Behind The Scenes At FormusPro As A Chief Commercial Officer

Hi, I’m Andy, Chief Commercial Officer at FormusPro. I joined Glenn (in what feels like another lifetime now) in 2016, back before we were even called FormusPro.
At that point it was just the two of us, a small room, and an idea that had no intention of staying small.

Looking back with the power of hindsight, that early stage shaped a lot of how I work now.

See, when you start with very little, you learn quickly what actually matters. You also learn what doesn’t.

Watching an idea grow and develop from that point into what FormusPro is today has been one of the most rewarding parts of my career, and it formed the perspective I now carry into everything I do.

My role at FormusPro spans the entire commercial side of the business (though as you can imagine, I’ve picked up a lot of technical knowledge over the years… just enough to be dangerous).

I work closely with Glenn, the rest of the board and our various technical teams to help set direction, shape strategy and build the partnerships that keep us moving forward. A lot of my time is spent making sure sales, marketing and delivery stay aligned, and that what we promise matches what we can deliver well.

I’ve always been comfortable working in the space between ambition and reality.

What we’d love to do versus what the market will actually tolerate. That tension keeps things honest, and it’s usually where the most useful conversations happen.

Before FormusPro, it’s probably fair to say that my career took a less than conventional route.

In my early twenties, I once convinced a bank to lend me the money to buy a nightclub. I DJ’d internationally, hosted radio shows across multiple continents and promoted more house events than I could sensibly count.

Eventually, I moved into sales, with a few detours into production planning and operations within manufacturing environments, before returning to sales full time.

Along the way, I trained and coached a lot of people, from door-to-door sales to structured team environments, writing scripts, testing approaches, and fixing the ones that clearly didn’t work.

What’s stuck with me the most from those years was the psychology of it all.

Understanding behaviour, timing, and why some messages land whilst others miss completely. Leading teams later on reinforced that even further. Process and discipline matter, but only if they work with how people actually think and behave.

And I think that’s my golden thread looking back. If there’s a common thread through all of my differing roles, it’s been people.

Connecting with them, learning from them, helping them, selling to them. People buy people. That’s never changed. And I don’t think it ever will, no matter how much technology does.

A jump from DJing to sales might sound odd, but both worlds taught me how process, scale and commercial thinking collide in real life and I like to think I’ve carried those lessons into SaaS, and the Microsoft ecosystem, where I’ve spent the past decade helping grow products, teams and, of course, FormusPro.

But at heart, I’ll always be sales (results)-driven.

I like building things, improving things, seeing progress and moving the bottom line. I care deeply about what we’ve created here, from my slightly excessive FormusPro-branded golf bag to a long-running debate about a FormusPro tattoo that never materialised (I maintain to this day I was serious).

Scaling a business whilst keeping its original culture intact isn’t easy, but it’s something I think we’ve handled well.

As we’ve grown past seventy people and are now moving towards three figures, that shared focus and trust have become one of our biggest strengths. We back ideas rather than layers of bureaucracy, which means we can still move quickly when it matters.

What I enjoy most day to day is that no two days look the same.

I get to work with teams who care about doing things properly, and with organisations that are genuinely trying to make a difference… particularly across the Membership and NonProfit sectors. That sense of purpose gives the work meaning well beyond the numbers.

The Microsoft stack has played a huge role in that. I’ve seen our consultants and developers take genuinely messy, frustrating processes and rebuild them using Dynamics, the Power Platform and clear design thinking. When a small team suddenly has time back, better insight and less stress, that’s when it feels worthwhile.

And whilst I enjoy working with enterprise organisations, some of the most satisfying work comes from helping charities recover from failed systems, poor upgrades or years of process bloat. Getting them back on track can change how they operate day to day, which is why I’ve also recently taken on a Chair role with a charity supporting young children. It felt like a natural extension of the work we already do.

Outside of work, I spend my time golfing, DJing occasionally, and being with my partner and stepsons. I also have a talent for spending far too much money on gigs, helped along by ADHD and a tendency towards impulse buying.

I like to believe I’m fitter than I am, which usually results in at least one sports-related injury a year. At the time of writing, that’s a torn calf and a grumpy knee, both earned by playing football at 47, after too long a break. I’m currently on crutches, taking a reluctant pause from golf, and being reminded that recovery is sometimes a skill in itself.

To finish this behind-the-scenes off, the marketing team asked me who I’d invite to a dinner party if I could choose any three people, alive or dead.

After some thought, I decided to go with Tiger Woods, Socrates and Richard Dawkins… mostly because I’m curious what would happen when world-class discipline, relentless questioning and unapologetic logic all end up at the same table. It’d either be fascinating or complete chaos, and I’d be happy with either.

I imagine Tiger and I would drift into conversations about mindset (and of course golf), pressure and that fine line between focus and overthinking. I’d want to understand what the game feels like from inside the head of someone who has been both untouchable and very human, and how belief gets rebuilt when expectations shift.

With Socrates, I’d try to end up calling him Soc, a nod to The Peaceful Warrior, one of my favourite books. I’ve always admired the way he dismantles assumptions simply by asking the right questions, often the ones you’d rather avoid.

And Dawkins?

He’d keep everything grounded. Anything vague or woolly wouldn’t survive long once the wine was poured.

I suspect he’d be the only person who could go toe-to-toe with Soc and enjoy it.