How we transitioned from an agency to a product company close

The picture accompanying this post was taken in about 2006 when we had just moved into our second office. We were all excited about the future and the possibilities that lay ahead of us as the agency was growing from strength to strength. But as we headed into 2014, the three of us (Mark, Luke and me), were having an honest heart to heart about where we saw our futures.

Our initial enthusiasm for the cut and thrust and variety that agency delivered had been eclipsed by the positive signals we'd had around the launch of some of our side projects, such as a series of mobile apps that had had several million downloads as well as some of the joint ventures we had started, such as Tepilo.

We all agreed that we wanted to become a company that built our own products, rather than servicing clients, but we couldn't quite agree how to get there. How long would it take, how much would it cost and whether it was even possible.

In the end, we were able to move all of our agency work into our Thin Martian business and subsequently sell it to the Konekt Group. We were also able to raise funding for our very exciting and fast-growing SaaS business, ScreenCloud, which is where all of our energy and focus is going today.

I've written at length about what happened here. After publishing that article I realised I'd touched a chord. It was shared by a number of people I didn't know and ultimately handpicked by Medium in the 'entrepreneur' section. I've also been asked to speak at an event for agency leaders. Clearly, lots of people either going through or considering going through what we have experienced.

I'm always happy to talk about our journey, so please do get in touch if you think I can help.