I build AI-powered products. I spent nine years co-founding and running KILTR, Scotland's largest social network, which reached 100,000 users. I also shipped SwipeWiFi, a licensed SaaS product across multiple territories. The last few years I've been exploring what's actually worth building — tools that solve real problems for people who usually can't afford the professional version. Every product I ship is live and in use.
What I've learned: the best product work happens when you stay genuinely curious about who's actually using it. Not personas. Real people. I'm most useful in the space between a real problem and a thing that solves it — talking to users, finding what they actually need, and helping a team move toward it without losing focus. I've built teams from scratch before, managed complex multi-stakeholder relationships (including investors and legal teams through compliance processes), and I know how to think about what matters.
I'm looking to join a team and focus. Solo building teaches you a lot but it's not the same as working with people who challenge your thinking. That's what I want next.
Currently
After KILTR I spent a few years trying to work out what was actually worth building. That led to UF51 — a community interest company focused on tools that solve real problems for people who usually can't afford the professional version: legal letter decoders, sound therapy for anxious pets, procurement intelligence for councils, artist management for independent musicians.
Everything is live. Most of it I built alone with AI tooling. It's taught me a lot about what it takes to ship something real — and also confirmed that I work better as part of a team than on my own.
The products I'm most proud of aren't the technically ambitious ones. They're the ones where someone messages to say it helped.
Experience
KILTR was Scotland's professional and cultural social network — we built it from scratch in Glasgow and grew it to 100,000 users over nine years. I led product vision, roadmap and user experience throughout, and managed the company through multiple investment rounds, a major strategic pivot, and eventually closure.
The most useful thing I learned there wasn't about technology. It was about what happens when you stop listening to users and start listening to investors instead. We did both well at different times, and the product was always better when users came first.
In 2016 we pivoted to CollectivWorks — a WiFi marketing platform for hospitality venues — which reached 65+ locations across Scotland and secured new investment for international expansion.
Scotland's leading business technology magazine. Running it gave me a deep network across the Scottish tech and investment community, and a working understanding of how businesses make decisions about technology — which turned out to be directly useful when we started KILTR.
How I work
Talking to users
Not as a process step. As the actual job. I think the most important product work happens in conversations, not documents.
Making decisions with incomplete information
I've spent years doing this. I'm comfortable with ambiguity and I know the difference between needing more data and just being afraid to commit.
Keeping things simple
I have a strong bias toward removing things. Features, words, steps. The fewer decisions a user has to make, the better the product.
Working across the whole stack
I can sit in a technical conversation and understand what's being traded off. I can also write the copy, draw the flow and talk to the customer. Not because I have to — because it makes the work better.
Education