Tom Laws & Richard Fraser-Smith: £12M revenue fire safety company now vibe coding

AI isn’t just for big tech. Tom Laws and Richard Fraser-Smith are proof that small businesses can use AI to remove bottlenecks and build practical internal tools without technical teams.In this episode of Unsung, Will Maunder-Taylor speaks with Tom, now Division Director (Fire Safety) at Cardo Group, and Richard, now Digital Transformation and Survey Director at Cardo Group. Gunfire, a specialist provider of passive fire protection services, scaled into a £12 million revenue business before being acquired by Cardo Group earlier this year. Tom led the growth of the business, while Richard drove digital transformation initiatives despite having no coding background. They discuss practical AI adoption inside a compliance-heavy construction business.Key highlightsBuilding internal AI tools without developers or engineering teamsReducing operational bottlenecks and fragmented email workflowsReplacing expensive SaaS tools with lightweight internal systemsUsing AI to scale without proportionally increasing overheadWhy small businesses may move faster than larger corporates adopting AITimestamps(00:00) Introduction(02:20) Operational complexity inside compliance-heavy construction(05:10) Existing tech stack and identifying bottlenecks(08:00) First AI experiments and discovering practical use cases(11:10) Watching AI turn spreadsheets into usable applications(12:00) Building the handover generator and automating workflows(16:00) “Vibe coding” and building software without technical skills(29:00) The future of AI for SMEs and scaling without adding overheadFor more on entrepreneurship through acquisition, small business ownership and Unsung events, subscribe to the Unsung newsletter: https://unsungpaths.com/