Interview: Hugh Campbell, co-founder and managing partner of GP Bullhound

Hugh Campbell co-founded international investment banking firm GP Bullhound with three friends in 2000, after working for some years with investment banks over in the US.

“What we wanted to do with GP Bullhound,” he explained, “was take the professionalism and expertise of those big banks but apply it to the fastest growing European technology businesses.”

The firm’s vision, Hugh told me, has remained the same since day one - to help entrepreneurs all over Europe turn their ventures into globally successful businesses.

He continued: “We didn’t want to stop at building national champions; we wanted companies to go for global excellence.”

“It’s great to see the size and scale of the tech opportunity up in the North”

While many might associate GP Bullhound with London, Hugh’s background lies firmly in the North West. Brought up in Cheshire and married to a northerner, Hugh spent years building the business in the capital before setting his sights on the North West four years ago with the launch of GP Bullhound’s Manchester office.

“So I guess I’m a northerner by heart and by birth,” he said. “It’s great to see the size and scale of the tech opportunity up in the North.”

Backtracking to the business’ formative years, Hugh said that while working at the London office, the team was mainly advising companies either within the M25 or in continental Europe, in cities such as Copenhagen or Istanbul.

But he came to realise that of all the tech deals done in the UK, just half of them were happening in London and the South East. With the UK boasting the most active technology deal market in Europe, ahead of France and even Germany, it meant there were a significant number of tech businesses being built in this country outside the capital.

Around 2010, GP Bullhound recognised that fact and started preparing its first foray into the North of England.

“We want to help these superstar entrepreneurs raise money or sell their businesses”

“We wanted to make sure those entrepreneurs have the opportunity to get the same level of advice and specialist knowledge as those based in London.

“GP Bullhound today is a firm of dealmakers. We want to help these superstar entrepreneurs raise money, from £10m and above, or sell their businesses when the time is right.”

In the years since GP Bullhound launched in Manchester and began working with more and more northern firms, I wanted to know what Hugh had found to be the primary obstacle facing the tech sector in this part of the country. I asked if it was access to funding, but he explained that while funding is part of the issue, the problem is much more specific.

“More established technology businesses can have million-pound profits, and there’s a lot of money in the region,” he said. “Plus, there are more private equity firms in places like Manchester and Leeds than in many other cities, even capital cities, in Europe. So that’s not necessarily the problem.

“You could also argue that, with the tax breaks in place, the really early stage businesses can always raise less than £1m, for example through friends and family, and using EIS (enterprise investment scheme) tax breaks.

“We need the travel paths between Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds to shrink”

“So the challenge comes in the middle, when a company is growing quickly but needs specialist venture capital finance. There’s really very little of this located in the North. We have soft funds, government-backed funds, but we don’t have established venture capital professionals operating out of the North.

“Therefore I think funding is one issue, but it’s getting past the high growth stage that presents more of a specific venture capital finance problem.”

Other challenges lie in transport infrastructure, Hugh said, pointing out the fact there are no flights connecting the North to Silicon Valley, the heart of the US tech sphere in California. The same problem even exists on a region-to-region level.

Hugh continued: “We need the travel paths between Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds to shrink.

“The communities in these cities are still operating very much independently, but they have a lot to gain by being closer together in terms of business.”

“You need to bring together strong leadership and strong marketing and technical expertise”

I rounded off our discussion by asking Hugh what advice he would give a tech entrepreneur looking to build a global brand.

“[People] need to focus straight away on the senior team,” he said, “and incentivise that senior team to go with you on the journey.

“You need to bring together strong leadership and strong marketing and technical expertise. And you need to then surround that core group with a set of more experienced advisors or mentors to help you on what can often be a lonely journey.

He added: “Secondly, it’s important to have international ambitions. Don’t settle for being a national champion but aim high, whether that means expanding in Asia or in the US. Build the business so that it can nimbly and flexibly expand overseas.”