The end of one chapter and the start of another

Although it never felt like a relentless pursuit I guess that’s what it was. A hugely enjoyable pursuit where we focused relentlessly and continuously on building value; value in the product for our customers and in how we operated as a company.

When I say ‘we’, I primarily mean the amazing team that we have built at Kairos. It is by no coincidence that Kairos really started to take off when Andrew and I got out of the way of some really amazing people. Amazing not so much because of their brilliant proficiency to carry out their role but because of their attitude, their desire to succeed, to learn, to question, to challenge, to understand our customers, to have humility that we are all unfinished and to work so brilliantly together. They are the single biggest reason why we have had the success we have had.

Special mention to Daniel Hendrie our brilliant CTO who had responsibility for building Kairos in a way that gave our customers significant value and which allowed us to evolve at a ridiculous pace, Conor Branson our Commercial Director who not only taught Andrew, I and the rest of the sales team how to sell but he put in the systems and process that allowed us to gain global customers at breakneck speed and Jonathan Morgan our Head of Customer Success who proved exceptional at building out extremely innovative systems and processes as well as an extraordinary team that allowed us to successfully onboard customers across the world at an scary rate while ensuring they were happy and listened to.

Over the relatively few years that we have existed the ‘we’ has been a spiders web of multiple people and organisations that have helped...

Many have been involved from day one, when all we had was an idea, such as John Turley and James MacMahon helping us navigate what was needed to get set up and going. Invest Northern Ireland & Techstart Ventures LLP have been two critical partners involved in our journey from the very start, believing in our concept, believing in us. They helped us prove the concept, helped us build an MVP and invest in R&D and more recently supported us as we went to market, showing off what was our first fresh logo.

Our shareholders were a fantastic group that believed in Andrew and I, and provided huge support and guidance which we soaked up. None less so than Michael Harding who was always their to give us a kick up the arse as well as an arm around the shoulder when needed, along with plenty of pragmatic thought and challenge.

Huge thanks to our our Chairperson Terry Moore and Board Member Mark McCusker who helped us level up time and time again. Terry and Mark embody how important it is for a startup to have a good, solid and supportive board, not just for the growth of the company but importantly for the development of its founders.

Back in those early days it was Andrew Fulton , Jordan Moore & Colin Young who had to try and work out what we were thinking and they brilliantly built out our initial MVP which made it all very real. Those were exciting times which involved many whiteboards, Figma Diagrams, table tennis, FIFA and the odd trip to some pretty decent Premier League training grounds.

Once we got that early iteration of Kairos out to market we knew we were onto something and quickly set about surrounding ourselves by people who could help take us to the next level. There are way too many to be able to mention but just a few to give a sense of what it takes to get a startup to this stage. Peter Connon and James MacMahon and their teams have kept us right with all things finance and accounting and have been so helpful, responsive and reliable - a true extension of our team. Organisations like Catalyst ran by Steve Orr , Ignite ran by Ian Browne and Chris McClelland and Techstars Sports Accelerator ran by Jordan F. and Andrew Hippert played a huge role in accelerating our growth. Not to mention the amazing folk at Ormeau Labs and the leadership of the brilliant and ever helpful Claire Halliday .

Our go to market efforts where supported by brilliant people from companies like Pale Blue Dot , U&US , Stylografik , DHD , David Cavan , Little Thunder Co , Jonathan Ireland and the team at Lanyon Group , Simon Austin of Training Ground Guru , Robert Pacey of Sportsmith and Harry Cripps at Leaders in Sport .

Vertical Structure were a critical partner under the leadership of Simon Whittaker and looked after all things security with Tom Shields helping us achieve and retain ISO27001 as well as many other things.

Sean O'Connor, Paul McKernan and many at STATSports, along with Brian Smith at GolfNow , who have pioneered in the world of Sports Tech in Northern Ireland, helped us learn quicker over the years. While looking over at our friends at TeamFeePay , Taka and Obbi Golf and being inspired and pushed in equal measure.

Many thanks to the multiple folk in our network who introduced us into sports teams and to everyone else who helped in any way including Diversity Mark , Workplus , Michael Quinn , Intertrade Ireland , John Kerr , MCS Group | Your Specialist Recruitment Consultancy , Louise Ogilvy , Matthew Thompson , Michael Budden , Nicola McCarthy and One-Zero .

There are a huge amount of people in various sports teams who believed in us, helped us evolve our product, encouraged us and looked out for us. You all know who you are - thank you!

As you can see with all the love, there are simply too many to mention who have been part of our 'we', but it would be remiss not to mention some of those involved very recently who allowed us to close out the acquisition in a ridiculous 4 weeks from signed LOI . David McCloy your understanding, advice and huge effort on the deal made the whole experience hugely enjoyable. A&L Goodbody LLP , especially Catherine Irvine and Claire McGurk alongside John Turley of Turley Legal were all phenomenal in keeping us right and getting through a mountain of work.

As part of our due diligence we visited the Teamworks Head Office in Durham, North Carolina and it didn't take long for us to be excited about the vision and the important role of Kairos in delivering on that. We got to meet quite a few of the Teamworks team, including Kyle Charters , Anna Resman , Hilary Lerner , Faryn Roy , Corey Richardson , Karla Anderson , James Hamblin , Kevin Lehman , Nick Lala , Sean Harrington , Sean Kelly and Zach Maurides , many of whom we battled head to head with over the past few years, and we were so warmly welcomed. We look forward to working alongside you all.

Hugely exciting times lie ahead working with our new colleagues as we continue to build the future of sports.

I have a log way yet to go but a huge thanks to all those who have played a part, guided, mentored and supported me personally. A particular mention to Kate Marshall and the tribe of amazing people that you brought together - you and these sepcial people played a key and consistent part in my personal and professional growth.

Andrew Trimble and I took on this journey together and with never an angry word to each other we challenged and debated and took the mick until we found our way through the multiple challenges and opportunities we faced. We levelled up individually and collectively over and over again. Professionally we are different people from that charity 5k where the journey started and to have spent the past few years by your side has been a true privilege - thank you Sham, very fortunate to have you have you as a friend!

A personal and heartfelt thank you to the most important bunch of people, my family and friends - especially my wife Lisa and our three children Katie, James and Thomas. Very little is achieved without sacrifice. I am aware of that, I think I got an ok balance, most of the time, but I will do better.

Life is full of chapters, this chapter has ended but another one begins!