Robinson scoops Fairey’s ‘riotously good fun’ business guide

Robinson has bought the “indispensable” business guide, How Not to F*ck Up Your Startup, by gaming entrepreneur Thomas Fairey. 

Tom Asker, commissioning editor at Little, Brown, acquired world English language rights to the book from Jason Bartholomew at The bks Agency. It will be published in trade paperback, e-book and audio formats on 12th January 2023. 

Fairey is the founder of Stakester, an e-sports (electronic sports) app that connects players by playing their favourite games for money and prizes. 

“The idea for the business came to Tom after he won a wrestling match in his local gym with a Russian man who refused to pay him the £10 they had wagered on the outcome,” Robinson said. “But turning his great idea into a successful business was by no means straightforward. Since then he’s pitched to hundreds of investors – in one instance raising $1m in funding from a single LinkedIn post – and interviewed many of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs on his podcast, ‘The Back Yourself Show’.  

“In How Not to F*ck Up Your Startup he analyses their successes and failures – as well as his own – to come up with a practical roadmap that takes the reader all the way from ‘What if…?’ to multi-million-pound investment.” 

Fairey said: “There are a hundred ways to ruin a business, but there are also a hundred things anyone can do to make it a success. I wanted to share these lessons all in one place.” 

Asker added: “In How Not to F*ck Up Your Startup Tom Fairey has achieved something many before him have failed to do: he’s written an insightful, genuinely useful business book that is also riotously good fun to read. It will prove to be indispensable for many starting out on their own, and I’m so pleased to be working with Tom on it.” 

Bartholomew said: “When I met Tom and he told me he is the founder and c.e.o. of a gaming company, but that he hates gaming, I knew I had to work with him. This book is the real deal.”