Applying for a jobLooking to get into the startup world? Get your first grown up job or maybe just looking to move onto bigger and better things in a new job? No matter the goal, writing a great CV and cover letter is key to securing that next job Those aren’t hard rules, but following […]
Applying for a job Looking to get into the startup world? Get your first grown up job or maybe just looking to move onto bigger and better things in a new job? No matter the goal, writing a great CV and cover letter is key to securing that next job
Those aren’t hard rules, but following these guidelines is a good start.
Read the advertisement I know this sounds obvious, but a surprising amount of people don’t read the job ads they are applying for. That results in not providing enough information to the employer or applying for something you are wildly underqualified for.
Aside from understanding the job you are applying for,
reading the ad properly makes tailoring your CV/cover letter so much easier.
Startups for example might need their front-end developer to do something more
than just programming. If you only want to do programming that job might not be
for you.
Create an easy to read CV Keep it clean, keep it simple. Put yourself in the shoes of a hiring manager that might have to go through 100+ CV’s that day, make finding the key information easy. This is especially important if you are applying at a startup that might have limited manpower to go through your application.
Try to focus on your strengths that are relevant to the job,
if you are applying for a back-end developer role, your summer job at a grocery
store is unlikely to help. It might however help if you are looking for a
customer facing job.
Quality > Quantity, a hiring manager would rather receive
one-page CV filled with quality than a three page one with irrelevant
information. Keep that in mind and focus on information that supports your
application.
Cover Letter The easiest way to start is by creating a generic cover letter with some background information and the hard/soft skills that apply to any job outlined. You can then use that base to create a tailored cover letter for each job you apply for.
Use the cover letter to explain how and why you are the
right person, the job ad will be asking for certain skills and attributes. You
need to show that you have what they are looking for and provide support for
your claims.
Avoid using generic keywords like hard worker, multitasker
and great team player if you can’t provide any examples to support it.
And never lie.
Follow up Sending a short follow up message one or two weeks after sending in the application reinforces your interest in the job.
Finding the perfect employee is hard at the best of times, finding one for a startup might be even harder. You should therefore try and spend more than five minutes writing your job ad to avoid people looking at it once and moving on. This is all written from examples and experiences from ads on […]
Finding the perfect employee is hard at the best of times,
finding one for a startup might be even harder. You should therefore try and
spend more than five minutes writing your job ad to avoid people looking at it
once and moving on.
This is all written from examples and experiences from ads
on our own platform. The following guidelines aren’t set in stone, but
something to take into consideration if you feel completely clueless.
Job Title
Keep the title as short and simple as possible while keeping
it precise. The more detailed your job title is the more likely it is to catch
the eye of someone qualified. Relevancy is also key, you ideally want your ad
to match the likely search terms a candidate would type into a search box.
Don’t: Developer Do: Senior Back-End Developer
In the early phases of a startup it’s not unusual for people
to have multiple roles or a very wide range of responsibilities if that is the
case try and indicate that in the title as well.
Company description
Explain what your company does what your product is, and if
you have one what your mission statement is. The key is to keep it informative
and interesting without dragging it out.
Tell your potential next employee what makes your company
different, what you are looking to achieve. Help them identify with your
company and being able to imagine themselves working for you. Make it easy for
them to choose you over your competitor.
Joining a startup can sometimes feel like a risk so try to reduce the feeling of
risk and inspire confidence in you and your product.
Job summary
Avoid just listing keywords with no context, it gives the
candidate limited information.
List out the main objectives of the job and if you can
explain a bit how they will be achieved and who you will be working with.
For example: You will be working directly with the Marketing
manager to improve our social media following. To achieve this, you will be
expected to create content for our social media channels as well as using paid
ads.
This helps the candidates figure out how qualified they are
for the job and makes it easier to understand how their days would be spent.
Required experience
Write down the minimum knowledge, experience and education
that is required for this position.
It’s understandable that you want the best possible person for the job, but at
the same time it’s important to be realistic. Speak to an experienced person in
a similar role and get to know what suitable requirements for the role are.
Don’t be one of those people asking for 5-year experience
and a master’s degree for a junior role.
Experience/Attributes that gives advantages
Those are the skills that give you an advantage in some way
but aren’t mandatory. This can be both typical skills such as knowing more programming
languages or random life skills that you deem valuable.
Knowing more hard skills might mean the candidate requires less training, while
having been an athlete might have taught a person something you are looking
for.
Perks
What are the perks of working for you? List them all, this is where you can really differentiate your company from others.
Vacation days
Hardware you provide for the job
Self-improvement programs/budget
Gym deals
Cycle to work scheme
Work from home (in non covid times)
Social events
Equity
The options are endless.
How to apply
What do you want from your candidates – a CV and cover letter? Only a
CV? CV and their LinkedIn profile. Make it clear what you want, it saves you
time and effort not having to message people asking for additional information.
Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]
Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.
Munyaradzi J. Raradza
This week, we’re interviewing Munya, Founder and CEO of Blkgrid, a young startup focused on empowering black professionals and black owned businesses. (and they’re hiring for Executive Assistant and Social Media Manager on Work in Startups!)
Tell us about Blkgrid! How did it all start and what
are your goals?
The initial idea for Blkgrid came about in the autumn of 2018. Myself (Munya) and Co-founder/CTO Cruize were paying close attention to the social and economic challenges that were affecting black communities within the UK and across the world. We decided that a lot of issues needed to be solved from an economic forefront. So Blkgrid looked to solve this issue by creating a space for black opportunity and collaboration. We’re a startup that provides black students, professionals and freelancers access to opportunities at inclusive companies and startups. We also facilitate funding and advice for black entrepreneurs, across all aspects of tech and non-tech startups. On top of all this, as a Blkgrid member you get discounts while shopping with black owned businesses, supporting small businesses within the community.
As a company we look to
become the number one place for inclusive corporates, startups and small
businesses to hire black talent. More importantly, through our platform we aim
to support black individuals to create and develop businesses, community
initiatives and skill share. While celebrating our rich plethora of cultures
along the way.
What are your values as an ambitious startup?
First and foremost, we are
here to make a positive social impact, creating a more level playing field for
the black professionals and freelancers of tomorrow. We are living in a
changing world and we believe that Blkgrid can help to contribute to building a
more equitable society.
We know that as a startup,
it is important that we continue to be creative and brave. Creative in the way
we provide our services and create products and solutions. As co-founders we
find inspiration from different types of individuals, communities and spaces.
This helps inform how we approach business on a daily basis but also over a
long-term period. We are well aware by staying creative we are able to innovate
effectively and develop an authentic brand. Being brave is also key. At Blkgrid
we are not scared to ask big questions, tackle big challenges and take a
different route from the rest of the crowd. Ultimately, we hope this will
foster a positive and unique experience when we cater to our members and
clients alike.
More importantly, we are a
family and we treat the people that we recruit as such. We are aware that
working in a startup can be fast and stressful. We want to make sure that
everyone’s well-being is properly catered for. It is important that we make
people who work here feel comfortable enough to be able to express their ideas
and have their input heard. This is why we love to work with people who are
personable, hungry to learn and have something unique to contribute to Blkgrid.
With your current knowledge and what you’ve learnt so
far, is there any advice would you give yourself back when you were just
getting started?
The biggest lesson we have learnt thus far, is it that it’s really important to be always ready to adapt. Naturally, creating a startup and developing it into a leading business, is a wonderful journey which requires a lot of planning. However, for anyone to learn very quickly, you must be willing to refine plans. Looking back, we would say to our former selves, be continually open to learning from these lessons and then adapt plans accordingly.
Cruize Delaney
What is next for Blkgrid and what are the goals for
2021?
In early 2021, we shall
release our full range of services. We are currently in our beta period and
looking forward to working with a range of corporates, startups and SMEs to
help them recruit talented black individuals to work at their companies. We are
particularly excited about our ‘Neighbourhood’ membership network, which will
grant our users discounts, at a wide range of black businesses. Additionally,
we’re really excited about the release and impact of ‘Blkgrid Action’. Action
is our non-profit arm that will aim to use donations and a portion of our
company profits to fund grass-roots community projects across the country to
help curb socio-economic problems that our community may face.
What’s a
question you’d like to ask a successful startup or a high growth startup?
The main question would be, how do you continue to attract and nurture relationships with B2B customers. This is an area that we are continually keen to learn about as we look to help businesses embrace and benefit from input of black professionals and freelancers.
This week’s interviewee is Will Thomas, founder and CEO of Fantasy Football Hub (https://fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/) – an online community of Fantasy Football writers and playing enthusiasts. Set up two years ago, FFH seeks to capitalise on the rapid growth of a growing trend. That is, the millions of Fantasy Premier League managers glaring, square faced at […]
This week’s interviewee is Will Thomas, founder and CEO of Fantasy Football Hub (https://fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/) – an online community of Fantasy Football writers and playing enthusiasts. Set up two years ago, FFH seeks to capitalise on the rapid growth of a growing trend. That is, the millions of Fantasy Premier League managers glaring, square faced at their laptops into the early hours of Saturday mornings, agonising over the key decisions they must make each week ahead of the next round of Premier League fixtures.
To captain Salah or Sterling? Wildcard or bench boost? What
rotation trick will Pep Guardiola pull on us this week?
Second guessing Guardiola is an impossible task, and is the
perfect illustration of the endless choices available to Fantasy Premier League
managers, which is a key reason the game has exploded over the last few years
from a hobby for the ultra-keen football fan into a growing market all of its
own.
From a game played by 76,000 users in the first season of
the official Premier League version of the game, to one in which over 6 million
participate in today, the growth has been exponential and shows no sign of
stopping.
Websites, podcasts and a whole range of information are now
readily available for obsessive football geeks battling it out to beat their
mates on a weekly basis. The need to gain a competitive edge therefore has
become increasingly important for the game’s loyal and growing following. Enter
Thomas and the Fantasy Football Hub.
What led you to create your business?
I had been playing for a number of years and used to blog
about Fantasy Football. I noticed that there were loads of different resources
which I was using and was able to get an edge, which not that many people knew
about. So that was the inspiration to create a fantasy football hub, where all
this knowledge would be in one easily accessible place.
How have you monetised your website and grown it since it
was set up two years’ ago?
We built a community of writers and incentivised them to
share what they create to social media, providing them with commission for
their work, which allowed the concept to grow (generating a lot of organic
traffic for us). This contributor model continues to be a key revenue driver
for us, but we’ve also developed a lot of own brand products now.
We are fortunate that the whole space is growing massively.
With our model, we’re fortunate to produce
a dozens of articles and team eveals per gameweek from high calibre writers and
managers.
Our main source of revenue is players signing up as
subscribers to our site, and we get our main bulk of our member sign ups at the
start of the season. The site has been going a couple of years now, and I went
full time just over a year ago (February 2019). It’s still very much in the startup
phase but growing and members are on the rise and the site hits continue to
move in the right direction.
We also have affiliate partnerships with other startups,
such as Footstock (a Fantasy Football / player trading hybrid). We’re growing
very quickly and the partnership with Footstock is perfect as we’ve got their
target audience base and visa-versa.
We launched a big crowd funding raise in August 2019. 18
months ago we had 500 subscribers but at the time of the crowd fund that had
risen to around 3,000 (according to Seedrs FFH has a valuation of £1.7m after
fundraising was complete).
Clearly FPL is a hugely growing market. A game played by
76,000 users in the Fantasy Premier League’s first official season 17 years ago
now has over 7 million people playing every week. The need for players to have
information and insider knowledge is increasingly important – so please can you
tell us about the algorithm you’re developing on your site?
We have an algorithm spreadsheet on site, but are currently converting
this into a points projection tool for our new app. There are various ways we
can project performance using things such as spread betting odds, massive data
and expected goals and assists to predict fantasy points.
Our goal is for the user to, in just a couple of clicks, to
see how players are likely to perform in the weeks ahead.
Presumably having no football played for several months
was not good for business. How have you found the impact of Coronavirus on your
company?
The pandemic has not been great for us but it has allowed us
to focus on the tech side of the business. And since the Premier League returned,
we’ve seen a surge in traffic once again. Demand has not gone away, and in fact
we usually wouldn’t see this level of activity at the end of the season.
What does your business look like in terms of the size of
the team and your following?
We’re relatively small in core team of five – most currently
working part-time. But then we have of over 50 contributors who I consider part
of our team. We’ve also fortunate to have a brilliant developer who knows FPL
inside out. It’s one thing getting a brilliant developer, but if they don’t
know FPL it’s difficult to explain the nuances (so that they understand the
user experience properly).
We also outsource different things –some website upgrades for
example, and acquired a competitor, FPL updates, who we are looking to build in
some automation for. If you want score and assist updates we’re developing a
bot which produces this throughout the gameweek and will run on FPL Updates’
Twitter handle (98,000 followers). In terms of our own following, we have
35,000 twitter followers, 29,000 on Instagram and 12,000 on YouTube.
What one pearl of wisdom would you share with other would
be entrepreneurs?
The biggest one for me is that if you have an idea you have
to get it out there and test it, find out if it works and what parts of it
work. That’s what I do throughout the business on day to day basis, (for
example) a new article series people think may work. Does it get a good
reaction? Do we get the site hits? If it’s unsuccessful we drop it.
It’s the same if we look to build a new tool – we’re looking
to get our app out there at the moment and are looking to build something
that’s (intentionally) not the finished article, so that we can test what works
and what doesn’t. Rather than spending tens of thousands of pounds building an
app with premium features and then finding out a day later that this isn’t what
the user wants.
It’s crucial for anyone looking to start out in any start-up
that you have to find out what works and what doesn’t. When I first had the
idea (to create the website) I had it up in a week. But at the end of that week
I had my first paying member (even though the website wasn’t particularly well
designed, according to Thomas), so if someone was willing to sign up for this –
which was very rudimentary, it was likely we were onto a winner. If you do
things this way then you build it for your users rather than yourself.
Finally, the most important question of all. What tip
would you give Fantasy Football managers going into the final gameweeks of the
season?
I really like Manchester United and Manchester City. It’s
not revolutionary news but they have brilliant fixtures, United in particular.
They have fantastic form, the usual suspects would be Bruno Fernandes, Anthony
Martial and Marcus Rashford. Aaron Wan Bissaka at the back (is another good
pick).
Manchester City have more differential options. Kevin de
Bruyne is the main man but maybe Riyad Mahrez or Phil Foden. Foden isn’t
guaranteed minutes but he is only £5.2m (now £5.4m) and is looking very
threatening with good numbers behind him, especially now Leroy Sané has
completed his move (to Bayern Munich), so he should get some more minutes.
Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]
Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.
This week, we’re interviewing Lucie Glenday, Founder and CEO of MySense.ai, a wellbeing analytics platform that helps users achieve an awareness of how subtle changes in their health can manifest as changes in wellbeing and their ability to cope in their day to day lives. MySense is growing rapidly thanks to a number of global partnerships and a strong, capable team. They are on track to have their wellbeing platform in over 100,000 homes around the world. We look forward to seeing what they achieve (and they’re hiring for a Frontend Lead, a Senior Severless AWS/NodeJS Engineer, a Business Analyst and a Java/IoT/Linux Engineer on Work in Startups!)
What would you say MySense’s mission is?
To help people with vulnerabilities live as independently as possible for as long as possible with dignity. Whether you are 80 or 25, have complex physical or mental health concerns, we want to give you the tools and information necessary to be as independent as possible. We also want to give these tools and information to your support network.
What are your values as a startup employer?
Being positively brilliant! We see ourselves as a family that doesn’t follow the crowd. We aren’t afraid to ask difficult questions and be wrong – this is important for growth and development.
As for the people that we recruit, we put people’s personability before skills and experience. We firmly believe that you can teach skills and experience, but it’s harder (if not impossible) to change someone’s personality and attitude. In conjunction with this, we really value compulsive learners – so people that are always hungry to learn more and grow. Lastly, we look for people that are respectful and actively listen. There are people that listen but you know they’re not really taking it in. We want people that absorb and digest what others are saying before showcasing their own views and opinions.
We have a 5/5 rating on Glassdoor, which I believe is reflective of the time and effort we put into ensuring we get the right people through the door. We ask a lot of tough questions in the interview process and it’s definitely quite intense, but it’s a key reason we have such an incredible work force. It’s also partly why we have such a low churn rate – until a month ago we didn’t lose anyone we didn’t want to lose! This is also reflective of the fact that staff love working here and we invest in our employees.
We are also a globally focused work force and continually challenge each other in terms of our cultural biases, which is another great thing about MySense. For example, we don’t want to just focus on white, western assumptions of wellbeing – we want to challenge these from an Asian and African perspective to develop a more holistic understanding of the term.
Separately, we want to make sure that MySense is a safe place to work, whilst also being inspiring and challenging. This is especially important given that no startup is ever fully liquid and there can be lots of stresses. I think we’ve managed to find the right balance and developed a great, supportive culture where we all respect one another and are motivated by the same mission.
What has your growth been like?
I founded MySense in 2016, so it’s three and a half years old now! In the first year it was just me, but we’ve since grown to 42 people and growth projections are huge for the upcoming financial year. We’ve partnered with a number of care organisations in the UK and we’re rapidly expanding our global partnerships – it’s an exciting time.
We recruit a real mixed bag of people because we’re after a load of different skills. We have deep technical engineers, ops and finance managers, supply chain type people, a commercial team and clinicians! We’re looking to expand on all fronts over the next few years.
What does 2020 hold in store for MySense?
As I’ve mentioned above, we’re growing! We’re also extremely fortunate with our partners in the market. We have some large partners in the network and large contracts, but we’re also looking to expand in the marketplace and become a lot more visible.
We want to spend a lot more time on the brand elements, for example on product placement and we’re looking forward to working with large companies like McCarthy & Stone. Expect to see roll out across those companies in 2020!
We’re also expanding into two new territories. MySense was incorporated in Canada last year and we’re launching in the Canadian market later in the year! Plans to launch in a European territory are also in the works.
Do you have any advice for people thinking about founding their own startup but currently unsure?
There’s a huge element of luck, which can’t be underplayed. Often, it’s about being at the right place at the right time. What works for one person, in virtue of the people they have spoken to and know etc., won’t work for another.
If it doesn’t work, just keep going! Tenacity is key – you’ve got to be a bulldozer and believe in yourself. There will be people along the way that won’t believe in your vision and won’t think it’s going to work. If you can keep going despite this and tune out the white noise – this is a great step!
Also, don’t underestimate the power of a great team. If you have a core team of brilliant people around you that share your vision, this counts for a huge amount. They challenge you on a daily basis, and you’ve got to make sure you are believing in them and their ability as much as you believe in yourself!
And lastly, founding a startup is very hard work. I have three kids and I’m always busy. I take the kids to school first thing in the morning, I then go to work and do a full day at the office before coming home in the evenings and putting food on the table. After I’ve put the kids to bed, I then keep working! If I decided to work a 9-5, MySense wouldn’t have happened – you’ve got to work really, really hard to make your dream a reality. It’s tough building something from the ground up!
Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]
Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.
This week, we’re interviewing Shane Mayes, Talent Acquisition Manager at LoyaltyLion – a data-driven e-commerce loyalty and engagement platform which provides loyalty programs that increase customer retention for merchants worldwide. LoyaltyLion is another cool startup on our platform that’s growing like crazy, looking to double its workforce and shake up the way that ecommerce retailers do business.
What is LoyaltyLion’s mission?
Our mission is to help retailers succeed in the age of Amazon. Ecommerce today is like the high street before it became dominated by a handful of generic, impersonal businesses. By helping entrepreneurs succeed, we hope to stop ecommerce going the way of the brick and mortar store. This is why LoyaltyLion exists.
What are your values as an employer?
We give people a setting to grow and produce their best work and be recognised for it. The attitude and mindset of your team will have a profound impact on your product and customers – we are very people focussed because of this.
Ownership and trust are at the core of our working philosophy. Everyone here has a tangible impact on our product and more broadly, the way that we work.
We act with urgency and focus but we give people the flexibility to be innovative and try new things. We’re award winning because we innovate and differentiate.
If we say it then we will do it. We make good on our promises. We can’t say much about Loyalty if we don’t make good on our own words.
You guys have grown a lot over the last year. What’s next?
Rewind to January 2019 and we were working out of a one bedroom apartment. We’ve grown to nearly 40 people since then.
We’ve added some incredibly talented and smart people to our team, and we’re building something together. What’s next? Mistakes a plenty, I’m sure! Then success, then more growth…
All of the great people that joined LoyaltyLion have done so because they believe in our platform, and our vision. More importantly they believe that we are the best place to be to achieve their own professional goals – and that’s a big responsibility for us. This year we want to continue to make good on that and invest in our people, and give them opportunities and experiences that they value.
Great culture aside, are there any company perks?
Let’s start with the things that I think our people value the most.
Flexible working, remote working and a work from home policy mean that I can stay home and work knowing that my sofa delivery won’t be missed. It means that Magda can work from Paris for part of her trip to save her using all of her holiday. It’s a great way to work and we trust our people.
Free breakfast and lunch on a Monday are really popular. We’re dog friendly and have a couple of regular four legged visitors. We have a heap of refreshments on tap and a bunch of games and entertainment and more importantly a bunch of people that you will want to play with.
We tend to wind down at 4:30 on a Friday and play some games and we have a fantastic Office Manager who looks after our social calendar – more recently we went on a scavenger hunt around London and did the crystal maze!
There’s so much more and we’re always looking for ways to enhance our offering…
What do you look for in an employee?
We like people who are self reflective and who can look inward. A lot of what we’re doing is a first experience for us, which means that things don’t always go to plan. To deal with that you need to have a growth mindset.
People who are naturally curious and value every new learning opportunity that comes their way. No one joins LoyaltyLion a loyalty expert – some of us were completely new to ecommerce. Embracing those opportunities to learn is important. Identifying valuable learning opportunities and seeking them out is what will set you apart.
Finally, we look for employees who are themselves. We have a broad range of backgrounds, experience, interests, values, goals and I’d say we’re an even split across the Hogwarts Houses (if you join us, you will definitely be sorted into a house). Come as you are, make an impact, and grow with us.
Here at Work in Startups, we’re on a mission to help talented jobseekers find the startup job of their dreams. To support this, we’re running a blog series shining a light on people’s early startup careers, in the hope that it will inspire jobseekers (like you!) and help talent make more informed decisions about their […]
Here at Work in Startups, we’re on a mission to help talented jobseekers find the startup job of their dreams. To support this, we’re running a blog series shining a light on people’s early startup careers, in the hope that it will inspire jobseekers (like you!) and help talent make more informed decisions about their future. Follow us as we interview startup employees across the country and find out more about their backgrounds, motivations, current roles and future aspirations!
This week we’re interviewing Luke Kock, Business Development Manager at CleanCloud, the leading Point of Sales software, apps and online ordering service used by dry cleaners and laundry services worldwide. As one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world, they were named 2019 SaaS Awards winner and look set for big things! We can’t wait to see what 2020 has in store for this exciting startup!
Hi Luke! Can you tell me a bit about your background?
I was born and raised in London and went to Warwick University to read PPE in 2015. When I graduated, I was definitely the odd one out from my cohort in the sense that I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Most people had a graduate job lined up, but I didn’t as I wanted to try a few different things. Post-graduation I took an intensive coding course and tutored to earn money. Learning to code was my first segway into the techy, startup world and really got me thinking. I then went travelling for a few months and did a remote internship for a Dutch startup in Bali. This exposed me to the whole world of startup jobs and I could really see the value of my work. I was making a difference even though I was an intern and only just beginning my tech career. After that, I knew I wanted to work in a startup – just not remotely, so I applied for jobs via startup job boards (including on Work In Startups of course!) and CleanCloud approached me for a Business Development role! The rest is history!
Wow, thank you for sharing! What led you to join a startup in the first instance?
Definitely seeing the value of my work. Because CleanCloud is still pretty small, everything I do has a direct impact on how well we do, which is exciting! The second reason I joined a startup is that I wanted to learn how to run a business. I want to found my own company in the future, so where better to learn than at a startup? I’m seeing how a new business works: the ups and downs and the struggles, and this is invaluable experience. At a big company, it’s difficult to know what’s actually going on and have a holistic overview of how the company is doing. You don’t have this problem at a startup!
What led you to join CleanCloud in particular?
I wanted to work in something in technology, and CleanCloud seemed like the perfect fit. I’m enthusiastic about tech making people’s lives easier and CleanCloud does just that. Dry cleaning is an industry that hasn’t been disrupted by technology yet, so that’s what we’re on a mission to do and we’re making dry cleaners’ lives easier in the process. Not all startups have super-cool, crazy ideas, but the ones that are successful are the ones that identify a clear pain-point in an industry and provide a solution for it.
And there are a lot of signs that we’re going to be successful! Firstly, we are funded by Angel investors, seed funding and earlier this year a large US payment processing company acquired a minority stake in the business. Secondly, we’re a hard-working, dedicated bunch! We’re committed to our mission and want CleanCloud to succeed.
I also joined CleanCloud because I was really impressed by one of the Co-Founders and CEO, John Buni. CleanCloud is his second business! Before this, he founded a company called Tailor Made London that was the first tailoring business to implement body-scan technology. He has a knack for seeing how traditional industries can be disrupted with technology and I was inspired by his entrepreneurialism.
Do you think you’ll always work in startups?
Hmmm, difficult to say. I definitely think I’ll end up in a startup in the long run, and I’ll spend most of my career working in startups. However, I could potentially see myself working at a bigger company at some point. Big companies provide a lot of technical training, which could prove super useful – especially given that I want to found my own company one day. However, they don’t necessarily win on pay (unless in law or finance, of course) or experience. I think my heart will always be in startups at the end of the day.
My end goal is definitely to found my own startup, and I know that the senior people here would mentor me and help me out – that’s what’s so great about CleanCloud. They have invested in me so far and I truly feel supported.
What makes the CleanCloud a great place to work?
Two things. Firstly, the atmosphere is just so great! We have a lovely, lovely office and a collegial working environment. We all get on really well, which makes CleanCloud a fun, lively place to work. Secondly, you really see the value of your work and CleanCloud operates on a flat hierarchy. You can have a direct relationship with everyone in the office and be open about your concerns and successes. Additionally, if you have a cool idea there’s not a lot of bureaucracy. You’re encouraged to be entrepreneurial and push boundaries.
Do you have any advice for young, startup obsessed jobseekers when they’re just leaving school? What about people leaving University?
I would say don’t stress about it and feel pressured into going into something that you’re not interested in. Think about what you want to be and where you want to get to and find a startup that will take you to that point! If you decide to join a big, established company – pick one that will invest in you and take the time to teach you everything you need to know. I would say prioritise that above all else. I would also say prioritise a company where you feel valued.
And it’s ok not to know what you want to do! Try things out and see what interests you and what doesn’t. It was only after working for a startup that I realised I wanted to work at one and found my own one day. The startup road isn’t easy… but it’s incredibly rewarding.
Inspired by Luke and/or want to share your story? Email us at contact@workinstartups.com or reach out via Twitter – we’d love to hear from you!
