It’s been 18 months since Mesh-AI first launched - and what a journey it’s been so far! We sat down with one of our first 10 employees, Josh Walker, who first joined us as Talent Director but is now making the move to Sales as Client Partner.
I’ve spent the last 12 years working to place top talent across data and AI, so when Matt (the co-founder of Mesh-AI) reached out about his new business and their unique approach to unlocking the value of data and AI, I knew I had to be part of it!
One of the best parts of joining so early is that I’ve had the opportunity to get involved and contribute to every part of the business. Part of the fun and allure of working in a scaling business is not knowing all the answers, or what the next step is and opening yourself up to possibilities.
For example, I’ve been involved in setting up the Data & AI London Meetup, which brings together experts to talk about the broader use of data and AI in our world. After less than a year we’ve reached 1000 members!
I’ve also had the opportunity to contribute to our sales process by introducing my network and then seeing how an idea or conversation manifests into something tangible which has a value oriented outcome for our customers. It’s because of this, I’ve made the decision to take the plunge and become a Client Partner and work closely with our customers to bring real business value through data and AI initiatives.
My background is in hiring brilliant people, building great teams and putting people at the heart of delivering transformative outcomes for enterprises. I want to use that experience when I’m building relationships with our customers at the gritty end of the spectrum. I want to have candid and challenging conversations with them about why and how things need to work and operate, how they can stay relevant and current and telling them about how we do things differently with an approach to data that’s much more dynamic.
I’m excited to help customers think differently about what they’re looking to achieve and then help them move quickly to add value to their business. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to building and growing teams and seeing how effective transformation is. Having the idea is great or seeing a new bit of tech is awesome, but you also need to think about how it fits into your organisation, what the impact is, what the organisational change looks like. Getting ambassadors and influencers to champion change initiatives within a business is also super important to ensure they are well received.
They need to get their data culture right to begin with. By that I mean that teams need to take responsibility for the quality of their data and share it within their organisation. It’s not just about building data products; it’s about taking a product thinking approach to data throughout the organisation. There's been so many enterprise investments in data initiatives that have just splurged money because they haven’t looked at usability, viability or feasibility. They need to focus on the why of what they’re looking to achieve first and how it will meaningfully impact their business rather than just embarking on a data science or AI initiative simply from a vanity perspective.
We're building a world class engineering culture and I want to foster a community of curiosity, learning and growth and give our team access to the meatiest, thorniest problems facing enterprise organisations. For an enterprise, it's giving them access to a great set of brains that are going to be able to help solve their problems in a different way and realising value from that.
We don’t just want to change technology initiatives or processes in organisations, but also how they think about it and seed and plant that data culture across their business. I’m excited about helping companies to see the opportunity that sits in front of them and then going on that journey with them. For me it's about partnering versus consulting – we’re making people realise the art of what is possible then taking them on that journey to a point where they’re ready and upskilled to carry on doing it themselves.
If you’re curious about life at Mesh-AI and want to start your own journey in a fast moving, ever-iterating, ever-evolving organisation then check out our open roles here.
Or perhaps you read this and want to know how we might be able to help your enterprise reach its potential, get in touch with us at hello@mesh-ai.com
