Building a Global AI Leader: Richard Potter on Peak's Mission and Growth

Speaker A: Foreign. Hello and welcome to a new episode of the Startup Diaries podcast brought to you by Bern Sheehan, a leading insights driven technology recruitment business located in Manchester and uh, London.

Speaker B: We're super excited to have Richard Potter, co founder, um, and CEO of Peak, joining us. Richard is a pioneer in the AI space and a visionary leader with a background in semiconductors and a passion for data. Richard co founded Peak to help businesses optimize their decision making through artificial intelligence. In today's episode we'll explore Richard's incredible journey from his early days as a business analyst to building a global AI platform. We'll dive into the challenges he faced in scaling Peak from a startup to a leader in AI. How, uh, he's helping companies navigate the complexities of AI adoption and the strategic pivots Peak has made to thrive in a rapidly changing tech landscape. Richard also shares some personal insights on leadership, the evolving tech ecosystem in Manchester and what it takes to build a purpose driven business in the AI sector. So whether you're an AI enthusiast, a tech leader or an aspiring entrepreneur, this episode is packed with valuable insights. So stay tuned as we uncover the story behind Richard Potter and um, the vision for Peak.

Speaker C: Richard, great to uh, have you. Well I'd say with us, um, but I'm actually with you guys today at the Peak offices so thanks for having me. Thank you. I'm really excited to get to speak to you today. Uh, obviously I've come from um, Ben Sheehan, the tech recruitment uh, specialist and Startup Diaries more importantly, um, who showcase startup. Ah but more scale up businesses like yourselves. Um, and I'd love to start, start with an introduction for our listeners, um, into yourself but more about your background, how we've got to this point, um, and then onto a little bit of an introduction to Peak as well.

Speaker A: Okay, sure, yeah. So, well I'm one of the co founders of Peak and the CEO. Uh, and Peaks were an AI platform and our uh, customers use our platform to optimize uh, how they make key business decisions typically how they're planning their inventories, maybe how they price their products, products, how they promote their products, things like that. So you'll find us working with a lot of quite famous brands like Nike or Ralph Lauren. It's just like putting our software into real world practical um, processes really using artificial intelligence as well as manufacturing businesses, um, consumer goods businesses, things like that. And we've been around a while now. So like you say, we're not a startup these days really more of a scale up um, and we've been doing AI, um, for a while and since before, uh, this latest wave, um, in terms of why we're here and how we've got here. Well, we started the business with a key insight really that companies that were able to harness the power of data to make decisions were outperforming those that didn't. Um, and what we set about trying to do was democrat that capability really to all businesses. And we were interested in, well, why is that? It's such an obvious thing, why doesn't everybody do it? And we discovered quite a few barriers, technical barriers, skills barriers, things like that. And as we started to build our product, we realized that actually the applications that our customers were using our software for that was generating the most value to them with, uh, machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. And we really started focusing on that and, and scaled Peak as uh, an AI platform company since pretty much our seed funding round in 2016, 2017.

Speaker C: Amazing. Thank you for that overview. Before I dig into a bit more about that journey, I'd love to know a bit more about yourself, let's share a little bit with our listeners about how you got here today. Also, fantastic surname. I mean, could you have a stronger surname? A true wizard in the AI world.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Famous surname these days.

Speaker C: So tell us how you got here, talk me through your background and what brought you to building your own business.

Speaker A: I think, uh, strangely I've always been interested in business. Like I would find myself reading the business pages, Sunday newspapers when I was a kid.

Speaker C: Okay. Uh, so really young then, so starting. Yeah.

Speaker A: And didn't really make any sense to me, if you know what I mean. Like, but you know, I was interested in reading and learning these names you'd never heard of and stuff like that. And um, I decided to do more of a vocational degree after school. Okay.

Speaker C: And what was that business?

Speaker A: Did a business studies degree. Uh, and like, yeah, sort of enjoy. I enjoyed parts of that actually, to be honest. Um, I enjoyed the practical parts. You know, we did course on my entrepreneurship or when we're doing case studies on businesses and things like that. I found that practical application really interesting. I find the theory and other parts less so. But I guess I always knew that I wanted to work in um, a commercial role in a business. And like, uh, ultimately I think from a young age subconsciously always felt like I wanted to run a business.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker A: And I don't know where that came from. My dad ran software businesses, um, which is a bit sad, like, feel like I'm living some sort of parallel life to my dad. Sometimes, which is depressing.

Speaker C: That's a wonderful thing as well.

Speaker A: My mum, uh, did an MBA and run further education colleges as I was growing up. So I had like two like, I guess strong role models.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: From that point of view.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And uh, maybe you can pay yourself to your parents and think, well, like if they can do it, I can do it sort of thing. And uh, that kind of. So maybe that was part of it, I'm not sure. But after university I got a job working for a semiconductor business. So tech company as an analyst. And they'd never hired an analyst before. They were actually looking for things. Three analysts. I saw the job advert on the university, like jobsport. Uh, and uh, I interviewed and got the job but they didn't hire anyone else because they didn't find anyone else they thought was good enough. So I ended up being the business analyst for the whole of the business. Wow. Uh, and we had just uh, IPO'd and we sold mixed signals, audio analogs, digital audio, semiconductors. So this was back in the day with Mike. Digital electronics was taken off. So like DVD players and iPods, uh, Xboxes, things like that. So like this, uh, the company I worked for, sales were sort of going through the roof.

Speaker C: So we had perfect timing.

Speaker A: Perfect.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: For me it was really lucky. It was sort of like, okay, you're the analyst, go and analyze stuff.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: But they had no data. Um, they'd only just put an ERP system in. Like there was no analytics function like you would have now.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And all that stuff. So I kind of had to like self learn.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: Which was really difficult. People didn't know what they were looking for. And over time I built it up such that like, you know, I was being useful like providing reports and insight to the management, um, that help them make decisions.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And then you know, after maybe a couple of years of doing that, they put me in business role like leading um, product line and doing a few other things. And so I went from being the analyst like actually making some of the commercial decisions.

Speaker C: Great.

Speaker A: Which was great experience and quite young as well really because that was all as a, as a grad. But then after a while I kind of thought, all right, I want to learn a bit more about other businesses. And I'd met as I went because I was like the custodian of the data in this company. These uh, analysts, like equity analysts, we were a listed business. So they'd often put me to meet the analyst from whoever, whatever bank was covering us at the time. Um, and Help them understand a bit more about the business and give them data and talk through that and stuff like that. And I was intrigued by their job. So I decided to try and become an equity analyst.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker A: And I managed to get a job in London working for UBS as an equity analyst. So I became like, you know, researching and covering tech stocks basically. Um, which was great because that meant like I wasn't just analyzing one business in the company I worked uh, at. I covered uh, with other people, many businesses and learned a wider market and stuff like that. And that was really great uh, experience for me. But it was pretty, it was pretty quick that I realized that you know, analyzing businesses was one thing, but I preferred being in business as I saw it. Um, so I went back into semiconductors and worked, worked in commercial roles for the next few years until moving into software. And that's where I joined. The first startup I worked in was my friend's software company. And I went there and joined there to lead their sales and marketing teams as commercial director. Quite a small business and we scaled that to be, you know, um, a lot bigger by the time I'd left. But they've carried on growing and done really well since. So you know, not taking any credit for that, but it was good, it was a good business including good experience for me. And essentially just by the end of all of those collection of experiences, you know, we had the insight and I had some insight into what I thought Peak, what the gap in the market was and therefore a business could be and what Peak therefore could be. Um, and also felt like I was ready to run a business but realized it would be a long time before I got a chance to run a business if I stayed in someone else's like. So yeah, shortcutted it by starting my own um, in that sense or like our own. Uh, and uh, that's kind of how it happened. And in a weird way Peak is just a collection of my experiences, my co founders experiences, our knowledge and our interests actually. Yeah, which I think is what has been one of our core strengths because we're motivated by everything that we do. We're interested in it. I think if you do that then you build a product and a service for customers that creates value and you're interested in and that creates value for you sort of thing. Um, as opposed to being a business that is set up to you know, like trade and make money or something like that. Every business needs to trade and make money. But um, the essence of Peak is quite authentically there to help our Customers, you know, do great as well.

Speaker C: It's simply to deliver a service or a product or whatever it is. It's just not enough anymore. And to have that passion at the heart of, can take a business leaps and bounds as obviously you've achieved. Um, why Peak? Why the name?

Speaker A: Yeah, Peak's um, uh, Dave and I, my co founder came up with the name. Uh, we were playing around with it, uh, I guess a combination of uh, things. But the brand essence behind it is like performance really.

Speaker C: Yeah, uh, peak of performance.

Speaker A: Yeah. Reaching your peak, um, and being the best you can be. And um, that you know, is our customers we like really we're talking about there, but also us, uh, um, so it's aspirational and you know, something that we, yeah, we, yeah, we hope and aspire to be. So that's where the name comes from.

Speaker C: Fantastic. And you guys are ah, considered a bit of a darling of Manchester as they say. Uh, why Manchester? Other than. Of course we know that Manchester has become and evolved to be, you know, the second largest tech hub in the uk, um, evolving at rapid scale. You know, these tech businesses are popping up here, there and everywhere and having great success because of the ecosystem. But what are the challenges of actually setting up here in Manchester? It can't be as easy as it, as it sounds.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think, um, yeah, well firstly on that point, I don't know about the darling of Manchester because you know, I think that's more a reflection of where the ecosystem was when we started. Right. Like there aren't that many at uh, scale tech businesses in Manchester and therefore if you are one, um, like you, you become uh, quite well celebrated.

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker A: Which is great for us and it's great for the others. And that is one of the main benefits of being here. There's a genuine like will and support from everybody to see people succeed. It's like a collective effort. There is, and I love that about Manchester. Um, so I kind of feel like, you know, uh, us being one of those companies is a byproduct of you know, a negative side of Manchester when we started, which is there wasn't really a tech scene ecosystem. Now Manchester had a heritage in, you know, a long heritage in obviously, um, like textiles through the Industrial Revolution, which has meant that it's like quite big in retail, fashion, clothing and so on, but also media, um, online digital businesses, um, through the sort of Internet boom. So many people would have said there was this sort of like tech scene in Manchester in the sort of 2010s. I would slightly disagree And I think you know, like um, there was from a say an E commerce commerce perspective and a retail perspective, but that's slightly different.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: From like um, the. Very different from Silicon Valley for example. Um, now what we see is there's a lot more SaaS businesses and a lot. And other deep tech businesses actually, um, born out of the university that is create, is creating an early ecosystem. But what Manchester hasn't had is, you know, a lot of standout, big blowout successes, exits and it's just not old enough as a tech hub, um, to have to really say it's a true ecosystem. So you don't have. So it's missing a lot of specialist sort of skills, resources and expertise that you would need to scale a global tech business. And so we often have to look out of Manchester hire and stuff like that. But like it's improved immeasurably and grown so much in the time we've been here, which is great to see and there's a load of reasons for that. So like I actually, I don't think it's hard. It was hard to start a business in Manchester. I think it was easy.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker A: I think there's a lot like you just have to play to the strengths of the place you are. And now we started here because we lived here, right. Like there was no let's start uh, business. Which city should we pick? But it's really well connected in all forms of transport, you know, road, rail and obviously uh, air. It's on. I see it as if you're just starting a global business. It's on the gmt, like time zone. So that's really great. Going east and west. We speak English. So there's another massive benefit. There's loads of like, um, technical skills in the area. So you can build an engineering team easily, um, build product easily. You can market and sell that product because Manchester is great, you know, from a marketing and sales point of view. And there's a lot of positivity in the ecosystem and then what it. So it has all of those things. It also has a lower cost of living, uh, higher sort of rounded living standards than say London. So for peak as an AI company hiring say data scientists and other folks who are prioritizing like, you know, they want to achieve a lot of work, but they want a good work life balance. We found it relatively easy to build that foundational team.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Where we struggle in Manchester is like I say, you know, specialists, like if we're looking for, you know, um, someone who's really deep into SaaS, marketing or like sometimes product marketing resources or certain types of product manager or chief revenue officers or like certain roles or even finance people with SAS backgrounds and things like that. You get to a scale and a point where, if I look at my exec team, it's pretty well dispersed now, even though the core of the business is here, uh, as well as in India, because we have most of our engineering, uh, into centers in India, so we have like strong centres. But, uh, our exec teams end up a bit dispersed, so there's a negative there. Um, and another one is just access to capital, you know. But I think that's a UK problem. Yeah, Manchester problem. And I don't ever see it as regional. So, you know, you could say, right, it's hard to access capital in Manchester, but it's not because, like you can get on a train to London. And also we were raising in the early days, you had to be every investor in real life. So I was a slog, you know, you'd have to say yes to every investor meeting and then you'd be getting a 200 pound train just to send it. Whereas now you can meet them on Zoom. Yeah, and stuff like that. So it's really not that hard. And therefore I think you can just focus on your idea, uh, your product, your market, your customers and you can build a great business here. And I think you can do that in lots of places. But I think Manchester is a brilliant place to do it because, you know, the skills and the talent here and the aspiration. Manchester, quite aspirational city. So people want you to succeed, but also people want to succeed. So you have this like, positivity.

Speaker C: I think there's a very unique, uh, feeling of support up here. I feel for fellow, uh, business men, women. Um, you said something there about the. Almost like not skills gap, but the skills that are here in Manchester and perhaps the emerging tech. There might be a bit of a skills gap there. And you mentioned, uh, Silicon Valley, you mentioned, um, further afield. I'd love to loop back to that when we have a chat about the vision for peak and developments. But one thing that I don't think you mentioned in your, uh, intro all about yourself, uh, which I think will be crucial, is that you taught yourself to code growing up. Yeah, and I bring it up because a lot of the founders that I speak to, if I ask them, would you have done anything different or is there something that you look back on and you wish that you'd have done? Quite, quite a large majority, uh, of them have said to me, I wish. I wish I learned to code just because it could have got me that bit further along earlier on.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Do you think it's impacted your. Your journey?

Speaker A: To be honest, though, I don't know. Uh, probably, but I can't say definitively, and that's because I sometimes forget that that even happened.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker A: I mean, it was like my mum, uh, worked. She. She taught computing colleges, uh, originally when kids used to run like, the IT courses at the local college and they were chucking out all their BBC Micro computers. So she, she came back one day with a BBC Mic Micro that they were chucking out and, um, uh, you program that with C Basic, really, uh, code and like. Yeah, she came back with a, you know, learning to write C or like book that was like this thick. I remember it seemed pretty big at the time. I would have been nine. My brother was like five. And we taught ourselves to write computer games, like BASIC computer games. Um, and then it just got to the stage where, um, I was more interested in, like, sport basically. So I stopped coding and m. Playing games that much. And my brother carried on and he still works in computer games, uh, and has done his whole life.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker A: Which is kind of cool. So I think it's. So that one experience probably shaped both our lives quite a lot. Yeah. So I understand, like, I guess subconsciously, like, you know, the basics, like the basics at a foundational level because coding is. Has changed so much.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: A lot of it's abstracted now, coding concepts. Um, and, uh. And I also had to teach myself when I was a business analyst to um. Yeah. To write SQL to get data. So I understand that too. So that gives me a good understanding of databases and data structures and things like that. So. Yeah. But I can't do it now. Like, you know, I can't write.

Speaker C: It's evolved so much and changed so much. Yeah.

Speaker A: You know, so I think probably just because, like, I get it, like from a logic perspective and I have a logical brain. Um. But yeah, I don't know. Like I say, I forget that I even did that sometimes.

Speaker C: Totally fair enough. I guess it could have given you a different appreciation as well for like the journey. A lot of the. All the team members and you know,

Speaker A: what goes into what I do think is that a lot of business, um, let's just say business leaders who are technical underestimate how hard. How hard engineering is.

Speaker C: Yes. And maybe those timescales of how.

Speaker A: Yeah. Or just even there's a lack of empathy, then.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker A: You know, so it just becomes like. And then you have that feeling in certain organizations, if you've got a leader who just treats engineering like a factory production line and just like uh, cranking out product like whatever, then that reflects in the, in the sort of culture and how value people, people feel. And I think that at least here, uh, you know, um, as founders we understand the value of um, the technical team, even though the purpose of our technical product is a commercial outcome for our customers. Right. So there is that for sure.

Speaker C: Peak was at um, the forefront really of AI generation. Right. And um, arguably was AI before the AI of this era, which is really, really fascinating. So I'd love to know what it was like going through that sort of pioneering stage, um, in the technology sector as it was unfolding and emerging around you at the same time. What was that like?

Speaker A: Well, weirdly I think, um, because we're saying we think of a lot, people think of this AI era as um, a new thing and it is accelerating because of generative AI. And obviously since OpenAI, like made, you know, Chat GPT available, it's thrust it into everyone's, you know, uh, consciousness and we can better understand the future potential. Um, but certainly, you know, we weren't inventing new novel technologies. We were taking existing technologies in machine learning models and you know, and data techniques really to create product that created value for our customers. We were just taking it to market in a novel way and like, and trying to help solve real world problems with it when. Because most businesses at the time didn't have the skills. It was new and different. Yeah, but we were working, you know, we were almost uh, sort of working backwards from a problem. Like these are decisions companies are making that are suboptimal. How could you optimize them using data and machine learning and AI and um, and then applying those, you know, applying that to that problem and then helping customers perform better. And I've said for a long time that, you know, our customers wouldn't have really cared whether it was, you know, 10,000 trained monkeys and parchment and pen that solved that problem, or it was a machine learning model. It's the solving of the problem that is the creation of value in that sense. So in a weird sort of way, I don't, we don't feel like we're like AI pioneers in that sense, but I think we've pioneered is the application of a different type of technology to a business problem in a way that has moved the needle, um, for businesses in how they can perform. And um, I think what it Was like for us was that a lot of our sales pitches started with having to explain that ah, we thought the world would change and you know, companies will run differently and ah, here's some examples and this is what AI can do and here's how it can help you. And there was a load of education and now if you look at like our sales pitches, investor pitches, anything, we don't have to explain what AI is now. There's new kids on the block with generative AI of course and that. But we see that as just new technology and capability to add to our own, um, add to our own product to make our own product even more powerful. But the raison d' etre of the product is the same. Um, so yeah, it has changed a lot but you know, in a great way for us. Yeah, in many respects, um, it was like pushing water uphill to sell AI software.

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker A: You know, five or six years ago because we had, we had to educate.

Speaker C: Educate. Yeah.

Speaker A: Everyone wanted to talk but not everyone was ready to buy. And now everyone wants to buy. Yeah, uh, in a sense, but doesn't know what they want because uh, it's still relatively nascent. So it's fun, you know and I think that maybe we were too early to market sometimes and now the market, mainstream market for AI and business is here and so we're trying to take advantage of that.

Speaker C: Mhm. An off piece question. What's the main problem that you're trying to solve at the moment and has that changed? I imagine it's changed from perhaps the problems that you were having three years ago.

Speaker A: Yes, uh, well we live in a totally different world for um, tech companies, venture backed tech companies today than we did three years ago. You know, go back three years. We were at the height of a technology bubble that was spurred by coming out of COVID uh, big shift to online digital, digital work. People weren't back in the real world yet, had huge tech valuations, you know, zero interest rate policies and therefore free money, um, effectively for startups, huge valuations which led to um, probably like an over capitalization of tech businesses, lots of money in the system, uh, massive wage inflation, um, companies trying to out compete each other with the amount of capital they had and the size of their workforces and the amount of money they were spending on sales and marketing and stuff like that. And today it's like you know, the total opposite. And so the biggest challenge we've been trying to solve since that tech bubble burst was how do we continue to grow and deliver on our potential In a very challenging economy, actually, because software businesses have struggled in the last couple of years, but reorientate the business for that, like, you know, efficient growth and, um, capital. Efficient efficiency at a stage of a tech company's life that you didn't have to achieve three, four years ago. That's been a real hard challenge. And we've made that code and we're doing really well as a business, but that's been a challenge. And to do all of that, you know, effectively, um, let's just say almost redesign and reorganize the whole company whilst at the same time continue to build products, serve customers and so on, um, is a real challenge, I would say, like the last two, three years have been the hardest for that reason, because of the tech crash. The great thing, the great thing we have going for us is that we benefit from a couple of tailwinds, a move to cloud. It's still a thing that's relatively new for a lot of companies. We benefit from the AI tailwind, of course, and I feel like AI software is coming out of that downturn and recession. Uh, and also our software impacts the physical real world and supply chains, which is another area of resilience in software. So we're looking at our own growth prospects for the next, uh, several years as really strong, which is great. And I think we've emerged from a downturn before a lot of other software companies in that sense. But for sure, like, you know, if we're talking about ourselves and our customers for a second, that's, that's been the hardest thing for us to do, is to navigate that storm, which, you know, many businesses have failed to do. Right.

Speaker C: And having said that, you know, you mentioned that the economy has been tough, but despite that, you guys have got a lot of exciting initiatives that are happening, uh, and milestones that are happening over well here at PEAK at the moment. Um, so can we talk about how Peak has approached those initiatives and with a new angle and you know, you're offering to support your consumers in a different way.

Speaker A: Yeah. So we do a lot of things differently by design. And part of the reason for that is, um, we're, I mean, even our product, like the way in which we're solving a market problem is unique. No one's done this before. And we have, we do make a big thing about thinking differently. Critical thinking, first principles, thinking which leads you to make different decisions.

Speaker C: Okay. How do you inspire that, by the way? How. What? Within. In the culture, uh, how do people

Speaker A: feel in our culture? Code.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker A: And Then also we hire to certain values and behaviors and one of them is curiosity, which speaks, you know, we need a team of first principles thinkers, folks who are not going to like accept the status quo if a customer comes and says this is my problem. You're not just going to get us saying okay and just taking that face value, we dig into it, understand the root cause.

Speaker C: So almost psychological analysis of like what is all the different things going on.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Or an analytical approach.

Speaker A: If you take it back to first principles then you will solve things in a different way. Um, and that's what we, we try to do here. And then by that that then was reflects also into how we build the company. So you know, one of the things we've done recently is guarantee the performance of our inventory AI in the real world. And um, that was us thinking first principles of like, okay, well everyone wants to use AI for these decisions. We know our AI works really well. We think it's the best in the world. But people still have a slight barrier to take that jump. So we said okay, well we'll guarantee it for you. Like if the software doesn't perform, uh, we'll under write that we'll give you your software license back if it doesn't work. Knowing that like, you know, we think

Speaker C: it works, that's really backing yourself. Yeah.

Speaker A: So, so it reflects in like go to market initiatives like that or even just internally. Um, the company's mission is dual sided. We have this goal to do great things for our customers, but also to build a company that everyone loves to be a part of and a lot. And, and we don't just mean our team, we mean at every stakeholder like our team's families, our uh, shareholders, our customers. And so for that we do do things slightly differently, I would say above and beyond sometimes. And we do a lot of giving back. We give, you know, we do a lot for the community and we also make sure that, you know, we're trying to have fun as we go because you can. And we've been guilty of not doing that uh, at times as well. Business is hard. It's hard to allow yourself to relax and enjoy the ride.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: But I think that success in a company like ours isn't like a destination and m that's written in our culture code as well. Like the journey is success, not the destination. And so you've got to enjoy it as you go.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Uh, so yeah, maybe those would be some.

Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. No thank you. And I have heard that internally, um, the theme um, for was it this year or this time that you're going through at the moment is excellent accelerate.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, so what does that mean? And how did you come to that?

Speaker A: A few things. I mean, we tend to have annual themes to galvanize around, you know, because like, you know, you can have business goals and numbers. Right? And um, numbers don't motivate. Like a purpose motivates. And so, you know, really our theme for this year is acceleration. And there's a reason for that. Like one, we're coming out of downturn. So as in like software businesses. And now is the year of acceleration for software companies, particularly AI companies like us, I think. So that's, you know, being. Putting the imperative onto the team. Right. Like we're going to accelerate here. So that means, uh, you know, more customers, more deployments, uh, faster growth, all those things. But it also means, like how we, we approach things. I wanted us to tackle problems quicker and move faster as a business for lots of difficulties reasons. Partly actually, because we've got to operate in a much more constrained world. Today when you're thinking about like efficient growth and there's a lack of surplus, like in technology companies, even in AI companies. So you've got to really drive, drive efficiency and that plays to acceleration too. So we have this, it's like an internal mandate, but then also for our customers. You know, our customers expect results. We want to, we want them to achieve those results on our software and our platform as quickly as possible. Um, so it's about accelerating those deployments for our customers, the results they achieve, um, the speed at which, um, the speed at which we, uh, impact their businesses. So it's, you know, it's. We try to find these themes that link everything together. You know, we say, okay, these are our financial targets and these are our objectives and these are the things we're going to do. But what's. Is there a thing that unites it? And this year for us, the theme is.

Speaker C: That's really cool. I love that. That's a really, um, imaginative way of cultivating culture, really. Um, and trying to connect with people and trying to get people to connect to business. I really, I really like that. I've never heard that before, actually. Um, so that's really cool. Don't worry if you're not able to answer, but do you remember what maybe last year's theme was in comparison to accelerate?

Speaker A: Uh, last year we did everything.

Speaker C: Okay, is this new? It's a new.

Speaker A: It's the only year we've never had a theme. And the reason for that was. We didn't think it was a deliberate. We restructured the business and um, you can read a blog about it on our website. As we were transitioning from that, you know, all out growth mindset to capital efficient growth, like many tech companies, unfortunately we had to restructure our team. We made a number of redundancies and structural changes and so we thought it was much more sensible to have two like goals, uh, one broader business goal and one sort of cultural goal like so because you, because when you do something like that inevitably it impacts negatively your culture and uh, the cohesion of the team and the trust in the organization. So we put our emphasis on that rather than having like a galvanizing theme. It didn't feel right to be going through something like that as a business and then also like sort of banging the drum for a cause at the same time.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So we didn't have one and then all the other years we've had.

Speaker C: That makes complete sense. Um, and delicately dealt with by the sounds of things. So while you do, while you are in your acceleration theme I uh, imagine that you know, your team is what you're, you know, you're really putting an emphasis on to drive and develop the software forwards, make sure that these business goals are being met, uh, while still maintaining a strong culture. So how does peak attract the best talent? You said earlier that you believe what the type of um, uh software that you've built you believe to be the best in the world at what it does. So what is your strategy around um, not only attracting the best talent to build what you're building but also retain them?

Speaker A: Yeah, well I think it's a total package. Um, I mean it's a, well you know, well sort of, I guess um, a well described thing these days that purpose driven businesses um, perform better. And the reason that purpose driven businesses perform better really is because you know that creates a shared, a shared purpose and experience and drive amongst the team. Uh particularly for like our generation and younger generations that are working rather than just like it's, you know, um, something's

Speaker C: changed right in this, in this generation. Yeah.

Speaker A: And I think that we were quite early on that purpose, you know, democratizing AI, helping access to technology for like many businesses, not just like the handful of companies that could afford it and things like that. Um, yeah, but I think um, in terms of you know, then attracting great talent and retaining it, it's cool. I mean uh, there's so many ways, there's so many ways you can answer that question. But I'M just thinking of like our company uh, meeting today. Every, every week we have a company meeting. We celebrate work anniversaries and things like that. And nowadays it's like pretty normal. We had a one, two, three and a four year anniversary today. I think last year, last week we had a seven year anniversary. So like you know, you people generally do um, come to Peak and stay around if they're successful but it's, it's tough being in a startup. Uh, it's not for everybody because you have to be able to work at pace, very high quality, very like, you know, very challenging at times. But there's a load of rewards that come from it. So what I would say is we try to, tried over the years to be very clear on setting expectations when we're recruiting and bringing people in and then really trying to make it the best experience can be. And I just think that clear expectation setting, holding people, holding people to account to what's expected but also giving them the freedom to make a positive impact is really, really important. And I'd like to think that everyone here plays a vital role in the success of Peak. And if you do have that uh, um, if you do feel you're making genuine impact and moving a purposeful organization forward and you're given the backing to do that and um, and you know you've got the, if you've got like, if you like the autonomy to do it at all levels and all sort of experience levels because that's different for an exec than it is for absolutely entry level role, then you know, then people are happy.

Speaker C: Yes.

Speaker A: And they, you know, bounce into work. Now of course that doesn't happen every time. Every time. Right. This company of 200 people.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Some folks are going to be feeling happy. There's all points in time and someone might not be satisfied in their role at any one given time and there's not much we can do about it. Like it's not perfect all the time. There's a characterization, being purpose driven, setting a really high talent bar, holding ourselves to that bar, uh, and that standard and leading with authenticity of the things that we, that we try to do. Um, and sometimes we achieve that and sometimes we don't. Broadly I think uh, we do and that's reflected in like employee feedback and also a lot of the employee awards that we've been given over the years. Which is cool because it's part of the mission to be that kind of business.

Speaker C: Yeah. You mentioned earlier that a lot of your software engineers are over in India. What's the vision for peak? As much as you can share?

Speaker A: Yeah, we can, because we think what we do is, we think what we do is, um, part of a wave of like a fundamental technology shift for businesses. And companies are going to use artificial intelligence to make decisions and run their businesses. We focus on just one part of how companies can do that. But I do think the market for, uh, AI platforms and application platforms as we are in the enterprise, is going to be one of the biggest software markets of all time. So if we get this right, we should be, you know, a much bigger, in the future, be global by nature because this isn't like a UK market, this is a global market. Um, operationally, you know, our vision is very much centered on, you know, our HQ is here in Manchester. We don't expect to change that.

Speaker C: And a fantastic hq.

Speaker A: We don't expect, uh, to change that. Our, uh, engineering centers are in India because we have great teams out there who build great products and um, um, and we're really happy with that. So. Yeah, but sales and distribution will change. We have a, we have sales, uh, we have sales team in America and we will be growing, uh, we'll be growing in all, you know, in all regions, hopefully over time, either directly or indirectly via, uh, partnerships and distribution agreements. Um, so, yeah, I think that's, yeah, that's the vision. Like, if we're, if we're right, we think we are. This is a huge global opportunity and we want to win the market, we don't want someone else to win it.

Speaker C: So, yeah, that's what I was trying. So time to accelerate. Very exciting times for you guys. Um, we always round off our podcast with two quite pinnacle questions. And um, one of them can be quite difficult to answer. And it's, what do you believe has been your biggest challenge in your career to date? And that doesn't necessarily. It could be at peak, it most likely will be at peak, but it can be from any time in your career in the technology market.

Speaker A: Um, well, I think there's work experiences and then there's like personal experiences. So, you know, I think you, you're still growing up when you start working, you leave university. And um, I would say I had a lot of challenges in my 20s just growing up and learning how to work in the world of work and like, you know, tempering, uh, my own expectations, impatience, intolerance of like, you know, other opinions or people, like, so I was quite one for like, I didn't understand why people wouldn't be totally committed to work or if their standards weren't as high as mine or something like that and was probably a pain in the ass uh, for some of my earlier managers and colleagues to be honest. So you know, there's a whole like you know, personal challenge in getting yourself to a point where you're more rounded person to be honest and a full adult. That takes a while and then, but then obviously work situations are uh, the hardest, have always been, have all been a peak because it's very different when you're uh, you know, founded a business and you're running a business than when you're uh, when you're part of the team. You want everyone to have agency and peaks and we want everyone to feel attached to it of course, but obviously not everyone's going to feel the same as new when you're responsible for its success. So I would say our um, restructure last year was the hardest thing we've had to go through because we've always grown, grown, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow the team. And everyone's excited and attached when they're attached to a mission and a strong purpose. You know, having to cut jobs and restructure in such a way is really painful for everybody involved, especially those who leave. And um, I would say that was probably the hardest experience um, for sure. And then building back from that, having the belief that we could build back from it and uh, then go on to still be uh, a world leading company um, is hard when you're um, in my role. So yeah, I think those sort of recent experiences have been the hardest. Um, I'm sure there'll be many more in the future. But um. Yeah, I'd probably characterize it as that personal development challenges are hardest uh, in a weird way. But then um, what you become helps you deal with difficult situations like we've had to go through in the last

Speaker C: couple of years definitely can certainly resonate I think uh, people rave about being in your 20s, but actually it's a really difficult time and I think the 30s, 40s plus you know, you know yourself more, you've lived through all those experiences and you've learned where perhaps you have need room for improvement or uh, you know, where you, where you fly, where you, where you do well. Um, and finally, what one piece of advice would you give Richard, to someone developing a business um, in a similar space or perhaps an alternate space in the, in the technology market?

Speaker A: I think that uh, the main advice I'd give is for people to really check they want to do it because from the outside in it can look easy, uh, it's not, it's all consuming. If you're a founder, if you're founding a business, um, for the right reasons, um, let's just say, and what I mean by the right reasons are, uh, you've spotted an opportunity, you want to build a great company if that's what motivates you. It's going to be like an obsessed, you're going to be obsessed with it and it's going to take over and you have to make sacrifices, um, in all sorts of parts of your life from, you know, your own health and well being to, you know, might m. Be friendly, uh, friendships, family, you see them less and all sorts of stuff. And you do all that, you might not be successful, it might still not work. So you have to be really committed to the idea. And I think that's, you know, and that's what I see that a lot, maybe sometimes see folks trying to start for the wrong reasons, thinking it can be easy. But it's never easy. Even if you go through easy streaks because sales come naturally or something like that, it then gets harder as the weight of expectation gets bigger and all of those kinds of things. So I think my advice would be just to check that you definitely want to do it. If you're not sure what it's like, maybe get a job at a startup first to see, um, and speak to people and check and check and, and if you still want to do it, then you're well set and you can give it a go. Um, but that would be my main bit of advice.

Speaker C: Great, uh, advice. Well said, Richard. And um, on that note, I'd like to thank you so much for your time on Startup Diaries. Hope you enjoyed it.

Speaker A: Thanks for having me.

Speaker C: Bern Sheehan's annual technology hiring report is out. Here's why you need to get your hands on it. It's packed with in depth salary benchmarking insights, strategies that competitors are using to attract top talent in 2024. Exclusive market trends from our network of technology leaders, private equity and VC funds. And, um, what's coming next in the hottest sectors. AI tech for good cloud and security, and much, much more. It's a comprehensive resource designed to enhance your hiring strategies, leadership development, market insights and give you the competitive edge you've been looking for in today's technology market. Get the free report delivered straight to your inbox by visiting burnschiehan.co.uk and visiting the Content Hub. Huh? Or clicking on the link in the bio. Enjoy.