LDC Top 50 2025
Russell Teale
Co-Founder and CEO
Vivify
Raised on a council estate in Wythenshawe, Russell Teale learned the value of hard work from his single mother, who juggled three jobs to make ends meet. “From Victim Support to caring for the elderly, everything she did helped others. That was ingrained in me.”
In 2020, he launched Vivify, a tech platform that helps schools rent out their facilities – from pools to pitches – to local communities. Backed by Arete and former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy, it now employs almost 500 people and has generated £10 million of additional revenue for schools. “Success is if this business is still here in 100 years delivering social impact,” he says.
The true measure of success is if this business is still here in 100 years delivering social impact.”
Q&A
How did you get Vivify off the ground?
We started the business in 2020 during lockdown, which in hindsight was a bit mad – schools were shut. But I believed the world would reopen and that these spaces would become central to future leisure infrastructure. We spent the first year calling potential venues and building the tech; salespeople by day, developers by night. My daughters were aged two years and six months at the time, and I was working hunched over my wife’s makeup table on an IKEA stool. When our first partner, Orchardside School in Enfield, said yes, I screamed with excitement!
How do you motivate your team?
We employ 36 people in our Manchester HQ and over 450 ‘community hosts’ across the country who work at the schools. I want employees to be themselves, from what they wear to how they work. And we have a culture of reward and recognition. When new joiners start, they write down a dream. At each company milestone, we spin a big wheel and make one of those dreams come true. One employee went skydiving in Australia; another went on safari in South Africa.
Where are the growth opportunities?
We’re just shy of 300 schools out of 28,000 in the UK, so there’s huge room to grow here. We’re also seeing interest from overseas and other sectors – community halls, churches, local sports grounds – as councils scale back.
