It’s amazing what can happen from your home office. Last week was one of the most uplifting events I’ve ever been part of.

I’ve been a fan and supporter of Virgin StartUp since it began providing loans and guiding first-time founders to get their idea out into the world. As a business advisor and event host I’ve seen up close how so many of these small ideas flourish or struggle to gain momentum. Every time I connect with aspiring entrepreneurs I learn something that helps me in my own work.

So when head of Virgin StartUp, Andy Fishburn, asked if…

Cambridge University its moving all its lectures online for 2020/21. The near future for many classes, events and team meets is digital. But despite video calls and online events being available for over a decade, its only really during Covid-19 that we’re switching on mass. We have to.

And when demand goes up so does supply. There’s now a plethora of tools and platforms to host your next meeting or webinar, so which to choose.

Like many people I’ve spent a decent chunk of time using these platforms over the last two months. …

30th April 2020

Dear Rebels,

This is an update about the changes we’ve made over the last few weeks.

We began this community because we wanted to help curious people start and finish non-fiction books that would challenge them to put their learnings into action, together with others.

5 years later we’ve read 60 forward-thinking books together with 1000s of fantastic people, as well as collaborating with some fantastic authors and leading thinkers in tech, science, wellbeing, business, environment and society.

Our simple monthly model of 1 x non-fiction book + reading nudges + local meetups has expanded to…

It’s been a big week (or few) but how do we, as entrepreneurs, makers, freelancers, or the newly unemployed, best respond creatively?

I ran an instagram live this morning (and last week with Escape the City) talking about this. I think we’re going to see an explosion of creativity and necessary innovation. I made Pub Hero to raise funds for pubs via online quizzes in an hour of caffeine-fuelled inspiration on Friday and I have 100 signups ready to go (connect with me if you can help).

So, here’s the thought experiment you could try to kickstart some ideas. …

This is a letter we sent to our members at Rebel Book Club today.

Many of you will be going through a mixture of feelings right now; concern around the health and wellbeing of friends, family and vulnerable communities you care about. Maybe even your own. Anxiety around your work, finances and future career. Fear around what’s going on in the world — this on top of everything else.

These are understandable reactions. These are human reactions. These emotions are necessary to cause a response. Flight or fight.

So what can we — a small group of thinkers and doers — do in the time of Corona?

You joined Rebel Book Club because you love books and are curious…

Our Current Set-up

We’ve been running Rebel Book Club with pretty much the same nocode tools since we started in 2015, including:

• Website > Strikingly (only recently moved to Wordpress)
• Member Applications > Typeform Pro
• Member Subscription Payments > GoCardless
• Mailing Lists > Mailchimp
• Book Vouchers > Amazon
• Community > Mighty Networks
• Events > Eventbrite
• Accounting with Xero & Banking with Tide
• Email & Docs with Google

What We Need Next

Essentially, the above + a ‘Subscription Management’ toolkit that will:

• Take subscription payments internationally (gocardless can do this)
• Automate member communications depending on type of membership/location/payment dates
• Member Management (by either member or us): profiles, notifications…

…and a tweet-sized review of each one.

I didn’t quite match the 43 books I read in 2018…. but here is a run down of what I read in 2019. It equates to about 20 minutes / 20 pages a day. Main themes were around planetary crises (and how we can best respond), privacy, mental health (and altered states of the mind) and truth-hunting / avoiding fake news.

Thanks to Rebel Book Club for the accountability and inspiration as always!

Now in London, Bristol, Oxford, Brighton, Berlin & Barcelona (and over 800 active members), RBC is kicking off a big…

Ben and I had talked before about how raising funds for Rebel Book Club could help a lot more people accelerate their reading habits — both breadth and depth — and make a heap of interesting and valuable connections — ideas, insights, people.

On the one hand we could carry on as we were, running it as a successful ‘side-project’ covering its costs nicely and building a great little community. …