Founder Diaries: Entry 7

From £0 to £40 million in 2 years

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I still marvel at the alchemy of turning nothing into something, the art of transformative risks. Some call it cosmic justice, the universe rewarding you for what you put out. But if you ask me, it’s less about stars aligning and more about a structured, methodical approach to challenges, looking around and doing something different from the herd and with a readiness to risk it all. I chose to go against the grain to produce the results I needed.

Subscribe for less than one coffee per month – your subscription helps us donate to The Children’s Heartbeat Trust in Belfast ❤️ and unlocks all our premium content.

Imagine trading the comforting hum of engineering machinery for the chaotic whirlwind of the financial sector. Not just any financial sector, but in Italy of all places, with its picturesque landscapes and incredible food. The comfort of home was swapped for a land where my Northern Irish accent was a novelty, and my limited Italian prompted more smiles of confusion than communication.

There I was, with a golden opportunity in hand and just five days to uproot my life. I sold everything - the house, the car, even the toaster. It was the world's most frantic garage sale. When I finally landed in Italy, the reality hit me like a Vespa in rush hour - no turning back now. In the gladiator arena of financial advising, victory was the only option, and monthly targets were the lions with no notices of termination if you failed.

My days were an endless cycle: office by 7am, not leaving until at least 9pm. My new best mates? LinkedIn for finding potential contacts, and Pipl, Lusha, and ZoomInfo for enriching these profiles to obtain contact details. Sifting through thousands of profiles, hunting for potential clients, and then the dreaded cold call. Cold calling seasons were 3 times per day for 1 hour at a time called ‘power hour’. Every ring, every introduction, a struggle to ignite a spark of interest in someone ready to hang up before I finished saying 'hello'. Ah, the thrill of rejection.

Side note: from my experience, Lusha seemed to provide more accurate information when targeting the EU whereas Pipl provided more accurate information when targeting the USA. ZoomInfo was sort of the in between option which performed ok in both areas however, was vastly more expensive.

I tried the standard generic pitch provided however, soon realised it wasn’t authentic, it wasn’t me. I changed my pitch continuously to make it shorter and more impactful to mirror how I would normally engage. I took the methodical approach to this change by tracking the type of pitch, number of calls, number of conversations, and the outcomes.

But then, a flicker of hope. My cold-calling crusade began to bear fruit. Meetings were set, hands shaken (figuratively, thanks to the phone), and my diary started to fill. But as the Italian sun set outside my office window, a stark realisation dawned on me: I was in one of the world's most beautiful countries, yet the closest I got to 'La Dolce Vita' was googling images of the Colosseum during my lunch break - and I didn’t take lunch often. Things couldn’t stay like this…Something had to change…