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 talk about this... but success isn't years of experience... it's confidence!
Emilie Vanpoperinghe, CEO of Oddbox, built a wonky vegetables business into a £20M+ scale-up.
This revolutionary female founder explains the uncomfortable biases women have in business, her hiring protocol and what leadership advice backfired on her.
🧠 What You'll Learn:
▪️ Why confidence trumps experience in determining entrepreneurial success (and the 20% confidence gap that's holding women back)
▪️ How to stay close to customers without losing focus as you scale to 50,000+ users
▪️ The uncomfortable truth about hiring bias
▪️ How small sustainable actions create bigger behavioural shifts than grand gestures
▪️ Why asking for input when you don't really want it damages team trust
▪️ The art of being directive as a leader without being authoritarian
📖 Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:35 - From Finance to Fighting Food Waste
08:03 - Tangible vs Intangible Impact
13:00 - The Sustainability Brand Balancing Act
19:17 - When Product-Market Fit Isn't Enough
25:24 - Staying Close to 50,000 Customers
32:00 - The Values Exercise That Almost Failed
38:22 - "I Ended Up Hiring All Men"
43:18 - The Confidence Research That Shocked Emilie
52:15 - Why She doesn't post on LinkedIn
57:23 - Co-founding With Your Husband
01:03:58 - "Stay Odd" — What It Really Means in Management
🍿 WATCH NEXT (on Youtube)
If you liked this conversation, you'll love this one too:
How To Be A Great Manager | Mel Murray-Serter (interview)
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HEIGHTS - https://www.heights.com/scalewithsoul
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