Building my Next Startup, Lorefully, in the Open
Starting a company is often shrouded in secrecy—pitch decks carefully guarded, decisions made behind closed doors, and ideas protected like state secrets. But for Lorefully, that approach felt counterproductive. After all, our mission is to help companies preserve, organise, and share their collective wisdom for sustainable growth. We’re particularly interested in individual capture - preserving and sharing knowledge, not hoarding it.
So, I’ve chosen to build Lorefully “in the open,” embracing transparency and inviting others into our journey.
A Philosophy of Openness
Openness isn’t just a gimmick for us; it’s a reflection of what we’re trying to achieve. Lorefully exists to capture and structure the knowledge that makes organisations tick—the ‘tribal’ know-how that’s too often lost when employees leave or teams grow. Sharing how we’re building our company aligns perfectly with this ethos: knowledge should be accessible, actionable, and, most importantly, sustainable.
By building in the open, we aim to:
Encourage feedback: Early input is invaluable. Whether it’s from customers, investors, or curious observers, fresh perspectives sharpen our thinking.
Create shared learning opportunities: The challenges we face and the lessons we learn might just help someone else—and that’s a win in our book.
Lessons from Aceleron
This isn’t my first time stepping into the arena. Before Lorefully, I co-founded Aceleron, a hardware business that was created to reduce the waste that lithium ion batteries generate. I often reflect on the things which I would do differently if I had the chance to do so again. Most of the challenges I faced were people related (see chart). It will be interesting to see if this remains the case with Lorefully.
Major Challenges Faced (2016-2023)
- People
- Customers
- Capitalisation
- Product
- Strategic
- People
- Customers
- Capitalisation
- Product
- Strategic
Exploring the Human Side of Entrepreneurship: The Ithaca Paradox
Entrepreneurship is a journey that’s as much about personal growth as it is about business. As you may know, I am writing a book titled “The Ithaca Paradox” which explores the tension between striving for a grand vision and staying present in the day-to-day grind. As a founder, you’re constantly balancing ambition with practicality, progress with patience. It’s about learning to celebrate small wins without losing sight of the bigger picture, and recognising that the journey itself is where much of the value lies.
The First Challenge: Forming a Co-Founding Team
Building a company starts with the people you bring into the fold. Choosing a co-founder isn’t just about complementary skills; it’s about shared values and aligned vision. For Lorefully, I looked for someone who could challenge my thinking without undermining the mission, someone who brought different strengths to the table but shared the same commitment to building something meaningful.
I am incredibly lucky to not just have one co-founder, but actually two: Barrie and Paul.
Dr Paul Jennings, our CTO, and I met way back in 2009 when I was starting my PhD. Both of us were part of the same research centre (Doctoral Training Centre in Hydrogen Fuel Cells) albeit in different departments. Paul was in Computational Chemistry. We enjoyed many a cup of tea together until Paul left to do a Postdoc at DTU (Denmark) and then at Stanford (US) where he became ever more involved in machine learning and AI tech. I was lucky to get Paul to join Aceleron back in 2018 as our head of software and am even luckier that he wanted to co-found Lorefully with me. Paul’s quiet words carry a lot of weight!
On the other hand, I met Barrie Diffin, our COO, in 2022 when we were looking for an experienced operational leader to join. Barrie is a civil engineer by training and has a background in large scale project delivery, intiially in construction and latterly in software. After a brief stint in fintech, Barrie came across to Aceleron. I was super impressed by Barrie’s ability to take anything I threw at him and turn it into something valuable. Especially towards the end of the journey with Aceleron, Barrie really did the hard yards and I will always be grateful to him for that. I was therefore very pleased when Barrie also wanted to co-found something new with me.
Regarding our co-founding relationship, we focused on honest conversations early on. We asked tough questions: How do we handle conflict? What does success look like to each of us? What are our non-negotiables? This transparency laid a solid foundation for trust—a crucial element in any startup.
We filled out the Gemini Canvas and found it immensely helpful in laying the groundwork of our relationship, as I wrote in the previous post.
The First Steps of Customer Discovery
Before we wrote a single line of code, we immersed ourselves in customer discovery. This wasn’t about pitching; it was about listening. As the saying goes “we have two ears and one mouth, let's use them in that proportion”. We spoke to professionals across industries, asking open-ended questions like, “What frustrates you about your day to day job?” and “How do you currently solve this problem?”
We didn’t just look for answers; we looked for patterns. Where did frustrations overlap? What workarounds were people relying on? These insights shaped our initial product direction and validated that the problem we’re solving is both real and urgent. Early customer conversations also helped us identify pilot partners who were willing to collaborate and give us honest feedback.
I can honestly say that the shift from our very first concept (which was use of AI in ESG - hardly original I know!) to what it is today wouldn’t have happened without that hard work of knowledge capture.
I’m looking forward to sharing more insights as we go forward!
