Less theatre. More doing.

A good enquiry can go nowhere: no owner, no follow-up, or the detail buried in someone’s inbox.

I build around the next action: who replies, what they need to know and what happens after that. The customer shouldn’t have to chase your internal process.

Howard Mitchell Group started with a gap I could see: demand existed beyond the area a supplier could serve. The opportunity was to build an operation around that demand.

Digital enquiries drove national sales overwhelmingly. There was no sales team. But each enquiry still needed commercial judgement, a quotation, supplier coordination and someone taking responsibility for the customer.

The business reached £1M+ annual turnover and approximately £3m over four years. It later ceased trading. Both the growth and the setbacks shaped a principle I carry into every build: acquisition, delivery and cash flow need to work together.

An enquiry looks simple until you have to do something with it. What is missing? Which supplier needs the brief? What changed in the quote? Who is responsible for the next step? I’ve been on the receiving end of those questions.

That is the starting point for Beffer. I’m building around the journey between people and decisions, with AI as part of the engineering method. The point is to compress the work involved in building software while keeping commercial responsibility clear.

Around eight months of founder-led development is a useful demonstration of capital efficiency. The comparison counts my time as a real input. A small technology bill on its own would not tell the whole story.

Hospitality is a daily operating problem: guests, service, people, stock and suppliers all have to work together. That is the thinking behind Macia and Lebrewski.

Macia is the planned network. Lebrewski is the Algarve destination concept and intended first controlled proving environment. Connecting them gives the platform a practical setting to learn from, while keeping the ventures separately structured and financed.

The next step is finding the right site, shaping the operating model and bringing in people with relevant experience. The venue and opening are not yet confirmed.