More valuable than my opinion of myself is others' opinions of me based upon my actions. Listed are my four most highly voted attributes and their weightings according to an anonymised survey sent to people who know me.
I would describe myself as having imagination with follow through. I enjoy projects where a combination of out of the box thinking, expert knowledge and teamwork are required and believe that people should strive to improve technologies and methodologies. My startup FreeUP, embodies this philosophy and is focused on saving people time and effort during their working day, freeing them up to do more productive and enjoyable activities.
For background of my experience please follow the links under ‘Professional Information’ (top right).
Latest news
Water Sensor Traction
Water Sensor Traction I mentioned in a previous post about how a weather forecast for waterways system could move those who deal with water forwards and how FreeUP was undertaking phase 1 of the work involved. After many meetings, R&D sessions and days outdoors in the rivers themselves, we’ve now completed this phase of work. Read more about Water Sensor Traction[…]
Farmer Lone Worker Safety App
The app The Farmer Lone Worker Safety app was created to address a health and safety gap that I became aware of because of my work with the IKnowFood project. Briefly, the app aims to provide some level of protection to those who work alone and don’t currently mitigate the risks involved. For a more Read more about Farmer Lone Worker Safety App[…]
Unknown-unknowns
Optimisations The problem with optimisations are unknown-unknowns. These are things that you don’t know you don’t know. Say, for example, you want to go abroad on a road trip. You have the known-known, of how many guests vs car seats there are, the known-unknown of how much fuel you’ll need and the unknown-unknown that you’ll Read more about Unknown-unknowns[…]
Great expectations
Variety One of the constants I’ve experience with FreeUP is variety. Other roles I’ve had have been variable, but (over time) had a relatively steady base-line, a ‘normal’ from which I could measure how different my day was. This base-line in a start-up however, drifts, sometimes at quite some speed. A ‘normal’ day 3 months Read more about Great expectations[…]
Moving the boat forward
This week’s update I found myself sitting down this week to write an update, but blocked from knowing what to write about. It wasn’t a case of having nothing to encapsulate in a post, but instead a case of FreeUP having numerous positive internal developments that would be unwise to make public. I considered eluding Read more about Moving the boat forward[…]
Weather forecasts for waterways
Apart from being a very British conversation topic, the weather is extremely important as is our ability to predict it. Even if these predictions are off from time to time, the fact that we can leave the house with an indication of what’s going to happen is something that most of us take for granted. Read more about Weather forecasts for waterways[…]
Entering flow
What is it? Flow is the rather un-scientific phrase which describes the ultimate state of productivity. The state where you lose all track of time and end up completing tasks partially on auto-pilot and feeling great about the amount of progress you’re making. The momentum is only lost when someone pulls you away, you run Read more about Entering flow[…]
Different Size Engagements
A summary of obvious points When dealing with third-party companies, smaller companies can move faster and larger companies can generate more value. As startups are pressed for mostly every resource they have, picking different size engagements to tailor how the world interacts with you can be quite a powerful tool. The portfolio approach Typically when Read more about Different Size Engagements[…]
UK Funding For Startups
Expectations When starting FreeUP, I knew that I would make some incorrect assumptions. To accommodate for this, the plan was multileveled so that it could be adjusted for unknown unknows, which to a large extent, has worked well. That said, if I had known aspects ahead of time, or had certain questions highlighted to me, Read more about UK Funding For Startups[…]
Lone Worker Safety (LWS) app
Prelude Given the number of products/solutions available and the rigour of health & safety, I was deeply unimpressed by the gap still present in many people’s lone working setup. This gap affected a large number of people, was a known issue with serious ramifications, and could be vastly mitigated if not solved by simple tech, Read more about Lone Worker Safety (LWS) app[…]
The COVID IoT effect
Two of the largest barriers to the uptake of the Internet of Things (IoT) are the capital costs required and the retraining time required for staff. Once people are over these barriers and see the value that IoT can bring, the pursuit of IoT is usually self-sustaining. These two barriers, however, are enough to keep Read more about The COVID IoT effect[…]
Structures from nothing
Starting a company is a privilege. As summarised in Zero to One it’s not an incremental improvment, but going from zero to one, making something where there wasn’t anything before. When making structures from nothing, I found it important to note how the overarching structure of the company would be built from its numerous subsystems Read more about Structures from nothing[…]