Two successful entrepreneurs have shared their experiences of launching and selling two businesses inside 10 years for 拢50m+.
Damian Hanson and David Hague sold their first business聽One iota to Sanderson Group in 2013 for 拢5.43m and saw their second venture Mission Labs acquired by Gamma Communications in a deal worth up to 拢46m in March 2021.
The duo are preparing to open a new office in Manchester and double Mission Labs鈥� workforce to 200 and have spoken to TechBlast about their story so far.
A part of Hanson and Hague鈥檚 career education was spent working at 2ergo alongside the two founders Barry Sharples and Neale Graham.
The pair left in 2010 and eventually launched One iota together as their first startup.
鈥淲e know each other鈥檚 strengths and weaknesses,” Hague tells TechBlast. “Knowing what to leave to one and other is one of the reasons we鈥檝e been successful.
One iota took advantage of聽the shift聽from bricks and mortar retail to online shopping and rapidly started working with big brands like JD Sports, SuperDry and Footasylum.
Hague believes startups have to be agile. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to take those decisions quickly,” he says. “If you get them wrong you鈥檝e got to learn from them.
Before long they came to the attention of Sanderson Group and were bought soon afterwards.
Fast forward to March 2016 and Hanson and Hague joined forces again to launch Mission Labs.
鈥淭he mission was to challenge the traditional telecoms industry with a digital-led approach with in-house technology and our wholly owned products鈥� Hanson says.
鈥淭he challenge in telecoms was the legacy of cables, desk phones and clunky hardware moving to a cloud native approach. The aim was to remove some of these shackles.鈥�
Hague said the secret to growth is being clear about the value of your business as a tech company.
鈥淲e view ourselves as a technology business in the telecoms sector and we had to have our own technology,鈥� he says.
鈥淲e could not be reselling somebody else鈥檚 platform to try and make a margin. We had to have our own聽technology聽and聽our own IP.鈥�
Mission Labs launched two key products 鈥撀燙ircleLoop a cloud-based phone system聽for SMEs and SmartAgent a contact centre solution for enterprise customers.
鈥淚f your product is right and you鈥檝e researched the market right you鈥檒l attract customers,鈥� explains Hanson. 鈥淚鈥檓 pleased to say both our products attracted customers.
鈥淭he other important thing is you鈥檝e got to have a super talented team around you that is pulling the rope in the same direction.鈥�