Co-founder Mike Joslin talks success, growth, polling data and basing a startup at Level39 in Canary Wharf’s One Canada Square
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Mike Joslin is a man of clarity.
“The success of our company is down to the success of our customers – if they don’t succeed, we don’t succeed,” said the CEO and co-founder of Bombe.
For Mike, delivering that success means using data.
Having spent much of his career crunching numbers and utilising tech to help boost political campaigns for the likes of Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan – inspired by Moneyball, a book by Michael Lewis and later a film that highlighted the importance of using metrics to drive a run of wins on the baseball field.
After working at the National Education Union for several years and running its campaign to improve teachers’ pay, he saw a commercial niche for the techniques and tech he’d developed to deliver results in the political sphere.
Bombe, named for Alan Turing’s codebreaking Second World War machine that deciphered Enigma messages, was born and Mike quit his job in March this year to run it full-time.
the basis of Bombe
“Our thesis is that there is a lot of data out there which tells you what people are doing, but it’s not that interesting for a lot of businesses because you want to know why people are doing what they’re doing,” said Mike, who is based at Level39 in Canary Wharf’s One Canada Square with his rapidly growing team.
“That’s the basis of our company.
“This kind of machine-learning approach has been absent from products I’ve experienced in my career in marketing.
“I’ve been using machine learning for well over a decade – people think AI is ChatGPT but that’s just a powerful iteration of it.
“The technology has been around for a long time.
“When setting up Bombe, which is strictly non-political, we looked at the market, did an analysis of where we would fit, then developed our data proposition, working with our polling partner Deltapoll.
“A lot of people are obsessed with technology, but it’s not about technology, it’s what you use it for.
“Our tag line is that we’re trying to build the best audience and data targeting model in the world and I think we’ve done that – so do our clients and that’s why they’ve chosen to use us.
“If you’re a business we can tell you for every postcode in the country the likelihood someone will purchase from you and the price they’ll pay for your product.
“Companies may have huge amounts of data, but they don’t necessarily know who is purchasing goods or services from them. That is a necessity.
“We’ve built a number of persona sets to reveal what is actually driving people’s decisions using machine learning.
“Those groups have been battle-tested with our clients and that has propelled our success.”
delivering a return on investment
The idea in some senses is simple.
Bombe’s service tells businesses where best to concentrate their marketing to deliver the best return on their investment.
“What our clients are buying from us are models,” said Mike.
“We make our own data – we’re not buying it. It comes from interviews, from machine-learning models, from statistical techniques, from battle-testing and then spending hours making sure it all works.
“However, how we’re doing it is less relevant than whether it works for our customers. What matters is what’s driving their sales, their top line, whether you’re going up or down and how you can change that.
“What we do is tell our customers why their revenue is where it is.
“Some of our clients are seeing results that are 85% better with Bombe.”
Initially the startup is working with medium and large-scale businesses, but plans to launch products for smaller companies next year.
Bombe is open for business
“If you are selling to consumers, come and talk to us,” said Mike.
“Our mission is to help everyone who wants to engage with their audience to be doing it through us.
“We take great enjoyment and pride in doing that.
“We have a team of about 20 people, and we’re growing strategically, which is very important to us.
“We don’t want to grow too quickly, but we are offering something unique and different.
“We’ve seen the market reaction to that and that’s helping us to make sure our product is the best.
“We have to have the best data and we think we do, but we can’t rest on our laurels – the market is changing so quickly and we want to make sure that our customers continue to come to us.
“We think we’ve got an incredible team and Bombe would be nothing without the people working for it.
“Starting the business was a leap of faith.
“It’s hard, it’s tough, there’s always a challenge, always something to solve and always something more to do.
“You’ve got to be level-headed, have a strategy and a team to deliver it and I think we do.
“That’s really where our success has come from.
“Our clients need to see that they’re getting value, seeing an increase in their revenues from our product and that’s when we succeed.
“That’s what drives me to make sure that’s happening.
“I work extremely hard and don’t do much apart from that and look after my young son at the moment.
“If you want to start a business, you’ve got to be all-in.
“Your staff, your investors and your customers need that. If you’re not prepared to do that, don’t start a company.
“I don’t think there’s been a learning curve with Bombe, it’s just hard work. Success is 1% idea and 99% hard work.
“We want the best for our customers, so we’ve got to keep pushing. I like my work so I have no problem with that.”
success and growth
Bombe has attracted clients through the reputation of Mike and his team as well as press exposure.
The company also hosts webinars to showcase its data.
“Most of our work has come from people coming to us,” said Mike.
“We’ve got a growth strategy team who have significant commercial experience and they’re doing a really good job.
“We’re doing a number of webinars over the coming months to showcase what we do via LinkedIn.
“The first will be on November 19 at 11am with Joe Twyman, co-founder of Deltapoll and will reveal key insights into the shifting patterns of Londoners’ transport habits, using the latest data from TfL.
“It should be really interesting for readers.”
Transport links played a part in Mike’s decision to join the tech community at Level39 in Canary Wharf too.
“It’s a really buzzy area,” he said.
“I came to Level39 a few times before I took space here and they’ve done a great job with it.
“It’s a really interesting environment, with so many events and the view is fantastic.
“The wider area is also great – the shopping is amazing and the food offering here is the best in London.
“It’s incredibly accessible, too with the Elizabeth Line.
“It has changed the way a lot of people behave in the capital and between it and the Jubilee Line, pretty much anyone can get here, so that makes Canary Wharf good for recruitment, good for the company and good for clients.”
setting goals
It’s also not a bad environment from which to target fast growth – former Level39 startup Revolut is set to put its name atop YY London in Reuters Plaza in the not too distant future.
“Our objective is to be the best in the world,” said Mike. “We believe we have the best data, and we think that means the market will respond to it.
“Our ambition is to grow rapidly as a business, if that happens and we have the investors backing us and the team to do that.
“We want to be a name that rings out alongside the other market leaders in the space, and we think we’ll do that.
“Perhaps people reading this will be sceptical.
“There are thousands of data companies in this country. What I would say is come and talk to us to understand how we are different.”
key details: Bombe
Bombe is based at Level39’s One Canada Square offices in Canary Wharf.
It currently offers a one-off Targeting Package for businesses priced at £5,000 aimed at telling clients where and what they should be saying and who it should be directed at to best reach their audience.
The firm’s £25,000 yearly package includes monthly reports specific to the client’s industry and access to its platform and AI dashboard on an ongoing basis.
At £5,000 per month, clients also get a strategy manager to run campaigns on behalf of their business.
Those interested in its services should email contact@bombe.io for more details or visit its website.
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- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
