How AI Built This

Ben McLoughlin is the Head of Data Science at Webuyanycar in Manchester.Armed with a PhD in Robotics & Computer Vision, Ben has quickly risen through the ranks to lead the considerable data science efforts at a UK household name in Webuyanycar. A fascinating conversation, where we discussed his career journey; some top tips for aspiring data scientists and his approach to building his own personal brand. I hope you enjoy! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Liam & Hannah are the Co-Founders (CEO & CTO respectively) of Frame, a data science consultancy and computer vision organisation based in West Yorkshire. Not only are the Co-Founders, but they're also partners, so we dived into that dynamic on the podcast and how they separate work from life - 'pub Thursdays' play a key part in this ... We also chatted about how their Computer Vision product can have a radical impact on organisations who are trying to sell their products online - with some great real world stories!This was a really fun one to record, hope you enjoy! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Rachel is the Head of Data Product, Insights & Data Science at Admiral Group and is our first guest who has spent their entire career at one employer - which is pretty awesome! A real life fan of the show as well, so it was very exciting to finally chat with Rachel about her career, approach to data and the amazing work going on at Admiral. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Megan is the Head of Data Science at the BBC in their Product Group. With a PhD in Maths from the University of Cambridge and an impressive data career in the world of media, I loved chatting to Megan about her journey. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, recruitment experts and Infer, the data analytics platform changing how analysts work forever.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Welcome back to How AI Built This, the show dedicated to data and entrepreneurial story telling. This episode I spoke to Ross Turner, The Chief Product Officer at Natural Language Generation specialists Arria. Ross is Berlin based, working remotely for a now global team at Arria, where they are at the cutting edge of NLG. We had a great chat about his journey, NLG, data in general and of course, some non-data related content, this time in the form of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, recruitment experts & Infer who are building the next generation of analytics. Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Jacopo is a prominent face in the world of MLOps, speaking at various events around the world and giving access to some amazing open source content - as he puts it, gaining karma points! From researching in Italy, to moving to the States and starting his own NLP company which was acquired in only a few years by Coveo - Jacopo has been on an incredible journey and his personality is infectious. You'll definitely learn something from this episode! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Fuzzy Labs & Cathcart Technology.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Josh is the Director of Retail & Consumer at Faculty, a Machine Learning consultancy who were born out of academia and have a really unique fellowship programme. With a varied background, starting with a Physics Degree, followed up by a few years in big consultancies, Josh ended up in the States as Director of Data at Red Bull, before heading home to start at Faculty. We had a great chat through his career, some of the choices he made along the way and of course, his thoughts on machine learning projects within the retail domain. A fun episode! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Fuzzy Labs, open source MLOps experts and Cathcart Technology, tech recruitment agency.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Massimo is a Data Science Manager at Bumble, where he and his team are responsible for getting machine learning into production and adding value to the business. With previous experience at a start-up, where Massimo identified the need for what we'd now call MLOps, he was in a unique position when he joined Bumble to implement some of this into an environment at a much larger scale. As an individual contributor, lead engineer and now manager, Massimo has some great thoughts on building successful teams and setting them up for success.A great chat - which finished on a story of flying to Berlin specifically for a burger.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Fuzzy Labs and Cathcart Technology.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Simon is an experienced MLOps practitioner who has worked for the Amazon of the Netherlands, a large consultancy group and now Transactie Monitoring Nederland (TMNL).With a wealth of experience across Machine Learning, Simon spotted the potential for MLOps whilst consulting and has been involved in this world ever since. He also spotted the potential in growing his personal brand, where using LinkedIn and blogs he has become a prominent voice in MLOps. Oh and on the side he gives back to the next generation through lecturing and teaching.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Fuzzy Labs and Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Ed is the Head of Developer Relations at Seldon and an open source enthusiast. Seldon are at the forefront of MLOps with several industry leading products, both in the open source community and enterprise world with their Core, Alibi and Deploy products. Ed joined Seldon to spearhead their open source offering through community building, events and essentially be at the heart of their open source user base. A really enjoyable chat with Ed - be sure to check him out on LinkedIn!

Hamza is the Co-Creator of ZenML the open-source MLOps framework for reproducible ML pipelines and production-ready Machine Learning.He & the team have created something pretty special and his story is really cool.We had a great chat about his passion for indie hacking; Arsenal; start-ups and how he ended up running an MLOps start-up in Germany. Hope you enjoy! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Regina is the Director of Research, Analytics & Data at TvSquared, an Edinburgh headquartered analytics who are the world’s largest measurement and attribution platform for converged TV.We had a great chat through Regina's academic background; career to date including working in a start-up; growing teams and her current role at TVSquared.Really enjoyed this one! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Technology, technology recruitment experts and Infer, a game changing analytics platform allowing data analysts to do advanced analytics all within SQL.Music by Noisyfilter from FugueShow produced and edited by the awesome team at Sound Media

Sarah is one of the pioneers of using data in football and spent 10 years working for StatDNA/Arsenal as their Head of Analytics. Recently she moved on to join Blue Crow Analytics as a VP, Sarah will still be focusing on using data in football/sport. A really interesting conversation around using data in football, issues with things like the rise of Expected Goals (xG), and clubs not making the most of data for transfers! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Abigail is the Chief Data Science Officer at Vertice Cloud, an Oracle Solutions Provider specialising in Oracle Cloud. Abigail works across their customer base helping them get value from Data Science & Analytics. We had a great chat about Abi's background; building teams and a fair amount on using data in grassroots football! Really enjoyed this one and I hope you enjoy as well!As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Leanne Fitzpatrick is back!If you haven't had a chance to listen to Leanne's data story before - go check out episode 15. Since that show, Leanne has moved on to be the Director of Data Science at the The Financial Times and I was keen to bring her back on for a chat about that move and the challenges of working in a much more established organisation. We also touched on being back in Manchester, the buzzing Manchester data community, going back to live events, speaking at events and everyone's favourite topic - MLOps. Always great speaking to Leanne!I hope you enjoy.As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Teodora is the Head of Data Science & Analytics at Saint Gobain UK and Ireland, where she leads a team of Data Scientists, Analysts and BI professionals. We had a great chat about studying in Budapest, then the States and eventually working her away up to leading a team of analytics professionals for one of the biggest companies in France. Teodora is also part of the women's network at Saint Gobain, trying to encourage a more diverse environment - which can be tricky working in technology (male dominated) and construction (very male dominated!) but Saint Gobain seem to be making good strides.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Catherine Wilks is a Director of Slalom, helping set up their Manchester Data Analytics Practice. An experienced Consultant, Catherine has a great insight into the world of customer facing data solutions.We had a good chat about her PhD background, working in Consulting and how she builds great data teams.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Heather is the Global Head of Data Science, Analytics & Visualisation at Specsavers managing a team of data scientists and analysts, and advising on best practise as well as Specsavers’ global data science strategy.We had a great chat, going through Heather's career & education, from her thoughts on the PhD experience, to working for start-ups, a massive cruise company, a small sports retailer and now a global opticians! Really enjoyed this one! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Wojtek is the Co-Founder of NannyML, a start-up whose product bridges the gap between business and AI in production, monitoring decisions made by ML systems, and ensuring they are stable and reliable.A Data Scientist by trade who built a successful consultancy firm, he is now building NannyML to help companies get the maximum value out of their investment into AI. They have always been fully remote and are continuing to grow throughout the pandemic and have big plans for next year and beyond!I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Oguzhan is the Co-Founder and Head of AI at Top Data Science, a data science consultancy HQ'd in Finland. We had a great chat about his PhD experience, setting up a data science consultancy, the work they do and how they ended up being acquired very quickly! A fun chat and a good guy! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Eero is the CEO of Valohai - the last MLOps Platform you'll ever need to try! They provide Machine Learning Infrastructure as a Service - helping companies solve the challenge of MLOps in one easy to use platform - all whilst having lots of fun.A Finnish native who has been shaped by the US start-up scene and was a lot of fun to talk to!I hope you enjoy.As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Niels is the CEO and Founder of Sprout.ai an insurance technology company using AI to help automate the claims process as well as identifying potentially fraudulent claims for some of the biggest insurance companies in the world.Sprout came about after a personal experience of using an insurance company and realising their was a problem that he could potentially fix. After successfully raising money, growing a great team and working with some of the industries biggest names - Niels & the team are growing from strength to strength. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Sanjay is the Head of Products and R&D at Transwap a fintech who have recently set up shop in Edinburgh with a brand new R&D hub. We had a great chat about how he has turned his passion for AI from a hobby into a career, which is pretty inspiring! Transwap are super interesting and it's cool to see them set up in Edinburgh for their R&D hub. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Chris is the Lead Product Manager at Manchester AI phenomenon Peak. A Data Scientist by trade and someone with a super interesting background and journey into data, it was great to chat to Chris. We also chatted about Peak's upcoming one day data conference, AltitudeX which is being held in Manchester on November 4th - check it out www.altitudex.live or get in touch with me for more information.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates. And for this episode we are sponsored by Peak and their data conference AltitudeXMusic by Noisyfilter from Fugue

John is the newly appointed CEO of Edinburgh headquartered Data Analytics start-up Forth Point, focusing on helping organisations realise the potential of industry 4.0Using his experience of setting up Aquila Insight, growing the team and company all the way to acquisition by Merkle, John is excited to jump back into start-up world and do something awesome! We chatted about everything from his early days as a Data Scientist to setting up Aquila Insight, lessons learned and his thoughts on recruitment. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Rich is the CEO of Gigged.AI, a new platform using Artificial Intelligence to help people take advantage of the 'Gig Economy'. After a varied career in Sales, including a hugely successful stint at a multi-national Recruitment Agency, Rich was burnt out. He decided to take a break from everything and even dedicated a few months to training for an amateur MMA fight! After some time to process everything and realising a side gig he had started whilst at Gartner had the potential to be something bigger, he and his Co-Founder went for it! A great chat with a very interesting guy. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Matt is the Head of Data Science at Manchester based scale-up Netacea! I've known Matt for a long time so was buzzing to get him on the show.He's experienced both sides of being recruited into data and hiring his own team so was a great person to have on. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Brian is the CEO of Mind Foundry, an AI start-up which spun out of Oxford University and was founded by two pioneers of the AI and Machine Learning world. Brian was brought in as CEO following a successful journey as an entrepreneur in his own right and is now part of the team building something pretty special. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Andre Franca is the Director of Applied Data Science at causaLens who are on a mission to develop Causal AI. Causality is a major step towards developing true AI.We had a great chat about his Academic background, his move into the world of investment banking and why he decided to join the rapidly growing causaLens. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Tony Lucas is a serial entrepreneur and recently appointed Head of CWM Tools at Supermetrics, a Scandinavian scale-up who are potentially one of the best kept secrets in tech. Tony has founded and sold several businesses, including an AI start-up to a multi-billion dollar American software firm, so I was buzzing to sit down with him and pick his brains. We had a great chat, with lots of brilliant stories! I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Erik is back! Go have a listen to episode three if you missed it to find out all about Erik's career and background in data. This episode we dive into a few different topics, namely MLOps, Data Visualisation in Data Science and team structure. Erik and I have been organising MancML together since late 2016 so it's always a pleasure to have him on the show! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Hannah is the Head of Operations at The Oakland Group, a Consultancy HQ'd in Leeds specialising in delivering large scale data solutions for clients across the country. Coming from a technical background, Hannah has worked in a number of Product and Project Management roles, where her ability to speak to technical people and business people has been a huge benefit. Currently heading up a number of projects for Oakland, Hannah is a great example of the kind of person you need in your business if your technical projects are to thrive.Oh and she happens to be a Karate Black Belt and has represented England - so good luck saying no to her ... As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Heather is the Head of Data at UST, a global provider of digital technology, transformation and IT services.With a long career in Data, Heather has been involved in building data teams for the NHS, insurance companies and now UST to help deliver data solutions for their clients. It was great to chat to Heather about her background, career and the new challenge she recently took up at UST. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Adam Sroka is back! Adam joined me in the second ever episode of How AI Built This so to head more about his journey into data go check that out.This episode is more focused on a recent blog post Adam did on how to stand out as a Data Scientist in 2021, which we go into in more detail. A great guy who has recently moved role which we touch on and a few other bits and pieces. Buzzing he wanted to come back on and as usual, we had a great chat.I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Ben is the CEO of Lancaster based Relative Insight, an analytics company working with some of the world's biggest companies to help them better understand anything to do with language. A tricky field to navigate, but Ben and the team have been perfecting this for many years now and are probably one of the biggest unsung heroes in the much heralded North West tech world.Hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Greig is the Head of Data Science for Data Innovation at NatWest Group. With a strong academic background and real appreciation for collaboration, Greig has built a solid team within the bank and is working on some really interesting data projects.We talked about his background in Physics, academia, starting out in financial services to what he's building now and how he goes about hiring.Hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Rob is the Head of Engineering at ADLINK in Newcastle, a really interesting organisation building some great software and hardware products around IoT devices. They have some super innovative projects around smart warehousing and on the edge products, with Rob and his team at the heart of it.During lockdown Rob also re-discovered his love of hands on programming and keeping his skills sharp. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Andrew is the Founder of Analytics-Link a Consultancy focused on Data Science Education and Coaching. A Data Scientist with an impressive career including work for Amazon and recently on Sony and their PS5 launch, Andrew knows a thing or two about data. He has made it his mission through his Data Science Infinity programme to help people get the job they want in data. In this episode we talk through how you stand out in the world of data, the career paths you can go down and some of the simple techniques he'd recommend. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Steven Faull is part of the Technology Leadership team at William Grant & Sons and a bit of a veteran of the Scottish data & tech world. He's a huge proponent for the value data and analytics can add to an organisation, successfully implementing a data strategy at Aggreko and being a real champion for data at William Grant & Sons. Steven is a great example of someone who understands how to marry the potential of data with the needs of a business. I hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Tadas is the CEO and Founder or Prodsight, a customer insight product helping you understand customer feedback across all channels, from support tickets to reviews.Using NLP techniques and sentiment analysis, Tadas and the team have built a really interesting product, with big plans for 2021. As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Gil is the VP of Product at Israeli AI start-up Edgify. They are doing something pretty novel, developing an approach to training models directly onto the edge devices, which is super exciting.Their first use case is within supermarkets and barcodeless items - which is handy with Gil's background being quite retailed focused. Excited to see how Gil & the team get on next year and beyond. Hope you enjoy! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Phil is the Head of Data at Street Group, a Manchester based tech start-up looking to change the way the property market works.They have recently launched a brand new product, which is underpinned by data and Phil, alongside his team are solving some pretty cool problems!He's also a great guy, very forward thinking when it comes to hiring, coaching and just generally around technology.I hope you enjoy!As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Zandra is the CEO of Panintelligence, a Leeds based SaaS company helping companies embed BI, Reporting and Predictive Analytics in one. Coming from a Sales background, Zandra has had a really interesting career and has helped shape Panintelligence to being a genuine competitor to the likes of PowerBI and Tableau! We had a great chat and it's always good to see companies in Leeds doing so well on a global scale. As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Kaylea is a talented, Manchester based (but importantly, Scottish) Data Scientist. Having spent time working with Peak in Manchester as one of their early Data Scientists and recently moving to Residently, a start-up trying to disrupt the renting market, she has some really interesting experience. We delve into her academic background, working for start-ups and the weird situation of starting a role mid-Covid! As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Paul is the Head of Analytics at Edinburgh based Forecast, a data analytics company working to help clients make the most of their data. Paul has a great story and was a lot of fun to talk to! The team have grown exponentially in the time he's been with them and continue to do so - which is great to see in these weird times. As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Our first ever highlight show!Have a listen to some of the best bits of the show so far about building teams and how to go about it, from some of the most informed people in the UK.Featuring:Richard Potter, CEO @ PeakErik Mathiesen-Dreyfus, Head of Data Science @ AttestCraig Mackay, CEO @ SharktowerAlastair Andrew, CEO DayshapeAndrew Hathaway, CTO @ HarkTom Liptrot, Data Science Consultant @ OrtomLeanne Fitzpatrick, Data Science Manager @ Talk TalkAs always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Vicky is the VP of Analytics at Merkle Aquila in Edinburgh and has been with the company since they were a small start-up to now being a real analytics powerhouse in the UK. Having worked for a big consultancy and a large bank, going to a start-up was quite risky, we had a great chat about why Aquila Insight was right for Vicky and the journey that followed. As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Anna Sutton is the CEO of Leeds based Data Analytics company The Data Shed, which she runs with her husband Ed. The Data Shed was born through shared frustrations of data not being readily available for key decision makers in businesses, they have went from strength to strength over the years. Heavily involved in championing the Leeds tech community, Anna and her team are at the forefront of so much good work in the Leeds data world.It was great to sit down and find out more about Anna's and The Data Shed's story. As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Rachael is the Research Software Community Manager at The University of Manchester and Software Sustainability Institute and Founder of the Manchester chapter of Her + Data MCR. A real champion for D&I in STEM subject, Rachael has been instrumental in the Manchester data scene for a number of years now.An Astrophysicist by trade, we had a great chat about doing a PhD in that world and what the current role involves. As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue

Tom is the Strategy Principle at Futurice, an international digital engineering and innovation company. They provide Consultancy work across technology and strategy, with Tom looking specifically at AI. They also have an R&D hub in their Finnish office where they are working on AI projects for internal use but also as proof of concept for future client work.As always, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Cathcart Associates.Music by Noisyfilter from Fugue