Speaking

I replaced myself at the company I built. Now I'm starting again from zero.

I started circle.cloud in 2015 from a spare bedroom, with a desk, two bookshelves and a phone, making 200 cold calls a day. It's now 100+ people, bootstrapped with no outside investment, and Graham, who joined as our sales manager in 2019, now runs it day to day as CEO, with a board behind him.

These days I'm taking new software products from zero to one in the Age of AI, in public, with the real numbers. I speak to founders and operators about both sides of that: handing over the business you built, and starting the next one.

Enquire about booking See the talks

Talks

What I speak about

Every talk comes from something I've done, or something I'm doing right now and haven't finished.

How I replaced myself at my own company

Lead talk

For the first three and a half years of circle.cloud, every one of around 200 deals was mine: the cold call, the meeting, the install, the billing and the support. Today the company has 100+ people and I'm not in the day to day.

I hired a telemarketing manager who now runs every commercial team as chief commercial officer. I brought in an operations director from companies many times our size. And I tracked down the best salesperson at a competitor that had gone bust: Graham. He joined as sales manager in 2019, and in January 2026 I made him CEO. I'm executive chairman now. This talk is how that handover actually happened, and how I still understand the business without running it.

For founders who are still the engine of their business.

Taking products from zero to one in the Age of AI

I've committed £1.5M of my own money and four to five years to We UC, where a 20-person dev team builds Olatti, a communications platform for small businesses. Olatti launched as self-serve software in September 2026. Alongside it, I built The Scheduler, which books field appointments inside Zoho CRM, on my own, and the first version of Evalua, which checks every call against rules you set, in a few days before handing it to the team.

I started Quenta, an expenses app that turns a photo of a receipt into a Xero transaction, from a cinema seat during Toy Story. It was on TestFlight that weekend. This talk is what changes when one founder with AI can build what used to need a team, and what doesn't change at all.

For founders who want to launch a second product alongside the first.

AI as the way one person does a team's work

My own video editing, research and post scheduling now run through AI agents I set up myself, from the terminal, and use every week. I only talk about tools I've used on real work, and I'm honest about where they break and how long they took to get right.

The point isn't the tools. Every job you can do yourself with AI is one fewer supplier or platform that can switch your business off.

For founders and operators who want to own more of their own work.

Learning distribution in public

circle.cloud grew on cold calls, field sales and leasing companies. Olatti can't grow that way, because it's self-serve software. So I'm learning a different way to find customers, through content and paid media, and publishing the numbers as I go, starting from zero paid self-serve users after launch.

I'm not a marketing expert, and this isn't a how-to. It's an honest report from a founder moving from a services business to a new way of selling, while it's still happening.

For founders changing how they sell, or thinking about it.

Moving from Spain to the UK, building a business here, and staying

I left Barcelona for Southampton with a guitar, a backpack and a laptop, to study audio technology at Solent University. A year in, I saw an advert on the student noticeboard: "Spanish DJ needed". I'd never DJ'd properly. That job lasted eight years, and later it paid my rent while I built circle.cloud between tracks, with the website open on a laptop behind the decks.

I've lived in the UK since 2008. This talk is about setting up a company in a country that isn't the one you grew up in, selling to British businesses in a language that isn't your first, and deciding to stay.

For founders who started somewhere else.

Formats

How I can take part

Keynote

One of the talks above, shaped to your audience and the time you have.

Fireside chat

A conversation with your host or your audience. I host two podcasts, so I'm used to both chairs.

Panel

The panellist who made 200 cold calls a day from a spare bedroom and now chairs the board.

Podcast guest

Remote or in person, on any of the topics above.

Speaker bio

About Axel

Axel Molist is a Spanish-British founder based in Southampton. In 2015 he started circle.cloud, a UK telecoms services company, and bootstrapped it to 100+ people with no outside investment. He's now its founder and executive chairman, with a CEO running the day to day.

He's also CEO of We UC, where a 20-person dev team builds Olatti, a communications platform for small businesses that launched in 2026. He documents the build on YouTube and in his newsletter, and hosts two podcasts: The Operator Podcast and Building in the Age of AI.

Organisers are welcome to use this bio and the photo on this page in event materials.

As heard on

The Operator Podcast Host. Conversations with UK business owners about how they run and grow their companies.
Building in the Age of AI Host. Founders and operators comparing notes on building and running a business with AI.
YouTube @axelmolist, where I document the build as it happens.

Booking enquiries

Tell me about your event

Fees depend on the event, so I quote each one individually. The more you can tell me about your audience, the easier it is to say yes.

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Not booking an event? I write about all of this as it happens in my newsletter.