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Quintuple-digit growth: the stars of tech and media show us how it's done
Five year growth figures of 18225%, 8548% and 8318% seem scarcely credible in this climate. But these are the precise achievements of the top winners of the Deloitte Fast 50 award, which was presented to the fifty fastest-growing UK technology companies two weeks ago. We attended the ceremony and dinner at Chelsea Football Club, together with the much larger (and glitzier) EMEA Fast 500 awards.
Of course, numbers like these are usually produced by companies which win big deals when they are still very small. But the winning companies are serious concerns, in business for at least five years and 2008 revenues of at least £540,000. And it was great to see such diversity, with the winners coming from fields including software, media and entertainment, online retail, biotech, consulting, telecoms, electronics and beyond.
There was an accordingly wide variation in experience when it came to coping with the recession.
Ben Goss, the CEO of Distribution Technology, told us that uncertainty in the financial services sector is actually helping his business: DT provides financial planning software to independent financial advisors, and has seen very fast uptake as a result of increased regulation and decreasing margins.
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"The trends [we are responding to] are long term trends - it's pretty clear people need to find solutions." Next steps for a fast-growing tech business
Ben Goss, CEO, Distribution Technology |
"It's about keeping that small business thrust and drive." The challenges of rapid expansion at LOVEFiLM
Jim Buckle, Chief Financial Officer, LOVEFiLM |
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The main challenge for LoveFilm's Jim Buckle has been dealing with fast and furious upscaling. As recession-hit consumers have hunkered down with their home DVDs, LoveFilm has expanded its workforce to 450 over six years to meet demand.
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Other sectors have not fared so well: Chris Averill of we are:london readily admitted that business this year has been "awful" after a large customer suspended its order. Even so, there was a great deal of optimism; we are:london was just one of those planning to raise cash to invest in new services. |
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"We don't want to grow organically, we want to grow in a planned fashion."
Next steps for a fast-growing tech business
Chris Averill, Managing Director, we are:london |
"The war for customer retention is back on." Next steps for a fast-growing tech company
Phil Walker, Managing Director EMEA, Thunderhead |
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Thunderhead was another company looking to raise money; the recession is creating renewed interest in its customer retention solutions and it is planning significant geographical expansion.
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So there is an appetite for growth, seen in the enthusiastic applause given to speaker Peter Cochrane. The futurologist Cochrane is a popular and witty speaker on the tech circuit, and his speech lambasted the risk-averse climate affecting today's innovators.
By contrast, a government speaker wasn't received nearly so positively, and we heard a fair degree of sotto voce grumbling in the audience about government and banks. The entrepreneurs mostly thought that they had thrived despite, rather than because of, their support. Most we spoke to had been primarily funded by their owners, with little external help. And on the night, nothing was going to detract from the celebration of their own hard-won achievements!
Click for more Knowledge Peers interviews with Tech sector executives
Click for the full list of Deloitte Fast 50 winners
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