Birch, who had met Tew through his brother in London, says he loved Tew’s energy and creative thinking. “Alex is an ideas man,” he says. “He's not scared to think big and wide, but [he] brings those ideas into focus and follows through with great determination.” Birch knew all along that Tew’s employment wouldn’t be that long-lived. “He moved to the US to work with me on some of my projects, but he never took his eye off the ball to build his own business.”