34. OneFifty Consultancy

Founders: Katie Buckett and Alex Pearmain
Founded: 2016
Website: www.onefiftyconsultancy.com

OneFifty Consultancy uses data understanding and human behaviours to help brands interact more effectively with their audience. The company has jumped from number 67 in the 2019 Startups 100 to 34 this year, and for good reason.

Founders Katie Buckett and Alex Pearmain believe that ‘being excellent at digital marketing doesn’t mean doing what’s come before, it’s doing what comes next’. For OneFifty Consultancy, this means harnessing the power of digital data and behavioural psychology.

The company charges its clients based on hourly estimates of tasks, across three tiers depending on the nature of the work. The number of clients has increased by 25% in the last year, and they vary in size and sector.

OneFifty has done away with corporate conventions like internal emails and regular catch-up meetings, a step which Buckett and Pearmain believe has helped the company become profitable after month one because ‘we free people to be the best version of them, not the version of a predefined role’. With clients like O2, American Express, and Mazda, we’d have to say this approach is working.