In Digital celebrates its fifth birthday

The sun shone brilliantly all day on Neal Street, defying the ‘wash out’ British summer headlines so we were off to a great start. We unveiled our new Parisian garden furniture just in time for the festivities, expertly assembled by our fantastic new executive assistant, Fern, (all with a refreshing white wine spritzer in hand of course) and we strung up an inordinate amount of blue and yellow balloons.

But that’s not all…

Our terrace got a makeover with a fresh coat of paint and waterproofing, we hired a live sax player, spread out an impressive selection of delicious nibbles and invited all our friends for a massive house party. The pièce de résistance? A bespoke cocktail menu featuring drinks like ‘Neal Street Negronis,’ ‘Data Daiquiris,’ and ‘Analytics Spritz,’ expertly shaken by our hired bartenders. Sound fun? That’s because it was!

“We were so excited to have so many past and present clients, colleagues, friends, and partners all together! It was amazing to have everybody who made this whole five-year journey possible celebrating with us. It’s been quite a journey!” Ollie Norman, our co-CEO said.

It’s not as easy as it sounds though. According to the US Bureau of Statistics, 45% of startups fail within the first five years, so getting to this half-decade milestone is a big deal. To mark the occasion, we caught up with our co-founders and CEO’s, Ollie Norman & Alex Lockett to put together five top tips for inspiring companies to hit their own five-year mark.

 

1. Enjoy going to work – make this your goal

“What we want to happen in the next five years boils down to the fact that we want to enjoy going to work. We want to enjoy doing this job, just as much as we want our team and clients to as well.” – Alex

 

2. Make your day-to-days your champagne moments

“While we can definitely come up with a list of specific company highlights over the years, our real champagne moments are our Monday to Fridays. If you create an environment you want to work in, hire people you like and work with clients you like, this is the recipe for turning every day into a celebration.” – Alex

 

 3. See challenges as opportunities

“We launched in 2019. Little did we know that less than ten months into launching our new business, we would be plunged into a global pandemic. For a couple of days, we thought this might be the end of the road for a short and very fun adventure. Suddenly all our clients’ offices were empty. Fortunately, In Digital adapted and came out the other end even better than before! – Ollie

“We’ve continued to grow and expand, launching our new brands ‘In Studio’ for creative endeavours and ‘In Science’ for data science and analytics, earning accolades such as the ‘Sunday Times 2024 Best Places to Work’ and the ‘Performance Marketing Awards’ Best Use of Data & Insight Award 2024’ so I think we embraced these challenges well and took them in our stride!” – Alex

 

4. Work with great clients

“All the successes we achieve stem from having clients who provide us with the tools, access, and ambition needed to deliver exceptional work. We were very fortunate from the very early days that we had a couple of brilliant clients who were able to help us grow and build up the initial team. They were the ones that got us off to such a great start. Those people are still the people who are leading and running the company today.” – Alex

5. Just go for it!

“My advice to other start-ups and entrepreneurs would be, just go for it! If you have an idea that excites you, don’t wait. Starting early amplifies your potential for growth. It’s not as daunting as it seems; if you can deliver value, you can build a successful business from the ground up.” – Ollie

And there you have it—In Digital has reached its official half-decade milestone! What began with just two ambitious individuals, Ollie and Alex, taking a leap of faith, starting out in a cramped box office with an un-opening window, has blossomed into a thriving company with over 25 employees in a bustling three-story office in the heart of Covent Garden.

Once more, a huge thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey with us: you are the real protagonists in this story. From our very first client ‘Tortoise Media’ to our veteran employees Lorenzo, Freddie, Ellie and Grace who have been with us from the start,  we couldn’t have done any of this without you.

Here’s to the next five years! Cheers!