Start up to £mm sale in 7 years - Alistair Maiden, Founder of SYKE

Leeds Business Podcast

In this week’s episode we talk to Alistair Maiden, founder of legal tech company, Syke.

Hear business tales and learnings from the legendary Ken Morrison, Alistair’s eureka moment for the business, how the business grew to an eventual multi-million pound sale in the US plus the hard changes that needed to take place after sale.

Plus, what’s it like buying an abattoir?

INTRODUCING ALISTAIR MAIDEN

Alistair began his career as a lawyer, practising commercial and technology law for several years. Whilst Head of Contracts and the Data Protection Officer for ASDA, Alistair designed and implemented a digital contracting tool which reduced the average contract cycle from 17 days to just 5 days.

In 2016, Alistair founded SYKE, with the mission to transform the legal industry by bridging the gap between legal teams and emerging legal tech. Under his leadership, SYKE has become a leading legal tech consultancy.

Allistair has spoken at a variety of international events and won the Legal Technologist of the Year award at the 2019 FT Intelligent Business Awards.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

[00:00:30] Introducing Syke

[00:01:30] Alistair Maiden’s early career

[00:04:00] Learning business lessons from Sir Ken Morrison

[00:10:00] The lasting influence of ASDA’s culture and being part of Walmart

[00:14:00] The birth of the idea of Syke

[00:21:00] Taking the idea live

[00:24:20] Growing into a ‘proper’ business

[00:27:00] A new partnership arrives

[00:34:00] The people who got you here won’t be the people to take you there

[00:40:00] The sale of the business and culture change issues

[00:46:00] Start up entrepreneur or big company executive

KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS

• You get respect from your team by being in the detail

• There’s no reason why you can’t work globally

• You have to have the right attitude and make yourself ‘useful’

• Most partnerships, whilst looking good, don’t work

• You must think of your business as a team not a family

• Feathers will be rustled but you should assume good intentions

BEST MOMENTS

“Ken Morrison used to walk round the office leaving post-it notes on people’s PC”

“Asda has a very unique and distinct culture. Loads of people from there are now running their own businesses”

“We reduced the average contract cycle from 70 days to 5 days”

“I spoke at the Law Society expecting 10 or 15 people, and there were 100s there”

“I gave a 20 minute presentation and there was a hour of questions”

“I had the passion but no plan…”

VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU

Relevant links from the show, recommended Leeds business

Website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com

Website: https://syke.tech/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistair-maiden-global-advisory-lead-consilio-syke/

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ABOUT YOUR HOST

Phil Fraser went from an accidental kitchen table start up, with no investment, all the way to multi-million pound sale to a PLC 18 years later. He’s travelled the full SME business journey of launch, growth, scale and exit.

As well as hosting the Leeds Business Podcast, Phil now works with ambitious SME-owners as a Business Sounding Board (think somewhere between Business Coach and Business Mentor). In simple terms, he’s ‘a pair of ears and an extra pair eyes’ for SME Owners helping them to be better at what they do. Phil’s mantra is It doesn’t need to be ‘lonely at the top’. He helps Business Owners to be better business owners, by helping with their clarity and focus.

As a Business Sounding Board, he gives SME Owners the time & space to regularly discuss their challenges and opportunities, with no sense of judgement or bias, and in complete confidence. This allows them to explore their options in full, culminating with a list of issues to address/clarify, a clear target in mind, a roadmap to success, and a renewed enthusiasm and confidence for the challenges ahead.

Phil has appeared as a guest on over 60 podcasts, webinars and interviews, from around the whole globe, talking on a variety of business subjects. You can view them all at https://philfraser.co.uk/watch-hear-phil/.

LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST

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