A decade of dedication: 10-year anniversary for Infigo’s fabulous four
Despite Infigo only being nearly 14 years old itself, we are delighted to congratulate Head of Customer Success, Greg Young, Technical Operations Director, Alex Bowell, Accounts Manager, Rebecca Mayne and Junior Designer, Rebecca Bray (AKA Little Bex), for hitting their 10-year anniversary.
We sat down with them to discuss the changes they’ve seen, and all the highs and lows, over the last decade of being a member of the Infigo family.
Family connections, word of mouth and an unexpected interview
When the foursome first joined the team, it’s fair to say that they all had very different entry routes. Little Bex heard about a potential job opening through family, while Rebecca saw an advert on social media and Alex heard of an opening through the web development grapevine.
Greg, however, was one of Infigo’s early customers.
He said: “I had been working with Infigo on a custom project for my then employer, The Printed Word, for one of our clients. As part of the project, I actually worked in the Infigo offices one day a week as it was easier during the implementation stage. This meant that I got to know the team pretty well.”
“We then had a second custom project which I was working on directly with Douglas (Gibson, Infigo’s CEO & Founder) and on the final meeting post-project, Douglas just said ‘Fancy working in the office every week?’.
“I didn’t get his question at first, but after following me to the car park and a quick handshake, it would appear I had just finished my interview!”
A decade of big changes
So, how much has the company changed since it started, and how have their respective roles evolved in that time? Alex said that the biggest change has been seeing the company evolve from a tireless start-up, to a well-respected SME.
He says: “When I first started, the office was a small room, no bigger than my living room at home, with a handful of people in it – I had come from working in the city in a huge office block with hundreds of staff and thinking ‘oh dear, what have I done?’, but then seeing the business grow – not just in the number of staff, but maturing in its processes, systems, the product we offer, has been amazing.
“What we have managed to achieve over the last decade has been incredible. Although, it could and should have been much more, which is what continues to drive me and my ambitions for the business in the future.”
Career progression
Little Bex has perhaps seen the biggest leap in terms of progressing across the company.
“I feel like I have come a long way, from an office assistant to a graphic designer.”
She said: “Learning the ins and outs of design work without training was a bit tricky, but thanks to the patience of previous graphic designers, I feel like I have come a long way, starting from an office assistant to a graphic designer.
“And I’ve seen the company rebrand more than once.
It’s amazing to see how technology has developed in that that time and with Infigo delivering updates and new products.”
Rebecca Mayne says: “The biggest change in Infigo has been the scale and growth of the company.
Customers, team, product, opportunity, everything going global! It’s quite incredible looking back to how it started to where we are now!”
Driving Infigo through lockdown
One of the more obvious challenges the Infigo team has faced in recent years was adapting to lockdown. For a short period, Greg represented 50% of the workforce.
He said: “For the first 4 weeks, we furloughed the entire team of full-time staff other than Douglas and I. Douglas concentrated on sales and obvious business decisions whilst I ran the support, success and onboarding operation.
“The sigh of relief when I eventually convinced the management team that I needed another pair of hands to help with some training – and thankfully both Ben Mitchell and Duncan Rouart came back. Slowly but surely the team all returned, and some kind of normality resumed!
Bex says: “The Lockdown was another big change as that meant that we had to start working from home which meant not see my team / work with them on tasks as before. But again, Infigo has stayed strong though that time and continues too.”
Alex, however, recalls the many challenges over the years, as most small businesses do, saying “I think one of the most continuous challenges has been the drive to maintain our identity and values as the business has grown, keeping the team focused and motivated in making Infigo THE BEST.”
Good times outweigh the bad
Despite the challenges of lockdown and the normal pressures of working within a fast-growing company, our 10-year stretchers wouldn’t change it for the world. And there are plenty of stories to tell.
Bex says: “I remember the sales team wrapping another departments desk (screens, mugs, speakers, pens.. everything) in clingfilm as they went away for lunch – even the office chairs weren’t safe!”
Mayne says: “One of my favourite memories was us surprising Doug one Christmas. We had a large present boxed up and our Chief Technology Officer, who we had flown over as a surprise for the Christmas party.”
Alex said: “We’ve had so many good times over the years, from Weddings in Moldova, Germany and the UK, Christmas parties, Leg waxing for charity, to team building events, such as escape rooms and go karting! All with an amazing bunch of people – and that is something that HASN’T changed in the 10 years I have been at Infigo. The people have always been amazing.”
When we asked Greg to share some of his previous stories, however, we were advised that they “might not be suitable, pre-watershed!”.
In it for the long haul?
Infigo is always on the hunt for bright young stars, and as we have explained above, we go to great lengths to look after our team.
Not only have we been certified as a Great Place To Work (90% of employees at Infigo say it is a great place to work, compared to 54% of employees at a typical UK based company) but we have also been recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Wellbeing, one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ in Tech and one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Women.
So, keep an eye on our careers page to join a company you’d want to spend a decade with.
