Kelly Weston didn鈥檛 intend to become COO at one of Leeds鈥� most talked-about startups – but in her words, The Data City has always 鈥榙one things a little bit differently鈥�.聽
The company raised 拢2m last year, valuing it at 拢19m. Weston says the Yorkshire city has been gaining momentum, in part thanks to events like the Leeds Digital Festival, which she says 鈥榖ring a lot of attention and investment to the city鈥�.
But for Weston, who came into the company as a consultant in 2021 and became COO the following year, the bigger focus is on making tech more accessible – especially for women.
She was speaking at 老九品茶Cloud鈥檚 latest Northern Leaders event 鈥� Meet the New Generation of Entrepreneur (NGE) 鈥� in Leeds last week.
鈥淚鈥檝e worked in tech for about 20 years,鈥� she told 老九品茶Cloud. 鈥淚 moved over from digital into data. Like a lot of people from 20 years back, I fell into it – STEM just wasn鈥檛 supported. Certainly not in the UK.聽
鈥淚n Sweden, they noticed girls were underperforming in STEM subjects and they rectified it. Then girls started overperforming, so they rectified it again. I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e as agile as that here.
鈥淧ersonally, I find all the 鈥榳omen in tech鈥� stuff important – but we need to move on to the next thing. We can鈥檛 until it equalises.聽
鈥淭hese kinds of initiatives are really good for showing what the stats are telling us, but we just need to move a lot faster. We need to be more agile.聽
鈥淛ust do it quicker. Just be better, faster. Respond.鈥�
From consultant to COO
Weston (above) joined The Data City as a consultant, working one day a week. The founding team quickly realised her impact.
鈥淚n 2022, I presented my plan for the year ahead, and two of the founders said: 鈥榃ell, so you鈥檙e COO.鈥� I said: 鈥楴o, I鈥檓 not. I鈥檝e never done global before.鈥� And they said: 鈥楴either have we.鈥� And I replied: 鈥榊eah, I guess I am then鈥�.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e always been in environments where people recognise that sometimes women don鈥檛 ask for these things. You get unqualified men saying: 鈥業 want this, I want that,鈥� but women often don鈥檛.聽
“They [the founders] knew me, they knew my background. They bought up every day I had available until I became part of the team.鈥�
She鈥檚 now full-time – technically four and a half days a week – and central to the company鈥檚 growth and culture.
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Doing things differently
The company has always been hybrid, even before COVID, with staff dotted around the country.
鈥淲e just never questioned how people worked as we have that faith in them. We believe you鈥檒l do your best work when you鈥檙e in the best environment, that includes the hours you work.
鈥淲e would never question anybody saying they鈥檇 like to work part time, because we trust that they鈥檒l do their best work during that time.
鈥淭hat gave us a big draw because we were different and really agile.鈥�
CTO and co-founder Thomas Forth, whom Weston describes as 鈥榓 polymath鈥� and聽 鈥榩rofound on Twitter/X and now BlueSky鈥�, is another big reason for staff to want to come and work in Leeds, she believes.聽
Although hybrid working is still core to their model, Weston stated that there鈥檚 been unexpected value in people being physically together again.聽
She explained: 鈥淲e saw huge value when people came back into the office – those overheard conversations where a data scientist, a front-end developer and a mathematician would be like: 鈥極h, that鈥檚 the problem. I鈥檒l work out the methodology.鈥櫬�
鈥淭hen the data scientist signs it off, the developer puts it live – and it鈥檚 just live more productively.鈥�
That sparked a subtle shift – people started moving to Leeds just to be part of the culture.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a big responsibility to make sure people are happy, collaborating and making friends outside of work,鈥� Weston continued.聽
鈥淲e still want that flexibility, but now we鈥檝e got people all over England who鈥檝e chosen to move to the city.鈥�
Leeds, London and everywhere in between
The company remains proudly Leeds-based, but talent is spreading.
鈥淥ur team is all over the country, but they鈥檙e coming closer and closer,鈥� the COO said.聽
鈥淲e take on placement students from different universities. We鈥檙e finding we get such great strength from Leeds University, so it was natural to work closely with them.鈥�
The London team came about more organically, but there is no formal plan in place for a hub in the South.
Weston said: 鈥淭hey were basically a spin-out of the Open Data Institute. Now we鈥檙e starting to build this micro London team. It just makes sense because they work well together.
鈥淚s there a formal London plan? Not really.
鈥淲e鈥檙e lucky with our partnership with Oxford Economics. We don鈥檛 need to plan that far ahead and we鈥檙e really flexible.鈥�
Supporting female founders with data
The Data City鈥檚 work around gender equity in tech doesn鈥檛 stop internally. It played a role in shaping the Lifted Ventures initiative, contributing female founder data to a report by EY.
鈥淭hat was a bit of a prototype,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur data fed into the EY Female Founders report, and now the Invest in Women group has launched the Lifted project, so it鈥檚 basically a spin-out.聽
鈥淚t鈥檒l launch in five cities and be a platform with lots of different data points on female founders, including investment, return on investment, and so on. We鈥檙e providing some of those data points.鈥�
Whilst Weston doesn鈥檛 shy away from the challenges in the system, including a potential lack of responsiveness from some institutions, she remains focused on action.
鈥淭ime is our biggest commodity,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hen people spend hours writing documents that never get properly read – we鈥檝e got to fix that.聽
鈥淏ut everyone needs to be more agile. It鈥檚 not enough to just identify the problems. We鈥檝e got to act faster.鈥�