Having Purpose.

#founders what is your core Purpose?

12 years ago today, I received a phone call at 5am telling me a best friend had just stabbed himself repeatedly in the stomach in a moment of rage, love, depression, drink and drugs.?

His girlfriend, brother, mother and father were all present when it happened, desperately trying to comfort him praying the ambulance would arrive in time.?The most crushing information my brain has ever received.

I walked for hours from Bethnal Green to Waterloo that morning trying to make sense of it.

When I moved to London in 2010, I’d speak to him almost daily. We’d laugh at what I was doing, my dream designing buildings in the capital to enrich peoples lives was complete.?

Yet he was silently suffering, without purpose and confused at which path to pursue.

Growing up one of few black kids at our school, dealing with racism, I can’t begin to imagine the thoughts going through his head. As we got older, being 18-27 in Liverpool during the 2000’s was eventful to say the least.?

At 19, our tele-sales evening job at the Royal Liver Building, gave me the confidence to pick up the phone and talk to people. Being told repeatedly “No Thank You”, nine times out of ten before disconnecting, developed a thick skin patience to redial and keep knocking.?

One night leaving the office at 10pm sitting in traffic, the police pulled up alongside us. The officer beeped and shouted, “put your belts on or pull over.”

So we buckled up, gave them the thumbs up and drove off.?

2 minutes later, we were involved in a 40+30mph head on collision thanks to a moron jumping lights at a junction. On this rare occasion we kept our belts on for those 2 minutes, saving both our lives.

Ade never told me what his dream was. I ended up creating one. ?

I can only relate on a far lesser level, a feeling I once had of imposter syndrome. Being a Liverpudlian in London at Hampton Court, the constant north/south divide jokes of being dodgy, working class and wearing shell suits created an appetite to prove something and push boundaries further.?

That year after Ade died, I got chartered with #riba but the satisfaction simply wasn’t enough.?

Four months after quitting my job, I was stood on stage at Richard Branson house with a life changing 90 second pitch, thinking "what the f**k am I doing here."

I practised the pitch to strangers on the tube, the bus and at the gym for weeks.

300 hundred companies entered and I managed to take home the Win.

Losing a friend forced me to try more, demand more, learn more, love more, live more and help empower people worldwide to earn money from their pictures using miPic.co

My mission and purpose was created from tragedy and has been used as my fuel to overcome the odds ever since.?

I’m a non-technical Founder from Liverpool and can say:

• I founded a tech company using Virgin StartUp Loans to build MVP.
• Raised ￡170k on Crowdcube from a standing start without an anchor.
• Count 70 shareholders on my cap table
• Only half a dozen founders in the UK name Harald McPike-Zima 's Family Office MGFO - Private Investments as a 25% seed investor.

The chances of this ever happening were 0.0000001% or less.?

Our platform has users in 210 countries and customers in 80 countries before marketing spend. With 130,000 creatives choosing miPic because our brand, tone of voice and mission resonates with people. miPic has a soul.

miPic is for everyone, premium quality prints, affordable and accessible globally to compliment our creativity on Instagram , Threadsapp and Twitter ?

Being crazy enough to believe your idea as a Founder and speak it into existence, anything is possible.

I have my old friend to thank for the years that followed and providing me with #purpose

He would have turned 40 this week and will never be forgotten ???

#founder?#startups?#venturecapital?#angelinvestors?#generativeai?#founderstories #creatoreconomy #starlingbank