IN THE COMPANY OF: Sam Roser, Managing Director of business and company sales specialist Starling Corporate

Factfile

Name: Sam Roser

Age: 32

Birthplace: Harrogate

Job title: Managing Director

Company name: Starling Corporate

Company address: 31 Park Square, Leeds, LS11 5QD and City Road, London, EC1V 2NX

Website address: www.starlingcorporate.com

Company founded: 2020

Turnover: £1.2m

Number of staff: 5

In a nutshell, what does your company do and how did it start?

I launched Starling Corporate in Harrogate during 2020, at the start of the Covid pandemic.

We are a Mergers and Acquisitions specialist with an established national portfolio of circa £60m in enterprise value.

Essentially, my company helps business owners exit via a sale or gain investment across a broad range of sectors, sizes and situations.

What's the most surprising thing about it?

The breadth of projects that we take on and how individual each case can be.

For example, this year we were able to sell a majority shareholding for a relatively young design company that specialised in card games.

Since working with us, the company has grown exponentially where its products are sold in numerous outlets across Europe, Australia and the USA.

This week the team completed the sale of a group of domiciliary care businesses in the Midlands which allowed for the two owners to successfully retire after 30 years in their industry.

Not only do we deal with such a broad church of buyers, but the businesses that we sell each have their own success stories and our involvement often is to facilitate a new chapter for our clients’ career and life.

What do you do in the business?

We are a very close team, with no ego or unnecessary layers.

Our offering is providing a dedicated transaction team that is managed full circle by one of our directors.

I personally work very closely with our clients and the campaign team.

How did you end up here?

I studied Economics in Leeds and started in the industry as a part time analyst for a start-up company based in Hornbeam Park at the time.

I was the third employee of the business when I joined in 2011 and left 6 years after as Sales Director, managing a team of 40 staff across the country.

If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?

At school I was in a rock band and dreamed of being a rockstar.

Unfortunately, my ambition outweighed my talents in that respect.

What motivates you?

Delivering on promises is really important to me and motivates me considerably.

Our company only succeeds directly as a result of the outcome we deliver to our clients, which is very motivating.

What one thing do you wish you had known when you started out in business?

Prior to starting Starling Corporate, my career involved a lot of travel, excessive and inefficient journeys for meetings all over the place.

By fluke more than anything, Covid removed circa 60,000 motorway miles per year and evolved face-to-face to screen-to-screen interaction.

I would never have expected this before starting the business, but the benefits of time, cost, carbon footprint, staff efficiency etc has and continue to be enormously positive.

What excites you about business?

The pace at how quickly things can develop and grow - the power of momentum.

What is your pet hate in business?

When people say ‘We do it this way because we have always done it this way’.

Or unnecessary rudeness, it doesn’t take much time or effort to be polite and nice, and I can’t understand why simple manners can often be removed.

What advice would you give to people just starting their careers?

My advice for anyone starting would be to have the end goal in mind early.

Whether that is to not get sacked from the job, be promoted to CEO, sell a company for millions, or whatever – commit everything possible to meet the end goal.

Who in business do you most admire, and why?

There are too many current connections to list.

The reason my family are even based in Harrogate is because of my late Grandad’s success in business.

Moving from Cardiff, there was an opportunity to become MD of the company that involved huge risk for him both financially and through relocating a family to North Yorkshire.

I always admire those that embrace risk and am hugely inspired by the success that can result.

What moments of your career so far stand out?

Being able to advise on what is often the largest transaction of a person’s life is pretty exciting. Our clients are entrepreneurs, and seldom follow the typical corporate path; to see a client sell something that they started from nothing for millions of pounds is incredible.

What sets your company apart from the competition?

We make the process about the client, and not ourselves.

One of the frustrations in my industry is the unnecessary bureaucracy, titles, and rhetoric.

We are really honest with our clients that we are a young company and don’t have 1000 staff members, but will dedicate the very best resource into a highly personal service – which our reviews corroborate.

What is the most difficult challenge your company has faced? And what challenges are you experiencing at the moment?

We deal with companies that typically have a value range between £500k to £7m in value.

Therefore we aren’t heavily influenced by macro-economic change from the likes of Brexit, Covid, interest rate flux etc.

This is by no means saying we are resistant, but we are agile.

Have you got a five-year plan for the company?

We set out to deliver the best service to all of our clients, hoping to gain market share as a result.

We are currently in year four of our initial five-year plan and the fastest growing broker in the UK by both client volume and transaction percentage – which I see as significant for any company.

The next five years will be to continue this trend.

Why is it good to do business in Harrogate?

There are so many successful companies in Harrogate, specifically independents and the organisations that have famously grown their product or service.