Everything you need to know about the Lancashire Digital Young Apprenticeship Grant

Nurture homegrown talent with the newly-launched Lancashire Digital Young Apprenticeship Grant. This apprenticeship grant gives your company the opportunity to invest in the future, nurture the talent that you need most, and gain Government support.

Whether you’re interested in hiring someone new or upskilling an existing employee, keep reading to learn everything you need to know about Lancashire’s Digital Young Apprenticeship Grant.

The benefits of hiring a young apprentice

Young apprentices bring an array of benefits to your business.

Apprenticeships come in many shapes and sizes making them ideal for people at any level. Ranging from levels 1-7, apprenticeships let you train people from GCSE to Masters-level so you can get the exact skills you need.

Hiring a young apprentice helps you:

• Nurture the skills you need most

• Develop a culture of learning and development

• Boost employee morale and improve staff retention

• Actively support diversity and inclusion at work

• Benefit from the fresh perspectives of young apprentices

Hiring a young apprentice is an investment in their future, as much as the future of your business.

“Apprenticeships let you nurture talent from the ground up. The work is very innovative. Compared to post-University Graduate schemes, young apprenticeships help people grow and develop their knowledge earlier, while gaining practical real-world skills”

— Paul Hannant, project co-ordinator for the Young Apprenticeship Grant

What is the Lancashire Digital Young Apprenticeship Grant?

The Lancashire Digital Young Apprenticeship Grant is a fully-funded programme that gives businesses in Lancashire the opportunity to hire young apprenticeships.

Digital and tech businesses or businesses hiring for digital skills in Lancashire can receive a £3,000 grant to fund the hiring of a young apprentice.

There is no restriction on what role you can hire for — you can hire and train an apprentice in the skills you need most. This presents a great growth opportunity for Digital businesses in Lancashire who want to nurture talent to meet the current and future needs of their business.

“The benefits of hiring a digital apprentice are unmeasurable. Apprenticeships are a great alternative route into a career compared to going down the University or Digital Bootcamp path. Apprenticeships aren’t just about hiring end of school or college-leavers. This programme is open to anyone up to the age of 25 years old so they can scale their skills and bring innovative ideas and a curious, dedicated mindset to local digital businesses”

— Paul Hannant, project co-ordinator for the Young Apprenticeship Grant

The Young Apprenticeship Grant gives digital businesses the chance to hire apprentices at any level. Hiring an apprentice at a level four is equivalent to hiring someone at a foundation degree level or higher. As you nurture those level 4 apprentices over a 2-3 year period, your company will benefit from having motivated and skilled employees who grow as your company grows.

Businesses hiring young apprentices foster employees who grow with the business and develop a deeper understanding of the company and wider industry as they learn on the role.

The Lancashire Digital Apprenticeship Grant offering:

Digital businesses that receive the Digital Young apprenticeship grant can:

• Hire up to 3 apprentices within a 3-month window

• Receive £3,000 grant per apprentice

• Gain free business support covering existing landscape and future opportunity, recruitment, provision, standards and impartial advice

• Hire apprentices at any level, based on your company needs

• Put existing employees through the apprenticeship or hire new apprentices

The Lancashire Digital Apprenticeship Grant eligibility:

Digital businesses interested in applying for the grant will need to meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Have a Lancashire presence

• Be earning less than £50 million revenue

• Have less than 250 employees

• Apprentice must under 25 years old

• No apprenticeship starts in the previous two years

• Apprentice must start before 31st August 2023

• Must hire an apprentice for a minimum of a 12-month period

If your business has hired apprenticeships before, you can still apply for this grant. You also don’t have to hire a new recruit, allowing you to train someone in-house and upskill your existing employees, as long as they are under 25 years old.

If you have any questions about eligibility, please contact Paul Hannant at paul.hannant@lancashirelep.co.uk or 07816195225

Invest in the future with the Digital Young Apprenticeship Grant

The Digital Young Apprenticeship Grant is a great opportunity for local digital and tech businesses and tech-associated companies.

To learn more about the grant and register your interest, reach out to Paul Hannant, the project co-ordinator for the Young Apprenticeship Grant by email via paul.hannant@lancashirelep.co.uk or give him a call on 07816195225.

An interview with: Amanda Robinson from Health Steps

This month, we held the inaugural Women In Tech event. We are grateful to everyone who joined us at Fraser House Hub for an evening of insightful discussions about how we can champion women in tech and close the gender gap.

During the event, Amanda Robinson shared her experience as a woman in tech.

We caught up with Amanda after the event to dive deeper into her career journey, exploring the topic of burnout and seeing what advice she could share to help other women in tech find their feet in a male-dominated environment.

Introducing Amanda Robinson

Amanda Robinson is a self-described Lancashire lass with a strong work ethic. From a very young age, she could be found helping her Grandma in the village post office during the summertime. Since the early 1990s, Amanda has been involved in the world of tech.

After a 22-year long career in tech and 18 years in eCommerce, Amanda followed her passion to hel others as she retrained as health coach.

These days, Amanda offers business consultancy for tech and eCommerce companies while also helping people put their health and wellbeing first through her health coaching business, Health Steps.

First off, tell us about your career journey so far

Amanda: When I was in my final year of school, back in 1990, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I found studying and academia really tricky and challenging, particularly revision. It was like climbing Mount Everest. I couldn’t do it.

So, I dropped out of school with two Cs, five Ds and an E in GCSE. Even though people thought I was intelligent and bright, I just wasn’t academic.

I’m from a working class family with a very hard work ethic at its core. I was brought up believing that if you couldn’t afford it, you didn’t have it. I had a part-time job from the age of 14. I worked all through being a teenager then at the age of 18, I got my first full-time job at Winfields — a local outdoors company in Haslingden.

That job allowed me to live the life I wanted at the time. I was really into the underground Acid house party scene in Lancashire and working full-time allowed me to earn money and live that lifestyle of working hard and then partying hard. It was such as experience. It also allowed me to buy my first home — a terraced two bedroom house — at the age of 19.

In 1993, I got a job at Airtours who, at the time, were a really up-and-coming business in the Lancashire area and it was amazing. They were such a good company to work for.

“I dropped out of school with two Cs, five Ds and an E in GCSE. Even though people thought I was intelligent and bright, I just wasn’t academic.”

— Amanda Robinson

I worked in the call centre there. But if an opportunity ever came up to try something else, I always took it. One thing that came up was covering reception. So I did that too. I got to learn about the company — all the different departments, what they do, and why they do it.

I guess I’ve always been inquisitive and curious, I asked a lot of questions. I wanted to know more about everything in the business.

One day, I had a chat with my boss and told her that I felt I could give them a lot more. She mentioned that I could progress to a supervisor position but that wasn’t what I had in mind. I became a supervisor which was great — it taught me a lot about how to manage teams and people. So that was good but it wasn’t really what I had in mind.

Then, my boss offered me a position in the IT department. As the kind of person who said yes to opportunities, I was like, “Absolutely!” and then I thought to myself, “Wow, IT — that’s impressive.”

So, it was about 1998, and I joined a project for 6 months on secondment, and I’ve never been out of tech since then.

Initially, I was a business analyst, I then progressed to working as a Senior Project Manager, delivering strategic projects, including the eCommerce strategy for MyTravel.

The company was going through a lot of changes and in 2007, they were acquired by Thomas Cook. I was Programme Manager for the data migration between the MyTravel and Thomas Cook systems. That was a really challenging time because we went from a team of hundreds of employees to maybe 20 of us who were left in the building getting the project finished.

That marked the end of my career with MyTravel and Thomas Cook. I joined another up-and-coming tech company in the travel space called Blue Sky. I worked there for about 12-months before they closed.

I joined Trueshopping Ltd, a Burnley based business, as their Head of IT and Development. At the time of interviewing, I did something that I think a lot of women do and I said, “I can do all of this project stuff, no problem. I can spot gaps in your infrastructure and architecture and explain what you need to do to bridge the gaps. But, I can’t do all this other stuff…” and they laughed because they had never had someone talk themselves out of a job before. The company called me directly after discovering my CV on Monster - if I had seen the job spec before interviewing, I never would have gone for it!

Anyway, they brought me on board and I stayed with them for about five years working on some really cool projects with the Magento eCommerce platform, a new warehouse management system and changes to their logistics integrations

During my time there, I was going through some personal challenges and suffered four miscarriages. It really took its toll on both my partner and I. As a woman, you feel like you can’t talk about this stuff in business, you have to get back in there and pretend as if nothing ever happened. Career wise there was no progression in sight either. I’d delivered some incredible results for the business. At that point, I knew I had some big decisions to make about my life. That was a really defining moment.

I was ready to take some time out and just spend a few months looking after myself and my health and I did that for a few months from November to January. Then, in the new year, I put something on LinkedIn — something like “pastures new” — and an old contact reached out to me with an opportunity at Boohoo in Manchester.

I joined Boohoo where, for five years, I moved from Head of IT to Head of Tech Supply Chain and Logistics. I oversaw the technical infrastructure workstream for a multi-million-pound project, automating warehouse operations and bringing together engineering, software and hardware. It was the highlight of my career project wise – it was far more than just software deliverables.

Not bad for a girl who dropped out of school with terrible results!

That’s my corporate career and my story. From there, I retrained as a Health Coach, and I now balance my health coaching business alongside tech and eCommerce business consultancy.

What made you decide to make the leap from tech to health coaching — and how do the two coincide?

Amanda: While working at Boohoo, my health took a turn for the worst. At the same time, there were changes happening in the business.

I put it down to burnout but part of me also wonders if perhaps it was also perimenopause as the symptoms are so similar.

I was scraping through the week to get to the weekend, to then spend the weekend recovering ready for the next week. I also had a three-year-old child.  I’m in my forties, I’ve got a very active and demanding child and a high-profile career, and things were changing at work. There was a lot happening and my health was taking a turn for the worst.

I went to the Doctors but there was only so much they could help me with.  A friend recommended a nutritionist they worked with. I was skeptical and wasn’t sure how a nutritionist could help me when doctors couldn’t.

But I went… and I achieved some phenomenal results. She transformed my life and got my back to feeling good about myself. I got my health back on track and learned so much on the journey. This is when I realised that I needed to change my career to help people avoid burnout and live a better quality of life.  I retrained as a health coach with the College of Naturopathic Medicine.

I went all in on the premise that if I didn’t make a business out of it, then at best I can help myself, my family, my close circle and anyone who might want to listen.

That’s how I fell into health coaching. Right now, I have my own health coaching business called Health Steps where I coach clients. I also offer consultancy within the eCommerce and tech space which offers a nice balance.

Tell me about feminine superpowers — what are they? And what role can they play in the tech world?

Amanda: I believe in, what I call, our feminine superpowers where there are some inherently female traits that can make women powerful in the workspace. I think our ability to nurture is one of those superpowers. Being able to nurture people really helps with the people management side of projects.

As women, I think we also tend to want to discuss matters that are important to us and we’re more likely to want to tackle things as they come up as opposed to just letting them fester. We want to get to the bottom of things. It’s not something that everyone does, but it’s definitely something I’ve noticed in a lot of women I work with, myself included.

There is also the ability to empathise with people. We’re very good at seeing things from other people’s perspectives and considering how changes in the project might affect other people.

On the flipside, women are also good at getting things done. We won’t let things wander on for too long.

There’s also that intuition — that gut feeling. I think our intuition is more powerful than we think, and we don’t use it enough, in my opinion.

I’d say those are some of the feminine superpowers that we can tap into in tech.

There’s no denying that the tech world is unfortunately very male-centric. What can women, or rather people with feminine qualities, do to survive in a male-dominated environment?

Amanda: Being a woman in tech is tough. It is a predominantly male environment where it can be easy to feel like you need to be one of the lads in order to succeed.

My advice is don’t be one of the lads unless you want to be. Not everyone wants to use their feminine superpowers. I think the most important thing is to just be yourself.

Be yourself and tackle any issues as they arise — focusing on the how you intend to tackle those issues rather than just going in all guns blazing.

Listen to your intuition too. If you have a feeling about something, talk to people. Find someone you can talk to. It might not be the person or persons that are affecting you, it can be someone else entirely. Just make sure you find someone you can talk to when things come up.

Above all else, just try to be you - something I wish I’d done more of, especially in my early days of my career when I was constantly trying to prove myself. I wish I’d have been a little bit more me.

We need to let go of this idea that people in tech look a certain way. Once you get that sweet spot in a team where you have different skills, different experiences, and cultures, that’s when you get a team that works well.

“Above all else, just try to be you.”

— Amanda Robinson

You’ve had your own brush with burnout throughout your career. How can tech leaders protect themselves and their team from burnout?

Amanda: I know burnout has happened at least twice in my career but I often wonder if it happened without me even knowing? In my twenties to thirties, I was working every hour under the sun. It was silly.

I think it’s exciting that today, gen Z are saying “No way will I do that”. People value their wellbeing and making sure they are well and present, as opposed to being stressed and burnt out.

When I was in my 20s to 30s, we got results and we delivered great projects but to what extent? What impact did it have? So, I think it’s great that people are moving away from that approach.

In my health coaching, I want to encourage people to work in a way that supports their wellbeing and their health.

The first time I recognised burnout in myself, I was embarrassed. Because I felt like I was a quitter and I’m not a quitter. But I realise now that I wasn’t quitting, I wasn’t taking time out for myself. I was investing in myself and my next career move by making sure I turned up feeling fresh and ready to go again. I think the first thing you have to do is understand what burnout looks like for you.

Talk about it. What does burnout look like? How do you know you’re feeling burnt out?

We should be able to have a conversation about burnout without the fear. We need to remove the fear and stigma by talking about it.

Once we’ve got past the “talk about it” piece, we need to think about how to put that into place within a business. Then, we need to build processes to protect people.

And if you see someone who isn’t acting like themselves, or who is probably experiencing burnout, speak to them. Ask how they’re feeling. See how you, especially if you are a leader, can support them.

To summarise, we need to talk about it. We need to remove the stigma and we need to take action to help people.

Can you tell us more about the work you do as a health coach?

Amanda: Health coaching can be delivered either one-to-one or in group coaching. It can also be done in a business setting (b2b) or outside of the business (b2c).

From a business perspective, coaching can be delivered in different ways. It can be one-to-one within such as exec-level coaching or it can be done in groups and workshops. We could, for example, work through a specific topic like burnout to help your company know what to look for, how to manage it, and how to handle it.

A lot of people think of health coaching as being about movement and nutrition, but it’s more than that. It’s about making sure you have the tools in your toolkit to look after yourself.

There’s a tool I use called The Wheel Of Life which has five different aspects to it and the idea is to help you reach a point where you have a nice, even wheel.

It’s not about quick-wins or sticking plasters on things. It’s about sustainable changes that are set to last your lifetime. It also offers that extra level of accountability and that push to actually do things for you. You are your greatest investment!

I get so much satisfaction from seeing my clients succeed and transforming their health and wellbeing. By working together as client and coach, being their ally, and taking small steps, my clients have made huge changes in their lives.

Health coaching provides a safe place for people to talk openly, get support, and take action. It’s a very effective process and service.

What advice would you give for women in tech who perhaps want to progress their career but are worried that they’re being held back?

Amanda: Looking back at where I’ve come from with my career, I got to where I was my asking for help. I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to do more. So, the first thing I’ll say is to always ask for help. Ask around you and find the right people to talk to.

If you don’t know who the right person to ask is then ask everybody until you find someone who can put you in contact with the right person.

I also think we need to talk more about the challenges and experiences we face as women. If you want to set up a family life, or struggle with your monthly cycles — whatever it is — we have to start talking about it more. By talking about it we can raise awareness and make it less of a taboo subject.

Of course, there are some topics that are sensitive and it’ll really come down to the individual if they’re comfortable talking about it, but as a whole, we can really benefit from talking about things more.

I think it’s our responsibility as women to talk about these things and teach men how to deal with them. I also think we can’t be afraid to tackle issues. If someone says or does something you don’t like, tackle it. But, find the right way to tackle it. Don’t let people get away with things, find a way to address the issue and move forward.

From a business perspective, business leaders need to recognise when they have a toxic culture. They need to know when to bring people on board to help them create a more supportive and inclusive culture.

Are there any exciting projects on the horizon that you want to tell us about?

Amanda: I’ve been nominated for a Freshies award for the Wellbeing Warrior category which is exciting. I’ve never been through the awards process before so to be, first, nominated, and secondly, told that I’m though to the next round is amazing.

I’m working on a group programme for B2C clients that I’ll be launching in Q1.

I’ve got another exciting project lined up for next year but I’m not sure I can talk about it yet… you’ll just have to keep watching to hear when I announce that.

Any final words of wisdom for women in tech?

Amanda: I think it’s kind of becoming my mantra by now, but my first piece of advice is just be yourself. Always. Oh, and use your feminine superpowers.

The second thing I’d say it it’s always better to regret doing something you’ve done rather than regret not doing it.

And finally, ask questions. Speak up and ask for help. Nobody will be able to help you if you don’t ask them. It sounds simple but we often forget to do it.

You might really want a promotion but if you don’t tell people you want it, how will they know you’re interested? You might not be demonstrating any signs that you want it, so you need to tell people or ask people. You need to ask for what you want.

Final thoughts — Be yourself and write your own story

Amanda is living proof that you can build a career in tech without any formal qualifications or experience. Simply show up with a curious mind and a willingness to try new opportunities. Thanks to her inquisitive nature, Amanda managed to carve out an impressive tech career spanning over twenty years.

As for being a woman in tech, if there’s one thing you take away from our chat with Amanda, we hope it’s this: Be yourself.

Don’t feel like you have to change who you are or mould yourself to fit other people’s expectations. Stay true to who you are and tap into your feminine superpowers.

If you would like to learn more about Amanda Robinson and her health coaching or business consultancy services, you can find Amanda on LinkedIn or visit her site.

An interview with: Rory Southworth from Fraser House Hub

We caught up with Rory Southworth, community manager at Fraser House Hub, to hear all about the many ways community impacts his life and get his insider insights into life as a community manager and the powers of a well-connected co-working space.

What is Fraser House Hub?

Set in the heart of Lancaster city centre, Fraser House Hub is a cutting-edge co-working space for Lancashire’s vibrant tech and digital economy.

Full-fibre broadband, innovative meeting rooms and breakout spaces, friendly community, and reams of inspiring events… what more could you want?

The atmosphere in Fraser House Hub is bubbling with inspiration and enthusiasm thanks to its collection of digital and tech businesses, associates and business support.

Fraser House Hub is a space where entrepreneurs and businesses can thrive in a collaborative, supporting and inclusive community. Delivered by Lancashire County Council, Fraser House Hub’s benefits extend beyond its tenants by boosting the growth economy of Lancaster and surrounding Lancashire areas.

About Rory, Fraser House Hub’s community manager

Over to Rory — Rory is Fraser House Hub’s community manager and a pillar within Lancashire’s digital and tech scene.

First of all, can you tell us about your background and how you became a community manager?

Rory: My background is as a product designer — I spent 10 years designing, four years in London at Design School, then came up North and worked in consultancy-style and funded-support product design.

When working in design, you’re always straddling marketing — trying to understand what’s going to work, understanding products from idea to shelf for new product development. You work closely with marketeers as part of the role. So, using that knowledge, my creativity as a designer, and my sporting ability and passion, I started doing social media work for sports brands.

Then I had a blood clot. It was a pretty serious life incident that took me out of work for 3-months while I was recovering. During that time, I realised I didn’t want to be a designer anymore — I didn’t want to just be sat down. I’d spent everyday glued in front of a screen. I didn’t want to do that anymore.

“I already knew Fraser House well and wanted to help make it a place for the community.”

— Rory Southworth

I knew when I came back to work I wanted to change what I do.

So, I came back and did a little bit of business development work for the company I was with then changed job to be full-time in the business development side, putting on events for digital marketing companies and moving into the events space.

They’re my people. We have the same problems, the same methods.

Leaving product design was scary so feeling like I was still with my people made me feel really comforted.

I started on a relatively new programme so there was a lot for me to get involved with. And I love a challenge — I love numbers, focusing on targets. As a team, we ended up building a successful and respected project.

When I heard about the Community Manager job opening up at Fraser House Hub, I knew that would be perfect for me and had to apply. I already knew Fraser House well and wanted to help make it a place for the community.

What does a day as a Community Manager look like?

Rory: In the morning, I go say my hellos to people, check my emails and get ready for anyone coming in for a trial day.

After that, I’ll check in with a few people and see how they are. I like to spend time chatting to people, finding out more about what they do and any interesting projects they’re working on. I want to understand better how I can support them and how they can support others.

I know all my members names and what they do so I can introduce people to each other. Anyone new who comes to Fraser House, I can then introduce them to anyone who’s relevant and of interest to them so they instantly feel at home.

There will normally be meetings throughout my day — like the one we’re having now or with other support programmes, teammates…

Then, we might have an event that we’re running at lunchtime. Say it’s a Thursday, where we have our weekly tech lunch. So, I’ll be preparing for that. Post-event, I’ll always count how many people came to the event and track any valuable metrics.

In between all of this, I’ll have also done some social media for Fraser House too.

At some point, I’ll look at my data and check memberships, add any details I need to.

I’ll do some planning and future preparation. In the evening, I might have another event to prep for and attend.

Contrast to that, I might not have a lunchtime event — like today. In which case, I might go for a lunchtime run instead. Then this evening, we’re hosting an event for Lancashire students.

There’s lots of partnerships and maintaining partnerships. There is nothing I love more than introducing people and that firing off into a new project or idea between them.

Can you tell us more about Fraser House Hub?

Rory: Fraser House Hub is a tech and digital hub with a co-working space.

We have 77 businesses operating from the space, which is 320 members who have access to the space. Then there’s 76 co-workers.

It’s predominantly tech businesses with a bit of digital, a chunk of associated and a little bit of business support.

Associated businesses will include people like Helen, who’s a virtual assistant, and Matt, who is a project manager. There are a number of businesses in here that won’t work if they didn’t have associates helping them.

We have a small amount of student members who have their own businesses. They can be in here learning so much because everyone helps them out. They accelerate their knowledge so fast by being in a place like this.

Then we also have a small amount of business support. For people like the students, new businesses, and even the more experiences ones, we make sure they have access to business support as part of their membership. The likes of Lancaster University, UCLan, Boost all come in to offer business support.

Events-wise, we run five events a month, every month, at least. That’s our weekly tech lunch event on Thursdays for 30-minutes. That’s on a tech-associated subject and is normally from members or friends of Fraser House. We get people externally, as well as from Fraser House, coming to that event.

We have our PyData event on the last Wednesday of every month which gets people from all over. It’s a great way to house the community. I try to take on any community event I can because there’s so much going on and Fraser House is the perfect place to host it.

As you know, Lancashire Digital Hub also host events here. We also host the Pink Link Ladies networking meet-up.

I’d sum Fraser House as a nice place to come to make friends and not be lonely working at home on your own, you’ll probably pick up some work, and you’ll learn so much.

Home working has so many benefits but it lacks people. Fraser House has that exact thing — it has people who will make you feel welcome and who are interested in what you do.

Fraser House has earned its place in the community.

What do you love most about the space?

Rory: 100% the people. I love that you can go in however you’re feeling and be cheered up by everyone else. You can go in with an undeveloped idea and someone else will help you bright it to another level that you never thought you could.

Everyone in the space does amazing things.

I love data gathering and research but I’m not a data scientist by any means. I’m not a data scientist but I have elevated my skills so much just by being here. I can deal with data so much better than I ever could before.

I love the people so much.

They will train you to be better, make you better, and teach you things you never thought.

The community is so strong that you can guarantee and rely on it.

You have the opportunity to learn from so many people than you normally would in a space like this.

Why should someone join a co-working space, in your opinion?

Rory: You should join a co-working space partly because it’s the best networking opportunity. It’s constant.

But also because it’s a place that you feel like you belong to. It’s not someone that’s employing you. You choose to go there and, when you’re here, you should feel the most at home.

Sure, it’s somewhere to work from and you might get some work from it, but the main thing is that it’s a place that you feel like you belong and you’re not alone.

“Take more coffee breaks. It can solve so much and add so much valuable.”

— Rory Southworth

When you’re a freelancer or small business, not having that team or community can be heavy. It feels really lonely. A co-working space is that place you can go where you instantly have colleagues, friends, and a sense of belonging. It’s so valuable.

Plus, you get to enjoy celebrations with other people! We celebrate birthdays, all of those things you’d normally do in a workplace.

And I haven’t even talked about the diversity in the space yet. Fraser House Hub has really worked hard on building a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming space for people.

We’re still going through that culture change. We want Fraser House to be a place where people of any gender, race, and background will belong. It’s a constant effort and one we really care about.

Are there any exciting events or projects on the horizon for Fraser House Hub?

Rory: We’ve got the Women in Tech event coming up in December which Gaby is organising. I’ll be hosting a panel there. I’m really excited about that.

We have our monthly PyData event coming up this month and next. We’ve got some amazing speakers lined up. We’ve just been elevating what we do. This month we’ve got James, who used to be the CTO at Modern Milkman, and Alice Ashcroft who’s does amazing work on gender research.

Over Easter, we are opening up the Fraser House Hub extension which will house even more tech businesses. I’m excited to grow the space and bring even more people together.

How does community impact your life?

Rory: The swim community is massive for me. I have my swim crew that I swim and race with. Outside of that, there’s people who give me a lot of support and help. Ice swimming is a weird sport so there’s not many people doing it. So, I get a lot of support and help from the community.

I really appreciate the brand and influencer community too. We’re all out here trying to do the same job so it’s nice to get together when we’re working on the same project. We’ll also share information to make sure we’re all getting paid fairly for the same work. We check in with each other to make sure we are aligned.

That sense of community and openness in the community is really important for our own development.

With the data and tech community, I love PyData. I originally starting going as someone who just attends, then started hosting it at Fraser House and now I’m one of the co-organisers which I love. I’m not a data scientist so to be accepted by those guys and be part of that community is amazing.

I’m not an expert when it comes to really niche tech stuff but I’m an expert at researching. I know exactly how to find out the information I need to find out to do my job and help other people in the community.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to find their community?

Rory: Ask your friends and search or look on social media.

Word of mouth is the most powerful thing. Speak to people, even those you’re not that close to, and they will be able to sign post you and point you in the right direction.

Before I let you go — any words of wisdom you want to share with tech enthusiasts?

Rory: Take more breaks. Get away from work, away from your desk, and chat with people.

Talk to other people who might not even do what you do but their viewpoints might influence you or their thoughts might help you collaborate or come up with a new idea.

Be open to conversations and actively look for those conversations and opportunities. You never know where those casual conversations could lead you.

Take more coffee breaks. It can solve so much and add so much valuable.

Closing thoughts — Take more breaks and find your community

And that’s the behind the scenes view of life as a community manager! Lots of conversations and camaraderie, for sure.

If you’re interested in visiting Fraser House Hub for a trial day or to become a member, reach out to Rory or check out the Fraser House Hub site.

Follow Fraser House Hub on LinkedIn to be the first to hear about any of their upcoming community events and meetups too.

From Farm to Tech: Meet the East Lancashire entrepreneurs doing it all

We caught up with Patch co-founders Paul White and Conor Walsh to discuss Patch’s journey and hear about the other entrepreneurial plans Paul and Conor have up their sleeves. This dynamic duo are on a mission to build a digital ecosystem in East Lancashire… and we have every faith in their ability to do just that.

What is Patch?

The short and sweet version: The Patch app, launched by co-founders Paul White and Conor Walsh, makes it easier for people to find, book, and pay window cleaners.

While Patch may still be in its infancy, its future is bright.

Paul and Conor secured £200,000 in pre-seed funding. This early-stage funding has come from several Lancashire-based backers and the investment will be used to take Patch to market, develop the team and build bespoke technology.

About Paul White and Conor Walsh, co-founders of Patch

Paul’s entrepreneurial journey has opened doors to a myriad of opportunities. From training as an estate manager to working in outdoor events, politics and marketing, Paul then went on to co-founded the Modern Milkman — a highly successful fresh produce delivery app. After exiting Modern Milkman, Paul moved into start-up consultancy before following one of his passions of building a farm from scratch and, of course, setting up Patch alongside Conor.

Let’s not forget that he was also named Young Lancastrian of the Year — an ode to his love of our red rose county.

Though Paul isn’t the only one who with accolades to his name.

Conor Walsh, Patch’s other co-founder, is a Lancashire Innovation Finalist. Conor trained as an Electrician working his way up the ranks from apprenticeship-level and winning Apprentice of the year to being at the helm of many large-scale EV projects and having his own company. While working as an electrician, Conor started developing a tool to streamline electricians’ work while reducing waste. Conor’s prototype wowed judges in a Dragon’s Den-style panel and earned him third place in Lancashire Innovation Challenge.

Getting Patch off the ground

After growing Modern Milkman, Paul recognised a gap in the window cleaning industry. Modern Milkman was, if anything, proof that Patch could work.

And so, the cogs started turning as Paul started to visualise all the ways in which he could help window cleaners manage their jobs and keep customers happy — and, with that, the idea behind Patch was born.

Paul mentioned this idea to Conor who immediately pushed him to pursue it. Conor was bought into the idea from day one. As soon as Paul told him of the idea, Conor said “If you want to do it, I’ll quit my job now”.

When asking about what drew him to the idea of Patch, Conor remarked “Taking a cash-based business model and putting it on technology is a gamechanger for an industry.” From the get go, Conor could see the potential behind Patch and how it would help so many people in the window cleaning industry.

Together, the two became a powerhouse determined to bring this tech idea to life.

But their business ownership journey doesn’t stop at tech. After handing in his notice at his current job, Conor dived head first into Patch and the world of farming. An unlikely duo that, if anything, speaks volumes for the resiliency and drive that Paul and Conor both have.

Owning multiple businesses is no easy feat. Throw in the mix the curveballs of farming and keeping animals alive, and you have a whole new challenge on your hands. While Conor and Paul both admit that it’s hard balancing two businesses, neither of them would change it for the world.

Commenting on the experience, Paul admitted that “you have to just pick what is the most important task to work on. The world’s not going to end if you don’t get round to everything”. The beauty of having so many responsibilities to juggle is, in Paul’s eyes, that you can “only prioritise when you genuinely have too much on”. It means Paul and Conor have had to get smart about the way they work.

Having leaped into the Tech industry after previously working as an Electrician, Conor reflected on how his life has changed.

“I wouldn’t change it for the world. Even on a Sunday, you don’t get that Sunday scare anymore. It’s hard work but it’s fun.”

— Conor Walsh

The Sunday night dread is a thing of the past for Conor and, as he said himself, he now wakes up wanting to go to work every single day. He’s in an environment where his thoughts and ideas are genuinely heard. He’s surrounded by people who encourage him to achieve his full potential — something that he never got when working as an electrician.

“To actually start using my knowledge to expand businesses is amazing. I feel like the sky is my limit.”

The business has been life-changing for Paul too:

”It’s changed my life completely as well… It’s given me a whole new lease of life. I can’t imagine 12-months ago how I would even have the energy to do what I’m doing now. I have more energy than ever before, even though I am living with heart failure… and that’s come from meeting Conor and starting this business.”

Using everything they’ve learned to help other Lancashire businesses

Confident in their idea, Paul and Conor took some gambles getting Patch off the ground with Paul stating “The gut feeling I was getting from the reaction from people is that it was right. We didn’t just blindly commit to the tech. We had spoken to potential fundraisers prior to that.”

Nonetheless, those gambles paid off and they both loved the experience of raising funds for Patch as they secured over £200,000 in pre-seed investment from 32 different investors.

When speaking of their experience getting pre-seed funding for Patch, Paul and Conor both remarked that it wasn’t easy. Many investors overlooked them simply because they were Lancashire-based. As a proud Lancastrian, Paul was determined to show that Lancashire is worth investing in.

”One of the biggest challenges we had is that fundraising in Lancashire is tough. Fundraising pre-seed is tough and fundraising in the current economic climate is tough. Everybody said you’ll never do it, not at the moment. So, obviously, we were delighted to get it.”

Their experience securing investment led them to launch Ditabo Ventures. Conor explained “We loved doing the fundraising and this is why we started the venture capitalist company because we enjoyed it that much.” They want to pave the way for other Lancashire-based entrepreneurs by making Ditabo Ventures the vehicle for Lancashire investments.

Through Ditabo Ventures, Conor and Paul want to help anyone looking to get started with investing.

Paul remarked “We’ve had a lot of young people coming to invest who have always had an investing-mind but who are now wanting to play a more active role. There are people here who want to invest but no one has ever shown them how to do it.”

While Connor added “We can give them all the lessons they need about being an active investor in the UK. People really don’t know. We do know so we want to educate other investors on this and entice more people to get involved. We are educating people on how it works — not just what you see on an Instagram advert and lose hard-earned money on.”

Ditabo Ventures also supports early-stage founders looking to raise funds for their business and grow their idea, even if they don’t feel like they are investment-ready yet.

Conor explained “Even if it’s just an idea on a post-it note. We will come in and help you.” and Paul noted “We are here to encourage people to do their ideas.”

Commenting on their relationship, Paul acknowledged that while himself and Conor are two very different people, they both bring unique perspectives to the business to which Conor agreed, adding “To bring Paul’s age culture and business culture with my age culture and business aspect together in the 21st Century is great.” Together, they’re determined to do all they can to grow the Lancashire’s ecosystem.

“We are absolutely determined to create a tech hub in East Lancashire — and working with the local community is also really important in terms of trying to encourage more people into tech… we are keen to build our own tech team in-house and bring those skills back into Lancashire.”

— Paul White

Many Lancashire tech companies face the same issue with people succeeding to work in Manchester, rather than keeping their roots within Lancashire. This is something that Paul and Conor are keen to change.

“We need to be prouder about what Lancashire can achieve. This is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. We built things that power the world and we need to bring back that can-do attitude. There’s a real industrial heritage that I love here. I don’t just want to live here. I want to encourage the economy to be better here as well.”

As always, we asked Paul and Conor if they had any words of wisdom they wished to share with other early-stage founders or people interested in getting into tech. Conor’s answer is as simple as three words:

”Talk about it.”

”Stop sitting on it and thinking on it. Follow what you want to do. People trap themselves. At the same time, for younger generations, everyone thinks they're in a race to get a house, get a job, find the right partner, and have children. Just stop and think about where you want to go and how you want to get there. Because running toward all these things of being an adult is just putting another obstacle in front of becoming a business owner — if that’s what you really want to do. When you’re young, it’s a much easier time to take a leap. Stop putting obstacles in front of yourself.

Talk to people and ask questions. ”

Paul agreed that taking a risk while you can is paramount. When asked about putting obstacles in front of yourself, Conor explained “You can have a backup plan if things go wrong. You don’t have to hit nothing and stay at nothing. If anything, that’s another lesson and a step forward.”

So there you have it: Talk about it, take risks and remember that you can always have a backup plan.

Final thoughts — Talk to people, take action and invest in Lancashire

When asked about any other exciting projects on the horizon, Paul announced, ”we’re co-parenting a dog.”

From farms to tech, investments, building a Lancashire ecosystem, developing a tool for electricians, and co-parenting a dog, it’s clear that Paul and Conor are in this for the long-run.

“We need to be prouder about what Lancashire can achieve. This is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. We built things that power the world and we need to bring back that can-do attitude. There’s a real industrial heritage that I love here. I don’t just want to live here. I want to encourage the economy to be better here as well.”

— Paul White

To hear more about Patch’s story, keep up to speed with Paul and Conor on LinkedIn. If you’re keen to invest in Lancashire businesses or raise funds for your early-stage business, visit Ditabo Ventures.

An interview with: Gaby O’Reilly from CODE Lancashire

When you think of coding do you think of someone who looks, acts, and thinks just like you?

Perhaps you should.

Despite the many stereotypes of software developers, CODE Lancashire are breaking down those clichés and bringing the power of coding to more people in our red rose county.

We spoke with Gaby, CODE Lancashire’s Programme Director, to discuss their 12-week programme and explore all the ways it benefits candidates, employers and the wider community.

What is CODE Lancashire?

CODE Lancashire brings together local employers, trainers, coaches and mentors to help individuals develop digital skills. These skills cover areas such as coding, programming, data science, data analysis, and software engineering.

But they don’t just stop there. CODE Lancashire also helps candidates explore and sharpen their employability skills — bringing both hard and soft skills together to ensure participants are fully-equipped as they embark on their digital career journey.

CODE Lancashire combines technical skills learning with practical industry experience in an immersive 12-week programme that upskills and trains individuals to create a new generation of passionate digital talent.

Unlike many other digital bootcamps, you won’t find any box-ticking at CODE Lancashire — just pure, unadulterated impact.

About Gaby O’Reilly, CODE Lancashire’s Programme Director

Before we delve any deeper into the wonders of CODE Lancashire, let’s introduce our guest for today: Gaby O’Reilly.

Gaby is the Programme Director at CODE Lancashire, the Founder of The Community Collaborator and an Associate at Scale-Ability. As a skilled Project and Business Development Manager, Gaby’s career has been forged through collaborations across sectors. Increasing employability and nurturing future talent have been common recurring themes throughout Gaby’s career as she helps both individuals and businesses alike.

Now, as a self-described non-techie in a tech world, Gaby is shaping future digital talent in Lancashire-based businesses through CODE Lancashire.

Let’s start at the top — What is CODE Lancashire?

Gaby: CODE Lancashire is part of a national campaign running Digital Skills bootcamps up and down the country to fill vacancies within the tech sector.

Obviously, CODE Lancashire is Lancashire-specific. But the key thing about our programme is that it is employer-led. It’s not just another training course. We work closely with employers who desperately need talent with these skills.

The employers we work with inform the training. In its most simple form, that primarily looks like a coding course focused on Software Development. But it’s more than that. As participants progress through the programme, they can go into different areas of digital and tech.

It’s a fully-funded 12-week programme available for Lancashire residents aged 19 years old and over. It’s hybrid too so participants can join in-person or online. Other than that, anyone can apply. There is an application process featuring a test and a challenge to see if it’s something you want to do, then you get to join the fully-funded programme for 12 weeks with a guaranteed interview at the end.

CODE Lancashire helps people with both the technical skills and the employability skills, and I think that’s really something to shout about.

You can teach yourself to code online quite easily. But can you teach yourself the practical skills to actually go into a job with it? Probably not. So, the CODE Lancashire digital skills bootcamp is equally weighted between employability and technical skills.

How does CODE Lancashire differ from other digital skills bootcamps?

Gaby: Because it is a funded programme, we have targets and KPIs that we need to achieve. It can become easy to see the bootcamp as just being a tick-box exercise. Bootcamps have a bad name because of that. But that’s not what CODE Lancashire is.

I have had several candidates who have done their research and challenged me on this idea of bootcamps during their interview. And, first of all, I’m thinking, “Good, I want this person on my programme” because they’re challenging things. Second of all, I am so passionate about this bootcamp not becoming a box-ticking exercise.

We will hit our KPIs and targets by working with candidates and employers and tailoring everything to their needs. If we do that, it will work. So, let’s focus on making it the best possible programme that we can. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.

We don’t just want people to go through the 12 week programme, go to the interview, and get a job. There’s more to it than that. We want to help them explore their options and figure out the right direction for them. I want people to come out of the CODE Lancashire programme feeling empowered to take control of what they want to do, and not just feel like they’re being shoehorned into a career for the sake of it.

I would love everyone to come out of this programme and wake up on a Monday morning feeling happy that they get to do a job they love.

How has CODE Lancashire helped people so far?

Gaby: The majority of candidates will have learned things that they’ve never learned before. And I say the majority because, from a technical perspective, we have candidates that have been teaching themselves online for years. But they’ve just never been able to break into the industry because they’ve not got any work experience.

The majority of people, though, are learning technical skills for the first time. Everyone will come out of this programme with something to show for it.

I’m not a traditional techie so, for me, the biggest way we help people is on the employability side of things and the softer skills.

Although the programme is essentially here to train software developers, that could be in a range of different roles. What we’re seeing, and what I’m really passionate about, is that over 12 weeks, participants are finding their fit.

They get all these different elements, like employability coaching and one-to-ones, to really look into themselves — their values, culture and where they fit in a team.

At the end of 12 weeks, you’re not just going into a job and that’s the end of it. You come out of it with long-term goals and a greater understanding of your fit in the digital space.

If you interview our candidates now, they might not realise exactly what they’ve achieved at the end of the 12-week programme. Because there is just so much that they take away from it. When running this style of programme in the past, one candidate said it had transformed his life. He’s using skills now that he got taught on the programme, but he just didn’t realise it at the time.

The other thing the CODE Lancashire candidates come out with is an ongoing support network. We run socials and have an online collaboration tool. As we do more cohorts, we’ll be bringing them together as alumni. We encourage participants to go to tech events and, of course, they have their peers who they went on the journey with. There will be 20 other people around them with similar interests who can all share their experiences and learnings.

We support people past those first 12 weeks and we’ll always have people on hand that they can turn to if they need support in the workplace.

We try and do whatever we can to encourage and empower our candidates.

“It doesn’t matter what your background is, or what your interests are, you can do this job if you have the skills.”

— Gaby O'Reilly

With the next cohort now in progress — what can CODE Lancashire participants expect to gain from the programme?

Gaby: Right now we’re nearing the end of our first cohort and we’ve also kicked off our second cohort.

Our second cohort are in what I like to call the “easy stage” of the programme where we’re starting to embed their learning. This helps everyone build a foundation before they build on these skills and learn new elements.

Looking at it logistically, participants have three tutorials every week. Two of those are technical and one of them is on employability, which covers practical and theoretical employability.

The technical tutorials start off with HTML and CSS [where cohort 2 currently are]. At the end of this stage, candidates build themselves a portfolio then move onto JavaScript where they can add more interactive elements. From there, we go into the deeper technicalities of building an app, linking the backend and frontend together, debugging and security, and deploying.

As candidates move through the programme, we mirror practical elements of the working world with things like stand-up meetings and project management as we know these are things that candidates will experience when they step into employment. And a lot of our employers are telling us that these are skills that are missing. So, we interweave these elements into the programme.

On the top of the tutorials and practical sessions, we run group mentoring from a technical perspective. These mentoring sessions are optional. People can turn up and, if they don’t have anything to share, they can sit back and listen to their peers. Maybe they won’t quite realise what they are struggling with until something is brought up during mentoring. These sessions really help candidates work through any challenges.

As well as group mentoring, we have socials so everyone can get to know each other outside of the working environment.

Then, on top of that, candidates also get coaching. They’ll have an initial coaching session with our employability coach where they can come up with a personalised learning plan. We’ll put the learning plan in place over the 12 weeks and they’ll get an additional four hours of one-to-one coaching that is totally tailored to them, and they can use those coaching hours however they wish.

Wow, it sounds like you’ve covered every possible scenario where they might need help!

Gaby: Yeah, we cover a lot!

I really want CODE Lancashire to empower people to use the programme to its full ability.

Halfway through the programme, we do feedback surveys to help us tweak and amend the programme for current and future cohorts.

The people who have done the best on this programme are the ones who really utilise all the support that is available.

Towards the end, we’ll run optional mock interviews too. Some candidates on the programme haven’t had an interview for 20 years. So having that mock interview and getting feedback is critical for them. They’re not just being thrown into a real interview and thinking they’ll be okay. They get lots of support to help them.

As I touched on before, we have online tools as well where candidates can help each other. Facilitators and the rest of the team are also on hand if candidates need anything.

Ultimately, for us, it’s not just about getting people into a job. It’s about helping them stay in that job. That’s what employers in Lancashire need. We help candidates understand the benefits of working with SMEs in Lancashire, and you get all the extra support too. We really want to help our candidates find their best fit.

As we know, there is a huge gender gap in the tech industry — How can we empower and support more women in considering a career in tech?

Gaby: I can only speak from personal experience. When I first started running this programme, before it was known as CODE Lancashire, I didn’t even know what a software developer was. I was coming into it as a project manager.

I came into a very stereotypical environment. We were working with an organisation that was all white male developers, who loved gaming, and that’s all they talked about… and I felt really out of my depth. My initial reaction was that I don’t fit in here and, therefore, I’m never going to be a part of this industry. But I carried on and persevered.

That’s one of the reasons why we run the socials at CODE Lancashire. We want people to bring their personalities to the projects. We want people to see that there’s more to being a software developer than being interested in video games and realise, actually, I can fit in here. That is just a stereotype.

We also have an employer board that meets on a monthly basis. Those employers are asking for softer skills which, stereotypically, a woman would bring. So, by tackling stereotypes we can open up opportunities for more people.

Addressing the gender gap comes from our narrative. It comes from our marketing, the language we use and the things we’re putting out there. We need to ask why females, like me, feel like they don’t fit in the industry and how we can help break that stereotype and create a more balanced workforce.

It doesn’t matter what your background is, or what your interests are, you can do this job if you have the skills.

I also think a lot of the work comes from within — I still feel like I’m not a techie. I don’t feel like I can say I’m a woman in tech, even though I am.

The education and support also needs to happen much earlier. It needs to start at school and college, helping people see what the job looks like, not just what is the stereotype associated with this job.

It’s a big thing to tackle but we are always trying to create balance. We have principles in place to help attract and encourage more females onto the programme. We’re opening up that stereotype that you don’t just have to be a bedroom gamer to go into this industry. We’ve all got amazing backgrounds, personalities and things that interest us so let’s bring that to the table.

It’s a big change to tackle and we’ve got a long way to go.

“I would love everyone to come out of this programme and wake up on a Monday morning feeling happy that they get to do a job they love.”

— Gaby O'Reilly

How can local employers get involved?

Gaby: CODE Lancashire isn’t just here for individuals looking to grow their digital skills. We also support local employers and SMEs as we want CODE Lancashire to be employer-led.

We have an employer board that meets on a monthly basis and we also give support on the employer side. We do the whole 360, as we call it, where we run workshops for employers and have one-to-ones with them. We work with employers and their existing teams to look at how they support and manage new employees.

Through the work we do with employers, we are focused on improving retention. It’s a fully immersive programme for both employers and candidates.

Employers can get involved with CODE Lancashire at any point. They can interview candidates, do an employer talk — just come down and get involved!

They don’t have to be tech employers either. Everyone needs tech and most companies will have no idea what that looks like or what they need. So we can work with those employers to understand if they have a role and what that looks like.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to grow their tech career?

Gaby: Join CODE Lancashire, first of all!

Don’t stop learning. The tech industry is changing all the time. The feedback we get from our employers is that as long as people understand the fundamental principles of something, they can develop.

A lot of our employers are looking for that commitment and passion. They want people who enjoy doing this stuff. Because it’s constantly changing, tech isn’t a topic you can learn once and never revisit. You have to be on it all of the time.

One of the biggest things you can do to keep in touch with the tech industry is to go to events and grow your community. All of the events ran by Lancashire Digital Hub, like the Digital Tech Talks, are so important for that. It helps you keep your foot in the door and keeps you on top of the industry changes.

What does community mean to you? And why does it matter?

Gaby: Community means having a purpose. It’s a feeling, not a thing. It’s not just meeting people, it’s having that belonging that you are part of something bigger.

Community is the difference between going through life on your own and staying in the same place or growing as a person and learning from other people and other situations. I think that’s important for everybody.

There is nothing better than meeting likeminded people and feeling like you have that sense of purpose and belonging, both in a professional and personal way.

There’s more to life [and a job] than salary. There are so many benefits you can get from working for an SME in your local community.

We’re better together. We’re better collaborating and when we have other people around us who complement us and lift us up. For people who are starting off in a new career or changing industry, that peer support is crucial.

Before we go, do you have any final words of wisdom to share?

Gaby: Don’t be afraid to push the norm — it’s where these bootcamps have come from.

It’s so easy to go school, college, university, job then realise “Oh my god, what am I doing? This isn’t making my heart sing. This isn’t giving me purpose”.

We go through this structured way of life and I want to encourage people to push the norm, challenge it. It doesn’t have to be that way. Dig into your values and find your fit.

And that’s not just on a candidate side, that’s on our side as employers and service providers too. We want to help employers challenge their current processes and find ways to approach things differently.

Be open-minded and don’t be afraid to go against the grain.

Parting thoughts — Find your community and push the norm with CODE Lancashire

What an amazing insight into the innerworkings of CODE Lancashire! If there’s anything you take away from this conversation with Gaby, let it be this:

Anyone can work in tech — no matter your background, demographics, or interests. If it’s something you’re passionate about, go for it.

It’s clear that CODE Lancashire is so much more than just another digital skills bootcamp. They really do put candidate progression and development at the heart of their programme. Everything in the programme is designed to help candidates reach their full potential, all while ensuring SMEs get the opportunity to find and nurture the next generation of incredible tech talent.

The best part is that it’s happening right here in Lancashire.

Find out more about CODE Lancashire and when their next cohort applications open up at codelancashire.tech or by following them on LinkedIn at CODE Lancashire.

Who knows, this could be the start of an exciting new career path for you…

An interview with: James Walkerdine from Relative Insight

We caught up with James Walkerdine, the COO of Relative Insight for a heart-to-heart about Relative Insight’s journey so far, the rollercoaster journey of scaling a tech business, and the achievements and lessons you learn along the way.

Who is Relative Insight?

Founded in 2012 by two Lancaster University academics, Phil Greenwood and James Walkerdine, Relative Insight is a multi-award winning, VC backed SaaS company making its mark on the world.

Relative Insight’s text analysis software has a remarkable history. From originally being used as a crime detection tool for law enforcement to now helping global big-name brands better interact with their target audiences.

Words are impactful. Yet, they’re also one of the most underused sources of intelligence in business. Through its text analysis tool, Relative Insight is helping brands understand how their audience feel, how to engage with them, and how the words they use impact their performance.

Here at Lancashire Digital Hub, we’re proud to have Relative Insight as one of our main sponsors in supporting and strengthening the local digital community.

About James, The COO of Relative Insight

James Walkerdine is the co-founder and COO of Relative Insight.

Coming from Derby, James moved to Lancaster for university back in 1995. This red-rose city clearly captured his heart as he has lived here ever since, working his way from a Lancaster University alumni to Research Fellow within the Computing department, before spinning out and co-founding Relative Insight.

At every step of his journey, James has been deeply ingrained in data and research — something that is reflected in Relative Insight’s capabilities and successes as an award-winning technology and analytics firm.

Why did you start Relative Insight? Tell us about your journey so far

James: Relative Insight’s journey began a long, long time ago when I was working as a Research Fellow at Lancaster University.

We were doing research on child protection and developing software tools to help law enforcement conduct investigations. Part of that was to help them speed up the process as they would typically rely on manually reading chat logs and doing keyword searches. This manual work could take weeks and weeks to complete. We knew we could build something to help speed this up.

So, our tool started as software to support child protection. In 2012, we got our initial investment and we also sold the tool into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Force — who contacted us a year later to say the software helped them successfully prosecute someone.

In that respect, the tool did what the original research intended to do — help protect children.

In 2014, our CEO suggested applying the tech to the advertising and marketing world. We spoke to some agencies that we knew and initial pilots with them demonstrated to us that there was potential for an offering. It then grew organically from there.

In 2018, we hired our CRO. Then everything accelerated. Within 12 months, we had doubled our revenue, our team had doubled in size, and so forth. To put it into context, in 2018 there were 8 employees. Now, we have over 100.

As new start-up founders we were maybe a bit naïve about the way the business world works. We thought we would always be selling a tool for law enforcement and never envisioned it being applied in other ways. When we were setting up the company, the Director of Enterprise at the University said “I can guarantee that in a few years time, you won’t be doing what you’re doing now”, and that’s what happened.

Relative Insight has had a dynamic journey so far — from starting out as a tool to protect children online to becoming powerful text analysis software for businesses. What would you say lies at the core of Relative Insight’s growth?

James: We have had many pivots throughout the journey of Relative Insight — which is not uncommon as you grow a business. You change direction a little bit or change your product a little bit and it’s an ongoing evolution.

I think that ability to pivot and adapt is one of the reasons we have succeeded in getting Relative Insight to where it is today.

But, what lies at the core of growth changes all the time. What would have been at the core years ago is different to what is at the core today.

Fundamentally, I would say we had that crest of data science, becoming the new thing. By extension, we were fortunate to probably be at the forefront of analysing language at the right time — certainly in the marketing and advertising space where brands were starting to realise that, in order to better engage with their target audience, how they communicated was key. Just having standard marketing material and not adapting that to your audience doesn’t work. In the last 5 - 10 years, I think people really realised that the way you communicate with your audience is incredibly important. And I think the fact that no one else was doing it when we did it meant we got to work with some really big names early on.

In terms of growth from a functional perspective, it changes every year. And the challenges you face change every year. So, I think, the growth engine has to evolve depending on where you want your journey to go.

What have been your proudest achievements & successes as a company?

James: From an individual point of view, it was really quite surreal going into another office that wasn’t in Lancaster for the first time and seeing our logo on the wall. I haven’t been to our two US offices yet - but I expect it will be the same feeling then. It’s these moments where you really start to realise what we’ve been able to achieve.

I always think the people you bring along and watching them grow with you, that is something to be proud of. Some have been with us from the start, others the company may outgrow. Either way, it’s great seeing people develop alongside you and being able to share in that journey. People who can also go, “Wow, we’ve got a Philly office!”.

And, obviously, the other aspect is getting big name customers. That’s another pinch-me moment. These are companies that clearly see value in what we do and knowing they choose to work with us  is pretty humbling.

I think some of our proudest achievements are the things that you don’t even have time to think about but one day, they happen.

“Lancaster doesn’t shout enough about what it has here — and there’s some amazing companies here — and we, as a community, should come together and raise our voices a lot more.”

— James Walkerdine

And what would you say has been your biggest lesson?

James: You’re asking some tough questions…

This is something I often say, I think the biggest lesson is to make sure you get the right people. And, you know, in a fast growing company, that’s often hard because you just need to get people in. But when you get those superstars, the impact they have is transformational.

I think another one of the biggest lessons is accepting that you need help. It’s very easy to say “Yes, I can do all this myself” and sure, you probably can. But someone who’s a superstar at it will do that job at a different level. And when they join, you’ll ask yourself “Why didn’t I bring this person on board a year ago?”

It’s all part of that evolution and changing. So, I think a key lesson is finding the right people but also acknowledging when you need to get them in and acknowledging when you need help — and accepting that it’s not a bad thing. It’s actually a good thing to get help.

It’s far better to have lots of really amazing people around you that you can learn from and they can help make the company stronger than not to, and that means swallowing your pride. Asking for help is often seen as a weakness but I actually think it’s a strength.

Can you tell us about any exciting developments or projects that you are working on right now?

James: In November, we are a headline sponsor of TMRE (The Market Research Event) in the US - this is the world's number one market research event. A few years ago, we would have just had a small stand and now we’re the headline sponsor.

Our Philadelphia office went live last week [12th September 2022] and we’re really building the team out there. I think, for us, this is a really exciting chapter coming up. We’ve had a US subsidiary for a few years now — since 2019 — but now we’re moving into that next chapter when we’re going to properly grow the US company. The US is our biggest market so it makes sense to have a much bigger US presence.

How has the sense of collaboration and community in the Lancashire area impacted your business?

James: We’ve always been keen to engage with the community. In part, being active in the local community helps us raise awareness for the company and helps us with hiring people.

On the other hand, I’ve been in Lancaster since I came up for my Undergraduate degree in ‘95 and Lancaster has been a big part of my life since then.

We’re increasingly looking at giving back to the community and helping others do what we’ve done. When we first started at the Uni and spun out, we didn’t have much in the way of support. We didn’t have anyone to guide us and I always felt that was a shame. There’s so many new companies in this area that could do with having a mentor to provide advice — and I’m always happy to share our experiences. 

We always said we wanted Relative Insight to be a name people associate with Lancaster. And you’ve got to work on that, you need to build your brand and build awareness. None of our customers are in Lancaster so getting involved in community activities is key for spreading awareness. And I think shouting about our work also benefits Lancaster, and Lancashire.

Lancaster doesn’t shout enough about what it has here — and there’s some amazing companies here — and we, as a community, should come together and raise our voices a lot more.

Ultimately, we’re keen to help keep the local tech community alive and grow it.

To get you started on that mentorship journey, what tips or advice would you give to digital enthusiasts wanting to get more involved in Lancashire’s digital & tech community?

James: I know we’ve touched on this already but asking for help and acknowledging you need help isn’t a bad thing. There’s no point sitting at home with your ideas and struggling. Get help. People will want to help.

Find the right people and partners who can go on that journey with you. I think places like Fraser House are a great place to start. People like Rory and Dan network people together which is something we didn’t have before. Find people like that who are that hub owner because they will know people for you to talk to.

And understand that it’s a company, not an extension of your ego. A company is its own entity — you often have to detach your own personal beliefs from it to ensure you are doing what’s best for the company. And that applies at any stage, even as a 100-person company we have to keep ensuring we build a culture where we are all working together for a common vision..That’s what ensures the company will scale and succeed.

Before we go, do you have any final words of wisdom to share?

James: It’s a rollercoaster. I know that’s a cliché, everyone says it’s a rollercoaster. But it is, and there will be highs and lows throughout the journey. And being at that bottom as a business owner or manager is not a pleasant place to be.

The first time that happened to us, I remember our CEO said to us, “Look, you can either spend a lot of energy worrying about this situation or you can use that energy to keep the company going and grow it”. And that, to me, was really good advice.

There will be good times. There will be bad times. It’s really important not to dwell and let all your energy be focused on panicking about the situation. Somehow put all of that in a box and carry on driving the company because odds are you’ll come out of it again.

That’s a wrap — Pivot, find superstars, and embrace exciting chapters

We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into Relative Insight, as much as we have. It’s certainly been an impressive journey and one that I think is a testament to the product, and company, that they have built.

You can learn more about Relative Insight here.

Make sure you also sign up to get notified about our upcoming events where James is often in attendance showing his support for the digital community here in Lancashire.