An interview with: Rani Hariga from adirani Digital Solutions

Maharani Hariga moved to Lancaster for her Masters degree in E-Business & Innovation (now called MSc Digital Business, Innovation & Management). Falling in love with the city, she has stayed here ever since and made it the home of her businesses. 

Rani is the co-founder of two tech businesses, adirani Digital Solutions and Garchi UK. She is also the host of the Asian Fempreneur podcast, a certified spiritual life coach, and she takes part in several brilliant tech initiatives. We recently caught up with Rani to discuss her holistic approach to the world of tech and hear her words of wisdom for growing a successful tech business in Lancashire.

It’s lovely to speak with you Rani. To start, please can you share more about yourself and your background?

Rani: My name is Rani. I'm originally from Indonesia and I went to the UK in 2017 for a Master's in E-Business & Innovation at Lancaster University. Before that, I did an undergrad in Japan where I did social science — things like media and culture, culture anthropology, and international relations, all those Humanities. Then I did four years of work back in Indonesia before moving to the UK. 

Since then, we have started two startups. One is called Garchi UK and the other is adirani Digital Solutions. And I’m also a certified spiritual life coach.

That’s really cool. It seems a lot of people who study at Lancaster tend to stay or gravitate back to Lancaster.

Can you tell me more about your experience?

Rani: I came from big cities, like Jakarta is a capital city. So, I have a taste of that.  When I was looking to study abroad, I wanted something that's more local. I had never heard of Lancaster before but after looking at it, I thought this sounds like my kind of place. 

Me and my business partner, we tried working from Manchester at one point of time for around six months. Yes, it's nice to go to the city where things are happening but then again it feels complex because there's so many options and so many people. Don’t get me wrong, I love people. But, Lancaster felt more simple. We have the essentials but if you want more you can just go somewhere else for that. 

Does your background in social sciences help you in what you do today with tech?

Rani: Yes, I would say so but not in a direct way. It’s more like a background process of trying to understand where's this person coming from and rather than thinking “oh, okay because so and so is saying this then that must be the fact”, having that critical thinking process of this is what this person is saying so let's see if other people understand it or experience it the same way or not. Like, let’s see if this is true or is it just one person’s feeling.

Having an intercultural experience also helps, especially when working with people from different nationalities and backgrounds. Majority of our staff members are from South Asia. While I keep on learning on best practices and on how to be more inclusive, my experience in Japan and understanding of social science definitely laid the foundation.  

You run Tech Lunches at Fraser House Hub. How did they come around?

Rani: The Tech Lunches are the brainchild of my business partner Aditya Kadam and we host them pretty much every Thursday. 

It actually started as a Coffee with Coders in the morning where people like developers and coders could get together to talk about coding-related stuff and the type of projects that they do.

Then, when Rory started in Fraser House Hub we changed it to lunchtime as he thought it’d gain more attention. So, we have 30 minutes at lunch where people can share their knowledge or share what they’ve been working on. It’s not super structured. It’s more like a mini TedTalks where people can exchange their knowledge and exchange their perspective of tech. 

We’ve started to diversify the topic so it’s not just about hard coding but anything related with digital and tech startups, and even the softer-side of things. One time, I was speaking about how there’s a point to playing video games and it’s not all about violence or all the negative association.

They sound great. What do you love about running the Tech Lunches?

Rani: For me, personally, they have become like a practice ground where you can share your own insights in a safe environment. 

For the past two years now, we have asked people if they want to speak at the Tech Lunches. There are people who are like “yeah sure, I can talk about this”.

But there are people who are hesitant to speak, especially women and university students or people who have just graduated. Even though I have seen them talking about that particular topic and I know they are passionate about it.

It takes a bit of persuasion because they think “no, I can’t talk” and there’s imposter syndrome coming in. So, what I like is when I can gently push them like “you can do it. Because I’ve seen you. It’s just 30 minutes.” When they’ve actually done it and you can see from their face that they’re glad they did it, that’s a proud and happy moment for me.

Speaking of amplifying the voices of women. Can you tell me more about your podcast, Asian Fempreneur?

Rani: I started the Asian Fempreneur podcast back in 2020. That was the height of the Black Lives Matter movement and when we were all in lockdown. I was wondering what were some things that were meaningful that we could do. So, I thought it would be good to hear stories of women of Asian heritage on their entrepreneurial journeys. 

Most of the time, and I don’t want to generalise, but where I come from in Indonesia the typical journey for Asian women is you go to school, you go to university, then get a job, get married, have children, and that’s life for you. There are places where there are different ways to do things. So, I wanted to elevate the stories of those who are doing that to inspire the next generation of Asian women that there is an alternative way of doing things. Entrepreneurship is possible.

From your learnings, experiences, and the journeys of the people you speak to on the podcast, is there anything you think the tech industry can do better to support, include, and elevate Asian women in tech?

Rani: I think this brings us back to the whole issue of inclusion and diversity. 

Here I am in the UK and, of course, people speak English and the mindset is predominantly the British male mindset. I’m not saying this is just in the UK. I feel like it’s applicable elsewhere where there’s a majority single mindset dominating the tech industry of that place.

I feel awareness and understanding that there are other voices and other mindsets that you may not have considered, because you’re so used to your way of thinking, that could bring value to the project, company, or the industry itself.

There was one book I read — Rebel Ideas: The power of diverse thinking. The premise is that the CIA are well known for recruiting people who are from the same background and demographic like white males of a certain age group. So, when there’s an investigation, they all think the same. They don’t consider other perspectives. So, if there’s a suspect or a victim from a different background, they will quickly judge them as being bad, just because it’s different to what they do.

So, you are the co-owner of adirani DS and Garchi UK. Can you tell me more about both of those?

Rani: We started initially with Garchi UK. It started more as a homemade food aggregator platform in Lancaster. We pivoted many times, especially during the pandemic, to the point that now it’s completely Tech Solutions like a software or SaaS product. So, that’s what Garchi essentially is. That’s our OG company.

Then, during 2021, we thought let’s try something else that’s kind of what we are already doing. So, at the time, my business partner had been freelancing and working on client projects. So, we thought let’s make it more official by branding it as a tech consultant. We thought of making it more like a digital doctor. You know, like where people have issues or queries about their tech in their own business and then, as a doctor, we can say what happened and consult.

Since then, adirani DS has also evolved. We don’t just do consultancy. We are branching out. We have our online courses, we do bootcamp training, and we’ve been partnering with Scale-ability on Code Lancashire. My business partner delivers the tech side of things and I deliver workshops on the employability things and coaching the learners.

In both businesses you’ve gone through a lot of pivoting and evolution. Would you say that the ability to pivot and evolve is critical for tech businesses?

Rani: The landscape always changes in tech. I came from a family business background. When our parents or our grandparents started a business it was simple. They just open the shop, pick a product (or several), and they just do that for the rest of their life. They didn’t need to do anything else because there would be customers coming in anyway.

But with tech the landscape keeps changing and evolving. You can’t just open a shop, sit down and wait for customers to come. That doesn’t work. It’s much more complex. And you can feel that. This is like going into the unknowns.

Before you go, do you have any final words of wisdom you want to share with other tech founders or enthusiasts in Lancashire?

Rani: Community is really important. We started after we graduated from university. We didn’t know people in Lancaster. Our surrounding was just Lancaster University. So, I made a point of “we need a community here… But who? Where?”. 

We tried going to Manchester but because we didn’t know anyone the people who spoke to us were just trying to sell to us.

When Rory started the second iteration of Fraser House, I thought “this is where we want to be”. We have been here ever since. I cannot emphasise more the importance of community there.

And, I also want to say that when it comes to tech it can be so easy to keep rolling and thinking “I need to do this. I need to do that”. 

Sometimes, we forget to stop and take a pause to see if this is actually what we want to do or not. 

It’s not just tech. You can apply this to anything else. Just because tech is the current in-job, it pays more and people think “I want to learn coding because then I can get a higher salary, I can get a better job, better lifestyle”. That’s great but why? What makes you want all of those? And if you know your why, you know if a career in coding or tech is suitable for you or not.

That’s the question I would invite you to ask yourself.

Final thoughts — Be curious, ask questions, and find your community

That was a truly insightful interview with Rani, hearing her holistic approach to tech and her encouragement to reassess your goals and purpose — whether that’s by pivoting and evolving or taking time to pause and think. 

If you want to keep up to date with Rani’s journey, you can find her on Instagram or LinkedIn. You can also follow her companies, adirani Digital Solutions and Garchi UK on LinkedIn to stay in the loop on any company updates. Be sure to check out the Asian Fempreneur podcast too!

Fraser House Hub members can join the weekly Tech Lunches every Thursday from 12:30pm to 1pm for a safe, supportive mini “TED Talks”-esque catch up for all things tech.

An interview with: Ben Davies of Praetura Ventures

If you’ve attended one of the recent FHundED Founder x Funder events, there’s a good chance you’ve spoken with Ben or one of the other members of the Praetura Ventures team.

Praetura Ventures are a UK-wide venture capital company. But, the support they offer goes far beyond financial. They also establish strong relationships with their clients, providing unparalleled mentorship, community, and growth resources for founders.

As Praetura’s Group Marketing Director, Ben oversees all their marketing and comms activity. He’s keen to strengthen Praetura’s community connections and loves having the opportunity to attend events, meet with business leaders, and hear all about their journeys so far.

We recently caught up with Ben to get a snapshot of the North West’s funding landscape and hear his business funding advice and wisdom.

To start, please can you tell a little bit about the background of Praetura Ventures?

Ben: There are six different companies within the Praetura group. Of those six, we have Praetura Ventures which was originally formed back in 2011.

Praetura Ventures was created as a way to plug the gap between the amount of talent and exciting businesses that are here and the amount of funding available for such businesses. Our founders were part of some of the early day fundraisers for companies like the Hut Group and AO.com. They were involved in funds that floated for billions of pounds. 

You might think raising capital at this level is fairly easy but it’s not. So, Praetura Ventures was born out of those experiences. They wanted to help businesses get greater access to funding. 

What does the funding landscape look like across the UK?

Ben: Our perspective is that London doesn’t have the monopoly on entrepreneurial talent. Yet, most funding goes towards London and the surrounding areas.

We know that 80% of VCs are based in London and 69% of their funding goes to the South East. The second most popular destination for funding is then international funds. The North West specifically only sees approximately 7% of VC funding. 

Wow, so the North only received 7% of investment. Can you tell us more about the state of North from a funding and VC perspective. 

What does the landscape look like currently?

Ben: The landscape today is incomparable to where we were when we first started.

In the past 12 months, there has been a slight slump in funding due to economic volatility, war, and other impacting factors. Across all regions, most VC funding has dipped. The North West is one of the only regions that has kicked that trend and slightly increased funding during the slump. 

We are also establishing Angel networks a lot better these days. Those Angel investors are critical for early stage funding. I know a lot of work is going on in Lancashire right now to strengthen the Angel network here.

Last year, in a piece of research that we did, we calculated that there is a £9 billion shortfall in funding for the North. Whilst there is still that funding gap that needs to be addressed, there is a clear opportunity for growth here. We are consistently creating global breakout success stories of Northern businesses.

The reality is that the North West has only been put on the map in this sector for the last 10 to 15 years. But the momentum is definitely going to just keep growing.

Looking back to the industrial revolution, the North West has a long, exciting history in innovation and growth. From docks to data and steel to SaaS, you can see the next piece of the North West’s journey coming.

One other thing to note is that Manchester is obviously attracting a lot of investment which has a lot of benefit for the areas surrounding it. 

“Bashing other regions doesn’t help anyone.”

— Ben Davies

Bashing other regions doesn’t help anyone. You have to become globally competitive for your own merits. Being 2 hours away from London is an amazing benefit for the North West of England. 

But, simultaneously, what I’d also say is that places like Lancaster, Liverpool, Preston may benefit from Manchester’s ecosystem, they are also growing their own ecosystems known for certain critical industries or abilities. That’s really important. 

We have the opportunity to take inspiration from other ecosystems while also doing it our way in terms of what did or didn’t work for other people and what actually could work for us. 

What do you think makes the North West, and Lancashire in particular, a great place for founders and funders?

Ben: One thing that I think is exciting about the North West is that it’s big enough to have global ambitions but small enough that everyone still knows each other. So, there’s a kind of cohesion here. Something that is good for the area will be good for you personally too.

There are also some amazing academic assets. The Universities are producing some really bright, ambitious people.

In the North West, we’re particularly good with things like tech, life sciences, and there’s some amazing engineering here. The Lancashire Innovation Plan by LEP has also mapped out a plan for the next five years.

There are also people like Dan and Rory who are great super connectors. You can tell they are trying to do something good for Lancashire’s ecosystem. They recognise that nothing changes if you keep doing the same thing. In Lancashire, there are these ecosystem builders putting their head above the parapet to do something differently, collaborate with the LEP, and try to push the region forward.

So, supporting super connectors in the region will only boost the ecosystem. I think we, as investors, have a duty to support things like that.

Based on the research we did last year, we interviewed 300 founders and stakeholders to figure out what challenges they had. We found that North of England founders were most responsive to ecosystem initiatives like events and accelerators than any other region. They were also the region most likely to worry about access to funding.

Whether it’s the Electech Innovation Cluster, UCLan Engineering and Innovation Centre, the Barclays Eagle Labs, or any of the other people we’ve met here, everyone is incredibly focused and ambitious in terms of the impact they want to have on the region. 

“The North West benefits from a collaborative public sector that knows its goals and works well with the private sector.”

— Ben Davies

There’s some great people both on the public sector and private sector side who are working together in the same direction. The North West benefits from a collaborative public sector that knows its goals and works well with the private sector.

From an investor perspective, we’ve also noticed that the silly market bubble valuations that you see happening elsewhere don’t tend to happen in the North of England. So, investors can really benefit from more realistic and stable valuations where the global potential for growth is much higher. You can grow a business here then take it elsewhere to start benefiting on a global scale.

How does Praetura Ventures help Founders in the North West?

Ben: Education can be a real problem. Making sure people have access to the right information about how to scale a company is really critical. 

For our own portfolio, we have our more than money support. That support includes things like operational partners, who are industry heavyweights that act as active mentors for our portfolio founders. What they’ll do is introduce the founders to their networks and help them with any problems or questions. For first time founders, especially, that level of support works really well.

Outside of our portfolio, we offer lots of education around how you might raise funding, what’s realistic, and what the process looks like. Sharing some of the teachings at places like Fraser House Hub has had a really positive response. 

Is there any advice you can offer for investors who might be interested in the North West?

Ben: We’d like to see more investors be interested in the North West. I don’t think they need an office in Lancaster or Manchester, but they should be making more trips up here to Manchester, Lancaster, and Liverpool.

You need to have a willingness to get out there and speak with people. Don’t try to kill people with jargon or investor buzzword bingo, just speak like a human being.

Spend time with founders and be active in the community.

If you can’t support founders, make sure you tell them who might be able to support them. 

We see 1,400 opportunities a year. We won’t be able to fund all of that so connecting founders with other investors and funds is critical.

You have to be honest about the support you can provide founders. One of the ways investors attract founders is by the support they can offer them, as well as the capital afterwards.

What advice would you give to a Lancashire founder looking to secure funding?

Ben: It is as important for founders to do their due diligence on investors as it is for investors to do it visa-versa. 

Ultimately, you have to work with someone who you are going to get on with. You have to work with someone who is going to be fair because stuff doesn’t always go to plan. When you are side-by-side trying to figure out a problem or some future disaster, do you trust that they are going to be reasonable to deal with?

Speaking of due diligence, if you are speaking with an investor, go to their portfolio and pick a few at random who you can ask, “what are they really like post-deal?”, don’t just speak to the ones they want you to speak to. 

I think we sometimes assume founders know all this stuff when starting a company. When the reality is they don’t. There’s some great resources where you can learn all of this. You should also get out to events like the ones Lancashire Digital Hub and Fraser House Hub run. 

How does Praetura go beyond only offering money support?

Ben: Growing a business isn’t linear. 

Half of our team internally has been part of a scale up journey or grown their own companies before. We’ve had people who have spent time in some of the businesses they have scaled up so we understand that it’s not a case of ‘put in one, get out two next year’. 

We know that growing a company is really hard. So, we have a dedicated portfolio team which is headed up by Colin Green, who was previously CEO of Apple in Japan and Korea and also headed up the US Retail division for Apple, which was a $10 billion PNL. The operational partners in the portfolio team regularly check in with each of the portfolio companies.

Then, our portfolio founders have got that mentorship and active support through their operational partners. We also have a portfolio toolkit. This gives them access to pre-established contacts, discounts, and other things to help them with their day-to-day operations.

We run monthly masterclasses. Previously, we’ve had the Chief Economist for KMPG give a masterclass about her economic outlook for the future all the way through to marketing experts to talk about brand building and lead generation to grant funding.

Then, they get access to our internal teams too. My team [the marketing team] regularly makes video content for them, as well as training them in things like LinkedIn, PR, public speaking or events. We’ll put them forward for press speaking opportunities and positions too.

We also have a central HR resource that helps them with any challenges they may have there. 

Our portfolio founders will regularly use our offices if they need meeting rooms too.

Our founders are also all in WhatsApp groups together. So, not only are we helping them, but they can support each other too. We even have a separate group for the Marketing leads within our portfolio companies too, for example. 

They have a dedicated Investment Director as well. So, they always have a point of contact if they ever need something from us.

For want of a better phrase, we’ve got their back. We really try to go over and above where we can.

What is the benefit of working with investors who are geographically close to you?

Ben: If your investors are within 50 miles of you, you can have a fundamentally different relationship because you will be at similar events and will be doing similar things in and around the same ecosystem.

In our research, we found that 65% of North of England founders wanted their investor to be present in their region because you get more contact that way.

This is a contact sport. It’s people-driven so that regular close connection is really important.

Being familiar with a region is key. The founders based here will face similar issues. For example, we know a lot of life science businesses struggle for lab space or we know people are fighting over the same talent from certain places. An investor based in the region will have experience dealing with these issues.

At Praetura, we are becoming known for certain sector specialisms because we have time taken to understand the regions we work with. I think that is really positive.

Plus, people need to be inspired by someone who is a few stages ahead of them. Having breakout success stories in the ecosystem in their region can really help. 

“This is a contact sport. It’s people-driven so that regular close connection is really important.”

— Ben Davies

What types of founders or companies are you the right fit for?

Ben: There are some opportunities that we have really liked the look of that we haven’t done, mainly because we’re probably not the right person for them or we might not be able to add value to them.

We typically look at B2B businesses that work in technology sectors. Those are the businesses that work well for us, and that we have experience with. But, we will also invest in things like health, gaming, AI, and related fields.

If you want an inactive or quiet investor, we’re probably not the right fit for you. But, what we’ve typically found is that founders don’t want that.

I would recommend founders look at a website called Landscape.vc which is like the TripAdvisor for VCs. It will give you a gauge of what people like about certain VCs, and what they don’t like about them. I’m pretty proud of our reviews there. But it’s great for helping you see which VC might be the best fit for you because there’s a real mix of different people and companies.

Are there any diversity considerations in VC and funding? How can investors address those?

Ben: A lot of female founders are over mentored and underfunded. They don’t need any more advice, just give them some cash.

A commitment to things like the Investing in Women Code is important.

Having an open, transparent, and centralised resource that shows who has backed who and where is important too. This is something that I hope we will eventually have at Praetura.

In Praeture, we have specifically engineered our team so that it is diverse. So one-third is from an ethnic-minority background, half are female, and two-thirds of the department are female-led. We’ve now found that is almost exactly mirrored in our pipeline and our portfolio. That is something we continuously try to improve.

55% of our portfolio is in the North West of England. Of the £40 million we invest here, for every pound we invest four comes from elsewhere. So, that’s like £203 million coming into the North West because we put £40 million into it. 

I think anyone can write a shiny press release, But you need to be able to show genuine, measurable, sustained commitment. Being upfront and transparent is really important.

With that said, the more funding coming in is important. Organisations like Fund Her North are doing really well at acting as a central point for female founders. I think what Playfair do with Female Founder Office Hours is really positive. There’s a lot moving in the right direction in this space. But we need multiple organisations doing that. We have a few doing it now but we need more.

At Praeture, we commit support where we possibly can for initiatives like that. There is a funding gap in the North of England which squeezes those who have less first.

What could founders do to make sure they stand out and capture the attention of investors?

Ben: I think people expect investors to have more time to spend on each individual than they do. You need to be really good at distilling why you add value immediately. You have to leave investors wanting more.

If you have a planned date as to when you need to fundraise and when you need to start speaking to investors, make it six months earlier. 

If you need to raise money in three months, you have already not raised money. You have already not hit that deadline for your round.

Start 12, 24 months in advance. Send them stuff on what you are doing, send them key milestones and keep them up to date. The longer they know you, the easier it becomes. So networking can be really important. It also means you aren’t running to people cold. It puts you in a much better position than you were before.

And focus on both the people and the proposition. The business may change. We are betting on the people in the business as much as we are the business idea itself.

Before you go, are there any final words of wisdom you want to share with founders?

Ben: You have to choose an investor, as much as they need to choose you. Make sure you choose the right money that is aligned with your values and what you want to achieve.

People can focus so heavily on fundraising that they don’t realise that when the money comes in, that’s just the start. You need to look at the long term view. It’s bloody hard to get rid of shit money.

Final thoughts — funding, ecosystems, and ways to get involved

From recognising the funding differences between different regions to highlighting the potential held by the North, Ben offered a plethora of insights into the world of business funding from a VC perspective.

As a business owner looking to raise investment, be sure to start early and do your due diligence. As for investors, spend time in the region you are investing in and show a genuine interest in supporting the wider ecosystem.

If you are interested in hearing more investment insights from Ben and the team at Praetura Ventures or you are keen to build founder-funder relationships, they are hosting a series of founder feedback sessions across the North. These Founder Feedback sessions are designed to connect founders with industry insiders across the investment landscape to help startups perfect their investor pitches. Get your ticket for the Founder Feedback session being held at Fraser House Hub on 24th October here.

You can also view Preature Ventures research into the North’s scale up landscape here. This research is overflowing with valuable data on the North’s landscape, what founders need to build better businesses, and expert advice from those who’ve been there before.

An interview with: Alice Ashcroft of The WILD Network

Alice Ashcroft is the founder of the Women In Lancaster Digital (WILD) Network and a gender diversity in technology consultant and researcher. Understanding language and a drive for gender inclusivity runs through everything she does — from her PhD research into gender dynamics within the tech industry to gender diversity consultancy and building The WILD Network. 

We recently caught up with Alice to talk more about the WILD Network and gender and diversity considerations within the tech industry.

Thanks for joining us today. To start, please can you tell us about yourself and your background?

Alice: I'm Alice Ashcroft and I'm currently doing my PhD in Gender, Diversity and Technology. 

I ended up doing this from working in a software development team for about seven or eight years where I worked mainly on the project management side of things. 

Before that, I did my undergrad degree in Computing. During my Computing undergrad, I did my dissertation on how men and women write code differently — or if they write differently. 

When I started working full-time, I realised it was quite still apparent in the workplace that women are treated quite differently. So, I decided to research it further. That's why I started doing my PhD. 

Then, while I was on maternity leave, I got to know the people in Fraser House and around the Lancaster tech scene a lot more and realised there was a real demand for a safe space for women — and not only a space for them to meet each other but a space for them to learn a lot of skills. So, I decided to set that up which is what I'm doing right now!

You’ve got some great experience in the tech sector and in the topic of gender diversity! 

Can you tell me more about your journey founding The WILD Network?

Alice: It happened while I was on maternity leave. I need to completely credit Kerry Harrison. She did her masters research project on co-working spaces and how they can be made more accessible when it comes to diversity. 

One of the recommendations that came out of that was to establish a network, which is what prompted Rory to reach out to me. 

But setting up networks for women is something I've had experience in in the past. So, I've set up the PhD Women's Writing Group at Lancaster University. I was involved in setting up the Women's Network at Lancaster University. I’ve also run events as part of side hustles in the past. So, it kind of just all came together at the right moment when I was coming back to work. 

It’s like you say, I have this experience in tech but I also have this understanding from the research that I've done. I'm passionate about the fact that sometimes you actually need practical solutions instead of another research paper — not to diminish research — but having a real space and event that will actually help women here is what will really help make a difference in the short term.

That was one of the things I loved about Kerry's research. She did this amazing research and at the end were some solid practical recommendations, which I think all good research should end with.

It sounds like you’re doing a lot. Whether that’s being on maternity leave, raising a baby, working a job while doing academic work…

How do you manage getting a community off the ground alongside everything else you’re doing?

Alice: I have a real habit of taking on too much. I also have bipolar and ADHD which often work against each other too. If you put a lot on my plate or give me too many plates to spin — whichever metaphor we're choosing — something I do to bring myself back to reality is I’m an avid list maker. 

I am also a big believer in time blocking, and also making sure you're working with really great people. So, making sure you work with people who understand, I guess, my neurodivergence and disability but also people who understand what it takes to build a network. 

With The WILD network, I got some advice from Dan Knowles early on and I have support from Rory who runs the space that the events run, Kerry obviously had that great report at the beginning, Lauren helps with the marketing side of things… I have the people from OrganiseMe to help with the administration and then our amazing sponsors as well. So, it's also a case of having a support network where you can ask for help when you need it. 

But, also making sure you plan things. I'm currently booking the speakers for February. The whole next year is kind of already mapped out so, I guess, the way I manage things is just being over-organised to counterbalance the chaos that is day-to-day life.

“There’s no point having all the people in the room if not everyone is listened to in the same way. ”

— Alice Ashcroft

You mentioned how you lean on that support network for building your own tech community. Would you say community is important for someone working in the tech space?

Alice: I think community is really important in any sector but especially in the tech sector because historically — and spoiler alert, I’m writing my thesis on this at the moment — a lot of work in tech has been either one person sat at a computer or one person designing something or one person engaging with technology, on a one-to-one basis. 

But what's happened over the last few years is the different paradigms of HCI have kind of shifted forwards so you have this need for people to work together collaboratively, and to work together even when they're working on something that historically has been done by one person. Then you also need those groups of people who are working together to have a diverse mindset. That doesn't necessarily mean diversity as in ticking a box. It means every single person has a completely unique lived experience and it's how we can bring all of that together to make the best products and serve the community in the best way with the products we’re creating. 

It’s also about making sure that people in those settings feel safe, supported, and heard which is another big part of what I do. There's no point having all the people in the room if not everyone is listened to in the same way. 

I think community is absolutely vital — not only to help people feel included and feel like they belong but it's also vital if, as people working in tech, we're creating products which are going to massively impact the world. It's also important to make sure that those products are appropriate for use.

What does your future vision for The WILD Network look like?

Alice: Our mission has always been to foster a sense of community and collaboration over competition. 

Historically, there has been one seat at the table for a woman and we've all been pitted against each other to grab that seat. Whereas, I think what's happening now with fourth-wave feminism is we’re acknowledging there needs to be more than one seat at the table and there needs to be a diverse range of women at the table. That doesn't mean taking seats away from men. That just means putting more seats at the table. So, that's always been a big part of what we do. 

When setting up The WILD Network, we ran focus groups with women in the local area to find out what they wanted. And they didn't just want another networking event. They wanted a place where they could learn and grow. So, we really tailor our events around personal development and making sure people are getting trained on things. But, we also offer some really cool showcases of women doing cool things in tech. 

In terms of where I want it to go in the future, I want to build on what we’re already doing. I want to keep growing that sense of community. I want to make sure that we're still focusing on people's personal development and showcasing really cool examples of it. But, hopefully, to a bigger and bigger audience — or maybe we'll have different groups that focus on different things within WILD. I don't know specifically at the moment, watch this space, but growing that community is where I see it going in the future.

“...there needs to be a diverse range of women at the table. That doesn’t mean taking seats away from men. That just means putting more seats at the table. So, that’s always been a big part of what we do”

— Alice Ashcroft

There’s definitely excitement in not fully knowing what that future looks like yet.

How can people get involved with The WILD Network?

Alice: Come to the events! That’s a great place to start.

We also have a LinkedIn group set up where people can ask advice and we post prompts in there every couple of weeks to get conversations going. We're also creating a video series called Wild Women where women in tech can share their experiences. So, if there's any women that want to kind of get involved with that, I would love to have them on to hear their stories.

We’re also working with local schools to provide role models and talks to encourage more girls to see computing as an option. So, there are lots of ways to get involved. The website is in progress, so for now join the LinkedIn page and sign up for the mailing list.

You've not been off the ground for a long and you're already putting so many valuable resources and tools in place for people.

Alice: It's surprised me how quickly it's grown. We've run three events so far and the next one is in October.

It's amazed me and part of me thinks I shouldn't be amazed because I've worked so hard for this, but also I think it just hit it at the right time. So, I don't know how much to credit myself and how much to credit the community but it's amazed me how quickly that it's grown and I think it shows that there was a real need for it.

How many events do you run each year?

Alice: There are eight events a year. The one in October is invite-only because it's in collaboration with the school. 

But we host all our events at Fraser House, a co-working space in Lancaster, which really helps foster that sense of community. It’s a vibrant location that’s great for running events.

Outside of The WILD Network, you also offer Gender Diversity Consulting. What would you say are some of the fundamental ways tech businesses can better support women and marginalised groups within their team?

Alice: My consulting focuses on three main areas.

There's the recruitment side of things. I'm constantly hearing people say “Oh, we're happy to hire women, they just don't apply” so that is something that needs to be resolved. That can be done by working with local schools and colleges to offer vocational programmes, and by also making sure the job descriptions you're putting out on the job adverts that you're posting are encouraging everybody to apply, not just a very specific group of people. 

There's also the sense of community and belonging within the teams you have. So, like I said before, it's not just about making sure people are sat at the table, it’s making sure that everyone's heard and everyone's ideas are being taken forward. So, that's something that I help with, provide training on, and carry out research on companies to give recommendations really tailored to them. But reading into that would be a really great place for companies to start.

The third part of it is making sure that the products people are building are usable by everybody. So making sure that the user research that they're carrying out involves as many different groups, as possible, and as many different experiences as possible and making sure that is making it back into the product development. 

That’s great. So, it’s about making sure you work across every level of the business?

Alice: That’s right. There’s many issues with the world ‘pipeline’ but I think it is really important to look at every stage of it.

If you're not getting women applying for roles, then get involved in things like The WILD Network who are actively trying to engage with local schools and colleges. 

If you're getting women applying but their applications aren't as strong then maybe you're asking for the wrong things in your job description. 

So, you need to evaluate the recruitment side of things all the way through to the software or whatever it is that you're putting out. Even if you're outside of tech, what you're putting out there will be affected by both the people making it and the people you've spoken to as you made it. So yeah, I think that holistic view is very important.

“You need people who, when you’re super honest with them, they give you a reality check once in a while. ”

— Alice Ashcroft

Do you have any words of wisdom for women, who are looking to get involved in the digital tech space or who are already in that space but struggle to find how they belong in that community?

Alice: It’s cheesy, but finding your community is really important. You need to find a group of people that you can be completely honest with, people that you just click with but also making sure that your community isn't just people that look like you. You need people who, when you're super honest with them, they give you a reality check once in a while. 

Join The WILD Network is obviously my second tip. That's a great way to meet those people as well. The community that's already been established after three events is really quite special. You're already seeing people connect afterwards and follow up. I get messages from people saying “I went out for a coffee with somebody I met at the network” and it's just incredible. So that's a really great way. 

The third thing I'd recommend is to focus on your personal development. Whether that's coming to The WILD Network and getting training that way, reading books, watching YouTube videos, or listening to podcasts. 

There's so much information out there. Not all of it will be right for everybody but finding the tips that help you develop some resilience, feel what you need to feel, or whatever it is you need help with, acknowledge that about yourself. And know that, generally, you're not the problem but it's a lot easier to change how you adapt to things than it is to change society. So, try to engage with both areas. Figure out what you can do to combat what's happening or better understand it so you know how to deal with it more.

Can you tell me more about your research into gendered language and the impact that has on the tech space and the world as a whole?

Alice: It impacts people in meetings talking to each other. But it’s also having a massive impact on the tech we’re developing. I mentioned before about involving users in research but it goes deeper than that.

So, we have all these things now with generative AI and language models. But who's building them? Who's deciding which words are connected? Are we building the language models in a way where it represents how language is used or how we want language to be used? 

If you're using it for analysis, you probably want these things to be modelled how language is used because then it’ll do the analysis properly. Whereas, if you are generating things, you probably want it to model how we want language to be used. So, when you're using things like Chat GPT or and Claude AI, you don't want it to be spouting things which are sexist or racist, you want it to be the right kind of language but who's to decide what that is? 

Some feminism isn't intersectional like it should be. So you might say “Oh, this language model is feminist” but is it inclusive? So that's a new area I'm looking into and I'm working on some collaborative research that focuses on that. So that's very interesting. And also terrifying at the same time

So, how can you approach that? How can you make sure it's not biased? I guess the answer is TBC depending on your research.

Alice: It’s TBC but, I also don’t think there will ever be a right answer because these things are going to consistently be debated. There's already a lot of hate on the Internet around gender topics so I don't think there will ever be a universally right answer. But how you model that is a very interesting problem. It’s definitely nuanced.

At the moment, most of those models are completely closed off. So you're engaging with this generative AI and you can't see the models that are being used behind it. 

So, with any technology, you have to approach it with a sense of caution. So, are we giving people who are using generative AI the training to understand the nuances of these models? As with anything, it's about checking if we are educated in how we engage with technology.

Digital literacy is a huge thing and there's definitely gaps when it comes to that for many different reasons. 

Empowering diversity in tech with The WILD Network

Alice Ashcroft is doing an incredible job at nurturing Lancaster’s tech community for women while ensuring more equitable gender diversity throughout the industry. Her research also plays a pivotal role in better understanding the language we use and how this impacts the products we develop and the experiences we engage in.

If you are interested in Gender Diversity in Technology Consulting with Alice, you can find out more about this by visiting Aliceashcroft.com/consulting.

If you would like to join The WILD Network and meet other women, minority genders, or allies working in Lancashire’s tech scene, you can join the LinkedIn group or follow Alice on LinkedIn to hear more about upcoming events.

An interview with: Christina Melling of Stipendium

You may know Christina Melling as being the female Martin Lewis of the North. Coming from a legal background, Christina spotted a technological gap in the housing market and built Stipendium to fill that gap, creating greater financial wellbeing and support for people embarking on big milestones in their house buying journey.

We caught up with Christina to discuss her experience building Stipendium. Christina also shared her advice for anyone else who wants to build a tech tool, along with the ways the Lancashire tech community has helped her on her journey.

Hey Christina, do you want to start things off by telling us about your background?

Christina: I’m Christina Melling and I'm the co-founder and CEO of a company called Stipendium. 

My background is legal and financial and I went into the realm of tech in October 2022 because I noticed a gap in the market for the ability to streamline the house buying journey alongside my co-founder, John Bohan.

My background is predominantly professional services which has given me a lot of experience dealing both with clients on both legal and financial matters and becoming very familiar with the sectors from the perspectives of practice, service and proposition.

Coming from that legal and professional services background, how did you find the journey of starting a tech company?

Christina: In some ways it was daunting and a little bit overwhelming because I'm somebody who likes to know the ins and outs of absolutely everything I'm doing.

However, the benefits of me coming into this role as the CEO of and co-founder of a tech company was really founded by my experience in having worked in professional services. I'm very, very much in tune with what the demographic that I'm looking to solve a problem for, and in this case the evolution of technology presented the opportunity to innovate the house-buying journey for the nation's current and future homeowners.

Having worked with lots of different people over the last few years, I was really able to tailor the preposition from a holistic perspective for the target market. So from that perspective, it was really beneficial for me not to be from a tech background. 

Having worked with lots of incredible and inspiring tech professionals from across the UK, I've now filled that gap in terms of my lack of knowledge and experience within tech because I've just been surrounded by people who have worked really hard to build this platform that we've got now.

And I bet over the last two years your technology knowledge is probably 10x better than it was before, isn’t it?

Christina: Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I didn’t really know much at all about building a tech platform before.

But I did have a lot of experience working with and understanding the different areas of FinTech from my financial services background. I could very clearly see the direction in which the financial services background was going in terms of the advancements of technology in FinTech. 

I suppose that was really one of the inspirations behind why we decided to start this business. I had a lot of experience with platforms within the Wealth Management sector and the different tools you can use to manage investments and pensions. So, I knew how they functioned and where the gaps were. That insider knowledge was really helpful and beneficial.

Was the creation of Stipendium inspired by your personal house buying experience at all?

 Christina: I had a really positive experience in my own house buying journey. The people I dealt with throughout the journey were really helpful. 

However, it was still in the back of my mind that this could be much quicker, easier, and cost-effective than it is. Nobody had streamlined it, innovated it, or digitised it yet and that was really the inspiration behind it.

Everything else I could see around me in the finance space was quickly becoming streamlined. The house buying journey is something so many of us go through. There’s about 400,000 first time buyers and about 500,000 people remortgaging each year. Yet they’re still using the same archaic processes that we have all become to know and dread.

Absolutely. The traditional process is so outdated, isn’t it?

Christina: Yeah, absolutely. There’s also a lack of education around it too.

When you embark on the house buying journey as a first time buyer, you are presented with all these terms. 60% of first time buyers don’t know what terms like offer exchange and completion mean, which is completely mad, considering you’re about to make probably the largest investment of your life into an asset. So, it was about filling that gap to educate the nation’s current and future homeowners. 

Accessibility of the entire house buying journey is also something we really wanted to tackle. So, we became the UK’s first professional services tool which was accessible by way of voucher code. The concept of being able to buy gifting rewards for the house buying and remortgaging journey is one of our main USPs for accessibility and making the journey more intuitive.

It seems like financial wellbeing is a golden thread that runs through the company. Can you tell me more about that?

Christina: From a personal perspective, I speak at universities to try to inspire people to 1) start their own business and 2) to educate them about the house buying journey.

I market myself as the female Martin Lewis of the North in the press as well which has been useful from the perspective of creating this personal brand for me as someone who is an expert in those fields, has got a business behind it, and who practises what I preach.

We also onboarded the Stipendium products onto the UK’s largest employee benefit platforms. This allows employers to invest in the lifecycles and future-proof their employees in a new, innovative way that’s never really been done before. So, in many cases, we’ve been the first financial wellbeing product on several of these employee benefit platforms. So, we’ve really trailblazed that region.

£121 billion is the cost of financial stress on the UK economy each year. That statistic is really alarming when you think of the impact financial stress can have on the economy. So we’re trying to encourage employers to increase the paternalistic role they play in the lives of their employees by integrating tools like Stipendium into their wellbeing and reward packages. For me, that is the way to go in terms of boosting wellbeing in the workplace which in turn will boost the economy.

“More people than ever before needed a helping hand to navigate their way through the remortgaging market so we focused on building the remortgage journey area of the platform.”

— Christina Melling

And are you the first people to build a tech tool of this type for the house buying journey?

Christina: There are several property portals like RightMove and OnTheMarket who have innovated and expanded their propositions to offer more tools and services to their end-users. But no one has created a niche standalone tool in the market to complete the house buying journey from buying to moving. 

I did rigorous due diligence on the market before we embarked on this project to really understand; Has anyone done this? Is anyone about to do it? And if not, why has nobody done it yet? A lot of the time I was wondering are we too far ahead of the market at this point? Is the market ready for this? 

There was a huge education gap with this that was on us to fill to allow people to understand the value of this product. It was like nothing that's ever been created before. No one has used anything like this before to completely buy a house from start to finish so that education piece was really always going to be on us to fill for the nation.

What would you say has been your biggest challenge so far when building Stipendium?

Christina: The biggest challenge by a country mile was navigating the declining property market last year because of the increase in interest rates. We launched our house buying journey in March last year which was probably around the time the market started to decline in terms of first time buyers getting on the property ladder.

Then Liz Truss delivered us a monumental blow with the increased interest rates for mortgages and that really challenged us. So, what we did to mitigate that was diversify the product range to capitalise on the remortgaging journey. There are thousands of homeowners out there that need to remortgage at some point. So, that was always something we could work on.

More people than ever before needed a helping hand to navigate their way through the remortgaging market so we focused on building the remortgage journey area of the platform.

By providing homeowners with a platform that enabled them to really look at the whole market and access a whole-of-market mortgage advice platform was a real winner for us in terms of what we could offer people.

It sounds like you are really supporting people through every aspect of that journey

Christina: There are lots of different milestone life events we go through. I think a lot of them are trying to become much easier to navigate. For years now, we’ve been able to manage our investments via apps on your own as a DIY investor. 

For me, that was well ahead of its time and I feel like the rest of the professional services market is taking its time to catch up to that. So, that’s why we came to market with this.

On the flip side, what has been your biggest achievement in the last two years of building the company?

Christina: From a personal perspective, it’s being listed as one of the Telegraph and NatWest Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs To Watch in the UK last November. That was a massive achievement that completely came out of the blue. I was so proud of that, and still am. It’s a really strong accolade to have that.

We have also won various awards for being innovative in our field and being a rising star company representing Lancashire and the North West. It’s great to fly the flag for Lancashire and help put Lancashire more firmly on the map as an innovative ecosystem.

From a business perspective, it has to be the success we’ve had in terms of trailblazing the way for a new innovative method of financial wellbeing. The connections and contracts we have with the employee benefit platforms we feature on is also something that I’m proud of because we worked really hard at that. 

We also launched the Stipendium products at a challenging economic time so that's something else I’m proud of.

It sounds like there has been a lot of resilience behind your achievements.

Christina: Yeah, you’ve got to absolutely believe in what it is that you’re doing. And we really did believe in what we were doing. 

We had a slow start because of the economy and the fact we were bringing such a new product to market but we really believed in it. So, that resilience piece was passive and I think that can really set you apart from other business owners who might have just gone “this is too much for me. I can’t do it…”. So, continuing to fly that flag for yourself, the people you work with, and for the business, is one of the most important things to starting your own business, especially in the tech space.

You learn so much about yourself when starting a business – far beyond what you could ever learn from being employed. You don’t have that comfort blanket or protection of your pension, salary, or employee benefits anymore. You are on your own. So, you’re always looking for where the next customer or sale is coming from and how to support yourself. You really learn how resilient you are as an individual as well.

“You learn so much about yourself when starting a business – far beyond what you could ever learn from being employed. ”

— Christina Melling

While on the topic of starting your own business, are there any words of wisdom you want to share with someone who wants to start their own tech tool or business?

Christina: I think a lot of people will disagree with me on this but I think there’s a desire to become quite a well-known name very early on – and, for me, that was quite strong – but what I would say is don’t run before you can walk. 

Focus on the foundations and build it from the ground up. When you’ve created that brand, got your messaging and story out there, had a few customers and partnerships established, then look at things like PR and marketing. 

Otherwise, you can very quickly erode valuable capital in your first year of business and you'll look back and realise that could have been used better. So, be careful with the financial decisions you make in those early stages. 

That’s a great piece of advice. I guess from day one versus day 365 of starting a business, your business can look totally different.

Christina: Absolutely. 

This week, I was reading over a presentation that I've done for an award that I was a finalist for 12 months. I was going through the slides and I was just like “delete, delete” because a lot of it was just nonsense looking back. In the last 12 months, I have learned less is more and simplicity is key. I had a bad habit 12 months ago of going into way too much detail and telling people things they didn’t need to know. 

You learn a lot in those first 12 months.

It’s also about consistency in the way you portray yourself and market your brand. You want people to talk about your brand in the same way you talk about it.

“The tech scene in Lancashire has allowed me to surround myself with similar people that are on their own journeys as well. ”

— Christina Melling

You do a fantastic job at representing the county. What would you say makes Lancashire a great place to grow a tech company?

Christina: Lancashire’s tech ecosystem has grown phenomenally over the last five years and, I'd say in the last year it's grown exponentially.

I have completely lost count of all of the tech, coding, digital and women in tech networks that are out there in the region. They are absolutely everywhere. 

Now, Lancashire is becoming more and more of a competitor for Manchester which is a huge area of tech unicorns. So, Lancashire is becoming a great digital hub for businesses that are starting out, particularly when they're innovating something.  

You've got places like Strawberry Field and Fraser House as well over in Lancaster who are making a place for themselves on the map as well.

What role does community play in your journey of growing Stipendium?

Christina: The tech scene in Lancashire has allowed me to surround myself with similar people that are on their own journeys as well. The University of Central Lancashire is a close part of my community because that's where I did my law degree. Their alumni account on Twitter has been so supportive of me too which is really nice. 

It’s about investing your time in those communities or the people within those communities that want to see you do well, not just for you but also for the county as well to continue that economical growth for the county. That's really key. 

Finally, are there any final words you want to share before you go?

Christina: If there is anyone in the Lancashire region who really wants to start their business, particularly in the tech sector, and don’t know how to start, contact people in the surrounding networks for advice. 

We are a close knit community of people who want to see people do well and who want to encourage and inspire people in Lancashire to start their own businesses, particularly in the digital space. 

We have great resources within Strawberry Fields and Fraser House Hub. There are resources like Innovate Lancashire, and other areas of the Council in terms of funding which support the Lancashire region too.

There are so many different places that you can go to for whatever areas of support you need. I will always be an ambassador for people that are starting a business, particularly in Lancashire. I will always offer any help and guidance that I can to people that need it. I know what it's like to be that rabbit in headlights at the start.

Trailblazing a new market with tech

Christina Melling and the Stipendium team are trailblazing the property market in terms of tech. It’s great to see how they are using tech to empower the property industry and to support the financial wellbeing of people going through the house buying journey.

You can keep up to date with Stipendium and Christina’s journey as Tech company founder over on LinkedIn or by visiting the Stipendium website.

An interview with: Dr Naveed Iqbal of Tritone Health

We recently caught up with Dr Naveed Iqbal to hear how he’s using digital tools to bring healthcare greater accessibility and support to people with learning disabilities and autism.

To start the conversation, please can you tell us more about yourself and your journey?

Naveed: I'm a GP from Lancashire. 

For the last 10 years, I worked in the humanitarian sector where we used to set up primary care clinics in refugee camps. One of our key objectives was working on prevention. As well as treating sick patients, we used to teach about hand washing, breastfeeding, immunisations, and so on, to see how we could prevent disease.

While working as a GP, I had a special interest in looking after people with learning disabilities and autism. Sadly, they die roughly 20 years earlier than the average population and at least half of their deaths are preventable.

And what was frustrating, was the fact that there was a huge digital revolution taking place with virtual wards and tele consultations… But I asked, “What about people with learning disabilities? They’re going to be left behind, again”. 

“Studies have shown that disabled people, in general, are 35% more likely to be digitally excluded. ”

— Dr Naveed Iqbal

Studies have shown that disabled people, in general, are 35% more likely to be digitally excluded. So, that’s when I met a software team and we banded together. We got in touch with our CCG – which is a clinical commissioning group where they control the budget – and said we’d like to build a digital solution for people with learning disabilities. 

We reached out to Lancaster University who helped us with the research and we received a small sum of money. We used all our savings as well, and we said “let’s build something”. And that takes us up until about a year ago, where we started this journey.

That sounds really fast moving. It seems things happened really quickly.

Naveed: They did. They say sometimes you only need to convince one person.

It took a lot of meetings and a lot of convincing. You have really got to have passion because you’ll have a lot of setbacks – and it’s not the fault of the NHS. The NHS is a huge organisation with lots of responsibilities and priorities. You have to build your case to convince the commissioners and senior managers. It took one medical director, who was brilliant, and he said “Let’s do this.”

So, were you coming into this with no tech background? How did you find that?

Naveed: That’s right. I don’t have a tech background. I have some friends with knowledge of software and I thought, why don’t we put two and two together. 

When I would do home visits or I visited people with learning disabilities, I saw them using apps like Facebook, YouTube, and playing games. I said, “We can build something for them to monitor their health at home, to encourage positive health behaviours”. I just needed somebody who is good at building apps to take a deeper dive into what kind of unique interface we need.

It’s been a steep learning curve.

You have got that inside lens from a healthcare perspective, but tech is a whole other ballgame isn’t it?

Naveed: It is. But, I think, you’ve got to understand the problem first and that was the advantage. You have to know what the problems are..

For example, I also work with the NHS England’s Learning Disability groups and every year, we will keep producing the same reports such as: autistic people are nine times more likely to die from suicide. And what are we doing about it? There are some amazing initiatives out there.

“I said “why don’t we explore the digital solutions?” because these people are going to be left behind.”

— Dr Naveed Iqbal

I said “why don’t we explore the digital solutions?” because these people are going to be left behind.

So, it was learning to understand the problem and then working backwards to see how we can get a digital solution to help.

How do you feel that the digital solution will help people with learning disabilities?

Naveed: We want to work on prevention. We already know that they’re using apps at the moment and some of them even use FitBits. The power of digital technology means we will be able to extract data about their mental health, their social well-being, and so on.

That rich data can be used by GPs, nurses, and healthcare providers to provide more personalised care. They struggle to get GP surgery appointments anyway. It’s a scramble. But when they do get there, we focus on one issue and we don’t really know more about that person’s life. 

The power of digital tech is that through a tap of a button at home, data such as mental health, what they do today at home, sleep quality etc..  it can be fed into a doctor’s room through our dashboard to give more information about that individual.

Digital technology can capture all of this information within microseconds.

So, all of that data will make it easier for them to get the support that they need.

Naveed: Yeah, absolutely. Data/information has power. When we have all that information as clinicians, you can imagine how we could use that to improve lives. What we’re trying to do is to empower caregivers, families, and individuals with learning disabilities.

For example, people with learning disabilities have health passports. But they’re on pieces of paper and they’re often out of date. We’re going to digitise them so they can be kept up to date and that person can take them wherever they are, if they go to an emergency department, for example, because people with mild learning disabilities are more likely to go to A&E than see primary care doctors.

It lets them show any doctor: This is who I am, this is all about me so that we can reduce that diagnostic overshadowing.

How’s development going so far?

Naveed: That’s a whole other conversation! We’re calling it the Medii Solution. So, there’s the app and there’s going to be a dashboard that will sit in hospitals and GP surgeries that the doctors can log on to.

Because the NHS, as an enterprise, is a huge organisation and things take a while. We, as a small team, can plan as much as possible but ultimately you’re relying on several different committees higher up, interviews and panels et cetera. It has to go through the digital and governance committees. But we’re getting there now.

The traction is there.

We’re going to be approaching almost 50 percent of the NHS health boards across England by December 2023. I’ve just got back from Northern Ireland where there was interest and we’re also having meetings in America with healthcare providers about launching our software.

Things are moving fast but you go with the pace of the enterprise.

How does your digital solution overcome the challenges of how tech impacts people with autism and learning disabilities?

Naveed: We have a lot of focus groups with individuals with learning disabilities. We’ve worked with a charity called Spring Into Action based in Accrington to do this. Every time we launch a new screen or feature in the app, we test it with our user group and do lots of research.

As Richard Branson often says: “you’ve got to get it out there”. So, that’s what we’re doing by introducing it in different regions.

We have to build it together. When introducing a new font, a new screen, new colour, we test it with our focus group. You have to build it together because we make a lot of assumptions as doctors and medical professionals. We say “yes, this will be fine for the individual” but when you actually put it in front of them, it’s quite remarkable.

“If they’re not going to use it or engage with it, we’ve failed. So, we have to make sure that there’s user engagement by co-producing. ”

— Dr Naveed Iqbal

If they’re not going to use it or engage with it, we’ve failed. So, we have to make sure that there’s user engagement by co-producing. 

Even now, I’m still waiting for more feedback from the rest of England when the app goes out because there’s cultural differences within communities. So, we’ll be getting that feedback to see how else we can tweak it for improvement. That’s key. You’ve got to be flexible and iterate.

You’ve just got back from the US where you visited various different clinics. Any learnings from your time over there that you think can shape the UK’s approach to health and how we support people with learning disabilities?

Naveed: One thing I learned is that the health inequalities are the same. And that was not really surprising. But if you look at the different health markets, you might think there would be a difference but there isn’t. The same health inequalities and the same difficulty in getting access to care, and diagnostic overshadowing, exist.

Interestingly, what I did learn that we can bring back to the UK is their collaborative approach. You have doctors, nurses, patients, charities, all sorts coming together and forming a powerful coalition. 

In the UK, we seem to work in silos. You’ve got the GPs on one side. You’ve got hospital consultants on the other then you’ve got your charities and the individuals, the self-advocacy groups. We kind of talk to each other but not directly and I feel that’s what we need.

We need a national coalition and then that way, we’ll make much faster progress. That’s one positive thing I learned from the US.

That sounds really valuable.

Naveed: Yeah, it is. For example, data is in silos. Your information will be siloed within a GP surgery, which is good for confidentiality reasons, but how can we make that information available to different people like social workers, social prescribers, all coming onto the same platform to find out what’s happening with the individual’s life. I feel that is going to be the next stage.

And that’s what we’re trying to achieve with our platform where different teams can all log on to the same individual’s life.

What motivated your decision to focus on people with learning disabilities?

Naveed: Throughout my life, I’ve always focused on the ones who are left on the sidelines. Those who are left out in society, which is why I worked in the humanitarian sector. These were the forgotten people.

A refugee once said to me “we were killed twice. Once by the war and the second by the silence of the world”. Giving a voice to the voiceless is something that’s always been in me and here in the UK, I often found, it’s the people with learning disabilities and autism who suffer on their own. They leave this world early but what have we done? It’s like patchwork, there’s a sticking plaster… I might have given that person an antibiotic or painkiller but have I really improved that person’s life?

“I think we’re building a movement and I welcome that challenge.”

— Dr Naveed Iqbal

I think we’re building a movement and I welcome that challenge.

It’s as if, at the moment, it’s a box ticking exercise.

Naveed: You’ve hit a very important point there – ticking boxes. The NHS requirement is that 75% of people with learning disabilities should have an annual health check. That’s a box-ticking exercise. We want to look at the quality of that annual health check because research has shown that it does improve lives and reduce suffering.

Digital also has the temptation to tick boxes.

However, the more rich the data is, we can start introducing quality and shaping that human being rather than just looking at a few statistics.

Do you have any words of wisdom you want to share with people who want to get into the health tech space?

Naveed: If you are really passionate about the problem that you’re trying to solve you will eventually find the right people.

If you’ve got that perseverance, as long as you’re the expert in your subject and you know exactly what the problem is, the software can always come later.

Build coalitions too. Build local teams, attend events and build trust.

It’s difficult. I’ll be honest with you, it is very difficult. We’ve gone through lots of different processes of building the right team. Now, we’re there but it’s been a long road so be ready for that too.

There are software developers who really want to know what problem you’re trying to solve and the long-term prospects. They’re the best conversations to have because they’re the ones who really want to work alongside you.

I’ll be honest, it adds more pressure. These people are relying on you. But it energises you that other people are joining your mission.

Finally, is there anything else you want to say to Lancashire’s tech community?

Naveed: It was an absolute relief to find Lancashire Digital Hub. There are some really good people there. I work in East Lancashire and the tech scene is not as big as the West side of Lancashire.

Lancashire as a whole would do a lot better if there were more investment companies and more capital coming in from that point of view.

If we have the investment, we can become the Silicon Valley of England. It’s easier living, it’s more relaxed… and that’s how it is in California with that rural environment away from San Francisco. We can really flourish here if we get the investment.

We had a meeting with the second largest healthcare system in the world a few days ago and we’re just a small team in Lancashire. But we had to go for private funding because there wasn’t much Government help. We definitely need more accelerators and financial investment in those small companies that show promise.

There’s lots of people who want to help with business plans, marketing, branding, et cetera, but we want to build. If we can get that seed funding it would unleash a whole new set of potential in the North West.

Unleashing the powers of health tech

Dr Naveed Iqbal is on a journey to revolutionise the healthcare industry and how we use digital technology to provide better care, especially for those with learning disabilities and autism. Learn more about Tritone Health and the work they are doing through their Medii Solution.

If you want to hear more about Dr Naveed’s journey, catch him at this month’s Digital Tech Talk on Wednesday 21st June at Stanley FC Stadium in Accrington. Get your free tickets and just us for an incredible evening with local digital and tech enthusiasts.

As Dr Naveed mentioned, investment in Lancashire is especially important. We are proud to announce the FHundED Investment Ecosystem launch. In collaboration with Northern Reach, this event aims to bring together investors, founders, and business support from across the North West to network in an environment that accelerates tech innovation and growth. Find out more about the FHundED Investment Ecosystem Launch event and get your free tickets here.

Marching to a different beat at the Lancashire Tech Summit

Lancashire’s Tech Summit, the annual gathering of the county’s top technology entrepreneurs, digital disruptors, and creative professionals, was given a rock and roll boost with the attendance of Kliph Scurlock in Lancaster yesterday (May 11th).

“The Lancashire Tech Summit is aimed at bringing together Lancashire’s tech businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors to showcase the latest innovations and developments in the industry.”

— Dan Knowles

The former drummer of the Grammy-award winning US band The Flaming Lips joined an impressive line up of Lancashire tech business leaders at Lancaster’s Williamson Park, and was interviewed about how rapid advances in audio technology is transforming the delivery of both live and recorded music.

As part of his Q&A - which was hosted by one of the BBC’s leading digital R&D innovators, Emma Young, – Kansas-born Kliph invited the audience to interact collectively with music performed by ex-Super Furry Animal’s lead singer Gruff Rhys, via a new multi-user smartphone application

This real-time interactive demonstration not only reinforced the relationship between creativity and technology - one of the Summit’s main themes - it fitted perfectly with the event being held as an official part of Lancaster’s Highest Point Festival.

Other Summit highlights included a series of inspirational ‘quick fire’ presentations from some of Lancashire’s most dynamic, successful and innovative tech businesses. These included representatives from Lancashire’s growing digital health sector, including Richard Stoddart, Commercial Director of Redmoor Health, and Lynette Ousby, Managing Director of Alcidion.

In addition, harnessing and commercialising the power of IoT, AI, smart devices, and big data, were covered in talks from +24 Marketing’s MD David Walker; IoT Horizon’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Niamh Allen; and Joshua Bailey, Senior Data Scientist from Relative Insight.

Speakers at the Lancashire Tech Summit

Some of Lancashire’s emerging tech sectors were also explored. Will Maden, Chief Commercial Officer at EV charging business Fuuse focused on the rapidly evolving world of electric vehicle infrastructure, while Chris Mayne, Managing Director of Forsberg described how Lancashire’s Electech Innovation Cluster, centred around the Morecambe Bay area, is rapidly becoming recognised as an international hub of hi-tech electronic engineering.

Another core theme was how technology could drive entrepreneurialism and innovation. To support this there was a special session featuring Paul White and Conor Walsh from Patch, the revolutionary window cleaning booking and payment app. They were joined by Christina Melling, CEO of the Stipendium lifestyle, property and wealth management online platform, and Hannah Drake, founder of energy analytics business, Enerlytic.

Diversity and inclusion in the tech industry was another theme running throughout the Summit’s programme.

“This mix of professional insights being shared with the wider Lancashire tech community, new technologies being brought to life through interactive experiences, and addressing important social and ethical issues, helped make the event very special.”

— Dan Knowles

Leading inclusivity and equality activists Lee Chambers and Alice Ashcroft talked about combatting bias in software development, while the county’s Digital Skills lead Kerry Harrison explained how the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub has been actively promoting STEM careers to groups who were currently underrepresented in key tech sectors such as cyber, advanced engineering, and low carbon.

Rock drummer Kliph Scurlock leads the Tech Summit delegates through an interactive smartphone experiment

Commenting on the Tech Summit, which was produced by Lancashire’s Digital Hub and funded by Lancashire County Council, organiser Dan Knowles said: “The Lancashire Tech Summit is aimed at bringing together Lancashire’s tech businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors to showcase the latest innovations and developments in the industry. Backed by Lancashire County Council, it’s also about celebrating creativity and innovation, which is why it was so fantastic to get a rock legend like Kliph involved, alongside a stellar line-up of local tech talent.

“Further, it was important for us to raise the issue of diversity and inclusion, building on the great work undertaken by partners such as the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub and the Digital Skills Partnership. Having diversity trailblazers like Lee and Alice here today was part of that, plus we’ve had major influencers like Emma Young, who leads the BBC’s women in STEM initiative, taking part.

“This mix of professional insights being shared with the wider Lancashire tech community, new technologies being brought to life through interactive experiences, and addressing important social and ethical issues, helped make the event very special.

“Finally, I’d like to thank Lancaster’s Highest Point Festival for including this year’s Summit as part of their incredible three-day cultural programme. As a result, our delegates got to enjoy a fantastic Hacienda Classical performance last night as part of their overall experience, which fitted brilliantly with our creativity-meets-tech theme.”