16-07-2025
Back Brilliance, Not Just Brands
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Simon Bones of Genous is building a premium retrofit business - but his bigger mission is cultural: shifting British institutions to reward ideas, not logos.
A founder, engineer, and self-professed product person, Bones is the driving force behind Genous, the UK's premium retrofit company. While much of the climate tech sector is chasing scale or shouting about innovation, Genous has taken a more deliberate approach: do the work well, and change what people expect from home energy transformation. But alongside insulation and heat pumps, Bones is hoping to retrofit something else: the culture of British entrepreneurship.
"In ten years, I want to see a UK start-up ecosystem that rewards excellence over familiarity, where the best solution wins, not just the most recognisable brand," he says. "Too often, large buyers, both corporate and public sector, default to what's safe, even when it's outdated or ineffective."
The problem isn't the people. It's the system. "There's a huge opportunity for the UK to build a culture of bold procurement, where innovation isn't just welcomed but actively sought out," he says. "That means systems that support emerging start-ups, procurement frameworks that don't box them out, and a mindset shift where excellence can come from anywhere, not just a well-known logo." That institutional inertia - the tendency to stick with the known, even if it no longer works - is something Bones has encountered firsthand.
"I was pretty strongly of the view that if you had the best product or service, eventually, large corporations and government would take notice, even if they were difficult to get in front of," he says. "However, the point about getting in front of the right people remains (we still can't access most of the people we'd like to speak to) but even when we do, we've found many/most people just aren't receptive to new and better thinking." "Big companies often choose familiarity over excellence, even when the better option is right in front of them. That's not necessarily a negative reflection on the product; it's a reality of how institutions work."
From friction to function
Still, not all systems resist change. One tool that's begun to deliver on its promise in Bones' world is artificial intelligence. Unlike many founders eager to extoll the virtues of generative AI in the abstract, he's measured in his assessment.
"In 2025, AI tools, particularly in software development, have started to live up to their long-promised potential," he says. "While there's still a gap between the hype and the reality, the progress over the last year has been genuinely impressive. Previously, these tools were often frustrating, inaccurate, or more of a distraction than a help. Now, they're saving us real time."
"They're still not cheap, and there are definitely limitations," he notes, "but the improvements have crossed the threshold from 'novelty' to 'useful'. We're using them more confidently and getting tangible benefits. What wouldn't have worked a year ago due to reliability and workflow friction is now actively improving our efficiency."
But there's a catch. The technology only works when integrated with intent. "The trick is knowing how to integrate them into your processes intelligently," Bones explains. "Used well, they free up human time for more creative and strategic work. That's a turning point we weren't at twelve months ago."
Betting on what works
For all the excitement around technological progress, the more transformative shift inside Genous has been cultural.
"We've stopped investing energy into activities that looked good for the long-term but didn't drive meaningful progress in the short-to-medium term, particularly things that might impress potential investors but didn't drive up the metrics," Bones says.
In a market where optics often matter more than substance, that's a radical choice. But for Genous, it's working. "Over the past year, we've made a deliberate shift to focus almost all our efforts on what actually moves the needle now or has the potential to pay back quickly," he explains. "We're not anti-long-term thinking, but we've become much more selective about where we place bets." That selectivity isn't guesswork. It's hard-won experience, which Bones believes is one of the UK start-up scene's most underrated assets.
"Experience. It may not sound glamorous, and entrepreneurialism has something of a youth fetish, but it's powerful," he says. "The UK start-up ecosystem is maturing, and many of us are now second- or third-time founders, or have spent years watching how companies rise or fall. That lived experience is a real edge."
"There are endless opportunities to go wrong: to build the wrong thing, hire too fast or too slow, pivot at the wrong moment, or misread a market," he continues. "Experience doesn't guarantee success, but it dramatically improves your odds of navigating these forks in the road wisely. UK founders have increasingly deep experience across multiple sectors and they're using it to build smarter, more resilient companies."
In other words, the narrative of the solo genius or wunderkind entrepreneur might finally be giving way to something more grounded, more durable - and more honest.
Building a better model
At Genous, this honesty is part of the business model. The company doesn't promise overnight disruption. Instead, it works carefully to deliver top-tier retrofitting services for homeowners who want their houses to meet future climate standards - without cutting corners. It's premium in both product and process.
But it's also trying to influence the broader conversation about climate adaptation and green building in the UK. For Bones, that means showing - not telling - what a better solution looks like. And that comes back to his hope for a different kind of start-up culture in Britain: one where bravery and excellence matter more than brand recognition or proximity to the right people.
"We have incredible talent, creativity, and diversity of thought in the UK," he says. "If we can align that with the right incentives and remove some of the institutional inertia, we can build one of the most dynamic and fair start-up ecosystems in the world."
The tools are there. The talent is there. The ideas are in abundance. The question is whether the system public procurement, corporate risk appetites, and investment flows - will follow.
"The potential is there," Bones says. "We just need to get better at backing brilliance, even when it looks unfamiliar."
