1984 → now
How I got here
- 1984
Born
In the UK. A family of service.
- c. 1991
Grandad's radio equipment
I'd force my family to listen to my internal radio shows at holiday gatherings. The first instinct, never lost: make people experience something.
- mid-90s
A paper round, a first computer
Earned my way to a Windows 95 PC and started building — early web places for people to gather, gaming-league communities, a ShoutCast station of my own (talked Demon Internet into free servers).
- 2002–05
Screen Production
A degree built at the seam of television and internet. Day one, the lecturer: “We're not here to do exams — by year three you'll have built your own company.” I found a talent for camera and experience design.
- c. 2003
Oak Barrel — first company
Won a contract for a world-first video-dating website. Brought on a technical co-founder; led the experience and the build.
- 2006–08
London, and a camera
A South Bank studio for brands arriving online — and camera work I loved: Cage Warriors (before it was UFC Europe), Santana at Silverstone, and J&J's Harmonic — flying the world to film first-of-their-kind surgeries.
- c. 2008
Meeting Steve Callanan
A click-to-learn prototype on a make-up video. Underneath it was the real idea: an intelligence layer for video.
- 2010–13
WIREWAX
Funded by Passion Capital out of Seedcamp, Berlin. Hired computer-vision engineers from Leeds. We connected a dumb asset into a two-way experience of curiosity, context and action — Nike's first shoppable video; the BBC's first interactive video; easter eggs hidden in Sherlock and Luther.
- 2013
New York, from scratch
Moved to chase the largest market. Lived in the 41 Wooster office while we built it out. I failed, learned, failed, learned. I was lonely. I had to build my life from scratch. Found a bar called Shade — and a community.
- 2017–19
The award years
A Webby for Portugal. The Man. A Webby for Disney's Jungle Book. Two Clios for FX. A BAFTA for the BBC. A studio of ~15 in the US, ~60 worldwide — funding the technology underneath.
- 2019–20
A Swiss army knife for video
Recognising people across scenes, emotional analysis, AI tooling for Warner → HBO Max, and a Google TV pilot — gesture and knowledge-card interaction, before X-ray was a thing.
- 2021
Acquired by Vimeo
I brokered the deal, ran the pilot to 70% conversion, then built the go-to-market — trained 200+, brought in Salesforce, connected Walmart, hit every target in nine months, not the two years projected. Then I left to be with my Dad through his cancer.
- 2022–24
selfmade
Stephanie's gen-z wellness brand, pivoting into technology — translating psychodermatology into everyday products that help people use the time and money they already spend to regulate emotion. Experiences in LA on Abbot Kinney.
- now
The real-time era
Using the AI wave to help people evolve past the machine-work — experiences that convert feeling into action in the moment — madeself, my human↔agent interface; agents that quietly do the job; sovereign systems that hand an operator their body and their week back.