The Team Behind the Machine

GoSmarter at a Glance

GoSmarter is an AI production assistant for metals manufacturers. It is made by Nightingale HQ, a Welsh technology company co-founded by Steph Locke and Ruth Kearney in 2018 and headquartered in Caerphilly, Wales, UK.

GoSmarter automates the manual, error-prone work in metals manufacturing — reading mill certificates, optimising cutting schedules, and managing material inventory. It is used by steel stockholders, service centres, and fabricators across the UK and Europe.

→ What is GoSmarter? — full explainer → GoSmarter by Nightingale HQ — the company story

The Mission

To stop manufacturers from wasting time on busy work. We build tools that handle the boring stuff so you can focus on production.

Our Rules

• No BS tools. If it doesn’t help you ship metal, we don’t build it.
• Human + Machine. Robots are good at data; you’re good at strategy. We keep it that way.
• Efficiency is cash. Waste isn’t just bad for the planet; it burns a hole in your pocket. We fix that.

How we fix it

We built GoSmarter because nobody else was building tools for the people actually doing the work. You don’t need another graph; you need an answer.

The Founders

Steph Locke knows industrial AI is usually a buzzword-filled nightmare. As an ex-Microsoft innovation lead, she saw the gap between “tech demos” and “tech that works on the shop floor”. So she built the latter.

Ruth Kearney saw millions in funding wasted on “digital transformation” projects that transformed nothing. She’s here to ensure you get tools that actually pay for themselves.

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

Our Story

We started in 2018 because we were sick of seeing manufacturers left behind. We consulted for the big names—Google, Novartis—but realized the real work was happening in workshops that were still running on paper and hope.

Frustrated by the slow pace of “corporate innovation,” we built GoSmarter. It’s not a multi-year consulting gig; it’s a platform that works today.

During COVID-19, Ruth and Steph focused on building and connecting. They launched the AI Fights Back webinar series, delivering 16 weeks of practical insights into 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 Nightingale HQ?

Most people know Florence Nightingale as the Lady with the Lamp, but few realise she was also one of the world’s first and most effective data scientists. During the Crimean War, she used rigorous analysis of sanitation and medical care to transform patient outcomes and save thousands of lives. Rather than publishing for academics, Florence presented her findings in clear, practical ways that government and military leaders could act on immediately. Turning complex, real-world data into simple, actionable insight had a profound impact and it’s the same approach we strive for today. Our name reflects that aspiration and serves as a constant reminder of it.

Award Winning Innovation

• Best Greentech Application - Wales Technology Awards 2025
• Innovate UK Innovation Awardee
• The Vanguard Initiative VInnovate Awardee
• EIT Manufacturing Innovation Awardee
• EIT Manufacturing Education Awardee

Partners

We partner with world-leading organisations to advance our research and development.

Join our team

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