About me

Hello.

I'm James.

As an ex-designer, product manager and developer, I come at business from the angle of product.

In fact, since 14 I’ve been building things. Whether as a venture, for work, or for fun.

I worked with a few businesses to get their tech products off the ground. I ran a half-serious clothing line during my school years, which had 30,000 fanatic fans and a few thousand in monthly revenue. And then, in 2016, I started my first tech startup.

That company, Study Rocket, set out to change the way students managed their work. We raised capital and scaled to 30,000 users quickly, only to find out we were building something no one wanted.

Luckily, we had hired incredible people, kept cash burn low, and learning fast, enabling us to pivot to an entirely new product, Adapt.

Adapt was a simple idea, a calendar app that would plan all of a student’s work for them. As CEO, I saw the company through the pivot, beta iterations, another successful funding round, public launch and, ultimately, to profitability.

I later decided to take a step back from the business, leaving it in the very capable hands of my cofounder, Maud.

I now help Maud drive the business to its full potential, from arms length, as Chairman.

Taking a step back from Adapt allowed me to give back what I learnt over the three years building the company.

Taking my functional skills (design & code) and strategy, I've been helping numerous startups figure out their product strategy and, in some cases, building it with them.

Since COVID-19, my friend Pete and I set up Dishpatch to help the vulnerable with food delivery and small suppliers with business. Dishpatch has gone from 0 to 250+ suppliers and 70,000 users in the last month.

When I’m not working (something I’m bad at making a reality), I’m hiking, reading, swimming, playing tennis, or trying to discover new music. Or attempting to speak Spanish...