LDC Top 50 2021

Michael Frisby has been passionate about technology since he was eight years old. “A family friend wrote a game in an afternoon on my home computer and I was mesmerised,” he says.

He joined cloud specialist Cobweb Solutions after a career working for technology giants HP and Microsoft – where he was part of the team which created the first version of Tesco.com. We have got to the top of our game with an ethos of “see it, say it, fix it.” In the last five years the business has become a leading international provider of Microsoft’s cloud services.

Q&A

What is Cobweb’s USP?

The company was founded in 1996 – we were born in the cloud before the term really existed. This means we have a really deep expertise in what we do. What’s also interesting about us is that we have two businesses: Cobweb is a Managed Service Provider anchored around the Microsoft Cloud, while Vuzion, our sister company, is a Cloud Distribution business.

Tell me about your international strategy

Both Cobweb and Vuzion operate internationally. Cobweb MENA operates from Dubai and Vuzion Ireland has offices in Belfast and Dublin. Vuzion has captured around one fifth of the Azure CSP market in Ireland. We’ve just signed a partnership in Egypt and there are other opportunities across Europe and the Middle East over the longer term. We built the Irish business from scratch, and so we know how to replicate that. It’s my ambition to double the size of Cobweb and Vuzion to reach £100m in turnover in the next three years. 

What inspires you in business?

I’m a massive Formula One fan. Everyone in the sport is always striving to be the best version of themselves, constantly analysing, trying to push boundaries. I love the ethos of Lewis Hamilton and the team at Mercedes. There is a culture of no blame, just “see it, say it, fix it”. That’s how Lewis has stayed at the top of his game for eight years and that’s what I try and do here at Cobweb.