Presenter: Gary Gould
Job title: Co-founder & CEO
Based in: London
Founded in: 2011
No. of Employees: 5
Gary Gould
With over 20 years’ experience in the technology and communications sector, Gary has held senior marketing and commercial leadership positions with a number of global brands including Cisco, BT, Verizon, Panduit and Virgin Media. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business, a Master’s Degree in International Marketing & Entrepreneurship.
Recent Milestones
- Achieved proof of revenue from vendor/channel partners who want to appear on the platform as part of their indirect or channel strategy.
- #1 rank on Google for Cloudware Services and Compare IT and Communication Services (now ahead of USwitch and MoneySupermarket).
- Exceeded vendor/channel partner recruitment target by reaching 120 commercial agreements including big name brands such as 123Reg, Sage, Box and 1&1.3)
- Recognised as Guardian Startup of Year
Upcoming Milestones
- Upcoming launch of our book ‘Small business and the cloud – what’s the big attraction of cloudware’
- Production of Cloud Convertors case study programme
- Migration to next generation CMS platform
- Activation of first traffic generation marketing programme
Background Profile
The idea of a comparison website for IT/communications was born in June 2010. Whilst a simple and contemporary concept, the range of services, ecosystem complexity and emerging shift to Cloud required significant experimentation with the platform and business models – with the full categories going live late in 2014.
Inside track
In June 2010 Compare Cloudware co-founder and CEO Gary Gould formed a Wednesday night computer club named ‘Project Webware’. By 2012 the decision was made to take the ideas developed in this informal forum and create the first prototype platform that would eventually drive Compare Cloudware.
Gould’s vision came from seeing first-hand the lack of options available to SMEs when trying to choose cloud providers for their businesses. He was struck by how poor the comparison options were for cloud compared to other technologies.
“It occurred to the founders that through comparison marketplaces, the IT industry had revolutionised the selling of insurance, flights, take-aways, houses and loans – but it hadn’t been applied to its own services,” he explains.
“Additionally, the smaller business was/is poorly served with traditional IT/comms resellers, retailers and telecom services providers – all pushing limited, pre-determined cloud solutions that competed against their traditional licensing models.”
The software developed apace and last year the finishing touches were applied to the young software. “Early in 2014, final modifications were made based on vendor and user feedback. The final stage of the pre-launch came in December 2014 with the launch of 9 cloudware categories – increasing the total to 18. This validated the second revenue stream of the business model and provided confidence to proceed,” he explains.
Recent Technology
Like Rightmove, Expedia and MoneySupermarket – Compare Cloudware’s innovation is in using current technology to disrupt traditional sales models and commercial channels. This proven and stable approach is used to address a fundamental shift in technology purchase and deployment – the move to cloud services.
Investors
- Currently 18 private investors
Contact details
Postal address: Suite LP26620, 20-22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU
Tel: (0)1245 790580
Email: ggould@comparecloudware.com
Website: comparecloudware.com