The story behind Catalyst Commerce
I've been in your shoes. Here's how I got from a university garage to helping 30+ brands generate over £100M in new channel revenue.
Started at university
I started my first brand at 21, while studying at the University of Exeter: a collegiate-inspired casualwear label, made in the UK. We launched out of a garage, sold at campus events, and worked it out as we went.
Lions Rampant Sporting
My first venture failed - the wrong suppliers, the wrong investors, and not enough experience to spot either. I scraped together £2,000 and started again, this time with premium rugby socks. I set myself a deadline and a weekend in Devon and a friend-of-a-friend introduction led me to a Leicestershire manufacturer, and the product was exactly right.
Events, stockists, momentum
I drove 600 miles to Durham for our first event and sold three pairs of socks. But a stockist order the following day turned the whole weekend profitable. This taught me a principle I still rely on: different channels carry each other. We built an events calendar and a university ambassador scheme, and the Rampant Van became a familiar sight at county shows across the country.
Joules investment
At Burghley Horse Trials, the founder of Joules spotted our stand, reversed his Land Rover, and asked if I was "the chap selling the socks." That chance encounter became an investment deal. With new resources, a proper HQ, and access to the team that scaled Joules past £100M. The trade-off was giving up my majority stake.
National retail distribution
With Joules’ backing, we secured distribution through House of Fraser, Next, John Lewis, Fenwick, Amazon, and Zalando, and wholesale grew to more than 60% of our sales mix. We opened stores in Exeter and Aldeburgh, built a team, and ran a genuine multi-channel brand. Our customers included Pixie Lott, Lewis Moody, and Joey Essex. The Spectator named me a "Rising Entrepreneur of the Future," and I was featured in Drapers 30 Under 30.
The hardest chapter
When our investor’s strategy shifted, our funding stopped. I spent weeks living in two parallel worlds - searching for new investment by day, preparing redundancy plans for my friends by night. Making your whole team redundant, your closest mates among them, is something that stays with you. But the compassion they showed me in that moment - including one friend who simply handed me a banana because he knew I hadn’t eaten - taught me more about leadership than any business book.
Rich Insight
I co-founded Rich Insight, a multi-channel consultancy. Over the next decade, we helped 30+ brands navigate marketplace and channel strategy across 150+ global sites, generating over £100M in attributed annual recurring revenue. I learned the consultancy side of the business - what works, what doesn’t, and how to deliver real value without the overhead of a big agency.
Catalyst Commerce
After ten years on the consultancy side, I saw something many fractional executives still don't: the AI tooling is now good enough to make a single operator deliver work that used to take a team. I founded Catalyst Commerce to build that model from scratch - combining 20 years of operator experience with AI tools I build myself, so founders get senior commercial firepower without the cost of a senior commercial hire.
Industry involvement
I also take on a small number of 1:1 mentoring relationships each year, by referral or after a conversation. If that's what you're looking for, here's how I work →