Startups Awards Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011

Founder: Craig Le Grice Year started: 2011 Website: www.coskill.com

Not only is 26-year-old Craig Le Grice our Young Entrepreneur of the Year, CoSkill is the youngest company among this year’s winners. That the business has yet to celebrate its first birthday makes its achievements to date all the more impressive. In just 10 months, CoSkill has built up a global client base stretching from Singapore to San Francisco, including a number of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 firms. Meanwhile, CoSkill’s team members have worked for some of the world’s best known companies.

On a mission to deliver the best of three “broken” sectors – management consultancy, advertising and technology – CoSkill is not your average consultancy business. Le Grice, who had the idea for the business while studying at Harvard in 2010, describes it as a “next generation strategic consultancy – smarter than an advertising agency, more fun than a management consultancy and more integrated than a straight technology firm.”

What this means in practice, he says, is that CoSkill helps clients to realise actual business change by setting and achieving tangible goals. Projects so far have included helping a major UK bank understand new digital technology, launching a new mobile revenue stream for a retailer and creating a brand hierarchy for a large US publishing group. Judges’ comments: The judges felt it takes a high level of intellect to intersect a market at a particular time and Craig Le Grice is one who stands out from the crowd. Started in February the company already has an enviable roster of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 clients, who have turned to his consultancy for very specialised digital and social media marketing knowledge. The company’s turnover and profits were way beyond levels expected of such a fledgling business – and by surrounding himself with true talent, the judges felt Coskill’s potential is huge.