jed.si
About

Jedidiah Francis.

I’m a founder and data scientist based in London. I studied biology, researched statistical models of evolution at Oxford, and built and led the data science team at ASOS. There, a question about personal taste became a practical problem in machine learning.

I founded The Shipyard to help small teams launch and run businesses, and Hairouna Labs to explore how intelligence emerges from groups. I’m building a team and partnerships around that work.

A cutaway study of a cell and its internal structures.
Living things, learning machines, and a workbench. A cell senses its surroundings and makes its own parts. I often return to that observation when I think about how to build.

A few influences

Outside the studio, these are some of the interests that have shaped how I look at a problem.

Biology & genetics

A cell reads information and makes things from it. Studying that process led me into bioinformatics. It still shapes the questions I take to Hairouna Labs.

Machine learning & personalisation

At ASOS I studied how preferences differ between people. In education, a related challenge is to understand what each learner already knows and where to go next.

Electronics, robotics & modular design

Building circuits taught me the value of a part that can serve more than one design. That interest in modularity carries through to my work on software.

Maths, data & art

I enjoy making images from data. Drawing a pattern often reveals a question that a table of numbers leaves hidden.

Classical music & a reggae band

I listen to classical music and have played in a reggae band. Both have shaped my sense of how much a group can achieve through careful listening.

Motorcycles & field sports

Off-road motorcycling, shooting and hunting keep me outdoors. Each rewards the ability to notice a change in the landscape and adjust to it.

Let’s work together.

Get in touch