruitment, and Retention done right
▪️ How to fire people gracefully (and why most leaders get this catastrophically wrong)
📖 Chapters
00:00 - Intro
06:14 - Growth vs Scale: Why Most Founders Get This Wrong
10:11 - The "Operational Efficiency" Myth.
16:32 - The SVB Crash Aftermath: Market Shifts and Human Costs
24:35 - Start with Product (Not People or Process)
30:34 - The Org Design Crisis: Why Founders Hire Wrong
38:14 - Building Scalable Hiring Systems: The 55-Person Quarter
46:04 - The Diversity Masterclass: 98% Retention Secrets
58:11 - "Operation Thrive": Turning -5 NPS Into +68
1:08:00 - The "Train Analogy": Managing Exits with Grace
1:16:23 - "Don't Bring Your Whole Self to Work" - The Leadership Reality
🍿 WATCH NEXT
If you liked this conversation, you'll love this one too:
Hard Startups Truths; Funding, Team Design, Skills | James Routledge
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