Insights: Chris Burkard, Pacha Light and Luis Medearis on judging the Db Fund
An insightful Creative Exchange session with this year's Db Fund judges.
Insights is my new Looking Sideways section, exclusively for my paid subscribing community.
It’s an absolute treasure trove of the - well - insights and wisdom imparted by over 250 Looking Sideways guests; as well as from the 25 plus years I’ve been pissing about for a living as a journalist, author, podcaster, business owner, mentor and speaker.
It’s where you’ll find exclusive blogs, podcasts, video chats, guest posts and articles all geared towards answering that two fundamental questions:
How can I spend more time doing the things I’m passionate about?
What does a ‘successful’ creative life actually look like?
Find out more below.
Four years ago, I had the idea of trying to find a practical way to help new creatives and storytellers get into the industry.
Regular listeners to my podcast Looking Sideways will no doubt remember that this idea eventually became the brilliant Db Fund, which we first launched back in 2022.
So it was amazing to partner once again with my friends at Db on the second Db x Looking Sideways Fund, which we launched back in January 2025.
If you missed the official (ahem) announcement, catch up here:
Use my Db Journey discount code LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 15% on any purchase.
As ever, the response to our call out for new creatives was completely incredible. We had hundreds of entries to this year’s Db Fund - so many, in fact, that it’s taken us far longer to get through them than we expected.
In this Herculean task, we’ve been aided by our brilliant judges: Pacha Light, Chris Burkard, and Luis Medearis; three Db-affiliated creatives who know a thing or two about conceptualising, financing, and distributing their own projects.
We’re currently whittling our longlist of 12 finalists down to a final shortlist of five, and we’ll be announcing those finalists soon.
In the meantime, back in February, I caught up with Chris, Pacha, Lu and Db CMO Jon Weaver for a live Creative Exchange.
As ever, this was a brilliantly insightful conversation during which our trio of judges gave us the lowdown on how they launched their own creative careers, as well as discussed what they’re looking for when choosing our five finalists.
Among other things, we discussed:
Safety in numbers: how Lu and his Technically Doing It crew have joined forces to offer brands a more compelling creative proposition.
“It was like someone flipped the lights back on.” - the lightbulb moment that reignited Chris Burkard’s creative passion.
“If you’re waiting for the perfect moment, you’ll be waiting forever. Just start.”
The story behind Ceibo, Pacha’s brilliant new film collaboration with Lucy Small and Maddie Meddings.
How the trio choose their own creative projects.
What they’ll be looking for when judging the Fund
Watch our conversation below:
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