16 entrepreneurs Mike Cotty – enjoying the ride of his life
As a youngster growing up on the edge of the New Forest, Mike Cotty was a talented footballer, honing his skills with several local teams and looking at a future in the beautiful game. That was until his older brother introduced him to cycling – beginning a passion which would set Cotty on the road to a whole new worldwide career. In 2012, he founded cycling media consultancy Media-24 and he is also a global brand ambassador for some of cycling’s best known names, including Cannondale and Mavic. He was recently listed in the 2014 BikeBiz Brit List as one of the most influential people in the British cycle industry. Alison Dewar went along for the (metaphorical) ride
Right from his schooldays, Cotty knew he wanted to get out into the ’real world’ so at 16, instead of taking the traditional university route, he followed in his brother’s footsteps and signed up for an engineering apprenticeship. Two years in he wanted to focus more on using his creative and problem-solving skills so started working for BAE Systems Infrared, managing projects and developing processes and solutions for infrared military and space applications, while studying at Southampton Institute one day a week. Having achieved his degree and still fanatical about his cycling – both he and his brother raced and he had visions of having a career as a professional racer – he realised that aged 21 he had some serious decisions to make. After spotting a vacancy for a marketing co-ordinator with Cannondale Bicycles, he applied for the role and two months later was on a plane to Switzerland. Fast forward through several promotions and a fair proportion of global travel, he relocated the role back to the UK, began writing articles for a host of specialist cycling publications and it was from there Media-24 was born. He lives with his partner Deborah, who is operations manager and photographer for the consultancy.
open to ideas and I loved it because I was able to share my passion. By 2005 I was running the marketing team, I could see cycling was becoming more mainstream in the UK and I felt we could do things more efficiently if I was based here, rather than 700 miles away.
I based myself in Southampton and after Cannondale was bought by the Canadian company Dorel Industries in 2009, Cycling Sports Group (CSG) was established. Fortunately Dorel also bought the UK cycle distributor Hotwheels, based in Poole, so the CSGUK office was close by.
What was so exciting about cycling?
It was the freedom. At 15 I would be riding 100 miles and coming back exhausted. My brother and I would go exploring at weekends, we’d take part in races, travel to training camps here and in Europe, and our parents always supported us. My brother still races now.
How did you make a career out of your passion?
Cycling then wasn’t the mainstream sport that it is today, there were no training academies or major sponsors and you had to be super talented to make a success as a racer. I was so passionate about cycling that I would spend hours every day just thinking about bikes, so I decided I had to get a job in the bike world. Leaving home and moving to another country was a really big decision, but when I got the opportunity I was following my dream.
Tell us about the role
I spent an incredible five years in Basel, it was a real fast track into business and into life in a different country. Cannondale were very
www.businessmag.co.uk
What prompted you to start your own business?
Over the three years with CSG I got to meet and work with a lot of great people, including brothers Russell and Neil Merry who had owned Hotwheels and were now managing CSGUK. I really liked their approach to business, they made it simple to get the job done and always gave the support needed to do my job to the best of my ability which, at the end of the day, was to get the brands noticed and encourage more people to get into cycling.
I’d been writing various articles for cycling magazines. One stage of the Tour de France (L’Etape du Tour) is open to amateur riders, so I went out there, rode the route and reported on it from a rider’s point of view. It meant that thousands of people who were going to do it had an insight into what they could expect, where they could recover, where they could push harder and the like.
It was all about trying to help support and inspire cyclists, I wrote about all sorts of topics, everything from nutrition to training,
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – APRIL 2015
to the necessary kit and equipment, giving them advice based on my own experience. Of course, at the same time, the brands I represented were getting good exposure, but in a very authentic way.
During the same period I was making videos to help cyclists and I had got the point where I wanted to share everything more widely, which today’s technology allows me to do. I could have stayed where I was and gone up the corporate ladder, but I wanted to use my skills and experience to do something different.
I always saw myself working as a specialist in one particular niche or activity and it
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36