Pitched in 2012. Donated in 2013. Voted Audience Favourite in 2025.
10+ years. 3 countries. Full circle.
The arc
In 2012, Oyvind Henriksen, Michael Langguth and I pitched our very first startup at the UCL Bright Ideas Award in London — and won.
In 2013, I went to Taipei and won the Global TIC Award.
Here's what stayed with me: I gave the prize money to the second-place team — a social enterprise helping communities in developing countries.
What POQ became
Since then, the journey's taken me from pitch decks to production code — and the company we built, POQ, went on to:
- Recognised as one of Marketing Week's 100 Disruptive Brands (2016)
- Twice-ranked Deloitte Fastest Growing UK Tech Company
- Winner of multiple Retail & App Innovation Awards (House of Fraser, Missguided, Boxpark)
- Featured in Forrester, Apparel Magazine, Forbes, CityAM, and more
Ten years later
This week, I stood on stage once again — this time in Oslo, at Make Data Smart 2025, in front of 100+ data and AI professionals.
Thank you to the organisers — Morten Kvellestad, Ine Andersen, Lone Werness Bekkeheien, Ali Ahmad from Den norske dataforening (DND), Anna Munthe-Kaas from Antler — and everyone in the room. Not just for the applause, but for believing in what we're building.
AI that protects your data before it powers your business. On-device. Policy-first. Built for the enterprise.
Full circle. Same mission. Still just getting started.