Our Team

Aly Richards, CEO
Aly Richards brings over 25 years of high-level marketing expertise, shaped by her experience in blue-chip companies and innovative technology projects. Her journey with Odyssiant began after meeting Scott, the COO, when she was Marketing Director for a UK software company and he led the company’s PR agency; their shared drive for impactful results forged a strong, lasting friendship. Aly has a technical foundation, with a unique depth of experience in marketing technologies. Notably, she spearheaded the world’s first AI implementation in contact centres for O2, a groundbreaking project that delivered £118 million in EBITDA. With hands-on experience across all major CRM platforms, Aly’s deep understanding of marketing processes, funnel management, and campaigning informs Odyssiant’s design, making it an intuitive and powerful tool for today’s marketing challenges.

Scott McLean, COO
Scott McLean began his career as a journalist, where he developed a passion for words and storytelling. Transitioning from journalism, he went on to work in – and eventually lead – a major PR agency, honing his expertise in content strategy and audience engagement. While he thrived in creating compelling narratives and building audiences, Scott found himself frustrated by a gap in the traditional PR model: he could spark interest, but he rarely saw the journey continue as those audiences transformed into customers. This insight became foundational to Odyssiant’s mission, as Scott sought to bridge the gap between audience awareness and customer conversion. His vision for “through-the-line” engagement remains a cornerstone of Odyssiant, helping clients navigate the entire journey from first impression to lasting customer relationships.

Peter Fearn, CTO
With over 25 years of experience as a developer and coder, Peter Fearn combines technical expertise with visionary thinking, guiding Odyssiant’s technical direction with precision and insight. Known for his analytical prowess, Peter has an exceptional ability to dissect complex challenges and devise innovative solutions that set Odyssiant apart. His deep understanding of development best practices ensures that every part of the platform is optimised for performance, security, and scalability. As a skilled planner, Peter maps out Odyssiant’s technical roadmap, translating ideas into robust, forward-looking features. His leadership in development empowers the team to continually enhance the platform’s capabilities, providing clients with a powerful, reliable tool for buyer journey management.

Fraser James, CTO
Fraser James brings a unique focus on UX design, reporting, and project management to Odyssiant’s development team. With a keen eye for user experience, Fraser ensures that the platform is intuitive, visually engaging, and seamlessly aligns with user needs. His expertise in creating insightful dashboards and reporting tools enables clients to access and understand critical data at a glance, empowering them to make informed decisions. As a seasoned project manager, Fraser coordinates Odyssiant’s development milestones, keeping the team aligned and projects on track to deliver impactful features and enhancements. His commitment to design and functionality ensures that Odyssiant remains a user-friendly and powerful solution for navigating the buyer journey.
Our Story
Odyssiant is all about taking buyers on journeys. As we have developed the system and company, we’ve been on quite a journey ourselves. We’ve tested, trialled, learnt and refined to the point where we are now attracting new clients and a heck of a lot of interest. Here’s a taster of our journey to date.
In the entrepreneurial tale that is Odyssiant, the journey begins in 2013. Aly Richards and Scott McLean start their collaboration on a project for a large utility company. They were inspired by the mythic structure of the Hero’s Journey, seeking to map it onto the buyer’s odyssey. Excel spreadsheets were their initial cartography tools, but they quickly found them woefully inadequate for tracking potential buyer engagement.
This led to the creation of Odyssiant the following year. With the debut of their software, a rudimentary but promising system was born. That year, Peter Fearn and Fraser James joined the management team, lending their technical acumen to the project. All this led to an implementation at The Associated Press.
The following two years (2015 and 2016) saw the alpha version of the platform developed. With the software becoming increasingly sophisticated, Odyssiant landed an implementation at News UK.
Version 2.0 was launched in 2017, introducing “nudging” via email and newsletter-style content delivery, quickly leading to a project at RBS.
In 2018, Odyssiant undertook a bit of a facelift. Version 2.1 featured a revamped user interface and the application of artificial intelligence to consider customer needs and persona. Camelot, became a highlight project that year.
Version 2.2 was introduced in 2019, adding a content audit feature and creating insights into customer decision-making processes. These new features were trialled at IFS, an enterprise software company who immediately benefitted from the content gap analysis.
The following year (2020), saw Version 3.0 released, enabling out of the box integration with WordPress and HubSpot. Analytics functionality also evolved to support “full funnel activation,” with Splitit becoming a case study in its effectiveness.
The year 2021 was one of consolidation and refinement. Version 4.0 brought integrated dashboards for tracking content audit and engagement. British Telecom’s enterprise arm began an in depth trial of Odyssiant’s ability to boost conversion rates.
2022, saw yet another phase of integration, this time with Drupal, and HubSpot. Further client partnerships included SaaS scale-up, Rosslyn.
2023 marked a decade of ingenuity, persistence, and ever-evolving sophistication. Version 6.0 emerged with quicker, more user-friendly analytics and a generic plugin for any CMS. Businesses such as Smartr and Equans EV completed implementations.
2024 continued the trend of innovation and client expansion, with new implementations at Silverstone and Beroe showcasing Odyssiant’s growing influence across diverse industries. The year has also been marked by the significant release of a new journey tracking chart in the engagement dashboard, providing users with even deeper insights into customer behavior. Additionally, Odyssiant’s client portfolio expanded further as more businesses recognise the platform’s unique ability to enhance customer journeys and drive meaningful engagement.
The Odyssey continues…