How the ripple effect shaped the entrepreneurialism of NextWave-Infinium CEO David Aston

When David Aston gave a TEDx talk in front of a live audience, it was the latest ripple from a chain of seemingly small decisions made decades earlier. The founder and CEO of NextWave-Infinium used the stage to share five key lessons about entrepreneurship and explain how momentum – not perfection – underpins success.

What if one small shift could change everything? That was the central theme of the TEDx event at the University of Groningen, an annual series of talks from leaders and experts across a wide range of industries. Seeking to bring that idea to life, David drew on one of his most formative childhood experiences.

“Forty-three years ago, with £100 in my bank account – about €585 in today’s money – I spent £99.99 of it, effectively my entire net worth, on a tiny home computer called the ZX Spectrum,” he explains. “At the time it felt revolutionary, almost magical, part of this new concept called home computing.”

Excited, he took the Spectrum home, unboxed it and switched it on – only for reality to set in. David had bought the more affordable 16K RAM version, while “the real fun was with the 48K RAM model”, which he couldn’t afford. Worse still, the machine had no way to store data. “You could load programmes from a tape recorder or code something yourself, but the moment you turned it off, you had to start again.”

With his mother already frustrated that he had spent his “entire life savings on this rubber-keyed thing”, there was no prospect of a loan for a tape recorder. From David’s perspective, his technology journey seemed blocked. In hindsight, however, it became a defining entrepreneurial lesson.

Starting with nothing should not hold you back

“That moment taught me what being an entrepreneur really means,” he says. “Firstly, without cash you can’t do very much. Secondly, the journey rarely goes to plan. You should always expect the unexpected and stay flexible.”

Unable to save his work, Aston simply adapted. He began coding in BASIC, working all day and much of the night. “When the little computer had had enough, I’d turn it off and start again the next day.” The constraints forced discipline, creativity and persistence – qualities that would later shape his career.

Perseverance and Passion

Today, Aston notes, people often assume entrepreneurship is glamorous. “They think it’s cool, that you can do anything you like. But being an entrepreneur involves long hours, sacrifice, self-discipline and a lot of personal risk.” The critical factor, he stresses, is perseverance – leaning into the journey even when it’s uncomfortable.

Reflecting on his early years, he adds: “It started with me prioritising that £99.99, even though we didn’t really have the money as a family. We were living in a derelict house with no stairs, just a ladder, and no roof. Entrepreneurship is complex. It makes me struggle every day, but it also brings passion. You sacrifice a lot, but you gain the joy of getting up every morning to deliver on a dream.”

Returning to the theme of ripple effects, Aston explains how the skills he developed early on enabled him to found five successful businesses over three decades. With deep experience in consultancy-focused organisations, he has led complex change programmes in financial services and managed large, high-profile global projects.

His career has taken him to financial hubs including Amsterdam, Bahrain, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Milan, New York, Sydney and Tokyo. Without that first step into home computing, he believes, none of it might have happened.

Ripple effects

To illustrate the challenges of entrepreneurship, Aston points to Microsoft and the importance of momentum over perfection. “When Microsoft started, it was just two young entrepreneurs in a garage,” he says.

“They tried to sell software to IBM, which was a hardware company. The people there didn’t believe in software at all – they thought the value was in selling servers.” Despite repeated setbacks, Paul Allen and Bill Gates persisted. “They realised the real gold was in software and putting it on people’s desktops.”

The breakthrough came when IBM allowed Microsoft to place MS DOS on its machines. “Suddenly, their vision of a computer in every home became a computer in every home with their software on it.” That early struggle, Aston notes, occurred when Gates and Allen “had hardly any money” but worked relentlessly to get the company off the ground.

That momentum carried Microsoft through decades of transformation – from operating systems to browsers, search engines and cloud-based services. “Today, it’s on your phone, it’s in your home, and it’s at work,” Aston says. “You can’t really do much without Microsoft.”

Aston has also witnessed ripple effects first-hand through smaller-scale innovations. One example is Tikkie, the Dutch app that enables users to settle micro-transactions easily. A friend of his was involved in its early development.

“The Tikkie team had a simple dream – to remove friction from payments,” he explains. “In the Netherlands, sharing a bill is almost a national sport, but it used to be awkward and inaccurate.” By solving a narrow but common problem, the app met a genuine need. “It ensured people could pay each other back without resentment over three euro cents.”

Aston argues that the real power emerges when such solutions are combined. Technologies not originally designed to work together can be connected entrepreneurially to create holistic services that reshape everyday life.

“Tikkie makes me feel good,” he says. “There’s no friction, it’s instant. Then you start combining it with other technologies. You’ve got Tikkie on your phone, powered by ASML technology. Microsoft supports your entire mobile office. Add AI, and suddenly you have super-apps that knit everything together around how you behave.”

Connected future

Looking ahead, Aston envisions a world where payments and services fade seamlessly into the background. He points to concepts such as facial recognition payments, already being tested in retail environments like Amazon Go.

“Your phone knows where you are. You take a drink off the shelf, the store recognises you, takes the money and you move on.” Payment platforms like Tikkie will support that ecosystem, he believes, allowing technology to remove everyday burdens. “You become part of an integrated system, fully wired up and fully connected.”

NextWave-Infinium

Today, Aston is applying this thinking at NextWave-Infinium, where he is founder and CEO. The firm advises financial services institutions on transforming operating models through performance improvement and innovation, applying advanced technologies, AI and emerging tools to complex use cases.

To illustrate the pace of change, he points to a personal example: intelligent glasses he has recently adopted. “My spectacles have GPS. They can transcribe and translate,” he says. “I use them to navigate without looking at my phone, transcribe client meetings, and translate conversations in places like Riyadh. I can speak to someone in Arabic and understand them in real time.”

For Aston, these developments underline a central message. “The future is already here,” he concludes. “When you collapse these technologies together, you become faster and more integrated into the global ecosystem – if you want to be. And it all starts with a ripple effect.”