Experience is the one thing AI can’t replace.

For start-up founders and business owners with a big decision in front of them. Book a focused hour, one to one, with a UK expert who has already made the same call.

Find your expertSee what people bring us
  • Every expert interviewed and reference-checked by a founder
  • No subscription, no booking fee
  • Full refund up to 48 hours before your call

Who this is for.

People about to make a call they only get to make once or twice, who would rather not make it alone.

Start-up founders.

You are making every decision for the first time: what to charge, who to hire first, when and how to raise. Borrow the judgement of someone who has already made each of those calls, in a business like yours.

Business owners.

The business has grown around you, and now every deal, every hire and every decision runs through you. Talk it through with someone who has taken a business through the same stage and out the other side.

Not sure you fit? If there is a decision in front of you and you want to talk it through with someone who has been there, you do.

People arrive with things like this.

If one of these is your week, there is somebody in the directory who has already had it. Pick the one that sounds most like you.

  1. I have just gone out on my own
  2. Nobody who should know about us knows about us
  3. Every deal still comes through me
  4. I am the business, and that is becoming the problem
  5. We have no idea what to charge
  6. The next hire is the one that could break us
  7. We have been going for years, and growth has flattened
  8. I have to take my tech team’s word for it
See what else people bring us

“Sixty minutes with my blue lemon saved me three months of guesswork. They diagnosed the gap in my pitch deck in the first ten minutes and then, gently, told me what I needed to hear.”

Polly Sheldon · Brandesign

The founding cohort.

See the directory

We’re opening the directory cohort by cohort, one reference-checked expert at a time. Every profile here is a real person you can book today.

Go-to-market

Neil Stoneman

Former Director - Now Founder · 27+ years

Here’s my short story. I've spent 27 years building successful agency teams based on evolving proposition development. Today I help clients build out marketing processes in optimal flow: creative, campaigns, data and technology working in…

Read Neil’s story

Leadership

Cris Beswick

Strategic Advisor on Leadership & Culture for Innovation-led Growth · 27+ years

I've spent the past two decades working with CEOs and senior teams on developing the leadership and culture required for driving innovation-led growth. I'm the co-author of the bestselling book 'Building a Culture of Innovation' and a board…

Read Cris’s story

Technology

Fatih Mehtap

Marketing Leadership for high-growth teams · 25+ years

I have first-hand experience in every facet of Marketing leadership. My primary sector expertise covers the Technology, eCommerce, and Luxury Hospitality industries, with a strong functional focus on brand strategy, growth at scale, go-to-m…

Read Fatih’s story

The rest of the cohort.

Three steps. No discovery calls.

  1. Find someone who has been there.

    Browse experienced UK professionals by industry, sector or expertise. Every expert has at least twenty-five years of real operating experience and has been quietly reference-checked by us.

  2. Book and pay.

    Choose a time, write a short note on what you’d like to discuss, and pay securely to book. Your payment is held safely, and your expert confirms the time, usually within a day. If they can’t take it, you’re refunded in full, automatically. Full refund up to forty-eight hours before the call, too.

  3. Have the conversation.

    Meet on a private video call. No decks, no pitches, no upsells. Leave with specific, unhurried advice from someone who has no agenda except being useful to you.

Why we started blue lemons.

Read our story
Sonia Ouarti, co-founder of blue lemons

“There’s so much you can do with AI now. You still want someone who’s actually done it to tell you you’ve done it right.”

Sonia Ouarti · co-founder, blue lemons
Simone Hume, co-founder of blue lemons

“AI can tell you what is possible. It cannot tell you what is right for you. That still takes someone who has actually stood where you are standing.”

Simone Hume · co-founder, blue lemons

Twenty-five years in? Share what you know.

If you have spent a career doing the thing other people are about to try, there is a place for you here. You set your own rate and keep 85% of it. Every application is read by one of us, followed by a short call and reference checks.

Become an expert

You can ask a machine anything. You cannot ask it what it felt like.

Meet the experts