The story of JT
Small towns, many schools, and finding the room
JT grew up across Tasmania with parents who worked in education and community initiatives. Frequent moves meant repeated introductions to new schools and towns, which trained him to read a place quickly, find common ground, and build relationships. Sport, books, music, writing, and community life shaped his interests more than a single academic specialty. After university, he spent extended periods working and traveling in Europe and North America.
Starting again in unfamiliar places changed his view of identity because new communities did not know the role he had occupied at home. The experience built confidence, independence, and a practical approach to connection. He looks first for existing links, then for local gathering places and people who understand how a community actually works.
Building through the boom and the bust
After work in hospitality, legal technology, and sales, JT entered internet focused recruitment during the early technology boom. He and his partners founded Mitchell Lake in 2001 as the market collapsed. Instead of abandoning the sector, they stayed focused on internet companies and the people building them.
That decision led to a 25 year executive search business and a network spanning founders, operators, investors, and advisors. The dot com collapse also gave JT a lasting framework for hype cycles: useful technology can be real even when valuations, timing, infrastructure, and adoption move far beyond what the market can support. Across later technology waves, he kept separating the durable infrastructure from financial or promotional excess and used trusted introductions to help people beyond the immediate terms of a search engagement.
Private matchmaking for professional networks
JT is now applying that relationship experience to AI assisted matchmaking. The products began with a question about giving an existing network better access to people, opportunities, events, and investments. socialmedium.ai and related work use private profiles and stated intent rather than public directories, advertising, or indiscriminate exposure. The system introduces people only when both sides appear relevant to each other, with potential use cases across alumni networks, clubs, industry associations, hiring, research, and business development.
JT is testing the approach with real communities while Mitchell Lake experiments with the same tools on its own data. He sees AI as a way to reduce the search cost of collaboration, but he keeps human trust, shared experience, and mutual consent at the center of the design.