Welcome back to The Founders Arms.

Today’s guest is a man who has lived the full founder’s arc.

From the 'scrappy startup' days to a high-stakes exit and beyond.

As the co-founder of Imagen Insights, Jay Richards didn’t just build an agency; he built a bridge between the world’s biggest brands - Google, Amazon, and Pepsi – and the brutal, unfiltered honesty of Gen Z.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. He’s navigated the heartbreak of collapsed deals, the intensity of a major acquisition, and the unique challenge of 'staying on' after the sale.

Today, he is the Managing Director at Disrupt, where he’s leading the charge in the creator economy and proving that there is life, and serious growth, after the exit. He’s here to talk about the reality of M&A, the mistakes founders make with equity, and why your brand is probably still getting Gen Z wrong.

Jay Richards, welcome!

Welcome back to the Founders Arms!

This week we're with David Ogiste, founder of events and experience agency "Nobody's Cafe".

After working multiple events jobs throughout his career, David saw an opportunity to go solo and build his own agency, harnessing experience from running student nights at university, to events with serious global ambition in Dubai.

Here he talks about his path towards becoming a founder, some of the early stresses and pains. and how campaigns for the likes of Trivago and Amazon Prime set his agency on the path to success.

Today, we’re talking about the one thing every founder wants, most brands fake, and almost nobody actually understands: Cultural Capital.

In the startup world, we obsess over product-market fit. We live and die by the algorithm. But our guest today argues that if you aren't building for culture, you’re building on borrowed time.

Leila Fataar is the founder of Platform 13, a venture that doesn’t just 'do' marketing—it rewires how brands exist in the real world.

Before she was the go-to consultant for the world’s biggest disruptors, she was at the helm of Global Cultural Marketing for Adidas, and led the charge for icons like Diageo. She is the ultimate translator. She speaks 'Corporate,' she speaks 'Entrepreneur,' and most importantly, she speaks 'Human.'

She’s spent her career proving that you don't find culture on a data dashboard—you find it in the gaps, the subcultures, and the communities that the algorithms haven't colonized yet.

Today, we’re diving into the 'Culture Stack,' why 'relevance' is a more important metric than 'reach,' and how to build a brand that actually moves the needle without losing its soul.

Leila, welcome to the Founders Arms.