Business owner — building before selling.

additvalue has existed since 2002. Under that name I have built things of my own — airBI, then Enable, Wubble and Trust — each time as product owner: designing, architecting, and often writing the first code. The products are the strand that has taught me the most.

My way of working runs against the textbook. I see a problem, I build the solution, and I validate the market afterwards. That is deliberate: I wanted to be sure that what I had in mind actually worked before talking about it. Some raise funds on a slide deck; I prefer to demonstrate first. Everything was self-funded.

The building worked. airBI supported the day-to-day operations of two airlines, from the call centre to the board. The Wubble range delivered products that work, and that found uses outside Africa that nobody had foreseen. Scaling up is a different discipline, and it is unforgiving when a project's ambition outgrows the human and financial resources behind it. That is what I lacked, and it is what I can now recognise in others before it is too late.