About Nightingale HQ

Our Mission

Revolutionise productivity in metals manufacturing by making advanced tools and insights available to everyone.

What we stand for

• We believe the best results come from combining smart tools with human expertise.
• We believe in building long-term partnerships with our customers based on trust, transparency and shared success.
• We believe in continuous learning and improvement, both for ourselves and our customers.
• We believe in making a positive impact on the environment and society through our work.

How we’re achieving this

We’ve built GoSmarter, an AI production assistant for metals manufacturers that helps people save time and reduce waste.

The Founders

Steph Locke is an ex-Microsoft leader in Digital Innovation and AI focused on Industrial organisations. With expertise in both the technical and the change management aspects of AI implementation, she regularly presents and keynotes globally on the topics of AI, Data Science, and the integration of these capabilities into business. She was named one of the most Inspiring Women in Manufacturing in the UK and held the position of Chair to the European DIGITAL SME Alliance AI Focus Group’s Steering Committee.

Ruth Kearney has been implementing innovation and digitalisation programmes with industry for the past 15 years, more recently with Trinity College Dublin and Talent Garden. She helped with the first Irish run of fast.ai originally developed by the University of San Francisco, supported the first AI Edge Accelerator sponsored by Intel, and created a range of Data and AI training programmes for the corporate market. Ruth also has strong background in developing collaborations and has secured millions of exchequer and EU funding to make innovation projects happen.

Find out more about the team on our dedicated Team page.

Our Story

Founded in late 2018 with a simple goal — to help businesses truly harness data science and AI. GoSmarter was created by co-founders Ruth and Steph, who first met while delivering AI Readiness and Data Science Bootcamps for leading organisations including Google, Novartis, CRH, and several public sector and financial institutions. Their early work focused on helping Irish manufacturers become “AI ready” through comprehensive Digital Reviews that assessed processes, technology, and data maturity, resulting actionable roadmaps for transformation. These initiatives were part-funded by the Irish government.

Seeing how slowly many organisations adopted new tools inspired the creation of the first version of GoSmarter, a platform designed to help small and medium manufacturers get more done with practical, ready-to-go AI solutions. Although early to market, the experience shaped the foundation of what GoSmarter is today: a single, easy-to-use platform built for metals manufacturers.

When COVID-19 hit, Ruth and Steph used the time to connect and build. They launched the AI Fights Back webinar series, sixteen weeks of practical insights on how AI could solve real manufacturing challenges, and partnered with Helmholtz, the German National Centre for Infection Control, to create a global data-sharing platform for COVID research.

These experiences provided a deep, ground-level understanding of manufacturing, its day-to-day operations, pain-points and opportunities. That insight continues to drive GoSmarter’s mission to co-develop with metals manufacturers and deliver tools that add real value, quickly and effectively.

Why are we called Nightingale HQ?

Almost everyone has heard of the Lady with the Lamp. Florence Nightingale worked as a nurse during the Crimea War and her local intervention made a difference in thousands of lives. But did you know she was one of the world’s first and most successful data scientists?

Florence performed comprehensive studies into sanitation and medical care that revolutionised the way patients were cared for. Instead of publishing in a journal for medical practitioners or statisticians to read, she made her work consumable by government and military people who could use it immediately.

Turning complex, messy, real-world experience into actionable, simple insight made a huge impact and it’s this process we’re seeking to achieve too. Thus we put our aspiration first and foremost in our name as a constant reminder.

Join our team

Interested in joining a hard working, diverse and creative scaleup? Drop us a line jobs@nightinglaehq.ai