Our Story

For the different.
By the different.

Founded wasn't built from a business plan. It was built from a decade of actually doing what we now help others do — teaching abroad, building businesses from scratch, relocating families, creating income that doesn't depend on a single employer or country.

Josh Essery — Founder, Founded
📸
The Founder

Josh Essery —
Built this from the inside out.

Josh spent over a decade building the life that Founded now helps others find. He started in education — teaching in Thailand, running sports programmes across China, working as a careers advisor and curriculum leader in UK and international schools.

He didn't leave education because it failed him. He left because he could see it failing the people inside it — students being pointed toward a narrow set of options that didn't reflect who they actually were, and an AI-driven world that the curriculum had no framework for.

He built businesses on the side — media, watches, property — and eventually moved his young family to Phú Quốc, Vietnam, where he now runs multiple ventures and advisors young people and adults on the path he walked himself. Founded is everything he wished had existed when he was 16, 21, and 35.

Teacher
Advisor
Entrepreneur
Investor
Father
The Team

Real advisors.
Real lives.

Every person on the Founded team is living abroad right now, doing the kind of work they help others find. This isn't theory. It's experience shared from the inside.

Josh — Founder
👤
📍 Phú Quốc, Vietnam
Josh Essery
Founder · Teacher · Entrepreneur
Built Founded from over a decade of teaching, business and expat living. Now based in Vietnam, running businesses and guiding people through the path he walked himself.
DM: CALL
Chris — Dubai Property Advisor
👤
📍 Dubai, UAE
Chris
Property Consultant · Dubai Career Advisor
Left UK teaching for Dubai property sales. Earned more in year one than his previous three years combined. Advises on Dubai careers, property investment and the UAE transition.
DM: DUBAI
Jess — TEFL Thailand
👤
📍 Chiang Mai, Thailand
Jess
TEFL Teacher · Online Entrepreneur
Booked a 2-month trip to Southeast Asia and never went home. Now teaching English and building an online business in Chiang Mai. Advises on TEFL and SE Asia life.
DM: TEFL
Ben — International Schools
👤
📍 Shanghai, China
Ben
Senior Leadership · International Education
Left mainstream UK education for a senior leadership role in Shanghai. Package includes housing and flights — and the lifestyle is incomparable. Advises on international school careers globally.
DM: TEACH
Sarah — Family Relocation
👤
📍 Bali, Indonesia
Sarah
Former Marketing Director · Family Relocator
Left a corporate London career and relocated to Bali with young children. Built a thriving remote marketing business. Advises families on every aspect of international relocation.
DM: FAMILY
Michael — Football & Sport
👤
📍 UK & Europe
Michael
Licensed Football Scout · Player Agent
Licensed scout and player agent with direct connections across UK and European football. Supports young players seeking trials, coaches wanting international roles and parents navigating academy pathways.
DM: FOOTBALL
What We Believe

The principles Founded is built on.

🧠
The education system is outdated
It was designed for a world that no longer exists — using materials and frameworks developed over 50 years ago, for an economy that AI and automation have fundamentally changed. Young people deserve better than a system still pointing them toward yesterday.
🧭
Self-knowledge is the starting point
The biggest reason people end up in the wrong job, wrong country or wrong life is that they never properly understood who they are. Every Founded recommendation starts with a real diagnostic — Teen Dynamics or Wealth Dynamics — not a hunch.
🤝
Experience beats advice
There's a significant difference between someone who advises you to teach abroad and someone who has spent three years doing it. Founded only employs advisors who have lived the paths they recommend — because that's the only version of guidance that actually works.
🌍
Not everyone is built for normal
The conventional path — school, university, job, mortgage, retire — is the right path for many people. But not for everyone. Founded exists for the ones who always knew that. The quiet ones, the restless ones, the ones who were told they'd settle down eventually and never did.
Join Founded

Ready to find out
where you actually fit?

One free conversation. A real person. A proper plan. No pitch, no pressure, no automated emails.

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"

Founded helped me understand for the first time that the way I think isn't a problem — it's actually the thing that makes me right for a completely different path. I moved to Dubai six months after that first call.

JM
Jamie M., 27
Property Consultant · Dubai