Paying It Forward: Why I've Always Advised Startups

Over the years, I've advised dozens of companies, taught entrepreneurship at UCL, graduated from Goldman Sachs' 10KSB programme, and watched former employees build their own successful ventures. Each experience reinforced my belief that the best advice is actionable, empathetic, and free.

Eight & Four

Years ago, I spotted a post in a local Clapham business group. Two founders, Kate and Amy, were starting a digital agency called Eight & Four, just around the corner from our Codegent offices. Something about their energy reminded me of our early days, so I reached out for a coffee.

When we started Codegent, established agency owners had been generous with their time. Back then, you couldn't just Google "how to run a digital agency." Knowledge about client relationships, project management, and scaling challenges was passed down over beers and coffees, from those who'd already made the mistakes.

Kate and Amy were brilliant people who just needed someone to occasionally say "yes, that's normal" or "watch out for this." Today, Eight & Four is part of a larger group and doing well. Watching their journey from that first coffee to successful exit has been satisfying.

Goldman Sachs 10KSB

Matt McNeill from SignUp-To recommended the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme. He told me it would change how I think about my business. He was right.

10KSB is basically an MBA focused on your own company. For the first time in years, I stepped out of the day-to-day to examine Codegent objectively. The programme combined academic rigour with practical application, giving you frameworks you could actually use on Monday morning.

The real value was the cohort. Over a decade later, our group still meets regularly. We've seen each other through expansions, pivots, failures, and exits. It's part advisory board, part group therapy. These aren't just business connections; they're people who understand the specific weirdness of running a small business.

The guest lectures from successful entrepreneurs were gold. Not polished TED talks, but raw stories of what actually happened. The mistakes, the lucky breaks, the 2am moments of doubt. This honesty shaped how I'd later approach my own teaching and advisory work.

Teaching at UCL

After 10KSB, UCL invited me to guest lecture at their School of Management. The brief was simple: bring practical entrepreneurship lessons to complement the academic curriculum.

The sessions evolved over the years. Early lectures focused on digital transformation challenges for SMEs. Later ones covered scaling internationally, the reality of raising capital, and why company culture actually matters.

The best sessions were the honest ones. Students don't need another success story; they need to understand that every entrepreneur is partially winging it, and that's fine.

Behind the Screens Podcast

In 2017, we launched the Behind the Screens podcast. The idea was simple: document ScreenCloud's journey in real-time, sharing challenges as we faced them, not as polished retrospectives years later.

We covered everything: the stress of moving from agency to product, firing clients (yes, firing), the reality of US expansion, co-founder tensions and resolutions, why we nearly quit multiple times.

Some episodes were therapeutic to record. There's something powerful about articulating your challenges publicly. It forces clarity and accountability. The podcast ran for several years, building a small but engaged audience of founders facing similar challenges.

Former Employees Becoming Founders

One of the most satisfying aspects of advisory work is watching former employees launch their own ventures. Siebe Van Dijck left ScreenCloud to start Undefined. Rather than seeing this as a loss, I saw it as the ecosystem working.

I've helped with new business introductions, strategy sessions, and the occasional late-night "is this normal?" call. Watching team members become founders, taking lessons learned and improving on them, feels like validation of our culture.

Several other former employees have started companies. Each time, my door is open. They already know our mistakes, so I can help them through new ones instead.

My Parents' Influence

Perhaps this approach comes from watching my parents. Both ran their own consultancy practice, and I grew up seeing knowledge shared freely around our dinner table. Business challenges were family discussions. Success was celebrated collectively; failures were learning opportunities for everyone.

They showed me that expertise isn't diminished by sharing it.

What Makes Advice Useful

I've sat through enough advisory sessions to know the difference between helpful and hollow. Too much advice is either so generic it's useless, so outdated it's irrelevant, or just ego-driven war stories with no practical application.

Good advice should be actionable (something you can implement Monday morning), contextual (relevant to your specific stage), honest (including what didn't work), and empathetic (acknowledging that knowing what to do and doing it are different things).

Sometimes the most valuable advice is simply: "Don't overthink this. Here's the standard way to do it. It works."

What's Next

I've resisted formal board positions so far. This isn't from lack of offers, but from respect for the commitment required. Board work done badly is worse than no board work at all.

By 2026, I'll likely take one or two positions. But only where I can genuinely add value and where I can commit the time to do it properly.

The worst outcome from advisory work is when someone says, "Yeah, I've been speaking with them, but nothing's really changed." Good advisory creates momentum. It unblocks decisions, provides frameworks for thinking, and occasionally gives permission to do what the founder already knows is right.

I got help when I needed it. Now I try to do the same.