Work — Searsha Sadek

UK AI Startup of the Year2024

LBF Trailblazer Award2025

The Bookseller Startup of the Year2025

GBEA Early Stage Stand Out Finalist2024

Cannes Lion Silver2019

Campaign One to Watch2021

Innovation Excellence Awards2024

UK AI Startup of the Year2024

LBF Trailblazer Award2025

The Bookseller Startup of the Year2025

GBEA Early Stage Stand Out Finalist2024

Cannes Lion Silver2019

Campaign One to Watch2021

Innovation Excellence Awards2024

Founder & Chief Product Officer · 2022 – Present

Shimmr AI

Publishing runs on 95% of books never getting marketed after launch. The economics don't work and the tools don't exist. Shimmr changes both. We build end-to-end, self-optimising advertising campaigns: build the ads, find the target, serve the ads, improve.

I co-founded the company, originated the core product and IP, designed the underlying system, and built much of the early product. We work with some of the largest publishers in the world.

Visit shimmr.ai

UK AIStartup of the Year 2024

LBFTrailblazer 2025

95%Books never marketed post-launch

Multi-agentAI architecture

What we build

End-to-end advertising campaigns that build, target, serve, and self-optimise
Cultural heat scoring — measuring whether a book has cultural momentum before it publishes
AI metadata generation — rich, channel-specific metadata at scale
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) — making books visible to AI recommendation systems
Manuscript analysis — acquisition-stage intelligence from manuscript or partial

Searsha presenting at Publisher Lounge, Bologna 2025

Publisher Lounge · Bologna Children's Book Fair · 2025

BolognaBookPlus · Agentic Systems Panel · 2025

Chief Revenue Officer

ProQuo AI

2018 – 2022

An AI-driven brand management platform. I joined early and we scaled to $3M ARR. I led the commercial function with a 40-person distributed team across London, New York, and Johannesburg — and personally brought in over $1M in enterprise sales.

The job was part product, part sales, part organisational design — building a commercial function from scratch in a market that didn't have an obvious category yet. I held full P&L responsibility, led senior hiring, built the customer success function, and worked closely with the CEO on strategy and fundraising.

AI Product Strategy

Advisory & Consulting

Ongoing

I work with organisations on what to build with AI, in what order, and why. I've done this from the inside — as a founder, Chief Product Officer, and Chief Revenue Officer — which makes the conversations more grounded than a pure consultant's.

The work typically involves identifying where AI will genuinely change outcomes, designing the product or operational system around that, and sequencing the build so it doesn't create debt from day one.

Board-level, fractional Chief Product Officer, and project-based engagements available.

Get in touch

Collective

Twigs — AI that actually works inside organisations

Most organisations aren't failing at AI because the technology doesn't work. They're failing because three different problems are being treated as one. Twigs separates them.

Layer 1

Align

Getting leadership genuinely aligned on AI — not just nominally committed. The governance conversations, the cultural shift, the decisions about what has to change before anything else can.

Layer 2

Design

Working out where in the business AI will actually change outcomes, designing the operating model around that, and sequencing the build so nothing conflicts. Strategy becomes a plan, not a slide.

Layer 3

Build

Building the agents, workflows, and policies that turn the design into something people actually use day to day. Implementation that connects to real work, not a proof of concept.

Visit twigs.pro

Leadership track record

Board & Governance

Co-founder and board member at Shimmr. Full accountability at C-level across two AI companies. Active in fundraising, investor relations, and company narrative.

Revenue & Commercial

Scaled ProQuo AI to $3M ARR. Over $1M in enterprise sales personally. End-to-end commercial system design: acquisition, onboarding, success, retention.

Team & Organisation

Led 40-person distributed teams across the UK, US, and South Africa. Senior hiring, org design, and operational realignment through growth and restructure.

Strategy

Droga5 · BBH · Grey London

2013 – 2018

Five years as a brand strategist at three of the better agencies in London. A Cannes Lion Silver for Coal Drops Yard. A Campaign One to Watch. Campaigns across the UK, US, and Europe.

Strategy in advertising is a particular discipline: find the real problem inside a brief, quickly. Make a case that is emotionally and commercially true. Hand it over without losing the thing that made it worth doing. I still use it constantly.

Coal Drops Yard · Cannes Lion Silver

Coal Drops Yard · Outdoor

Coal Drops Yard · Flyposters

Coal Drops YardVodafonePeroni PanteneKahluaHugo Boss RustlersGreenwich Peninsula

Building things
that scale.