Gerry Tombs spent 25 years building ClearVision from a garage startup to a £77m tech consultancy with 100 people across the UK and USA.

Then he sold it, got 98% of his money upfront, and walked away.

That kind of thing doesn’t happen by accident.

This conversation is about the decisions that made that possible – and the ones that made it harder than it needed to be.

Gerry’s not subtle about what he got right and what he got wrong:

  • Most leadership teams are too big and too old for the AI era
  • His USA expansion was “minus five out of ten” (his words)
  • AI won’t replace leadership jobs, but it will expose something crucial …
  • Managers will soon manage a mix of humans and AI agents – and most aren’t ready

One thing that stood out: 

Gerry made himself completely disposable before the sale. No “key man” dependency. No handcuffs. 

Just clean systems and a leadership team that didn’t need him.

That’s why he got paid upfront.

And in hindsight? He’d have left after the first quarter instead of staying a year. 

That extra year cost him something more valuable than money …