Qubit, and what came next.
The experience
I joined Qubit in March 2012 and worked there until April 2015, becoming Lead Analyst. Founded in 2010 by four former Googlers, it was part of London’s early-2010s startup scene, building analytics, experimentation and personalisation technology for ecommerce.
For me, the defining thing was It was an ambitious, technical environment, small enough to work directly with people across the business. The companies those colleagues went on to build are a useful illustration of the talent concentrated there.
My work included client betas, optimisation experiments and creating and rolling out Qubit Decipher, an analytics suite. It meant working across customer problems, data and the product itself. That connection has stayed with me throughout my career.
Qubit’s founders were Graham Cooke, Emre Baran, Daniel Shellard and Ian McCaig. But what followed wasn’t confined to the founding team: colleagues went on to build businesses across developer tools, AI, financial infrastructure, health, fitness and consumer brands. Others moved into investing and leading established businesses.
That is what makes this more than a list of startups. It is a picture of
Some of the companies that followed
Fiit, the fitness app, was co-founded by Daniel Shellard and Ian McCaig with Sammi Adhami. Shellard and McCaig were also Qubit co-founders. Shellard’s account of founding Fiit ↗
Cerbos builds authorization infrastructure. Its founders are Emre Baran, Charith Ellawala and Alex Olivier, each with a Qubit connection. Baran and Ellawala worked together on Qubit’s infrastructure; Cerbos also documents Olivier’s work at Qubit. Baran and Ellawala’s background ↗ · Olivier’s background ↗
Dialog is Sergio Iacobucci’s B2B product marketing consultancy. Sergio and I overlapped at Qubit; he later went on to Coveo and then started Dialog, helping founders with positioning and messaging. Sergio’s account of the journey ↗
The range is part of what makes this group interesting to me:
For the original company and founding team, see WIRED’s February 2012 profile ↗.
Beyond Qubit’s original founders
Beacon is the charity CRM founded by David Simpson and Chris Houghton. David is Founder and CTO; Chris is Founder and CEO. Both came through Qubit before building software for a different set of customers.
Noshinku was co-founded by Andrew Zahornacky. It is a consumer personal-care brand, best known for its refillable hand sanitiser. Andrew worked at Qubit before taking that very different route into building a business.
El Rayo Tequila was co-founded by Jack Vereker and Tom Bishop. Jack worked in strategy at Qubit before building a drinks brand. His own account describes starting El Rayo in 2018.
More businesses from the alumni network
Lexical Labs was co-founded by Will Becker, previously an engineering lead at Qubit. Its Tiro product applies AI to contract review.
Ernest Oppetit, previously a product manager at Qubit, co-founded Kiln, which builds institutional staking infrastructure. Kiln’s company announcement introduces the founding team.
Robin Jack went from Qubit to co-founding Gizmo, an AI learning product that turns study material into quizzes and flashcards.
Laylo, the boxed and canned wine business, was founded by Laura Riches, previously a senior strategist at Qubit. Her Qubit role also appears in the 2015 eTail Europe programme.
Joe Lines co-founded Nook, a B2B payments and invoicing business subsequently acquired by Modulr. Joe had worked on the commercial side at Qubit.
Jamie Thomas, formerly Qubit’s CFO and HR Director, co-founded Cophi, applying organisational network analysis to how teams work together. His speaker biography connects the two.
Deepgrain was founded by Matt Bradburn, who previously worked in Qubit’s people and hiring function. His current work spans people advisory, AI enablement and organisational change.
From health data to immersive sport
Humaans was co-founded by Giovanni Luperti and Karolis Narkevicius, previously Qubit’s Director of Product Design and Director of Engineering respectively. They went on to build HR software for managing employee information and workflows. Founder profiles ↗ · Their investor’s account ↗
Emrys Health was co-founded by Will Browne, another Qubit alumnus. The business works on health data and the adoption of health technologies; its work includes a Wellcome-commissioned review of the UK’s health data infrastructure.
Kane Powley founded SEN 3D after a career that included client strategy and operations at Qubit.
Matthew Livingston founded Ensō Farm. His path combines software engineering with practical experience in growing food and managing land: a different kind of building from the software businesses here.
Daniel Shellard also moved into venture capital at Breega, leading its UK team before becoming a Venture Partner. Alongside investing, he founded Gameday, combining physical football experiences with AI-driven commentary and characters. His own account connects the venture to his earlier work personalising ecommerce at Qubit.
Further ventures and leadership roles
Brava Finance was founded by Graham Cooke, now its CEO. Brava builds technology for institutional blockchain finance. Its own team biography traces Graham’s background from Google through founding Qubit.
The story also includes people taking on leadership roles in established businesses. Sergio went from Qubit to a VP role at Coveo before starting Dialog. His own account describes that progression.
Graham also took on non-executive board roles at ITV and RWS. RWS’s 2024 director biography documents the appointments.