Innovation, Passion, and Perseverance: The Inspiring Journey of Sharesy

My name is Felix Atkin. I’m a North London dad and the Founder/CEO of Sharesy. I was born and raised in North London, and I now live close to my childhood home with my wife and two amazing children.

I want to share with you my journey into the startup world and the challenges and successes I encountered along the way.

Where it all began 2020

It was the height of lockdown in 2020, and I had recently left a role running the commercial team in a health tech business. I took on some freelance work for a game development startup company while my wife, a Deputy Head Teacher in a state primary school, was running a key worker school and setting up remote learning for 320 pupils. This time during the first lockdown gave me the opportunity to develop a spark of an idea that had been brewing for some time.

My wife often talked about the financial issues her school and others were facing with budget cuts and funding, as well as how the school would often sit empty in the evenings, weekends and school holidays. With this in mind, I wondered how this problem of empty school spaces could be addressed.

I saw an opportunity to create a marketplace platform to not only help schools, but other local venues like community centres and places of worship. Think Airbnb, but for community spaces enabling people to put their money back into their local area.

What better time than during a national lockdown to start a business centred around community gatherings. What could possibly go wrong?

Formulating my plan & fundraising success

I initially intended for this to be a social enterprise to support venues in my local area in Barnet, but it soon became something much bigger.

I met my first two Angel investors, Samantha Tubb and Richard Harley, who came from an Ed Tech background. We hit it off on our first video call, and they asked me for a business model and pitch deck. I had neither, so with the help of some friends, I quickly prepared those, along with a ‘clickable demo’ version of the platform I envisioned.

Sam and Rich quickly agreed to jump in and offered the funding to put a team around me and to start building the platform. This was the beginning of a long lasting partnership where they joined the board and were instrumental in the early decisions to get the business up and running. After three years, Sam continues to be the first person I call in a crisis or to share good news.

As soon as the first lockdown ended, sharesy.com went live with a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) - a basic version of the platform which could take online payments for a venue booking. Within days we were taking our first bookings … and then we entered the second lockdown!

Rather than slowing down, I went straight out to raise a larger round of funding, securing £900k within just 6 weeks.

Sometimes life throws you a curveball

Everything seemed to be going well. We had our founding team of staff, our two fundraising rounds had been a huge success, and then suddenly, everything changed!

In March 2021, my son was diagnosed with an autoinflammatory disease, and my priorities and focus shifted in ways I could never have imagined.

My wife, Vicki, and I spent the next six weeks in a small hospital room with our little boy, swapping every three days to spend time with our daughter at home. It was every parent’s nightmare. Fortunately, the team at Great Ormond Street Hospital were amazing. We were also supported by the amazing team at Spread a Smile, a wonderful charity that brings joy and laughter to seriously ill and hospitalised children and their families during long hospital stays. We later discovered that Spread a Smile shared the same co-working office as Sharesy in Highbury, and we take every opportunity to help them with fundraising or preparing gifts for the children they support.

We managed to get our son on the road to recovery, and the day he rang the discharge bell from the hospital bell was a day I will never forget! We are still navigating our way around life with a child who has an auto-inflammatory disease and the worries that come with it, but as a family, it has made us much more appreciative of all of the little moments that we sometimes take for granted. My son’s diagnosis was undoubtedly life-changing, but it also showed me how strong we can be when we come together during difficult times. It certainly puts the stresses of running a start-up into perspective.

Onwards and upwards

Our mission has always been to help local venues become vibrant centres of the community, bringing people together whilst encouraging them to put their money back into their local area. In the current economic climate, never has there been a more important time to support schools and community institutions. We’re now working with over 320 venues in the London area and beyond. We’ve generated over £500k in community bookings, and the feedback from our bookers and venues is consistently excellent.

I am incredibly proud of the team culture we have developed at Sharesy. Our values are to listen first, think big and love the journey. But first and foremost, we aspire to do good. We’re giving back to communities, and that is incredibly rewarding.

If you’re looking for a venue for an event, book with Sharesy and help your local community. ■

Felix Atkin Founder of Sharesy www.sharesy.com