Roei Samuel

Exited Founder | Angel Investor | Host of Big Risk Energy Podcast | BBC Million by 30

I built Connectd because startups need easier access to experts, and talent deserves the flexibility of fractional work. People deserve better than a job they don’t love. We're making fractional work actually accessible. Not just for people with existing networks - for anyone who wants to work on their terms.

The numbers:
0 to $13M ARR in 3.5 years
6,000+ fractional professionals on the platform
45% of revenue from the US (launched Jan 2024)
LinkedIn Top Startup #5 UK (2025)
Deloitte Fast50 (27th fastest growing UK company)
$18M raised

Before this, I sold RealSport at 26, became a millionaire overnight, and started investing in startups & working fractionally for 2 years.
That's when I saw it - fractional work is incredible but the infrastructure doesn't exist. So we built it.

Connectd gives fractionals everything they need: identity, portfolio, billing, client matching, rankings, reviews. The full stack.
Most of our members are still in full-time jobs. This is their side hustle starter kit; the thing that lets them test fractional without quitting.

I write about:
Future of work and why fractional is inevitable
Escaping corporate without betting everything
Real startup building (not the polished version)

DMs always open if you want to chat.

CEO & Founder

Launched Connectd.com in November 2020
Raised $9m seed funding
Generating $6.8m ARR (May 2024)

I have dreamed of a partnership like this for SO long.

Simon Squibb and HelpBnk felt like the perfect fit from day one. His community is full of entrepreneurs with big dreams but limited connections - exactly who we built Connectd for.

So I pitched. And we got it.

Then immediately thought: sh*t, now what?

Landing a dream partnership is one thing, but actually delivering on it is another.

Now his dreamers - the entrepreneurs pitching to the Doorbell of Dreams - will have access to our network. CMOs, CFOs, operators who can actually help them build.

I know how it feels to have someone believe in you before anyone else does. It’s rare.
And that's why this partnership matters.

We're not just connecting two platforms. We're combining two networks that actually want to help people who need it most:

The young founders grinding alone, the ones with brilliant ideas but no one in their corner, and the ones who remind me of myself at 20.

Simon's built an incredible community of dreamers. We've built a network of people who want to help them.

Now we get to do it together. Insane 💪

CEO @ Connectd | $14M ARR | #5 LinkedIn Top Startups | #18 SundayTimes100 | Ex-RealSport Founder (acquired)

Connectd made the Sunday Times 100 Tech.

When I was a kid, my dad used to read The Times cover to cover at the table every morning.

He still does. This time, he's going to see our company in there. 

Insane. 

$14M ARR. 125+ people. Thousands of world class fractionals now using our services. And now, ranking 18th on the Sunday Times 100 list.. 

This is the team's win for sure. But my dad reading this in the paper is the moment I keep coming back to.  

Proud of what we've built, and excited to keep pushing.

I've pitched over 800 times.

But I've never been as nervous as I was pitching to Simon Squibb.

My first business started when I was 21. I had no connections or network. Just an idea and then hundreds of thousands of pounds of debt.

Every day felt like a panic attack waiting to happen. I had the will but didn't know the way.

Then I met the right people and EVERYTHING changed.

Went from drowning in debt to selling that company at 26 for 7 figures.. But I never forgot what it felt like to have no one in your corner.

That's why I built Connectd. Experienced, talented people who want to help entrepreneurs like I was: young, hungry, but completely alone.

So when I got the chance to pitch to Simon Squibb and HelpBnk, the stakes felt different.

This wasn't about me. Instead, it was about every young founder who's grinding with no connections, just trying to figure it out.

Simon got it immediately.

"I love it. You wanna help people, I wanna help you help people. You're my kind of person."

Now Connectd is partnering with HelpBnk.

Simon's community of dreamers will get access to our network of fractional experts. The entrepreneurs pitching to Our Doorbell will have senior talent in their corner.

The kids who feel like I did at 20 - brilliant ideas but no connections - they'll have a path forward.

This changes everything.

Connectd launched in Jan 2022 so we just hit 4 years. 

We've grown a lot in that time in every sense of the word! Were servicing over 6000 fractional execs/board advisors and 3200 organisations!

And if you know anything about growing  business, servicing 9k customers, whilst growing from a team of 4 to over 100, and from $0 to $15m ARR, including now 40% of customers coming from the US, you know how difficult this is.

At this scale you cannot keep everyone happy,  but with literally thousands and thousands of customers renewing we know we are on the right track

its not always been perfect, its not always been pretty  but we will never stop fighting to make Connectd the most powerful force in the future of work.

JUST. GETTING. STARTED.

James Matthews Oliver Tarpey Claudia Stankler Spyros Balampekos FCCA Benjamin Parker Clement Bigot Jamie Morris Alex Rose Samuel Gray William Smith

I just gave £5K to Chloe's non-toxic clothing business.

This one's personal.

When Chloe’s mum was diagnosed with cancer, the doctors couldn't figure out why the cancer wasn't responding to treatment.

She switched to non-toxic clothing and the cancer went away, inspiring Chloe to build a business:

Non-toxic gym clothes and underwear that don't expose people to harmful chemicals every day.

As someone whose mum had cancer, this hits home. We got through it, but I watched what it did to her and our family.

We also lost my aunt to cancer. It’s the kind of loss that stays with you, so when Chloe told me her story through HelpBnk, it felt bigger than a business pitch. 

I’ve gifted £5K to help her get started, and introduced her to Kate Buttery via Connectd to help turn the vision into reality.

This is something tangible - something that might actually make a difference.

This is what makes it all worth it.

Founders. Fractional work isn’t consulting. 

I keep hearing people use them interchangeably. They’re not the same.

Consulting: You come in. You analyse. You create a strategy document. You leave.

The company has a plan, but they still need to execute it themselves.

Fractional: You come in. You analyse. You create the strategy. Then you execute it.

You're part of the team. You own outcomes rather than just recommendations.

In short: a consultant tells you what to do, but a FRACTIONAL leader does it with you. 

Don’t get me wrong, fractional workers do consulting-style projects. Sometimes consultants get pulled into execution.

But the core model is different. One is advisory. One is operational.

Choose fractional for part-time leadership with full accountability.

I’m setting myself a challenge.

Help 10,000 founders find their fractional people over the next 100 days.

When I built my first company, fractional work made all the difference. Not full-time employees, but advisors, consultants, and experts who came in, solved problems + moved on.

I'm documenting the whole process of the challenge and posting more on Instagram and TikTok - sharing the process of our work with Simon Squibb and the HelpBnk team as well as supporting the founders who reach out me directly.

We're already off to a flying start. 

Let's see what happens…

Startups on the Connectd Ambassador programme get 3 months of senior fractional expertise completely free.

Let that sink in.

A fractional CMO, CFO, CTO, or COO for 3 months. £0.

The reason we do it is pretty simple. 

Most early-stage companies can't afford £150K full-time hires. But they DESPERATELY need senior expertise to scale.

3 months free gives them time to prove the value and see what fractional can do. Then (and only then) do they decide if they want to continue.

For the ambassadors, you're not just getting paid. You're giving startups in your network access to expertise that could change their trajectory.

If you're:

A VC helping portfolio companies 
An accelerator lead supporting your cohort 
A community builder connecting founders 
Already making these intros

You should be part of this.

Link in comments or DM me.

I've been in a lot of CEO and CFO calls lately.

Same theme keeps coming up:

"We need a CMO but we can't justify the £150K full-time salary right now."
"Board wants financial expertise but we're frozen on headcount."
"Operations need help. We're in a hiring pause. How do we square this?"

Every conversation lands on fractional.

Because in hard economic times, companies aren't cutting back because they don't need expertise. The CMO work still needs doing and the financial strategy still needs building!

That tension is what’s steering companies towards fractional, and the data matches up: our enquiries at Connectd are way up this quarter. 

Economic uncertainty doesn't make senior talent less valuable. It makes FLEXIBILITY more valuable.

That's why fractional is coming out on top in 2026.

At Connectd, we didn't copy our perks from other companies.

We built them around what actually matters when you're building something hard.

- Connect Days exist because burnout is real.

You can't just "power through" indefinitely - sometimes you need a day to reset. We'd rather you take it than pretend everything's fine.

- Work From Anywhere exists because life doesn't happen in one place.

Maybe your family lives abroad or you want to work from somewhere different for a month. We don't need you in a specific location to do good work.

- Company trips exist because hitting goals should feel like something.

We've been to Lisbon, Madrid, Split… the list goes on. When we win, we celebrate PROPERLY.

- Team events exist because shared experiences matter.

Formula One. Oasis concerts. Royal Ascot. VIP rugby experience. Michelin star dinners. Insane memories to look back on years later. Not just another office party. 

- EMI Share Scheme exists because you should own what you're building.

Your work creates value, so you should benefit directly from that. Simple. 

- Private health insurance exists because your health matters.

Gym discounts, physio, dental, eyecare. The things that keep you functional shouldn’t be a luxury. 

The principle behind all of this is that people do their best work when they feel genuinely SUPPORTED. 

These perks aren't about looking good on LinkedIn, but about creating good conditions for great work.

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My first company was in the US market. Biggest regret from that time was not building more relationships there when it mattered.

Not making that mistake again.

I’ll be in NYC February 23-29 building Connectd's US presence properly - meeting customers, partners, and potential hires. 

But I’m also looking to meet people who are building interesting things in their space.

Drop me a message if you have any podcasts or events going on that week - or if you want to grab coffee to talk about what you’re building.

Let's connect!

Helping non-tech businesses build software products in 8-12 weeks | DM me your app ideas | Owner - Ionio |

Hi, I'm Rohan! I run Ionio — a strategic AI consultancy for Retail & Ecom SaaS. We help mid-market platforms ($5M-100M ARR) build AI features that reduce churn, justify premium pricing, and turn their product into something merchants can't live without.

Over the past 5 years, we built 40+ products and helped founders go from zero to seven figures multiple times. Same playbook, over and over: take an idea, ship it fast, make it work, scale it.

After doing that tens of times, we wanted to take everything we learned and bring that energy to companies at the next stage. That's how we ended up focused on mid-market Retail & Ecom SaaS.

I'm genuinely passionate about this space. Generative AI lets us do something that was never possible before: personalize every single customer interaction. Not segments. Not cohorts. Actual one-on-one conversations at scale. Retail and ecom is where that has the biggest impact.

I've been working in AI since 2016 — back when that meant computer vision, not ChatGPT. Smart cameras, facial recognition, number plate recognition. That foundation matters when you're building production systems that actually need to work.

Previously: From 18 to 20, Sr. Software Engineer at SmartCow (Deep Tech AI company in Malta). At 17, Python work for a Mumbai startup, who are YET to pay me. At 15, building websites and apps for family friends in Java. It's been over a decade.

I started Ionio as a college junior, from my parent's bedroom, while hiring someone to do my assignments & a chauffeur to take me to college. Now it's a little less grunge than that.

In another life: rapper, musician, and cinematographer. Now I just build AI for retail... :(

What our clients say:

"Working with Ionio felt like having an extension of my own team — professionals who genuinely cared about delivering results, not just collecting a check."
— Stefan Georgi, Founder, 9-figure ecom founder

"Fastest I've ever launched a polished product. From wireframes to +1000 paying users in <8 weeks."
— Brad Milne, CTO, SupplierHQ

"Ionio has the character to navigate challenges and the technical depth to turn our 'AI-first' vision into reality."
— Sallyann Della Casa, CEO, Gleac

Read 35+ case studies on our site.

I post about: AI strategy for retail, technical deep dives, and behind-the-scenes of building Ionio.

If you're leading product, engineering, or strategy at a Retail & Ecom SaaS company, or a founder in any space — DM me, I always reply. If you're in Mumbai, I'll buy you a coffee.

Rohan Sawant

The $100K truth about enterprise SAAS that everyone forgets!

Last year, I helped a nine-figure retail brand evaluate data analytics platforms, they wanted to understand & visualize an frontend A/B test. 

Standard buying process—shortlist vendors, book demos, compare features. 

Here's what actually happened: I joined every call as their technical advisor. 

Not to hear the AE's pitch. To strip it down. 

To see what the product actually did versus what the marketing claimed it did. 

Got a list of 5-6 platforms from Chatgpt. Booked calls. 

Removed all their positioning, all their messaging, all their sales theater. Just laid the core products side by side. 

Made the decision based on capability, differentiation, ROI & cost. That's it. This is the actual buying journey for most of SaaS right now. 

In most sophisticated markets. 

And this experience crystallized something I've been seeing across dozens of conversations with SaaS companies over the past few weeks: 

All the marketing gimmicks, all the positioning frameworks, all the clever messaging—they work exactly once. 

They get you shortlisted in the discovery phase. But when an enterprise buyer is actually deploying a $100K budget? 

None of that matters anymore. 

What matters is: 
1. Does your product actually do what you claim? 🤔 
2. How differentiated is the core capability? ⚡
3. What's the measurable ROI? 💰

The mid-market knows this. Enterprise buyers definitely know this. 

Yet somehow, SaaS companies keep optimizing for discovery metrics instead of decision metrics. 

As we move into AI-native products, this gap is going to become even more obvious. 

Because AI products are easier to test, easier to compare, and harder to hide behind marketing. 

The companies that win won't be the ones with the best positioning decks. 

They'll be the ones that built something meaningfully better. 

For companies wondering how their products stack up in an AI-native future (esp. ones who just rolled their eyes at that) you should definitely drop me a DM, saying "AI"

CEO & Founder | AI, LLM & NLP Consulting | Training, Deploying & Scaling GenAI Applications

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