Founders usually talk to me at the earliest of stages.

Most are extremely passionate about their idea.

Some have created a product, some haven’t.

But almost ALL have no customers and thereby, no revenue.

I help these founders build their first growth engine so they can find their first customers.

A growth engine isn’t complicated.

It’s a simple system that brings in your first customer, and as a result, your first revenue.

It could be as simple as:

Hurray! Job done right?! WRONG.

This earliest form of your growth engine is typically plagued with issues: in-efficiencies, blockers, lots of luck…

But the goal of your first growth engine isn’t to have the perfect system.

It’s to gather data, learn and iterate.

The more data you gather, the faster you learn.

The faster you learn, the more you can iterate.

The more you iterate, the more data you gather. And so forth.

And if you keep doing this over a long time, soon you’ll have a growth engine that is closer to the actual text book definition of a growth engine:

“A repeatable and scalable system that acquires customers and revenue”

Once you have a text book growth system in place, running a business becomes a lot less stressful.

And each and every time, there’s been a learning.

This blog is my space to document those learnings

It’s my journal, to review my daily thoughts, structure them and document them in a way that’s understandable to me.

But I also don’t believe in keeping those learnings tucked away in a drawer.

Sharing my learnings in public is my way of keeping myself accountable to following this process.

And it’s also my way of sharing the real stories behind building startups. Not the glammed up, cringeworthy “LinkedIn post” version.

If you ever have any questions, just get in touch. I read every message.

I began my career as a medical doctor and scientist, qualifying with an MBBS and BSc Hons in Biochemistry and Immunology from St. George’s Hospital Medical School, in 2014. During this time, I contributed to peer-reviewed research, presented at scientific conferences and picked up a few academic awards along the way.

My work spanned authored research and contributions in the space of HIV, Meningitis and their treatments, but also more technical research in the space of photo electronics.

Looking back, it feels slightly surreal that I did all that, including working in the NHS. But those foundations in science and medicine shaped the way I think.

They taught me to formulate hypotheses and test them vigorously. The same approach I now bring to building startups.

Unconventional, but pivotal.

Over time I became more interested in understanding how health systems worked at a higher level, how decisions were made, and how large hospitals could be transformed.

So, I transitioned into management consulting (focusing on the healthcare industry specifically).

From 2015 to 2018, I advised executive leadership at national health systems and providers across the UK.

My focus was on improving their operating performance and, ultimately how they cared for their patients, by leading large scale operational transformation programmes.

In 2018, I jumped into my first consumer health experience, starting as an intern at Clinova, which focused on OTC supplements, pharma and digital health.

Clinova had created an oral rehydration tablet, that was honestly the best thing I had ever tasted. They were one of the earliest startups to deliver this product to athletes all across the UK.

I learnt the rungs of growth engines right here. Including launching Caidr (now healthwords.ai), one of UK's first generative AI self care apps (before AI was even sexy).

My next venture was Kokoon Technology, an sleep tech startup combining sensors and machine learning to help people fall asleep more easily. Our most popular product was a pair of sleep headphones that we shipped all across the world to struggling sleepers from our own site.

At Kokoon, I ran direct to consumer (DTC) growth, driving customer acquisition and revenue expansion. I scaled the business to millions in revenue, leveraging a mix of DTC strategies, partnerships, and data driven growth marketing.

Along the way, we raised close to $10 million in venture funding from investors like Blackfinch and successfully secured a commercial partnership with Philips in 2022, a huge milestone in our journey.

Next, I started Bakkali, a marketplace delivering fresh and authentic cultural groceries across the UK helping ethnic communities have access to foods from back home.

Once again leading on growth, I took Bakkali from an idea on paper to one of the fastest growing consumer brands in the UK. It was a lot of fun hand delivering the first every Bakkali order.

Building the marketplace and getting traction was the felt easy initially, we scaled to 10k+ customers by focusing performance marketing, organic search and customer retention.

But the biggest challenge by far was the operating margins.

Every order needed to be sourced, stored, quality controlled, picked, packed and delivered to each and every customer across the UK. Thats a huge cost for an early stage business.

Grocery margins are typically razor thin. Online grocery margins are even thinner.

Nevertheless, Bakkali was backed by Silicon Valley investors such as Hustle Fund and reached £1m in annualised revenue and an eight figure valuation within 12 months of launch.

And in late 2024, I secured a solid equity partnership, which outsourced all the operations of Bakkali to a 3PL company.

Time for a new challenge.

Many people say focus is the ultimate advantage in business, but I’ve found myself distracted across multiple things.

From growing an AI company from scratch (in stealth as of 2025/26), to starting multiple side hustles.

From investing to daily writing.

All these distractions, have been a result of my curiosity.

It’s meant I’ve busier than normal.

But it’s also meant I’ve been learning more often too.

And I remain grateful for that.