Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones | E163
Nick Jones (guest), Steven Bartlett (host)
In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, featuring Nick Jones and Steven Bartlett, Soho House Founder: How I Built The World’s Most Exclusive Club: Nick Jones | E163 explores dyslexic Underdog Who Rewrote Hospitality: Inside Nick Jones’ Soho House Nick Jones, founder of Soho House, recounts his journey from dyslexic underachiever written off at school to building one of the world’s most coveted private members’ clubs.
Dyslexic Underdog Who Rewrote Hospitality: Inside Nick Jones’ Soho House
Nick Jones, founder of Soho House, recounts his journey from dyslexic underachiever written off at school to building one of the world’s most coveted private members’ clubs.
He explains how early experiences in his parents’ dinner parties and hard, hierarchical kitchen work shaped his obsession with hospitality, simplicity, and genuinely understanding customers.
Jones details painful early failures, like his first bad restaurant Over The Top, and how member feedback, opportunism, and calculated risk-taking led to Café Boheme, the first Soho House, Babington House, and global expansion including New York.
Throughout, he wrestles with ambition versus life balance, the importance of community and human connection, and why he sees dyslexia, teamwork, and deep care for members as the real engines behind Soho House’s success.
Key Takeaways
Dyslexia can be a strategic advantage when embraced and leveraged.
Jones describes being “branded thick” at school, but later realizing dyslexia forced him to simplify everything. ...
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Hands-on hospitality work builds people skills and resilience better than formal education alone.
Starting in an 1980s hotel kitchen, he endured abuse, long hours, and menial work, but credits it with pulling him out of shyness and teaching him to relate to people from all backgrounds. ...
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Failure, if treated as learning, can be the foundation of later hits.
His first restaurant, Over The Top, was badly designed, poorly executed, and nearly empty. ...
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Let the customer lead you: listen obsessively and follow where they go.
Jones is explicit that members, not strategy decks, drove expansion: a member telling him everyone was in Cannes inspired the first pop-up on a boat; repeated requests led him to open Babington House in the country and later New York. ...
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Ownership, structure, and creative funding can unlock opportunities when cash is scarce.
Unable to raise more family or bank cash, he took the space above Café Boheme by getting landlord Paul Raymond to finance the fit-out and roll it into a higher rent. ...
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Unchecked ambition can erode life balance; sustainability requires delegation and boundaries.
Jones admits he ran himself ragged—“always knackered”—buzzing between cities and time zones, coping poorly with internal pressure while convincing himself it was necessary. ...
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What Soho House really sells is curated community and environments where people flourish.
He frames the product not as décor or exclusivity, but as places where members can “flourish socially and at work. ...
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Notable Quotes
“You were just branded thick. People didn’t understand it then.”
— Nick Jones
“I’ve since learned that dyslexia is the greatest thing to have…but at school, it isn’t.”
— Nick Jones
“Marketing restaurants is not the way to solve a restaurant. You just have to make the restaurant good, because the customer is so clever.”
— Nick Jones
“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not pushing yourself. You’re not taking yourself out of your comfort zone.”
— Nick Jones
“I’ve always been obsessed about the member, and that was always my number one thing…they’ve created that.”
— Nick Jones
Questions Answered in This Episode
You’ve framed dyslexia as a driver of simplification and clarity—can you share a concrete instance where your dyslexic way of thinking led to a decision that others initially resisted but that later proved crucial to Soho House’s success?
Nick Jones, founder of Soho House, recounts his journey from dyslexic underachiever written off at school to building one of the world’s most coveted private members’ clubs.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Looking back at Over The Top, if you had to relaunch that exact site and budget today, how would you redesign the concept and operations based on what you now know about customer behavior and word-of-mouth?
He explains how early experiences in his parents’ dinner parties and hard, hierarchical kitchen work shaped his obsession with hospitality, simplicity, and genuinely understanding customers.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
You’ve always let members steer expansion—from Cannes to Babington to New York—but were there moments when listening too closely to vocal members would have led you into a strategically bad move that you had to override?
Jones details painful early failures, like his first bad restaurant Over The Top, and how member feedback, opportunism, and calculated risk-taking led to Café Boheme, the first Soho House, Babington House, and global expansion including New York.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
You said that for a long time you were ‘always knackered’ and pretending not to be; what specific boundaries, routines, or delegation decisions did you implement post-pandemic that most tangibly improved your energy and family life while Soho House kept growing?
Throughout, he wrestles with ambition versus life balance, the importance of community and human connection, and why he sees dyslexia, teamwork, and deep care for members as the real engines behind Soho House’s success.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Soho House membership is both highly desirable and, by definition, exclusionary—how do you reconcile building an elite-feeling community with your passion for broader mentoring and access, and where do you draw the line between necessary curation and unhealthy gatekeeping?
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Transcript Preview
I wasn't experienced enough. I was too young. You were just branded thick.
Nick Jones, the founder and CEO of Soho House.
With an empire of private clubs around the world.
It's the most see-and-be-seen type of place. Not everyone gets in. Your upbringing is particularly compelling to me, because you were somewhat counted out.
I'm hugely dyslexic. People didn't understand it then. You were just branded thick.
Wow.
There was not much choice for me.
You've created a business which brings a lot of people joy. That first Soho House on Greek Street, why did it work?
I wanted to prove that hospitality could be done differently. I can't think of a time where I was thinking about making an aspirational brand. I've always been obsessed about the member, and that was always my number one thing. They've created that. If you don't make mistakes, you're not pushing yourself. You're not taking yourself out of your comfort zone. Maybe I was trying to prove to my family that I- I could do this, and I think that's an invaluable lesson.
At what point does that desire to prove something need to be contained because it might come at the expense of, like, life balance?
Um, a very good question, and I think...
So without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is The Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. Nick, thank you for being here. Um, I have to say, I'm a big fan of the- the business you've created and the- and the, I know you don't like the word, but the brand you've built, um, for- for many, many reasons that I'm excited to get into, maybe because I'm a marketeer, but maybe also just because I'm a- I'm a customer, someone, and someone that loves the- the Soho House, um, brand. But where I wanted to start with you is where I always start, and your- your, um, your sort of origin story, your upbringing is particularly compelling to me, because, um, by many accounts and even your own, you were somewhat counted out. Is that true?
Well, my childhood was... Well, I- I don't think I'd say I was counted out. I- I was, you know, in a nice middle class family where I had two older brothers and a sister, younger sister, mum and dad. Um, but my two older brothers, um, were, you know, they were the- the sort of stars. They were the... (clears throat) They- they were great at school, they were good at sport, and I was a bit not so good at sport and not so good at school. And it was a sort of different sort of, um, sort of childhood that than... I suppose that they had. And, um, yeah, I think it probably put- put me in good stead, but at the time, it was probably quite tricky.
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