About

I am a soldier, an officer, a product leader, and a single father to three girls under ten. The first three took years of training. The last one turned out to be harder.

I believe the discipline required to be genuinely good at anything — whether that is a section assault, a product operating model, or a Tournedos Rossini — is fundamentally the same discipline, applied in different environments. Most people have more of it than they think. Most organisations do too. They just haven't built the right conditions for it to show up yet.

That is, broadly speaking, what I spend my time on. When I am not doing that I am cooking for three people who are very clear about what they do not like, watching English sport with the quiet optimism of someone who has clearly learned nothing from experience, and reading about military history, AI, and the occasional restaurant review.

This is where all of it lives. You are very welcome.

Background

The journey
Rugby

1999 — 2002

Semi-Professional Rugby Player

Australia

Injury forced early retirement. Turned out to be the best thing that ever happened — it sent me looking for the next environment where standards were non-negotiable and performance was everything.

Military

2003

Soldier

Basic Training — Pirbright

Started where everyone starts. Proved I could do it before asking anyone else to follow me.

Military

2003 — 2005

Commando Soldier

All Arms Commando Course — 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery

Real volunteers. People who chose to be tested and chose to keep going when the sensible option was to stop.

Military

2005

Officer Cadet

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

Serve to lead. The operating system I have run on ever since.

Military

2005 — 2013

Recce Officer

1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards

Commando soldier to cavalry recce officer. Mission command, fast decision-making, and leading people in environments where clarity is the difference that matters. While dropping a few GBUs too!

Banking

2013 — 2014

Financial Services

Edmond de Rothschild

First move into financial services. The problems were different. The need for clarity, ownership and pace was identical.

Entrepreneur

2014 — 2018

Catering Start-up

Founder

Mise en place as operating model. Tight timelines, high standards, and the immediate feedback of whether something is good or not. Turned out to be excellent product training.

Enterprise

2018 — 2020

Real Estate Enterprise

PropTech / BIM / Digital Transformation

Brought enterprise construction projects into a £1bn subsidiary and modernised delivery using BIM. Strong opinions in the room. The work got done.

Enterprise

2020 — 2022

Financial Services Enterprise

Fintech / KYC / Regulated Technology

AI-driven fraud detection, KYC platforms, $2.5bn acquisition readiness. The scale where operating model design actually matters.

Founder

2023 — Now

Scale-up Advisory

Headmark / Not At Leisure

Product-led growth, PE-backed transformations, and SaaS scale-ups. Building things properly.

Founder

2025 — Now

Accountant

Robinson Green

The accountancy firm nobody saw coming.

What will the future bring...

Now — ?

Entrepreneur

Acquisition / Scale / Exit

Bringing back what private equity started as — buying good businesses, building them properly, and creating something that lasts. Small to medium, undervalued and underbuilt. The operating model is the opportunity. Who knows where it leads. That's rather the point.

Not at leisure

Not At Leisure

Writing on product leadership, engineering effectiveness, GTM and execution.

Connect

LinkedIn
Email

© Charlie Robinson — Not At Leisure