Smart cards, HiFi’s and Oil & Gas… Why I Started my Own Business

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

• Thomas Edison

My career up until now has been, let’s say, different from most.

Since graduating from the University of Glasgow in 2013 with an MEng degree in Electronics & Software Engineering, I’ve worked in a few different industries.

I started off working for Ecebs, a company who’s technology is behind some of the biggest smart ticketing schemes in the UK and further afield. I developed Android apps that could read (and update) smart cards that conformed to the ITSO (Interoperable Transport Standards Organisation) specification (that’s every transport smart card in the UK). I also created Smart Ticket Checker, a free Android app that can read any ITSO-compatible smart card and display the information in a user-friendly way.

From there, I moved to Linn. They use cutting edge technology to produce the highest quality audio from their systems. I worked on Kazoo, a cross-platform app for controlling your Linn HiFi system that works on OSX, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. The app is used by owners of Linn equipment all around the world.

I then moved in to Oil & Gas by joining Streamba, a company attempting to radically change the industry by building the “Google of the energy supply chain”. They leverage big data to identify where their user’s stuff is in the supply chain and how it got there.

And on Wednesday 24th May 2016, I started Defining Technology Ltd.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

• Winston Churchill

My decision to walk away from each of those opportunities wasn’t driven by the companies themselves. I got to work with some very talented people on some interesting projects. But in every job, I always felt that something was missing.

When I’m waiting to pay at the supermarket, I don’t just see the queue. I see the potential for there to be no queue. What if there was a card-only checkout? What if trolleys were designed to encourage people to pack as they go? What if the trolley knew what was in it?

I’m constantly thinking of possible solutions to problems I face everyday and I’ve carried this way of thinking in to every job I’ve had. From stacking shelves at Tesco to optimising the energy supply chain in the North Sea, how can we do this better?

There’s a term used for organisations that look at themselves in this kind of way. They are known as “learning organisations”:

[learning organizations are] organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together

• Peter Senge

It’s not that traditional organisation don’t go through change, it’s just done in a much more big-bang kind of way. The cost of change is high, putting more pressure on the need for the change to be successful, thus increasing the time taken to implement the change to try and make sure that it works. When change can be applied and tested in small chunks, the cost is reduced and then so too is the pressure for it to be successful. If it doesn’t work, revert and try a different approach.

The problem when you think like a learning organisation when working for an organisation that doesn’t is that it leads to frustration. Frustration at a lack of control. Frustration at the inability to test new approaches to try and improve the way the organisation works. You know things could be better, but have no power to influence change.

I soon realised that indeed what I was looking for was to be part of an organisation that identifies and approaches problems in the same way I do and is willing to give people, like me, the power to try new approaches to solving those problems.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

• Walt Disney

I knew that the sure fire way to become part of a learning organisation was to start my own. Run my own business. Make mistakes and learn from them. I could take my passion for identifying solutions to everyday problems and try to monetise those solutions.

But I had a bad case of imposter syndrome. I moved from job to job thinking I was looking for the last piece of the puzzle. “I just need that bit of experience, then I’ll be ready”. The day where I had all the experience and knowledge I felt I needed never came.

My drive to identify solutions to problems has led me to attend meetups in Glasgow and Edinburgh, like CodeCraft and RookieOven. I even started BuildBetter, a series of all day events aimed at bringing people together to practice building better software.

Through attending these events, I’ve met people with all kinds of backgrounds and experiences. People I could discuss my frustrations with and hear about what they have gone through in starting their own businesses.

Eventually I realised that the only person stopping me from starting a business was my self. If I could believe in the skills I have and my ability to adapt and learn, then I could overcome the feeling of needing to know everything.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

• Albert Einstein

2016 has been a year of doing for me. I proposed to my now-fiancée, I travelled to Vietnam to see a completely different culture and now I’ve started a business.

And it all came down to a simple decision. A decision to stop focussing on the reasons for why not to do something and instead focus on the positives for doing it.

It will be an interesting few months, but I’m definitely looking forward to the challenge.

Want to find out how Defining Technology can help you? Lets grab a coffee.