Manchester entrepreneurs scoop prestigious award

The founders of a Manchester-based marketing technology company have won a prestigious Great British Entrepreneur Award.

Ross Fobian and co-founder Richard Hamnett scooped the award for their call tracking and analytics company, ResponseTap.

The Great British Entrepreneur Awards, which took place on Tuesday at the Grand Connaught Rooms in Central London, celebrate the contribution and inspiration provided by entrepreneurial businesses. ResponseTap was picked as a winner by an elite panel of 33 judges and beat hundreds of other entrants.

After launching a string of successful businesses whilst still studying at University, Ross and cRichard came up with the idea for ResponseTap over a pint in 2008.

Five years later, ResponseTap is now the leader in call tracking and analytics, helping companies understand which marketing campaigns drive phone calls to their businesses and join up customer journeys across on and offline channels. It has thousands of customers, including British Gas, Aviva and TUI and manages over a million phone calls each month in the UK alone.

ResponseTap has three international offices in Manchester, London and the US and is backed by Eden Ventures.

Ross Fobian, CEO and co-founder of ResponseTap said: “We’re thrilled to have won a Great British Entrepreneur Award at this year’s ceremony. We’ve achieved an enormous amount in a short space of time, we have a strong growing business, we’ve created a product that continues to disrupt the market and we’ve given opportunity to a big team of talented people.

“Although there has been a lot of stress and some hard times, Richard and I are very proud of how far we’ve come, and a big thank you to the rest of the ResponseTap team who have helped to get us here. Of course, as entrepreneurs, we never stop seeing new opportunities so we expect the next few years of ResponseTap’s growth to be just as exciting, demanding and rewarding as the last five.”

Simon Burton, founder of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, said: “The entries we received for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards can only be described as awe inspiring. The quality was outstanding. Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the economy. They question the received wisdom, drive change and create opportunities. Entrepreneurs rescue failing industries and invent entirely new ones. They create jobs and solve problems. Entrepreneurs make something of nothing.”

Supporting the awards, David Cameron, Prime Minister said: “The spark of initiative. The courage to make your dream happen. The hard work to see it through. There’s only one strategy for growth we can have now and that is rolling up our sleeves and doing everything possible to make it easier for businesses to grow, to invest, to take people on.”

ResponseTap’s founders won the Great British Entrepreneur Award for Services Industry Entrepreneur of the Year.

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →