Solverboard acquired by Sopheon
Solverboard acquired by Sopheon
Innovative front-end innovation management business Solverboard, one of Istoria Group’s ‘Incubator Hub’ companies, has now been acquired by AIM-listed Sopheon.
The Solverboard platform, conceived of and built in-house at Istoria Group’s Bristol HQ, helps companies find, align, test and deliver the best innovation and product ideas and was set up to counter the traditionally-low success rates of innovation and product development programmes.
The ‘Incubator Hub’ forms part of Istoria Group’s ethos of supporting entrepreneurialism and helping great ideas to thrive. Both the Group’s Incubator Hub companies – Solverboard and children’s book publisher I Am A Bookworm - became fully-independent businesses in 2022.
Here, we talk to Solverboard Founders Phil Atherton and Charlie Widdows about the past and the future, considering the acquisition, the next phase of development and their gratitude to Istoria Group for giving them the space to develop and grow.
Congratulations first of all on the acquisition! How does it feel?
Charlie: Thanks! There’s an over-riding sense of relief first of all. All our worries about making the right decisions for ourselves, our team and Istoria Group are now quietened. It feels like the start of a new adventure!
Phil: After a very intense period of negotiation, the release of energy that came with finalising the deal feels great and it’s brilliant to have become part of an organisation that has a shared strategy for Solverboard and the resources to make the future really happen. The only sadness is that our third Co-Founder Tim Marsh, Solverboard’s Head of Technical, passed away just before negotiations for the deal began. We very much wish he was still here with us to share the excitement.
What happens next? Will you both stay involved in the business?
Charlie: Of course! We’re here to ensure our plans for Solverboard get delivered, in tandem with a company which shares our vision and values, as well as offering us huge experience and expertise around innovation management.
Phil: Yes, absolutely. Sopheon’s leadership, strategic know-how and resources are at our disposal to help make Solverboard happen on a larger scale now. As a company, they have really wrapped their arms round us to help us deliver on our promise.
Going right back to the beginnings of Solverboard, can you remember how the initial ‘big idea’ first came about?
Phil: I came to Istoria Group from BAE Systems – a huge company where there was someone to help you progress absolutely anything you needed. Moving to an SME, I was struck by the idea of how smaller businesses were only as good as the people round the table at any given moment, specially when it came to innovation, even though they have as much need, if not more, for that innovation. It was a thought that led to the idea of posting innovation challenges to a community of ‘solvers’.
Charlie: I can’t lay claim to being there right from the beginning. Phil had already started ‘scratching the itch’ by the time he asked me to get involved, but it’s true to say that the situation he found himself in – trying to solve a business challenge with the talent that was around him as opposed to other ways of harnessing human intelligence from outside the organisation – was something I had also wanted to solve in previous roles.
How much has the concept changed and evolved from then to now?
Phil: To start with, our product focus was to look for as wide a range of people as possible to solve innovation challenges, with an open community emphasis. Then we moved towards idea management, focusing on how to find and test ideas in order to de-risk innovation and hone the proposition of lowering innovation’s traditional failure rate. Now, with Sopheon, Solverboard’s focus is once again more specialised with a focus on initial ideas. In part, this is to fit with the Sopheon product portfolio, but also an evolution of thought in terms of going deep into one part of the process as the best way to hone our offer.
What were some of the biggest hurdles and challenges you faced along the way?
Charlie: Where do you start? Actually, knowing where to start when building a product for a customer who has very little in the way of tools to do their main job, when that job is to manage innovation, was one of the biggest challenges! Understanding the drivers, pain points and goals of innovation managers was a key challenge; one that has been constant throughout the journey.
Covid-19 added an extra challenge in a corporate sense in terms of the need to accelerate our journey to market. We needed to speed the journey up a little in order to support Istoria Group through the pandemic, just as the Group has long supported us, as well as to help the Group in terms of resources in order to achieve a new digital/virtual pivot with new sister company Tiny Spark at the same time.
More recently, the loss of Tim was a huge, huge challenge to Solverboard and the larger Istoria Group family. It’s no exaggeration to say that when we lost Tim, it felt as if the heart and soul of our team had been ripped out. We haven’t, of course, fully come to terms with the loss yet and we’re all trying to make peace with it in different ways. We certainly continue to hear his voice and perspective in all the decisions we make.
What were some of the landmark advances you made that confirmed you were on the right path?
Charlie: There are the obvious ones – like the time we followed the whole innovation journey from signing up to completing a project all within the platform, or else getting our first unsolicited sign-up, receiving our first testimonial, Capterra review and a ‘10’ score on NPS. For me, personally, it was getting such positive feedback from prospective customers and consultants on demos and knowing we had solved real challenges with our software. That and Sopheon acquiring us of course!
What has the whole experience taught you?
Phil: To never give up! I hope I shall never forget the ‘nothing to lose’ attitude that makes you pick up the phone and start a conversation with a stranger in the way I started the conversation with Sopheon that led to the acquisition. The power of belief and the power of serendipity are great allies. It’s funny, but when you hear phrases like - ‘whatever it takes!’ - they can seem like empty words, but when you’re truly prepared to take risks and grasp at opportunities, those phrases really come to life!
Tell us about the experience too of being one of the first two ‘Incubator Hub’ companies in the Istoria Group business. How did that benefit you?
Phil: Istoria Group has been absolutely legendary in its support of Solverboard and the amount of autonomy they gave us at every stage - always having faith we would find a way to achieve things. The Group’s EPIC values include ‘E for Entrepreneurialism’ and the willingness to back us and really take a risk with us has been phenomenal. A lot of venture capitalists talk about taking risks, but actually they play very safe and don’t really like taking risks at all, whilst Istoria Group always stands by what it promises – believing in people with good ideas who can’t go to market by any other means.
Charlie: Knowing we were backed by an organisation with entrepreneurialism through its central core like a stick of rock allowed us to take manageable risks, try things out and get comfortable with not always succeeding, whilst also learning from that process and getting going again. That knowledge was a huge motivation in succeeding with Solverboard.
What does the ‘Incubator Hub’ idea say about Istoria Group do you think?
Charlie: That the Group will never sit still and will always be looking at ways to continue to remain relevant and move forward. Incubating businesses like ours, based on the passion and commitment of their entrepreneurial founders, is a real gift and requires a level of loyalty, trust and belief that outweighs any other so-called perks or incentives. It commands huge respect.
Phil: For an SME to even have such a facility as part of its make-up is extraordinary and an absolute testament to Istoria Group’s ingenuity, innovation and creativity as a business.
Charlie Widdows, Founder, Solverboard
Phil Atherton, Founder, Solverboard
Solverboard team