Sunday Signal: The Authenticity Crisis: Builder.ai, London Tech Week, and the Hiring Trap
Where technology meets human potential – strategic insights for leaders navigating transformation. Issue #9 – Sunday 15 June 2025
⏱️ 5 min read
The Bottom Line Up Front
This week's signal is stark: authenticity has become technology's rarest commodity. From exaggerated valuations to performative diversity gestures, the sector's credibility crisis demands a radical rethink. Organisations excelling in authentic execution will dominate the coming decade.
The Authenticity Crisis: London-based Builder.ai and the Ghost of Theranos
The dramatic collapse of Builder.ai, founded by Sachin Dev Duggal, echoes Theranos under Elizabeth Holmes in chilling ways. Builder.ai claimed groundbreaking AI technology for automated app development, but secretly employed 700 human engineers in India manually creating the apps it advertised as automated. Similarly, Theranos promised revolutionary blood-testing devices but secretly performed tests manually on traditional machines.
Both Duggal and Holmes crafted compelling narratives of cutting-edge technology that concealed manual, low-tech operations. Each leveraged these deceptive stories to attract major investments—Builder.ai secured $450 million and reached a valuation of $1.5 billion, backed by heavyweights like Microsoft, Insight Partners, and Qatar Investment Authority; Theranos once peaked at $9 billion, funded by elite investors.
The downfall of these companies demonstrates how perilously close the technology sector comes to rewarding narrative over substance. As investors, consumers, and industry leaders, we must demand and foster a culture of genuine transparency, rigorous scrutiny, and ethical innovation. Without this critical shift, the technology industry risks repeating these damaging cycles, harming trust, stalling genuine progress, and leaving us all vulnerable to future deception.
London Tech Week: Another Davos?
Every year, tech bros gather at London Tech Week, parading their supposed commitment to innovation and inclusion while indulging in curated optics and high-profile photo opportunities. My feed floods with polished images of smiling executives, earnest panel discussions, and self-congratulatory hashtags. But this year, a glaring reality check exposed the superficiality: entrepreneur Davina Schonle was denied entry simply for bringing her infant daughter.
Let's cut through the noise: London Tech Week isn't championing inclusion—it's amplifying exclusion. Much like Davos, it's become another spectacle where genuine change is overshadowed by carefully staged PR exercises. The episode with Schonle highlights the profound disconnect between lofty declarations and actual operational practice.
Further, the event underscores a troubling regional bias in UK tech, consistently placing London at the centre and neglecting innovation elsewhere. Prime Minister Keir Starmer encapsulated this bias recently, declaring, “I’m a London MP, and that means I understand firsthand just how important our sector is as we go forward.” The clear implication: modern tech thrives primarily in London, leaving the rest of the UK sidelined and undervalued.
Real inclusion isn’t achieved through panel debates and trending hashtags. It requires tangible, structural commitments: family-friendly environments, accessible facilities, equitable regional representation, and authentic accountability. Unless events like London Tech Week seriously address these systemic shortcomings, they risk becoming irrelevant, expensive displays of performative virtue rather than meaningful platforms for change.
Key questions:
How do we transform tech events from PR spectacles into platforms of real accountability?
What actionable infrastructure must events implement immediately to achieve genuine inclusivity and regional equity?
The Hiring Trap: Why Big Names Can Sink Start-ups
Adapted from my latest Yorkshire Post column.
My most costly mistakes weren't strategic—they were hiring the wrong people. During Silicon Valley's dotcom boom, seasoned executives from corporations like HP and IBM jumped into start-ups, attracted by rapid success and stock options. Many quickly faltered. Their structured backgrounds clashed spectacularly with entrepreneurial chaos.
I've learned repeatedly that impressive CVs don't guarantee start-up success. Corporate leaders accustomed to structured environments, generous resources, and clear processes often flounder when thrust into start-up uncertainty. Their instinct is to complicate, delegate, and defer responsibility, rather than take decisive action.
Start-ups need versatile generalists who embrace uncertainty, solve problems proactively, and prioritise action over management titles. Early hires shape your trajectory decisively.
Core lessons:
Hire adaptability and grit over polished credentials
Emphasise problem-solving skills and ownership
Recognise your first hires define your culture
Strategic Synthesis: Authenticity as Competitive Advantage
These challenges—authenticity, hiring, inclusion—highlight a critical competitive shift. The next decade belongs to organisations capable of genuine, transparent execution across every dimension. Those who master authentic practices will set the pace in technological advancement.
Guiding principles:
Authenticity as foundational
Capability-first hiring
Genuine inclusion integrated with operations
Immediate actions:
Audit institutional gaps between stated values and reality
Refine recruitment processes prioritising genuine capability
Evaluate inclusion practices for practical effectiveness
🚀 Final Thought
Looking Forward: The Imperative of Transformation
We stand at a pivotal juncture: authenticity isn't just ethically sound—it's strategically essential. Organisations addicted to hype will find themselves swiftly outpaced by competitors who prioritise real execution and measurable results.
The clock is ticking for leaders to align values with action, rhetoric with reality. The tech sector's credibility hangs in the balance. Only those who embrace transparency, accountability, and authenticity in every decision and interaction will secure their place in a landscape increasingly intolerant of empty promises.
The choice is clear: innovate genuinely or face obsolescence. The stakes have never been higher.
Oh, and London Tech Week organisers—if a woman arrives with her child, perhaps let her in. She might not have easy access to childcare support.
Until next Sunday,
David
David Richards MBE is a technology entrepreneur, educator, and commentator. The Sunday Signal offers weekly insights at the intersection of technology, society, and human potential.
© 2025 David Richards. All rights reserved.