A groundbreaking small business in Leamington is facing an exciting future after its owner harnessed business support that he had “no idea” existed.

James Urquhart has been running marketing businesses for 15 years and had always powered them himself, with bank loans when needed. When he created his latest enterprise, an automated social media assistant - Rupert - a similar funding process beckoned…until he received some excellent advice from fellow businesses at 1 Mill Street, where he is based.

Those conversations led to James applying for - and receiving - a Warwickshire Digital Creative Recovery Co-Investment Fund grant from Warwickshire County Council.

“I’d been running businesses for 15 years and had never had a grant,” said James. “I didn’t even know that councils offered help. I’d always just taken out loans and figured it out from there.

“Then I moved to 1 Mill Street and that opened up a whole different world to me. 1 Mill Street is full of start-ups and small businesses looking for support and all pooling information and helping each other and they said, ‘could you be eligible for a support grant?’ That opened my eyes and the support has been a massive help.

“Sim and Jo at the County Council were brilliant. I can’t speak highly enough of them because without their support I would have had no idea what to do. I have really bad ADHD and dyslexia and they helped me navigate the access to finance market. They really got on board with what we were trying to do and were a huge support. The £30,000 grant, which was matched, was brilliant.”

"Rupert, named after James’ constant companion in the office, a Bedlington Terrier, is designed to solve a problem which affects many businesses on social media.

“A by-product of social media is comments and many businesses do not have the capacity to deal with them,” he said. “It is a cross-industry problem and no-one’s really tackled it. I couldn’t find a system which was remotely cost-effective so decided to build one!

“Rupert connects to the company’s social media account and monitors all the comments, 24/7. Any negative comments are quarantined until the business has time to respond in the way you want to. You can create a style in how to respond.

“It also brings all the comments into one platform which is a lot easier. For example, one of our clients is Oxford United Football Club who recently had over 12,000 comments in two days. Of those, 700 were negative and also not in English, but because Rupert is bilingual we were able to quarantine those comments in real time.”

Rupert, whose customers span a broad range of sectors from telematics to wellness and car loans to Myton Hospice, is a prime example of the innovation and enterprise that has built Warwickshire’s enviable reputation in the sector.

Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Economy, Cllr Martin Watson, said: “Rupert Digital has brought yet another dimension to our region’s amazing offer in the digital creative sector and I am delighted that our grant has been so helpful in supporting a business which helps other businesses.

“It’s also great that the supportive environment at 1 Mill Street led to James applying for the grant. Such an atmosphere of pulling together and helping each other is another reason why our county attracts and nurtures businesses so successfully.”

James, meanwhile, is now eyeing further growth for Rupert. 

“It’s lovely because it’s not just selling a product for commercial gain,” he said. “It is helping people to deal with a problem. We have a good customer base already and haven’t started properly marketing yet. It’s an exciting time and I’m really grateful to the County Council for their support and my friends at Mill Street. I love it at 1 Mill Street – I’m going absolutely nowhere!”