Callum Fergus-Fancey, a 28-year-old British entrepreneur, started his company in the basement of his parents’ West London flat. Founded in 2014, Verve is a software platform that lets brands recruit fans to sell tickets to their events, in exchange for rewards like free entry and VIP badges.
Today, Verve has raised $35 million in venture funding and grown from about five employees to 160 across offices in London, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Austin, as well as some cities in Europe.
Despite its exponential growth, Verve’s company culture has remained pretty much the same since its humble beginnings below ground, Fergus-Fancey told Business Insider. Since the beginning, Verve employees have had the freedom to choose their hours, where they work, and the meetings they attend.
Whether or not his employees came to the office or stayed nine hours, “that just wasn’t what I cared about,” Fergus-Fancey said.
