Paul Avins is not your average business coach. After 20 years at the coalface of entrepreneurial development, the CEO of Massive Action Coaching has helped over 550 companies scale past £1 million in revenue — with many reaching £5 million, £10 million, and even exiting for eight-figure sums. But if you think this is another motivational speaker peddling mindset clichés and Instagram aphorisms, think again.
“I’ve never believed in the guru model,” says Avins. “I don’t want clients to think their success is about me. It’s about what we build together.”
We’re sitting in a quiet corner of his office just outside Oxford just ahead of his third Scale-Up Summit, where his team – dubbed “Team Purple” – runs a suite of mastermind groups, scale-up summits and business retreats aimed at entrepreneurs ready to build what Avins calls “grown-up businesses.”
If that phrase sounds unusual, that’s because Avins has spent the better part of two decades redefining what it means to scale responsibly. He’s as likely to talk about mitochondrial health and hydrogen water as he is gross margin or AI automation — all in pursuit of creating high-performance entrepreneurs who don’t just burn bright and burn out.
Nine years ago, Avins suffered a life-threatening asthma attack that led to cardiac arrest. He flatlined for over four minutes. “I’d bought into the classic founder lie,” he recalls. “‘I’ll trade off my health while I build the business, and fix the rest later.’ But later doesn’t always come.”
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