What I did next: alumnus Jamie Wood has been saved
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What I did next: alumnus Jamie Wood
Co-founder of Ambr
July 2023
Deloitte alumnus Jamie Wood on working with corporates to prevent workplace burnout and stress with Ambr, the company he co-founded in 2022.
1. Tell us about your role and how you became involved in Ambr?
At Ambr, I'm a Co-Founder and the Chief Product Officer. The whole idea for Ambr started from our experiences working in industry, where we saw first-hand the effects of chronic stress and burnout. Given my background in product and analytics from Deloitte and Uber, I naturally gravitate towards product development. Ambr began with building a minimum viable product and lots of customer interviews. After raising our pre-seed round, I'm now fully focused on developing our product.
2. Starting your own business is no easy feat! What have you found to be the most rewarding since starting this journey?
There were plenty of naysayers when we started Ambr, but seeing our first customers actually use and benefit from our product made it all worth it. It's been amazing to see how our product can improve relationships within teams, something we're really proud of. And on a personal level, going from leading teams to being in the trenches again at Ambr has been a rewarding journey.
3. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
Stay focused on the 'yeses'. In the beginning, you'll face a lot of rejections, but you just need a few yeses to get things moving. One practical tip: be really thoughtful about who you hire, the right people can make all the difference. Deloitte taught me that building a strong team around you is everything.
4. What are the most common signs of burnout in corporate cultures, and what can companies do to prevent this?
Burnout can show up as high staff turnover, lower productivity, or increased absences. At an individual level, people might feel exhausted, struggle to focus, or become cynical. These signs are usually due to things like very high workloads, poor time boundaries, or weak relationships at work. At Ambr, we're tackling burnout by combining anonymised data from workplace tools with self-reported data from employees. This gives our customers a clear picture of where the problems lie, so that we can work with them to address the issues effectively.
5. Having left Deloitte a number of years ago, how have you stayed connected to the firm or with former colleagues?
I made some great friends at Deloitte and we still keep in touch, mainly through a WhatsApp group that's been going for about seven years. We're all over the place now, and life events, like kids, have made it tricky to meet up, but we always find ways to stay connected.
6. Is there a particular nugget or learning from Deloitte you’d like to share which has impacted on your career?
One standout lesson from my time at Deloitte was really understanding the power of data - not just crunching numbers but turning it into visual stories. I spent many hours knee-deep in Excel sheets, and it's something that's stuck with me. Today, these skills are front and centre in my work at Ambr. Being able to take complex data, analyse it, and then present it in a clear way is something we rely on daily.
Read more Deloitte alumni profiles:
Jamie Gill, Fashion and Luxury CEO, on increasing diversity in the industry
Nneka Orji, Senior Director in Asset and Weath Management, on the power of career sponsorship
The UK Deloitte Alumni Network - Colleagues for Life
Staying connected by sharing industry insights and networking events.
To find out more or to join, please contact: ukalumni@deloitte.co.uk.
