I have been having versions of the same conversation for weeks. A founder tells me the year “feels behind.” I ask what the revenue number actually is against target. Most of the time they know the feeling before they know the figure. The feeling isn't wrong. But it isn't useful on its own either. Agency starts with the number, not the mood.

There is a second force at work at the same time, and it's the one fewer founders are pricing in. The backdrop has shifted: The backdrop has shifted: a government in transition, and with it a fiscal picture that is far from settled. Underneath that sit four risks that are already live. Sterling volatility feeding into input costs. A 13% energy price cap rise landing this month. US tariffs already touching UK exporters. Capital that is harder to close than it was eighteen months ago. None of it is speculative. It's moving now, and it will shape the next six months whether or not you have accounted for it.

The founders who come out of H2 ahead are not the ones who dodged all four. They are the ones who knew which one actually threatened the business, and which three they could absorb.

That's why I built the Q3 Reset Checklist for. Where you actually stand against H1 targets. Your exposure across the four risks that are already live. And the smallest next action, because a diagnosis with no decision behind it changes nothing.

The founders I learn most from are not the ones who have already exited. They are the ones currently in the hardest part of the build. In The Weeds is a new series, and different from Cutting Through The Fog in one important way. This series sits with founders who are still in it. Scaling in real time. Making calls on incomplete information. Figuring it out as they go.

A short film on GLP-1 and the shift it is forcing across food and drink.

A roundtable on the winning mindset, and what sport gets right that business often forgets.