Insights from the 2011 Awards Season …
Given Mimecast’s fantastic growth I have been fortunate to attend a series of awards ceremonies over the past few weeks including the Growing Business Awards, Sunday Times Tech Track 100, UK Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and EMEA Fast 500 a few things have struck me:
- Regardless of the economic climate there is always opportunity for technology entrepreneurs to build businesses.
- Sometimes those businesses come into being because the economic climate meant change was necessary, because customers sought more efficiency: better, simpler, faster ways of doing business.
- A good idea can now come from anywhere on the planet and develop a global customer base rapidly, in some cases months, not years. From 15 year olds building apps in their bedrooms after school to seasoned Entrepreneurs taking businesses into the cloud and generating "break neck" growth rates. I've seen winners from Turkey to Finland stepping up to the podium to be recognised for achieving world-beating growth. The barriers are truly gone.
- The good ideas don't need to be complex, in fact all the winners over the past few weeks have provided simple, elegant services and products that didn't require lots of market education.
- Despite the judging criteria of these awards being credible and thorough, the judges still received thousands of strong entries… a powerful indicator of the a healthy tech sector
- The food is rich and fattening and I need to get to the gym.
I love the infographic we did recently to help visualise our growth.
