Andrew Rothwell, founder of Tyro and Hydrophis and tapestry board member, sits down with Chris Bartlett on data governance, AI, and where the human relationship still matters in retail.
A wide-ranging conversation about data ownership, governance, and why - even as the technology changes - the thing that lasts is the personal relationship between a business and its customers.
Andrew Rothwell has spent four decades in technology - from designing computer and network hardware in the early days of Silicon Valley, to co-founding the payments company Tyro, to ventures in data exchange and digital health. He now sits on tapestry's board. Across the conversation, he and Chris follow a single thread: who should control data, and what it is really for.
Data ownership means an inversion of control. Andrew's view is that a shop owner - or a shopper - should share only the information they choose, on their own terms. He describes a contract (what tapestry calls a data trade agreement) that hands over “just enough” for a partner to make a decision, governed by the owner's rules - rather than data given away once and then used in ways never imagined.
Why governance matters now. The volume of data being generated has exploded - Andrew points to everything from Tesla's fleet to the big tech platforms, and to episodes like Cambridge Analytica - while regulation (GDPR, Australia's Consumer Data Right) and the rise of LLMs sweeping the open web make control of your own information more urgent than ever.
Technology should get out of the way. Andrew likens tapestry to “the ASX of data” - a neutral exchange where buyer and seller agree the terms, not an owner of the data itself. But the point, he argues, isn't the data - it's the relationship. He'd still rather buy from the local bottle shop he has known for 30 years than chase the lowest price. The data should promote the experience; technology's job is to step aside so people can deal with people.