Author: David Alade (Page 2 of 18)

I am a student of the world. I learn, build and share.

Octopus & Kraken: My Business of the Year (2025)

January 20, 2026 / David Alade

2025 was, on balance, a good year for UK business. And I would be right to say It did not always feel that way in real time.

There were the familiar frustrations: taxes rose again, political promises went unmet, and the drought of IPO on the London Stock Exchange continued to prompt uncomfortable questions about Britain’s competitiveness.

Yet beneath the surface noise, the picture was far from bleak. The FTSE 100 delivered a historic 21% return in 2025, closing the year at record highs and crossing the 10,000 mark on the first trading day of 2026. UK companies raised over $8 billion in venture capital, with investment up 3% in the first half of 2025 compared with the second half of 2024 (HSBC). Meanwhile, 426,000 new companies were incorporated in H1 2025 (NatWest), including record AI companies – pointing to a broad-based recovery in entrepreneurial confidence.

So there were the bad and the good.

Weak Ties: How Distant Connections Shape Your Career

January 13, 2026 / David Alade

About two years ago, I applied for a job at JP Morgan that I’d found on LinkedIn. I didn’t fit the profile for the role perfectly, but it was good enough that I was invited for the first recruiter call and then to the next interview. It was at this interview that the hiring manager and I concluded that I probably wasn’t well suited for the role.

A few weeks later, I was contacted for another interview at JP Morgan, but this time for a role I hadn’t applied to. I showed up, obviously. The hiring manager informed me that I’d been recommended for the role by the previous hiring manager, who thought I might fit their team better. Unfortunately, this role didn’t work out either.

The Matthew Effect: Understanding How Success Compounds In Your Career

January 7, 2026 / David Alade

“Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” — Matthew 13:12

Early in my career, before I knew it had been popularised as The Matthew Effect, I noticed this phenomenon. I captured it in an article as “it’s much easier to get ‘another success’ once you get the first one.”

I have done it before

January 2, 2026 / David Alade

“I have done it before” is such a powerful anchor.

You will not always have to do “it”, and when you are not doing “it”, it can be unnerving to think about not doing “it” in that moment. However, your ability to say, “Well, in the past, when I wanted to, I did it,” can be a strong anchor to help you escape that feeling. It is often also sufficient to get you through having to do “it” again.

December – Hope for affordable housing

January 2, 2026 / David Alade

If you’ve been waiting for an update on my most important business and economic news of December, it is finally here. The holidays delayed its publication until now.

Warren Buffett Exit Marks the End of an Era

December 31, 2025 / David Alade

Getting introduced to stock market investing during my undergraduate days was synonymous with getting introduced to Warren Buffett. There was a fanfare about even knowing him in my circle of friends: “You don’t know the Oracle of Omaha?” one would query, rhetorically, in such situations.

Over the years, I’ve read a few of his annual shareholder letters, two books that touch on different topics about him, and countless articles, videos, and audios.

How I Think About Goal Setting

December 30, 2025 / David Alade

When it comes to setting goals for the year, my approach has two parts.

1. The engine that powers all. These are habits and actions that I hold consistent from year to year. They are goals that don’t change (or slowly change), irrespective of what time of the year it is.
An example habit is my waking-up time (between 5:30am and 6am). An example action is my writing (I carry it year over year no matter what). Hold this thought for now.

Metadata enriches life

December 24, 2025 / David Alade

Metadata is the stuff of life, the art that makes life even more interesting. I think in language, you could refer to them as contextual data.

You went to a restaurant to eat. The meal was delicious and you enjoyed it. To retell the experience to yourself, you could say, “Oh, the meal was delicious and I enjoyed it.” And that would be true. But only as true as saying David bought a book from this store… and nothing more.

November – Hope for energy affordability in the UK

November 30, 2025 / David Alade

As the curtain closes on November, I have my candidate for the most important piece of economic and business news from the UK for you (if you missed previous months, see comment for links)

It’s about energy in the UK. First, let’s do some reality checks

There Only 5000 ISA Millionaires in the UK

November 23, 2025 / David Alade

The millionaire threshold of wealth is often used to measure some sort of arrival, especially when based on hard currencies like the pound or usd or euro. So, it is often actively tracked. In the UK, there are approximately 3.1 million millionaires (1).

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