Creative Leaders on beginnings: Pip Jamieson

We’ve talked to a number of CR’s Creative Leaders 50 about how they got started, the best advice they’ve received and how they bring their teams with them when beginning a new project. Here we speak to Pip Jamieson, founder of The Dots, a networking platform for creatives

After studying economics at university and briefly working as an economist for the British government, Pip Jamieson switched lanes to move down under and work in marketing for MTV in Australia and New Zealand. She began her entrepreneurial journey in 2009, co-founding The Loop, a platform designed to help creatives network, share content, showcase their work and look for jobs.

In 2014, she returned to London and founded The Dots. Much like her previous venture, The Dots caters to the networking needs of what she calls ‘no collar’ professionals i.e. creators, freelancers and entrepreneurs. Jamieson is an advocate for socioeconomic diversity and neurodiversity, leveraging her position as a dyslexic female tech entrepreneur to inspire change.

Here she speaks to us about launching her own tech business, how to prioritise your business’s growth objectives and the things she wish she had known when starting out.

Creative Review: How did you come to work in the creative industries? What was your first job like? 
Pip Jamieson: My amazing Dad worked in the creative industries and I had this wonderful upbringing surrounded by creatives. It was our shared passion and my family just assumed that I’d follow the same path.

However, my slightly strange, rebellious nature led me to do an economics and maths degree. I guess I wanted to prove I could make it on my own. To the surprise of my whole family – and to myself, to be honest – I walked away with a top grade and then joined the UK government as a fast stream economist. I had aspirations to change the world. However, I quickly realised that an economist’s role in government was primarily to produce results to justify political policy, not to inform them.

So I jumped ship and followed in my Dad’s footsteps, working first for the Brit Awards in London then in various roles at MTV around the world. I’ve always been a big believer in chasing the opportunity, not the cash. It took me almost five years at MTV to get back to the same salary level I was on when I first graduated, but it was totally worth it!