James Farnfield

Founder

Shake Content

Shake Content is a content agency powering founders to build trust and authority in their space by leading the charge in their marketing efforts for their business. We focus our attention on working with B2B software founders who want to implement founder-led marketing to drive credibility, awareness and generate demand organically and for the long term.

Founder led marketing that makes sales easier. Transform your content strategy with founder content at the forefront of your acquisition channel. Driving authority in your space and long term organic revenue through Shake.

website: shakecontent.com

CEO & Founder

The Everyday Founder

I talk to founders and celebrate their stories that need to be shared. The podcast aims to shine a light on founders that have created awesome businesses that people should know about and potentially don't.

Podcast Host

Hirebyte

Founder & CEO (part of Airbyte)

Airbyte

Exited through dividends in August 2023.

We build amazing digital products at startup prices 🚀

We are a London based digital product studio, providing research, UX design, mobile/web development, and growth marketing.

www.airbyte.uk - james@airbyte.uk

Founder & CEO

Strategic Content Marketing, SEO, and B2B Strategist at Airbyte Digital Product Studio

🚀 Driving Growth Beyond Boundaries | 📈 Amplifying Airbyte's Digital Impact

With a two-year tenure that steered Airbyte Digital Product Studio's online presence, I've led the charge in transforming tech complexity into compelling content, optimizing for search engines, and architecting B2B strategies. This journey not only showcases my ability to captivate tech audiences but also highlights my integral role in propelling Airbyte's business to a seven-figure success.

💡 Tech Brilliance Unleashed: My forte lies in crafting content that captivates, showcasing Airbyte's digital products. Over two years, I consistently delivered innovative content that resonates with our tech-savvy audience.

🔍 SEO Mastery for 7-Figure Impact: Navigating the digital landscape demands a comprehensive understanding of search engine algorithms. My SEO expertise significantly contributed to our seven-figure success.

🤝 B2B Strategy Architect: As the chief architect of Airbyte's B2B strategies, I've excelled in forging meaningful connections within the tech ecosystem, positioning Airbyte as a leader.

📊 Data-Driven Excellence: Leveraging analytics, I've guided Airbyte's marketing efforts, ensuring they evolve for maximum impact on business objectives.

📣 Elevating Digital Presence: Specializing in brand amplification, I've successfully elevated Airbyte's digital presence, establishing us as a powerhouse in the tech industry.

Head of Content and B2B Strategy

taptrip

Taptrip is an award winning end-to-end travel technology solution and is ranked as one of the top 5 most exciting startups in the travel management space. Taptrip is backed by Techstars, Barclays and Easyjet among others and is ready to take on the industry by storm.

Head of Growth

RideTo

RideTo (https://www.rideto.com) was ranked as one of the Top 100 startups in 2018 & 2020 and since 2016 has been bringing innovation to the motorcycle industry, making it safer and easier for more people to experience the freedom of 2 wheels.

I was the Marketing & Growth Lead and I supported the founding team to achieve high growth business targets through full-funnel marketing planning and hands-on marketing channel management. During my time at RideTo I: 

// Increased business growth from 60 to 150 UK training locations resulting in RideTo launching UK wide.
// Grew revenue by 100% in under 18 months with GMV in excess of £1 million.
// Increased market share by 3% resulting in RideTo being the UK’s #1 motorcycle training platform.
// Optimised all paid digital channels decreasing annual spend by 50% and increasing channel growth by 100%.
// Ownership of all customer touchpoint from pre-sale to post-sale up and cross sale leading to RideTo being market leaders in 2019.
// Diversified the marketing acquisition channels from primarily paid channels to a multi-channel model leading to organic acquisitions
being the primary channel for RideTo.
// Set and controlled all company expenditure, forecasts and targets. On target to hit monthly profitability Q2 ’20.
// Developed national partnerships with AutoTrader, Pizza Hut and Deliveroo.

Head of Marketing & Content

During my 12 months as Marketing Manager I delivered a number of high growth targets that included:

// Increased top-line revenue growth by 150% while decreasing the cost per acquisition by 20% in less than 1 year.
// Drove RideTo business growth via full-funnel paid media, including SEM, programmatic display, social, content, and lead gen networks nationally
// Transitioned a few touch-point customer journey to a strategic multi-touch model, continuously optimised that spear-heads up and cross-sell value to RideTo. 
// Go-to-market: Launched RideTo into over 40 cities in the UK, partnering with over 70 sites ensuring that organic and paid channels were initiated on-time and effectively.
// Organic traffic growth: 600%
// Established RideTo into a multi-channel acquisition channel from a omni-channel model, increasing customer orders by 200%

Marketing Content Manager

Travel Blogger Society

In 2017, I founded a blogging platform which later added an accommodation website aimed at travel influencers and travel bloggers to its portfolio. As a part-time hobby TBS has achieved a community reach in excess of 3 million eyeballs across social media. My key achievements/responsibilities are: 

•	Managed a team of 5+ freelance workers that support the brands workload.
•	Created a social media strategy that has increased social media reach by 1000% within first 4 months post-launch.
•	Established relationships with over 200 premium hotel brands and travel influencers to work with the brand.

Onalytica

I joined the sales and marketing team in January 2018 with the aim of growing the sales pipeline and developing the marketing strategy. My key achievements/responsibilities were: 

•	Responsible for new business development for the entire sales team pipeline. Primary point of contact for inbound leads and sales qualification. 
•	From initial contact, developed into the pipeline a number of high revenue prospects such as Waitrose, Air Asia, Eon, Aon and Mitsubishi. 
•	Responsible for a successful marketing event gaining over 50 attendees from high-revenue prospects with 3-week lead-time.
•	Developed the go-to-market strategy for the companies US expansion in summer 2018.

Influencer Marketing Consultant

LinkedIn is not the channel to be sleeping on in 2024 as a 7+ figure B2B CEO. You know it. I know it. 
(but I get it)

I am a multiple time founder and time is precious. 

IS THIS YOU ↓

“I KNOW I need to utilise LinkedIn”

and....

- “I am sitting on lots of underused media”
- “I’ve been sitting on a podcast idea for years”
- “I want to be a thought leader in my space”
- “I want to build brand exposure & inbound leads”

BUT MOST OF ALL ↓

“I do not have the time to post everyday”

So maybe it’s time to Shake it Up.

Building a process and powerful content engine is the answer.

HERE IS HOW SHAKE CAN HELP (you to the 1% of your industry) ↓

1. Craft content pillars, roadmap and LinkedIn strategy
2. Produces podcasts, thought leadership videos and webinar
3. Creates stunning copy posts for you to approve every day

Whilst taking up less than 2 hours of your time each and every month. 

If you are interested in seeing how we can get your started in the next 2 weeks then drop me a message today. 👋🏽

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

😆 About Me 😆

I have been on the entrepreneurial journey since I was 16 and have delved into multiple industries from events to web development. I founded Airbyte in 2020, growing the business to 7 figure revenues

Before realising I was sleeping on my LinkedIn. 

The conversations and revenue started flowing.

I knew I had to go back to my marketing routes. 

Shake Content was born in Q4 2023.

https://shakecontent.com/

🎙️ The Everyday Founder  🎙️

1% of professionals are founders, the 0.1% are the stories we glamorise. I talk with the everyday founders on how they are growing their businesses

Growth Hub

Quantanite

Sold out of Quantanite having scaled from $1m AAR to $20m ARR within 5 years. Closing multiple deals from 10-350 seats.

Chief Commercial Officer & Shareholder

Founder (Growthonics)

CAKE Technologies

•	Planned and executed the overall sales and business development strategy from the ground up.
•	Built a team to take signed partners from just 14 to over 280 including Corbin and King, Ricker Restaurants, Soho House Group, Toms Kitchen, Salt Yard Group, M Resturants, Obica, Noble Inns and the Zetter Group.

Sales Director

Rocket Internet SE

Managing Director, Sales

Pheonix Global Management

Director Business Development

Walton Asset Management 

Sage

Formally Alchemex (Bought by Sage in 2011).

Business Development

Waltech PLC

Business Development & Shareholder

In deal origination, speed wins—but most firms are still slowed down by messy data, manual processes, and missed signals.

I help deal teams cut through the noise with automation, AI, and real-time insights—so they can focus on what really matters: closing better deals, faster.

As CEO and Founder of Growth Hub, I work with private equity, venture capital, and M&A teams to transform their data from a liability into an advantage. We make sure your CRM is an asset, your pipeline is enriched, and your team is always ahead of the curve.

If your deal flow feels like guesswork instead of a well-oiled machine, let’s talk.

🚀 Data-driven. AI-powered. Deal-focused.

Dan Vanrenen

We got a kitten.

His name is Gus.

He was a birthday present for our youngest, who just turned 8.

And my immediate reaction was:
WTAF are we doing?!

We already have two kids.
Two dogs.
And my wife and I work full-time, together, from home.
Same business. Same office.
Same general chaos.

So yeah…adding a kitten maybe wasn’t the most logical move.

But here we are.

This week Gus has discovered the keyboard.
Rollo (our 8-month-old lab) still face bombs team calls.
Bingo (our 7 year old cockapoo) insists on barking when I'm trying to have a serious call. 
And our house is now essentially a co-working space with fur.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s a bit much to share online.
That we work from our home office.
That we work as a couple.
That I don’t have a slick office in the city and can’t remember the last time I wore a tie for work. 

I worry it might look… small.
Like we’re not “serious” enough for financial services.

But this is our reality.
And the more I think about it the more I think that people actually LIKE working with us because we aren’t particularly ‘corporate’. 

We don’t have lots of middle management (none, in fact). 
If there’s a problem our clients get to speak to Katherine or me. 
We know our clients' workflows inside out. 
There’s no ‘let me push this up the ladder and see if we can accommodate’.  

Just two people at the coal face, supported by the best team in the business, and surrounded by pets. 

It’s busy.
It’s slightly feral.
But it works.

Maximise the impact of fee earning staff with our global capability data, research and operational support teams | Founder & CEO of Growth Hub

AI isn’t coming for your job.

It’s coming for your outdated process. 👀

Too many deal origination teams won’t adopt AI. 
I know this because I’ve spoken to quite a few of them. 

And it’s not because the tools aren’t there (we use them daily). 
And it’s not because they don’t know how to implement it (we do it for them). 

It’s because their culture resists it. 🧱

And I get it, because change = putting your neck on the line. And financial services are notoriously cut-throat. 

But here’s the thing:
AI doesn’t threaten good operators.
It threatens the fragile workflows that have been duct-taped together for years.

And let’s be honest…a lot of firms still rely on expensive talent doing labour intensive workarounds instead of fixing the engine. 🧯

Meanwhile, we’re watching leaner firms eat their lunch. 🍽️

They’re embedding AI into research.
Letting global support teams automate prep.
Removing 60–70% of the admin grind. ⚙️

They’re scaling output without scaling headcount, and moving faster because of it. 🚀

The truth is:
AI and smart ops don’t replace good people (unless you’re Amazon). 
They replace the parts of the job that no one should still be doing. 🧠

And the longer teams cling to "how we’ve always done it,"
the more painful 2026 is going to be. ⏳

Amazon is cutting 30,000 corporate roles and AI is driving the change.

But this isn’t a playbook for everyone else.

Leadership has been direct: AI and automation are enabling "layer removal" and structural redesign at scale.

In short,  when you're Amazon, AI isn't just a productivity tool. It's an org design tool.

But that only works when you have:
✅ Fully digitised processes
✅ High internal data quality
✅ Budget for trial and error
✅ Time to absorb disruption

And that’s simply not the reality for most firms.

In mid-sized and specialist businesses, process is messier, domain knowledge is distributed, and there’s less room to get it wrong.
Which is why AI adoption looks very different at that scale.

The goal isn’t to replace headcount.
It’s to build operational leverage.
To free up bandwidth, not eliminate it.

For most firms, sustainable efficiency will come from:
🔹 Smarter workflows
🔹 Cleaner data foundations
🔹 Human-in-the-loop automation
🔹 Purposeful use of tools like Clay, ChatGPT, and Perplexity

The short version?
AI doesn’t need to be disruptive to be powerful.
And transformation doesn’t require an axe.

The real opportunity isn’t cost-cutting.
It’s capability-building💡.

They’re not support teams. They’re not back office.

They’re capability teams...

If you're still lumping global talent into the “support” bucket, you're missing the point (and the leverage).

The best firms don’t outsource for cost.
They embed teams to unlock capacity, precision, and pace.

And these capability teams? They’re doing real, high-value work:
- Fixing broken pitchbook exports before they go client-side
- Tracking succession signals before your MD even asks
- Unblocking reporting bottlenecks without being told
- Building AI workflows that cut 10+ hours of admin a week
- Cleaning CRM data that’s been quietly rotting for months

Not reactive.
Not low-skill.
Not disposable.

These are embedded specialists solving problems the core team doesn’t have the time (or headspace) to fix.

If you're still calling that "support," you're already behind.

The smartest firms now treat capability like infrastructure:
Essential. Flexible. Strategic.

Because leverage doesn’t come from bloated org charts.
It comes from embedding execution capacity where the work actually happens.

Deal Operations.

Here’s how to run it like a pro:

Last week I shared that in the run-up to Christmas, I’ll be posting a few things we’ve seen work inside high-growth firms.

Here’s what we’re seeing most often (and what actually works):

🧩 Week 1: Deal Operations
CRM, pipeline tracking, reporting, and the invisible workflow debt that kills velocity.

1. The CRM isn’t broken. But it’s not helping.
Everyone uses it. No one fully trusts it.
Tagging is messy. Pipeline stages unclear.
Last touchpoint? Two months ago.

✅ What works:
One owner per list.
Daily updates.
Fields that mirror how teams actually talk about deals.

2. Reporting is still too manual
It takes four exports, a formatting marathon, and two “just checking” emails.
By the time the update lands, the numbers have changed.

✅ What works:
Build export-ready formats once.
Use live data and light automation.
Push updates on a regular cadence, not just when asked.

3. Small blockers add up
No clear owner.
No version control.
No one knows if the CRM is up to date.
That low-grade drag stalls everything.

✅ What works:
Tidy workflows.
Fast feedback loops.
Embedded support that keeps things moving.

(Sidenote: I know December isn’t the easiest time to reflect…It’s busy. Everyone’s trying to close strong. Sometimes ‘surviving, not thriving’ is as good as it’s going to get.

But if it’s feeling a bit chaotic, it might be worth clocking the drag now so you can think on how to go into 2026 with a slightly more chill approach…).

________

👇 What’s one deal ops habit you’d love to clean up in 2026?

When was the last time you tested your carbon monoxide detector?

You know you should. Once a year.

Get the stool, climb up, press the button, maybe swap a battery.
Doesn’t take long.
But most people forget. (Sometimes even if it’s doing that little beep every now and again). 

That’s what background ops work looks like.

We see it all the time:
- Slides that look good because someone reworked them at 11pm.
- Clean data because someone flagged the mess no one else noticed.
- Clients impressed because the ops team quietly fixed the chaos before the meeting.

It’s not flashy.
It’s not “strategic.”
But it’s work that fights fires. 

This year alone, our teams have:
👉 Rebuilt CRMs full of bad data no one had time to clean
👉 Rescued reporting pipelines that should’ve broken weeks earlier
👉 Flagged risks in decks that could’ve tanked client trust

None of these made the quarterly review.
No one gave out bonuses for “saved the partner from embarrassment.”
But it is the work that stops the house from burning down.🔥

If you’re leading ops, here are 5 things worth checking this week:
✅ Is your reporting backlog quietly building up? That’s a pressure valve waiting to blow.
✅ When was your CRM last properly cleaned? Dirty data slows everything down.
✅ Are late-night fire drills becoming routine? That’s operational debt, not hustle.
✅ Are tasks piling up with no clear owner? That’s where accountability erodes.
✅ And yes, check your carbon monoxide alarm. 🔋

Because like the carbon monoxide alarm, when background systems fail, it’s already too late.

Q4 doesn’t kill you with chaos.

It kills you with 2-hour delays, missed updates, and “just one more” review cycles.

By the time December hits, most teams are too busy doing to realise they’re leaking momentum.

And it’s not the big stuff.
It’s the quiet killers…

➡️ Work that’s almost finished.
➡️ Tasks with no clear owner.
➡️ Deadlines that silently shift.

We pulled together a detailed Q4 survival guide based on what we’ve seen inside dozens firms:

The workflow tweaks that stop slippage before it compounds.

✅ Where final mile work gets stuck
✅ How to triage your pipeline
✅ Why “invisible” work costs output
✅ What to fix before Dec 16 hits

No fluff. Just sharp, practical fixes.

If Q4 feels heavier than it should, this will help.
👉 Swipe through the carousel and steal what’s useful.
👇 Got your own Q4 ops trick? Drop it below. We’re collecting the best ones.

Q4's Quiet Killers

Physically, most people will be checking out of work for 2025 in 4 weeks.

Mentally, maybe before that 😜 ...

But the firms who’ll move fastest in Q1 are already thinking about 2026.

Over the next month, I’m going to share a few things that might help you get ahead, especially if you’re reviewing capability gaps, internal workflows, or where to invest in support.

Short, honest posts.
No strategy theatre.
Just practical observations and things we’ve seen work inside fast-moving firms this year.

Here’s the plan:
🧩 Week 1 - Deal Operations
CRM, pipeline tracking, reporting, and the invisible drag that kills velocity

📚 Week 2 - Research & Market Intelligence
How top firms build better lists, faster insight, and real leverage beyond databases

⚙️ Week 3 - Business Support Ops
From AI tooling to client comms and admin execution ie. the glue work that keeps ops running clean

🎁 Week 4 - Wrap-up
A short round-up and a note before we all (rightly) disappear for the holidays

If there’s anything specific you’d like me to cover drop a comment or message me directly.

Let’s make December a launch pad, not a write-off 🚀 .

taplio

The Battle

James Farnfield

Dan Vanrenen

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