Alpha Group - Morgan Tillbrook

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Victoria Stevens: [00:00:00] Hi, I am Victoria Stevens, and welcome to this podcast, stock Exchanges In my day job, working as a fund manager at Lion Trust, investing on behalf of our clients in UK stock market listed companies. I'm fortunate enough to cross paths with some of Britain's most inspiring entrepreneurs. It's a huge privilege to sit across the table from the people who've put their heart and soul into growing and running companies.

And in this series, I want to share that privilege with you, our listeners. My guest today is Morgan Tillbrook, the founder and former Chief executive of Alpha Group Alpha was conceived as a provider of foreign exchange risk management services to medium sized businesses, those big enough to need to manage the risk of transacting in multiple different currencies.

But small enough to make for it to make very little economic sense to employ a team of people in-house to help manage that risk. The pitch was to provide a consultancy led service, a one-stop shop, [00:01:00] handholding the customer in planning and executing a comprehensive FX risk management strategy. Now Alpha has experienced rapid growth in the 15 years since Morgan founded the business, going from a single office in Berkshire to a SE two 50 listed business, employing almost 500 people across 10 offices around the globe.

It significantly diversified its offering into technology enabled alternative banking services like global bank accounts, multi-bank connectivity and payments, and the business's success has been in large part down to Morgan's unparalleled ambition and entrepreneurial drive. At its heart, his approach has been to create and fiercely protect a high performance, customer-centric culture.

One which deeply values and rewards those all important people working for the business. And we're gonna get into all of that during the podcast, which comes at a really interesting juncture for Alpha with Morgan having stepped down from the business he created just at the [00:02:00] beginning of this year.

Morgan, thank you so much for joining me today.

Morgan Tillbrook: It's a pleasure.

Victoria Stevens: So to start with, I think I'd like to take you back to life before Alpha. I'd like to revisit the early years of your career for a moment and understand your background a little bit better. As I understand it, this venture was not your first entrepreneurial venture, so it'd be great to hear a little bit about those early days.

Morgan Tillbrook: No, it wasn't my first, but it's definitely my most successful and the one that I remember more of being, a big chunk of my life, 16 years. And looking back, I certainly didn't ever expect to achieve the level of success that we did as a business. I say we, 'cause, it certainly wasn't just me as an incredible team that I surrounded myself with.

And I think that's something that I seem to be very good at picking people and delegating to them. And if I was to look back, when I was much younger at school, I certainly wouldn't have ever thought I'd have. Built with it two 50. I went to a state school, had a pretty tough time at school, being dyslexic.

Back then, I'm 42 now. So back then there wasn't really much support foric people. There wasn't spell check or laptops or extra time. It was in the deep end and figure [00:03:00] out for yourself. So yeah, it was a bit of a tough start. But I think that, I think at school actually was probably what made me, if I'm honest, I think it was that adversity of being dyslexic and.

When you are dyslexic, you often find that you are really good at a few things and terrible at everything else. And and actually that's where I first started to delegate. 'cause I had a Saturday job and I realized I could pay people to do the coursework and the subjects that I disliked and I could focus on the subjects that I did which was, maths and arts.

Pretty much fortunately did all wear subjects at school and but it taught me to delegate from a young age. Which, I took on into business and, but after school, which you know, only did my GCC, I didn't finish my levels. I started them, but I didn't finish them.

After school, I turned my hand to a few things really. I tried everything from dealing in cars to. To mobile phones, to, all an array of things that I tried and but my first sort of main venture before Alpha would've been the poker business, which is a business called the Poker Project, which was because going back a long time now, so we launched a poker project, similar time [00:04:00] to Facebook.

And we realized there was an opportunity to mix online poker with a kind of a social element. So we built a social online poker league that grew really well and of course collected a lot of data and a lot of customers, up and down the country. And we had these great competitions where people could.

Be sent off to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas or European poker tours in Europe. And it was a real fun time. I, I remember it fondly a lot of my friends ended up working for me 'cause it was this fun poker business that we were in our early twenties. And but eventually, we sold that business to was Sky at the time it was called BB Sky B was their name back then.

And, and yeah, and that was my first, I would say, successful venture before, before Alpha. And I learned a lot from that business and then took a few years out and yeah, started Alpha. 

Victoria Stevens: So having had that taste of entrepreneurial entrepreneurialism early on, what prompted the decision to start Alpha?

I know you haven't mentioned there any kind of background or prior experience in financial services, and the business was clearly founded in 2009. [00:05:00] I think so, yes. In the grip of the financial crisis. A brave time to launch it. So tell us a little bit about how you came to decide to launch the business in the first place.

Morgan Tillbrook: I had zero experience with financial services. And and no experience in, in, in foreign exchange either. But I, I actually came across a couple of guys talking about foreign exchange sitting on a chairlift skiing in, in, in a ski resort in France, and went away and did some research looked into the industry and quite quickly could see there was an opportunity there.

And I felt that when looking at the competition. That although the banks had antiquated systems, a lot of the, a lot of the incumbent foreign exchange brokers also had old systems. They weren't cloud-based yet. They were on SQL servers and so forth. And and also a lot of them weren't really focused.

They were servicing all types of customers. Retail, small corporates, large corporates. Doing payments, doing hedging, even doing cash travel money back then before going back now, aren't we? We taking money and cash on a holiday and there wasn't really a focus and I could see there was an opportunity there and I could also see the tailwinds.

I think, technology was starting to gather pace and I. [00:06:00] And I felt there was, there was gonna be continuous tailwinds to take share from the banks. And yeah, so I, I did some research. I wrote to a few of the competitors to ask for some support or, if they wanted to invest in, in my startup, most of them, most of 'em ignored me.

One didn't, one, one came back to me, a lovely chap with Stuart Blake, who ran a business at the time called Corporate Effects and. He took a share in the business and kinda acted as a mentor. 'cause I had no experience in the industry. I felt I needed at least somebody that I could talk to.

And Stewart was, that was that sounding board and that mentor to me in, in, in the early days. Yeah, it wasn't, there wasn't long for Rover took their business, we still have a relationship. 

Victoria Stevens: Oh, good to hear. And in terms of. That, those early days and how you created the foundations of the culture, this, as I mentioned in the introduction, have been so important to the business's success.

What do you, how do you feel that you went about defining what that culture really meant for you? I. 

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah, that's a good question. It's a long time to go back, but what I would say was I was quite fortunate that when I launched Alpha, that I had some financial backing from my [00:07:00] previous venture. And so I, I wasn't really in the need or the requirement to.

Draw to draw a big salary to, to, to live. So actually payments have a very low salary for a long time. So I think that gave me the freedom to focus on doing things the right way and building those foundations as opposed to worrying about making money today. To reward myself, so to speak.

So payments have very little for the. For the first six, seven years and just focused on the foundations, doing things the right way, avoiding the paths of least resistance, where, you take the shortcuts to ensure that, that foundation was in place. And and of those foundations, the one that probably stands out the mo as the most important is putting customers, at the front, and and treating them.

Treating them in ways which they want to return and recommend you to other customers. And that often comes, especially in a business like, like Alpha comes down to providing, impartial advice, which is right for the customer, not necessarily right for the revenues of the company. So it's that long-term approach and ingraining that.

And when you build that into your sales culture, which trust me is very rare when new salespeople come to the [00:08:00] business, they look to the left, they look to the right, and they see people doing it the right way and earning. Good money from doing it the right way. That becomes infectious and it becomes scalable, and then you just have to protect it like it's.

Like it's everything. 'cause it is, and yeah, your reputation is everything, but ultimately your culture and how you sell and you represent the business is at the forefront. And yeah, we spent a lot of time, ingraining that into the business. And unfortunately sometimes having to let people go, people that are great at generating revenue, but they just, they couldn't help themselves.

They'd see additional revenue on the table and they would want to take it at the expense of, the future. So we were very resolute in our standards and our principles around, around that, and I think that's probably the secret source to the business. 

Victoria Stevens: Yeah. And we'll definitely come back and pick up on some of those threads in some questions later on, if that's okay.

One thing that I, you touched upon there a little bit and we've talked about before, is just the importance of sourcing great talent and how you felt that is one area where. You look back with pride on your track record. Tell us a little bit about what you look for in the people that joined the [00:09:00] business.

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah. I think, being a service, that organization, talent is a huge part of your your value. And we got a phenomenal team at Alpha and I enjoyed as part, yeah. I think I enjoyed interviewing and selecting talent more than everything and what was it really looked for?

I often looked for people that were very. We looked for humility. That was a real strong trait that we'd look for, but often wouldn't look for people that well polished. We almost had a, not a distrust, that's a strong word, but I looked for people that were more, not more is a strong, that's the wrong word, but look for people who authentic in themselves and people that I could see would be able to build relationships with the team.

And I've seen it many times in business where you can have people that are. Too well polished and they struggle to coach other people or empower other people because they have an aura about them, which is almost like they know everything and they're super smart and super bright. And then people are frightened of asking questions that maybe appear stupid.

For example, a good example actually would be, this is a really good example. It would be sales directors more often than not. The best salesperson gets promoted as a sales director, [00:10:00] and nearly is always a disaster. And the reason it's a disaster is because the best salesperson often becomes a best salesperson because they're naturally good at being a salesperson.

And because they're naturally good at it, they didn't have to work hard at becoming good at sales. And therefore, when they become a sales director, they haven't got the empathy with people that need coaching. Because for them it's why can't you do it? It's easy. 'cause it was because, do you know what I mean?

'cause it was natural for them. And the best sales directors are actually people that have found it really difficult in the first two, three years. And they had to coach themselves to learn, develop. And then when they become that sales director, they have the empathy for people that are struggling and they have the skills to know how to coach people.

'cause it wasn't just natural for them. I think that's a really good example of a sales director, but actually it covers across an entire business in all roles. And if you hire people that are that kind of, that really polished individual that. Can do everything really easily and naturally. They're not always the best coach.

So I look for people that have, I wouldn't say struggled, but I look for authentic people that aren't necessarily super articulate. And but that you can just tell there's a warmth about them and a level [00:11:00] of compassion and empathy that they'll make. They'll make good coaches because ultimately people, they're

Victoria Stevens: a great culture fit, right?

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah. Your best leaders need to be great coaches. 'cause ultimately they'll be succeeded at some day, at some point in the future. And but there's a lot of good leaders out there that aren't necessarily good coaches, but they're really good at doing the job. So I think I was always looking for people like that, and a culture like that as well.

'cause people grow and develop a lot faster in, in a speak up culture where people aren't frightened of, asking questions even if they may appear stupid at that point in time. Or naive for example. 

Victoria Stevens: Yeah, I think that's fantastic advice, particularly with a business that lives and dies by that culture.

So let's, we've obviously covered some of the early years at Alpha and the defining of that all important culture, but I guess I'd like to explore a little bit. What happened as you started to scale the business to diversify away from solely that original provision of ethics, risk management services?

Because over the business's more recent history, as I mentioned in my introduction, you've moved into alternative banking. You've focused on alternative investment management clients. You've [00:12:00] grown that client base, you've expanded internationally using the key talent from the UK to seed those international offices and preserve that culture.

You've been very busy, and I guess if I took a step back from that, I think one thing that seems to be true from the outside at least, is that the thing that appears to unite this is this real hunger, this entrepreneurial hunger to capitalize on opportunity and a willingness to take.

Calculated risks to grow the business for the long term. And I guess I wanted to ask you if that chimes with you, do, would you agree with that? 

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah, when I look back at Alpha's journey and some of the diversification our first international move was to Canada. And Canada had a really good start for the first couple of years, but then it flatlined and had a really difficult time.

And and actually the core reason for Canada not having a great start was we hired externally to fill that role. And all the other offices around the world that we launched were seeded from. From the UK talent base and were successes and had no issues 'cause the culture was ingrained and they knew how to do it the alpha way.

[00:13:00] And so yeah, we didn't always get it right. We did learn that when you're gonna go overseas, if you can always try and export your talent, I. Because they just know your business inside out and it's a known quantity. And we took risks of, sometimes hiring Stanley and it didn't work for us.

But no but generally speaking, your point about diversification, I think most good on most good entrepreneurs have a level of high level of paranoia. I. I certainly have a high level of paranoia and and therefore diversifying is a way to reduce your exposure to, to, revenues falling for whatever reason it may be.

And also, it divers the way, diversifies away from risks of, technology, and all sorts of other risks. So it was hardwired, to diversify. And the first move was to go from corporate then into institutionals. And then it was, then it was to go global.

And then, we've launched other products like Coase our technology offering. But the key is I. Knowing where to play and how to win. 'cause you can place too many bets and if you actually place 'em in the wrong places and you dunno how to pull 'em together and make them win it's not gonna work.

So when we did make those, place those bets or make those investments, we always did it with a real level of [00:14:00] discipline and, ask ourselves these questions like, does it actually make the overall business stronger? Or actually we gonna create more, distraction for ourselves in a tough climate, because I think that should be the test. If you make an investment, but actually in a tough environment, it's gonna make you stronger, then that's great. But actually, if it's gonna spread your management bandwidth and it's gonna start to pull, pull right to left and then it's not necessarily a good idea.

So we were very disciplined in, in, in making investments that we felt strength in the business and, were the right ones and ones we were sure we had a strategy to win in. I think that's critical. And we also. Very much leading in decentralization. I think another thing, if you're gonna make investments, you're gonna diversify.

It's important to, to, I think to ensure that you empower the people to run those businesses and you decentralize them so they can be successful and not be held back. As a business gets bigger, you have more, it very quickly becomes more bureaucratic so that, that independence and flexibility is really important.

Victoria Stevens: And we'll definitely come back and pick up a little bit on that incentivization piece in a little while. So you pulled on a bit of a thread there that I wanted to pick up [00:15:00] anyway, which was the role of technology within the business. I think it's very difficult to have any conversation with any business nowadays with, and ignore this technological wave that's sweeping the world with the rise of ai.

And I've heard you describe Alpha before as half human, half digital, which is a really interesting way of thinking about that. Human augmented by technology type approach, achieving the best outcomes. So just wanted to understand how you apply, the lessons of technol, technological advancement to the opportunities and threats of the AI revolution for Alpha's business.

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah, from the early days we were quite lucky 'cause we set up in 2009 and we adopted. The cloud from day one. So we didn't have any legacy which was brilliant. But yeah trying to keep up with it and evolve is key. There are, at this point in time, the banks still have the lion's share of our market and they have very antiquated systems to to say the least.

And of course there's old antiquated systems such as chaps and backs and the payment [00:16:00] networks around the world as well. But we are seeing them. Start to improve and and new versions being launched. So staying in front of it is critical. So that's why we bought, Coase is a business that, connects all of your banking infrastructure into one place so our clients can conceal their balances in one place and in instigate payments, from our platform, as opposed them to log into each bank.

So we're investing by buying technology. We're also, building our own technology and. Just trying to stay abreast with what's changing and what's happening. And it takes time for these things to, to, to evolve. And, you touched on AI there, and I think AI is an opportunity.

A good example is, was, when I was doing the final budgeting process at Alpha last year in our HR team. You, I was looking to add some heads and they decided they didn't need to add any heads, 'cause actually in reality they could use, Chachi PT to write contracts or amend contracts.

So they, there are some efficiencies that, that come with ai, but I think it also creates other other roles as well. And I look at AI a bit like when Power Tools came out for carpenters. Ev every, you would think what's that gonna do? The carpenters are gonna be outta work.

But you try and find a carpenter now, right? It's still really difficult to find a good carpenter. [00:17:00] Power tools didn't compete to disrupt that injury. Just meant that they could be more productive and more efficient. So I think there'll be new opportunities in other areas, and of course there'll be job losses in in, in others.

But but I think the key is staying abreast and reading a lot, which I'm getting to do now that I'm. That I'm retired. So I've read a fair few books on AI, and I'm not convinced it's quite as intelligent as in the name. We all know how it a lot of us know how it works.

It predicts what the next words are gonna be or in, it is process of how it operates. And there's a lot, there's a lot still out there to see how far it can go and what it can actually do. But the, I think the key is reading. Staying abreast, investing. And also not trying, I don't think you have to win the beating edge.

When you're investing, investing can mean partnering with companies that are on the beating edge and spending lots of investors money trying to invent new technologies. And so I think the key is looking for partners as well. I love that you can leverage.

Victoria Stevens: I love that carpenter analogy. I suppose one thing that I was thinking of with the question was if we take it to a sort of higher level, just conceptually about a business that at least for a [00:18:00] significant chunk of the company's revenues are derived first and foremost from the provision of a consultancy led offering.

Okay. Yeah. And the fact that it those people based services, if you like. Certainly there's been a lot of talk about how they theoretically could be disrupted, so just very interested to. Understand how you think about the role of the human or human to human interaction, I should probably say in the provision of such services.

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah. In the provision of our services. I'm not too worried. We've always focused on the larger clients with more complex issues as opposed to say if you're a, a customer, wise, it's very technology led and the challenges those humans that use Wise face are pretty.

Pretty simple as well. If you're, a global institution or investment vehicle and you've got assets all around the world and there's really complex compliance with that, it's, it requires intelligent humans to, to support that technology, that service. So we've always we've based ourselves in in services that [00:19:00] require intelligent human interaction, but enabled by technology as opposed to actually, if you look at a WISE, for example, not big derogatory, they're a great business.

They're less, they, technology's actually first, it's almost like they're technology first and then they're, and then, and it's enabled by people. As opposed to the, have I got the right way around? I might have got the right around, but you know the point I'm making it's technology first with people to support it as we're out for it.

It is people first and technology that supports it. And and I think that's a good place to be in, in this world. 'cause it's gives you more pricing power more value added your customers. And but that being said, there will be some efficiencies. There will be some evolvements because of AI and we'll look to, I say we, I'm not here there anymore.

They will I'm sure. 'cause we're a fantastic team. We'll look to, to, to adjust the business where they can in regard to that. 

Victoria Stevens: I'm conscious I could personally spend the entire podcast to talking about that topic. I need to be disciplined and force myself to move on. But thanks so much for the thoughts there.

I wanted to move us now to talking about another, what I see as being a really key moment in the Alpha journey, which is the decision to list the business on the AIM market in 2017. And for our listeners. Purposes. I [00:20:00] just wanted to point out that you spent the first, a number of years on the AIM market and spoke very fondly of how important the role that junior market had played for the business had been before you then moved to the main market in 2024.

And then subsequently, as we mentioned previously joined the FTSE two 50 index. But at a, taking a step back to that first decision to list the business what motivated that decision and what do you think it meant for the business?

Morgan Tillbrook: Firstly we wanted to raise some capital, 'cause we wanted to grow, grow the business and we were moving up the food chain with large and large customers, and therefore those customers needed bigger credit lines.

So it was for capital. It was also because I wanted to create a platform to, motivate the team. With share schemes and rewards and being a public company, share schemes, are more tangible than in a private company. Just, that's a fact. And therefore, that was one of the, one of the key reasons and we looked at.

There's plenty of private equity companies that are courting Alpha and there's some really good private equity companies out there, but there's also a lot of bad ones and I didn't feel like I wanted to roll the dice and take the risk. [00:21:00] Having partners that would have, a level of control.

I. That wouldn't necessarily have the same alignment, in, in the long term, goals that I would have, I think naturally higher equity buy the business and they're thinking in five, seven years you wanna sell it. And they're thinking about the sale and it's all about a destination and monetization.

That doesn't really align with. Building a long term business and a culture centric one. So I didn't think that PE was the right route for us. And actually before we went public, actually we did reach out to the best part of, 10, 15 CEOs and CFOs of other listed businesses.

Ones that had gone well, ones that hadn't gone well, and did a lot of research and met those customers and I wanted to learn why some. We, had a good journey and some didn't. We didn't go in, with anything but, wide up, wide open eyes.

So after that, not only did we pick up a few customers while doing that due diligence it cemented that it was the right thing to do. And, I think I, I took away some principles and how to manage a public company from that. And, it obviously worked out quite well.

Victoria Stevens: Yeah, absolutely. And it seems like the right moment now to pick up on that. Mentality of equity ownership which has pervaded the business' [00:22:00] culture since the very beginning. And you've talked eloquently there about the long-term time horizon that it confers upon. Not just you, but the people who are below you in the business or were below you in the business as well as shareholders as well.

So I, I guess I. I'd like to ask you an open question really, about how you think about the power of equity incentivization, not just at the very high levels, but right through the organization. 

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah, no I think it's a fantastic tool and something that's. Played a huge part in Alpha's success. I think one thing we did, but was quite unique to a lot of businesses is that we had a lot of share schemes.

So Alpha didn't have one PLC scheme that then issued out to people if the business performed, we actually had, dozens in the end of share schemes that were individually split up across the different divisions and different departments. So therefore we could really align the remuneration to the team's performance as opposed to the business performance.

Because the last thing I wanted was. Corporate, hedging going really well. Funds not going well. But the funds get to, vest their shares [00:23:00] and dilute people like myself and you, Victoria, when they haven't actually delivered. So we decentralized our share schemes to create that level of accountability.

And also it's more motivating I think if you're an individual and you start the year and you think what I've gotta do is do X, Y, and Z, which we as a team of control of, and we, we can achieve X shares, you're more likely to. Put the discretionary energy in and go further. So that was quite unique in, in doing that.

And it took a bit of convincing of my board that we should do that. And actually I got the idea from Warren Buffett, 'cause a lot of the businesses that he's invested in, he he has this approach, he has this approach as well where he believes that remuneration should be linked to as much as possible to, to the individual.

That's that's contributing. So yeah, no it was a fantastic, tool. Even more so when you target it like we did. And to be honest, it was probably the highlights of my career at Alpha, each year, seeing the shares vest. It was fantastic.

And some of the messages I would get, the messages I would get and cards or pictures of people's first house they bought and they sent to me on WhatsApp was, was magical. And, and yeah, we definitely, the fond my fondest memories and and it's something that Alpha is still support and Clive is a big believer in as well.

Long, long way to continue, at Alpha, but a big supporter of [00:24:00] share schemes. Yeah, 

Victoria Stevens: absolutely. It's, and it's really tangible when I, when you talk about that personal pride that you had at watching the shared success. In the business' success, if you like. Great to hear that.

I wanna pick up on two recent decisions, one of which is linked to that equity incentivization piece. But first I guess it's relatively unusual for us to see a founder manager. Step down from the CEO's role, but also fully step away from the business. I think it, it's probably more normal if we wanna call it that for those characters to remain on the board in some capacity involved in the business in some capacity.

So I'm really interested in getting some insight into that highly personal decision that you made to not just step down from the day-to-day running of the business, but also almost formally handing over those reins. In entirety. 

Morgan Tillbrook: I think it goes back to my point I made earlier about saying that I was always a good delegator from an early age, being dyslexic, trying to find [00:25:00] people that could do things that I was pretty bad at.

And and I think to be honest, empowering people is critical. And when you delegate to people, empowering them is the next important step. And had I stayed on the board, I don't think it'd been very empowering for Clive to have me sat there and people would naturally look to me. Because I've been here for 16 years I think that, yes, half the battle is delegating to the, to, to the right people.

Another half of the battle was then empowering them. And I knew that Clive was a very capable person. I knew that he was better suited to run the business than I am today with the nature of its size and complexity and where it is in the journey. And and yeah, just I didn't think it was the right thing to do and I was confident in the decision.

And I think, and, I committed to retaining a large percentage of my shares for the next three years when I did that to show the market, look this is genuine. This is I rate this individual, I rate the team are behind him. And therefore I respect him and I wanna empower him to take the business to the next level.

And that's what it came down to. And and I think the other reason why I did the lock in for three years, which I've done a number of times. I think I did three years, three times, three year lock-ins was also sends a really clear message to my [00:26:00] team. Like when I was leaving the business, I didn't want other shareholders who'd had shares issued over the years through the share schemes to think, to panic and go.

I better sell now 'cause it's the top, the founder's leaving. So by me saying, no guys, I'm gonna hold my shares, was a really strong message to my team. So when I said to my team, look, Clive can do this. He's gonna grow this business, don't sell the shares 'cause I'm not selling my shares.

I'm gonna keep the majority of them. I think those messages are really important. And I think it also, strikes that long term view. So 

Victoria Stevens: and so is a difficult juncture for the business when the founder does step away, but it is, it's quite hard to think of someone who's better qualified than Clive to take the reins at this stage.

Morgan Tillbrook: For sure. He was my mentor. Let's not forget, when I went to Clive and asked him to be the chairman, it was 2016, so it was, nine years nine years before I stepped down. So he's, he's been with me from, 30. Two to 42. I said, a lot of maturity happens from the eight to 32 to 42 in business.

And a lot of that would've been down to Clive. And he was at a fantastic sounding board. And and he learned a lot about the business because of his very close relationship to me and to the company over those years. And let's not [00:27:00] forget, Clive, Clive, when CL Clive was started to be chairman of the business, we were 40 people.

Just doing corporate effects. So he lived all of the diversification, he lived all of the investments. So he knows the business inside out and but yeah, he just he's one of those individuals that's just better suited because he has the, that type of brain that can handle all the regulation and the public markets and all the investments and all the reporting and.

As a business it gets bigger and it's, and and more complex, it requires a different type of person. I'm more of, instinctive individual that trust trusts my intuition I'm creative and I'm certainly not comparing myself to Steve Jobs in any stretch of imagination.

But Steve Jobs, he was the creative at Apple. And everyone thinks of Apple and they think of Steve Jobs. We actually look at the market value, the market capital capitalization of Apple, when. Jobs stepped down and unfortunately passed away to, and to what, the new CEO has done is phenomenal.

And apple didn't go backwards because of Tim Cook. Tim Cook just knew how to take those innovations. I. Forward better. I think Clive's, my Tim Cook, so [00:28:00] to speak. Love that.

Victoria Stevens: And if that was an unusual decision, I think the second of those two decisions that I mentioned we were gonna talk about is certainly to my knowledge without precedent in the London market, which is your decision to bequeath a significant proportion of your own personal shareholding to the senior leaders of the business that you'd left behind.

So for the benefit of our list. You announced earlier in the year that you pledged shares worth around 28 million pounds to a number of the senior leadership team to thank them for their historic performance, but also critically to incentivize them for future performance. So tell us a little bit about that unprecedented decision.

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah, it's quite, it was a reasonable, list of people and it wasn't a, it wasn't just a handful. Yeah, look, I think to be honest. I felt that the team had stood behind me for a long time. They'd given me everything. And and a lot of the success is down to them.

I. And I wanted to reward them and I also [00:29:00] wanted to ensure that Alpha would go through that transition where a founder led business to being led by Clive with as much chance or success as possible. And as one Buffer always says, show me the reation, I'll show you the behavior. So I thought, that will help.

So that, and ultimately is still a big shareholder in the business. It's, there's a little bit of. Selfishness in there too. It's not all just, it's not all, just all just a nice gift, so to speak. But ultimately it was just something that felt right.

It just felt right and I wanted to do it and I enjoyed doing it. And I. And I'm sure the team are doubling down and working super hard because of it. Yeah. But again, I applied my principles with that share scheme. They were, I spit it up. So they were, it was across different divisions of the company based on their performance.

It's that decentralized re, reward scheme again. There's lots of people there that are, incentivized in control of delivering on those schemes for themselves. And I think that will generate, a lot of momentum for the business and support Clive as well in, in getting things.

Or keeping things, keeping things moving at a high pace. 

Victoria Stevens: Yeah, absolutely. So [00:30:00] you are obviously now in the position where you've got a lot more leisure time than you have had for a very long time. So I thought it'd be interesting really to delve a little bit into life after Alpha and what that looks like.

And one thing, which I can't let you leave without talking about is your passion for racing cars. You've been a registered British GT Championship driver for a number of years, so I'm guessing that you're spending quite a lot of time indulging in that particular passion. Tell us a bit about that.

Morgan Tillbrook: Yeah, I am. First on your first question about just stepping down, the change, I feel a bit like, it's a bit like elastic band. I think when you're in, when you're in the middle of it. You don't realize how stretched you are. And and for the last three, four months I've slowly watched my elastic band come closer and closer together.

'cause, you just don't realize how stretched you are. So I've been really enjoying spending time with the kids and my wife and my family and and doing a lot of walking, a lot of reading. Actually after this podcast, I'm going to go and have lunch with some of the Alpha teams.

So looking forward to co to connect with them and and of course, the markets have kept me busy, Mr. Trump, and, which is interesting, not nor normally. I'm so busy with the Alpha, [00:31:00] I haven't got time to even think about, what I'm, what I do in those scenarios. So it's been quite nice to be able to read the news and and just follow that.

And I. But yeah, no, but I've, I miss, I do miss it. It's been three, four months, but I know it's the right decision. I know that, the business is better placed with Clive going forward. Yeah. But onto other question about the racing. Yes. So that's my passion.

That's what gets me out outta bed every day. Now, I. It's fair to say I was, I've got a, I've got a race this weekend. I've got the Silverstone 500, which is one of the British GT rounds which is, a quite a big race to to try and win. It gets a lot of international drivers that, that come on a, on an invite basis to this race.

So hoping to have a successful weekend. And a few 

Victoria Stevens: very quick questions about that. So for those like me who are not initiated into the wild world of racing, what's the difference between Formula One and gc? 

Morgan Tillbrook: So Formula One racing is obviously the pinnacle, and that's single seater racing.

And, gT racing a more aching to your kind of Ferrari's Lamborghini Porsche. So they're still single seater, but it's a Ferrari Porsche. There's a spare seat next to you that there's no seat next to you. It's just electronics and lots of ferra extinguishers. That's in next Is the car [00:32:00] you to 

Victoria Stevens: drive on the road?

No. You definitely can't drive on the road. 

Morgan Tillbrook: No, but they take, they weren't. 

Victoria Stevens: Suit tie, 

Morgan Tillbrook: They take a Ferrari, they'd be on the road. Yeah. And they pretty much take 80% of the parts off it, and they replace 'em with race parts. So it looks a bit like a Ferrari on the road, but with bigger wings and slick tires and a lot more aerodynamics and so forth.

So they're based on, on, on road cars from a look perspective. And it's endurance racing. So we do races, which is 24 hours. So you do Lamont Oh, wow. Or you do Daytona or Spar, which is 24 hour races 

Victoria Stevens: in teams where you're switching up driver. Correct. T got three 

Morgan Tillbrook: drivers. So yeah, so GT racing is more endurance as where Formula One is typically a two hour race.

Victoria Stevens: Yeah. Understood. And how did you get into it in the first place? Did you do it as a kid? Did you race go-karts? 

Morgan Tillbrook: I did, yeah, I did a bit of racing when I was younger, a bit of go-karting and but to be honest, it was after I, I pair the business 2017. I felt like I needed something else in my life.

Not just work. And I thought, golf, didn't really float my boat. I thought I'd go back into racing and I just loved it. And I just felt that on the race weekend I could think about anything else that, I was fully immersed in, in the racing for that week, for the weekend.

And I just loved the team element. There's, it's a [00:33:00] sizable team. There's a lot of data involved, a lot of variables. So it's a bit like business. Actually. Racing is very similar to business. And and it relies on a team all coming together and, and things working to, to get a result.

So I enjoy that kind of not knowing what's gonna happen at the start of the weekend and how things can twist and turn through a weekend. And then you get to end weekend and it's either, disappointment or elation and I. Unfortunately for motor sport, it's 90% disappointment in 10% elation.

But it's worth it for that 10%. Yeah. It's yeah, it is. It's like when you play golf and you're not sure you play golf, but you strike the ball really well and it just lands on the, on, on the green and you're like, wow, if I could just do that again and again, I could be a pro golfer but you can't, turns out the consistency 

Victoria Stevens: is the problem.

Morgan Tillbrook: Same with racing. Okay. Trying to be consistent when you've got a car, an inch behind you, 180 miles an hour is difficult. So it takes a lot of, a lot of focus and preparation, but I, I enjoy the challenge and it gives me something to, to, to train for and stay fit for and, and enjoy that competitive element.

Yeah. Like I did in business. 

Victoria Stevens: And I'm guessing that it's one of those hobbies where you genu because it is so all consuming while you are doing it because you can't lose focus, [00:34:00] as you say, driving 180 miles an hour when you've got a car right on your tail is probably one of those hobbies where it actually gives you a bit more.

Space for your mind to relax. Ironically, I find that about skiing. 'cause if I go and I lie on a beach, then all I find is that I just, my brain is whirring all the time thinking about work. Whereas if I go and I ski hard, then I obviously, because I can't concentrate on something different, then it is, it's freeing in a sense.

It's total relaxation for a really strange reason. 

Morgan Tillbrook: No it is. I wouldn't say it's relaxing. My heartbeats, my heartbeat sits hundred 80th for about an. For about two hours. But and afterwards, you've had such an adrenaline dump and corone dump that you're just, you're so drained for two, three days.

You get the blues. Honestly, I get the blues for a couple of days just 'cause you're just absolutely zapped. But but yeah, no you certainly, it certainly tunes you out and it enables you to focus and there's few things that that, that do that, and that does it for me. 

Victoria Stevens: Oh, we'll definitely keep an eye on the scores there in the gt.

So my last, or one, my penultimate question, I should say is whether or not we are likely to see you back [00:35:00] in the London stock market in the future. I have heard rumors of being involved with a startup, an interesting startup, where you are backing one of your own ex-employees in founding and scaling a business.

Is it a experience that you'd like to repeat? 

Morgan Tillbrook: I certainly wouldn't be a CEO again. I feel like it's 15 years of I did, I did 8, 8, 8 years in the public markets. That's quite a sting. It's not bad. Ronnie from Ion was telling me how he's done think 15 now, and it's, it's serious.

He's a proper veteran now in that regard. But it's taken its toll. I enjoyed every minute of it, but but yeah, no, I'd love to support, a new venture on the stock market. Again, I'm a big believer in the stock market. I think it's a great place to grow businesses and reward people and investors.

And so yeah I'd watch this space as a, there's a good chance that you'll see me involved in something, but not as a CEO. 

Victoria Stevens: Understood. We'll watch that dangling carrot with excitement. And my final question to you, which is one I'm asking all my podcast guests is obviously I'm talking to a lot of people who've reached what many would consider to be a real pinnacle in their careers, but I always wonder what they would say, what you would say if I gave you the opportunity to exchange [00:36:00] places with any other person in any other career, just for a day.

Who would that be and why? 

Morgan Tillbrook: I think it would be total Wolf of Mercedes F1. I think I choose Mercedes one just 'cause I like Total Wolf. I quite like his demeanor. He's quite humble and I think he's just got, just is a, something about his character that I find quite magnetic. But yeah, I'd love to, I'd love to spend a bit of time as the team principle of Mercedes F1.

That'd been amazing experience. 

Victoria Stevens: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for joining me today, Morgan. So many insights and learnings from that journey at Alpha and we do very much hope that you'll be back with the new venture at some point in the future. And for our listeners, please do subscribe to the podcast via Spotify, apple, or your usual podcast provider.

And as always, please remember that nothing in this podcast should be construed as investment advice or a solicitation to purchase securities in any company or investment product mentioned. We'll see you next time.