One month at Semaloop

That's how my journey to Semaloop started. 3 days later, I had accepted the offer.

It's funny, your first day is usually DAUNTING, but for me I was the calmest I'd ever been. Joining people you respect, want to champion and who share your values matters more than anything. Some might say this is silly, but I believe in trusting your gut (mine's been right too many times to ignore).

Charlie and I had worked together for 3 years and I'd always hoped he'd start his own thing. He's someone who stays incredibly calm in any situation, someone who you can bounce ideas off and walk away with ten more and most importantly is a genuinely good human with a great sense of humour.

I spent a fraction of the time with Rory (but a fair amount over WhatsApp where the GIF game was strong) but I asked him "what do you want to be proud of?"

His answer: "Building an amazing team and being able to look back and realise how good these times were."

This really stuck with me.

Joining Semaloop has allowed me to expand my skillset by stepping into a new role as Chief of Staff after 9 years in talent, where I had been scaling start-ups in a range of industries from fintech, to incident management to mental health.

So… what is a Chief of Staff? Honestly, at our stage, anything and everything.

It's making sure the company runs smoothly, building systems and processes from scratch, staying one step ahead of scaling (and hoping they don't break… or at least not too badly).

'Average' day in the life

I'm not sure any of us have an 'average' day, but we do have some rituals.

We work from our Old Street office. While we occasionally work from home, being together has made a huge difference, from overhearing conversations, jumping into discussions, and staying in the loop naturally.

We all trickle in at different times, some from the gym, some from breakfast meetings.

At 10am, we have our daily stand-up. It's a moment to align on priorities, unblock each other, and sense check what matters most that day. Especially helpful as all of our days are incredibly varied. One day that might mean focusing on hiring and building pipelines, the next it's thinking about our GTM engine.

By 12pm, we're all thinking about lunch. This is followed by a five minute panic trying to decide where to go, until someone makes a call and we all follow like ducklings.

By mid afternoon, energy dips and somehow we've developed a tradition of surprise snack raids, knock-off Mini Eggs and chocolate raisins. Rather adorable if you ask me. It's also the point where we reset and push into a second wave of focused work, whether that's deep work, candidate calls, or occasionally speaking with customers.

Music is constant and the 'Semaboom' rotates in ownership, with some occasional singing. Our office karaoke is alive and well.

Office number 2

We started in a 3 person office and it was… cosy.

Add in a server rack, a 3D printer, and a lot of plants (that are religiously watered every Friday at 9:45am), it was clear we needed to move before Sam joined.

Luckily, the new office was just two floors down and we moved everything in a morning. The new space was a real upgrade from 3 desks to 12.

It was described as "it's giving Severance" and the phrase "there's so much room for activities" was used far too many times, but it did feel like a milestone.

Also, I was sent on a rogue mission via LinkedIn to find a photo of someone's ex-colleague stuck to the grates. Mission accomplished.

Setting up the talent machine

Talent will always be my first love, so it naturally became my first focus. We started as a team of 3 (very quickly became 4), with a goal to hire another two more Founding Engineers by the end of April.

We also overhauled Ashby, set up consistent sourcing via Juicebox and trialled a range of sequences. Including a surprisingly effective line, I wish I could share, but we have to keep some secrets!

Over the past month, we have had some incredible conversations, coffees and Semaloop Days (where you spend a day working on an interesting problem with Rory) and it's been a great reminder of the calibre of engineers in London.

As I write this, we've signed Founding Engineer #2, with a number of final stages in the diary, so let's see if we stop at #3…

The learning curve

From payroll to accounting to compliance, hello entirely new skill set.

Stepping into the role was super exciting; it's expanded my scope and pushed me into new areas. Of course, that comes with some nerves, but doing it alongside people who support you, encourage questions, and genuinely believe in constant learning makes all the difference.

I still rely heavily on my notebook. As someone who's quite Type A, organised and process-driven, this role has stretched me. So many ideas, moving pieces, and priorities. My notes often start messy, before eventually being structured into Notion with clear priorities, deadlines, and to-do lists.

I work closely with Charlie and am learning to get comfortable with taking something to ~80%, sharing it, hearing the occasional "hmm…", and then pushing it to 100%. We're constantly building and I'm excited to keep figuring it out.

Little highlights

• Sam joined as Founding Engineer #1. We worked together for 2.5 years previously, so it's incredibly fun to be reunited, with even more jokes.
• We kicked off website and branding brainstorming with Tom Petty (ex-colleague from incident.io and now runs his own Product & Brand consultancy). The Figma mocks are already getting me excited, so stay tuned.
• We're building a presence on LinkedIn and people are starting to recognise Semaloop.
• Working in a team of positive, supportive people, who don't believe in constant chaos, is genuinely refreshing.

Here's to adding more brilliant humans, more laughter and more building.