From 5 GCSEs to £100m raised: the founder journey I nearly quit

Progress is never a straight line. I almost gave up. Hopefully my unconventional journey can motivate you to keep going.

From school to my first business

2006: I left school with 5 GCSEs.
2007: First "real job", cold calling in a mobile network's call centre. Tried multiple startups: student recruitment, lettings and so on.
2008: Started working seriously in the family buffet restaurant.
2010: Started a food blog.
2012: Opened my first business, Ninety Nine, healthy fast food: the first healthy hot-licence takeaway in the centre of Newcastle.
2014: Scaled to multiple sites and a small acquisition by a local PLC.

2015: Opened an aftermarket car styling business. Became a father aged 25.
2016: Launched an automotive video channel, gaining 50k subscribers. Recognised as a leading figure in automotive styling.
2017: Worked with A-list celebrities and leading luxury car manufacturers.
2018: Took VC funding and went bust in the same year. Spectacular.

2019: Moved to Spain and started again from nothing. I took a £2k-a-month retainer doing social media for a challenger care home company.
2019: Led their first crowdfunding round and realised how much I loved crowdfunding.
2019: Started to build crowdfunding products, and learnt how to project manage and write investment narratives for others.
2020: Personally wrote and managed 13% of all successful crowdfunding campaigns in Europe across the two leading UK equity crowdfunding platforms. That was 68 campaigns. It has to be a record?
2020: Realised that the big problem in fundraising is the lead investor conundrum, and I wasn't solving that with crowdfunding. Pivoted focus.

2021: Started building scalable products for startup founders. Raised £25m+ for clients in our first full year.
2022: Worked with A-list celebrities and world-class athletes, building out investment strategies. Funding became more difficult as the world changed after Covid.
2023: Became a leading figure in UK and EU pre-seed and seed-stage fundraising, working with more than 100 clients and raising well over £100m.
2024: Now raising my first SEIS fund, aiming to be the UK's leading first-ticket funder within the next 10 years. £500k of £3m committed.

Never give up on your dream. Here's to the next 10 years.

Jamie Mussett Harford, business and fundraising consultant in Palma de Mallorca. Adapted from a post first shared on LinkedIn.