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 💪

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

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'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.

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

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!

James Parkes

Founder MyDay App: Where wellbeing meets sustainability - Every Day | Health & Wellness Advocate | Former premiership rugby player & coach

ImpactOS solves your Social Value RFP headaches. 

The public sector bidding process feels like a full time job. Collecting data from dozens of sources, complying with audits and connecting bid writers to on the ground management efforts are just a few of the potential pain points you need to mitigate.

Using a simple query chatbot, ImpactOS simplifies every step of social value creation in public sector delivery. By keeping all your data in one place. We make demonstrating your commitment to doing good and winning more government contracts easy. 

Automatically stay on top of big promises with AI powered nudges and turn your disconnected data points into tangible, trackable KPIs. To put it simply, we’re revolutionising the way businesses prove their worth. 

Sign-up to learn more at: impactos.tech 

myday is an intelligent workforce support, compliance, and social impact platform that connects daily positive actions to global impact initiatives that matter to the people supporting them. 

By creating impactful support communities and touch-points, providing daily opportunities to self-manage health and wellbeing, and facilitating workplace community through kudos on an in-app social feed, we’re building teams that drive healthy business performance. 

The impact of these efforts is brought to life with employee stories and KPI data easily surfaced on our interactive dashboards for reporting to investors, employees, and the global community.

Take a look at our website for more details, or reach out to me here on LinkedIn to arrange a demo.

www.myday.health

Founder

LONDON

Can you handle this ? 

Excited to be heading up to see Thomas Power  and Penny Power OBE for the BIP 100 lunch 

Never mind seeing James Alexander and Meliora Group with Tom Pringle 

Let’s go rockstars

Everyone’s arguing about words.

ESG.
Social value.
Impact.
Sustainability.
Responsible business.
Ethical business practices.

Different labels. Largely the same conversation.

And right now, a lot of leaders are quietly avoiding the acronym “ESG” because it’s become politically radioactive in the US — even when the underlying work hasn’t changed. A Conference Board survey found 52% of executives are reframing communications away from the term. And you can see it in public reporting too: “ESG” is getting deleted and replaced with “sustainability” and “impact.”  

Here’s how I think about the language (quick and practical):

ESG = the risk and governance lens (how you manage material issues).
Sustainability = the long-term operating model (resilience of the business and the world it depends on).
Social value = the measurable benefit to communities (often procurement-linked in the UK).
Impact = the outcome, not the activity.
Ethical business practices = the behaviours underneath it all (how decisions get made when nobody’s watching).

My take:
If you’re changing the label to avoid noise, fine.
If you’re changing the label to avoid accountability, you’re storing up risk.

Because the market hasn’t stopped caring — it’s just got less tolerant of vague claims and more focused on evidence. Even with the backlash, research is pointing to “quiet continuation” rather than a full retreat.  

Sustainable + ethical business isn’t a comms strategy.
It’s how you build an organisation that lasts:
more trust, more resilience, fewer surprises, better retention, stronger licence to operate.

So yes — language matters.
But delivery matters more.

If you can’t explain what you measure, what you’re committing to, and how you’ll prove progress…
it doesn’t matter what you call it. Doing good will always matter. 

This is exactly why we’re building ImpactOS.

To turn whatever language your organisation is using (ESG, sustainability, social value, impact) into the same three things:
	1.	Clear evidence you can trust
	2.	Commitments you can actually manage
	3.	Delivery you can prove — continuously, not once a year

If you’re rebranding the words, fine.
Let’s make sure the substance gets stronger, not softer.

Imagine a world where your sustainability, social value and supply chain evidence lives in one place — always up to date, mapped to frameworks that decide tenders and define audits.

Well no need to imagine any more. It’s time to officially unveil our latest release at ImpactOS. 

Our team has had the great privilege the past year of getting to know better both our customers who supply the UK public sector and many dedicated social value professionals who are leading their organisations’ delivery of outcomes.

Their daily workflows. Their biggest pain points. Their visions for the future.

Building ImpactOS has been a real team effort, with our early adopters helping refine the solution that will help transform social impact programmes and their outcomes.

Today we are very excited to go live with our latest solution, starting to serve some  world-leading organisations, and help guide the process of putting social value on a more equal footing to financial results.

Up until now, institutional challenges have impeded many social value initiatives. Disorganised, disconnected data and manual entry keep programmes in sustainability, wellbeing & safety, supply chain ethics and community involvement from hitting their goals and, increasingly, meeting regulations – risking lost contract bids, audits, financial clawbacks and reputational damage along the way.

At ImpactOS we’ve found a way to capture the data that teams need in whatever format it’s currently in, guided by the latest regulatory frameworks and standards around the UK and allow for immediate discovery and goal-setting using intuitive AI-powered automations. Making the process – from policy to procurement and proof – immeasurably easier, and with far better results: focused on outcomes delivered, not just good intentions.

Using ImpactOS, bid writing, social responsibility and sustainability teams – at law firms, services providers, healthcare, property and much more – can prove ethical business practices with maximum accuracy while giving human employees back invaluable time.

Consider it your new “social value engine” helping accelerate and prove your social value outcomes The outcomes that will keep your business compliant, winning public sector - and other social value-focused businesses - bids and scoring higher with talent attraction, marketing, investor relations and positive press. 

And - critically - knowing you’re doing good in the world, beyond just making a profit. 🏆

If you’re drowning in impact data that should make sense but doesn’t, missing your competitive edge with contract bids and losing employee productivity to too many spreadsheets and templates, or just don’t even know where to start, get in touch at the link in the comments to take ImpactOS for a spin.

Right then, let’s get cracking. 🍻

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The Battle

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