Callum Hale-Thomson - Founder - First Thursday

Breakfast with Founders 🥐 this week I had breakfast with Callum Hale-Thomson 

Callum is the founder of First Thursday - a platform developed to help galleries use data to grow their collector network, increasing sales and saving time on admin tasks.

Becoming customer and problem obsessed and revenue generating helps create a significant value as a startup.

We spoke about:

- Callum’s journey in the art world. Growing up in a family of artists, it was inevitable that there’d be a level of influence. Despite that, Callum chose an academic path studying at Cambridge and ‘accidentally’ falling into startups when a founder split their coffee on Callum’s laptop whilst doing his dissertation at the Ace hotel in Shoreditch. Sound like a film? Ask Callum for the rest, which is now history!

- Becoming obsessed with solving problems through digitisation. With a family member being an artist, Callum took the opportunity to create an online and social media footprint to access new art collectors. This was a brilliant opportunity to understand the challenges that artists were facing in commercialising their work.

- Which leads us to the world of art galleries. Digging into the depths of gallery and collector relationships, First Thursday has built technology designed to enhance interactions and commercial conversions. Armed with a bike, laptop and legs - Callum has literally put in the legwork to learn more and acquire his customers. 

- The need to raise investment. Becoming customer and problem obsessed and revenue generating helps create a significant value as a startup. Not only can this help de-risk the opportunity to potential investors, but it can also create more favourable equity terms and less potential dilution to founders. 

I am forever impressed by founders who focus their commitments on underserved industries. Industries where technology can accelerate and enhance interactions that already are happening, but have stagnated over time due to automation and cloud based solutions. 

I certainly learnt a lot about the art world!