Piers Linney
Piers Linney is an entrepreneur and investor and speaker with experience across a range of sectors including technology, media, communications, and additive manufacturing. He is a co-founder of Implement AI, a provider of scalable digital workforces of managed AI agents and winner of ‘AI Startup of the Year – London’ at the UK Startup Awards 2025.
Piers Linney is co-host of the AI for business podcast, ‘The Implement AI Podcast’. He publishes a bi-weekly LinkedIn newsletter with ~9,000 subscribers on AI, technology and economics, ‘Business as Usual?’.
He is also Chairman and a co-founder of Atherton Bikes, the world-leading producer of additive manufactured mountain bikes that won the World Championshps 2023 (1st and 2nd). Piers is a well-known champion of entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized businesses and a regular media commentator on radio and TV. He is also an in-demand keynote on AI including at Tech Show London, DTXm IRX, SME Expo, AI & Big Data World and Elite Business Live.
Piers is best known as a former Dragon investor on BBC1’s Dragons’ Den and from Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire. He has a professional background as a qualified lawyer specialised in venture capital , M&A investment banking at Credit Suisse and alternative asset fund management, and was a Non-executive Director of the UK government’s development bank British Business Bank during the roll out of the £90bn Covid business support loan schemes.
Piers was also a former Trustee of Nesta the UK’s largest innovation agency with a £500m endowment. He has been recognised as one of the UK’s top 100 most influential black Britons and in 2020 he was recognised as one of the UK’ s top 20 ethnic minority executives. Piers is an adviser to Sky and sits on its Diversity Advisory Council and won the ‘Diversity Champion of the Year’ at the European Diversity Awards (2024) for his work with Sky.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Piers is an inspirational speaker who has worked many brands worldwide over the last decade as a keynote speaker and content or marketing partner. His keynote talks are designed for internal and external audiences, including sales prospects and cover:
Dragons’ Den and Secret Millionaire
Experience introducing tech to Dragons’ Den with a 50x return and experience in a Young Offenders institution on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire programme.
Personal journey
From a Lancashire mill town and failing his 11+ to becoming a solicitor and investment banking in the City and Dragons’ Den.
Scaling up and business growth
Business change, 5 factors for business growth and scaling up.
AI, technology and the future of work
Impact on business, the economy, work, skills and society. Piers is a ‘Top AI Voice’ on Linkedin and Executive Chairman and a Co-founder of Implement AI.
Diversity and inclusion
Personal experience and impact on business, society and social mobility
"A quick note to say thank you for speaking at our event this week. The customer feedback has been fantastic and your 'in conversation' session with Michael was excellent. Really insightful, thought provoking and injected a real buzz into the room!"
— Neil, NatWest
"An amazing person and speaker. So popular that we ran out of headphones and space on our exhibition stand! It was an incredible sight."
— Sage UK LTD
Piers was invited to speak at our conference. The focus of his content was AI, providing an overview of its current capabilities and how they might evolve over the next few years.The subject area was incredibly current for our business, uncovering a thirst for more insight across the audience. Piers had a deep knowledge of AI, answering surprisingly advanced questions with ease, his delivery was engaging and held the audience right to the end.”
— Adrian Jaggard, CEO, Taylor Rose MW
