Euan Davies started Sliderfy, which makes custom slider sandals, in a “dingy Bristol flat” in 2019, and went full-time on it in 2020.
For three years Sliderfy has grown its revenue 100% year-on-year. It now has offices in Bristol, Paris and the Netherlands, employs six people and last year turned over £500,000.
Euan was working at a marketing start-up after university when he dreamt up Sliderfy.
“I was unhappy at the start-up, that’s what drove me to start Sliderfy,” he said. “I wanted a secondary income. I saw someone doing custom sliders and thought ‘I could 100% do that better’.
“Doing a job I hated taught me a lot about management and the kind of start-up I wanted to run.”
Euan ‘bootstrapped’ Sliderfy, meaning he had no external funding and has built it using the start-up’s own revenue.
He admits to “never having an interest in starting a business” when he was young but says he is now “living his dream”.
Last year Sliderfy made inroads into more university sports teams and created custom sliders for Amazon Prime, to celebrate it winning rights to Ligue 1 football in France. Next year, Euan wants Sliderfy to increase annual revenue to £750,000.
“I think I’m blessed to be in this position. It’s hard work but it never feels like a tough day at the office when it’s yours,” he said.
“The only thing I was good at in school was sport – I was utterly useless at everything else. I’m heavily dyslexic and I’m certain I’ve got dyscalculia, I’m also blind in one eye. I never really talk about these things, but I think they make me work harder.
“I want to build a hyper profitable, focused business. I want people flocking to me organically because they know we’re the best at what we do.”
In its short life, Sliderfy has had to navigate Brexit, Covid and the cost of living crisis. But its current challenge? The return of Crocs.
“It’s caused massive issues for us,” Euan said. “Specifically in the student market, which is huge for us, we’ve been hammered by the Croc.”
Euan decided to base the start-up in Bristol after spending three years studying Sociology at the University of Bristol.
“I had literally the best time at Bristol, I couldn’t speak more highly of the university. Both the University and the city are phenomenal.”
Stuart Johnson, Director of the University of Bristol’s Careers Service, said: “It’s fantastic to see Euan using the skills he learnt at Bristol to build Sliderfy into a thriving enterprise, trusted not just in the UK but around the world.
“We can’t wait to see Sliderfy grow over the coming years.”