Our CEO Tom Greveson looks back over his memories of the business that he started 20 years ago and reflects on his feelings as Revolution Viewing becomes Vepple.
It’s what we did during these 20 years, who we did it with and how we did it that truly matters to me.
Over two decades I’ve worked alongside many people at RV, I’ve made many great friends and together we’ve achieved some wonderful things. Above all, we’ve shared a moral code, a set of values and a sense of humour.
Working with people with whom I share values and doing something that we believe in has kept the fire burning inside of me for all of these years. So let me share a few stories that have helped shape RV over the past 20 years; stories that hopefully demonstrate why so many of us have enjoyed our time together here at Revolution Viewing…
Where it all began.
Sat on a bunk, in a shed, preparing our snowboards for a day up the mountain.
2003, Queenstown, New Zealand, Summer (or Winter, depending on your global positioning). Living in a shed, snowboarding by day, socialising by night. I’ve known Tony Lyons (COO at RV) since school days, we both met up when down in NZ.
Me: “Hey Tone, I’m thinking of setting up a business after uni, shooting 360s, if I can make it work, do you fancy getting involved?”
Tony: “Let me check my schedule….yeah, count me in.”
(Tony had played a season of Pro football for Napier City in New Zealand. With the season over, he was destined to pot wash for a few months in Australia prior to finishing uni in the UK; the big bucks hadn’t quite hit the NZ footy scene at that time).
Sliding Doors, sort of.
2004, University of Leeds. I walked out of a door as two ladies walked past me and through that same door in the other direction. Whilst (for those carpenters amongst us) it wasn’t technically a sliding door, metaphorically, it was one of those moments.
More later about how those two ladies and how universities changed my life. However, the room from which I had just exited was where I pitched “Virtual Viewing”: an idea for a revolutionary business that would change the way we view things online. I was lucky to scoop a £2,000 prize from that competition. I added that to a £10,000 graduate start-up loan from the bank, I changed “Virtual Viewing” to “Revolution Viewing” (RV), registered RV at Companies House in October 2004 and I was ready to take the business world by storm…. and thrive!
Thrive? Or Survive?
From my own experience of bootstrapping a business with limited resources, one’s mindset can flit from thriving to surviving within the same hour. From our* first paying customer and thinking that this business might actually work! To thinking, “the customer lives in Milton Keynes, have I got the cash to put enough diesel in my huge white 20-year-old big, Peugeot 605 (AKA “the fridge”).” To the practical issues of “Will I get there without a wheel falling off?” True story, the front passenger side wheel actually came off of the car whilst I was driving 30mph down the main street in Heaton Moor, Stockport.
*Something that might resonate with all those who founded a business in their 20s. I was one person, one desk, trying desperately to give the outward impression I was a bigger and more professional operation than I was… it was never “I” should be able to fix that, it was always “we”. A bit embarrassing, really.
It took 12 months of learning, developing and calling (so much cold calling!) before I started to make any money. I worked every day, including Christmas day, but I don’t mean to sound like a martyr, I bloody loved it! Taking photos, stitching them together and creating 360 panoramas. It was (and today still is) like absolute magic to me. Thankfully, people across the world seem to feel the same about 360 panoramas, as we have people searching for their dream home and future students looking at our university 360s from across the globe, every day. I reckon that’s pretty cool and something I’m a little proud of being a part of.
The Sunseeker Effect
By 2005, I was working out of the Leeds University business Spark incubator, with a huge amount of support from others working from the same space (Spark crew, you know who you are!). Chris Challenger was in the incubator running his own businesses, he was super sharp, built ‘our’ (my) first website and was probably more of a mentor than a peer. A huge influence at that early stage of business and a dear friend to this day.
It was in 2005 that we (I) got lucky. I called Sunseeker Yachts in Mayfair at 6pm, a bloke answered the phone, listened to my pitch and said that I should email a lady about my suggestion of shooting 360s for Sunseeker boats. It turned out that I’d called out of hours and that the MD (David Lewis of Sunseeker Yachts London) had answered the phone. I met David, he granted me permission to shoot some fancy boats on the French Riviera, I then got a paying job to return and shoot 360s and photography for a 105ft Sunseeker yacht. Speaking to owners of new start-up businesses, I have often referred to the “Sunseeker effect”. The Sunseeker brand did a whole lot of good for the business in the early days (even opened the door to shooting a few private jets!)… and I got to have a ‘drive’ of a Sunseeker boat, which was a pretty cool contrast for a guy still driving a free 20-year-old Peugeot that dropped oil and as previously mentioned was known to lose a wheel!
RV goes global
Another lucky break was a Leeds mate (Tom Hitchcock) introducing me to Rich Brady of Olive Tree International Property (OTIP). This saw me going on all manner of international jaunts that included shooting the “Tree of Life” in the Bahrain Dessert to interviewing the Mayor of a ski village in Ferne, Canada, to countless memorable trips across Europe that included scaring my client (Rich) to near-death as he lay ill in the back of a car as I drove us across Bulgaria.
One of the more anxiety-inducing moments happened when I was asked to drive from A to B in order to help out a property developer for whom I was working. Between points A and B, I was stopped by the Spanish police. My Conversation with the Policia Nacional went like this (for authenticity, please assume a heavy, angry Spanish accent as you read each policeman part):
Policeman 1: “Hola señor a dónde va?”
Me: “Hola, I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish”
Policeman 1: “Sir, is this your car?”
Me: “No, it’s not”
Policeman 2: “Is it rented?”
Me: “No..I, er, borrowed it.”
Policeman 2: “Who did you borrow it from sir?”
Me: “Errr…he’s called Ivan”
Policeman 1: “His last name?”
Me: “I don’t know”
Pause. Policeman 2 places his hand on his gun.
Policeman 1: “I need to see the documents. Now.”
*Nervous scramble in the glove box for anything paper-like*
Now at this point, I would have arrested me. The policeman looked at the documents I’d nervously passed to him…
Policeman 1 looks at Policeman 2: “Ahhh, Ivan! It’s okay sir, you go now.”
Luckily for me, Ivan the client was a 6ft 7in ex-basketball player and wealthy local landowner. I think he was known and well-liked. Phew!
And then there were three…
By 2005 Tony had returned from the southern hemisphere, finished his degree and I don’t think he had much to do. I had a free sofa he could crash on and £50 a day with his name on it so he started to do bits of work for RV. We picked up Bryant Homes as a client (now Taylor Wimpey, our biggest Home Builder customer to this day) and soon Tony was doing regular RV work.
Also, in 2005 I started to work on “Revolution Autos” with car enthusiast and friend James “Jimmi” Greenwood. We would spend weekends looking for the “perfect field” in order to shoot an exterior 360 tour of a car using our (not quite) patented “brick on a string” technology, which was about as sophisticated as it sounds. Incidentally, we used an iteration of this ‘technology’ to shoot what I still believe was the world’s first exterior object tour of a private jet… but I digress. In 2006 there was enough business coming in for both Tony and Jimmi to receive a modest wage from RV, join as Directors and receive some RV shares for their trouble.
2006, a new era for RV. The three amigos. We grafted and took RV to the next level, hiring Ash Burling as our first proper photographer (Tony and I did our best, but Ash is of course another level)! We then hired Martyn Lee for his technical and development skills, what a great guy and I’m proud to say that as with Tony, Jimmi and Ash, still a dear friend to this day.
As a team, we started to focus.
Home Builder and Higher Education were sectors that we cared about and sectors that seemed to care about what we did at RV. As our customer base grew, so did the team. Kim joined us as a salesperson, but we quickly realised that Kim’s organisational and financial skills could be deployed to greater effect. Kim’s a superstar, a dear friend of mine and is now our Finance Manager.
We’ve hired many great people who have helped propel the business forward. I’m just sorry that I don’t have the word count to thank each person individually in this piece, and I only hope I demonstrated gratitude at the time. I’d like each one of you to know that you have contributed greatly towards these 20 years of successful business.
The juggle of business and babies
2012 saw the birth of my son Oscar and the start of a family/work balancing act that I was challenged by as much on the 13th February 2012 (the day before Oscar was born) as I am today.
13th February 2012: Lucy Eatough (now Greveson) was full-term pregnant, bent at the waist and holding on to the toaster in our kitchen, as if it administered some kind of alternative pain relief:
Lucy: “Tom, we really should be going to the hospital NOW.”
Tom: (on laptop at kitchen table) – “Yep, yep, yep, just need to finish this email and we’re all good for the Barclays job…”
Now I can’t remember Lucy’s response, she’s nearly always balanced in her take-downs, but I’ve probably blanked the detail. Suffice to say, Oscar was born on Valentine’s day 2012…and the Barclays job was the start of RV providing video services on a grand scale to (initially) big corporates before pivoting into video for Higher Education.
The team grows
Over the next few years, my daughters Georgie and Annie joined team Greveson and at team RV I hired a sister.
Vic Hayhurst took what was a few university relationships and supercharged our activity in Higher Education (HE). I was Producing/Directing most of the videos, which was very enjoyable but a stretch with my CEO day job, so we hired two incredibly talented Video Producers (Spoons and Carly). They are two brilliant people who, along with a growing video production team, pushed the creative envelope at RV.
Our relationship with the HE sector grew, and true friendships emerged. We formed a Strategic Advisory Board (SAB) and that was quickly followed by a Digital Advisory Board (DAB). Members of these Boards have really helped steer us to success in the world of HE, I’d like to extend a huge thank you to these sector leaders for their advice, time, wonderful company and wicked humour!
When the pandemic hit, it was tough for everyone and really tested the mettle of team RV, but as always, the team worked together and pulled through.
A new product
Towards the end of the pandemic, there were some difficult decisions made that changed the shape of the business. It was with sadness that we stopped producing videos for universities, but from the adversity of the pandemic came the advent of Vepple, our personalised virtual experience software platform.
Jonny Harper is the architect of Vepple, often rightly referring to it as his “Digital Baby”. Jonny is one of the most special individuals I’ve ever had the good fortune to work with and if there’s anything about wind farm technology Jonny doesn’t know, then it’s not worth knowing! I’ve so many happy memories working with Jonny, running for and catching trains against all odds, watching him do an unbeatable Parklife on karaoke or dressing up in a tiger onesie in the name of RV “strategy”. Whilst Jonny will sometimes refer to himself as a geek, if he is, he’s one of the top two coolest nerds I’ve ever known.
Then came Vic Littler, maybe the coolest of the nerds. It’s not quite two years that I’ve worked with Vic and yet I feel like she’s been my best mate for decades. During a quiet point at a UCAS conference, Vic and I (with a gent called Des) formed a new gang called “The Triangle of Sadness”. The reason for forming a conference gang (with its own gang hand sign) and the detail of this is not important, but it led to Vic saying to me “I bet you didn’t realise I was this silly when you hired me!?” Truth is I didn’t, but if I had, it would have only made me want to hire Vic faster! I’d like to think this exchange embodies some of the RV ethos, we have purpose, we care and we take our work extremely seriously, but we’d rather not take ourselves too seriously. Over the years, I’ve tried to learn to strike the balance and I take pride in leading a company that I believe hires incredible people who deliver first-rate work but know how to have fun along the way.
RV’s romantic side
Working through some “Competency Suite” training material with Rich Gregory (Non-Exec Director and friend), at the top of the “attitude” column, I saw the word “Romance”. I asked what place romance has in business.
Rich explained the idea of positive ideology and that some people hold a belief that if you do the right thing, then good things will happen. I took this to be some sort of karma and verging on the spiritual. 23-year-old start-up Tom, trying to survive Tom, might not have had much time for such a notion. I’m 43 years old now, I’ve a few battle scars, the highs have been high and the lows have been quite humbling at times. I’ve gained a wife and children along the way, but lost a Dad.
My Dad was instrumental in the creation of RV.
He encouraged me from day one and did his best to instil in me a balance of grit, determination and compassion. As a practical person and part-time kitchen fitter in his ‘retired’ years after selling his haulage business, Dad also played a large part in the 2009 refurbishment of 103 Kirkstall Road, the office building we use today. In 2013 I was standing in the stockroom at 103 Kirkstall Road when Dad told me that he had only three months to live. Even today I often think about that call when I’m in that room, but not with sadness, it reminds me of a special person who was principled, always stood up for what he believed in and helped those who needed help the most.
To misquote Oscar Wilde, whilst to lose one parent could be regarded as a misfortune and to lose two careless, I’m not one to be careless, my Mum is alive and well and still wondering when her 1% ownership of RV will pay her a dividend.
Mum has been an absolute rock over the years, the only person to come even close is Tony. Post-pandemic I was feeling a bit low. Historically, I hadn’t been one to share such feelings and possibly this was the first time I’d mentioned such a thing to Tony. The next day Tony turned up at my house (I live 40 minutes away) with the biggest and bestest hamper I have ever received. All the things I love. What care, what thought, this meant the world to me, what an honour to spend the majority of these 20 years working with such a man. Thank you Tony.
So back to the two young ladies from the start
The “sliding doors moment” (with hinges)!
Most will already know that those two ladies were Lucy Eatough and Claire Kok, or to use their married names, Lucy Greveson and Claire Lyons. 20 years of Revolution Viewing has brought its twists, turns and many laughs, but it’s also fair to say that Revolution Viewing had a part to play in Tony and I marrying the women we love.
Here’s to another 20 years. We’ll stick with our wives (if they’ll keep us), but there will be one major change. Revolution Viewing will continue to be the strong brand that it is within the Home Builder sector, but will no longer be the customer-facing brand in Higher Education. We’ve had a gradual transition from Revolution Viewing to Vepple over the past year or so and now the time feels right to fully lean into the Vepple brand and avoid any confusion brought about by having two strong brand identities.
Am I sad? Perhaps weirdly to some, I’m not. I’m excited. You see, Revolution Viewing has never really been about the two words or the colour green (or blue, or brown – depends how far you go back!), it’s been about the people, the great work, the customers we work with and a shared set of values. These fundamentals will not change, the power of this brand is the people and the ethos and long may we thrive!
If there was ever romance in business, it’s this. It’s the chance meetings, the people who change your life, the fun along the way, doing the right thing, making a difference and building something great that we can all be proud of.
Thanks for reading. Tom.
