Setting up a business is a major life decision that should not be taken lightly—it is incredibly painful. The ups definitely outweigh the downs, but the downs can be dark. Having a co-founder makes all the difference. Matthew Duhig, CEO and co-founder of FX Digital, started the business at university with his co-founder Tom, to build a website for his sister's bridal shop for free. Fifteen years later, they've grown from £1.5M to approaching £10M revenue, from 20 people to nearly 80, and they've built connected TV applications for major media and sports companies. Along the way, they had one major near-death experience when a single client became 80% of revenue, then in-housed the work down to 60%—leaving Matt and Tom with no personal wealth or assets, living together, staring at the barrel. But they believed in their proposition, backed themselves against the wall, and won 4 of 5-6 bids they needed to win, which launched them into major tech company work and one of their best years ever.

In this episode, Matt reveals his four contrarian beliefs about building businesses: (1) Running a business is incredibly painful and decision should not be taken lightly; (2) Vision comes from consumption (reading, listening, watching—not plucking it from air); (3) Don't make promises you can't control (resentment is harder to overcome than anything else in teams); (4) The job of an entrepreneur is to reduce risk (not take risks). He shares why he's an absolute delegator (sometimes great, sometimes backfires), how he managed to get off the tools when billing five days a week, why he stays in touch with 5-10 people at any given time who might be future hires, and how Barcelona became their second office (Jack the QA lead asked if he could relocate and Matt asked him to set up an office instead).

What you'll learn:

💼 Why having a co-founder is massive (not dark and lonely on your own)

🚨 What near-death looks like (80% revenue from one client, they in-house the work at 60%)

📚 Vision comes from consumption (read, listen, watch—a year of immersion in industry)

🤝 Don't make promises you can't control (resentment is the hardest thing to overcome)

⚙️ The job of an entrepreneur is to reduce risk (not take them)

🎯 Delegation as core skill (sometimes great, sometimes backfires, but necessary)

📞 Keep a pipeline of 5-10 potential hires always (chat with them, stay in touch)

🌍 Barcelona expansion lesson (talent + cost benefits + less competition than London)

Book recommendations:

The Intelligent Entrepreneur - Bill Murphy Jr. - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intelligent-Entrepreneur-Bill-Murphy-Jr/dp/0805094296

Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits - Greg Crabtree - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Simple-Numbers-Straight-Talk-Profits/dp/1600374514

Simple Numbers 2 - Greg Crabtree - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Simple-Numbers-Straight-Talk-Profits/dp/1600374514

About the Guest:

Matthew Duhig is CEO and co-founder of FX Digital, a business that builds connected TV applications for media and sports companies. He started the business with co-founder Tom at university when Matthew was 20 years old—Tom was away due to a bike accident in London ("Tom get well soon"), so they're running it together remotely. They grew from £1.5M revenue (7 years ago) to approaching £10M now, with headcount from 20 to nearly 80. The business evolved from web design work for his sister's bridal shop (free work) to building websites for a few years, then in 2015 they stumbled across connected TV—creating applications for TV like you create mobile applications, then launching them onto streaming platforms. That niche and doubling down on it propelled their growth.

Connect with Matthew Duhig / FX Digital - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/matthewduhig

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Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:03 Starting FX Digital and early challenges

07:15 Surviving a critical business downturn

12:59 Personal sacrifices and work-life balance

17:10 Stepping back to foster leadership growth

22:25 Delegation and leadership management strategies

28:34 Benefits of hiring fractional leaders

32:48 Building and automating key business systems

35:03 Establishing a Barcelona office for expansion

37:30 Talent acquisition benefits in Barcelona

39:42 Influential books and educational resources

41:28 Sources of ongoing inspiration and learning