Stephen Horton, senior executive in the Succession and Tax team at THRINGS meets David Kelly, CEO of STORM CONSULTANCY
Stephen Horton: Can you tell us about Storm? What does it do?
David Kelly: Storm creates websites, web apps and platforms for fledgling start-ups, flourishing scale-ups and restless corporate innovators. I like to think we create web-based solutions to unsolved problems.
SH: What is the lifecycle of a Storm project?
DK: Well, we are probably unusual in that we don’t simply create the web-based programme for an idea. We start at the beginning and look carefully at the business feasibility of a project – will it work? Is it sustainable? It would be a waste of our clients’ time and money for us to go away and build something that ultimately isn’t going to fly. So, our focus is on ensuring that an idea can become commercially viable.
SH: How did Storm start?
DK: Adam (Pope – chief tech officer) and I were at playgroup together, as well as at the same schools and university, and we were destined to be in investment banking. But we both decided to have a go at building a business which we would enjoy more than anything else. After dabbling quite successfully in software at uni, we made the leap and Storm was born.
SH: There are many digital agencies out there. What makes Storm different?
DK: Definitely our culture and our people; we always wanted to work with people we liked and who shared our values. That may sound naively idealistic, but we have continued with this ethos throughout the growth of Storm.
SH: Storm has engaged in some very exciting joint ventures – can you tell us about those?
DK: At Storm, we believe in the power of collaboration. We like to jump at opportunities for working with innovative projects that can ultimately have a profound affect on our communities. One such joint venture is with CiteAb from the University of Bath – together we have been able to create a world-leading market data provider for the life science sector, and it has saved the sector over $1bn a year.
SH: And then there is Co-Forest – that sounds interesting…
DK: This was born from a desire to offset our entire 10-year carbon legacy. We created a not-for-profit company, roped in dozens of businesses in the Bath and Bristol area and bought a large area of land where we planted 10,000 trees. We are proud to have brought together so many people to do something so awesome.
SH: So, what’s next for Storm?
DK: We are incredibly proud to have been awarded a Queen’s Award for Innovation and, at the same time, to have been certified as a B Corp company. So, although we are looking at further growth, as well as bringing in new, exciting talent and engaging in more joint ventures, we want to continue to do so in a way that reflects our culture and values.
If you like to know more about any issues raised in this article please contact Stephen Horton.