From Tech founder to solving the social media addiction crisis - Jess Butcher
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this episode, Jon Evans welcomes back Jess Butcher MBE, a tech entrepreneur who co-founded AR pioneer Blippar before transitioning into social entrepreneurship. (01:20) Jess shares her journey from building a $100 million+ tech company with 350 employees across 10 global offices to founding ScrollAware, an organization tackling tech addiction and its impact on society, particularly children. (31:15) The conversation explores the lessons from Blippar's ultimate failure, the challenges female founders face in securing funding, and why brands must take responsibility for their role in fueling the attention economy. (40:09)
- Main Theme: The evolution from tech entrepreneurship to social responsibility, examining how brands can balance business performance with ethical considerations around digital wellness and the attention economy.
Speakers
Jess Butcher MBE
Jess Butcher is a tech entrepreneur turned social entrepreneur who co-founded Blippar, the augmented reality and image recognition pioneer that raised over $100 million and employed 350 people globally. She has since founded ScrollAware, focusing on digital wellness and the negative impacts of the attention economy on society. She previously served on the UK government's Equality and Human Rights Commission for four years, examining how polarized narratives affect social discourse.
Jon Evans
Jon Evans is the host of Uncensored CMO and a marketing executive with over 13 years of experience at Britvic. He founded Seed Brands within Britvic and later worked at juice startup JuiceBurst, where he pioneered innovative marketing campaigns using emerging technologies like Blippar's AR platform.
Key Takeaways
Master the Art of "Translating Nerd" for Market Success
Jess identified her superpower as being able to "translate nerd" - taking complex technological innovations and communicating them in ways that resonate with different stakeholders. (03:49) This skill became crucial at Blippar when working with advertisers, investors, media, and consumers who needed to understand image recognition and AR technology. The key is hearing what technologists say the product can do, then translating that into messages that make sense for specific audiences, whether clients, investors, or end users. For example, when engineers described "image recognition computer vision technology," Jess reframed it as "the Harry Potterification of print" - a concept everyone could immediately grasp and get excited about.
Recognize When You've Become the Bottleneck and Delegate Strategically
One of Jess's most painful but valuable lessons was realizing she had become the brake on her business's growth because she wanted to be involved in everything and couldn't delegate effectively. (19:47) She discovered that during maternity leave, her team made better decisions than she would have made, which was both humbling and enlightening. The best entrepreneurs find people better than themselves and have the humility to empower them. This requires ruthless self-awareness about your strengths and weaknesses, and the courage to step back from areas where others can excel. As businesses scale, the founder's ability to delegate becomes more critical than their ability to execute every task personally.
Build Different Types of Businesses Based on Risk Appetite and Market Dynamics
Jess offers a nuanced perspective on why female founders receive less VC funding, arguing it's not just about discrimination but also about the different types of businesses women typically build. (23:54) Women tend to create businesses from problems they've identified in passion sectors like fashion, beauty, food, or parenting - businesses that often don't need "super deep pockets" and can survive through bootstrapping, debt, or growing within cash flows. While VC-backed businesses have a ~10% survival rate, women-led businesses often have higher survival rates because they're built more carefully with better risk management. Both approaches have merit, and the key is understanding which funding model aligns with your business type and risk tolerance.
Understand That Tech Should Enable Real Life, Not Replace It
Despite building AR technology designed to make the static world interactive, Jess developed concerns about technology creating barriers between people and real-world experiences. (14:34) Her growing realization was that technology should serve as an enabler for real life rather than becoming a destination where people spend their lives. This principle becomes especially important when considering that the average person now spends 4-5 hours daily in infinite scroll, and the average 18-year-old is on course to spend 25 years of their life on phones. (38:21) The key insight for any tech entrepreneur or marketer is to ask whether their product is helping people live better real lives or simply capturing more of their attention for its own sake.
Address the Cognitive Dissonance Between Personal Values and Professional Decisions
Jess highlights the conflict many brand managers and CMOs face: personally recognizing the negative impacts of social media and attention economy business models while professionally investing heavily in these platforms for marketing effectiveness. (40:25) She describes feeling "like a priest in a confessional" as every marketing professional shares their personal struggles with digital addiction and fears for their children, then immediately returns to spending significant budgets on the same platforms creating these problems. The solution isn't to abandon effective marketing channels overnight, but to start conversations about responsible approaches, authentic storytelling, and ways to encourage more mindful digital balance while maintaining business performance.
Statistics & Facts
- Blippar raised over $100 million and employed 350 people across 10 offices globally at its peak before ultimately failing. (03:04) This demonstrates both the massive scale that tech startups can achieve and the high risk of failure even with significant funding.
- The average person now spends 4-5 hours per day in infinite scroll on social media platforms. (38:21) This represents billions of cumulative years of humanity being removed from society annually, according to Jess's research.
- The average 18-year-old is on course to spend 25 years of their life on their phones. (38:53) This statistic highlights the unprecedented time opportunity cost of current digital consumption patterns, especially for younger generations.
