I started in advertising. Droga5, BBH, Grey London — five years of trying to find the real problem inside a brief before anyone else did, and then making something around it that couldn't be ignored. A Cannes Lion. A bunch of campaigns I'm proud of. I loved a lot of it. What I didn't love was finishing a piece of work and having no idea, six months later, whether it had done anything.
That frustration is, honestly, what started everything that came after. I wanted to see the thing land. So in 2018 I became Chief Revenue Officer at ProQuo AI, a brand management platform that was trying to answer exactly that question with data. We scaled to $3M ARR. I ran a 40-person team across London, New York, and Johannesburg, brought in over a million in enterprise sales myself, and learned more about how commercial systems actually work — or don't — than I could have from any other job.
In 2022 I started Shimmr. Publishing has a problem that's been visible for years and hasn't been solved because the economics made it impossible to justify: 95% of books never get marketed after they publish. The window closes, the budget moves on, and most titles just quietly disappear. AI changes the cost structure enough that it doesn't have to be that way. Shimmr builds the tools. We're now working with some of the largest publishers in the world.
I also run a Substack called Searshing for Meaning, which is where I think in public about what AI is doing to culture — not the hype version or the doom version, just what I can actually see happening. There's also a peer-reviewed paper in the JAISD (that's the UNESCO one) introducing something I call the Cultural Vitality Framework, and a second paper in progress. The academic work is useful because it forces a different kind of rigour, and I like that it slows me down.
Alongside all of this, I kickbox. It's not a metaphor for anything. I just genuinely enjoy it.
Psychology degree from Manchester. Grew up between County Mayo and the UK.
Creative work
Music video production
Irish-Egyptian musician and songwriter based in London. BBC Introducing, Spotify New Music Friday, Apple Music NMD, Sunday Times Culture, Billboard. Warner's boutique publisher W Songs. Syncs on Netflix, Amazon, ITV.
I produced music videos for her releases — hands-on, from brief through to cut.
Visit shaefri.comYouTube production
A motorcycle travel channel. Discovering the boss in every bike, in places around the world.
Producer on the channel — shoot logistics, creative direction, and post.
Watch on YouTube2013 to 2018
Five years as a strategist at some of the better agencies in London. A Cannes Lion Silver. Campaigns for Vodafone, Peroni, Pantene, Kahlua, Uniqlo, Coal Drops Yard.
This is where I learned to find the real problem inside a brief, quickly. Still use it constantly.
What people say
Speaking invitations, AI strategy conversations, potential collaborations — my door is open.
Pick a time