Will Hackett is an Australian software engineer based in London, currently serving as CTO of Flowstate.

What does Will Hackett do?

Will Hackett is the CTO of Flowstate, where he leads technical strategy and development of dynamic workforce planning tools. He brings expertise in AI/ML, software engineering, and FinTech, with a background in building SaaS platforms.

Where is Will Hackett based?

Will Hackett is based in London, United Kingdom. Originally from Australia.

Is Will Hackett the character from Hollyoaks?

No, this Will Hackett is a real person - a software engineer and entrepreneur based in London. He is not the fictional character from the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. This is the professional website of Will Hackett, CTO at Flowstate.

How can I contact Will Hackett?

You can connect with Will Hackett through his professional profiles on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/willhackett).

Pragmatic: Lessons from building (and winding down) an AI startup

Today marks the end of a chapter. After nearly a year of building Pragmatic and our AI assistant Jamie, we're winding down operations. The Jamie platform will remain operational through January 1st, 2026, and all active subscriptions are receiving full refunds within 5-7 business days.

This isn't the outcome I hoped for when we started, but it's the right decision. The market validation didn't meet our growth targets and continuing would mean wasting time on something that wasn't working.

What we built

Jamie was ambitious: an AI assistant that actually handled your email and got things done. Not just another chatbot that summarised messages or drafted replies, but a system that could understand context, make decisions and take action on your behalf.

The technology worked. We built a system that could process emails, understand intent and execute tasks. We integrated with WhatsApp, handled third-party AI models and created infrastructure that genuinely impressed our early users.

But technology working isn't the same as market validation.

What we learned

The adventure taught us more than we could have imagined. We learned about AI implementation at scale, about product development under uncertainty and about what users actually need versus what they say they want.

We had users who genuinely loved Jamie—people who believed in what we were building and wanted true assistants that could take action, not just suggest responses. Their faith in the vision made every challenge worthwhile.

But the market validation didn't align with our needs as a business. The number of users who would pay for and actively use Jamie was too small. The gap between interest and sustained usage was real.

Earlier in my career, Jarrod Webb from Blinq told me something that stuck: choose a target and keep yourself honest about it. Hit your growth targets or don't continue. I don't know how much of that was bullshit—his story seemed built on a tonne of luck—but it resonated because wasting your life away on something that isn't working is not worth it.

I can do things incredibly well across a large facet of products. Recognising when to pivot isn't failure—it's pragmatism.

Let's keep this shit simple

Here's what I've realised: not every startup needs to be a unicorn and that's ok. Not every startup needs to be a rocket ship and that's ok.

Too many founders get caught up in the growth trajectory and trying to convince people on the mission. The narrative becomes more important than the reality.

Let's just keep this simple:

Build something you can be proud of. Make it for people who need it. Help make the world just a little bit better in some way.

That's it. That's what we all need to do.

Jamie didn't become a unicorn. It didn't have hockey stick growth. But we built something technically impressive, learned an enormous amount and helped our users—even if only for a short time. That counts for something.

What's next?

The technology and IP from Jamie aren't going to waste. We're exploring open sourcing parts of the codebase and licensing opportunities.

For me, I'm moving to Flowstate as CTO. We're building dynamic workforce planning tools for fast-moving teams. Different problem space; same drive to build something useful.

To everyone who believed

To our users who trusted Jamie with their inbox: thank you. You believed in what we were building and wanted a true assistant, not just another tool. Your faith in the vision made this journey worthwhile.

To the team who built Jamie: we created something we can be proud of. The engineering challenges we solved and the infrastructure we built have lasting value, regardless of what happens to the product.

To investors and advisors: your support meant everything. The decision to wind down was difficult precisely because you believed in us.

Final thoughts

Building Pragmatic taught me more than years of reading or planning ever could. The lessons continue even as the product winds down.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I do it differently? Also absolutely.

The hardest decisions are often the most important ones. Winding down Pragmatic hurts, but it's honest. And sometimes being honest—even when it's painful—is the most pragmatic thing you can do.

Keep yourself honest. Choose your targets. Build something you're proud of. Make it for people who need it. Help make the world a little bit better.

Jamie shuts down on January 1st, 2026. The lessons continue indefinitely.

If you've come here from the Jamie or Pragmatic website, thank you for being part of the journey. If you'd like to stay in touch, you can find me on LinkedIn.

Will Hackett

CTO at Flowstate, building thoughtful AI products. Previously co-founded Pragmatic and Pactio, and led engineering teams at Blinq and Linktree. Passionate about distributed systems, product engineering, and helping teams ship great software.

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