Paying It Forward: Why I've Always Advised Startups (and Never Charged)

I've never charged for advisory work. Not once. This isn't some grand strategy or humble brag, but simply how I believe knowledge should flow in the startup ecosystem. We all got help when we needed it most, and the only real payment is passing it forward.

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 has reinforced my belief that the best advice is actionable, empathetic, and freely given.

The Eight & Four Story

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.

I reached out with no agenda and no fee structure. Just suggested we have a coffee.

When we started Codegent, established agency owners had been incredibly 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 properly satisfying.

Goldman Sachs 10KSB: The Education I Didn't Know I Needed

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 properly stepped out of the day-to-day to examine ScreenCloud objectively. The programme combined academic stuff with practical application, giving you theoretical frameworks you could actually use on Monday morning.

But 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 and 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. These weren't 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.

UCL School of Management: Bringing Reality to Academia

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.

Students could learn Porter's Five Forces and SWOT analysis from textbooks. What they needed to hear was different:

• How you actually fire your first employee
• Why your first three business plans will be worthless
• What it feels like when you can't make payroll
• How to sell when you hate selling
• Why every successful business has at least one near-death experience

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: Documenting the Journey

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 genuinely 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. Even today, I'll get messages referencing specific episodes: "I listened to episode 23 before my board meeting" or "Your thoughts on international hiring saved us months of mistakes."

The Next Generation

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

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 proper validation of our culture.

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

My Parents' Influence

Perhaps this approach to advisory work comes from watching my parents. Both ran their own consultancy practices, 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. In fact, it's enhanced. The more you teach, the more you learn. The more you give, the more the ecosystem thrives.

The Philosophy: Actionable, Not Theoretical

I've sat through enough advisory sessions to know the difference between helpful and hollow. Too much advice falls into one of these categories:

• So generic it's useless ("focus on your customers")
• So specific it's irrelevant ("here's exactly how we did it in 2015")
• 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 and situation
• Honest: Including what didn't work and why
• 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."

LinkedIn and Digital Knowledge Sharing

These days, much of my advisory work happens on LinkedIn. I post regularly about digital signage, entrepreneurship, and scaling challenges. The goal is educational content, not thought leadership fluff.

No "I was humbled to announce" posts. No stock photos of people pointing at whiteboards. Just practical insights from building and exiting a global SaaS company. What worked, what didn't, what I'd do differently.

The engagement suggests people are hungry for honesty over polish. My most popular posts aren't the success stories; they're the ones about mistakes, near-misses, and lessons learned the hard way.

What's Next: Board Positions

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, where my experience directly relates to their challenges, and where I can commit the time to do it properly.

The Accountability Factor

The worst outcome from advisory work is when someone says, "Yeah, I've been speaking with him, but nothing's really changed." That's failure.

Good advisory creates momentum. It unblocks decisions, provides frameworks for thinking, and occasionally gives permission to do what the founder already knows is right.

It's also about accountability, though not harsh judgment but gentle pressure. "You said you'd do X by our next call. How did that go?" Simple, but effective.

Why This Matters

Every successful entrepreneur has a mental list of people who helped when they didn't have to. The agency owner who explained gross margins. The founder who shared their actual P&L. The advisor who picked up the phone at 9pm.

We all build on foundations laid by others. The startup ecosystem only works because knowledge flows freely, because successful founders remember being unsuccessful, because we understand that helping others succeed doesn't diminish our own success.

Final Thoughts

I've benefited enormously from others' advice. From agency owners in 2004 who had no reason to help potential competitors. From fellow founders in the Goldman Sachs programme. From advisors who saw potential when we just saw problems.

The payment for that help isn't money. It's continuation. It's picking up the phone when a young founder calls. It's grabbing coffee with someone starting out in Clapham. It's teaching at UCL, recording podcasts, and sharing honestly on LinkedIn.

Someday, the founders I'm advising today will be in position to help others. They won't owe me anything, but hopefully they'll remember: in the startup world, we pay it forward, not back.

If you're building something and think I might be helpful, reach out. The coffee's on me.