Peter Ramsey
Peter is our User Experience Specialist based in London. He helps our portfolio companies to get the UX right and refine their experience without wasting time.
I hated school. I was always more keen on building things than learning things. At 15, I taught myself web design and started a web design company through school and university. I realized that I am really bad at many things in life. But also that I am really good at understanding why something sucks.
Peter's office in his garden on the southern coast of England.
When I moved out from my parent’s home, I experienced how badly tenant referencing was done. I wanted to make it better, dropped out of university, and founded Movem. For six years, I went through the masochist rollercoaster of being a founder. I built a team, closed first customers, moved back to my parents when the money ran out, hacked away at it myself until I was able to raise again, and eventually sold the company to a private equity firm.
I learned that grit is the only thing that counts. It’s not about being the smartest or having the best ideas or working the hardest in terms of hours. It’s about having the grit to be kicked in the face by a horse again and again and then still want to ride it.
After selling the company I decided that I want to share my learnings and started Built for Mars. I wanted to create content on building product experiences that actually help people who are in the same situation that I was in a couple of years ago.
To me, there’s nothing more exciting than helping other companies to identify their friction points, reducing their churn rate, keeping and attracting more users, and understanding which of those changes will have the biggest impact. Because in early stage companies, you can’t just do everything. You need to consider the trade-offs, service the first clients, and focus on building the functionality. UX is the silent force that influences everything we do. It makes our life easier without us recognizing it. From the way that a push-and-pull door is designed to the process of applying for a loan. But many products don’t exploit their full potential.
Since starting Built for Mars in 2019, I’ve seen many companies in different verticals, trying new experiments every single week with billions of users. I’ve got a pretty good understanding of what works and what is a waste of time. When Simon approached me after following my work for some time, it became clear pretty quickly that I could help Creandum’s portfolio companies in getting the UX right and refining their experience without wasting time.
Besides that, I get really passionate about Formula One, freshly brewed espresso, and the self-pressed orange juice you can buy at supermarkets. I spend probably £50 a month on that which is totally insane but a true guilty pleasure of mine.
