Data entrepreneurs celebrate continued growth

Two entrepreneurs who swapped their careers in insurance to create their own tech start-up are celebrating as their business continues to grow rapidly.

Jason Turner and Sarah Burns previously worked as operational directors at insurance firm BGL Group, the parent company of Comparethemarket.com, for more than 20 years, before launching their own start-up consultancy Data2Action in 2017.

The pair started the business at home and, using their combined knowledge and experience, set about providing support to enterprises wanting to grow and improve their operations.

The company, which is based at the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) in Sunderland, has grown rapidly since its launch two years ago and now employs seven staff members alongside Jason and Sarah.

Jason said: “Initially, we provided operational and data protection services to a number of large clients spread across the country.

“Then, we started to see a real rise in demand from companies in the North East including those in the tech sector.

“With the ever-present advancement in technology and the desire for most organisations to optimise their performance, many are looking at ways to transform what they do in order to future proof their business.

“Whilst buying technology goes someway to help that, creating a data centric culture is paramount to success and we believe as a centre for excellence, the North East has great potential.”

The introduction of GDPR last year, which aimed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe and give consumers greater protection over their own data, had a huge impact on many businesses.

Jason continued: “It’s a commonly used phrase in the tech industry nowadays that data is the new oil, and it isn’t far from the truth.

“The value of data has risen massively in recent years and with the introduction of GDPR, it has become as important as ever for businesses to not only protect their data but also to maximise the effects of it.”

Data2Action helps companies make the most out of their data in order to increase the value of it as an asset and enable them to gain insights into their business performance and customer needs.

Jason added: “We can’t believe how fast we’ve grown over the last two years.

“We now have a team of seven experts on our books and we’re looking at investing in a new office at the BIC, which will allow us to better serve our clients and bring our team together to think about how we can continue to improve our service going forward.

“It will also mean we’ll be located right at the heart of the North East, giving us easy access to our clients across the region as well as being able to tap into support from the local authorities and universities which was a huge draw for us choosing the North East.

“Add to that the rapidly growing tech scene and it was a no-brainer.”