Hi — I'm Simon Date

After running my own two businesses - Adapt Unlimited and Adapt Freelancer - for the last seven years, I'm looking to return to full-time employment.

Roles I'm looking for

  • Technical Product Manager/Owner
  • Solutions Engineer or Consultant
  • Product Manager/Owner
  • Other Product, Business or Sales aligned roles, suitable for a technical founder

Skills and Expertise I bring

  • 11+ Years of Technical & Product Leadership: A proven track record as a software developer, technical consultant, and Edtech entrepreneur, bridging the gap between complex engineering and business strategy.

  • SaaS Founder Experience: Successfully built, launched, and scaled a cloud-native B2B SaaS platform on GCP, taking full ownership of the product roadmap, security, and infrastructure.

  • EdTech & LMS Specialist: Deep hands-on expertise with industry-standard learning technologies, including Moodle, H5P, and the Adapt open-source framework, optimized for major institutions like King’s College London.

  • User-Centric Product Craft: Experienced in running the full product lifecycle—gathering user insights, rapid prototyping, prioritizing features, and delivering seamless digital experiences that solve real-world user friction.

  • Cross-Functional Delivery: Adept at translating complex technical requirements for non-technical stakeholders, managing agile pipelines (Jira/Asana), and leading both in-house teams and external freelancers to deliver on time.

What have I been up to?

Throughout my whole career I've always been interested in the bigger picture. I remember staying behind in meetings with senior stakeholders at my first full-time role and asking questions like:

  • Why are we doing it this way?
  • Can't we launch new product lines?
  • How do we know our customers like this approach?

I'm certain this curiosity and desire to understand the 'why' behind decisions is what has led me to me wanting to forge my own path back in 2018 and quit my stable developer job in London to start my own business.

My freelance business has acheived a high level of success. I've worked with over 35 clients, including well known names such as Supercell, RWS, the NHS, the ONS and Shelter - their testimonials can be seen here.

This continued in 2020, when I launched a B2B SaaS product, Adapt Unlimited. Providing cloud access to the Adapt Authoring Tool to my clients. I developed this product to include support and training, addressing my client's requests and desires.

Wanting to see the Adapt Open Source community grow, I co-launched Adapt Tips, a free tips and tricks website for users. I also launched the Adapt Tips Podcast which invited on other prominent members of this community.

Why am I looking for a job now?

After working for myself for over seven years, I've found that my business had plateued. Whilst my clients were generally delighted with my product offering and freelance work, the open-source digital learning technology that I had focused my businesses upon has lost favour compared to proprietary solutions, leading to reduced demand for my services.

My priorities and preferences over this time also changed:

  • I enjoy, and wanted to continue, having a great say in the direction of products I create.
  • To succeed in my businesses, I learned leadership, marketing, sales and product development skills on-the-fly. I want to continue to utilise these skills.
  • After working solo for seven years, I have come to miss the collaboration and camaraderie that comes with working colleagues and teammates.

I discovered Product Management and believed that this way of thinking would align with what I want to do next, so I joined the King's College London Product Manager Accelerator. I graduated from this course with the highest grade (Distinction) and I'm now actively looking for full time opportunities in London and the South East, that utilise my product and technical skills.

Contact

If you want to find out more about me or get the latest copy of my CV, please reach out at: sdate263@gmail.com