How We Developed A Portable Wi-Fi Product And Are Now Generating

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

I’m Ashley Smith and I’m part of a team who started Fli-fi, a temporary internet connectivity and WiFi company in August of 2016.

We provide temporary internet connectivity and WiFi to events and locations so they can connect themselves and their equipment to the internet for a short-term period of time, from 15 minutes up to 18 months. From small traders with a stand at a trade show to the whole of the trade show, a music festival, a film shoot, a construction site, or even a business that is just moving from one place to another.

Our core markets are events and construction, with them both representing the largest shares of our current turnover.

Over the last 6 years, we have grown each year by more than triple digits with our biggest year of growth coming during the COVID restriction year when we gained a large portion of our construction clients.

Retaining customers comes naturally if you have a great product and a level of service that is at the top end of your industry.

Watch an overview of Fli-Fi’s services:

What’s your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

Interestingly the business is not my idea. When I was operating as an IT support consultant I stumbled across the idea whilst searching for a solution for one of my clients at the time who had a photo booth they needed to connect to the internet at a music festival and with it being a critical part of their activation it meant they could not proceed with it, if they didn’t have internet connectivity, in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere.

After hiring some equipment I saw advertised online, I opened up the conversation with the business owner, Will Skewes who had founded Fli-Fi and was doing it in his spare time just as a hobby. I felt the business had opportunities to grow and so after meeting and forming some plans, we both agreed to establish the business formally, go looking for business and see…