Startup Stories | LONDON by StartupStories

Startup Stories LONDON

Find a job that excites you.

STARTUP STORIES London

Startup Stories is a periodical print publication produced by Tyba in Madrid, Spain. Startup Stories Magazine c/o Tyba Calle Raimundo Fernández Villaverde 45, 1ºA 28003 Madrid, Spain. The views published here do not necessarily represent the views of the company. Content published is factually accurate and approved up to the date of publication (September 2014). startupstories@tyba.com startupstories.tyba.com

Published by TF Artes Gráficas in Madrid, España.

Cover Photo by Jennifer Balcombe

Startup Stories

Say hello MANAGEMENT EISO KANT

JORGE SCHNURA

PHILIP VON HAVE

Managing Director / Co-Founder eiso@tyba.com

VP of Users / Co-Founder jorge@tyba.com

VP of Companies / Co-Founder philip@tyba.com

EDITORIAL

CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

COMPANY CONTENT

DALBER CÂNDIDO

CHIARA MASSIRONI

MARGARIDA GARCIA

Editor at Large/Head of Marketing & Communications dalber@tyba.com

Client Relationship Manager chiara@tyba.com

Head of Company Content margarida@tyba.com

CHUK IKÉH

GEORGINA BENNETT-WARNER

SOCIAL MEDIA

Editor/Head of Content chuk@tyba.com

Client Relationship Manager georgina@tyba.com

ANNA MUCHA

MARTA RODRÍGUEZ

PETKO ANCHEV

Head of Social Media anna@tyba.com

Designer & Art Director marta@tyba.com

Customer Relationship Manager petko@tyba.com

CONTRIBUTORS MIRUNA POTOP

PEDRO JARNAC FREITAS

Contributor

Photographer

JENNIFER BALCOMBE

KIM LEUENBERGER

Photographer

KATHLEEN RIDDELL

STEFF GUTOVSKA

Photographer

facebook.com/tyba1 twitter.com/tyba instagram.com/tyba_com

Editorial nally, both in everyday life and in my career. I thought I was going to become a top news reporter – trilby hats, oversized Mackintosh and everything. Not straight away, of course, but one day. And while I have accumulated some great professional experience at some top publications, I would concede that my journalistic experience is dwarfed by the experience I have gained working in startups.

the art of journalism at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London), known once upon a time as the London College of Printing. I remember how, on my very first day, in my very first lecture, one of our mentors walked in and scanned the mish-mashed group of wannabe journalists assembled on the benches before him, before delivering a few words that have since stuck with me like carelessly discarded chewing gum.

I WAS SCHOOLED IN

Ocassionally people will take a look at my current CV and be impressed by the amount of experience I’ve racked up in such a short time, and at a relatively young age (I’m 26 years old).

Mr S. Davis – a charismatic veteran of a journalist from New Zealand, who’d reported from war zones in a previous life – told us in no uncertain terms: “If you’ve decided to enrol on this course because you want to make money or be rich, then you’re in the wrong place. If that’s you, you should probably leave right now.” That’s the basic gist of what he said, anyway. At the time, nobody moved. But in the days, weeks, months and years that followed, that group grew slowly thinner, as the hacks that couldn’t hack it dropped out.

For example, right now, I’m writing to you from the Spanish capital of Madrid, where I now live and work as Head of Content at Tyba. We’re a squad of over 25 young tech enthusiasts representing more than ten different nations and one mission between us: to help you find a job or a career that excites you the way ours excites us. One year ago, I honestly wouldn’t have even dreamed that I would be saying that. But such is the world of startups: anything is possible – and that’s no exaggeration.

Almost six years later, and those straightly-spoken words have carried real-life resonance for me perso-

My first job was as a copywriter for a then little-known startup by the name of Groupon. I landed 7

this gig just a matter of weeks after graduating, on referral from a friend who I’d studied with at University. I ended up being there nearly two years, having worked my way up in a short space of time to become what was known as a ‘Voice Editor’.

the highs together, and support each other during the lows. You’ll destroy each other in games of pingpong or foosball, and spend most waking hours of your lives with your team-mates without ever feeling overwhelmed by it.

I remember now how, on the day I left Groupon to give journalism another shot (as the Deputy Editor of an Edgware-based newspaper for London’s Nigerian diaspora), I gave some kind of farewell speech to my colleagues. In that final remark, I remember telling them that if I ever got the chance to work in such an environment again – alongside so many young, vibrant, creative minds – I would count myself extremely fortunate.

You’ll work in a space that has been designed to accommodate the way you work best, and with people that help you bring out the best in yourself. You’ll “wear many different hats”, find yourself doing most of your thinking “outside the box”, and will probably embark on an attempt to “make the world a better place”. Though I say some of these things with my tongue firmly lodged inside my cheek, there are some truths to them. And the best thing is, the majority of the time, it won’t even feel like work.

Well, it seems Lady Luck heard me that day, because that’s exactly what has turned out to be the case here at Tyba. Of course, I’ve done a few things career-wise in between then and now. But, for me, the most important thing is what I’ve learned along the way.

I may have now swapped my hometown for slightly sunnier shores (another opportunity the startup world might afford you), but the fact is that the same culture applies almost anywhere you go. That’s what we here at Tyba have seen with our own eyes, having personally visited hundreds of startup enterprises all over Europe, in Paris, Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Zurich, Madrid, Barcelona, Dublin and, of course, here in London.

I’ve learned what I like and what I don’t like when it comes to my job. I’ve learned which kind of people I need to surround myself with in order to grow – not just professionally, but personally. And, perhaps most crucially, I’ve learned that an idea is only an idea until you make it a reality. And I attribute all of these gems to working in startups.

And that’s what this Tyba guide to London is all about: to give you a small glimpse of the amazing opportunities available in one of the most famous cities in the world. To help you find a job that excites you, in a place that fulfils your ambitions.

At a startup, you’ll find everything you need to make the things you want to happen happen: the right people, the right environment, the right fit. In a startup environment, you don’t have to pretend to know things you don’t; in fact, it’s better not to. There’ll always be somebody around to help you fill in the gaps, which, by the way, is a two-way process.

In September of 1666, a small flame in a bakery became a great fire that consumed London and transformed the entire landscape of the city. In 2014, there are more opportunities than there ever have been to start something that could change the global landscape. The question is: do you want to be a part of it? — C.I.

You’ll meet people from all sorts of different backgrounds, with interests more diverse than the contents of a packet of Bombay mix. You’ll enjoy

Contents 12.Education 18.Entertainment 34.Fashion & Beauty 48.Finance 62.Food & Beverages 74.Health 80.Media 88.Outside the box 102.Sharing Economy 120.Sports 128.Technology 136.Startup Cuppas 138.Directory 9

Starting Something: Why London is the right city WHAT THE DEVIL IS ‘CROWDFUNDING’?

Crowdfunding gives people with big ideas the chance to transform them into something real, by bringing them to the attention of a much wider audience and allowing them to be a part of that vision. It’s like The X-Factor for small businesses… kinda. Would-be founders present their business proposals on a crowdfunding platform or forum and politely ask lenders (which could even be people like you and I) to dip their hands into their pockets and help get it off the ground. Sometimes there’s a direct reward, like owning a small piece of the company pie, but mostly people contribute because they believe in the idea or vision. HOW DOES LONDON SHAPE UP?

As this publication went to press, London had just been named the crowdfunding capital of the world, brushing heavyweight startup metropolises like New York City and San Francisco aside like they weren’t even there. The British capital has always been a centre of opportunity when it comes to business and vocation. But The Big Smoke has taken the crown as the head honcho thanks to its local businesses and startups creating more crowdfunding opportunities in July than any other city. At the time of writing this, London has sent more than 250,000 crowdfunding campaigns into metaphorical orbit internationally. In averages, that’s about 12 campaigns a day, 17,834 USD per

campaign, and a success rate of about 32 per cent fully-funded projects – according to Forbes magazine online. But why is this the case? Could it be because the startup community here has come round fast to the idea of crowdfunding as another way to raise the cash needed to fund a business proposition? That’s what the stats seem to point to, at least. Some data shows that tech, publishing and gaming business projects – which, by the way, are also some of the fastest-growing industries in the UK – all get the most cash chucked at them through crowdfunding. And, by the end of this year (2014), the experts say that crowdfunding in Britain as a whole should become a billion-pound industry. There are about 80 different crowdfunding platforms altogether, but the two biggest are lightyears ahead of the majority of their counterparts in the USA and the rest of Europe. NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT...

Even the government is getting behind it too. Chancellor of the Exchequer (the guy who controls all of the UK’s dosh) George Osborne was recently quoted as saying: “We stand at the dawn of a new era of innovative finance. Setting the objective of the UK leading the world, London has become the world capital of crowdfunding. The technologies being developed today will revolutionize the way we bank, the way we invest, the way companies raise money. It will lead to new products, new services, new lenders.” Big, assertive words, from the C-of-the-E, right? But it illustrates further that there’s never been a better time than now to start something up or, at the very least, be a part of a community where people are trying to do exactly that. ■

Education

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.â&#x20AC;? - Nelson Mandela

Memrise WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Jennifer Balcombe __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/memrise

ACCORDING TO ONE SAYING:

“you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Meanwhile, another expression says that attempting to “teach your grandmother to suck eggs” is also a waste of time. Both of these idioms provide a pessimistic illustration of the how difficult it can be to shift the status quo.

Together, they’ve come up with what they believe to be an innovative response to learning international vocabulary, using a combination of science, entertainment and community. With approximately 1 million users already using and engaging with the platform, the concept has caught on.

However, tucked just a stone’s hurl away from the evergreen Victoria Park and the Wilkinson Gallery is a jolly group of academics-turned-starter-uppers looking to challenge some of these old theories.

They’re calling it “the world’s most advanced general-purpose learning technology”. This might sound quite complex at first, but a generous helping of humor combined with some equally-witty wise words – all built into the Memrise user experience – lends things a lighter tone.

Team Memrise’s members hail from various corners of the globe and boast 15 different languages between them, including Flemish, Japanese and Bengali, according to the company’s website, with some team members currently in the process of adding to that repertoire.

Memrise has one simple mission: “to make people feel ingenious as they learn”. This is by no means an easy proposition, and the Memrise team is the first to admit this.

chat along the lines of: ‘So what is a conversation?’, ‘What is a word?’, ‘What is a memory?’ and ‘What is time and life?’,” explains Cooke with a sigh of contentment.

“We are constantly at the edge of our comfort zone in terms of what we are trying to imagine and create,” concedes Chief Operating Officer Ben Whatley (pictured, top left). “[Our vision] is to totally revolutionize the way people learn and try to find the best ways to use technology to do that,” he continues.

The Cognitive Science enthusiast – who has competed in a few memory competitions in his time – was also keen to reflect on the positive impact that this kind of high-level banter has on the team, its culture and, ultimately, Memrise.

But while the bar of the Memrise’s ambition is set quite high, Whatley believes that it can be brought well within reach by the combination of recruiting great people and creating a professional cocoon in which they can thrive.

“Discussions like that actually give rise to quite a good product, at the end of the day, because you have to do quite a lot of sitting around and thinking,” he reveals, adding, “I think that’s often forgotten, so we do a lot of that.”

“To be able to [achieve our goals], we need to create the most homely, comfortable, normal environment possible. That’s why this office is made to feel as homely as possible,” he adds.

Right now, Memrise is hard at work developing its premium offering, which will contain advanced insights and advanced learning functionality for the most enthusiastic learners.

Whatley isn’t kidding about the office feeling homely, as we discovered for ourselves when Tyba visited the Memrise HQ back in March. Indeed, a trip to Memrise’s base on Wades Street reveals an office that hasn’t been decked out in what you might consider the traditional manner. After all, you won’t find many offices playing host to a cat, a piano and a four poster bed as part of the furniture.

It's an exciting time for the Memrise team, as it looks to reach even more lingusitic enthusiasts. And for those who'd like to work in an environment that feels more like "home", and feel a sense of sincerity and satisfaction in saying so, Memrise is a name that could find itself sitting snugly on the tip of your tongue.■

Those of a sportier disposition shouldn’t worry, however, with a ping-pong table ready and waiting to satisfy any competitive thirsts. And if you’re looking for interesting people with which to share a rally, an idea, or even just some conversation, Memrise is certainly not short of takers, as the company’s co founder Ed Cooke suggests. “We’re quite experimental, we have to try out new ideas, so there’s quite a lot of high-level

Entertainment

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.â&#x20AC;? - Plato.

Vevo WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Pedro Jarnac Freitas __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/vevo

to viewers, supporting artists, and helping viewers discover music, making its office a unique, fun and satisfying place to work.

IT’S THE WORLD’S LEADING platform for watching high quality music videos and entertainment, providing candy for both their eyes and ears in a single hit and attracting nearly 7 billion views per month.

Tyba went to visit the Vevo mother ship — right next to Oxford Circus in the heart of the capital — to find out first-hand what makes it such a special environment. ■

Vevo’s mission is to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium music video content when, where and how they want it. It brings music to life, allowing fans to get up close and personal with their favourite artists through official music videos, original Vevo shows, exclusive interviews, behind the scenes, live concert events and much more. Yet, despite all the success, the multitudes of musical disciples and satellite offices sprouting up all over the globe, Vevo still considers itself a startup. It’s very much still committed to bringing unparalleled music experiences 21

Tiffany Reed Content & Programming Manager fingertips, having so much freedom to develop Vevo France as I see fit. It’s up to me and my best judgement, and that’s a lot of responsibility.

The morning would be [mainly focussed on] programming for all of the online platforms on Vevo, so everything from mobile apps to Apple TV to the homepage to Youtube promotion… basically using all the promotional tools that we’ve got and establishing that for the day. And then in the evening, I’ll plan a bit of my next day’s programme, so it goes back to being more technical.

You also have a lot of room to just try lots of different things and it’s wonderful to work for a company that trusts you so much and lets you try different things. And if they work, great, and if they don’t, well then you learn and you try something else next time. So not only do I get to have that, but I get to work in something that I love, which is music.

My favourite bit about working with Vevo is, well, for a start you get to work in music – everybody loves music! But there’s also having so much independence at my

Jenny Porter Senior Commercial Manager A typical day for me? Well, our team looks after the selling and the advertising around Vevo and the brand partnerships. So, when I come in, I need to make sure that anything that is currently running is all going to plan, everybody’s delivering and there’s no problems.

“I feel like the company really looks after the staff and actually cares about the staff; this office still feels like a really small company, which is quite nice. ”

Then, I need to sort of try and drum up some meetings and new business, and go out and meet people that I haven’t met before. So I spend a bit of time looking round some emails and looking to see who I can get in touch with.

look after all of the big budgets for the big brands and find out what they’ve got going on at the moment and if there’s any way of getting Vevo involved. And if they don’t know much about Vevo then I’ll tell them about Vevo!

By the time I get back to the office, we usually have a few briefs to work on. People who I’ve previously met with will have sent in a brief and asked us to put together some ideas. So, we have some brainstorms with the content team and the social team and think about what we can do to sell Vevo to them. In the afternoon, I’ll probably go to a few meetings that I booked in the week before. I go out to media agencies that

Ross Harvey Campaign Manager On the social side of things [at Vevo] there’s always stuff going on. There’s free gigs, there’s always events being organized. We have kinda monthly events in the office with drinks and food. We recently did some stuff [related to] the World Cup. Generally, everyone gets on really well and the teams and stuff work well together. I’d say that all the people that work here are social.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” - John Lennon

YPlan WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Pedro Jarnac Freitas __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/yplan

some of the city’s comedic stars – and much more besides.

SOMETIMES, HAVING A LOT of choice can become an obstacle. In a city like the Big Smoke, where you can find endless possibilities for passing time, deciding what to do at the weekend – or even just for tonight – can be a bit of a brain pickler.

The team behind YPlan has styled itself as: “entertainment experts, on a mission to make your nights out more spontaneous because, let’s be honest, the best ones always are”.

That’s where YPlan comes in: it’s a mobile app that puts a bunch of possible plans in your pocket, making it easy to track down, attend, and even pay for the crème de la crème of the city’s social offerings.

Earlier this year, Tyba headed over to the company’s Farringdon Road hideout to hang out with 'Team YPlan' and get a feel for what they do on a day-to-day basis, and also to find out why on earth they have so many toy weapons in stock. While we there, we also took some time out with Editorial Assistant Jade French and ‘Charmer of Users’ Sam Westoby to get it straight from the horses’ mouths. ■

YPlan users get a curated breakdown of what’s going down in town every night. With a couple of quick taps on a screen, they can find themselves galvanizing their parched throats with cut-price cocktails in a swanky bar, or having their ribs figuratively tickled by

Jade French Editorial Assistant something that requires a lot of writing on a daily basis.

HEY, JADE. SO, TELL US: WHAT WERE YOU UP TO BEFORE COMING TO YPLAN?

I’m a recent graduate. I graduated last year with a degree in English literature, which many people said wouldn’t actually get me very far but it did [gloating smile]!

SO WHAT’S YOUR DAY-TO-DAY GIG HERE?

I write all the copy and redemption instructions for our app. So, we have a description of the event, so you would know where to go out, what was cool about [the event], what area it’s in, if there’s any, like, special features…

I was looking for a job for about five months during the summer and saw YPlan had an opening for an editorial assistant, which really fits in with all the previous experience that I’d had. I used to work for a couple of magazines, I interned for different art companies so it kinda felt like a natural fit to go into

COOL. AND WHAT MADE YOU GO INTO A STARTUP ROLE, HAVING JUST COMPLETED PERHAPS A MORE 'TRADITIONAL' DEGREE SUBJECT?

“There’s always something new that you have to achieve. With a startup, it’s not just that you’re coming in and filling kinda meaningless jobs; what you do actually matters. And also, you get loads of cake, so whenever we hit a good target we have cake – and that’s really great!”

the place (New York and San Francisco at the moment), and we will Skype in with them, and see how everyone’s doing across the pond. On a Friday, someone will come and have a chat about their specific role in the company, so everyone can be up to speed as well, which is really good, because otherwise you might not know what the people at the back of the office are doing while you’re doing your thing. It really just engenders this culture of feeling like you know everyone really well. ■

WHAT'S THE OFFICE CULTURE LIKE HERE?

The office culture’s really great, we all get on really well. We have drinks every Friday, which is really awesome; it gives us something to look forward to at the end of the week! I think a lot of people are very much office-based, but there’ll be points where we all get together and hang out. NICE! AND WHAT KIND OF THINGS DO YOU DO THAT YOU PROBABLY WOULDN’T FIND IN, SAY, A MORE CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT?

Every Wednesday, someone in the office gives a talk and we find out a bit about them. And every Monday, we have a ‘stand-up’, which is really important because we have offices springing up all over

Sam Westoby Customer Support & Operations Executive dress shirts.

HI SAM, THANKS FOR CHATTING WITH US. SO, COULD YOU TELL US WHAT WERE YOU UP TO BEFORE YPLAN CAME CALLING?

HAHA. AND HOW DID YOU GO FROM BED-

I got a degree in Social Policy from Brighton [University]. I then went to work for a commercial real estate company. I was doing consultancy work for them, but I fancied a change. I felt that the commercial world didn’t really suit me.

ROOMS AND DOORKNOBS TO YPLAN?

I found out about an opportunity here at YPlan [to become] an intern, I applied, and three months later I became a fulltime member of staff. NICE! WHAT IS IT THAT YOU DO HERE, THEN?

As an operations and support exec, my daily routine is split across a number of tasks – primarily operating on the trade desk. We manage the relationships

SO WHAT WAS IT SPECIFICALLY THAT MADE YOU WANT TO CHANGE TRACK?

I wanted to wear nice shirts as opposed to

very positive in the end.

that the partner development managers build. So, once an event is agreed, we’re responsible for [taking it from] having an agreement to getting it live on air, and managing it when it’s on the air.

COULD YOU DESCRIBE IN YOUR OWN WORDS WHAT THE CULTURE IS LIKE HERE AT YPLAN?

One of the many reasons I like working at YPlan has gotta be the culture. It’s a really fun environment to work in; it’s unlike anything I ever thought I would work in.

The other element of my job is customer support. I will be on call from morning until sometimes quite late at night [smiles wryly], but that’s to ensure that all customers can get into their events without any issues.

We’ve got a foosball table, we’ve got a ping-pong table, we’ve got stand-up offices and we’ve also got a ball pit [smiles again] in the meeting room. Nerf guns are also good, although they’re slightly dangerous at times! There’s also a real sense of camaraderie and there’s a great team spirit within the office. This is largely due to the fact that we try and spend time together. We do our own YPlan events which we all go to and socialize outside of the office. We also try and go to the pub most Friday afternoons – evenings, I should say – but obviously we’re not always able to go.

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT YPLAN AS A BUSINESS?

We have lots of relationships with lots of fantastic brands, people like Ministry of Sound, Pacha, The Comedy Store… We work with numerous pop-up restaurants at cool venues across good parts of town… AND WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CURVEBALLS YOU’VE ENCOUNTERED WORKING HERE?

We have a multitude of customer queries, from the very basic to the extravagant. You know, [requests like] “Can you do anything for my kid’s birthday party?”, and everything in between and that’s really interesting.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER PERKS TO WORKING HERE?

We also get breakfast and dinner when we work early or late, and we also get given 'app credit' to spend every month, so we can really live the brand as well as working for it. I think that does really engender a good culture within the office. ■

It’s challenging – as you can probably imagine – but it’s also very rewarding. Some of the feedback we get from our customers that may have been annoyed or had an issue often does turn out to be

Fashion & Beauty

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.â&#x20AC;? - Coco Chanel

Glossybox WORDS Chuk IkĂŠh PHOTOS Thomas Stiebenz & Glossybox UK __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/glossybox

SOME SAY THAT WOMEN are from Venus and men are from Mars, but Berlin-anchored startup Glossybox has been steadily assembling its own galaxy of beauty enthusaists for a few years now.

Having sussed out the importance of the connection between beauty and emotion, Glossybox is lighting up the faces of women the world over. Tyba touched down at its global headquarters in the chic and trendy surrounds of the German capital. There, we discovered a youthful and vibrant team who truly care and believe in what they're doing. You can see this for yourself by visiting the link above.

How does it work? Well, for a very reasonable fee, disciples (subscribers) of Glossybox get a little bundle of glamour delivered to their doorsteps. Once the pretty ribbon is unwrapped, you'll be greeted by a collection of between five and six luxury-sized cosmetic and wellness products.

For this guide, we went back for another chat. This time, we checked in with Glossybox's UK Managing Director and PR Manager in London, where we discovered just how far the company's philosophy and workplace values have travelled. â&#x2013;

Each sample is hand-picked by Glossybox's in-house beauty oracles, and cover everything from products featured on Fashion Week runways to the ingredients of innovative skincare regimens from the Far East. Meanwhile, boxes can be received on a monthly basis, or simply whenever you're in the mood to pamper yourself. 37

Rachel Kavanagh Managing Director, Glossybox UK & Ireland me, but I look at where we are now and our growth and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in a good place, so it was worth it!

I come from a retail background, so I was moving from retail into e-commerce as a subscription model, which is so much more detailed and complicated than I could ever imagine. All of this whilst trying to build a beauty brand and also to keep in touch with our customers and their needs and become a very consumer [centric] company.

In my day-to-day duties, I try to be active and not *reactive*, and that can be really hard because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re dealing with so much and so many different departments that you can end up churning out the emails and getting through them!

I think for me when I first started, not having much time was massive. That and not knowing how much the world encompassed. I think getting my head around that was the biggest challenge for

But I try not to start my day like that; I like to limit emails as much as possible and just shout out across the room or go up and ask somebody and get it done then and there because time is against us

So the team is young, and it’s positive and it’s [made up of] people who want to be here because they enjoy the job, and that’s really important. It sticks out when somebody isn’t enjoying their job because everyone else is!

constantly. Also, I find that each week my focus changes: it’ll be on operations one week, social media the next and brands the following. Everyone here is under 31; I’m the oldest, turning 31 next week! So it’s a young team and a like-minded team and that makes a massive difference. And team fit when I’m hiring is so important. It’s one of the top things that I look for: [some potential candidates] could be amazing on their CV, but will they interact with the team the way it is now? One bad hire could throw everything out; I’ve seen it so many times. 39

Lucy Hodnett Press & Marketing Manager

It’s great for us to know about our customers and about our subscribers so we’re far more involved with them; we have a far better knowledge of who they are and what they like.

There is so much going on between finding new angles [for press and media] and the lull and the excitement of the box launches. Quite often we’re looking at ways that we can use our extensive database.

I would say [my biggest challenge so far] is similar to Rachel’s: it would be the adaptability. Obviously Glossybox and the idea of having a subscription model is still a fairly new concept. So going from a retail environment and a more corporate environment to something where you

So [that includes] conducting surveys: we’ve done one on tanning tendencies, one on makeup [asking] when people were last seen without it, how often they wear it and when they feel comfortable wearing it – all of that sort of thing.

together and everyone does chip in and every single month we manage to deliver in terms of our targets and results. So it seems to be working at the moment!

have to find those new hooks and those new angles… I was very used to having a new product plonked on my desk every month and it was my job to sell that in, whereas now I have to be a bit more innovative and a bit more creative with Glossybox. It’s a challenge – absolutely – but it’s incredibly rewarding when that challenge pays off. Yes, there are definitely obstacles to overcome and things you have to go around but, as Rachel says, everyone does come

“Girls do not dress for boys. They dress for themselves and, of course, each other. If girls dressed for boys they’d just walk around naked at all times.” - Betsey Johnson

Astrid

(Ástríðr) | “AH-strid” (Swedish) Meaning: “beautiful”, “beloved”

& Miyu

THE TEAM BEHIND Astrid

& Miyu believe that women should wear their jewellery, and not the other way round. The company was started when Seoul-born Connie Nam decided to liberate herself from the high-stakes world of investment banking and take a pop at luxury branding and fashion.

(美優) | “MEE-you” (Japanese) Meaning: “beautiful”

WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Pedro Jarnac Freitas __

Based in West London, the startup’s name is actually derived from two other names – one Swedish, one Japanese – both meaning “beautiful” in their respective tongues. It’s a philosophy that extends way beyond lip service to its customer service and to the selection of its staff… ■

For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/astrid-miyu

Connie Nam Founder & CEO Astrid & Miyu is all about teamwork and fun, and one thing I can point out is that every one of us is very passionate about the products that we represent. I’m wearing our Pink Gin earrings that I wear all the time! Ever since I could afford to buy designer goods, I was always reluctant to spend that much on designer jewellery. But it was really hard to find a go-to destination that fulfilled my needs for design, quality and price points. So I decided to start my very own jewellery company. Before starting Astrid & Miyu, I was in investment banking for five years in Hong Kong and Seoul. Then I did my MBA at London Business School. I did a couple of projects for LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) during my MBA – and then I started Astrid & Miyu.

Shannon Ryan Assistant Brand Manager for three monzths and then tried out a bit of retail and came back here full time. it’s a small team but we’re very close. it’s very easy-going. If you’ve got any problems, it’s pretty easy to ask anyone for help or assistance on what to do, so I think it’s a pretty good company to work for.

I previously worked here as an intern, working my way up, learning from operational roles such as deliveries and posting [products] up to talking to bloggers or other boutiques so that we can stock our jewellery there. I’ve previously done some jewellery making, which was where I started and where my love for fashion began. It was difficult work and [it was] an apprenticeship where I worked with a jewellery company and made jewellery with them for a couple of months. I found Astrid & Miyu, did the internship

Jackie Charlton Junior Brand Manager with a lot of beauty brands and lifestyle brands. So, my main focus is contacting bloggers to see if they’re interested in collaborating with us. We do a lot of competitions with other brands – any way that we that we can gain as much exposure as possible through the internet.

I started off working here as an intern for four months, and my main role was helping to manage all of the social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook etcetera. As I was an intern working for a startup, it meant that I was learning lots of different roles. I was sort of ‘mucking in’ in all areas of the business, which is really interesting because you get to learn a lot.

Working for a small company is really interesting as well, because you get to know people better, and it’s a nicer environment to grow in I think.

My role now is still managing the social media platforms. We try to create as many collaborations as possible with other brands and bloggers. We work

Finance

"Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." -Bob Dylan

Birdback WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Jennifer Balcombe __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/birdback

AN OVER-LOADED WALLET

can, over time, evolve to become a pain in the arse. Literally, in some cases. After all, schlepping around a bunch of loyalty cards, credit cards and coupons in a faux leather pouch, tucked into the back pocket of your Levi’s all day isn’t exactly ideal, is it?

Birdback has set up its camp in Charing Cross, just down the road from a few prime addresses that you’ll probably recognize from your Monopoly board. The company’s ‘less is more’ philosophy has led it to believe that we really only need to carry around the essential pieces of plastic in our pockets.

In today’s retail culture, an ever-decreasing number of transactions we make actually require our physical presence in a store. Also, most modern grandparents have caught on to the notion that dishing out vouchers as birthday gifts just isn’t cool any more.

To that end, they’ve figured out a solution to link online and offline transactions to the one payment method we all use pretty regularly: our debit or credit card. Sounds simple enough, but, then again, some of the most successful startups to date have been built on the simplest of ideas. Think Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram – the list goes on.

Let us introduce Birdback. It’s a company that TechCrunch, the all-seeing eye of online and digital endeavors, refers to as a “fintech startup” – the ‘fin’ part alluding to the company’s focus within the financial sector.

Indeed, simplicity seems to be the way at Birdback, a company just about bigger than a football team and whose members come from the necks of the various woods. There is a pretty evident Danish spine running through 51

or two about what makes a great working environment.

it: from the space itself, to those that work within, the office seems to ooze a familiar calmness and minimalistic approach to everything associated with it.

“What attracted me to working at Birdback was [the fact that] it’s very ‘pure startup’, you know? Lots of energy, big ideas, no rules,” explains Glendinning, who also spent 15 years working for DIY & home improvement chain B&Q.

“We’re now around 15 people in three offices: one [office] in Copenhagen, one in Paris, and one, of course, here in London,” explains Birdback’s Danish Co-Founder and CEO, Nicolai Watzenig.

“It’s very much reflected in the workplace. We’ve got a nice area where we can sit, we can chill, we can brainstorm. We all work very closely together and none of us have [personal] offices.”

“It’s a diverse background of people working here; we have people from Iran, France, the UK and the Nordics, all coming together under one common theme,” he adds.

But Arbejdsglæde isn’t the only Scandinavian influence on Birdback’s office culture. The Nordic touch was very apparent when Tyba toured their central London Head Office at the beginning of spring.

This theme of which Watzenig speaks can be fully encapsulated by the Danish word Arbejdsglæde. “It’s effectively ‘happiness at work’, and we take that very seriously,” the amicable gaffer explains assertively.

A cosy combination of whitewashed walls and open timber surfaces, typifying the kind of characteristic Scandinavian design that put the likes of IKEA on the global radar, instantly creates a kicked-back vibe.

Fellow team member Arun Glendinning backs this sentiment up like a floppy disk. Having already worked in the startup circle prior to joining Birdback (albeit in a different sector, for an American outfit), the company’s Commercial Director has picked up a hunch

Pedal-pushers among the team are able to roll their bikes into the office, and the two-whe-

rules as you go along!

eled machines somehow seem to fit perfectly with the rest of the aesthetic. Pretty much everybody works on shiny Macs, perched communally on wooden worktops.

“You’re really part of this vibrant, transparent and super social experience, so it’s not like a really corporate company – it’s completely different. You’re really able to shape your own future and your own destiny,” he continues.

The walls are embellished with framed, typographic motivational posters imploring the team to “Stay hungry and stay foolish”. Meanwhile, beanbags invite tired buttocks to take some time out, while idle thumbs can be put to work on the office games console.

Back in February, Birdback announced a $2.4 million round of funding. The company plans to use that money to roll the service out further to financial institutions, retailers, publishers and more. With the UK, France and Brazil reported as the first companies to benefit from this expansion, it would seem an exciting time to join a startup on the up. ■

“I just love working for Birdback because it’s such an informal environment,” says Product Manager, Peter Regnersgaard. “Everyone has fun. There are rules, but you’re shaping the

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein.

Zopa WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Kathleen Riddell __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/zopa

as a ‘peer-to-peer lending platform’, and it’s the biggest one in Britain. They’re likea cash-lending Cupid for people looking for car loans, home improvement loans or help paying off your credit card. The rates on the loans are much lower than your average bank, and serious piggy bankers get higher rates on their savings too.

ZOPA IS WHAT’S KNOWN

Soon to celebrate a decade, having launched back in 2005, there are currently 51 people working in Zopa’s centrally-located London headquarters, just over by Chancery Lane. As a company, they’ve dished out a whopping £547 million to people in need to date. Tyba took a trip to their evergreen sanctum to get an insider’s account of what makes the team and business tick, and why its team members love working there so much. ■

Tim Ferguson Lead Designer My day-to-day job? Well, I come in and it’s very informal, as you can see [from the way I’m dressed]. I have a coffee and then get up to speed with what’s going on.

What I enjoy about Zopa is the way the company is structured. It’s very honest and flat and encourages people to be able to talk to each other about projects and not be soloed into just their own department.

It’s a great bunch of people we work with; we like to go out for drinks and lunches. The offices are located in Farringdon. We’re close to some really nice coffee shops and street food markets etc., which I really enjoy. I’m out every day and I’m even on my bike going off further afield to find culinary delights and coffee etcetera. I really enjoy that side too.

There’s a lot of open spaces where we can work with and it encourages communication across the teams. It’s good for brainstorming and coming up with creative ideas, and that kind of cross-pollination of different ideas really works well for us. As a creative, I really enjoy and thrive off that sort of thing.

Matt Gazeley PR Manager a Friday, we go to the pub…

I’ve been with the company for just under a year now. Essentially, working at Zopa is brilliant because I get to work with many different departments and work on so many different types of projects. I’m also engaging with the media to make sure that they get excited about what we’re doing.

These kinda things really make for a fun place to work and make you want to come in and do the best you can. I think one of the most interesting things that I like about working at Zopa is the fact that its a pioneer of its industry. I really enjoy working here and we’re growing – as a team – very, very fast, and we expect, possibly, to have around 70 people by the end of the year. When I joined there were about 35, so it’s a really exciting time to be part of Zopa.

We’re situated right in the heart of London. We’ve got Leather Lane [close by], which has got loads of really great places to go and eat. We’ve got our own balcony, which is fantastic in the summer. We’ve got a great kitchen where people kinda socialize and hang out. We have beers on

Briony Wyatt Customer Experience We know how to work hard but also have fun! We’ve got a nice little chilled out kitchen area in our new lovely office, which is great. And we’re starting a Zopa Social Committee to try and get people from all different teams socializing together more.

I’ve basically worked at Zopa since I graduated from university, so a few years now. I’ve worked in a few different positions: I started in the customer service team, I’ve also worked in the operations team and now I’m working more on the front-end side of things.

We’ve started to use [video sharing platform] Vine a lot more – either, like, ‘Help Vines’ or just little snippets of our office life. My favorite day at the office was when we did a little dance in or Woodland Area to show off the office when we first moved in, which was a fun day. A nice little random ten minutes of my day to have a dance around!

It’s been a really interesting experience because, when I started, there were 13 people, so the way the company has grown has been incredible. Everyone that works at Zopa is quite chilled out. It’s quite a nice little laid-back office, but people still work really hard.

Food & Beverages

â&#x20AC;&#x153;If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.â&#x20AC;? - J.R.R. Tolkien

Gousto WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Andy Donohoe __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/gousto

MOST OF US HAVE been here before. You’ve come home after a long day – a day punctuated only by daydreams of things that will satisfy your lunchtime hunger pangs, the odd meeting, and frequent trips to the water cooler to shoot some breeze with whichever colleague happens to be in the neighbourhood (kitchen) at the time.

the devil am I going to eat tonight? A pessimistic peek into the cupboards confirms your previous fears. Apart from some sorry-looking packets of instant noodles, all you’ve got is a mishmash of assorted foodstuffs, only some of which could be considered genuine ingredients for a meal. And if you have to eat ‘Pasta a la Ketchup’ one more time, you’ll probably implode. So, what now?

You throw your coat on a hook, rack or on the nearest piece of available furniture, which may or may not include the floor. On the way home – actually, sometime around four o’clock – you promised yourself a glass of wine as a reward for your day’s efforts (because you deserve it, obviously), and you’re not one to break promises, so you follow through on it. Twice.

Don’t worry: the team members of Gousto have been there too and they’ve got your back. Founders Timo and James always shared a passion for food and cooking, but in previous lives they just didn’t have the time to do post-work grocery shop tours. Yes, there are online databases of recipes and TV cook-along shows, but while they might turn your mouth into a mini Niagara Falls

Then comes that classic conundrum: What

cover more cuisines and styles than you can probably name. Then, they measure out the ingredients, pop them in a nice box and deliver them to your doorstep once a week. All you have to do is follow the simple instructions and you’ve got yourself a dinner that your mother would be proud of. Genius, right?

for an hour, they’re often hard to follow if you don’t already possess Michelin Star kitchen skills which, unfortunately, is most of us. Timo and James knew there had to be another way, so they created one and that’s how Gousto was born. First they tested out a bunch of recipes on some guinea pigs that couldn’t possibly say no: their family and friends. Then they took it to the real world via market stalls.

Tyba went down to 'Camp Gousto'. When we got there, we spoke to members of the team in order to dissect life as an employee of such a deliciously creative startup.

Today, the enterprise has become the great Gousto that many foodies know and love. It’s now a team of professional chefs (and a few willing amateurs) creating recipes that

You can watch all the interviews and see more exclusive photos by visiting Gousto's Tyba Company Page. ■

Alice Brown Head of Sourcing every day, and there's a lot of problem solving. It doesn't get boring, that's for sure!

My background is actually in architecture; that's what I studied at university. But after doing a couple of years' work experience, I decided that I didn't want to do that forever and that working in food would be much more interesting.

The biggest challenge is that what you were doing last week probably won't be relevant to what you're doing next week. But that's what keeps it interesting: always having to change your processes.

It's funny because this is probably actually the biggest company that I've ever worked in, so I have a little bit of a different perspective to other people. It's really nice to be involved with all the different teams and know what's going on.

The best thing is tasting all the recipes. When all the chefs want to test new recipes or develop older recipes, they'll get a few people down and there's a bit of healthy debate about which recipes are the best!

In a startup, obviously everything's changing quite quickly: there's new challenges

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” - Orson Welles

MenuSpring WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Kathleen Riddell __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/menuspring

the inside scoop on MenuSpring’s culture.

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD – that’s

what MenuSpring is all about. It’s an online portal that connects restaurants, publishers and grub-loving consumers in one tasty, tech soup, ensuring that foodies can fill their faces with the food they love most.

ALI, COULD YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ABOUT WHAT YOU DO HERE ON A DAILY BASIS?

My day-to-day job involves running this entire company which is spread all over the world. Our developers are in Pakistan, our designers are in Loughborough (UK), some of our team is here [in London] and some of our team are in the US.

The company was formed in 2011 and, in total, is run by 12 gastronomic enthusiasts peppered across several countries. Well on its way to clocking up 10,000 restaurant partnerships and 800,000 dishes, life at MenuSpring presents a mouthwatering prospect for anyone looking to launch a career in the world of cuisine.

Keeping track of everybody else and managing those people takes a fair bit of my time. And that’s in addition to making sure that the product looks amazing, and that it’s best in class, all over the world.

We caught up with the startup’s founder, Ali Meruani, in an elegantly-appointed co-working space at Oneustonsq o n Melton Street for a brief interview to get

WHAT IS IT, DO YOU THINK, THAT REALLY MAKES MENUSPRING STAND OUT?

In terms of MenuSpring itself, we’re the

Ali Meruani Founder

largest database of restaurants and their menus in London. We currently cover about 9,000 restaurants in London and close to 1 million dishes. And every single dish on our platform is location-based, so you can type in whatever dish you want, and there’s a place in London that will be serving that dish. Whether that dish is 'Mac and Cheese' or grapes or a burger, we’ll show you the nearest place serving that dish, and even a picture of that dish.

WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE MAKE THE COMPANY TICK?

What we look for in people joining the company is people who are passionate about food, most importantly, and then people who are willing to learn because, with it being a startup, there are different jobs and different things that you do on an everyday basis. We’ll throw people into those jobs to go tackle them; we expect you to make mistakes, but we want you to learn from those mistakes and really adapt and push the company forward. ■

We’re also powering this content across the net, so all the menus you see on Time Out and Taste Card, for example, are all powered by us.

Health

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.â&#x20AC;? - Marilyn Monroe

Sleepio WORDS Peter Hames, Co-Founder & CEO PHOTOS Kim Leuenberger __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/sleepio

I could get: drugs. And so eventually, out of desperation, I got my hands on a book written by a guy called Professor Colin Espie, who’s a world expert in sleep problems. It was basically a self-administered CBT course.

FOUR YEARS AGO, I developed insomnia, which was, without a doubt, one of the worst experiences of my life. I’m lucky that I studied Experimental Psychology at university, so I know that there are very effective, ‘non-drug ways’ of overcoming problems like poor sleep, a predominant of which is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

You do a chapter a week, and it’s quite dense and there’s quite a lot of manual effort. But in six weeks I was totally better. Obviously, this was an incredible experience on a personal basis, but it also opened my eyes to what is, quite frankly, a totally ridiculous situation.

So I went to my doctor and kind of smugly pronounced my self-diagnosis of Primary Chronic Insomnia and asked to be given a course of CBT. He refused and gave me sleeping pills. And, whatever I did, that’s all

Billions of people worldwide are suffering 79

Peter Hames Co-Founder & CEO

Sleepio? Well, I think weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re engaged in a really noble mission, which is to try and help people be healthier and happier without using drugs. Sleep is the beginning, but the vision here is to build a completely new type of healthcare company that is built on delivering scalable, accessible, evidence-based healthcare and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t rely on pills and potions.

from problems for which we have proven behavioural solutions. Sleep alone is enormous; about a third of people at any one time are suffering from at least one insomnia symptom, and almost none of those people can access anything but drugs. So the idea of Sleepio was born, which is, very simply, to use technology to deliver evidence-based behavioural medicine to people in a way that is accessible and affordable, but also in a way that people will actually do.

The way in which we work very much reflects that goal. So, like I say, evidence and science ethics are really central to everything we do, but the way we deliver it has to be fun and

Why would you want to work with us at

things that they can teach each other.

accessible and really harness the power of technology to make magical experiences. No egos, very collaborative: that’s the way that we work together.

So I encourage you: if you’re passionate about helping people be healthier and happier and want to work in an environment which combines creativity with science and a real passion for the power of technology, then it would be perfect for you to get in touch with us. ■

What I value most is having passionate people who are really curious about a range of things. Every Friday we have ‘Friday Team Talks’. One of the team will teach everyone else about something that they know and, although you may not feel that you know anything special, it’s quite incredible, when you dig into people’s passions, the fascinating

Media

“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.” - Winston Churchill

Blippar WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Kim Leuenberger __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/blippar

smarthpohone, tablet, or any wearable device with an in-built camera.

MANY OF US HAVE already

jumped on board with the idea that augmented reality is probably one of the next big things in technology. Perhaps none of us moreso than London’s Blippar – a company built on that premise and belief.

Blippar’s futuristic technology has totally blown the digital marketing and advertising game wide open, and some huge, global corporations have started climbing through that window of opportunity.

Think of it like this: as Shazam is the ears to your phone, Blippar is its eyes; it brings your immediate, physical world to life like a digital acid trip, allowing you to interact with objects in ways that you hadn’t a Scooby–Doo were even possible. It aims to become the defualt browser on all devices, whether that be a

To find out more about the crew behind this successful, high-flying project, we had a brief chinwag with one of its co-pilots: Co-Founder & CMO Jess Butcher. ■

Jess Butcher Co-Founder & CMO app-marketing business, which works with some of the leading brands in the world.

HOW DID YOU AND YOUR CO-FOUNDERS START BLIPPAR, AND HOW LONG HAS THE COMPANY BEEN GOING?

We’ve been going for two to three years and we’ve been having the ride of our lives!

Personally, I’ve always been an aspiring entrepreneur, worked at lots of startups and been heavily involved in the ‘dot com boom’ some years ago, and was always on the hunt for this type of adventure. [I was just] looking for the right business and, indeed, the right business partners to come together and build a business with.

AND HOW HAVE YOU FOUND THE EXPERIENCE OF STARTING A COMPANY FROM SCRATCH?

It has taught me more over the last two, three years than I think I learnt in my whole career prior to that.

Those circumstances all came together for me three years ago with my co-founders, and we built this tremendous

We’ve come from working through the night and running around London without an office – just the four of us – to now

building a team of around 150 people in four different ‘geographies’ around the world.

media owners in the world – from The Guardian or The Telegraph to News International or Condé Naste.

WHAT KIND OF WORKING ENVIRONMENT HAVE

WHAT’S THE CULTURE HERE? HOW WOULD

YOU TRIED TO CULTIVATE AT BLIPPAR?

YOU DESCRIBE A TYPICAL DAY AT BLIPPAR, FOR EXAMPLE?

Our head office is here in London. It’s a very frantic, fun environment, a hugely international team, and it has still very much got that startup culture where we all share, we all listen, we’re all very much involved in the strategy of the business and what’s happening.

We’re all about brainstorming new content ideas that we can come up with – things that will bring the physical world to life through the mobile phone. It’s a very creative environment, despite being a very hi-tech environment, and our challenge has always been to collect the right team that encompasses both of those elements – here in London and in our overseas offices.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BEST THING ABOUT WORKING FOR BLIPPAR?

We’re at the cutting edge of something really special and trends within mobile technologies and also within marketing and advertising.

A typical day starts at 9/9.30am. We’re not the earliest of offices as far as morning people are concerned. But there’s no clock; we’re not a ‘nine-to-six' company. People are very passionate about what we do. ■

We’re fortunate enough as a young company to work with some of the leading brands in the world. So a typical day might involve meeting with Coca-Cola, or conferences with some of the leading

Outside the Box

â&#x20AC;&#x153;You want to be a bit compulsive in your art or craft or whatever you do. You want to be focused on it.â&#x20AC;? - Steve Martin

Swoon Editions WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Kathleen Riddell __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/swoon-editions

The furniture business is emerging as one of the most interesting offshoots of the tech world. And on Southwark Bridge Road, one particular enterprise is catching media attention by bridging the price gap between high-end home fittings and lovers of quality interiors...

on its platform daily, with plans to crank that figure up in the very near future. Comprising a humbly-sized, youthful and effervescent squad, the company is going places, and it’s doing so at a rapid rate. Having recently raised a £4 million ‘Series A’ round of funding, it’s looking to up the ante on its endeavours, which inevitably will include growing its team.

name of Swoon Editions, and their mission is to cut out the middle men (and women) of the furniture trade, bringing beleaguered backs and butt cheeks closer to the blissful embrace of custom-crafted furnishings. Founded in 2012, the company works to an iterative philosophy, commissioning and selling furniture only once it has been pre-approved by its community of 'Insiders', so that time and resources are not wasted.

THEY GO BY THE

Recently, Monocle Magazine invited both Tyba and Swoon Editions’ co-founders into their Monocle24 radio studio (separately) to feature on its popular business-cen-

Currently, Swoon Editions releases a new product or piece of furniture for sale 93

tric show, The Entrepreneurs. In Swoon Edition’s segment, co-founder Brian Harrison spoke of the trickiness of the trade, and how being a startup is advantageous in circumventing some of the obstacles along the long and winding road to success.

really, really, quickly, and that I find that really stimulating; it’s a great environment to work in,” he concluded. Harrison isn’t the only one of Swoon Editions’ team that believes the startup sphere and its encompassing philosophies make for a fulfilling environment to work in.

“I’m kind of glad that I didn’t know anything about furniture before starting because I honestly don’t think we’d have ever started! It’s a really challenging thing to do,” joked Harrison, who is the business brain behind the operation he jointly started with his furniture-loving accomplice, Debbie Williams.

“Working at Swoon Editions is different to any kind of work I’ve ever done before. It’s a really quite fast-paced environment,” admitted Ira Wichmann – who looks after swooneditions.com – when we dropped in on the company’s base. Wichmann also strongly believes that startups are the best environment for a young person to thrive, as opposed to a more corporate one, for example.

But he was quick to add that this lack of knowledge is often what makes startup offices an exhilarating professional environment. Harrison said: “Not knowing things is kinda part of the fun. You wanna challenge things, otherwise you just wouldn’t even begin.”

“There’s a lot of work, but it’s fun. We’re a really young team; some people are in their first jobs, which is really exciting because they’ll come up with all these sort of fresh ideas because they haven’t been bogged down by bureaucracy in big companies,” she says.

Inevitably, a lack of in-depth knowledge about an area or industry in which you are operating commercially can present a few hurdles. But Harrison believes that these hurdles are necessary in order for growth to occur – not just for the business, but for the people that run it too.

At Swoon Editions, the typically fresh-faced team members of which Wichmann speaks is personified no better than customer care agent Sarena Shetty, who works in customer care.

“We make mistakes; we accept that we make them,” he conceded on air. “We probably make quite a lot of them, but the intention is that we make them and move on quickly with resolutions.

Asked to describe exactly what her role entails, Shetty says: “Basically, if you call up [Swoon Editions] and you’ve got any problems – like anything to do with a chair – I’m the person that you speak to”.

“I think what’s good about a business this size and at this particular part of its journey through life is that it’s iterating

With her vivacious personality, she is also

Said Wichmann: “It’s a really nice, friendly environment to work in. We’re currently almost 30 people, so everybody knows each other by name. We all go to the pub together and we have lunch together every Friday.”

a perfect example of how open and multi-faceted the road to a career in a startup can be. “Originally, I studied Medicinal Chemistry – so something really random. I knew I didn’t wanna do something in a lab or something where I didn’t get to speak to people,” recalls Shetty, adding, “now I get to speak to people all day, all the time, which is great fun!”

Echoing her sentiments, Shetty adds: “I have some really good conversations; it’s a really lovely company because we do really care about everybody, and our mission is to delight all of our customers.”

It’s certainly not unheard of to take on a range of responsibilities as an employee of a startup, but at Swoon Editions it seems to be almost something of a policy. The company also operates a kind of ‘try before you buy’ programme, whereby many of its current staff initially came in search of experience and ended up putting down their professional roots for the long term.

With the recently-secured cash injection, the company is all set for expansion, although Harrison insists that this growth will occur under the same careful consideration as their products. “We’ve hired a bunch more people, we’re testing more products, we’re now launching a product every day. The intention is to raise that to three [products], which requires lots more sourcing, lots more quality control and so on and so forth,” revealed the co-founder enthusiastically. ■

“Most of us have started off as interns and then gone on to more permanent positions,” Wichmann explained to us. It’s an approach that seems to work a treat, especially from an employee satisfaction point of view, with both Wichmann and Shetty keen to point out their delight at their current careers, colleagues and workspace.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.â&#x20AC;? - Walt Disney

Voga WORDS Jamie Stanley PHOTOS Jennifer Balcombe __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/voga

how to prioritize information, how to write copy, how to explain things in really sort of good, solid, plain terms. That’s incredibly important here for getting across the whole philosophy behind our products, the ethos behind our company, what we’re trying to do, what we’re trying to achieve, and why we think people should love our products as much as we do.

I AM THE COPYWRITER AND social media executive here at Voga.com. I’ve been here since January and it’s a really interesting and exciting company to work for.

I came into this from a journalistic background. I went to university to do English, graduated from the university of Nottingham, then I went to Sheffield to do a master’s in print journalism, where I discovered very, very quickly that I didn’t want to be a journalist – very long hours, and all that kinda stuff.

One thing journalism also set me in really good stead for was my new role, which is being in charge of all of Voga’s social media. So I do all the Facebook interactions,

But studying journalism gave me a real grounding in how to interact with people,

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Jamie Stanley Copywriter & Social Media Executive

with customers. Once you’ve proven that you can achieve certain tasks, they will give you the freedom to continue to do that and to take on more responsibility and grow with the company. they kinda chuck you in at the deep end, which I really enjoy.

I’m in charge of our Twitter account, our Instagram and all that kind of stuff – basically how we interact with the customer outside of just trying to sell them stuff. I’ve been doing this not particularly long. It’s been a bit of a learning curve, because there’s been a lot of stuff that I’ve never done before, but that’s one of the really exciting things about working here. You get a lot of responsibility because they really trust you to do things. They’re really responsive to new ideas – both socially and through interactions

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Sharing Economy

“You always should go through life looking through the front of the windshield, not the rearview mirror. So I’m always looking for something new and exciting.” - Colin Powell (Former United States Secretary of State)

BlaBlaCar WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Kim Leuenberger (London) & Steff Gutovska (Paris) __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/blablacar tyba.com/company/blablacar-france

IF YOU’RE A TECH enthusiast

or have a lust for wandering, you’ve probably heard a lot in the news lately about startups offering alternative intracity transport services. Perhaps names like Uber, Hailo or Lyft ring a bell?

of town, as opposed to getting around it. It hooks up skyline-swapping drivers with fellow voyagers so that they can fill their empty seats, making it a more economically (and environmentally) friendly trip.

If you have, it’s probably because they’re rapidly reshaping the way we get places, and kicking up a small fuss amongst the more traditional means in the process. But one company is doing it differently, and presenting an unfamiliar proposition based on a longstanding method of intercity travel.

The BlaBlaCar concept has successfully caught a lot of fire in emerging markets, where the current transport network isn’t so advanced or expansive yet. A big hit amongst Europeans, it’s also doing well in countries where there is already a pretty advanced public transport network that’s also a little pricey for one-off travels, like its birthplace, France.

It’s called BlaBlaCar and, if you want to cut it down to nutshell size, it’s basically like well-organized hitchhiking, replacing the ‘old skool’ thumb-in-the-wind with your mobile, tablet, or computer.

For example, in the UK, a train hop from Manchester to London could set you back up to 160 smackeroos during peak hours. Do a quick search on BlaBlaCar, and you’ll find a bunch of drivers offering you the same ride by car for a little bit more than dinner at Pizza Express.

But unlike the unformentioned names alongside which it is so often spoken of, BlaBlaCar isn’t so much of a threat to the standard cabbie, because it’s more about getting out

BlaBlaCar is well on track to chalk up 12 105

million users by the time we all start the 2015 New Year countdown, drunkenly belting out ‘Auld Lang Syne’ together. There are currently makeshift chauffeurs offering rides in 12 countries, including France, Germany, Spain and the UK.

Car addresses this by asking both drivers and passengers to rate each other, to try to make the whole thing as transparent as air. Drivers are also asked to specify how chatty they are on a scale of ‘Bla’ (not so chatty) to ‘BlaBlaBla’ (STFU).

Having collected a cheque for $100 million in further funding this July, the company is looking to branch out into new pastures. It has its eye on Turkey, Brazil, India and other parts of Asia.

BlaBlaCar is actually headquartered in the French capital, but also has a major flagship camp not far from Kentish Town – as well as smaller bureaux sprinkled across Europe. This year, Tyba visited both its British and French offices to take their cultural temperatures and get the opinions of team members on both sides of the channel about what it’s like to work for such an exciting and potentially revolutionary enterprise. ■

At this point in time, its major challenge is convincing skeptics to get in a car full of strangers for a few hours. However, BlaBla-

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Laura Cordery Social Media Manager, BlaBlaCar UK awesome perk of working for BlaBlaCar!

The BlaBlaCar team itself is the reason why I love this job. Everyone here is so dynamic and super talented, and we have a really international team of people. We get to work with each other a lot, especially during International Week, and something we call a ‘BlaBlaSwap’.

I’m the ‘Bla Bla Bla’ for the UK team. So what I do is I interact on a daily basis with our awesome community. I do that predominantly through our social media channels. That can be through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram.

This is where you can go work with another [BlaBlaCar] team in their country for a week or so. I could leave the London office and go work with the Spanish team in Madrid, or the Italian team in Milan, or the Polish team in Warsaw. The choices are endless, and this is a really

We also organize – about twice a year – a Bla Bla drink. This is when we actually meet all of our members in real life and we’ll get to know each other over nibbles and drinks and this is amazing because we hear first-hand why our members love using our service.

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Alec Dent Partnership & PR Manager, BlaBlaCar UK it a reflex for those people covering these stories to think about BlaBlaCar as a topic.

I think to enjoy a job you need be proud of what you do. So when I left Oxford, I ended up working in a hedge fund and it just wasn’t something that I was really proud of.

The partnership side kind of ties into that. What I’m doing there is, there are many organisations out there that have a challenge around travel and transport; I’m making sure that they think of BlaBlaCar as a solution for those challenges.

The great thing about BlaBlaCar is that it is something that I’m proud of and I’m really proud of what we’re achieving. I love, for example, telling people about what we do, and they’re always fascinated to hear about what I do on a daily basis.

What that means is, for example, we’ve partnered with Premiership football clubs and with the top festivals in the UK, and we help them with that challenge around transport that they have.

On the PR side, there are stories in the news and in the media every day about travel, and what I’m doing is I’m making

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Daniel Benamran UK Country Manager, BlaBlaCar UK the teams in all countries travel to Paris to meet, spend time together, share their best practices and it’s just a great time together.

A big part of [what I do with] my time is that I make sure that we recruit the best people in the team. For example, we have more than 110 people working in 12 countries at BlaBlaCar, and in the UK the team has grown from like zero a yearand-a half ago to six people today.

In a couple of days, we’ll all go skiing in the alps together, and it will be a great moment; we do that every year. So it’s fun to work at BlaBlaCar but it’s also a serious job.

It’s just fascinating to see the evolution of the company. We have this ‘value’ at BlaBlaCar: we say that we are “fun and serious”.

We’re building a European, people-powered transport network and we really want to make it mainstream and that’s what’s currently happening.

We’re fun because we like spending time together. For example, every six weeks we have what we call International Week. All

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Christian Jennewein Tech Manager, BlaBlaCar France I moved pretty early to France actually, right at the end of my studies. I finished my student thesis in France, stayed here and, since then, I’m in France working for tech companies (several), and now I’m here at BlaBlaCar.

We’re currently at 25 developers, so it’s quite a big team. There’s a long-running tradition in the tech team; every Thursday after work we meet in a bar. Actually, a big part of the company is joining in! These 25 people are divided into smaller teams to work more efficiently together and each of these teams is doing some special activities to create bonds and function well together. Most of the team are beer lovers, so we like going out and ‘tasting’ beer!

Working in the tech team of BlaBlaCar as a Tech Manager, my job is actually building the team – building the platform. I’m working quite a lot on recruitment and also pushing our platform further.

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Cyrielle Callot Head of Growth, BlaBlaCar France for is typically business-type [candidate] profiles. By ‘business’ what we mean is that we get people with an analytical mindset, but who also have a good business sense.

My background is actually in business; I graduated from a European business school called HEC Paris and then I had a couple of years of experience at Groupon, which I’m sure you know. I also worked on a couple of projects of my own that did not succeed but made me focus on web and mobile.

It’s also important that those people are pretty creative and are always good for new ideas and new kinds of partners. So that’s the type of profile that we look for typically.

Given that I focus on the growth team, I focus mostly on marketing. What we look

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Love begins at home.â&#x20AC;? - Mother Teresa

Love Home Swap WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Kim Leuenberger __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/love-home-swap

LOVE HOME SWAP LETS you

holiday in style. Its users can sidestep the hit-or-miss nature of hotels or rentals and swap their own gaffs for somebody else’s ritzy digs in a different part of the planet. Currently, it has in excess of 55,000 swanky homes listed on its platform, covering everywhere from Spain to San Fransico. We decided to check in at Rivington Street in the East End, where this startup has set up its own home. There, we met Operations & Finance Director Jay Dias, who told us why life at Love Home Swap is a beach. ■

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Jay Dias Operation & Finance Director other startups that you go into, compared to going into the corporate life.

I joined the business two years ago when we had about four people and about 2,000 customers. One of the things about startups is that you can really grow as an individual. What I’ve done personally is I’ve gone from ‘owning’ finance and then taking over sales and then customer services and really growing out the team.

So what does my day-to-day look like? Well, because it’s such a diverse set of roles, I get to work with customers, I get to work with the team in terms of what they are learning, how they’re messaging things to customers and how we’re driving the next innovation or the next product that we’re doing.

One thing we do at Love Home Swap is – every time we’re launching a new product – we get the whole team together to really get everyone’s feedback in terms of how we can actually grow. That’s actually a really good and interesting thing about our business and most

Everything for us [revolves] around a bit of competition. So, on a weekly basis, the sales team will be competing against the customer service team, and then there’ll

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lots of us sitting in a very small room; that’s just how it works for us, and how it works for most kinds of startups. But as you see the business grow, it’s one of the best adventures and journeys that you can actually go on in comparison to going into a corporate one.

be drinks afterwards and little awards. We do ‘stupid’ things, like we’ve got a little sports team that we run out every single week. Also, on a monthly basis, there’s the ‘Employee of the Month’, but it’s not really Employee of the Month. It’s more that that employee can get one of management to do a dare on the Friday night when we’re out for drinks!

Hopefully that’s interesting, and hopefully I’ll see you joining Love Home Swap. ■

It’s really just a fun kind of environment. We’re a tight-knit business and there’s

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Sports

“It is health that is the real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” – Mahatma Gandhi

PleaseCycle WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Kathleen Riddell __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/pleasecycle

PLEASECYCLE THINKS YOU should

get on your bike, but not in a “hit the road, Jack” kinda way. The sports, health and activity-centric startup develops software and mobile applications to get people cycling, running and walking a bit more often. The company licences this software to other companies as well as local authorities (councils etc.), who then use it in whichever manner they see fit in order to help their employees and residents feel a bit healthier and, ultimately, happier. Tyba went down to find out how PleaseCycle is practicing what it preaches with regards to its own team’s happiness and health. We took aside three of its ‘likely lads’ and quizzed them on the ‘PleaseCycle Experience’, and what exactly that entails for an employee. Here’s what they had to say… ■

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Ry Morgan Co-Founder & CEO you should take more notice of the other guys that are hopefully speaking positively about PleaseCycle.

RY, THE STAGE IS ALL YOURS. INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND THE COMPANY TO THE TYBA FAMILY, WOULD YOU PLEASE?

I’m one of two co-founders of PleaseCycle. The company is three years old and we are currently expanding outside the UK, so we’re going international.

DON’T WORRY, WE PLAN TO INTERROGATE THE REST OF THE TEAM. BUT COULD YOU GIVE US A LITTLE CANAPÉ-SIZED TASTER?

We do all the quintessential startup office stuff like pizzas and beers. But I think one thing that perhaps no-one else could say is we went to Morocco for our staff Christmas party. So yeah, that’s PleaseCycle...

SO WHAT’S THE DEAL HERE AT PLEASECYCLE. BY THAT WE MEAN: HOW IS IT THE PROVERBIAL ‘DOG’S BOLLOCKS’ IN TERMS OF A CAREER CHOICE?

I like to think it’s a cool place to work, but of course I would say that! So perhaps

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Crispin Moller Account Director which is fantastic, especially if you want to grow business acumen and understand the entire requirements of a business.

‘SUP CRISPIN? COULD YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR ROLE HERE AT PLEASECYCLE?

My job is very much being the face of PleaseCycle once clients come onboard. Being part of PleaseCycle is fantastic. For me, it’s the first time I’ve ever been part of a startup company.

On top of that, we all have banter. There’s a good group of lads in the office; we all have a laugh, go for beers and we’re quite sociable.

AND WHAT IS IT THAT GIVES YOU THE MOST

WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT SO FAR,

KICKS WORKING HERE?

WOULD YOU SAY?

It’s a fantastic opportunity to be part of something – but all elements of ‘something’. I’m not just an Account Director; I get involved in every single conversation,

We went to Morocco for our Christmas party, which certainly trumps all Christmas parties I’ve ever been to before!

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Greg Drach Product & Business Developer introduced. You also get your hands dirty and you’re delivering. You can hassle, and you see the actual impact of your work. I think that’s really amazing; I could not imagine working in a big company, where all of my ideas would be potentially shut down through bureaucracy or not caring.

WORD, GREG. TELL US ABOUT YOUR PATH TO PLEASECYCLE AND YOUR CURRENT ROLE?

I’m a recent graduate from Cass Business School. I joined PleaseCycle in August 2013, and I wasn’t really given a job description. What I was encouraged to do is to look at the business and figure out where I could add the most value, so that’s what I did.

EVERYONE’S BEEN GOING ON ABOUT THIS CHRISTMAS TRIP TO MOROCCO. WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED THERE...?

APART FROM THE FREEDOM, WHAT ELSE DO

We did some cycling, motorcycling and just exploring the country... ■

YOU LOVE ABOUT STARTUPS?

What’s really cool about working in startups is there’s essentially a lot of democracy, so every idea gets a chance to get

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Technology

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas A. Edison

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Seene WORDS Chuk Ikéh PHOTOS Pedro Jarnac Freitas __ For more photos, videos and text, visit: tyba.com/company/seene

PEOPLE LAUGHED PRETTY MUCH right

in Christopher Columbus’ face when he tried to tell them that the world was actually shaped like a perfect Malteser, and practically labelled Louis Pasteur a nutter when he claimed that tiny organisms called germs make us sick. But, as we all know, he who laughs last laughs loudest – or they just didn’t get the joke in time. The tech heroes at Hoxton-based Seene have figured out a cool way to squeeze the future into a space the size of your mobile phone screen. Capitalising on something known as ‘Computer Vision Technology’, Seene lets you take and share 3D photographs on your mobile phone. In short, it's all about capturing the world as seen by your own eyeballs. We managed to get a little glimpse of what working at Seene is like, as viewed through the eyeballs of the people who actually bring it to life. ■

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Jokubas Dargis Lead Developer My original background is actually in music. I produced electronic music and I got sort of tired of it. I found my way into programming and I started learning it and, two years ago, I met these guys at Seene and I started working with them. It’s been a great experience all the way through. Here at Seene, I basically do all sorts of stuff, but I mainly focus on the front-end and the web client of Seene. It’s my responsibility and, it’s a lot of fun shuffling around different [programming] languages and playing with different frameworks.

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Mike Evans Co-Founder & COO bit, so it’s serious, but it’s not always super serious. I think that startup culture’s really important.

I’ve been working in Shoreditch in companies doing startups and app development for about ten years now. We’re trying to develop new and interesting ways to solve some pretty difficult and important problems that have wide applications. We’re a little bit different maybe to some companies [from a technical standpoint], but we’re enjoying growing the product and taking it as far as we can.

That’s one of the main advantages, I think, in working in smaller companies: a bit more freedom, a bit more personal responsibility but also the possibility to have great success and really grow and hopefully change the world. That’s what we’re trying to do.

At Seene, everyone works pretty hard but we try and keep it fun as well. It’s a small team; we like to go to the pub together and we try and hang out a little

We’ve got over 1 million downloads now and [that number is] growing quite quickly so we’re gonna be pushing that forward.

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Ebony Charlton Co-Founder & CPO fit in and are relaxed. I mean, we want people who are skilled, but also people we can get along with because it’s such a small team. We’re standing on each other’s toes all day!

I originally started as a web developer back in the 90s, so I’ve been going in this industry for quite a long time. I think Seene’s a great place to work; we all have a lot of fun. When we’re not actually doing work, we like to maybe go to the pub, have a few drinks. We’ve got a lot of board games here, so we play a lot of board games – except for [my colleague] Sam.

We’re looking for people who have a background in either actual programming or information architecture, user experience, web design, app design, graphic design… I mean, the product ‘area’ is I guess the largest aspect.

What we’re looking for are people who

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Startup Cuppas Working in a startup isn’t just about the work itself. Of course, at the end of the day, what you do and produce is important but, in order to produce great work, you also need to look after your mind and your body. There’s a few reasons why a café is the perfect place to take some time out and recharge your batteries. For example, did you know that ambient sound – like you might encounter in a café, for example – has been proven to be the most beneficial sound for getting creative juices to dribble out of your brain? Aside from that, a café allows you to rub shoulders with your amigos or your team-mates, or even just take time to catch up with yourself and give your brain a bit of a light racking outside of the same old walls.

CENTRAL 1. Kaffeine

66 Great Titchfield St. London W1W 7QJ 3. 2. Mishkin's

25 Catherine St. London WC2B 5JS

3. Monmouth Coffee

27 Monmouth St. Covent Garden London WC2H 9EU

Here, we’ve listed some of our favourite London spots delivering sharp shots of espresso to the soul, nosh with a little extra bite, and a cosy cocoon in which your creativity and imagination can thrive. There’s also a chance you could run into some of the faces featured in this guide on their lunch breaks ■

4. Department of Coffee and Social Affairs

14-16 Leather Lane London EC1N 7SU

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CLOSE TO UNIVERSITIES

5. Yumchaa

6. The Spoke

7. Java Tree Cafe

45Berwick St. London W1F 8SF

710 Holloway Road London N19 3NH

100-102 Judd St. London WC1H 9NT

THE EAST END 8. Curious Yellow KafĂŠ

77 Pitfield St. London N1 6BT 9. Taylor St. Coffee

125 Old Broad St. London EC2N 1AR

10.

10. Shoreditch Roastery

11.

11 Leonard St. London EC2A 4AQ 11. Shoreditch Grind

213 Old Street London EC1V 9NR 12. Fix Coffee

126 Curtain Road London EC2A 3PJ

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12.

Directory To get the inside scoop on all of the London startups currently on Tyba, watch exclusive video interviews with the teams, apply to current job opportunities and much more, just shuffle on over to tyba.com/compa-

nies/city/london. There, you'll find all the companies listed here and more, as well as our startups and job opportunities in cities all across Europe. Vevo

Yearbook Machine

Astrid & Miyu

Entertainment

Technology

Fashion & Beauty

YPlan

Struq

Movebubble

Entertainment

Technology

Misc.

Medopad

Zesty

SalesGossip

Health

Fashion & Beauty

FlatClub

BlaBlaCar UK

laZook

Sharing Economy

Enterprise & B2B

Qubit

SquiftKey

Qumin

Media

Technology

Media

Badoo

Checkout.com

StreetHub

Misc.

Finance

Fashion & Beauty

Wauwaa

Poq Studio

Seene

Misc.

Enterprise & B2B

Technology

Lulu

Mixcloud

Kiosked

Fashion & Beauty

Arts&Music

Media

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Sayduck

Admedo

Dattch

Technology

Media

Misc.

Akkroo

Azimo

PayasUgym

Enterprise & B2B

Finance

Sports

Sleepio

Swoon Editions

Shutl

Health

Misc.

Logistics

Shareight

Voga

Zopa

Enterprise & B2B

Misc.

Finance

PingTune

Big Data Partnership

ASAP54

Arts & Music

Enterprise & B2B

Fashion & Beauty

On Device Research

Birdback

Blippar

Enterprise & B2B

Finance

Media

Import.io

MenuSpring

HealthUnlocked

Technology

Food & Berverages

Technology

The Chapar

Poq Studio

Love Home Swap

Fashion & Beauty

Enterprise & B2B

Sharing Economy

Memrise

PleaseCycle

Education

Sports

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Figuring Out the Future

One evening, I ended up taking several night buses after going out (a special thanks goes to YPlan, for allowing me to stay spontaneous with my spare-time options in a city so big that you usually need to plan ahead) and had to change for overground trains that actually pass underneath the Underground.

WORDS Miruna Potop

The greatness of London is that it allows you to be anyone you want: City auditor, Peckham musician, Hackney artist; it leaves you with that feeling that only a true metropolis can offer: if you make it here, you can make it anywhere.

tyba.com/mirunapotop twitter.com/MiruPotop

UNTIL SEPTEMBER OF LAST YEAR, my heart wasn’t set on staying in the UK. But then London and I became properly acquainted and I had the chance to experience it as a local, rather than a tourist. Farewell, Leicester Square, and Hello, Brockley!

Citymapper, you make the TFL website redundant, although I’m still waiting for the teleportation option to make the switch from beta to IRL, especially during tube strikes… Maybe you

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happened with Tyba and I.

could give the (Harry Potter-esque) Floo Network a thought?

It was another one of those typical, insomniacal nights in my lofty student accommodation in New Cross: yet another one spent looking for my dream job or, on second thought, any job remotely related to my degree. In my social media feed, I stumbled upon Martin Bryant’s tweet which read: “In case you missed it, Tyba is a pretty sweet recruitment site for European startups”.

I’m not one for motivational quotes pasted over stock photos of sunsets, but I do believe that nothing extraordinary will happen if you don’t escape your comfort zone. For me, it meant first changing my time zone. Born and bred in Bucharest (not Budapest), I moved to England four years ago, studied Film Studies at the University of Southampton, and now I am finishing my MA in Promotional Media: Marketing, Advertising and PR at Goldsmiths, University of London.

I had finished writing my self-prescribed, five-a-day share of job applications and had just came back from an interview where, apparently, I was the first person who had actually shown up on time. It turns out that my MA and BA are great, but unfortunately I have no experience behind a bar. So I opened Tyba in another tab and started browsing through it.

My interest in startups was sparked last year, when I attended a Startup Hacks Weekend in Manchester as a ‘creative’. For 48 hours, I planned, worked and brainstormed in the amazing TechHub, decorated with Yoda’s “Do or do not do, there is no try”, and where I met brilliant individuals, each adding a new definition of forward-thinking to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Tyba is not like other recruitment platforms, and you will notice that from the first glance. The sections which made me immediately complete my profile in full were the less predictable ones, such as ‘Interests’, books and publications. Finally, a profile where someone can see who I am, what I like and why.

I heard Ben Southworth talk about progress through failure. Meanwhile, Dan Crow – CTO of Songkick, who is behind one of the apps I use the most on my Spotify account (yes, I actually use the in-app Spotify apps) – was one of the mentors. The world of startups is fascinating because, although you’re not reinventing the wheel, you are challenging the status quo, so the learning curve and the struggle are similar. Plus, everyone’s willing, like myself, to embark on a journey off the beaten track and do it the hard way, just so you can bring to life a project you truly believe in.

There’s more to me than my diplomas and summer internship stints, and Tyba is well aware of that; what’s on paper is important, but the individual is even more so. A few flicks through the companies recruiting via Tyba (YPlan, Vevo, Dropbox, Memrise to name a few) and I was sold. I also discovered that you don’t necessarily need to have created an account in order to view anybody’s profile so, right now, my Tyba profile is the link I send to potential employers as my online résumé.

I consider myself a Jacqueline of all trades, master of some – one of them certainly being storytelling, particularly if it’s applied to branding. I’m also a strong advocate of serendipitous moments; I have my own translation of the somewhat annoying Murphy’s Law, which basically says that the best things are the unexpected ones, not necessarily the ones you’re rooting for. That’s certainly what

So, dear London startups, I am ready! Take me on board and allow me to be the person I want to be! Let me think for you, not sleep for you and solve all your puzzles. I know it’s not easy, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. ■

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Startup Stories

Through our combined experience and our own individual startup stories, we've come to a unanimous agreement that the best environment in which you can learn, grow and develop both personally and professionally is in that of a startup. That's why our platform – tyba.com – features a bunch of the sexiest, boldest and most innovative startup enterprises you'll find in Europe. Now we want to take you on a tour through their doors, behind the scenes, and into the heart of it all. Let's start with London, and help you find a job that excites you.