The Founder's Story

Four years ago, I stepped away from the SaaS business that my son and I had built over more than twenty years. Under my son's management, the business continues to grow significantly year on year without my involvement.

Now I'm ready for a new project, and I'm looking for some friends I've not yet met to join me.

For most of my working life, I had been building businesses, solving problems and creating opportunities. Retirement seemed like the reward for decades of hard work, so I immersed myself in another lifelong passioncollecting and restoring classic cars.

At first, it was everything I had hoped it would be. But gradually something changed. What had started as an enjoyable hobby slowly evolved into a full-time occupation and eventually almost a chore. I realised that while my time was occupied, my sense of purpose was not.

Then a chance conversation with a friend raised a simple question that stayed with me long after we had parted. It started a train of thought that I couldn't ignore. With the help of artificial intelligence to challenge, organise and develop my ideas, that conversation became the catalyst for what eventually became The Expertise Exchange (ExEx).

In many ways, I had pressed the "reset button" on my own retirement.

After four years in what I can only describe as "pause mode", I found myself excited againlearning, creating, questioning assumptions and building something that could make a genuine difference.

What began as a personal search for renewed purpose became something much bigger.

I realised that I was not unique. Millions of experienced people retire or change direction with decades of knowledge, judgement and wisdom still to offer. At the same time, businesses and organisations need precisely the experience that too often becomes unavailable when people leave full-time employment.

ExEx is my attempt to bring the two together. If it can give renewed purpose and opportunity to even a small proportion of those people, while helping businesses, entrepreneurs and communities benefit from their expertise, then it will have been a journey worth taking.

I see my role as ExEx's founder and architect. My objective is to develop the concept, test the market, establish the Blueprint and build the foundations upon which ExEx can grow.

The next stage will require a younger entrepreneurial leadership team with the energy, digital expertise and commercial drive to scale the platform nationally and, ultimately, internationally. My intention is to support that team for as long as I can add value, rather than become involved in day-to-day management.

I look forward to seeing ExEx become a successful and lasting enterprise, and to benefit financially from the modest shareholding I intend to retain.