Currently Open to - Non-exec, Chair and advisory roles.

After nearly two decades building hedgehog lab, I stepped down as CEO at the end of 2025. I am now taking a breath, exploring new horizons and rediscovering who I am beyond the singular identity of founder.

When you build something for twenty years, it becomes hard to know where the company ends and you begin. Stepping away has meant rediscovering the edges of my own identity. It is uncomfortable and quietly exciting in equal measure.

What I built at hedgehog lab still matters to me. We grew from two people with laptops and borrowed furniture in a warehouse unit to a global digital product consultancy working across the UK, US and Europe. 

Along the way we raised nearly £10m across three PE transactions, navigated two major turnarounds including Covid and the 2023 market crash, acquired a company, and built a culture that consistently earned recognition as a great place to work. I am proud of what we created and the people who made it possible.

Today I serve as a Non Executive Director at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, where I focus on digital transformation and governance. I also chair Health Call, a digital health company building products that improve care across the NHS. 

Both roles reflect something I have believed for a long time: technology is most meaningful when it serves people.

I continue to mentor founders and leaders navigating the messy reality of building and scaling businesses. I am also open to advisory and non executive roles, and curious about what else lies beyond the horizon.

If any of that resonates, I would love to connect.

Sarat Pediredla

📢 Some BIG news from me to begin 2026! 

After almost nineteen years at hedgehog lab, I have reached the moment where it feels right to step aside and make space for the next chapter of leadership. 

This company has shaped almost every part of my adult life. It has stretched me, grounded me, humbled me and given me more purpose than I ever expected when we started with two laptops, some broken furniture and a warehouse unit that rattled in the wind.

The journey has been full of moments I will never forget. The early scrappy wins that convinced us we might actually make it. The years of learning how to lead while building a culture that felt human. The surreal milestones where we found ourselves working with global brands or opening new offices. The tough seasons too, from painful restructures to the burnout I walked through in 2023 and 2024. Each high and low shaped me in ways I am still processing.

What stands out most as I look back is the people. There are far too many to thank in a single post, and I am not going to spam your feed with a long list, but please know this. I will reach out to each of you, because none of this would have existed without the countless hands, minds and hearts that helped build what started as a twenty five year old’s pipe dream.

I believe now is the right time to hand over the reins. I am proud of the Executive team we have built. They bring clarity, energy and a renewed sense of direction and I have complete confidence that they will take the company further than I ever could. I will step down as CEO immediately and support the business as an Advisor for the next twelve months.

As for what comes next, I am going to slow down. My family has carried the weight of my ambition and identity for many years and they deserve more of me now. 

After some rest, I will take my time exploring where I want to spend the next 20 years of my professional life. In the short term, I am open to advisory and non executive roles, so if you feel my experience could help, I would love to talk.

I leave with immense gratitude, pride and joy. Titles change. Chapters close. But once you learn to be the hedgehog, you never quite stop. 

#foreverahedgehog

Sarat Pediredla 

CEO & Founder in Consulting w/ PE experience | NED & Chair | Scaling digital companies through culture, growth, turnarounds & transformation | 🏆 AI 100 UK | 🏆 BIMA 100

💡 Excited and nervous to share this finally! I've had this idea for 10 years. I'm finally building it.

If you've spent the last three years running a consultancy or agency, you know how hard it's been. I've watched friends make redundancies they never thought they'd have to make. Studios closed. Founders burn out or sell for less than they deserved.

And through all of it, the tools that were supposed to help? Most of us see them as a necessary evil at best.

I'm building something different. A thinking partner for consultancy leaders, not another database to administer.

It's called thredspan. Professional Services Intelligence.

We've got 3 early pioneers helping shape what this becomes. I'm looking for 7 more to complete a founding cohort of 10.

I wrote about why in this article. If you run a consultancy or agency, I'd love to know if it resonates.

#thredspan #seearoundcorners #focusongreatwork

For 19 years I ran hedgehog lab, a digital product consultancy. And for most of those years, I wrestled with a problem I couldn't solve. It wasn't the

Open article: thredspan - Building Professional Services Intelligence by Sarat Pediredla • 3 min read

thredspan - Building Professional Services Intelligence

Accenture acquiring Faculty for billion dollars (or so) is one of those deals that tells you more about where the market is heading than about either company individually.

Faculty has spent a decade building something genuinely AI-native. Not AI bolted onto existing services, but AI as the foundation. Their work with the NHS during COVID, their safety work with OpenAI and Anthropic, their decision intelligence product. This is what it looks like when AI is the starting point rather than the add-on.

The signal here is clear. There is no separate “AI market” anymore. AI is simply how technology gets built now. Every digital product, every software platform, every consultancy engagement will be AI-native or it will be irrelevant. The days of AI as a distinct service line are ending. It’s becoming the water, not the fish.

Marc Warner becoming CTO of the entire company is the tell. This isn’t a tuck-in acquisition. This is Accenture admitting they need to rewire how they think about technology from the top.

The question is whether Faculty’s culture and approach can survive inside a 784,000-person organisation built around a very different model. Specialist acquisitions by large consultancies have a mixed track record. The thing that made them special often gets absorbed into the machine.

What I find most interesting is what this signals for the market. If Accenture needs to acquire AI-native capability rather than build it, that says something about the opportunity for consultancies that are AI-native from the ground up. 

Plenty to still play for. Feels like the mid 90s with the Internet. Exciting times!

For most of my early years at hedgehog lab, I was the primary commercial driver. 
 
When I co-founded the company in 2007, I did not think of myself as a salesperson. I was a technologist who happened to start a business. But the work needed to come from somewhere, and for most of the journey, that responsibility sat with me.
 
I originated most of our key accounts. I led the pitches. I built the relationships that turned into long-term clients. For a long time, I thought this was just what founders did.
 
Over 18 years, I learned a few things that might be useful if you are in a similar position.
 
𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴. The best opportunities I ever won came from understanding what the client actually needed, not from presenting what we wanted to sell. I used to walk into pitches with a deck full of capabilities. The wins came when I put the deck down and asked better questions. What is the real problem you are trying to solve? What does success look like for you personally, not just the business? What have you tried before that did not work?
 
𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀. Some of our biggest clients came from connections I made five or ten years earlier. Not because I was strategically nurturing them, but because I stayed curious about people and kept showing up. Consultancy sales is a long game. The founders who treat it as transactional tend to struggle.
 
𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲. We spent years chasing new logos before I understood that the clients who already trusted us were the real growth engine. Referrals and repeat business built most of what we became. The energy I put into new business would have been better spent making existing clients genuinely successful.
 
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳. This was the hardest lesson. I was comfortable being the commercial engine. It felt safe. But it also meant the business depended on me in ways that were not sustainable. I started building broader commercial capability later than I should have. If you are the founder and you are also the primary seller, that is fine for a while. It is not a permanent strategy.
 
If you run a consultancy and you recognise yourself in this, you are not alone. Most founders I mentor carry the same weight.
 
The path to distributing commercial responsibility is not obvious. But I think it starts with being honest about the dependency.

Ryan Hall

Founder & Managing Director

Founder, Friday Solved | Building scalable, predicable and sustainable sales engines inside your business

I'm the founder of Friday Solved, a consulting company that helps businesses solve their sales problems with sustainable and scalable solutions. 

I've founded and been through two exits, through which my focus has always been about sales growth.

Over the last 20+ years of experience in positioning, proposition design, and sales strategy, I have helped leading global brands such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Sky, M&S, first direct, Trainline, Vodafone, The Independent, UBS, Bank of America and The Times buy market-leading solutions. 

My passion is to share my expertise and insights with other, founders, CEOs and business leaders who want to create a market position that stands out in a B2B market. 

I offer pragmatic frameworks, build sustainable sales engines inside your business, and coaching formats that create focus, drive accountability and scale sales results and my book guides readers through the growth process. Whether it is sales culture, sales engine, or go-to-market strategyI can help you find clarity, relevance, and value.

Coach & Mentor

As lead Coach and Mentor at Friday Solved, I work personally with you to create focus and accountability to help you unlock the challenges ahead of you.

My approach is highly pragmatic and based on a sleeves-rolled-up approach to getting the right solution for you. 

I pride myself on the way I work with those I'm coaching. Using a mix of structure and on-demand discussion, we get the focus and results you need.

Sales = growth.

Simple right?

Well, it’s not always so simple to solve sales in a sustainable way to drive the growth outcomes your want.

Anyone who’s led a business knows it’s a path filled with mistakes and learnings.

And whilst, two successful exits later, and working on my third business sounds cool. 

The path was far from easy.

It also hasn’t got any easier. 

It isn’t easy today. 

And it probably won’t ever be easy.

So?

Well it’s our responsibility as business leaders to sure our learnings.

And that’s what I talked about today at the Agency Hackers Growth Summit today.

Huge thanks to Ian, Anne, Niamh and the Havkers team for having me on stage but also for organising another excellent event. 

A Hackers event never disappoints.

Founder, Friday Solved | Sales systems that are scalable, predictable and sustainable.

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What's the one thing that will improve your overall sales performance this year?

A unicorn salesperson? 

Sweating your little black book more?

Simply doing more marketing? 

A lot of luck? 

Nope. Sorry.

The defining factor for businesses that have a high-performing sales engine is...

🥁 Drum roll 🥁 

Systemisation.  

Without systemisation, sales fails and you lose control of marketing.

Systemisation creates repeatability.

It trains behaviours.  

Consistency grows. 

All of which delivers business impact. 

Solving this isn't a mystery. It's about bringing a bit of science to the art of sales. 

It's something you can learn, act on and implement.

If you'd like to know how, why not join us for the next session in our webinar series? 

'Systems that sell' is happening on the 12th Feb.

Fancy joining?

You rewrote your sales script again last night.

Tightened the opening. Sharpened the value prop. Rehearsed in the mirror.

On the call today? 

"Let me think about it."

Time to wake up to the reality  👉

The problem was never your script. It was your approach.

Sophisticated B2B buyers have sat through hundreds of scripted conversations.

They recognise the pivot to the close before you've started pivoting.

The moment they sense it, trust erodes. Walls go up.

The conversation becomes a negotiation rather than an exploration.

The real shift? 

Understanding that having a plan is fundamentally different from having a script.

A script tells you what to say. A plan helps you know where you might go.

Scripts are rigid. They assume the conversation will unfold predictably.

A plan creates options. It prepares you to pivot based on what the buyer actually needs.

Here's where most strategies fall apart 👉

Not every meeting should push for a close.

Discovery call? Evaluation discussion? Decision meeting?

Each stage has different objectives and appropriate outcomes.

Trying to close someone still in discovery mode isn't confident. It's tone-deaf.

The real question isn't "how do I close this meeting?"

It's "what's the next best action from this conversation?"

If deals keep stalling, it's usually one of three problems 👉 

Always going for the close → Buyers feel pressured. They go quiet.

Not being patient → Complex decisions require time. Rushing shows you don't understand their world.

Defining success too narrowly → Progress might mean deeper understanding, connecting stakeholders, or earning permission to continue.

The insight that changes everything 👉 

Buyers don't hear confidence. They feel attachment to the outcome.
If you're emotionally invested in getting a "yes," everything sounds like pressure.

Two salespeople can say the exact same words and get completely different responses.

It's not what you say. It's the state you're in when you say it.

Before your next call, ask yourself: "Am I okay if this is a no?"

If the honest answer is no, no script will save you.

The neediness leaks through every word.

Great sellers follow this hierarchy, but most get it backwards 👉 

State first → Release attachment. Approach from abundance.

Structure next → Have a plan, not a script. Know possible directions.

Script last → Good language matters, but it emerges when state and structure are solid.

Your next best action 👉 

Look at your meetings this week.

For each one, get clear on what stage of the funnel it represents.

Define what genuine progress looks like.

Release attachment to the close.

Then notice what happens when you stop performing and start conversing.

The results might surprise you.

We're back like Backstreet.

And what better way to kick off our 2026 events schedule than the ORIGINAL. 🙈  

Yes. 

Monkey Fingers is happening. 🙉 

This Feb. 

Burgers, banter, beer. 

No sales pitches. 

Just good people in a room sharing what's going on in a safe place.

All topped off with the one and only Monkey Fingers from Meat Liquor.

Personally, I can't wait. 

And yeah, as I said, it's kicking off this year's Friday Solved events programme.

More tacos to taco'about.  🌮 

Plenty of Monkey Fingers. 🙊 

And some other surprises through the course of the year.

Stay tuned! 

And if you want to come, you know where to find me. 👀

Hiring more salespeople isn't the fix for your pipeline you think it is. 

I see it all the time. 

Businesses hit a growth plateau and immediately think 🤔  

"We need more sales, so let's hire more salespeople!"

But more people just means more chaos if the foundation isn't there.

What actually drives predictable, compounding sales results?

Systemisation.

👀 Clear roles and responsibilities 
👀 Defined processes that actually get followed 
👀 Meeting cadences that move deals forward 
👀 Real collaboration between teams

When you get this right, it flows into everything.

How you run campaigns, nurture prospects, and engage your pipeline from first touch to close.

That's where compound results come from. 

Not headcount.

What's one system or process that's made the biggest difference in your sales org?

The rules of your pipeline have changed.

The pipeline still works. It just doesn't work like it used to.

A decade ago, you controlled the information. A cold call might be the first time a prospect heard your name. 

A discovery call was actual discovery. Your sequence of stages mapped to their sequence of decisions.

That alignment is gone. 

Today's buyers show up pre-educated, pre-opinionated, and halfway to a decision. 

While your CRM slots them into "awareness" because that's where the process says they belong. 

You're running a playbook written for a buyer who no longer exists.

But the thing most people miss? 

The fix isn't to abandon the pipeline. 

It's to recognise that pipelines were always an incomplete model. 

The mechanics have shifted. 

Linear is out. 

Cyclical is the focus. 

The companies adapting fastest aren't just tweaking their stages. 

They're redesigning the entire physics of how growth happens.

Most sales teams still think in pipelines. Linear. Rigid. Start to finish. But sales isn’t linear anymore. It’s cyclical, continuous, and compounding.

Open article: From pipeline to flywheel by Ryan Hall • 9 min read

Pssssst.

Yes, you.

Want to know a guaranteed way to lose a deal? 

Assuming the prospect doesn't want to buy. 

As soon as you give up, the deal is dead.

The prospect hasn't killed it. 

You did.

You think the prospect killed it, because they went quiet. 

But, being honest, it was you when you gave up on it.

It wasn't the ghosting. 

It was your lack of determination.

It was you making a decision without the facts. 

You gave up. 

You let it slide into the cold, dead depths of your CRM.

It evaporated. 

Now, this isn't a post criticising. 

We've all been there.

It's a friendly reminder to keep going with the nurturing.

Find the right cadence of messaging.

Show value.

It's a reminder to keep going.

A reminder to dust off those opportunities you are nervous to contact again because its been a while.

Why not just show up, add some value and see where it goes?

Your pipeline isn't broken because people aren't working hard enough. 

Marketing is generating leads. 

Sales is making calls. 

The dashboards are green.

And yet revenue isn't moving.

That's because most pipeline problems aren't about activity. They're about alignment. 

When marketing promises transformation and sales pitches features, the gap between expectation and reality kills deals before they start. 

Your buyer showed up excited by your thought leadership. 

They left confused by a disconnected sales conversation.

The silence between your two most important revenue teams isn't conflict. 

It's just two languages, two definitions of success, and one pipeline caught in the middle.

If marketing and sales don’t speak, your pipeline suffers. It leads to heartbreak. And it's a hard thing to admit. Two crucial teams not in sync. I’m 

Open article: Aligning sales and marketing by Ryan Hall • 8 min read

What does 23 years working in a consultative sales environment teach you?

A lot.

Most lessons were from the lost deals.

But when you win a new client or grow an existing one that really stands out, there are always lessons in there.

What did I learn from winning First Direct? 💸 

That's patience and persistence pays off. Staying the course, sticking with it. 

What did I learn from winning Flybe? ✈️ 

Putting in the effort and energy, becoming a customer of your client and going that extra mile will set you apart. 

What did I learn from winning Deutsche Bank? 💶 

That quality and service done right always pays off and sets foundations for growth. 

What did I learn from winning The Independent? 📰 

That being strategic and commercially minded and looking at your customer's business like your own is crucial. 

What did I learn from winning Costa Express? ☕ 

Show don’t tell is the best way to demonstrate capability, and that progrssibly disclosing value creates intrigue.

They're five simple lessons that anyone with pipeline ownership should be considering.

23 years specialising in sales definitely teaches you things.

If you're interested in hearing more, let me know!

Your meeting script isn't broken. 

Your approach is.

You've rewritten it a dozen times. Tightened the hook. Sharpened the close. Practiced until the words felt smooth.

And you still heard: "Let me think about it."

Why? Well, sophisticated B2B buyers stopped listening to scripts years ago. 

They've sat through hundreds of them. They can smell your pivot to the close before you've even started pivoting.

The problem isn't your language. It's something far more uncomfortable to admit.

What follows might challenge everything you've been taught about sales conversations.

Why "always be closing" is actually killing your deals, what buyers really sense when you're talking (Spoiler alert! It's not your words), and the counterintuitive shift that separates trusted advisors from sellers who get ghosted.

If you're tired of watching promising conversations die quiet deaths in your pipeline, keep reading.

You rewrote your script again last night. You tightened the opening. Sharpened the value prop. Added a stronger close. Maybe even rehearsed it in the 

Open article: Focus on the next best action  by Ryan Hall • 9 min read

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