Lyndon Stickley, CEO, iplicit
It’s no coincidence that a business determined to become a tech unicorn has also been named one of the UK’s best companies to work for.
“As far as we’re concerned, the two go hand in hand,” says Lyndon Stickley, CEO of UK cloud accounting software provider, iplicit, which was launched in 2019 by a team that had spent decades implementing large-scale ERP systems.
“We wouldn’t have been able to build this hypergrowth business without the high-trust, remote-first culture that we have.”
It sought to solve a problem for two main audiences. Firstly, there were tens of thousands of organisations stuck with on-premises software that only functioned with the aid of multiple spreadsheets and an excessive amount of manual intervention. Secondly, some organisations had started with entry-level cloud systems but were rapidly outgrowing them.
Stickley sees iplicit as a disruptor, shaking up a Sage-dominated market in the same way Netflix turned the world upside down for Blockbuster.
The company was a relatively new startup with just 19 staff when Covid closed down much of the business world – and handed iplicit an unexpected advantage.
“At first, we wondered how we would survive. Then we realised we had an incredible opportunity to thrive,” says Stickley.
“Previously, people had expected sales presentations to take place in person, while deploying our software typically meant spending 15-20 days on a customer’s site. Now, people expected everything to happen remotely.”
Lockdown also enabled iplicit to become a new kind of employer, finding talent all over the country. Around 95% of employees work remotely, the only exceptions being the Dorset-based customer support staff and the marketing team.
“We realised we could build an organisation centred entirely around the talent, hiring from Edinburgh to Exeter and internationally,” says Stickley.
“We allow the talent to be wherever they want to be and work the hours they want. It’s the secret sauce for a motivated team that can be scaled internationally.”
Funded by £18.5m in private investment to date, iplicit has grown by more than 100% annually since 2019 and is on course to do so for a sixth consecutive year. It has more than 30,000 daily users and is structured to scale twentyfold in the next seven years.
It was 18th among UK companies on the 2024 FT1000 list of Europe’s fastest-growing businesses. Weeks later, it was awarded Top 10 medium-sized employer on the Sunday Times Best Places to Work.
Stickley says the remote-first working model has been vital to its success.
“Our 120-plus staff are mainly experienced people who appreciate not having to commute and not being micromanaged,” he says.
“We don’t especially concern ourselves with what someone is doing at 11 o’clock on Tuesday morning; we focus on what’s been achieved by Friday night.
“We run on ‘North Stars’ that cascade down to each department and then to every individual. Everyone has a clear understanding of our Purpose, Vision and Mission, and how their contribution can help achieve our goals.”
Staff come together in the summer and at Christmas for a performance update against the North Stars, followed by team activities and a social event. In between, there are regional socials and departmental bootcamps in autumn and spring.
“We focus our in-person time on four things – Purpose, Vision, Mission and Fun – the lifeblood of the company,” says Stickley.
“We’ve actually put more focus on staff happiness, morale and communication in our remote-first organisation than most office-based businesses do. We obsess about these things because we know they need focused attention in a distributed workforce, whereas when most staff are based in an office, there’s a danger of taking these things for granted.”
Stickley is preparing the business to “cross the chasm” – the phase where new systems, personnel and processes are needed to support the next leap in growth. The current rate of expansion would not be sustainable through direct sales alone, so iplicit is already pivoting to partnerships with an increasing number of accountancy firms and IT resellers.
He has been on similar journeys before, growing six other businesses, from telecom software to a creative agency, digital asset management, oil and gas pipeline maintenance, even building London’s largest cemetery for 200 years. He has taken them from startups to over 450 staff in the largest instance, with the largest disposal being over £100m.
“This is the first venture I’ve been involved with where there’s no expectation of selling it,” he adds. “We expect iplicit to be an emerging and dominant brand for decades to come.”
