Our CEO and Founder, John Readman, has been crowned AI Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards – or as Steven Bartlett calls it, the “Grammys of Entrepreneurship”. It’s a huge moment not only for John, but for everyone who has been part of the journey behind ASK BOSCO® and Modo25.
About the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2025
The Great British Entrepreneur Awards brings together the very best in British entrepreneurship gathering together the UK’s most ambitious and inspiring founders.
The ‘AI Entrepreneur of the Year award’ celebrates founders who are using AI to make a real difference in how businesses work. For John, it’s proof of a career spent helping brands and agencies tackle their marketing and ecommerce challenges, building strong teams, and growing companies with both innovation and purpose at their core.
John was in excellent company on the shortlist for AI Entrepreneur of the Year. Andrew Simpson of RealiseMotion is pushing the boundaries of AI-driven movement and animation; Carly Walter of Magi is helping businesses unlock smarter decision-making through predictive technology; Jason Crispin of AUDITSU is transforming how organisations audit, analyze, and improve their operations; and Moe Abbas of FAS Logistics is using AI to streamline and scale modern logistics. Being recognised alongside such forward-thinking innovators highlights the strength and diversity of the UK’s AI community, and makes John’s win even more impressive!
Running at 100 miles per hour and loving It
Anyone who knows John knows that he finds energy in momentum. “I like running at 100 miles per hour all the time,” he often says, but John has long understood: you can’t do it alone. “You have to recruit super-smart people who you can then delegate to and empower,” he explains.
John is also known for his love of cycling — not the gentle weekend sort, but the kind that involves huge distances, intense climbs and serious commitment. Alongside Modo25 and ASK BOSCO®, he’s co-founder of cycling charity business Ride25, and part of their epic London-to-Sydney challenge. In fact, this week he’s heading off to cycle across India on leg 14 of the challenge. True to his Yorkshire roots, he brings the same grit, straight-talking honesty and “does what it says on the tin” (very Ronseal) mindset to business as he does to the bike. Family is a big part of what keeps him grounded and motivated, and his drive to build meaningful, purpose-led companies comes from wanting to create something that lasts for his team, for his family, and for the wider community he supports.
How ASK BOSCO® was born
ASK BOSCO® was created to solve a problem almost every marketer knows too well: pulling data from lots of different platforms and trying to build reports and extract insights that are accurate, clear, and actually useful.
John saw this happening again and again, so recruited a team of expert marketers and data scientists to build ASK BOSCO® as a single source of truth. The platform brings all your marketing data together, automates reporting, and uses AI to answer questions such as ‘why did revenue increase last month’ or highlight what’s working, what isn’t, and where you should spend your next pound for the best return. The whole idea is to give marketers their time back so they can focus on strategy and improving performance — not copying and pasting spreadsheets.
The platform gained early support from angel investors, including Skyscanner co-founder Bonamy Grimes, which helped accelerate its development and international growth. More recently, ASK BOSCO® secured significant investment from Gresham House, backing its expansion and product innovation even further.
Purpose at the centre: supporting 1MoreChild
What makes this award even more meaningful is that John’s drive has always been about more than numbers or technology. Both Modo25 and ASK BOSCO® support 1MoreChild, a charity in Uganda supporting 280 children.
The names of our companies reflect that story:
- Modo: named after one of the children at the orphanage
- Bosco: the man who runs the charity day-to-day
Those names sit at the heart of the businesses as a constant reminder of why we do what we do. Around 70% of the team voluntarily donate part of their salary, and fundraising events have become part of the company culture.
As John says:
“I want something in my life that has a broader purpose than just making money.”
A well-deserved win for John and the whole team
John’s award is far more than individual recognition. It’s a recognition of all the hard work, passion and commitment from the entire Modo25 and ASK BOSCO® team.
