darikwaI'm Edward.I build the systems that make businesses work.
Two decades of commercial operations across British retail, now composed with applied AI — for considered businesses that want technology done properly.
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Twenty years where commerce meets code.
I've spent nearly two decades in UK retail and commercial operations — Dreams, Tesco, Wyevale Garden Centres, then nine years running the commercial operations of a premium London fashion brand. Bedsteads to Christmas gifting, live plants to luxury fashion. 120 store openings, WSSI systems built from scratch, multi-million-pound budgets, five major platform migrations.
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The instinct: if the tool doesn't exist, build it.
I didn't start as a technologist. I started as a merchandiser who kept finding that the tools the business actually needed didn't exist. So I taught myself to code — and built a commercial intelligence platform from scratch that now rivals tools backed by $10M of venture funding.
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AI as a working material, not a buzzword.
Today, AI is central to everything I ship. I use it to accelerate development, to power intelligent features inside every platform, and to deliver capabilities to small businesses that would otherwise require entire teams. The combination of deep commercial experience and modern AI tooling means I can build in weeks what would traditionally take months — and at a fraction of the cost.
Most technology fails commercially not because the code is bad — but because nobody in the room speaks all three languages: finance, operations, engineering. Darikwa exists to be that person.
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A few details, for the record.
- Based
- United Kingdom
- Languages
- English · Shona · Spanish
- Studying
- BSc Data Science (OU) · CIMA
- Trading as
- Elizabeth Gracie Ltd
- Educated
- LCF · Westminster · LSE · Columbia
- Point of contact
- One — me
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A growing library of tools and templates.
Free calculators and professional templates — VAT, landed cost, merchandise planning, cash flow modelling. The same tools I've built and used across my career, now available for any business to use.
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A business challenge thatneeds someone who's done it?
Let's talk. One conversation is usually enough to know whether I can help.
Get in touch