Malcolm Leach

I do love a good stat. Of the 654,000 interactions on our live platform last week, 40,800 were over our API. If your supplier doesn't offer open APIs included in the base product, and you're thinking "meh maybe we don't need em" then you are stuck in legacy la la land. API's bring the efficiency and interaction products need in a modern adaptive platform. That 1992 CSV FTP Ping Pong you are pretending works fine will bite you on the behind one day. If you'd like to learn more about how Rubixx interacts with third party systems, slide in my DMs or ask one of our clients who used to have whatever you have now.

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Bit of a business and fund raising update....(for those that care) 😂 So, as we enter Q4 (How did that happen by the way) The Hub is flying and the positivity and developments just keep on coming. The partnerships with ScalaCode & Shift ONE Digital are in full flow and we are fully integrated and working in complete harmony and unison, which is great to see, with new campaigns and products and features being released at speed, which is such a breath of fresh air. As we enter the 4th quarter, we have revised our pricing to cater for the masses and to make our services more affordable and accessible to all. So, now, we have the follow pricing models available: 👉Forever Free 👉$1 - 48hr Trial 👉$9.99 Per month Premium 👉$24.99 for 3 months Premium 👉$49.99 for 6 months Premium This change had given more people the support they require, whilst also giving them the opportunity to get hired quicker and easier. Price should never be a barrier and now we are able to service everyone around the world, regardless of circumstance. We are soon also going to be releasing our Job Board, where we will be promoting jobs from our Partners and 3rd Party organisations, to give our members more opportunity to search jobs and also utilise our tools and features on one platform. With these changes, we are expecting to see a huge increase in member traffic to our platform, with projections looking at 300k-500k job searchers a month, which makes us one of the fastest growing Job Search platforms globally. For our investors, this means a big increase in revenue, but also opportunity to create B2B streams, given the member size and audience we have created, alongside advertising and partnerships. So investment and fund raising is still flying and we are closing our Seed round, with some great investors on board and £1m raised in total. We are already 4 x what our Pre Seed investors initially put in and we anticipate this continuing to grow, with projections looking at 20 x from Seed in 3 years. Our objective is to become the No.1 Job Search Support Platform on the planet, helping Job Searchers all over the world and building an ecosystem that provides everything Job Searchers need to get a job, survive and thrive. We are going to continue to build, continue to develop and continue to Innovate and ultimately get as many people hired as we possibly can. Thank you all who have contributed and keep watching this space for our world domination😂 Mahabir P. Dylan Kohlstädt Stacey Wood Amy R. Jack Graves #job #jobs #jobsearch #hiring #Recruitment #opentowork

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Scaling tech teams seems easy – just add more people 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 In reality, it's much harder than that 😥 It's easy to end up in a situation where more people produce the same output that fewer people produced before as efficiency goes down 📉 – we listed some key points to be aware of to ensure output grows proportionally with team size

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Edinburgh-based Computer Application Services Ltd (CAS) has secured an additional £500,000 equity investment to boost growth.   The company is increasingly referred to by its product name, Workpro, a software system for managing customer complaints and HR casework. Organic growth is providing a 20% uplift this year but, with the market quickly opening up to the benefits of using this software, it’s time to pick up the pace.  Managing workload is just part of the solution - Workpro ensures compliance with procedures which, if not observed, too easily lead to pain and penalties.  Insightful reports let users see where they are “attracting trouble” so that prevention of future issues becomes part of the package.   Maintaining a digital presence – being easily found when people come searching is an obvious must for the marketing team, a never ending task in a busy online world. The new investment will fuel more proactive activities to reach out to target audiences, some of whom don’t yet realise how readily the task of juggling cases and causes can be streamlined and supported by UK developed software. Workpro has all the right data security credentials to pass muster with government and corporate governance.       CAS employees own around half of the company through a combination of direct shareholdings, the Employee Benefit Trust and a monthly share-save scheme. External investors hold the other half – Capital for Colleagues who specifically support employee-ownership, and, more recently, two additional private investors.    CAS CEO Ken Naismith comments, “While CAS and Workpro are obviously good horses for investors to back, we do not take for granted what terrific support has been made available to us when so many businesses are worried about the future. Consumer complaints and employee relations issues are only going to rise as organisations meet 2025’s challenges. Workpro makes light work of heavy caseload and provides essential insights into issues arising from customers and colleagues.”

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On the 30th of October GPlates Software Development had its 21st birthday. The first public version of GPlates was released exactly 21 years ago, with development led by the legendary James Boyden, who had teamed up with the no less legendary Hamish Ivey-Law who unfortunately could not join us at the Opera Bar for the birthday celebration. Hamish, we missed you, but we enjoyed the story recounted by James on your cunning and successful plan to both get hired as a team at the time! Enoch Lau also joined the early GPlates team and is credited with developing the initial GPlates python extension. Many years later we were fortunate for GPlates to be picked up for support by AuScope, which allowed us to develop GPlates and its sister python libraries pyGPlates and GPlately into mature and stable software, led by John Cannon and Michael Chin, not to mention the GPlates Portal, GPlates web services and the GPlates App. Many others made contributions along the way, especially Mike Gurnis and Mark Turner at Caltech, Trond Torsvik, Robin Watson and Carmen Gaina at NGU and the Univ Oslo, Ben Mather who initiated the development of GPlately, Mike Tetley who took the lead in developing Plate Tectonic Tools (now part of GPlately) and Adam Kocsis who led the development of rgplates. In addition there are numerous contributors to GPlates plate model development, particularly Maria Seton, Sabin Zahirovic, Simon Williams, Joanne Whittaker, Nicky Wright, Andrew Merdith, Xianzhi Cao, Edward Clennett, Alan Collins, Sergei Pisarevskiy , Nicolas Flament, Grace Shephard Derrick Hasterok, Sanzhong Li, Sheree Armistead, Morgan Blades, Jacob Mulder, Dan Bower, Christian Heine, Eline Le Breton, Shaofeng Liu, Samuel Russell, Ting Yang, Alex Young, Stuart Clark, Yatheesh Vadakkeyakath and Jonathon Leonard. There are many more who have been involved in plate model development and their application – all the ~1900 publications where their work is documented are listed on the GPlates web page https://lnkd.in/gid4gcsj Thanks, Tim Rawling and AuScope for your continuing support. Without AuScope, we wouldn't be here! #auscopeimpact #ncris #ncrisenabled #platetectonics #geology #geophysics #exploration #openscience #opensource

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There was so much more to say about last week's funding announcement than we could fit into a blog, to really express our vision at Tessl to deliver an AI Native Development platform - so I recorded a special podcast episode about it, with Ben Galbraith and Simon Maple. We had a great discussion around: - What is AI Native Development and how does it redefine the traditional software development workflows? - What distinguishes Tessl's approach to AI Native Development from existing AI-powered tools? - Insights into a spec-driven, pluggable, and open ecosystem model - What role do LLMs play in filling gaps in specifications, and how does Tessl address challenges like validation and randomness in AI-generated code? - How does Tessl's platform approach spec generation, decomposition, and system validation? - What are the goals and timelines for Tessl's product release?  👉 Full Episode: https://tessl.co/4fvfXJ4  🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://tessl.co/4fYeuem 🎙 Spotify: https://tessl.co/48XGDjk #AINative #Tessl #SpecCentric #Funding #AINativeDev

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I'm thrilled to share fantastic feedback we've received from our potential partners. It highlights how Agilebase is making an impact SMEs Andy Garner is the co-founder of Elastic Mint, a Bristol-based software development consultancy. He raved about Agilebase. “Agilebase listened to us and never rushed us into doing things. They were responsive, looking for a long-term relationship, not just quick money. Their approach makes them perfect for SMEs," he said. Andy first encountered Agilebase at an AI event in Bristol. He said he found our training sessions helpful. He thinks SMEs can use Agilebase to transition from spreadsheets to powerful data-driven apps. “As a tool, Agilebase is powerful. It’s amazing for SMEs for whom bespoke software isn’t an option. But with Agilebase, it becomes an option,” Andy said. Simon Sleight, Director at Dixi Data, appraised Agilebase's sophisticated architecture and robust data management capabilities. “It’s more sophisticated than we expected, yet transparent to the user,” said Simon. He valued the support offered by Agilebase during initial implementations. He said Agilebase stays with you every step of the way. Both Andy and Simon appreciate Agilebase’s partnership-oriented approach. Agilebase focuses on long-term success and strong support. At Agilebase, we're proud to offer bespoke software within reach for SMEs and help them smoothly undergo digital transformation. #Agilebase #SMEs #DigitalTransformation #BespokeSoftware #NoCodePlatform #CustomerSuccess #PartnershipApproach #DataManagement https://lnkd.in/gmnn5WYa

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Upskill Fast with Our Frunded Short Courses We’ve got two short courses starting next week 👉 Intro to Web Development 👉 Agile Project Management —and a whole range launching in January These are hands-on, practical courses designed to give you maximum impact for minimal time - just two sessions a week over four weeks. Perfect for anyone looking to: 1. Take on more responsibility at work. 2. Build confidence with new skills. 3. Move your career forward - quickly and effectively. 💡 Bonus Round - these courses are: - Taught by industry pros who know what works. - Designed for busy professionals - delivering the essentials without dragging it out. And this is just the start. From data analytics to team building, UX, and web accessibility, there’s a load of other courses starting in January but recruiting NOW Places are limited, and funding ends in March, so don’t miss your chance to get involved. https://lnkd.in/eMpSzp2g

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"How are you finding the market at the moment?" This is a question I get a lot when meeting new and existing connections, as the last 18 months has probably been the toughest market I've observed since 2007. Much like the weather we're experiencing at the moment, things are starting to brighten up and the warm temperatures are helping things thaw. So, what am I noticing that allows me to be so positive (I mean, I'm always positive!)? Funds I work with have raised new funding, or are in the process of raising new funding. This means that investments are being made, which in turn creates opportunities for things like due diligence and advisory. Businesses that I work with and are part of are raising new monies to enable them to go faster, which of course means new people to help them do that, which makes for a much more buoyant economy. I'm noticing a lot of inbound leads from personal recommendations and requests for a coffee to talk through a potential engagement (circa 2-3 a week at the moment, which is up from 1 a month before the turn of the year). These are just some of my observations, how are you finding the market these days? 💡 Happy hunting. ❤️ #fractional #cto #observations #experience

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I’ve been working with Carwow on their first Gen AI feature since late November last year. I’m pleased to now share the fruits of that labour, Ask Mat (https://lnkd.in/eSNwheEW). It has been a wonderful (and fun!) project. We kicked off by prototyping - in close collaboration with two of the founders (James Hind, David Santoro) and a few key engineering leaders at Carwow. When we got something that felt like it had legs, we then moved into a more traditional design, build, and learn process. Once we saw it performing well enough internally, we shifted our focus to commercial launch planning. At the same time, we worked on building monitoring systems and planning the handover and upskilling of the Carwow team. Unlike an agency, I’ve been able to work closely with their own tech team and stack, creating something that is fully integrated into their internal systems and ready for them to take over and build on - Carwow being a Rails shop definitely helped move fast here. As it’s all built within their internal systems, a key success measure of the project is that it can be an example internally for others at Carwow to use as they consider new LLM features. I’ve worked closely with people across the tech org to provide support and training to the team so that they can understand and extend Ask Mat - with a brand and content library as strong as Carwow’s, there’s a lot to explore. There’s a lot that goes into planning, building and launching consumer-facing LLM products. Shockingly, I have a few more thoughts on this; watch this space. It’s been great to work with this ambitious company and help them bring this to life. If anyone’s interested in similar projects, please get in touch!

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How custom software transformed a client's bottom line ✨ Last year, we started working with a high growth business in the North West who came to us with a long list of tech problems. They were juggling: 🥲 8 different software subscriptions 🥲 178K in annual license fees 🥲 3 full-time staff just managing data between systems 🥲 Hours lost to manual data entry 🥲 Countless integration headaches 🥲 Enormous team stress and tech disassisfaction The Solution? We built them ONE bespoke system - with one API link to a platform that was crucial to their business. The Results (Annual): ✌️License costs: Cut by 85% ✌️ Process efficiency: Up by 70% ✌️ Data accuracy: Near 100% ✌️ Manual entry: Eliminated ✌️ Staff redeployed to growth activities Key Benefits: 👏 Single source of truth for all data 👏 Automated workflows that actually match their process 👏 No more paying for features they never use 👏 More control over their digital infrastructure 👏 Integrations that work seamlessly 👏 Updates that align with their needs Sometimes the "cheaper" off-the-shelf solution is actually bleeding your business dry with hidden costs 👀 Considering a tech overhaul? Let's talk about turning your software expenses into investments. #ROI #businessefficiency #customsoftware

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How your service will look like in 10 years? It's a question I ask every time I create a piece of software And it works on all levels 🏢 Organisation 💻 System as a whole 📁 A Class within application Is it for premature optimisation It's not that When you plan your holidays you start with destination Not with leaving the house ❌ You won't take swimsuit for skiing ❌ You won't take flip-flops for hiking in mountains Yet we do this designing software We're so focused on movement We forget the direction How can you avoid that mistake? ✅ Think before you start making changes 👉 Ask yourself the 10 years question 👉 Ask yourself how clients will use your code       → Both internally and externally 👉 Gather your peers and ask their opinion Then armed with knowledge implement the solution You'll be surprised how different decisions you make Even more how easy your systems will be to change Because all the cost lays in maintenance Not in the creation A day of thinking will save you years of development.

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I've been working with Moverly recently and their incredible team including Gemma Young and Ed Molyneux to add my AI and tech experience as a relatively small cog in the incredible tech that they're creating. And, as this piece from Gemma Young shows, the technology (as brilliant as it is) can only get us so far. Meaningful, legislative change is also required to drag property transactions kicking and screaming into the 21st century. There is so much that can be achieved here! #proptech #ai #govtech

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I didn't win, but am incredibly pleased to have been shortlisted for CTO of the year! Some great DLG teams were also shortlisted for other awards. ...So now I am going for the longest I didn't win speech in history 🙂 ... maybe there is an award for that :) https://lnkd.in/e4kN5Q6R To win or lose anything is a learning experience, as is every decision, challenge or context; practical outcomes can only be generated with great leadership Direct Line Group and a willing team centered around a solid purpose. Customers matter, both the external market that choose us to help smooth out the waves of life; and our internal customers who rely on technology to support those efforts. In that way we win every day, we MUST so that we can serve the people to the right and left of us and support those who buy our products. Technology, year by year, plays a bigger role in helping to deliver business outcomes. AI, XR, and Quantum buzzword technologies are all unfolding before us; some further ahead than others. AI will play a pivital role in the future but require a "digital scalpel' to obtain value and not noise. We have yet to truly understand the changes technology will make to our lives; both our ability to achieve even more than is possible today but also how to protect ourselves from a negative use of the technology by others. I have been fortunate to be alive for a number of technology shifts; there is much noise, and then an understanding of the real value over time as we find more appropriate solutions for real world problems faced by us as humans in our day to day lives. One thing that is clear to me is that Equity is important and we must actually solve problems and bring people on the journey whatever their skill, background, gender or race. Thankfully my leadership team Nic Whittakerer Julius Hackett David Sutton Chris Rose David McIntyre along with the whole architecture team are dedicated to delivering the right solutions for both today's issues and the futures potential. Thanks also to Rachael Holt as without support I would never get to the right meetings :) Obviously thanks also to my suffering wife Helen Speck AFHEA who still puts up with me... I think that made a reasonable effort toward the longest I didn't win speech.. Well done to the other teams as well BIJITH NARIKKUNI swathi penumudi Sridevika Mariappan Suganthavalli Jessica Bouchier Bryony Dickson Lorraine Hall Andrew Morrell

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Devin CEO shares his provocative vision for the future of software development. A view I wouldn’t have believed 30 days ago…. What changed? "I think there's actually going to be way more software engineers, not fewer... but also I think the kind of job we'll be doing as engineers day-to-day is going to change… where it'll be more like being halfway between a product manager and a technical architect." What seemed futuristic a month ago now mirrors my recent experience in building with #Cursor, #Claude, #Replit and #V0. The future is more 'guide' than 'coder'. Key interview insights: 1. 🤖 Agent Coding Economics: AI agents as collaborative partners in the development process fundamentally changes the economic approach to software creation. - Cheaper, faster, and infinitely available code generation increases how many projects a company can tackle at once. - Lower hurdles on scalability and reusability to justify coding investment = more bespoke code tackling very specific or transient problems. These tiny gains compound. - Expect a Cambrian explosion of 5 to 10 person profitable, highly verticalized SaaS companies. "The #Toast of XYZ niche sub market" 2. 🧠 Evolving Skill Set: Developers need to pivot their focus from writing every line of code to: - Breaking down complex problems - Designing robust system architectures and anticipating edge cases - Crafting precise instructions for AI agents 3. 📊 Product Management Integration: The line between developer and product manager is blurring. Future developers will need to: - Deeply understand user needs - Translate business requirements into technical solutions - Prioritize features based on both technical feasibility and user value What are your thoughts on these predictions? Are you experiencing these shifts in your work? Link to full video here in comments. #FutureOfCoding #AIAgents #SoftwareDevelopment

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🌟 If your first step to building an Internal Developer Portal is selecting the tech, then you are doing it wrong! 🤔 🚀 A new platform YouTube Short just dropped looking into what to consider when building an Internal Developer Portal. I have seen many clients do this wrong by focusing on the technology first, building it out and then expecting everyone to flock. What they lack is the why are you building this and what problem/use cases are we trying to solve and how can we measure this. In my honest opinion they should be following these steps: 👩‍🎓 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁: This can be done using a framework like SPACE: https://lnkd.in/eUpSziVy 👨‍💻 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵: There are many options out there but I think ones worth reviewing are Port IO and Backstage from Spotify 🔔 Stay Tuned for More! 🔔 Remember, we'll be releasing fresh tips every few days, so make sure you're subscribed to our channel to catch them all! 🔎 Looking for more Info? 📮 Make sure to check the description of the video on YouTube for links to docs, articles and information or DM me with any further questions 🔗 Watch the Latest Short & Subscribe NOW: https://lnkd.in/e6Cv6gwt Join our community and become a #platform master! #platform #kubernetes #k8s #platform30secondtips #quadcorps #weareintegration #platformmadeeasy #idp #devportal #portio #port #backstage

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Molly Macgregor and I are going to be out and about quite a bit more over the coming months (including London for several days next week) showing people Juralio and its newest, financial functionality. A few notes on what it's all about: - Juralio is software which has for a while now helped people to capture legal work as structured phases and tasks in ways that can be as layered, rigid or flexible as required. It's highly visual - work is presented as easy-to-understand maps. - You can also capture your maps as templates, to the level of detail required in your context. You can link this up at whatever level is useful to documents and other knowledge resources. This helps people to come across them naturally when engaging with the relevant work. It also makes their lives easier by making the latest process immediately available to them without having to read docs, flowcharts etc and figure it out for themselves. - Our design approach emphasises simplicity - 'minimum valuable structure' as it were. Just enough to enable people to see the forest as well as the trees but without becoming micro-managey (ick) and generally tedious. - And maps can be quickly built up by anyone, without the need for specialist training. Importantly, Juralio's maps aren't rule-based in the usual sense (which has a certain overhead and rigidity making it unsuitable outside 'volume' work and highly repeatable tasks) - Our financial functionality allows you to plan what work is going to take to deliver and apply different pricing models. Unlike a spreadsheet or purely financial tool, it's linked up effectively to how the work actually develops. - With this in place, you also have the basis for creating much better information for analysing what happened in matters so that you can reinforce success and deal with problems. The fact it's simple, structured and joined-up allows you to see that directly as well as giving you better data for analysis elsewhere. - A final thing to mention is that Juralio isn't about maximising positions for just one side (law firm or client) in the familiar rather adversarial way. It's about breaking away from that world, increasing meaningful collaboration and conversations about what needs to be done by whom and the financial implications of this, capturing it all conveniently and then keeping on top of it when things change materially. That can be a real win-win, reducing friction and improving financial and other outcomes for firms, clients and the individuals working for each, all the while helping with the sharing and improvement of knowledge of what's going on, and how to do things. We're mainly focused on UK medium and large law firms and legal departments at the moment. We've also recently announced a partnership with GUIRBADEN (Eric Eck) to promote Juralio's adoption by similar organisations in continental Europe. Please DM Molly, Eric or me if interested in discussing. Juralio website - https://www.juralio.com/

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“Britons lost roughly £459.7m to APP fraud last year, according to banking trade body UK Finance. However, some experts believe the true figure is likely closer to £700m as around a third of scams are estimated to go unreported”. As the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR) gets closer to implementation with new measures aimed at protecting those who have lost money to fraud, the industry seems to be fighting back, with dozens of firms lobbying for the PSR to delay or scale back its proposals. Why? Few firms are not ready for implementation, others state that the costs associated with becoming compliant will now have to be passed on to the end-customer, and likely destroy the viability of these same firms. Completely agree with Tide Bank’s Chief Executive, Dr. Oliver Prill comment (included in Lars Mucklejohn‘s piece) on the state of play for fintechs and why this has become an increasingly pertinent topic for those dealing with fraud. It’s a situation that, as always, needs a balance struck between regulators and fintechs – it’s clear that both sides want to protect consumers and businesses from fraud, however as ever, the solution is not as clear-cut as it may look from the outside. City AM have really been on the money reporting the recent go-ons within fintech, and it's a necessity not to forget how much this industry can do, and how much more still needs to be done, to really elevate the financial experience for UK citizens and small businesses. https://lnkd.in/dkyjmtin #fintech Ali Youssef Helene Panzarino

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