When Colin Dawson launched Dax Group, he was starting a business but also preparing for a new chapter of life.
Two years ago, shortly after learning that his wife was pregnant with their first child, Dawson decided it was time to stop talking about entrepreneurship and take the leap himself.
“My son Tristan was a bit of a kick for me to go and do something. AI was dominating all the conversation, and I thought, I’m in a good place in life. Let’s start a business now.”
At the time, Dawson had spent years working in technology and digital transformation, helping organizations navigate the intersection of business strategy and emerging technologies. He describes himself as an intrapreneur, someone who enjoys building and innovating within organizations. Starting his own company felt like the natural next step.
What followed, however, was a crash course in entrepreneurship.
“Complete chaos is a really good way to describe it,” he says with a laugh.
Like many founders, Dawson found himself balancing competing priorities. During the day, he was building a company focused on AI-native business solutions. At night—and often very early in the morning—he was learning how to be a parent.
“My priorities are basically 50-50 between Tristan and the company,” he says. “It’s trying to balance these things, build a successful business, and do it in really challenging market conditions.” The experience reinforced one lesson above all others: resilience. “As Bill says in EDP, it’s being anti-fragile.”
A company full of ideas
By the time Dawson arrived on MIT’s campus for the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP), Dax Group was already growing. The company had developed an ambitious vision centered on helping organizations rethink how they use data, software, and artificial intelligence. The ideas were abundant, which can be a disadvantage for many founders. As Erin Scott and Scott Stern preach at MIT, choice is at the core of entrepreneurship.
“It wasn’t that I had one amazing idea,” Dawson explains. “There were probably 80 different ideas, and I was passionate about all of them.” But at the start, Dawson used this bounty of breakthroughs to his advantage. And over time, those ideas evolved into multiple service lines, consulting offerings, training programs, product concepts, and a proprietary platform.
While each initiative had merit, the growing complexity was creating challenges. Eventually, the weight of all these offerings became too heavy to bear alone.
“I had a consulting business, a training element, four different product lines, and a platform—all run by me,” he says. “It was way too much for one person to do.”
Like many entrepreneurs, Dawson had become so focused on execution that he rarely had time to step back and evaluate the bigger picture.
That’s where EDP proved valuable.
Challenging assumptions
Dawson admits that he initially felt somewhat out of place among entrepreneurs discussing billion-dollar opportunities and large-scale ventures.
“My aspiration was always to build a good, solid, stable company,” he says. “I’d never imagined building something massive.”
But rather than feeling intimidated, he found himself challenged in productive ways. The program encouraged him to examine assumptions he had made about his company, its products, and its growth strategy.
“I learned pretty quickly that there were simpler, better ways to grow a successful business,” he says.
One of the biggest realizations centered on how Dax Group was bringing its technology to market. The company’s core platform allowed organizations to rapidly build and deploy custom business applications using AI-driven development approaches. While powerful, the vision was difficult for prospective customers to fully grasp.
“We were building an AI-native development platform for business so companies could completely reimagine their digital strategies,” Dawson explains. “It’s a fantastic concept, but we learned the market was telling us it was too big. It was too ambitious.”
"My aspiration was always to build a good, solid, stable company. I’d never imagined building something massive."
Organizations liked the vision, however, asking them to rethink every aspect of their technology ecosystem at once was often overwhelming.
“EDP made me really rethink our sales and go-to-market strategy,” he says.
Instead of leading with the platform itself, Dawson and his team began focusing on smaller, more approachable solutions built on top of it. Today, Dax Group offers targeted build projects in areas such as HR management, workforce operations, compliance, and innovation management, creating immediate value while gradually introducing customers to the broader platform.
“It wasn’t anything I didn’t already know,” he says. “But it took going to EDP and spending time in the room with everyone else to put time on it. You can get so stuck in operations.”
Refocusing the business
The impact of the program extended well beyond sales strategy.
After returning home, Dawson initiated a significant reorganization of the company. The team reduced its service offerings, eliminated activities that weren’t aligned with the long-term vision, and sharpened the company’s focus around its core strengths.
“We cut a load of service lines,” he says. “We lost revenue because of it, but it wasn’t really what we wanted to be.”
The process forced Dawson to revisit fundamental questions about the business: What is Dax Group? Why do we exist? What is our purpose? The result has been a stronger foundation for growth and a clearer direction for the future.
“There was much more value from EDP than I could put into action since I’ve come back.”
Building for the next stage
Today, Dax Group is entering a new phase of growth. The company recently earned Startup Business of the Year honors at the Northern Star Business Awards, helping raise its profile across Scotland and beyond. At the same time, Dawson is investing in engineering talent, marketing, customer success, and the operational infrastructure needed to scale.
“The next quarter is absolutely pivotal,” he says. “We’re not chasing projects and revenue anymore. We’re chasing quality and growth.” Dawson continues: “Since the turn of the year, we’ve grown to a team of five, all focused on Radax, our AI-native delivery platform. We have real confidence in what we’ve built, and the last two years of investment are beginning to pay dividends.”
While artificial intelligence continues to dominate headlines, Dawson remains focused on helping organizations use technology responsibly and effectively. He believes the conversation should be about growth, innovation, and better outcomes—not simply replacing people.
“Digital transformation has never been about saving money,” he says. “If your goal is to save money, you’re playing a zero-sum game. Digital is about generating more value, creating more growth, and building better businesses.”
As both a founder and a father, Dawson acknowledges that the future of AI can feel both exciting and uncertain.
“I wake up every morning and 50 percent of me is anxious and 50 percent of me is excited,” he says.
For now, however, he’s embracing the uncertainty. The lessons he gained through EDP helped him see that entrepreneurship isn’t about pursuing every opportunity. Sometimes, the most important step forward is deciding what not to do.
And for Dawson, that clarity may prove to be one of the most valuable outcomes of all.
Learn more about the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP).