How the Rove journey began
It all started on a sunny afternoon in Macclesfield, by the side of a cricket pitch, as Ben and Simon watched their sons play. Years earlier, they’d worked together as Buyers at Sainsbury’s, but life had since taken them on different paths. Simon had spent years helping consumer brands break into new markets, guiding them through the twists and turns of international growth. Meanwhile, Ben had become a serial entrepreneur, building and scaling ventures from the ground up. Standing there, talking about their experiences and ideas, something clicked. What if they could turn Simon’s expertise into a platform that made international expansion easier for everyone? That’s when the idea behind Rove was born.
Fast forward a few months, and Adam enters the picture. Ben and Adam had worked together at Vypr, a product intelligence scale-up Ben had founded. Adam, with his deep product and technical expertise, joined Vypr as Chief Product Officer. Now, with Rove taking shape, Ben knew that Adam’s experience and passion for building game-changing platforms was exactly what they needed.
With this team in place, the vision for Rove was clear: a platform that doesn’t just connect brands to new markets, but one that makes the whole journey faster, easier, and more achievable. Each founder brings a unique skill set and perspective, creating a team grounded in real industry experience and dedicated to helping brands grow globally, without the usual headaches and hurdles. Rove is here to take on the complexity of international expansion, so brands can focus on what they do best—creating products people love.
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Co-founder
Simon heads up Rove's relationships with brands, retail and distribution partners globally. His career spans all sides of the supply chain, starting his career as an analyst, he then progressed through the commercial functions at Kingfisher, Sainsbury, Tesco, and Phones4U and joined one of the UK’s biggest distributors as Commercial Director, sitting on the “other side of the fence” from many of his former colleagues.
Simon’s next step was to move into more entrepreneurial businesses, successfully exiting eMerit (the first fully compliant MPOS solution in the UK) and then building CAT phones (Rugged mobile devices under license to Caterpillar inc) to $85m USD of Revenue, and $12m USD of profit, in 3 years. In total, CAT phones launched in 60 territories In EMEA during this period, in territories as far apart as South Africa, Finland, and the UAE.
Following CAT phones, Simon’s next project was Smoothskin. In 4 years, Simon took a small, loss-making beauty brand to the world's leading brand in its space. This was delivered by an effective international strategy, culminating in the brand growing to $150m USD of retail sales, and market leadership in Greater China. Smoothskin also launched in 70 global markets, including in North America with Bestbuy, Target and QVC.
Rove takes all the learnings from Simons’ journey and applies the latest technology to increase the speed and reduce the cost of market entry.
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Co-founder
In the past 20 years, Ben has Founded 5 businesses across the technology and FMCG sectors, combining his experience in FMCG with a love of technology.
Most recently, Ben founded and scaled Vypr, a Product Intelligence platform that enables clients to understand their target consumers with fast, cost-effective insight.(www.vyprclients.com)
Vypr is one of the fastest growing technology businesses in the UK, employing nearly 70 people in Manchester, U.K.
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Co-founder
With over 15 years of expertise in product management and a strong focus on delivering tangible value, Adam has built a reputation for his strategic vision and commitment to innovation.
Adam’s career has been defined by leadership roles in both established corporations and ambitious scale-ups. At Vypr, where he served as Chief Product Officer, Adam led the company’s product vision, strategy, and roadmap. Prior to Vypr, Adam was instrumental at Co-op Digital, where he expanded their digital product capabilities from 40 to over 200 team members and successfully launched services like the Digital Offers App, which alone generated £97 million in its first year.
Adam’s versatility extends beyond Rove. As an advisor to multiple investment firms and a product consultant, he leverages his industry knowledge to guide companies on integrating emerging technologies, optimising product strategy, and capitalising on new market opportunities. His consultancy work spans from AI-enabled product innovation to the strategic repositioning of brands in evolving markets, providing high-level support to CEOs and founders looking to harness technology as a growth driver.
