Harry Metcalfe
I'm an entrepreneur and an advocate for meaningful, technology-enabled change. I believe in the potential of technology and the internet to drive positive social impact, and I've spent my career making that potential a reality.
I'm an entrepreneur and an advocate for meaningful, technology-enabled change. I believe in the potential of technology and the internet to drive positive social impact, and I've spent my career making that potential a reality.
I started dxw in 2008 to build better digital public services. Our mission was to tackle the inefficiencies and misalignment with user needs that plagued government technology at the time. By applying agile principles, user-centered design, and open source technologies, dxw became a trusted supplier to dozens of public sector organizations, helping them deliver better-designed services to tens of millions of people.
I ran dxw as a sole founder until 2017, when I began recruiting a leadership team to scale the business up. This ultimately led to a successful exit in 2021, when I sold dxw into employee ownership.
I also co-founded Tradecraft, a security startup focused on high-impact red-teaming and attack simulation services, helping organisations understand their vulnerabilities and improve their resilience.
I led dxw and Tradecraft with strict focus on mission, principles, and values, making them the foundation of our work. This clarity set us apart from competitors and – on occasion – gave us licence to be challenging and have strong opinions when it counted.
I work with optimism, and a clear vision for what needs to be achieved and why it's better, solving problems as I go with pragmatism and empathy. I can help teams facing difficult problems to find clarity.
I'm helped by an ability to grasp complex technical problems and explain them in plain English, and to describe the advantages of agile delivery approaches in commercial terms. In security settings, I'm able to explain cyber risks and their potential impacts in human and commercial terms, helping senior leaders make better decisions.