Founder and managing director of Cheltenham's Hub8 and director of CyNam, Bruce Gregory is gearing up to put his workspace and its wealth of tech skills on the national map to help solve the technology challenges of tomorrow.
SoGlos sits down for a conversation to learn more about what the future holds, as well as discovering how a journey of passion and curiosity led to the creation of one of Gloucestershire's most vibrant and thriving office environments.
Give us an overview of your background experience, Bruce.
I’ve over 25 years of experience working on the delivery and operation of commercial places that span different sectors.
My career started in the high-end fashion and retail sector where I spent 15 years working extensively across Europe, including nearly 10 years living and working in Barcelona.
More recently I’ve been focused on the impact that purpose-built workspaces play in my community, Cheltenham, to help drive economic growth in the region.
Where did the concept of Hub8 come from?
It all started in 2017 with the concept of placing shipping containers on an underutilised car park in Cheltenham town centre to provide a place for our creative community to come together.
I identified the role of the office was being disrupted; the traditional corporate style of office environment was being superseded with the arrival of coworking; vibrant places that had their own community and offered flexible memberships to individuals and large corporates.
This shift was commonplace in our major cities but there was nothing in Cheltenham, so I saw this as an opportunity.
The concept progressed well, with support from the Local Enterprise Partnership and Cheltenham Borough Council but it was moving slowly; we were focused on companies in the creative industries as there was (and still is) a high density of businesses in this sector.
But these businesses were very small and few had the ambition to scale and grow – we had a growth mindset and needed to find like-minded companies.
This all changed when I attended a CyNam event in 2018 where I met some of the fastest growing tech SMEs in the UK and connected with people that worked for multinational tech companies that had a significant presence in and around Cheltenham; in a couple of hours it felt like I’d made more progress than I had in months.
The connections I made at CyNam led to a visit to meet the team behind the NCSC Cyber Accelerator Programme and a day at Plexal in Stratford where the LORCA programme had just been launched.
Inspired by these visits and with the confidence I understood what this burgeoning tech community needed, in late 2018 the concept of a creative hub pivoted to a hub for the ‘Cyber Tech Community’.
Hub8 was launched in 2019. The name Hub8 was inspired by Alan Turing and the role he played in cracking intercepted messages during World War II. Turing was based at Bletchley Park where he led his efforts from Hut 8.
How would you explain Hub8 to someone who hadn't come across it before?
When Hub8 was launched in 2019, we set out on a mission to deliver and operate places that help drive social regeneration and inclusive economic growth in Cheltenham by bringing together government, industry, SMEs, startups and academia to collaborate and innovate.
Hub8 is now responsible for two locations in Cheltenham that provide purpose-built innovation and workspace to more than 300 people from 60 organisations including high growth SMEs such as Gemba Advantage, home grown startups Zest, Alice Violet and Nimbus to global Tech giants Sopra Steria and CACI.
We take a unique approach to how we deliver our places; Hub8 MX is a partnership with Cheltenham Borough Council and Hub8 GC is a partnership with Gloucestershire College.
This approach allows us to measure our success beyond the balance sheet. One of the MX’s main priorities is to revitalise the historic core of the town, turning a previously underutilised area into vibrant, inclusive place.
The MX does this by providing a place for people to work, attend events or enjoy a coffee and cake: it’s about strengthening Cheltenham’s social fabric and ensuring our community has a space to thrive, connect and take pride in.
And at Hub8 GC, we’ve played a crucial role to bring industry and academia together; it was the UK’s first partnership between a Further Education provider and an industry partner to deliver a work and innovation space.
As a result of this partnership, we’ve help to provide new apprenticeship opportunities for our next generation of technologists from our community of high growth SMEs, global tech giants and hyper-scalers.
How does your background slot into the formation of Hub8?
I guess you could say places are in my DNA. My father is an architect and his obsession with place and the role it plays to help shape communities was passed down to me.
This obsession combined with a strong desire to re-establish my roots in the UK (with Cheltenham as my home) provided the foundations for Hub8 to form.
What does Hub8 offer as part of the community?
We run a programme of events that are free for anyone to join; just sign up, come along and make the most of our fantastic coffee and conversation. We shouldn’t underestimate the value of chatting to someone in person!
We shouldn’t underestimate the value of chatting to someone in person! Hub8 is home to the Growth Hub, a service that is free of charge to support the growth of local businesses. Our team provide tailored one-to-one mentoring, networking opportunities, funding guidance and run a programme of workshops and events.
Our team provide tailored one-to-one mentoring, networking opportunities, funding guidance and run a programme of workshops and events.
We (Hub8, Plexal and Cheltenham Borough Council) also run the Grown in Cheltenham programme and have just welcomed our latest intake of Cheltenham-based companies that will receive a supercharged level of business support to help unlock economic growth or social impact, all free of charge.
What are you most proud of about Hub8?
My team! We’re now 16-strong and I’m sure this will continue to grow. The team is young and full of energy. We took on three apprentices in 2021 and they’re still with us now. I’m very proud of the opportunity Hub8 has provided for the team to develop and grow.
Our community and CyNam. Through my roles as managing director of Hub8 and director of CyNam, I’m very lucky to work with some amazing companies and great people. It’s a very generous community that will always step up and support others. I’m proud to call many from this community good friends, too.
Being part of the Plexal family, I first visited Plexal’s HQ on the Olympic Park in 2018. It provided the inspiration for Hub8 and what we hoped to achieve in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire. Plexal is now firmly embedded in the region and playing a crucial role to develop and grow our technology community as we look forward to Golden Valley; I’m proud to have contributed to making this happen.
Are there any exciting new plans in the pipeline?
Always! We’ve got big ambitions to play an important role in making the Golden Valley Development a world class innovation campus that will attract some of the best young talent to the region.
Our focus has been hyper-local but I’m ready for the challenge of Hub8 taking a national presence to help our community solve technology challenges.
How can people connect with you?
I really enjoy making new contacts and meeting in person, so please feel free to drop me a line at bruce.g@hub8and.co if you’d like to understand more about Hub8, Plexal or CyNam.
