Dynamic Duos: The co-founders undertaking couples counselling
This week in Dynamic Duos, we hear from the co-founders of Snack Drawer - CEO Jamie Searle and CCO Hannah McElhinney.
In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella each week asks two colleagues with a professional and personal affiliation to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly hybridised world of work.
Jamie Searle:
We met virtually in the 2020 Melbourne lockdowns after Hannah had worked on a contract with me, and we started the business very quickly from there. Our first in person meeting about the business was a walk on a windswept stretch of beach where our 5k lockdown exercise circles overlapped.
We were both in transitional periods when we met. I had not long been in Australia, was moving house and was a new father. Hannah had a move to New York end prematurely with Covid, and was living with parents (and partner) whilst finding a new home. It was an interesting time to start a business.
We’re still in contact because, five years on, we’re doing really well as business partners. We’ve got complementary but very different skills and approaches, which is a big part of what makes Snack Drawer what it is today. We’ve got good communication and we’ve worked hard on that, especially with coaching.
We’re very different as people – in what we bring to the business and how our brains work – yet understand where each other is coming from on almost every challenge, decision, or debate.
We pretty much talk every morning on the phone before the workday even starts. And when it comes to the business partnership, we’re totally aligned on the vision and goals, both for the business and for ourselves personally, in the short and long term. I think that’s the key. Plus, there’s a ton of trust and respect (at least from my side, lol).
We’re good at holding each other to account and we’ve been able to use that to develop our leadership skills and deliver on our strategy.
Hannah is very kind to me – she got a gourmet ice cream cake delivered to my home when I had 4 wisdom teeth out recently, however she’s quite hard line on making me do a morning run on work trips.
We’re the type of people that when we walk to a meeting, we’ll chat away and assume the other person knows the way and we’ll both end up miles away from where we are supposed to be and 10 mins late.
Hannah McElhinney:
I met Jamie in 2020. Having just returned home from New York at the beginning of Covid, I was living with my parents and looking for work, along with a bunch of ex-colleagues from Vice Media. Jamie figured there’d be a few ex-Vice creatives freelancing, and found me on LinkedIn to reach out about a project.
It took me a while to get back to him as I wasn’t really big on using LinkedIn and was fairly wary of the unsolicited messages I would get from recruiters and IT salespeople.
The project was just a few hours work and went seamlessly, and at the end, Jamie asked if I wanted to come on as a co-founder to a business he wanted to start. I said absolutely not.
I was depressed, my New York dream had gone and the world felt like it was falling apart. But Jamie encouraged me to meet with him to discuss further and we met on a rainy day in winter on a sliver of beach where our 5km radius’ overlapped, and he got me onside.
It took a few years for me to realise that Jamie and I were in it for the long haul. I had to do a lot of work on myself to start seeing myself as a leader instead of just along for the ride.
A big turning point was when Jamie and I brought on a relationship coach and started doing what amounted to co-founder couples counselling. We still do it regularly to this day, and it’s been fundamental to both our relationship and Snack Drawer as a business.
Because of that, our relationship is built on mutual understanding, compassion, respect, and, crucially, no overlapping skills. He does his thing, I do creative, and that’s a key part of how this business works. I often think that if I’d gone into business with another creative, we’d probably still be arguing over the names of sandwiches on some cafe menu.
We now talk every day and have a relationship that is very unique – not quite a (platonic!) marriage, not quite siblings, not quite colleagues, not quite friends – but a really great relationship none the less, with only a small amount of bickering.
Jamie on Hannah:
Most memorable moment with Hannah: One moment that really stands out is when we won the Grand Prix Most Influential and Best Small Agency at the AiMCO Australian Influencer Marketing Awards in 2022. We actually won a bunch of awards that evening. We had our whole team there which was 6 people at the time, and we were definitely unprepared for any kind of speech – it was a massive surprise.
Our speeches were pretty unhinged compared to what they’re like now. But that was a huge moment for us because I think we really started planning for growth after that, and got that early recognition that our work was actually resonating with clients.
Best word to describe her: Unstoppable.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour she has: Late for flights, once she got a round of applause from the entire plane for walking on 10 seconds before the doors closed.
Hannah on Jamie:
Most memorable moment with Jamie: Probably Snack Drawer’s recent offsite! It was such a moment to stand back and reflect that we have managed to bring all these brilliant people together – who we’d never have met otherwise – and give them a really fun experience with food, drinks and (hopefully) a little inspiration.
When we do toot our own horn, we always say we’re good at hiring and in an environment like this offsite, we were able to see our best work ever come to life in front of us.
Best word to describe him: Kind.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour he has: Jamie will frequently start a sentence on one topic and finish the sentence on an entirely different topic.
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Lauren McNamara was the associate editor at Mumbrella. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS. She left Mumbrella in August 2025.
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