I’m not a vc-backed founder but I’ve certainly aspired to be a visionary builder as a product leader, a thoughtful technologist when working on problems like substance addiction, and an independent thinker as I’ve navigated the intersection of spirituality and tech in my life.

I was born and raised in the UK to a Danish Dad and Zimbabwean/British Mum.

Had a great upbringing in Devon. Amongst other things, developed a love of the sea and surfing.

Went on to study Economics and Management at the University of Oxford.

Desperate to avoid becoming an investment banker I stumbled and fell into a startup.

A couple of significant things happened — I met the wonderful woman who would go on to become my wife; and after my parent’s divorce my Mum ended up in an abusive relationship (the dark years).

I never expected to become ‘spiritual’ — but as a young man with a lot of questions and frustration at the world, I took up yoga because I heard that was good for you. It turns out it was!

I practiced, then trained as an ashtanga teacher, then guided meditations, and did a bunch of deep work along the way.

Alongside that I worked in product, firstly as a PM and eventually as a leader in high-growth, VC-backed companies, some of which did very well. I built teams, hired and fired, sat in front of boards, pitched to investors, and made my fair share of screwups along the way.

Deep down I knew I cared more about people than I did about product — particularly how people change and grow. I spent a number of years building products for substance addiction so interviewed dozens of heroin addicts and worked side by side with some of the world’s leading experts on clinical behaviour change. It was enlightening to say the least.

I trained as a coach, then did more training, and eventually took the plunge to step away from full time startup leadership to run my coaching business.

Fast forward a bit and I became a Partner at Evolution, Silicon Valley's premier coaching and consulting firm. It’s essentially like the Avengers of coaching and leadership development, particularly for VC-backed tech companies.

So today I coach founders and leadership teams, mostly in product-centric tech companies who’ve raised money from top tier investors, and sometimes in much larger organisations looking to adopt the speed and innovation of a startup. They span a broad range of industries such as healthtech, wellness, climatetech, fintech, biosciences and generative AI to name a few. This can be 1-1 coaching, co-founder coaching, team coaching and training, and facilitation of leadership and company offsites.

I also love to write, which mostly takes place in my newsletter The Wise Founder.

My wife, Sophie, my dog, Otis, and I currently split our time between London and the Basque country in southwest France. There’s still nothing else that clears my mind quite like a surf!