8 Years of Unegma
by Timothy Coleman - 23/Sep/2023
Today is the birthday of my company Unegma (yey), we are 8 🎉!
White Labelling
❓I’ve always found it difficult to define and explain exactly what my company is/does. Originally it was just a play on the word ‘Engima’ (which I created when I was around 20 years old) because I wasn’t exactly sure how to define it, so the idea is actually 16 years old.
⍰ There was some level of intentionality behind this lack of brand though. I’ve always been fascinated by reverse engineering ideas in order to find their component parts so that they can be rebuilt and replicated. So Unegma is sort of a white label for innovation.
Setting up a Company
🏢 I freelanced for a while after I finished university, under the brand ‘Unegma’ as a sole trader, but then went to work for a small company of 300 or so people because I felt like I didn’t really know what the baseline standards were within the professional world.
🗓️ After 1 year of working for this company, I decided to go back to freelancing, and set up Unegma LTD as a way of legally separating my personal life from my working life. This was also a way to begin building a brand and learning how to run a professional entity.
What we have done
💻 I have been primarily a web developer since graduating from University, so we started off doing just websites for people. Since then, we have been creating a set of reusable IP which we can use to quickly prototype sites for clients.
♣️We have also worked since 2018 supporting the London tech scene, as I have a long history of working in hospitality. We have built b2b sites for several private members clubs in London, including Century and Blacks to support events teams.
Corprorate Structure
👥 I thought about hiring for a while, but never liked the idea of taking on extra risk until I was absolutely sure I knew what I was doing; when others are reliant for their livelihoods, it’s a whole other layer of risks!
🧩 Might sound like a cop-out for taking on responsibility, but I have always preferred the idea of collaboration, and we have always sought to be a piece in others’ puzzles as opposed to running the show; Letting others do their business not trying to define it.
The Future
💰 As capitalism doesn’t really lend itself well collaboration, there might come a point where Unegma needs to hire, or equity split, but due to SEIS incentives only being available to new companies, it might be better for subsidiary Unegma companies to exist.
https://unegma.digital, https://unegma.studio, https://unegma.store