Life is a party, but you have to hang up the decorations yourself.
Dr Ernst Van Duijn is the founder and CEO of Swhere Limited. Swhere develops artificial intelligence solutions that help companies to analyse and derive value from large quantities of customer and asset data.
Tell us about your business…
My business is now almost a year old. I work alongside Professors from Oxford, Cambridge and Amsterdam. Our business is to look at ways to develop and apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the business world. They are the brains – the scientists, and I provide the link with the business world. We work best with companies that generate huge amounts of data. For example banks and energy companies – our machines are able to process customer and customer contact data and use it to predict which customers are most likely to buy a service, leave, or to get into debt. We deliver these companies lots of bottom-line benefits in this way.
The moment that ignited the spark in me start a business was…
After I completed my PhD, I worked in the telecom and media sector for over 15 years as a management consultant, before working in the utility sector for 3 years as a strategy director. During this time I noticed lots of opportunities to use customer and asset data to add value to businesses – and there didn’t seem to be a real player in the market that was successfully doing this.
I spoke with a university friend in the Netherlands who is now a Professor in Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence, we joined a prediction competition against established global players and by our surprise we won. I said; “I think there is something here – this is a business”, and that is how it started. I think I must have been having a mid-life crisis, I thought: this is it, it’s now or never. I was tired of muddling along and doing what the masses do, the timing felt right, so we started the business.
The thing that’s most surprised me since I made that move is…
Our work is the perfect combination of my two passions: science and business. I love working with scientists again. It never fails to surprise me how uncompromising scientists are in their desire for quality. I don’t need to push them, to ask them twice about trying alternative options to make things better. In fact, I need to stop them! If I say at 10pm, “ok guys, this is a really good solution”, then I’ll still get emails at 3am saying “we’ve carried on and tried this out as well -it’s even better!” It’s very refreshing, to work with people who have a genuine love for truth and for quality, rather than for the money as the main drive.
The toughest challenge I’ve faced is…
One of the toughest challenges is to keep focused. There are so many things we could dive into, so many paths our business could take us down, and one of the challenges for running a business like this is asking; where are our resources best placed? My resources are limited as a start-up, and I need to help my team to prioritise. We have to play to our strengths. Our focus has been UK first, as most of our scientists are based here, though we may expand into the Middle East this summer. I see part of my role as keeping that focus on where our strengths are, because as a team we bring a real combination of academic and business experience to the table. There are lots of ways that we will expand; it’s a question of priority and timing.
My biggest success has been…
My success is very simple: I’m incredibly proud to have brought together an amazing team of top scientists to work with. We now have roughly 30 scientists. There are three Professors and the rest are Post Docs and PhD students.
I’m very good at…
I see my strength as being able to identify business opportunities, and delivering on those. So not only identifying high level opportunities, but also delivering concrete benefits to a business’ bottom line.
he type of person I look to recruit into my organisation is…
Someone who would like to build something fun, rewarding, and very cool to be part of. Of course any business needs to be profitable, but it also needs to be a fun place to work, and rewarding for everyone.
The part of my day I most look forward to is…
My morning coffee time! It’s when most ideas pop up, and then again at tea time in the evening when I reflect on the day with my wife.
If I could give my 18-year old self one piece of advice it would be…
Listen to your gut feeling, it can always be trusted.
Outside of work I can be found…
On my bicycle or in a lake swimming. I love to swim in open water.
My philosophy on life is…
Life is a party, but you have to hang up the decorations yourself. My party is full and bright right now.
If I was asking the questions, I would want to know…
I’d ask any entrepreneur what they would like to be remembered as. Without getting too philosophical, I think in this part of the world we underestimate the value of every day. We take so many things for granted, and it is important for us to consider how special they are, and to enjoy the little things in life that happen every day, made by us. There is nothing more fascinating than getting an insight and an understanding of the stories of others and how they aim to build great memories.
What do you think of Ignition Law?
I was introduced to Ignition Law because one of the Partners used to be my lawyer – these are people who are not only very competent lawyers, but also people that have become good friends. That’s why I keep on using them. We don’t just talk about legal issues, we also talk about lifestyle. We have things in common. They are real people. That’s important to me.
