Levelling up: Amy French takes charge at Canary Wharf’s tech accelerator

how the head of Level39 wants to make the tech accelerator the best connected community in the world

by Jon Massey

Collaboration is the word on the lips of Amy French. Promoted to head of Level39 at Canary Wharf in April, her fiefdom has been unusually quiet since lockdown, for obvious reasons – although some members of the tech accelerator are breezing around its cafe space (albeit in an appropriately distanced manner) when we meet for this interview.

“We’ve been very flexible with our members to make sure that we can support them and retain them through this key time – that’s been our main focus,” said Amy, who joined Level39 in 2014 as its events and marketing coordinator.

“The key thing for me is that Level39 is still active, still welcoming new members, and we’re still collaborating in the physical space as well as digitally.

“We can’t get complacent. We need to make sure that flexibility, value and communication are there. During this time we’ve made sure that we’ve stayed in really close touch with our members.

“We’ve run surveys to ensure that we know what they need, to understand their unique challenges and to do everything within our power to support them, whether they’re coming into Level39 now, or whether they’re preparing for their return.

“The amazing thing is we are seeing more and more people coming through our doors again and I’m looking forward to welcoming even more.

“There’s a real appetite among our members to return to Level39 for many different reasons ² there’s the opportunity for collaboration and making sure that their teams are getting the chance to see one another in person.

“For some it’s about touching base more frequently or the leadership element – just making sure that they have one centralised hub where brainstorming, innovation and creativity happen.

“In the future, they may become more flexible and there might be a blend of working from the office and working from home.

“I think it’s so important to make relationships at work in person. People need to feel that they can come and talk to you if they’ve got problems, or if they’re stuck somewhere.

“Perhaps working from home, people may not be so comfortable sharing.

“The Level39 team are all back in the office ² it’s something we worked really closely with Canary

Wharf Group on. We wanted to demonstrate that we’ve done this with our team and we’ve prepared a very comprehensive ‘Return

To Operations’ pack, which has been shared with all our members and tenants, so they know what steps are being taken and what measures are in place to make this a Covid-secure environment.

“It’s fantastic to have all of our team back – it feels like it’s a return to some kind of normality. Even with social distancing, it’s amazing to have everyone back.

“While things won’t be going back to how they were 100%, we have to be there to support people when they’re ready to return.

“One of the positive changes is that anyone who didn’t have a work-from-home strategy before, now does, and they realise they can trust their employees to be productive, to make sure projects are done and to communicate their objectives and their milestones.

“Working from home can be good for wellbeing and the pandemic could lead to a better work-life balance for some, as employers know their staff can be trusted to spend some days at home if they’d like to.

“But I think it does vary from company to company and from person to person. If you’ve got kids, for example, you may not be as productive working from home.

“People also need a good environment in which to work and not everybody has that where they live. We were operating through lockdown for our members who needed access to the office and, for them, being able to come in and get on with their work was a way of preserving those boundaries.”

Born of a drive to make Level39 the most connected community in the world, the accelerator’s recently launched Digital39 initiative rapidly took on a fresh role as the pandemic took hold.

Established as an online platform for members to stay in touch with each other, to express their experiences and offer advice and insights wherever they were in the world, its podcasts, blogs and interviews have, unsurprisingly, been focused on dealing with the situation at hand.

6

Years since Amy joined the team she now leads at Level39

level another

Amy says a combination of returning to the o ce to meet in person and online tools will be key to the Canary Wharf facility’s ongoing success

“There’s a real appetite for our members to return to Level39 for many di erent reasons including opportunities for collaboration

Amy French, Level39

“Whereas we were providing physical space and access to opportunities that were typically here, we had to move everything online,” said Amy, who went from a degree in geography to working as PA to the CEO of a software company before joining Level39.

“Digital39 was key to that. I have seen so many of our members and organisations all over the world moving to online ways of communicating, making sure there’s a lot more video and audio content out there so people can still feel they are connecting with others.

“That’s where our podcast came from – basically having conversations with our entrepreneurs, over Zoom. I’d love to start doing that in person, but while we’ve been working from home, it’s been good to still have those discussions and to talk about challenges that we’ve faced – being realistic and pragmatic about what people have done over the last few months and what their plans are now.

“To startups I would say, more than ever, the need for collaboration, for building their own networks and creating opportunities for partnerships is key.

“A lot of the companies here started small and what they look to do is team up with other organisations that allow them to scale more organically, to develop their customer base, their investor base as well and to start getting introductions to people who could be really benefi cial to them as they grow. It’s really about leveraging that network.

“We’re still doing events, we’re still running opportunities for anyone that is not yet part of our community to learn more. That’s what Digital39 is.

“There you can listen to the entrepreneurs who are already doing it. They are facing challenges, and they will continue to, in addition to the challenges of Covid.

“You can hear how they have come through them and learn from their experiences.

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“I’d say to any tech startup: ‘Come and have a chat with us and hopefully we’ll introduce you to people who are doing similar things.

“The vital thing about Level39 for me has always been added value. Of course we provide infrastructure, space and support for these teams over three fl oors at One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, but how do we continue to connect people globally?

“We already have 48 diff erent nationalities represented here – such a wealth of expertise and knowledge from both our member communities, our mentors, our investors, our partners, people we’ve worked with and curated over the years. How can we make that the most connected community, no matter where you are in the world?

“Moving forward, it would be great if Digital39 continues to develop in that direction.

“It’s another platform on which we could amplify the amazing things that entrepreneurs are doing worldwide, not just here.”

Amy also wants to see more women moving into tech and leading tech-based companies.

“I’ve been very lucky because I’ve always had extremely supportive leaders and teams. The former head of Level39 – Ben Brabyn – gave me some incredible opportunities and I can’t thank him enough for everything he did to support me on my journey here.

“It’s the same with my former manager, Adizah Tejani who empowered me to think creatively, make suggestions and run with them.

“She now works for HSBC and has hosted events here so I catch up with her relatively frequently.

“I’d say to women looking at getting into the industry: ‘Run with something that might not be within your remit, but do things that you’re passionate about and see how you can add value. Don’t be scared to want more and don’t be afraid to ask questions’.

“I’m no wizz in some areas, but I love to learn and I want to empower myself by knowing about diff erent areas of business ² you don’t have to know everything about tech. I didn’t when I joined Level39, I was a sponge – everything that people were telling me I was writing down.

“Give yourself small milestones and then look back to see how far you’ve come. I defi nitely didn’t think I’d be in this position when I arrived six years ago.”

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