MarTech Interview with Peter Proud, Founder and CEO of Forrit

Peter, you’ve had a diverse career trajectory. Could you tell our readers about your professional background & your journey to becoming the founder of Forrit?

Although I had the qualifications to go to university, socio-economic reasons made that choice near impossible. Instead, I pursued an apprenticeship with Marconi Avionics, later BAE Systems, where I studied software and electronics. This experience was invaluable, teaching me teamwork, hard work, and, most importantly, how to get things done in a complex environment. These lessons have served me well throughout my career.

From there, I joined the British Army and was fortunate enough to train at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Sandhurst taught me tenacity and leadership. The bulk of my career was spent at Microsoft, where I saw what real scale looks like. Working with some of the most senior executives at the top companies globally, I learned the importance of making products easy to use, sell, and buy. I also saw how a strong company culture can drive success, which is something I’ve carried forward into Forrit as a core principle.

You started from managing strategic accounts at Microsoft and Accenture to founding. Could you share the key experiences and core values that shaped your leadership style and approach to entrepreneurship?

I’ve always been entrepreneurial, even within large enterprises. The term “entrepreneur” originates from the French word “entreprendre,” meaning “to undertake.” I’ve always been willing to undertake any task that would drive success—it’s a form of tenacity. I think this is the main core value I brought to starting a company. For example, myself and the CVP of Innovation at Citibank once wrote a business idea that ended up being sold to Capital One. No one asked us to do this; we just did it because we saw the opportunity.

Another value I carry is the importance of getting the product right. Steve Jobs famously said, “You can get a lot wrong if you get the product right,” and I’ve taken that to heart. At Forrit, we are passionate about delivering exceptional client value through a product that solves real problems. Lastly, investing in talent has been a significant focus for us. We’ve championed apprenticeships, doubling down on developing talent to bridge gaps in areas where hiring has been challenging.

The major focus you have is on creating future-proof CMS solutions for highly regulated industries. How has your background in technology and client relationships shaped Forrit’s unique approach to CMS?

The idea for Forrit came from recognising a fundamental challenge: IT and marketing often operate in silos. During a meeting with Unilever, Bill Gates asked me whether he should speak to IT or marketing, and I told him both. His response was, “I’m not sure how to do this.” That interaction highlighted the disconnect between the two departments.

We built Forrit to bridge this gap, leveraging Microsoft’s $300 billion investment in cloud infrastructure to create a platform that meets the needs of both IT and marketing. IT requires a secure, scalable, robust, robust, transparent, and value for money solution, while marketing needs something flexible, easy to use, and capable of delivering content in any language to any device, quickly at scale. Forrit eliminates the compromises that typically arise when balancing these needs. Our mantra from the start has been to deliver “compliant anarchy”—compliance and control for IT while giving marketing freedom within a secure environment.

Resilience and adaptability are key traits for any leader when building a company. What challenges did you face during your experiences and how did you overcome those challenges?

Resilience and adaptability come with confidence, which should not be mistaken for complacency. Building confidence involves leveraging collective thought and trusted advice. Building a team around you trust is critical to success, as this support enables you to make tough decisions with assurance. Fairness in all decisions, whether dealing with staff, partners, or clients, is equally important. When you demonstrate fairness consistently, it becomes easier to justify tough calls by asking, “Do you think I am being unfair?”

Share a personal story about a significant obstacle you faced, and how your grit and adaptability helped you overcome it.

At Microsoft, I had a manager who disliked being questioned and actively tried to get me fired. Despite his efforts, I stood my ground, and his behaviour was eventually recognised. He left the company, and I learned the importance of having a strong network and a reputation for delivery—support often comes from unexpected places.

At Forrit, a defining moment was when a client required functionality that our product didn’t yet offer. They gave us three months to deliver, or we would lose the contract. We worked tirelessly and succeeded, adding features that not only met their needs but enhanced our offering for other clients. That experience reinforced the importance of listening to clients, integrating widely needed features into the product, and handling bespoke requests as separate projects.

How do you see AI revolutionizing CMS management, especially in highly regulated industries, and how is Forrit incorporating AI into its platform?

AI has been around for years, but its recent commoditisation has made it more accessible. At Forrit, we use AI to enhance efficiency and streamline processes. For example, When images are loaded into our Digital Asset Management the image is read using AI through the Azure Vision API, this image is then tagged automatically and tags can be edited by the user if necessary.

We’ve also integrated AI into our translation capabilities. When a client requires their website in multiple languages, we can take the original site and instantly create a new copy in any Azure-supported language. This localised version can then be independently edited to meet market-specific needs. We have built our solution to be tightly integrated into all the services of Azure – so any AI solution that Azure exposes we can use for the benefit of our clients. Additionally, we are working on embedding AI into our migration services to further accelerate and optimise the process for our clients.

What are some specific ways in which companies can leverage AI to streamline their CMS processes while maintaining high standards of compliance and control?

When leveraging AI, it’s important to treat it like any other tool—useful but not the final decision-maker. AI can accelerate processes, but its output should always be validated by human oversight. Forrit employs a “four eyes” approach, ensuring that all AI-driven processes are reviewed for compliance and accuracy.

Achieving both security and scalability in a CMS platform is often seen as a difficult balance. What strategies and technologies do you use to achieve both?

Forrit has architected security and scalability into the core of the platform by leveraging best practices and the capabilities of Microsoft Azure. By using services like Azure App Services, Front Door, and Sentinel, we ensure robust, scalable, and secure solutions. Azure Sentinel, a cloud-native SIEM solution, integrates security orchestration, automation, and response, allowing us to detect and respond to threats across an organisation’s enterprise with precision. It uses AI and machine learning to enhance threat detection and minimise false positives.

Azure Front Door optimises the performance, security, and reliability of web applications. It does this through features such as Global Load Balancing which allows traffic to be distributed across multiple regions while ensuring high availability and reliability, Dynamic Site Acceleration which optimises the delivery of dynamic content to improve web performance and its its Web Application Firewall (WAF) which ensures that applications are fast, secure and protected against vulnerabilities. Additionally, App Services provide an environment that supports multiple programming languages, built-in security features, and easy scaling.

Forrit’s ability to provide compliance, control, and flexibility is a key selling point. How do you ensure that the needs of IT teams for control and security align with the marketing teams’ desire for agility and ease of use?

We have built two tools that are tightly integrated into one service, satisfying IT’s need for compliance and marketing’s need for agility. Forrit’s Service Delivery Hub ensures every environment is securely configured and compliant in the same way, with all services actively monitored and optimised. This gives IT teams the peace of mind they need. At the same time, our CMS allows marketing teams to easily create and deliver content across any device, in any language, while maintaining the proper approval workflows for content publishing.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to build companies in technical and regulated spaces?

I would advise following a “Crawl, Walk, Run” approach. During the Crawl phase, focus on defining the product, articulating the business need, and building and testing a minimum viable product. In the Walk phase, secure your first clients, gather feedback, work out models for your pricing and most efficient sales, establish references and build out high performing teams. By the time you reach the Run phase, you should be scaling the business with a plan that reflects timelines and costs being delivered by high performing motivated teams and have a path to profitability. It’s also important to make sure you have secured investors that are true partners, assembled a great board and have trusted mentors to guide you along the way.