Dan Murray-Serter 🧠

Girl Dad | Co-Founder of Heights I Angel Investor In 90 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🧠

The Broken Window Effect at Work.

Sometimes burnout doesn’t start with too much work.
It starts with too many small things left unresolved.

The message you never get back.
The feedback that never arrives.
The meeting that ends without a decision.
The standards that exist somewhere, but never clearly.

Each one is tolerable on its own.
Together, they quietly change how you work.

You stop asking questions because it feels pointless.
You fill in gaps that shouldn’t be yours to fill.
You manage ambiguity instead of doing the job you were hired to do.

That’s where the exhaustion comes from.
Not effort.
Uncertainty.

People don’t burn out because they’re incapable.
They burn out because they’re constantly compensating for what the environment doesn’t provide.

If work feels heavier than it should, it’s worth asking:
What small things have been broken for a long time?

They’re usually the real reason your energy keeps leaking.

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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.

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

The Broken Window Effect at Work

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.


-------------------------------------------------

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.

I help execs and founders build and keep team momentum through 1-on-1 and team coaching, workshops, and leadership or full company offsites.

Expertise in:
➝ C-suite coaching
➝ Exec team coaching
➝ OKRs and goal setting
➝ Feedback training
➝ Manager training
➝ Integrating values
➝ The science of happiness workshop
➝ ACC accredited

I am an entrepreneur, exited CEO of Pollen8 (acquired by PwC), workshop facilitator, and executive and team coach. I ran Pollen8 as CEO for 5 years before selling the company to PwC. I have designed innovation programs and run workshops for the C-suite of some of the world's biggest corporations (Oracle, Vodafone, Grant Thornton, the Red Cross) and have worked with more than 100 founders and 60 management teams. I'm passionate about surfing and climate change, so we can leave this world better for future generations.

Testimonials:
•⁠  ⁠Tamara Lohan, Mr & Mrs Smith CEO:
"Sam brought absolutely what our team needed to our offsite: empathy, insight and the tools to get us all working better together. It makes such a difference being coached by someone who has been in business themselves. Highly recommended!"

• Joachim Horn, SamLabs CEO (Series A):
"The ROI has been huge. Since June - something very special entered SAM Labs. Sam Knight started coaching our leadership team."

• Saasha, OLIO COO (Series B), on the company retreat: 
"Honestly it was brilliant, we’ll work with Sam & Maya again, and if it sounds too good to be true - well, it’s not!"

• Tessa, OLIO CEO (Series B): 
MASSIVE MASSIVE congrats to the organizing team for pulling off a one in a million event that will be remembered forever. Perfection from start to finish. You ROCK :)”

• Product Lead at Contact (Series A): 
"Working with Sam has been absolutely brilliant... helping transform not only our leadership team, but the whole company."

• Jonny Day, Learnerbly COO (Series A): 
"Honestly has changed my life and perspective. The impact it has had on the leadership team has huge." 

• Frederick Martini, Tailify CMO (Series A): 
"Sam has had a huge impact on the founders, the leadership team, the company and my own mindset."

• Michael Pallett, Medispot (Series A):
"Sam is a phenomenal coach.  Sam has changed my life and I'm confident that he will continue to do so."

• Claudia, Tailify Head of People (Series A):
"Sam has had a positive impact on every single one at Tailify. Yes, all 80 of us! The feedback training and workshops have been incredible."

• Segerby, Tailify Co-founder: 
"I cannot overstate the impact Sam has had on our organisation and leadership team."

Samuel Knight

How do you get the most powerful information from other people?

Two steps:

1️⃣ Use statements instead of questions.
2️⃣ Express disbelief.

Chase Hughes explains this brilliantly.

He gives this example:

You hop into an Uber and say, “I recently read that Uber drivers have the highest job satisfaction in the world.”

The driver responds and says something like, “What? Where did you see this?,” proceeding to tell you how badly they treat staff.

You follow with disbelief, “No way. There’s no way that company would treat you like that…”

Now you’ve got them talking. 

And you’ve got them talking in friend mode, without asking them any questions yet.

They’ll tell you everything, what they love, what’s broken, what they wish someone at HQ actually understood.

You didn’t ask a single question, you just created space for the other person to be honest.

This is the bit most people miss.

In business, we talk a lot about empathy and active listening, which is great.

But high performers go straight into it, they make statements instead of asking polite questions. 

They make people tell you a real answer instead of the ‘right answer’.

The same applies to your team. If you want to know how things are actually going, make a statement instead of asking questions.

Try saying, “Sounds like everyone’s happy with how this project’s going.”

If it’s not true, someone will jump in to correct you, and now you’ve got an honest conversation instead of a performance review.

➡️ Next time you’re in a 1:1, throw out one confident statement you’re not entirely sure about.
➡️ Then shut up.
➡️  Watch how quickly people fill the silence with the truth.

High performers use tension and honesty to push forward, instead of avoiding it.

What’s one conversation where someone surprised you by opening up more than you expected?

♻️ Share if you’d rather have honest conversations than polite ones.
➕ Follow Samuel Knight for grounded takes on leadership, people, and culture.

Exec Team Coach | High-Performing Teams | Leadership & full company Offsites | Management, OKRs & Strategic Alignment Expert | Exited Founder (Pollen8 → PwC)

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