Meet the filmmaker who had an arrow aimed at his crew in the Amazon, then inherited a business he never asked for. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary.

"This young lad with his shirt off, with a bow and arrow, pulls it tight and aims it at Gus's head. And at that point, Charlie grabs the camera, yanks it down: 'Look behind you, mate. We need to get out of here.'"

That's how this episode opens. It's one chapter in one of the most winding routes to running a business we've ever heard.

Adam Laister was told to study something with a fallback because his parents didn't think he'd make it in photography. He failed at a sales job, tried to sell surf photos to tourists in Morocco until the locals ran him off the beach, ended up as an extra in American Sniper, and broke his leg two days before Christmas. Then a friend asked if he'd ever thought about being a runner. Seven years at Bristol's Icon Films took him from making teas to filming hippos fighting in Malawi, and on to shoots for Vice and National Geographic.

When the TV industry shrank, he co-founded Purpose Built Films to tell the stories that never make the main edit. A month after Adam was made a director, his business partner took a new job and left. The company was suddenly his.

In this episode, Adam talks about the Amazon roadblock that ended with his kit smashed and set on fire, losing his dad while filming in the Guyanese jungle, why broadcast TV's middle ground has collapsed, whether audiences will ever watch fully AI-made films, and how he's building a values-led business with a network of freelancers instead of a traditional team.

Please note: this episode includes a story about bereavement and a threatening encounter with weapons.

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Dead ends aren't stopping points. As Becky puts it, they're opportunities to pivot. Morocco, a broken leg and a closed production company all looked like endings at the time. Looking back, each one pointed to the next step.

2. Surround yourself with amplifiers, not blockers. Adam's break came from a camera operator who said, "You crack on, mate", instead of taking the shot himself. When you build your own business, you get to choose your people, so pick the ones who move your work forward.

3. Adapt without losing your values. Adam's industry is being disrupted by streaming, YouTube and AI. His response is to adapt the format and the funding while keeping the purpose: environmental stories, told by real people, with integrity.

WHAT WE COVER
- "Something to fall back on": the parents who didn't think he'd make it
- Failing at sales, and getting run off a Moroccan beach selling surf photos
- Two weeks as an extra in American Sniper, then a broken leg on 23 December
- Runner to camera operator at Icon Films, and the hippo shot that made the title sequence
- The Amazon roadblock: surrounded, kit smashed and burned, and the one camera that survived
- Losing his dad during a jungle shoot in Guyana, and the van named Joni
- Becoming a director in November, then sole owner in December: inheriting a business
- Funding films for charities and conservation when nobody has a budget
- Building with a network of freelancers instead of a traditional team
- Why the mid-budget TV world has collapsed, and "adapt or perish"
- AI and filmmaking: the 3D cinema comparison, and does it matter if a story is real?
- His advice: get help, invest in yourself, and build alongside your freelance work

💬 Adam has a question for you: would you watch content made entirely by AI? Vote in our LinkedIn poll or tell us in the comments.

Guest: Adam Laister, Purpose Built Films (Bristol)
https://www.purposebuiltfilms.com
LinkedIn: Adam Laister

Hosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard and Dr Becky Sage.

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This week: the founder with one GCSE who bootstrapped his way from roadside marrows to a full agency exit. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary.

"No one thought I'm gonna get through school. No one thought I'm gonna go to college. No one thought I'm gonna get to university. F*** it, I'm gonna do a business, 'cause no one's gonna think that either."

That's how this episode opens, and it's the engine behind everything Oliver Bruce has built.

A military kid who went to seven schools and was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia in an era when teachers just told him to stop being stupid, Oliver left school with a single GCSE in art. At 13, he was selling marrows on the roadside for 20p. At university, he built an app nobody downloaded, noticed businesses would pay for the videos instead, and pivoted into what became Pinpoint Media: a search, social and creative agency he bootstrapped for over a decade without raising a penny, then sold in December 2025.

It wasn't a straight line. Oliver gets honest about losing 110K during the pandemic chasing a side venture instead of focusing on the main business, and why even founders of rocket-ship companies have stared down payroll and wondered if they'd make it.

Then he opens up on the exit itself: why both sides used professional dealmakers, why he'll never negotiate his own deal again, and the 18 to 24 months of relationship-building that made the sale possible. Plus why retained revenue made the business sellable, what joining a big board has taught him, the burnout that paused his podcast for 14 months, his all-in bet on agentic AI, and the small matter of training to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.

Please note: this episode contains strong language.

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Ask for help as early as possible. Don't grind through it alone to prove a point. Asking is a quick hack; people genuinely want to help, and the founders who ask compound faster than the founders who don't.

2. Selling is a fair exchange, not a pitch. From marrows at 13 to agency retainers, Oliver's sales lessons come back to the same thing: trust, timing, and a clear understanding of what the other person actually needs. Get those right and confidence in your price follows.

3. Focus is what buys you freedom. Oliver's pandemic side venture brought in lots of turnover and no money. What actually built the business was staying on the core, building recurring revenue, and now learning to use AI well. That stability gives founders the freedom they were chasing in the first place.

WHAT WE COVER

- Selling marrows at 13, pricing confidence, and why every founder must learn to sell
- Cultural differences in selling: the US vs UK gap, from an Alex Hormozi event in Vegas
- Seven schools, one GCSE, and the neurodiversity the system missed
- The university app that failed, and the accidental agency it became
- Bootstrapping for a decade: reinvest everything, raise nothing
- Why distribution and strategy matter more than content alone
- Losing 110K in the pandemic, and the cost of getting distracted from the mothership
- Failure as feedback: "I have failed more times than I have succeeded"
- Nearly missing payroll, and why it's far more common than founders admit
- The exit: dealmakers, relationships built 18 to 24 months early, and staying friends with your buyer
- Why retained revenue makes a business sellable
- Life after exit: what a big board teaches you, and how to build one
- Burnout, the 14-month podcast pause, and relaunching as The Unlock
- Agentic AI, running content with agents, and rowing the Atlantic
- His curveball answer: why bother at all?

💬 Oliver has a question for you: what's your biggest fear around AI agents? Vote in our LinkedIn poll or tell us in the comments.

Guest: Oliver Bruce
Pinpoint Media: https://pinpoint-media.global
Website: https://oliverbruce.co.uk | LinkedIn: Oliver Bruce
The Unlock podcast: Spotify, Apple and all podcast players

Hosted by Ollie Tiramuragan Collard and Dr Becky Sage.

🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player.
👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps the show grow.

#FoundedAndGrounded #StartupPodcast #Entrepreneurship #Bootstrapping #FounderStory

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The introvert who was told he looked too free-spirited, and whose software now runs ordering for the UK's biggest food brands. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get up to $3 million in coverage in as little as 10 minutes at https://ethos.com/founded. Application times may vary. Rates may vary.

"This poor lady had to say to me, 'There are concerns that you look a bit free-spirited.' They were worried I was suddenly gonna disappear and become a yoga teacher in Goa or something."

Simon Bos has spent more than 20 years building other people's startups at Gravitywell, his Bristol venture studio, watching entrepreneurs' hearts break over cheap builds that couldn't be rescued, and learning exactly what separates the products that work from the ones that die. Then he found his own gap: one of the UK's largest food-to-go manufacturers taking thousands of daily sandwich orders through a call centre. "Three BLTs, two chicken and bacon... no, three chicken and bacon." On the phone. Every day.

That absurdity became Mezze, the B2B ordering platform for food manufacturers. Since we recorded this conversation, it has grown into exactly what Simon describes planning here: the platform now handles over £10M of orders a month for names like Samworth Brothers, Pieminister and The Real Wrap Co. It has expanded into AI features and the US market. The playbook he lays out in this episode is the playbook that worked.

Along the way: a prime example of being an introvert founder, from months without networking to discovering that one-to-many content is the introvert's cheat code, plus the no-suit mantra, the three-month reset in Laos, and the client work (including the ADHD Love app) that reminds him why any of it matters.

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Cheap builds break hearts. Simon has had to tell founders "there's no way of fixing this, it's gone." Under-investing in your foundation doesn't save money; a bad build is often unrescuable, and rebuilding costs more than doing it properly once.

2. Introversion is a design constraint, not a defect. Simon went months without networking and felt guilty. The fix wasn't forcing himself into rooms; it was one-to-many: content, talks, a strong product. Build the version of visibility that suits your wiring.

3. Perspective is a tool you have to schedule. From regular stakeholder mapping to three months in Laos, Simon's pattern is to step back deliberately. When the day-to-day consumes you, you can't see the business; distance is what shows you where you actually sit in the ecosystem.

WHAT WE COVER
- 25+ years of Gravitywell: what building hundreds of products teaches you about founders
- "Entrepreneurs' hearts breaking": the truth about unrescuable builds
- The call-centre absurdity which became Mezze
- Spotting your place in the supply chain instead of trying to be the big thing
- The introvert founder: networking guilt, one-to-many, and deep 1:1s over room-working
- "You look a bit free-spirited": appearance bias, procurement, and the no-suit mantra
- The ADHD Love app, body doubling, and the messages that say "it changed my life"
- Three months in Laos and what stepping back showed him
- Asking for help with an explicit ask, and failure as raw material
- Simon's question for you: is introversion a barrier or a gift?

💬 Answer Simon's question in the comments or vote in our LinkedIn poll.

Guest: Simon Bos
Mezze: https://mezze.io | Gravitywell: https://gravitywell.co.uk | LinkedIn: Simon Bos https://www.linkedin.com/in/sibos/

Hosted by Ollie Collard and Dr Becky Sage.

🎧 New episodes every fortnight. Search "Founded and Grounded" on your favourite player.
👍 If you got value, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It genuinely helps the show grow.

#FoundedAndGrounded #StartupPodcast #Entrepreneurship #SaaS #IntrovertFounder

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