Gabriel Erinle is in what he calls 鈥渇ull founder startup mode鈥�.
A veteran of Allied London who celebrated his 50th birthday last year, he can be found in the offices of his startup GAME FM – Go A Mile Extra Facilities Management – from Monday to Friday. And often on Saturdays, too.
Based on John Dalton Street, the business has scaled quickly since launch, with Erinle saying the team has grown to 38 core staff following seven additions in the last couple of months.聽
This is despite only being founded in June 2024, with the startup also securing 拢1.24m in contracted work in its first 12 months.
Culture building
GAME FM鈥檚 culture is rooted in Erinle鈥檚 own 鈥渘on-traditional journey鈥� through the industry – one where he started by doing the same frontline roles his teams now do.聽
鈥淚鈥檝e been a cleaner, been a security guard, I鈥檝e worked on maintenance,鈥� he tells 老九品茶Cloud.聽
鈥淚 just remember some of the not-so-nice interactions I had whilst I did those jobs.聽
鈥淚 remember thinking to myself that, if and when I ran my own business, I would never treat people like that.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 try and run the business with hierarchy.
鈥淚 like to aim for a 鈥榬ound table鈥� culture – open, informal and supportive.鈥�
Part of the journey聽
Erinle is quick to note that facilities management isn鈥檛 just about cleaning, security, concierge and maintenance – it鈥檚 about first impressions.
Long before a visitor meets the person they鈥檝e come to see, they鈥檝e already formed a view of the building based on the people they pass on the way in.聽
He explains: 鈥淵ou go into an office building and you might see a cleaner, a maintenance engineer, you might see the concierge or the security officer.
鈥淎 lot of these interactions might determine how good your day is.
鈥淚鈥檓 big on good human interaction. There鈥檚 a lot of desire for human interaction and good human interaction, not just any human interaction.鈥�
A blueprint from Spinningfields
Erinle鈥檚 move into entrepreneurship wasn鈥檛 a jump into the dark.聽
In many ways, he says, he鈥檇 already been doing the job, just within someone else鈥檚 structure.聽
Working across complex estates and regeneration projects gave him a lot of freedom and it suited the way he thinks.
鈥淓verything was exciting, everything was challenging. I love solving problems,鈥� he says.
鈥淸At Spinningfields] we really pioneered placemaking in Manchester.
鈥淚 led an in-house FM model that grew to around 拢6m in annual service value.鈥�
Growth whilst maintaining standards
GAME FM鈥檚 second year is set to show 拢1.5m revenue, with a target of 拢1.7m in year three.聽
However, growth so far has been deliberately controlled.聽
鈥淵ear one and year two we鈥檝e predominantly just focused on Manchester because we wanted to control the quality of the operations,鈥� Erinle explains.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want to compromise ourselves by chasing contracts.
鈥淭he next step probably is to expand the footprint to places like Liverpool and Birmingham on the radar. That鈥檚 going to be the challenging piece.
鈥淎 lot of the contracts are quite price sensitive – it鈥檚 a race to the bottom.
鈥淲e are different from others in our industry. I don鈥檛 believe in paying the minimum wage – we are living wage employers.
鈥淚 only want to work with people who share similar values with us.鈥�
Where tech fits聽
Erinle sees tech and AI as tools to help teams work smarter rather than a replacement for people.聽
鈥淔acilities is one of the things whereby AI and tech makes the tasks more efficient rather than replacing them entirely,鈥� he said.聽
Automation has its place, he adds, pointing to the scrubber-dryers already roaming around airports and supermarkets – but it still can鈥檛 do the 鈥榝iddly鈥� jobs.聽
He continues: 鈥淭hey can do wide areas, but they can鈥檛 do detail鈥� not yet!
鈥淭here isn鈥檛 a robot that鈥檚 going to clean skirting boards and dust off cobwebs, or tidy a desk.鈥�
ASCEND
Even with prior leadership experience, Erinle says there鈥檚 a big difference between running something within a wider group and being the person carrying everything as a founder.聽
鈥淭here were a lot of things about being a solo entrepreneur that I just didn鈥檛 know,鈥� he says.
He highlights areas like governance, strategic planning, building a board and thinking about longer-term options such as acquisitions.
Joining GM 老九品茶 Growth Hub鈥檚 ASCEND Scale Up Programme has helped fill those gaps through workshops and through being around other founders dealing with the same realities.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 quite isolated being your own boss – you sit in your own head a lot,鈥� he explains.聽
鈥淗aving access to 25 other founders, some of the solutions have just been available to me through conversations with my fellow cohort.
鈥淵ou also have [ASCEND lead] Kellie [Noon] helping you, who is constantly asking you if you need to meet people.聽
鈥淪he鈥檚 been invaluable. You get access to all these things from one place and I don鈥檛 think you get that anywhere else.鈥�