Meet the Co-Founder - Toby

To finish up our “Meet the Founders" series, and last but by no means least we wanted to take a minute to explore the journey Toby has been on and the roads he took that led him to starting Inara.

These days, Toby is a family man, who lives just outside of Manchester in a town called Stockport with his fiancé Katie, 8 year old step son (Luca) and 2 year old son (Alby). His family are his pride and joy, they have played such an important part in defining who Toby is today and for this he will be forever grateful.

Outside of work Toby loves to be busy, whether it’s getting out with friends, going to gigs/festivals, hiking in the mountains, eating great food, charging down mountains on his bike or exploring places with his family, every week is a new adventure. He is a keen traveller and has been all over the world, he loves experiencing new cultures, food and meeting people along the way. He is a bit of a geek at heart, and is always getting stuck into books, films, games and podcasts although he’s a big fan of professional books, he loves nothing more than getting lost in the worlds of fantasy and sci-fi fictions.?

Toby’s early years were filled with mischief, fun, friends, travelling, seasons abroad and all the exciting things that come in between.?

It wasn’t until? he came back from the last of his 7 working seasons, towards the end of 2013 that he started to try and build a career. It was getting close to Christmas and he was back living with his mum, but he wanted out, he needed his own place, he needed a job! After a few short lived spells at Tesco (on night shifts) and a local factory Toby decided to go for a sales role in a call centre. It was this job that lit a fire under him.?

The role was selling B2B Gas & Electric contracts to SME’s, it paid minimum wage and he had to get two trains and walk a couple of miles just to get there, then the same on the way back, but he decided he had to stick at something and he actually enjoyed it here. On top of the basic salary this role offered a capped commission structure, this was Toby’s first taste of being rewarded for the work you put in. Over the next two years, Toby consistently capped out his commission and was promoted to a Senior Direct Sales Advisor, then a Sales Manager looking after 20 - 30 people, eventually they even had him running sales training for the new cohorts coming in. As much as he enjoyed working with the people here and the company were trying to give him reasons to stay he knew he was being held back.?

Along came recruitment and the opportunity to take his career to the next level. He joined a large recruitment company and started working in the renewable energy space, hiring Quantity Surveyors and Commercial Managers on a contract basis. It was a full 360 role, for those who don’t know what that means Toby had to get his own customers before being able to place any contractors. It took nearly 4 months for that first deal, but once it was over the line the ball started rolling. He eventually built his contractor book up and he started to bring in some decent money but he knew there was still something missing.?

It was at this point in his life that Toby met Katie and her son Luca, things were quickly getting serious, he was falling in love! The recruitment company he worked for were notorious for their work hard play hard mentality and it wasn’t exactly the lifestyle Toby wanted anymore.?

When Toby first got into recruitment one of the companies he met was a small boutique agency who were well known for their work across the technology industry. This was the job Toby wanted but they said no to him, they needed someone with more experience and at the time Toby had none. He had kept in touch with the manager from this company and to be frank he became a pest, sending LinkedIn messages every few months to see if they had space for him yet. After one year of chasing he landed an interview and got the job!?

Everything that led up to this point the sales, the recruitment had all got Toby ready for what he believes was the moment his career really started. He fell in love with the technology industry, the whole scene was buzzing. He thought he understood tech because at home he could set up the TV’s or fix problems on phones, and play the playstation better than anyone else in his family, little did he know there was an undercurrent circulating the world and tech plays a part in pretty much everything we use these days.?

The next few years saw Toby develop his career in tech, he took on the DevOps and Cloud market and started to build himself a name, first in the company he worked for, then all across Manchester and later all over the country. It was actually at this company Toby and our other founder Jason Ouston first started working together too.?

Toby loved being part of the community, and he started to branch into the world of meet-ups. It was an alien world at first and he felt super isolated but he knew he needed to build his confidence and become part of this scene. After countless events attended, he started to network properly and build some great relationships. He then knew the next step was to set up his own event, so along came The DevOps Battle Royale, and with this the gateway to his next career move.?

It was during the next 12 months Toby got to work closely with an unbelievable tech consultancy, who were building their presence across the UK with a head office in Leeds, an established base in London and a newly opened office in Manchester. Toby got to know the team here really well and after a few elbow nudges and conversations over drinks they asked him to come onboard and head up their talent team in the North. He was extra excited about this move as once again he was joining forces with Jason who was heading up all the company's growth in the South and other regions.?

The next 4 years saw the company grow from 150 to 700 people, the talent team eventually grew to 9 people at its peak and they were responsible for 100% of hires across the company, who now had 6 established regions all across the UK. Their most successful year the team helped bring 280 people into the organisation to begin their career in consultancy.?

Another huge life moment was also on the horizon as Toby and his family welcomed their smallest member. Little Alby Toby James Wilman was born on January 26th 2021 and this once again changed everything. All the drive and determination Toby thought he had was minuscule compared to the moment he got to sit back and look at his little family and think of all the things he wants to do with them, places to see, people to meet and oh yeah weddings to plan… Toby popped the question and thankfully Katie said YES!!?

It was also during this time that Kate Oliver , the third piece to our co-founder puzzle joined the team. Toby, Jason and Kate formed a pretty formidable team and with them all operating at a Manager level in the company they got to play to their strengths and hone in on their superpowers.?

It’s safe to say the last couple of years working at this consultancy were very different. The business went through a huge acquisition and became part of one of the world's largest organisations. There were ups, downs, twists and turns. There was laughter, camaraderie, arguments and probably some tears, you name the emotion the team went through it, but they came out the otherside closer than ever, until the next speed bump in the journey… redundancies!

It came as quite a shock to everyone when Jason, Kate and Toby all received the news but they had actually supported each other really well up to that point and were pretty well mentally prepared for bad news on some level.?

However, some people's bad news can turn into other peoples opportunities, and the team had an idea. The universe had given them a blatant sign, they knew each other's skills and weaknesses, they knew they could work together effectively and they knew how driven they all were to succeed in life.?

Along came Inara, the team dreamt a dream and turned it into a reality, and the last couple of months has seen them build a company from the ground up. They have got to put their passions, their visions, their hopes and dreams into something that is truly theirs.?

Toby believes that he was always destined to be in a role where he can play an influential part in people's lives, he loves helping people, he loves seeing people succeed and he now he’s found two people he knows are just as passionate about this as him.?

The future of Inara is looking very exciting indeed, and the team is only just getting started…?