Ricky Thomas
Founder, MarginOps
About
Serial entrepreneur with 25+ years in data, engineering, and company building. I've been CTO at a FTSE 250 fintech, founded and sold companies across e-commerce, analytics, and data infrastructure, raised over €10M in venture capital, and built products used by some of the world's largest media, telecoms, and retail companies.
I started MarginOps because I got tired of watching consultancies deliver PowerPoints while the client's margin kept eroding. So I assembled a team of operators — programme managers, finance directors, AI engineers, DevOps specialists, and data engineers — who get into the codebase, the data warehouse, the vendor contracts, and the P&L, and actually fix things.
Every AI system we build runs on Anthropic's Claude. Every initiative is EBITDA-tracked. And I lead every engagement personally, staying accountable for every line on the Transformation Tracker.
Highlights
Career History
I've spent 25+ years building data and technology companies — from early-stage startups to venture-backed platforms to exits. This is not theoretical knowledge. It is operational experience across every function of a technology business.
MarginOps — Founder
AI-driven margin improvement consultancy. £6.4M value creation at a single client. 119 EBITDA-tracked initiatives across 7 workstreams. 7 production AI agents deployed. All built on Anthropic's Claude. See the case study →
Real-Time Data Infrastructure — Co-Founder
Co-founded a real-time data streaming platform built on Apache Kafka, Flink, and Debezium. Raised $3.3M. CDC pipelines for enterprise data consistency — the same technology now deployed in MarginOps client cloud migrations.
Augmented Analytics & Business Intelligence — Founder
Founded an ML-powered analytics platform. Raised €7.4M in venture capital. Clients included major telecoms, media companies, and online retailers. Named 2019 Deep Tech Entrepreneur at the Enterprise Awards.
Enterprise Data Pipelines — Co-Founder
Co-founded a batch ETL platform for enterprise data integration. Built, scaled, and sold.
Fashion & Flash Sales — Technology Lead
Led technology at a major UK members-only fashion flash-sale platform. High-volume e-commerce, time-sensitive inventory, and personalised merchandising at scale.
E-Commerce — Health & Wellness — Founder
Founded an online pharmacy. Early e-commerce operator. Built, scaled, and sold.
Consumer Internet — Marketplace — Founder
Founded one of the UK's first online marketplace platforms. Built, scaled, and sold.
CTO — FTSE 250 Fintech (IG Group)
Chief Technology Officer at IG Group, a major UK financial trading platform. Enterprise-scale systems, real-time data, high-availability infrastructure serving millions of transactions.
Areas of Expertise
AI Agent Deployment
Production AI systems built on Anthropic's Claude. Agent SDK, MCP integration, guardrails design, and deployment at scale. 7 production agents at a single client.
Transformation Programmes
Multi-workstream EBITDA improvement programmes. The MarginOps Transformation Tracker methodology. 119 initiatives, 7 workstreams, £6.4M value creation.
Data Infrastructure
Apache Kafka, Flink, Debezium, CDC pipelines, Snowflake, dbt, and real-time streaming architecture. Built two data companies from scratch.
E-Commerce Operations
Pricing optimization, warehouse fulfilment, customer data platforms, marketplace management, and personalisation. Deep operational experience across multiple e-commerce businesses.
Company Building
Venture capital fundraising (€10M+ raised), team building, product-market fit, scaling, and exits. Multiple companies built, scaled, and sold across 25+ years.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Cloud cost reduction (60% at case study client), database optimisation (59,000x query speedup), CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure migration.
Insights
I write about AI agent deployment, margin improvement, transformation programmes, and the operational realities of building AI-driven businesses. All insights are drawn from real client engagements and production deployments.
Let's talk about your margin.
I lead every MarginOps engagement personally. If you're a CEO, CFO, or PE operating partner looking at margin improvement, I would like to hear from you. The first conversation is always free.