Speed and flexibility. Two qualities that are essential but increasingly difficult to effectively implement within an environment that is consistently enhanced with increasingly fierce competition, but are nonetheless highly sought after.

Offering clients the ability to effectively innovate within these parameters, and therefore maintain an upwards trajectory, has been the central thought through four years of operation for Flows.

In conversation with SBC News, CEO, James King, elaborates on if this near half decade has matched expectations, the internal and external headwinds encountered, out of the box use cases witnessed thus far, what the road ahead has in store and much more.

SBC News: Flows marked its fourth anniversary in 2025. How would you assess the progress made so far, and to what extent has it matched the vision and ambitions set out when the company was founded? 

James King: From day one, the core vision behind Flows was to give more people inside a company the power to innovate, not just engineers, and to allow businesses to build, change and deploy products, features and automations at real speed. We wanted to remove the bottlenecks that slow innovation down and replace them with something flexible, safe and scalable.

Four years on, that vision has become reality. Flows now sits at the heart of daily operations for many operators and suppliers, spanning areas like risk and fraud, payments, engagement, CRM extension and wider operational automation. 

Just as importantly, it’s also being used to build bigger, more ambitious pieces of functionality that would traditionally require long development cycles. Seeing teams rely on Flows both for mission-critical operations and for rapid product innovation is probably the clearest validation of what we set out to build.

SBCN: From an internal perspective, what have been the most defining challenges over the past four years, and what did they teach you as a founder? 

JK: One of the biggest challenges has been building something that is extremely powerful without making it inaccessible. Flexibility is only valuable if people can actually use it confidently and correctly.

As a founder, that taught me the importance of clarity, focus and education. It’s not enough to build great technology, you have to help people understand how to apply it effectively within their own organisations.

It also reinforced how critical team, culture and communication are when you’re building infrastructure that other businesses come to depend on.

SBCN: Building on this previous point, but adopting a stance to look at your client base, what would you say are the major headwinds and obstacles that have been reported to you, and how have you helped these be overcome? 

JK: The most consistent challenge clients raise is the difficulty of moving quickly at scale. They’re dealing with fragmented systems, high volumes, regulatory pressure and an increasing need to launch new ideas without breaking existing operations.

Flows helps by acting as an orchestration layer that allows clients to build and deploy logic across their existing stack without replacing it. A key part of that is also our commercial model. 

We charge based on usage, which means clients are genuinely only paying for the value they’re creating. That makes experimentation far less risky and allows teams to scale successful ideas confidently, knowing costs remain aligned to outcomes.

SBCN: Occupying a place within such a dramatically changing environment goes hand in hand with numerous difficulties. How do you ensure that Flows is at the forefront of emerging trends to remain a relevant and appealing prospect to current and future partners?

JK: We focus on trends that unlock upside as well as those that strengthen defences. That means not just helping clients manage risk, compliance or operational load more effectively, but also enabling new revenue opportunities, new products and new ways of engaging players.

From a technical standpoint, Flows was built to consume and process very large volumes from day one. We’re a massive volume consumer by design, which allows us to support ideas that other platforms struggle to deliver reliably at scale.

By staying close to how operators actually operate, and by building infrastructure that can absorb change rather than resist it, we ensure Flows remains both relevant and future-ready.

SBCN: You see an enormous variety of Flows being built across different operators and markets. What are some of the most interesting, unexpected or even fun use cases you have seen to date?

JK: Some of the most interesting use cases are where clients use Flows to build entire omnichannel products rather than single features. Things like bespoke bonus engines, complex promotional mechanics, or high-volume operational processes that need to react instantly to events across multiple systems.

In several cases, these are areas where other solutions have struggled due to scale or rigidity, and teams have turned to Flows specifically because it can orchestrate huge volumes reliably and at speed. 

What’s exciting is seeing ideas go live that might otherwise have been deemed too complex, too risky or too slow to deliver.

SBCN: Are there any patterns in how customers are using Flows that stand out compared to even a year ago?

JK: Yes, very much so. We’re seeing a shift from isolated use cases to broader, more strategic adoption. Teams are building reusable components, standardising logic across markets, and embedding Flows into core operational workflows rather than treating it as an experiment.

There’s also a noticeable increase in confidence. Clients are building bigger, more critical Flows than they would have a year ago, which shows how trust in the platform has grown.

SBCN: Where is Flows heading next? How are you plotting to build on the momentum built up thus far to make even further strides through 2026?

JK: The focus now is on scale. Scale of clients, scale of use cases, and scale of what teams can build without friction. We’re continuing to make Flows easier to use while increasing what’s possible, so businesses can move from idea to live outcome even faster.

We’re also investing in new ways for clients to deliver products and experiences using Flows, while staying disciplined about not over-complicating the platform. 2026 is about building on the momentum we already have, deepening our role as core infrastructure, and helping partners innovate with more speed and confidence than ever before.