James B Watt MBE

Massive respect to everyone running the London Marathon this weekend. And of course to all the brilliant supporters lining the streets and shouting strangers names all day. I ran my first ever marathon last year for @pancreaticcanuk having lost both my father and my close friend Dan Bolton to pancreatic cancer in 2024 ⚓️❤️ I scribbled ‘DAD’ on the back of my hand with a sharpie and every time I wanted to stop I just looked at my hand and managed to find a way to keep going. It was a really emotional but also a very special day too. My wife @georgiatoffolo was a legend all day too - and far more concerned about my nipples than my time 😂

It had not been my intention to share this, but after the @telegraph asked me to respond to statements from Irwin Simon attacking me personally, I shared this quote with them: “Recently, Irwin Simon and I talked at length about the importance of the BrewDog community and he gave a clear indication that if he bought the business he would ensure that Equity Punks retained their equity stake. I am really disappointed that did not happen, and consequently our Equity Punks were left with nothing. That is something I would never have done. For me, there is no BrewDog fightback without taking the community with us, without ensuring all team shares are honoured and without reinstating the real living wage.” And let’s see, maybe the Equity Punk story is not quite finished yet......

Much has been written about BrewDog recently, so I wanted to share a few facts and some context. Firstly: I am devastated for every single team member who lost their job through this process. They deserved better, and that weighs on me every day. In my previous post I shared some thoughts on our team, our investors, and things I could have done better. I meant every word of that. Alongside that, there are also a few facts that are being overlooked: 1) I have not sold any shares in BrewDog since April 2017. 2) In April 2017, I ensured that every single Equity Punk investor had the opportunity to sell shares at exactly the same price I sold mine at which was £13.18. The offer was capped at £520 per investor and this cap impacted less than 3% of our investors. 3) This offer to Equity Punks was personally funded by Martin and myself. 4) When TSG invested in 2017, my shares ranked exactly the same as all Equity Punk shares. No special treatment. 5) I stood down as CEO in April 2024. From 2010 until then, the business we built together grew on average, 49% per year. Even in my last quarter as CEO we grew 30% ahead of the beer market in UK grocery – our most important channel. 6) If I were ever involved in the ownership of BrewDog again, my commitment to Equity Punks would be unchanged – I would ensure they owned 19.5% of the business and that we paid the Real Living Wage. Whatever happens next, I will always be proud of what the team built and grateful to the community who supported us. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have directly.

This week has been incredibly hard.   On Monday, the business I co-founded in 2007 was sold.   I am heartbroken for all of the hard working and passionate team members who have lost their jobs. I am heartbroken for all of our brilliant equity punks who did not get the return on their investment they wanted.   I put my heart, my soul and every ounce of energy into building BrewDog as CEO from inception until early 2024 as we grew from a garage to the world’s leading independent beer brand. We employed thousands and challenged an entire industry. I was 24, working part time on a fishing boat, and still living in my dad’s spare room when we started BrewDog. I had never run a business before, I had no idea what I was really doing and I just made it all up as I went along.    When an underdog strategy works so well that people perceive you as the incumbent, that strategy breaks down, and I should have recognised that earlier.   With the benefit of hindsight there are also so many other things I would have done differently. At times we expanded too fast, diversified too broadly and I feel that I did not respond to certain crises that we faced (and we faced many) in a way that was authentic to who we were.   Ultimately, the mistakes hurt far more than our successes console.   I would have loved to save every single job and every single equity punk investment. Ultimately, I couldn’t. That will stay with me.   To our team members leaving this week: thank you. You helped build something that mattered. I am sorry we could not protect you.   To our equity punks: thank you for having the conviction to believe in the business when this was just two humans, one dog and a crazy idea.   It was an honour and a privilege to dedicate my life to trying to build something truly amazing for everyone involved.   I am sorry that I was not able to repay the faith you bestowed in me with the outcome you all deserved.   I still love the business. It will always feel like an intrinsic part of me. I will always be cheering it on from the sidelines, even if the next chapter is now going to be written by others.

On Friday, our family said goodbye to our dearly beloved Granny Cathie. She passed away, peacefully at home at the age of 93. She was, quite simply, the warmest, kindest, most giving person I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Her devotion to her family was beyond inspirational. I feel incredibly lucky not just to have her play such a central role in my life but for my daughters to have gotten to know their great grandmother so well. Her masterpiece was her Sunday lunch, and it was the focal point of our family. The menu remained the same for over 50 years and Sunday lunches at the Bank House in Gardenstown are always at the heart of our happiest family memories. Granny – you will be very deeply missed. Every Sunday lunch, every laugh, and every act of quiet kindness you gave us will always be with us. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ The photo is from 1/3/2025 on @georgiatoffolo & my wedding day. We got married in the same church in Gardenstown where Granny Cathie & Granda Jimmy wed over 70 years earlier in 1953.

The Daily Mail invented a wild £160,000 whisky-fuelled stag do for me. The only problem? None of it ever happened. Because I think it really illustrates how the media work, I wanted to share a direct extract from their hit piece on me, showing the remarkable level of detail they went into: ‘In the amber glow of Bertie’s Whisky Bar in the Royal Deeside village of Braemar, a night of exceptional hedonism was getting under way. It is perhaps Scotland’s most expensive licensed establishment – a ‘whisky library’ of to-die-for single malts curated by experts and quaffed by those for whom three-figure price tags for a single 25ml dram hold little fear. On this particular night – December 30 last year – the party of 15 trooping into Bertie’s in the ultra-fashionable Fife Arms Hotel pushed the boat out further than most. Forget three figures. Ten unpeated Laphroaigs dating back to the 1940s were ordered at £4,000 a pop. A further 15 tots of 50-year-old Balvenie were added to the tab – swelling it by £67,500. Total damage for the 101 whiskies ordered during the course of the evening? An eyewatering £158,914 – not including a tip. Word travels fast in a close-knit community like Braemar, where everybody knows everybody, and the identity of the party’s ringleader did not remain a mystery for long. It was, say impeccably placed sources in the village, BrewDog founder James Watt kicking back on his stag night weeks before his wedding to Made in Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo.’ It reads like a movie script. Except it’s pure fiction. I never had a Stag Party and I have never spent more than a few hundred pounds on a bar tab in my life. Furthermore, on the day in question I was on the sofa with @georgiatoffolo and Monty the dog, eating Panettone. This isn’t really about me. I am happy to laugh it off. But it really is crazy the level of detail the media can go into on a pure fabrication, all carefully designed to attack someone. 👉 Has the media (or social media) ever published something about you or your business that was just flat-out untrue?

“BrewDog Founder’s £160,000 bar tab.” That was the @dailymail headline this weekend. Apparently, at my stag party on 30th December I racked up a £160,000 bar tab. Except… • I didn’t even have a stag party • I have never spent more than a few hundred pounds on a bar tab. • On 30th December, @georgiatoffolo & I were at home on the sofa with Monty the Dog, eating Christmas Panettone. The journalist even contacted us beforehand. We told them the story was nonsense. They ran it anyway. That’s not journalism - it is pure fabrication. I can take it. But honestly, it’s insane how far some UK media outlets will go to try and tear someone down.

When Rory Sutherland, the godfather of behavioural science and one of the sharpest minds in marketing, says something about your business, you sit up and listen. In this clip, Rory explains why he thinks @wearesocialtip has the power to change the way marketing works. 👉  Instead of a world dominated only by big influencers with millions of followers, Social Tip opens the door for anyone to become a brand advocate. 👉 Instead of brands guessing which influencer will deliver, they can now tap into the voices of everyday people creating authentic content. 👉 Instead of influence being a top-down game, it becomes bottom-up, powered by communities. For us, that is the vision. ⚡ To democratise influence. ⚡ To give creators of all sizes the chance to earn. ⚡ To give brands a new way to reach people with real trust, not just big follower counts. Hearing Rory articulate this so clearly is special. It validates what we have believed from day one: the future of marketing is not just about celebrities shouting into the void. It is about real people, sharing real stories. Curious to hear what you think. 👀 Will everyday creators become the most powerful marketing channel of the next decade? 💡 What would it take for brands to truly harness this shift at scale? 🚀 If you’d like to explore how Social Tip can help your brand tap into this movement, DM me. 📱If you want to try Social Tip - download from the link in @wearesocialtip bio.

In January 2016, I invited the entire BrewDog management team to the Arctic Circle to swim with killer whales. Only 3 hours of daylight. -20°C temperatures. Freezing rain. Hypothermia. Frostbite. Endless hours in tiny boats. Coming face to face with one of the ocean’s most formidable predators — in their world, on their terms. We were cold to the core. Exhausted. Arctic winds howled through us. But those 3 remarkable yet highly uncomfortable days bonded our team, galvanized us, and built a story we’d carry forward. That year — 2016 — turned out to be BrewDog’s biggest year of growth ever. The team were phenomenal all year, taking every single challenge in their stride. I can’t prove it, but I’ve always wondered how much of our success in 2016 was down to those three brutal, beautiful days in the Arctic circle? Do hard things. Do remarkable things. Get way out of your comfort zone. Once you’ve chased with orcas in -20°C, everything else is just business as usual.

My Wife vs. Social Tip: A Very Risky Experiment. Only 3 months married and I’m already testing the limits of that contract. Georgia is going to kill me for this post. 🙈 Here’s the setup: My genius wife @georgiatoffolo isn’t just an entrepreneur—she’s also one of the most authentic influencers I know. Her audience genuinely trusts her because she only promotes brands she actually uses and loves. This week, she’s creating content for @discoversuri (the incredible sustainable toothbrush brand we both swear by). Georgia’s content always massively over-delivers compared to industry standards—her engagement rates are insane, and her audience actually converts. But here’s where it gets interesting... We’ve convinced SURI to run a parallel experiment with @wearesocialtip our new app that democratizes influence by letting anyone earn money posting about brands they love, regardless of follower count. The Challenge: Same brand, same budget, same timeframe. Georgia’s world class influencer content vs. Social Tip’s authentic customer advocacy Professional creator vs. passionate community One superstar vs. many genuine fans We’ll track everything: reach, engagement, clicks, conversions, cost-per-view—the works. What makes this fair? Georgia is legitimately amazing at what she does. Her content doesn’t just get views, it drives real results. If Social Tip can even come close to matching her performance, that says something huge about the power of peer-to-peer marketing. The real question: In 2025, what converts better—one brilliant influencer or a community of genuine brand advocates? My money’s on my wife (obviously—I’m not completely stupid). But I’m betting Social Tip puts up a serious fight. Results dropping soon. Divorce papers potentially following. What’s your prediction?

Yesterday, I had to admit something uncomfortable: AI is already better than me at almost everything I do. The AI revolution isn’t coming. It’s here. And it’s not going to gently replace some jobs while creating others. It’s going to obliterate the entire concept of human expertise. Let me give you the uncomfortable truth: I’ve built a unicorn from scratch. I’ve founded and scaled multiple companies. I am considered (rightly or wrongly) to be in the top 1% of business builders in Europe. But… - I’m a strategic thinker — ChatGPT is faster, broader, and 2x better. - I consider myself a world-class copywriter — Claude crushes me in seconds. - I love data — Gemini sees patterns I miss. - I tell stories visually — Midjourney outputs more, better, and faster than I ever could. - I’m trained in business law — and every major AI lawyer-bot runs rings around me. We could add more examples. But the conclusion is the same: AI isn’t just going to replace entry level roles. It is going to replace the elite in every field. The barista, the accountant, the professor, the CEO, the creative director - we’re all in the same boat now. AI isn’t just coming for “low-skilled” jobs. It’s coming for the Nobel Prize winners, the Fortune 500 CEOs, the world’s best doctors. The humans at the absolute top of their fields. We’re not ready for this. We’re debating which jobs AI might affect whilst it is already pretty much better than our best humans at almost everything. The question isn’t “Will AI take jobs?” The question is “What’s left for humans when AI does everything better?” I’m an eternal optimist. I truly believe that AI can help us create a better future for all of humanity. But I don’t think any of us are prepared for how radically everything is about to change. And how fast. What do you think? Are we heading for utopia or chaos?

This hat just taught me more about marketing than any consultant. A few months ago I had a call with @dayjob.work , a creative agency in LA that does incredible work for brands like Fling By Jing and Recess. The project didn’t work out. Stars didn’t align. Happens all the time in business. I forgot about them. Then this arrived on Friday. A blue hat that says “I ALMOST WORKED WITH DAY JOB” and a metal gift card for $1000 of free creative work (redeemable by sending it to “Julia Wertz, the Day Job bookkeeper in New Jersey”). My wife @georgiatoffolo stole the hat immediately. It’s now her favourite. Here’s what blew my mind: I probably said “no” to over 100 potential partners in the last 12 months. Day Job is the ONLY one I remember. Not because they sent me something expensive. Not because they followed up aggressively. But because they turned rejection into a relationship. The psychology is genius: - Self-deprecating humor (they’re confident enough to joke about losing) - Wearable advertising (Georgia’s basically a walking billboard now) - Actionable gift (not just swag, but actual value) - Memorable story (I’m literally posting about them) Most agencies chase. Day Job creates gravity. I have a call with them today to discuss working together. The lesson for every business: Your “no’s” are just as valuable as your “yes’s” if you treat them right. How you handle rejection defines your brand more than how you handle success. What’s the most creative “we didn’t get the deal” follow-up you’ve ever seen? 👇 P.S. - Day Job, if you’re reading this, you’ve already won. But let’s make something amazing together anyway.