I am a tech entrepreneur and CEO - AMA

[TechieGeek]

Before people assume, I am not an entrepreneur who has equity worth millions (yet :-)), I run a small, but fast-growing startup in the tech industry.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

How many people do you employ?

[TechieGeek]

How many people do you employ?

We now have 8 full-time employees and 20 part-timers/freelancers. We are in the process of converting some of the part-timers to full-timers as we have signed up to some new business!

[MinesABabyGuiness]

What is your business exactly?

[TechieGeek]

What is your business exactly?

We are developing a product/platform using Artificial Intelligence that can offer huge cost savings to banks and large businesses. Especially banks. Since our product is already live, the focus is mainly on proving it to clients at the moment..

[speakingwoman]

Are you a woman?

[TechieGeek]

Are you a woman?

Yes indeed! I saw some AMAs around husbands’ jobs and money and wanted to show there are women doing all kinds of jobs - technical, being leaders, handling unimaginable levels of financial and other stress etc! Women are capable of a lot, it’s a shame there aren’t many women in my field though.

[poopsqueak]

How does the AI provide savings to banks?

[TechieGeek]

How does the AI provide savings to banks?

It isn’t anything controversial - the product replaces a lot of the current work on excel spreadsheets in a particular area and makes it faster and easier to manage. And adds a much better user interface and lots of new data points (like social media data that was never used before). No humans are replaced in the process :)

[MinesABabyGuiness]

Is this like dashboards etc? DH is in the same line of business.

[Amalfimamma]

TechieGeek do you need translators? (Eng to ita and vice versa)
😁😇

[TechieGeek]

@Amalfimamma I wish! The moment I get my first Italian client, you will be the first person to call!

[Amalfimamma]

@TechieGeek

Tyvvm and good luck with it all

[speakingwoman]

Do you own all the shares yourself?

[AssassinatedBeauty]

How diverse are your employees and how family friendly would you say you are?

[TechieGeek]

Do you own all the shares yourself?

At the moment, yes. But we are currently going through an angel investment round and giving shares to some of the employees, so in 6 months I will have far less.

[TechieGeek]

How diverse are your employees and how family friendly would you say you are?

I have actively tried to keep the gender balance so we employ half of each gender. I know we need to think beyond just gender but we haven’t got there yet. We are still so small.

As a woman with kids myself, I want to promote a family friendly atmosphere and there’s a huge amount of flexibility. Staff can work from anywhere and they can take time off without asking if there’s a family emergency etc. BUT we are a startup and the implications of someone not being around in special situations can be HUGE. For example, in our last deployment, we were late by a half hour and the client kicked in the penalty clause. We had to pay a huge fine. In situations like this I need to think about whether I can rely on someone to be there on time. It’s likely that I pick someone who can be trusted to be around for situations like this. It’s a judgement call and a lot of thought goes into making this call.

[RainSim]

Hi OP - thanks for starting this thread.

How did you come up with your idea/start up? Were you already in the field? Did you take out a loan to start up?

What are the key challenges you have faced as CEO?

Also just curious, are you in London? Most tech starts up appear to be in London.

[TechieGeek]

I came up with the idea at work. I saw a gap and felt I could fill it with my skills. I have to say I am a very introverted person, so I had to think long and hard about whether I could run a startup. The atmosphere at work then got so unpleasant that it became an easy decision to quit :)

I did not take a loan, I used up all my savings to launch the company. It wasn’t a big amount, but enough to get going.

Key challenges - every day is a challenge! Making all the decisions on your own. Keeping up employees’ spirits even when things are going terribly wrong. The loneliness, doubts, worry. The need to step away from work and focus on kids. Finding money to pay salaries every month.

Despite all that I wouldn’t do it any other way!

(Yes I am in London, but I know tonnes of startups in my field in Cambridge, Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast)

[FuckingHateRain]

How much do you have in the bank?

[KateGrey]

I don’t suppose you’re near Cambridge and would like to be on a panel about AI?

[TechieGeek]

How much do you have in the bank?

Maybe £100 today :)

[emoji]

How much are you looking to raise? Why an angel round and not a traditional seed funding or series A?

[speakingwoman]

do men explain things to you?

Are you profitable yet?

Will any of your investors be women or funds run by women?

How do you feel about the investment and the loss of shares, etc? Is there no way of borrowing the money instead?

[LorelaiVictoriaGilmore]

Do you need law firm? 😁

[speakingwoman]

what do you think of lawyers?