A view from different parts of the business
I joined Shaw Academy in 2015 as a sales agent. My responsibilities grew into customer communications and marketing, including C-level leadership within my first three years. I later became CMO in the Upskillist era and helped see the Upskillist brand through its introduction.
My commercial background is in consumer businesses. Working across those functions gave me a close understanding of how people find a product, why they buy, what brings them back and where the experience falls short.
The CEO mandate
When I took over as CEO, the immediate job was to stabilise the business through a major restructuring. That meant reducing the operating cost base, renegotiating third-party contracts and finding ways to sustain the business without an additional funding round.
With little scope for paid advertising, we focused on the existing customer database, reactivation and retention activity. Partnerships, led by John White, became an important source of new users.
Testing a new approach
Alongside that work, we began introducing AI-generated learning content into Upskillist. The early response wasn’t uniformly positive. We improved the output and listened to what people actually said about it.
As the quality improved, so did the feedback. That gave us a practical indication that customers could accept AI-generated teaching when the execution was right, and helped inform the content approach behind Kairo.
Running one business while developing the next
In summer 2024, I presented the direction that would become Kairo at our Upskillist Growth Summit. We continued running the existing business while developing that new product.
The experience shaped my approach to building: the vision has to be clear enough to guide decisions, and practical enough to survive the constraints of the business delivering it.
Continue to the Kairo story