More than just names on a page I’ll have you know…

Last week I gave Courtney and Danna a bit of a shout out for the work they’ve been doing in South Africa.

Then I realised, like any parent worth their weight in pride, that I couldn’t possibly leave it at that…

The metaphor sort of breaks down there. My employees aren’t my kids. But I am proud of them. And it dawned on me that I write about ’the team’ quite a lot in these pieces. Scott here, Jack there, Kelvin somewhere else. But it’s bit-part and pretty vague. So, dearest reader, you’d be forgiven for thinking:

“Ah, a well-meaning collective of competent individuals doing their thing behind the scenes. How wonderful.”

And I couldn’t agree more. Glorious, faceless folk.

UNTIL NOW. Here they are at the top of the page. Look. Most of them (and me!)

There’s only nine or ten of us in total. Depends how you count it. And yet we seem to pop up all over the place – events, demos, partnerships, conversations with some of the biggest names in retail security.

Sometimes I take a step back and think… how are we actually covering all this ground? Then you look at the individuals and it makes a bit more sense.

Kelvin runs ops with a level of detail that would make my head spin. Jack gets into the nitty gritty of technical challenges. Ady leads on design, Trudi keeps machines moving, and our enigmatic software engineer does more than I could even cover, but he also goes the way of the Dark Lord in that he shall not be named (or pictured, evidently).

We’ve now got Ved too – a guru across digital analytics already making a difference. Good signs, good stuff.

Anyway, Scott’s been putting together a new ‘Meet the Team’ series. And those taglines up there might be slightly reductive but they give you a sense of what we’re each up to.

Talking of Scott… he had to go left-field didn’t he?

We’ve then got partners in places like Italy and Iceland who technically sit outside the business but, in practice, feel very much part of it.

That’s another one of the nice things about being a small company.

The lines blur a bit… in a good way.

I think what I love most is that we all rely on each other. Like, really rely on each other. There’s no hiding in a team this size. Nor is there room for passengers. Everyone’s contribution is visible, which sounds intense (and occasionally is), but it also creates a certain pride in the work.

These are the people keeping their eyes on the prize. And by prize I mean all the crazy crime tactics that unfurl and unfold across markets.

I saw the other day that some stores up in Scotland are considering putting everyday items like razors into vending machines to try and curb theft. You pay first, then you’re allowed anywhere near the product. Which feels like quite a shift, even if the rationale makes perfect sense.

But you can talk all the talk in the world about markets and trends and where things are heading. But at the end of the day…

It all comes back to the people.

They’re the ones building, testing, ideating, improving, agonising, and more than occasionally having a good laugh while they do it.

We’ve got strengths, blind spots, preferences, odd habits – all the usual stuff.

And it works. It really works.

So I suppose this is just a bit of recognition. Not a grand statement or a cleverly disguised message. Just an acknowledgement that behind everything we do – and all the impact we have…

There’s a small but mighty group of people fuelling the fog.