I moved to London in 2019 with a single but solid objective; support businesses that aim to thrive in the global arena. With great access to resources, tech and talent all mixed together, London has always been a fantastic place to do business, and I have been experiencing that from the first hand.
I've started my journey by consulting a couple of B2B businesses with my company Flam Digital. This was a great learning experience, as one was based in the Netherlands and the other in the UK, both with ambitious growth plans and practices in place to be offered to a wide, global audience. Although we did quite a bit of heavy lifting together, I also had the time to do what matters the most; growing my company Flam Digital through networking in the London business and tech scene.
As I started putting Flam Digital out there, it started getting attention and receiving requests even before the end of month 6.
As I moved along my journey throughout 2019, participating at events (remember this was pre-Covid19 days) and meeting new people; I have witnessed the awareness of my company increasing day by day. The more I put Flam Digital out there, the more attention it started getting. I was receiving a good load of requests, creating opportunities even before the end of month 6.
Although its fame brings much controversy nowadays; WeWork is actually a great place to meet new potential clients and partners. I regularly visited various WeWorks across London, joined 20+ meetups, met more than 1000 individuals through these events, all within the startup and tech-space.
This does not mean I overlooked or ignored other channels of growth. I utilised online advertising through social and Google so that whenever someone searches for a service that I offered, they could come across Flam Digital. I did email campaigns, posted on forums, answered questions on Reddit and Quora, which is a free growth-hacking tactic that all startup businesses should use.
Although being there in person, on the ground, helped a lot. One thing that many people tend to forget is; there is always a group of people behind every corporation, regardless of its size or format, and at the end of the day, we all do business with other human beings. When it comes to growing relationships, I have always prioritised being personal, honest and natural, whether with my persona or with my achievements, and others wanted to work with 'me' before anything else.
Engaging with people and content that matters for your business, showing your face at events are incredibly important for any business. Therefore allow me to quickly mention a few highlights of this discovery journey through some of the events that I participated:
I participated at the Partner Summit EMEA event hosted by Facebook (now Meta) back in September 2019. It was a great event in terms of meeting other founders, discussing trends within our industry and seeing new innovation from Facebook, first hand.
Another event I participated was hosted by Facebook again; #boostwithfacebook which was more focused on biddable/paid media activities, and how businesses can utilise new product offers.
Quirk's Event is focused on Marketing Research and Consumer Insights. It is gaining popularity with more agile/tech based market research companies taking part, showcasing new products around quantitative or qualitative focused consumer research or UI/UX research. This year it will take place on 4-5 May 2022, at the InterContinental London – The O2. You can find more information about it here: https://www.thequirksevent.com/london-2022/
I often come across startups overlooking this area, not paying enough attention to shaping their product/services with what their target consumer group actually want. When it comes to shaping business strategy or designing products, it's literally the most important thing to start from consumer understanding and then shaping everything from communication to product offers using concept testing (or innovation testing) practices.
Not too differently, another event focused on consumer insights; IIEX (hosted by Greenbook) in Amsterdam, was incredibly eye-opening to see how corporate brands like Vodafone, L'Oreal or Beiersdorf innovates. I had the chance to take part in case study sessions where they walked the audience through their business challenge, approach to solution and the business outcome of the study.
Consumer expectations, and preferences are changing fast, markets are fragmenting, and companies need to understand their customers better and faster to stay competitive.
Nowadays, even big brands aim to embrace agile practices with the objective of innovating at high-speed. No corporation can afford to lose any market share, or stay behind the competition. If there is one thing Covid-19 taught to the marketing industry is that consumer expectations, and preferences are changing fast, markets are fragmenting, and companies need to understand their customers better and faster to stay competitive.
Keep in mind big corporate brands have massive resources; both human capital and funding however they don't have the thing that startups have; the 'need to survive' approach. Startups can remove the barriers of bureaucracy, test & fail much quicker, and be laser-focused with their products within their target market.
Throughout the lockdown, events were not as they used to be. Although many switched to online, I was personally looking forward to going back to in-person events.
Web Summit 2021 took place in Lisbon, Portugal in early November. Although I was looking forward to participate for many years, it was a first time for me. I was there for a total of 4 days, from the first opening night (Monday, 1st November) until the final day (Thursday, 4th Nov).
You would have a full day of amazing speakers on various stages, whereas at the same time there would be panels, workshops, then what's even better is the 'Night Summit'; that is what happens during the evening across various parts of Lisbon. You get to attend cocktails, parties, and meet other founders or startup crowds, to discuss matters of tech/funding/marketing etc.
There are still some other meetups/events to talk about (and happy to chat if you're interested) however I'm aiming to keep this post short; as I'm almost at the end of the 3rd financial year of Flam Digital, I wanted to take a look back and share some of the highlights of the business:
I've had the chance to work with 12 great customers (across 5 countries), over more than 100 projects. These projects included HubSpot CRM integrations, growth marketing trainings, strategy workshops, pitch deck preparations, content productions, and many more that falls under our line of services.
We have seen steady growth since day 1, but to give you some numbers, we have grown by 54% through the pandemic, almost doubling our revenue compared to last year.
We're aiming to keep this momentum, and have bigger and better plans for the next 5 years to come. This is only the beginning for Flam Digital!
I'd like to thank you if you have scrolled down this far. Now allow me to also share some personal highlights from the last 3 years :)
This was the first haircut I had had at home (from my better half) and the first brownie I baked (we have all been there, I know).
This was the 1st snow in London back in Feb 2021. I took the photo near our flat in Maida Vale.
This was the 1st road trip (with an actual car!!) post-lockdown, around June 2021, with our friends.
and lastly, but most importantly, we purchased our first home in London (or anywhere else to be fair) which was a major milestone for me and my wife.
Thank you, London. Now what's next?
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