Chris Bakke

Founder

Currently: Investing, writing, and enjoying downtime.

Previously: CEO of Laskie (acquired by X/Twitter in 2023), Co-founder of Interviewed (acquired by Indeed in 2017), COO of 42Floors (acquired by Knotel), managed business development for Zillow (NAS $ZG), RentJuice (acquired by Zillow in 2012).

Founder, CEO

Ben Ford

Mission Ctrl

Mission Ctrl delivers digital sovereignty for service businesses scaling past $5M in revenue.

Unlike traditional consultants or SaaS platforms that create dependency, we build AI-powered business operating systems that clients completely own and control from day one.

Our Ops Ctrl solution transforms service businesses from selling time to selling outcomes by:

✅ Capturing expertise into systems that scale beyond key individuals
✅ Ensuring consistent service excellence regardless of who delivers it
✅ Growing revenue without proportional cost increases
✅ Eliminating vendor lock-in through client-owned infrastructure
✅ Deploying military-grade methodology with technical implementation

We're highly selective, working with only 2 new clients per month to ensure exceptional implementation and results.

Want to transform your service business from expert-dependent to outcome-focused? Message me to explore if we're the right fit.

Founder & CEO

The Cold Water Club

Founding Member

The Pioneers

Applying cutting edge technologies to help businesses build coherent, systematic and innovative employee experiences.

We design and build people operating systems to create a culture that drives your growth and gives you a sustainable source of competitive advantage

Tech Partner

Commando Development

I've lived and breathed teams and people for the last 10 years in tech, but it's only relatively recently that I realised just how much I learned about high performance and operational excellence when I was in the Royal Marines.

Commando Development blends the kind of cutting edge tech powering the current generation of billion dollar unicorns with ages old military strategy. We empower businesses to build the technical foundations to make the right decisions and operate at the pace the modern world demands.

Founder and CEO

TechVets

TechVets is an incredible organisation whose goal is to build a bridge for veterans into a career in technology. I couldn't be prouder in taking on this advisory role to help accelerate their impact. We're making this bridge stronger and better signposted.

From teaching myself the basics of Python and Linux on HMS Ocean on the way to the Iraq war in 2003, tech has been an incredible journey for me. It took me the best part of a decade to realize it, but so much of what made me successful were skills and values I had learned in the Royal Marines. I will do everything in my power while I'm part of the TechVets community to ensure that people leaving the forces are extended the same opportunities in tech that I was lucky enough to find!

As the world becomes more and more exponential in its pace of change the skills veterans learn about operating in ambiguity and complexity while achieving their mission will be inceasingly important. After all, anyone who's served has had about the equivalent of an MBA spent on their development.

Think about that for a sec. Everything we do in the forces is about hitting the ground running, without a full picutre and making things happen. It's time business saw that value.

Chief Technical Advisor

Tweag I/O

Haskell/Business development

Standard Chartered Bank

Joining the highly successful Standard Chartered Strats team, I've been involved in implementing bank wide, high profile projects in the internal Haskell dialect, Mu.

Quantitative Developer

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Developing robust, high quality Haskell code.

Contract Python Developer

Fynder

Built one of the best software teams I've ever worked with and led them in the development of a Haskell backed web start up.

Developing a middle office reconciliation framework on the Quartz platform.

Contract FX Options developer

I help service business owners scaling past $5M achieve what their competitors can't: complete technological independence while transforming expertise into scalable outcomes.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗟𝗘𝗠:
Service businesses face a critical choice when scaling:
▪️ Build disconnected "Frankenstacks" of SaaS tools creating perpetual dependency
▪️ Hire expensive in-house technical teams with fixed costs regardless of project needs
▪️ Work with consultants who deliver reports without implementation

The result? Vendor lock-in, escalating costs, and systems that fragment as you grow.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡:
At Mission Ctrl, we build client-owned, AI-powered operating systems that:
▪️ Transform your expertise into systems you completely own and control
▪️ Deliver consistent service excellence regardless of who delivers it
▪️ Scale your revenue without proportionally increasing costs
▪️ Convert your business from selling time to selling outcomes

𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗪𝗘'𝗥𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗧:
▪️ Military Inspired Methodology: As a former Royal Marines Commando turned software engineer, I bring 20+ years of technical expertise with military precision to business operations
▪️ Client Ownership: Unlike SaaS platforms, you own all code and infrastructure from day one
▪️ Rapid Results: We deploy functional environments in under a day and achieve cash flow neutrality within 4 months

We're accepting only 2 new clients per month. If you're scaling a service business and want a ompetitive edge that drives growth without proportional costs, let's talk.

Co-Founder

Mission Ctrl exists to ease the growing pains of scaling businesses by building custom digital infrastructures that enable internal operations to scale.

We help you build a custom platform that's yours from day one, using the most cost effective and powerful open-source technology available.

We call it Organisational Engineering As A Service.

Launch your business into the future by building a platform to integrate your people, processes and technology.

✅ Free people's capacity to innovate
✅ Implement and digitise process to scale
✅ Harness technology to eliminate repetition

Get in touch if your want us to help engineer competitive advantage into your DNA

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Co-Founder at AI Night School!

Actually Hugo Pickford-Wardle and I have been doing this together for almost a year!

Our mission? 5.5 million new jobs in the AI economy by 2030.

Ambitious? Yes. But here's what makes this different.

Most AI training is either academic theory or tool tutorials. We're teaching something else: how to combine your unique human skills with AI capability to maximize impact.

What we've learned over the last year teaching SME leaders:

The fear isn't about AI replacing jobs. It's about being left behind while competitors move faster.

The stuck points are predictable:
• Where do I even start?
• Which tools actually matter?
• How do I get my team on board?
• What's real vs marketing hype?

Hugo brings 15 years of innovation expierience, including building London's first AI consultancy. I bring deep tech, hypergrowth platform experience and military systems thinking.

Together, we're seeing something powerful: when leaders understand AI as augmentation (not replacement), adoption accelerates.

The approach:

Bite-sized, practical lessons. Live morning classes you can apply same day. No jargon. No fluff.

We're building from AI Confident (fundamentals) through AI Genius (designing intelligent systems).

15,000+ newsletter subscribers, with students from care homes to consultancies.

This is exactly what the market needs: practical AI education that builds sovereignty and confidence, not fear.

Contrast that with traditional AI consulting at £200K+ engagements...

We're democratizing this. Making it accessible to the £2M-£10M operators who need it most.

If you're an SME leader wondering where to start with AI, or you know someone who is: https://lnkd.in/eDnFV4Cy (new cohort kicking off imminently).

DMs also open 😎

Digital Sovereignty for 6-7 figure Service Businesses | Transform Expertise into AI Enabled Capabilities You Own | Technologist | Former Royal Marine

I'm just coming off the most intense 5 months of my professional career...

And this could be really good news for you in 2026...

I've been "on the tools" using agentic sofware engineering to scale an absolute rocket ship business.

It's absolutely mind blowing what impact endoding knowledge into a software product can have on a company's trajectory! When you really crack turning a service into a project revenue explodes, and so does enterprise valuation.

I saw what's possible when you've got the traction to create and unlimited engineering budget and a laser focus.

It's exhilarating, eye-opening and, if I'm honest, pretty exhausting!

At the same time, something wasn't sitting right with me...

I'm a commando at heart: I vibe with small, close knit, teams. Where agility and maneuverability are a core part of their tactical DNA.

The comapnies I actually care about are the £2M-£10M operators, the bootstrapped fighters delivering hard won expertise and  punching above their weight... 

They're watching this AI revolution from the sidelines.

Not because they lack ambition, but because what they do is a human to human service, that doesn't work as an impersonal SaaS product.

(Yeah, and maybe because they can't afford $200K/month dev teams)

But there is a way they can leverage AI to increase their capacity and impact and I want to help level that playing field...

Here's what I'm doing about it:

I'm taking what I learned scaling that rocket ship (and from the last 3 years of applying AI to operations) and making it accessible to anyone who wants to build.

The same capacity for automation I built as part of a full development team and expensive product lifecycle?

I figured out out how to 80/20 it so can have the benefits for less than £100/month...

No massive budgets. No dev teams. No vendor lock-in.

You build. You own. You control.

If you're a UK consultancy founder tired of watching bigger players outspend you on AI, you already have everything you need.

You just need to know how to use it.

I'll be outlining the exact tactics this week

Starting tomorow with the Nix-in-Claude method that changed how I build.

I'll be sharing a lot over the next couple of weeks, but I'm also opening up a small number of slots to work directly with me to fast track this into your business before Christmas. If you want to hit the ground running in 2026, drop me a DM...

Anyone else decided to repeatedly punch themselves in the face this weekend..?

Just me?

Why can't AI do this yet!

Q: Where shall we put the tactical murder spears?

A: Right next to the pressure washers - people will want to clean off the blood and entrails of their enemies post slaughter.

Pragmatic choice. Will do 🫡

Acclaim Aerospace • Swiss Lathe Precision Machining • Specialty in small tight tolerance parts (1-32mm) • Running 24x7 "lights out" for China-busting low prices with Aviation level quality

UK: "oi you got a liocense for that butter knife guvnor?"🍴👈🇬🇧🤡  USA: "Hey y'all they got spears at Tractor Supply"  ⚔️👈🇺🇸🫡

Yessirr Tractor Supply Company (TSC), the go-to mega chain for everything from chicken feed to chainsaws with over 2,200 stores nationwide stocks a surprising array of “spears.” 

But hold your Braveheart. 

They aren’t actually medieval weapons. 

The bulk are bale spears or hay spears: heavy-duty, tractor-mounted spikes. 

Fyi... "Heavy-Duty Super Spear" is priced around $200–$300 designed for piercing and lifting 2,000-lb round hay bales. 

They’re even powder-coated for rust resistance and attach via Category 1 hitches whoah!!!!

Practical? 

Hell nah, well maybe for farmers and ranchers. 

But every man this Christmas needs industrial kebab skewers.🎅🏻🎄

Fyi... buried  in TSC’s Sporting Goods > Knives & Tools section, you’ll find actual handheld survival spears like the REAPR 8 around ~$50–$80

It's a compact, stainless-steel beast with a double-edged blade for “piercing, prying, impaling, and breaching.” 

It’s marketed for hunting, tactical use, or “general protection,” but I noticed it has a grooved grip for throwing accuracy too. 

Hell yeah! 'Murica! 🇺🇸🙌

#manufacturing #uk #usa #farming

taplio

The Battle

Chris Bakke

Ben Ford

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreBen Ford's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Chris Bakke

Ben Ford

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ben Ford's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBen Ford's LinkedIn Performance