I grew up in Scotland, and for a lot of my childhood I was lonely. My dream was to move to America, and nobody around me really understood that, or me. I didn't fit in at school. I learned early what it feels like to carry something on your own.
My first real job, while I was still at university in Edinburgh, was being the only IT person for a 25-person building firm spread across five construction sites. Directors, accountants, surveyors, all needing things to just work. I didn't know it then, but that's the job I do now.
My career in networks and cybersecurity started in Scotland, then took me to Brisbane, Australia. The company I worked for there was bought by an Austin-based company, and in 2014 I got the chance to move to the US. The dream I'd had as a kid came true. Across twenty years, most of the work came down to one question: why is this going through all of that when it could go straight there? Find what doesn't need to be there, take it out, and everything runs faster and calmer.
In 2020 I started building a rental business. It grew to more than 150 houses, and somewhere along the way it started running me. Every system, every spreadsheet and every decision came back to me. I was building something for my family and getting less time with them. And the loneliness came back. It was the same feeling I'd had as a kid: people all around you, and nobody who really gets what you're carrying.
My business partner says when he wants to go faster, he pedals harder. I look for a different gear.
Then other owners started asking me to look at their businesses. A travel concierge juggling twelve apps. A consultant who couldn't explain what he did. A property business with data everywhere. Every time, the real problem wasn't the technology. It was one person carrying the whole thing on their own.
That's why I do this. Building a business shouldn't feel as lonely as it often does. I know what that feels like, twice over, and I don't want other owners to feel it. I don't think a business should cost you your family, your health or your headspace. If I can help an owner get home for dinner with a clearer head, and a business that's still growing, that's a good day's work.