James Watt, the co-founder of Brewdog, has decided that now is the time to launch a new beer business.
I have thoughts.
Trust Me, He Says, Again, Somehow
Trust is a funny thing.
It takes years to build, seconds to lose, and apparently only one LinkedIn post to pretend you’ve earned back.
Which brings us neatly to James Watt and his new Second Best venture; a name that, for once, might be more honest than intended.
Watt has entered his “I’m just a humble entrepreneur again” era, wherein every announcement is wrapped in the language of reinvention:
Fresh start.
New chapter.
Lessons learned.
All the usual phrases people deploy when they’d prefer you didn’t look too closely at the last chapter.
And here’s the thing: you can trust James Watt.
You just have to be very specific about what you trust him to do.
You can trust him to create noise.
You can trust him to market himself like a man trying to sell a parachute after the plane has already landed.
You can trust him to frame every pivot as a heroic comeback story.
You can trust him to talk about disruption as if it’s a personality trait.
But trusting him with your money, your loyalty, or your belief that this time will be different?
That’s where the ribs start to ache.
Because trust isn’t built on slogans nor on rebrands.
It’s not built on the kind of self‑mythologising that treats every controversy as a stepping stone to greatness.
Trust is built on behaviour.
On patterns.
On the boring, unglamorous stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into a hype video.
And Watt’s pattern is… well, it’s a pattern.
A loud one.
It’s a pattern that suggests you should approach his new venture with the same caution you’d use when opening an email titled “URGENT: Opportunity!!!”
This isn’t about bitterness.
It’s not about grudges.
It’s about recognising that some people treat trust like a renewable resource, something they can burn through endlessly because they assume there’ll always be more where that came from.
But trust doesn’t work like that.
Not in business.
Not in life.
Not when the person asking for it has already demonstrated how quickly they’ll spend it.
So yes, by all means, watch Second Best.
Observe it.
Analyse it.
Enjoy the spectacle if spectacle is your thing.
Just don’t hand over trust like it’s a promotional coaster.
Some people earn trust.
Some people inherit it.
And some people treat it like a marketing budget.
James Watt has shown us which category he belongs to.