zally founder eyes multi-million-pound deals at Web Summit<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cFinding the right talent and securing funding are the biggest challenges for a tech startup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cManchester is home to an abundance of skilled cybersecurity professionals, and since moving here, our team has grown significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can confidently say that if I had set up a company in London, I would not have experienced the same level of growth as I did in Manchester. It would simply not have happened there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Confidence has never been a quality that Smith has lacked.<\/p>\n
\u2018Bigger than a unicorn\u2019<\/p>\n
I remember he told BusinessCloud\u2019s 2024 GM 125 Rising Stars of Business event that he wanted to build a business \u2018bigger than a unicorn\u2019 while wearing a pink jacket to match Zally\u2019s branding!<\/p>\n
He said at the time he was a born entrepreneur who had run several businesses including full stack development, digital marketing, events and 15 years as a DJ.<\/p>\n
He describes himself on LinkedIn\u00a0as a \u2018builder in the truest sense of the word\u2019 and a \u2018school dropout who preferred the trenches to the classroom\u2019.<\/p>\n
His latest profile reads: \u201cOn and off stage, Patrick brings the raw energy of a founder who has seen it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe challenges audiences to look beyond the cold logic of today\u2019s technology and join him in building a future where our systems don\u2019t just process our data but perceive our intent, adapt to our needs, and finally understand who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith, who has updated his LinkedIn profile since I contacted him on Thursday, didn\u2019t want to talk about several aspects of the Norwegian newspaper article and we\u2019ve chosen not to repeat the contents here.<\/p>\n
However, in an emailed response, he said: \u201cIt relates to events from more than a decade ago, which I have been open about and (have) always taken full responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the businesses I ran in my early twenties were dissolved, leaving creditors unpaid, which I wholly regret.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also responded to several questions around what Zally\u2019s product actually does.<\/p>\n
\u201cZally develops AI models that interpret behavioural signals in real time, helping systems understand and continuously verify users based on how they naturally interact with their devices,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur first commercial application is in authentication, where we replace passwords and static checks with frictionless, continuous verification that improves both security and user experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to be working with enterprise partners across the UK and the US and to be supported by a brilliant team of researchers, engineers, and product specialists across Manchester and San Francisco, alongside experienced strategic advisors, including our executive chair, David Webb. To date\u00a0we have raised more than \u00a34m.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Unicorn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Patrick-Smith-Zally.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Unicorn chaser: Patrick Smith, CEO, Zally<\/p>\n
Zally employs c.15 staff\u00a0 and still has a base in Manchester. Smith said: \u201cI\u2019m proud to call Manchester my home for more than three years, and it is where we built Zally from the early days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city has an incredible community, and we\u2019re proud to contribute to it through our work with local universities, accelerators, founders, and community initiatives as we continue building an international technology company from here.\u201d<\/p>\n
No comment<\/p>\n
I did ask Smith several other questions but he replied \u2018no comment\u2019 14 times, which I fully respect.<\/p>\n
However, he\u00a0has provided more details in his updated LinkedIn profile<\/a>, which now reads: \u201cHe (Patrick) founded his first two businesses at 10 and navigated the highs and lows of 11 failed ventures before his 25th birthday.<\/p>\n\u201cHe takes full ownership of that journey and views those early years not just as startups, but as the brutal, necessary training ground for learning exactly what it takes to win. That persistence paid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cA jack-of-all-trades who can seamlessly bridge the gap between creative design, deep tech, and commercial strategy, Patrick turned those hard-won lessons into a career defined by innovation and successful exits.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, he is the founder and CEO of Zally, a San Francisco and Manchester-based company pioneering behavioural AI.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, Smith wrote on LinkedIn about the different ways the US and UK approach failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the UK, failure carries weight,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a quiet stigma. Uncomfortable.\u00a0Something you try to recover from. Or something others quietly hold against you.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut here? It\u2019s expected.\u00a0Not romanticised. Not glossed over.\u00a0Just part of the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause what matters isn\u2019t the failure.\u00a0It\u2019s what you do next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact Chris.Maguire@BusinessCloud.co.uk<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Smith is used to attracting attention. He\u2019s the CEO of Manchester startup Zally and has just won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[138,67879,336,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-167773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-businesscloud","10":"tag-entrepreneurship","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Patrick-Smith-Zally-new.jpg\")
<\/p>\n