{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2Fc6cf565e-a611-44dd-8db9-322c29d454a9","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Closing well with Tom Nixon","description":"When Laurence and I closed our digital agency it seemed like the natural thing to do. At the time we had beautiful studio, a talented team and clients with ongoing projects but we\u2019d lost the creative energy to keep it going. We weren\u2019t clear about its future and we were being drawn to grow the Happy Startup School. While it wasn't plain sailing closing Spook Studio was a lot less traumatic experience than what many other founders have had to go through.\r\n\nIn this episode of the podcast we\u2019re joined for our Friday Fireside by Tom Nixon, author, coach and founder of Maptio (a tool to help develop self managing organisations). He's on a mission to support founders and research what it takes to create (and close) impactful companies.\r\n\nTom shares his story of entrepreneurship, how he closed his company and why some businesses have a natural shelf-life, and that\u2019s fine.\r\n\nWe talk about the taboo connected with closing a company and how we\u2019ve lost sight of the creativity and the humanity at the core of business. Businesses may be legal entities in themselves but in reality they\u2019re just a collection of people brought together by the creative energy of the founder. When we forget this we can easily become imprisoned by the structures we\u2019ve created.\r\n\nIf you\u2019re a founder thinking about closing your company or at the beginning of a startup journey we hope that this conversation will give you a new and more energising perspective on what it means to be an entrepreneur.\r\n","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/605f67ac-4c31-4c88-a0cd-1bbaa6a26e28/1433674-1593036638445-bbd4cae9ee26e.jpg"}