Kubrick Group was launched to overcome the digital skills shortage by building a data, AI, and cloud technology workforce. It provides staff with training before deploying them as consultants. It has trained over 1,000 professionals and supports more than 100 clients, including BP, Morgan Stanley, and Jaguar Land Rover. The London-based company was co-founded in 2016 by managing partners Tim Smeaton and Simon Walker and is backed by private-equity firm Bowmark Capital, which invested an undisclosed sum last year. Sales have risen by more than 50% a year since 2018, reaching £29.2m in 2021.
‘Don’t overreact to curveballs. Focus is everything’
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ON TRACK TO £45M TURNOVER AND “I STILL DON’T SEE MYSELF AS SUCCESSFUL”
When Wayne Spriggs’ company, Lusso, was chosen to kit out the bathroom of The Equinox Hotel’s penthouse suite on Manhattan’s West Side in 2019, he couldn’t help but smile. Flashing through his mind were vivid memories of the two-bedroom houses he used to fix up in his hometown of Middlesbrough. The Equinox was a world away. Yet without starting out on those humble houses in England’s Northeast, the glamorous New York hotel project would never have come about. Moreover, if Wayne hadn’t taken that first step, Lusso – on track to turn over £45m this year – would not exist.
FEBE CRIBS – Huel
Huel makes nutritionally complete food: drinks, bars, instant meals and protein products. Serial entrepreneur Julian Hearn and James Collier founded the brand in 2015, and chief executive James McMaster joined two years later. In 2018, the Hertfordshire firm raised £20m from investor Highland Europe to launch new products and drive international growth. Huel has sold […]
Lessons from a ‘Best 100’ company: Hire on attitude, not skill
Moneypenny is the biggest and fastest-growing company of its type in the world. Founded by sister and brother Rachel and Ed Reeves in 2000 from a £10,000 investment, it provides call-answering, digital switchboard, live chat and tech based communication channels to 225,000 clients around the world – from small start-ups to Google-sized corporates. These impressive […]
From dressing up as Santa to raising $50M and hitting the Deloitte Fast 50
Aged 10, Christer Holloman launched a Rent-a-Santa business in his hometown. He’d dress up as the Big Guy each Christmas Eve and, as per Swedish tradition, hand out gifts to excited kids. “I’ve got a picture of me aged 13 counting out my earnings on Christmas Eve, I guess I was destined to become an entrepreneur.” 30 years on, Christer is living out that destiny…
Founding a business is brutal…but amazing!
England football captain Harry Kane is one of the investors behind this gut health brand, which raised £1.4m in March. Dr Megan Rossi, a gut health specialist and research fellow at King’s College London, joined forces with chief executive Jon Walsh to launch
The twins set to shake up the cosmetics industry
Beijing-born twins Jake Xu and Shane Carnell-Xu launched this men’s cosmetics brand in 2019 after raising funds from angel investors Sally Preston and Neil Mather of Kiddylicious, the children’s snack business. Bestsellers in Shakeup’s skincare and makeup range include moisturiser, under eye concealer and face masks. The brand is stocked by national and overseas retailers, such as Harvey Nichols, Superdrug and Australia’s Myer, and it recently launched its new Face 4ward range in China. The Xu brothers previously set up READY, a creative agency based in Bath.