James Howard
Operator. Engineer by training. I take founder-led businesses from personality-driven coordination to disciplined execution, so the founder gets their job back and the business is ready for what comes next.
Seventeen years inside a product, then a company from zero.
I spent seventeen years at UBS Delta and then StatPro, starting as a quant developer and finishing as global product lead for an institutional analytics platform. It grew to $25m ARR and 80 people across three continents, and held every client through a $16m acquisition.
I then co-founded ProgressTeaching, an EdTech SaaS business, and ran everything outside sales: product, engineering, operations and client success. We took it from nothing to $1m ARR and 300+ schools, through to exit.
Since then I have worked as a fractional and interim operating lead in founder-led businesses, the seat where the founder is still the coordination layer and the next stage needs something sturdier. MLC Innovations is the company I do that work through.
From quant developer to global product lead on an institutional analytics platform: 80 people across London, New York and Tokyo, 100+ institutional clients. Held 100% ARR retention through a $16m acquisition and owned a $12m product budget with board-level accountability.
Built and ran every function outside sales: product, engineering, DevOps, client success and operations. Scaled to 300+ UK schools and negotiated the reseller partnership with the dominant UK MIS provider that delivered the exit.
Redesigned the commercial model to unlock a second revenue stream from the existing client base. Doubled revenue and held client retention above 80%.
Most operators at this level have one side or the other.
An engineering and analytics background means I can challenge architecture assumptions, interrogate delivery timelines, and translate between engineering and commercial stakeholders without losing fidelity in either direction.
It also means data and AI work gets specified properly and adopted, rather than bought and left to stall.
Six places the work usually starts.
When the owner is still the coordination layer.
Decision rights, financial approval authority, and a management cadence that holds.
Governance and reporting.
Board-grade governance, the pack behind it, and the discipline to run it.
The revenue engine.
Pipeline, pricing, sales process, partnerships and retention, made repeatable.
Data and AI, made real.
Specifying and directing the build, and making adoption stick rather than stall.
Capital-event readiness.
Reporting, KPIs and governance that signal maturity to investors and acquirers.
Clean handover.
A system the team owns, with no permanent overhead left behind.
MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London.
Executive MBA, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Fellow, Venture.Community. Angel investor in early-stage technology businesses.
Based in Sheffield. Working across the UK, in person and remotely.
Two practices. One method, routed by stage.
I co-founded two practices that run on the same operating method and share one front door, a free Growth Diagnostic. A business is routed by stage and never served by both.
Sparring Ventures
For founders before the first repeatable sale: pre-product, prototype or MVP. Test the idea, the customer and the plan before committing money and months to them.
Common Thread Partners
For businesses with traction that need growth to become repeatable: marketing, sales and operations working as one system, ahead of a raise or real scale.
If the business has outgrown the way it is run, I'd like to hear about it.
Email is quickest. Tell me where the business is, what it is preparing for, and what keeps landing back on the founder's desk.