Rowan Lawson brings a unique blend of engineering, finance, and startup expertise to the CXTech judging panel. With experience in investment banking, consumer brand acquisitions, and leading customer-focused teams at quick commerce platform Zapp, he has a deep understanding of what makes a business viable and what truly matters to customers. Rowan sees huge potential in Jersey for platforms that strengthen community connections and believes the island’s forward-thinking environment makes it an ideal testing ground for innovation. He also highlights the significance of CXTech’s match funding aspect, noting that it will encourage applicants to demonstrate real conviction in their ideas.
Are you based locally or off-island?
Rowan: Off-island
Tell us a bit about your background and your professional experience.
Rowan: After qualifying as a mechanical engineer, I transitioned into finance, working in Tech, Media & Telecoms Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Having built a financial and analytical ‘toolkit’, I moved to the startup world joining a consumer brand roll-up business in London, called Heroes. The business focused on acquiring, integrating and scaling leading global consumer brands, including household names like Trunki, with over 35 deals completed in 3 years.
More recently, I moved to the quick commerce delivery world, as part of the leadership team at Zapp, a luxury tech-enabled 24/7 convenience platform – delivering everything from caviar to Airpods in 20 minutes!
How will your professional and personal experiences contribute to your expertise in this area and enhance your role on the judging panel?
Rowan: As part of my roles in banking and at Heroes, I regularly assessed the feasibility of business plans as part of investment or acquisition mandates. Zapp has a core value of customer obsession and, through my experience of running some of the customer-facing departments like Customer Care and the Commercial teams, I am distinctly aware of what matters most to customers.
What aspects of customer experience in Jersey do you believe have the greatest potential for improvement?
Rowan: Given the close-knit community in Jersey, I believe a platform that can bring together communities and encourage better collaboration would be incredible. There are plenty of great services and events being run, but there is an opportunity to better connect this information with a wider audience.
If you were applying to CXTech, what specific problem would you aim to address, and do you have a solution in mind that you would propose?
Rowan: I believe a quick commerce shopping/convenience solution could be very powerful in Jersey!
What makes Jersey a great place for businesses to deploy their technology?
Rowan: Being a relatively concentrated area with forward-thinking, like-minded individuals, there is great potential for both ‘test and learn’ strategies and rapid rollout programmes. This can be seen with things like the adoption of ultra-fast broadband, years ahead of mainland UK and main other European markets to date.
CXTech is the first Impact Jersey programme to include a match funding aspect. How do you think this will affect the applications received?
Rowan: I believe this is a great test and a crucial step for any entrepreneur looking to set up a business. While assembling an application is relatively straightforward, investing your own (or another person’s) money is far more challenging and requires a much greater level of conviction.
