Hi, I’m James 👋
You’ve found my corner of the Internet.
Fàilte (welcome)
ElevenLabs
I joined ElevenLabs in January 2025 and lead Creator Growth, helping millions of creators to harness the magic of AI audio.
It’s a lot of fun, and I’m learning a lot from talented teammates.
Encore
I co-founded Encore, a marketplace for booking incredible live musicians, bands & DJs, and was CEO for ten years. Encore was acquired by Mixcloud in September 2024, and I stepped down in December 2024.
We’ve helped over 50,000 customers book live music for the biggest days of their lives, and have helped our artists earn over £25 million.
Endurance Sport
I love exploring my limits, and have completed two Ironmans and a few marathons.
I’ve also done some stupid stuff, like cycling up the same short hill in London 55 times in a day. Click here if that’s your cup of tea.
Music
I’m a multi-instrumentalist* and singer. I began writing my own music in my mid-20s, released my first EP in January 2025, Adrift, and am currently working on my first album, Sapphire.
*Piano, Cello, Bass Guitar, Ukulele, and learning the guitar (slowly)
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11 Lessons from my first 11 weeks at ElevenLabs
It’s crazy to think I only joined ElevenLabs 77 days ago. Before DeepSeek broke the internet. Before MCPs, and Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and GPT 4.5, and Deep Research, and Gemini Flash 2.5, and about a thousand other advancements. Time moves fast in the AI space, but it moves at warp speed at ElevenLabs. Here are…
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Valencia: my first Sub-3 Marathon (2:59:17)
This post is split in two: If you’re here for the tactics, click here to jump down. Otherwise, keep reading… I remember signing up for my first marathon – Athens – back in 2019 and thinking: “I can run a half marathon in 1h25… How hard can it be to run a full marathon in 3 hours?”…
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Goodbye, Encore
Encore has been my home for the last ten years. A third of my life. It’s utterly surreal to be writing a letter about moving on from the company I started. Although, come to think of it, likening Encore to a home or a house doesn’t feel quite right… Comparing Encore to a boat would…
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Running with Spirit
Of all the places I expected to find spiritual Insight, Parkrun was not one of them. I’m fascinated by the psychology and neurochemistry of endurance sport. There are unique mental states available to us that we can only experience when pushing our physical bodies to our limits – and occasionally, beyond them. Science offers us plenty…
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Encore has been acquired by Mixcloud
I’m pleased to announce that Encore has been acquired by Mixcloud. Mixcloud is the global platform for DJs, music producers, and radio communities, and one of the largest DJ streaming platforms in the world with 25 million users. Exactly 10 years ago, at 6.43pm on the 18th of September 2014, the very first musician registered…
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Getting closer to the 3hr barrier… Brighton Marathon 2024
Chip time: 3:08:27 “Avoid and reduce stress in the week leading up to your race.” – textbook marathon advice 📚 Brighton 🏖 was hillier, windier, and a few degrees cooler than Milan, but I still got what I came for: a tan (borderline sunburn), a new PB, fleeting moments of mushin no shin (無心の心) and…
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An unplanned break from Triathlon and an abandoned Ultra. What the hell happened?
I first got into triathlon in 2019. And when I say I “got into triathlon”, what I really mean is: I fell down a rabbit hole and became completely obsessed. In my first year, I completed my first Sprint, Olympic and Half Ironman races. I was hooked, and entered my first Ironman. This was postponed…
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My Focus Stack for 2023
Over the last ten years, I’ve experimented with a myriad of approaches to maximising my focus while working, writing, or creating music. My hunt for the best way to focus has been fuelled by a simple reason: being ‘in flow‘ is immensely satisfying. Flow is a state of mind that yields meaningful progress and breakthroughs,…
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Ironman Wales 2022: Full Debrief
How do you even begin to describe one of the most incredible days of your life? To understand why this race meant so much to me, we need to go back to 2018. I’m 24 years old, and I’m in Hyde Park. I’ve just finished a small 10k race in the snow, and I’m standing…
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6 Lessons Learned from Paris Marathon 2022
This weekend I ran Paris Marathon, my fifth attempt at the marathon distance (if you include the Ironman) and my third marathon race. Overall, it was awesome! Hearing thousands of people chanting “Allez, allez, allez!” made me feel like I was in the Tour de France, and parts of the course were stunning. I felt…
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