Nodes & Links is a tech company that helps global leaders deliver projects faster and at less cost, in domains ranging from energy and construction to aerospace and defence. Our platform uses complexity science and structured project data to help project managers simulate scenarios, identify complex risks and mitigate them in real-time.
We view projects as ‘live’ complex systems, composed of components (‘nodes’) that are highly interdependent (‘links’) – which is what gave birth to our name – Nodes & Links.
How did you come up with the idea for the company?
Together with Greg, we founded Nodes & Links after our personal frustration on how big projects are currently being delivered. On my end, I have spent 7 years at various academic positions developing data models to simulate project risk in order to find ways to mitigate them. During this time, I was shocked to discover that billions of dollars are being spent using technologies from the 1960s – I thought there must be a better way to do things.
At the same time, Greg was a project manager in defence, managing over $100m annually in spending. In doing so, Greg experienced first-hand the challenges (and frustration) of having to rely on these archaic technologies to deliver these large (and costly) complex projects. We met at London’s Entrepreneur First, and we immediately clicked – a combination of real-life experience and technical edge gave birth to Nodes & Links!
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How has the company evolved during the pandemic?
In the past eighteen months, we have moved from strength to strength in spite of the pandemic. We deployed our platform in three continents (America, Europe and Australia), won product and AI awards and delivered innovation that has been widely recognised by the tech community (and helped us win a €500K EU Horizon Grant).
Once Covid first hit, we swiftly evolved into a distributed team, which helped us develop a better-optimized structure. As a result, we were able to double in terms of team size (compared to pre-Covid) and are now looking to accelerate this growth, whilst being in a position to access the best talent globally.
What can we hope to see from Nodes & Links in the future?
The challenge with complex projects is that they are just too complicated for humans to manage. Our approach essentially creates the world’s first Smart Project Assistant – a system that does what humans don’t like doing (e.g., repetitive tasks), or are bad at doing (e.g., crunching lots and lots of data).
Our vision is to create a natural division of labour where humans do what humans are best at and computers do what they are best at. By achieving this vision, we, as humanity, will have access to the projects we urgently need – like solar and wind power – faster and cheaper.
