A Problem Solver on Mission

Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way since Alan Turing first posed the question, “Can machines think?” in 1950. Computers have since defeated a Russian chess grandmaster at his own game, won at Jeopardy, written a sci-fi screenplay from scratch, and can successfully prompt suggestions every time you make a search engine query. Machine learning algorithms are enabling marketers to make sense of overwhelming amounts of data and deliver better customer experiences. And to generate content in record time. The power of artificial intelligence is changing the content marketing landscape for the better. 

In the long run, content marketing will be the future of marketing, as it’s becoming easier and easier to advertise the product or service to an audience, therefore it’s harder and harder for that message to get through to people. Therefore, brands have to offer more and more value earlier in the sales and marketing process. Tom Salvat was among the first ones to see that more and more people were trying to optimize that content without realising that actually it’s the content itself that is of most value. He saw a gap in the market, to provide a solution that provided the insights that brand need to really resonate with their audience. So Tom turned to AI as a solution and took place the foundation of CONCURED.

Leveraging AI to help content creators create content that works

Today, Trusted by the world’s leading brands, CONCURED is the world’s first AI-Powered Content Strategy Platform that guides the ultimate content strategy to help maximize engagement and ROI. CONCURED leverages the latest advances in NLP, machine learning & deep learning to help content creators create content that it now knows what its audience wants. With the help of CONCRED, Clients have seen an average of 30 hours saved per month, increase in performance of over 100% and through centralized data harmonized creative teams. CONCURED uses NLP, machine learning and data science to effectively read content like a human at an unprecedented scale. This allows marketers to make better, more informed decisions by understanding its audience and deliver compelling customer experiences. The platform essentially offers the ability to tap into the research of a million researchers every minute.

An entrepreneurial family background paving the way

Tom grew in an entrepreneurial environment with both parents and step father having their own businesses. “My dad runs his own café, my mum started a garden design, property business and restaurant, my step dad worked in No Win, No Fee, then he started a computer games company. I was surrounded by people taking risks on building something they were passionate about that would hopefully make them financially successful,” Tom recalls.

Tom was drawn to the idea of being an entrepreneur at the tender of fifteen. He used a small inheritance to import guitars from the USA for $1k and sell them for £1k pounds. At a time when the pound-dollar was roughly 2-1. He was always quick to spot opportunities. He spent most of his twenties wondering when the right time would be, but it always seemed to be the wrong time. In his thirties, Tom realised there would never a good time to quit your job and take the risk of starting a business. “I had no kids and some money in a property, and I thought, ‘I’ll do it’. I sold my flat and started CONCURED,” Tom shares on a beginning of CONCURED.

Achievements is just number, customer satisfaction is a key!

Before establishing CONCURED, Tom led a number of content marketing businesses to drive significant revenues in Europe and the USA. Tom has advised a number of the world’s biggest brands on content strategy including J.P. Morgan, Deloitte, AXA, Amazon, and many more. At the Press Association, he took a business that was struggling and led them to seven-figures in revenue and a major acquisition. In his time there, Tom made his division the fastest growing and won an “impact on profit” award. With CONCURED, Tom has won a number of awards, both personal and as a business. Some highlights are Disrupt100 as voted by leaders as Uber, Microsoft and Google and being named AI CEO of the year in 2018 by the Global CEO excellence awards.

All these achievements seem like cake-walk, but it wasn’t the case for Tom. It can never be. To reach where he has, he had to go through long hours, constant worry and thoughts, stress about it. He had to be insanely resilient because things fall through all the time, things that could end the business, end his dream. According to him, there are so many forces working against you, it’s just really hard to keep going. Having a supportive team, friends, family and partner are all key to being successful.

Tom believes that as an entrepreneur, you always feel you can do more and that you are not there yet. “I felt achievement when raising venture capital and will feel that I have achieved my goal when this company has a successful exit for myself and the staff, and our supporters and investors, I will feel like I have achieved what I wanted to achieve,” Tom shares. When asked whether he has achieved all that he desired, Tom answers, “It hasn’t paid off yet – I have a wonderful team of people that for some reason follow me I, we have investors who are former Senior executives of companies such as Google and AOL, who believe in the business and what we can achieve, we’re driving 400% of year-on year growth.”

Doing what you love is the only way forward

As far as personal and professional balance is concerned, most of the time Tom limits his work day from 8 am to 8 pm, maximum 12 hours a day. “I maintain a level of physical activity, to make sure I am healthy. I insure I take regular breaks to clear my head and be able to cope with the level of stress and expectation,” Tom further adds.

Going ahead, Tom aims to grow the business as quickly as possible by solving these very difficult challenges that his clients have in a way that hasn’t been solved before, and to grow. The business to a point where CONCURED is able to provide a successful commercial outcome for its investors and its team who helped the company get there. He has always loved solving problems, and the validation of the problem being sold, which in the industry has always been a positive commercial outcome. Therefore, he aims to continue what he does best, solving problems.