I'm delighted to have joining us today, just in day who's the CEO and co-founder of Cloud Gateway, which is our 2018 Cloud Treble's owner. Welcome to Found us all. Hello Rose, pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to have you joining us.
Obviously it's been a little while since you guys won the I can aid and I know it was relatively fresh into your journey with Cloud Gateway. I think you're only about 18 months old when you won. Could you give us a brief description of Cloud Gateway and what your focus actually is? Yeah, so Cloud Gateway is a hybrid cloud connectivity platform.
Essentially it's co-founded by myself and Neil Briscoe. We come from a network and network security background and we wanted to create this secure connectivity hub which isn't anything new in its own right, but it's about how we go about what we do that we really wanted to kind of change the face of of that part of telecoms. And I think what the most important thing to us was about how much we could leverage Cloud. Now Cloud isn't typically synonymous with comms directly and what we've been able to do is build networks in software, build them as overlays and it allows us to be able to spin up very, very quickly something not synonymous with comms and to dial up how big that platform is very quickly as well.
And for us that was always what the goal was. It was to try and reduce the things that were synonymous with comms and secure comms and take them away. So basically time in tumble contracts concerns around how quickly you can scale and give that capability out there to everyone and anyone that needs it. Great.
So you're giving it a degree of speed and agility which really just wasn't there previously. Absolutely. Fantastic. And obviously things have progressed.
You've gone from sort of an 18-month-old startup to now being sort of three, four years down the track. What are you seeing that's evolving within your business and within your client base over that period? Yeah, I think from what we're seeing evolving our own business, it's about making sure that we've stayed true to be the early ethos that we started with which is listen, learn and adapt. The world of IT across the board is changing so fast.
We have to make sure that we're not just keeping up, we're staying ahead. If you're going to be an innovator and you're going to be disruptive, you need to make sure that you're ahead of the curve. And the reality is that planning is great but sometimes you have to have a huge space in that plan for change. The things that you happen for seeing.
We've seen a lot of change in the last couple of years. We've seen a much larger uptake of the public cloud providers, particularly the bit to use the Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. We've seen digital transformation start to complete, which I think has had a big knock on effect to how we operate as a business because digital transformation is a lot of companies, big companies, and small companies have been engaged in those. And with different degrees of success, I think a lot of digital transformations have been based more around just putting your stuff in the cloud rather than really transforming it and leveraging the ecosystems that are available to you.
And now that second phase is looking at how they can, how these companies can improve on what they're doing or possibly even move some of their workloads between clouds. And so for us, that's where we really help come into our own. We've helped the movement of this traffic and the movement of this data, keeping it secure for a while, whilst it's moving, whilst it's migrating, whilst it continues to be consumed. But now we can do that cross cloud.
And like I say, it's you've got all these different companies moving at different paces and doing different things. And whilst there's similarities between companies from say different sectors, there's in sector specifics that can change how you view what you do and how ultimately are not on a, sorry, not on effects to how you approach your own business. So it's, yeah, it's just constant change. And you have to accept, I think now, which is is wonderful if you embrace the challenge that there's no longer an end goal, you know, projects and programs, everyone else turn agile, of course, there's no concept of an end anymore.
Everything is just in a continual movement phase. So it's a, it's been a big cultural shift. And it's been as exciting as it has dawned. Though it's not just about the technology, it's about the people and the process is where that's where the true transformation is taking place from what you're seeing together.
I think so. Yeah, I think it's one of those things that is talked about. I don't know if it's talked about maybe as much as it should be is the cultural shift is bigger than the technical shift. You know, people in any field like to kind of use spoken mirrors to sort of show what they're doing and doing it as new bells, words and all that good stuff.
But the concept of making more with less, doing more with less and virtualization of services has been going on for many, many years. And in reality, that's, you know, the underpinning concepts of cloud and what all technologies are trying to move towards. There's nothing particularly new there, how it's being done. Sure, lots of things changing on a daily basis.
But it is that cultural shift. You know, I think you said how, how it affects us as a company as a startup. I think one of the big, big cultural shifts is a risk appetite from larger companies in SMEs, you know, historically, particularly in the comms industry. There's a lot more sort of a safety net taking a big contract with a, whether you wanted or not, you kind of accept a couple of penalties by taking a big contract with a big SI because they were a big name and they're underpinned by lots of stocks and shares and everything, 100 company.
And I think that has changed in so much as that we work with some big companies who treat us the same way, or certainly treat me and then the buyers the same way as they did when I was part of those bigger companies. And that shift has been more seismic, I think, than technology. Well, that's not so interesting in sight. So you've been on the startup journey, which you're co-founding, risk go for about three, three and a half years now.
That's right. Yeah. What would you say, have been particular challenges that you guys have faced? Are you personally faced?
I think it's, a lot of them are personal challenges are about knowing when to change and when to let go. I mean, I know myself and Neil are both two people that like to be in control. We're very lucky with each other for a long time. We work very well together.
But in our respective areas, I think it's about learning when to allow others to pass the baby over. So I know Neil in particular, he was responsible really for the great technical concept and core and heart of what we've got. And he knew that he needed help from software engineers, from other technical areas. And that's been a big change.
I think for me, it's coming to grips with areas of business that are new to me and accepting that I'm up to the challenge and that I'm comfortable with that. Nobody starts as a CEO ever. Someone has a day one in that role. And you're learning things that you're not traditionally used to.
I come from a tech background. All of a sudden, I find myself a few years later, finding more interesting profit and loss in accounts and sales and marketing. And actually, I love that. And that has been a challenge as well, because you have to step outside of your comfort zone.
And I think that's probably the same there for me and Neil. Neil's comfortable when he's in control of that tech. He starts working with a team. For me, I'm used to something historically that I now know a lot of use to.
And it's a bit more of a distant memory now. And it is a challenge. It's a personal challenge. But it's one that you quickly embrace, because the journey is definitely worth it.
So yeah, it's been exciting. And given the chance, I would do it all over again as well. Cool. Well, challenges are there.
So it sounds as though there are all certain things that you're particularly proud of from that journey so far as well. What would they be? Yeah, I like to think of one particular thing that's important to me and Neil and how we created the company and culminated in a recognition for this as well, which I think is great is we have a very strong belief in how we grow a culture and how we grow a team. And how we put that all together for our company looks like the type of person that is part of what we do.
And we're not scared at all to take the white people who in some instances have absolutely no experience whatsoever in the job we're taking them into. Now, I know you can't always do that, but we can have opportunities where we have been able to do that, where we've taken known quantities, really good people, great work ethic, great attitude, just good people, and taken them in and said, right, we know this is going to be a learning curve. We'll work with you, you knuckle down, let's see what we can do. And I think where that really was, probably our proudest moment was when our employee number one was recognized last year at the UK Cloud Awards, the best cloud newcomer.
And this is this is a guy who a couple of years before that had come from a small town background working in print and publishing. It had nothing to do with the field of IT. You know, cloud team was the white fluffy thing in the sky. He had absolutely nothing to pin his name against.
But we knew exactly what we were going to get, and that's the kind of person we want. And that is a that makes you proud because you, when you sit out with a set of values like that, it don't always necessarily work. So to see them be successful, and they've been successful in so many other areas of our business as well. Yeah, it's something we're very proud of.
Brilliant. Well, I know it's something that you've done quite a lot of, which I think something around the time, and when Neil was actually recognized as a runner up in the mail trailblazers in the same year, as well, you'd also done a lot of work, I think, with AWS around recruiting ex-service people as well. So definitely very commendable that you're taking that very creative approach, an open approach to the skills gaps that we're not just hearing about, but obviously you guys live with other day to day basis. Yeah.
Cool. So beyond that, is there anything else that you're particularly proud of within what you've achieved so far? Yeah, I think I've always been someone that takes a six month wait point. And what I mean by that is I, you know, let's say for the sake of keeping it on a calendar basis, every kind of June, July or December, January, just stopping for a second and just looking back at where we were, what we were doing, what our thought process was, what we had achieved, all of those things and just seeing what that gap was, where we stood the six months prior and what we've been achieved.
And I think I can't have possibly believed or imagined we'd be in the position that we're in right now. You know, it's one thing knowing that you've got a product and a platform that works. It's a whole other thing to completely improve it, affect it, grow it, grow a company around it, change the livelihoods of people whilst having an amazing time doing that. And I think, you know, it's lovely to be recognised, be that through an award, which is, you know, a wonderful achievement, or be that working with some of the big companies that you look up to.
So we have spent, back very recently, this last couple of weeks in particular, a lot of time with Microsoft and Amazon, who invested a lot of time in us because of what we do and how we do it. And, you know, when you've got two of the biggest companies on the planet, it's not the two biggest companies on the planet. And, you know, giving you that attention and giving you that kind of praise as well. We've had some wonderful notes sent to us.
Yeah, that, that kind of, it makes it, it makes it really, really worthwhile. It really, you know, it makes you feel that you want to make a massive difference. Brilliant. I mean, you've kind of touched upon it.
And the reason that you were here is being a winner in the Tech Trailblazers. Well, words of encouragement, would you give to other organisations, other startups who were weighing up with it to jump into an award. And you've had a recognition not just in the Tech Trailblazers, but in others as well, where you guys have been recognised. What would you say on people on jumping into stuff like this?
So what I say to those guys is be bold. Don't do the self judging of anything yourself. Don't think, oh, that company's a big name or, oh, we couldn't do that or we can't do this. Be bold.
If you think that, you know, you've done something, it's positive. You think that absolutely you'd like to go and show the world if you haven't already, absolutely go forward and do that. And also, depending on what sort of category that you would be entering. For me, it's about the recognition of potentially individuals in your company.
It doesn't always need to be that you win a category. I think you can really show a lot of recognition to people who've really loved and loved beyond and been a real great part of your journey by just showing that you've invested the time in nominating them and showing that using that they've done an amazing job. And so that's what I'd say. I'd say absolutely do it.
Remember that, you know, winning doesn't necessarily take away from what you can achieve by being a part of it. And certainly don't self judge. Don't judge yourself out before you go ahead and answer. That's what I'd say.
Cool. And I know that you've also been a judge. So you've won accolades and you've also been on the other side of the fence having to make the decision and weighing up relative entry. So this is a particularly good question with that hat on.
What would be your tips to give organisations to help them when entering? Yeah, I have. And I think my one key tip is if you're going to enter, do consider the effort that you're putting into the entry. That's all I would really say is, from my experience, there were some that were too much of what I would call an afterthought.
It was putting a name down and just throwing it in the hat. That's not really good enough. It just doesn't show enough respect for probably the awards in order for who's entering the individual or a company. So do put in the effort.
Don't worry about trying to make it an absolute masterpiece. Be succinct with what it is and why. And be honest. Don't second guess what you think that we'd want to see.
Say what you've done, why you've done it, why it means a lot to you. Put some sincerity around it. And I think you'll go far. And I think that, say, hadn't been a judge, I'm the kind of person that couldn't care less whether the company is a 50-100 company or a startup.
I'm judging that entry based on those kind of things. So I do think that's really important. Very neat. And obviously we need to think about a nice to start up companies.
I know there's been a lot of advice now and we haven't talked about the big picture here because I don't think there are other interests or experts on what's actually going on anywhere at the moment. But obviously, one of the questions we normally ask is how to survive in the current economic climate. How the current economic climate is perhaps for many as well as in other ways outside of business, very, very challenging at the moment. What do I see?
Are you taking on board or giving to yourselves around what's going on at the moment and how to get through it and hopefully not just survive but through that? Yeah, I mean, that's the magic question, isn't it? Everyone's going to be in a different position. So there's no one answer kind of fits all.
I think for a startup, you're going to find yourself in a position where you almost certainly have or have had some seed capital at some point. Ultimately, Cash is king. You need to keep your eyes on that. I think you're going to have to make some fairly brutal decisions, which doesn't necessarily mean having to move people about per se.
I think you have to think for the business and the long term future of the business, which ultimately then means the people inside it as well. You're going to protect them. This is a lot. This is a lot.
This would be a long haul. Whilst I'm no expert on epidemics, I would say for what I've seen so far, that the financial record, the commercial record, will go for a little while yet. We could be talking about years rather than months. So it's about preparing yourself as best for that by making decisions now because the reality is the other way that you will struggle to get through it.
I think also, depending on what your business does, if you have the time, it's trying and at the moment, it's a second guessing. But try and plan for what the world on the other side is going to be because that trying to get too deep into a philosophy, I think people's approach to all walks of life is going to be quite different. If you look at it from a professional business point of view, the way people consume is going to be very, very different. So your business can, most businesses can change to positively reflect that.
So that's what I'd say. So I have those thoughts and I do appreciate very difficult for some businesses. But that's what I'd say. Make the crucial decisions now to keep it going forward and try and forward plan for coming out the other side.
Sounds like very, very good advice there. And well, I think to wrap up, I don't know if there's anything else that you would like to say, Justin, that perhaps you feel you'd have liked to have shared at the moment. I would probably just say that on that note, I'd say good luck to everybody and I hope everybody's taking the government's advice. Stay safe.
Generally, God bless the NHS. That's, I have nothing further to add. Well, that's not bad sign-off on that. And on that note, I wish you and yours both personally and professionally, the team around the UK were the very best.
And I just say to you and all listeners to the fans on fire, stay safe. We'll speak to you soon. Thank you, Justin. Thank you.