Meet our Co-Founder: Alexander

I'm Alex, co founder and technical lead at Soma. I'm 32, and I love video games, coding, solving problems, chess and the occasional game of golf. When I was 16 I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and it's been a successful rollercoaster of a journey with my mental health, one that now leads me to Soma.

The Early Years

I grew up in South West London with my mum, dad and older brother, right next to the river. We had a little boat, and a decent chunk of my childhood was spent out on the water. I was a calm kid, raised in a Catholic household, not sporty in the slightest, but I had a love for boats, Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Dragon Ball.

My biggest passion, though, was drawing. My mum was an artist and so was my grandmother, so it was in the blood. I excelled in every art course through primary school, secondary school and college, before finding my love for digital design and coding.

Building a Career

The turn towards tech came from an unlikely place: watching The Social Network. Something about it clicked. I wanted to know how to code and how to build websites and apps, so drawing gave way to digital design and I went off to university, graduating after four years, one of them spent in industry, with a BA in Digital Media Design.

My first job was at Dynamis, the owners of BusinessesForSale.com, the world's largest marketplace of businesses for sale (this is where Josh and I met). Not the most inspiring industry to start in, but I'd landed my first role as a Front-end Designer, tasked with designing and building Ampbar, an MVP for the legal industry. My first startup.

As anyone who has worked at a startup knows, the job title is only a rough guide. Shadowing four directors, each an expert in a different field, and working with three top 20 UK law firms, I didn't just perfect my digital design and coding skills. I learnt user research, UX and UI design, contract negotiation, client management, how to pilot and launch a platform, and how to raise investment. Most valuably of all, I learnt what not to do when starting a business. I found a passion for building businesses.

That led to my next chapter. My fiancée Vicky is a Creative Designer, and after going freelance during the pandemic she walked into the room one day and said a client needed her to be a limited company, and that was it. Drool was born: company registered, bank account opened, insurance sorted. A year later I left Dynamis and we joined forces to grow Drool into a creative design studio.

Since 2020 we've supported over 40 founders, designing their brands, building their websites, and helping them start and grow their businesses. My proudest moment came when we rebranded Drool itself with a team of eight behind us, working on projects that took founders from nothing to platforms earning real revenue. The fully immersive website we built for that rebrand said everything about what Vicky and I had grown together.

Somewhere along the way, building businesses became the thing I love most, and it pairs naturally with being able to build the product myself. As a developer, the gap between an idea and something real is just time at a keyboard. I've now built two businesses of my own, Drool and Moti, a challenge app that helps people stay motivated, alongside the forty-plus we've helped clients bring to life. Soma makes three.

Finding Therapy

None of the above could have happened without acknowledging my anxiety.

In my mid teens I started suffering from nausea, and the doctors worked through the full catalogue of guesses. Lactose intolerance. An allergy to red meat. Food poisoning. Then one day my usual doctor was away and I saw someone new. She looked at the same symptoms and said it could be anxiety, and referred me to my first therapist. It turned out I'd been living life on extra hard mode all along.

Since I was 16, I've had four therapists, and between what they've taught me and what I've learnt myself, I have the techniques to manage my anxiety. Today I'm in a very good place. I still live with anxiety every day, but I manage it and I don't fear it. It's been a long journey, but it has always moved forwards. I now share weekly videos on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube about my experience with anxiety, and I'm using everything I've learnt from therapy and mental health to work on Soma.

Today

Today, I work full time at Drool, where I manage and grow Moti and several client businesses. I spend the week working from home or the office, getting to the gym, and enjoying long walks with Vicky. I also love committing to a good TV series.

But now, it's time to start looking at Soma.