An unconventional route here
The long version: shipyards, a cleaning company, an earthquake, seven thousand lessons, and the products that came out the other side.
- 1981
Born in Scotland
The journey starts on the west coast of Scotland.
- 1999
Fabricator: ships & submarines
First job out of school, building ships and submarines in Scotland's shipyards. Real deadlines, real steel.
- 2005
Three years in sales
Learned to listen, pitch, and close. Skills that turned out to matter more than any of the steel.
- 2008
Founded my first company
Started a cleaning business from nothing and grew it to over 30 employees.
- 2008
Wrote my first code
Self-taught from day one. The habit stuck, long before it became the job.
- 2015
Left Scotland for Southeast Asia
Volunteered in Vietnam, rode a motorbike from the north of the country to the south, and kept going.
- 2015
Nepal earthquake relief
Raised funds and coordinated international volunteers to rebuild eight homes in a Nepali village.
- 2016
Spoke in New York & San Francisco
Invited to share the travel and volunteer work at speaking events in NYC and SF.
- 2016
Became a teacher
TEFL/TESOL certified, then five years teaching in Vietnamese schools and a Japanese international school.
- 2020
Went online: 7,000+ lessons
Built an independent online tutoring practice, taught thousands of lessons to students around the world, and met the problem I'd end up solving.
- 2022
Opened a pizza restaurant
Pizza Lagi, a delivery business in Vietnam that's still running today.
- 2024
Founded Tuton
Turned 7,000 lessons of firsthand frustration, and sixteen years of writing code, into the platform I wished I'd had at lesson one.
- 2025
Shipped WordViva & GramViva. Got married.
Two more products live for language learners, and the best decision of the lot.
- Now
All-in on Tuton
Building, teaching, and operating everything myself, from the product to the infrastructure it runs on.