Latest news with #FT1000
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How school run led CEO to 'coffee roulette' with staff and billion pound vision
Lyndon Stickley tries to 'scare a lot of people away' when he oversees first interviews for roles at cloud-accounting start-up iplicit. Yet Stickley, who bills himself as a go-to-market evangelist after successfully scaling and selling six previous companies, is far from your ruthless CEO. For the zest in which he describes his involvement with iplicit and why he won't be exiting a business for a seventh time – one of his previous projects includes London's largest graveyard – makes him a particularly charismatic leader. Hampshire-based Stickley is aiming to take the remote-first firm — he takes part in daily 'coffee roulette' mornings with employees — to unicorn status by 2030, by making it the "on-premises salvation" for mid-market businesses and their 'outdated' finance systems. Read More: Meet Britain's 'king of billboards' who sold his business for £1bn Launched in 2019, iplicit gained a top 20 place among UK firms in the FT1000 list of Europe's fastest growing businesses. Last year, the firm was one of the Sunday Times' medium business top places to work. So, to those job interviews. 'I say it might not be for you and tell them that this a place for really passionate, slightly unhinged mountain climbers,' says Stickley, who built and sold his first company, an ISDN tech firm, for £40m before turning 30. 'If you say we are off on a mountain climb which will take three months and you might lose a finger to frostbite but we will stick a flag at the top, we are looking at the one person who will lean in where the other 19 won't.' The fact he is even discussing iplicit's marketplace rise is, he says, down to luck. 'Happenstance has been the foundation of everything,' he adds. Stickley tells the story of how Ian Andrews, an engineer by heart, spent 20 years running a company called Concept Software and becoming one of the UK's leading implementation consultancies for the likes of Oracle. He had been introduced by a friend on the school run who said he should look at Andrews' accounting software business. Shortly afterwards, Andrews spent two hours explaining to Stickley about large scale enterprise resource planning (ERP) – an area in which the serial entrepreneur had no experience. Once vendors had concluded software deals, Andrews would place people on site for up to two years and charge hundreds of thousands of pounds for implementation work. 'It was a world that blew my mind,' says Stickley. 'After 20 years, he told me, he realised he was part of the machine that was stacked against the customer, who was also getting mugged rather than it being implemented out of the box,' Stickley recalls of their first meeting. Read More: The boss who has found 'nature's answer to plastic' 'He said to me that he decided to build a better system by investing £1.5m of family savings and a friend who did the same. They carved off some engineers and created an accounting solution [iplicit] which could be deployed in days and compile reports in hours not weeks, with low disruption.' Stickley asked how many customers iplicit had, to which Andrews replied none. It was, however, the start of an unlikely relationship, given that Stickley would usually have refrained from any reckless decisions in previous investments. Having promised his friend, Stickley made some calls and was told to give it a wide berth. One final network call to a co-founder of legacy finance firm Exchequer, who he knew over 20 years previously, changed the direction. After looking at the software, he was left enthused by its power and low touch. With Stickley investing £1m into Andrews' business, iplicit swelled to around 20 staff, went to market in 2019 and immediately started winning top accountancy awards they hadn't entered. Iplicit's plan had been how to overcome the issue of customers buying finance software off an unknown player in the market. COVID not only levelled the playing field, with video meetings and iplicit's shorter implementation times, but also propelled the appeal from mounting customers who had non-cloud system issues. Iplicit realised that it could serve 100,000 sites, often multi-company locations, with a 25% market share goal and a £500m a year business. 'We couldn't have possibly contrived that [accounting software giant] Sage would drop a royal ball and not have something for the vast majority of its base,' says Stickley. The industry had also taken notice. Stickley was told by Oystein Moan – the executive chairman of Visma who took the company to unicorn status – that iplicit was a multi-million pound opportunity in the UK alone. Last year, Moan and Nic Humphries, one of the biggest private equity players in the business-to-business software space, joined iplicit's advisory board. Read More: 'Why we set up a sustainable mobile operator to save people money' Stickley's entrepreneurial spirit had been gained from his father, who had a chicken farm at 16, ran a nightclub in his twenties and worked with artists like Lulu and the Rolling Stones. Aged 17, Stickley junior took Wednesdays off sixth form college to sell kitchenware at the local market, earning £200. At university, he ran five club nights across Portsmouth in the late 1980s before his penchant for scaling businesses. 'The worst and the best I have been involved in is the most human connected and impactful business,' Stickley says of Kemnal Park, which he describes as the UK's first cemetery to celebrate life and built for people to return. 'The 'thank yous' were non stop,' he says, 'when you can see week in, week out people come back and be inspired by the place where they have buried a loved one.' Stickley met Andrews as the former was leaving the cemetery business, with iplicit planning for two years before launch. From 2006 to 2022, Stickley worked part-time three days a week. He took the helm as CEO when he realised that the business wouldn't be sold and is now working as if 'back in my twenties'. The firm has one office in Poole, Dorset with 25 employees, and around 135 working remotely. Stickley says iplicit's growth has been down to lifting the barriers of geography and has U-turned on seeing recruitment agencies as 'the enemy'. 'Getting a good recruitment pipeline means you have talent on tap when you need it,' Stickley adds. 'There's no way you can grow fast like this and do the recruitment function as you can't afford mediocrity to creep into the camp.' Iplicit's goal, he says, is to become the de facto standard in the UK before any entrance into the US. It currently serves over 43,000 daily users in over 3,000 organisations. 'We have the best tech, team and trajectory and an advantage that no one else has in the market right now,' he adds. All thanks to that school run chat and Andrews being a few months shy of running out of money before meeting iplicit's future CEO. 'What doesn't make him bonkers is he didn't go bust, so now he's a genius, right? Because he really was," says Stickley. "But if it had gone bust, he was bonkers. It was a fine line.' Coffee roulette and remote-first You value the relationships more when you don't have them on a plate every day. We get together six times a year and we all hug across 150 people as we aren't in the office getting bored with each other. The video efficiency is unbelievable. I can have 15 meetings in a day and include coffee roulette in that, which was invented by one of our techies where a random name generator pairs two people to have 20 minutes together. I found it so insightful I now have around 25 coffee roulettes a month virtually across the country. It takes the drudge out of the work and makes meetings more concise. We don't recruit younger people typically; they deserve a right of passage in an office. We are heavily biased towards over 35s as we suit the young families and older, experienced employees and appeal to an audience who don't want to commute. We measure trust by measuring outputs, not by checking in on people. Read more: The life lesson behind a 335-year-old funeral business? 'Never sleep on an argument' Meet the company that finds 'must-haves' to make everyday life easier Impossibrew CEO says Dragons' Den failure sparked alcohol-free brand's rise
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jeton Ranks #374 on the Financial Times List of Europe's 1,000 Fastest-Growing Companies
LONDON, April 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Jeton has been included in the Financial Times' 2025 FT1000-hyperlink list of Europe's fastest-growing companies for the second consecutive year, marking another key achievement in the company's ongoing growth. Last year, Jeton ranked in the top 10% of the fastest-growing companies, and this year, it continues to demonstrate its growth trajectory. The company ranked 374 on the list, reflecting its ongoing success and impact in the payments industry. The FT1000 list, compiled by the Financial Times in collaboration with Statista, ranks the 1,000 companies across 31 European countries with the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue. To be eligible for inclusion, companies must achieve a minimum average growth rate of 34.8%. The list has become a key benchmark for Europe's top-performing businesses, recognizing those that have thrived through dynamic and challenging market conditions. Jeton's inclusion follows a year of continued growth, including a strategic rebranding that has strengthened the company's position in the global payments landscape. Since its founding in 2018, Jeton has expanded its offerings, providing a comprehensive range of services and establishing a strong presence in markets such as the UK, Cyprus, and the Commonwealth of Dominica. "We're proud to secure a spot in the FT1000 for the second consecutive year," said a spokesperson at Jeton. "This recognition is a testament to the hard work of our team and the ongoing support of our partners. Our rebranding has opened up new opportunities, and we're excited to build on this momentum moving forward." Jeton's success is also reflected in its global reach, with over 20 currencies supported and more than 27 countries served. The company offers over 50 payment methods, providing a variety of secure and convenient transaction options. In addition, Jeton has strengthened its brand through strategic partnerships, including ongoing collaborations with athletes like Alexis Mac Allister and Kou Itakura, as well as with West Ham United, Legia Warsaw, and previous agreements with top Premier League football teams. About Jeton Jeton, founded in 2018, is a global payment service that provides secure and easy payment solutions for users and merchants. It supports over 50 payment methods, 20+ currencies, and operates in 20+ countries. Key products include the Jeton Card for online and offline purchases and Jeton Cash, which keeps users' financial data safe during online transactions. Social media links ContactMarketing JetonDennis Photo - View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Jeton Sign in to access your portfolio
Budapest Times
07-03-2025
- Business
- Budapest Times
Seven Hungarian companies make FT list
Seven Hungarian companies have made it onto this year's prestigious Financial Times (FT) list of the fastest-growing companies in Europe. A1 Solar, a provider of photovoltaic systems, achieved a top position and landed in 12th place on the FT1000 list. Other Hungarian companies, which reflect the diversity of innovative strength in this country, follow in reasonable positions: Data analytics company DATAPAO ranked 210th, digital consultancy Sprintform came in at 342nd, container developer Continest reached 428th, construction company Lakógép ranked 450th, Hiflylabs, a provider of business intelligence solutions, placed 923rd, and server reseller Maraelite completed the Hungarian presence at 963rd. The ranking is based on annual growth rates between 2020 and 2023 and was compiled in collaboration with the German data research institute Statista. More than three quarters of the companies listed come from Italy, Germany, France and the UK. A fifth of the top 1000 companies come from the IT and software sector. Construction and engineering, energy and utilities, advertising and marketing, fintech, financial services and insurance also account for large shares. The list is headed by the Polish energy company Menlo Electric, which was founded in 2020 and has increased its profit from just under €187,000 to more than €15 million within three years.
