Exited agency founder, advisor, investor
I founded a B2B digital marketing agency, scaling the business to multi-million £ revenues before exiting through an acquisition.
My story
I dropped out of university to turn my part time freelance business that I started as a teenager in my bedroom into an award winning digital agency.
I grew the business organically, with no debt or investment, from just me as a 20 year old sole founder to a team of ~35 people and multi-million £ annual revenues and ~25% net profit margins - winning clients like Amazon.
I also founded FINITE, a B2B marketing media brand and global membership community for software CMOs.
In April 2022, aged 29, I sold the business to a US headquartered strategic buyer, realising the value of lots of hard work and achieving a life changing outcome.
Agency advisory
I consider myself an entrepreneurial operator. I believe that relentless execution matters more than anything else - ideas are worthless unless you can make things happen.
My own agency began life with me as a 16 year old freelancer doing £7 per hour odd jobs for tiny local businesses. It grew into a strategy, website & digital marketing agency working with enterprise tech giants globally, including public companies and 'unicorns’ like Amazon, Nexthink, Amplitude, Sitecore, CNN, NetDocuments and many more.
Since selling my agency, I’ve spent lots of time consolidating my thinking, reflecting on what I would have done differently and documenting every part of growing a successful, profitable agency.
I now spend part of my time sharing that knowledge with great agencies looking to achieve even greater things. I partner closely with exceptional agency founders that want to grow, deliver more profit and perhaps (but not always) one day also achieve a life changing exit:
I do advisory work because I love it. I now build my work around life rather than vice versa - I'm not trying to build a big consulting business.
I’m highly selective & only work with clients I align with, and that I feel I can have a strong & open working relationship with.
I spend approximately 1 day per month with each agency I work with.
I only work with a maximum of 5 agencies at any one time.
I'm at capacity and currently running a waitlist for new clients.
You can hear more about my growth and exit story on The Exit Plan podcast below:
“We’ve worked with Alex for 18 months and his impact has been remarkable. He’s introduced a clear framework that enables us to plan with confidence, and his experienced outside perspective has been invaluable. In that time, our turnover & profitability has grown significantly and the agency is in a much stronger position.”
Investing
Occasionally I also invest as an angel investor. My investments generally fall into two categories:
Traditional VC backed startups, generally (but not always) with a B2B software focus. I’m most interested in the founding team, what drives them and their ability to execute. My typical investment size is £25k.
‘Real’ businesses that will be cashflow positive from year 1. Business services, tech enabled services, marketing services (including agencies). Less likely to be billion dollar businesses, but more likely to be healthy, sustainable and profitable.
Current investments include: