Materials & formulation · Aberdeenshire

Applied Chemistry, proven on the bench.

Duothink is developing and bringing to market water-based formulations for consumers and industry — bench-tested to prove effectiveness with real data, cost-effective, of the highest quality, and under a brand our customers can trust. We have also shipped five software products this year, and if you want help putting AI to work in your own business, give us a call.

Track record
10granted patents originated
£100M+client value unlocked in subsea flow assurance
1,500+kerbside EV chargers taken from prototype to street
5software products shipped this year
Demonstration

We also make software. Everything below shipped this year.

A machine shop keeps demo parts on the counter. Same idea. Have a look, then tell me the job that wastes your week.

Swither

A daily visual riddle game built on a hand-curated AI video-generation pipeline, shipped natively to the Apple and Google Play stores. Publishing, curation and advertising all run on agent skills I developed — the same automation I build for clients.

What it proves: I run production generative-AI pipelines end-to-end — generation, curation, publishing and advertising — with the quality control that makes them usable. The clips playing behind this text? All AI-made, all mine.
Concept

Burn Generator

My worked example of AI-aided design, built in an afternoon — design, assembly animation, 3D-printable parts, even the narration. The concept: cheap, small generators, each good for up to 150 watts on half a metre of head, daisy-chained down a burn until the total adds up to useful power — running 24 hours a day. Nano hydro.

What it proves: nine months ago AI was useless at mechanical design. Now it does the whole job in an afternoon — including the flow calculations that showed my own burn doesn't carry enough water to justify building it. The design was sound; the site wasn't. These tools will now tell you honestly when the answer is no.
Game Jester icon

Game Jester

A multi-game party platform with Bluetooth proximity duels and motion-controlled gameplay — real-time sensor fusion across accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer and on-device computer-vision models.

What it proves: I handle hardware-adjacent, real-time engineering problems — BLE, device sensors, computer vision, embedded thinking.
Pirates game Mafia game Searchlight game Empire game Bombardment game Nukemball game
Mythtaken

A party game where players vote on claims about human behaviour, with evidence-based reveals. Concept to store in weeks.

What it proves: my build speed. This is what "weeks, not months" looks like in practice.
"Most people can't tell AI writing from human writing."
Fact68%
Myth22%
Stereotype10%
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PVG Pal

A full safeguarding-compliance platform for Scottish voluntary organisations — mobile app, coordinator web dashboard, AI document import, automated deadline tracking, Stripe billing and WhatsApp messaging.

What it proves: I can ship regulated, multi-tenant B2B SaaS — auth, billing, GDPR, audit trails, the lot.
Smart ImportAI reads any spreadsheet or PDF and migrates volunteers in minutes
Deadline engine14-day & 5-year renewal clocks, tracked automatically
Coordinator dashboardReplaces the spreadsheet-and-email compliance process
Audit modeTime-limited inspector access with formal reports
The Skillery

Distil what you know. Bottle it. Pour it whenever you need it.

A skill is how you do a job, written down once so your AI stops guessing and starts doing it your way. The Skillery is the cellar. Your assistant is the butler.

The North East's real asset is fifty years of engineering judgement sitting in people's heads. Calibration testing reports, FMECA analysis, pressure testing procedures — the things your best people know and nobody has ever written down. That can be bottled too. And if the worry is where the knowledge ends up, open-weight models now run on hardware in your own building, so none of it need leave the premises.

What it proves: I can take a real workflow, bottle it, and hand it to a non-technical person — then sell the same thing to a business.
No codingWrite the way you already do the job
Keep your AIClaude, Grok, ChatGPT, Gemini — your call
You approveNothing sends or spends unless you say so
The paid workI build a firm's first skills, then teach their people
AI deployment · a personal service from Hugh Mackenzie

I work with companies to find where AI deployment will pay for you.

Let's start with a coffee and a discussion. An hour, a laptop, and an honest look at where AI could be used in your firm, where to start and what it could develop into.

What we do

One expensive job at a time.

We pick one repetitive workflow that costs you money and put AI on it — or build the small system ourselves. You own what we build; your data stays yours.

The offer

Employ AI to save money

I work with you on the tools I already use every day. We find the waste together, bottle how you do the job, and put an assistant on it. You keep the time and the cost.

  • One workflow, chosen with you on the first call
  • Working change, not a readiness report
  • You own it. I do not train on your data
Fixed price after we have seen the job. I will tell you if it is not worth it.
Start with a call
If you need it

A small build

Sometimes the saving needs a bit of software, not just a skill. I have shipped five products this year. Weeks, not a six-month agency quote.

  • Only if the workflow needs it
  • Fixed quote up front
  • You own the code and the accounts
Secondary. Most people start with the workflow, not an app.
Ask if you need a build
Why Hugh can help

Most AI consultants can't read a P&ID. Most engineers have never shipped software. I'm the overlap.

You don't need another advisor who's read about your industry. You need someone who has stood on the shop floor, presented to the board, raised the funding, held the HSE responsibility — and can now build the software personally.

  • Halliburton & Weatherford (1998–2007)Frontline engineering across the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Europe, Africa and Russia. First engineer in Europe deploying managed-pressure coil-tubing drilling.
  • WellMack Resources (2007–2010) — FounderFirst-principles R&D start-up in subsea blockage removal. Strategic sale to the Paradigm Group in 2010.
  • Paradigm Flow Services (2010–2021) — Founder & Technical DirectorGrew from 2 to 30+ staff globally. 9 patents. Technologies that unlocked £100M+ in client production value worldwide.
  • Trojan Energy (2020–2025) — Co-founder & COOTook a novel flush-fit EV charger from prototype to 1,500+ kerbside units across UK cities. Brought manufacturing in-house and cut unit cost by 85%. ISO 9001/14001, £2M+ in Innovate UK & OZEV grants.
  • Duothink (2026–) — FounderFive software products shipped to market — native Swift and Kotlin, Flutter, serverless cloud, applied AI including hands-on model training. Built to prove one thing: this is how fast product development runs now.
"I didn't take a course in AI. I shipped five products with it. Then I started offering it to other businesses."
Hugh Mackenzie

Hugh Mackenzie

Co-founder — Engineering & Product

BEng (Hons) Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, PgDip Business Management (RGU). Originating inventor on 10 granted patents. 20+ years taking new products from concept to international deployment — and now applying AI directly to mechanical design, vision systems and full-stack product builds.

How we work

Small on purpose. Fast by design.

The same stage-gate discipline we use for chemistry and for software: fixed scope, fixed price, working results early.

A coffee and an hour

You tell me the problem. I'll tell you honestly whether it's worth solving with software, and what it would take. No charge, no pitch deck.

Fixed-price scope

A one-page scope with a fixed price and a fixed date. If the problem needs a discovery sprint first, that's fixed-price too.

Build in weeks

Working software early and often — you see progress weekly, not at a big reveal. I cut scope before I slip dates.

Handover, properly

You own the code, the data and the accounts. I document it, train your team, and offer ongoing support only if you want it.

Talk to us about chemistry, a product, or where AI would pay in your firm.

A supplier with a raw material to evaluate, a distributor interested in what we are making, or a business owner who wants an honest hour on AI — it starts with a conversation. If we cannot help, we will say so.

Book a chat

or email us at [email protected]