After leaving the military at the end of 2008, I started my career in the technology industry, where I quickly progressed and managed to land a role at a very cool startup, Just Eat. The fast-paced high-growth environment was like nothing I had experienced before and I grew significantly during my time there. Ambition took me on to a role at M&S, which I followed with a series of consulting engagements, all with larger organisations. I continued my growth as a technology leader but I realised something about working at Just Eat had ignited a spark inside, and I had the itch to build something myself. I really missed the fast pace and culture of high growth businesses. So I decided to start Little Big Tech, an IT company focused on working with young ambitious companies who could benefit from my experience, and were able to move quickly.
Tell me about the business - what it is, what it aims to achieve, who you work with, how you reach customers and so on?
Little Big Tech is an outsourced IT company, which I co-founded with Conrad Rodrigues, for companies too small to have an internal IT team, but need the technology support to operate. We specialise in scaling up businesses and love working with entrepreneurial business owners with big plans. Many of our customers have come through referral, or previous connections and others have come from networking with entrepreneurs.
How has the business evolved since its launch?
When Little Big Tech started in 2021, we knew plenty about technology and how to deliver solutions for customers, but very little about sales and marketing. So since then, we have tried and tested many ways of getting to meet the right people, as when we do, they usually want to work with us. We are getting better at this, but always looking to improve.
One of the marketing activities we’re working on is podcasting. I host the podcast - Little Big Vets on the company website, as I am part of a networking group for veteran entrepreneurs. The podcast covers interviews I have with veteran entrepreneurs about their journey from military life to running their own company. So far, it’s going well and we’re already on our second season.
We have also invested further in developing our team and internal systems to enable us to give the best service we can to our clients. Customer service and satisfaction are key to our growth plans. In 2023, we acquired another IT company and are in the process of integrating them into a new group structure. We are in the process of negotiating additional acquisitions for this year.
Tell us about the working culture at Little Big Tech.
We have a very open, high-trust culture in the company. Everyone is invested in the success of the company and each other. I pride myself with keeping the team aligned towards our goal of building a successful company, that is also a great place to work. I recently started an initiative where I go for a walk with team members just to chat for half an hour about what's going on with them. I’m genuinely interested to know how they are feeling, and gather any feedback they have on what they think is going well, and where we can improve. The team is loved by our customers, and it is important to me that every team member knows they are valued.
How are you funded?
The business was all self funded. We ended up investing more than we initially planned to get to where we are now. But it was well worth it, we have something great that is growing on a month-by-month basis and that’s what we wanted to see.
What has been your biggest challenge so far and how have you overcome this?
About a year into our business, we ended up losing our initial technical director, which was a real blow. He is a great guy and he just had personal commitments which meant he could not stay the course. It left us in a tight spot for a while. But we had made a great hire with our first engineer, and so dividing the work between him and myself we managed to cover the gap and keep everything moving forward.
How does Little Big Tech answer an unmet need?
There are many small IT companies available in the market, but there are very few with our background and experience. It is the growth-focused mindset combined with big company experience that has allowed me to lead a team of inspirational people to do what we do. We are solving technical problems for ambitious company owners, rather than just selling Microsoft licences and answering support calls.
What’s in store for the future?
The company continues to grow organically, but we will make further acquisitions. Our plan is not to smash them all together into one big IT company, but keep them all as boutique companies. There’s something really valuable I see in the very personal relationships, usually found with smaller IT companies and I want to keep that. However, at the same time, I believe we can still utilise and I plan to bring in the sophistication and resourcing of a larger company such as allowing providing access to high level experts across the group when needed.
What one piece of advice would you give other founders or future founders?
As you build your team, ensure the people you add buy into your vision of where you want to take the company because if they don't, they will hold you back. If you can’t articulate your vision of where you want the company to go, then work on that before you hire anyone.
And finally, a more personal question! What’s your daily routine and the rules you’re living by at the moment?
Most days, I drop my wife at the train station so she can go to work and I take the kids to school. When I get home, I enjoy my morning coffee whilst checking emails for anything urgent. I run the morning standup with the team to set the day’s focus and address any issues. Then the day will be split between meeting clients, suppliers, and working on projects.
Nick Haley is the founder of Little Big Tech.
