A Lens on MPB — how the photography equipment trading platform is putting innovation into focus
This September, Luke Thompson at Hays Tech is profiling some of the best and brightest technology firms in and around Brighton.
MPB is the world’s leading platform for photographers and filmmakers to buy, sell and trade photography equipment. It’s the largest and the fastest-growing business in its market, operating in the UK, US and Europe.
I was lucky enough to sit down with Becci Edmondson, Product Lead, to find out what it is that sets MPB apart from others.
Developing the business
Becci joined back in 2017, as MPB’s 40th employee, but the team has tripled in size since then. “We started in the UK around 10 years ago, and then in 2017 we launched in the US with a proof of concept office in New York. It took off amazingly well, so last year, we opened a massive warehouse in Brooklyn. Now, it’s approaching the size of our UK business, which is incredible considering it’s only been three years.”
The main hub of MPB’s operations is its Ship Street office in Brighton, where you’ll find engineering, product, finance, marketing, customer experience and business support teams. It also has local teams in the US to help with logistics, customer experience, and marketing, too.
So, what is the secret to MPB’s success?
“Firstly, it’s a really creative environment with lots of people who care passionately about photography,” explains Becci. “There’s a real shared purpose across the organisation.”
“It’s also really inclusive — everyone has a voice, everyone has the opportunity to contribute. For a company that’s doing as well as it is, I feel that one of our strengths is that we listen to our community — not just our customers, but our internal community, as a lot of us are photographers and videographers. Half of our exec team are female, too.”
But the kicker, for Becci, is MPB’s approach to learning. “There’s a real culture of experimentation. No one’s afraid of failing or getting things wrong, because the business recognises that if we aren’t trying new things, we’re not innovating or learning. For someone who works in agile product development, learning and iteration are so important, so I feel very supported in that.”
Zooming in on success
It’s clear when speaking with Becci that she loves her work and the business, and nothing demonstrates this more than the huge replatforming project MPB is working on now.
“The platform we’re using in production now was built when the company was quite small. It’s been a very effective platform, but we’re reaching the limits of scalability as we continue to grow. We’re designing for the future.”
MPB has spent a lot of time recently replatforming its entire architecture and infrastructure. There have been guardrails set in place, but in terms of the technology and architecture decisions, the engineering and product teams have been given autonomy to decide what’s best for the business.
“The entire platform that we’ve built has been designed by the engineers in collaboration with the Tech Leads. Everyone has contributed their opinions on how we should do it, so the platform we’re building is proof of MPB’s trust in us and our skills.”
Considering the existing consumer site is a “Django app with bits of React tacked on here and there”, the new platform is a hell of an upgrade.
Server-side, MPB’s engineers are working with Python, Django, gRPC, Postgres, MongoDB and Solr to build out the new search functionality. For the frontend, they’re working with Node, React and TypeScript. They’ve also implemented CI/CD, so engineers get to deploy with Kubernetes, Helm, Docker and GCP.
It’s not just the 20-odd engineers who are passionate about their new toolset, though. “For me, I’ve been really excited that we’ve been using Atomic Design for our UIs,” says Becci. “It’s been cool to be able to build a component library out, then build features really fast and consistently.”
This new platform will open up a roadmap that could run for years and years. “The new site is really focused on improved UX, best-in-class search and discovery, and enhancing all the customer journeys — the roadmap of features that will be built on the new platform is very exciting. Our main aim now is to get the MVP out so we can focus on exciting new features next year.”
Retaining and developing talent
MPB has recently hired a new CTO, Sophie Davies-Patrick, from the huge American Express tech hub in Burgess Hill, where she was Vice President of Engineering. “She’s brought a real maturity to the team,” says Becci. “Up until 18 months ago, there were only six engineers, two automation engineers and me. The team has scaled rapidly since then, so bringing Sophie in has really helped to streamline everything by delivering better value, faster and safer.”
“Having an experienced leader join a team full of talented people with a genuine will to deliver something great has been amazing. We already had a positive vision within the team, but Sophie has brought leadership, experience and a clear mission. ”
“Having a CTO lead the conversation, and interface with the CEO, is increasingly important. Saying that, Matt (MPB’s CEO and founder) is amazing — he’s never been a whip cracker or said, ‘just deliver it’. He’s always wanted it to be good and right.”
Framing the future
There’s a busy year ahead for MPB. The team is aiming for the new platform to be released next year when they’ll be able to iterate and build out more functionality. They are also opening MPB Berlin in November to service mainland Europe.
The engineers are busy implementing an inner source programme so their technology teams become more T-shaped. “We want to enable people to feel that they can contribute to any of the projects,” says Becci. “We’ll have different projects and services with owners, maintainers and contributors, so everyone can learn and grow, regardless of their job title or skill set.”
I’ve been operating in the Brighton tech scene for around five years now and I’m always surprised when people haven’t heard of MPB, which is frequently featured on the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 list. It’s a unique business which has seen growth in recent years that most local firms struggle to match.
If you’re interested in finding out more about MPB, take a look at the brand’s website, or reach out to Becci directly.
Luke Thompson is Digital Lead for Hays Tech in Brighton, the leading technology recruiters in Sussex. Have a question for him? Find him on LinkedIn, Twitter or Luke.Thompson@hays.com.
