Dundrum-born, Belfast-based Aaron Gibson always had an “entrepreneurial bent”, even before he knew what the word meant.
“Growing up in high school, I think that lots of people had this person in the playground that would buy a multi-pack of Mars bars and a load of sweets,” he says.
“I grew up during the time of Jamie Oliver wanting to get Turkey Twizzlers out of the canteen.
“Your tuck shop became a fruit and veg stand, and all of that sort of thing.
“I found a gap in the market and thought that there are customers here for something. Between a combination of that and working as a kitchen porter and stuff like that, I’ve always had that sort of work ethic. That initial entrepreneurial spirit certainly came from the school playground.”
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The now CEO of Hurree, a data-driven AI platform that is revolutionising how business leverage and analyse their data, “floated” through several jobs, including training to be a diesel mechanic (“I think the cold days and hitting your hand with a wrench very quickly put the thought of that out of my head”).
Having left school at 16, the “ironic little so-and-so” decided he’d “fix” education, starting an educational technology company as his first business.
“With no qualifications,” explains Aaron, “I had absolutely no right doing any of this, but what I managed to do was I found a couple of developers, learned to code — in order to build the first version of it — and was able to get into the University of Coventry as a connection that sort of helped us build out the curriculum at the time.
“We ended up selling it through Pearson Publishing to around 150 schools in the UK and around 300 schools in the US.”
Aaron now uses AI more than Google to check items of information
The businessman sold that company and ultimately is in charge of Hurree.
“If you had asked 10-year-old Aaron [want he wanted to be when he grew up], he probably would have said a policeman or a firefighter or an astronaut, or one of those common responses,” he says.
“I would say it’d be very unlikely that he’d say that he wanted to run a data analytics company. But life has a funny way of leading you to where you are.
“For me, it’s the fun of the game, it’s starting new things. I’m in the fortunate position to say this, that I’m building a business that is not financially centric.
“Obviously [when] you build a business you want to create jobs and you want to create wealth. That’s sort of secondary for me. What’s important to me is doing cool things with smart people.
“The office that I’m in at the moment with my team, I’m proud to say that I’m definitely the least intelligent in the room,” he continues.
“Because how I view my job is coordinating people and bringing people together. I’m the one that gets to sit with the title of CEO, but I’m sitting in this position because of the incredible team that I get to work with.”
Hurree helps companies streamline data across platforms for powerful insights.
“You’re constantly adding different systems and different platforms that are incredibly complex,” says Aaron.
“Think of us as putting pipes into each of those buckets [of data] and drawing in the data into one centralised hub, which allows you to effectively have, first of all, one centralised source of truth so that you’re able to view financial data alongside email data alongside social data so that you’ve got that full comprehensive picture.
“If you’re a financial director in an organisation, you’ve got at your fingertips all of your financial data, all of the data that’s relevant to you. If you’re an operations person, you get all of that.”
Its operations solve data access issues, allowing companies to co-ordinate messaging and have dialogue around specific data points.
“The final bit is it wouldn’t be 2024 if I wasn’t talking about this stuff that we’re doing from an AI perspective,” says Aaron.
“We’re working on some really cutting-edge stuff, some of which is still very much under the hood. But like all tech companies in 2024, the opportunities from an AI perspective are world-changing, not just for us, but for all of the developments that are happening within the tech world.”
Ethical AI, pursuing the medium in a manner that doesn’t diminish the innovation that comes along with something as powerful as Hurree, is one of Aaron’s pet projects.
“Because government doesn’t move at any speed, I think it’s really on the market and really on companies like us to ensure that the data that we’re using, the AI that we’re building, it’s ethically deployed within ecosystems such as Hurree so that it’s not manipulating people’s data and using it in inappropriate ways.
“Sort of falling strictly within GDPR rules and the likes of that, that’s an obvious one. But it’s also more than that. There are guardrails that we have to ensure that we’ve got full control, full transparency, that we can change our models as and when we need to.”
Aaron is an advocate for continued education for consumers about AI and its uses for day-to-day living.
“I use OpenAI and ChatGPT more than I would use Google now to get information that I need,” he says.
“It’s just a time-saving mechanism now, because Google doesn’t give me the thing that I want straight away, whereas I can on ChatGPT.
“I’m not as concerned. I think that a lot of people’s imaginations typically run away with them very quickly.”
That said, Aaron understands the caution that some may demonstrate on using or interacting with the medium.
Aaron Gibson of Hurree
Another important issue for Aaron is the area of mental health and wellness in a business and, in particular, a start-up.
“In a start-up, what you find is you’re typically always chasing or putting out a fire; you’re always putting an incredible amount of strain on yourself and your team,” he says.
“That’s what people sign up for whenever they come into start-up. Whether you’re a CEO of a tech start-up or any start-up, whether you’re a mum and pop shop or you’re just starting a business, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have to be tech, you as the as the leader have signed up for that amount of strain and stress.
“A question that [I always have] whenever I’m talking to companies that I’m working with is not ‘What do you want?’, it’s ‘How much are you willing to put in in order to get there? Are you willing to have the sleepless nights, and so on, with all of those sorts of things?’”
At the start of 2024, Aaron and his chief of staff implemented anonymous pulse surveys which asked employees their views on internal communication and possible improvements.
“It’s very easy to say to people: ‘Give us feedback.’ We’re here to take feedback. But if you don’t facilitate that, it doesn’t actually really happen.
“Off the back of that, I will say that it did hurt quite a bit reading the first pulse survey, because I’ve always thought about myself as the person that I’ve become this year, as of now, I can proudly say that the person I thought I was, I am now, because we have implemented so many changes based on hearing what people want and what people like.”
Implementations included watercooler hours, where team members can book time in with Aaron, as well as the internal newsletter Hurree Herald and an internal communications platform whereby employees can schedule therapy appointments.
“I’m very open with the team [about how] I struggled with anxiety for as long as I can remember. I’ve told them that I do therapy. I’ve got no issues with sharing that with anyone, because there is still a stigma, you know — ‘It’s all in your head’. I think that we’re making progress, but we haven’t got over it.
“I think from being transparent with our team, telling them about the good, the bad and the ugly, it’s created this atmosphere where I could confidently ask them their opinion on anything and they would give me the unvarnished truth. I don’t want to be in a room full of yes men.
“It takes a stronger man to talk about it [mental health] in a lot of cases than otherwise. But I know it’s difficult for people, but that’s because of the socio climate that we have where it’s like, ‘No, don’t talk about it, because that’s a sign of weakness’. It’s crazy to me that people are meant to fester in their own heads, whenever the people closest to them are supposed to be there to support them and to raise them up.”
Aaron returns to praising his team, crediting them as the “biggest reason” that he runs Hurree.
“I couldn’t be prouder of them. I jump out of bed every morning because I get to work with some of the most incredible people, certainly in this city, if not on this island, if not on these islands, if not in this continent — people who have overcome so much to get us to where we are now.
“We’re going to be hiring an additional 10 roles in January. We’re in major growth mode. But it’s only because of them, with the effort that they put in and the loyalty that they have, that I hope that I at some stage will be able to reciprocate in any form.”
For more information on Hurree, visit www.hurree.co