Published: May 22, 2026 at 11:34 am
After working with Steven Bartlett and THG’s Matt Moulding, Alex Ayin has launched his own high performance business – Tomorrow’s Potential – for founders and CEOs.
In a far-reaching interview with Chris Maguire, Ayin spoke about the lessons he’s taken from working with some of the UK’s highest profile entrepreneurs.
Ayin joined Manchester-based Social Chain,in 2015, helping it grow to over 250 employees across five global offices and a multi eight-figure turnover.
He said the experience taught him about the importance of culture.
“Get obsessive about culture,” he said. “Understand who comes in. I was there from the very early days. The first 50 people determine the trajectory of the company.
“We made some mistakes in hiring people in the early days and we didn’t fire them quick enough.
“Fire much quicker than you think and analyse based on a set of character traits that we now have.”
Ayin said leaders should spend x10 longer on recruitment and measure candidates against metrics like ‘bias for speed’ and ‘independent learning’.