The story
SideQuester started as the umbrella for everything Charlie was building outside of GoForma's core accountancy practice. Over the years that's grown into a deliberate venture studio model: identify a niche, ship a business that serves it well, run it for the long term.
The bet underneath everything: ten years of cheap compute, AI-native tooling, and remote teams have made it possible for a small team to operate ten businesses where previously you could only operate one. The constraint isn't capital - it's clarity of niche selection and operational discipline.
How we operate
- Bootstrapped. No outside capital across the studio. Individual portfolio businesses have occasionally raised small angel rounds where the unit economics justified it.
- Small team. Charlie + a small group of long-term contractors across product, content, engineering and operations.
- UK-based. Operating from London, serving UK and international customers depending on the business.
- Long-term. We build to keep, not to flip. Most portfolio businesses are designed for 10+ year operations.
What we believe
- Niche-first beats horizontal-first. The world has too many "solutions" and not enough specifics.
- Speed is a moat. If you can ship in a week what others ship in a quarter, you out-iterate them.
- Honesty over hype. Most "venture studio" content is salesy nonsense. We aim to be useful first.
- Compounding ownership. We don't sell businesses we'd rather keep.
Frequently asked questions
Where are you based?+
London. The registered office is 40 Bowling Green Lane, EC1R 0NE.
Are you hiring?+
Not currently for full-time roles. We work with selected contractors across product, content and engineering. If you're interested in long-term contract work, the contact form is the right place.
Tell us about your situation. We'll match you with the right specialist.
No fees, no obligation. We come back within 1 working day.