The prosperity of new business ventures hinges on the timing of their leaders' strategic execution. Dan Kitchen (pictured), the CEO of Razorblue, is a prime example of what youth, technical skills, and entrepreneurial spirit can achieve.
In 2006, Kitchen embarked on his entrepreneurial journey when he was just 17, leaving college to establish Razorblue and address an unmet need in the market. As a tech-savvy teenager, he envisaged Razorblue as a one-stop-shop, delivering a full spectrum of services – from cloud solutions and connectivity to applications and unified communications.
“When I was 17 and at college, I had already set up Razorblue initially to do alongside my studies. At the time, we mainly offered web hosting services, which was basically the cloud before the cloud existed. Then naturally, the company got into consulting and delivering managed IT services, which is where I found my passion.”
Kitchen then strategically consolidated Razorblue’s operations in early 2010, sparking growth in both clientele and team size, marking the start of its expansion journey. Fast-forward to today, Kitchen's steadfast leadership and astute strategies have driven Razorblue's steady growth, boosting its annual turnover to £39.9 million and growing its team to 180 devoted employees.
And yet, despite surpassing his original visions, Kitchen is confident there's still more room for growth.
"I never had a vision in mind of how big I wanted the business to grow. We have probably gone further than I ever envisaged, but there is still plenty more to do,” he says. “We have made two prior acquisitions, with more on the horizon. These will always be good businesses that match with our ethos and typically offer some of the same services that we do.”
People and culture
Though acquisitions have been instrumental in driving Razorblue’s growth, Kitchen underscores that the roles of 'people' and a 'positive culture' have been equally critical contributors.
Looking back on his early twenties, when he began to be responsible for the people he brought into the company and their livelihood, Kitchen had to quickly garner substantial insights about leadership to help drive his business forward.
He said this pivotal period shaped his approach to hiring, focusing not just on skills, but also on the right attitude and mindset. He contends that those with these qualities have played a crucial role in the company's expansion.
“Our team has a shared vision to go above and beyond – and that’s what makes working with us a good experience. Employing the right people is essential, and as a tech company we are obviously looking for highly skilled people, but there needs to be a can-do attitude, motivation, and an acceptance that everyone’s opinion counts.
“We have an amazing team full of explorers asking, “How do we get there”…“How do we do that”… “How do we develop the technology we need”, and this attributes a lot to our growth.”
He articulated his strategy of motivating every team member to spearhead their own problem-solving approach to daily hurdles. He believes an environment with wholly empowered employees triggers insightful decision-making and expeditious problem-solving – a work culture he has always aspired to create.
“Rather than being a part of every decision, I encourage staff to make their own decisions and to focus on their own strategies on how they want their departments to look and what they want to achieve in line with the overarching business goals set by myself and the board.
“I have always wanted Razorblue to be a team, rather than a business so I place huge importance on teaching and explaining things as I go along to make sure we bring out the very best in every member of staff.”
AI and cybersecurity
Kitchen recognises the importance of a strong organisational culture for success but also sees the need to invest in evolving technologies like AI to maintain the company's growth.
“We are already experimenting with AI and have built our own case-triage model that is in the testing phases,” he says.
He conveyed that the company aims to 'assist clients in automating processes' and 'empowering their staff to reach peak efficiency,' factors he considers crucial in today's world.
“We are investing in our own AI team to not only leverage its capabilities to benefit our business, but to offer this as a service to clients.”
He also highlights that the rising popularity of cybersecurity is another area where the company is also keen to enhance its proficiency. He said cybersecurity is experiencing a tremendous surge. Businesses are increasingly investing in it as they comprehend that it's no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
“We are investing heavily in our cybersecurity services and team; we are in the process of developing products to offer Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials+ as a service to our clients.
“In addition to this, we are going to continue developing our internal teams. There is a huge skills shortage which everyone in this industry is affected by, so we plan to invest a further £100k over the next year to develop our teams.
“Having launched our own in-house SOC, we are continually developing our security offering to include more products and see that we will continue to hire experts in this field as the adoption of stronger cyber security solutions grows. We have recently hired a dedicated Learning & Development Manager to further drive this strategy.”
Insights for scalable growth
However, given the intensified competition in the market, MSPs can't bank solely on these investments. He pauses for a moment, contemplating other areas service providers could potentially explore to fuel their own expansion.
Emphasising the essence of utilising effective partnerships, he says: “Client relationship management and positioning as a partner is one of the most important parts of success.”
Amidst a rapidly evolving market, he also suggests: “Effort must be made to attend events, workshops, etc – or you will be left behind.”
He also points out leveraging a commonly overlooked source of insights: competitors. “This is actually a very useful way to glean what is going on in the market and overcome key challenges by sharing thoughts with each other.”
