Ffrees Family Finance: From idea to £1m invested
Founded in 2010 by Alex Letts, an entrepreneur with an outstanding track record (SMI Group/Publicis, RI3K), Ffrees is an exciting fintech startup that’s taking on the banking industry.
The Brief
Having being involved by FIFO Digital with the initial marketing website, Alex asked me to work with him and develop his vision for Ffrees into a product that could be taken to market. I jumped at the opportunity.
What I Did
I collaborated closely with Alex to ensure the digital strategy aligned with his vision for Ffrees. Working from interviews with Alex and business strategy documents from the executive team, I advised what was possible and fed back proposed courses of action.
As we developed the product I managed a small team to speed up time to market. I enjoyed the challenge of wearing many hats during the project and putting my broad skills to use.
“Peter acted as a first class analyst, architect, developer and project manager all rolled into one, and kept his good nature and easy manner throughout the strenuous and often stressful process.”
Like all early-stage startups, Ffrees went through a number of pivots based on investor feedback, and the ability to be nimble and flexible was vital. Expectations had to be managed.
Pace and agile development practices were vital to our work, as Ffrees had seed funding and needed to hit deadlines to secure ongoing finance.
A major challenge was balancing the conflicting demands of two audiences: potential investors and potential customers. Features that gave the “wow factor” for investors were often not in a users’s best interest, and it was vital they didn’t negatively affect the product.
Towards the end of this fast-paced round I got involved in the due diligence process to prove to investors that the codebase had clean IP and was unencumbered by licensing issues.
My work contributed to Ffrees growing rapidly and securing £1m in funding.
“Peter’s work is first class, and he cares about doing it well. I highly recommend him.”
Postscript
Once funded, I helped with a smooth transition to an in-house development team. I’d the opportunity to join Ffrees and they’d have been great to work with, but I prefer companies in the first two stages of evolution. So I helped on-board technical staff and project managed the new team through one change cycle, enabling them to hit the ground running.
Then my work was complete. Job done – satisfied client, satisfied me! Frees has since raised another £6M funding and made a successful exit.
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