A few weeks ago the Zure marketing team suggested that it would be a good idea to write a ‘First 100 days’ post about how Zure UK is doing. As I write these words, we’re nearly at 150 days since our public announcement and we’ve come a long way.
Going Public
The covers officially came off Zure UK as Sakari Nahi announced our existence during his keynote session at CloudBrew 2024. That event was supported by our colleagues in Belgium, and sessions were delivered by experts from Finland, Belgium, and the UK. It was also a great event for me, personally, as I introduced many of my friends in the technical community to my co-found, Riccardo, and we could unveil our new venture.
Early Milestones
We hit profitability sooner than expected. When Riccardo and I agreed to start Zure UK, our expectation was that it would take several weeks, if not a few months, to find our first customer. So it was amazing to have a successful partnership ready on day 1 that meant we had a paying customer right from the start.
We’ve grown more quickly than planned. Our intended growth in headcount was conservative both in terms of numbers and how long it would before we looked to hire. Instead, Riccardo finally joined full-time in February, followed by Pete in March and now Joe in April.
We are part of a successful and growing organisation. It’s great to have our sister companies within the Zure Group to provide support, advice, and talent. This means that we can provide our customers with great solutions to their business needs right from the start, drawing on the experience and expertise of our colleagues across Finland, Belgium, Denmark & The Netherlands.
Office Space
When we started Zure, Riccardo and I chose York for the location of our office. It’s about the same commute for each of us, and a wonderful and inspiring historic city. Riccardo drove the search for accommodation and really championed the place we chose because of its character. We started with a couple of desks in a shared space, then quickly added a dedicated office in the same building. Now, we are considering a larger space that can fit all of the current team and more besides.
Our office is important – we try to spend a day a week there with the whole team because building relationships is much easier in person. However, here in the UK the tech sector has made a clear shift to support remote working and that gives freedom and flexibility that is also important to us. Personally, I don’t see us ever being in the office full time, but I value having a space where we can collaborate more effectively in person should we want to.
Maintaining Focus
Zure is laser-focused on delivering solutions on the Microsoft Azure platform. In the UK we decided that as we started our own focus would be on three areas: AI, Integration, and Cloud Architecture and Governance. We chose these three areas because of own expertise, and the expertise across the organisation, filtered through the lens of market needs. Our projects to date have shown that was a good choice, since delivering effective use of AI demands good data and a solid cloud architecture to move, manage, and secure that data. Our team has experience across all three of those areas and we are actively supporting customers through our current projects.
Meeting Targets
As we near 150 days I am pleased with where we are. Our targets for headcount and expected turnover over were deliberately cautious because Riccardo and I needed to establish the company and make sure our processes were robust enough to support the team we want to build. Frankly, we knew we would need time to learn how to run a business on our own. Right now we are confident that we will meet our headcount target, and turnover looks good – as does profitability. We are building an organisation with a long future so we will make careful decisions in our first year – whilst it would be great to exceed those targets in year one, we would prefer solid foundations over rapid expansion and will act accordingly.
Engaging in the Community
It’s great that Zure UK can give me time to support the technical community through my speaking engagements and events like Global Azure. It’s not just me, though – we are committed to supporting any of our team in community activities, so expect to see more of us attending, speaking at, and supporting events.
Investing in People
I have always been proud when members of my team have left to find new challenges and develop their careers – those people have developed their skill in our team and can now take those learnings and share them with their new organisation. The fact that several of those former team members think enough of me that they want to work together at Zure is heartwarming. Well, let’s be honest – Riccardo thought enough of me to collaborate in this adventure, and Pete and Joe think enough of Riccardo to reach out as we started! Now I look forward to learning from all the experience they’ve gained since we last worked together.
What’s Next?
As I write this, we have new projects starting that will engage the whole team. Our focus is on ensuring that we have the right processes and tools so that our team can deliver those projects in a way that exceeds our customers’ expectations and helps us build relationships to support our continued growth.
We are also learning what it’s like to be part of the Zure Group of companies – supporting and being supported by our new colleagues; collaborating on projects with our colleagues in Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands and Finland; and enjoying the experience of being part of an international, successful, and dedicated team.
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