ABOUT US
We're Builders Who Ship
Barnacle Labs was founded by Duncan and JD. The idea started when we got early access to GPT-3 (pre ChatGPT) — before most people had even heard of generative AI. We saw what was possible before the hype machine started, and we've been building production AI systems ever since.
Duncan spent years as European CTO for IBM Watson, leading AI implementations across enterprise. Working in Duncan's team, JD built open source projects that scaled to production systems used by enterprise clients. We both learned what works in production and what dies in demos. When generative AI went mainstream, we knew how to build with it — not just talk about it.
How We Got Started
Our first major project was with the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Researchers were drowning in 500+ papers published daily. Traditional search wasn't working. They needed something smarter.
We built NanCI — an AI system that personalises research recommendations and facilitates collaboration. It's now used by thousands of scientists, built in partnership with Google Cloud, and researchers actually use it every day.
That set our pattern: find real problems, build real systems, ship to production.
Why Barnacle?
While working with NCI on research tools, Duncan visited Charles Darwin's house — Down House in Kent. There he learned something remarkable: Darwin spent 8 years meticulously studying and cataloging 10,000 barnacles. This detailed taxonomic work provided crucial evidence for his theory of evolution.
Detailed, unglamorous work on small organisms led to revolutionary insights about life itself. Patient work enables breakthroughs.
That's what we do. We build the meticulous systems — the infrastructure, the architecture, the production code — that enable scientific and commercial breakthroughs. It's not always glamorous, but it's how real progress happens.
MEET OUR FOUNDERS
FAQ
We build AI-powered systems. Discovery involves strategic work to figure out what to build, but we're always focused on getting to the point where you know what that is. Our deliverables are mostly working systems, not PowerPoint decks.
Discovery takes 2 weeks. Full builds vary - simple AI chat implementations might take 6-8 weeks, while complex agentic systems or custom ML models can take 3-6 months. We've worked on ambitious AI systems that took over 2 years to deliver. We work in sprints and get you working software early, so you see progress throughout.
Yes. We work with clients globally. Our team is mostly based in the UK but we've delivered projects for organisations in the US and Europe.
That's what our Advise service is for. Our forward-deployed engineers work alongside your team at critical decision points - helping you choose architectures, pick models, and avoid the dead ends we've already seen. It's hands-on engineering guidance when you need it most.
Yes. We run training for leadership teams (how to manage AI initiatives), developers (hands-on bootcamps where they build real solutions), and business teams (practical sessions on using ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot in their actual work).
That's standard. Most clients own the IP for what we build. Your AI systems are strategic assets - you should control them.
No. They're frameworks from our research programme that let us start your build further ahead. Think reusable components, not SAAS products you buy.