Matt Wilson - Founder/Chief Executive
Matt in Head Office Matt with Cherie Blair	Apprenticeship Before starting Crosby, Matt trained as an electrical engineer, gaining experience with blue-chip companies including the Disney Corporation, the BBC, Nokia and EMI. His work brought him into contact with celebrities such as Kylie Minogue, Fat Boy Slim, Lousie, Damage, Geri Halliwell, Vicki Butler Henderson (Channel 5 - Fifth Gear) and the BBC's Nick Ross.
Matt and Steven Wilson starting work on the Data Centre Matt opening Crosby's new Head Office	Business Background From the age of 12, Matt had a passion for music, and at 15 he formed his own mobile disco agency, performing at small venues such as weddings and birthday parties. As business improved Matt began to introduce additional services such as catering, mobile video recording, and bouncy castle hire, and took out full-page adverts in the Yellow Pages and Thompson Directory.
Pr Matt with Liverpool legend DJ Pete Price Matt presented with the Investor in People award by the Mayor and Mayoress of Sefton Matt with Kenny Dalglish Matt & Leigh Hewitt with celebrity comedian Stan Boardman	Success Offering all these services under one roof, and as the only agency in Liverpool to operate a freephone number, Matt's disco business flourished, and became a 16-man enterprise with an annual turnover of £40,000. Matt sold the successful agency when he was 21, in order to commit full-time to Crosby. Crosby With the money generated from the sale of his disco agency, Matt formed Crosby, a small business selling telephone systems, fax services, voicemail and basic internet websites. Determined that the company should offer a wider range of products and services, Matt saw an opportunity to use technology to combine his passion for music with the advent of the mobile phone era. With the release Crosby's first ringtone service in 1998, Matt became one of the pioneers of the mobile revolution, and in 2001 Crosby became the first UK company to develop real-sounding (polyphonic) ring tones. Since then Matt has helped Crosby to go from strength to strength, moving the company into new areas of I.T. pioneering a wide range of products and services across various communications media.

Key Events

1997

Matt starts Crosby from home.

1998

Matt releases Crosby's first ringtone service/platform.

1999

Matt forms Crosby, a private limited company.

2000

Matt launches Crosby's Combined Ringtone Solution, allowing record labels to include ringtones of the songs they are selling in their CD cases. This created a new source of revenue for the record companies.

2001

Matt releases polyphonic ringtones, making Crosby the first company in the UK to offer real-sounding ringtones using a SP-MIDI format. These new ringtones are an instant hit, and within two months viewers of the BBC's Top of the Pops are able to purchase polyphonic versions of the ringtones of any artist playing on the programme.

2002

Matt appears in a short documentary about Crosby for the ISP Tiscali. A CD ROM containing the documentary is distributed at various world trade shows, raising Crosby's profile and creating new business for the company. You can download the video clip here.

2003

Matt opens Crosby's multi-million pound data centre.

2004

Matt celebrates successfully running Crosby as a private limited company for 5 years.

2005

Matt secures the Investor in People award for Crosby.

2006

Matt successfully negotiates the acquisition of McKay Brown IT Systems.

Matt delivers on Crosby's promise to convert to green power and introduces a range of new, environmentally friendly policies. The company now generates almost all of its power from renewable sources.

2007

Matt secures ISO 9001:2000 accreditation for Sales and Distribution of Digital Media for Crosby's Quality Management System.