“Building a successful tech brand requires a deep understanding of your customers' pain points and a commitment to solving them with innovative, scalable, and adaptable solutions. It's not just about having the most advanced technology; it's about ensuring your technology can evolve with your customers' needs and remain relevant in a rapidly changing market.”
Kallikor is a spin-out venture from Improbable – one of the pioneers of Metaverse development - and earlier this year we worked closely with Jonathan Barrett, CEO, and the team at Kallikor to develop their name and brand.
We know how notoriously difficult it is to create a successful tech start up, so we were excited to catch up with Jonathan, to reflect on the journey he’s been on and get his insights on what it takes to become a successful tech business that can predict the unpredictable.
TC: Tell us a bit about Kallikor, the journey you've been on to launch the business, and your ambitions for its future.
JB: At Kallikor we want to enable a society that thrives in an era of rapid change, AI, robotics and uncertainty. We were born to bring the real and synthetic worlds together to make organisational ambitions a reality so businesses can confidently transform to create sustainable growth and unlock synergies. We enable them to create digital twins of their operating environments to gain greater visibility of their supply chain and access real-time, data-led forecasting to identify and pursue the most optimal decisions and strategies. In short, our technology helps firms predict the unpredictable and turn their operational ambitions into reality.
We often describe Kallikor as an 'oddly mature' start-up because our journey actually began as a spin-out from Improbable Defence, with a team that already had over seven years’ experience working together and proven intellectual property.
For now, we're focusing on improving how our clients anticipate and address today's major supply chain and operational challenges - from modelling the impact of extreme events and increased competition, to accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies and maximising return on investment.
Ultimately, our goal is to become the go-to platform for strategic foresight in an era where AI and robotics are redefining the business landscape.
TC: In your opinion, what does it take to develop a successful tech brand? And what is the key decision you’ve made that has benefited your business the most?
JB: Building a successful tech brand requires a deep understanding of your customers' pain points and a commitment to solving them with innovative, scalable, and adaptable solutions. It's not just about having the most advanced technology; it's about ensuring your technology can evolve with your customers' needs and remain relevant in a rapidly changing market. Additionally, transparency and trust are crucial—your brand must stand for something customers can believe in: reliability, innovation, or ethical responsibility.
Having an emphasis on explainability is a crucial part of this and is something which sets Kallikor apart. While many AI solutions offer powerful predictive capabilities, they often lack transparency, leaving businesses to operate in a "black box." Our focus on making AI-generated insights interpretable and actionable has significantly enhanced our credibility. This minor detail – ensuring that every decision supported by our platform can be traced back to understandable causes – has significantly impacted how clients perceive our reliability and value.
Our smartest decision was the approach we took to building our platform, Adaption™. We developed it as a scalable, reusable factory for synthetic environments. This has allowed us to address a broad range of challenges across different industries, while minimising the need for costly bespoke solutions. Ultimately, it’s helped us scale quickly, deliver consistent value and position ourselves as leaders in the field.
TC: And what are the biggest challenges facing tech businesses today? What are the biggest mistakes tech brands can make?
JB: A significant challenge is that the rapid pace of technological advancement can outstrip businesses’ ability to adapt. This creates a risk of misalignment between technological capabilities and actual business needs, leading to underperformance and wasted investment.
One of the biggest mistakes is prioritising product development over customer needs. Tech brands often get caught up in the race to build the next big thing without ensuring that there is a clear, customer-driven demand for it. Another common mistake is neglecting the importance of user experience and explainability—if the end-users cannot easily understand and trust the technology, it won't achieve its full potential.
TC: What's brand vs. product's role in developing a successful tech business?
JB: The product is the foundation of any tech business—it must solve real problems and do so effectively. However, the brand is what amplifies the product's success. A strong brand communicates the product's value, builds trust, and differentiates it in a crowded market. In essence, while the product delivers value, the brand tells a story that resonates with customers and drives long-term loyalty.
TC: You’ve mentioned that understanding customers is crucial, how do you go about building this understanding? And how do you continue to stay relevant to your customers in an environment that’s constantly changing?
JB: We engage in continuous dialogue with our customers, using their feedback to inform every stage of our development process. Our Adaption™ platform plays a crucial role by enabling us to simulate different scenarios and explore various 'what-if' scenarios, ensuring that our solutions are relevant and resilient in the face of change. We ensure they continue delivering value by constantly validating our solutions against real-world data and customer feedback.
Staying relevant and staying ahead requires a commitment to continuous innovation and a willingness to pivot when necessary. We invest heavily in R&D to ensure Adaption™ remains at the cutting edge. At the same time, we stay closely connected to our customers and the broader market to anticipate changes and respond quickly. Our Adaption™ platform's inherent flexibility allows us to quickly incorporate new insights and technologies, keeping us ahead of the curve.
We are also committed to developing technology that is not only innovative but also ethical and socially responsible – something that’s increasingly important for us as a business as well as for our customers. Growth and sustainability are not mutually exclusive - our solutions are designed to help businesses optimise their operations in a way that is both economically and environmentally sustainable. We also take ethical considerations seriously, particularly in developing and deploying AI technologies. Our focus on explainability and transparency ensures that our AI solutions are aligned with societal values and can be trusted to make fair, responsible decisions.
It’s clear Kallikor’s relentless focus on customer needs and unwavering commitment to transparency have propelled it to the forefront of AI and robotics, setting a new standard for innovation and leadership in the industry. With Jonathan and his team continually pushing boundaries, Kallikor is set to continue leading the charge in predictive technology, empowering businesses to stay ahead in a rapidly changing world.
