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Mark's Journal


Why Smart Founders Will Raise More Capital This Year
The rules shifted on 6 April. Quietly. With little attention. Yet the implications for founders and investors are significant. The UK government has expanded the scope and scale of the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts, effectively doubling the amount that early-stage companies can raise while maintaining generous tax incentives for those backing them. At the same time, the reach of the Enterprise Management Incentive scheme has been widened, allowing m
Mark Stokes
2 days ago4 min read


Why Your Property Returns Are Not What You Think
Most investors still chase the wrong metric. They focus on price, argue over yield, and track comparables as if those numbers define performance. They do not. Serious capital allocators focus on one figure, Net Operating Income. NOI is the only number that reflects the true health of an asset. Everything else sits on the surface. In UK PRS, the gap between perception and reality is growing. Many portfolios look strong at first glance. The acquisition price feels right, the y
Mark Stokes
Apr 122 min read


What Happens After the Plan Fails
Your plan will fail. Your planning will not. Everyone quotes strategy. Few respect what sits behind it. You see polished plans. You do not see the thinking that built them. And that is where the real edge sits. Dwight D. Eisenhower said it plainly: Plans are worthless. Planning is everything. Helmuth von Moltke the Elder went further: No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Mike Tyson made it impossible to ignore: Everyone has a plan until they get punched
Mark Stokes
Apr 52 min read


What You Built Will Not Protect You
For over 20 years in data centres, I operated in a world shaped by Moore's Law. You could plan. Processing power doubled every 18 to 24 months Infrastructure roadmaps ran years ahead Risk was engineered, not guessed Outcomes were predictable We built for certainty. You invested in capacity. You scaled with confidence. You optimised for uptime. It was precise. Then the rules changed. AI does not move in straight lines. Capability jumps overnight Cost curves colla
Mark Stokes
Mar 282 min read


The Edge Most People Never Develop
Special Forces training often highlights a brutal statistic. Most people operate within roughly 30 to 40 percent of their true capacity. The rest sits unused. Untapped. Waiting. When I first heard this, one thought stuck with me. What a waste. I have seen the opposite during ultramarathons. When you have been moving for 17 hours. Your legs ache. Your mind tells you to crawl under a hedge and sleep. Every logical signal says stop. Yet you keep moving. Why? Not talen
Mark Stokes
Mar 132 min read


Be the Rock When the Waves Hit
Be the rock when the waves hit.
Every week the headlines shift.
War in Ukraine.
Escalation across the Middle East.
Interest rate expectations shifting again.
Capital markets under pressure.
The recent collapse of MFS and Century crashes add frequent reminders.
Liquidity disappears faster than many investors expect.
Confidence drives capital markets.
When confidence weakens, capital retreats.
Volatility is no longer an exception.
Volatility is the
Mark Stokes
Mar 72 min read


Strategic Growth and Systems
Strategic growth and systems.
We are building for 2,000 PRS units by 2030.
Not by chasing deals.
By engineering the platform first.
Scale without structure is fragile.
Scale with structure compounds.
Over the past 15 months we have invested heavily in a focused internal Asset Management team.
Before accelerating acquisitions.
Before expanding the pipeline.
Before increasing leverage.
We strengthened the operating core.
Mark Stokes
Feb 281 min read


Be the Verb, not just the vision
Be the Verb, not just the vision.
Most people think intentional living means deferring life.
Grind now.
Endure now.
Enjoy later.
But that’s not intention, that’s postponement dressed up as discipline.
I’ve learned (and I still relearn) that an intentional life lives on two timelines at once.
You hold a long-term vision that genuinely stretches you.
And you honour the short-term seasons that actually shape you.
The mistake is thinking those two
Mark Stokes
Feb 172 min read


The quiet power of saying NO
The quiet power of saying NO.This week alone, I said no to:
• 8 deals sent to me
• 2 joint ventures
• 2 investment opportunities
• 9 face-to-face meeting requests
• 62 emails I chose not to reply to
Not because they were bad.
But because they weren’t right. When you’re unclear on what you’re building, everything looks like an opportunity. When the destination is vague, every request feels urgent. And your days end up shaped by other people’s priorities, not your
Mark Stokes
Feb 152 min read


The Book I Wish Existed 30 Years Ago
Of the six books I have written, Property & SSAS Secrets stands apart.
Not because it is louder.
Not because it makes unrealistic promises.
But because it reveals the structural machinery that serious wealth builders quietly use.
This is the most detailed, commercially honest and eye-opening work I have produced.
And it remains the only book dedicated solely to the combined power of SSAS pensions and UK property as a scalable wealth engine.
Mark Stokes
Jan 253 min read


My Golden Rule Since 2003
Most people think growth comes from saying yes to more.
More meetings. More partnerships. More ideas. More “quick coffees” that somehow last 90 minutes.
And let’s be honest. A quick coffee values your time at about £5. And that’s even if you don’t pay.
When clarity is missing, everything looks like an opportunity.
When strategy is fuzzy, every idea feels urgent.
When conviction is weak, saying no feels rude.
Mark Stokes
Jan 182 min read


The Invisible Architects of Your Life
Whether you realise it or not, your life is being designed every day.
Not by grand gestures or dramatic turning points. But quietly and consistently, by the people you allow closest to you.
They are the invisible architects of your thinking, standards, ambition and ultimately your outcomes.
Mark Stokes
Jan 112 min read


Why I Walked Away From Corporate Success
There is a hard truth that very few people are willing to sit with long enough to change.
If you are not actively building towards your own vision, you are almost certainly working to advance someone else’s.
That does not make you weak. It makes you normal.
For decades, the system has been designed to reward compliance, not conscious design. Security is prioritised over sovereignty. Busy is mistaken for productive. And borrowed ambition quietly replaces personal p
Mark Stokes
Jan 42 min read


The Power of Journalling
We live in a world that is constantly pulling at us.
Notifications... Opinions... Algorithms... Everyone wants you to buy their merch, follow their framework or adopt their version of success. Very few want you to pause and ask a far more dangerous question:
What do I actually want?
Journalling is not about productivity hacks or pretty notebooks. It is about presence and being alone with yourself long enough to hear your own thoughts again.
Mark Stokes
Dec 28, 20252 min read


Why My Kids Became Shareholders at the Age of 7
I have always admired Patek Philippe for reasons that go far beyond watches.
Their original line captured something timeless: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” More recently, as part of their Generations campaign, they refined the message even further:
“Begin your own tradition.”
That line stays with me.
Because real wealth has never been about ownership.
Mark Stokes
Dec 21, 20252 min read


Become the Founder Investors Never Walk Away From
Most founders focus on the pitch. It’s a tough truth, but one worth confronting early: most raises don’t fail due to a weak idea; they fail because the business behind it simply isn’t investor-ready.
At Sustainomics Capital, we see it every day. Founders with grit, energy and vision. But also...with structural blind spots that cause experienced investors to quietly pass without explanation.
Mark Stokes
Dec 12, 20253 min read


The Two Silent Multipliers of Growth Most Entrepreneurs Overlook
Vision Without Transmission Is a Broken Engine
Entrepreneurs obsess over clarity of vision. They refine strategy decks, future maps and five-year targets. Yet, the greatest strategic error is carrying that vision alone.
A founder’s clarity is meaningless if it never leaves their mind. Your accountant, solicitor and advisers cannot optimise what they cannot see. Vision becomes operational only when it becomes shared.
Mark Stokes
Dec 5, 20252 min read


Stoicism and the Silent Power Behind Raising Capital
Why ancient philosophy remains one of the greatest assets for modern professionals seeking investment
Every founder eventually discovers a difficult truth about raising capital. The financial model matters. The market matters. The product matters. Yet the internal state of the leader determines whether the deal ever concludes.
Mark Stokes
Nov 16, 20254 min read


THE BIG RESET RULE: MINDSET FOR WEALTH MASTERY
THE BIG RESET RULE: MINDSET FOR WEALTH MASTERY
Give Yourself Space to See the Bigger Picture
Once paused, the mindset resets. This means zooming out to see how today’s crisis fits into a much larger timeline.
When you face pressure or crisis, your brain immediately shifts into survival mode, but this shift is a double-edged sword.Whether you are just starting your journey or managing a vast portfolio, cultivating this disciplined mindset is the secret behind lasting wealth an
Mark Stokes
Oct 31, 20258 min read


Challenge Tradition. Take Back Control.
Every so often, you discover something that makes you stop and ask:
Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?
For me, that realisation came after 25 years in the financial system — and not one adviser ever mentioned a SSAS pension.
Not one.
But this isn’t about pensions.
It’s about power.
It made me realise how often we outsource control — of our money, our time, our decisions — to people or systems that were never designed to create our freedom.
Mark Stokes
Oct 27, 20253 min read
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