Breakthrough Social Enterprise

Transform Justice

Board Trustee

3T Collective

Founding Community Member

Beam

Justice Partnerships

Year Here

Social Innovation Fellow

Flickto

Creating the processes and systems for media projects success from submission to distribution. 
Managing and leading on outreach to the wider community, influencers, celebrities and industry leaders. 
Developing the affiliate and partnerships programme to provide an opportunity for prominent individuals within the media and film industries to support the Flickto project. 
Creating and delivering education initiatives to help improve adoption and uptake of the project. 
Providing long-term strategic direction and the development of alternative revenue streams for the project.
Achieved an ISPO of 51 Million ADA at its peak
3 Successful IDO Raises
Over 20,000 followers across platforms
Scaled from 3 to 32 employees

Head Of Business Development & Strategy

Trio Marketing

Tomorrow's creative agency.

https://trio.ventures/

Director Of Business Development

NHS Blood and Transplant

Marketing and Campaigns Manager 

PENAL REFORM SOLUTIONS LIMITED

Collecting data to perform needs analysis within prison reform organisations. 

To develop evidence-based recommendations for these organisations to follow in their day to day operations and with a long-term view in mind. Providing reports and proposals to improve processes and innovate products/services. 

Creating services and programmes for delivery within prison reform, offender populations and to help improve BAME access to professional and entrepreneurial pursuits.

Enterprise Strategy Consultant

Ensuring continuity care for care homes and the frailty cohort within the Primary Care Network. 

Responsible for the delivery of comprehensive model to reflect local priorities, health inequalities or population health management risk stratification. 

Undertaking population health projects and reporting within the Primary Care Network. 

Clinical and non-clinical duties in line with the primary care practices' needs.

Primary Care Network Care Coordinator 

Prison to Purpose | Justice Partnerships @ Beam

From Medical Student to Convicted Drug Dealer to CEO of Breakthrough Social Enterprise – it’s been a remarkable journey over the past decade.

These experiences have taught me about society, human nature, and life’s diverse pathways. I consider myself one of the fortunate ones. 

After my release from prison, I returned home, went to university, and took part-time jobs to sustain myself.

Many of my peers weren’t as lucky, returning to unstable environments with limited options. During a walk, a friend I met in prison remarked, "You went from medical school to the school of life." 

That phrase stayed with me, capturing the essence of my journey.

Prison was a defining experience, where I met talented, charismatic, and ambitious people. Yet, I questioned why their exceptional abilities couldn't break the cycle of crime. 

The answer was clear: poverty and trauma.

These challenges permeate our criminal justice system, present in police stations, courts, and prisons across the nation. My mission, and the work we do at Breakthrough, is to alleviate the burden of poverty and trauma on society.

Breakthrough focuses on preparing people for future industries, particularly AI and technology, creating pathways for those often overlooked to access internet-based careers. 

We believe in a compassionate, inclusive, and safer society that tackles crime at its roots by addressing poverty and trauma.

Our programmes equip people with the skills to thrive in the digital age, ensuring they’re not left behind. We lead with purpose, passion, and a commitment to transforming lives by preparing people today for the technologies of tomorrow. 

Through our work, we aspire to redefine how society perceives, supports, and integrates those who have faced adversity, creating a future where everyone has the chance to build a sustainable, fulfilling life.

I met Santan Dave (!)

At the risk of sounding corny, I’ll say it didn’t feel like we were meeting for the first time. Even though he’s one of my idols and I was half-nervous, half-in awe — there was an immediate connection…

Most people know Dave for his music, but what they don’t always see is the man behind it:

– Loyal to his roots.
– Driven by purpose.
– Using his voice to speak for those who’ve been overlooked or written off by the justice system.

When Dave was just 17, his older brother Christopher was sentenced to life in prison for a fatal incident that changed both their lives forever.

That experience shaped much of the empathy and awareness you hear in his music today – the way he speaks about justice, redemption, and responsibility.

And what’s even more powerful is seeing how his brother, from within that system, has been working to turn his life around – studying, writing, mentoring others.

Even his sentence has since been reduced because of the progress he’s made…proving that even in the darkest places, change is possible when someone believes they’re still worth saving.

That’s what we share in common.

The belief that people can change – if given the right chance, the right support, and the right purpose.

Big respect for the man, and for what he stands for.

Sobanan Narenthiran

From prison to global impact, I help the forgotten thrive in the future economy and write on justice, tech & transformation.

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5 years ago, I was stacking boxes at Tesco.

Picking up overnight shifts just to keep the lights on.

Now?

I run a 7-figure company.

We’ve built rehabilitation and skills programmes that governments and councils actually use.

And I spend my days trying to give people on the edges of society a second chance in life.

Some people start a business for:

– Status and spotlight
– Recognition in glossy magazines
– The idea of being a “founder”

Not me.

I started mine…

To build something that outlives me.
To give people who’ve been written off a way back in.
To make my family proud again.

Back then, my biggest anxieties weren’t about scaling or metrics.

They were simpler.

“Which item can I actually afford to take home?”
“Can I cover rent this week?”
“Will I make it through another shift?”

My “office” was my childhood bedroom.
Dinner was instant noodles most nights.
A good day was one where I wasn’t drowning in debt or doubt.

Am I ashamed?

No.

Because that’s where I learned the lessons I still lean on today:

Patience. Responsibility. Breathing through the chaos.
So if you’re in that place right now…

Just trying to survive…

It doesn’t last forever.

And even if you don’t believe in yourself yet –

I believe in you.

Last week, I went to the launch of “The Merrittocracy” – a social change agency created in memory of Jack Merritt.

Jack lost his life in the 2019 London Bridge attack during a prisoner rehabilitation event where he was mentoring and supporting people rebuilding their lives after prison.

Two of Jack’s friends, Laura Suggitt and Lewis Taylor, have built “The Merrittocracy” to continue what he started – a place that believes in fairness, in rehabilitation, and in designing systems that don’t give up on people who’ve been written off by society.

The event was filled with people who carried Jack’s story - his friends, colleagues, and those whose lives had been touched by his work.

Santan Dave, the rap legend known for his socially conscious storytelling, was there too…honouring the man who once helped his family through the justice system and changed the course of his life.

It was an honour to be there…to stand among people continuing what he started, and to feel how one life, lived with purpose, can ripple far beyond its time.

My parents: “Sobanan, go to university. It’s the safer option.”
Me: “No, I need to build my own business.”

My lecturers: “Stay in academics. Use your student loan properly.”
Me: “No, I’ll take the risk instead.”

It wasn't rebellion.

I love my parents. I know their words came from love.

But I could hear the fear behind them.

They had lived instability so they wanted me to avoid it at all costs. 

And my lecturers? They believed in the safety of textbooks because that was the world they knew.

But advice often carries the shadows of someone else’s past.

Their fears. Their failures. Their ceilings.

If I had carried all of that as my own, I’d still be stacking shelves at Tesco.

Another night shift, counting hours under the fluorescent lights, convincing myself stability was enough.

Waiting for someone else to tell me it was my turn.

I didn’t go through prison, debt, and nights wondering if I’d ever make it out… just to live small.

(That would’ve been a real waste).

Back then, I made a choice:

– To stop letting fear – mine or theirs – set the limits of my life
– To stop mistaking “safe” for “fulfilling”
– To stop waiting for permission and trust the pull I felt inside

I took responsibility.

So if my life stayed stuck, that was on me.

And if it grew into something better, then I could say:

“At least I didn’t settle for less.”

Here’s what I’ve learned since:

1) Don’t take advice from people who’ve never stood where you stood.

It’s easy to speak from comfort. But survival teaches you lessons no classroom ever can.

If someone hasn’t carried that weight, their judgment can’t be your compass.

2) Stop trying to make people comfortable with your choices.

Some will always prefer you frozen in your past.
That’s their discomfort, not yours.
Don’t shrink your growth just so someone else can sit easier with it.

3) Chase progress over people’s approval.

Failure, rejection, stigma – I’ve seen all of it.
But none of it weighs as heavy as regret.

So if the choice is:

a) Do what you love and be misunderstood
b) Stay safe and resent it

I’ll take the misunderstanding.

Because not everyone has lived my life.

Not everyone has carried what I’ve carried.

And not everyone can see the path I see.

The final choice should always be mine.

Forbes said AI could replace 300M+ jobs by 2030.

You’ll need 2 skills to survive what’s coming.

I’ll get straight to the point here:

1/ Knowing how to learn
2/ Mental liquidity

Here’s why…

I’ve seen how quickly people get treated as expendable.

In prisons.
In workplaces.
Even in government systems.

If your only defence is a job title or a qualification, you’re vulnerable.

Because when conditions change, those things don’t protect you.

What does? The ability to adapt faster than the system around you.

1/ Knowing how to learn

The people who’ll survive the next decade aren’t the ones with the longest CVs.

They’re the ones who can pick up a new tool, a new skill, or a new way of working quickly.

They lean in when they can see something shifting in.

2/ Mental liquidity

I got this phrase from Steven Bartlett.

It’s the ability to change your mind without clinging to an old identity.

Most people panic when the ground shifts…but if you can stay calm, drop an old belief, and pivot fast, you’ll stay ahead.

Here’s what I’ve been doing to build both.

You should too.

For learning:

– Write every day (forces you to think clearly)
– Experiment with AI tools instead of fearing them
– Test ideas in small, low-risk ways

For mental liquidity:

– Ask “what if I’m wrong?” more often
– Surround yourself with people who challenge your thinking
– Don’t attach your worth to one role, one title, or one plan

Because adaptability is what keeps you alive when everything else shifts.

There’s a concept called wu wei I came across in the Dao de Jing.

It means effortless action – moving with the tide instead of exhausting yourself fighting against it.

That’ll put you ahead of most people in your field.

It doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means not wasting energy resisting what’s already happening.

Einstein said if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life thinking it’s stupid.

That’s what resistance does to us.

It makes us fight battles we were never meant to win.

AI is exposing how fragile we’ve made people’s lives.

Adaptability – wu wei in practice –  is the best defence in the face of this generational transformation.

I want every classroom on the planet to teach “love”.

It is the only subject that teaches us how to be human. 

We are never taught the difference. 

As a society, we’re great at liking people.

But love is different…

Love is choosing to nurture…to stay when it’s difficult…to create space for someone to grow into themselves.

When I was in prison, I saw men who’d never been given that space.

People labelled “difficult” or “dangerous” who were, at their core, just hurt.

They didn’t need more punishment.

They needed someone to see them, to water them.

That’s why I believe schools should carve out space to teach love.

The line I always come back to remember bringing love into everything you do:

To like a flower is to pick it, but to love a flower is to water it.

I never thought I’d see the day my father looked to me for courage but I guess…it comes for all of us. 

I spent last week in Antalya with my dad. 

It felt strange, almost disorienting, to see him step into experiences I’d had years ago.

At the shooting range, I watched him line up his shot. His hands stiff at first, then loosening with each round, the echo of the bullet bouncing off the hills. A boyish grin spread across his face, the kind you don’t often see from a man who spent his life working nights and double shifts.

And then scuba diving. My first time too…The water swallowed us quickly…the silence so loud it almost hurt. I panicked straight away. My chest tightened, my brain screaming you can’t breathe down here. 

Next to me, my dad was moving through the same fears. Heavy gear on his back. Eyes darting left and right. Trusting the process. Trusting me to steady him when needed. 

That was the moment it hit me.
 
At some point, the roles reverse. The hands that once held us steady begin to tremble. The voices that once calmed our fears look to us for reassurance. The strength we thought was unshakable leans quietly on ours.

In those moments, our duty is to simply return what was given. To be the steady ones now. To hold the weight with the same patience they once held us.

P.S: My dad is not one for pictures - but he is the photographer behind all these pictures on our trip to Antalya.

How leadership is framed: What can you take from others?
What leadership really is: What can you give so the people around you can stand a little taller?

I learned that lesson in prison…watching how people carried themselves on the wing.

When tensions rose, the ones with real authority didn’t just boss around; they paused to notice what others often overlooked…

They would slide half their meal to someone who hadn’t eaten.

They’d step in before a fight sparked off…

They would sit and listen when another man’s head was gone.

There was nothing in it for them, but they still did it…

Because they felt a sense of responsibility for the people around them.

That’s what leadership looked like when it was stripped bare.

And once you’ve seen it in that environment, it’s hard to look at the boardroom leaders the same way again.

If the CEO of a social enterprise that operates in 40+ countries, backed by IBM and the UN, isn’t considered “the right fit”… what does that say about who is?

It’s a reminder of how closed these conversations still are.

The people shaping the future of AI often look and sound a lot like the people who shaped the systems we’re already trying to fix.

When the same gatekeeping gets replicated in AI, we end up with the same results: privilege in, everyone else out.

If AI is to be truly inclusive, then the rooms deciding its future can’t stay this narrow.

That’s why we need more courses, more spaces, and more platforms built differently. Because the future won’t be designed in gated communities. It will be built in open ones.

(Hint hint: that’s what we’re working on.)

Shoutout BlueDot Impact

After months of running my own thoughts through AI and watching the patterns it reflected, I realised there are better ways to use it...

Here are the 3 unique ways we use AI in Breakthrough.

3 unique ways we use AI in Breakthrough.

Every graduate should learn this before they touch Excel or PowerPoint:

Metacognition.

Because our thinking shapes our lives in ways we rarely see.

One day you’ll wake up at 60, and the life around you will be the sum of how you’ve been perceiving the world all along.

Yet schools keep teaching trigonometry and essay structures when most people will never use them again.

What every human being will use is their mind, so why don’t we teach people how it works?

For me, the entry point was simple: stream-of-consciousness journaling.

Write what comes into your head. Then step back and ask: Why did I say that? Why do I think this?

Feel comfortable enough to share your thoughts with strangers and watch how they respond.
That reflection shows you blind spots no textbook ever will.

Math, science, and English will always have their place.

But if we replaced them with lessons on metacognition, relationships, and health, we’d be teaching the real foundations of a human life.

P.S. After a lot of trial and error, I’ve found a prompt that does something I’ve never managed on my own. It pulls out the fears I don’t have the courage to say out loud…The loops I don’t notice I’m stuck in, and the blind spots I keep carrying without meaning to. If you want to try it yourself, the prompt is here in the screenshot.

Most people think tech is for the privileged. Here’s what I learned teaching it in a prison wing.

When technology showed up inside, the first reaction was fear.

Officers worried about addiction.

People on the wing worried it would just be another way to waste time.

The solution was always the same: ban it.

But banning a tool doesn’t remove the need. It just keeps people locked out of a world they’ll have to face the moment they’re released.

So I tried something different.

Instead of standing at the front of the room explaining apps or systems, I set up an AI and let people talk to it directly.

The first responses were cautious — jokes, throwaway questions, but within thirty minutes, the tone shifted.

Someone asked how to write a CV….another asked about starting a business. You could see the curiosity opening up.

For the first time, the computer was a tool.

And once someone sees technology as a tool (not a trap), the whole relationship dynamic changes.

It moves from fear and addiction to curiosity and possibility, which is where its potential lies.

I see some stupid shit in this country.

These are the 3 worst stats I’ve seen recently. The Elitist Britain 2025 report shows just how deep inequality runs at the top today:

– 37% of FTSE 100 CEOs and 68% of FTSE chairs went to private schools.
– 75% of senior judges studied at Oxford or Cambridge: versus just 1% of the population.
– 52% of the House of Lords are privately educated. For hereditary peers, it’s 95%.

I know what a pipeline looks like.

I saw one in prison – where young men from the same estates kept being fed through the same revolving door.

And this is the mirror image in reverse: a pipeline from private schools straight into power.

That system fuels the polarisation we live with today.

Because when your “experts” all come from the same bubble, they don’t represent the rest of us.

At 17, Oxford and Cambridge asked me to apply. I refused.

Why? Because no one there looked like me.
No one there sounded like me.
No one there had lived a life like me. 

People thought I was mad to turn it down, but forcing myself to assimilate would have been far more suffocating.

The blessing is that new money, new tech, and new systems are already poking holes in the old elite pathways.

Oxford now has contracts with OpenAI.

The idea that you need to contort yourself just to fit in is dying.

But don’t mistake slow movement for real change.

The judiciary is tech-averse, overloaded with backlogs, still clinging to rituals that no longer work.

The same can be said of medicine.

These professions carry weight, but they aren’t safe from disruption.

A flood is coming – in one direction or the other.

The only question is whether we let the old system drag us back, or whether we design something more open, more human, and more fit for the future.

In Britain, school rules exist to manufacture corporate robots, not free thinkers.

Looking back, some of them feel absurd.

Standing in freezing fields in shorts and vests for PE.

Forced into awkward runs that felt more like humiliation than exercise.

Arbitrary punishments for being late, or for asking the wrong question.

Rules that chipped away at self-worth.

They were effective I guess…but not at building confidence or creativity…but at teaching compliance.

That’s what the system needed.

Workers who followed instructions without question. Students who memorised answers and passed tests.

Not young people encouraged to think differently.

But I’ve seen what happens when you flip the script: kids do extraordinary things like eight-year-olds starting businesses because they’re given room to test ideas, fail, and try again.

The ideal school would value that…shape education around a child’s natural strengths instead of forcing them into conformity.

Because every child carries something unique.

The real question is whether our schools nurture it – or suppress it.

In the age of AI, it’s never been easier to automate reach, but that makes it even easier to lose your reason.

A purpose-led brand starts with the questions AI can’t answer for you.

– What do you stand for when the noise gets louder?
– Who are you serving beyond just a customer profile?
– What values hold steady, even when the tools change every quarter?

That’s the work we’ll be doing together in a 2-day live course: “Building a Purpose-Led Brand in the Age of AI”.

The first cohort runs on October 2nd & 5th. 

Here’s what you’ll leave with:

– Defining your core narrative: We’ll help you craft a story rooted in your lived experience that aligns with your mission, audience, and vision.

– Identifying your language, tone, and pillars: Find the messaging that sets you apart in a crowded digital space.

– Building a scalable content and brand strategy: Connect your values to market-relevant visibility and growth.

– Learning how to activate your brand: Use platforms, offers, and messaging systems that work in an AI-powered world.

It’s practical, reflective, and designed to help you build something that lasts.

The cost is £99, with a full refund if you don’t get value.

If this feels like your kind of beat, here is the link to sign up: https://lnkd.in/euEJvNAW

This is the biggest mistake I see people making with AI.

They expect good outputs from it without supplying it their own context.

Over 190 million people use ChatGPT every single day…but most still don’t know how to get the most out of it so they throw in a few vague lines and hope it does the work for them. But AI is only as good as the context you feed it. 

If the input is generic, the output will be too. 

After a lot of trial and error, here’s what I do to get the best results from AI:

(1) Speak out loud.

Record 5–10 minutes about your problem, your audience, and the outcome you want.

(2) State your stance.

Tell the model the values that matter most to you. For example: “I want to show how lived experience is a form of domain expertise. Keep the tone grounded and human-first. Don’t use political jargon. 

Draft 400 words that explain why people at the edges are best placed to redesign systems, and give me three title options.”

(3) Set guardrails.

Add boundaries for tone, privacy, and what not to do. Be specific and say exactly what format, length, and deliverable you want next.

Here’s a simple template you can copy into your prompts:

– State who you are and who this is for
– Describe your stance and what to emphasise
– Add guardrails (tone, privacy, “don’ts”)
– Set constraints (length, format, voice)
– Specify the deliverable

Until AI memory can reliably hold your details, you are responsible for supplying them. So feed the model your story (no need to include super personal info) and you’ll turn generic outputs into work that actually sounds just like you.

Thinking of someone that could benefit from this? Share it with them – because by recording yourself, anyone can use it.

Growth is exciting…

Until you lose sight of your purpose.

Take the story of Patagonia. In 2022, founder Yvon Chouinard gave the company away rather than let it drift into the consumerism it was built to resist.

Today, it generates $1 billion in revenue and $100M in profit, proof that when purpose leads, profit follows.

It also echoes Jim Collins in Built to Last:

“Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed, while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt.”

Because growth should mean more than getting bigger… it should mean getting clearer on your “why.”

And protecting the heart that made you start in the first place.

A few ways to keep that heart alive as you scale:

1. Start every decision with why
➝ If it doesn’t align with your purpose, it’s the wrong move.

2. Keep the human in every room
➝ Every choice affects someone, know who and how.

3. Build habits that keep your purpose close
➝ Revisit it in stories, reflections, and small daily actions.

4. Build systems that back your purpose
➝ Write purpose into how you hire, plan, and measure success.

Because here’s the truth:

The bigger the numbers get, the easier it is to forget what you built.

Founders end up rich on paper but empty inside.

Purpose gets buried under the weight of growth.

And if you’re not careful, you wake up one day and realise the thing that was meant to give you freedom has become the thing you now serve.

P.S. How do you make sure the heart of your business stays protected as you grow?

Purpose - and how to keep it alive in business

People like to paint Mark Zuckerberg as an evil genius.

But he is only a byproduct of a Silicon Valley growth-at-all-costs system that rewards scale over humanity.

We turn leaders into characters because it makes them easier to understand.

Zuckerberg becomes the villain.

Simon Sinek becomes the guru.

Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard became a saint.

But the truth is, personality doesn’t explain why they endure…systems do.

At Google, leadership wasn’t left to one founder’s aura. Decisions were spread across teams, culture reinforced by design, and humility became a system-wide expectation.

At Patagonia, stewardship wasn’t just rhetoric. It was baked into governance…from the way supply chains were managed to the legal structure that allowed Yvon Chouinard to give the company away in service of the planet.

And Zuckerberg? He reflects the system Silicon Valley built: venture capital that rewards growth at all costs, corporate governance that prizes shareholder returns over public good, and a culture that turns scale into the only measure of success.

So when people call him an evil genius, they miss the point. He isn’t an outlier. He’s the inevitable product of a system designed this way.

And that leaves us with the real question: Do we keep building systems that elevate power for the few or do we design ones that let leadership rise from everywhere – rooted in service, grounded in humanity, built to last?

Does your brand have what it takes to survive the AI era?

If that question makes you pause… you’re not alone.

Every day, a new brand launches.

The market feels more saturated than ever.

And with so much noise, it’s harder than ever to stand out.

That’s exactly why I built “How to Build a Purposeful Brand in the Age of AI.”

It’s the framework I wish I had when I was starting out.

A way to cut through the noise, root your brand on purpose, and create something people remember.

This is the last call to join the course before we start.

Once the cohort begins, doors close completely. 

Here is the link to apply: https://lnkd.in/em9na5Si] 

P.S. 20% discount for anyone who applies through this link. Grab your spot asap before the door closes!

Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, one of the leading voices on AI ethics, always stresses designing AI with humanity at the centre, and that is the exact principle we built Breakthrough on.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

– Community first. 

Our programmes are shaped with the people who’ll use them (from prison wings to probation services).

– Representation matters. 

Most “AI ethics” efforts are led by the same industry voices who built the systems. We involve the global majority — voices outside the West, people who have been overlooked, those most impacted by technology.

– Transparency at the core. 

Our approach is open, auditable, and accountable. Technology isn’t a black box. It should be a public good like clean water or breathable air.

– Recognising dependencies. 

AI isn’t separate from society. It’s woven into how we live, learn, and heal. Done right, it can function like a homeostatic force — regulating, balancing, keeping the world more vibrant.

That’s how we think about human-centred AI in Breakthrough.

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