"How do you separate your identity from the company's success or failure?"

That's Alex's question – and it's one every founder grapples with, especially in those vulnerable early stages.

Welcome to the Peer Effect Post Bag, where James Johnson and Freddie Birley tackle your toughest founder questions. This week, we explore the dangerous trap of calling your business "your baby," why that language might be taking critical options off the table, and how to create healthy separation between yourself, your team, and your company.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why your identity and company identity need to be separate circles (with your team as the third)
• The danger of calling your business "your baby" and when that language stops serving you
• How to know when your identity is helping versus harming you and the company
• Why "I'm only successful if my company is successful" can keep you stuck
• The three-tier check: Is this serving me? My team? My company?

Plus, Freddie shares her emotional journey of putting her flat on the market after six years and what it taught her about change and timing.

👆 If you're struggling to separate yourself from your company's performance, or wondering whether your attachment is helping or harming you, this conversation will give you a framework for healthier founder psychology.

Got a question for the Post Bag? Send it to hello@peer-effect.com

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"We were adding customers, losing customers, adding customers, losing customers. We were stalling."

Gaurav Bhattacharya had $2.5M ARR and 50 customers. On paper, things looked fine. But momentum wasn't there. Instead of pushing harder, he split his company in two – and nine months later, Jeeva AI had 10,000 users and 300 enterprise customers.

In today's episode, I'm joined by Gaurav Bhattacharya, Founder and CEO of Jeeva AI. After successfully exiting his first healthcare AI startup, Gaurav spent five years building a data intelligence platform to $2.5M ARR before recognising it would never become the great business he wanted. His solution? Split the team in two – one to keep the lights on, one to prove product-market fit for a completely new idea. The result was Jeeva AI, a sales intelligence tool that exploded to 10,000 users in nine months.

Together we unpack:

• How to decide when a "good" business will never become great
• The two-team strategy: keeping lights on whilst proving new product-market fit
• Why pattern recognition is the most underrated founder skill
• How to pivot without killing team morale or burning investor relationships
• The shift from enterprise sales to PLG (and why it required completely different muscles)

👆 If your business is functioning but not truly moving, or you're wondering whether it's time to pivot, this conversation will give you a framework for thinking through your next step.

About Gaurav Bhattacharya

Gaurav Bhattacharya is the Founder and CEO of Jeeva AI. After successfully exiting his first healthcare AI startup, Gaurav spent five years building a data intelligence platform to $2.5M ARR before pivoting to Jeeva AI – a sales intelligence tool that grew to 10,000 users and 300 enterprise customers in nine months. His journey proves that knowing when to walk away is as important as knowing when to persist.

Connect with Gaurav Bhattacharya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaurav-agentic/

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"When everything looks like it's working, how do you avoid getting complacent?"

That's Sarah's question - and it's the dream problem most founders wish they had.

Welcome to the Peer Effect Post Bag, where James Johnson and Freddie Birley tackle your toughest founder questions. This week, we explore what happens when you finally reach that rare moment where nothing's on fire, your team is stable, clients are happy, and your numbers look good. The question is: how do you use that gift of time without falling into complacency or wasting the opportunity?

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why it's so rare for founders to feel like everything's working (and why you should celebrate when it happens)
• The difference between urgent tasks and important non-urgent work that drives real impact
• How to shift from executor mode to creator mode when the fires aren't burning
• Why "slow is smooth and smooth is fast" – and how to use breathing room strategically
• The importance of gathering feedback and reconnecting with your team during calm periods

Plus, James and Freddie discuss the founder isolation paradox – how coaches support 10-12 founders whilst having no one to support them, and why peer networks matter.

👆 If you're in that rare moment where things feel stable, or you're wondering how to make the most of breathing room when you finally get it, this conversation will help you turn that gift into a strategic advantage.

Got a question for the Post Bag? Send it to hello@peer-effect.com

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"78% of salespeople miss their sales targets. That means your entire revenue forecast is riding on just 22% of your team."

That's the brutal reality Matt Milligan discovered after spending years in go-to-market transformation – and it's what drove him to build Uhubs, a company that's now helping teams achieve 83% increases in revenue per head.

In today's episode, I'm joined by Matt Milligan, CEO and Co-founder of Uhubs, Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, and former professional golfer. After playing on the IGT tour in South Africa, Matt moved into consulting at EY, where he built their startup network and observed the massive gaps in how companies hire, enable, and manage their sales teams. His solution? Combine quantitative data, qualitative assessments, and call recording analysis to identify what actually separates high performers from the rest – then use AI to create roadmaps that close the gap.

Together we unpack:

• Why relying on Salesforce dashboards alone misses the human component driving performance
• How first-time managers are the single greatest point of failure in most organisations
• Why managers spend all their time with underperformers (and how that kills your A players)
• The three data sources you need to truly understand what makes your best sellers great
• Why gut-feel hiring is killing your growth (and what to do instead)

👆 If you're a founder struggling to scale your GTM team, wondering why most of your sellers underperform, or trying to figure out where to invest your training budget, this conversation will give you a framework for driving real performance improvement.

About Matt Milligan

Matt Milligan is the CEO and Co-founder of Uhubs, a company helping revenue leaders identify and close performance gaps in their go-to-market teams. After a season as a professional golfer on the IGT tour in South Africa, Matt moved into consulting at EY where he built their startup network and cut his teeth on sales and go-to-market transformation. Recognised in Forbes 30 Under 30 and with Uhubs named Rising Star at London Tech Week, Matt has spent five years proving that you can use data and assessment to help companies achieve up to 83% increases in revenue per head.

Connect with Matt Milligan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-milligan/

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"We're profitable, but VCs keep approaching us. Should I take their money or stay independent?"

That's the question from Neil that kicked off this Post bag episode – and it's one that keeps founders up at night.

Welcome to the Peer Effect Post bag, where James Johnson and Freddie Birley tackle your toughest founder questions. This week, we dig into the VC funding vs bootstrapping debate, exploring why profitable founders still consider taking investment and what really matters when making this decision.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why you need to get clear on what you actually want before considering VC money
• The hidden reality of "giving up control" and what that really means day-to-day
• Why the grass always looks greener (VC founders want profitability, bootstrap founders want funding)
• How to evaluate if VC money is a vehicle for what you want or a distraction
• The shift from executor to creator as you scale and how that affects your decision

Plus, Freddie shares her thoughts on presence, quality over quantity, and why being fully present transforms both relationships and business outcomes.

👆 If you're wrestling with whether to take funding, feeling the pull of VC validation, or wondering if there's a "right" path, this conversation will help you think through what's actually right for you.

Got a question for the Postbag? Send it to hello@peer-effect.com

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"The realisation that I wasn't the best person for the job anymore was a big one."

Kate Sikora hit the 8–10 person tipping point in her business and realised everything had to change, including herself. What followed was a three-year journey from Kate 1.0 to Kate 3.0, transforming not just how she led, but the entire trajectory of Noble Performance.

In today's episode, I'm joined by Kate Sikora, Managing Director of Noble Performance, a Bristol-based SEO and search agency. After growing the business past that critical 8–10 person mark, Kate discovered that the scrappy, wear-all-the-hats approach that got her there was now breaking the business. Her solution? Invest in herself first – leading to less stress, more trust, better clients, and a team with genuine autonomy. Along the way, she also became a ceramicist (pottery throwing, not throwing pottery at people).

Together we unpack:

• Why the 8–10 person mark is a critical tipping point that requires complete reinvention
• How stress management and delegation aren't about control – just different types of control
• Why revisiting your values can completely reposition your business and client profile
• The concept of "speed of trust" and how it determines your growth rate
• How bringing your whole self to work (including vulnerability and flaws) makes you a better leader

👆 If you're approaching that 8–10 person mark in your business, or feeling like you're becoming the bottleneck, this conversation will show you how personal development directly impacts business performance.

About Kate Sikora

Kate Sikora is the Managing Director of Noble Performance, a Bristol-based SEO and search agency. After hitting the critical 8–10 person growth phase, Kate embarked on a transformative personal development journey that she calls evolving from Kate 1.0 to Kate 3.0. This wasn't just about leadership skills – it was about stress management, values clarification, and learning to bring her whole self to work. The result? A complete repositioning of the business, attraction of higher-quality clients, and a team that thrives on autonomy and trust. She's also recently taken up pottery throwing as the ultimate form of escapism.

Connect with Kate Sikora on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katesikora/

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"What got you here won't get you there."

James Johnson and Freddie Birley tackle the question: How do you scale yourself as a leader without losing what made you effective in the first place?

In this Post Bag episode, James and Freddie explore the tension between staying authentic and evolving as your company grows. They unpack why some founders thrive in the scaling phase while others feel completely drained, how to design your role around what energises you (not what you "should" do), and why comparing yourself to founder archetypes like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs is a trap.

The conversation also dives into Taylor Swift as a case study in reinvention (yes, really), the danger of judging your messy internal world against everyone else's polished external one, and why brutal self-awareness is your superpower.

Together they unpack:

• Why the survival phase skills become detrimental during scaling
• How to stay "in" the business without being stuck "in" the business
• The founder archetype trap
• Why burnout happens when you're not attuned to what energises you
• How to design your role around your strengths instead of "what a CEO should do"

👆 Struggling to scale yourself as a leader? Send your founder questions to hello@peer-effect.com

About the Post Bag The Peer Effect Post Bag is where James Johnson and Freddie Birley, both founder and VC coaches, answer real questions from founders navigating the chaos of building and scaling businesses. No fluff, just frameworks that work.

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"I don't want to live a stressed out human experience. Mental health isn't a luxury – it's survival."

Asim Amin built Plumm, a Series A HR platform with 40+ team members, after standing on his balcony three nights in a row contemplating suicide. His journey from that dark place to building the future of work reveals a truth most founders won't admit: the mental health crisis is real, it's hidden, and it's getting worse. But there's a path forward that combines AI innovation with genuine care for people.

In today's episode, I'm joined by Asim Amin, founder and CEO of Plumm, an HR platform that started with mental health at its core and has evolved into a comprehensive people solution. After his mother's battle with depression, his own mental health crisis, and recently suffering a heart attack at a young age, Asim understands the direct link between mental wellbeing and physical health. His approach to building Plumm combines cutting-edge AI with a people-first philosophy – proving you don't have to choose between innovation and humanity.

Together we unpack:

• Why we're sitting on a mental health epidemic that founders are hiding behind LinkedIn posts
• How his heart attack revealed the physical toll of ignoring mental health
• Why Plumm pivoted from pure mental health to full HR platform during the cost of living crisis
• How to have honest conversations with your team about AI without creating fear
• Why upskilling people for AI is about doing more, not replacing them with less

👆 If you're a founder struggling with the pressure to "just push through," or wondering how to bring AI into your business without losing the human element, this conversation will give you a framework for building the future of work without sacrificing your wellbeing or your team's.

About Asim Amin

Asim Amin is the founder and CEO of Plumm, a Series A HR platform with over 40 team members. After experiencing severe depression and suicidal thoughts following property investment losses, Asim channelled his recovery into building a business that addresses the mental health epidemic he saw around him. When COVID brought mental health conversations to the forefront, Plumm grew exponentially – but the cost of living crisis forced a strategic pivot to a full HR platform. Today, Plumm combines mental health support, upskilling, coaching, and HR tools, proving that people-first and AI-forward aren't opposing forces.

Connect with Asim Amin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asimamin/

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