I was told by Hilary devay at the time that I was stupid Duncan Valentine told
me I would never sell any I’ll tell you what um whenever I sell my millionth unit I’m going to send you each a
special edition just to go there you go how’s that which I did you were awarded
a distinguished service order 2006 what was supposed to be just our meet and
greet turned into quite a cheeky little situation we were attacked by a number
of Taliban so 25 to 30 Taliban surrounding us when we call for air support there were no helicopters or
vast air support available for us so one of those life-defining moments I
realized actually tonight I need to raise my game I’m Nick Haley founder of Little Big
Tech after more than a decade in the Army I left and joined civilian life in this podcast series I’ll be speaking to
entrepreneurs who left military service and started the next exciting chapter in their lives we’ll hear how these
inspiring individuals transitioned from active service to the world of business how did they take the first step on the
road to becoming an entrepreneur we’ll find out welcome to little big vets the
veteran entrepreneurs podcast [Music]
foreign [Music] Afghanistan was one of the most
dangerous places on Earth it was the epicenter of the British Army’s ongoing battle with the Taliban the soldiers of
sea company three para part of the elite parachute regiment were led by Major Paul Blair they had orders to diminish
the taliban’s influence in South Afghanistan and restore power to the cabal government it was a mammoth task
the impacts of which are still felt by all those involved Paul as a commander was hit hard Paul thanks for joining us
before we get into your career Journey what does your day look like today today started like most days recently
rudely awakened at about 6 45 by my two dogs uh both wanting to get outside get
a bit of breakfast and after I looked up to them they went back to bed but a cup
of coffee and a quick sort of draw through a to-do list and starting to
think about yeah what what jobs I had to do for the rest of the day so Paul could you tell us about your
career in the army I spent 20 years thereabouts in the parachute regiment I actually started in
the what was 10 para the parasite regiment Reserve Battalion at the time so it was a fantastic part-time job
um it did a lot of training um so I did P company a lot of infantry courses uh
went to Sanderson was commissioned did the basic parachute course at Bryce Norton then towards the end of my degree
that experience I suppose reinforced my view to join the regular army so did all
of those courses again um obviously uh second time around I knew what was coming I’m not sure if
that made it um better or worse but over 20 years I spent
um at least a couple of years one job in each of the parachute resident battalions I did seven operational tours
in the end and towards the end of that time realized actually yeah I’m not sure
I’m going to stay in for as long as I could and realized that I wanted a second career so in 2012 I left to start
and try and find a second career and so uh at the time when you were leaving what sort of things were you thinking
that you were going to go and do after you left I had absolutely no idea a lot of friends who had left at various
stages were moving into the city some into banking one or two left to start
their own businesses which I thought was interesting but actually in my last two years I had a personal experience that
led to inadvertently starting starting the first business there which was safe
sex dog toys so do you want to talk us through that story that uh that took you there yeah
so we take our two little Jack Russells at the time and we’d always take him to the park and throw a ball for them
um quite often if I didn’t have a toy or a ball I would pick up a stick one particular occasion I threw this a bit
of a cack-handed throw and the stick launched into the ground or stuck into the ground a bit like a javelin just as
uh Razzle uh one of the Jack Russells landed on it and I heard this Crunch and
realized he was injured so thought the worst checked him over really quickly I could see a bit of blood but took him to
the local vets I got the biggest bollocking of my life from the vet after he had checked the dog over thankfully
Razzle wasn’t seriously injured but the vet was telling me that the dogs are or sticks rather are really dangerous for
dogs so many dogs are killed and injured every year and that was I suppose my
little Eureka moment realizing that sticks were dangerous I did a bit of market research so there was there was a
gap in the market for a safe stick and so said about what was a three-year
process of Designing developing and bringing to Market a um safe stick and
so this happened while you were still in the army yes so I spent evenings and
weekends um developing this product trying to find a product designer trying to find the right sort of material
um and yeah building the business very slowly going out to Mom and Dad’s Pet Shops all over Wiltshire and the
Southwest uh with prototypes trying to get some feedback being told no being
laughed at sometimes and showing the door and yeah it took it took a long little process but that that sort of
straddled um the my last two years and into my first year after leaving just back to
your military career a little bit um can you talk us through some of the the challenges you faced during your
time in the Army yeah it was moving around typical of um uh suddenly a
commission officers career it was a move every two years and so suddenly the first six months in every position was
was learning the ropes uh and it’s a mix of um commanding platoons
um or units and also staff jobs but certainly when when soldiers were involved yeah I felt it you know a
challenge to first of all gain the respect of those troops it certainly wasn’t um you know wasn’t taken for
granted and I felt as a commander I needed to prove my competence and my my ability and then it was obviously
um trying to make sure my skill level was as good as it could be and being as
prepared as possible to deploy on on all those operational tours needless to say you know those tours
were there the biggest challenge of my career each one in turn lots of tours of Northern Ireland then
Kosovo Sierra Leone and then Afghanistan and um it’s only coming under Fire that’s
when yeah those challenges really really peaked and for everyone but certainly me
um in a command position yeah that that really was the the uh the peak of of charge
so uh just picking up on the uh the the constant new roles every couple of years
and having to um uh having to settle into a new role do you think that uh that constant
change in prepared you well for an entrepreneurial life absolutely they’re pros and cons
um it is great for experience um the British army to tends to to do
that on a a two-year rotation so you spend the first six months learning the ropes a year of probably adding value
and then the last six months uh trying to wind up getting ready to hand over to
your successor and looking towards you your next role but I think that that constant change and
um I suppose adaptability is is a fantastic foundation for um yeah the entrepreneurial world
and so uh you mentioned Kosovo was that 99 it was yes I was there too
small world there we go yeah we’ve probably crossed paths at some point
um so uh when you’d when you made that decision to leave um what was what was that experience
like from when you signed off to like your first sort of few months out of the army I felt I was I was really lucky so
I know it’s it’s a challenge for all of us in um in uh I suppose different stages and
um intensity but I had what I thought was just the most fun job as my last few
years which was commanding the the Red Devils uh Free Fall team um there was a serious side to it yeah
we were a high profile PR resource and recruiting resource for for the British army as a whole and also the Parish
arrest man but it was just a huge amount of fun uh as the joke goes you know falling out a perfectly serviceable
aircrafts uh all over the UK and all over the world so at ease out of that I
suppose strict combat role um Battalion or battle grips with life I
wasn’t even wearing combats I spent most of my time in a in a jumpsuit and so I
felt my transition was was fantastic that that was a great way of um of easing me out of that sort of military
mindset and a lot of of my rule uh commanding the team was dealing with commercial organizations we had to
discuss branding licensing different sponsorship deals so I felt actually
that was as good a I suppose experience to set me up for for a second career
yeah that certainly sounds like it’s a step towards a civilian career rather
than coming out straight out of a direct command position and going to work in a bank or something absolutely and but I got so much abuse
from all my friends and Peter grip just every any time I saw them and those were the worst displays jumping into any
military uh event because you just knew you’d get so much abuse from uh from friends for not doing a proper job
um but yeah it was a it was a great transition as possibly anyone who hasn’t served in the military won’t realize that actually uh the amount of grief
that people in the forces give to each other you know and and it’s not
malicious but it’s there’s a constant barrage of what sounds like quite
offensive abuse um from from your closest friends absolutely and I suppose that um you
know that sort of banter and the black humor um I suppose I think reinforces that
resilience um you know forget any training or going on operations it’s just that the day-to-day sort of camaraderie and all
of that banter you know we give and take it uh as as we can and I think that just forwards forges
um lifelong friendships so when you left uh you’d got the the dog toy business
um uh sort of as a fledgling business that let’s call it at the time uh so
what did you do next so I realized that I I couldn’t fund
that that business I couldn’t make the I was blown away by the demand um I couldn’t make them fast enough but I
needed a lot of capital I’d extended all sorts of credit limits on um on credit cards uh remortgage my home borrowed
from friends and family and and couldn’t make them fast enough and that led to an experience in
Dragon’s Den I then did a licensing deal with um a company called Kong and the
world’s largest producer of dog toys they do cat toys as well but um that was
a great experience I I think looking back was was just the right exit um for the uh for sea sticks I then
moved around a little bit worked at a startup tandem skydiving operation having had so much experience in the
skydiving world uh that was that was fun but I I was looking for I think something more substantial and actually
looking for uh for a corporate job I thought about starting another business but I wasn’t really sure what but it was
um I suppose serendipitous that’s through a friend’s gonna introduce to the CEO of a a large uh Japanese and
Multinational he was looking for someone with a bit of a military background and so that led me into a corporate job for
almost five years and uh what what did you do in that role I started off as a as a project manager
um I was then given um responsibility for a couple of teams and that led very quickly into running
the marketing and Innovation for the whole of Europe which I suppose was a
great match with what I was interested in and also a little bit of um that experience of bringing a a new product
to Market so it was again a fantastic experience I had a couple of teams of seriously
bright people in um in the sort of product design and Innovation categories and a marketing team with a really
healthy budget so great experience uh the CEO was fantastic as a mentor and um
yeah I learned a lot over those five years do you think there was uh there was a lot that you could take from your
time in the Army to help you do well in that corporate role absolutely
um and we might you know come back to this about other companies employing veterans any military training or any
time that we spend in um in the services uh as you know you know those transferable skills are fantastic
whether it’s teamwork communication resilience resourcefulness and actually that’s why that um company recruited me
they had a lot of seriously bright people but as the CEO said at the time they couldn’t organize Chaos on the
sinking submarine so wanted someone to bring you know a little bit of military planning and rigor and and discipline
um to some of their training actually we were maybe three months in or I was three
months into that job and the company was um was doing some training courses for
some of their middle managers and the third part of that course was out in the
New Forest where everyone would spend a couple of nights um sleeping under our Basha
and I’m doing various training exercises and I was standing there with the friend who who got me the job we did the
introduction and the CEO and a couple of ex-military types um it was getting dark we were standing
around with head torches on um just about to spend the night in the forest eating um food out of a ball in
the bag um and my friend asked me how would my transition to a corporate career was going I liked it oh yeah not very far at
the time but um yeah that was just one aspect most of the time was spent um you know in a in an office behind a desk so
you mentioned an experience on Dragon’s Den do you wanna do you want to tell a little bit more about that yeah it was a
great experience I’ve been watching the show for a couple of years and
um because I couldn’t generate the cash to produce enough dog toys to meet that
demand I was looking at any and all sorts of options so applied to the Dragon’s Den I was amazed that I got
picked up went down for a screen test um that was fine and then got a date for the show
and slightly different set to to what they use now but at the time there was a
spiral staircase and I mentioned my two little Jack Russells I knew that with a dog toy I had to take a dog on but um
yeah the Jack Russells would not have um I think performed well so I I hired a
trained dog and everyone gets about 10 minutes
everyone is pitching gets about 10 minutes on the set before anyone arrives just to familiarize themselves with
walking up the spiral staircase so I was going to lead the dog up the staircase
with a safe stick in its mouth we’re going to do a little turn at the top uh walk into the center onto our our mark
and um Pitch the dragons that went amazingly well
um for two rehearsals so come at the time all the dragons are there um obviously what you don’t see when
you’re watching the show is down that left hand side um just all the cameras lights uh all
the production team um so yeah naturally a little bit nervous we started up the spiral
staircase we got to the top the dog missed its step uh got tangled up in my feet dropped the safe sticks I bented
down it was covered in dog’s bit and just within 10 seconds I just was had
this image of me crashing and burning and it was it was just going so very rapidly I managed to untangle myself
from from the lead and dog and we ended up sort of at some point you know back in the middle of the uh this sort of
stage thankfully they didn’t screen any of that but within 10 seconds I managed to I suppose compose myself and start
into my pitch which I think rehearsed about a thousand times but it was it was a great experience I got some
interesting feedback I thought I might get a bit of interest from one of the
Dragons four of them at the time owned dogs and so yeah there were some interesting questions but I think my
business model and um certainly at the time I was a little bit naive and there were too many people
in the supply chain I didn’t know at the time but I was getting ripped off massively I found I further down the
line but um certainly the financials weren’t that attractive at the time so I got a little bit of pushback from the
dragons I was told by Hilary devay at the time that I was stupid
um Duncan bannatyne told me I would never sell any um which if anything I was disappointed leaving without investment but I think
those words were ringing in my ears and they just reinforced my my attitude okay
well tell you what um whenever I sell my millionth unit I’m going to send you it’s a special edition just to go there
you go how’s that which I did did they reply I didn’t get a reply no
um actually you know from Deborah medium I did get some replies on on Twitter uh she was actually uh yeah very funny
about it and yeah wish this all the best that’s really cool it must have been quite satisfying when you were when you
were signing the deal with Kong after having like these very high profile investors on TV saying it’s not gonna
work yes exactly and as I say um you know I I could have let that
advice or feedback get to me but I was just I think my being stubborn at the time and and realizing that actually we
had plenty of customers and for that some single fact that we were struggling to meet demand uh I think just spurred
me on so yeah it was hugely satisfying I was really lucky to um meet Kong um it was a bit of a punt flying to the
States going to a big Pet Expo and walking straight up and pitching to um uh they were my first Port of Call so
yeah very satisfying and really lucky to um to do that deal with them so that that knocked back uh from uh from the
dragons then uh but still carrying on that I think that’s a testament to the resilience piece that uh you would have
got from your from your military career I think that and maybe a bit of stubborn
stupidity sort of thrown in but yeah I think you know that whole resilience piece of if we are either training or on
operations we’re not going to have all the resources uh we want time might be against us and it’s just a case of well
you’ve got to get on and do the job do the task in hand and I think that
translates really well into the entrepreneurial world where we’re always you know short of time or money or or
whatever it might be and so yeah let’s get on and make things happen
so I remember we were chatting before and you told me about a bit of guerrilla marketing that uh that you’d undertaken
while you were trying to um promote safe Stakes that’s right yeah
so we were maybe a year into um having launched the the company and I
had plenty of stock on hand I was just trying to maximize seals I didn’t have enough money to take a
stand at crufts but um was managed to find a company that would uh would partner with me and let
me have a little section of their their booth and so um we had a couple of um
little retail stands with dog toys on them I’ve been talking to a guy called
Mark Abraham who’s a bit of a celebrity vet and just I think again Serendipity
uh played a part managed to catch them at the right time on Twitter and he was doing a little bit on for crufts TV a
camera crew came walking around the corner I had lights on my face and and managed to start talking uh with the dog
toy anyway um I thought okay when that goes out the next day that’ll that’ll generate a
little bit demand hopefully but um I remember I can’t remember where I read the story but I thought well let’s get
ahead of um everyone else in the marketing and the uh the competition for eyeballs at
crufts and you know when you go into any exhibition you’re sort of bombarded with leaflets and pliers and all sorts of
banner ads but I thought I’ll start at the car park um with a couple of sticks of chalk and I literally walk from every car park and
rode on the ground obviously thankfully it wasn’t raining but wrote on the ground just a little thing about safe
Stakes find them at this stand and maybe another 100 meters did the same message again took me a couple of hours to go
from every car park and every footpath but on every um I’d like to think that generated a lot of interest but whenever
the um whenever crops opened there was a queue around the block for people
wanting to buy a dog toy and so yeah I think as for me that was a great lesson
of of any little Gorilla Marketing trick doesn’t have to cost any money or it can be as inexpensive
um as you can make it but I think it’s just you know it comes down to using your imagination to capture eyeballs and
attention improvise adapt overcome there you go exactly it’s a drop a little cliche in there yeah so then uh you say
you uh you basically just doorsteps Kong at a show yes I might have broken a rule or two
um but went to a large Pet Expo in in the states
um took in a dog toy out a list of all the major doctor manufacturers went up
to uh Kong it was the biggest spoke to the first guy I saw explained that I had a dog selling really well in
the UK and uh would they like to talk about it you put a grand fabulary arm around my shoulder and said step this
way turns out he was the president of the company I didn’t know we went and had a chat and I think six weeks later
yeah we had hammered out a deal and and that was that and was that a a life-changing moment for you when when
you did that deal it was certainly significant um I
clearly starting any business you put your life and soul into it so safe
sticks was my baby I felt like a concerned parent handing over that that
child that I’d nurtured for the last few years and yeah it was
looking back it was the right absolutely the right thing to do I was a little bit uncertain at the time
um but it worked out really well at just all the financial pressure and I was in yeah a fair amount of personal debt at
the time that I’d used to fund the business so um yeah mixed emotions but it was
um there was a lot of relief there but I suppose personal satisfaction and that was yeah about 10 years ago and and safe
Stakes were still selling well so yeah thank you Kong and so from when you uh when you signed that deal you went from
you running everything that safe sticks did to taking a much smaller role so in
the sort of immediate period after that what did you do
I was working at that um tandem skydiving startup uh based on a wheelchair so that was occupying my
time I was looking for a corporate job so sending out lots of CVS
um thinking about other business ideas I had a couple of other ideas but zero money to to do anything with them so um
yeah that was probably about a year of not being in limbo I still I was reading widely of his networking I was just
trying to do everything to I think set myself up for whatever came next so since then you’ve you’ve founded more
companies yes um property fell into that
um actually that goes back to about 2007 when a friend of mine also
ex-military she is a financial advisor specializing in mortgages and we thought
we would set up a company to offer a mortgage advice specifically to um uh
serving soldiers their families and Veterans again based on personal experience I
had enough money at that time to buy my first property and I remember
um not having a clue what the mortgage broker was telling me um I got a solicitor I didn’t have a
clue what they were telling me either I signed a lot of documents but we didn’t fully understand the uh the significance
of some of the terms I was I was signing up to so uh we we set up a company called
Armed Forces Financial Services um she’s definitely the Brilliance behind that um lots of experience with lenders who
can understand that bfpo address history because for a lot of us if you spend time on on big camps
um the average credit check will not recognize that you live on a camp with a
thousand other people and and will give you a negative credit rating as a result so we set that up uh that’s all going
strong and we I dab a little bit in property but then I suppose my biggest
challenge over the last three years after that corporate job was getting into the world of wearable technology
and so what what was the problem you were looking to solve yet again based on personal experience I
was on a skiing trip with a friends and on day three the joke is he very
selfishly injured himself in fact he tore his ACL doing this jump which he
shouldn’t have been doing definitely didn’t have their the talent to uh to pull that off but it was selfish because
it meant I had to ski by myself for the rest of the trip so Billy numitz listening to music
um but I found that when I wanted to skip a track or even adjust the volume on the headphones that were underneath
my helmet I couldn’t with a sort of gloved hand get on the little buttons so I had to stop take a glove off reach
inside my jacket get my phone out to do that operation and it struck me that there was no
better wearable tech or anything that would let you do that that quite easily so that was I suppose the um the start
of the idea and it’s been a three year process to design develop a better tag which
turned into a smart ring and we’ve just launched that in the last couple of weeks from the point of having the idea from
your your skiing holiday did you then socialize that idea with friends and say
what do you think would you buy this or did you just go no I believe lots of
people have this problem I’m gonna go ahead and do it more more of the latter
um yeah I think friends and family are a good sounding board invariably they will
often be kind and say yeah that’s a great idea you should go a little bit further some of my friends I suppose
swing the opposite way and and will be absolutely brutal and say no that is the most stupid idea I’ve ever heard so um I
I took a sort of mix of that that advice but I did try and speak to others I did a design Sprint so I left the corporate
job that was my um uh motivation to leave that corporate
job I’ve had this idea I’m gonna run with it I’m quitting my job yep okay bold yes or stupid
one of the two or somewhere in between uh so I got a an agency involved and did
a design Sprint because originally I felt the idea could be risk-based but it came out from that and we had a a
blind focus group at the end of that and I think that little bit of feedback from some of those people was that yes that
there is a um the basis of an idea here it’s not entirely stupid
um it’s probably ring based as opposed to sitting on your wrist so that was enough I think for me just to take
another risk um clearly had to to brief the wife
um she thankfully was very supportive and said yep if you if this is what you’re passionate about if this is going
to make you happy because I was getting a little bit uh I suppose Restless in that corporate job and so she was
thankfully hugely supportive and so we launched into that and that was three years ago
and so then from your journey with safe sticks how much of that
helped you with the uh the wearable a huge amount I mentioned before that I
was naive at the time um Manufacturing in China shipping products internationally
um just all the rules and regulations finances bureaucracy but more into that you know the product design my
experience with that corporate job was was hugely beneficial um but a wearable technology product
hugely more complex than a rubber dog toy so um I realized I wasn’t going to
be able to do this on my own um find um met a CTO who had experience in their
in the sector and so we we joined forces pretty quickly probably three or four
months into into the process so yeah we Kumar has been on board ever since then
and brought all of his experience contacts and Industry knowledge with him
and so then uh that that process of three years and you say
um just you launched just a couple of weeks ago yes so it was
well I don’t know what they it’s a rule of thumb is on launching a product but
um it took us three times as long and cost twice as much um throw covert into the mix and the
lockdown um the the restrictions on funding uh it
turned into an absolute slog I think that that probably every startup founder will say the same thing yes it was a
slog lots of ups and downs lots of frustrations lots of challenges running out of money more than once almost
having to fold at one point because we just couldn’t make things work we
couldn’t um get past the um some of the product issues in particular but we we persevered
um got some fantastic Angel Investors on board very supportive and and just again
I suppose stubbornness resilience bloody Madness pushed on through um
we had some great backers so we launched a Kickstarter and also a campaign on Indiegogo so that was a huge boost and
um immensely satisfying two weeks ago to write to all of those backers to say that thank you for keeping the faith but
your product is being shipped it’ll be with you next week and we’ve had some amazing responses from from a lot of
those backers who finally got got the product they supported so they’ve got it in hand now yeah I’ve got it in hand being used in the real world yes yeah uh
so I I saw a photo of yours uh with a lot of boxes in your kitchen apparently
yes uh and yeah I did a little um sort of
post on that it reminded me back in the day with I think it was the second shipment of safe sticks 5 000 units
arrived um into uh into my house and they’re in the garage occupying sort of two or
three rooms that unbox them all because they had to re-label them and uh and ship them out and I thought um and
actually we’re still serving at the time so every afternoon once I finished work I got home I would box up all the
customer orders that day take them down to the post office and ship them out and just day after day and most of my
weekends spent doing that I I swore to myself never again anyway moving forward 10 years and um
just looking at the financials um I suppose it goes back to just being Frugal and and resourceful but I wanted
to pay for Fulfillment company just to take all the logistics um of my hands but I thought well
actually I can do this myself I can do it again and um it will save us a lot of money and
actually it’s been fantastic so talking to customers you know sending uh mostly
automated emails out the tracking number is getting direct feedback from customers it has been fantastic I would
like to think that once we uh grow or when we grow and the volume of orders
get to get to gets to the stage where I can pass it on there Fulfillment company that’ll be great but for now my my
kitchen is the Ops room and I’ve got to get back and put some more out today so
uh have you you’ve brought on with you today I have never leave home without one uh so it comes a little product pack
uh this is the tech which is interchangeable through a whole different um series of different sized Rings these
are all stretch fits so you can wear them on a finger or over the top of a glove or you can swap this into a
handlebar mind so if you’re cycling or on a rowing machine you can and you don’t want to wear the ring on your
finger you can attach it so it sits just beside your hand and you can control the joystick with your thumb
uh obviously giving you the Hard Sell what else can I say uh super light so it’s less than 10 grams
five days battery life out of it 20 days on standby um it will connect in seconds to to your
smartphone and we’ll start controlling your playlist straight away or we’ve got an app and you can do a lot more with
the app that’s really cool if anyone who’s listening or watching is
interested in buying one how do they go and buy one so our website is ocx.fit so
Arc x dot fit fantastic so uh it sounds like you’ve
had uh quite an interesting and exciting time uh post military but uh there’s there’s
one more thing I’d like to uh pick up on from your time in the military so you
were awarded a distinguished service order do you want to tell us the story behind
that um I think a lot of it was down to one particular
day uh the 26th of June 2006 when I was I led a patrol with um it was
a platoon of Royal Irish regiment soldiers who were attached to my company
um and a lot of pressure Arrangement soldiers also on the patrol was Christina Lam uh Sunday Times journalist
and Duncan Sutcliffe a photographer and supposed to be a routine Patrol we went
into an area near garesh that we hadn’t been to before so we were just extending
slightly outside um our area of operations that we’re already covered and uh supposed to cut
long story short what was supposed to be just our meet and greet talking to uh to the local Village Elders
um turned into you know quite a cheeky little situation um on leaving that
Village we were attacked by a number of Taliban that number grew until there
were 25 to 30 talibans surrounding us we were in a particularly difficult piece
of ground we had lots of irrigation ditches to cross before we met up with the vehicles that dropped us off it was
a deliberate decision to go to that area knowing that we were outside of artillery range when we called for air
support we were told that there was another situation going on further up the sang in ballet and there were no
helicopters or fast air support available for us
so one of those I think life-defining moments uh big swallow and
realized actually now I need to raise my game and come up with a plan to get us out of this what was a 360 degree battle
so history plan brief the the troops and and off we went and that turned into a
two-hour uh fighting withdrawal across pretty challenging ground and to this
day I say that you know I don’t know how we got out of that without
um any casualties I know exactly why it was down to just encourage resilience
um skill level uh of every everyone involved so we we fought a way out of
that um got reunited with our vehicles and and got back to Camp with nothing more than cuts and bruises
um no casualties on our side different story uh on the Taliban side so that was a significant event but then
um through the rest of the tour we had a further 46 um contacts
and personal shapes or forms uh silver form before um we then recovered back to
the UK that’s that’s quite the story so then when you take the severity of a
situation like that too then Duncan Valentine telling you can’t sell dog toys uh there’s yeah it’s
easy to see how you brush one off yeah I think so I think any time in the military
um not necessarily on operations I think instills that
you know is it resilience is it stubbornness maybe a degree of confidence
um some of it is not taking ourselves too seriously but um
yeah suddenly with with a small team in it and both in the startup world and in
the corporate world but my sort of adages if things get get tough and obviously they do the pressure’s on
um I’ve used the line quite often to the rest of the team look okay no one’s no one’s going to get killed no one’s
getting pregnant as a result of this this I won’t take a breath it’s not that serious okay and let’s figure out what
we’re gonna do one of the things I’ve really enjoyed um and even post-militaries the the
community aspects that you you get from having been part of that um and uh it seems there’s a lot of
people out there that that try to give back into that Community do you want to talk to uh talk to us a little bit about
what you’ve done in that space yeah absolutely so I’m I’m very uh Keen to uh
to give back as much as I can so I’ve been involved with heropreneurs
um which is a charity set up exclusively specifically for
um to help those who are transitioning out of the military and who want to start up their own business so for
anyone who’s got an idea to to start their own business here openers is a fantastic charity to help them out there
are lots of other Charities uh focus groups forums chat groups you and I met
at um at a drinks event uh in London LinkedIn there are a lot of great um uh
groups on there so I think it’s just a case of doing a library of research doing a bit of digging
um asking to join these groups you’ll be invited with open arms and there’s a lot of great advice out there I certainly
made no end of mistakes certainly the safe sticks still making mistakes
um but I think more now than than in the past with my experience there’s lots of people that you can get advice from even
if it’s just to have a bit of event um to get a second opinion on something
um it’s just a case of of asking and um yeah there are a lot of people are very keen
um out there to give back what they can so the the group that I met you at
um that I found that to be such a fascinating uh fascinating group and it
was um it was after um going to the first drinks uh for that
that I started putting together the idea that actually this podcast could be a really cool thing to do because
um you know who would know uh when they’re coming up to the end of their time in in the army that someone left
the Army and went on to be the CEO of Google in Europe or someone sold six million dog toys or you know I mean
people people don’t know these stories and um I think it can it can often cause people to aim low
um and I don’t think there’s any need for people to aim low I think people can leave military service and do amazing
things um and I would absolutely encourage that absolutely and
us being veterans there are so many other veterans out there with uh with a lot of
um world-class experience having built businesses worked in businesses sold businesses and anyone who’s leaving all
they have to do is and you can find muscles linkedin’s a great resource drops the line and um yeah you know most
of the time very happy to with that military connection um answer a question or if we don’t know
the answer introduce you to someone else so it’s just a case of yeah reaching out and asking
so uh it’s been it’s been fascinating to hear your your story today and um
if you were to give a piece of advice to someone who’s just coming into their last 12 months in the army What would
what would you advise them I think firstly have the confidence that
their their skills and experience and and talent is valued by a lot of
Civilian employers sadly there are some that that just see a military
um entry on the CV and I’m kind of dismiss it out of hand but
however long they’ve spent in the services there they’ve learned a huge amount that will
stand them in in good stead whether they want to go into the corporate world or
if they want to start a business yeah clearly there are some big decisions but but starting a business I think there’s so many
attributes soft skills and an attitude that we get from a a military
um career that that lend themselves so well to the entrepreneurial world so they’ve got an idea to start a business
um don’t go into it with romantic views that it’s going to be easy and you’re going to hit unicorn status within 12
months and have a yacht of part of Santa pay um if you’re not it’s a long slog
challenging but hugely rewarding so if they want to start their own business there are lots of forums
um help groups um Charities out there that that are geared to give them the advice
um heropreneurs who I’ve been involved with as a mentor for the last 18 months I’m really passionate about if they want
to start their own business get in touch with the charity they can get a mentor who can offer a bit of advice and
guidance and steer them in the right direction but I suppose my coming back to that one piece of advice is yeah you’ll
leave with your your heads held high and and launch yourself into your second career whatever that might be
brilliant um Paul thanks very much for coming on today it’s been uh it’s been great
chatting to you thanks for having me Nick yeah great to talk thanks for listening I’m sure you’ll
agree the stories from the guests on the show are incredible starting your own company is an incredibly Brave and difficult thing to do and there’s a
theme of resilience through all these stories which is key to success as an entrepreneur if you’re a veteran with a
good story to tell we’d love to have you on if you’re leaving the military and you want to get in touch email podcast
littlebigtech.co.uk if you run a business and you’re looking for an I.T company that’s entrepreneurial and
forward thinking please do get in touch I hope you enjoy the rest of the series
[Music] thank you
