SubHub Case Study
News update: Angels and Finance Wales like the way SubHub makes the web make money
A combination of competitive operating costs, a vibrant business community, excellent accommodation and a switched-on public sector support package were the ingredients which brought website solutions company SubHub to Cardiff.
The company is the brainchild of ex-BT staffer Miles Galliford and New Yorker Evan Rudowski, who came to the UK to work for search engine Excite. The pair have known each other professionally for nearly a decade, and three years ago decided to put their shared knowledge of commercial online content development to use in the realm of DIY websites.
“The internet makes it possible to build content websites and reach a much more targeted audience than before,” said Evan. “This makes it particularly attractive to smaller companies and organisations which want to take advantage of the technology, but struggle to find their way around it. They know they can reach people in this way, and recognise they should be able to make money doing so, but the technical barriers are still quite daunting when it comes to actually doing it.
“So whilst it’s not so hard to publish material on the web these days, making money out of it is the difficult bit. And that was our vision – to offer a complete on-line package of all the skills and know-how web users didn’t have to enable them to set up a complete website from scratch which would make money for them.”
Their idea was to create a one-stop shop for successful, profit-making sites: design and layout, functionality, operation, payment methods, marketing and technical back-up.
Miles and Evan set the company up in 2005 in London, but recognised that they would have to relocate in order to develop the business successfully. They initially researched a number of locations in the USA and UK, but opted for Wales when the package of support and the sheer persistence of the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) team which went out of its way to convince them they would be welcome.
“It came down to dealing with the authorities in Wales and finding out what they could offer us, and there were some very persuasive plus points,” said Evan.
“They included grant support and the availability of the building we now operate from – the @Wales incubator centre here in Cardiff Bay. It’s a serviced office with business and technology support available to us, which is cost effective and takes a lot of the day to day niggles of running a business off us.
“The business community in Wales was another key factor in our decision to locate here. It’s small enough for you to get to know people, but big enough to deliver what you need in terms of local services. WAG have been very helpful in arranging introductions for us, and that is a shortcut which is a real advantage for us setting up in Wales.
“Costs are lower in Cardiff, and the workforce is here that we need. We were also impressed at the entrepreneurial and aggressive way WAG went about meting our needs. They worked hard to persuade us to come, which is more than many other regions of the UK - we really felt like they wanted us to come to Wales.”
Since the move to Cardiff Bay in 2006, the business has successfully built to the point where it has built 150 live websites for clients, some of whom are private individuals, and others companies and organisations. Revenue streams come from the initial set up of a website, and then from ongoing support.
SubHub practise what they preach and market themselves almost exclusively - and very cost effectively - over the web. They average 30,000 unique visitors to their website each month, a three-fold year-on-year increase.
Thinking is big. Miles’ and Evan’s team is working on the next generation platform for their product which they have christened “Brunel” in recognition of the 19th century engineer. It will make the process of setting up a site for SubHub clients even quicker and more efficient, which will bring the price down and in turn enable the company to achieve its goal – offering the service to huge numbers of customers paying small amounts.
“Our aim is to build and take the company to exit in the next few years,” said Evan. “We want tens of thousands of customers, and a service which is as automated as possible. With the abilities of the team we’ve been able to build, and the benefits of the economic environment here in Cardiff, that’s certainly achievable.”
