Keep A Startup Mind (or a startup)
- Ben Sampson
- Jan 31
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 9
In the last decade I’ve had a bunch of startups and to varying degrees, they’ve all tried to suck their two pints of life out of me.
A decade ago, I helped put a used by date stamp on a pillow as an agency creative, and the client suggested ‘you should have started your own (pillow) company’. Ever since, I’ve been involved with everything from online florists to fintechs.
As tiring as they can be, it wasn’t until last week that I realised how staying a part of them can be really energising.
In the last couple of months, I’d worked on a bunch of big advertising pitches – a bank, a telco and a big retailer. They were the highly strategic kind of creative outputs, where seeing slides in a presentation titled ‘360 degree brand ecosystem’ is not uncommon.
Coming out of these, I needed to be irresponsible again. Something with a few less layers of approvals. So I called Patrick.
Patrick owned Patricks Products, a dynamic Aussie company that sold high end grooming products, mostly in the US and despite his growing size, the founder still made all the marketing calls.
In the past, we had so much fun with the brand, like creating Black Friday sales promos where we auctioned off the founder's car. Or created a product for Wayne Enterprises (Batman’s brand). Whatever idea we had for Patricks it had to punch above its (paid media) weight. Going on his gut had paid off as Patricks was pulling in sizable investments from giants like Shieseido out of Japan.
In just a few minutes, I was getting a dose of what I had missed working with them – a bit of guided madness. Collaborating with Alpine F1 to design a better team jacket. What did that have to do with grooming? Well, he knew he could make it ‘better’. So he did.
He was also excited to tell us he was creating the world’s best (and most expensive) moisturiser. Not because it made sense to put it on the shelf, but because they wanted to know they made the best of what they offered.
So while coming out of a pitch induced creative hangover, just a day or two of working on things that we ‘felt’ would work, or get fame, or as Patrick usually puts it – ‘Fuck it, that sounds fun’.
Recently, I was offered to take my shares from Patricks as a payout when an investor wanted a buyout, but decided to stay in it for the longer haul. Not just because we believed in their growth, but I think that energy, and those people, that madness – is important to be close to. Making them as valuable to me as I am to them.
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