Millennial Masters

Simon Jenner is the co-founder of Million Labs. He has spent the last two decades building, breaking, and rebuilding startups, from selling his first business in his mid-twenties to helping shape the early UK accelerator scene and supporting the launch of more than 1,900 startups.

What makes this conversation timely is what he is seeing now. AI has made it far easier to build. People without a technical background can now ship products that once needed a team and serious funding. That has changed who gets to start and how quickly ideas can move. It has not made startups easier.

In this episode, we get into where founders still get stuck once building is no longer the hard part, why sales and distribution decide far more than product quality, and what changes when AI lowers the cost of execution but raises the pressure everywhere else.

What we cover

1️⃣ When building stops being the bottleneck

Simon explains how AI and no-code tools have compressed the time and cost of getting something live, and what that changes for founders at the start.

2️⃣ The real pressure moves to sales and distribution

As execution gets cheaper, attention gets harder to win. This part gets into why go-to-market is still where so many startups fall apart.

3️⃣ Why narrower ideas can work now

Serving a focused market is more viable when upfront build costs are lower and founders can move faster without needing a huge team.

4️⃣ Side hustles as a better runway

A lot of strong businesses start alongside paid work. That breathing room can extend the learning window and reduce bad decisions made under pressure.

5️⃣ Launching before you feel ready

Founders lose time waiting for certainty that never comes. Simon talks about what real user feedback reveals that internal polishing never will.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Simon Jenner

01:24 Selling a business at 25 and what he got wrong

04:26 Building a startup scene before it existed

06:36 Why most accelerators do not actually work

09:13 What separates builders from wannabe founders

10:50 The one-million startup ambition

14:47 No-code, vibe coding, and the collapse of build costs

23:00 How startups should really go to market

28:17 Why marketing costs kill more startups than tech

32:37 Founders must sell or stall

35:50 How Million Labs uses AI internally

38:27 The traits Simon sees in winners

42:00 The ideas that still excite him

44:40 What off-road driving teaches about startups

45:48 Protecting life outside the business

49:03 Launch before you feel ready

54:13 The myths founders need to let go of

Get more founder interviews and practical business lessons in the Millennial Masters newsletter at MillennialMasters.net

Share this with a founder who still thinks the hard part is building 👀

Dr Anmol Kapoor is a cardiologist, founder, and investor focused on helping people take control of their health earlier, with better data, clearer signals, and far less guesswork.

He started as a heart doctor in Canada and quickly saw the same pattern too often. Patients were doing what they thought was right and still ending up with heart failure, repeat heart attacks, and no real explanation until it was too late. That frustration pushed him out of the clinic and into building genomics companies, AI diagnostics, triage tools, longevity products, and performance testing systems designed to catch problems earlier.

In this episode, we get into what prevention really means, where AI is already improving diagnostics behind the scenes, why your genetic data may become more valuable than most people realise, and what founders need to understand if they want to perform well for decades rather than just survive the next busy season.

What we cover

1️⃣ The control people still have over their health

Anmol explains why prevention starts earlier than most people think and why waiting for symptoms leaves people reacting too late.

2️⃣ Genetic data as something you should own

This part gets into why DNA is not just a medical record, but something with personal, financial, and long-term value.

3️⃣ What earlier sequencing changes

Whole-genome testing can surface risks sooner, guide treatment better, and reduce years of avoidable trial and error.

4️⃣ AI inside modern diagnostics

Doctors already face more data than they can reasonably process. Anmol shares where AI is helping reduce noise and improve decision-making.

5️⃣ Health as part of founder performance

Sleep, diet, biomarkers, recovery, and circadian rhythm all shape how long you can perform at a high level without breaking yourself in the process.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Anmol Kapoor

08:35 Transitioning from doctor to innovator

12:33 Owning your genetic data

17:53 The process of genetic testing

23:13 Building specialised AI models

37:33 Responsibility in AI and healthcare

44:47 Genetics and performance: understanding our limits

52:58 Ethics in genetic selection

54:54 Health mistakes people keep making

01:01:24 Why you should never give up

Get more founder interviews and practical business lessons in the Millennial Masters newsletter at MillennialMasters.net

Share this with someone who has been putting their health off for too long ❤️‍🩹

Nick Holzherr has already built and exited once, then chose to start again. After appearing on The Apprentice in 2012, he built Whisk, a food AI company later acquired by Samsung, spent six years inside a global product environment, then stepped away to build from scratch again.

His latest company, GitLaw, is an AI legal platform for founders, backed by a $3 million pre-seed round. What makes this conversation interesting is where he has chosen to build next. Legal services are still slow, expensive, and badly matched to the way modern businesses actually operate. Nick is building directly into that gap, with a clear view on how AI will change the way legal work gets done.

In this episode, we get into what building with AI actually looks like, what changes after an exit, and how to operate in sectors where the rules are still catching up with the tools.

What we cover

1️⃣ Where AI changes legal work first

Nick explains why the real pressure is not on good lawyers, but on slow processes, bloated workflows, and work that should already be more efficient.

2️⃣ The hiring mistakes that cost companies most

Weak hires kill momentum fast. This part gets into the interview process, case studies, and short trials Nick uses to protect quality.

3️⃣ Why standard legal work should not cost what it does

For many founder needs, the answer is not bespoke drafting. It is solid market-standard documents, structured properly and delivered faster.

4️⃣ Pricing from the buyer’s side

Nick talks about what changed when he stopped pricing from his own comfort zone and started understanding what enterprise buyers already expected to pay.

5️⃣ How distributed teams stay sharp

Writing things down, documenting decisions, and keeping clean specs made it possible to scale across time zones without creating confusion.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Nick Holzherr

02:08 Turning The Apprentice into startup leverage

06:59 Early funding, pivots, and finding traction with Whisk

10:47 When big tech came calling and choosing Samsung

13:52 Hiring 100 people in nine months

20:35 How to actually run a remote, async global team

24:50 Leaving Samsung and working out what to do next

28:24 Spotting the AI moment and the first ideas for GitLaw

31:48 AI, job displacement, and who gets hit first

37:39 Why legal costs are broken for founders and SMEs

42:55 Backlash, cease and desist letters, and staying resilient

48:25 Building GitLaw differently with AI-native workflows

51:19 Building from Birmingham and hiring globally

55:19 Quickfire: best decision, hiring mistakes, Sam Altman, books, and sacrifice

Get more founder interviews and practical business lessons in the Millennial Masters newsletter at MillennialMasters.net

Send this to anyone trying to handle legal work without burning cash ⚖️

Josh Payne is the founder and CEO of Coframe. He never took a traditional route. Straight out of Stanford, he went into building, turning a pandemic project into a telemedicine company later acquired by Tata Group.

He then co-founded Autograph and helped scale it during the NFT wave to unicorn level with major investors behind it. What stands out is the kind of problems he moves towards. He built GPT-Migrate, one of the first autonomous AI agents for code transformation, and now runs Coframe, an AI optimisation platform used by companies like OpenAI and The Economist to drive measurable revenue gains.

In this episode, we get into what building with AI looks like when the hype fades, where human judgement still beats autonomy, and how to stay focused when the tools keep changing faster than the market can absorb them.

What we cover

1️⃣ Where AI still falls short

Josh talks about the gap between what people expect from autonomous agents and what models can actually do reliably today.

2️⃣ Why human judgement still matters

The strongest outcomes still come from pairing people with AI properly rather than letting the model run unchecked.

3️⃣ Building momentum without waiting for a grand plan

Coframe grew out of small experiments, fast feedback, and following what users actually responded to.

4️⃣ Focus as an edge in noisy markets

Josh explains why going deeper on one customer outcome matters more than chasing every new model, feature, or hype cycle.

5️⃣ Products that improve through use

This part gets into what makes AI genuinely valuable inside a product and why self-improving systems will matter more than surface-level AI features.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Josh Payne

02:35 Skipping the safe 9–5 path

04:23 From jazz gigs to building products

07:01 AxisBell: launching a COVID telemedicine startup

09:45 How one client became a buyer

12:50 What selling your first startup actually feels like

14:48 Autograph, NFTs, and the celebrity-backed rocket ship

20:06 What LA taught Josh that Silicon Valley could not

23:23 NFT hangover: bubbles, greed, and timing your exit

27:16 GPT-Migrate and the spark that became Coframe

31:33 Coframe’s model: real AI value vs AI theatre

34:46 Why human plus AI beats AI alone

38:31 AI’s limits today and near-term risks

42:21 Alignment, jailbreaks, and who really controls AGI

45:53 Which models Josh trusts and why

49:50 The thread connecting healthtech, NFTs, and AI

52:42 Sleeping in his car, grit, and what sacrifice means

56:22 Hiring people who run as hard as you

58:51 Why Coframe is in-person and how Josh is changing as a CEO

01:00:26 What Josh would teach his younger founder self

01:01:19 Life, startups, and the bicycle race analogy

01:02:42 Trade-offs, money, and staying aligned with your purpose

01:05:46 Cold swims, float tanks, fasting, and staying sharp

Get more founder interviews and practical business lessons in the Millennial Masters newsletter at MillennialMasters.net

Pass this on to the smartest builder you know 🔁

Carly Meyers has one of those stories that sounds unlikely until you hear it properly. She started on London’s West End, performing in shows like Wicked and sharing the stage with Monty Python at the O2. Then one bad landing during an audition ended that chapter overnight.

What followed was a full reset through waitressing, sewing custom clothes, working at the Apple Store, building a network marketing business, burning out, and starting again. Eventually, she found her way into tech, automation, and AI. Today, Carly runs Made for More, a lean AI-powered business, coaches entrepreneurs, and works with a small human team supported by AI agents.

In this episode, we get into reinvention, resilience, and what building looks like when AI becomes part of the way the business runs. Carly shares how curiosity changes the way founders use new tools, where automation actually helps, and how to build lean without letting the pace of it all take over.

What we cover

1️⃣ The mindset that makes AI useful

Carly explains why curiosity beats resistance, and why the best founders are the ones willing to test, learn, and keep asking better questions.

2️⃣ Running lean with a small team and AI support

This part gets into how she uses AI across finance, legal, marketing, and operations without turning the business into a mess.

3️⃣ Fixing the system before adding more tools

Automation only helps when the foundations are clean. Broken workflows just get amplified faster.

4️⃣ What failure taught her about resilience

Carly talks about rejection, setbacks, and why her bounce-back rate matters more than trying to avoid failure altogether.

5️⃣ Protecting time as the business grows

The episode also gets into designing your days properly, keeping space for learning and creativity, and building in a way that still feels sustainable.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Carly Meyers

02:35 From West End to AI: reinventing after injury

05:39 Finding purpose after losing identity

08:21 Network marketing lessons: building resilience and grit

13:58 From burnout to breakthrough: fitness, focus, and mindset

16:05 First steps with AI: content creation and curiosity

18:25 How AI helped build a business without a big team

21:48 The “I wonder” mindset

22:45 Building custom GPTs: your first virtual team

28:07 AI agents trained on Hormozi and Martell

30:52 Claude vs ChatGPT

33:52 Creating AI financial advisers and legal agents

36:33 Virtual assistants, automation, and n8n

45:43 AI agents vs employees

50:00 Inside Carly’s AI audit framework

56:01 Why clean data is the real AI advantage

59:16 How to fail fast and build resilience

01:02:49 Protecting time and mental freedom

01:06:39 The lesson she’d tell her younger self

01:08:00 What ambition and kindness mean for her kids

Get more founder interviews and practical business lessons in the Millennial Masters newsletter at MillennialMasters.net

Send this to someone trying to build lean without burning out ⚙️

Harry Sanders did not start with a network, a safety net, or much room to get things wrong. At 17, he was sleeping under a bridge in Melbourne with a backpack and a laptop. A social worker gave him a plan. He followed it, taught himself fast, and built StudioHawk from scratch into one of the best-known SEO agencies in the world.

Today, he leads a 140-person team across three continents and hires for something more useful than polish. Low ego, curiosity, discipline, and people he believes can grow. What makes this conversation land is not just the scale of what he built. It is the standard behind it. Harry is clear that ideas are cheap, pressure reveals character, and building something real takes more patience than most people want to hear.

In this episode, we get into survival, discipline, hiring, leadership, and what it takes to keep building when your early life gives you every reason to fold.

What we cover

1️⃣ Why most new ideas do more harm than good

Harry shares the rule he uses to stop impulse, protect focus, and keep the team from getting dragged into random new directions.

2️⃣ The people he looks for when hiring

Polish matters less than curiosity, humility, discipline, and the capacity to grow under pressure.

3️⃣ What focus made possible at StudioHawk

Doing one thing well gave the business clarity, momentum, and a much stronger foundation than trying to offer everything.

4️⃣ The point where founder involvement becomes a problem

Harry talks about the shift from being across everything to building a company that can actually move without you.

5️⃣ How confidence gets built in real life

This part gets into repetition, discomfort, public failure, and why confidence is something you earn rather than wait for.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Harry Sanders

02:25 How Harry went from homeless teen to founder

07:48 How StudioHawk grew into a $20M global SEO agency

11:02 How to hire ‘wholesome nerds’ and spot raw talent early

13:12 Why your early team can hold back your next stage of growth

21:52 Why focus scales faster than ideas

26:49 How to shift from survival mode to CEO mindset

32:53 Why Harry gives back to fight youth homelessness

35:46 Will AI kill SEO? Here’s what’s really happening

42:00 How new brands can get seen in AI search

50:12 Why most founders aren’t ready for SEO yet

54:25 How education became StudioHawk’s growth engine

57:05 What it really costs to build something that lasts

Get more founder interviews and practical business lessons in the Millennial Masters newsletter at MillennialMasters.net

Pass this on to a builder stuck in idea chaos 📤

James Fleming had everything you’re meant to want: a senior exec role in oil and gas, the house in Dubai, the pool, the salary, the status. But he realised he wasn’t happy.

Then life stepped in. A corporate reshuffle made him redundant, and overnight his three-year plan to start a business became a three-month deadline to survive.

He and his wife launched The Power Within from their living room, selling watches to fund marketing and building their first leadership programme from scratch.

Today, James trains leaders around the world on what he calls motivational intelligence: the mindset shift that turns self-doubt into self-leadership. It’s practical, human, and built on hard-earned lessons.

We talk about what it really takes to rebuild after losing everything, why confidence comes before competence, how to balance empathy with standards, and why your vision is the anchor for every decision you make.

If you’ve ever wondered whether mindset really makes the difference, this episode will leave you with no doubt.

🔗 Find James on LinkedIn

Takeaways from James’ episode

1️⃣ Before you can have, you must become

James doesn’t believe in “fake it till you make it.” He believes in acting like the person you’re trying to grow into. Show up like an owner before you technically are one. Your behaviour sets your ceiling.

2️⃣ Confidence comes before competence

People wait until they “know enough” to lead. That’s backwards. You only get competent by doing reps, getting it wrong, adjusting and going again. If you’re waiting to feel ready, you’ll never ship.

3️⃣ Excuses are just mislabelled priorities

“I don’t have time” usually means “it’s not important enough to me.” James draws a hard line between a reason and an excuse. A reason comes with learning and ownership. An excuse comes with nothing.

4️⃣ Vision is not optional

Every client he coaches has to answer one question: in 12 months, if everything went right, what would you be telling a friend in the pub about your business? If you can’t picture it, you can’t build it. Your brain can’t execute on a blank page.

5️⃣ Success is not money

James had the cash, title and status. He still felt empty. His definition now: aligned expectations and reality. When what you’re doing matches who you believe you are, that’s when you get peace. Everything else is noise.

📘 Check out James Fleming’s book

* You Can Have Success or You Can Have Excuses — You Cannot Have Both

In this episode we cover:

00:00 Introduction to James Fleming

02:11 Walking away from comfort (and a big salary)

07:50 Redundant on Friday, founder on Monday

12:34 The first two years nearly broke him

18:58 How James actually coaches leaders

24:19 Why mindset beats tactics

29:03 Act like the person you’re trying to become

34:04 The four-day work week experiment (what really happened)

38:17 Success vs excuses

40:51 Getting called out by your own team

48:18 Building a company (and a marriage) together

52:09 Your vision is the operating system

Most people complain about the office, but Joe Averill built a business by rethinking it.

He launched Level in the middle of a so-called office apocalypse: no co-founder, no funding and a young family depending on him. But Joe saw what others didn’t: companies still want space, they just don’t want old-school leases, hidden costs or landlord games.

Before Level, Joe cut his teeth in Manchester’s tech scene, learned sales the hard way and built a network the old-fashioned way: by showing up. Today, Level is one of the fastest-growing tenant-only advisory firms in the UK, built on one principle: trust scales faster than hype.

If you’re an entrepreneur debating your next office move (or scaling without a safety net) this is your episode.

🔗 Find Joe on LinkedIn

Takeaways from Joe’s episode

1️⃣ Self-belief is a business strategy

Joe launched Level with no co-founder, no funding and no safety net. The first resource he built with was conviction.

2️⃣ Sales is still the engine

Joe grew Level through pipeline and process. Prospecting, follow-up and conversion are still what move revenue.

3️⃣ Networks compound when you give first

Joe built relationships by adding value, making introductions and understanding people, not by pitching them.

4️⃣ The office isn’t dead, lazy thinking is

Hybrid changed how teams use space, not whether they need it. Smart founders now prioritise flexibility, amenities and cost transparency over long leases.

5️⃣ Confidence follows action

Joe still gets nervous before panels and big rooms. He just does it anyway. Reps build confidence, not theory.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 Introduction to Joe Averill

02:03 The “offices are dead” bet

05:52 What tech taught him about pipeline, product & pitch

10:08 Networking that adds value (not noise)

12:50 Personal brand, minus the cringe

17:33 Shy to on-stage: reps over fear

20:55 Tenant-side only: flipping the model

23:24 The office brief most founders miss

30:22 When revenue tanks: steady hands, smart moves

33:12 Mentors, models & the lessons to ignore

35:37 From notebooks to playbooks: systems > heroics

39:00 Scaling with fractionals: CFOs, COOs & more

42:23 Founder energy: avoiding burnout (for real)

45:38 Activity breeds confidence: getting unstuck

47:31 The best risk he ever took

People talk about connection, but this week’s Millennial Master builds it. Lara Varjabedian is the founder of UBQT, a platform reconnecting people in real life.

Before launching her startup, Lara spent 13 years inside the global corporate machine. Then she moved into the startup world, helping VC-backed companies scale at speed... until she realised she was ready to build something of her own.

She bootstrapped UBQT from Dubai during lockdown, turned an MVP into a real product, and raised a $750k pre-seed round to go global. Today, she’s building a social platform with no feeds, no likes and no ego, just real-world connection.

This conversation is about what it actually takes to build when there’s no safety net, and how to stay sane while doing it.

Takeaways from Lara’s episode

1️⃣ Momentum beats perfection

You don’t need a full product to start. Lara bootstrapped UBQT with a simple MVP and used momentum as a growth strategy long before investment arrived.

2️⃣ Fundraising is not validation

Money in the bank doesn’t mean product-market fit. Lara raised $750k pre-seed but kept building like she had nothing, staying close to users and pushing for traction over hype.

3️⃣ Build for behaviour, not vanity metrics

UBQT has no likes and no feeds on purpose. Lara designed the product around real-world behaviour: catching up, travelling and meeting face-to-face.

4️⃣ Female founders face a bias tax, do it anyway

Lara shares how women are judged harder and pitch with more self-doubt. Her antidote: evidence, conviction and relentless resilience.

5️⃣ Your runway mindset matters more than your runway

The highs and lows don’t slow down, they compress. Lara protects her mental energy and reframes setbacks as signals instead of failures.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 Intro to Lara Varjabedian

02:17 From corporate to startups

05:08 Making the leap to entrepreneurship

07:29 The birth of UBQT

09:42 Designing for real-life connection

12:42 Building communities across borders

21:15 Navigating Dubai’s startup ecosystem

24:26 Why Dubai is a global launchpad

28:25 Lessons from bootstrapping to pre-seed

33:19 The emotional rollercoaster of startups

38:22 Coping with stress and execution pressure

Most people chase money. Jason Graystone chases freedom.

He’s not your typical wealth guru. Jason quit a safe career when his first child was born, blew £40k learning the hard way in the markets, and then built digital assets that went on to make millions. His philosophy is simple: buy time, not things.

In this episode, Jason shares why financial freedom starts with mental freedom, what losing big early really teaches you, and how to reverse engineer your life so you’re not stuck living by someone else’s rules.

🔗 Find Jason on LinkedIn, Instagram or YouTube

Takeaways from Jason’s episode

1️⃣ Freedom starts in your head

Money doesn’t solve everything if your mindset is trapped. Jason argues financial freedom only comes after mental freedom, knowing who you are and what you want.

2️⃣ Losing money is tuition

Jason blew £40k in the markets early on, but he didn’t treat it as failure. He calls it an education that taught him discipline, patience, and resilience.

3️⃣ Give it all away

His multi-millionYouTube funnel was built on one principle: share everything for free. The more value you give, the more people trust you, and the more they’ll pay to work with you.

4️⃣ Repeat yourself without fear

Jason’s message hasn’t changed in nine years. Repetition builds trust, and entrepreneurs shouldn’t be afraid of sounding boring. Consistency is what compounds.

5️⃣ Buy time, not things

Financial freedom isn’t about Lambos or Rolexes. It’s having enough assets to cover your lifestyle and free up your calendar so you can choose how to spend your days.

📖 Jason’s book recommendations

The Values Factor by Dr. John Demartini — Jason credits this book with helping him align his choices to his real purpose. It’s about understanding your core values so you can build a life and business that feel true to who you are. Dr. Demartini also wrote the foreword to Jason’s own book.

Always Free by Jason Graystone — Jason’s blueprint for financial, mental, and time freedom. He shares the lessons that took him from trading losses and early business struggles to building digital assets and investments that let him design life on his own terms.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 Intro to Jason Graystone

02:29 From struggles to security: Jason’s early life

07:45 Taking the leap: quitting for freedom

12:07 Building wealth: lessons from early ventures

14:56 The power of content creation

19:47 You never really lose, it just changes form

22:46 Mental freedom: defining true wealth

27:23 Reverse engineering your life: finding fulfilment

33:09 Understanding financial freedom

37:39 The importance of resilience and authenticity

43:03 Changing your environment for growth

47:45 Defining true freedom

51:59 Sacrifices on the journey to freedom

55:56 Influential books and philosophies