I'm Simon Swords. I've bootstrapped two businesses to eight-figure exits. I now blog about the process and I'm writing a book: 'Exit without permission'.
Everyone is doing the same thing to find a job or work placement. That's exactly why it isn't working. This is what I tell the students I mentor to do instead. A final-year maths and Artificial Intelligence student called me this morning, panicked because his
The best advice I ever took was never given to me; I stole it. I recommend you steal it, too. I was on a call this morning with an old friend who runs a fintech business based out of Oz. It has been nearly a year since I sold Fundipedia,
Whilst running the software business that I founded in 2007 my entire life was ordered and executed through to-do lists. My to-do list was the first app I opened every morning, and the last app I closed every night. I ploughed through my list from the moment I
Preface: For the purpose of this article, I refer to Large Language Models simply as "AI." While my journey began with ChatGPT in 2022, I recently switched to Gemini/NotebookLM, which I’ve found superior for handling complex, multi-document document projects. In a recent podcast with
…is the most common question I’ve been asked since I exited Fundipedia last year. Shortly after the sale in May 2025, I lied to everyone about how I was doing. The nature of the lie depended on who was asking. Regardless, people from my professional ecosystem usually
I think a lot about my work. It’s borderline obsessive at times, which I have to manage…but that’s another blog post. Most of my ponderous thoughts consider Atlas’ staff and its customers; but my team have been front and centre of my mind
I’m incredibly fortunate to have a chairman on our board who brings huge clarity of thought to the business. He’s unemotional yet thoughtful. If he doesn’t have an immediate answer for something, he instinctively understands how to search for the answer. He has a
One of the greatest (and most time consuming) problems a great deal of product companies face is whether they should add feature X to their product. The gurus over at 37 Signals have a policy of saying no to new features by default. While this is a great
I’ve held a pilot’s license for a couple of years, and I love flying. What I love more is introducing others to the fun of flying. Nothing puts a bigger smile on my face than watching people smile and laugh as we lift off the
Having read dozens and dozens of business books over the years I’ve compiled a list of my favourite 10, along with a short review for each. Hopefully some of these will help others looking to get stuck in and start their own businesses. If you have
It’s been over a year since I’ve had the chance to update this blog. I’ve been too busy writing HR Software related blog posts over here for our new start up Staff Squared – which is taking on new customers at a comfortable
I’ve been running Atlas, a software company , since 2007. One of the biggest challenges we have with the majority of our customers is helping them to understand the software development process. So I’ve decided to create a handful of blog posts dedicated to
When I’m under pressure I produce some of my best work. In fact, there is a direct correlation between the amount of pressure I’m under, and my ability to remove noise from my brain and see a clear path through to a desired end result. It
Last year I had a child, a boy to be precise. His name is Eli and he has changed my life. “No shit”, was the response of most people I told this fact to. Well quite, but what was really interesting, is that he actually changed my
There are a whole bunch of unwritten rules that I live by. I’m not referring to age old rules that haven’t stood the test of time such as “two wrongs don’t make a right”. I’m talking about actual day to
