Track record · 2008–2018 · Founding editor → founding partner & creative director
A decade to an overnight exit
A decade growing a surf forecasting site into the world's largest platform in its category. Audience from zero to 1M+. Sold for £13m.
The context
The premise was narrow on purpose: tell surfers, accurately, when and where the waves would be good. Not a lifestyle brand, not a marketplace — the single most trusted answer to one question a specific group of people asked obsessively, several times a day. Narrow is not a limitation. Narrow is how you become the default.
The build
Ed joined as founding editor in 2008 and spent a decade as founding partner and creative director. He built the editorial department, grew a social audience from zero to 1M+ followers, ran content partnerships with Monster, Ford and Vivobarefoot, and created vertical brands including Fourth Surfboards — now the UK's #1 surfboard brand. Audience first, product alongside, both compounding: a forecast that got better with data, trust that got deeper with every accurate call.
The outcome
The world's largest surf forecasting platform, sold for £13m. From the outside, an overnight success. From the inside, ten years of compounding — most of it invisible. You cannot growth-hack your way into being someone's morning habit.
What you're hiring: the patience to build things that compound, and the editorial discipline to keep a brand telling one coherent story for a decade.
Put it to workWant this experience on your side?
Book a free 30-minute call. You'll talk to Ed — not an account manager — and you'll leave with something useful either way.