Background: In 1946 George Orwell wrote his short essay ‘The Moon Under Water’, describing what his dream pub would look like. Heavily influenced by this (in fact, some paragraphs are nearly identical), I have decided to write a modern version of Orwell’s essay, describing my dream startup incubator.

The startup incubator I was accepted to, Fat Tony’s, is only two minutes from a tube station in central London, but it is on a side-street, and neither noisy traffic nor bearded hipster seem to find their way there, even at rush hour. You can always get a seat on the train, and despite being central, the commute never feels that long.

The incubator itself is above a pub, named Fat Tony’s, and next door to a gym, also named Fat Tony’s, for you see, they are one and the same.

If you were asked what you look for in an incubator, it would seem natural to say things like VC connections, reputation, investment, and unicorn alumni, but the thing that most appeals to me about the Fat Tony’s is what people call its ‘atmosphere’.

To begin with, its whole architecture and fittings are uncompromisingly old-fashioned. It has no white shiny desks, ping pong tables or other startup clichés. The offices are many but small, not open plan, allowing for the deep focus of uninterrupted work that is required to be creative. The dark wood grain desks, the patterned carpet, the photos of family that adorn many desks (replacing infantile figurines and ‘hacker’ stickers) — everything has the homely, comfortable, pastiche that modern offices lack.

The pub below (of the same name) is open to the public, but also acts as an informal break-out area and discussion space. In fact, all residents are encouraged to spend at least one day a week working from the pub. The same goes for the gym next door. By being open to the public, Fat Tony’s has a semi-permeable membrane, and encourages serendipitous, real world encounters in its communal areas, unlike the closed campuses of big tech, which lead to monoculture.

All residents of the incubator spend half a day a week working at the pub or the gym, collectively operating them. They learn customer service, accounts, sales, operations, and teamwork. Transferable skills that can be applied to any real world business.

In Fat Tony’s it is always quiet enough to talk, and gossip. Headphones are banned, and people are encouraged to get up and physically talk to people as much as possible.

Everyone knows everyone by name, and takes a personal interest in each other. The residents are not all coders in their twenties — there is a broad range of age, gender, background, and business ideas.

Unlike most office environments, having a lunchtime pint is allowed, as is working your own hours. Traditional meeting culture is almost non-existent. The email servers are rigged to only operate for a few hours a day.

Perhaps the most peculiar thing about Fat Tony’s is the investment model. Its founders understand ergodicity — and encourage residents to take small, ‘low cost’ bets, to tinker, and do not rely on a handful of unicorns to offset heavy casualties. The founders care about the success of the incubator at an individual level, not just an ensemble one.

Another great surprise of Fat Tony’s is its amphitheatre. You go through a narrow passage leading out of the back of the pub, and find yourself in a fairly large garden with a traditional, small, open air Romanesque amphitheatre.

On summer evenings there are talks and performances, and you sit under the summer sky having a beer and listening to incubator residents speak, sing, perform… any topic that takes their fancy. Not a PowerPoint slide in sight. It is pure oratory with the occasional prop. Many as are the virtues of Fat Tony’s, I think that the amphitheatre is my favourite.

Fat Tony’s is my ideal of what a startup incubator should be — at any rate, in the London area. (The qualities one expects of an American incubator are probably different).

But now is the time to reveal something which the discerning and disillusioned reader will probably have guessed already. There is no such place as Fat Tony’s.

That is to say, there may well be an incubator of that name, but I don’t know of it, nor do I know any incubator with just that combination of qualities, but, to be fair, I do know of a few incubators that almost come up to Fat Tony’s. I would very much like to realise my dream of creating Fat Tony’s one day, though its name may end up being something as prosaic as Accel or Matrix.

Good poetry allows us to see into the soul of another person. Great poetry allows us to see into our own.

Over the course of its lifetime, the Fat Tony’s Discord server received thousands of posts in it’s Anti-library channel. In the first of series of articles, I’m going to group the best of these book recommendations by genre and present them here for posterity. This month, poetry.

Good poetry allows us to see into the soul of another person. Great poetry allows us to see into our own soul. It offers us a rare, soothing glimpse of ways of thinking about the world outside of our conventional experience. Like all great art forms, it is both therapeutic for reader and listener, and can be a soothing antidote against the stress of modernity.

To help calm your soul, Here are five of the best Fat Tony recommendations…

Summoned by Bells

What is it?

Summoned by Bells, the blank verse autobiography by John Betjeman is split into nine chapters, and describes the author’s life from his early memories of a middle-class home in Edwardian Hampstead, London, to his premature departure from Magdalen College, Oxford. The book ends in disaster, with Betjeman sent down from Oxford and enrolling in desperation as a cricket master at a private prep school. When asked why the biography only covers his younger years, Betjeman famously replied “I think people’s lives are interesting only up until they’re 21”.

Why should I read it?

Themes of memory, a yearning for the lost recent past, and self reflection on events (both fair and unfair), and episodes of failure that make us who we are. Summoned by Bells is full of nostalgia; the good kind. Betjeman’s verse simply feels soothing to read — like being wrapped in a warm blanket. Commentary on an Edwardian privileged childhood, with an Oxford setting partway through — If you are a fan of Brideshead Revisited, you will love this.

Notable Poem

The whole book is written in blank verse, as one piece. A particular favourite excerpt, lamenting a father’s hopes that his son will carry on the family firm:

To all my father’s hopes. In later years, Now old and ill, he asked me once again To carry on the firm, I still refused. And now when I behold, fresh-published, new, A further volume of my verse, I see His kind grey eyes look woundedly at mine, I see his workmen seeking other jobs, And that red granite obelisk that marks The family grave in Highgate cemetery Points an accusing finger to the sky.

Five Tang Poets

What is it?

A collection of poetry from five of the great poets of the T’ang dynasty (eighth and ninth centuries A.D.) are represented in this collection: Wang Wei, Li Po, Tu Fu, Li Ho, and Li Shang-Yin. Each poet is introduced by the translator and represented by a curated selection that showcases the poet’s development and career.

Why should I read it?

The poems in this collection constitute some of the greatest lyric poems ever written. Obviously some context is lost in translation, BUT, the collection is still remarkable and introduces the reader to some of China’s greatest poets; it is considered a ‘classic’ in the field of translated Chinese poetry. The collection comprises of arguably the most ‘beautiful’ poetry on this list.

Not only are the poems hauntingly beautiful, but as an added bonus, the author’s introductions allow for greater understanding and offer a lot of helpful insight into each poet’s work.

Notable Poem

White Horse.

Zoom!

What is it?

His debut collection, Zoom!, appeared in 1989 when Simon Armitage was still in his mid-twenties. He was a parole officer at the time, and had taken up poetry as a hobby. His raw, northern style fit perfectly with the punk (alternative) period in which it was released. Simon displays breathtaking mastery of the medium for a debut poet, which took the literary world by storm upon its release.

The voice employed by Simon is edgy, uncompromising, and tackles issues as diverse as lost love, death, and violence. Simon doesn’t shy away from addressing disturbing topics, and his years working as a probation officer gave him plenty of contact with people down on their luck, or at the end of their tether.

Simon’s poetry is good. Very good. So good that he was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2019.

Why should I read it?

Firstly because it is a seminal work. Very few modern poets garner this much attention with their first collection; especially ones from unconventional backgrounds.

In length, this is a short, concise collection, however it is densely packed with a northern English vernacular; much of which you just don’t hear anymore, and perfectly captures the time and place in which it was written. Anglophiles will enjoy picking apart (and discovering) the rich, delicious use of colloquialisms employed throughout.

Notable Poem

Zoom! — self-titled and the last in the collection, is especially memorable for its dizzying pace and scope. The free verse poem takes the reader on a journey from a house on a typical, British street, across the universe, through a black hole, and back again, all the while questioning the scope of our knowledge, and our place in the world.

A Glass Half Full

What is it?

Felix Denis built a publishing empire, starting in the 1960’s and 70’s, when he was put on trial for his involvement in OZ magazine, an underground magazine started in London. After acquittal, and a bit of luck with Kung Fu magazines in the 1970’s, Felix went on to build a publishing empire, and was valued at $750m before his death in 2014.

However, Felix was not your conventional entrepreneur. Known for his extreme lifestyle (he was once quoted as saying that he had spent £120m on crack cocaine and hookers throughout his life), Felix lived his life like a debauched Roman emperor. He had mansions and harems scattered across the world. The stories about him are legion, and have now passed into legend.

A serious illness in 1999 saw him bedridden in hospital, and it was during this time he started writing poetry. It quickly turned into an obsession, taking over his life.

A Glass Half Full is Felix’s first published collection of poetry, released in 2004.

Why should I read it?

Raw, witty, and unexpectedly moving. Felix’s poetry is unpretentious and easy to read, being written almost entirely in contemporary free verse.

The collection is a fascinating insight into the mind of one of the 20th century’s most notorious entrepreneurs.

Notable Poem

The Better Man is the stand-out poem in this collection; an elegy to a dear friend (or should that be rival). The poem is moving in its juxtaposition of anger, regret, and respect. You can watch a video of Felix reciting this poem at his Ted talk, here.

100 Love Sonnets

What is it?

Pablo Neruda needs no introduction. The Chilean Poet-Diplomat won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, This collection was first published first in 1959 in Spanish. The poems are dedicated to his third wife Matilde Urrutia. In the book poems are kept in four sections — Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night.

Why should I read it?

The most structured of the entries on this list, this collection of poetry is written in strict sonnet format. Romantics, and fans of Shakespeare will immediately take to it. Constraints are a well spring for creativity, in this case giving rise to exquisite poetry…

“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”

Notable Poem

“If you forget me” is a masterpiece. Trust us, this poem hits hard. Have tissues at the ready.

“No public institution or agency should be created without an expiration date.” - Nassim Taleb.

After two wonderful years of Happy Hours, Book Klubs, and thousands of conversations, we will be closing down the Fat Tony’s Discord server on November 13th.

When I sent a Tweet out on election night of 2020, asking if anybody wanted to discuss the election, I had no plans in mind about building a community. The Discord server was meant to be a one night only thing, but then a little magic happened. The small group of people who responded to my tweet were eclectic, entertaining and maybe a little crazy. I wanted to see more of them…

On that day, Fat Tony’s was born, and gradually evolved over the next couple of months into a virtual bar… A place where people could hang out during the global COVID lockdowns, have a drink on a Friday night and chat to people, attend live Q&As with guests, and get some sense of escape from the madness that was happening around them. It acted as a social life raft during a difficult time for many many people. What followed were dozens of Happy hours, book klubs, and real life meet ups. Fat Tony’s had become a ‘thing’. In my mind, this was the golden age of the Discord Server.

The Discord server continued to grow, peaking at around 900 members. However, once lockdowns began to lift around the world, people understandably returned to their normal lives, and attendance on Discord started to drop. A small core community remained, but it was clear that the server was in decline.

I’m a big believer that there is a time and a place for everything, and have decided to shut the Discord server down. The attendance no longer justified the admin work / overhead required to run it, and to be honest, I’m ready to move onto new things, and continue to grow the Fat Tony’s YouTube channel / Twitter community in a new direction. In fact, I’m super excited about having the time freed up by this move to create more content.

For people who wish to continue to run the “klubs” that have developed over the last few years, They are yours to continue however you wish (Twitter Spaces / Zoom etc...). Just tag Fat Tony’s on Twitter and we will retweet any announcements to the community.

Not the end of Fat Tony’s… just the next step in its evolution! I see Fat Tony’s turning into a YouTube channel, with videos on navigating modernity… And we will still be organising the Happy Hours and Book Klubs through Twitter.

Thanks to everyone for being such great community members on Discord over the last couple of years. I will always think of the time fondly (especially the early days, which were magical). It was great while it lasted, and I think it’s best to end on a high… to move onto new projects and to new things.

See you out there!

Seb