The vision and leadership of a skilled and passionate founder are essential for the successful long-term of every UK start-up. But, as these companies grow more complex, they will eventually occur. Business leaders with extensive management and sector expertise must be brought in to help with operations while seeking growth.
Every business is different, however. There is yet to be a set time for getting expert advice. Also, there is no set place that a person should be in. In this article, we examine three companies supported by Pembroke, which have adopted the expertise of these”industry “silverbacks” to maximize their chances of becoming a big-scale players while preserving or improving their original traditions.
Top-down triumph
When looking for investment opportunities, we search Britain’s small businesses to find the most critical characteristics like established brands, new and flexible business models and revenues already in place. But equally important to these operation characteristics is the leadership skills of an exceptional company founder.
Beginning any business can be a daunting process rife with uncertainty and daily challenges. It is often the drive and determination of a founder who can help a business succeed in this phase.
Complexity is increasing
As businesses expand, they become more challenging to manage. Staff and customer numbers grow, as do product options, and employees’ roles become more clearly defined. At some point, the most dedicated founder will find it difficult to commit all the time required in every operational aspect to maximize the overall growth of their business and realize their goals. In this case, the necessity of taking on staff with extensive expertise in a particular field or operational or financial management field becomes evident.
While essential, the addition of experienced professionals can create an existential threat for the founders of any company. After years of hard work and personal sacrifice to conceive and sustain a vision, sharing its growth and direction frequently raises fears regarding lost control and an eroded culture. These fears could make it difficult for a founder to recognize how much their company’s future growth is contingent on a broader array of expertise.
As companies grow, they become more complex. In this regard, it’s natural that founders cannot shoulder all responsibility. Deciding who they will have this responsibility with depends on their appraisal skills and, more important, whether the person or individuals share a common vision and character to propel the company to higher levels.
In the past, many of the companies we have supported at Pembroke came to a point where they required experts to ensure their future growth. Fortunately, the founding team of these companies took the first step to recognize the necessity to engage expert support at every turn.
Popsa – getting expert assistance as early as possible.
Popsa utilizes technology to revolutionize the process of creating photo albums, a PS5bn worldwide industry, despite being a difficult task. With the help of founders Liam Houghton and Tom Cohen, Popsa’s AI technology has reduced the time needed to create and print an album of photos from several hours up to six minutes on your phone, and they’re trying to eliminate the time-consuming requirement thanks to machine learning.
Houghton was aware from the start that Popsa was required to prove that it could produce and deliver printed items promptly, while at the same time, he positioned the company on creating advanced data science. Since its inception in 2018, the company has grown exponentially across the globe, with more than 15 million photographs printed in the past year and exporting the majority of them outside of the UK. To ensure that customers get top-quality products, he has hired Declan Mellett.
Mellet joined the company as the company’s chairman and commercial director and has worked for more than 25 years in digital printing. His expertise in managing the manufacturing needs of large scales and teams in complex organizations has ensured that Popsa is well-equipped for growth and has significantly developed its business.
Since his arrival, Mellet has helped the design and tech teams of the company to meet their ambitious growth goals for three straight years.
ME+EM – Establishing roles that are shared
Modern womenswear brand ME + EM, founded by Clare Hornby in 2009, makes high-quality clothing and accessories for a reasonable cost.
From its beginnings as an online-only retailer, Hornby now operates five boutiques in the centre of London and two franchises within Selfridges. With its rapid growth, Hornby recognized the need to add expertise to allow her to dedicate enough time to developing the brand and overseeing the development of new products.
In March 2021, Phil Mickler, a 20-year veteran of the retail sector, became the director of the commercial. After working at Diesel and Whistles, Phil supported Hornby by ensuring the company ME + EM could build on its expansion in both financial and operational aspects.
The company ME + EM wants to expand internationally and has recruited Ciaran McClellan to be the customer director due to his expertise in aiding UK businesses to expand into the US.
Boat International – bringing in the executive chairman
Boat International is the global expert in superyachts, celebrating the vessels and the lifestyle that comes with them. Boat International is the publisher of world-class luxurious books and magazines, organizes events, and offers data and digital media services for owners and professionals in superyachts.
The company was founded in December 2022. named an experienced publisher John Paton as executive chairman. In light of the rapid rate of change within publishing, It was decided that someone with a wealth of experience was required to work closely with the co-CEOs Tony Euden and Toby Moore. Paton has more than 30 years of experience and relationships with newspapers and other online media across Canada, the US, Canada and Europe and acts as a solid partner at the pedal (pun not intended).
