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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Triathlon Changed My Life
3 years ago I was inactive and generally unhappy. I wasn’t looking after my body, and I wasn’t really enjoying running at all. Photo on the left was taken during a 10k race in October 2018 that I struggled through and finished in 46:17. 😩 In 2019, I discovered triathlon and fell deeply, madly in…
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53x climbs of Swains Lane (Fuji Ascent)
In May 2021, I decided to climb Swains Lane 53 times in order to complete the elevation of Fuji in a day. A lot of friends came out to support, with JH completing the entire challenge with me. It was honestly one of the most meditative, fulfilling days of my life. It’s hard to explain…
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Completing an Ironman – why bother?
Answering a question that I get asked a LOT. An Ironman involves: 🏊 Swimming 3.6km🚴 Cycling 180km🏃 Running 42km (a marathon) and takes anywhere from 8 hours (7h51 world record) to 17 hours (the cut-off time). But the race is only the tip of the iceberg. Friends and family will see race day and the…
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Athens Marathon 2019 (3:36:47)
My first marathon was a humbling experience. One of the greatest and the worst runs of my life. Flying until 25km and on track for 3h6, then got a massive stitch in one side that wouldn’t go away and slowed me to a walk for longer than I’d like to admit. First ever marathon and…
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My Personal OKRs framework
I published this guide to Personal OKRs back in 2018, and it resonated with a lot of people: How to Set your Personal OKRs and stick to them It’s since been viewed over 87,000 times on Medium, and I frequently hear from people who have found the Personal OKRs templates helpful. I hope you find…
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Protecting your Focus: My Top 5 Tactics
I recently came across a Tweet by a journalist asking for productivity hacks from entrepreneurs, which resonated with me. I wrote them a short list of tactics that have worked for me, which I’ll get to in a minute, but first — a quick diversion… I’ve always been interested in improving my own effectiveness and…
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Celebrating Encore’s 3rd birthday
A nostalgic post I wrote back in 2017 on Medium: https://medium.com/@jamsusmaximus/celebrating-encores-3rd-birthday-80237847117b
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Going from 0 to 10,000 musicians
Tomorrow, if everything goes to plan, we will welcome our 10,000th musician to Encore, and for that reason, I cannot sleep. It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come in such a relatively short space of time, and I’m having a tricky time wrapping my head around the idea that 10,000 people have invested their…
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Startups, Burnout, and Running
Almost exactly a year ago, I joined Entrepreneur First with three intentions: The last year has been exhilarating, euphoric, and anything but boring, and I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved with Encore so far. That said, startups are fairly fashionable and often glamourised these days, and something people can be reluctant to talk about is how quickly they…
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