An outsourced marketing agency in the South has paid tribute to the business support provided by Oxford Innovation Space, operator of Ocean Village Innovation Centre OVIC) in Southampton. Mitchell & Stones was set up six years ago by joint owners Josh Mitchell and Chris Stones after meeting at the University of Winchester – the two graduates each staked £290 to get the venture off the ground.
Leveraging off complementary skill sets, the two entrepreneurs joined forces after previously running separate businesses out of OVIC, which has 67 serviced offices and meeting rooms near Ocean Village’s sought-after marina.
Stepping stone
Now employing more than 20 staff, with 30 clients, Mitchell & Stones has new operational requirements, relocating to a co-working building in Southampton’s city centre.
Stephen Deller, OVIC’s Centre Manager, said: “It is always a bitter-sweet moment when a long-standing occupier leaves us, as is the case with Mitchell & Stones, but it is a good thing because we are very much a stepping stone for start-ups and early-stage businesses.
“We have had a number of companies which started out small with us, scaling workspace up or down to suit all-important cashflow and being active participants in our business support scheme. They have flourished and fledged”.
Enabling growth
“Like other owners of businesses here, Mitchell & Stones benefited from Oxford Innovation Space’s in-house business support, provided by our innovation directors and enabling growth through bespoke strategy, systems and tools.
These structured one-to-one sessions can be game changers for start-ups going through inevitable growing pains”.
“It is worth bearing in mind that almost 60% of businesses fail in the first three years, so having on-site business support is a major source of advice for our start-up customers”.
Flexible workspace
“We wish Josh, Chris and their colleagues every continued and deserved success.”
Josh, Managing Director, said: “Mitchell & Stones has had the genuine privilege of residing at OVIC for six years in total, starting out from our first two-desk office and flexing office space, depending on head count, with our last office seating more than 22 people. In total, we were in six different offices.
“Chris and I want to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Stephen and the entire team at OVIC for supporting us throughout the years, including during the pandemic which saw an unprecedented fall in UK output of nearly 20% between April and June 2020.
Expo sponsorship
“That anxious period for hundreds of thousands of businesses like us was made much easier by OVIC, which has been instrumental to our growth.” Josh is the founder of the Hampshire Business Show, which takes place at the Utilita Bowl, Southampton, on Thursday, 24 October. The inaugural event was in October 2019. Headline sponsor of the business-to-business expo for this year is Zappie, the fastest growing telecoms company in the UK; Oxford Innovation Space and Mitchell & Stones are among the sponsors of the event.
“Incredible support”
Josh, the event director, said: “Again, when setting up the Hampshire Business Show from scratch, Stephen and his colleagues at OVIC were an incredible support. We will never forget that”.
“The event is always high energy, positive, collaborative and open to businesses of all sizes who are looking to grow. In many ways, the ethos of the Hampshire Business Show matches that of OVIC’s.”
To find out how your company could benefit from OVIC’s business hub of entrepreneurs and serviced office support, with nearly 50 different companies on site, please contact Stephen on 023 8038 1920 or email s.deller@oxin.co.uk