Tech Paired Podcast
Real conversations with the people shaping technology and change
Hosted by Michael Phair and Stuart Alexander, Tech Paired explores the leadership stories, scale-up lessons, technology shifts and human decisions behind modern tech businesses.
From cybersecurity and AI-first engineering to global IT leadership, platform teams and founder journeys, every episode is built around honest insight rather than polished soundbites.
What Tech Paired is about
Co-hosted by Michael Phair and Stuart Alexander, Tech Paired is for founders, technology leaders, engineers, product thinkers, change professionals and anyone interested in how great teams are built.
- Founder journeys and scale-up lessons
- AI, cyber, software and platform engineering
- Leadership, team design and transformation
- The human side of technology careers
Latest episode
AI-first engineering, team design and the future of software development
Our latest conversation explores how AI is reshaping software teams, engineering leadership, hiring, governance and the future of technical careers.
With Allan Mayberry
AI-First Engineering, Team Design & The Future of Software Development
Michael Phair and Stuart Alexander speak with Allan Mayberry, Senior Director of Engineering at Planet DDS, about what AI-first engineering looks like inside a real software organisation. The conversation covers Claude, Copilot, agent-based development, pod-based teams, governance, security and why human judgement still matters.
Episodes
Listen to the first 7 conversations
Each episode is summarised for quick scanning. Use the expandable notes to see the main themes before listening.
Birthdays Not Missed: Building Quorum Cyber
Federico Charosky, CEO of Quorum Cyber
Federico traces his journey from Buenos Aires to building one of the UK’s fastest-growing cybersecurity firms. The conversation covers leadership, AI’s impact on security work, why SMBs are targets, platform thinking, quantum risk and the human metric of “birthdays not missed”.
View key themes
- From Buenos Aires to Scotland and the Quorum Cyber scale-up journey.
- Bootstrapping, private equity, M&A and the realities of leadership.
- Crime-as-a-service, SMB risk and modern cyber incident response.
- Why security programmes should favour platforms and simplicity.
- Quantum risk, AI, purpose and the importance of not missing birthdays.
Structure as Empathy: Scaling with Andy Doyle
Andy Doyle, Chief Product Officer & AI Leader
Andy explores how the best technology leaders turn chaos into clarity. The conversation covers product thinking, AI and data strategy, feedback loops, team learning and why structure, empathy and listening are hidden forces behind high-performing teams.
View key themes
- Why scaling companies can mistake product teams for feature factories.
- How structure can create empathy, clarity and better decision-making.
- Why AI is misunderstood as a quick ROI machine.
- How leaders create feedback loops between people, purpose and progress.
- Why the best teams learn faster than they deliver.
Building, Scaling & Reinventing: The Entrepreneurial Playbook
Fraser Ferguson, Founder & CEO of KubeNet
Fraser shares nearly three decades of lessons from building, scaling, exiting, failing and reinventing across the UK technology market. The episode covers the dotcom era, MSP growth, cloud, cyber, AI, sales engines, exits and the discipline required to keep adapting.
View key themes
- Lessons from the early internet, dotcom boom and modern AI hype cycle.
- Scaling a recruitment business to 110 people and exiting for £4.9m.
- Why sales engines, relationships and cash discipline matter.
- The evolution of KubeNet into a modern MSP and ISP.
- Digital transformation, vendor pressure, cyber and the future of MSP talent.
The New Software Engineering Era
Patty O’Callaghan, Technical Director, Head of AI at Charles River Laboratories
Patty unpacks what software development looks like in an AI-first world. The episode explores AI-assisted development, the changing SDLC, governance, shadow AI, testing, validation and why engineering roles are shifting from coder to architect.
View key themes
- A project estimated at 3 developers for 3 months delivered in 1 week with AI-assisted workflows.
- How AI is changing planning, coding, testing and deployment.
- Why testing, validation, governance and AI literacy matter more than ever.
- The risk of shadow AI inside organisations.
- Why 2026 could be a tsunami year for unprepared engineering teams.
Scale Without Chaos: Global IT Leadership, Major Incidents & Transformation
Donald McNeil, former IT Director at Dexcom, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Transform Hospital Group
Donald shares what it takes to scale IT across complex, international and regulated environments. The conversation covers global operating models, major incidents, ERP, vendor dependency, business-led transformation and trusted IT leadership.
View key themes
- Why global IT leadership is about language, accountability and local realities.
- The tension between global standards and local business needs.
- How to deliver ERP and business change without disrupting the organisation.
- Where vendors create value and where they create risk.
- What makes an IT leader trusted at enterprise scale.
Platform, People & Purpose: Engineering at Scale in a Changing World
Cameron Lepper, Director of Platform Engineering at Tribal Group
Cameron explores what it takes to build platforms, teams and meaningful careers in modern tech. The episode covers platform engineering, SRE, DBA, FinOps, remote-first leadership, global teams, digital skills and inclusion.
View key themes
- Platform engineering as an enabler, not a blocker.
- Balancing speed, reliability, cost and carbon responsibility.
- Leading distributed teams across global regions.
- Hiring for technical strength, communication and mindset.
- Digital inclusion, access to skills and representation in tech careers.
AI-First Engineering, Team Design & The Future of Software Development
Allan Mayberry, Senior Director of Engineering at Planet DDS
Allan shares a grounded view of AI-first engineering inside a real software organisation. The conversation explores Claude, Copilot, agent-based development, engineering judgement, pod-based teams, governance, security and deepfake candidate risk.
View key themes
- How engineers are shifting from writing every line of code to orchestrating systems.
- Why AI is a co-pilot, not an autopilot.
- Pod-based teams, reduced context switching and closer customer alignment.
- Guardrails, testing, peer review, compliance and change logs.
- Advice for junior engineers, senior engineers and leaders in an AI-first world.
Recurring themes
What the conversations keep coming back to
Across the first seven episodes, a clear pattern emerges: technology changes fast, but people, clarity and judgement still define the best teams.
Leadership under pressure
How founders, CIOs and engineering leaders make decisions when teams, markets and technology keep shifting.
AI without the hype
Practical conversations about where AI helps, where it creates risk and why human judgement still matters.
Scaling teams well
How structure, communication, autonomy and accountability help teams grow without creating chaos.
Careers with context
What candidates, engineers and leaders need to learn, adapt and stay relevant as technology changes.
Be a guest
Have a story worth sharing?
We are always interested in speaking with founders, engineering leaders, product thinkers, CIOs, CTOs, transformation leaders and people building meaningful technology careers.
Good guest topics include:
- Building or scaling a technology business
- Leading software, platform, AI, cyber or data teams
- Delivering transformation in complex organisations
- Changing how teams hire, learn and work
- Honest lessons from failure, reinvention or growth
Want to keep up with Tech Paired?
Browse the latest conversations, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, watch full episodes on YouTube, or suggest a future guest.