Was doing some reflecting today on my journey to being 30, building the company of my dreams, with the team of my dreams, in the city of my dreams. Asked myself how the hell I got here having never had a job and dropping out of college 3 months in. Made some notes, here goes...

1/ Age 10, Manchester - Learned how to sell. Parents split, Dad moved to Manchester and worked the markets (not the financial ones). Traveled the country setting up his stall and selling clothing to people of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. He’s still trading to this day.

2/ Age 11, London: I discovered arbitrage. Sold my government assistance lunch coupons for a 33% discount in cash to invest into candy at wholesale. Sold at a 3x markup to other students, bought lunch and kept the profit. Demand for candy has high price inelasticity at school.

3/ Age 15, London: Started running teen club-nights for kids who wanted a safe place to party and watch their favorite artists perform. Put up tents in fields, rented nightclubs when closed and built street team of ticket sellers. Kids are trouble makers, events are fucking hard.

4/ Age 18, Manchester: Dropped out of an Economics degree after 3 months (my Mother still thinks 6 if she ever asks you). Learned that you can’t do things just to please your parents. Go with your gut and be true to yourself.

5/ Age 18, London - Feeling lost, but driven. Started a free magazine distributed at major London train stations. Bootstrapped the biz by cold calling SMBs to buy ads. In sales, building rapport goes a long way.

6/ Age 19, London: Shuttered the magazine after permitting issues halted distribution. Met a financier from Dubai and went back to my rag-trading roots. Cleared distributors of designer brands of their excess inventory & sold to TJ Maxx, Costco etc. The grey market is wild....

...Met some real characters along the way. At 33 Portland Place, a famous house where we held sample sales with our excess inventory, I watched with my own eyes as Ed 'Fraud Lord' Davenport was arrested the morning of our grand opening. Great doc on this -

7/ Age 21, London: I burned out. I discovered I could make some money working one night/week by taking what I learned running the events and applying it to nightclubs. Marketing hack: give the birthday boy/girl a free night out and the crowd will follow…

8/ Age 22, London: I met one of my closest friends to this day. He believed in me and taught me everything I know about recruitment. We set up a headhunting company and built from the ground up. Recruiting is a CEO’s superpower, I didn’t realize it, but I was developing mine.

9/ Age 24, Los Angeles. I met my match. @joshmangel and I met in a music studio on Cahuenga. He had just sold his startup and I had 48 hours before he left, to pitch him his next project. 3 months later that project became @skurt:

10/ Age 24, Dana Point: I moved into a 1 bed apartment with Josh and our co-founders and we built. Raised a seed round from @msuster and graduated to a 2 bedroom, then 3, then 7 bedroom house with a team of 25. Startups are hard.

11/ Age 25, Los Angeles: Raised an A from @msuster and moved into new digs in Culver City. Spent way too much on rent for a fancy office but it was ‘what startups did?’ Team was ~100 with 3500 strong delivery workforce. I don’t love managing people, I love leading.

12/ Age 27, Los Angeles: Went out to raise a B and ended up meeting Scott Painter @FairTheApp through our mutual investor @BMW. Fast forward two weeks and we were being acquired by Fair, not the billion dollar outcome we wanted. Startups are hard.

13/ Convinced my best friend, an incredible singer/songwriter called Soulex to let me manage her career. I’m still thankful to this day that she continues to trust me to guide her through her journey. She’s now signed to @MikeWiLLMadeIt and you should check out her music!

14/ Age 29, Los Angeles: Did my time at Fair and learned ALOT from Scott, who I consider to be one of the best fundraisers and business developers in the world. Though everyday @joshmangel and I would go for a walk in Santa Monica and discuss what was next. Startups are hard.

15/ Age 30, Tel Aviv: My first vacation in 4 years with my family. A chance to be truly introspective for the first time since moving to America. I decided then that it was time. I called Josh and let him know I was ready to go (he had left Fair 2 months before me).

16/ Age 30, San Francisco: Our 3rd investor meeting for pre-seed @pipe with @DavidSacks (via @MichaelDTam via @arteeninLA) No product, just a deck. 10 minutes in, David knew we were onto something. He set the terms in the meeting (which we finalized at his house that night)...

...as a result, I have the privilege of working with some of the smartest people in the world @joshmangel @zallarak @m_cieplinski @peterldowns @brandontle @simplyianm and others who are too cool for Twitter. Team is everything.

17/ Age 30, Los Angeles: I wake up in the morning and can’t wait to start working. I’m the most passionate and mission-driven I’ve ever been in my life and have never felt so grateful. There’s a lot of darkness in the world right now, our team and our company is my light.

Special mention to my amazing girlfriend @JuliaFriedmann who puts up with my lack of work-life balance.

I’m going to try and keep http://harryhurst.com  updated with what I’m up to. Building, reading, tv watching, podcast listening and angel investing. This was cathartic!