FireText Communications Ltd

The foundations for the SMS business communication company, FireText Communications were laid and developed by Dan Parker and James Huff whilst at university in York. What started out as a university project, providing group text services for a few SCUBA diving clubs, quickly expanded to providing text messages to over 3500 SCUBA divers in the UK. The project continued to expand into further development of group text messaging solutions for sport's clubs as well as small custom projects.

After spending three years developing and refining their software from James’s back bedroom in Essex, Dan and James decided to launch FireText as a system aimed at SME's in September 2010. Dan, originally from Cornwall, had been working in the county prior to launching, and was quickly gathering an understanding of the supportive business community in the region. For what was effectively a brand new startup, Cornwall seemed to be an exciting arena to launch the business, making the decision between Essex and Cornwall for FireText’s launch an easy and instantaneous one.

However, the decision did not come without a few concerns, one of which being the number of target businesses in the county- which they thought may be limited. However, as Dan points out, they were very quickly proven wrong, “It is fantastic to be part of such an exciting and prosperous business community. Quite simply, there are many, many world-class businesses flying the flag from here in the county. It is exciting to see many businesses in Cornwall utilising our technology to not only stay ahead of the game here, but also on a national level. This has led to having many national-based clients. The reliable communications networks allow us to easily interact and win business remotely anywhere in the country.”

Although FireText currently works with a number of developers that are based still in York, they are keen to expand within Cornwall and based on the high calibre of individuals Dan interacts with on a daily basis – and has no reservations.

When it comes to business support Dan enthusiastically partakes in what is available, stating, “The support networks in the region really allowed us to quickly become known and recognised. There are many business networks that allow you to explore different aspects of the business community. In particular, The HUB provides an opportunity to mix with inspiring and creative individuals. We have applied for the Graduate Start Up Programme with UCP and are part of Oxford Innovation's High Growth programme. Both have offered outstanding level of mentoring support and advice. “

FireText has had some great success in and out of county – from working with the likes of Surfer's Against Sewage within Cornwall to one of the largest event companies based in London & Manchester to running SMS competitions at the wildly popular Snowbombing Festival in Austria. Recently, Dan was presented with the Young Business Person of the Year award at the 6th annual Cornwall Business Awards.

Dan realises that part of his success is due to moving the business to Cornwall stating, “Aside from being a wonderful place to live, Cornwall consistently offers exciting surprises and challenges. The open-minded, yet supportive community allows for many possibilities to grow your business.”