Dominic McGregor

Fearless Adventures

We invest in and support entrepreneur-led businesses with our expertise in growth strategy and talent acquisition. 

Those who travel together, travel further.

Portfolio:

Shipster
Pinter
Pets Purset
Swim Society
WalkSafe
Friendly Chemical Company 
Foudys
And growing 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

Email: Dom@FearlessAdventures.co.uk

Founding Partner

Foudys: Retail Company of The Year 2022

Investor

xUnlocked

Basecamp | Formerly The Fearless Academy 

Founder

The Friendly Chemical Co.

Pets Purest | Natural Pet Care

Shipster

Illuma

Patchwork Health

Transreport

Media & press  👉  whitney@dommcgregor.com
Work Email 👉 Dom@fearlessadventures.co.uk 
Investment 👉 Dom@fearlessadventures.co.uk

Founding Partner at Fearless Adventures.

Founder and ex-COO at Social Chain.

From dropping out of University to taking Social Chain to the public markets in 6 years, Dom has years of experience in navigating the challenges that come with building and scaling a successful business.

Dom listed Social Chain @ £300m valuation in August 2019 after founding the business with Steven Bartlett in 2013.

Dom then founded Fearless Adventures alongside partners David Newns and Charlie Yates to invest in and drive growth in leading entrepreneur-led e-commerce businesses.

A mental health advocate, Dom is passionate about using not only his capital, but his first-hand experiences to support founders on their journeys to the peaks of success.

In 2024 Dom published his debut book “I’m Never Drinking Again”

Always happy to have a chat, so if you're looking for investment, please drop me a message.

I have written my first book 📖 

This is a real pinch me moment.

Being dyslexic and struggling my entire life at English and writing this has been a huge personal
achievement for myself.

What is even crazier is that the book is now stocked in WHSmith & Waterstones for pre orders.

What is the book about?

We’ve all woken up at some point and said “I’m never drinking again” this has become something embedded in culture.

But what happens when you actually never drink again. 

I explore through my own and others experiences what life is like after following through with “I’m never drinking again”.

Designed to give insight into how to changing your relationship, by stopping, or cutting down alcohol can have a positive impact on your life. 

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing “thank yous” to people who have helped inspire the book and contributed to its production.

Pre Orders Available Now: 

https://lnkd.in/e8pQWsAq

The book is released on the 23rd of May.

Thank you Nick Entwistle for the cover design

2019: Anya Culling ran the London Marathon (her first-ever marathon!) with a time of 4hrs 34 minutes… the 7546th woman to cross the finish line

2022: Anya Culling ran the London Marathon with a time of 2hrs 36 minutes

2024: Anya Culling ran the London Marathon in the Elite category… the 16th woman to cross the finish line

I saw this story by Clair Heaviside and it really inspired me.

Whenever you start something new, you have to expect a learning curve - at first you aren’t very good.

To become great at something you have to have a period where you suck at it.

Everyone who’s achieved something incredible has spent a lot of time been very average or really bad to be able to become great.

I hope this is motivation to everyone out there.

Today was the first time in 5 years that I did the drive from my house to Manchester for a 9am meeting.

For context, at SocialChain I made this almost everyday for 6 years. 

1 hour, 15 miles, largely spent stuck in traffic . 

A real waste of time.

It made me really reflect on all the time I've spent stuck on the A34 and how inefficient that was.

This is part of the reason why Fearless Adventures office is located in Wilmslow, as it's one of the best places to commute - giving us a much wider talent pool to tap into. 

But it also made me view how effective and impactful working from home can be, if done correctly.

I found myself getting wound up at the traffic (who doesn't) and putting me in a grumpy mood to start my week off.

My advice - anything over 30 minute commute is hell. 

Thoughts?

If the UK joined the United States of America and became the 52nd state, where do you think we’d rank in terms of GDP and standard of living. 

Dead last.

We’d be the poorest state. 

Below Mississippi which is basically just a swamp.

This blew my mind. 

Great Britain is no more.

On the world stage, we are struggling to have a standard of living to match others.

We need to change this.

There needs to be a radical overhaul of the UK and fast. 


Freelancers are Founders as well👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

We have hosted a number of events targeting the founder the community. 

In doing so, we noticed something significant. A lot of Freelancers didn't think they could attend.

This blew my mind, as I have always viewed Freelancers are enterpenuers who are running a business.

There are 1.89 million freelancers in the UK. Each one of them is running their own company - yet do not call themselves a founder.

They face all the same challenges and a lot of incredible companies have grown from individuals starting out freelancing.

So to every Freelancer out there, don't under sell yourself. 

We are always looking to work with great founders (freelancers 😉) so tag one below 👇🏼

Alcohol steals your future joy. 

James Cordon explains what alcohol does…

And it so true.

Today is National Colleague Appreciation Day! 

(It's not - I made that up) It's actually National Phoebe Dayyyy! 🙌 

Phoebe Bracken was the first ever person to join the Basecamp Skills team...she is the OG, the 🐐 

Looking back and reminiscing to Summer 2022 before we launched, Phoebe and I worked together to get our business up and running...she has donned LOADS of hats, from classroom facilitator based in Liverpool, to automations Queen, Spreadsheet warrior, Student Mentor and Hubspot aficionado! 

She has been with us since day ONE, has seen the best of us and the worst of us (well mainly me) in those tricky days pre and post our launch, in the days when we were overstretched beyond belief. 

We both often chat and thankfully laugh about those first few months, how we managed to drag (kicking and screaming) this wonderful business over the line and look back in wonder over the amazing things we have achieved.

She is an all round good 🥚 and soon starts her Women in Leadership Apprenticeship to continue to do great things.

It's also her Birthday today 🎂 and is off to celebrate over the bank holiday, what a woman! Thank YOU! 


Last week, I was lucky enough to tell the world that I've been writing a book for the last year.

As someone who never imagined this happening to them, it still doesn't feel real.

Here are some things that have happened since:

1) On Saturday night, I bumped into an old friend who told me that they have gone sober since seeing some of my posts on here and can't wait to read the book.

2) My Granny, she's 90, asked me for a signed copy. She says she hasn't read a "proper" book in almost 10 years but is going to "try" to read this.

3) My old English teacher messaged me on Facebook to make sure that I got it spell-checked as they remember how bad my spelling was.

4) I have felt inspired more than ever to create content around the power of Changing Your Relationship with Alcohol. After almost 8 years of not drinking, I've forgotten at times how important the message is for others.

5) I've been planning 2 launch events in both Manchester & London.


This morning, I was on the news talking about whether alcohol should be banned, like smoking.

I said, 'No.'

People are free to choose what they do and what they consume. We don't live in a 'Nanny State.'

But I do think we need to look at the marketing of alcohol and how exposed we are constantly to drink.

You are 47% more likely to become alcohol dependent by 21 if you drank before 15 years old.

Alcohol dependency is an illness you sleepwalk into and it starts much earlier than you would believe.

Danny Murphy has opened up about being addicted to to cocaine after he retired from football. 

The former Liverpool player who is now a BBC pundit bravely discussed the problems he faced in his life after his career ended.

As someone who has experienced addiction he’s so brave to open up about these issues.

The stories feel a lot more common now, which I think is down to more people having the courage to open up - in doing so this helps other people in the future. 

Alcohol & Drugs ruin lives faster than you think, you think you’re in control of your use but the truth is, they control you. 

Danny, I’m sorry you had to go through this difficult time and I hope it’s made you stronger.

I’ve been sober almost 8 years now.

John Mayer does an incredible job describing what it is like giving up alcohol.

Give it a listen and let me know your thoughts

This is the next Chairmen of John Lewis & Partners.

What impresses me about Jason Tarry, the most, is that he spent his entire career at Tesco.

Joining in 1990 on the businesses graduate training programme. He worked his way up to become Chief Commercial Officer of the business

These days, a lot of people think getting to the process in their career you've got to "jump ship" and change companies to move forward. 

Jason Tarry has only worked for one company before now moving to John Lewis. 

This is a really important message for those starting out their career and counters some of the advice I've seen on this platform. Loyalty can be repaid. 

This week on by Northern Business Showcase 92 Degrees - The coffee industry is booming and my friend Jack Brewitt alongside business partner Gerard Bowers-McIntyre have seized the opportunity to scale.

Founded in Liverpool and quickly expanding nationally.

Read about their journey 👇🏼

Dominic McGregor on LinkedIn • 3 min read

Liquid Gold: 92 Degrees Coffee - Northern Business Showcase

Another day, another train strike. 

Across the weekend a vast number of journeys will be cancelled.

People won't be able to get into work, to meetings, to see friends or family perhaps some of the situations are critical. 

Train companies and the government say the offer rejected by Aslef (union)
would take average train driver pay to £65,000.

For context U.K average salary in c£29,000. 

There are so many issues with the train networks at the moment, delayed services, high cancellation rates and constant Union actions over the last few years which have caused too much disruption for the average person to continue to support these strikes.  

Every business needs a seriously good strategy for talent identification and talent development.

All a company is, ultimately is a group of people who come together under a shared mission.

The recruitment market is tough, finding good talent is a competitive advantage.

This is exactly what we do with Basecamp Skills.

So far we have hired 5 people directly from our programme. 

Jo Alonso - A incredible talented individual who is now a mentor on the programme. 

Jesu Jeyasam Anandan - Leading our recruitment for new people onto the programme. 

Tor Pearce - Working on our partnership programme helping the rest of the Basecamp alumni into jobs.

Nayar P. - A true all round who is doing the marketing for Basecamp and also a phenomenal mentor. 

Tinaz Mehta - Working on a freelance basis with us, helping us make our course as neurodivergent friendly as possible.

It's the best interview process because you spend 12 weeks getting to know the individual before been able to offer them a job.

Not only will Basecamp Skills close the digital skills gap in the UK - it will make our own recruitment process so much more impactful.


The Holiday That Changed My Life.

When Jennifer Atkinson told me about this concept I was very excited.

Holidays are so powerful, but also can change your direction in life.

That happened for me.

In 2015, I was caught up in the Paris terrorist attacks. This accelerated my alcohol dependency and lead me on a destructive path.

This is one of the first time I’ve spoken about the details of that night.

Great work by the Travel Seen Limited  team and Christopher Maguire 

Listen below 👇🏼

Part of our mission at Fearless Adventures is to support founders on their journey scaling their company.

This support takes many shapes; we invest in companies, help companies find amazing talent, and advise founders on their next steps.

One of the underrated ways you can help founders is by building connections and a community of like-minded individuals.

So, part of our strategy is to bring founders from all backgrounds together in networking settings to meet other founders who might be going through similar things that they are experiencing.

Next Monday (22nd), we are hosting the next in our series of networking events hosted by COLONY in Manchester.

📅 Date: Monday, 22nd April

🕘 Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

📍 Location: Colony Fabrica, 269 Great Ancoats Street, M4 7DB, Manchester


Today Taylor swift dropped a new album.

In the first song on the album she reveals after a brutal break up she became a “functioning alcoholic”

This is so important to highlight. 

This is what alcohol can do to you, one minute you think you can have your life in control but you’re never a few steps away from trama occurring.

A break up, losing a job or something else can lead you to self medicate without even realising. 

Taylor is my favourite singer and to hear her talk about issue with alcohol - despite everything she’s achieved, should inspire anyone to see how dangerous alcohol can be.

Introducing Veo (Veo.world)

On the mission to driving sustainable production and consumption of products.

Joe Darwen has founded an incredible company already at 4.9m gross revenue and completing an acquisition. 

Find out more below: 👇🏼

Dominic McGregor on LinkedIn • 2 min read

Northern Business Showcase: Week 9

People always ask me: "Did you lose any of your friends when you stopped drinking?"

For years, I answered - "No, they all really supported me."

Which was true for the beginning, but as life goes on when you're not drinking, you pick up different, healthier ways to spend time.

This leads to a schism between yourself and the people you used to hang around with.

Sobriety leads you on a route of self-development, prioritizing your health, professional life, and therefore spending energy in environments which are more rewarding than drinking.

Almost 8 years into my journey, I have lost friends, but I believe this is for the better - those people were drinking buddies and unfortunately, our values no longer align.

I chose to prioritize my future and stop a self-destructive trait, and the truth is, those that stuck by and supported me, and new people I've met, have led to deeper, more meaningful relationships.

Taplio

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