About Jonathan
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
About
Hi, I’m Jonathan.
I've had the privilege of working in the hospitality sector for many years, from outside catering companies in California creating inspiring event solutions, from small exclusive gatherings to 10,000 capacity gigs, working with some of the world's greatest venues and artists, combining music and sport, to working at some of the most prestigious hotels in the world - The Savoy, Claridges, The Berkeley, The Connaught, and transforming hotels that were underperforming - from boutique hotels to the County Hall Marriott and Regents Park Marriott.
This all led me down the path to becoming a consultant and supporting business owners who either wanted help setting up their own ventures or who wanted help and support with challenges they were facing at that time.
At the same time as helping others, I set up my own ventures.
The Entrepreneur Network was a group of passionate entrepreneurs at various stages in their business lives where I set up monthly and fortnightly networking events for 200-400+ guests, including conferences, and seminars all to offer a support network with advice from experts in their field. This I managed to secure sponsorship from 02 and Dominos Pizza.
Launch48 was a startup incubator where we brought groups of 200 people together to launch a business, in 48 hours. This I secured sponsorship from PayPal.
Both of these saw huge successes, the last being acquired by Oxygen Accelerator.
This has allowed me to see, learn and understand many different areas of running any venture, be it not for profit or for profit, and in an array of categories. And became the foundation to my next venture.
About
Hi, I’m Jonathan.
I've had the privilege of working in the hospitality sector for many years, from outside catering companies in California creating inspiring event solutions, from small exclusive gatherings to 10,000 capacity gigs, working with some of the world's greatest venues and artists, combining music and sport, to working at some of the most prestigious hotels in the world - The Savoy, Claridges, The Berkeley, The Connaught, and transforming hotels that were underperforming - from boutique hotels to the County Hall Marriott and Regents Park Marriott.
This all led me down the path to becoming a consultant and supporting business owners who either wanted help setting up their own ventures or who wanted help and support with challenges they were facing at that time.
At the same time as helping others, I set up my own ventures.
The Entrepreneur Network was a group of passionate entrepreneurs at various stages in their business lives where I set up monthly and fortnightly networking events for 200-400+ guests, including conferences, and seminars all to offer a support network with advice from experts in their field. This I managed to secure sponsorship from 02 and Dominos Pizza.
Launch48 was a startup incubator where we brought groups of 200 people together to launch a business, in 48 hours. This I secured sponsorship from PayPal.
Both of these saw huge successes, the last being acquired by Oxygen Accelerator.
This has allowed me to see, learn and understand many different areas of running any venture, be it not for profit or for profit, and in an array of categories. And became the foundation to my next venture.
That’s me on the helm! Steering the boat! Miami to Jamaica in 2003.
Always being an avid fan of the outdoors and sports, and seeing the rise in obstacle course events, but bemused by the fact they were all doing the same thing, and wanting to become the most macho, I then set up Rough Runner.
An obstacle course event but with a focus on appealing to the masses and not the elitists, and offering something that was a lot more fun and engaging to do, all based of our favourite TV game shows, such as Total Wipeout and Gladiators.
Rough Runner was born, where I curated, produced, and led events, with a usual attendance of 8,000-14,000 people at 8-10 events across the UK each year. Social media channels grew to just shy of 160k followers, and we saw over 100,000 attendees across the events each year, great the business to become the second largest in it’s category in the UK and won numerous awards.
With Covid then in full swing, I set up Chiswick Festival in 2020 organising 21 events; all being Covid-secure in the peak of the pandemic. From Jazz and Opera to Comedy and Rock at Chiswick House & Gardens, accommodating over 5,000 locals across the 21 evenings.
Team photo at the end of the Sydney to Hobart, 2004.
116 boats started and only 59 finished. 3 days of storms saw many needing to retire.