Dan Crow

I completed my degree in Computer Science and PhD in Artificial Intelligence at Leeds in the early 90s. I moved to Silicon Valley, first working for Apple, then at a series of startups, culminating in co-founding Blurb. I joined Google and spent five years leading teams in search, ads and mobile. I’m now CTO of Songkick, one of London’s leading tech startups.

I came to Leeds because of the excellent computer science course and to live outside London. I loved my time here: my course, broader student life and living in the city. I still use the computer science I learned everyday - from algorithms and data structures, to the information retrieval techniques I worked on in my PhD. It was an essential grounding for my career.

In my first year at Leeds I joined Theatre Group and directed a play. That was my first exposure to organizing teams of people. University offers so much beyond your course; I was glad I took advantage.

The key to success is perseverance. My career is a succession of failures and setbacks interspersed with occasional success. If you can keep going when times are hard, you can achieve anything. 

Dan visited the School of Computing in 2013 to give a talk to our students.