Today is our second day at our new firm : Impact IP (Impact Intellectual Property LLP). The founding team are Rosie Lees, Cara Berry, Andy Weaver, Thomas Mooseder, and Vicki Salmon. I owe a huge debt of thanks to these guys for joining me on this journey – they have showed great faith through their willingness to join a brand new venture.

I also want to thank our clients for joining us – although we have a start up mentality of ‘everything is possible’ we are really lucky to be starting with some many great clients from day one. I’m inspired by our clients’ technology – your mission is our mission. On top of that, one of the great things about this profession is building long relationships – I would genuinely call many of our clients friends.  You know who you are – your support is very much appreciated.

So how does it feel to be in the early days of a new company? Bit of a rollercoaster: in the last 48 hours I have felt relief that it all works as planned, pride in our team, excitement to be starting something new and the buzz of a start up (I have seen it in our clients, now I experience it first hand). There was a bit of worry, I’ll be honest, sprinkled in there too. The overriding emotion today is a surge of positive energy!

I know that there will be hard times ahead and I’m expecting some unexpected challenges. I’m confident that with this fantastic team and clients that we will rise to those and build a flourishing company.

Thanks also goes out to my wife and family, they have been a rock during those long nights of the soul, and my Vistage UK group. If you don’t know Vistage, you should- it has (as Stephen Blake once said to me) given me the vocabulary to approach problems, and the confidence to see past them.

I’ll post more about our purpose, vision and values soon, for now it is happy (belated) birthday Impact IP!