When we meet in a trendy west London cafe, David Atkinson, the chief executive of one of Britain’s most promising cybersecurity start-ups, has his back to the wall.
It’s a habit that is “hammered into you” when being taught surveillance tactics in the military, he says.
“All I wanted to be since I was a little boy was just to be a soldier,” he adds. “There’s nothing I loved more than just lying in a hole, watching a target for days on end.”
Today, Atkinson, founder of London-based Senseon, has swapped his military uniform for casual jeans and a shirt.