Pauline McNulty, Founder
The spark
As Chief Risk Officer of a $5bn insurance company by the age of 35, on paper I’d achieved everything I’d worked towards – but something felt off.
Late one night in the office, I stumbled across some research about why we go to work. It broke down our motivations in a way I hadn’t seen before:
Potential
Where the role will take us – the classic career story.
Purpose
The impact we have – the new corporate focus.
Play
The enjoyment of the work itself – the missing piece.
That third one stopped me cold.
When had work last felt playful? Creative? Genuinely engaging rather than just productive?
I didn’t know where it would lead, but I knew I had to explore it.
So I left corporate life at the end of 2019 and teamed up with Tzuki Stewart to answer: “How might we bring the power of play to work in a way that delivers meaningful results?”
The learnings
We started with workshops and built our own play preferences tool — a way for teams to explore play as a motivator and connector. Some early pilots worked brilliantly.
But we quickly learned that most leaders weren’t ready to invest in something called “play”. Too fuzzy. Too risky.
So we pivoted to our creative speed networking platform — 12-minute structured connections designed to boost creativity, collaboration, and wellbeing. The data was compelling. Early adopters loved it.
Our signature pilot? A Big 5 Tech Giant.
But even they weren’t immune from restructuring.
When we tried crowdfunding to scale it, we hit a wall. The approach was too innovative. Not enough leaders were ready to invest in creativity this way, especially as budgets tightened.
The learning?
When pioneering a new way, you can choose the path but not the pace and nature of the progress.
Tzuki has since moved on to exciting new pastures, and I’ll be forever grateful for everything we built together. So now I’m writing our next chapter.
The return
I’m taking us back to my roots — FS, risk and transformation — with fresh perspectives on connection, creativity and culture from our travels.
Our first pivot was from playful pathway to playful platform. This pivot? To the painful problem FS hasn’t cracked:
Cultures often fracture when organisations scale, merge, or transform — because the relationships and interaction patterns that carry culture get disrupted.
So I’m bringing together FS leaders to build culture resilience together — moving beyond the posters and cascades that clearly aren’t enough.
And yes, play is still in the mix. It can fast-track human connection and creates the space to practise new ways of working together.
Building publicly
Sharing progress, not just results.
Building practices
With culture leaders, not for them.