FROM OPERATOR TO INNOVATOR
Failure is not a permanent address; it is a position on the line. The danger is not being on the left for a while. The danger is standing still, defending the spot and purchasing matching curtains. Consistent effort shifts the position. Experience helps choose the direction, networks
shorten the distance and technology
provides leverage, but movement still requires someone to act.
Elite’s launch in January 2020 could easily be described as unfortunate timing. It can also be seen as the beginning of a body of knowledge that made the next move possible.
Four years later, TaxiApps turned operator experience into tools for other operators. What looked like a detour became part of the route.
Diversification with a purpose
Diversification works best when it is connected to what you already know. For me, the move from operator to software builder was not a leap into an unrelated world. It was a change of gear: the same road, seen from a different seat. Thirty years of operational experience supplied the problems worth solving; networking supplied the wider view; and
software supplied a way to turn knowledge into repeatable value.
The ambition is bigger than building apps or websites. It is to help private hire companies compete, control their own customer journey and benefit from technology designed around the realities of their work.
If that helps more good local operators move from the left side of the line towards the right, then every difficult shift, awkward integration and mysteriously urgent Friday-afternoon phone call has contributed something useful.
I suppose, in the end, it is not about where you are; it is about where you are going - and journeys are nearly always better when they are shared. So reach out, attend the events, stay for the PHTMafter-parties and make the effort to talk to people. You may occasionally have to deal with the morning-after consequences, but you will also make friends, exchange ideas and build relationships that can take you further than travelling alone ever could.
The next opportunity may begin with a conversation, a handshake or simply being the last person still discussing taxis when everyone else has sensibly gone to bed.
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NOVEMBER 2026 PHTM
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