From poker to prescription skincare – building a £160m business with James Mishreki
Fri Jan 23 2026
James Mishreki went from professional poker player to building Skin+Me, a personalised prescription skincare company now valued at £160 million. But what really drives someone to keep playing when the stakes get this high?
In this episode, James talks about how poker taught him to detach from outcomes and make decisions with incomplete information. We get into the weekend Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and he thought he'd lost everything — £13 million gone overnight — and the 20-30 minutes where he felt "completely lost" before the founder community rallied.
He explains why he believes resilience can't be taught, and why if you have to convince yourself to start a company, you probably shouldn't. He describes going on BBC News "looking like a ghost" after two days without sleep, and why he now calls himself "addicted to company building," comparing entrepreneurship to a dopamine hit he can't quit.
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James Mishreki went from professional poker player to building Skin+Me, a personalised prescription skincare company now valued at £160 million. But what really drives someone to keep playing when the stakes get this high? In this episode, James talks about how poker taught him to detach from outcomes and make decisions with incomplete information. We get into the weekend Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and he thought he'd lost everything — £13 million gone overnight — and the 20-30 minutes where he felt "completely lost" before the founder community rallied. He explains why he believes resilience can't be taught, and why if you have to convince yourself to start a company, you probably shouldn't. He describes going on BBC News "looking like a ghost" after two days without sleep, and why he now calls himself "addicted to company building," comparing entrepreneurship to a dopamine hit he can't quit. skinandme.com