Co-Founder
John
The Man, The Myth, The Blueprint
Once a restaurateur, parent, and chaos magnet, now clean, rebuilding, and proving everyone deserves more than one second chance.
NEU exists partly because he refused to stay a plot twist. He joined the journey in prison — hardly a coworking space — and started doing the heavy lifting on the trauma of his past like it owed him rent. Fuelled by more-than-a-little undiagnosed ADHD (detectable within a five-mile radius), he runs businesses like browser tabs: too many open, all somehow productive.
Rapid-fire ideas, real-world follow-through, zero fluff. Now he's back steering multiple ventures and showing his community how to turn setbacks into step-ups. If change had a hype man, it'd be him.
The blueprint? Start messy, learn loudly, build anyway.
After years of running successful restaurants and raising a family while battling addiction, I hit rock bottom and found a way forward through Vee's Wellbeing and Self Development course during my time in prison. That experience was the turning point.
Today I'm proud to say I'm clean, rebuilding my life, and giving back to my community. Alongside supporting others on their journeys, I continue to run and grow various businesses, proving that second (third, fourth or even fifth) chances are all people need.