May 3, 2020Can startups “Hack” brand building?Patek Philippe has been building its brand for 181 years. Maybe your investors aren’t that patient? Good news, brand building doesn’t have to be slow or expensive. Many top startups have gained notoriety super-quick by adopting a “challenger brand.” For example: Transferwise campaigned against egregious bank transfer fees Dollar Shave…Startup Marketing2 min readStartup Marketing2 min read
Apr 14, 2020Case Study: C-19 Symptom Tracker AppFrom Zero to 2M Actives in 2 Weeks — The evening of March 24, I got a group WhatsApp from Sara Gordon, VP of Marketing at Zoe, a London-based HealthTech Startup. Her team “built an app over the weekend for COVID-19 symptom logging… to aid the NHS in understanding where the disease is spreading.” …Marketing6 min readMarketing6 min read
Feb 6, 2020How Not to Prioritise Growth ExperimentsWhy I No Longer Score Ideas by Effort vs. Impact — Product vs Growth Sprints The Startup Growth Process differs from Lean Product Process in some important ways. A big one: How you prioritise work. In Lean Product, you traditionally prioritise based on I.C.E. (Impact, Chance of success, Effort). But on the growth side, that’s actually quite a bad idea. From…Marketing4 min readMarketing4 min read
Nov 4, 20198 Traits for the Perfect Startup Growth HireHiring (attracting, selecting and inspiring) amazing people is the #1 lever you can pull as a leader. Talent is the only proven true consistent source of competitive advantage. Trust me, I screwed it up many times! For years as a Marketing Director, I hired dozens of people and eventually built…Startup7 min readStartup7 min read
Oct 9, 2018I Just Started a CompanyAlong with three of my favourite marketers in London, Diego, Mo and Nopadon, I’ve started a new company called Heretix, to offer growth coaching to founders and their teams in Europe. Startups usually find that 90% of their growth comes from 10% of their work. So we’ve designed a program…Startup3 min readStartup3 min read
Aug 7, 2018Apple’s #1 Trade SecretNotoriously secretive, Apple out-executed everyone for decades. But how? — Apple is 10X better than Google or Facebook. Most of us name these stalwarts of the valley interchangeably, but think again: Throughout the Steve Jobs era, Apple’s achievements were without peer. And we can learn a lot about leadership by studying how they did it. Apple is playing a much harder game than the rest of tech. Most tech giants (Salesforce, Netflix…Apple6 min readApple6 min read
Oct 31, 2017Extended Fast #4 — Three ImprovementsThree improvements I made for my fourth extended fast. (And seven more for next time). — Since my previous post documenting my six-day water fast, I’ve done three more extended fasts ranging from four to six days each. Each one has been easier as my body becomes accustomed to the practice, and as I tweak the protocol. For this latest fast, I made three additional improvements: …Health9 min readHealth9 min read
Apr 28, 2017A Tale of Two Squirrels: The Not So Simple Math on Venture Portfolio SizeBy now most VCs are familiar with Dave McClure’s large portfolio theory. In short, he believes that at seed stage, it doesn’t make sense to have a portfolio with fewer than 50–100 companies, because venture returns depend on outliers and you need a big enough portfolio to consistently capture them. …Venture Capital10 min readVenture Capital10 min read
Dec 26, 2016My 6-Day Water FastQuick answers to common questions: Why I did it and how it went. Why? My main New Years Resolution for 2016 was to change my behaviour to enable me to live a longer healthier life. I did a lot of research, which I’ll briefly summarise: Realistically for most people my age…Health14 min readHealth14 min read
Published in Applaudience·Dec 5, 2016Tobacco: Hollywood’s Dirty SecretThe other night my five-year-old daughter said something that blew my mind. She said “Smoking is cool. I saw someone smoking in a Taylor Swift video.” She’s five years old. This was not an isolated incident. In-fact smoking is curiously prevalent in American media: 50% of American movies feature smokers…Health3 min readHealth3 min read
