In the ‘Hot Seat’ with Martin Bysh, CEO of Huboo

This week, we interviewed Martin, the brilliant CEO of Huboo. It’s a super busy time of year for these guys, but Martin makes sure it’s fast, efficient and fun is his warehouse.

Find out what makes him tick and all about how relevant a business such as Huboo is today and for the future.

1. What’s your name and where do you come from?

Martin Bysh, Born in London, Living in Bath

2. Give us a quick overview of your company and what it does.

Global 1st mile mutli-channel fufilment for ecommerce clients of all sizes. We store, pick, pack and post, on behalf of sellers (via a mountain of software and systems).

3. What’s the next big idea that nobody is thinking about yet? Why is this so important?

Solving underemployment via automation. See Q12

4.  How do you define success for you / your company?

£1bn valuation at sale/float. I’ve never thought that about any other company I’ve founded, but the opportunity here is of that scale, and we have the perfect offer, so not achieving that would be failure.

5. What behaviour or personality trait do you most attribute to your ability to achieve what you have achieved so far?

Creativity and focus (If I’m allowed 2). Start-ups can be seen as a growing (or at least changing) collection of problems in need of solutions. As we’re not experts in everything, and because the problems with running a start-up span everything from a huge range of technical fields and specialisms to hard systems, people management and motivation, and a vast amount besides, you need to think yourself into spaces that aren’t really yours, or are entirely new, to find solutions, and then have the focus to ensure that the solution is implemented, ignoring the extraordinary informational noise a rapidly expanding business can create.

6. What’s your top idea to improve diversity in the workplace?

We hire the best because they are the best, and battle any personal or social preconceptions that might influence hiring, then we promote lots of internal upward mobility. I am firmly of the conviction that if you simply hire the best, you will end up with diversity, because the best are a naturally diverse bunch.

7. What was the most useful resource (networks/books/websites/blogs) you used when starting out? 

The single biggest resource was the hardest to come by, my network. When I started my first business 20 years ago I didn’t have one, but it was the kind of business that depended on timing and tech, and had no investment requirement, so I could get away with it. Huboo was designed to scale, and for this I’ve needed lots of help and advice. I hope I’ve demonstrated my gratitude for the people that have helped (and are helping) along the way.

8. What is the single most important thing you’ve done to increase the value of your business?

Via technology and devolution we’ve turned working in a warehouse (a job with an associated 40% monthly churn rate) into a fun, rewarding, job, where churn is a thing of the past.

9. What has been the hardest decision you’ve had to make in your entrepreneurial journey?

Occasionally having to fire hard working, decent, people, because despite their gifts in other areas they were not great at their specific jobs.

10. What will be the biggest change to how we lead our lives in 15 years? And what won’t have changed?

What won’t have changed is human nature, so the big question is how do we adjust to a future where technology removes “necessity” from our lives. What do we do when we don’t have to do much at all?

11. Tell us something we don’t know about you?

Though I eventually trod some of the usual path (e.g. University, etc.), I left school when I was 15 and programmed my first computer game in m68000 assembly language which was a No. 2 European Chart Hit.

12. If you could be offline for 3 days -where would you go and what would you do?

Right now, I’d go mad. It’s Xmas in a fulfilment company! But if somehow this were not so, I’d read a few of the books I keep buying (remembering a time when I had the time to read), but rarely read them, and take up some of the invitations from friends that I keep putting off.

Leah Martin
Marketing, Communications & Events Manager
Events and Marketing and Communications. Platform and network, supporting our portfolio companies with events, PR and community. I love cooking and entertaining for my family and friends, discovering the tastiest and best restaurants. Travelling and enjoying walking in nature.

MORE ARTICLES BY Leah

SUBSCRIBE

Our newsletter is only for the people that want to be seen. If you want to get all the latest tips, tricks, news and updates from Episode 1 then this is the newsletter to be subscribed to. See you in your inbox.

* indicates required

Marketing Permissions

Episode 1 will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing. Please confirm you are happy for us to contact you by email:

You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at info@episode1.com. We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our website. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Close


    0 / 1100 characters

      Are you raising £2million or less?

      YesNo

      Sorry we only invest in this stage, so please do not send us a deck if you do not meet this requirement.

      Are you a UK based business?

      YesNo

      Sorry, we only invest in UK business, please do not send us a deck if you're outside the UK.

      Are you B2B focused?

      YesNo

      Sorry, we only invest in B2B focused businesses, please do not send us a deck if this isn't you.

      Are you software focused?

      YesNo

      We only invest in software driven startups, please do not send us a deck if this is not you.

      Please send your pitch deck (max 10mb) to weseeyou@episode1.com and we'll come back to you!
      We appreciate your interest in working with us.

      Contact

      Contact us

      Our address

      4th floor, 112-116 New Oxford St, London WC1A 1HH