How can AI, timing, and smart execution help you solve
your business problems?
Our first podcast drops next week, and we kicked things off with Tristan Fischer: Founder & CEO of Fisher Farms.
We talked about how businesses, and entire sectors, get shaped by things you can’t always control:
Market crashes, energy shocks, demographic shifts, new technologies.
And more importantly, we dug into what that means for you as a founder, leader, or investor trying to build something that lasts and, ultimately, scales.
1. Timing beats talent
Markets shift.
Crashes happen.
Technology costs drop.
Founders who move early and fast win before the landscape changes.
2. Profit funds purpose
Mission-driven businesses need money to scale impact.
Revenue is what keeps you alive long enough to make a difference.
3. Constraints create breakthroughs
Energy prices doubled.
Many startups died.
Fisher Farms adapted and innovated.
Adversity forces better thinking (if you let it).
4. Watch the cost curves
Solar, wind, batteries… and now AI.
As technology gets cheaper, entire new markets appear.
Timing your entry is everything.
5. AI + demographics = disruption
Fewer workers, aging populations, rising costs.
AI will be the productivity engine that keeps economies running and early adopters will lead.
🎥 Full conversation drops next week.
How Failure Can Shape Your Business
The team from “Venture Room” stopped me on the street and asked about entrepreneurship.
“How do you build a successful business? What’s the secret?”
My answer surprised them: Failure.
Selling companies for millions sounds glamorous.
What people don’t see are the moments when everything goes wrong:
the late nights, the bad calls, the pressure when it all rests on you.
Failure forces you to face reality.
It strips away the ego and exposes every weakness in your business model, your leadership, and yourself.
Most people want to bury those experiences.
Pretend they never happened.
But if you can sit with it, own it, and learn from it:
That pain becomes your best teacher.
We ALL go through it. But not everyone benefits from it.
Every lesson you need to build a stronger, more resilient business hides inside your biggest mistakes.
This could transform your scaling process
This week, I am opening up another 15-minute private call.
If you are interested, here is what I want to know:
What are you building? (2-3 lines)
What are you stuck or uncertain about? (be clear and specific)
What would a successful outcome from this call look like?
If you’re starting out or looking to scale, this call could give you the
clarity and direction you need.
Apply for a 15-minute call below.
Or email [email protected] directly.
On this day in 1944 (25 Aug), Paris was liberated. Two months after the Normandy landings, General Leclerc’s Free French 2nd Armoured Division entered the city, signalling both the end of occupation and the renewal of hope.
Liberation moments matter: they remind us that even the darkest chapters eventually give way to light - though rarely without cost or courage.
UPCOMING EVENTS HERE:
Ideas Fest (Hertfordshire, UK)
Date: 10-11 September, 2025Tickets here
(For 10% off, use code: johnstapleton25)
Think Glastonbury, but for entrepreneurs and business leaders. Two days of big ideas, inspiring talks, and conversations that shape the future of business.
I’ll be at Ideas Fest this year, and it’s one you won’t want to miss.