5 minute read
Case study: GoJoe
❛❛ I didn’t buy this business as an environmentalist with a vision to change the world around CO2 in construction. I came to it indirectly, when a customer approached us to recycle a particularly difficult type of waste, and we had to find a way to do that ❜❜ James Bailey, Chief Executive, Roadways
LOOKING FOR YOUR NEXT INNOVATION? A TASTE OF WHAT TO EXPECT:
Every innovation strategy begins with a search for opportunity. Before we can decide what, how and why we are going to innovate, we need to have a full picture of the options open to us.
But before we get there, it might be helpful to start with a definition. What exactly is innovation? Many businesses think they’re not capable of innovating, because they think of it as inventing something entirely new. That’s not the whole truth. In fact, innovation is about successfully creating and capturing value from a new idea.
It doesn’t have to be a product – it could be a service, a process or the way a business is positioned. It doesn’t have to be new to the world – it could be new to a place, or simply new to your organisation. And it doesn’t have to be a radical change – innovation is very often an incremental process. You might think that most innovation happens on university campuses or in laboratories. But in fact, the most common sources of innovative ideas are your own employees, suppliers and customers.
After that are other perspectives from your industry, such as competitors, consultants, professional bodies and conferences. While radical innovation can often be taken from a different context, incremental innovation usually starts closer to home.
One final thought: it’s only a real opportunity if you can capture the value you create. Think about the assets your business has that your competitors don’t. Is it your brand and reputation, or knowledge that only you have access to? Intellectual property like patents or trademarks? Technical complexity that can’t be easily copied? Or competitive advantages in marketing, production and operations?
Innovation isn’t a single flash of inspiration. It’s a process that involves some guesswork, experimentation and then careful implementation. That’s why you need to build systems involving your whole team to manage it. Innovation can start from anywhere, and to find and harness the right opportunity, you must always be open and receptive to new ideas.
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This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. www.sussexinnovation.co.uk
Fitness made social and easy for your ‘Average Joe’
Take a look at how a simple but innovative idea, starting with two lawyers at university, led to investment by Alistair Brownlee MBE, the acquisition of global clients such as Diageo, PwC and Experian and, more recently, the closing of their second investment round for over £1m!
Two sports lovers, Will Turner and Phil Steele, met at university 18 years ago while studying law. Both went on to become sports lawyers, with Will spending eight years with Team GB, moving from the legal side to a commercial side, while Phil went on to become a partner at Brabners for 13 years.
Both of them loved, and were motivated by, the social element of sport and exercise, and would run team-based athletic events at university with their house of ten ‘ordinary joe’ friends (which they still do to this day). They realised they took something from the experience in terms of motivation and enjoyment which they did not fi nd in existing digital or physical fitness products, many of which weren’t particularly innovative, and which focused primarily on ‘invested athletes’.
Phil and Will felt that there was an opportunity to use their commercial experience to create a product that could keep the masses on their exercise journeys for longer through data, infl uencers and the blockchain.
When asked about their business and personal motivations, they mentioned wanting to create something that would use exercise as a way to connect and motivate people across the globe to stay on their exercise journeys for longer, that was truly social and which leveraged community and athletes in an innovative
CASE STUDY GOJOE
way. They have very ambitious growth plans, aiming to make GoJoe the biggest fi tness app in the next fi ve years, and they plan to do this via many different ways. One of those, in particular, is how – despite being a consumer product – they are already working with some of the world’s biggest companies on the B2B side, who are using GoJoe to engage and connect their staff in an innovative way, with a focus on digital wellbeing and movement.
GoJoe’s offering is highly innovative, in particular how they are building out their integration of NFTs and the blockchain to give genuine value to its global community of users in an authentic and sustainable way. In terms of challenges, the team noted the diffi culty of building a tech product in such a fast-moving environment, which was made more difficult at the outset of their journey given neither of them had any background in tech. They also mentioned keeping up with the commercial demands, moving at the current speed on a limited budget and not getting ahead of themselves.
When asked about what the most rewarding parts of being founders was, they mentioned “being captain of our own ship, and being able to shape the direction of travel” and “getting the freedom to make your own choices which could have a major impact on our business… where highs are higher, and lows are lower”. They also mentioned getting to innovate and try new things was very rewarding.
Both founders wanted to give a big thanks to the NatWest Accelerator for helping them through its mentorship, during which time they were provided with investment and recruitment guidance as well as giving them the confi dence required to get the product out there at an earlier stage than they would have otherwise done. Their advice to up and coming entrepreneurs would be to do the same, and to take risks in recognition of the fact that countless mistakes and learnings will be made along the way.
To end, they wanted everyone to go check out GoJoe at gojoe.com and download the mobile application to get started with their exercise journeys, enter challenges with their friends and many others around the world.
