From BBC to Newlane: How Dom Cotton Built What Everyone Said Was Impossible
What makes someone leave a 20-year BBC career to build a helmet everyone said couldn’t exist? For Dom Cotton, it wasn’t a midlife pivot, it was a mission. After years spent covering stories about courage and competition, he decided to live one. Seven years, countless prototypes, and a steep learning curve later, Dom co-founded Newlane; the company behind the world’s first safety-certified, foldable commuter helmet. In this episode of Why Design, he shares how curiosity, persistence, and a touch of naivety helped him turn rejection into progress and an idea into reality. Don’t just listen. Go beyond the podcast. Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events What You’ll Learn 👇 🧠 Why the “novice mindset” can be a hidden superpower in innovation ⚙️ How to stay resilient through failure, funding droughts, and endless testing 🔥 The difference between building a good idea and building a viable product 📢 Why storytelling sells your vision when prototypes can’t 💡 What every hardware founder can learn from starting over Memorable Quotes 💬 “One of the hardest things is believing in a thing when nobody else can see it yet.” 💬 “A novice’s mindset can achieve what experts say is impossible.” 💬 “Everyone wants innovation until you ask them to live through it.” 💬 “If you’ve got a great product but no story, you won’t sell any.” Resources & Links 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Amazon → whydesign.club 👥 Join the Why Design community → teamkodu.com/events 🧠 Learn more about Newlane: https://newlane.co.uk 👤 Connect with Dom Cotton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-cotton/ 🎥 Watch full episodes on YouTube → youtube.com/@whydesignpod 📸 Follow on Instagram → @whydesignxkodu 🎵 TikTok → _whydesign 🔗 Follow Chris Whyte on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/mrchriswhyte 📲 Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube so you never miss an episode. 👥 If this resonated, share it with a founder, designer, or team leader navigating their own creative leap. 🎬 About the Episode Why Design is powered by Kodu, a specialist recruitment partner for the hardware and product-development industry. Through candid conversations with designers, engineers, and creative leaders, we explore not just what they build, but why they build it; the belief, doubt, and persistence behind meaningful innovation. About Kodu Why Design is produced by Kodu, a recruitment partner for ambitious hardware brands, design consultancies, and product start-ups. We help founders and teams hire top talent across industrial design, mechanical engineering, and product leadership. 🔗 Learn more → teamkodu.com
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