The Cranfield Innovation Centre has played a pivotal role in Guestia’s growth journey since 2021, when we began with a six-person office. Over the past four years, we have expanded beyond what we initially imagined and are now proudly occupying our fourth unit, with a team of over 20 employees. This growth would not have been possible without the support of Julie and her outstanding team. They have been instrumental at every stage—facilitating each office move, managing new leases, and helping us create the ideal working space. We are truly grateful for their dedication and professionalism."

The CIC has been foundational to our growth as a company in the last 9 years – the flexibility to scale-up to different office sizes based on our growth has meant we’ve never looked anywhere else for our HQ.
 

• The location of the CIC has been perfect in terms of hiring, enabling us to tap into talent pools from Leicester to Luton, Oxford to Cambridge, with great access to major commuter routes and trains to London. Having a host of international airports on our doorstep is also a big plus given our international expansion.

• The team at CIC is one of its biggest assets; hands-on support, always looking out for our company and hugely supportive as we have moved between units or expanded our footprint on the site. Nothing is too much to ask for and Julie and her team have been true “partners” in our growth story.

• The standard of office suites and communal areas has been a big factor for us remaining at CIC over the last nine years – it is also fantastic to see the ongoing investment in the building and campus.

• Having no restrictions on parking is big a plus for us versus other shared-service offices in the area we have reviewed; with a team spread across Beds, Bucks, Oxfordshire, Northants, Leicestershire and beyond, parking and access to major road networks makes a big difference for us.

• We’ve scaled from a four-person suite to 50-person suite over the course of the last eight years, across five different office suites in the CIC. At every stage, the CIC team has enabled and partnered with us to smooth each move; there really hasn’t been a need to look anywhere else.

 
The location of the CIC, just a few minutes from the M1 and major rail links is a real value-add for us; even more so the close tie-up with Cranfield University and its Executive Management hub and various events and networking opportunities means the CIC really is a “hidden gem” for entrepreneurs and start-ups in the area.