He told us entering the business world, and learning how it works.
My career took me to more than 40 countries and ticked all the boxes of my dreams.
I love being a journalist.
But life has a wonderful way of surprising us.
I saw the potential to work together to create an A.I.
solution to the biggest pain point in every journalists work day: transcription.
People ask me all the time if I miss my old job.
Three years on Trint is growing fast.
Its always challenging, demanding and its often fun.
Building Trint is really exciting, I dont have time to look back.
Take us through a recent workday.
Cycling to our office in Shoreditch in East London is a morning ritual, no matter what the weather.
(No, it doesnt rain in London as much as people think.)
If I have meetings I prefer to do breakfast.
It means they dont disrupt the flow of the rest of the day.
Once Im in the office its a quick review of email and Slack to answer the urgent stuff.
We arent officially fundraising, so this is a good time to establish relationships with potential investors.
I take a stab at limit the initial calls with them to one afternoon a week.
If I have to do some serious writing I will stay late.
We have a few developers who like to stay late.
As a journalist and then a startup founder, youve worked in a wide variety of environments.
Whats been your biggest challenge when adjusting from one to the other?
Nothing in my previous career prepared me for the financial side of running a company.
When I began three years ago I didnt know the difference between a KPI and an ROI.
In Trints early days I remember sitting at my kitchen table trying to build a spreadsheet on Microsoft Excel.
I didnt know what I was doing and I kept getting###.
The only way to clear up the mess was to close it and start over.
I wanted to curl up under the table in a fetal position and scream Send me back to Iraq!
What apps, gadgets, or tools cant you live without?
I worry about my relationship with my iPhone.
We spend way too much time together.
Clearly Im not the only person on the planet with this issue, but I dont think its healthy.
I use my iPad in the morning to read the newspaper at the breakfast table.
I read The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Occasionally Ill take it with me on a trip to watch something on a plane.
There are about 50 of them.
Some cost a few dollars, some cost thousands every month.
We cant live without them.
Slack takes a huge load off email for team communication, but it creates its own problems.
It can be really frustrating searching it and trying to find something sent two weeks ago.
Besides Trint, whats your favorite automation tool?
Every software business like ours needs CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software.
We began with a cheap CRM that we quickly outgrew.
After doing a careful study of the options we switched toHubSpot.
Its amazing what it can do: insights, key users, automated emails.
Im just learning its potential.
Whats your workspace setup like?
We moved to a new office in the summer of 2017.
Trint HQ is atSecond Homein Shoreditch in East London.
Its been called the coolest workspace in London and its easy to see why.
Its five floors of swooping plexiglass and a jungle of plants.
Our office has a 30-foot ceiling and a massive window.
We like to sit around long desks.
around a big T-shaped desk on the other.
Whats your best shortcut or life hack?
If I see a day of non-stop meetings Im not happy.
Its really important to have time to breath and time for quick unscheduled conversations with the team.
They insisted I get an executive assistant.
They saw how much time I was spending scheduling meetings and setting things up.
Abigail started with us in September.
Its been incredibly liberating.
I can now focus on people and decisions, not calendars and meeting rooms.
How do you keep track of what you have to do?
I share my work calendar with my EA.
She does all the scheduling.
When I asked our team what they wanted most in the new office they said daylight.
Whats your least favorite thing to do, and how do you deal with it?
Im not really a process guy by nature.
As a reporter for 30 years I learned to operate on instinct.
The process becomes ingrained.
Its taken real discipline to do this.
How do you recharge or take a break from work?
I am happiest on a bicycle.
I dont own a car in London, but I have three bikes.
I use an inexpensive commuter bike to get to work.
I have two road bikes for long-distance cycling.
Well cycle to Brighton or Cambridge or Windsor or through the rolling countryside outside London.
Its hard work but its thrilling.
Perfect therapy after an intense week.
Whats your favorite side project?
Im still a working journalist.
I still really enjoy the research and and writing.
But it became impossible to balance the demands of a fast-growing company and the demands of teaching.
What are you currently reading, or whats something youd recommend?
Thats an interesting question.
Im reading a book on my Kindle.
Its a novel set in New York about a writer who lands a job at the New Yorker.
you might only go down from here, says her father when she tells him she got the job.
Fill in the blank: Id love to see _____ answer these same questions.
The members of the Trint Team.
Whats the best advice youve ever received?
Life is about the journey, not the destination.
This interview has been lightly edited and some links have been added.
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