James Dixon

At Connectd, we work with fractional executives looking to build careers through fractional c-suite, non-executive and board advisor roles with high-growth startups across the UK and US. 

Through the Connectd platform, we help current and aspiring fractional executives access opportunities, CPD-accredited training, mentoring, and exclusive community access within our growing community. Key focus areas include:

Facilitating pro bono placements with startups & scaleups
Learn the fundamental skills, behaviours and attitudes of a board advisor, fractional and NED roles across this 8-module programme
Work with expert mentors spanning over 60 sectors, matched to your skills
Upskill through webinars, roundtable discussions, and thought-leadership sessions

Interested? Send me a message to explore more about your eligibility for Connectd.

Performance Acquisition Manager

4 people in shot who I owe a huge amount to over the last 3 years of my life. 

Over lunch last Sunday in Mexico City Roei Samuel asked if me I'd ever paused to think about how my work has impacted the lives of other people & in turn the lives of the people they encounter...

Haven't stopped thinking about that since, it really gave me a solid reason to get after it each day. Well, another really great one to add to the list at least! 

#impact #compound #rippleeffect

Jim Dixon

Head of People | Performance Coach | Empowering organisations and talent to transition into and succeed in the future of fractional work

CEO @ Connectd | $14M ARR | #5 LinkedIn Top Startups | #18 SundayTimes100 | Ex-RealSport Founder (acquired)

Connectd launched in Jan 2022 so we just hit 4 years. 

We've grown a lot in that time in every sense of the word! Were servicing over 6000 fractional execs/board advisors and 3200 organisations!

And if you know anything about growing  business, servicing 9k customers, whilst growing from a team of 4 to over 100, and from $0 to $15m ARR, including now 40% of customers coming from the US, you know how difficult this is.

At this scale you cannot keep everyone happy,  but with literally thousands and thousands of customers renewing we know we are on the right track

its not always been perfect, its not always been pretty  but we will never stop fighting to make Connectd the most powerful force in the future of work.

JUST. GETTING. STARTED.

James Matthews Oliver Tarpey Claudia Stankler Spyros Balampekos FCCA Benjamin Parker Clement Bigot Jamie Morris Alex Rose Samuel Gray William Smith

Is it your time to take a leap of faith?
  
Placing trust in yourself rarely works out badly, some huge lessons to be learned. 

The future is fractional.

Building personal brands for CEOs and Founders 🔥 Founder @ HUNTRS 💸 Startup & GTM Advisor 📈 From 0 → $30M ARR | ex-LinkedIn & ex-Remote 🦄 Helped 4,900+ people build their personal brand

The career you know is dying. Here’s what comes next.

The world is changing fast in front of our eyes.

The old model of work is losing its grip:

- One employer
- One income stream
- A linear career ladder

That ladder is shaking heavily.

→ Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) says the 9-to-5 job will disappear by 2034.
→ Naval Ravikant (investor and entrepreneur) says most people will end up working for themselves.
→ Gary Vee calls it "individual empires".
→ And Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns that AI could wipe out half of all entry level white collar roles.

Look around you:

- Companies are getting leaner
- Teams are smaller
- Unemployment rates are higher than ever
- Output expectations are higher
- AI is taking entire layers of work off the table
- More and more people are taking on fractional roles and works for several companies

→ McKinsey predicts that up to 70% percent of business tasks will be automated to some degree by 2030.

→ LinkedIn’s own data shows a rise in multi stream earners year over year.

→ OECD predicts: by 2030, half of all professionals will have a portfolio career.

❌ This is not a trend.

And this is not about everyone having to become an entrepreneur.

It’s a complete reset of the market, and how the world works.

A redefinition of what a career looks like.

↓

The future is a portfolio career.

❌ A portfolio career is not about doing more.
✅ It’s about using what you already know in ways that scale.

It works like this:

1. You monetize your knowledge.
2. You sell it through more than one channel.
3. You build more than one stream so your risk goes down and your upside grows.
4. You stop trading every hour for income.

This is the closest thing we have to job security in a world shaped by automation.

This is for:

- Every knowledge worker.
- Every founder.
- Every specialist with a skill that solves a problem.

The people who win the next decade will be the ones who build their own system ♻️

The most important tool to achieve it?

Build a strong personal brand on social media.

Stop postponing it.

Get started today.


📌 I put the exact steps I took into a clear guide. If you want to start now, this will help: https://lnkd.in/dCsWGSG7

📌 The Future is a Portfolio Career

In case you missed it last week... 

The most exciting news has dropped for Connectd in 2026. This space is set to go BIG. 

Take a look and tag anyone you think should be involved.

I've pitched over 800 times.

But I've never been as nervous as I was pitching to Simon Squibb.

My first business started when I was 21. I had no connections or network. Just an idea and then hundreds of thousands of pounds of debt.

Every day felt like a panic attack waiting to happen. I had the will but didn't know the way.

Then I met the right people and EVERYTHING changed.

Went from drowning in debt to selling that company at 26 for 7 figures.. But I never forgot what it felt like to have no one in your corner.

That's why I built Connectd. Experienced, talented people who want to help entrepreneurs like I was: young, hungry, but completely alone.

So when I got the chance to pitch to Simon Squibb and HelpBnk, the stakes felt different.

This wasn't about me. Instead, it was about every young founder who's grinding with no connections, just trying to figure it out.

Simon got it immediately.

"I love it. You wanna help people, I wanna help you help people. You're my kind of person."

Now Connectd is partnering with HelpBnk.

Simon's community of dreamers will get access to our network of fractional experts. The entrepreneurs pitching to Our Doorbell will have senior talent in their corner.

The kids who feel like I did at 20 - brilliant ideas but no connections - they'll have a path forward.

This changes everything.

Roei Samuel

Exited Founder | Angel Investor | Host of Big Risk Energy Podcast | BBC Million by 30

I built Connectd because startups need easier access to experts, and talent deserves the flexibility of fractional work. People deserve better than a job they don’t love. We're making fractional work actually accessible. Not just for people with existing networks - for anyone who wants to work on their terms.

The numbers:
0 to $13M ARR in 3.5 years
6,000+ fractional professionals on the platform
45% of revenue from the US (launched Jan 2024)
LinkedIn Top Startup #5 UK (2025)
Deloitte Fast50 (27th fastest growing UK company)
$18M raised

Before this, I sold RealSport at 26, became a millionaire overnight, and started investing in startups & working fractionally for 2 years.
That's when I saw it - fractional work is incredible but the infrastructure doesn't exist. So we built it.

Connectd gives fractionals everything they need: identity, portfolio, billing, client matching, rankings, reviews. The full stack.
Most of our members are still in full-time jobs. This is their side hustle starter kit; the thing that lets them test fractional without quitting.

I write about:
Future of work and why fractional is inevitable
Escaping corporate without betting everything
Real startup building (not the polished version)

DMs always open if you want to chat.

CEO & Founder

Launched Connectd.com in November 2020
Raised $9m seed funding
Generating $6.8m ARR (May 2024)

I have dreamed of a partnership like this for SO long.

Simon Squibb and HelpBnk felt like the perfect fit from day one. His community is full of entrepreneurs with big dreams but limited connections - exactly who we built Connectd for.

So I pitched. And we got it.

Then immediately thought: sh*t, now what?

Landing a dream partnership is one thing, but actually delivering on it is another.

Now his dreamers - the entrepreneurs pitching to the Doorbell of Dreams - will have access to our network. CMOs, CFOs, operators who can actually help them build.

I know how it feels to have someone believe in you before anyone else does. It’s rare.
And that's why this partnership matters.

We're not just connecting two platforms. We're combining two networks that actually want to help people who need it most:

The young founders grinding alone, the ones with brilliant ideas but no one in their corner, and the ones who remind me of myself at 20.

Simon's built an incredible community of dreamers. We've built a network of people who want to help them.

Now we get to do it together. Insane 💪

Connectd made the Sunday Times 100 Tech.

When I was a kid, my dad used to read The Times cover to cover at the table every morning.

He still does. This time, he's going to see our company in there. 

Insane. 

$14M ARR. 125+ people. Thousands of world class fractionals now using our services. And now, ranking 18th on the Sunday Times 100 list.. 

This is the team's win for sure. But my dad reading this in the paper is the moment I keep coming back to.  

Proud of what we've built, and excited to keep pushing.

I just gave £5K to Chloe's non-toxic clothing business.

This one's personal.

When Chloe’s mum was diagnosed with cancer, the doctors couldn't figure out why the cancer wasn't responding to treatment.

She switched to non-toxic clothing and the cancer went away, inspiring Chloe to build a business:

Non-toxic gym clothes and underwear that don't expose people to harmful chemicals every day.

As someone whose mum had cancer, this hits home. We got through it, but I watched what it did to her and our family.

We also lost my aunt to cancer. It’s the kind of loss that stays with you, so when Chloe told me her story through HelpBnk, it felt bigger than a business pitch. 

I’ve gifted £5K to help her get started, and introduced her to Kate Buttery via Connectd to help turn the vision into reality.

This is something tangible - something that might actually make a difference.

This is what makes it all worth it.

Founders. Fractional work isn’t consulting. 

I keep hearing people use them interchangeably. They’re not the same.

Consulting: You come in. You analyse. You create a strategy document. You leave.

The company has a plan, but they still need to execute it themselves.

Fractional: You come in. You analyse. You create the strategy. Then you execute it.

You're part of the team. You own outcomes rather than just recommendations.

In short: a consultant tells you what to do, but a FRACTIONAL leader does it with you. 

Don’t get me wrong, fractional workers do consulting-style projects. Sometimes consultants get pulled into execution.

But the core model is different. One is advisory. One is operational.

Choose fractional for part-time leadership with full accountability.

I’m setting myself a challenge.

Help 10,000 founders find their fractional people over the next 100 days.

When I built my first company, fractional work made all the difference. Not full-time employees, but advisors, consultants, and experts who came in, solved problems + moved on.

I'm documenting the whole process of the challenge and posting more on Instagram and TikTok - sharing the process of our work with Simon Squibb and the HelpBnk team as well as supporting the founders who reach out me directly.

We're already off to a flying start. 

Let's see what happens…

Startups on the Connectd Ambassador programme get 3 months of senior fractional expertise completely free.

Let that sink in.

A fractional CMO, CFO, CTO, or COO for 3 months. £0.

The reason we do it is pretty simple. 

Most early-stage companies can't afford £150K full-time hires. But they DESPERATELY need senior expertise to scale.

3 months free gives them time to prove the value and see what fractional can do. Then (and only then) do they decide if they want to continue.

For the ambassadors, you're not just getting paid. You're giving startups in your network access to expertise that could change their trajectory.

If you're:

A VC helping portfolio companies 
An accelerator lead supporting your cohort 
A community builder connecting founders 
Already making these intros

You should be part of this.

Link in comments or DM me.

I've been in a lot of CEO and CFO calls lately.

Same theme keeps coming up:

"We need a CMO but we can't justify the £150K full-time salary right now."
"Board wants financial expertise but we're frozen on headcount."
"Operations need help. We're in a hiring pause. How do we square this?"

Every conversation lands on fractional.

Because in hard economic times, companies aren't cutting back because they don't need expertise. The CMO work still needs doing and the financial strategy still needs building!

That tension is what’s steering companies towards fractional, and the data matches up: our enquiries at Connectd are way up this quarter. 

Economic uncertainty doesn't make senior talent less valuable. It makes FLEXIBILITY more valuable.

That's why fractional is coming out on top in 2026.

At Connectd, we didn't copy our perks from other companies.

We built them around what actually matters when you're building something hard.

- Connect Days exist because burnout is real.

You can't just "power through" indefinitely - sometimes you need a day to reset. We'd rather you take it than pretend everything's fine.

- Work From Anywhere exists because life doesn't happen in one place.

Maybe your family lives abroad or you want to work from somewhere different for a month. We don't need you in a specific location to do good work.

- Company trips exist because hitting goals should feel like something.

We've been to Lisbon, Madrid, Split… the list goes on. When we win, we celebrate PROPERLY.

- Team events exist because shared experiences matter.

Formula One. Oasis concerts. Royal Ascot. VIP rugby experience. Michelin star dinners. Insane memories to look back on years later. Not just another office party. 

- EMI Share Scheme exists because you should own what you're building.

Your work creates value, so you should benefit directly from that. Simple. 

- Private health insurance exists because your health matters.

Gym discounts, physio, dental, eyecare. The things that keep you functional shouldn’t be a luxury. 

The principle behind all of this is that people do their best work when they feel genuinely SUPPORTED. 

These perks aren't about looking good on LinkedIn, but about creating good conditions for great work.

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My first company was in the US market. Biggest regret from that time was not building more relationships there when it mattered.

Not making that mistake again.

I’ll be in NYC February 23-29 building Connectd's US presence properly - meeting customers, partners, and potential hires. 

But I’m also looking to meet people who are building interesting things in their space.

Drop me a message if you have any podcasts or events going on that week - or if you want to grab coffee to talk about what you’re building.

Let's connect!

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The Battle

James Dixon

Roei Samuel

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The Battle

James Dixon

Roei Samuel

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);}James Dixon's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreRoei Samuel's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreJames Dixon's LinkedIn Performance