YouSaid · the spoken record

Nick Jones

lines on the record: 77
first: 2022-07-25
most recent: 2022-07-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I agree. I agree with the human connection and people getting together and laughter and ideas and not doing it digitally, doing it in a physical space is great to see.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a great subject now, isn't it? And I think people come out with the pandemic and they think we want our lives to be slightly more balanced. And I think that wasn't the case 25 years ago or 15 years ago or when you started your business. It was that mission. And I think balance is good.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would definitely have come up I certainly still would have done over the top I would have done that One Pacific thing. I think I would have tried to get my life at the balance between life and family a bit better. Running at 100 miles an hour over time doesn't always sort of achieve everything. So I think, and I've talked on behalf of many entrepreneurs and many CEOs who just get a bit obsessed about their world, their business. And I think you're slightly better of it if you're not so if you have a more balanced view”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Our toe into Asia, we're going to Latin America later this year to open in Mexico. So there's a lot of exciting new houses opening. A public company and just trying to get better every day.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, we're recently public And we went public during the pandemic. I'm enjoying that challenge. Really? Yes, I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying. And I view all the analysts as smart and I think it's making us a better business. And I think so there's a journey on that. We're only 12 months into it and people understanding that it's a subscription recurring income that a third of our revenues come from membership and our hotels, our bedrooms are always nicely full and we don't have to use what other hotels have to use to fill their hotels like booking engines etc. So I think that is an interesting feature on how to be properly successful on as a public company. And there's so many more places we can open houses. We haven't even touched Africa.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People tell me a lot, and I suppose I'll have to listen to them in their eyes. I've done all right in your. Growing, it's you know, sales go up, you know, it's a good business. I think so. I think if I was to be honest, I couldn't sit here and look at you and your eyes and say, no, I don't see what I've done as something which isn't successful because it works. And when things work, I presume that's a success.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think I said earlier that success, you can judge success in lots of ways. I'd much rather be judged as a father than as someone who runs a business. And I suppose you'd have to ask my kids that.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think I always say to our team, if our people are happy and the members are happy, then sort of everything else will look after itself because your places will be busy. And if you're smart and your cost control, it, it, it, it, it... Everything else should be fine.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I used to say catering, but I've upgraded it to hospitality and to make hospitality a sort of area of where you can change it. You can, you know, when we opened Babbington House, it was the first country house hotel where you could get breakfast when you wanted, when there was no rules, it was your bedroom at Babbington House was probably nicer than your bedroom at home. So people would come down and go, well, Nick, you know. Where do you get that TV? Where do you sky? That's new. I'm going to put sky in my house is where do you get those sheets? And so I'm not trying to avoid your question here, but I'm just trying to again answer how I feel and why I do it.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm I can only tell you what I'm I think and I do think is you know I love what I do. I'm lucky. I get up every morning. I have a skip in my, you know, I'm skipping around. I'm looking forward to getting to work. I have a fantastic team around. And I care deeply. And if that all adds up to it working, that's the reason why because it was never for me a money play. It was more a... A thing that I wanted to try and make hospitality.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They want to create an idea with another bunch of members. And I think that is special and it goes back to seeing people in a room having a great time. And if our members can flourish in their lives, if SOAS can just make their lives just a little bit better, then I think that's a good thing.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's why I'm so passionate about our mentoring scheme, where there is so much creativity in the world and there's so much creativity and creativity is not owned by the middle class. It's everywhere. And to be able to offer mentoring to people who are less fortunate, who might not be able to afford a membership or might not know what door to knock to get that opportunity is sort of one of the favourite things that we're doing, my favorite things I'm doing at the moment is seeing that happen. So going back to what you were saying about creating people in a room who all help each other, they all feel like they're looking out for each other. They all want to help the person who's down on their luck or who is starting out or they want to...”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“223% of our overall membership, you know, under 27s. And it's seeing in a room the most successful scriptwriter in one corner and in another corner there might be the struggling scriptwriter who's still trying to write their first script or a really well-known artist or an artist who hasn't sold a new painter who hasn't sold their first bit of work. And taking that and trying to think, well, how can the person who's done it help the person who wants to do it?”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sort of really using the fact that you go into the house. You can just go into the house on your own, just wander down there. And, you know, you'll bump into someone. You'll start having a drink with someone or a cup of coffee with someone. And you're sort of, you're in the house. You're part of that membership. And I, you know, people do it a lot now. And you can do it digitally and they use algebra rivans and they use all sorts of things. And I think being part of SOAS and those 500 members I talk to you about earlier, you know, they're still part of us. They still pay their membership. They're still here. They're still part of it. They don't give it up. And so on one hand, the original founder members of 27, 28 years ago. And then on the other hand, you got huge under 27 membership going into our houses, huge, you know, accounts for.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think what we want our member to do is flourish. You know, we want them to flourish socially and we want them to flourish at work. And I think creating memberships and that word community of people who are like-minded and they all have a creative soul and you put them in one house, they bump into each other, they talk to each other. I've seen businesses created. I've seen relationships created, friendships created, ideas created. And I think when you put people together in a space and that is pretty special. And to see that happen in different countries and different cities, to see members...”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People. I think you learn just useful practical things like making a bed or keeping a place tidy or clearing a table of plates and when you've got a family gathering or something you can suddenly clear the plates and stack them up or you can make a cocktail, you know, which is really nice. Even if you're not in hospitality anymore, you can still make a cocktail. You can still make a bed. You can still hopefully get on with people. You can still clear a table. You have to become quite organized in your mind. And I think hospitality is a very rewarding industry for that.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everything I sort of think, you know, it should be the national service. People should go and do a year in hospitality because I think it teaches you so much. I mean, I spoke earlier about me going into that kitchen and really learning how to get on with people and from different backgrounds, different countries, different everything. And I think it really teaches you to be part of a team. There's a customer, there's all your people you work with in the kitchen or the person cleaning the dishes or the person cleaning the rooms, you all have to work together to make it happen. And I think, so it really takes the shyness out of you and it gives you an ability to get on with people, which I think is a really useful tool. I think it's better than a mask degree getting on with it.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With their help and with every house, we have a determination to make it better than the last house. You know, we always start with a fresh piece of paper. We don't think, well, you know, let's just keep repeat, repeat, repeat. We go new, new, new. How can we make it better? What are we going to change to make this better? What are we going to change to make it more efficient? What are we going to change to make it better for the member? And I think our members really appreciate that and they see that and they talk about that. And that's probably what's created what you have just described.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I can't think of a time where we had. Time when I was thinking about making an aspirational brand, I think, and if that's people's perception, great. That sounds good. And all I concentrated on what our members wanted and they've created that. They have created the fact that As a desirability to be part of SOAS. And yes, and we got a brilliant team, brilliant membership teams globally.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I've always been obsessed about the customer, the member. And that was always my number one thing. And the people who work for us. They were my two obsessions. And the advice I think I'd give to a young, young Nick would be, you know, Let them take more. Don't think you have to, you know, your team, you know, put it more onto your team to get on with it. And don't try and do everything yourself. And also, there's a point when you can prove yourself that you can. These things can work globally. And there's a time when you have to really properly delegate and let other people get on with it.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, instead of buzzing around on a plane all the time and spending 12 hours in a city and then going to another city or doing one night and one, you sort of where the teams are clever enough to put on a bit of a show for that period of time. So you're not actually seeing really what's going on. And it was just smarter ways of doing it. And also having a lot more trust in the senior leadership team and letting them get on with it and thinking I didn't have to be everywhere for it to work. And actually, often it worked much better when I wasn't around. And I mean, because they were able to just get on with it and not worry about what I was thinking all the time.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I never thought it wasn't sustainable because I'm always such a positive person. But I think Kirstie was great. She kept saying, we don't need any more. We don't need another house. The world doesn't need another house, Nick. You don't need to be on a plane all the time. What are you trying to prove? And there was a stage where I was buzzing around everywhere, flying here, flying there and thinking it was all making a big difference. But really, and I think the pandemic taught me that, was the fact that there's better ways of using your time”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think I sit here today and I think I'm lucky because I think I got a great, I have great relationship with my kids. It's my favorite thing. It's been with a family and been with them all together. But I think at times when you're trying to prove yourself, I'm trying to prove that I could work in New York and America. I was trying to prove that we could open sower houses and other parts of the world. I think it was hard, but you suddenly then do realize that you have to sort of balance it.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was always knackered, I was always sort of pretending not to be. I was always sort of Yeah, it was internally coping with all the pressure where I could, but I wasn't doing that very well. So I think it was sort of a combination of just realizing that this was all consuming. It was really dragging. I was very lucky I had great friends who are still my friends from when I was a kid. And I didn't see them enough. And you sort of, in our business, hospitality, it is weekends, it's nights, it's days, it's all the time. And when you take it to a different country, then you have to think, well, the day's just got longer and it's got to New York, got five hours longer. Yes, it does take its toll.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and it's a balance I've never quite got right. And I'm super lucky I have an incredibly supportive wife, Kirsty. And she sort of really went on the journey with me. And I know without her, you know, I wouldn't be, you wouldn't be asking me onto this podcast. So she's been a great support. And my kids, you know, were sort of part of, you know, they had to come to work. When I was doing the rounds on a Saturday morning or during weekends, I'd have push chairs and toddlers and, you know, they were just part of what was going on. And it had to sort of merge into one thing. And what I've successfully done is... Demerge it, and have a, when I'm at work, I'm at work and when I'm at family, I'm with family. But that's taken a long time. So the balance is something I think all entrepreneurs suffer.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hospitality. I wanted to prove that hospitality could be done differently. And I think with Cafe Boem, where we opened it all day and it was chameleon, it just kept changing to the time of day it was and putting jazz on in the afternoon and just sort of making it much more customer focused where you would go out forty years ago and kitchens would close at 2 p.m. and you couldn't eat in the afternoon and I think that was something I felt I was onto something to be able to make it better for the customer and that sort of took me back to when I liked helping my mum and dad when they had people around for supper and I loved seeing rooms full of people having a good time in Cafe Boem and I loved laughter I loved people connecting with each other I loved people enjoying themselves and I think”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So what I there's something inside me. Maybe I was trying to prove to my brothers, my family I could do this. And yeah, and I do always look at things in a positive light. I do look at things if I look at a glass of water, I'd say that's half full, not half empty.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A very good question. And I think I could have just carried on doing things in London, but there was an ambition in me. There was, you know, there was this thing about being a Brit and going to New York and trying to take the thing which I loved in London and see if it worked in New York. And it points it nearly took the whole thing down. really felt at the time that If it did bring the whole thing down, at least I tried. At least I gave it a go. And I wasn't going to be sitting in a rocking chair thinking, I didn't give it a go. So I think there was a sort of inner something in me which wanted to see and maybe it was sort of going back to my childhood when my brothers were so good on the sports field or good at school. I was trying to prove a point.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The showers at a local gym, people had to go down to the local gym for hot water. We had water, but there was no hot water. And it was just this roller coaster of an experience opening in New York where we didn't quite have enough money. And, you know, the team, we were carrying sheetrock or plasterboard over here and sheetrock over there up to the floors to try and finish them, putting the ceilings in. And it was a journey. But then eventually we opened and it worked. People sort of took to it.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's nothing to buy at the moment, but can you invest in it? Yes. And so he was one of the investors of Sowerhouse New York, which was fantastic. And then momentum came and we raised the money. Everyone sort of before that was saying a private members club wouldn't work in New York. people wouldn't pay a membership fee. restaurants like private members clubs and the velvet rope was the big thing in New York. And I wobbled so often about should we charge for membership. And I was so nervous opening so as New York. And I remember the opening party and it was raining and they hadn't finished putting the roof off. And people were staying in the hotel and there was no water. So we had to borrow.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sort of race to find the finance. And I was calling everyone. I was calling everyone. I did more show rounds of that warehouse building running up and down the stairs, showing people around, trying to be enthusiastic. And then I was sort of getting to know people in New York and I put together this hard hat dinner where I don't know how it happened and I don't know why it happened. But, you know, the really well-known people turned up to this dinner. And we had just had a six burner on the sixth floor and we cooked some chicken and we laid up the table in the building site with a white tablecloth. So it was real grit and glamour. And these people just turned up. And I remember David Bowie being there. And I remember I was so nervous. And I started talking to him and he said, this is a great idea. Can I buy it? I said,”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Anyway, weirdly, the community board still happened on the Thursday. And I went up and did my presentation. I said, I don't know why I'm doing this. It seems irrelevant. It seems not something we should be doing. But you're running the meeting. There was a lot of other points on the agenda, so I was just one of them and we got our permission. And that's how New York started, but it was a big, big.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What did it look like? He said it was an airliner. It wasn't like a private plane. And I thought, oh my God, so the first thing I did was phone Kirsty my wife because she was in news then. She was a news presenter on ITN. And I said, I think maybe you should get into work? Is there something going on here? And then I was still out on the street and I saw the second plane going. You saw it coming in? Yeah. It was coming in from the river, so you didn't actually see it coming in, but you saw the impact of it coming in. And then, you know, that day was, it made me really fall in love with New York. It's sort of a resistance of the people how they cope with it, how it was amazing the people of New York that day. And that week.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Arrived on, I think it was a Monday evening, and I was nervous because it was this big meeting on the Thursday where in front of a local community board to see whether we'd get permission to be able to open a club and have a license in this premises. And I was having breakfast on the Tuesday morning, 9-11. And I was having a boiled egg, I remember it. And as I was hitting my boiled egg, I heard this big bang. And I thought, what is that? So I ran out on the street and I looked up and I could see one of the Twin Towers with smoke coming out of it. And I asked, there was a guy sweeping the street. I said, what happened? He said, well, a plane went into the side of it. And I said, well, was it just a...”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really interesting life. And I remember we found this warehouse and I thought, okay, I'm going to get the warehouse. And again, we had to raise the money to do it. So it was a question of trying to, how do you get raised money in New York? Because it was a bad time in the UK. I think it might have been a recession going on. So the banks were, you're not going to, we're not lending you money in New York. So I thought, okay, well, I've got to start raising money again from our members and from people in New York to put money into the SOA House in New York. And everything was nerve-wracking. The week I was flying out there to try and get the permit to be able to allow to open a club in a warehouse was 9-11.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I would give that accolade to our members. I would say it was the members who pushed me. And when we opened in New York, because I think we'd opened the electro house, we were about three then. And someone said, well, you should open in New York. I'd love this. And I thought, ooh, yes, maybe. So off I go to New York and determine to open a house in New York. First of all, look in the district of Soho and couldn't find something and came close. It was difficult learning permitting. It was just difficult. And I remember... We found the warehouse it was an old electrical warehouse and meatpacking meatpacking was a very different place to what it is now it was run down it was you know it was it was full of sort of it was full of”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, but it was having to be on top of a disaster of Sower House. So there was quite a lot of it was the same company. And so, yes, it worked. Cafe Boehm worked. It gave me the confidence to do something else. It worked because... It, you know, it was 30 years ago, and there weren't many places, I don't think there were many places which were opened at eight in the morning and closed at 3 in the morning, and you could go in there and eat whatever you wanted or just have a coffee or just have a drink. The kitchen was always open. You could drink jugs of beer or you could have a steak and we had jazz in the afternoons. It was really creating. It sort of really created a real regular following within Soho. And it was the turning.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Marcus Anderson, who runs our membership, part of our membership team, who was a server in one of the dining rooms. The guy Marcus Barwell was a barman in the circle bar. Now he's managing director of South House Design. So it's lovely seeing people who are right there at the beginning still be part of a company now. But it was a journey as well. We were moving into this new area of membership, understanding membership, understanding, looking after people and just listening to your members, because I'm going back to your original feedback question. So the feedback, which comes from our members, has sort of really helped us where we are today”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I owned 100% of it The cafe Moem, my family didn't want anything to do with it, and the other investors. And I thought, well, when SoHas works, I'm going to transfer everything back to the same percentages as it was as when it was over the top. So I merged the two companies. So I didn't want to be a success on one hand on Soho and they were suffering on Cafe Boem and over top. So we merged it all together and we found the members. And, you know, a lot of the people who opened SOA House in 1995 still are part of SOA House, still work, you know. The guy, Pierre, who was a server dining room, the blue room in the restaurant now runs North America for us.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To do the fit out. I thought, okay, well, that sounds like it can work. So I set up SOAS. It was simple to come up with a name. It was a house in Soho. The logo was pretty simple. It was so simple. It was free buildings, free floors.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The family investment and over the top they had had totally enough, they were out. The banks were trying to pull out of trying to get their loan back. That bit of it was just the family help was done, finished. And so I thought, well, how am I going to raise the money for this? Because it's going to be separate. I'm going to have to do this separately to what Cafe Boem is. And so I went to see Paul Raymond. He said, I'm not investing. I don't invest in other people's businesses. And then it was when I was leaving, he said, well, what happens if I put the money in but just added it to your rent? So you ended up with a higher rent, you know, a percentage of the money he put in. Added to my rent. And I thought, well, did you do that?”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and I looked around her and I said, Oh God, this is like a home away from home and God this could work. How could I this is an idea, but I didn't have any money. So again, and I went to see my landlord, which is Paul Raymond. I went to see him and he said, well, do you want to take it? And I said, well, yeah.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Forty Greeks three, and I thought and I hadn't been to a private members club. You know, I wasn't part of a Graucho club. I wasn't part of that, well, it was only of a Graucho club, although with all those clubs down in Palmall, I wasn't part of that.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I was running the restaurant downstairs, Cafe Boem. That was my survival. Cafe Boem was, you know, it was the same company as over the top. It was me doing everything totally different to... What over top was, so the food was edible and nice, the service was good, the atmosphere, you know, and if that was in there last night and it was, you know, it made me very happy because it was packed and it was fun. And when the building came available above Cafe Berm, which is on Greek Street in London, the landlord phoned me up and they said, well, do you fancy taking the space above? And I go, well, what on earth for? You know, there was no plan to a private members' club. My plan was just to survive and make Cafe Boehm work after four years of attempting over the top. And I still do this today. I always look at everything. When people phone me and say there's an idea, I was going to have a look. And so I said, okay, well, I'll go and have a look. So I wandered around the offices and it was a small door, you know, on Greek Street.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exchanged the agent phoned me up and said, You know, a higher off has gone in. So I was sort of being gazumped and I thought, well, I don't have the money anyway. So I can put another couple hundred grand on it because I increased my offer. I got Babbington House. You know, I was able to raise the money. And we raised the money through our members. Lots of members put sort of five grand in and that's how I was able to get the money to open Babington House. So it was led by our members sort of the members helped invest in it. Luckily have all got their money back. Plus, plus. And that was the second thing we opened.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had just a small amount of money just to put the deposit down. And luckily, the people who are selling it, they said, well, we want to stay here for the summer. We want to exchange, and then we will complete in nine months' time. And I thought, yes. And then it gave me nine months. To find the money and get the planning permission and raise the money with our members to pay for the completion and also to pay for the refurbishment. And I sort of just remember even before we”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I say, any hotels for sale? I didn't have any money, but I thought, well, I'm going to go on that route and see how I could get somewhere in the country. And I remember stumbling across Babbington House. And I remember it was on the market for a million, million and a half pounds. Mrs. Back in a long time ago. And I remember driving up a drive. And as soon as you have drive out the drive at Babington, you sort of fall in love with a place. And I fell in love with a place and I thought, oh my God, how am I going to get planning permission to turn this into a hotel? And how am I going to have enough money to buy it?”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We did that for lots of years, and it was, I think our members really enjoyed that. And that sort of taught me again wherever the member was going, go. Because if I hadn't, you know, I was, I didn't understand the film business or the media business. I was in catering, hospitality. So I was sort of new to this. You know, when I first created the first ever committee at SOA House, you know, I was really knocking on doors and phoning people cold calling than saying, do you mind? And you had to sort of explain what you were trying to do to get them to come on the committee. And that was where our first 500 members came from. And I think there, I've always just listened to a member. They kept saying, well, Nick, it's great, this one. Why didn't you do one in the country? And I go, ooh, let's do one in the country then. So off I go. I've honed savils up.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm going to go down and create a pop up down there. And this was pre-pop-ups. You know, this was in 96. And so we rented a boat in the harbour. And I remember, in fact, I remember clearly because there was a lady who still works for us to this day, Veronique. And her and I had to fill up this lorry full of stuff in London to drive down to, I didn't drive the lorry because I couldn't drive a lorry, but to go down to the south of France can. And we opened this boat and it was like a temporary club for the 10 days of a Cannes Film Festival. And members, you know, if they weren't in London, they could come to the club in the boat in the harbour.”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I'm very lucky that we have fantastic members who are loyal and if anyone says that we've done okay or I'd done okay it's for thanks to our members and our members of a people who pushed me from doing SOAS you know the original SOA house on Greek Street where it worked there were hairy moments you know when I thought it really wasn't going to work and you know it would go quiet or it would go you know I remember the first year we opened in May it suddenly gone quiet and we'd opened in January I thought oh god that I thought it would last a bit longer than this and you know member turned around to me and said when they're all down at the Cannes Film Festival you know that's where your members are so I suddenly thought well next”
2022-07-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT