2010 Photo
Entrepreneur, Islander, and technology enthusiast are words I would use to describe myself. For anyone who does not know me personally, I will try and give a brief summary (ok, so it turned out more like a life history) of myself. For those of you who already know me, you may learn something new about me in the following paragraphs.
I’m an Islander born and raised. I live in Prince Edward Island (Canada) in the heart of the capital city of Charlottetown. I got my start in business at a very young age when I turned the family hobby of showing and training CKC registered conformation show dogs into my part-time job. When I was eight years old I started as a junior handler, my goal was to show as many of the 174 CKC recognized dog breeds as possible. By the time I was ten years old I was not only showing the family dogs but I was picking up paid handling clients at many of the shows in the Maritimes.
At the age of 13, I noticed a need for websites to promote purebred dogs kennels when a family friend approached me for website help. I started my web company, then called Future Web Design, in 2003. I used the network I had established in the dog show community to start creating websites for many purebred kennels across Canada. Both of these businesses supported each other and many of the clients I was handling for also became (and still are) web development clients.
Nicholas MacLeod 2016
I joined a Charlottetown based e-Learning company (Justice Knowledge Network, a Holland College initiative) at the age of 16 where I provided technical support and server maintenance for the law enforcement community in Canada. This gave me great exposure to the IT industry and provided the experience that I later used to grow Future Web Design. Upon completing high school at Colonel Gray Senior High, I enrolled at the University of Prince Edward Island as a full-time Bachelor of Business Administration student. A few years later, after more than outgrowing what was supposed to be a summer student position with JKN, I moved to the Studio Manager position at Image Factory. Alanna’s Photography (later incorporated as Image Factory) was a 20-year-old visual communications studio where I looked after the operations and clients. Due to a lack of time I was not able to continue to handle for my clients and retired from dog shows.
I changed my focus at the age of 20 and devoted my time to Future Web Design, which had continued to grow beyond the point of a side business to a self-sustained business with revenue more than doubling year over year. I decided to leave my position at Image Factory and pursue Future Web Design full time.
In 2011 (21 years old) I began an online stock photography site called Island Stock Photo with the vision of providing Prince Edward Island stock photographs to marketing companies. Just a year later the owner of Image Factory was looking to change focus as well, I bought Image Factory in 2012 and brought it under the Island Stock Photo banner which gave me access to an extensive library of stock images as well as photography and design clients.
In 2012 Future Web Design was incorporated as Future Web Solutions Inc. and continued to grow with the addition of a development manager and an office manager. Adding dedicated virtual servers and partnering with Microsoft and Google to offer cloud-based services took the company from a one-man show to a professional firm with exponential growth year over year.
In 2015 more changes were brewing. Future Web Solutions had expanded to offer more than just website with the addition of IT hardware, software, and service. With the added workload, I felt the need to make structural changes to keep up with client demands. Future Web Solutions Inc was dissolved from the ashes rose DevUp Inc. specializing in all things web and Unlimit IT Solutions Corp. to handle IT. Rob Williams was brought in to DevUp as a partner and Chief Technology Officer to handle web operations, allowing Nicholas focus on strategy and business development.