William Doyle MRICS recounts nearly losing a £20 million claim on the Northwest Electrification Project because project records were not contract-ready. Motivated by that industry-wide failure, he founded Gather (originally Rail Diary) to capture evidence on site, link records to contracts, and make documentation simple, reliable, and roll-out-friendly across rail, highways, civils, water and aviation. He highlights team members (Ben Walker, commercial director; Ellie, client rollout lead), the products/engineering focus on low-friction capture, and a contractor-facing product called Gabba designed to protect positions, speed payment, and avoid disputes; the video closes with a demo call-to-action.
Questions this video answers
£20 million
Northwest Electrification Project
Rail Diary
Rail, highways, civils, water and aviation
Gabba
Chapters
I watched a 20 million pound claim hang by a thread just because the records weren't right. The work was done, the claim was real. But without clean contract ready evidence, it almost didn't matter. I was a QS on the Northwest Electrification Project. We spent months piecing it back together just to prove what had already been built. We scraped through in the end, but it was close, too close. And that stuck with me, because that kind of scramble, it wasn't a one off, it was the industry. And it needed fixing. When I first started Gather, I saw the same problems playing out everywhere. Commercial teams were constantly chasing down missing records, trying to piece together timelines from memory or just from scattered files, and trying to defend claims using tools that were never built for it. The systems that we relied upon, they weren't protecting us, they were actually putting us at risk. You would log the right things, but just not in the right way. You would have evidence, but it wasn't actually linked to anything that was usable. And when it really mattered, you'd be left scrambling. I'd seen too many teams blindsided by missing proof and I knew something had to change. And that was the point where I stopped trying to work around the problem and started to build the solution. That's what Gather became. We started as Rail Diary, working directly with teams on live rail projects. We listened, we tested, we refined, and we proved that that model works. And now we're used across highways, civils, water and aviation, basically anywhere where documentation needs to be watertight. Gather captures what happened when it happened and links it back to the contract. And it does it in a way that is simple to use, easy to roll out, and reliable under pressure. Of course, it's not just the tech that makes this work. Ben Walker joined us as commercial director. He helped write NEC4 and founded SEMA. He has shaped how this industry works and believes Gather can shape what comes next. Ellie leads our client rollout. She's there for every call, every training, and every check in. She makes sure our clients succeed, not just in using the platform, but what they get from it. And our products and engineering teams, they care about making this easy for site teams. Fast, accurate and minimal friction. Gather isn't a tool that you just bought on the end. It runs with your project. Every shift, every change, every challenge. If you've ever struggled to justify variation or defend a claim weeks after the fact, then you will know just how important it is to get this right. That's why we built Gabba to help contractors protect their position, get paid faster, and avoid disputes. Before they even start. We're building a future where project records do what they're supposed to. They work for you. The best time to fix record keeping is before there is a problem. Book a tailored demo and we'll show you just how Gabba keeps you covered.
