About
I’m Dan, a product leader and entrepreneur originally from Birmingham in the UK and now living in Hackney with my partner, son and daughter.
That’s me in the picture below. Every so often I’ll open Photos on my phone and find the odd shot that my six year old has taken without me realising. He’s a surprisingly good documenter of the chaos of having a young family. And how tiring it is!
Below is an abridged version of an internal NHS newsletter which features a Q&A with me. After writing it thought it made a pretty good revision to my about page so here it is. You can view older versions of this page on GitHub.
Can you tell us a little bit about your career to date?
I spent the first 20 years of my career working in startups. I co-founded a business called VoucherCodes a few years after university, and after that another business called Hoop. Hoop was an app that helped families find things to do with their kids and provided a load of back-office tools to support the activity providers. Our work got the attention of local councils and health visitors, it was even in the NHS App Library (RIP), and it’s how I first got interested in the idea of digital prevention. We had to shut it down during the pandemic sadly, but that lead me to a Master’s programme at King’s College and eventually to the NHS.
Who has been the biggest inspiration / influence on your career and why?
I was at university when Facebook arrived. It was a time of huge change in the way people used technology and for a geek like me it was so exciting. I had some friends who I used to hack on projects with. We made websites, had a podcast(!) and just generally talked about the Internet a lot. I didn’t know if it at the time, but it was big moment for me.
Following that my business partners from both startups were, and remain, a constant source of new ideas. We all learnt the basics of UX, engineering, growth marketing and running a business by making mistakes and failing repeatedly.
What is your proudest achievement?
VoucherCodes was a commercial success and is still a good business by all accounts. Our iPhone app was the #1 free app in the UK on launch and we had millions of registered users. But Hoop was a passion project, something I really believed in. We were recognised by Apple with two ‘App of the Year’ awards, one in 2016 and another the following year. I’ll never forget the feeling when I got the email from Apple telling us that.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
I really can’t remember. Probably a fireman or Indiana Jones.
How do you relax / unwind?
I’ve kept a journal for 10 years now and it’s full of notes about my work and the things I’ve read. I find ending the day by doing some writing, ideally with a beer or glass of wine and some music on in the background, to be really relaxing.
How would your friends describe you?
Nick Katz from the Primary Care team said I had “youthful energy” which was ironic because it was on my 40th birthday! I definitely try to keep a youthful outlook, and hope I can do that for as long as possible. Childlike curiosity is great and we only grow old because we stop playing after all.
I think I am projecting here… My friends would probably say I am a pain in the a**e because I don’t shut.