David Jones

And then at the end of the day, going back to, if it doesn't work, it's not the end of the world, you know? You'll have learned a ton. You leave a big job. And often people would say to me, you know, because I'd fly like crazy. So I was a Brit running a French business from New York.

So I basically commuted to Paris from New York, which sounds glamorous, but it isn't because you spend your life in planes. I was in Paris at least every two weeks off and once a week, add side trips to Asia, Latin America, go to the West Coast. And people would often say, you know, God, your life. And I was like, you know, I've got a choice.

So I basically commuted to Paris from New York, which sounds glamorous, but it isn't because you spend your life in planes. I was in Paris at least every two weeks off and once a week, add side trips to Asia, Latin America, go to the West Coast. And people would often say, you know, God, your life. And I was like, you know, I've got a choice.

You know, like most people can't choose to be the global CEO of a big company. I can choose not to be. So if ever I feel sorry for myself, whatever. It's easy to step away from it. But likewise, when you make the leap to go set your own thing up, it's like, if it doesn't work out, you've learned a ton. You've learned so much.

You know, like most people can't choose to be the global CEO of a big company. I can choose not to be. So if ever I feel sorry for myself, whatever. It's easy to step away from it. But likewise, when you make the leap to go set your own thing up, it's like, if it doesn't work out, you've learned a ton. You've learned so much.

And you can always go back to that old world and find a job in it if you want to.

And you can always go back to that old world and find a job in it if you want to.

Launched company in 2015, and I'd always talked about the Australian piece. I was a founder member of the Facebook client council and I sort of sat in meetings when they were tiny and no one thought they'd ever make any money. And so just watch the speed and scale of technology evolving.

Launched company in 2015, and I'd always talked about the Australian piece. I was a founder member of the Facebook client council and I sort of sat in meetings when they were tiny and no one thought they'd ever make any money. And so just watch the speed and scale of technology evolving.

And I just was convinced that you could create a better model where you use much more technology to help brands do their marketing better, faster, and cheaper using tech. I was Googling one weekend and realized that no one was using the term brand tech. So I thought, we'll have that. So trademark brand tech. And basically set off on a journey, which has really exploded in the last 18 months or so.

And I just was convinced that you could create a better model where you use much more technology to help brands do their marketing better, faster, and cheaper using tech. I was Googling one weekend and realized that no one was using the term brand tech. So I thought, we'll have that. So trademark brand tech. And basically set off on a journey, which has really exploded in the last 18 months or so.

But just to say, let's build that group that helps brands do their marketing better, faster, cheaper using tech. And we started investing... in AI back in 2015. We did AI chatbots. We actually did the world's first AI influencer chatbot with Kalani Hilliker for CoverGirl. We were doing AI media planning with LC, doing AI data with Crossing Minds.

But just to say, let's build that group that helps brands do their marketing better, faster, cheaper using tech. And we started investing... in AI back in 2015. We did AI chatbots. We actually did the world's first AI influencer chatbot with Kalani Hilliker for CoverGirl. We were doing AI media planning with LC, doing AI data with Crossing Minds.

I went on the board in 2018 of a company called AI Foundation who were building AI twins of humans. And you can Google a great episode of Jimmy Kimmel where Deepak Chopra takes digital Deepak onto Jimmy Kimmel and takes everyone through a guided meditation. Honestly, the technology has moved on so much since then.

I went on the board in 2018 of a company called AI Foundation who were building AI twins of humans. And you can Google a great episode of Jimmy Kimmel where Deepak Chopra takes digital Deepak onto Jimmy Kimmel and takes everyone through a guided meditation. Honestly, the technology has moved on so much since then.

That demo looks really good, but once you were outside of the safe environment of a demo, things were a bit wilder back then. All of that led me to look for a company that was making ads end-to-end using GenAI. And there was only one company called Pencil built in 2018 on GPT-2 back then. And Will and Samukh, the founders, brilliant talents.

That demo looks really good, but once you were outside of the safe environment of a demo, things were a bit wilder back then. All of that led me to look for a company that was making ads end-to-end using GenAI. And there was only one company called Pencil built in 2018 on GPT-2 back then. And Will and Samukh, the founders, brilliant talents.

And particularly with Will early on, we had a meeting of the minds around how big we thought AI and GenAI was going to be. Now, obviously, everyone will tell you now that, of course, they knew this. But back then, no one did. We hit it off, and I said, why don't we get together and we can turbocharge what you're doing? He'd built a great platform for SMB.

And particularly with Will early on, we had a meeting of the minds around how big we thought AI and GenAI was going to be. Now, obviously, everyone will tell you now that, of course, they knew this. But back then, no one did. We hit it off, and I said, why don't we get together and we can turbocharge what you're doing? He'd built a great platform for SMB.

The brilliant thing about it was, if you've got an SMB SaaS platform, it has to work because there are no people to hold people's hands, but our core clients are enterprise. I said, look, if you join, what we need to do is build the enterprise product. We built Pencil Pro and launched that about 18 months ago. And it's being rolled out by many of the world's biggest advertisers.