"It wasn't that it wasn't enough. It was just too much" - Byron de Carvalho, Be Guided Agency
Episode 16 - THAT MOMENT
How do you walk away from a JSE-listed business with 350 employees and start over solo in London? Byron de Carvalho from Be Guided Agency knows the answer - and it's not what you'd expect.
Most founders dream of the exit Byron chose to abandon. A ghost kitchen empire spanning South Africa. Netflix directing credits. Over 100 restaurant brands operating from his commercial kitchens. The kind of success that looks perfect on LinkedIn. Except Byron was drowning in it. "It wasn't that it wasn't enough," he admits. "It was just too much."
The pivot from feeding film crews to building brands wasn't strategic repositioning - it was survival instinct meeting creative evolution. When Cape Town's 2015 drought devastated his film catering business (the government literally told people to shower once a week), Byron transformed 350 stranded employees into the infrastructure for South Africa's first major ghost kitchen operation. But watching startup after startup fail despite profitable delivery models, he discovered what was actually missing: the branding that connects human problems to business solutions.
Now based in London but living in Valencia, Byron runs Be Guided Agency with a philosophy that makes traditional branding agencies uncomfortable: underdogs become standouts when they stop trying to fit in. He works at the inception phase - the messy R&D stage where founders are still figuring out what they're actually solving - not the polished rebrand phase. And he's built his entire business around three non-negotiables: what he's good at (sales), what he's passionate about (startups), and what keeps him creative (branding). Everything else gets delegated or ignored.
This episode tackles the existential question every successful founder eventually faces: when do you walk away from what's working? And how do you build a business that serves your life instead of consuming it?
The Uncomfortable Truths About Breaking Formulas:
The Ghost Kitchen Revelation: Startups had cheap kitchen space and wholesale food pricing but still failed - the missing ingredient wasn't operational, it was branding that answered "what are you actually solving?"
The Cling Wrap Epiphany: Watching his grandmother buy plastic film from a VeryMock infomercial taught teenage Byron everything about branding - they weren't buying cling wrap, they were buying being noticed.
The Exit Strategy Failure: Byron's biggest regret wasn't building too big - it was staying three years past his exit date because he got greedy.
The Self-Sufficiency Moat: When a film producer complained about crew needing vans and assistants, Byron bought trucks, generators, lighting, and toilets - self-sufficiency became his competitive advantage.
The "Work Smart" Lie: Automation programmes make you efficient and bland - working hard forces you to figure out what's actually inside the problem, and the scars teach more than shortcuts.
The Entrepreneur vs Business Owner Split: Business owners run the same operation for 20 years. Entrepreneurs build until it works, then get bored. Understanding which one you are determines everything.
Key Insights Uncovered:
Why the underdog advantage isn't scrappiness - it's perspective. Traditional agencies are built by creative directors who steal clients from Ogilvy. Byron built five businesses, listed one on the JSE, and understands the gulf between pretty logos and profitable products.
How founders automatically think branding is a waste of money - and they're not wrong about the industry positioning "pretty logo + fancy website" as transformation.
The crucial difference between being an agency and being a partner: clients don't want Byron to deliver projects, they want to employ him.
Why traditional agencies operate at the rebrand phase whilst Be Guided operates at inception - the real R&D stage where the secret sauce hasn't been defined yet.
The Gandalf principle: Byron sits with clients and explains you're Frodo, not Gandalf - your customer is the hero, what frustrations and needs are you solving for them?
How Be Guided's three-act structure mirrors Fellowship of the Ring: enter the story to set things up, step away to oversee, return to the battle when necessary - preventing both abandonment and suffocation.
Why branding agencies get storytelling right (hero, villain, guide) but miss the human connection - they understand the structure but can't connect it to what actually moves humans to act.
The thing nobody admits: you have to build your business around what you're good at, passionate about, and creatively fulfilled by - because entrepreneurs live with their businesses 24/7.
Byron's Journey: From Viral Fight to Ghost Kitchens to Guiding Brands
Byron left home at 12. Got blacklisted from South African kitchens after a viral fight. Took a runner job on a soapie. When the food truck failed, he convinced the producer to let him cook one meal. Nine months of success, then nine months jobless at his mother's house.
That producer told him what film suppliers needed: self-sufficiency and budget predictability. Byron got a loan, bought trucks and equipment. Five years later: 1 million to 50 million turnover.
Cape Town's 2015 drought left him with 350 stranded employees. Walking through Johannesburg watching restaurants fail, he spotted it: great food, unsustainable rents. Ghost kitchens solved property costs. But startups with perfect economics still failed. That revealed the branding gap.
"I'm good at one part, but not the whole part. That's always been my strategy." But staying too long? "I got greedy. That's where it became unfulfilling."
This episode asks: when your shelf life expires but the business keeps growing, do you become a business owner - or walk away and start again?
About Supo:
Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximise profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.
For more information about Supo: www.supo.co.uk
About Be Guided Agency:
Be Guided works with tech and SaaS startups at inception phase - before product is defined, before positioning is clear, before founders know what they're solving. Operating between London and Valencia, the agency positions itself as the guide in the hero's journey: your customer is the hero, not you. Be Guided combines Byron's experience building multi-million pound businesses with his film and storytelling background, bridging founder anxiety and brand strategy. The agency specialises in uncovering the "last problem" - not what's in your product, but where it gets your customer.
For more information about Be Guided Agency: www.beguidedagency.co.uk
Ready to discover when walking away from success is the bravest move you can make? This episode isn't about scaling strategies - it's about the leadership transformation required when you realise growth isn't about getting bigger, it's about getting braver.