David Richards MBE, founder of Yorkshire AI Labs, is unequivocal in his view of where the legal profession is heading – and intends to be at the forefront of the disruption.

Yorkshire AI Labs operates a sweat equity and cash model. Among the startups being incubated within it is Lexcelerate, a LegalTech which is targeting remortgages initially but has grander plans long-term.

LEXcelerate has been launched by Yorkshire AI Labs and aims to do for conveyancing what Uber did for taxis. Mark Hewitt, architect of the firm’s proprietary AI platform, has spent the last 30 years helping manufacturing, legal, insurance and property companies to transform their operations using tech.

“The starting point was a remortgage,” recalls Mark to ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud for Founder Friday. “The whole process, from start to finish, was atrocious: the lack of communication, the lack of interaction, and actually the mistakes that were made.

“So I decided that I would have a go – connecting to the land registry, allowing AI to read and understand and interpret documents such as a mortgage offer. And that started to work.”

Mark previously led legal software startup Rebmark from concept to more than ÂŁ1 million in annual recurring revenue before its acquisition by Verisk Analytics, a NASDAQ-listed data analytics group headquartered in New Jersey.

The software was subsequently expanded into the insurance sector and is now used to manage more than ÂŁ10 billion of catastrophic injury claims reserves.

“I had a lot of legal contacts and so I started to look at whether it could be a piece of software that could be packaged up,” says Mark. “But the reality was that wasn’t going to work – because you would have to throw away everything that a law firm currently does and start from scratch.”

Thinking bigger

He had known David, a multiple-exit entrepreneur, for more than 20 years. As founder of WANdisco, David had dual-headquartered the data firm in Sheffield and San Francisco but stepped down in 2023 after the actions of a rogue sales employee triggered a fraud scandal. The firm subsequently rebranded to Cirata plc.

“I knew him in passing – and from the pub! – and saw that he was back in Sheffield and launching Yorkshire AI Labs. I basically made it so that he couldn’t avoid me!” says Mark.

“Dave sent me off to speak to mortgage brokers, and also to have my idea sense-checked by Paul.”

This isn’t any old Paul from down the pub, but Paul Firth – a highly respected figure in British commercial property law who built DLA Piper into one of the world’s largest law firms and also served as UK regional managing partner at Irwin Mitchell for almost seven years.

“After those conversations, I told Dave that this didn’t work as a software play. He smiled and said: ‘I know – you need to think bigger. You have to ‘be’ the law firm.”

So rather than bolting software into a law firm, the idea is to replace the case management and practice management systems themselves, rewriting the whole process.

So starting with remortgages, an established law firm might have 20-25 stages, says Mark: “We’re past 150 steps, and a lot of them can be automated.

“So our starting point is to take the mortgage offer and effectively deconstruct it; then go to the land registry and get the title for property.

“The simplest check is: are the people that are listed on the mortgage offer the people that are listed as the owners of the property? 99.9% of the time that will be the case. But maybe they’ve got married since, leading to a difference in name; maybe there is a spelling mistake in the name; or an incorrect address or date of birth.

“Within about seven seconds of taking that mortgage offer we can highlight any issues that might come down the line; we can then go through the KYC (know-your-customer) and identity checks.

“The reality is that the computer is better at validating all this than a human is ever going to be.”

Lexcelerate’s target market is mortgage brokers who ordinarily suggest a law firm to their clients.

“If you ask a mortgage broker what their key issue is, it’s communication,” says Mark. “They are forever chasing up to find out where the law firm is in the process.”

Uber model

David draws a parallel with taxi disrupter Uber. “Minicabs existed – but what Uber did very cleverly was put it into an app; tell you exactly how much it was going to cost; exactly when it was going to arrive; and exactly where it was going to drop you off. All of it tracked.

“And what else did Uber do? They’re the biggest taxi company in the world without actually owning any taxis.”

He expands: “So Lexcelerate is a law firm – but in the same way that you can order an Uber, or sign up as an Uber driver, you can find a conveyancer, or register as one in under five minutes.

“We think we can become the world’s largest virtual law firm, in the same way that Uber is the largest virtual taxi firm.”

Of meeting Mark, he recalls: “Mark came in and he had the technology, but he didn’t have the customers. So we went out and signed up mortgage brokers straight away. What we then needed was the deep domain expertise.”

The Three Amigos

Enter Paul. “At DLA we had a troubled subsidiary called DLA Direct, that were basically doing remortgages for Halifax, Lloyds Bank and people like that, at scale,” Paul says. “It was losing money when I got involved; we turned it round and sold it, ultimately, to Capita for about £14 million.

“What I learned during that process was how much of remortgaging could be basically done by cutting the process down and breaking it up into the constituent parts. This was way before AI [as we know it], but even then we could find significant cost reductions and efficiency improvements on each job.

“That’s what first triggered my interest in this. And now, what Mark has produced is highly impressive.”

So impressive, in fact, that Paul agreed to lead Lexcelerate. “It’s ready to roll out, and we really do think we can change the market.”

Back to David, the computer scientist who envisions a sea-change of tsunami proportions across industries.

“In the same way that [large language model] Claude makes a software engineer 25 times more effective, we make lawyers 25 times more effective – which means that there are 25 times too many lawyers,” he says. “The disruption is going to be across the entire sphere – most of the tasks are going to be gone.

“But what this platform actually does is give lawyers a chance of surviving. It won’t be hard to find a lawyer that’s looking for work – starting now.”

Meet Sheffield founder unlocking healthy device habits for kids

Luddites

Referencing the Luddites who protested against the Industrial Revolution, he continues: “There’s going to be massive unemployment. People still live in cloud cuckoo land.”

Yorkshire AI Labs is also looking to build disrupters across orthodontics; journalism; advanced manufacturing; and football scouting.

The next step for Lexcelerate is to buy a law firm, says David. “We’re looking at two or three different opportunities. Given what we’re doing, we don’t need to buy something with 100 lawyers in it.

“We can buy something with zero lawyers, and we will be able to execute. It just needs to be a shell. It just needs the operating license.”

There will be rival startups with the same idea, he admits. “Our philosophy is that we’re not bothered about competition. This is a ÂŁ6 trillion global market – I’m okay with the 10% of that! A few hundred billion would be perfectly fine.”

Paul, who acquired tens of businesses at DLA Piper and loves deal-making, says: “What I like about this project is just seeing where we can take it.

“I’ve seen the legal business from the inside and, in many ways, it is very complacent. They think that the chargeable hour is here forever. Big commercial law firms are now charging ÂŁ1,200 an hour for a partner.

“Why would you want to pay that when you can do it for a fraction of the price and get a better service?”

He adds: “This will scale far quicker than DLA, where we were acquiring law firms, trying to integrate cultures from different countries and having to deal with all the regulatory side of international business.”

The shining Dymond at heart of Sheffield’s tech ecosystem

The post Could world’s largest virtual law firm be created in Sheffield? appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

As a single mother at 26 I’d built up a multi-six-figure business from nothing – winning awards and plaudits in equal measure.

By the age of 30 I was generating millions of pounds when I gave birth to my second child – but in a moment I did not see coming, everything came crashing down around me, as I stood on the side of a mountain, needing solace from everyone, and finally understood the cost of the path that had got me here

Fast forward a few years and I’m now running three businesses, with a combined turnover of more than ÂŁ1m collectively – and I’m about to have my third child – but this time it’s different.

I’m managing 30 staff across the country but here’s the thing – I’m the calmest I’ve ever been because I’ve learnt a different way after studying neuroscience, hypnotherapy, spiritual practice and so much more, to try and understand the impact of trauma, and how it affects our nervous system.

If I was offering advice to my younger self I would say: ‘Don’t work 14-hour days, trying to hold it all together whilst slowly destroying myself.’

That’s why I’m determined this time will be different and I want to help other people make the same mistakes that I did through my

I’ve lived through many layers of personal traumas, from an unstable upbringing with an alcoholic father, to abusive relationships, both emotionally and physically.

Following my breakdown I hyper-focused on studying across multiple disciplines of neuroscience, hypnotherapy, spiritual practice and so much more to try and understand the impact of trauma, and how it affects our nervous system.

This is what I’d share with her younger self – at different points in the journey.

Before you start this business – heal

You’re about to build something incredible, but you are also about to build it on foundations that are cracked.

ŔĎžĹơ˛č will push you further than you can imagine. It doesn’t just test your skills. It tests your identity, your capacity, your relationships, your survival instincts. It will shine a huge light on every unresolved trauma you are carrying.

The pressure will amplify the parts of you that are driven by fear- fear of not being enough; fear of losing everything; fear of being seen.

If you don’t turn towards those parts now – you will be forced to later, and when that moment comes, it won’t feel like growth, it will feel like total body and mind collapse.

Success built on survival is not sustainable success, so heal first, or healing will happen through crisis.

Stop proving. Start building

You think you are building a business but really, you are trying to prove your worth.

You are chasing validation, chasing security, chasing the feeling of finally being safe.

So you will overwork, over-give, over-achieve, and people will praise you for it. They will call you driven; resilient; inspiring, but they will not see the cost, nor will they care.

The exhaustion, loneliness and constant pressure is only yours to hold but you do not need to prove you are capable, because you already are.

Build from belief – not from fear

Boundaries are not selfish. They are non-negotiable.

You will try to be everything to everyone. Clients, staff, family, friends.

You will say ‘yes’ when your body is screaming ‘no’ and will stay available when you desperately need space.

And you will call this commitment, ambition, drive, but what you are actually doing is abandoning yourself, losing yourself.

A business without boundaries becomes chaos. A leader without boundaries becomes resentful, miserable and will lose all power.

Your capacity is not infinite and pretending it is will nearly break you. Protect your energy like you protect your income. Both are business assets.

You cannot outrun your nervous system

You will believe you won’t suffer burnout but you will. You’ll try and push your way through exhaustion, but you can’t.

Your body will always have the final say.

When you ignore the signals – the anxiety, the tension, the inability to switch off – they do not disappear they build and they build, until one day you physically and mentally cannot continue.

That breakdown on the mountain will feel like failure but it will actually be the turning point that saves your life. Learn to regulate. Learn to rest. Learn that slowing down is not falling behind. It is how you build longevity.

Success means nothing if you lose yourself. You will hit milestones you once dreamed of.

Financial freedom, recognition, growth, but you will realise, it isn’t worth it because you built a life that looks successful but feels empty.

You will have sacrificed time with your children, moments you cannot get back, versions of yourself you didn’t look after.

Second time round is different

The second time around, you will do it differently.

You will build with intention, lead with clarity and finally understand that real success is not just what you create but it is how you experience the life you are creating.

If I could go back, I wouldn’t tell myself not to start. I would tell myself to start in a different way.
With self-awareness, real support and with courage to face what I was running from.

• Megan Stachini works with successful leaders and entrepreneurs who are thriving on the outside and running on empty within.

The post ‘I thought I had it all – and then my world came crashing down’ appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

Fresh from celebrating our 10th birthday, April 2026 will go down as the biggest and most significant month in ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud’s decade-long history.

After achieving a 71 per cent increase in website traffic in 2025 to 818,000 unique users, ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud started April by launching dedicated founder content.

As well as launching our Founder 250 list to showcase the UK’s best founder-led and founder-influenced companies, we also unveiled our new Naked Founder podcast.

The Naked Founder is a business podcast where nothing is hidden. The series kicked off with an exclusive interview featuring CONDUCTR co-founders Peter Cliff and Jos van der Steen.

Other guests have included Distology CEO Hayley Roberts, Panache Cruises founder James Cole, Make Events CEO Holly Moore and Apprentify Group CEO Jonathan Fitchew.

The Naked Founder has already entered Apple’s top 50 business podcasts in the entrepreneurship category.

Alongside the podcast, ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud is publishing daily founder insights from a range of business leaders.

Other highlights from April included:
• Publication of our MarTech 50 and RetailTech 50 rankings
• Jonathan Symcox’s Founder Friday interviews
• 500 new LinkedIn followers
• An exclusive roundtable with Top 100 law firm Ward Hadaway and a panel of business leaders on how to turn ambition into reality
• A repost from Lord Sugar following our coverage of The Apprentice winner Karishma Vijay

ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud editor Jonathan Symcox said: “Our feet didn’t touch the ground in April.

“Although we had a record-breaking 2025, there’s no room to rest on our laurels, so we’ve undergone a slight rebrand to become the go-to place for founder content.

“The Naked Founder podcast has already attracted a global audience, while our short-form videos are getting thousands of views.

“We’ve also been working on our inaugural Founder 250 list, which is being sponsored by RSM, law firm CG, OBI and Mercia Ventures.

“Meanwhile, we’ve continued producing our popular tech rankings with the publication of the MarTech 50 and RetailTech 50 lists.”

Recognition: Lord Sugar shared ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud’s story on this year’s winner Karishma Vijay

ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud’s most-read stories in April focused on its coverage of The Apprentice, with this year’s winner Karishma Vijay and Lord Sugar reposting one of our articles.

Symcox, co-owner of ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud alongside Chris Maguire, added: “ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud really is multi-channel. Our website sits alongside our YouTube channel, LinkedIn account, social media platforms and in-person events.

“We have some great episodes of The Naked Founder podcast lined up for May and plan to publish our Founder 250 list in June.”

The post ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud marks 10 years with biggest month yet appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

Having collectively spent over two decades building businesses from the ground up across recruitment, travel and high-end hospitality, it was not their first rodeo. Yet incentifi comes from a very personal place for them both.

“I lost my dad suddenly when I was young, and in recent years my mum has been living with dementia. It really does change your perspective on life,” Paul tells ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud. “You start to think much more about your own health and how important it is to make the most of your time.”

After turning 40, he built an online community around a series called ‘Lads & Dads’ which saw him share a video a day highlighting how men his age could look after themselves – and ultimately have more time with their families.

“That is our goal is with incentifi – to create a platform that rewards employees by simply getting their steps in each day, looking after their health and, in return, being rewarded with discounts on their travel and next holiday,” Paul explains.

“My co-founder James and I unfortunately share a mutual pain of both losing our dads at a very young age. It is what motivates us everyday with building incentifi.”

Rewinding back to 2013, he founded recruitment-to-recruitment agency Madison Warner, with offices in London and Manchester. He then pivoted during the COVID pandemic to become a luxury travel consultant. Madison Warner was dissolved in 2023.

James, meanwhile, spent 15 years in Las Vegas building a VIP hospitality and corporate events company. He still runs London 2 Vegas today, but has returned to the UK to build incentifi.

“When we met in 2022, we realised we were both watching teams become dramatically more productive, engaged and energised when the reward wasn’t another bonus or voucher, but something experiential such as travel,” says Paul.

“We come from very different industries, but both have taught us the same thing – it is all about putting people first.

“From running our own businesses, we saw first-hand that prioritising the wellbeing of your team is essential to success, as people work harder, smarter and more creatively when they feel heard, rested and healthy.”

James says the UK is the best place to start and grow their startup – contrary to the common narrative that entrepreneurs are desperate to leave the UK. The startup has raised more than ÂŁ150,000 pre-seed funding under the SEIS scheme and is targeting ÂŁ500k.

“London is the right place for us to build and grow incentifi: the city has a vibrant startup ecosystem with attractive financial incentives such as the SEIS and EIS schemes which our investors have benefited from,” says Paul.

“The UK also makes sense for us as a market because it has always been at the forefront of employee wellbeing compared to the US. We get a lot more annual leave, parental leave, health insurance – there is just a much bigger emphasis on wellbeing in the UK, so it makes sense to start here and go from there.”

Being your own boss means there’s no off switch

incentifi users earn i-Points through daily activity tracked via existing health data from the likes of Apple Health and Google Fit. These points then get converted into i-Coins, which unlock real cash back when booking travel through the incentifi platform.

Coins can be used to reduce the cost of future travel or redeemed for digital gift cards.

“Delivered through employers, we are building a platform that is accessible to every level of the workforce, making wellbeing genuinely motivating and inclusive – and not just a benefit for the few,” explains Paul.

“Most wellbeing platforms track behaviour and offer token rewards; a discount here, a voucher there. incentifi does something structurally different: it turns consistent healthy habits into real financial value, not symbolic gestures.

“Rather than a one-off yoga class, employees are working towards something tangible and aspirational – a more affordable holiday.

“The second differentiator is the travel layer itself: incentifi gives employees access to closed user group pricing with wholesale hotel rates unavailable anywhere publicly.

“Before a single point is earned, the platform already delivers exceptional value. Add cashback on top, and the proposition becomes impossible to ignore.”

So what are their growth plans over the next 12 months?

“We are looking to launch our pilot soon, with the aim of fully launching soon after,” says Paul. “We want to ultimately expand into the insurance, healthcare and consumer space, positioning incentifi at the intersection of health, rewards and commerce.

“Our growth strategy is all about scaling through employers first. We recently announced our new partnership with Healf, which we are really excited about, as it will allow incentifi users to take part in Healf-branded challenges such as run clubs, movement challenges and lifestyle activities.

“We want to continue to partner with brands such as Healf to grow incentifi into the best platform available for employee wellbeing.”

Ben McKay: A week in the life of a founder

The post ‘Losing our dads at a young age is what drives incentifi’ appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

I certainly did. When we launched Fusion Surfaces, I could see the potential straight away.

Architectural vinyl wrapping could be used across so many sectors, offices, hotels, retail, stadiums, but no one knew about it.

I assumed once people saw it, the work would follow. It didn’t.

We had to build everything from scratch: case studies, credibility and trust before we could scale.

People are the hardest part

Looking back, that part wasn’t the hardest though. The hardest part has been people.

I came from a teaching background, where getting people to do their job well didn’t feel like such a battle.

In business, it’s very different. I thought if you hired people and treated them well, there wouldn’t be any issues.

But without clear structure, things slip. Jobs don’t get finished properly, standards drop, corners get cut.

It’s taken us years to find the right people. The ones who genuinely care about the end result and want the client to be impressed, not just the job done.

At the same time, we started the business when our daughter was just two years old.

From arch-enemies to best friends – the CONDUCTR story

That brought a completely different layer of pressure.

Jade Mitchell and I are not just business partners. We’re a couple, raising a family and running a company together.

I didn’t want to miss the school runs, the pick-ups, the time that you don’t get back.

So we worked around it. Shorter days, then evenings once family time was done.

It’s not something people always see. From the outside, it can look like flexibility. In reality, it often means you never really switch off.

And because we’re both in the business, there’s no safety net. If things go quiet, it’s on us. That pressure sits there all the time.

ŔĎžĹơ˛č is ruthless

What’s surprised me most is how ruthless business can be.

I’m naturally optimistic and tend to see the best in people, which has meant I’ve been caught out more than once.

But it’s also made me value the people we do work with, the good clients, the supportive suppliers, the people who show up and do what they say they will. That matters more than anything.

Running a business as a couple brings its own challenges too.

Even with different roles, work and personal life blur constantly.

Nobody tells you founding a business is so lonely

There have been times where it’s been hard to switch off, hard to separate the two, and that’s something we’ve had to learn over time.

People often assume being your own boss makes life easier. It doesn’t. You carry everything, the responsibility, the decisions, the outcomes.

We’ve worked the day before our wedding, on our honeymoon, on every holiday we’ve had. There isn’t really an ‘off’ switch.

But there’s a reason we keep going. We want to build something meaningful, not just for our family, but also for what we represent.

Two women running a business in a construction-led industry isn’t always the easiest route.

There’s still an element of having to prove yourself more, to be taken seriously.

That’s been a challenge, but it’s also been a driver.

We’re proud of what we’ve built. In six years, we’ve grown consistently year on year and are on track to hit £900,000 turnover.

We work with some incredible clients, from leading fit-out companies to Premier League football clubs and venues like The O2.

But even with that, it rarely feels like enough. There’s always more to do, more to improve, more to achieve.

And you get on with it. Because it never really stops.

• Rosie Christie is director of , a UK specialist in architectural finishes, wall graphics and interior refurbishment for commercial environments. Founded in 2019, the business has grown consistently year on year and is on track to reach ÂŁ900,000 turnover. Fusion works with leading fit-out contractors, hospitality brands and sports venues including Premier League football clubs and The O2.

The post Being your own boss means there’s no off switch appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

After several last-minute requests for an extension to our original deadline of April 30, companies now have until the end of next week to submit their nominations.

ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud’s executive editor Chris Maguire said: “We’ve been deluged with requests for a bit of extra time for companies wanting to submit their nominations and we don’t want to miss anyone out.

“The number of requests we’ve had for an extension is a sign of the level interest that our inaugural Founder 250 list has had and we really do want to celebrate the best of the best.

“It couldn’t be easier to get your nominations in. Companies can either self-nominate or be nominated by someone else and we’ve already got a really impressive long list.

“The final list is expected to be published in June and followed by a series of UK-wide founder roundtables. Get nominating.”

RSM UK is the headline sponsor of the Founder 250 list and is joined by three other sponsors: CG, OBI and Mercia Ventures.

To qualify, companies must have a significant UK presence, be cash-generative and have been founded no later than 2024.

While not essential, judges will also favour businesses with a clear purpose, including B Corp status, ESG strategies or a commitment to charity or social impact.

[contact-form-7]

Inside Cubbi sisters’ Dragons’ Den pitch after Susie Ma backing

The post Deadline extension for ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud’s Founder 250 list appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

Instead, it was a lazy 7am start in the gym with my kids. Two budding rugby players. A great start to any week.

But before we dive in, let me frame the week with a quick intro.

In grandiose terms, I’m COO of Voxelo, introducing a new 3D layer to the world of eCommerce.

In plain terms, we’re helping people feel more confident about buying things online.

Both are true, and holding them together is what makes this role pretty exhilarating.

Voxelo is a new type of virtual studio for ecommerce. We turn a simple product video into a 3D digital twin.

We’re three co-founders based in Manchester: CEO Vladimir Mulhem, CTO Roman Bromidge and me.

Monday

Like every day, Monday is a combination of living in the weeds, creating, fixing and maintaining, and forcing my head up to do some strategic planning.

The weeds work is all the better since Claude Cowork was released. On this sunny Monday it diagnosed and fixed an API issue across my accounts. When you’re a founding team of three doing the work of 15, having a sharp AI partner that both thinks and acts is no small thing.

With that tackled, I’m preparing for a meeting with a major retailer, one of the UK’s biggest. They’re deeply aware of the problem we’re tackling, and I love their engagement in this early partnership.

Then there’s a call with two new agency partners I met the previous week after speaking at a Shopify event, Successify, hosted by Pixel Kicks. We presented on the near future of visual commerce and it seemed to capture people’s imagination.

In between, I’ve been reviewing our virtual studio with the team. What it promises is significant: a single destination where any seller can create 3D, AR, product and lifestyle imagery from one simple product video.

Tuesday

A morning of deep work and future gazing, looking at emerging agentic commerce opportunities and speaking with two partners who may be able to assist with our R&D efforts later in the year.

We’re fortunate to have incredible regional support in tackling this problem, from accelerators and research partners to some of the biggest names in tech, but it still feels like we’re building the plane as we take off.

The afternoon is emails, admin and prep for investor conversations the next day.

Wednesday

I’m on the train to London for UK Tech Week, with the support of Manchester Digital.

Then it’s across town for an investment panel at Dawn Capital, where Innovate UK and the British ŔĎžĹơ˛č Bank tease announcements on supporting companies like us.

These are the days where you compress months of R&D, customer testing and complexity into a few compelling minutes of conversation, or at least that’s the aim.

We’ve recently closed a significant raise, with more good news to follow, so positive sentiment in investor conversations has grown. They’re good questions to be exploring.

Holly Moore: Rubbing shoulders with the stars to living with OCD

Meanwhile, Vlad has been at SXSW in Austin on an Innovate UK-supported trade mission. He’s back and straight into debriefing the team. Engaging investors and partners at events like these has been a big part of what we’ve been doing in recent months.

Return trains from London are delayed. I get home at 1.30am.

Thursday

Navigating enterprise engagements as a pre-seed company is its own discipline. You need to match their rigour while moving fast.

With time made available, I lean on the team’s expertise to scope new R&D projects, and we’ve been introduced to university research partners, the kind of connections that could significantly shape how our technology evolves.

Wider partner conversations across the week have gone deeper too, stretching into profitability, data opportunities and how agencies can build a 3D and AR layer into their own service offering.

Friday

After customer updates, I start prepping for Voxelo’s next planning day, analysing our operations and go-to-market strategy and preparing a series of ‘positive provocations”’ for the team.

The diversity of any given week is huge: competitor analysis, investor meetings, product testing, customer onboarding, content creation, billing, agency and tech partnerships, and that’s before you get to the research.

Our technology, UG3D®, leverages 3D Gaussian splatting and AI, and sits at the edge of what’s feasible today. If you asked what the red thread through my week was, it would be this: how do we build something that makes Voxelo’s value simple to discover, understand and use?

We’re a young business, pre-seed, if that even matters anymore. It’s a privilege to be backed, to have customers who believe in what we’re building, and partners who are leaning into this problem with us.

And to be doing work that genuinely hasn’t been done before.

• Ben McKay is COO of Manchester-based Voxelo, which has just closed a ÂŁ650k investment round.

The post Ben McKay: A week in the life of a founder appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

We’ve been deluged with last-minute submissions ahead of the deadline on April 30.

RSM UK is the headline sponsor of the Founder 250 list and is joined by three other sponsors: CG, OBI and Mercia Ventures.

To qualify, companies must have a significant UK presence, be cash-generative and have been founded no later than 2024.

While not essential, judges will also favour businesses with a clear purpose, including B Corp status, ESG strategies or a commitment to charity or social impact.

The Founder 250 list is due to be published in June, followed by a series of UK-wide founder roundtables.

ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud’s executive editor Chris Maguire said: “When we launched our Founder 250 list we were confident we’d get a really good response but you never really know until the submissions come in. We needn’t have worried.

Phlo, QBS & PortSwigger among winners at Northern Tech Awards

“We’ve been super impressed by the quality and quantity of nominations that have come in – and there’s still time to join them.

“We’ve had several requests from companies asking for an extension but for now the deadline remains April 30.”

[contact-form-7]

The post Final call to enter ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud’s Founder 250 list appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

Born in Nigeria, Raji came to Scotland in December 2022 with one suitcase and his brother by his side. He had a degree, was studying for an MSc at Glasgow Caledonian University and had data skills after building tech products on contract back home.

But what he did not have was any understanding of how the UK job market actually worked – or anyone to help him figure it out.

“I thought the transition would be straightforward. It was not,” he tells ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

Unsuccessful with all the junior data roles he applied for in 2023, it was another, very different job rejection that really hit home.

“The moment that broke me — and then rebuilt me — was getting rejected for a kitchen porter position at the Radisson Red hotel in Glasgow,” he explains.

“I had studied data science. I had built machine learning models. I had an MSc underway. And I could not get a job washing dishes.”

He continues: “I was sitting in the GCU student bar playing pool when the rejection email came in. I burst out laughing. Not because it was funny — because the alternative was crying, and I had decided early on that I was not going to let circumstances make that choice for me.

“Twenty-four hours later they emailed again. Their first choice had declined. They offered me the role. I took it — because sometimes you need to take a step back to leap forward. And because I needed to eat.”

Enter DeDataDude

What came next was eight months of washing plates by day, attending MSc lectures in the evenings, and teaching himself everything he could at night on four or five hours of sleep. And working as a steward at Rangers’ world-famous Ibrox Stadium.

“Every time I worked a steward shift at Ibrox Stadium, I would walk home past JP Morgan’s building on Argyle Street and look up at their logo. I made it a ritual. I told myself: that is where you are going,” says Raji.

“During that grinding period I started building in public under the name DeDataDude — sharing what I was learning, documenting the journey honestly, not pretending it was easy. That community grew to over 20,000 people across platforms. 

“Through that I landed freelance contracts on Upwork, and the last contract was at $70 an hour. I connected with people who opened doors, and I started to understand how career positioning actually worked — which is completely different from just having skills.”

He also got involved with a digital inclusion initiative in Glasgow, delivering data and AI literacy workshops to Scottish communities. He says this gave him credibility and a real network.

It’s who you know

In May 2024 — 14 months after that kitchen porter rejection — he received an offer from JP Morgan Chase as a senior product associate. 

“Full-time, not intern, not entry-level. The same building I had walked past at midnight after steward shifts,” he clarifies.

“Someone had told me during that period that immigrants always have to start at the bottom, that I would never get a senior role without going through the entry-level pipeline first. I wrote that down and put it on my wall. When the JP Morgan offer came in, I thought about that note a lot.

“The thing I realised while going through all of this — and then while helping over a thousand other people through similar journeys — is that what made the difference was not my technical skills. It was the career intelligence layer. 

“Understanding what the market actually needed at a specific moment, how to position my experience for a specific employer, how to build relationships based on value rather than desperation. That knowledge is freely available if you know the right people. Most people do not know the right people.”

, launched this month, is his answer to that: “I built the platform I wished had existed when I was washing plates.”

DeDataHub

The AI-powered career intelligence platform is for data and AI professionals — combining structured learning tracks with an AI career advisor that actively works on users’ job market positioning alongside their learning.

“Think of it less like a chatbot and more like having a senior colleague in your corner who never goes offline,” explains Raji.

“When a subscriber joins DeDataHub, they are matched to an AI career advisor persona specific to their track — Alexandra for Data Analytics, Marcus for Data Science, Priya for Data Engineering, David for AI/LLM Engineering. 

“Each advisor knows where the user is in their curriculum, scans the job market in real time, and proactively surfaces what the user should be focusing on — not based on what was in demand when a course was recorded, but based on what is actually being hired for right now.”

So how does it compare with, say, a bootcamp?

Raji answers: “A bootcamp gives you technical content and a certificate. It does not give you what comes after — how to position that certificate, which employers are actually hiring for it right now, how to present your projects and your past experience for a specific role, what to say when you are asked why you are changing careers.

“DeDataHub costs £20-32 a month. A UK bootcamp costs between £7,000 and £18,000. And at the end of it, most people are still on their own when it comes to the career and job market navigation side.

“I am not against bootcamps. Some are excellent. But the product we built addresses the gap that comes after — and that gap is why 87% of people who start learning data science never land a data job.”

Inside Cubbi sisters’ Dragons’ Den pitch after Susie Ma backing

Launch

On its first day, DeDataHub saw three confirmed subscribers and it now has five paying subscribers, collected organically, with ÂŁ324.50 in the bank.

“Five is not a hundred. The target was a hundred by the end of week one. We are not there,” says Raji truthfully.

“But the first subscriber who committed — they took an annual plan. They paid upfront for a full year before most people had even heard of us. That meant more to me than any number would have. 

“One person believed enough to commit for 12 months. Another person believed enough to commit for three months too. That is not a vanity metric. That is trust.

“I am building this in public, which means sharing the honest version — not just when the numbers look good. Five subscribers and £324.50 after one week with no marketing budget is a starting point. I know what I need to do from here.”

The intention is to prove the model works without investor money. If DeDataHub reaches £2,000 monthly recurring revenue organically, that is the trigger to begin pre-seed conversations, says Raji. 

“We are also tracking non-dilutive fundings. These matter to me because they do not cost equity and they come with ecosystem credibility that is valuable at this stage,” he adds.

“The honest answer is: I would rather raise from a position of proof than from a position of need.”

He concludes: “I do not have a Silicon Valley investor on speed dial. I have a WhatsApp group of people who believed in this before it existed. That is the version of support I have operated with so far.”

Ben McKay: A week in the life of a founder

The post After kitchen porter rejection, JP Morgan hired me – now I’m a founder appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.

He founded training provider Apprentify in 2019, before joining the company as CEO in 2022 and has already grown it to £25m in turnover with 250 staff.

Despite his success, thoughts of his former business partner at Pareto Law, Andy Sawer, are never far away. A photo of the two of them in happier times looks down on him from his office wall.

They were both working in the telecoms industry when they met on a Mercury Communications incentive trip and decided to go into business together.

They named it Pareto Law, even though it has nothing to do with law, after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto’s 80:20 principle, which suggests that 80 per cent of outcomes come from 20 per cent of causes. They decided the idea could be applied to sales.

Fitchew and Sawer were not typical co-founders. The pair founded Pareto Law in 1995 from a broom cupboard in Salford and shared an office for 26 years until Sawer’s death.

Both were happily married family men but were so close that when they travelled for business, they shared the same bed.

“It was incredibly intense,” Fitchew told . “If we went on a business trip, we shared a room. We never took two rooms. If we had a king-size bed, he had the left-hand side and I had the right.

“When Randstad acquired us, we had to go to an MD event at the London Hilton on Park Lane. The CEO’s PA rang up and said, ‘We need to book you a couple of rooms.’ I said, ‘We only need one.’ She said, ‘You’re not allowed, you have to have one each’,”

In the end, they had two rooms but, after ruffling the sheets on one bed to make it look used, they shared the other.

“That’s just how we were,” he said. “We were very close. I think about him every day. I’ve got his picture on the wall.”

Jonathan Fitchew and Chris Maguire on The Naked Founder podcast

Within a split second of seeing his co-founder’s empty desk at Pareto Law after he died, Fitchew knew he could not stay in the business.

“When Andy finally died, it sort of took my handcuffs off because my job was done,” he said.

“I’d looked after the business during Covid and he was not going to be there to enjoy it, so it felt like a natural point to leave. I knew I didn’t need to be there anymore. I wouldn’t have wanted it without him.

“I shared an office with him for 26 years, side-by-side, and as soon as I walked in, I knew it was over.

“When Andy died, part of me died too. I knew within a second of looking at his empty desk I was out.”

The pair had grown Pareto Law to ÂŁ40m in turnover and 400 staff before it was partially acquired by Randstad in 2008, just ahead of the financial crisis.
Fitchew said he had mixed feelings when the deal was completed.

“My world changed,” he said. “Yes, I had this big cheque and we were secure, but I felt the air had been sucked out of me. It no longer felt like mine. I felt like I was renting it.”

Fitchew has always been a disruptor and was kicked out of school after his rebellious streak got him into trouble.

Chicken man: Jonathan FItchew keeps chickens

Today, if he is not building Apprentify, he can often be found tending to his chickens, building something out of Lego or thinking about his best friend.

You listen to the latest episode of The Naked Founder podcast

The post ‘I still think about my late business partner every day’ appeared first on ŔĎžĹơ˛čCloud.