Andy Silvester meets Andreas Adamides, the founder who is helping others on their entrepreneurial journey as the boss of Helm, the members club / learning network for scaling-up founders
If anyone was expecting a rose-tinted view of life as a founder, you probably won’t find it from Andreas Adamides.
The Aussie-Cypriot serial entrepreneur who now calls London home founded several businesses down under and in Europe. And it’s no surprise that he’s now trying to bring founders together to kick around problems.
“As a founder, I’ve always struggled to get support for any challenges I had from my own immediate network. Friends and family aren’t helpful when you’re scaling an e-commerce business. They can’t relate to hiring challenges, or cross-border trading, or stepping back and hiring an MD,” he tells me with a smile.
“Being a founder is a very lonely job, even if you’ve got co-founders. You’re on your own, trying to make things happen, and having a support network for your challenges, needs, even your own mental health is key.”
Building those support networks is the challenge that appealed to Adamides – and why he’s now CEO of Helm, formerly the Supper Club. Founded by Duncan Cheatle in 2003 for founders to kick around ideas over dinner, Helm has kicked back into life after the pandemic with a vengeance and remains a home for most of the capital’s most high-profile entrepreneurs.
IN THE ROOM
Whilst online sessions became the way of it whilst entrepreneurs are locked down, and those are continuing, Adamides is revving up the face-to-face events.
“In-person is so much more valuable, and appreciated by people. In the last six months, we had 80 per cent more events than the previous year’s six months,” he tells me.
The flagship events for all members – who need to be running a business with more than £1mn in revenues and pass a vetting process to ensure they’re in it for the right reasons – are the ‘forums’. These gatherings of 8 peer-founders last three hours, with curation from the Helm team to ensure that the entirely confidential problem-sharing discussions become problem-solving ones, too.
Adamides tells me the forums act as a “second non-exec board,” complete with WhatsApp groups and even an annual retreat, with an experienced chair and with mandatory attendance. Other events include everything from workshops on AI or building a team, online coaching sessions and member socials. As we speak, he’s planning that night’s gathering – a fireside chat, meet and greet with the legendary Reebok founder Joe Foster.
“I’ve also been a fan of – well, networking is not the right word. It’s peer to peer learning,” he says. For him, that’s much better in person – allowing conversations to flow much more easily than any Zoom meeting ever could.
Why did he take the job, when he’s clearly not struggling for ideas of his own? It comes back to his experiences as a founder. “It attracted me to go into something that’s established, offers a lot of value for founders, something that’s very close to my heart, and shape it.
“But also the club is ambitious – it wouldn’t be anything else.”
Now he wants to expand the value of Helm’s peer to peer learning. Many of his members are based in or near London, but he wants to expand the group’s offering outside of the capital. That push has come from members, too.
Everyone in the world eventually comes to London – business gets done at a faster pace here, I’ve found
“Just this morning I was talking to a member who has been a member for years, but is moving to Scotland. They said they can come to London once a month, stay overnight, and do my forums, but I’d love something to be in my backyard too and I’d love to help,” Adamides says.
“A lot of founders care deeply about the value they got out of the club, the other members. We’re looking to form forums in Edinburgh, in Manchester, and offer more to founders around the country.”
THE ONLY RULE THAT MATTERS
Perhaps the secret of Helm’s success is the one golden rule: a strict no-sales ethos. Instead, it’s the ‘give and get’ – members are expected to help out their fellow members where they can, with advice, learning, experience or knowledge.
It’s an idealistic idea but it seems to work – Adamides tells me membership is healthy – and last year Helm secured B-Corp status.
And perhaps the group is needed more than ever. One survey released the morning we speak suggests life has got harder for entrepreneurs in the capital.
“It’s got harder. Hiring is harder – finding the right people is tougher than it used to be. The economic climate is not a London (problem), it’s affecting us all. But from what I’ve seen from the members, they’re not struggling to solve problems because they’re in London.
“For me London is the centre of the universe. Everyone in the world eventually comes to London – business gets done at a faster pace here, I’ve found.”
If anyone should know, it’d be him.