My Journey
The path that shaped who and where I am today
I originally planned to study medicine at university. During sixth form, I completed hospital work experience and quickly realised that clinical medicine wasn't for me. That moment left me uncertain about my direction, and instead of following the expected path into university, I chose to step back and reassess what I actually wanted to build a career around.
During COVID, I enrolled in a software engineering bootcamp. What started as a practical alternative quickly became something I genuinely enjoyed. I discovered that I was drawn to building things end-to-end, solving real problems, writing code that shipped, and improving systems through iteration rather than theory alone. My hair during this time was something else.
My first professional role was as an apprentice developer at a startup called E-Sign. It was my introduction to startup life and a turning point in how I approached work. I was given real responsibility early on, wore multiple hats, and had a high degree of autonomy over how I delivered projects. Over time, I earned several promotions and gained confidence working across product, engineering, and delivery.
I later moved into a fully remote role at InHealth, where I experienced enterprise-scale software for the first time while completing a degree apprenticeship alongside the role. The environment was far more structured and process-driven, which gave me valuable exposure to large systems and stakeholder-heavy delivery. The role ended earlier than expected when my team was made redundant, which prompted me to rethink my next step.
After the redundancy, I decided to give myself three months to see if I could build something of my own. That experiment became Circle Club. I worked under tight financial constraints and with no guarantee the project would survive, but the process clarified what kind of work I wanted to be doing long-term.
As the project progressed, external investors decided to back the idea, allowing the business to continue and scale more deliberately. This marked the shift from a solo experiment to a serious product, and the point at which I fully committed to building Circle Club properly.
Circle Club originally started as a peer-to-peer marketplace connecting brands directly with influencers. Through deeper market exposure, it became clear that this space was crowded, while talent management agencies were underserved by existing tools. We pivoted the product to focus on agency workflows and built directly alongside agencies to solve real operational problems rather than hypothetical ones.
For the past 18 months, Circle Club has been the most significant chapter of my career. Beyond engineering, I've been involved in sales, onboarding, pricing, infrastructure, compliance, and product strategy. Not every project or feature shipped — by design. I follow a fail-fast mindset, validating ideas early and parking work that doesn't justify the effort required to bring it to market.
Today, I'm drawn to early-stage startups and scale-ups where ownership, momentum, and practical problem-solving matter. I enjoy working in environments where decisions are made quickly and learning happens through doing. Alongside software, I have a strong interest in sport and motorsport, and I'd love to apply my skills in performance-driven industries in the future. Long-term, my goal is to continue learning by building and eventually start another company.
The journey continues...
