On Friday 15th November over 100 students from colleges and universities around England came together at a venue on the border where London’s financial heart and tech startups meet. They were there for NACUE’s Startup Career Launchpad, an event that is fast becoming one of the key stops for anyone wanting to working in the exciting world of startups. Speakers from some of the most exciting companies around – Adobe, Hootsuite, AirBnB and Google to name just a few – came not with dry lectures or vaguely inspirational quotes but with practical advice that left everyone in the room better equipped to find a job and succeed in a startup anywhere in the world.
“The half-life of a tweet is just six minutes”
Things got underway in style with Jeremy Waite, Head of Social Strategy for Adobe Europe, Middle East and Africa, fresh off a plane from Los Angeles delivering the day’s first keynote on how to build a community around your product. Telling delegates that customers don’t buy into what you are selling but why you’re selling it, Jeremy said that 90% of a startup worker’s time should be spent on engaging with your audience with the remaining 10% spent developing the product itself. Jeremy’s 25 minute speech was packed full of great tips and advice with those watching leaving knowing that the half-life of a tweet is just six minutes and that building services for Amazon to use is a huge area of opportunity (by 2017 they will own about 16% of global e-commerce). During the panel that followed he added that there was great opportunity in the social networks businesses that no-one thought about like eBay, Playstation Network and Xbox Live.
Jeremy was joined for the panel by Melissa Trahan of Passion Capital, Saul Cullen of Paymill and Simon Thethi of Tech City News to discuss trends in startups for 2014. Jeremy kicked off by suggesting that Net Promoter Scores (NPS) could replace Return On Investment (ROI) as the key measure of success for startups saying that if companies “target the people that hate you. Turn those that really really hate you into people that just don’t give a shit” you can quickly improve profits.
“They’re teaching people to code in the womb these days.”
“They’re teaching people to code in the womb these days.” said Simon Thethi before asking the panel what other skills people looking to enter startups need. Melissa Trahan said that people who have a combination of tech skills and business acumen will be the ones in demand. Jeremy Waite said that forward thinking companies were falling over themselves to find new data scientists or “Data Ninjas” and Saul Cullen recommended that the audience “Just get out there. Don’t hesitate. Come to lots of events like this,” to meet the right people and learn the right skills.
The wisdom came thick and fast with Melissa Trahan saying delegates should make sure they knew why they wanted to work in a startup and Saul Cullen adding that big companies go on recruitment drives looking for talent but that startups only hire when they have a skills gap they need to fill. Jeremy Waite backed him up saying that the best way to get into a startup was to identify their biggest challenge and present them with a solution.
Next up were global law firm and event sponsors Taylor Vinters who gave the assembled students tips on how to financially incentivise employees when they can’t compete on salary. Startups need to sell potential employees on on the future of the business and their role in it as well as offering deferred financial incentives like the option to buy shares in the future.
“If you want to work in startup you’d better be ok with being uncomfortable!”
As the audience split for the first of the days breakout sessions Jennifer Yorke, a founding member of Hootsuite’s first international office (in London) talked the audience through a career that had already taken her from Canada to the USA and then to London. “One weekend I moved to Boston, a city where I knew no-one, to an apartment in a sketchy part of town, and then started a new job on the Monday… If you want to work in startup you’d better be ok with being uncomfortable!” Those who work in startups are by necessity Jacks-of-all-trades. She talked about always trying to find solutions when things went wrong – “When the internet went down in the early days of Hootsuite we’d head to Starbucks and carry on working. We’d have Starbucks days. It was like camp! We kept working and it was great.”
At the same time delegates were treated to an insider’s guide to the startup scene in London from audience.io’s Amanda Foley. Amanda talked delegates through the London ecosystem including the companies, incubators, co-working spaces and people that make the capital such an amazing for startup businesses. They also learnt that London is the female tech startup capital of europe. Her top tips for delegates looking to get a job in a startup were; get on Twitter, get yourself to events and network and finally, ABL, always be learning!
During lunch delegates mingled with each other sharing their learning, the twenty strong group from Igniting Enterprise at Plymouth University swapping notes with each other, while others mobbed the speakers from the morning.
“There’s no such thing as a risk free career anymore”
Alena Dundas (founder of Gymdeck) offered words of advice from years of working with and starting up businesses. She said “there’s no such thing as a risk free career anymore”, traditional industries can easily be disrupted by new technologies so why not take advantage of the opportunities that startups provide! Delegates also heard that one of the best things about the London startup scene is the variety of world leading companies you can work for in industries as diverse as fashion and ‘fin-tech’ (Financial Technology).
Upstairs Alasdair Snow of Triptease gave the delegates a glimpse at a day in the life of a startup, asking them to help him develop a marketing strategy by identifying target audiences. He advised them to make sure they were working towards an end point and that they prioritised their ideas. He said what he was most interested in about startups were the innovative ways they planned to distribute content more than the innovative content they came up with. Alasdair made it clear that it doesn’t matter what you study, anyone can work in a startup, he himself graduating with a degree in History before co-founding Triptease.
“Think of yourself of as a startup.”
Next on upstairs was Holly Clarke who showed the gathered students the CV that got her a job as a Product Manager at AirBnB. Her session was packed with useful tips on creating a CV including using your CV to sell yourself as if you were a product; thinking of yourself as a startup because that’s what you are when you’re looking for a job; knowing how to make a great CV is as simple as knowing how to make a great web homepage; and finally, lock down your social networks! Holly said she couldn’t believe the amount of people who didn’t bother to Google themselves before applying for a job.
“Tech is no longer a type of company, it’s a part of every company”
Downstairs Devin Hunt spoke to delegates about coding and why you can’t afford to ignore it if you want to work for a startup. He said that ‘tech’ is no longer a type of company, it’s a part of every company so if you want to be close to the value that a startup is creating then you should know about code. Code can help you in all sorts of roles including marketing, design, business development and community management. Devin pointed delegates towards a multitude of resources for learning but stressed that if you have a screen and a keyboard then you have everything you need to start coding!
The final panel of the day saw some heavy hitters from the London startup scene (moderated by Benjamin Southworth) talk about starting out and standing out in 2014. Advice from Anna Bance (Girl Meets Dress), Joe Cohen (Seatwave) and Alistair Shepherd (Saberr) included; look for companies you’re excited by and ask them for an opportunity, keep your eyes open for problems that can be solved by business and ‘get shit done!’
The final keynote of the day was delivered by Eze Vidra, Head of Google for Entrepreneurs Europe (delivered whilst wearing Google Glass!). As well as taking delegates through the things that make London so awesome for startups (the unique combinations of talent, money and cultural environment) he offered some amazing advice for people that want to work in a startup. If it’s what you want then get to know people that already do it and you’ll greatly increase your chance of success.
The next Startup Career Launchpad will take place on 20th March 2014. To keep up to date with details of that and everything else NACUE sign up to our newsletter.