Peer Effect

Anna’s question this week: “How do you identify A players in hiring processes?” James says it’s one of the questions he gets asked most, and he and Freddie get into why the answer starts well before the first interview. They cover the number you should carry into day one of a new hire and the behavioural cues that are easy to miss. Listen before your next key hire. More from James: Connect with Ja...

This week’s Post Bag question: “Is there a normal way to be a CEO?” James and Freddie take on the assumption that there’s one right path for a startup founder, and why following it can quietly pull you into the wrong work. They get into who matters most in your business and the question to work back from when you design your own role. Listen before you reshape your job around someone else’s idea o...

Penelope’s question this week: “What do you do when you’re navigating an existential threat in your business?” James and Freddie start with the part most people skip, what to do before you touch the plan. They cover what a crisis quietly strips away and a real turnaround that ended somewhere nobody expected. Listen before your next decision. More from James: Connect with James on LinkedIn  or at p...

Brandon’s question this week: “How do I navigate intense frustration in a relationship?” James and Freddie take it into the working relationships founders find hardest, and start with what that level of frustration is actually telling you. They cover the question to ask yourself before you speak, and the choice of time and place that shapes how the conversation lands. Listen before the conversatio...

Sarah's question this week: "How much time should I spend on the business rather than in it?" James and Freddie don't hand over a percentage. They get into what separates a founder deliberately stepping back in, from one who's quietly lost control of their own calendar. They cover the real signal that tells you which one you're looking at, and why the best founders at...

Ian's question this week: "How do I feel free in fundraising?" James and Freddie get into why the fear underneath a raise rarely gets named properly, and the exercise that separates founders who freeze from founders who perform under pressure. They cover what a "no" actually means versus what it feels like, and why the first round you raise is rarely the one that defines y...

Max's question this week: "I don't feel like I have time for coaching." James and Freddie dig into what's actually being said underneath that, and why it usually shows up right when someone needs the process most. They get into the real distinction between genuinely being heads-down in execution and quietly avoiding a conversation, and the reframe that turns coaching into...

James is joined by Gilad Bechar, founder and CEO of Moburst, who's worked with some of the world's biggest brands and spends his career finding cheaper, smarter ways to grow than pouring more money into Google and Meta. They get into the single screen that quietly cost one company 17% of new sign-ups before anyone noticed, and why effectiveness beats efficiency almost every time. More fr...

Roger's question this week: "How do I achieve better balance?" James and Freddie don't hand over a routine. They get into why founders who look balanced from the outside almost never got there by chasing balance directly. They cover the mistake founders make comparing themselves to someone further along, and the physical signal that tells you when things are genuinely off rathe...

James is joined by Adam King, an exited founder turned fractional sales director, who's lived both sides of this problem: building a business entirely reliant on him closing deals, then spending his career getting other founders out of that same position. They get into why hiring someone "as good as you" at sales is usually the wrong move, and the actual numbers behind a channel mos...

Anna's question this week: "I feel like I can't go on holiday. Help." James and Freddie dig into what's actually underneath that feeling, and land on a diagnostic that separates two very different problems founders often mistake for one. They also cover the timing mistake that quietly sabotages most attempts to take proper time off. Worth ten minutes before you decide not...

This week's question, from a listener also called Freddie: "How do I become more disciplined?" James and Freddie take apart the version of discipline most founders are quietly measuring themselves against, and why it's usually somebody else's routine. They get into the real distinction, why motivation and commitment aren't the same thing, and the one habit that's...

Alex's question this week: "How do I create a high growth culture?" James shares a principle he was taught early on, that growth comes down to two forces working together, and most founders only ever build one. He and Freddie also unpack the hiring trap that quietly undoes high growth cultures, chasing an impressive name on a CV instead of the trait that actually predicts whether so...

Frank's question this week: "I need to change course. How quickly can I restructure?" James and Freddie take apart the founder instinct to move fast and get it over with, and why that's usually the most dangerous part of the process. They get into what has to happen before you announce anything, the narrative trap that quietly kills your credibility with the people staying, and...

Elena's question this week: "I feel like I can't go on holiday." James and Freddie don't treat it as a work-life balance question. They treat it as a test most founders are avoiding. They get into what a real week away actually reveals about your management team, and why booking it two months out changes whether you'll actually go through with it. Book it before you t...

Three patterns kept showing up across every founder, operator, and investor James spoke to this season. The ones that quietly cost the most, because the person inside them couldn't see them. This episode names all three, with the moment from a guest that proves each one, and ends with exactly what to do about whichever one lands hardest. Pick the one that makes you wince. That's the righ...

James Johnson and Freddie Birley take on a listener question this week: what to do when you're wasting energy being frustrated with your team. They land on a distinction between two types of underperformer that most founders have never separated out, and why treating them the same is quietly pushing your best people towards the door. Stop guessing which conversation you actually need to have....

Cat Agostinho built Imagen Insights on a bet that most brands get wrong: real, unedited feedback from real people beats any dashboard, survey, or assumption a company makes about its own audience. Tomorrow Group agreed enough to acquire it in March 2026, at six times EBITDA. Cat explains why the feedback most founders trust often tells them nothing, why the loudest agreement in the room can be the...

Every founder hits this point eventually, and almost nobody says it out loud. A listener wrote in with a question a lot of Series A founders are quietly asking themselves: what do you do when you've built something that works and you just stop caring. James Johnson and Freddie Birley get into recommitting versus changing, why the servant-leadership instinct quietly burns founders out, and why...

Jeevs Mahil decides which coaches get put in front of Octopus Ventures' portfolio founders, and after years of those introductions she has a clear, slightly uncomfortable view on why so many founders pick the wrong one. James and Jeevs get into why "ex-founder" tells you almost nothing useful about whether someone can actually coach you, the one question to ask before your first ses...

A founder writes in feeling off track and wants to know if the problem is his plan or his execution. James Johnson and Freddie Birley don't let him off with "it's both." They walk through how to tell which one is actually broken, why most "plans" fail the moment someone asks how often you're checking against them, and why the instinct that got you through Seed ca...

Three exits in, Alex Fenton knows exactly what buyers look for, and it's not what most founders think. James and Alex talk through keeping every door open, why a three year plan beats a five year one, and the blunt piece of feedback from a manager that changed how Alex leads. Including the real difference between planting seeds and planting saplings when you're building a team built to l...

James and Freddie tackle a question most founders won't say out loud: feeling insecure or competitive with your co-founder. They get into what's actually driving it, the conversation that fixes it faster than any amount of self-reflection, and the point where the answer isn't a better conversation, it's a different partnership. Including the feedback ratio behind every high per...

Antoine Pouppez co-founded neuroClues six years ago. Today it's raised over £25M and employs 40+ people across Belgium and France, building MedTech that treats neurological disorders through eye tracking. His approach from day one: if it's core to the product, you build it yourself, no matter how much longer or more expensive that is. James and Antoine get into why that decision holds up...

A founder writes in asking why their team won't move faster. James Johnson and Freddie Birley take the question apart, and the real answer has almost nothing to do with the team. They get into what actually causes execution to stall at Series A, the trap of being responsive instead of intentional, and why giving up control feels comforting right up until it costs you your business. Practical,...