Base Bordon Innovation Centre has recently celebrated its 6th Anniversary. Pivale, a customer of the innovation centre, has been based there since it opened in 2017.
Pivale started in 2007. Barry Fisher, Director of Pivale, was a musician by trade and had keen interest in databases and online portals. A friend, who at the time was building websites for large music labels such as EMI, Virgin, Sony and Universal, had shown an interest in Barry’s work.
At that time, Barry recalled that YouTube was still new and that Sony Electronics Europe wanted to offer something similar. So, working with Sony, he adapted some software to work for them. Delighted by the results, Sony then introduced Barry to their management consultancy, who introduced Pivale to another client, Marks and Spencer, and it spiralled from there.
In the early days, Barry had initially called his company “Real Life Design”, as he wanted to communicate immediately that the product they were producing was real and functional. Now Pivale, the company continues to offer the same level of product, designing websites for e-commerce, multi-site projects, and business applications, with innovation and collaboration being key values.
Pivale currently have two office spaces at BASE, the second one acquired recently in order to make working with their expanding team more comfortable. They list the office facilities as well as the professional business support services delivered by Michael Gordeev, BASE’s Business Growth Manager, as highlights to the centre at present.
Talking to Barry, he mentioned that running your own business can come with some unique challenges, especially with regards to recruitment:
“I think historically it’s always been hard to find technical people of a certain standard that have the personal attributes I am looking for. I want to hire people that I’m happy to delegate to and who can speak confidently to clients.”
Barry goes on to say that, unlike other companies that may have Customer Success Managers or other such staff, Pivale choses to equip their team to work directly with the client – emphasising the personable and customer-oriented nature of the business.
Barry recognises the importance of maintaining a steady pipeline of clients and growing the business. Recently hiring a Business Development Manager into the team will help them achieve greater growth.
He’s also very proud of the rest of his team, including Darren Fisher, who joined Pivale a decade ago as a Digital Designer & Frontend Developer. Barry sites Darren as being pivotal to their ongoing success, allowing the company to excel in design as well as software development.
When speaking to Barry about his journey so far at Base Bordon Innovation Centre, covering over 6 years, Barry recalls being the first company to sign as a customer in the centre:
“We actually moved in just after another company, In-Space Missions. We got to know them and had various conversations in and around the centre, in the kitchen and out in the business lounge. They’ve ended up being a client of ours and we actually built a system that helps their clients communicate with their systems. The centre has been really useful for having those incidental conversations that you wouldn’t otherwise have and to help sort of build trust with other organisations that are around.”
He concluded: “I really like the building and the people – we get on with everyone. We’re always looked after really well, whether it’s the front of house staff, or the cleaning staff, who always keep our workspace immaculate, clean, and comfortable. The building, the people, and the environment are great, and it’s nice to be able to come away to work instead of working from home.”
Pivale currently occupy two office spaces at BASE, the second one acquired recently in order to accommodate their expanding team
The business support offered to all customers at the centre has proved to be a real benefit to Pivale. Working with Michael Gordeev, BASE’s Business Growth Manager, Michael said: “We’re here to help businesses thrive, and it can come down to creating an experience that gets founders out of the day-to-day and bringing an external unbiased perspective, so they can identify the levers to pull for maximum efficiency and commit to a plan of action. That’s exactly what we’ve done so far together with Pivale. I’m excited to see how quickly Barry and his team took the learnings on board and started implementing the road map I helped them create.”
For Pivale, the future looks bright as they continue to benefit from all that BASE Bordon has to offer, enabling them to grow their team and build a strong list of clients.
Find out more about Barry and Pivale at https://www.pivale.co/ ; for more information on BASE Bordon Innovation Centre, please visit https://www.basebordon.co.uk/ or call 01420 550980