Skip to main content

​
What this section is

Conversations collects published interview and dialogue content — structured exchanges with people building, operating, and supporting companies in fintech, open banking, AI, and the Scotland technology ecosystem. The primary source of content here is the Building Scotland: Conversations project. Additional conversations from other contexts are included where they are substantive and published.

​
Building Scotland conversations

Each conversation surfaces real challenges, explores practical fixes, and ends with a public pledge. Together they form the evidence base for the Building Scotland articles and policy work. AI, strategy, and national positioning
  • Colin Carmichael — AI, momentum, and Scotland’s window. How post-COVID density dropped and why the AI opportunity is time-limited.
  • Chris Herd — maker or taker in the AI race. Energy as a strategic advantage and the case for an AI-first country.
Ecosystem design and system accountability
  • Nick Sherrard — system accountability and conversion. Scotland’s spending-to-outcomes gap and why nobody owns the whole system.
  • Nektarios Liolios — niche, motivation, and ecosystem design. The missing “why” behind Scotland’s ecosystem plans.
  • Vicky Brock — Estonia, infrastructure, and inclusive entrepreneurship. Infrastructure-first thinking and the full path from pilot to procurement.
Founder experience and community
  • Robert Gelb — founder dependency and market reality. Excess support, confronting the market earlier, and respecting all forms of ambition.
  • Andrew Williams — community, talent, and reconnection. Scotland’s lost community density and rebuilding founder-to-founder connection.
  • Ross Laurie — a 20-year plan with economics. Incentive-driven location choice, cash as operating system, and long-horizon planning.

​
What makes it here

A conversation is included if it is structured (not casual exchange), published (not private), and substantive (the interviewee’s experience or perspective adds to the body of knowledge documented elsewhere in this wiki). The bar is quality of insight, not volume of output.

​
How to use it

Each conversation page includes a summary of the key themes, the guest’s pledge, direct links to the published article and podcast, and connections to the knowledge areas the conversation develops.