New venture for web services boss Kathryn Taylor
Sep 9 2010 by John Hill, The Journal
FORMER Mere Mortals operations director Kathryn Taylor is taking the Newcastle company's web hosting roster to her new venture Taylored Hosting.
Taylor set up the company to provide web hosting and email services for the clients who previously worked with the firm, and is also planning to offer web design services and market-specific products through an as-yet-unnamed company.
Taylored Hosting will move into an office at the Gateshead International Business Centre next week.
Taylor founded SB Squared with Mere Mortals founder David Jeffries back in 2003 to provide web services to small business, and took on the role of operations director at Mere Mortals when the companies merged in 2008. She resigned her role as director as part of the shake-up that saw Jeffries return from New Zealand to take back the reins, and left the company at the end of August. Jeffries has backed Taylor’s decision to “focus on core skills” and has suggested they may work together in future.
She said: “It’s all been done very amicably and we’re continuing to support each other in our individual areas. David is focusing on his area of expertise and I’m doing the same.”
As well as leasing out server space at a data centre in Manchester, Taylor is also working with former colleagues to develop “a streamlined and focused media service” for clients such as St Oswald’s Hospice, Seven Stories and Walker Books.
She also hopes to develop products targeted at specific markets, such as the charitable sector, to further diversify the firm.
She said: “If it was just a web design and development company, it would be very competitive in the market, which is why producing a suite of products that have a specific target audience is going to differentiate us.
“This is something I thought Mere Mortals could be doing more, but the right time just didn’t happen. The best thing about Mere Mortals was that I gained a lot of experience and knowledge. I never had experience of managing projects myself before. However, setting this up allows me to spend time concentrating on where my expertise lies.”
