“So I’ve noticed this problem, I have an idea how to solve it, can you help?”
This is the type of question Rob L and I love to hear.
In fact, this question is exactly the reason why we started Old.St Labs in the first place. Just over a year ago we set out to build a company that could say “YES!” to this request and help breathe life into people’s ideas.
Over the past 12 months we’ve made it our mission to speak to as many people as possible, in all sorts of situations about all types of solvable problems. We’ve spoken to tons of people, from start-up founders to corporate innovators, from complete techies to the tech phobic, and everything in between. It’s been fascinating.
As with many things we’ve all experienced, these conversations have changed a lot over the past year. Twelve months ago many people were hunkering down, everything was on hold, while we all waited to see how things would turn out. This has now changed. Whether due to all that time at home, having to engage with technology more, or just having an opportunity to consider and improve things. The conversations more recently have been about how to solve problems, improve systems and move forward.
In this spirit of opportunity, and with our first birthday just past, we thought it might be interesting and helpful to present some of the themes of these conversations to a wider audience, to share the insights gained from the innovators we’ve been lucky enough to speak to.
So over the course of the next few months we are going to present a series of articles about technology, and how to think about building it. We’ll cover the What, Where, How and Why of outsourced tech development, and we’ll try to make it as interesting as possible!
We’ll start with some basics, what is involved in outsourcing, what to consider and what to avoid, because it certainly isn’t all rosy and easy to do. We’ll then delve into some more specific areas like what you should have in an outsourcing contract, or what tools are helpful in managing an outsourced project. We’d also be happy to take suggestions from you, if you have a burning desire to know about a particular aspect of outsourcing, then let us know.
Who are these articles for?
So, if you are a budding start-up founder who wants to build an app or a website; or you’ve been handed a new project at work which you think technology could help solve; or you are just curious about what we’ve learnt, then these articles will hopefully be of interest to you.
Happy reading.
Author:
How and why Old.St Labs began at the height of the Covid pandemic.
AI agents were hyped to be 2025’s big productivity breakthrough, but the real wins came from small, practical automations rather than bold “digital worker” fantasies. Businesses that focused on clear use cases, team upskilling, and quick, measurable improvements saw the most value, while grand AI transformations mostly stumbled due to messy processes and poor data.
Podcast
This week, Rob sits down with Lucy Woodhead, VP of Operations at US Jetting, to talk about what it really takes to run and modernise a second-generation industrial business. From bringing specialist equipment online to improving internal operations, Lucy shares how a traditionally offline industry is adapting to new technology and what the future could look like for manufacturers like hers.
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