The day my team burnt an effigy of me

Fully Vested Podcast

In 2012 when I was deep in negotiations with the workers council of a French company I was turning around. I looked out the window of the factory to see an effigy of myself hanging from a lamp post. It was then set on fire.

This may be alarming to the uninitiated, but it’s par for the course when negotiating with unions on the continent.

My recent appearance on the Fully Vested podcast with Amory and Josh from D2 Fund is my favourite to date. I shared many stories from my career that have not previously seen the light of day… prompted by the extensive referencing they did with my previous business partners (Zia at Velocity Black and Peter at AIAC).

D2 is unlike any other fund I’ve come across in the UK. The closest fund model I’ve found is what one of my former VB investors - Bryce - is building at Indie.vc. If you’re a founder of a capital efficient / bootstrapped software business - I’d recommend reaching out to D2.

Here’s a few of my favourite clips from the pod:

The Effigy / Turnaround Story

The Psychological Process of Selling Your Startup

A Startup Only Dies when the Founders Give Up

You can listen to the full podcast below.

Thank you to Amory and Josh for having me on.

I also talked a lot about turnaround in this pod, below is a link to my previous Startup Turnaround Guide.