AI specialist. Entrepreneur. Still close to the work.

AI, in the business

My focus is on AI agents, business workflows and the tools that connect them. The technical work interests me. So does deciding where it is worth doing in the first place.

A useful starting point is a piece of work someone already has to do. Understand it, work out what good looks like, then test whether AI can help. The harder questions tend to arrive after the first demo: access to data, unreliable answers, cost, and the person who has to look after the thing.

Those are the questions I want to explore here as I build, write and work with other founders.

Antler Digital

I started Antler in 2018. It grew from freelance work into a product team that works inside other businesses. We design and build software, and keep working on it as the business changes. Long relationships give you a fairly honest view of your earlier decisions.

The work includes Wiserfunding's risk-management platform and ONE TRIBE's climate-finance product, alongside projects for brands and other technology businesses. More recently, that remit has grown to include applied AI. I stay close to the work; the team deserves its share of the credit.

ONE TRIBE

ONE TRIBE began as an Antler engagement. We reviewed and rebuilt the platform, simplified its architecture and improved how the team could release changes. I stayed on as fractional CTO and CPO, leading technology and product.

It is a useful distinction: finishing a rebuild is one job. Taking responsibility for what happens next is another. This relationship has involved both.

Fractional

Rhys Holding and I co-founded Fractional to connect businesses with experienced fractional executives. The global collective now includes 700+ fractionals, with 350 in the UAE.

I work on the model, the market and the technology; Rhys leads delivery. Having worked as fractional executives ourselves, we care about what happens after the introduction: a clear remit, the right support and someone accountable for the work.

How I got here

I started as a non-technical founder. Nightway was a student nightlife app. Currikula followed: an essay-writing assistant that got into Ignite Accelerator and reached 10,000 users. I taught myself to build along the way. Currikula closed in 2019.

I wrote about it because the lessons were useful, including the fairly obvious one that demand should come before the product. I still enjoy building. I am better at checking why.

“It took me 3 different products across 2 startups before I stopped building first and started with validating the market and product.”

From the Currikula postmortem, published in 2020

Working together

Sometimes the useful contribution is a conversation about an AI idea or a product decision. Sometimes it needs a build, or someone to lead technology and product for a while. I am open to consulting and fractional work where the problem fits.

Tell me what you are trying to change. We can work out the shape of it from there.