Where Are They Now: Russell Attwood, founder of Route 101

The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders programme has celebrated more than 300 exceptional individuals since its launch in 2018. In this series, we reconnect with some of our alumni to find out what happened next in their growth journey, the impact of being part of the programme, and their ambitions now.

“I love going up against the gorillas in our space – and winning,” says Russell Attwood, founder of cloud-based contact centre company Route 101. Since featuring The LDC Top 50 in 2021, Attwood has grown revenues at his business by 50pc and doubled headcount. “We are winning bigger and more ambitious projects than ever before,” he reveals, adding that AI implementation is the hottest trend right now.

Route 101 is Attwood’s second successful venture; his first sold to Capita. He says: “A lot of people thought I was mad to set up another business from scratch, and that was a great motivator. We’re on course to reach £100m in turnover by 2031.”

What project from the last three years are you proudest of?

We worked with a partner to deliver the 119 test and trace service. That was a national infrastructure project, and our technology supported 13,500 advisors, taking inbound responses from individuals reporting positive Covid-19 tests. There was enormous pressure to get it right and the team at Public Health England was hugely appreciative of our work.

How strong are your international sales?

We focus on global firms that are headquartered in the UK. As long as there is a secure internet connection, we can deliver our service. We follow them around the world, but we have no offices outside the UK. We would like to go international in the future, but there’s just too much to go after in the UK right now.

What’s been your smartest decision since 2021?

We have invested in our professional services arm, which takes instruction from a client about the implementation of new technology. No one buys 100 licences one day and just turns it on the next. So, we’ve now become an extension of the client, handling configuration, training, onboarding, the works, and that side of the business is growing fast.