Meet Jimmy Carroll | Co-Founder and Business Development Director of Pelorus

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jimmy Carroll and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jimmy, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
As climber, Conrad Anker once said, ‘Risk is the cost of living a full life. If you want to have a meaningful existence, you have to be willing to put yourself out there.’ I think about mitigating the negative outcomes and understanding the environment – both in the physical world and in business. Some of the riskiest things in life can be prepared for to minimise the risk. By preparing you can upskill yourself and increase your chances of success.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
About Pelorus:

Pelorus designs life-changing, innovative travel and yachting experiences for HNW and UHNW private travellers and luxury brands across the globe. We create incredible experiences, motivated by our in-house ambition and mission to change the way we see the world and the impact we leave on it.

With impeccable attention to detail, creativity, and due diligence, we work exclusively with a network of industry leaders in designing unique, pioneering experiences in every corner of the world. Our expert team pushes boundaries and drives innovation at every stage across each of the four sub-brands of the Pelorus business: Travel, Yachting, Agency and the Pelorus Foundation.

What sets us apart / unique selling point:

Our unique selling point has always been our experience-led travel, we really get under the skin of what our clients want to achieve and how they live their lives. We then build each trip to suit them specifically. We don’t concentrate on the location because specific locations limit what you can do, we instead begin thinking about the experiences our clients want to have. A great example of that is an experience we planned for a client in India, her passion was horse riding, so we took her to the outback Rajasthan. There was no infrastructure in place, so we built Maharaja style tents with ensuite bathrooms and four poster beds in the middle of the outback. By doing that, we were able to give her the best riding experience possible in remote Rajasthan. We took experience directly from our military logistics and planning backgrounds and used a military planning document to execute the project precisely to build something incredibly unique for the client.
A lot of the staff that we have brought into Pelorus don’t come from a traditional travel background, but that gives our team a far greater wealth of experience and creativity. I think it is about uncovering the finer details about each client and building in elements of surprise to their trip. I conducted an in-depth interview with clients in the US about their milestone wedding anniversary trip. We went right back to the beginning of their relationship to discuss how they met and their first date and how he proposed. From those details, we were able to create surprise elements for them to experience that neither of them had any idea about. On their first day, we recreated elements of their first date to create an unforgettable experience for them. It’s all incredibly personal, that’s the only way we can create the most memorable experiences.

How did you get to where you are today?

The foundation of Pelorus is our military background, planning, knowledge, and execution of projects. Geordie and I both did very different roles after leaving the military but all of them were building blocks to setting up Pelorus. From my side, I ran and executed the largest ever medical research expedition to Mount Everest, which was a year-long project where I was living at Everest base camp for three and a half months. We shipped 14 tonnes of equipment in, built three operating theatres and laboratories, one in Kathmandu, one in Namche Bazar and one at base camp itself. It was a massive logistical undertaking, but we had support from several partners as well as from University College London, the Royal Free and the London Clinic – all of whom were invested in global research into intensive care. Following that, I wanted to gain experience with a global brand, so I became the global tour manager for Manchester United football club. I was responsible for the commercial deals behind their international and pre-season tours, which included delivering 150+ commercial appearances for players and management, generating a huge amount of revenue for the club and expanding their global reach. The final role I took was back in London, I became the Head of Marketing and Business Development for Winch Design, a design studio with one of the largest design studios for custom made superyachts, private planes, and architecture for residential projects, serving the world’s top 1%. It was there that Geordie and I reconnected, we were speaking about the rise of explorer yachts, an increase in younger clientele, and how people wanted to see far more of the world than the Caribbean and Mediterranean, the usual hunting grounds for yachting. We realised that there wasn’t much competition in the sector, we could come in, shake it up and bring a different approach. And that approach was with our military backgrounds in planning and execution, but with layers of creativity poured on top. We also then developed our land-based travel, to delve into the experiential, letting the experiences lead the projects over everything else. That is our unique selling point and has given us a point of difference in the industry.

How did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way.

We were very lucky to have our Military backgrounds when we set up the business, that gave us a wonderful platform to launch from in terms of leadership and management experience. We looked carefully at the strategic and tactical elements of launching a business, and my business partner Geordie and I, both bring different strengths to the table. We have different appetites for risk, and we think about every element together – most of the time meeting in the middle – finding that balance between risk and growth. What you can never plan for is the unknown, the pandemic was certainly one of those things, but we had the right board members and advisors around us to help guide us through that process – I would say that was a key success and really allowed us to prepare to expand again when the pandemic eased.
As a young business, we are agile and nimble enough to tackle most problems when they come our way but also to seek new opportunities. We very much want to be proactive rather than reactive in our approach to business, of course on things will always crop up that you need to be reactive to but overall, in our experience, being proactive has allowed us to springboard ahead, access new markets and build a thriving business.

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

We are building a luxury brand with multiple facets: Pelorus Travel, Pelorus Yachting and the Pelorus Foundation with possibly more to come. It is an exciting time to be in the business.
Our brand story really begins when Geordie and I first met each other in the Hindu Kush foothills in Afghanistan on a reconnaissance mission. We’ve taken that military foundation and turned it into a luxury travel busines. That is the story we want to tell, it doesn’t matter what walk of life you’re from, if you have the right people around you, supporting you and you build a team that you can trust and value, if you create the right environment for everyone to thrive in, that’s what matters and that’s what will bring success.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We’re grateful to a number of people: our investors, who haven’t just delivered capital into the company but have been a real sounding board for us. They’ve shared their experience and knowledge in building companies and how to grow team but also their knowledge in how to penetrate new markets and develop certain areas of the business. We’ve also had an advisory board which has been invaluable to us, we use them as a sounding board, to work through our plans and strategy. We’ve also been able to tap into their networks to further grow and develop different arms of the business including B2C with Pelorus Travel and Yachting and B2B with Pelorus Agency.

Website: www.pelorusx.us

Instagram: @pelorusx

Linkedin: @pelorusx

Facebook: @pelorusx

Youtube: @pelorusx