Bicester Innovation Centre, Bicester

“Our company, FitnessGenes, provides DNA testing for health, fitness and wellbeing. Our team is made up of scientists, doctors, developers and support staff.

We’ve been based at Bicester Innovation Centre (BIC) since 2014. Our co-founders live in Bicester, so the location is ideal for them plus it’s easy to access for our colleagues who visit from London, Leicester, and other parts of the country.

Over the years we’ve gone from having 13 Bicester-based employees in one of the larger offices, to currently having 4/5 team members based in Bicester and in a 6-person office. The range of office spaces within the Innovation Centre means that we’ve never had to look at moving elsewhere; the Innovation Centre has always been able to meet our requirements.

When we expanded into the Covid travel testing market in 2020 and needed more space, we quickly took on an additional room which allowed us to expand the team and ramp up operations. When we scaled down in 2022, the BIC team were very helpful, and we were easily able to move our second office to a smaller storage room.

Point of Difference (POD) took over the Innovation Centre earlier this year and we’ve seen huge changes already. Their passion and enthusiasm for improving the offices, facilities and communal spaces has been evident from the moment they took over.

Everyone in the POD team is a pleasure to work with. The reception team (Naomi, Jackie, Jane and Jess) are super friendly, approachable and knowledgeable; whether it’s questions about fire marshals, meeting space or topping up kitchen supplies. The operations team (Simon, Andy and Vashti) are easy to contact (very visible, there’s always someone on site!) and keen to help.

On the rare occasion something has gone wrong (an IT error left us without a meeting room booking), the team couldn’t have done more to help us resolve the issue.

It’s reassuring for us to be able to trust that the POD are taking care of things. As a small business, we don’t have the resources to manage everything that comes with renting an office (rates, internet, facilities) etc. so to be able to leave everything in their capable hands leaves us to focus on our actual business.

Communication from the POD regarding changes to the site have been very efficient. We feel fully informed of any changes and POD involve all the tenants when it comes to making decisions.

The office becoming dog-friendly has been a huge positive for us; it’s so nice to have our furry friends at work.

We are excited to see what the future holds working at The Innovation Centre with POD running the show!”