Joshua Elliott's Linkedin Analytics

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.