For some reason, Mobile Interactive Group (MIG), the company that claimed the top spot, just ahead of Lovefilm, in last year’s Tech Track 100, hasn’t had as much media coverage as the runner up, even if Barry Houlihan, one of its founders, did claim a place in our Young Guns list in 2006.
A timely reminder of the enterprising opportunities that can emerge from redundancy, MIG was formed by three former employees of O2. When the interactive services division they were working in was downsized, the trio set up MIG with a £125,000 loan from the DTI and £250,000 from business angels.
Houlihan has described pacing the company’s growth as “like holding onto a wild horse”, with last year’s turnover of £35.9m up 422% a year, from £252,000 in 2005.
Its core business has revolved around handling volume SMS services – its first major project involved developing O2’s text-based competition for 150,000 free tickets to the Live 8 concert in 2005, for which 2.1m text-message entries were received in seven days.
The campaign raised £3m for Live 8 and since winners picked up tickets from O2 outlets, footfall was increased for the mobile giant.
No surprise that O2 remains a major customer then. MIG also runs the text voting for The X-Factor, and other clients include ITV, Five, Walkers Crisps, Sony BMG, MTV and Honda, with other services including billing websites for mobiles and marketing.
Not that Houlihan has been afraid of diversifying. MIG already encompassed 4th Screen, a mobile phone advertising agency, New Toy, an ‘experiential design’ firm for mobile content at live events and Jigsaw, a web design agency.
I went to speak to Houlihan at the company’s Waterloo base last week, and he told me that the expansion and diversification continues apace, with the launch of mobile publishing business Kilrush, which will help firms translate their website into a mobile-optimised form, and the announcement of a new group structure.
The next issue of GB, out on June 12, will include a feature on MIGs aggressive expansion, in which Houlihan explains the prescient timing of Kilrush; it might not be the first business to offer mobile-optimised site building, application development and widgets, but with the success of the iPhone accelerating the growth of the mobile internet market, it does fill a gap in the group and links its businesses up well for the future.
Speaking of fast-growth businesses formed from the ashes of redundancy, tonight I’ll be joining King of Shaves founder and this year’s FGBA winner Will King on the panel of a webinar run by our sister site, Startups.co.uk.
King founded the shaving products business in the early 90s after losing his position at a marketing firm. After early successes with shaving oils, it’s now a £61m turnover company that has even stolen significant market share from Gillette and Wilkinson Sword in the notoriously competitive razor market following last year’s launch of its Azor, the first British-made razor for more than 100 years.
As such, his thoughts on getting and keeping new business, the webinar’s theme, could prove useful. We’ll be on air at 7pm tonight – do tune in if you get the opportunity.
