What makes me tick

Some of the most exciting innovation is happening in the hands of single founders and small teams who've spotted a gap the big players haven't moved on yet. 40 Winks saw a gap for an eco brand that used waste material and turned it into something genuinely beautiful. Ku saw that cannabinoids for health and focus deserved to look premium and purposeful rather than medical or countercultural. Both came to me with a product, a vision and not much else. That's the brief I love most. Fast turnarounds. No committee. No watered down ideas. Just the consumer, the category and the question of what this brand could genuinely be if we were brave enough. My belief on every one of these projects is the same. Behave like a big brand from day one. You can still have personality. You can still have edge. But you show up with the confidence and the craft of something that's been here forever. That's the standard I hold every brief to, no matter the budget or the team size.

What this work really means

I have worked with every shape of founder imaginable. The solo entrepreneur betting everything on one idea. The VC-backed team with serious resource and serious pressure. The pair who met at a startup weekend and haven't slept since. The seasoned operator launching their third brand with the quiet confidence of someone who's been here before. Every single setup is different. The politics are different. The pace is different. The fear is different. What never changes is what they need from me. Someone who gets under the skin of the idea fast, brings creative thinking that makes the whole thing feel real and exciting, and moves quickly enough to keep up with the pace of building something from scratch.

This is the work I am most passionate about. Not because it's easier…. it absolutely isn't. But because the stakes are personal. These are people's dreams on the line. Their savings. Their reputation. Their obsession. When someone trusts you with that, you bring everything you have. Every time. The same rigour, the same consumer obsession, the same commercial sharpness I'd bring to Coca-Cola or KFC. The brands might be smaller. The ambition never is.