Complexity is
rarely the
problem.
Hesitation is.
Building what comes next.
I work with founders and leadership teams when growth has stalled, complexity has outpaced structure, or the business has outgrown the way it used to operate.
Operator thinking.
At the moment
it matters most.
Most advisory relationships begin too late — after the drift has set in, the decisions have been delayed, the window has narrowed. I enter earlier.
I bring operational judgement, not strategic opinion. The difference is material: I have built businesses, navigated governance under pressure, managed complex integrations, and led through the kind of organisational difficulty that frameworks alone cannot resolve.
I work with founders, PE-backed leadership teams, boards and investors who need more than a well-structured presentation. They need someone who has been in the room — and who isn't afraid to say what they see.
"Businesses rarely fail because of lack of ambition. They fragment because complexity grows faster than organisational capability."
The Second Curve Thesis
The situations
I'm built for.
I don't offer a menu of services. I engage in situations where operational experience, honest diagnosis and decisive thinking make the material difference.
Growth That Has Stalled
When a business has reached the edge of its current model and needs to build what comes next — before the curve declines.
The window to rebuild without losing ground is shorter than most leaders think.
ExploreExecution Breakdown
When strategy exists but the organisation cannot translate it into consistent action. Complexity has outpaced structure.
The problem is rarely the strategy. It's what happens — or doesn't — between decision and delivery.
ExploreAcquisition & Integration
When businesses come together and the hard work of creating commercial and operational coherence begins.
The deal is the easy part. What follows determines whether it was worth doing.
ExploreLeadership Under Pressure
When founders or leadership teams face decisions with real consequence and need a senior thinking partner with operational weight.
Some decisions need someone who has been in the seat — not someone who has studied it.
ExploreGovernance & Stabilisation
When PE-backed or board-governed businesses need calm, experienced counsel during periods of structural or financial strain.
Calm counsel at the right moment costs far less than the restructuring it prevents.
ExploreStrategic Inflection Points
The moments that define the next chapter — pivots, repositioning, restructuring. When clarity and speed both matter.
The best time to navigate this is before external pressure makes the decision for you.
Explore"The situations that matter most rarely announce themselves in advance."
Start a conversationThe Hesitation
Gap.
One of the most consistent patterns in businesses under pressure is not a lack of strategic clarity — it is the gap between understanding what must change and the willingness to act on it.
Read the full framework"When leaders have strategic clarity but delay decisive action — creating controlled drift until forced action becomes the only option."
The Hesitation Gap describes the period in which a business knows what it must do but remains held back by relational, structural or identity-entangled forces. The longer the gap, the narrower the window. Second Curve is designed to close it.
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Richard Jones · Founder, Second Curve
"No one can buy experience when it comes to starting, scaling or failing a business. I've had the privilege, and sometimes the bruises, of doing all three."
I founded Second Curve after twenty years building and leading businesses across the Middle East, the UK and the Netherlands. I co-founded Coffee Planet in Dubai in 2005 — one of the first specialty coffee businesses in the region — and grew it to €15m revenue with 200 staff across 17 nationalities before the category even had a name there. Simultaneously I held a senior leadership role at Ludlow Street Healthcare, a multi-site regulated group in Wales and the South West of England, which scaled from £50m to a £120m exit in 2022. I then spent twelve years building Jones Brothers Coffee Company in Amsterdam: brand, product, and route-to-market from scratch across DTC, B2B, and national retail.
The common thread across all of it is operating in conditions where the stakes were real and the playbook didn't exist. Building a category in an unfamiliar market. Scaling through regulatory complexity. Managing a multinational team with no shared language. Navigating board and investor relationships under financial pressure. And making the decision — when it was the right one — to wind down a business deliberately rather than expose creditors to further risk. I know what those situations feel like from inside them, not from reading about them.
Second Curve exists because the most useful person in a difficult business situation is rarely the most credentialled. It is the one who has been in that terrain before — and who has no agenda beyond the outcome.
Full background on LinkedInTrack record
Dubai · 2005 – 2014
Coffee Planet LLC
€15m revenue · 200+ staff · 17 nationalities
Co-founded and scaled one of the first specialty coffee businesses in the Middle East. Built the region's first HACCP-compliant specialty roastery. Established distribution across 5-star hotels, airlines, supermarkets and franchised cafés in ME and Asia.
Wales & South West England · 2004 – 2014
Ludlow Street Healthcare
£120m exit (2022) · ~1,500 staff
Deputy Chairman and Commercial Director through scale-up from £50m to exit. Led commercial, marketing, HR, estates and health & safety across a regulated multi-site group. Coordinated main board activity and contributed to strategic direction.
Amsterdam · 2013 – 2025
Jones Brothers Coffee Co.
12 years · DTC, B2B & national retail
Founded and built a premium Amsterdam coffee brand from scratch. Established national and international online distribution including Bol.com and Amazon. Navigated market headwinds including retailer delisting and investor withdrawal, managing an orderly wind-down that protected creditors.
Operator, not consultant
I have run businesses, not advised on them from the outside. That distinction changes the quality of the thinking.
Honest before comfortable
The most useful thing I can do is tell you clearly what I see. I have no commercial interest in a particular answer.
Small and focused
I work with very few engagements at a time. You get my full attention — not a junior team member and a methodology.
Strictly confidential
Every conversation is confidential. The conversations worth having only happen when both sides know it.
The right moment
to act is rarely
obvious.
I work with a small number of engagements at any time.
If the situation feels right, the conversation is always worth having.