CurrentlyThrowing businesses at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Charlie Swinhoe.The CEO of maximising shareholder anxiety
I build companies and help other people build theirs.
About
Bartender
turned cold caller
turned day trader
turned software developer
turned business owner.
I went to Bristol to study politics and sociology and dropped out after a year, having discovered the word autodidact, which is an extremely arrogant way of saying you’d like to read books to learn things.
After years of travelling and a hundred different jobs I settled on development. What I turned out to be better at was running the business around it.
Dizzy Otter was the first, a software studio that pulls a business process apart and turns the fix into software. Talking to the owners taught me how businesses actually work, and changed how I run my own. Three more followed inside a year.
This is where I put what I’ve learned and what I got wrong. Not because I’ve worked it out, but because writing it down is how I find out whether I have.
Where that came from
21 businesses I’ve worked inside.
- Yacht brokers
- Bin cleaning
- Wealth management
- Chimney cleaning
- Alternative education for special needs children
- Window cleaning
- Pharmacy compliance
- Festivals
- A stamp of approval for ethical influencer content
- Local jewellers
- Care homes
- Local restaurants, grab and go pasta
- An architectural practice
- Waste management and skip hire
- A charity for special needs children
- Tech South West, awards and judging
- Entertainment, talent finding
- Temp recruitment
- Construction
- Legal
- The public sector
The companies
My businesses.
Dizzy Otter
We build software that matters. Web apps, mobile apps and SaaS products for established businesses that have outgrown off-the-shelf tools.
Founder. Started as me making websites, then I brought in Joe, my best friend, and we saw the market wanted custom software. Everything else stemmed from this.
VisitKlyra Labs
We help businesses govern how their teams use AI, so they can use it confidently and prove it to anyone who asks.
The businesses we spoke to were afraid to use AI because they couldn't do it safely, and owners had no idea what their staff were putting into it. We built the guardrails, partnered with people in a regulated industry who invested, and Klyra was born. I do development and operations and oversee the developers alongside Joe.
VisitMarmello Media
Creative-led content and advertising for businesses hungry for reach. Strategised, filmed, edited, posted, promoted. One team, one monthly fee, one number to call.
We'd met filmers, directors and editors who wanted to bring higher end production to SMEs, the way we were doing it in house for Dizzy Otter. So we opened a company to do exactly that.
VisitComplicit
A creative studio built by filmmakers with over twenty years of experience shaping work for global brands, artists and agencies.
Same filmmakers and editors, above the line production. I built the platform and the site, and now I bring in new business through our network.
Visit
Across all of them my job is new business, oversight, overall strategy and a bit of development.
I can’t believe they’re letting us do this without adult supervision
What I got wrong
The bits nobody puts on their website.
- 01
Giving equity instead of salary
I handed out equity in place of salaries. It isn't a portion of the business, it's a portion of the control. Go slower and hold onto it.
- 02
Letting the wrong people stay
I kept people who weren't a good fit far too long. It isn't the money that costs you, it's the mental capacity. Have the hard conversation early.
- 03
Perfecting a process that didn't exist yet
I built processes for a company I didn't understand yet. Stop before you're ready. The market decides for you, you just have to give it a chance.
- 04
Trying to do it alone
Don't. But validate more than a skill set and a work ethic. Whether someone actually fits you is the bit people skip.
Work with me
You either die a hero or you live long enough to prioritise maximising shareholder value.
I work with growing businesses, founders, people trying to start something in the modern day, and people looking to modernise how they operate. Most of what I know comes from transformative work inside businesses: better sales strategy, software that cuts costs, and more reach through marketing and social media.
It starts with fifteen minutes, free, to work out whether this is worth either of our time. After that the hours are paid.
Fifteen minutes, free
We work out whether working together would be useful at all. If it wouldn't, I'll say so and that's the end of it.
Then, paid by the hour
I want to know whether you're running something already or validating an idea, how big it is now, and where you actually are in it. If it hasn't started, what the best use of your time is.
You leave with a strategy document
A follow-up if you want one, and access to me if that's useful.
If it's a good fit
I build a plan for implementation and we action it together, with whatever help my companies can bring to it.
Blog
Everything I know about business came from Succession or Silicon Valley.
- BlogRead
I caught myself doing an Alex Hormozi
I sat down to film myself handing out business advice one year into running a business, and had to stop and have a laugh at myself. Here is what I am going to do instead.
- BlogRead
Business is supposed to be fun
I think people make business far more complicated than it needs to be, and take the fun out of it on the way. I am not certain about that, which is roughly why I am writing it down.
Reading
Where the rest of it came from.
Greenlights
The only audiobook I've listened to twice. The pursuit of a craft you're passionate about, finding the joy along the way, and not compromising your values to get there.
Shoe Dog
The never ending struggle to make something work despite the world quietly willing you to fail. Put into perspective the timescales that go into building something great. Raw and inspiring.
Steve Jobs
Great people aren't always kind people. Jobs was a visionary and a one of a kind leader, but his approach wasn't for everyone. The unbiased writing makes this a winner. A flawed and incredibly impressive man.
Can't Hurt Me
No one cares. Work harder. The joy is in the pain and the effort that never ends. Focus on what you can control, try harder than everyone else, and you'll be successful. Anyone can do it.
Endure
Work on the basics, every day. Understand what you care about most and become obsessive in your pursuit of it.
Kitchen Confidential
Throw yourself into life, experience everything. What's the point if you don't stop to appreciate the good things along the way. Passion always wins.
The Diary of a CEO
Lessons from people at the top of their game. However you feel about Steven Bartlett, and I'm still undecided, his results speak for themselves and he's done a brilliant job of bringing those insights to the world.
Meditations
Pressure, ego, mortality. A reminder that founders 2000 years ago were wrestling with the same things we are now. Accept what you can't control before it overwhelms you, and get comfortable with the unknown.
Hustle Harder Hustle Smarter
There's beauty in being underestimated. The version of you that deserves to be in the rooms where decisions are made is built in the undeniable work you put in to become that person.
The 48 Laws of Power
You don't need to apply every law to find this book valuable. Just being aware of them changes how you read a room. Useful as a defensive read more than an offensive one. Recognise the dynamics at play, even if you choose not to use them.
And the rest of the shelf
- Outliers
- Zero to One
- The Trading Game
- Mythos
- Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Sapiens
- Atomic Habits
- Alchemy
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things
- Open
- Man's Search for Meaning
- Undeniable
- The Art of War
- Mind Over Miles
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- The 50th Law
- Outlive
- Back Story
- The Intelligent Investor
- Medium Raw
- The Daily Stoic
- Why We Sleep
- Guns, Germs and Steel
- Never Enough
- The Lean Startup
- The Ride of a Lifetime
- Heroes
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
- The Comfort Crisis
- Grinding It Out
- American Psycho
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- Poor Charlie's Almanack
- Principles
- The Alchemist
- Spare
- So many others I have forgotten