Member Article

December’s North East spotlight series: Ryan Davies

Ryan Davies, MD of Newcastle-based Gospelware, is the latest North East business leader to take part in our December Spotlight Series.

Enjoy!

Your business

What were the highlights for your business in 2015?

Moving into our new office in Newcastle city centre - it’s a lovely space, the landlords are great (PNE Group - tell Michelle I sent you) and we have so much room to expand over the next few years. The main thing is, it’s for the team - to create a space where they can do their best work.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently this year?

Hire more Designers earlier in the year, we’ve became very in demand for UI and UX design!

Is there anything we should watch out for your company doing next year?

Healthcare is going to be massively on our agenda over the next year, Plus winning more awards - we recently won Gold in the App Design Awards UK for our mobile work with clients Zoe and Andy at RealRider. We’ll also be hiring more staff, designers and developers - so get in touch if you fancy a challenge.

Your favourites

Have any other North East companies impressed you this year, if so - why?

Julian, Mike and the Orangebus Team - we’ve been friends for a while, they are doing some great work and their growth has been fantastic for the local tech and design scene. They run a tight ship yet still make it fun and creative for their staff. Also Bede Gaming, Dan and the team are doing phenomenally well in their market, they have a great space and great staff.

When business life gets on top of you, what do you do to destress?

Cooking and music are my go to destress zones, usually both at the same time. My mum taught me to cook and my earliest memories are always in kitchens with mum, sisters, aunties and nans drinking cups of tea, laughing, making dinner and rabbiting on (generally about the men). Music wise; for me hip hop or Soul, with some red wine and a decent steak - very relaxing!

Have any social media accounts caught your eye this year, any favourite pages or people to follow?

Bdaily of course! I always read the verge, ars technica, product hunt is another good one for new startups and products. On twitter - usual suspects: new scientist, fast company, wired, the economist and BBC all have pretty good tech coverage but mostly I browse Reddit subreddits for world news, technology and opinion.

The what ifs

If you could do any job in the world what would it be?

Graphic novel artist. Always loved reading comic books.

If you could go back in time, which piece of advice would you give your younger self?

Pass your driving test - so your brother in law Stu, and the missus stops going on about it every two minutes.

What would be the perfect Christmas gift for you?

Get my wife some sleep! we’ve had two boys in the last two years so she’s got the hardest job out of us both keeping them fed and spoilt - so she deserves a good rest.

Thanks Ryan, all the best.

Look out for more interviews in this series everyday throughout December. Don’t miss out on your daily dose of North East business news, including breaking stories, in-depth interviews and fascinating advice and opinion content. Sign up to our bulletin for free today.