Boss of Swindon tech firm Appsbroker wants the UK to follow lead of India and Romania
Mike Conner, who set up Old Town-based Appsbroker 12 years ago, suggested more graduate apprenticeships in areas like software engineering could help trap top talent in Swindon.
The 46-year-old, whose business last year turned over £23 million, said: “It starts with the schools. Swindon’s undoubtedly got talent, but I think an awful lot of it leaves Swindon because the next steps aren’t that clear.
“We take kids from A-level and we’ve got a graduate apprenticeship, so we pay them throughout their four years. They come away with a degree of being highly relevant to our business. There needs to be more of that.”
Mr Conner’s firm, Appsbroker, builds IT applications for big business – allowing them to do everything from rendering hugely complicated film footage to banks being able to transfer huge amounts of customer information into new databases.
The bosses’ comments follow the announcement earlier this month of an ambitious new campaign to turn Swindon into Britain’s answer to Silicon Valley and attract thousands of new tech jobs to the area.
Called TechSwindon and led by group Switch on to Swindon, the campaign will shine a light on the 2,800 businesses already making digital products and improving links with the 25,000 firms across the county that rely on them.
Mr Conner called for action: “I think although Switch on to Swindon is a great show of force that there’s great vibrancy in the town, I feel we need those practical steps that actually create the skills base. It’s partly the technical colleges, the universities, but it’s also how we bring talent into Swindon.”
He compared the situation in the UK to that in Romanian city Iais, where Appsbroker has offices. The town trains thousands of IT graduates every year.
“You wouldn’t believe how far they’ve come in 25 years from [communist politician] Ceausescu’s crippling poverty to just an incredibly easy place to build businesses,” said Mr Conner. “We don’t need to compare ourselves against any other town in the UK. We need to compare ourselves against towns in other nations that are doing it better.”
APPSBROKER chief Mike Conner struck out on his own when he was fired from his tech sales job after breaking his leg on the rugby pitch.
It proved to be a good move for the ex-Bassett winger, whose leg was crushed on the try line by a Devizes loose forward.
Last year, his tech firm turned over £23m, employing 130 people in Swindon.
Mr Conner, a keen skier who lives in Cirencester with his wife and three children, says it is Appsbroker’s creativity that sets it apart.
The company works closely with Google to offer big businesses ranging from HSBC to Jaguar Land Rover different digital applications to help their businesses work better.
He points to the company’s logo, a butterfly: “Butterflies and humans share 97 per cent commonality at a chromosome level. That three per cent makes it a butterfly or a human. If you look at IT in most organisations it’s 97 per cent. We’re concentrated on the three per cent that makes you a great butterfly or a great human."
“It means you don’t win the massive contracts that help you grow faster, but there are going to be 300 organisations that will do that just as well as us. In terms of listening, understanding and agreeing on the solution and having the ability to build that solution really quickly – that’s where the three per cent is.”

Latest Jobs
-
- Security Analyst. Financial Services. UK. Permanent
- Unknown
- N/A
-
CH7863 Security Analyst. End User . Financial Services Security Analyst needed to monitor and manage a security suite of tools within an End User environment. The Security Analyst will be responsible monitoring, configuring, fine tuning, incident management and generally improving the security tool capability. Specific experience with CyberArk, Tripwire Log Center and Tripwire Enterprise is highly desirable). Current experience with Vulnerability management and penetration testing is highly desirable. Specifically the ability to effectively manage 3rd party pen tests. You will be working within a specialist security team reporting to the CISO. Experience working within an end user environment within financial services is highly desirable. Flexible location. This is an exclusive role to DCL Search & Selection. To book a call please use my Calendy link https://calendly.com/chris-holt/arranged-call-with-chris-holt-soc-role-
-
- DevSecOps - Security design / review consultant. SC Clearance. London
- London
- N/A
-
CH7858 London £70,000 DevSecOps - Security design / review consultant. DevSecOps - Security design / review consultant will ensure that newly created, public facing apps are secure by design and by default by aligning them to current / best practice security policies and standards into the design phases. The individual must have a technical software / application development background with specalist experinece in secure architecture design. (Frameworks, processes, best practice etc) Practical experience translating and ensuring that the OWASP top 10, ISO27001, HMG frameworks requirements are reviewed and embedded into project designs which are implemented is essential. Experience working projects through a full development lifecycle is key. You will work along side the design and project teams to idenitfy and mitigate risks throughout the design phases. This is a permanent role. SC clearance is essential as is the ability to get to the London office. (When appropiate #covid) Security DevSecOps consultant. To arrange a discreet call book via https://calendly.com/chris-holt/devsecopp--security-design-review-consultant
-
- CONTRACTOR Cyber Vulnerability Analyst, NESSUS, Rapid 7, SC clearance required.
- London
- N/A
-
Cyber Vulnerability analyst NESSUS, Rapid 7, needed for IMMEDIATE 3 month contract MUST have / be able to achieve UK SC clearance role to work within a live environment within a public sector department. The individual must have experience in using various security methods and tools such as Rapid7 and NESSUS scan for / identify vulnerabilities, prioritise them according to risk and raise appropriate tickets for remediation / follow up. In depth experience utilising Nessus highly beneficial. Current cyber public sector experience highly desirable.
-
- Internal Security Auditor, Level 1 Service Provider (ISO27001)
- London
- Upto 55,000 plus benefits
-
Internal Security Auditor ISO 27001, PCI, needed to join a Cyber team within this expanding Fintech business. The Internal Security Auditor will have end to end responsibility for planning, delivering, remediating any findings etc. Experience working within financial services is highly desirable. This Is a great time to join a newly formed and growing Cyber team within a rapidly expanding fintech, that is taking a major share of its market. We are looking for someone with experience, (but not to be limited to) a mix of Information Security standards, frameworks, audit principles, controls / policies and the management and use of the technical tooling etc. ISO 22301, ISO 27001, NIST Cybersecurity Framework etc An ideal candidate will be working within an end user environment with a cyber consultancy background. Experience taking a company through accreditation is highly desirable Experience managing internal stakeholders, technical teams and external third parties essential Flexible working, but with the ability to get into London. This is an exclusive role to DCL Search & Selection.