Startups on Afroleft

Patchwork: Lessons Earned

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 20:43:00 +0000

A few months back I moved on from Patchwork—a health-tech startup that’s bringing flexible working to healthcare.

When I joined as its product lead, we were at 1 NHS Trust. Just shy of 2 years later and the company is fast approaching 20—double digit marketshare.

Cushy

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 11:54:59 +0000

This was an identity idea for an eco-friendly home builder.

Cushy never got to see the light of day so sharing it here with your lovely eyes.

Onwards

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 18:10:18 +0000

It was pissing down with rain—in ways only London can—and I show up at the office for the first time. Before I can even take my coat off it’s:

“We have a half-baked Rota feature, it’s a bit rough around the edges, shall we go ahead and ship it?”

That was my first 30 seconds running product at Patchwork (then LocumTap). Later that day I was reviewing an investment pitch deck with ceo/cofounder Anas.

Stakeholders. What are we optimising for?

Wed, 21 Aug 2019 10:39:27 +0000

One of the things I’m piss poor at is stakeholder engagement—enabling everyone see tradeoffs the way I can. Sadly the problem exacerbates as your company scales.

Helpful to see Chris Thewell speaking at the UX Crunch last night.

On the dial ask

What are we optimising for?

Unpack the tradeoffs.
Involve the right people.
Optimise for the right thing.
Make your informed decision.

The Other Side of the Sunset

Mon, 09 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Admittedly it’s taken us longer than it should have, but here’s the story behind Fruitful and how we raised over £500,000 of venture funding, built and shipped a marketplace that attracted £1.8million of lending, captured the minds of recognised experts in the field as well as pitching some of the world’s leading venture capital firms, all before running — quite quicky — into a brick wall.

We spent 10 months building product…

We ran in to a trademark battle, so we went through two changes to our brand name.

We settled on Fruitful and drew it out on the beach just to make sure.

We worked all hours under the sun and probably contributed a fair bit in helping Pact Coffee secure their series A.

Founders: Avoid Death by Assumption

Fri, 08 Jan 2016 21:17:46 +0000

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” — Isaac Asimov

When you’re building a company, your ability to make good assumptions can be the difference between skyrocketing or skydiving. A few bad calls in a larger business can be damaging, but in an early stage startup it can be — and often is — fatal.

A roadmap to better

At Fruitful we’ve made a conscious effort to get better at making assumptions. We do this by mapping out the following on what we call an assumption roadmap™

How to Pitch Your Product to the Press

Sat, 04 Apr 2015 08:55:00 +0000

Last Tuesday I popped in to DoES Liverpool to see Matthew Hughes give a talk on how to pitch your product to the press. He’s a tech journalist at MakeUseOf — so he had some lessons to share from the other side of the table.

In no real order:

Be as concise as possible - journos receive mountains of product pitches each week.
Sounds stupid but: There’s a difference between product pitches and press releases. The former is an anchor to entice the journo to sign-up for your product, check it out and write a review.
If you have notable investors > name drop them. This adds validation.
You need to entice the journo - lead with the problems you’re solving.
Personalisation is important. Do your research on the journo. What have they written in the past that might make them want to write about your product?
Gifts are cool, but not bribes $$$. UPDATE from Matthew: “Should probably clarify I meant gifts with no monetary value though, and after an article has been published. ;)”
Obvz grammar is super important.
Journos like phone numbers for follow up - so share yours.
Don’t talk about yourself (founders) - especially if it’s a product pitch.

Bookmarks:

press.farm find journalists to write about your product.
blonde20.com good PR agency. Do retainers from around £4,000 a month — much more competitive that London agencies we’ve spoken to.
uber.com/presskit Uber’s press kit is a good example.

You produce results: Learn from these

Sun, 04 Jan 2015 10:54:00 +0000

It’s nearly been a year since I joined Fruitful - a fintech startup that’s working to rethink how savers save and how borrowers borrow.

Since then we’ve been through a significant product redesign, a complete branding overhaul, a successful soft-launch and a customer response that has more than overwhelmed us. With customers investing with Fruitful from all over the globe, it’s clear that people are in search of an ‘alternative’ that offers fair interest rates, secured lending and the flexibility that we should expect from a modern investment product.

Bootstrapping vs. Barry

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 20:23:00 +0000

A few months ago I was asked by Sage to be one of their business experts. Thinking that sounded a bit like something from The Office, I asked what the role would involve.

The team explained that I’d be rolling my sleeves up and helping the business community by sharing my understanding of the web, design, marketing and business in general. I welcomed the opportunity.

Last week they published my first post:

“How Barry raised investment, risked everything and faced bankruptcy before turning his company into a multi-million pound operation…”

Introducing Demo

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Together with Matt Richards, I’m organising an event in Liverpool on June 20th 2013.

With the hope of bringing together those working on tech products and ideas, Demo asks a simple question; what are you working on?

Hosted at DoES Liverpool, the event will be made up of a maximum of 6 demos with a short midway interval.

Loosely Held…

As far as demoing is concerned, we welcome those at varying stages of development. From early ideas, right through to well established products. Extracted from the Demo FAQs:

The Fallacy of the Fall Over Count

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:35:00 +0000

The trick with learning to ski is to start off steady. Making pizza shapes with your skis helps to regulate a comfortable speed for gently coasting down the green slopes.

Of course, quickly you become better at this and you begin measuring progress against the amount of times you fall over.

Two times down the green run without falling over - you’re winning.

Quickly you realise this is a fallacy. You’re not making progress because you’re not pushing yourself.

Judging on PC World's Generation Y Campaign

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:09:00 +0000

Just under a year ago I was invited on to the judging panel for PC World’s Generation Y campaign. The initiative focused on discovering and rewarding young business people and entrepreneurs in the technology space.

The applicants and their companies / projects / ideas were outstanding. A crystal clear reminder that even during tough economic times with the right attitude, a good idea and an internet connection – the limits are endless.