A 5 Year Old..

Jesus!! Five years old!? That’s flown by. Can’t believe how quick it’s gone. Can’t believe the stuff we’ve done. Can’t believe the stuff we haven’t yet done. Some really tough times. Some really brilliant times. Still alive. Still doing our thing. Still loving Ingenio!

I'm a little worse for wear today having had a few celebration drinks with the team last night, but i wanted to say a MASSIVE thanks to everyone for the calls, texts, whataps, emails, likes & comments for our birthday yesterday. Very touching. I appreciate hugely taking the time to congrats us!

I still remember the day well. Sitting in a friends office in Regus in Dublin just before Christmas in 2014. There wasn’t a huge amount of people around as they were either finished for the break, out on boozy Christmas lunches or recovering from dinners the night before. James and I had just dropped off a Skype video call where the final final final decision was made. Ingenio was a go. We were doing this. We were starting a recruitment business. I looked around for someone to high five, hug, celebrate with, share the moment. Nobody.

The first thing we did when we came up with the concept of starting a recruitment business was to see would anyone actually work with us. Lots of calls went out. Loads went unanswered. But i remember the first three who committed to us well before we’d started the business. Well before we’d come up with a name/logo/website/proposition/domain. Well before we’d been to a bank. Well before we’d arranged an IT supplier/mobile phone contract/job board/CRM.

Adam Faulkner, Simon Payne, Alastair Rudman & Matt Tomlinson. Thank you. You guys did what loads of people didn’t and wouldn’t and helped start a new business. Be proud of that. We’ll be forever grateful.

At the end of the engagement with Simon, who I knew for a long time, I asked him “why have you decided to work with us”. His response. “You know what exceptional looks like”. That became our strap line from day one.

For those of you who don’t know James and I, recruitment was new. We’d spent 15 mostly good years working in the technology world, specifically in the Voice & Contact Centre space. Loads and loads of people advised us against it. We knew that it was a tough industry, but we knew there was a huge opportunity to be niche. To be focussed. To give technology clients something that most recruiters couldn’t bring, which was a real and deep understanding of actually how technology businesses work, are structured and make money.

What we didn’t know we bought and brought in. Special thanks to our advisors Dan Church, Sarah Owen (my wife gets a plug here!) and Adam Fletcher for helping us not make some monstrous mistakes. These guys are experts par excellence. We’ve made loads of mistakes but thankfully none monstrous!

Today we have contracts with 197 clients. 197 clients in 5 years is something I’m really proud of (still dont have that additional three just yet, but there's still two days!!). Some of these clients have been with us since day one. Some far more recent. Some use us lots. Some have only used us once. I don’t think we’ve fallen out with too many! But to each and every one of you. A MASSIVE thanks for working with us and choosing us ahead of someone else. We appreciate your business. We hope we’ve done a good job. And thanks for paying your invoices on time(ish)! If you’re not one of the 197 and you hire in a technology business, you’re missing out and need to speak with us today. Or tomorrow. But quickly!

We’ve placed 712 people in new roles over the last five years. If you’re one of these 712, thanks again for choosing to work with us. We hope you’ve enjoyed the Ingenio experience and engagement. Our team love helping candidates through the increasingly tricky hiring process and we still get the same buzz from getting that offer or acceptance.

We have some amazing partners who help us grow and develop our business. Special shouts to Conor and Vessie at Gallagher Keane, Tom at FinanceBox, Kerry & team at BOSS.

And lastly to the people who have worked with James and I for the last five years. The vast majority of you have been sensational (a handful definitely haven’t!!) and we really appreciate your time, energy, commitment, fun, success and honesty.

So after five years, what would I say to someone who was thinking of giving it, whatever it is, a go:

1) Do it. Don’t debate it any longer. Just do it!

2) Nail a niche - pick one or two things that you'll be stand-out famous for. Focus on that and nothing else - you'll have loads of distractions along the way.

3) PLAN. PLAN. PLAN. PLAN.

4) Starting & running a business is one of the loneliest places in the world at times - have good family, friends & people you trust that you can talk to. You'll need it! Also take up a hobby that gives you head space.

5) Do it with a mate. @Jimmy, after all this time I still love you!

Happy birthday Ingenio!