an advisory practice — 2026

for the people who own their work.

encycle works with the people who shape culture, and the teams who run the business around them — tours, audiences, catalogues, deals, the office behind it all. the questions a senior advisor has always asked, answered with tools that didn't exist three years ago.

begin a conversation see the practice →

london · somerset · by introductionn. mmxxvi

n. 02 · two rooms, one practice

the artist

for people who make culture.

internationally recognised comedians, musicians, and authors. careers where a handful of decisions a year move everything — and where the quality of those decisions compounds for years.

tour planning · routing · holds
audience growth · the slow kind
content production · writing rooms
licensing · catalogue strategy

the team

for the people who run the show.

managers, agents, and management companies — the small, trusted teams who keep a career moving and carry the weight of every decision around it. encycle works inside that team, builds what's missing, and hands it back.

deals · term sheets · paper
research · prep · briefings
the office, running properly
family offices · by introduction

n. 03 · in support of the team

the work behind the work, handled.

every engagement starts in the same place: sit with the team, find the work that eats the week — the planning, the paper, the prep — and build one quiet system around it. one place where everything lives, instead of ten places where it hides.

then run it together. routing a tour, reading a term sheet, prepping a negotiation, keeping the office straight. the machines do the work. the team makes the calls. fewer tools, fewer meetings, better decisions made earlier.

then hand it back. encycle is an operator, not a vendor. the engagement ends when everything runs without us.

n. 04 · the practicesix rooms

what we sit inside.

01tour planning

routing, holds, settlement frames, day-of bibles. inside the conversation, not in a deck.

02audience growth

the slow kind. positioning, release rhythm, owned channels. no growth-hack vocabulary.

03content production

writing rooms that remember everything. a second pair of ears at 11pm — not a ghostwriter.

04deal structuring

term sheets read with you. the questions a senior partner would ask, in the order they would ask them.

05licensing

catalogue, likeness, image. what to say yes to and what to hold.

06family office ops

governance, research, and an office memory that survives the next staff change.

n. 05 · about

Philip Bergkvist

Thirty years working between business and culture, almost entirely with owner-led businesses, where the founder is in the room, the IP belongs to the people who made it, and the decisions that matter get made by the few people who care most and are part of the core team.

Encycle Studios, trusted AI advisory for people who own their own IP — systems built, run, and handed back. The creator, the team that runs them, and the families who back them. Long-running creative and brand advisory for founder-led businesses including Simon's Cat (around 1 billion YouTube views, over a million books sold) and Shift Cryptosecurity in Zurich (BitBox: the hardware wallet for the self-custody of bitcoin). Board advisor at Shift during the company's growth phase.

Manage the IP that Encycle Studios owns a stake in.

Co-founder and executive producer of Acamar Films, producer and IP management of the BBC's pre-school hit, Bing.

Head of International at Ealing Studios, part of the management team that relaunched the Studio. Associate Producer on Imagine Me & You, Executive Producer on Luminal (Best Film, Rome International Film Festival).

Co-founder of Optimad Media Systems, the UK media-buying infrastructure that now (as part of IMD) processes around £3 billion in TV spend annually.

Earlier: McKinsey & Company in New York and London, consulting to media, retail, and FMCG clients. Board-level work for Channel 4, Sky, and EMI at Hydra Associates. Educated London School of Economics (BSc and MSc Management, both with distinction) and ESADE in Barcelona via the CEMS Master's programme.

n. 06 · the practice network

the people behind the practice.

photo

the practice bench

engineering depth, on call

behind the practice sits a small international bench of senior engineers and researchers, brought in when the work goes past advice and into building — infrastructure, integrations, the things that have to be done properly.

called in when the work demands it. retained, not outsourced.

photo

arnold sternberg

financial advisory · strnbrg advisory

bitcoin-centred entrepreneur and advisor with three decades across consulting, investment management, family offices, and regulated digital asset infrastructure. cfo/coo at shift cryptosecurity (bitbox) — the hardware wallet for the self-custody of bitcoin. head of strategic stakeholder engagement at sygnum bank, the world's first regulated digital asset bank.

co-founded aeris capital (now calibrium), a single family office managing assets in excess of $5 billion. deep experience in bitcoin strategy, capital formation, and strategic partnerships for founders, investors, and family offices.

educated lse and hec paris (cems master's). based in zurich.