The CRM Strategy Co ltd

CRM is under appreciated, under utilised and misunderstood in almost every business.

It's not just for your sales team and it's not just sending emails.

We work with agencies, start-ups, scale-ups and globally recognised brands to acquire more customers, grow through retention, close more deals and forge unstoppable growth ✨

Co-Founder

In Growth We Trust

We started In Growth We Trust due to the lack of entertaining UK based marketing podcasts. 

In our first six months we’ve broken into the UK charts multiple times and built a listener base in the thousands. 

Join us on our journey to become one of the world’s best growth marketing podcasts.

Host

JHM Consulting

Consulting, advising and hands-on growth marketing for startups.

Growth Marketing Advisor & Consultant

Temple

Advisor (Growth & Marketing)

Hex Digital

Running the growth division of the product and growth agency Hex Digital. 

Working with recognised businesses as well as pre-product founders to strategise, execute and optimise their growth engines.

Head of Growth

Acquire

FROW

Thumbstoppers

Overseeing the paid media delivery and analytics of Thumbstopper's portfolio of globally recognised marquee brands including Champion, Beefeater Gin, Wonderbra and Juiceburst

Paid Media Director

Sessions

Hibana®

Head of Growth @ Hex Digital 🌱 | Host @ In Growth We Trust Podcast 🎛️ | Startup Advisor 🗣️

We founded the CRM Strategy Co. to help businesses supercharge their CRM, acquire quality users and grow through retention. 

Almost two decades spent in growth and marketing roles including leadership positions at multiple Y Combinator startups. 

🎙️ I speak to growth pioneers weekly in my top 10 podcast In Growth We Trust 🔮 

🌱 I consult and freelance for startups and businesses looking to improve their growth rate. 

🔭 I work with companies of all sizes to build and scale CRM systems and processes.

Jake Mayell

Joshua Elliott

eComplete Group

Insights & Strategy Director

GMGN Labs

atai Life Sciences

atai is a biopharmaceutical company founded in 2018 in response to the clear and growing unmet needs of mental health patients worldwide.

atai is dedicated to acquiring, incubating and efficiently developing innovative therapeutics to treat depression, anxiety, addiction, and other mental health disorders.

atai's business model combines funding, technology, scientific and regulatory expertise with a focus on psychedelic therapy and other drugs with differentiated safety profiles and therapeutic potential. By pooling resources and best practices, atai aims to responsibly accelerate the development of new medicines across its business entities, seeking to effectively treat and ultimately heal mental health disorders.

atai's mission is to bridge the gap between what the mental healthcare system currently provides and what patients need. atai is headquartered in Berlin, with offices in New York, San Diego and London.

For more information, please visit www.atai.life.

Marketing Director

SocialChain

We are a global team of innovators with a track-record for leveraging owned media, technology and insights to build brands that earn a meaningful share of people’s lives.

750+ employees across 24 offices worldwide.

Why we exist:
Work - The value that we collectively offer the world.
Welfare - The health, happiness & fortunes of a person or group.
World - The peace and prosperity of people and planet, now and in the future.

Strategy Director | Social Chain Links Marketing

Lounge Underwear

Leading marketing operations at Lounge Underwear: a social-born eCommerce company specialising in luxury lingerie, underwear and apparel.

Head of Marketing

Using expert understanding of the social landscape and strategy to create, execute and manage global social media marketing campaigns.

We pride ourselves on telling a brand's story through creating dynamic, thought provoking and engaging content which is hastened through our 300+ million strong internal network of social media influencers, pages and communities.

As a youthful company, we understand how millennials think, engage, consume and share across social media. Social Chain offer a full-service creative marketing agency, with offices in Manchester, London, New York and Berlin.

My client portfolio ranges from some of the worlds biggest global brands through to tech startups. These include Apple, FIFA, Coca-Cola, New Balance, Warner Music, ASOS, Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, SuperDry, Thomas Cook, MBNA,  Hungry House, Lays, giffgaff Money, British Land, ASICS, Generator Hostels, YHA, Campus Society and more.

Carrying out a range of responsibilities, I have assisted these brands in delivering innovative, creative and social-first marketing communications, through a range of services: strategic planning & execution, business intelligence, data analysis, formulation of insights, in-depth brand auditing, primary research, strategic creative analysis & planning, paid social advertising, experiential, UX/UI & customer journey analysis.

Social Chain's wider portfolio of clients includes Amazon, Nike, SkyBet, Dreamworks, Universal P&G, Channel 4, UFC, ITV, BBC, JD Sports, NBrown, Comedy Central, Eurosport, Ford, MyProtein, Vimto, Deliveroo, Puma, Universal, Unicef, McDonalds, Spotify, SyCo and more.

Strategy Manager

2morrowmodel

Professional modelling, involving editorial work, photo shoots and fashion shows. Represented by 2morrow models, a Milan based agency.

Model

Boss Model Management Ltd

Professional modelling, involving editorial work, photo shoots and fashion shows. Represented by Boss Model Management, a Manchester based agency.

For further information, find the link to Joshua's profile below

Social Chain

Using expert understanding of the social landscape and strategy to create, execute and manage global social media marketing campaigns.

We pride ourselves on telling a brand's story through creating dynamic, thought provoking and engaging content which is hastened through our 300+ million strong internal network of social media influencers, pages and communities.

As a youthful company that has an average age of 21, we understand how millennials think, engage, consume and share across social media. Social Chain offer a full-service creative marketing agency, with offices in Manchester, Berlin and New York.

My client portfolio ranges from some of the worlds biggest global brands through to tech startups. These include Apple, ASOS, Hungry House, Lays, giffgaff Money, British Land, ASICS, Generator Hostels, Campus Society and more.

Social Chain's wider portfolio of clients includes Amazon, P&G, Channel 4, UFC, ITV, BBC, Comedy Central, Eurosport, Ford, MyProtein, Vimto, Deliveroo, Puma, Universal, Unicef, McDonalds, Spotify and more.

Campaign Manager

Media Agency Group

Media Agency Group is a full-service agency specialising in the purchasing and planning of all media formats across the advertising spectrum. We operate 6 company subdivisions which cover the sectors of outdoor, press, digital, TV and radio advertising:

- Out of Home International
- Click Tap Media
- Press Mag Media
- TV Advertising Media
- Radio Airtime Media
- Transport Media

The advertising world has become increasingly more confusing over the last couple of years, largely attributed to digital developments and the advent of social media. Media Agency Group recognises the challenges that this has presented to marketing managers and has developed several individual websites and buying portals, catering for everything from sporadic buying of media to clients requiring an entire, heavyweight campaign.

Media Agency Group also allows numerous PR and creative agencies to tap into extensive planning and buying resources, saving them time and money when managing campaigns on behalf of clients or stakeholders within their brief.

Social Media & Content Executive

In 2009, aged 16, I said “I want in”. My first opportunity to invest and build a business.

It's here I would cut my teeth - building an ecommerce solution from scratch, handling product design, branding and more – lessons in determination, hard work and balancing life alongside building a business.

But it didn't work out.

Fast-forward through university and world exploring to June 2016. I quit my first marketing job after 6 months because I recognised there was more.

It was at this point I would become employee number thirty-something at Social Chain - a platform for working with the world's biggest brands alongside the most ambitious people.

I'd found my environment. A business at the start of its journey.

I would go on to work with unbelievable brands: Coca-Cola, FIFA, New Balance, Apple and Warner Music to name a few.

As the team grew, I knew it was time to explore something new.

I would move from leading strategy for the world's biggest brands to take the role of Head of Marketing at Lounge Underwear, a then young, ambitious ecommerce brand.

Employee number 9. A position of greater responsibility, greater risk, greater potential.

This became a journey of growth. Ecommerce changed a lot since 2009. From understanding Shopify from the ground up to testing new strategies for growth, I truly learned the full marketing mix.

Countless products sold, multiple Black Fridays and tens of millions in revenue later, I was reunited with Social Chain to explore a nascent area - social commerce.

I would experiment and pioneer, connecting media brands to ecommerce products.

During my next chapter, I stepped into new territory becoming the Communications Director of Berlin-based biotech startup, atai Life Sciences.

Nothing taught me more about the world of business.

A year and a half of pushing towards an incredible vision: healing mental health disorders so that everyone, everywhere can live a more fulfilled life.

I would take responsibility for driving communications and marketing efforts as just one cog in a high-performance machine that would IPO on the NASDAQ at a valuation of $3.2 billion.

Now? It's time to build GMGN Labs.

I’m using my learnings to help brands explore the world of innovation: to understand how to connect with consumers in a modern world and develop effective strategies that keep them at the cutting edge.

Another successful, packed-out event at Fortnum & Mason.

This time, discussing what it takes to get exit-ready.

My takeaways:
• PE is a great vehicle for investors.
• PE isn't always a great vehicle for founders.
• Preparation is everything.
• If you're considering exit/investment, start preparing now.
• Building a compelling investment story requires solid data.
• Date different advisors – find the one that suits you.
• Deals take time.
• Running a business post-investment is very different.
• Having an audience is a huge strategic value-add.
• Having an audience doesn't guarantee revenue.
• Lawyers have some of the best jokes (Tim & Kelly stole the show on this front).
• IP is a major strategic advantage – lock it down.

It was a pleasure sharing the stage with Paul Gedman for a juicy Q&A on our investments and why we're challenging the PE model.

A huge thank you to everybody who joined us, and a big shoutout to our speakers – Chloe Harris, Charlotte Astleford, Lucy Clifford, Liz McCarthy, Estée Lalonde, Connor Blakey, Tim Hamilton, Chris Dedman & Kelly Saliger.

And, of course, the engine behind making these events run so smoothly – Skye, Emma, Shivali, Anna and the teams at Shaded The Studio & eComplete Group.

We'll be returning with our next edition in May.

Drop me a note if you'd like to join us!

Josh Elliott

Investing in DTC Brands | Innovation, Insight & Strategy | Prev.: Social Chain, Lounge, atai, GMGN Labs

1 minute and 18 seconds.

You’ll see us announce our latest investment, but really, this encapsulates a journey.

It’s a reflection of the progress we’ve made at eComplete over the last 12 months.

Shifting responsibilities, realigning action to our long-term vision, complete reinvention.

It’s subtle, but we look different, and we speak different now.

We redesigned our infrastructure to create a strategic advantage.

We doubled down on our investment thesis.

We revisited the smallest details.
• How we appear to the outside world.
• How our experience and wins validate our mission.
• How we’re armed and ready for unparalleled transformation in eCommerce.
• How our strategic advantage is one that will take years for others to replicate.

Previously, we might have been considered underdogs in Private Equity.

Today, we’re an investor & operating partner built for a new age.

Noted Aromas marks my first investment at eComplete, one that’s helped us reinvent how we do things.

It’s deals like this, and constant evolution, that keep us hungry.

Unbelievably proud of everybody in our team.

Thank you to all who played a part in this deal.

2026, let’s go.

An event so good, we've decided to do it again (and again, and again).

We're returning to Fortnum & Mason later this month, with a focus on getting exit ready.

Brand leaders, M&A experts & investors all in one room.

Last time, I had the pleasure of talking about what drives value at exit, discussing the state of Private Equity and what factors are influencing successful Consumer transactions.

This time around, we'll be going deeper:
• Deeper insight into driving valuations.
• DTC M&A in 2026.
• Building value pre-transaction.
• How to tell a compelling investment story.
• Cutting through the noise.
• Red flags that kill deals early.
• The value of IP in deals.

As ever, we couldn't do it without our partners in crime, Shivali, Cassi & the crew @ Shaded The Studio.

And, we're joined by speakers from the wonderful Spayne Lindsay & Co. (Chris Dedman), Clearwater (Lucy Clifford), The Fortia Group (Paul Hanley), CMS UK (Kelly Saliger) and PwC.

We're over-subscribed for this one, but if you're interested in being added to the waitlist or want to be in the know for future events, drop me a message.

taplio

The Battle

Jake Mayell

Joshua Elliott

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taplio

The Battle

Jake Mayell

Joshua Elliott

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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);}Joshua Elliott's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJoshua Elliott's LinkedIn Performance