Micah McLean Talks returns with a new podcast featuring Rob Pierre, one of the most influential Black people in Britain. He is best known for being the founder and former Chief Executive of Jellyfish a company valued at over £500 million. In this podcast, Rob Pierre shares his story along with some inspirational life lessons that he has learned along the way.
Contents
0:00 – 0:55 – Advertisement: Journal My Journey
0:56 – 1:25 – Opening Credits
1:26- 3:08 – Rob Pierre’s Early, Setback and Introduction to Retail
3:09- 5:02 – Rob’s Success At Sunglasses Hut and Rise As An Entrepreneur
5:03 – 7:23 – How Jellyfish Was Created
7:24 – 10:45 – The Benefits of Having A Business Partner and Importance of Compromise Points
10:45 – 12:14 – The Resources That Rob Would Have Utilised That Were Not Available When He Started Jellyfish
12:16 – 13:53 – Rob Thoughts On The Government’s Approach To Immigration
13:54 – 16:55 – Rob Pierre’s Advice For Young People With Aspirations Of Starting A Business
16:56 – 21:25 – How Jellyfish Sourced The Right Talents and Resources To Become One Of The Most Influential Digital Marketing Companies In The UK
21:26 – 22:23 – Further Conversation On Jellyfish’s Impactful Recruiting Strategy
22:20 – 24:23 – The Bittersweet Nature of Leaving Jellyfish
24:24 – 25:00 – Further Conversation Surrounding the Success and Impact Of Jellyfish
25:01 – 26:54 – Rob Pierre’s Greatest Achievements As CEO Of Jellyfish and The Things He Wished He Did Better
26:55 – 29:01 – The Importance Of A Life Balance
29:01 – 31:03 – Rob New Ventures Following Leaving Jellyfish
31:04 – 33:02 – If Rob Was A Dragon How Would He Encourage Businesses To Take Investment From Him?
33:03 – 37:00 – Rob’s Co Ownership Of The Inside Out Clothing Project, MBER
37:01 – 40:25 – Impact X Capital and Other Ventures, Real Estate, Rob Is Working On 2024
Hi everyone my name is Michael McLean and I’m the creator of Michael McLean talks today I’m with one of my sponsors Nathaniel McLean who has a brand called Jal my journey so Neel please tell us a bit about your brand so JN on my journey
So as you can see we got JN on my journey here and we got two just behind me so what John on my journey is it is more than just a business it is a movement to help men’s mental health as you may know a lot of men don’t talk and
We are trying to change that the suicide rate for men is really really high so what we’re trying to do is take the first step to get men to journal and write down how they feel a lot of men at the moment are struggling to sleep so
With that if you write down your thoughts write down what’s on your mind it will really help and improve your sleep um so at the moment we have are online we sell journals at www.j my journey. co.uk thank you enough anel no problem we had to work out how can we move
Forward and always have a Consolidated approach no different to parenting you know the kids will try to work one parent off the other you just want to make sure that there’s no crack and how we did that is that we we had a system as an example one of the systems were we
Had what we called compromise points so good afternoon Ro here thank you so much for coming on to the platform great to be here you are the founder and former chief executive of jellyfish so thank you so much for coming on it’s a pleasure so you were born in
Trinidad and you later migrated to the UK at the age of 11 well I was born in the UK lived here till I was four years old went to Trinidad until the age of 14 and then came back to the U to the UK that’s incredible and even during your
Childhood you’ve gone through so much and at during all of this when did you decide to start a company well it kind of organically happened you know um um as you say we we had some family trauma when I was young my parents split
And I came over to the UK with my mom went straight into a state school in Su didn’t really know what I wanted to do initially but then found that I had um a sort of reasonable balance between the left brain and the right brain so was very interested in Computing but also
Had that creative side so I was looking to do a computer studies degree um with uh IBM and did all the application got accepted on the course but unfortunately I failed physics and um so then I just took a some time out um to consolidate my thoughts and think I didn’t really
Have a plan B and that’s when I went into retail and so I never thought I was going to start a business but I kind of learned business through uh retail because you give young people such a lot of responsibility and accountability and I found creative ways to sell and to
Merchandise a store and to motivate people and I suppose that was the journey it it it wasn’t a conscious thing to be an entrepreneur or to start a business and one thing that’s incred incredible about your story is sunglasses hot so you one of the top you
Know stores in sunglasses hot so tell us a bit about that so um what ended up happening is that uh I started in Gatwick Airport then I um progressed to be an assistant manager then I went out to tumbridge Wells to run a smaller um store but then I came back to the
Departure Lounge in uh Gatwick Airport and started running this store which wasn’t on the radar and um it just we started finding ways to exploit the different um demographics that were coming through the departure Lounge we found ways to motivate all of the team to sell we had such high concentrated
Times of very busy periods that we had to maximize and and we found Inn in innovative ways to do that so um I would say it’s it was a journey of iteration we were testing analyzing refining the way that we worked and eventually what ended up happening is that a store that
Was not on the global radar at all we got it to the number one turnover store in the world and there were like 2,200 stores and so um as we we grew in actual fact they had a bonus scheme for managers of stores that they had to change because they didn’t expect a
Store with the volume of sales that we’ve got to grow at the rate that we were growing and I can tell a 100 stories of about how we did that but ultimately once we did that it got on the radar of of the senior leadership in
Miami they flew me over to talk about what were we doing and um and yeah I was able to tell the story and then started getting promoted over time and yeah by the time I was like 28 years old I was uh leading the European operations um for Sunglass H that’s incredible and
Even following on from that you then started your own business called jellyfish with your business partner Paul Y at what stage did you think okay I’m going to leave working in retail start my own digital marketing company and how did you identify you had a real skill set in being an entrepreneur so
There was a little transition so we went from um Sunglass Hut I worked for an entrepreneur who had a mobile phone accessory chain of stores a mobile phone accessory manufacturing business and also Al a motorcycle accessory manufacturing business so I worked for him for 3 years and that’s when I kind
Of leared the less corporate side of doing business I mean he admits himself that he was a market Trader at heart but he was a multi-million Market Trader and uh so I learned a lot about business with him as well and learned to have the autonomy and the accountability to run
Um his divisions and so that was the transition it was only until I got to around 30 years old and I was going on Stags and weddings and I kept bumping into Paul Walsh and he had an it a boutique it consultancy that started to look at digital marketing as an
Opportunity and he was very commercial he was Technical and Commercial so again a nice blend of capabilities and I just kept talking to him and that was the trigger cuz he at that time I was doing okay entrepreneur that I worked for Martin Mansbridge he he looked after me
I was driving at Porsche 911 going on holidays all over Europe and wearing nice clothes so um clearly demonstrating success Paul was looking at that thinking I’ve got a history of running bigger organizations account management sales Etc so we started talking about the opportunity and uh that’s how it
Ended up happening it was a train journey up to London to one of these stag dos and by the end of that train journey I said to him all right let’s do it and he so he convinced me to to um leave uh where I was and to join him to
Create a digital marketing proposition so we sold off all the it Network support clients Consolidated down to a team and um and then rebranded as jellyfish and started in this little town in Su rygate and um yeah and who knew that was going to be the start of
Such an immense journey and even following on from that how important is it to have a business partner what do they bring and what are some of the challenges any anyone has when they’re working with a business partner well I think technically you can treat everybody that ends up working with you
As business partners I think thinking that you have to have a fellow shareholder might be constraining I think it is important I think everybody should feel that they’re part of the um of the journey that they believe in the vision and and the mission that you’re on and you distribute the accountability
And everybody should feel part of that I think it’s important to feel that you have people around you that are aligned and have the same vested interest in the success I think it’s important to have people around you where you can identify their attributes their skills their
Superpowers and that you can like stand back to back with them knowing that as a collective you are so much more powerful and and that sort of changes the mindset that everyone will have around you we it’s like a marriage so you know when we went on this journey together he was a
Very competent smart strong-minded person and so we had to work out how can we move forward and always have a Consolidated approach no different to Parenting you know the kids will try to work one parent off the other you just want to make sure that there’s no crack
And how we did that is that we we had a system as an example one of the systems were we had what we called compromise points so if we both wanted to if we knew the outcome we were looking for and we both had a different approach we
Would actually have to decide who’s most qualified or who’s most passionate who really cares the most about the direction of travel we will go with that so I would just say okay I’ll take a compromise point we’ll do it your way MH that actually ended up being the easy
Way to do that that was the easy bit the hard bit was if you take a compromise point and say you know what I don’t care as much as you let’s do it your way you can never say I Told You So if it doesn’t work out the to plan you go
Wholeheartedly fully into that direction of travel and you support the other in that initiative until you see it through to fruition and so we came up with this system that we we we made sure it wasn’t us against each other so even for an opportunity or a problem we always said
Is both of us against the problem because what happens with a partnership is that if you’re not careful you start debating a point just to be right mhm you want you want it to be my way and and and you forget that you’re both trying to get the right result or you
Know exploit the opportunity or overcome the challenge and so constantly coming back to that so if you could get those principles right M having people around you Partnerships whatever whatever the team I think is immensely important and it’s good for your mental well-being it’s good for your your distribution of
Skills it’s good for your um the time that you’re able to apply and it also means you avoid that scenario where like a parent you think you know everything and you’re right about everything you just make sure that you’ve got the right skills around you so yeah I think it it
Was a very positive part of the journey that’s really interesting what you’re saying and another thing about business is that t technology has advanced so much so what resources would you have utilized now that weren’t available when you started jellyfish oh it’s so hard to say because everything’s been so organic
I would say um it’s not it’s nothing like AI it’s Etc I think most of the the um Technologies or the platforms that we’ve been using have just slowly evolved with us so I don’t think it’ll be anything brand new it’s just everything’s got better you know and
Well as you imagine the first first time you downloaded the Facebook apph it was it looks nothing like it is today you know it it just iterates and provides what’s required based on the technology or the environment or the economy or um whatever is available so nothing comes
To mind mind that I would suddenly start using but I would definitely advise people to think every single step of the way how can you optimize what you’re doing and leverage the technology and and um and the platforms around you because in in in our journey we
Systemized everything that we did so it was about methodology technology and human capabilities coming together to deliver the most efficient and scalable way to provide the best service to our clients so yeah we did um we did that a lot and that meant we kept questioning
And challenging the way in which we did did things to continue to evolve thank you so much and even falling on from that one thing that I’d like to focus also upon is that you have lived in different countries so what is your what is your opinion on the government’s current approach to
Immigration there’s a thing called a Dunning Krueger impact which is um where you’re more confident about a subject you know less about and I’m very careful not to suffer from the Dunning Krueger impact which is um I just don’t know enough I’ve only got my own personal
Experience and having the fact that I was born in the UK obviously I had a British passport it probably changed my experience um I just don’t know enough to have an opinion and I think that if if it was something that either I was in politics or I was was involved in that
Um environment or or I needed to affect change I probably know more to to answer that I don’t know I just think that it’s a very challenging balance to make sure that we’ve got the infrastructure and we can support people and making sure that the if the
Floodgates are open as well it’s just you just got to get the balance and I think that um I’m obviously very grateful the fact that I’ve been able to contribute to the UK economy and society and uh um and that is a real privilege MH and I think
That it shouldn’t just be my privilege it should be Equitable and most people should be able to benefit from the infrastructure if they are contributing and um adding value to the ecosystem that that’s about the best answer I can give to your question I think it’s a powerful answer too just even talking
About you know making everything Equitable for everyone that wants to contribute and that actually flows nicely into my next question so you’ve been listed on the power list 2022 and 2023 and for members of my audience I don’t know what that is that’s a list of the most influential black people in the
UK what advice would you give to young black people that would like to start a business and particularly thriving in today’s current climate the first thing is I don’t think I’ve got any specific advice for the black community um and I think that that comes a little bit from the fact that I
Don’t believe I’ve suffered a any level of discrimination so again I can only talk on my my personal experiences and and I’ve spoken to many um people about this subject my advice is um always take on things that you could have full autonomy and accountability to deliver
You don’t have to start big and the most important thing is to be able to deliver outcomes I say to I’ve said in the past everybody at jellyfish in this order you got to show up mhm and that takes discipline it takes dedication it takes ambition perseverance show up then you
Will have output and with output you get outcomes and you will always be measured on your outcomes MH but what you’ve got to do is ensure that whether it’s in a career or starting a business make sure that it’s contained and that you have a Clear Vision on what that outcome is
Going to be and then you deliver and you have full you take full accountability for delivering those outcomes and then slowly but surely in almost like a modular way you either in your career end up with more responsibility and accountability because you’ve demonstrate you’ve got a breadcrumb trail of achieving you the
Outcomes that you said you would achieve and so not only do you grow in confidence but the people around you grow in confidence that you’re able to deliver on your promise you do that either yourself yourself in a business or you do it um in your careers that’s
What I would say to any young person and so if if you could understand what the if there’s a market there’s often a gap in the market but there’s no Market in that Gap you got to make sure that you’re adding value to the ecosystem it’s uh a an appropriate opportunity for
Your skills and capabilities and your network um that you found the real the right support and then build just build upon it stay Niche if you have to go as granular as you need to to be the best don’t worry about the big picture until you organically grow um and I think a
Bit of patience so with that if you’re going to say to somebody you got to be patient my other advice is more it’s lost from indecision than wrong decisions get you know get in there get started keep it contained give yourself the best chance of success thank you and
Jellyfish is a leader within digital marke Mar in and to become a leader it’s important to have the right people so what was jedy fish’s approach to recruiting the right resources and getting the right talent to become the PowerHouse it is today well the first thing was sorting out the environment so
Making sure that we had an environment that was genuinely Equitable that genuinely valued people that uh we redesigned the way in which people were promoted um we redesigned how leadership worked we didn’t have heads of we had steering groups where you can actually enter that Steering group and have
Accountability and get exposure it was very transparent so that people had the knowledge because most corporate environments the issue is knowledge is power and if knowledge is power then you’re not incentivized to share because then that dilutes your power so that if you don’t if you’re not transparent and
You’re privy to information that others aren’t people perceive that as seniority and um and uh gives them a competitive Advantage from a career perspective that’s not what we were doing so it’s about giving empowering people Distributing accountability making sure that you have steering groups running
Each of the um functions so that you can have a group and therefore when we were recruiting we can tell people that you’ve got the best chance of success you haven’t got a boss somebody that’s going to suppress your um your potential growth you’ve got a support network you
Choose what initiatives that you take accountability for based on your skills you deliver you then can put a business case forward to then get promoted if you have achieved tangible outcomes your support network is there to help and the way in which you really make it
Equitable is you go head on and try and address the unconscious bias that’s happening in a lot of organizations so we anonymize the business case so there was a panel and they basically every quarter and they they would look at at the business cases and they didn’t know who the individual
Was so you can’t even because I mean the clues in a name right unconscious bias how do you train somebody on something that’s unconscious so we have to try and make sure that Sy systemically we change the way in which it it works and so that’s what we did we didn’t do anything
Specific we made sure that our delegate pools are diverse that we didn’t just go for lookalike audiences we didn’t go for things like there are I I’ll give you a great example I was speaking to somebody in rygate rygate grammar you can imagine a demographic of the parents there and
I’m speaking to one of the parents and he said oh yeah when I’m recruiting I look out for like the Duke of Edinburgh award if they got the Duke of Edinburgh like silver or gold I think that shows discipline and and a broad spectrum of
Skills Etc and I just said to him yeah but look you are you’re basically keeping the pool to potentially just private school people because the the the places where they’re likely to have done that scheme is making sure that you’re you’re narrowing down the the diversity of the
Pool of delegates that you’re even interviewing in the first place so I would say making sure that you make the opportunities accessible um make sure that you’re not just looking for experience you’re looking for skills you’re looking for attributes you’re looking for um ambition value that’s how we used to interview because
The whole point is that it’s self-perpetuating isn’t it if somebody doesn’t have the opportunity they’re not going to have the experience if they don’t have the experience if they don’t get the role you’re stuck in that catch 22 you’re in that cycle of you’re never going to get the opportunity I don’t
Even like job descriptions as a rule because in my mind a job description is a list of things that you’re expected to do MH but it creates an infinite list of things you don’t have to do yeah what I would like to do is match capabilities and skills knowledge experience and all
Of those things um I I would like to whatever blend even if it’s just raw talent I would like to match that to the initiatives to the goals and outcomes we’re looking for and that’s the way forward and let them gain that experience and track record within the organization give them the support
Needed that’s the only way you could really end up with an equitable environment I find that really interesting actually because a lot of workplaces do have job description and a lot of employees actually do a lot of things outside of their job descriptions so it’s very interesting that you said
That because I think that jellyfish’s model is very good cuz you’re matching capability so you’re creating an environment where people can Thrive right so that’s really really interesting that you’ve actually said that and and and we see it we see it every day people that don’t have never
Been given the chance or don’t even know exactly where they’re going to go with their career it allows you to sort of navigate the system and find initiatives that suit you or where you feel you’re um yeah really making progress and gaining those uh or achieving those
Outcomes that you set out for and yeah it it it works really well and we’ve seen people the attrition was very low for a period of a long period of time because you were able to progress in an area that you felt comfortable and that there was a fair value exchange with the
Organization thank you and even following on from that recently jellyfish was bought by the branch group MH how hard was it to leave a company that you started about over 15 years ago now isn’t it well yeah it’s n nearly 19 yeah yeah 2005 um it’s very strange I mean it’s
The same year my daughter was born as well I spent every day reimagining what Ria’s capable of you know every day she grows she’s more knowledgeable she’s more experienced she’s um I said she could cure cancer she could be the Prime Minister she could be an astronaut I
Don’t who knows what she’s going to be the same what’s happening with jellyfish every day every new client every new skilled person that joins every new achievement every partner that we um that we collaborated with just meant that I could reimagine what it was capable of but also it would be like
Keeping Ria at home you know she’s going to go off to University you’ve instilled the values you’ve made you’ve made her into the adult that she is to then go on into the world and have an impact it felt a bit like that with jellyfish you
Know there Comes A Time when it’s an adult it it’s you know it it’s now part of the Brand Tech group they’ve got really great Ambitions and uh and I just felt and and this is this is what I said to the organization when I um said my
Goodbyes is that the analogy was I was like the the boosters on the rocket ship or the shuttle I mean they drop off mhm but that’s not to say that the shuttle then doesn’t go on to orbit and achieve all of the goals Etc so um it was tough
But I feel a bit like Lennox Lewis you know I feel like I left the game at the top and everybody might ask you know what what but it’s it’s unequivocal that at the time it was one if not the largest independent agency sale in the
UK um our reputation was Second To None the people the clients what we delivered um I’m very proud and it’s just it just the timing was right but uh yeah it’s still it’s it’s a Bittersweet moment really I definitely can imagine thatz when I was speaking
Some of my family members and I said I’m interviewing the CEO of jellyfish they all that we’ve heard of jellyfish that’s amazing and it’s just incredible how you built a company in such a small period of time and it’s just had such a global impact well it’s mainly because it’s a
B2B you know it’s not even a consumer brand so you know every time somebody that I don’t know says that they know and it’s got that level of brand Equity that they know jellyfish that’s uh yeah that’s a very proud moment and another question I’d like to ask is that what do
You feel were some of your greatest achievements during your time as chief executive of jellyfish and a few things you wish you had done better I mean wish I’d done better the problem is we were constantly evolving mhm so it’s it’s it’s difficult to say when was the moment you thought you
Should have done it better because every single day you’re thinking we should be doing this better so it that’s every day what what what the things nearly everything I did I think I should do better you know that’s that’s just the the way it is and if you have that
Attitude that you’re constantly evolving and challenging where you’re at um you you will continuously improve so there’s never a specific moment that I think oh we could have done that better um the proud things is yeah changing the way in which we worked and actually having a
System that put people first having a system where it was a meritocracy um allowing people to thrive um other things that I’m very proud of is that yeah there was a lot of wealth creation across the entire team as well um I’m very proud of the the lack of
Attrition in the organization I think um the reputation you know deliver just you know the Integrity of delivering on your promise I think is really important I think there’s a lot of businesses where um if you forget what you set out to do that you start to focus on the wrong
Things but uh I think we absolutely were on the case of providing the best level of exemplary level of service and outcomes and Delivery for our clients and uh yeah I think we did did a lot of those things but it was organic and it was iterative it was never nowhere is
There This Magic Moment where I think uh um I can call upon to be honest thank you and even thinking about what’s in the Press recently is that there’s a lot of Chief Executives that don’t believe in the concept of a work life balance so for example Elon Musk famously said that
He doesn’t believe in a work life balance he just believes you just like work as a chief executive do you have a work life balance or is it like go go go cuz you’re constantly competing with other businesses well for me particularly I never even bought into
The phrase work life balance I just think it’s a life balance mhm there are a ton of things that in my personal life I’d rather not do there’s so many things in work I love doing so you know I if if I could do all the things I love on both
Sides that’s a great life balance you know so that’s what I try to do and so work never felt like work and I think it’s very cliche to say if you’re passionate about what you do you don’t work a day in your life I think it is
True but also I mean I think it’s motivation versus discipline that every one of us are fighting every day that we live is that it’s you don’t need discipline to do something you’re totally motivated to do you jump out of bed you do it you love it and the things
There are some things you have to do that are necessary that you you’re not motivated or enjoy doing that’s when you need to instill discipline and so for me exercising you know I still got a personal trainer virtually and I do it three times a
Week I don’t want to wake up at 7:30 and train for an hour that is pure discipline that I’ve put the measures in place to make sure that I do it and so somebody would say well that’s your personal life you know your your your your health and training so that’s a
Good work life balance well to be honest I’d much rather be doing this podcast with you or I’d rather be in a meeting or selling to a client or traveling to an expo so I don’t really know I just think that people should consider a life balance make sure that they adhering to
The things that that are important have discipline where you need need to have it but make sure that where possible you’re doing things that you’re motivated and passionate to do and therefore you’re you’re going to your well-being Your Enthusiasm your health everything is going to be much better if
You get just the right life balance thank you for that and following leaving jellyfish what what will be your key areas of Interest now what will you be investing in what Ventures will you be doing so I’ve just uh invested in a uh in an insurance company for for young
Drivers and I’m excited about that simply because um there’s so much that we could do to communicate with the next cohort coming through all the 16 year olds every year that are going to need insurance um I think that there’s a lot of data that’s collected with the
Telematic boxes that uh we can um utilize there’s a there’s gamification of of passing your test and so I’m very excited about that and and it’s a young entrepreneur who’s uh um doing a fantastic job and I think around um expansion Global expansion and the the
Marketing uh strategy I think I could uh add some value so it’s an advisory stroke investment there’s another one which is a a Furniture aggregate site which is um basically got you know 250 retailers where it brings together all of the furniture so that um you can find
And refine your search is no different to like right move or you know most of the comparison sites but um that I’m quite um excited about as well there’s another couple that I can’t um discuss but uh most of them are scalable businesses that are established that are
Now at the point where they’re looking for either either a digital marketing or Global expansion strategy and um so I’ll be I’ll be getting involved with those I’m getting a few non-exact approaches for very large companies who are looking for um a a digital media and expansion strategy
Also I think that you know boards that could do with a bit of diversity um so I think I’m in a privileged position where having sold the business having the uh reputation that we had and understanding digital and having all of the Partnerships with the big platforms Etc I think that yeah
There’s there’s a couple that I’m exploring um right now so watch this space really and on the point of investment if you were a dragon on Dragon’s Den how would you get Bud buddy and entrepreneurs to take investment from you ah great question um I think it would be all
Around the passion MH I think that I would only get involved it’s because I’m all about the purpose that you set out for MH and um I would be describing the outcome that I would be looking for in any company that I invest in and that is
That you know you really consider the people you consider the sustainability you consider the Equitable nature in which you work um I would also say that I would only invest in things that I believe in and passionate about so what you would have is You’ have somebody
That again isn’t trying to find time to spend and to support the cause because I’m so passionate about it I’m motivated to do it so it will find time in my life balance and that’s the best way in which I could describe it it’s not just obviously about the money um it’s about
Matching people who like I said right at the beginning is um passionate about the mission and the vision and the outcomes that you’re trying to achieve as an entrepreneur so that would be what I would say and I don’t think we’d get very far in the conversation if I wasn’t
Passionate and then if I am passionate mhm historically I’ve managed to be pretty persuasive so you know let Let’s uh that that that would be my answer and on the topic of passion you’ve invested in you’re a co-owner not even an investor of Inside Out Clothing yeah so
Please just tell my audience about what Inside Out Clothing is and the overall mission of the initiative so the Inside Out Clothing project is basically a clothing brand for ex offenders so they basically with in prison they can sort of create the designs uh they’re trained
They learn how to screen print Etc we give them uh live skills when they come out of prison um they’re on a six- week program we’ll teach them how to set up their LinkedIn profile um we would um help them if they wanted to start a business we would help them with retail
Training and they can come out and they can work in one of our store locations we had a popup in Westfield Stratford um for a five-month period we are hoping to get a unit in Oxford Street in London and um what ends up happening is that you can design the clothing hoodies caps
T-shirts Etc then you come and work in the store and then you have a rack with your designs and you’re able to work in that store and sell those designs and we we don’t know where it’s going to expand to but at the moment that’s the Hub is
The is the clothing element of it there’s an online store as well and it um it was founded it was a passion project for Greg McKenzie um a BBC journalist and uh yeah we trained uh one of the classes um at jellyfish and I met the young individuals completely
Inspired by their enthusiasm and the fact that they wanted to contribute they just want to be given a chance and uh then I met Greg and uh just fell in love with the project and uh so I ended up funding it so that Greg could concentrate on it full-time and um yeah
We’ve got the the delegates in fact recently I was at Chelmsford um in the prison doing a workshop with the delegates who are um interested in joining the program and it’s um it’s just so fulfilling many people say to me you know there are so many innocent
People out there why would you put your attention to um criminals PE people who have committed offenses and I just you know if if you say that to me then you clearly don’t understand the motives behind it and that we cannot judge anyone if you haven’t walked every step
In their shoes and you’re in their circumstances and I think we all sit from a privileged position and cast judgment and uh I think that’s exactly that is the opposite of creating Equitable environments because you’re not addressing the fact that people aren’t starting from the same place and
So yeah this is just my chance if there’s so many people supporting others then there’s and there’s so few people supporting um people in those situations who have either made decisions or don’t even feel they had a decision to make and have ended up in these circumstances
Then that’s where I can dedicate some time and support so that’s where U the project is hopefully we will have our um unit in Oxford Street and um yeah we’ll be working on on a range that we can actually get out to a few of the high-profile people I want I want to
People to be seen in in the clothing and um start a strategy to get as much funding as possible for that project thank you so much for that and even like focusing upon inside out why do you decide to get involved in philanthropy at that at this stage in your career
Well I I suppose I always have M there are a number of businesses that I’ve supported um for the person or for the cause you know this is not new and um and don’t get me wrong I’ve got a very specific philosophy about um generosity and I think that um until you actually
Sacrifice something to give it’s not yet generous yeah so I’m not you know I’m not expecting anybody to um to be impressed by the fact that I’ve done a lot of this over time but I’ve had the means and I’ve been able to do it and
And to be honest I I would go as fast to say I’ve got a restaurant in London on put Lane called en and that feels like a charity that feels philanthropic because it just seems like I’m offering a public service and it makes no money and uh but
The team there I looked after and we it’s got a great reputation highly rated Etc um but I’ve done other businesses like that where it’s just all about the people it’s all about providing a service and and a quality of delivery um and so this is just an extension of that
And as as my as my means become bigger and more far reaching I’m able to have more impact and able to help more so it’s just a natural evolution of what I’ve been doing over the last 18 years anyway and it’s just incredible when I look at your life and
All of the places that you featured from Channel 4 to the times if you look up forward in your life 30 years from now what would you want your legacy to be for the next Generation that’s coming up yeah that that the workplace is different that people are fairly remunerated that
Everybody no matter what your background no matter what your um circumstances that you have a chance if you have the ambition the discipline the motivation and whatever you find is your skill and your superpower and your attributes and um that you’re able to succeed and that
You’re given a fair chance and that the world is a the workplace is a much better Fair Merit meritocracy if we could achieve that then um I I think that would be a great legacy I mean that’s a big thing I mean I can’t possibly be personally
Responsible for doing that but I could play my small part in it and I can make sure that either where we invest in businesses or we use what we achieved at jellyfish as a use case and we continue to build those things then um that I
Think will be a great legacy of course I want my kids to be to add value to the world and to to contribute but yeah I would say that’s my biggest uh hope and the last question I’d like to ask you is pet ask about any other Ventures you’ll
Be working on in the next two years if you can tell me if you can’t that’s fine yeah I mean again it’s it’s always risky in the public domain to talk about things that may or may not happen but um all I can say to you is that I will
Continue to look for opportunities I’m doing some I’m already a founding member of impact X which is Eric Collins um fund which is support supporting underrepresented groups um getting more involved in that and making sure that we can make sure that money is accessible to again create that Equitable
Environment and to give everybody a fair chance so um there’s probably going to be a few things around that that you will see in the future um yeah and and there’s there’s I’m already involved but looking at the sort of property buying Marketplace and and the Automation and
Uh the efficiency of buying a property um using technology and methodology and systemizing it so um there’s a little bit around that but um yeah again unfortunately I’m going to have to say watch this space it’s been a real honor to have you on the platform Rob thank
You so much for being such a great guest really appreciate pleas thank you so much thank you
2 Comments
Excellent interview. Well done both.
Good interview with great insights into the mind of a successful CEO 👍