Unleashed boldly proclaims its presence on Takapuna’s Northcroft Street, with its red logo stretching the width of the building it moved to in June this year. Another Takapuna success story to be exposed. Who or what is Unleashed – and what, exactly, is the company unleashing?
Unleashed Software was founded in 2009 by Greg Murphy, and has grown to be a global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company. Unleashed provides product businesses with supply, production, inventory and sales software, distributed via direct and partner sales channels to more than 3500 companies in more than 80 countries; its main markets are in Australia, the UK, New Zealand and the USA.
From its beginnings, Unleashed has had a strong connection to the North Shore — it grew from the Massey University e-Centre in Albany. It has grown from a small team of founders and software developers to where it is today: in June as the company moved to its new Takapuna office, it also celebrated the 100th employee milestone. The Takapuna office is Unleashed’s new global headquarters; as the company has grown it has also established regional teams, with the largest in Bristol in the UK.
As Unleashed Software has grown, so too has the company structure. Chief Executive Officer is Gareth Berry, who has been with the company since the beginning, after many years’ experience in software companies. Lisa Miles-Heal is Chief Operating Officer; she joined five years ago and is currently based in the UK office where the team has grown to 20. Cameron Ford, Chief Financial Officer, joined the company in January this year and Julian Wheeler is the newly appointed Chief Product Officer; he comes to Unleashed from executive positions in various broadcasting companies.
As Unleashed is a SaaS product, it too has evolved as the company has grown. The company releases enhancements and features every week, requiring the product and development teams based in Takapuna to use an agile approach to manage their delivery. As the product feature set has increased, so have opportunities to market and sell widened, and other company functions (sales, marketing, customer engagement, people and culture, and operations) have grown.
“The North Shore has always been part of Unleashed Software’s DNA,” says Gareth Berry, “so being based in Takapuna is an obvious choice. Being close to the beach and the relaxed Takapuna atmosphere has become part of our Unleashed culture.
“We ask people when they come to work each day to bring their authentic self, because through this uniqueness we can create, manage and support the best solution for our customers.
“The activities we encourage make the most of the Takapuna location and include department competitions, sports, fishing, paddle boarding, beach picnics and more. We also have pizza on Fridays, regular team events and outings, and encourage people to take their birthdays off.”
The Takapuna location also helps with diversity, he adds “as our staff ranges from graduates who have recently joined, to staff who’ve been here for five years, from older, family-oriented people to younger part-time workers who are still studying while working at Unleashed.
“Many staff live on the Shore so we love the beach-side location, and not having to cross the Bridge! There’s also the added bonus of great spots for coffees or lunch, shops for when you forgot to bring your towel and are desperate for a swim, and great access to public transport for those who do live further afield.
“We have remained on the North Shore for 10 years now and it’s certainly not by force! Takapuna is a place that we feel aligns closely to our values and ways of work. One of our core values is ‘Always having fun’, and for us, Takapuna beach has always been conducive to this. It encourages us all to make the most of nature's playground when the sun is out. The beach makes for a great company picnic or games spot and there is a strong sense of community and a relaxed way of life.”
Being part of the North Shore ecosystem has also allowed Unleashed to take advantage of the support of services like ATEED, Massey University, Takapuna Beach Business Association and Auckland’s Grow North Initiative.
“We love promoting opportunities to further technology and software development endeavours in the local community,” says Gareth. “We’ve previously hosted Unleashed Hackathon Days where we invited local college students to participate. This gave them the chance to work on fun projects and practice creative thinking outside of their school environments. We also partner with local tertiary institutions to give students and recent graduates an internship opportunity.”
