They Know How To Huddle Up
The idea for Huddle came about when Alastair was a board member of a marketing consultancy and Andy was working in knowledge and web content management. “We were both coming up against the same problems with getting global teams to collaborate and work together effectively,” explains Alastair. “We’d seen the growing use of online tools in our social lives and knew that web-based technologies had the potential to revolutionise our working lives too.”
Going into business
Alastair and Andy used their personal savings to set up Huddle in November 2006. “Our first big break came when we found a software company that really believed in our vision,” says Andy. “We made a deal with them where they built the first version of Huddle in exchange for shares in the company.” The pair went on to secure seed investment from entrepreneur Charles McGregor and venture capital from Eden Ventures.
Huddle now has 30 employees in London and Chicago, with 60 per cent of its business coming from outside the UK. The Financial Times named the company as one of its ten start-ups to watch in 2009 and Alastair and Andy say their ambition is for Huddle to become, “the Facebook of the business world”.
Taking the plunge
Despite coming from an entrepreneurial family, Alastair says it took him a long time to pluck up the courage to start a business: “After leaving university, I spent five years feeling I wasn’t ready to set up a business of my own. But as soon as we launched Huddle I wished I’d gone for it sooner. It might feel like you’re about to jump off a cliff, but once you’re actually doing it’s more like the ‘invisible walkway’ across the chasm in Indiana Jones – you just put one foot in front of the other and keep walking until you reach the other side.”
Alastair’s advice to anyone who’s feeling nervous about taking the plunge is: “Go with your gut instinct – you’re probably right, even if people older and more experienced than you think you are wrong!”
Seizing the opportunity
Andy also had an inspiring entrepreneurial role model in his father, who always encouraged Andy and his sister to think about running businesses of their own. Andy’s also keen to encourage other people to give entrepreneurship a go: “If you’ve got an idea for a business but you don’t pursue it, you’ll always wonder ‘what if?’ Even if the venture isn’t a resounding success straight away, you will learn so much and meet so many amazing people along the way.”
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