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Welcome to another interesting and informative episode of the Data Gurus Podcast!
Today, Sima is happy to have Richard Thornton joining her. Richard used to work at CINT, and he recently founded an advisory services business.
In this episode, Richard shares his career journey. He also talks about taking risks, his mindset, and his core beliefs. Stay tuned to hear more!
Richard’s journey
Richard studied Business and Marketing at university. After that, he joined a business that served hardware and software players in the imaging space, like Hewlett Packard, Xerox, and Canon. He worked as a research analyst, supporting a team delivering content and insights around subscription syndicated services. That exposed him to working with data. He saw the value that data-driven insights could bring to organizations and gained a toolkit that he utilized extensively later in his career.
After spending four years there, he moved on and became a consultant.
Entering the market research industry
In 2003, Richard fell into the market research industry by chance after being offered a position with Channel Surveys. He was fortunate to enter the industry just in time to ride the new wave of online data collection and digital insights. He was eventually put into the position of European Co-Managing Director, managing more than 300 employees in Europe. He left in 2008 when the business got sold to Microsoft.
Joining CINT
In 2009, Richard joined CINT, a Swedish-based technology company that was way ahead of its time. That was the start of a journey that took him out of his comfort zone and lasted for the next twelve years.
Going public
Richard was fortunate to be part of the leadership team at CINT that eventually took the business public in February 2021.
Leaving
Richard left CINT in 2021 after the business had gone public.
People-driven
Richard has always been people-driven in his decision-making. He felt driven to meet his mentors in the process of evaluating opportunities that came his way.
Taking a risk
Richard has a good appetite for risk with his work and making investments. After making sure that the business model was sound, he always followed his gut feelings when new opportunities came his way.
What leaving CINT felt like
It was tough for Richard to leave CINT, but it felt a little easier because it was a planned move. He gave up a lot when he left, and that required a massive mental adjustment. Although he is still grappling with those adjustments to some extent, he has no regrets about his decision to leave.
Re-learning
Now, Richard feels as if he has gone from a teacher to a student again because he has to re-learn a new craft. It is humbling but healthy because it keeps him grounded. It has also given him a fresh perspective.
Mindset
You get to feel needed, wanted, and valuable when you’re part of a growing organization. Richard misses feeling that way, so he had to adjust his mindset after leaving CINT.
Choice
Richard is grateful to be in a financial position that gives him a choice. Right now, he is considering what the best choice should be.
A portfolio approach
Richard always wanted to build a portfolio approach to work. That means that he has had to move into advisory roles. He intends to get onto the boards of some tech-led or enabled businesses and combine that with some angel investing.
How Richard is spending his time
Richard has been networking and looking for opportunities. He has built up a portfolio of businesses that he is advising. They are mostly founder-led and tech-enabled or SaaS businesses. He has taken a seat on the board of most of them and invested in some. He is bringing commercial excellence to the table and helping the founders scale.
Diversity
Richard loves the diversity of working with different businesses and being inspired by the founders and leadership teams.
Driving diversity
Richard is a supporter of driving better representation and diversity in the industry. He is proud that more than half of his portfolio consists of women-led tech businesses!
Core beliefs
Richard has learned to put himself first. He knows that his family and loved ones benefit from that, too, because he has a more positive mindset.
He also strives to be nice as well as successful. He feels that it is vital to be empathetic and respectful and do things the right way on his journey to success.
He has also learned not to underplay timing and luck in his career.
Empathy
Since the pandemic, Richard has realized how important it is to support others and have empathy.
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