Dan Murray-Serter 🧠

Co-Founder of Heights I Angel Investor | Over 100 Startups I Follow For Daily Posts on Health, Business & Personal growth from UK’s #1 ranked health creator (apparently)

Serial entrepreneur and Angel investor in 100+ startups with over 10 years experience starting, scaling and failing multiple startups.

Co Founder of Heights - Europe's leading brain and gut health company.

I also started and help run Foundrs - A not for profit community of the best, most ambitious and compassionate founders in UK.

I recently stepped away from Leaders Media - A media company making the top business podcasts in Europe, Secret Leaders - at the top of the charts, to focus on much more important things with my time - being a dad to 2 awesome daughters.

Angel/Advisor

Beam (www.beam.org)
ATAI Life Sciences (https://www.atai.life)
Allplants (www.allplants.com)
Humanity (https://humanity.health)
BYP (www.byp-network.com)
Goss (https://www.goss.media)
Tribe VR (www.tribevr.io)
Thrift (www.wearethrift.com)
THIS (www.this.co)
The Sports Edit (www.thesportsedit.com)
Faction (www.factionskis.com)
Runway East (http://runwayea.st/)
London Union/Dinerama (http://londonunion.com/)
Neardesk (https://www2.neardesk.com/)


Tailored.to (https://tailored.to/)
Motivii (http://motivii.com/)
Earlybird (https://earlybird.fm/)
Upshot (http://www.upshotapp.co/)
Togethera (www.togethera.com)
Repairly (www.repairly.co.uk)
Zaboo (www.zabooapp.com)
Lissom (www.lissom.com)
Bloom (www.hellobloom.io)

Dan Murray

Too many leaders still fear being “outshined” by smarter people on their teams.

That’s backwards.

The best leaders don’t aim to be the smartest person in the room. They aim to build the smartest room possible.

Here’s the reality:

- A team full of people who only know what you know will never surpass you
- Hiring people smarter than you creates leverage, not competition
- Growth comes from surrounding yourself with people who stretch your thinking, challenge your assumptions, and bring ideas you’d never imagine

It takes humility to admit you don’t have all the answers. But humility isn’t weakness-it’s the foundation of strength.

I’ve learned the leaders who fear smarter colleagues usually struggle with ego. The leaders who thrive? They welcome it. Because they know:

- Smarter teammates = faster progress
- Different perspectives = fewer blind spots
- Bigger talent = bigger results

Stop guarding your title. Start curating your circle.

True leadership isn’t about being the brightest mind. It’s about creating the conditions where the brightest minds can do their best work-together.

If you want to grow, stop fearing smarter people. Start hiring them.

Question for you:
Do you intentionally surround yourself with people who outshine you in certain areas-or do you default to comfort?

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♻️ Repost this if you think it can help someone in your network!

🖐️ P.S Join my newsletter The Science Of Success where I break down stories and studies of success to teach you how to turn it from probability to predictability here: https://lnkd.in/d9TnkzdH

One thing I’ve learned after building multiple teams: the most valuable people are rarely the loudest.

They’re the ones who quietly upskill when no one’s watching.

You can’t teach that level of internal drive.
You can’t force someone to care about their growth more than the company requires.

That has to come from within.

And from a neuroscience perspective, people who self-educate build something incredibly powerful:
a plastic brain.

Every new skill, every book, every online course, it all strengthens their neural pathways for adaptability, problem - solving, and creative thinking.

Those traits compound.

They become faster learners.
Better decision-makers.
More resourceful under pressure.
And over time, they outgrow people who rely only on formal training.

When I hire, I look for curiosity.
Not credentials.
Not polished answers.
Curiosity.

Because someone who reads, experiments, builds, tinkers, or studies on their own time will eventually outpace almost everyone else.
They don’t wait to be told what to learn.
They choose it.

And that choice is what makes them dangerous, in the best way possible.

If you’re that person, keep going.
Even if no one notices right now.
Your effort is compounding quietly.
You’ll feel the gap before anyone else sees it.

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Follow me Dan Murray for more on habits and leadership.

♻️ Repost this if you think it can help someone in your network!

🖐️ P.S Join my newsletter The Science Of Success where I break down stories and studies of success to teach you how to turn it from probability to predictability here: https://lnkd.in/d9TnkzdH

100-year-old productivity hack. Still works. Still simple.

1918. Charles Schwab runs Bethlehem Steel. Hires productivity consultant Ivy Lee. Lee's offer: give me 15 minutes with each executive, pay me what it's worth in 3 months. 3 months later, Schwab writes a cheque for $25,000, equivalent to $400,000 today. The method was that effective.

The Ivy Lee Method. Five steps. At the end of each workday, write down the 6 most important tasks for tomorrow. Not 7, not 10, six. Rank them in order of true importance. Tomorrow morning, start with task 1, work until complete. Move to task 2, then 3, one at a time in order. Unfinished tasks move to tomorrow's list. Repeat daily.

Why 6 tasks? Forces prioritisation. With unlimited tasks, everything feels important, nothing gets done. Six is manageable, ambitious but achievable.

Why rank them? Most people work on whatever feels urgent or easy. Ranking forces you to confront true importance. Task 1 should be the thing that, if completed alone, makes tomorrow successful.

Why one task at a time? Multitasking is a myth. Task switching reduces productivity by 40%. Takes 23 minutes to regain focus after interruption. Doing one thing until complete equals deep work.

Why plan the night before? Decision fatigue compounds throughout the day. By 4pm, decision-making quality is 40% worse than 9am. Planning tonight means decisions made when not depleted. Wake up, no decision required, just execute task 1.

Six tasks, ranked, one at a time. Decide tonight, execute tomorrow.

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Follow me Dan Murray for more on habits and leadership.

P.S. If you want 2026 to feel different, don’t start with goals.
Start with clarity.

Most people don’t need more discipline.
They need to understand what’s been draining them and what deserves their energy.

I’ve spent years refining a simple process to help you with exactly that.

Download my short PDF guide https://lnkd.in/eniDNptW

I'll see you there.

The Ivy Lee Method 100-Year-Old Productivity Hack 

Opportunities rarely arrive directly.
They move through conversations you’re not in.
Decisions made without you present.
Rooms you never see.

That’s why who you build relationships with matters more than how loudly you promote yourself.

The people who open doors are the ones who trust you enough to bring your name up when it counts. Not because you asked. But because your character, consistency, and competence made it easy for them to do so.

This isn’t about networking harder.
It’s about being reliable.
Doing good work quietly.
Treating people well when there’s nothing to gain.

Reputation travels faster than resumes.
And long before opportunity finds you, it finds your name.

Choose your people carefully.
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Follow me Dan Murray for more on habits and leadership.

P.S. If you want 2026 to feel different, don’t start with goals.
Start with clarity.

Most people don’t need more discipline.
They need to understand what’s been draining them and what deserves their energy.

I’ve spent years refining a simple process to help you with exactly that.

Download my short PDF guide https://lnkd.in/eniDNptW

I'll see you there.

Jolyon Varley

I’m Jolyon, Co-Founder at OK COOL— (very) creative strategy and production partners to brands. I genuinely believe that we are the most energised, culturally astute agency in the world right now.

We turn subcultures into content and humanise some of the world’s most renowned, tier-1 brands such as Nike, Gucci and Disney. We are official strategic and creative partners to TikTok and Meta.

I'm interested in what happens at the margins: counter culture + youth energy and the fault lines where high and low collide.

Whether you’re someone who wants to learn more about the marketing space and what it takes to run a business within it, you’re a brand looking to take your strategy and content to the next level, or you’re a creative looking to join an agency that delivers best in class work — stick around. My content may just be of interest.

And if it is, feel free to drop me a line ✌️

Co-Founder

Ok COOL is a (very) creative  content studio. Official partners to TikTok,Twitch, Instagram and tier-1 brands, globally.

Find us @OKCOOL.IO & www.OKCOOL.io

Daily reminder…

Probably worth redirecting a bit of that energy closer to home.

Text your mates back.
Celebrate your friend’s new thing.
Like your entrepreneur mate’s latest post.
Check in on your creative friends.

Happy Sunday 💚

#1 Culture Marketing Voice on LinkedIn | Co-founder @ OK COOL

Coinbase made a video game ad using real humans instead of CGI. And it's one of the best spots I’ve seen in months 🔥

For the Oscars, they launched "Your Way Out."

You're watching a background character in a video game. An NPC.
Walking the same path. Repeating the same lines.
Until he doesn't.

Halfway through, he breaks the script. 
Tries to escape the system he's stuck in. 
The world opens up. Real people appear.

"𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺." 𝗔𝗞𝗔 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗣𝗖 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼.

NPCs are a gaming reference AND a fully formed piece of internet culture.

The meme has been running for years. 
The idea that most people are stuck in the “matrix”.

They’re tapping into one of the biggest fandoms on the planet.
200 million Americans play video games. 
The average player is mid-30s.
The culture around gaming runs deep.

Most brands would've rendered this in CGI.

Director Oscar Hudson built the whole thing in-camera. 
Real sets, real actors and choreography to mimic the game world.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴.

People want to see that something was made. 
That someone cared enough to build it properly.
This blew mine (and my team’s) minds. So damn good 👏 👏

I screenshotted our US CEO's message to the team after we lost a pitch. 
𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀.👇

Honestly, it’s the kind of message that tells you everything about Benjamin Arnold’s leadership.

World-class 🔥

During the pitch the brand’s CEO basically looked like he wanted to walk out of the room.

Not because the ideas were bad.

Because he just didn't get them! 

A CEO who doesn't live in internet culture, doesn't understand where Gen Z actually spends their attention, and couldn't connect the dots between the creative and the audience it was built for (who they are chasing). 

Which, in the traditional agency world, is the nightmare scenario.

But Ben reframed it in exactly the mindset OK COOL was built on.

In the world of social, emerging culture, and Gen Z/Alpha attention, if a traditional CEO immediately thinks your idea is “cool”…

… you might actually have a problem.

Because it probably means you played it safe.

Our team brought:

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗽 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Ben is fully locked-in on where this company is going and he’s the biggest champion of the work and the team.

Seeing leadership like this in action makes me so proud. 

It’s how I know the business is in the safest possible hands and moving exactly where it should be.

Benjamin Arnold 👏👏👏

Big love for this one from L’Oréal x Gillian Anderson 💚

“F**k off, they’re still worth it.”

It’s part of L’Oréal Paris’ Lessons of Worth series, where ambassadors talk about the moments that shaped their sense of worth.

“The greatest misconception is that a woman over fifty just shouldn't bother… People often ignore the wisdom and energy we've gained. In reality, this is the time when many women truly find their power and shine.” 🙌

As we know, a lot of International Women’s Day brand content can feel pretty formulaic.

This leans into a platform L’Oréal has owned for decades and pushes it culturally forward.

Gillian Anderson is also a certified legend.

From 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘟-𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘴 to 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯, 𝘚𝘦𝘹 𝘌𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, and 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘱, her characters have inspired generations through portrayals of complex, empowered women.

Brava 👏👏

The most interesting camera at the Acne Studios show was a Nintendo DS.

The footage looks like it came straight out of 2007.

It started doing the rounds online and has now been viewed tens of thousands of times.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗦 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳:

→ Lo-fi nostalgia
→ Unpolished 2000s aesthetic

This is the pulse in culture right now.
The retro revival trend is everywhere.

And the Nintendo DS has become a central icon in the Y2K-style revival among Gen Z.

𝗚𝗲𝗻 𝗭 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻.

→ Early digital cameras have a certain colour profile.
→ Camcorders have that DV softness.
→ The Game Boy Camera has pixelated black and white.

There are entire Game Boy Camera photography communities.

𝗟𝗼-𝗳𝗶 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

Across all categories, but notably luxury fashion. 

Laurent just went low-fi with Bella Hadid for their Spring ’26 campaign “MOMBASA”.

The “amateurism” vibe is now a marker of authenticity.

The guy who shot this is an Acne Studios employee called Jacques.

Awesome example of entrepreneurship, opportunism and initiative within a company.

If you have a great idea, a good leadership team will recognise it and run with it.

Jacques 👏👏

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