Facts are friendsA solicitor, a father, a fellow traveller
I am Quentin Solt. I have spent forty years advising businesses through corporate finance, venture capital and complex transactions - leading corporate finance teams in UK and US law firms, taking a technology company public in London, floating an investment fund, and working with start-ups, scale-ups and global brands along the way. Today I split my time between advisory work, writing and trying to think clearly about what artificial intelligence means for the rest of us.
The decision that changed how I see all of this
Some years ago, the City firm I was part of set a target for profit per partner that would have required a relentlessness I did not think was good for the people around me, or for the relationships that make professional life worth having. I walked away, without a clear next step, without a guaranteed income, without knowing quite what came next. It was the right decision. It was also only possible because I had enough set aside to survive the gap - not everyone can afford their principles, and I try to remember that whenever I write about choice and consequence.
The people this is really about
My wife Susannah works in pain therapy, and has taught me more than anyone about how healing and hurt both travel between people, and between generations. My daughter Lexi started experimenting with AI tools in her professional work well before most of her peers had taken the subject seriously, and found a real advantage in simply being curious early. My daughter Jemima is training in medicine in Sheffield - I spent a while sending her worried articles about AI and diagnosis before I understood that what she needed from me was not warnings but company. My daughter Zara has a gift for reading what other people are feeling that no model I have used comes close to. My son-in-law Dan is building a career in renewable energy, and reminds me that some questions about the future are worth answering honestly even when the honest answer is "it depends".
Faith, and why I mention it
I am a Christian, and my faith shapes how I think about worth, work and fear - which is why it appears on this site rather than staying private. It sits, I think, closer to the generous end of that tradition than the strict end: I am more persuaded by welcome than by gatekeeping, and by the idea that love comes before deserving, than by rules about who is in and who is out. You do not need to share any of that for the rest of this site to make sense. I have tried to write it so that you don't have to.
An honest note
I have got things wrong before - about technology, and about people. I have stayed in situations longer than I should have, out of caution rather than conviction, and been slower than I would like to admit to notice when something needed to change. I mention this not to perform humility but because I think a site that only shows its author's better decisions is not being fully honest about how change actually happens - in fits, starts, and second thoughts.
What I do now
I advise on legal technology, AI ethics and compliance through L5 Executive Services, write on Substack and LinkedIn under #FactsAreFriends, and am currently completing my first book, Chocolate, Fear and Freedom. This website is where all of it meets - the professional analysis, the personal story, and the conviction underneath both: that facts, however uncomfortable, are always more useful than the alternative.