LDC Top 50 2025
James Hanson and Alicia Dean
Co-Founders and Co-CEOs
Curve Analytics
After quitting their jobs in 2019 to start consultancy Curve Analytics, the then twenty-somethings James Hanson and Alicia Dean moved back home to Yorkshire and worked out of a shed in Dean’s parents’ garden.
She recalls: “There were moments we wanted to give up.” But their persistence and focus on providing genuine consumer insights, surfaced from searches, conversations and reviews online, has helped to them to win clients like BAT and Danone. “We want to be a £25 million-revenue company in three years,” says Hanson. “We’ve won six clients in the last 18 months. This is a new way of listening to and learning from consumers.”
This is a new way of listening to and learning from consumers.”
Q&A
What’s unique about Curve Analytics?
James: We left jobs at Unilever and Capgemini to start Curve Analytics. Traditionally brands that wanted to understand their consumers would run focus groups or surveys. It was expensive and time-consuming. Everything is prompted, whereas we listen to the things that consumers say about brands and products as part of their day-to-day lives: conversations online, reviews, the authentic voice of the people.
Alicia: We account for the biases between data sources, fine tune our models for specific categories, and manage ethics and data privacy for our clients. It’s far more complex than sticking a query into ChatGPT.
What are your international ambitions?
James: While our clients are predominantly headquartered in the UK, they have a global focus. Our people travel to work on projects globally. Within three years, we hope to open international offices.
Alicia: We’re now headquartered in London, which has been a massive benefit to the business, as we have a range of people of different nationalities who can speak multiple languages working here – over 25 now. That will help us to internationalise.
How do you get the best out of your people?
James: If we have a good year, everybody gets a bonus, irrespective of their pay grade. We also want to be employee-owned, and senior team members have share options so they can be involved in the success of the company. We’ll extend that to other team members over time.
