Mission
Make cool stuff, be a great place to work
This was a little glib in 2006, but is less so after twenty years of it deciding what we take on, who we hire, and who ended up owning the company.
What we take on
Cool stuff has meant a lot of different things
Hotels judged on how they feel as much as what they do. A portfolio of two hundred theatre guide websites. A sports prediction game played by nearly three million people. Three hundred years of wooden boatbuilding on the Thames.
Almost everything we start turns into something ongoing, so we have learned to be careful about what we start. Sector has rarely come into it; we pay more attention to how a company is run than to what it sells. We want to be able to reach the people making the decisions, and we like clients we look forward to talking to.
If we do not think we can help, or your budget will not get you what you need, we would rather say so on the first call.
Who owns us
Nevado is owned by its team
Most agencies our age get bought. The founders take the money, the new owners want their return, and the client finds out a year later that everyone they liked has gone.
Nevado has done it differently. Using the UK's Employee Ownership structure, Nevado's shares are owned by a trust that holds them on behalf of the team. Nobody can sell Nevado out from under the people doing the work, and there is no investor waiting for a return that has to come from somewhere. What happens to the profit, and what happens to the next twenty years, is decided by the people you will be talking to.
How we think
What we stand for
1
Presence builds trust
We show up fully: in the work and in the moments around it. We're a steady presence our clients can rely on, not just for delivery, but for perspective, support, and the bigger picture.
2
Care in craft, care in conduct
We care about how things are built, and we care how people are treated. That care is evident in our code, our designs, our processes, and our relationships, both internal and external.
3
Courage to do it right
We don't overpromise, shortcut, or stay silent when something's wrong. We say no when it matters, ask the harder questions, and stand by the work.
4
Collaboration is the work
We work with, not for. Great digital work is a product of shared ownership, mutual challenge, and long-term investment from both sides.
Our brand story
From jungle to mountain
Nevado is Spanish for snowy mountain, which begs the question: how did a digital company in south-west London end up named after a glacier?
Nevado Mismi is a peak in southern Peru, long held to be the source of the Amazon. We named Nevado after it because of what happens below it: hundreds of tributaries, none of them up to much alone, running together into the largest river in the world.
That was the business we wanted to build: clients, ventures, projects and people, all heading the same way. And for twenty years we kept our identity downstream. Think uncharted territory, thick jungle, piranhas, toucans. A gecko called César.
The river part worked, and there is one more tributary in it now that the company belongs to the people doing the work. So we have moved the identity up to where the name always was: the mountain. From up here you can see where the water goes, which turns out to be useful when clients stay for decades. Nothing was given up getting here. Same appetite, better maps.
