James McAulay founded Encore, a marketplace for music bands, over a decade ago. The very first booking happened on his 21st birthday. Exactly 10 years later, on his 31st birthday, he sold the business to MixCloud, a company he long admired.
But when we spoke privately a year ago, James didn’t know how the year would unfold. Managing multiple challenges on personal and professional fronts, James made two key choices.
First, he appointed his successor, making sure the company can run without him as a CEO. Second, he took a two-month sabbatical to recharge and recover. He did it not because it was easy to leave the business, but despite all the pressure of the moment.
Then, James came back to London well-rested and successfully sold the business to MixCloud in the following few months. And this week, he’s starting his new role with one of the hottest AI companies in the world.
Listen to the episode for a complete story!
Timestamps
(Clickable on YouTube).
00:00 Introduction
02:13 The Journey of Encore
05:16 Startup Challenges and Burnout
07:03 The Sabbatical Decision
12:13 Preparing for Succession
18:43 Returning to Encore
23:52 Meditation and Mindfulness
32:43 The Power of Running
35:10 Choosing to Step Away from Encore
40:43 Choosing the Next Step
44:51 Joining Eleven Labs
51:40 Advice for Founders
58:14 Final Reflections
A reminder: This newsletter has two sections:
Unconditionally Human (essays on AI, startups, etc)
Startup CEO Succession (the podcast)
You can (un)subscribe to them individually.
Share this post