ABOUT US
We are a dynamic team that thrives on innovation and improving our processes wherever possible, to deliver positive outcomes for our customers at all times.
We offer innovative software and business solutions for both B2B and B2C. Starting out in the financial sector, we have taken our successful business functions and used these across a variety of platforms.
We are a dynamic team that thrives on innovation and improving our processes wherever possible, to deliver positive outcomes for our customers at all times. As we have grown as a business, we have endeavoured to ensure that we never stray from this philosophy.
Big Golden Pineapple is always striving for more, which is evidenced by our amazing customer feedback, in addition to industry recognition from esteemed awards bodies.
Our Philosophy
The Best Outcome Isn’t Always The Simplest One
We are always striving for the correct outcome, whether it be for our customers, staff or stakeholders. The path may not be the easiest one, but we’re not afraid of a bit of hard work.
Transforming Innovation Into Value
Innovation isn’t always enough in business. We create with purpose. We don’t want to be the biggest company, but the best, and streamline our processes to reflect this.
Own The Problem, Share The Solution
We’re all human and make mistakes. Regardless of whose mess it is, we’ll share the work cleaning it up. We know that we can achieve more working together to solve a problem.
Suits Don’t Make You Think Smarter
Dressing smartly won’t improve your intellect. Why wear a stuffy suit, when you can be comfortable in your wardrobe? Working hard is more important than dressing to impress.
Fulfilment Through The Challenge
We don’t like to sit idle. We’re fast paced and brimming with creative ideas. So we are constantly challenging ourselves to strive for more.
The Right People Achieve The Right Result
We don’t hire people just to increase our numbers. If you’re working in the right company, in the right role, there is no end to what you can achieve.
The Meaning Behind Big Golden Pineapple
I have always had a penchant for pineapples. I like the way they taste, the way they look, and that they have an interesting history, being considered ‘luxury’ in Europe in the 17th to 19th centuries. In December 2015, when we were running award winning Fintech business DJS (UK) Limited, my eldest son bought me a model of a golden pineapple for my desk. Three days after he gave it to me, we became the first HCSTC lender to receive full authorisation from the FCA. From that point on, the business grew from strength to strength, going up against the big players in the industry and outshining them all. That golden pineapple became a symbol of good fortune for me, and has sat prominently on every desk I’ve manned, as a reminder of where we’d grown from. When DJS (UK) Limited went into administration, I knew we would need a little bit of luck to take another start up to that level of success. I’d always associated that little golden pineapple with a change in our fortunes. And did you know that pineapples have the incredible power of regeneration? With the right care and focus, the discarded leafy top of the fruit can be used to grow a whole new pineapple. To grow again from something small into something bountiful was exactly what I had in mind for my team and my next business venture. And so, Big Golden Pineapple was born.
DAN WARE
FOUNDER OF BIG GOLDEN PINEAPPLE
Our team are award winning professionals with a wealth of knowledge and experience. We all wear many hats and are dedicated in the pursuit of success.
The team behind Big Golden Pineapple (BGP) began as the award-winning Fintech firm, DJS (UK) Limited, founded in 2012. Under DJS (UK) Limited, founded and then scaled by key BGP members, we launched one of the UK’s leading high-cost short-term credit lenders, PiggyBank.
We had a vision to do things differently, and lead the way for the rest of the industry. PiggyBank was the first high-cost short-term credit lender to be fully authorised by the FCA in 2015, and won a host of awards along the way. We did it all ourselves, building our own state of the art end-to-end solution that meant we could run at optimum efficiency.
PiggyBank went from a handful of staff in a small office, to having more than 80 staff providing over 12,000 new loans and servicing 37,000 outstanding loans monthly, thanks to the work of our dedicated team and the adaptable product the tech and ops teams collaboratively created.
In 2019, the industry underwent a huge regulatory overhaul, which saw many lenders unable to continue operating. We fought as hard as we could, but with the new rules implemented by the FCA, even though we were able to tailor our procedures in line with the FCA’s recommendations, Piggybank was no longer a commercially viable proposition, and with heavy hearts, we had to close its doors.
Even though we no longer had a lender, we had our technology, our team, our group innovation and determination.
And so we looked to the future, and saw nothing but opportunity on the horizon.
OUR JOURNEY SO FAR
The Big Golden Pineapple family is made up of several versatile and talented individuals. We are the definition of small but mighty.
As a collective, we each bring something unique and powerful to the table, and our individual skills are never underappreciated or underutilised in our perpetual quest for continuous improvement and organisational efficiency.
We are always looking towards the horizon to see how we can do better, and we push ourselves and each other to constantly reach that next goal or target. Over years of working with each other, we’ve optimised our approach to enable tight communication and peak efficiency, with everyone firmly focused on a common goal.
The result is an outstanding team ready to take any challenge head on.
This has meant that we’ve been able to operate on a business as usual basis throughout the global pandemic, shifting between our office space and working from home seamlessly, a feat that thousands of businesses across every industry have unfortunately struggled with. Something we’re particularly proud of was our ability to set up our remote call centre.
We saw other businesses forced to switch to email or live chat only contact with their customers, whereas we were able to continue to deliver world leading customer service across all channels, to make sure we continue to deliver the right outcomes to our customers.
