James Farnfield

Founder

LinkedIn is not the channel to be sleeping on in 2025 as a 7+ figure B2B CEO. You know it. I know it. 
(but I get it)

I am a multiple time founder and time is precious. 

IS THIS YOU ↓

“I KNOW I need to utilise LinkedIn”

and....

- “I am sitting on lots of underused media”
- “I’ve been sitting on a podcast idea for years”
- “I want to be a thought leader in my space”
- “I want to build brand exposure & inbound leads”

BUT MOST OF ALL ↓

“I do not have the time to post everyday”

So maybe it’s time to Shake it Up.

Building a process and powerful content engine is the answer.

HERE IS HOW SHAKE CAN HELP (you to the 1% of your industry) ↓

1. Craft content pillars, roadmap and LinkedIn strategy
2. Produces podcasts, thought leadership videos and webinar
3. Creates stunning copy posts for you to approve every day

Whilst taking up less than 2 hours of your time each and every month. 

If you are interested in seeing how we can get your started in the next 2 weeks then drop me a message today. 👋🏽

---------------

😆 About Me 😆

I have been on the entrepreneurial journey since I was 16 and have delved into multiple industries from events to web development. I founded Airbyte in 2020, growing the business to 7 figure revenues

Before realising I was sleeping on my LinkedIn. 

The conversations and revenue started flowing.

I knew I had to go back to my marketing routes. 

Shake Content was born in Q4 2023.

https://shakecontent.com/

🎙️ The Everyday Founder  🎙️

1% of professionals are founders, the 0.1% are the stories we glamorise. I talk with the everyday founders on how they are growing their businesses

Founder & CEO

Alan Furley

Co-founder & CEO | Strong teams, built better | Strategic talent planning | Venture Scout | Talent advisor | Mentor | Public speaker | 10ksb alumni

Every great startup is built by great people. But hiring them? That’s where most founders struggle.

I help VC-backed founders hire with confidence, building teams that scale, thrive, and stick around. 

Too many founders rush into hiring without a clear plan, ending up with the wrong people in the wrong roles.

I work with brilliant founders to define what success looks like, align hiring with their mission and values, and navigate the talent market strategically.

I also partner with VCs who know their portfolio companies need the right teams to succeed.

As a founder myself, I know hiring isn’t easy. I’ve built and led teams, made mistakes, and learned what works through experience - not just theory.

With 20+ years in recruitment and having partnered with with 100+ startups, I bring a rare mix of founder insight and deep hiring expertise.

Recruitment is full of short-term thinking and transactional players. I take a different approach - building long-term partnerships that help startups hire for impact, not just headcount. 

I build relationships more Tiffany & Co 💍 than Tinder 👈

If you’re a founder or investor serious about hiring well, let’s talk. Follow me for insights or send me a message - I’d love to help.

Co-Founder & CEO

Strong Teams, Built Better. An award-winning talent consultancy. We partner with ambitious startups and scaleups.  

To us, bringing great people and great companies together is personal. We know that the strongest teams are built up from the inside out, starting with first-class people that embody your values and share your vision. So, we apply our passion and personality to go beyond search engines and algorithms.  

We offer a range of plans to meet your talent and recruitment needs. We’ll be your talent partner. We don’t just send CVs, we’ll be embedded as part of your team. 

We practice what we preach. Great people build great businesses. Our people are what make us special. And they're the key to making your team special. 

Want to build great startup teams? Or curious about career opportunities in startups? You’re in the right place – let's talk.

I had one of the best breaks I’ve had in years.

And I’m still feeling that flicker of guilt as January kicks off.

Not because I’m not ready or motivated.

But because part of me feels like I didn’t maximise the time as a founder.

There were plenty of things I thought I’d get done on my business -
 strategic stuff, housekeeping bits - still sitting there.

But, as is often the way,  I needed the space more than I realised.

Time with friends. Our first family ski trip. Lots of board games 😍

And now I’m back -  just in time for the flood of content telling me how perfectly I need to start the year.

Roadmaps. Resolutions. Predictions.

This is the year you must…
Everyone else is already...

All the stuff that makes you feel if you haven't started 2026 with a clear plan and a completed to-do list, you’re already behind…

Meanwhile, lots of founders I know are still holding the same questions they had in December.

How are we going to embed AI into the business?
What’s the shape of that role we haven’t quite defined?
Is the direction clear - or just 80% clear, with the riskiest 20% still fuzzy?

If your year hasn’t started with perfect clarity, if everything hasn’t been ticked off your to-do list...

That’s not a failure. That’s reality.

And I think it’s a perfectly good place to begin 2026!

Hiring & Talent Expert for Startups 🚀 | Helped 100+ VC-Backed Founders Build & Retain A+ Teams for Scale | Speaker, Advisor, Workshop Leader

Excited to support NoBa Capital’s latest programme – and speak with founders on one of my favourite topics: hiring and team.

The talent in a startup will make or break early-stage growth.

So I’m glad it’s a core focus in Elevate – NoBa’s hands-on, founder-first programme for startups on the path from idea to scale.

And given NoBa invests in companies shaping the future of work, I’m especially looking forward to meeting the founders and learning more about what this cohort is building.

This will be the third workshop I’ve run for VCs in recent weeks – but the bonus here? It’s in person!

Looking forward to Friday’s session - thanks for inviting me along Vanesa & Kevin.

Every year, people declare that this is the year everything changes.

“AI will replace whole teams.”
“Startups just need to move faster.”
“All these new tools will solve hiring.”

But here's 26 truths on startup hiring that won't die in 2026.

1. People join missions, not org charts
2. The best hires aren’t actively looking
3. Clarity beats speed, every single time
4. Speed matters, but trust matters more
5. Process is still respect, not bureaucracy
6. Hiring still rewards planning over panic
7. Progression in startups isn’t about titles
8. Referrals still outperform everything else 
9. Gut feel without structure is still just bias
10. Vague job ads still attract vague candidates
11. Job titles still confuse more than they clarify
12. AI helps, but human judgement still matters
13. “Open to work” still doesn’t mean “desperate”
14. Great candidates still care who they’ll work with
15. Paying fairly still saves more money than it costs
16. Founders who show up will attract better people
17. Great candidates still drop out when you go quiet
18. Your first 10 hires still shape everything that follows
19. One brilliant hire still beats three “good enough” ones
20. Hiring the wrong person will cost you more than waiting
21. Founders still underestimate how visibility impacts hiring
22. Clear feedback still builds reputation, even with rejections
23. Your worst interview experience is still someone else’s story
24. Culture is built by who you hire, not what you write on a slide
25. Hiring is still a leadership responsibility, not something to delegate away
26. VC funding doesn’t remove hiring risk, it amplifies the cost of getting it wrong

Same game.
Higher stakes.
Lasting consequences.

What would you add to the list?

==

Very much inspired by a post from Martin Huntbach.

Because in 2026, another thing that won’t change is stealing ideas for good posts 😄

taplio

The Battle

James Farnfield

Alan Furley

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAlan Furley's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

James Farnfield

Alan Furley

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Alan Furley's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAlan Furley's LinkedIn Performance