Aberdeen’s Chris Herd has sold his tech start-up, Firstbase, to the billion-dollar US commerce platform AppDirect, marking the latest milestone in his remarkable business journey.
The deal, the financial details of which remain undisclosed, caps a thrilling ride that began long before his venture’s success.
Chris went from architecture studies at Robert Gordon University, jobs in the oil and gas industry and Highland League football to multimillion-pound-backed entrepreneurship in little more than a decade.
A former semi-professional footballer, he stepped away from the game five years ago to focus on building his start-up, raising over £50 million across funding rounds.
Now 34, he has already accomplished more than most could dream of in a lifetime.
From his early days working in his parents’ fish and chip shop to making a name for himself in the Highland League and launching a ground-breaking business in New York just months before the pandemic hit, Chris reflects on how far he’s come and the challenges that shaped his journey.
Chris credits his entrepreneurial drive to his business-minded family. His grandfather was a bookmaker in Aberdeen, and he gained first-hand experience working in his parents’ fish and chip shop, The Dolphin.
“We would spend every Saturday and Sunday morning down at the shop,” he says.
“My dad eventually got a computer for the business when I was eight and I’d be playing around with Excel or counting the stock, then later I was chipping the potatoes when I was a university.”
Family fish and chip shops: good training
He always knew he would build a business of some kind, he just didn’t know what.
“My family has always had the bug and willingness to take risks,” he says. “I think when you grow up in that environment, it’s never something where you need permission to go off and try it.”
Although Herd initially studied architecture at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, he believes the skills he gained there helped shape his approach to business. “Architecture taught me more than a traditional business degree ever could,” he explains.
“It’s all about looking backwards at the historical precedent of buildings; you see the plans, and you see the way that spaces work.
“You copy-paste that in the modern day, and you insert modern technology, modern construction techniques, and you have sort of reinvention of historical precedent.
“When I looked at companies like Uber or Spotify, I saw them as modern reinventions of old ideas, and that mindset helped me when building Firstbase.”
Chris played football in parallel with his studies, but he retired as a semi-professional player in 2020 to focus on the business.
“I loved all the teams I was able to be a part of, but we never won the Highland League—that sucked,” he says.
“Sport was always a space where I could shut off from everything else, which I think was helpful at the time.”
Being an outsider is my superpower
Chris says all the things that made him successful as a football player helped in business too.
“I was never the most technically gifted player,” he explains. “But I tried hard.
“I don’t think there’s anything special about me, I’m smart-ish, but there’s no Ivy League college on my CV and I haven’t worked at any white-collar tech companies.
“I’ve always felt like an outsider and I think that’s one of my superpowers. It’s certainly something most founders struggle with sometimes.”
The father-of-three says for a few years he was relying solely on his primary school teacher wife Michelle as sole breadwinner for the family.
In fact, he had run out of money and was about to get a “real job” when a US investor wired him the $100,000 that got Firstbase off the starting blocks.
This came after almost 150 funding rejections in the UK, where investors were unwilling to back his vision.
But that proved to be a game-changer, allowing Firstbase to tap into the US market and attract the right investors.
Chris was then able to secure $65m and connections necessary to scale his business, which helps companies set up, manage, maintain and retrieve equipment for remote and hybrid workers.
Chris Herd sells Firstbase to AppDirect
Established just six months before the start of the pandemic, Firstbase was well-placed to capitalise on the massive shift to remote and hybrid working. with Chris working between New York and Aberdeen.
From laptops and monitors to microphones, headsets, ergonomic chairs and adjustable desks, the Firstbase platform also coordinates IT installation and upgrades, ongoing repairs and collections when a worker leaves.
In December, US-registered Firstbase was acquired by AppDirect, a billion-dollar commerce platform based in San Francisco.
While the exact terms of the sale remain undisclosed, Chris says he will stay on as general manager, continuing to work remotely from his home in Aberdeen while managing a team spread across the US and Europe.
This means more transatlantic travel and fitting two full workdays into one by balancing both UK and US time zones.
‘I love what I do’
For Chris, the acquisition is a significant achievement, but it’s not a time for rest yet.
Despite being part of a billion-dollar company, he remains committed to the growth of Firstbase and its continued development under AppDirect’s umbrella.
“Business is brutal, it really is survival of the fittest,” says Chris. “But I love what I do. I get to wake up with this deeply meaningful purpose of: Can we enable, families, workers and their families to access a higher quality of life?
“And can we make access to opportunity equal? I think we were relatively successful in doing that.”
Since selling to AppDirect, surprisingly little has changed for Chris.
“If you’re a founder, you’re a founder—it doesn’t matter if you own less of the business than before,” he explains.
“Selling Firstbase means we get more firepower for certain things, like Google markets. We can run harder, and we have more infrastructure. It comes with huge advantages.”
Startup Grind talk in Aberdeen
The former Hazelhead Academy students says he still has things he wants to see through with the company.
“The path of any start-up is eventually you want to be able to step onto the New York Stock Exchange and ring that bell,” he says.
“I think AppDirect is on that trajectory, and I think for me as an entrepreneur, there are experiences that you want to absorb if you ever want to try and shoot for that again in the future, it’s hugely beneficial to be around.
“Is it two years? Is it 10 years? I don’t know, but it feels like we’re on that path (with AppDirect) and it feels like eventually that company will get there.
“That’s motivating for me. Maybe we’re a smaller part as opposed to the company running at it on our own.”
Chris will share some of his experiences and insights with the local business community at a talk for Startup Grind Scotland planned for Aberdeen’s ONE Tech Hub on February 19.
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