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BEYOND THE ATHLETE PODCAST
Join us on this conversational, learning, and informative experience on 'Beyond the Athlete,' where we delve into the behind the scenes and untold stories and inspiring journeys of people within the world of sports, entrepreneurship and innovation.
In our upcoming episodes, expect an exclusive peek into the lives of renowned men and women from across the world . Discover the defining moments, untapped passions, and the strategies they employ to overcome obstacles both in life and works. From tales of resilience to discussions on personal growth, each episode promises an intimate conversation that transcends the world of greatness.
Get ready to be motivated, empowered, and uplifted by the remarkable experiences and wisdom shared by these extraordinary individuals.
Tune in as we explore the stories that go beyond the game, only on 'Beyond the Athlete.'
BEYOND THE ATHLETE PODCAST
EP33: Jason Iliffe, Founder Of CLIQ - Communities, Not Influencers, Will Shape the Next Decade
If you’ve ever felt lonely in a packed city or overwhelmed by “community” that never leaves the screen, this conversation will reset your compass. Jason Iliffe, co‑founder of CLIQ, joins us to unpack how a simple idea help community founders manage, market, and monetise in one place grew into a fast moving IRL platform spanning London, the US, Australia, Bali, and Dubai. We dig into the quiet mechanics that make groups thrive: brand signals people actually say out loud, clear rituals that bring strangers back next week, and the counterintuitive choice to solve builders’ problems first so users show up for the right reasons.
We get practical about strategy why ideas aren’t unique, why patience beats panic, and how 1% daily gains create “overnight wins.” Jason maps the “third space” crisis, with offices empty, pubs closing, and our feeds filled with brands instead of friends. That’s where CLIQ leans in: run clubs as new dating, DJ in the sauna nights, sober socials, swim clubs, intimate dinners, and cultural groups claiming space on their own terms. He shares the leadership habits that hold it all together: doing the boring jobs, setting standards by example, building resilience through rejection, and treating rest as a strategic input after a health scare forced a reset.
We also talk about building with your partner how complementary skills, honest read outs in investor rooms, and a dual lens on safety create real advantages. Looking ahead, Jason outlines US expansion, a major funding round, and a long term vision for community hubs in global cities: physical homes where connection compounds. If you care about community building, product strategy, or simply finding your people offline, this one’s for you.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s building something, and leave a quick review, your feedback helps us bring more thoughtful conversations your way.
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What's up, guys? Coach David here again, host of Beyond the Affic Podcast, and we're here for another amazing episode. Today, our guest is a gentleman that I've met recently, and we've had quite a few conversations around orphans' community, orphans brand, orphans um people as well. Really, really amazing guy. Um, building a friendship with him at the moment as well, which has been great. Um, and we've had some really good conversations that I wanted to bring to the camera and to you guys because I feel like I don't want to be greedy um in terms of learning um behind the scenes, but I also want you guys to also take um kind of gain that knowledge as well that I'm also learning as well. So, this is a uh podcast episode that I know you guys will enjoy. Um, like I always say, do subscribe, comment, let us know what you think, but also get your pen, your pad out, take notes, let us know what you've learned as well. And before I keep going and kind of go beyond myself, I would like to introduce you all to gentlemen that I have today, Jason Eilef, who is the co-founder of Clik. Click is a house or home of communities, brands, etc. But I don't want to say too much about it because I want him to talk about it and introduce himself. But yeah, Jason, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you. You ex said the name perfectly as well. Oh, amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Good, good. Um, but yeah, normally I would like to start with um history, but before I start, can you let us know what click is?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you explained it well as too. Yeah. So uh yeah, click is an in-real life community app, so all about connecting people online, but more importantly offline. I think the reason for starting is right, we're in the city of London of 24 million people. Yeah. We're maybe the loneliest generation there's ever been. And that's not just 18 to 25 year olds, it's across the ages and genders. So click is ready to build back connection, yeah. Bring that to people's lives. So yeah, it's uh it feels like everything I've done before is building up to like building click. Yep. Um, so I'm excited, it's super fast growing, like growing in Australia, the US, Bali, Dubai. Um, yeah, it's been a wild journey. Amazing, amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Now now you now you guys know what click is. Do apologize for the sound. I just dropped my phone, so don't worry about that. We're safe here, don't worry. Um, but yeah, no, that's quite an interesting um story, interesting journey. Um, we're gonna obviously get into a bit more. Um, so obviously, I know building a business and getting to the point where you start building the business can there's always like a process to that. So what was like what was life like for you growing up? Like how what was like life like maybe with family, parents, what did they do? I would the reason why I asked that because I want to understand the skills or the different things that have kind of shaped Jason to who he is today. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's a good question. Let me go back back. Um yeah. So when I was like young, yeah, I genuinely thought I was gonna be like a footballer. Yeah, I was pretty good, I played Forest, played at England when I was like 14. And then yeah, that was kind of gonna be my life. My parents used to drive me around the country, we used to play everywhere.
SPEAKER_00:It seems like everyone I've had on spotcast started a football, you know. Yeah, and then you have the typical story, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, got the knee injury, then had to stop. But uh yeah, I think the the real answer is that I did get injured, but then once I got to like 16, 17, I think I just found going out, I found there was a bigger world, and I just fell out of love with like training. I didn't really enjoy it anymore. And I think in that environment, when you're going from like 15 to 16, 17, you're starting to look at like pro contracts, and the element of starting football is like community, you love the sport, but in that environment, it's a bit like dog eat dog, like guys are fighting for like one contract, and I get it, that's like the world, but I just didn't enjoy it, and it was just like training wasn't enjoyable. Like if you went out on a night out, like your teammate would tell the manager and then you would not play, and it's just like this is wild. So, like you're supposed to be a team, yeah, but that team element went because they were just fighting this pro contract. So I kind of left like football and had no clue what I wanted to do. So I was like, if I go to university, that'll give me three years to figure out what I want to do. So I went there and I was like, still at the end of three years, I was like, I just don't know what I want to do. So I've been with my girlfriend for like 10 years now, she's the co-founding clerk in our first business. But she was like, let's just get out of our situation and go to Asia for like three months and we'll figure it out. So went to Asia and what was supposed to be three months turned into three years and ended up in Australia, and then that's where like the first business idea really came from was yeah, getting out of our system. But when you asked me like family, like how did I like go into entrepreneurship? I think for me it was one, I'm unemployable, which means I don't know my skills. And every job I got into, I just hated, and I just felt um it's gonna sound really dickish, but like I could do the job better than the person who was like manager, it just got annoying. Um so I just thought I need to go into entrepreneurship, but I just never had a great idea. So I do what everyone else does is like you start drawing out hoodies, like you're gonna do a clothing brand, which everyone, and then you could do like graphite tees, and then you realise that what's unique about that, um my point, I was like thinking about a hundred different ideas, and then yeah, it kind of fell into the first business, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's it's interesting that you say that because I think everyone's story almost kind of starts out the same, but it's still different. Um, the Clover brand stuff, I went through that as well. Yeah. Because obviously, my I come from a fashion background, my mum and dad are designers, yeah. So I still have that in me as well. My sister works in fashion, but fashion journalism. Um and I wanted to do stuff like that as well. And then the difference though was that I have a lot of ideas but didn't know how to execute it. So, and I think maybe I wasn't disciplined enough, or maybe I didn't have the passion, I just had the idea. But as I grew up, I kind of knew that okay, some ideas that you have may not just be for you, maybe you can pass them on to someone else. So it's interesting that you kind of like shared that because a lot of people need to know need to know the process to it. There's some might be some people now that are maybe 16, 15, 17-year-old, or even 30, 35, 40-year-old that may not have ideas or have an idea, but may not be able to kind of like execute it or know what to do next. But um, but um what's oh sorry, yeah. But um, but may not know, but may not know how to pretty much execute it, but then they hear your story and realize that there is a process that they have to go through. That's not the uh end though, basically. Because they they've had this idea of not or they don't they don't know what to do, doesn't mean that it's the end of the world. Um I'm not a 95 person at all. Yeah, I've I've been into jobs that either I've gotten fired from or I end up leaving in three months. It's just how it is. Um, you enjoy at the start, but then you get bored because you you you know there's something else for you. So when is it that you just realize that okay, this is the next stage for you as well to really kind of like start executing what you're commonly doing now, basically.
SPEAKER_03:I think being naive, right? Like if white people don't start their businesses or start because they think it's gonna be so hard to do it, like, oh, I need£500,000, or if I'm starting a clothing thing, I need to get production and everything ready. For us, when we started our first business, it was being young and naive. Nicola was a really big mace uh makeup artist in the UK, and we moved to Australia and she came home to me and was like, I wish there was a platform where I could put myself on people could find me instead of me going out there. And I was like, that is such a simple idea. Why don't I look for it and I'll put you on there? Yeah. And I was just looking online and there was no platforms catering to freelancers. Being young and naive, I was like, How hard can it be? Let me do it. So I was watching YouTube videos and learning how to code. It was terrible. Like I was still tried. Yeah, and I was like watching it, I was like, okay, this makes sense doing it. And I was like going back, and I was just getting 1% better every single day. And then before I knew it, like two months later, we had a website which was a marketplace, and we were just like, after a few drinks on the beach, we was just like, let's just put it live, and let's start reaching out to people and say, like, join the app, uh, join the website, and like a thousand people joined in like a a week or so, and we was like, Oh my god, this is insane. And then we just okay, built a little bit more, built a little bit more, built a little bit more. But if I knew too much information, like maybe I need investors, maybe like I need a tech guy, I was literally like, let me start small. If that works, then I'll build a little bit more, and I'll build a little bit more. Um, it's it's just a like little brick first, I always say.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that, yeah, that those bricks. I say this all the time as well. Those bricks are so important as you're laying them down. And it's so funny that you mentioned 1% better every day. That's like the guys will know I say this all the time. I want to be 1% better every day. I may do something today, but then tomorrow, how can I make it better? Um, a lot of people look for perfection, but perfection is a process. Um, you work towards perfection eventually, perfection could be 20 years, can be 30 years, could be 40 years, but that process of being consistent is the key to greatness, basically, to becoming a leader in terms of what you do. Oh, 100%.
SPEAKER_03:I think when I say this to the team all the time, like the 1%, and then it feels like everything comes in such a small period, and that's what it feels like an overnight success. So at the moment, there's a lot of wins coming our way in the last like couple of weeks. Investment, um, partnerships, big brand deals. It feels like why is it all coming at once? But there's been six months before that, where we've been speaking to investors, we've been teasing out things, we've been speaking to brands. It seems quiet, nothing's happening, and then you have to have patience. So sometimes you we always talk about um this is analogy where you should live your life a bit like a farmer, you know, how you like plant your seeds, you let them grow, and then you like I'm explaining this really bad, but like you like sow them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's like seasons, so it's like seasons where you like work really hard and then you have to wait for it to grow. And that's just being patient as a founder. Is that not everything's gonna happen today? So I have to wait for it, and then what you find is like the brands then start to see you.
SPEAKER_00:Like, yeah, it just makes sense. What what does it take to even be patient during that time? Because some some people can give up during that time as well. Some people may not have the resilience or the mindset to keep going when you're waiting six months, even sometimes a year, two years, because you're planting those seeds and you're expecting something to happen, but now realizing that there is a time for everything as well. So, what kept you going during those periods?
SPEAKER_03:I think I've always trusted my God like with people, with business. Like, I think if you know when people tell you great ideas, and sometimes you you're like, I don't know if that's gonna work. We just don't know. Like we just really don't know. And if you genuinely believe like this is a really cool idea, you have to see it out for me. So for me, it's like when we started the first business and then we started click, the idea came to us and we played with it. And I was like, I'm happy to do it and it not work, then rather than like not try at all. Because I don't want to be 75 years old, sat there thinking, Remember that idea that we had, and we just didn't do it because we were scared. Where I'm more than happy for things to fail, like it's gonna happen, and it happens so many times to us. But for not trying would just kill me. And what kills me even more is imagine seeing Swarm be really successful on your idea. Like you've met people, right? How many people have said, Oh, that's what I was gonna create Facebook? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had this idea for that, and you're like, everyone had the idea for Facebook, but no one went and built it. Yeah, like Mark did, and then you think of like brands, you're like, Oh, I was gonna do something that Nike did or Red Bull, and you're but you didn't like this there's thousands of people, like ideas are not unique, yeah. It's an execution strategy, so yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think that's what people get mixed up between the idea and what what you just said, ideas are not unique. A lot of people are always looking for new ideas, they're thinking that an idea pops into their mind and into their hearts, and they think, Oh yeah, no one else is doing this. But really and truly, there's no idea that's new under under the sun. No, it's just an idea that's popped into you because maybe it's a purpose that you need to pursue. But for you, the reason why that's come to you is because you're just uh meant to make it a little bit better than what's been done already.
SPEAKER_03:Like all these apps, right? Like Facebook, even like Clik, I know at least 25 other founders that have raised a bunch of capital with great teams that are building exactly the same as Click. Yeah, like a community in real life community app. The only difference is is strategy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And are they thinking about the problem the way that I'm thinking about it? Yeah. And can I get to the users, the customers, the brands in a better position than them? So for me, it's like I think brand is the most important thing you should ever build. Like the name of the the company, the brand guidelines, what does that look like? Why do why do we choose the word click? Why do we keep it super small? Like all my all the brands we create are like under five like words. Uh yeah, five words. Um five letters, sorry, five words.
SPEAKER_00:Is that is that is that strategy as well?
SPEAKER_03:It's just small, right? Like the if you have a long name, it just doesn't make sense. Um like my Rev The First Business, click, like it just people even say to it like I clicked with that person, or you know what I mean? That we just clicked, like there's those things, it just plays around. Um, so yeah, that's kind of I like that. I think it's just it just makes sense. So people say it to each other, and that's what the brand is it, but I think yeah, you ideas are not unique, yeah. And for us, is it's all about strategy. Yeah, with click, we're just looking at it differently, and we're always looking at a long-term play. So for us, is why not spending any money on ads? Is because I want to understand how a community works. How do they manage market and monetize? How does a community in Surrey make six thousand pounds a month and a run club in London doesn't make any they're losing money? If you look at before you grow, you need to understand how the mechanics of that work, and then all you need is capital to scale it. Yeah, and now we're at a point where I can tell what makes a great community. Um, I can tell see trends that are happening. So there's a big trend in soap clubs now. Um, we were talking earlier about people not exactly ditching out alcohol, but they're looking for experience outside the nightclub, so it's the matcha raves, it's yeah, because everyone's on a health health tip right now as well.
SPEAKER_00:So it makes sense to kind of create an experience around that as well.
SPEAKER_03:Um you've seen the cold plungers in the saunas, right? That they are there. There's one in Canary Wharf and it's called Ark after Dark. Have you seen it? No, I haven't seen it. You should go I hate cold plunge, but maybe we could go together. Yeah, I'm done. But they do like they do this yeah, sauna cold plunge, and there's like a DJ in the sauna, it's like 70%. People are like raving in there. Like, where would that happen like five, ten years ago? Literally, yeah. Yeah, so like people are now uh health and fitness is like the biggest boom on click anyway. Okay. We started your own clubs.
SPEAKER_00:Amazing. Um there's something that you did mention about um in terms of strategy and the difference between you and some other like in real life community platforms as well. Um, and you mentioned problems, that what problems your s your platform and your brand is dealing with. Can you kind of elaborate a bit more about the problems that Click is currently um dealing with or finding solutions for, should I say, um, and how that works as well.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think I think there's two problems. I think there's one as a user, so if I move to a new city, where do you go now to join find the wrong club or connection? And it's hard, right? Like in your I talk of this, especially for guys, connection is different for females. So, guys, we go through school, we join the football team, join the basketball team, we have this like sport connection. We leave, we go to college, maybe we do it there. As soon as we leave college, we like leave our sport and we're in this team spirit. And then we go to work and we left. Like, how many guys I know that don't play football anymore, but they do still? They lost that team, like that community. So for us, it's like that's the problem of like how do you solve connection? How does someone move to a new city and join a community, get offline, meet new people? But the only way you can solve that problem is if you solve like the community founder first. So the community founder is managing like maybe five different apps, so messaging apps, ticketing platforms, and then social. So at Click.
SPEAKER_00:Beyond that, even the admin, yeah, everything else.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, that is yeah, and it and it's just hot, it's hot it's hard for them. So if you solve their problem first, then they will look after the community, they will bring the users. So click really flipped the script and said, let's not go after users first, let's go and pitch to a hundred community founders, let me understand their problem. So I sat with them and said, What are you using? How can I make your life easier? And they just told me, they said, We would love one central app where I can like manage, market, and make money. So if you interview your customers, they will tell you the answer, you just gotta listen. And really, we sat down with them, and they still have my WhatsApp today, which like they message me all the time. But they I asked them, what would you want to see in the next feature? And 100 people, I'll start to see trends of like what they want to see, and we just can build it. It seems really simple, but like not many big companies or people can speak to their customers or users or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00:That's that's what they need to do. Amazing, amazing. And does your platform does Click as a platform also help upskill founders as well? Because I do for the reason why I ask that, obviously, I I have a community platform as well, and one of the biggest things is engagement with the community, um, especially on the digital front as well. So let's say you might let's say I'm non-click, you have a Facebook, um, not Facebook, maybe like a WhatsApp group to keep people engaged because there's times when, for example, with Boss Money, we could put a message in there and you have over a hundred people in there, but maybe like five will respond back. Yeah. And some founders may not know how to build upon that or change that around where you get more engagement on those platforms because you're actually trying to give them something that they can benefit from. So does click help with stuff like that as well with founders?
SPEAKER_03:I think there's there's a step before that as well, is that you know when like these founders create the wrong clubs, they create their basketball community, is that they start it because they want it, right? And then they become event organizers and they lose the purpose of why they started it. Right. So what we actually do is we do events for community founders, and when you bring community founders together, they get to network one and they work together. So your issue of keeping community engagement is the same for the book club, it is the same for the social club. But you put you two together, you five in a in a room, and you start speaking about that, you'll share ideas, you'll start working together, and you'll figure it out. So for us, is we're creating our own community of like community founders, and that's super powerful because not just are we learning from them, but the rum club will end up working with the super club or the basketball community will end up working with the rum club. And it the community feeds together. Yeah, but um, yeah, we're building features like community engagement, so like gamification. Yeah, yeah. How can you reward your community for being engaged? Yeah, um, and that's what brands are looking at now. Community is the buzzword of was the buzzword of 2024. Yeah, everyone was chucking it around.
SPEAKER_00:But um what people doing in the right way, yeah, yeah. That's interesting, yeah. Um, I really like the idea of gamification. Um, I think that's been like a big thing in terms of like what we've been trying to really implement into how we build community as well. Um, and I think it does engage people also. Um my next question would be around still around community. What is in 2025 now and going forward, how important is communities, especially in the digital age that we're in now, especially with now the implementation of new technology like AI, etc. Um, what does that look like as well?
SPEAKER_03:AI is only going to increase human connection, right? Yeah. You heard the theory of the third space. Have we spoken about this before? No, we haven't. But the third space is one is where you work, one is your home, and one is where you socialise. So 20 years ago, people went to the office every week, they went home, obviously, and then they went to the local pub or the church or the community center. Right now, community centres are really non-existent. Churches are being turned into gyms, and pubs are closing down faster than ever. People don't have a third space, and after COVID, we kind of muddled all three together. So we we now work from home, we're obviously living at home and eating, and then we're like socializing through our phone. So we're losing this connection, we're just having a massive, massive impact on us. So it's it's actually really bad that like this generation, like my sister is 21 years old. She will been to my house so many times, she'll text me she's outside the door, like, not even knock. Those like little things that they've lost the confidence to like go and speak to the waiter or knock on a door, they just lost it. Yeah, and it's because they don't have third spaces. So click is really like how do we become the third space for people where they go out to the super club or they go to a strong girl's um social meetup or whatever it is, is like that's what needs to come back. And I think AI is only gonna give us more time, yeah. Um, but yeah, it's it's really interesting to see how like social.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's so funny when you said this your sister messages uh message you mentioned at the door. Um so obviously we have a like a house, a community house as well, and and none none of us knock or ring the bell anymore. We just around the group chat, door please. Yeah, everyone. So it's like everyone's coming back from work and you see like six messages saying like literally the group chat, no one else is talking about anything for a while, and then all you see is door please, door please, door please, no please. Like it's it's so interesting, but you can actually ring the bell, knock, or actually call someone to open the door for you. No, no one calls right now.
SPEAKER_03:Like, how many people actually go and call someone? You just don't do it. No, and those like they're small things adding up over time, and what we call social apps now, like TikTok and Instagram, the feed is full of brands and influences, not full of our friends anymore. So if we play this out, the new generation are growing up with Snapchat, with Twitter, X, with Instagram and TikTok. These are not social platforms anymore. Like Facebook at the beginning was, but now these are not social, which is what we're trying to give back is that community and connection needs to be brought back. Like I even think that like dating, right? It's like my parents met in the bar, and I met my girlfriend at school, and like this new generation, they're all meeting on like Tinder and Bombo, but the loneliest, the like sexless generation because they're just like swiping through like a game, yeah, yeah, and they're not having that let me meet in a bar, let me meet at a community event. Like there's so much dating happening on Click, I just know it. Because they're meeting at events, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It makes sense, yeah. And a lot of people used to think, because they would a lot of people say that the running club was for people to meet each other and date, and I thought there's nothing wrong with that, you know, because it's actually in real life, it's better than actually doing it over online or phone and stuff like that as well.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the run clubs are the new dating, yeah. It's just it is you can you can see it out there then, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So, like like you said, your mum, your mum and dad, my mum, my mum and dad met because my mum started working, my dad had a fashion brand in Nigeria, and my mum was a fashion student, and then she came to work for him. That's how they met.
SPEAKER_03:So 70% 70% of relationships like 20 years ago all met through work. Yeah. Now we're not going to the office, like that's how it decrees because there's no like social connection.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, and obviously, like politics are like Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You can't meet people at work, right? It is quite interesting. Um, I wanted to go into like the whole I um aspects behind um still community, but more to do with leadership. Um, I know leadership is a big thing, especially when it comes to just in general, the world right now as well. Um, there is a lack of leadership, a lack of leaders per se, whether it's within sports or any industry. Um, you can maybe count maybe I wouldn't say on both hands, because I know there's more than that. Like you can count how many leaders are around there. How big is leadership for you, especially with the brand that you're building as well? And also, because I also see you as a leader to these community founders as well, because they will be looking up to you to say, okay, what's next? How can we keep growing as well? So it's almost like your mental without saying you're mental. Yeah, yeah. So how what how important is that for you within your plat within your business also?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, huge. I remember like in the first business, like sitting with the CEO who was putting his company public for like half a billion and 400 people in the office. Just sitting with that person and just learning how things work, you just never get to do that, right? Like, how am I ever gonna learn how a public company works or a board works? Like, I didn't know what a pitch date was.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't so it's so funny. We spoke about that today.
SPEAKER_03:Like, how you you don't get taught that in school, and then now over the time, I've got to meet a few people, and like mentors, I have a few investors who have sold like big recruitment companies, and the number one they always taught to me about is an idea is great. How you're gonna go from like zero to a hundred is literally by the people, and creating like a really good culture um is like it's so hard managing people because they have emotions, yes. So people have lives outside of work, so yeah, our team's small, but like when someone's upset, like it's not just about work, maybe there's something going in their personal life and you have to support them. So it's uh yeah, people have lives outside of work.
SPEAKER_00:And you I I'm guessing that you've really learned a lot during that process of uh being a leader, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And I'm still learning massively, right? Like the people that work for me are just insane. Like there's I couldn't do their job, but they do it better than like anyone else. But I think as a like a leader is that you need to do every job in the business because then you can teach someone like what to do. Like even the worst jobs that happen in click, like outreach and slow, boring, mundane tasks. I will make sure I do them to prove to the team that I'm not just telling you to do it. Yeah, I will sit there, I will do it with you, and once I know what works, I can tell you. Yeah, and I think that's leadership. It's like I hate people that won't get their hands dirty, they won't do the they're not on the front line, yeah. Yeah, because then your team can see straight through you. 100%.
SPEAKER_00:100%. There is something quite unique about um click and how you've grown it. Obviously, I know that there's a business that you built before as well. Um, especially with your partner, the fact that you guys have been together for 10 years, but you're also partners within the business, you're both co founders. Yeah, a lot of people will say that can make or break a relationship.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But have you guys been able to do it? Like it's it's is it's interesting because even just working with family as well, is a bit of people people would advise you not to, but then someone that you've Been like a girlfriend or partner, fiance, wife. Like, how have you guys done it? Like, what's what's the cheat code or what's the it's a number one question we get asked. I know, I know. I always say it's quite interesting because there's people out there that are most people in that same process or have thought about it, but they're thinking, Oh, this might be a top taboo, like to work with someone that you're emotionally connected with as well.
SPEAKER_03:For sure, for sure. There's definitely. As you start building a business, you have excitement. As soon as it starts to grow and there's like money coming in, you have different priorities in life. Maybe you're starting a family or you're getting married. That between that person at 20 and that person at 30, they're gonna have different life experiences. So I think in business, important more importantly, you need to be business aligned, but I think you need to be life aligned. And why it works with me and Nicola is that we probably get 50% more work done than anyone else is because I don't have to slack message her at 10 p.m. when an idea comes in my head. Like we're just in a living room, yeah, and we just get so much more work done. And building any business is 24-7. It doesn't matter if you're building hairdressers, like or you're building a billion-dollar company, yeah. Like the it's 24-7. So we have really complimentary skills. Like she's in brand and marketing, I'm in product and tech. So it works that way, but I think just being aligned in life is the biggest thing for us.
SPEAKER_00:That's why it works. So you guys know how to switch from being partners in terms of what you're building, but also still have that relationship side of things as well. We're trying, we're trying.
SPEAKER_03:I'm definitely trying to.
SPEAKER_00:That's the real I wanted to get.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but that is that is we are still trying to figure that out. Like, I'm trying to turn our phone off, not talk about work, but we absolutely love it. It is part of who we are. Exactly, yeah. And we've just not known any different. So our first business, we just built that together, and it was like, as soon as we had another idea, it was like, why don't we just do it together? And the trust, like when you're sat at the table with potentially millions of pounds, like you've got to trust your co-founder because they can dig you out a lot of the time.
SPEAKER_00:I you guys can be honest with each other, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And that's the thing. So when we go into an investor meeting, and whether it's like you have an AI on your shoulder, she can tell me what was great, and when I'm speaking and looking at you in the eye, she's looking at them, see body language. Did Jason say something good there? Did he not? Did they frown? Did they did they smile when he said that? And I'll do the same for her. So we we finished a meeting, we're like, you did really well when they were saying that, and he he smiled when he did that. I don't think she liked when you said that. But then I think not even just this is like what more businesses should do, and not just about a couple, but have a female and a male sat at the table at the top. Because when you're building a social app like we are, or any business, it's important to have a male perspective and a female. So, like I said, we was in an investor meeting in person just now before this, and there's sometimes where you need masculine energy, and sometimes you need feminine energy. Do you know what I mean? And like she was talking about she had a younger daughter, and she was explaining like what's it like on social, and Nicola knew to lead. She knew she was talking about we have these like mon communities, and she connected. Not just saying I wouldn't get that deal, but in that moment it needed a female to say, I understand. And also when you're building a company, especially in social, is that I don't know like the safety features that women need compared to men. Yeah. And I've it's it's building a social, like allowing like people to message each other, trust me, it is wild, like safety, people sending wild, wild messages. So yeah, just having that. Um I'm like going off subject now, but yeah. With with our with our couple, it's it is good. You share the highs, you share the lows. But um, yeah, I'm gonna tell you that. Did I tell you a story with the sign? No, you didn't. I need to tell you a story. No, tell me, tell me. In the first business, I was gonna quit. It'd been we were raising investment in we probably did 150 investor calls, and they were bad. They were just like, no, you're not gonna make it. Like, and we had, I think I probably had like 500 pounds in my account. And I was like, I need to like go and get a job. So there was this one walk around in my mum's house, and it was like 40 minutes, and we used to do it. Any good thing happened that day, any bad thing, we just like it's gonna not walk and we'll figure it out. So I was planning to tell her I'm gonna quit on this walk. So I was like walking around, explaining the reason, and she was saying to me, like, don't worry, when we make it, we'll love it, like all this thing. She just kept saying to it. And we've been on this walk like a hundred times, and I'm getting this center now. But um, we sat on this bench and we've been there a million times, and someone had wrote on the bench, love it if we made it. And I seen this, and she basically just said that to me. And um, I said to her, like, oh, I'm in, like, just forget what I said I'm in. And that was the Sunday. The Monday we raised like£250,000. By the Friday, we had a partial acquisition. That next just because I said I'm in, and then we went back like three months later and it was ripped off. So, how fresh was that? That's just like seeing a sign, and yeah, I would have taught myself out of it if she wasn't there, yeah. And because she knew me like personally, she taught me in which actually it's a week later.
SPEAKER_00:You've both really actioned faith in that instance.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, for sure. I think you have to that's like trusting your thought, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Which is amazing, which is amazing. You did mention something um about lows. I know you've I'm sure you've had a lot of lows, a lot of setbacks. Um I I know I have in seven, I think 2023, I wouldn't say it was my biggest setback. I think I'm going for my biggest setback now. But and that's still nothing compared to what I'm what I'm still I know I'm still gonna go through as I as we grow. Um 2023 was the year where you I almost kind of like didn't know where money was coming from at all. We didn't know if we to if we wanted to start carry on with Basman Nation. We didn't know what was next, how to engage. I think I when we met, I told you this as well. And then we just came up with that, okay, cool, let's just start something different. And that difference is what enabled this podcast to even come into life because okay, we didn't have money to do our sessions, we didn't have money to do events, let's just start a podcast that we can just speak about stuff that we're learning and speak to amazing people that people can learn from as well. And then that went into like the whole idea of oh, why do we go into the whole sports media space? So those lows, those challenges allow you to kind of like scale up and pivot into something else that helps grow the your brand. So, what sort of um if you don't mind sharing, like any setbacks that were quite pivotal in terms of your growth, in terms of as a person and also of your business. Oh, I f I felt loads, right?
SPEAKER_03:Like a big one last year, I don't know if I told you I had a stroke at like 30 years old, which is wild. And I was because I was working like so many hours, and I was trying to do everything. I was like, I need to be super fit, I need to be seeing my friends, I need the business to be booming. So like these three pillars, and what I've learned is that I can only have two out of the three. So if my social life is high and my fitness is, then the business needs to like I need to relax a little bit, and then likewise the other way. But what I found is yeah, I was just working so much. I woke up in the morning and I went to like the cat in the room and I couldn't speak. And I was like, uh like like a robot, and I was like, Oh, I'm half asleep. So I went to the bathroom and I like went to chop water in my face, and my arm didn't come up, and I was like, not thinking I'm having a stroke, right? So I'm just like, oh went to go to Nick, I was like, I can't speak, and my arm, and I've like must have slept on my arm, and I still couldn't speak. And then she was like, What the hell? Like turned the light on and she was like, Oh my god, are you having a stroke? And I'm like, nah, I'm not having a stroke. At this moment, I'm still signing like a robot. So um, yeah, that luckily it only lasts like 48 hours. But 15 minutes I could say a word, an hour I could speak again. It took me seven hours to get like my hand back, and then like 48 hours I was fully back. But like the thing that set me back there was like health. So I like prioritized like rest so much now. I think I told you like this year I've already been on like true two like retreats. Yeah, one was like a founder one where I turn the laptop off, I turn emails off, and I try and be present and just prioritize like sleep. I know it sounds stupid, but just like sleeping, like making sure that I'm eating good, I'm not drinking as much alcohol as I should. Um so that's like a big like setback in my personal, which made the business so much better as well. Because when I was prioritizing rest, like I make better decisions, and I always find when I go away for like a weekend, I'll come back more refreshed, ready for work, new ideas, and the business is just ten times better. Um but in business, like we probably fail every week. Like there's probably there's big ones, but I think investment is the hardest thing to crack being a founder because you think everyone's gonna love your business, right? You think that this is such a great idea, like I've got tens of thousands of users, we're making X, and this was not just for click, this was for the first business. And you just find out that not everyone's gonna like your business, and you've got to grow thick skin. Like some people are like, I just this is never gonna work. Never ever gonna work. And there's a there's a quick story where Nicola jumped on a call and this guy made her cry. Like he was so horrible to her. He was like, You're just a young blonde girl, I think she can make it. Like it was really horrible. He's like worked at a big bank and he he like grilled her. And then when we sold that company, he told we were gonna do nothing. So, like, I that was a little chip on my shoulder. And then when we sold the company, I just sent him like three articles and just put like glad we didn't listen to you. Like if we listened to him, we probably wouldn't have started the business, and it's that's you just gotta grow thick skin. So um, yeah, there's many fails. Amazing. How much did you sold the company for with the money out skin? Uh it was okay.
SPEAKER_00:You don't okay. It was okay. Yeah. That's good. That's good.
SPEAKER_03:It wasn't enough to retire for the rest of my life. Okay. But what it did give me, it gave me, it could give me a couple years not doing anything. I think.
SPEAKER_00:Compared to when you started, basically.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah. And I think also where in your twenties, if you lose a job or or anything, right? We just don't have time. We need to get on the next thing, next thing. So you don't have time to process what you really want to do. What it actually gave me time to do is to sit there and play around with ideas. And I was gonna take a year off and travel, but within three months, I was building click. And it's because I had all the free time, so I wasn't pressurized that I need to make money this year or I need to do this for like time frame. I was like, I'm gonna play with this, and the more time like I was like looking into click, I was like, this is a really good idea, and then I was like, I'm okay, I'm gonna do it again. So I think that yeah, time it gave me time, and obviously it gave me money, but it gave me time.
SPEAKER_00:That's not bad, that's not bad. So, what's what's next for for Jason? What's next for Click? What's what what is it that we need to look forward to?
SPEAKER_03:Do you know what I'm this year? I'm started, I was speaking to your team about doing those like BTS content. Oh nice. So I'm pretending you just gonna like maybe start doing YouTube.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, I was actually gonna say that because when you were talking about you and Nicola, I was thinking, are you guys gonna be able to show us some stuff, maybe like your everyday life that we can actually tune into and see and kind of see what the behind the scenes of you guys work in relationships.
SPEAKER_03:You must have been listening to our calls, right? Me and me and Nicola have been saying uh that's what we're gonna do. Because everyone keeps asking, like, what's it like for? And we have so much content that we're doing. And so we started like filming a lot more now, and yeah, I'm like diving into YouTube. It's nice, it's a lot hot like Yeah, it's not it's not easy. I always speaking to your team just before, and I was like, people that make content look easy, like are doing such a good job. Like I realize how hard it is. Yeah, like to even edit something, to make something look great, just to capture this moment or say these words. Um so yeah, YouTube and then that click is going like growing really fast in the US now. So potentially you're gonna move the team out there early next year and really like tackle that market. It's a different beast, so yeah, raising investment right now, which we're pretty close to closing, which is gonna be a big funding round, which will make us hire more team and yeah, grow internationally, which is at this point in my business, like entrepreneurship, I've built a company to this size before, this size of individuals, this everything after this I've never done before. Yeah, so I'm making new mistakes, yeah, and I'm learning. So I'm like speaking to people who have been at Bump On and Snapchat and saying, What is it like to get to a million users? Like, what am I not seeing? They're like, You're gonna see this, you're gonna see that, this is what you've got coming. And I'm scared, but I'm also excited to be like, let me let me make new mistakes. Yeah, so I'm going into a new um new era as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm gonna be learning from your mistakes so that I can also get to that point as well. So when once I get once I get to let's say a a thousand people on my platform, I'll ask you, oh, what does it take to get to 4,000? What does it take to get to 10,000? And then yeah, so I'll be asking you those questions as well.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I I think that's the biggest thing is that find people who are um just ahead of you, yeah. And then find some people that are really ahead of you, and just ask them what it's like. Surprisingly, people will help you a lot of the time. Oh, yeah, 100%. Give you like free advice, they'll give you time. Um, yeah, I believe that humans are good. Yeah, they are good people, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They are, they are despite what the news tells us. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Um, okay, yeah. So this is but this has actually been amazing. It's been a good conversation. I know we've had so many conversations, and I know there's gonna be so much more that we're definitely gonna have. Um, I want to not the last question anyway, but I just want to know um in terms of like the future of Click. I know right now it's a lot of sports communities, etc. What other communities are you looking to add to your platform or to diversify that whole community in real life um aspect of things as well?
SPEAKER_03:We get to see trends. So, like in sport and wellness is the biggest thing. So, like swim clubs are really big right now. I think it's to do with you know, like marathons that everyone starts doing marathons, and then they become easily accessible, like people like marathons are not easy, half marathons are not easy, yeah. No, and now people are doing like Ironmans and triathlons. So swim clubs are becoming really big, like all over the world. We're seeing like a massive trend, and then smaller groups like connection of female founders, um, intimate dinners. So people just don't want to meet in big groups now, they want to do like intimate dinners to really get to know people. So yeah, I think Spot Modest was art in, but now we're starting to see more like cultural groups, like South Asian societies, which are huge, like South Asian women meeting across like London. Then there's even like a site called like Latina Society, a bunch of Latinos going wild, they just party like all the time. Um, but yeah, like a lot of cultural groups, a lot of to do with food. Um, I think we're just going back to the core connection of community.
SPEAKER_00:I've seen in America that they've um started like things like sports social clubs, so people will get like a space and literally do multiple sports. You have paddling there, tennis, you have football, you have all these different sports in one place, and it's almost like an experience, it's almost like going to like um is it like a whole different type of like gym going or maybe even going to like a museum, like those type of trips, but now you can go to a sports social club.
SPEAKER_03:That's like the biggest, the biggest goal for Clerk. And it's a bit of a pipe dream at the moment because I've realized how much money it costs to get space. But I'd love to have like hubs in the main cities of each country, so like London, New York, and these spaces will allow communities to have it for free, so they can have like arenas, it'll be immersive rooms. Um I started pricing one up in London. I was like, oh my god, maybe not yet. But yeah, maybe that's in the pipe dreamers, click, maybe five years. I don't know. Who knows?
SPEAKER_00:Why not? Who knows? Who knows? But yeah, Jason, I know obviously um we're always short for time when it comes to podcasting because we can speak for maybe three hours if we wanted to. Um, but my my last question before I say goodbye to the audience and to yourself is this podcast obviously is we call it Beyond the Athlete because what we try to um really dive into is the mindset beyond um sports, um, beyond just being an athlete, beyond just being a disruptor in an industry or creator in an industry as well, like yourself. Um, and for me, initially, I I also I wanted to learn for myself. When I started this podcast, I wanted to create a library of of knowledge for myself, basically. But I said, let me not just do it for myself, let me be able to share this with the rest of the world. So um we have listeners from across maybe 32 countries right now, um, from places like India, Rwanda, Sweden, the US, obviously the UK, France, etc. Like places that you would never think that would even listen, even if it's one person listening, it's amazing. So, one of the my last questions is always who would you like to see or who would you like to introduce onto this podcast, maybe bring onto this podcast?
SPEAKER_03:No, he's just sat on our board right now, Jordan Sports, he's the manager of The Sideman. Nice. He is so well connected in this like creator economy and understands how this. I believe that communities are the next influencers. 100%. They are gonna be the next Molly Maze. They have so much influence over their peers, and he understands this with like the sidemen, what he's built. Um, so yeah, I'm gonna introduce you to him. You would actually have a really good conversation with him as well.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I I I take note a lot of notes from his Instagram page.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's cool, right? So I met him really randomly, and we had we had a we had a coffee, and I was explaining what I'm gonna build with Clerk, and he was just he just got it and he was like, How can I be involved? And two meetings with someone, bearing in mind how busy he is launching Netflix series with the side man, yeah, yeah, huge, huge channels. I don't know how much investment he is running through the year as well. But uh yeah, he's really well connected, just understands the problem, and he's I builded a really great advisory board, and he's like amazing part of it as well.
SPEAKER_00:Amazing, amazing. Thank you for that, Jason. I appreciate that. Um I'm just I'm gonna say bye to everyone first before saying bye to you. Um, but I hope you guys have enjoyed this episode. Um, I've really enjoyed it. I've learned so much from Jason and what he's been building and what he's going to continue building as well. Um, and I hope you guys have as well. But before you go, just press the subscribe subscribe button. It doesn't cost you anything. Um, it's free just to press the button. Um, and yeah, just look out for all our episodes. We want to hear from you guys as well in the comments, whether you comment send us a DM on Instagram as well, um, just to kind of know what you like, what you don't like, so that we can keep growing, keep building, bringing great content to you guys as well. Um, but also not just myself and not just our platform, but also click and Jason as well on Instagram. Um, all the links will be in the description as well, or you can just see the ads on the screen um as well. But yeah, it's been a pleasure. Jason, thank you very much for coming on. I know this has been a long time coming, but we did it, we're here, and yeah, hope looking forward to more conversations and a growing relationship between us as well. Um, but yeah, take care, thank you, everyone. Take care, coach David out, peace.
