Inspired Surfers is a 10 part series – in partnership with Jimmy’s Iced Coffee. We uncover the stories of characters who have taken their passion for surf into their day to day lives and done big and amazing things.
In this episode, we are in conversation with Rob Love – A serial entrepreneur who has always insisted on basing his companies on the beach so that he and his team can benefit from getting in the water as much as possible.
Rob is currently the founder and CEO of Crowdfunder.co.uk A company that has raised nearly £100m for ideas that ‘might just change the world’.
From his HQ in Newquay Rob and his team have supported thousands of positive impact projects to become reality and based on their location and passion for surf it is no surprise that they have helped many projects and charities that support this. Here are a few people, companies, charities and groups they have supported:
The Bristol Wave, The Wave project, Surfers against Sewage, Andrew Cotton, The British longboard team…
The list goes on and on and actually includes us. We crowdfunded when we took over Wavelength as a group of surfers and ran a community issue to launch us into becoming a reader supported magazine! (Thanks as always to people that backed us in 2014 and continue to subscribe today)
Rob is a big believer in striking the balance between work and life in order to drive productivity and with Crowdfunder he has a company that is driven by tech. Therefore when choosing where to base this venture the world was his oyster and rather than going down the obvious route, which would have been London, he chose Newquay so that he and his team could benefit both mentally and physically from surfing together before, during and after work.
This episode highlights the value of getting the right balance between work / play and the success of Crowdfunder which is testament to Rob’s drive to build a company with an incredible ethos and inspiring culture.
Summary
In this conversation Jim and Rob discuss:
- How surf is good for business
- What Crowdfunding is
- Setting up Crowdfunder.co.uk
- Setting up River Cottage
- Operating as ‘more than profit’
- The positive changes made due to Covid-19
- Supporting local businesses
- Having an office on the beach
- Productivity improved by getting outside more
- Surfing before during and after work
- The art of slipping into a wetsuit while on a business call
- Getting from Leicester into Surfing
- Favourite projects
- Enjoying the moments in surf
- Chatting in the line up
- The beautiful places surfing takes you
- The Bristol Wave
- The mental health benefits of surf
- Surfing being a way of life
- Favourite surf spots
- Work/Surf trips to Trinidad and Tobago
We hope that this story inspires you to Keep Your Chin Up, do good and take on the challenges in front of you!
If you enjoyed this episode you can find more conversations on our Wavelength Community channel.
Listen in to conversations with inspired surfers here.
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