Red Ninja: Tech design team consisting of data scientists, developers, hardware guys and designers.

They work with industry to design smart and sleek products.

Smart Transport – NWAS. How can we get people to A&E faster?

Making the traffic lights green. They spent time speaking to the ambulance service and the call centre people. What is it like to drive an ambulance. They filmed the ambulance and tried to understand their problems.

They decided the best way to solve the problem was by changing the lights to green when they needed to.

Little Moments

They designed a camera project to let parents see their premature children from home. (Little moments). This was supported by Alder Hay.

Kitchen Sense

With the Welsh NHS they are working on Kitchen Sense

It analyses patterns of use using wearables to try and help people with neurological recovery.

Light Touch

They worked with Walton hospital to build a fall prevention sensor.

This connects to a traffic light box outside the bathroom.

In Hand

Mindfulness technology to distract teenagers when they are feeling depressed. CAMHS services are now recommending this as an alternative to traditional techniques.

They were paid by google to do some work in India. Project Loon. Solution to try and get internet to remote villages in India. They are creating the apps to improve people’s health in the villages. They are working with a healthcare chain in India to improve things there.

They have grown fast and scaled quickly. 3 years ago it was just Lee. Momentum will get you going. Where they felt they didn’t excel was HR, Finance and systems development. It’s really boring but you have to do it.

 

The prior failures:

Prior to this he had two other startups. The first one took investment for an app. It failed because they gave away control of the company. They were unable to pay the salaries and the company was shut down. He had to pay them back over a 2 year period and he became poor for 2 years. He had to work, beg and borrow to do it.

Second startup was another app company. Was done with a cofounder from an ad agency background. There was co-founder tension because the vision was not the same. Ended in divorce. It had the glamour but it was soul-less. His background was in human rights. Had to leave it with nothing. This company eventually got sold to another company but it wasn’t right for him. Lesson – pick your cofounders carefully and keep talking to them.

Red Ninja:

Listen, Think, Do. Prototype something and keep iterating.

Use your network of peers, learn, learn, learn. Use the collegiate vanguard you have to build and grow. Most of his employees came from the voluntary sector initially and then as time went on he linked into the startup ecosystem and found good people that way. Meetup / Cofounders lab.

You have to take the jump. People want to work with YOU! It involves a collaborative approach .