Our Timeline

Joel and Tom Fielder, as young entrepreneurs and brothers, founded Switchplane in 2003.

Over the past 18 years, the company has grown from a couple of desks in a converted garage to a successful, firmly established SME with a broad portfolio of custom software clients across the UK and 14 directly employed staff.

2000

Tom leaves college to study web design.

2002

Joel graduates from the University of Surrey, after a placement year in industry where he programmed audio software in c++ for Windows platforms.

2003

Switchplane is founded. Tom and Joel work out of a converted garage in Brassey Avenue, Eastbourne.

2004

Switchplane works on a pilot project for tuition fees with the University of Exeter and starts working in e-commerce with the launch of Extrascents, a fragrance distributor.

2006

Switchplane begins working with H&B Supplies, wholesale suppliers of skincare and fragrances, The Wig Academy and The Wine Wise Company; three companies we continue to enjoy working with to this day.

2007

Joel joins the BNI network.

2008

Switchplane moves to its first office on The Avenue, Eastbourne, and takes on its first staff: a graphic designer, a developer, and an account manager. A couple of our large existing clients come on board, including British Airport Transfers and Tenders & Contracts Ltd.

2010

Graphics Designer Christian joins the Switchplane team.

2011

Switchplane moves into new office space at Westham Business Park and begins working with longstanding client Moody Sewage.

2012

Joel is awarded the Highly Commended Young Entrepreneur of the Year award at Eastbourne Business Awards.

2013

Spitfire Audio joins the ranks as a client we continue to serve today, and Dean becomes the team’s front-end developer.

2014

Switchplane starts working with Grassroots Suicide Prevention to create the first suicide prevention app of its kind. Sarah B joins the Operations team.

2015

Client Grassroots Suicide Prevention wins the HSJ Patient Safety award for Technology and IT to improve Patient Safety, and a second Innovation award from the NHS Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups.

2016

Lewis becomes a developer on the team.

2017

Switchplane moves from offices in Westham to larger premises at Highfields Business Park in Eastbourne. The company adopts an Agile Scrum methodology and begins working with LandCruise Motorhome Hire and The Mayday Group in the insurance sector. Steve joins the team as a developer and Donna as Operations Manager.

2018

In collaboration with The Digital Guild, Switchplane wins the Innovation category at the Eastbourne Business Awards. Switchplane celebrates 15 years in business with a party at Gildredge Manor for staff and clients, and begins working with Littlewood Fencing. Sarah C joins the Operations team.

2019

Switchplane starts working with underwriters ERGO, Garry heads up the Marketing team and Tom P becomes a developer.

2020

The COVID-19 pandemic forces Switchplane staff to go remote and start working from home. Switchplane launches Chalk, a digital network for Eastbourne and the surrounding areas launches, and its first SaaS product, Julia. Pump manufacturer Wright Flow comes onboard as a client.

2021

Thanks to its success, Switchplane decides to maintain working from home. We’re now fully remote! We also make our first remote hires, with junior developers Yi and Alex joining the team.

For more on how Joel and Tom have scaled up the company, see this article, and to discover more about our team, meet them here.