Peer Effect

Ryan Saridar runs Elryan.com, one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in Iraq, and he's built a rule that changes how his entire management team handles bad news. Nobody on his team gets to sit on a problem and hope it resolves itself. Ryan breaks down the exact line he uses to separate a genuine excuse from a simple update, why he hires for behavioural fit before skill, and what changed t...

James Johnson and Freddie Birley answer a listener question on how to actually get value from coaching, not the version you perform for LinkedIn, the version where you say the thing you have been avoiding saying out loud. They cover the line between reflection and procrastination, why a pattern of last-minute rescheduling is rarely just about being busy, and why watching what someone does with the...

Clare coaches the role nobody talks about: the COO or CFO sat next to a founder CEO, expected to challenge the person who built the company and signs their pay cheque. Most coaches work with the founder. Clare works almost exclusively with the number two, which gives her a different read on why these relationships succeed or quietly fail. In this episode she breaks down what "permission to ch...

James and Freddie tackle a question most founders won't admit they're sitting with: when the business is in flux and you're in performance mode around the clock, how do you stay connected to who you actually are? This isn't about rest. It's about what happens to your judgment, your team, and your business when you've drifted so far from reality that you stop seeing wh...

Bethany Ayers, CEO of Metomic, has scaled businesses from the inside - as COO, CRO, and now CEO - and she has a very clear view of what founders get wrong when they think they need to hand the keys over. The insight she shares here will make most founders rethink the decision they're about to make. What does an experienced operator see that a founder typically can't? Bethany and James co...

Ben asked how you hold a team together when you can't give them certainty. James and Freddie get into why that framing is already part of the problem - and what good leadership actually looks like when everything is shifting. If you've been avoiding the harder conversations with your team because you don't have all the answers yet, this is the episode to listen to before your next a...

Will Gadsby Peet has been a fractional CMO across hundreds of business models. The pattern he keeps coming back to has nothing to do with channels, budgets, or agencies. Most founders lose touch with the one thing that made their early growth work — and then wonder why the expensive new hire isn't delivering. Will and James get into what that thing is, what it looks like when a founder gets i...

Beth asked what most founders are thinking but haven't said aloud: how do you make decisions about the future of your company when AI is making everything feel uncertain? James and Freddie get into what's really sitting underneath that question — and what the founders who are handling this well are actually doing differently. Not theoretical. Not a toolkit. The practical reality of leadi...

19 founders. Rockets, guinea pigs, co-CEO structures, a community of 200,000 built in two years. Every conversation different. Three patterns kept coming back. James breaks down what's actually moving across Season 6 — why the founders gaining ground are stripping back rather than adding, why your performance metrics might be hiding your biggest team problem, and why the most useful thing a v...

Anna's question sounds straightforward. It isn't. James and Freddie break down why founders only start asking this question when they already know something is off - and what to actually do about it. One question. Three conversations hiding inside it. If you're in a co-founder relationship that's starting to creak under the weight of scale, this is the episode to listen to befo...

What changes when you stop investing in startups and start building one yourself? James Johnson is joined by Anders Hammerbäck, Co-Founder and CEO of RedpineAI , to discuss his journey from venture capitalist to founder. After spending six years backing early-stage startups at Antler, Anders left the world of investing to tackle one of AI's biggest challenges: unlocking access to high-quality...

A founder asks: "I want to focus on the future, but I don't trust the present to happen." It's a question that sits at the heart of scaling. As companies grow, founders are asked to spend less time executing and more time leading. But letting go isn't simply a mindset challenge—it often exposes deeper questions about trust, team capability, clarity, and leadership evolutio...

Founder community building, startup networking, and viral growth systems are changing how companies are built. Mariane Bekker, founder of Founders Bay, built a 200,000+ founder, investor, and operator network in under two years by rethinking how tech communities actually grow. In this episode of Peer Effect , she breaks down the exact “community flywheel” behind that growth - combining in-person e...

In this episode of The Peer Effect Post Bag, James Johnson and Freddie Birley answer a question many founders quietly carry: “What if my company fails… and I’m unemployable afterwards?” They unpack the emotional reality of entrepreneurship, including identity, pressure, financial responsibility, fear of losing freedom, and the dangerous ways fear can shape decision-making. The conversation explore...

Jasper Deprez is building TerraSpark, a company focused on space-based solar power - with the goal of delivering commercial energy from space to Earth by 2030. Before this, he spent a decade bootstrapping a startup in employee engagement. In this conversation, we explore: - The future of space-based solar power - Building deep tech startups with startup speed - How to break impossible visions into...

Rebecca asks: "If I make a senior change, will it destabilise my team?"  James and Freddie break down why this fear keeps founders stuck - and why inaction is almost always the bigger risk.  They cover: how to read the real signal from your team, what actually happens after a senior exit, the one case where it did go wrong, and how to use the moment to reset standards and re-energise the...

What actually makes a co-founder relationship work? In this episode of Peer Effect, James Johnson sits down with Verna co-founders and co-CEOs Rafi Cohen and Dr. Matthew Brown. They unpack why they chose a co-CEO structure, how they built deep trust before scaling, and the systems they use to maintain radical honesty while leading a fast-growing climate tech company. The conversation covers produc...

Founder life isn’t just pressure - it’s pressure plus isolation. In this Peer Effect Post bag, James Johnson and Freddie Birley respond to a raw listener question: “I’m managing depression while being a founder - what do I do?” What follows isn’t advice from a textbook. It’s a grounded, honest conversation about shame, identity, and what it really means to build while not being “fully okay.” They...

Most founders think growth is a funding problem. Dr Serge Santos sees it differently. As CEO of Bedrock Enterprises and founder of a UK SME lending platform, Serge has deployed capital at scale and worked across both equity and debt markets. His perspective is simple but uncomfortable: the way founders think about money is often what limits their long-term success. In this conversation we explore...

Most founders don’t talk about this moment. When you realise you’re running out of runway…and the clock is ticking. In this Peer Effect Postbag, James Johnson and Freddie Birley break down what actually matters when you're in that position:  The 3 real options you have (cut costs, grow, or fundraise)   Why running out of runway can force clarity and focus  How pressure can increase performanc...

What if you could validate your startup idea before wasting months (or years) building the wrong thing? Aaron Solomon , founder of Ambl, shares the real story behind building a startup from the ground up - including failure, lost savings, and the hard lessons that led to raising £4.3M and scaling internationally. In this episode:  • How to test a business idea in the real world  • Why most founder...

Comparison is one of the fastest ways to lose momentum as a founder. In this Post Bag episode, we unpack why it happens, why it’s misleading, and how to stay focused on your own path. From the “swimming” analogy to the reality behind LinkedIn success, this is a practical conversation on cutting through noise and building with clarity. More from James: Connect with James on LinkedIn  or at peer-eff...

Jenna Ackerley, founder of Events Under Canvas, built a business delivering 400 weddings a year - without cutting corners. In this episode, she breaks down how integrity and authenticity shaped her decisions, from early growth to navigating COVID, and eventually stepping back from the day-to-day. We cover:  Building trust as a growth engine   Making harder (but better) decisions   Founder identity...

“I’ve exited… what now?” It sounds simple. It’s not. In this Post Bag episode, James Johnson and Freddie Birley unpack what really happens after the deal is done - and why many founders feel something they didn’t expect. This isn’t about tactics.  It’s about what comes after the thing you thought you wanted . Inside: 👉 Why the post-exit phase can feel strangely unclear 👉 The trap founders fall i...

Agata Krawiec‑Rokita, co-founder and CEO of sun.store, scaled from a €12M GMV forecast to €100M in just 12 months. Now she’s facing the next challenge: shifting from doing everything herself to building systems that scale. In this episode, James Johnson and Agata chat about how she decides when to stay hands-on, when to step back, and why scaling is often harder than starting. We cover:  • The fra...