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Author: Martin Port

I stand with my colleagues in Ukraine

Posted on by Martin Port

Like many of you, I have spent the past week glued to the news, desperately trying to make sense of what is happening to the people of Ukraine. For all of us at BigChange, the conflict feels even more personal because eight of our colleagues are Ukrainian nationals, based in Kyiv. These people are part of the BigChange family. We have laughed together, met one another’s families, and celebrated milestones together at BigChange events.

We have all been scrambling to try and support our people out there. “Do you need money?” was the first question. “What can we do to help your community?” was the second. Our colleagues asked for very little, although they were giving all they had to help those in need. We have sent a truckload of humanitarian aid to Ukraine now through Goods for Good project, and we hope these items will get to the people who need it most. Our CSR team has called an urgent meeting to discuss further options for support. Even my son, Joseph, is trying to do his bit, selling t-shirts to raise money for Ukraine.

But one way I hope to support our friends in Ukraine is by giving them a voice, a platform from which to express their fears, their defiance, their unity, and their resilience in the face of absolute tyranny.

I managed to speak to Liubov, who works in our software testing team, yesterday. These are her words.

“I’ve lived in Kyiv for 15 years. When I started reading reports that Russia could potentially invade, I didn’t believe them. It just didn’t make sense in the 21st Century. So when the war began, and I read that Putin had launched an attack, I was in total shock.

“We gave ourselves two hours to pack all the essentials and take our parents to the west of the Ukraine, where it is safer. We didn’t take much, only our documents – our passports – some money and some food, because we didn’t know whether we might struggle to get supplies later. We packed a few clothes but that was a low priority.

“It took us 17 hours to complete the six-hour drive to the west. Fighter jets were flying overhead. I have never been more frightened. We saw Ukrainian military heading for the border. That made everything real.

“I left Kyiv, but most Ukrainians are more courageous than me. They will stay and protect their homes, and fight back, if they must. Men and women are determined to fight to protect our country. We will not let our cities and villages fall into Russian hands. In Ukraine, people are often divided on issues but right now, we are as one, organised and moving in a single direction, joining forces to save our homes.

“I have been spending most of my time trying to find safe places for friends and family, so I’m always on my phone. People are so kind, giving up their homes for free, bringing in strangers and saying, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll support you’. There are some shelters around, so I’m also trying to share all that information with the people who need it.

“For the first four days, I couldn’t stop shaking but now I am calm. I must keep busy to distract myself from the news.

“I ask that the people and governments of Europe help us any way they can. Our Ukrainian army was not prepared for invasion, so we don’t have ammunition, equipment and weapons, so the first thing we need desperately is to supply our army and protect our soldiers. Our second issue is that is is very dangerous to try and get goods and food to the east of Ukraine, so we need help ensuring that people have emergency supplies. We also need everyone to ban Russia from every possible communication with Europe. This invasion must not be allowed to take place without consequences. We are an independent country. Russian citizens should be made to understand that their President is making terror for other nations, and that he does not deserve their support. They must take to the streets in protest or impeach him. They must make him understand: this is the end of your regime.

“I still cannot believe that we are at war. I was talking to my husband about this yesterday. I said, ‘One day we will tell people we lived through a war.” I’m for peace and resolving conflict through diplomatic means. I believe in democracy.

“I miss my home and I hope I will have the opportunity to return soon. Over the years, I have been offered many chances to emigrate to the US or to Europe, but I decided to stay because I really love this country. I hope that Putin will pull back his army but if he does not, he will still not be successful. We will protect our country.”

To Liubov and her team, I say this: the whole company is behind you, and our prayers are with you. 

Why we need more female apprentices

Trades Women
Posted on by Martin Port

Not many schools nowadays invite carpenters and plumbers to their careers days to talk about the value of vocational apprenticeships and jobs in the construction trades – and even fewer focus this advice towards girls.

If you know of one that does, I’d love to hear about it, because the number of women who choose a career in construction or the trades remains shockingly low. This, despite the fact that the talent shortage means companies are crying out for skilled workers. And despite the fact wages in these fields have shot up in recent times.

This week, Rated People put out its annual trends report. It’s packed with interesting data about the home improvement boom, the most in-demand trades and the rise of eco-homes.

But there’s an eye-opening section on tradeswomen – or lack thereof.

Women make up less than 1% of carpenters and joiners in the UK, and less than 2% of electricians, plumbers and metal workers.

My jaw hit the floor when I saw those numbers.

This got me thinking about how to get more women into these roles. In fact, I recently spoke with a female apprentice to coincide with International Women’s Day.

But in the meantime, I thought I’d open the conversation by talking about women apprentices – and why I think this could be a key part of the solution.

Challenges and developments for female apprentices

To help educate me about the challenges and developments in this area, I caught up with Derek Whitehead, the Principal & CEO of Leeds College of Building (LCB).

The LCB is the only General Further Education college specialising in construction and the built environment nationally with more courses and levels of courses than any other organisation.

Approx 6,000 students are accommodated annually, with some 2,800 apprentices currently learning with the LCB.

Derek knows the world of apprenticeships inside out. Crucially, because the college works with 1,700 employers, he also has a bird’s eye view of the whole issue.

Surge in employer interest for apprentices

Derek tells me that there has been a real surge in employer interest in apprentices. That many are choosing to train new recruits from the ground up, instead of going the traditional route of hiring university graduates, particularly in level 4, 5 and Degree Apprenticeships.

This is because 80% of an apprenticeship is delivered on employers’ sites and 20% with colleges or other training organisations. This compares to traditional university pathways, where most programmes deliver 100% of the training is off the job.

The government has also done its bit to help employers choose apprenticeships through a scheme that covers all – or most of – the cost of this training, particularly for non-levy paying organisations, and other incentives.

Benefits of apprenticeships to students

For would-be apprentices, this route is also very attractive.

Universities charge steep tuition fees, in addition to students paying accommodation costs, leaving them with huge loans to repay. On the other hand, apprentices earn while they learn and don’t need to rack up these costs.

Derek says that 95% of the apprentices that come through the college are kept on in sustainable permanent employment, with the same employer usually, after completion of their apprenticeship. 

Simply put: it’s hard to think of a time when apprenticeships have looked more attractive.

And yet, of all those students studying at the college, just 7% are women. And while there are more female apprentices across areas such as transport, planning and civil engineering, there are few on the craft side, in bricklaying, plumbing or electrical.

“Yet when women do join, they excel,” says Derek. “Two of our female students recently won national awards, for example, in painting and decorating.”

More awareness needed

The college, alongside many other organisations, is calling for more awareness of the breadth and variety of trades and construction apprenticeships within schools – especially among girls and young women.

“We would love for more schools to equally promote vocational routes alongside academic routes, such as sixth form and university,” he says.

“Often, when we go into schools to talk about the opportunities we have for learners, we are presented with a very small group of students, while a bank or big corporate may address the full year 10 or year 11 cohorts.

“The better schools, of course, invite us in regularly, and carry out visits to the college, promoting good neutral careers advice, and guidance.”

He wants young people to know how much the world of construction has changed and continues to evolve.

“There used to be an idea that it could be dangerous, or that there was lots of lifting and a poor image but that’s simply not true,” he says. “Health and safety legislation means sites are superbly managed, and mechanical devices now do the heavy lifting.”

Committed employers

For women, in particular, Derek wants to get the message out that employers are committed to making construction a welcoming place for female workers, from single-sex facilities on sites to more flexibility around the needs of families and even pro-active policies to encourage more women into the industry.

He says: “It’s such a fantastic and rewarding industry for all to work in with a wide variety of daily work activity, working as part of a team, together with being part of major infrastructure and commercial projects, new housing and/or repairs and building improvement.”

The talent shortage is only going to get more acute, he warns, so we need to take action now.

“Some 225,000 vacancies are projected in our industry,” says Derek. “And that doesn’t include the 38,000 in zero-carbon areas. We need to engage everyone who is currently underrepresented in this industry, from women to people from different ethnicities.”

I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this topic, especially my customers at BigChange, who I know are always on the hunt for new talent.

Do you have any female apprentices? How have you changed your approach or processes to attract more women into the industry?

I’d appreciate the opportunity to learn from you.

BigChange Supports Expansion for Welsh Heating Engineers

Morgans Plumbing and Heating
Posted on by Martin Port

Morgans Plumbing and Heating has grown its business by more than 600 percent since implementing BigChange field service management software. Using BigChange, Morgans has achieved the highest levels of automation with the platform underpinning every aspect of the business including workforce management, customer communications, reporting and invoicing.

BigChange has also removed the need for home-based engineers to visit head office on a regular basis with digital job sheets, automated scheduling and up-to-the-minute stock control, saving Morgans both man-hours and mileage.

“Right from the outset I knew the only way to grow the business sustainably was with automation, and BigChange ticked that box and more,” commented Steven Morgan, Director of Morgans Plumbing and Heating.

“Before BigChange we were little more than a one-man band, with paper worksheets and no control of workflows, stock or costs. We now cover mid and north Wales, Shropshire and Cheshire and have plans to expand further up the west coast to Scottish borders and further down into south Wales and the Cotswolds. This ambitious expansion simply wouldn’t be possible without BigChange.”

Morgans is a Gas Safe and OFTEC registered, and Worcester Bosch accredited, family-run business, which installs, services and repairs all oil, gas and LPG appliances. Based in Welshpool, Morgans specialises in boilers – gas oil and LPG, can provide expert advice for oil tank, planning, installing and maintaining, and are on hand 24/7 for all emergency plumbing requirements.

Morgans selected BigChange after an exhaustive market review of available solutions during which different packages were benchmarked against an extensive wish list of requirements. Having been using the job management solution, which incorporates customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, live tracking, field resource management, financial management and business intelligence in one simple to use and easy to integrate platform, for some time, Morgans is under no illusion as to the important role the platform has had in the business’ geographical expansion and positive customer feedback evidenced with consistent 5-star reviews.

“BigChange has been a critical part of our success so far,” continued Morgan.

“It saves us time and money every single day allowing us to focus on what we do best – which is being available to deliver the highest service possible, in the shortest amount of time and with the tools and stock we need to do the job.”

Morgans Plumbing and Heating

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Test BC Post

Posted on by Martin Port

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Chairman’s spotlight on… Paul Van Heeswyk

Crucial Engineering
Posted on by Martin Port

Paul Van Heeswyk, founder of Crucial Engineering, explains how he’s using the BigChange platform to boost efficiency and take his business to new heights.

Paul Van Heeswyk is known as “Dutch” to most people, even though he’s actually more Irish than Dutch, and has an accent that’s pure Leeds.

I met Dutch four years ago. He had just started his business, Crucial Engineering, and was building it from the ground up.

The moment I met Dutch, I was impressed. We got chatting at a BNI networking event and he had that entrepreneurial spark about him. When I told him that we had an issue with our office doors – and he explained that fixing industrial doors was his speciality – I asked him to take a look.

He fixed our problem then and there and I invited him up to test-drive our software.

Even though he was still a one-man band at that time, Paul saw the potential for BigChange to help him grow his business faster than he could on his own. He’s been a customer ever since.

I caught up with him recently to ask how business was going and I was delighted – although not surprised in the least – to find out he’s achieved everything he’d set out to do and more.

I’d like to tell you a little more about Dutch, and hopefully you’ll be as inspired by his drive and determination as I am.

Celebrating business owners

As regular readers of this blog will know, I created the “Chairman’s spotlight on…” series to celebrate the amazing business owners I’ve met on the BigChange journey.

It’s an absolute privilege to be able to help these enterprising individuals to grow their companies and be more successful with our software, and I also want to shout about their endeavours from the rooftops! They deserve it!

Like many of our customers, Paul started his businesses after spending years working for other companies and realising that he could do it better.

“I had worked at organisations where the ethics and morals just didn’t align with my own,” he explains. “So I got a van and bought some tools and off I went.”

The quality of his work and Paul’s commitment to customer service ensured that his start-up grew quickly.

Within six months, he was able to hire his first teammate, Chris. “Chris is our operations manager to this day,” he says.

Using BigChange to improve efficiency

Four months into his business journey, Paul decided to become a BigChange customer. “I’d seen the problems that can arise at my previous company,” he explains.

“People thought that I was insane when I first started using it because it was just me, so I was sending jobs to myself and finishing them and sending them back to myself! It seemed as though I was adding more process when I was already busy. But I knew I wanted to grow Crucial, so I needed these systems in place early on. Now that we are 27 people, BigChange is the absolute brains of the business.

“The transparency that it has brought to our financial processes is vital. We use it to quote, raise purchase orders, invoice, you name it. If a customer rings up with a question about a job we completed a few weeks ago, we can instantly bring up the quote, engineer’s photos, reports, invoice, everything. There’s no trawling through folders trying to find historic information.”

Paul believes that BigChange has done more than increase efficiency; it’s reduced overheads and supercharged growth.

“The cost of the software is far lower than what we would need to pay to hire an admin person to do all the laborious paperwork,” he explains. “And when I think about the growth we’ve achieved over the past four years, there’s no doubt that a proportion of that is down to BigChange.”

The start of a great journey

Paul is just at the beginning of his journey with Crucial Engineering. He recently completed the Goldman Sachs Business Growth Programme at Oxford University, an intensive three-month course that he says helped him to formulate his five-year plan.

“We want to become a national player, offering a four-hour response time to clients all over the UK,” he says.

Paul is eyeing acquisitions right now that will broaden his geographic footprint, and also recently bought a glazing business, which means he can produce his own glass and simplify his supply chain.

Crucial Engineering will be a market leader one day. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just look at all the awards Paul has won recently: he picked up this Growth award in Leeds recently and has been nominated in two categories at the Yorkshire Choice Awards: both ‘Independent business of the year 2022’ and ‘Businessman of the year 2022’.

Paul has always wanted to run his own business. He came up with the name Crucial Engineering while he was still in school. “I didn’t even know what the company would be doing,” he jokes. “I just knew that was going to be the name.”

When Paul decided to make the leap into start-up life, he found the name was taken. “I was devastated,” he admits. “My uncle had told me to just buy it years before, but I’d ignored him.”

Luckily, fate intervened and by the following Christmas, the previous owner had dissolved their company and Paul was able to snap up the name.

Now, the sky’s the limit for Paul and his team. “I’m passionate about business and building teams,” he says.

“I’ve always tried to keep a positive mental attitude, I always keep searching for growth opportunities and I love dealing with people, so I love everything about building this company. And I’m thankful to Martin and BigChange for giving us a technology that grows alongside us and keeps adapting to the scale of our ambitions.”

Where are all the jobs for people with disabilities?

Disabled workers
Posted on by Martin Port

Here’s one thing I know for a fact. Meaningful work is fundamental to a happy life.

Whether you’re 25 or 55, able-bodied, or have a disability, having a purpose, being productive, having some financial independence, and having structure to your days, all these things help to create balance and joy.

This is why I think it is a terrible and worrying truth that so few opportunities are available to those with disabilities in this country. Just 5.1% of people with a learning disability in England are employed. Overall, disabled people have an employment rate that is 28.4 percentage points lower than the able-bodied.

And this isn’t because people with disabilities don’t want to work. According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, when asked about the value of work, all 60 participants in its study unanimously agreed that their quality of life would be or had been much better in work than out of work.

One participant said: “It gets you out of the house, you aren’t stuck in being miserable, everyone needs to get out, disabled or not, you need to get up in the morning, it’s a purpose, it’s the satisfaction when you do work.”

This won’t come as a surprise to many.

Significant barriers

Yet even though legislation has required employers to make reasonable adjustments to make work accessible for disabled people since 1996, the pathways into jobs for many with physical or mental impairments just don’t seem to exist.

Significant barriers remain, from the job application process to ease of access to prejudice.

This was not always the case. The Remploy scheme was created in 1946 to help provide employment placements for those with disabilities, giving them training, support, and a career path.

The original Remploy factories were set up for serviceman and civilians who were injured and disabled during World War Two.

These factories stayed open for 70 years, but the government decided to privatise a decade ago and in 2013, all the factories were closed or sold.

This was a tremendous loss to the disabled community. Remploy created 100,000 jobs for disabled people between 2009 and 2014 alone.

This is an issue that is close to my heart. I feel strongly that those with disabilities deserve the right to work and should be supported into suitable roles.

At BigChange, the company I founded in 2013, we have prioritised inclusivity – it’s one of our core principles. Everyone in the business, from RoadCrew to management, understands the need to support one other and embrace diversity.

We do this because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s good for business! World class teams are diverse teams.

Building a more inclusive society

With that in mind, I met with Steve Ingham, CEO of the recruitment giant Page Group, this week, to discuss ways to build a more inclusive society.

Steve has long been a champion of disabled workers’ rights – and has often been a lone voice on this topic.

He said recently: “It just makes commercial sense. You could have a situation where nothing on your website mentions disability. There’s no mention in social media of anyone that’s disabled working for this company. Someone might be sitting there in a wheelchair and they’re the world’s leading cyber expert. They’re not going to come and join you if there’s little evidence that you’ve ever been an inclusive employer.”

I’m hoping that by being more proactive in talking about these issues, I can do my bit for this fight. We need to do all we can to encourage government, employers and charities to champion disabled people in the workplace.

We all have different strengths and abilities in this life and that shouldn’t determine our ability to live a purposeful and happy life. 

Access Innovations Achieves 70 Per Cent Reduction in Paper with BigChange

Access Innovations
Posted on by Martin Port

BigChange field service management software is helping commercial and industrial door specialist Access Innovations reduce paper consumption by more than 70 per cent.

Using the BigChange platform, the West Midlands company has also reduced the resource required to manage its field service operation and has improved customer service with automatic job scheduling, reporting and invoicing. Responsible for around 20,000 doors, Access Innovations uses BigChange to improve workforce health and safety with daily vehicle and driver checks, live vehicle tracking and online access to risk assessments and method statements.

“As well as reducing our environmental impact through a massive reduction in the paper we consume, BigChange has also had a positive impact on other aspects of the business,” commented John Lunt, Operations Director at Access Innovations. “The back-office resource required to record, schedule and report on jobs has been reduced, which in turn results in better service for our customers. I even had one client email me saying ‘give us a chance’ having received completion reports, including photos, and the invoice, all within 5 minutes of the engineer finishing on-site!”

Access Innovations install, repair, service and maintain manual doors, fire doors, automatic doors, rapid action doors, roller shutters, fire shutters, sectional doors, manual and automatic traffic barriers, manual and automatic gates. Operating across the West Midlands and London, Access Innovations also supply and fit security fencing, bollards and crash barriers as well as dock levellers, dock shelters and dock bumpers. 

Access Innovation selected BigChange to replace an existing job control system. Since implementing the complete job management solution, which incorporates customer relationship management (CRM), job scheduling, live tracking, field resource management, financial management and business intelligence in one simple to use and easy to integrate platform, Access Innovations has recorded significant improvements in the workflows used to record, schedule, complete and report on routine service and ad-hoc maintenance tasks. Access Innovations is also planning to expand its use of BigChange with increased use of the CRM functionality which it hopes will support the continued growth of the company. 

“When we were looking for a new system, we identified a number of possible suppliers and requested on-site presentations but only 2 agreed to come and see us,” Lunt continued. “BigChange didn’t just sell their system to the management they communicated the benefits to the users, and they made the decision. Since that day the support we have had from BigChange has been excellent.” 

Access Innovations

Martin Port leads funding round into Rated People

Rated people
Posted on by Martin Port

Martin Port, the serial entrepreneur behind Masternaut and BigChange, leads investment into online tradesperson marketplace Rated People.

Martin Port is the lead investor in a funding round for online tradesperson platform Rated People.

His seven-figure investment will be used to accelerate growth at the company as it continues to bolster its user base. This is the first angel investment from Martin Port, who joins existing investors Frog Capital, Downing Ventures and Channel 4.

Rated People is the UK’s leading online marketplace matching homeowners with skilled, local tradespeople. The platform is used by nearly 1 million UK homeowners each year, looking for the right trades businesses who can help them complete domestic and commercial jobs.

More than 50,000 tradespeople are featured on the site, from builders to roofers, plumbers to electricians, and more.

‘A fantastic business’

Rated People, which recorded revenues of £11.5m in 2020, is led by Adrienne Minster, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2020 after 4 years in the business as Chief Commercial Officer and then COO.

“Rated People has come through the last two years in a strong position,” she says. “This deal will enable us to accelerate our growth in 2022, and I know that Martin’s experience will help us to add even more value to both trades businesses and homeowners across the UK.”

“Rated People is a fantastic business providing an exceptional service to both tradespeople and homeowners alike” says Martin. “I have been a customer of the platform and was impressed by the concept and execution. I’m a big fan! I look forward to supporting Adrienne as she takes Rated People to the next level.”

Following the deal, Martin is joining Rated People as a Board Observer and Strategic Advisor. He remains chairman of BigChange, the technology company he founded in 2013.

“Through BigChange, which provides technology to help tradespeople grow their businesses, reduce carbon footprint, and drive efficiency, I have come to know the needs of this industry very well” he says.
“I hope to bring all my experience to bear in Rated People.”

Rated People is Martin’s first foray as an angel investor.

“I have loved being an entrepreneur and growing businesses from nothing into international success stories,” he says. “Right now, I’m also enjoying the ability to invest back into the entrepreneurial ecosystem to help the next generation to thrive. It is a privilege to support Rated People in this next phase of its growth.”

About Rated People

Founded in 2005, Rated People is the UK’s leading online marketplace matching homeowners with skilled, local tradespeople.

Over 50,000 tradespeople use the site and 1,000,000 jobs are posted every year by homeowners wanting to make the most of where they live.

Once the work is complete, homeowners leave a review of the tradesperson – and this feedback helps give other homeowners peace of mind that they’ve found someone reliable.

In 2021, Rated People also secured a position on three of the Sunday Times’ Best Companies lists for the first time.

The company featured on the UK’s 100 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For, London’s 50 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For and the Business Services’ 20 Best Companies to Work For – a sector-specific category, new for 2021.

About Martin Port

Martin Port is a technology pioneer based in Leeds, Yorkshire.

He is a serial entrepreneur, who has built three successful businesses during his career. Martin founded his current venture, software-as-a-service company BigChange, in 2013. BigChange’s field service management technology is the core workflow tool for businesses employing field service technicians and operators across the UK, Europe, the US and Australia.

BigChange’s tools provide job scheduling, customer invoicing and payments automation, mobile workforce management, and client engagement to 1,900 small to enterprise clients spanning more than 60 industries.

In 2020, BigChange was recognised for its outstanding innovation in the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, the UK’s highest official awards for British businesses.

In 2021, Boston-based Great Hill Partners invested £75m of growth capital in BigChange, valuing the company at £100m.

The deal that opened a new chapter

Great Hill Partnership Deal
Posted on by Martin Port

On the 4th of February 2021, I embarked on one of the greatest adventures of my professional life so far.

I signed a deal with an American private equity backer, raising £75m to supercharge the growth of my business, valuing BigChange at £100m.

I won’t lie to you. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect. I consider myself a good judge of character and I knew that I respected and liked the team from Great Hill Partners. But you never really know, do you?

Here I am, a year on, looking back over a 12-month partnership and, I have to say… It was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I don’t want to get sentimental – I’m not one for love letters – but I wanted to talk about the experience. Often, as entrepreneurs, you hear the horror stories and see the battle scars, but you rarely find out about happy-ever-afters.

I’m here to say that our backer, Great Hill Partners, has done absolutely everything they said they would do. They have operated with integrity. They have supported me as a founder during one of the toughest and most uncertain times in living memory. They have helped this business to scale with a speed and efficiency that I couldn’t not have dreamed of on my own. They have opened doors that would have been bolted shut.

I would like to take some credit for the success of this partnership. As entrepreneurs, you are always told: do your homework. Get to know your potential investors. Speak to other founders in their portfolio. Ask about the awards they have won. I did all of that and more. So, credit to me, I picked the right partner. But no one expected a global pandemic to throw a spanner in the works. The best investor in the world would be forgiven for being rattled by that. But not Great Hill. Instead, they increased their level of support while also helping us access a further £25m to grow the business. We could never have done a deal like that on our own. Instead of putting on the brakes, they let me do what my instincts told me to do: accelerate.

I want to do a quick shout out to the individuals who have helped make this relationship such a success. I want to thank Drew Loucks, Chris Busby, Greg Stewart, Ryan O’Malley, Pablo Ramirez – the dream team that has supported me and BigChange this year. I want to say an enormous thank you to Richard Warley, our CEO, who was introduced to me by Great Hill, and has been a tremendous asset to the business. And last but not least, I want to thank the fantastic people at KPMG, who advised on the deal. We have spent over six years with KPMG, getting to know one another, and now I can genuinely say that I have made great friends in the process.

Many business owners are slightly afraid of private equity. Some with good reason: there are firms out there that give this kind of investment a bad name. But in my experience, any company that is serious about growth, and wants autonomy and firepower simultaneously, should consider it. If we had gone public, I wouldn’t be writing this update, I’d be bogged down in bureaucracy and gagged by shareholder agreements. It’s not for me. At least, not now. Maybe when we achieve our dream of becoming a unicorn, I’ll see things differently.

The bottom line for me is this: if we had never embarked on this journey with Great Hill, we’d be in a very different place. We’d still be successful and growing, but we wouldn’t have been able to invest in people and product like we have this year, creating the foundations for an even more brilliant future for the business. And our growth would be a crawl as opposed to a sprint. So, here’s to a most excellent year, and to the years of growth and success ahead. I’m very glad I signed on that dotted line last February.