Workshare explains why it left San Francisco for Silicon Roundabout

The typical tech acquisition story is as follows: large US giant spots up-and-coming UK firm with a good portion of a market it wants to get into. It uses its massive cash reserves to buy UK firm.
We’ve seen it this year with Cisco paying £310m for Swindon-based Ubiquisys, and more recently IBM bought Milton Keynes-based Daeja and Irish firm The Now Factory. Perhaps the most (in)famous example is HP’s somewhat flawed buy of Autonomy. So, end of story. Or is it?
In a rare example of a UK firm buying a US venture, last autumn V3 reported on the acquisition of Workshare by UK firm SkyDox. A win for the Brits, even if the firm did decide to use the Workshare brand as it’s bigger name.
There is more to it than this, though. The founder of SkyDox, Barrie Hadfield (pictured), was also the founder of Workshare, and is now the chief technology officer of the new company. One year on from the deal, V3 caught up with Hadfield to ask how the deal had gone, and how such a unique situation came to pass.
Workshare started life as an on-premise provider of tools for comparing different versions of documents, so staff could track changes and propose alternatives. It has a strong emphasis on security, so only certain members of staff could access, edit or share sensitive documents and data. This has seen it become a popular provider in the legal market, with 4,000 customers to date worldwide.
SkyDox was set up along very similar lines but with an increased focus on collaboration and commenting, and the service was offered in the cloud for firms happy not to have applications or data residing on premise. Hadfield explained that the deal between the two last year was the result of a conversation between himself and the then-chief executive of SkyDox, now entrepreneurial CEO for Workshare, Anthony Foy.
Foy saw that a move to bring Workshare into Skydox’s offering would be complementary for both firms to combine their capabilities and offer both on-premise and cloud tools.
“He [Foy] suggested that we buy Workshare and bring it into SkyDox and we were able to find backers that supported the deal,” Hadfield said. The backing included a £20m investment from Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) towards the firm's growth.
The last 12 months have seen the firms work through the various cultural and professional challenges that come with any acquisition. Chief among these have been relocating the headquarters for Workshare from San Francisco to London.
“We felt it was more efficient to be in London so we could have everyone in one space. Working with management across time zones is very difficult and just not as efficient as all being in the same rooms discussing ideas,” Hadfield explained.
For US staff, suddenly facing the propsect of leaving the West Coast and moving to London, the change must have been tough. “I think it has been fine for most of them,” answers Hadfield, before adding that the success the company has seen since moving also justifies the decision.

Setting up in London, the firm made its base in the Spitalfields area of the up-and-coming Tech City area, which Hadfield said has been a boost for London and the startup community.
“Ten years ago none of it [the community] existed, you had to go to Croydon if you wanted to start a tech firm. But this has all changed now and it’s a really positive development. We are fully supportive of it and try to help where we can with talks and events,” he said.
However, while the company may have moved to London it is still very much focused on the US, with the East Coast proving a lucrative market for its offerings in particular.
“We have offices in New York and Chicago, and we are seeing about 60-70 percent of our business in these markets so they are incredibly important for us,” Hadfield explained.
The US interest in the firm’s offerings over the UK is seen by Hadfield as indicative of the difference between the cultures in the two nations towards up-and-coming technology.
“The UK is quite difficult to be successful in initially because firms are so much more reticent to try new things,” he said. “Australia is usually the most willing to take a chance, followed by the West Coast, the East Coast and then Europe.”
Hadfield believes this is holding the UK back to a small degree, and says it could be down to a misplaced belief that software from other nations, especially the US, is seen as ‘better’ than technology in a home country.
“It would be better for the UK if it were quicker at adopting things. You don’t see a lot of support for UK firms towards UK technology companies, which is similar in Europe. They often seem not to like their nation’s own software firms," he said.
Hadfield blames this on a classic difference in UK and US cultural values. “The UK values understatement, and to be boastful is seen as a negative, but the US is more about promoting and talking about what you’ve done,” he said.
“Having worked in both the US and the UK I have not encountered better people in either locations but people in San Francisco, say, are far better at talking about their ideas and getting them heard.”
However, as the success of SkyDox has shown in acquiring a US-based firm and having the confidence to base itself in London, the UK should feel confident in taking on the US.
“I would never be as bold to suggest it, but I would love it if an outcome of our deal was that we became a blueprint for others. That they can see they don’t have to go to the US for an advantage. There is access to talent and money in the UK,” he said.