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.

I Build Companies That Sell For Millions And Teach Founders How to Do the Same

Billion Dollar Exits is the first programme designed to help you sell your company for the highest possible price.

You'll be joining a network of founders who've sold over $3.6 billion worth of businesses between them, all of whom are invested in helping you do the same. We work together to figure out what's holding back your growth and then actually fix it.

This could mean building a leadership team, making your sales engine more predictable, or getting your pricing where it should be.

And when you're ready to go to market, we introduce you directly to buyers and help you get the deal done.

Message me to join the waiting list.

Timothy Armoo

Age 10: Came to London from Ghana.
Age 14: Started first business. Made £500.
Age 16: Fired from first job after 3 days because I outsourced it.
Age 17: Built second business. Sold for £110k.
Age 18: Lost most of it trying to trade because I got arrogant.
Age 19: Started 3rd biz. Raised money. Failed.
Age 20: Started 4th biz. Failed.
Age 21: Started Fanbytes. Got to £400k first year.
Age 22: Pitched 30 investors. All said no because "idea is a fad". We keep grinding.
Age 24: Signed The UK Government as a client.
Age 25: Covid. Clients started pulling budgets. Monthly revenue got crushed.
Age 26: Raised money from investors. Team gets to 80 people.
Age 27: Sold Fanbytes in a multi 8 figure exit.
Age 30: Own a PE firm doing £47m a year.
Age 31: Wrote a #1 Sunday Times Bestseller.

Everyone you know who has achieved anything of significance has been on a rollercoaster of failure and setbacks.

But for someone who is able to wrestle with failure, dance with it and shrug it off, the rewards are abundant.

You are THAT someone.
Enjoy the ride.

May your failures be the launchpad for your success.

Business Builder | Global Speaker | #1 Sunday Times Bestselling Author

How do you network when you're a nobody?

This is a tactical masterclass from Daniel Priestley that got viewed 220k times on Instagram with 4,549 shares - incredible stuff!!

He breaks down exactly how he built a network before anyone knew him.

This is the stuff I swear by - I even dedicated an entire cheatcode to networking in my book - What's Stopping You?

You can certainly magic a network from thin air... as long as you have a strategy! 

Watch the below reel to steal how Dan built his with just 2 weeks in the UK:

Getting customers isn't hard if you know what you're doing.

Most founders think they have a sales problem when they actually have an attention problem, and they're trying to close people who don't even know they exist.

The businesses that win don't just market better, they get eyeballs first and then turn those eyeballs into buyers with a system that actually works.

In this video I break down how I'd get customers for different businesses:

- Barber
- Plumber
- Gardener
- Marketing Agency

Each one needs a different approach, but the principle stays the same...

Grab attention, then convert it into sales.

What is the best way to get customers? 

With Daniel Priestley

Happy Mother's Day to the greatest mum ❤️

Thanks for the spelling tests at the kitchen table and bribing strangers at the airport to smuggle books back for me as a kid.

Thanks for the excessive Bible scriptures and the long sermons on how to avoid gold diggers (still relevant, by the way).

Thanks for showing unconditional love even when it was something you had to actively learn yourself. That kind of love takes courage.

Thanks for the quotes you'd drop so casually that I'd carry them with me for years without even realising it.

You didn't just raise me. You equipped me.

Thank you ❤️

7 Profound Things My Mum Told Me

One of my biggest regrets is not working for someone else first before starting a business!

I know that sounds wild coming from me 😂

But honestly, so many of the mistakes I made in the early days of Fanbytes were completely avoidable...

If I'd spent even a year shadowing someone who'd already built and sold a business, I would have seen the pitfalls coming from a mile away.

Instead I learned everything the hard way.

Wasted money on the wrong hires. Took deals that looked good on paper but drained us. Spent months figuring out things someone experienced could have told me in an afternoon.

Working for someone else isn't giving up on your dream - it's borrowing their mistakes so you don't have to make them yourself. 

You get to copy what works, skip what doesn't, and show up to your own business with a serious head start.

I say this a lot when I speak to Gen Z founders especially.

You have time!! You're young!!

The urgency you feel to start right now is real, but it's not always right. 

A year or two learning inside someone else's business could save you five years of painful trial and error.

The best founders I know didn't just have ideas. They had context. 

Go get some 💪🏿

My first YouTube video is live!!

I grew up on a fourth floor council estate in South London, raised by Ghanaian parents in one of the poorest parts of the city, with a dad who worked every hour he could.

But by 27, I had sold a company to Brainlabs in a multi eight figure all cash deal.

However, the part people rarely talk about is everything that happened in between.

It began with a £500 bet at 14 that turned into my first business, and by 17 I had built and sold an online magazine for £110k. 

What followed was far less tidy. I spent years building seven businesses in a row that completely failed, and during that time I also lost my dad at 21.

Eventually I built Fanbytes to a team of 80 people, working with brands like Nike and McDonald’s.

Along the way I landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, wrote a book that reached number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and reached a £30M net worth before turning 30.

None of it came in a straight line, and the straight line version of the story is not the useful one anyway.

I made this video because I wanted people to see the real version, not the highlight reel. The doubt, the losses, and the moments where it genuinely could have gone the other way.

If someone who grew up where I grew up can build something like this, then far more is possible than most people realise.

Link to watch is here: https://lnkd.in/eUa5_Fh8

You can start at 40.
You can start at 50.
You can start broke. 
You can start alone. 
You can start unsure. 
You can start scared.
You can start small.

But just start.

Start today 💪🏿

P.s. your biggest unfair advantage is your ability to take action.

You don't need to be the best, you just need to be early!

Back in 2017, I started Fanbytes when people were still writing articles wondering why kids like KSI were shouting into webcams in their bedrooms.

We saw what others didn't - these kids had massive influence over Gen Z!

We weren't the greatest agency on earth, we were just in an emerging market at the exact right time.

When you pick an industry in its infancy, you naturally rise as the entire industry rises.

Every market goes through three phases:

Infancy: A small group geeks out, the world doesn't get it yet
Maturity: Competitors flood in, market gets established
Consolidation: M&A activity explodes, businesses get bought up

Get in during infancy and stay in the game long enough for consolidation to happen.

When Fanbytes sold, about eight other influencer marketing companies sold within 12 months. We all picked the right industry, and the rising tide lifted us all.

It comes down to the "Expertise Gap."

Whenever a new industry emerges, there are people who know how to do the thing, people who desperately need that thing done, and sitting right in the middle is a mountain of money.

So what's the "influencer marketing of 2017" today?

AI Automation.

We're currently in the exact same infancy stage. Start an AI automation agency today, bridge the expertise gap for wealthy clients like dentists, lawyers, or PE funds, and wait for the market to consolidate.

So, stop building businesses in saturated markets and fighting for scraps. Pick an emerging industry, get in early, and let the market do the heavy lifting.

It was a pleasure to speak at HSBC's event talking to a room of aspiring entrepreneurs.  

These are the 4 key lessons I shared with them:

1. Make friends with nerds. 

Every opportunity you want is in the hands of other people, so as an employee your number 1 rule should be to aggressively network with the best people you can.

2. The hardest part about business is managing yourself. 

If you can be kinder to yourself when running a business, you’d end up being more successful. 

3. Your first business is probably not going to work and that’s fine. 

You’re learning a new skill. Just charge it to the game and keep iterating.

4. We are in the golden era of company creation. 

As a young person this is your moment, just ensure you’re always learning and growing.

Thanks to Kofi S. and Alex Donkor for the invite.

Last week I flew to Milan with Visa and Revolut Business for the Olympic Winter Games!

They handed me their new Visa Titan card and set me a challenge: use it the way I'd genuinely use a card day to day and see if it actually holds up.

I told them I would only share about it if it earned its place in my wallet.

It did.

Here’s some of my favourite bits of the card.

1. Free subscriptions to WeWork, Perplexity & The Economist

An absolute game changer. I have not seen any other card doing this!

2.10GB eSIM every month

So if you’re travelling somewhere rather than getting hit with roaming charges or having to faff with random apps that may or may not work, you get 10GB included automatically.

3. Access to over 1400 lounges

If you travel a lot, the worst bit is needing to crack on with work and having nowhere decent to sit and focus.

With the Visa Titan card you get access to 1400 plus lounges worldwide, so you can land, get set up, and get the final bits done properly.

Business cards have suffered from a crazy lack of innovation for years and it’s refreshing to see Revolut Business actually bringing something different to the table.

If you’re an entrepreneur building a company, the Visa Titan card can definitely make your life that little bit easier (and more fun).

Thanks again to Visa and Revolut Business for the weekend… I now love figure skating.

Learn more about the Visa Titan card and sign up for one yourself here: https://lnkd.in/gu5qpFbV

#PaidPartnership

Visa

Revolut Business

Markus Krebsz

One of the best employees I've ever had was also one of the worst people I've ever managed.

In one of my companies, we had a salesperson who could walk into any room and come out with a signed contract every single time. 

He understood exactly how to find a customer's pain point and make them feel like we were the only solution in the world for them. He was number one on the leaderboard every single month without fail.

But he was an absolute nightmare to have on the team.

He was so arrogant that the rest of the team stopped asking him questions, stopped learning from him, and started walking on eggshells around him. 

The energy in that office changed the moment he walked in, and not in a good way.

For months I told myself he would eventually change, that the results were worth it, that maybe I was being too sensitive about the vibe. He never changed, and I was not being too sensitive.

The hardest lesson I had to learn as an entrepreneur is that protecting your culture is not the soft decision, it is actually the bravest one you will ever make.

Because the moment you let one brilliant dickhead dictate the energy of your team, you have quietly told every other person in that room that performance matters more than how you treat people.

If you have a DBE (Dickheaded Brilliant Employee) on your team right now, you already know the call you need to make.

The question is whether you are going to make it.

This screenshot is the reason why I spent 2 years writing my book What's Stopping You?

Because no one wrote it for me.

Growing up on a council estate, I had no one who looked like me, came from where I came from, and had actually made it.

So I spent 2 years in my bedroom writing the book I wish someone had handed 18-year-old me.

The one that says: here's what's actually possible, here's what's actually in the way, and here's how to move through it.

Two years is a long time to sit with your own story and wonder if anyone will care.

But then the messages started coming in.

People saying the book cracked something open for them. That they finally felt seen. That they're now taking the leap they'd been putting off for years.

That's the whole point!!!

Not the Sunday Times bestseller list (though I'm not going to pretend that didn't feel incredible).

It's the kid on a council estate somewhere who picks it up and thinks: if he did it, why can't I?

Rachel came to pitch me her new business Thrift!

An online market place available as an app/website where you can sell pre loved outfits.

It's a solid idea, but it's a massively competitive industry which is extremely hard to break into. 

So... did I invest or did I hit next?

What would you have done?

Most founders think selling a company is something you figure out when you're ready to exit. It's not!

You engineer it from the inside, years before a buyer ever shows up. Get it wrong and you either can't sell at all, or you leave millions on the table.

So I just dropped a full video breakdown of the 8 exact moves I used to turn my startup, Fanbytes, into a premium acquisition target.

A few things I get into:

- Why selling at 70% of your potential actually increases your price
- Why skipping venture capital was one of my best financial decisions
- The single shift that moves you from a services multiple to a tech multiple

These aren't frameworks or principles - they're the specific things I did, in the specific order I did them.

And they work whether you're planning to sell in two years or you just want to build something that could command a real price if the right buyer ever calls.

Link to the full video is here: 
https://lnkd.in/eCBirvxR

If you're a parent and you're scared of A.I, read this.

When I speak at conferences about AI, parents ask

“How do I stop my kids using it badly?”

I tell them to learn from my mum.

When I was younger, my mum used to pay me £61 to do book reports.

Because of this I fell in love with books. 

That eventually led to me writing a Sunday Times #1 Bestseller.

She made books a thing which I saw as a positive tool get get her approval.

I think about that a lot now when I speak to parents about AI.

They want to police what their kids are doing with it & limit their access.
I get it, but I think it’s exactly the wrong move.

AI is the most transformational thing since the internet. 
And robbing your child of the chance to experiment and play with it is setting them up to spend their adult life on the back foot. 

So here’s what I’d do if I were a parent right now.
I’d make it a game.

Every Sunday, I’d run a “Show Me What You Built” session. 

The kids spend the week playing with Claude/ ChatGPT / whatever and on Sunday they show you what they made.

You applaud them & ask what they’ll build next week.

What you’re doing is exactly what my mum did with books.
 
You’re making AI the thing they do to get your approval.

Do that consistently for 12 months and you won’t just have a kid who knows how to use AI. 

You’ll have a kid who thinks like a builder, who sees technology as a creative tool, and who is genuinely ahead of 95% of their peers before they’ve even left school.

AI isn’t something to fear. Used right, it can be the catalyst for one of the most powerful and rewarding dynamics you build with your children.

My mum figured that out with books. Imagine how much more with AI.

Your first business is the most transformational!

The biggest mindset shift I ever had came at 14 years old, and it had nothing to do with selling Fanbytes or hitting my first million.

It happened when a kid handed me £5 for tutoring help.

I'd built a little operation at school where I found the best student in each subject, connected them to the kids who were struggling, and sat in the middle taking a cut. 

It grew to 60 students before it collapsed, because people figured out they didn't need me to make the introduction anymore.

But that failure isn't the point.

The point is that moment when someone paid me for something I'd created, even though I hadn't invented anything or worked a single shift. 

That one moment rewired how I saw the world, because you don't have to be the smartest person in the room or do all the work yourself. You just have to create value, whether that's building something from scratch or connecting people to something they genuinely need.

I've grown companies worth tens of millions since then, but honestly nothing hit different than that first £5, because that's when I knew the game was on.

Every week, 100s of founders ask me… “how can I sell my business”

So for first time, I’m going to be sharing LIVE  my “Scale to EXIT strategies

This is for founders who are scaling and want a life changing exit in the next 1-3 years.

Every founder I know who has had a successful exit (7 figs or more) started planning years in advance. 

This workshop will increase your chances of having a successful exit.

Here's what I'll be covering:
How to know when the right time to sell is and the market signals to look for.

What systems you should have in your business now so you get premium value when you go to market. Hint (it’s not the ones you think)

The “magnet sales system” you can start doing today that scale your business and make it more attractive to buyers.

I’ve done $75m in exits by age 30, i kinda know what I’m talking about 🙂

As a bonus, I will stay for Q+A so you can ask me anything directly about your situation.

If you're thinking about selling in the next one to three years, the decisions you make now are what determine what your exit looks like.

Click the link to sign up for tomorrow's workshop (March 4th):
https://lnkd.in/evepyXhD

Everything you learned in university is essentially irrelevant now.

I know that sounds harsh, but if you are 21 years old and entering the world of work right now, the kindest thing I can do is tell you the truth before someone wastes the next three years of your life chasing the wrong things.

I spoke to a guy recently who left university eighteen months ago with a 2:1 in business. 

He spent his first year applying for grad schemes and getting rejected. Then he spent three months building things on Claude every single week and posting about what he was making on LinkedIn. He got three inbound job offers in sixty days from companies who had been watching his content.

He did not get more qualified. He just got more visible and more capable at the same time.

Here is what I would do if I was starting again right now.

Get on Claude every single week and build one thing. Not five things, not a whole business plan, just one thing you keep returning to and making better.

Bring your friends into it. Stop just going out to chill and if you are going to chill, bring your laptops. This game is not about being technical, it is about being willing to figure it out.

Shout about yourself loudly and without apology. The work will not speak for itself and the world is far too noisy for silence to be a strategy. 

Put it on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and tell people exactly what you are building.

You are entering the world of work at the most interesting time in human history.

The people who equip themselves with the right skills and make sure the world knows about it are the ones who are going to win.

I was on a podcast today and I said something that made the host stop for a second...

"We are still trying to get our papers marked!"

It hit me whilst we were talking because so much of what founders chase still feels like school, just with bigger numbers and better branding.

You spend years being graded by teachers, and very early on you learn to link your value to someone else deciding how well you did.

Then you build a company and the same pattern shows up again, except now the grades are things like valuation, ARR, and whatever gets applause in a room full of people you may not even respect.

A lot of founders are still chasing approval, only now it comes from investors, peers, and people on the internet instead of teachers.

That pattern starts young, and most of us carry it straight into business without noticing.

You learn to wait for permission, to chase the right answer, and to measure yourself against standards you did not set.

I have done it too, and I have built things because they looked impressive from the outside even when they did not feel right to me day to day.

If you are building around someone else’s scoreboard, you can win publicly and still feel empty privately.

So start building your business for you and not for someone else!

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The Battle

Dan Murray

Timothy Armoo

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The Battle

Dan Murray

Timothy Armoo

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Dan Murray's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreDan Murray's LinkedIn Performance