“It’s time to put Manchester on the map”

Patrick Smith says Manchester entrepreneurs need to be “bolder and braver” when it comes to shouting about the city region’s tech credentials.

Smith’s confidence came at the launch of our ‘GM 125 Rising Stars of Business’ list, held at KPMG’s office in St Peter’s Square in conjunction with the GM Business Growth Hub on Friday.

Wearing a pink jacket and Nike Hi Tops to match his company’s Zally branding, Smith told the 100-strong audience that he planned to build a business “bigger than a unicorn”, get rid of passwords and help put Manchester on the map.

Cyber ​​security start-up Zally, which has raised £1.3m towards its £1.6m target, is only set up in 2022 but has attracted heavyweights to its board, including 6point6 founder David Webb as chairman.

“We need to be more ambitious,” he tells me afterwards. “With Zally, we have a global opportunity.

“It’s all about being bold and brave. And we can do that while putting Manchester on the map.”

Manchester was considered the perfect home for growing businesses

Smith says he is a natural entrepreneur who has run multiple businesses including full stack development, digital marketing, events and 15 years as a DJ.

“It’s a journey to be an entrepreneur: you have to try, fail fast, learn — and get to a point where you can build something like Zally with an incredible team,” he says. “I was able to find people smarter than me to help me grow as a founder and CEO. And that will help build a better business.

“Each experience brings you knowledge and know-how about doing things differently. I look at things in a different way and that helps me every day to approach the challenges as part of the journey – because there are ups and downs in a business and that makes me excited that something positive will happen.”

Explaining that he received “a lot of ‘no’s’ along with ‘yes’,” Smith sees positives in all the feedback. “We’re creating a new technology – there’s no playbook on how it should be done.

“We have to find a way to tell our story in the best way without listening to ‘you have to take this out and you have to put this in’… we just did it our way.

“When someone tells us something can’t be done, that’s when we know we’re onto something. Telling us ‘no’ just adds fuel to that fire!”

In an interview a few years ago, Dragons’ Den star Steve Bartlett told my colleague Chris Maguire – who hosted Friday’s event – that he chose to wear all black every day to reduce the number of decisions which he must take.

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Like Bartlett, Smith is clearly aware of the image. However, his vision is very different. “It’s all about having an identity: I’m a creative individual, so I have to show that in some capacity. I do it for me – I want to feel good about what I wear.

“I have a massive sneaker collection and I’m obsessed with matching my outfits… I think those little breaks in the day where I think about something other than work are healthy too.”

GM 125 Rising Stars of Business 2024

On being named to the GM 125 main roster, Smith added: “It’s an honor to be alongside so many impressive companies and to sit on one of the panels this morning.

“Manchester has so much going for it – I think we just need to be bolder and braver to shout about it on a global scale.

“Outside this room – and LinkedIn – we need to be the ambassadors who enjoy Manchester wherever we go.”