I funded this myself. Then I nearly lost it.

No investors. No loan. I started TechWaves with my own savings, so every pound was mine to lose.

And I lost plenty. In my first four years I burnt nearly £200k hiring the wrong people. I was tired, I liked them, and I wanted someone to take business development off my plate. I hired on gut, not evidence.

It didn't work. I paid people for work I was still doing myself. Then the work dried up, and it set me back at least two years.

So I rebuilt. On a scorecard, not a feeling. The same process I now use with every client: what does the business actually need, who can do it, and what does good look like before anyone walks into the room.

They knew me as the recruiter who sends three CVs, not thirty. They didn't know I'd funded a business from my own pocket, made the expensive mistakes and come back from them. That's the bit I should have been talking about all along.

Because hiring is strategy. Who you hire, when you hire, and whether you hire at all decides how long your runway lasts.

Now I help founders work out what to do first, how to grow, and how to build without killing their runway. Before they make the £200k mistake. Not after.