FIVE MINUTES WITH ...
RICHARD HOPTROFF
Richard Hoptroff speaks to Technology Magazine about his tips on launching technology companies and emerging trends in the world of AI
Awarded a PhD in Physics by King ’ s College London for work in optical computing and artificial intelligence , Richard Hoptroff has a long track record of technological innovation in AI , Bluetooth and , most recently , time synchronisation .
Today , with Hoptroff – the company he founded in 2015 – he is working on developing hyper-accurate synchronised timestamping solutions for the financial services sector and beyond , based on a unique combination of grandmaster atomic clock engineering and proprietary software .
Q . COULD YOU TELL ME ABOUT HOPTROFF AND HOW YOUR TECHNOLOGIES HELP BUSINESSES WORLDWIDE ?
» The world today is digital , and digital moves at the speed of light . It needs precise timing globally to be able to function , for example , for media streaming and to be able to know what happened when , especially for financial services . And I mean precise – down to a millionth of a second , in some cases .
But synchronising digital systems at scale is a tricky business that requires a lot of specialist expertise and hardware . So my instinct was to provide that as a utility that you subscribe to , rather than a complex system you have to manage . And that is what Hoptroff does .
After all , you flick a switch and the light comes on , pretty much 24 / 7 / 365 . You don ’ t think about the supply chains , power stations , and distribution grids that made that happen . Time on tap should be that simple , trustable and reliable .
“ The world today is digital , and digital moves at the speed of light ”
16 July 2023