A note from June
Everyone is talking about portfolio careers. But how do you actually build one that actually makes money?
This is a question that keeps coming up. Whether you are established with 10 years plus behind you or just starting out, we believe it should be easy to start a portfolio career.
When I started 11 years ago, it was completely by accident. I was running my first business, Mums in Tech, and honestly we were making so little money that I had to think outside the box. I think this is where a lot of people are starting from; your current source of income doesn't allow you financial freedom so you start thinking about a side hustle and how to make a bit of extra money. I remember doing user testing back then. It wasn't glamorous but it gave me spare cash while I figured out the business model for my business. After a while, as the business got more traction I started getting asked to speak on stages and tell my story. The first few were free, then companies started offering to pay me. I remember the first time they asked me how much I wanted, I froze because I didn't have the information. Nobody was talking about how much they were charging. I plucked up the courage and asked a friend who told me that people were charging £20k for an hour's talk. Honestly that felt so out of reach for me. The truth is, at that point the number shouldn't have scared me, I just didn't have my personal story and data organised in a way that I could confidently go back to the company to say these are the reasons why I can command this much higher rate.
Unsurprisingly, when I went back in a few cases to ask for £5k, nobody batted an eye. I knew then that I had really lowballed myself. So these days, the ask has gone up. The next step is holding firm on your number. You now know your worth. Can you hold your nerve and say no to opportunities that will take your time and not compensate you fairly? There is a complicated answer to that and honestly, there have been instances where I say yes to lower paid roles, if they compound. That's the key factor. If it leads to nothing else, say no.
The data missing for portfolio careers is rate benchmarking and verification. We have seen this firsthand with our early users and shown that we can help them get higher pay for the roles that they are experts at.
So if you are just starting out in a portfolio career, know your numbers, get your story and evidence ready and take on work that compounds and builds career wealth.
If you're established, your audit trail matters. We are making it easier for you to use your experience as leverage to build a portfolio stack that works for you.
Until next week,
June
Join June at Huckletree on 21 September
On Monday 21 September we are going back to where all of this started. Huckletree hosted the very first Portfolio Method workshop in February, and they are opening their Oxford Circus space to us for an evening with the wider community.
From 6pm to 8pm, June will sit down for a fireside chat with a surprise guest on mapping your career wealth: how to see everything you earn from as one Pholyo, how to price each part of it properly, and how to build a portfolio career that compounds year on year.
There will be time for your questions, and for a drink afterwards. If you have been meaning to meet the people behind MyPholyo in person, this is the evening to do it. Places are limited by the size of the room.
Nadeem joins MyPholyo
Nadeem Shabir joins MyPholyo as Founding Engineer, shaping the technical foundations of the platform alongside June, Jessica and Victoria. He comes to us from BibliU, where he was Staff Engineer, and before that led platform engineering at Talis: thirty years in the industry, and two decades of building systems that millions of people depend on every day.
He is also living the thing we are building. Alongside his engineering work, Nadeem writes weekly on AI and the craft of software, mentors engineers, advises early-stage startups, has served on the board of P2PU and was a key contributor and advisor to School of Code. That is a portfolio career, which is a useful thing to have in the person building for one.
If there is one thing you would build first, hit reply and tell us.
Updates from MyPholyo Playground
On Thursday 5 November we are making the whole of MyPholyo physical, and this week another name joins the day.
At the Playground, Maria is hosting a working session on landing your first non-executive role: how boards choose, how to position a portfolio career for a chair, and what to do in the twelve months before you start looking. If a non-executive seat is part of your plan, between Maria's session and Nurole recording Enter the Boardroom live in the same room, you will leave knowing how people get them.
Maria leads the European FinTech group at Erevena, with a focus on Consumer FinTech, InsurTech, Payments, Open Banking, Banking Technology, and Data and Fraud Detection. With over 20 years of executive search experience, she is also actively involved in the firm's Board practice, specialising in CEO and Founder succession in both FinTech and Digital sectors. She was awarded a place in Innovate Finance's Women in Fintech Powerlist 2025, in the Standout 45 category.
Maria has led numerous CEO appointments for companies such as Grover, Flagstone, Bitvavo and Polarsteps, and works across a wide range of Consumer and B2B FinTech clients including Moneybox, Preqin, Clark, Vitesse and Monavate. She collaborates with leading funds including Balderton Capital, Advent International and Vitruvian Partners, and was previously a Director at The Cornell Partnership and at MWM Consulting, working on FTSE 100 and private equity backed NED, Chair and CEO succession projects.
Maria joins a line-up that already includes Mark Evans, ex Direct Line Group, on the panel, Susan Mackie's mindset workshop, Nurole's live recording, and Lovable credits for every guest. There are one hundred seats.
