Why I’m building The Harley

Why I'm building The Harley

I've worked in healthcare and medical aesthetics for close to two decades, and I've had the opportunity to see the industry from a number of different perspectives.

I started in field sales before moving through sales and marketing leadership, business consulting, omnichannel strategy and ultimately country leadership roles across multiple organisations and European markets.

What's been particularly interesting is watching aesthetics evolve alongside that career.

This was once an industry dominated by individual practitioners, relatively small clinics and entrepreneurial businesses. Today we're seeing sophisticated clinic groups, international manufacturers, private equity investment, acquisitions and transactions worth hundreds of millions — and, across the wider market, billions of pounds of capital and enterprise value.

The business of aesthetics has become serious business.

At the same time, I'm at an interesting point in my own career.

I've chosen to spend some time developing my understanding of how digital marketing and AI are changing the way organisations operate and engage with customers, including studying Mastering Digital Marketing in an AI World at London Business School.

Rather than simply learning the theory, I wanted something tangible on which I could apply it.

The Harley is that project.

It's an opportunity to combine nearly two decades of industry experience with what I'm learning about AI, digital marketing, content and audience development — and build something useful for an industry I've spent a significant part of my career working within.

There's also a very simple personal motivation behind it.

I'm genuinely interested in where aesthetics goes next.

Who will own the clinics? Where will investment flow? Which product categories will grow? How will manufacturers reach customers? What happens as regulation develops? How will AI change marketing and customer behaviour? And what will the aesthetics business of five or ten years from now actually look like?

Those are the conversations I want The Harley to explore.

So, for now, this is very much a passion project — built in public, tested in the real world and hopefully useful to the people shaping the industry.

If you're one of them, I'd love you to follow along.

John Campbell
Founder & Editor, The Harley