Witlr Founders Blog

A blog from the founders of Witlr. This is where Nick Guy and David Rubie-Todd talk about everything that's on their minds. It covers a range of topics covering whatever is going on in their lives at the time.

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Having a successful exhibition

Last week witlr exhibited at the London Graduate Spring Fair at the University of London. There were approximately 1600 students and recent graduates who had travelled far and wide to be there and get valuable CV & job hunting advice, look at current job opportunities and signup to services to help them find their first graduate job.

It was great. I have attended many shows over the years with KartDavid and it was a nice little one for my team to start and get experience. It was great because we, (in my unbiased opinion) stole the show, as you can see from my handsome team in my picture. And yes, I agree they look like the next Westlife.

How we stole the show was by being slightly more 'over the top' than all the others. We went to town. We had a large yellow tower with our core message and call to action being vividly displayed to all show goers, we had hundreds of bags to give away (full of excellent goodies & advice) and we had a team that were energetic, well dressed and as a result, got loads of attention.

The main sponsor (I won't mention names) got totally ignored. He sat there, with a little backdrop and minimal literature. Certainly no attention grabbing headline. As a result? Nothing. Nil. Zero. Nought.. You get the point.

Basically this is all leading up to a few basic points I want to share with you about having a successful exhibition.

Go over the top - be bold, bright and not afraid to be slightly quirky. What's the worst that can happen.

Prepare early - things always take longer to come together. And printing merchandise can takes ages!

Be energetic - it rubs off on people and attracts others

Cater for extroverts and introverts - not everyone wants to talk. Some just want to grab a leaflet and look later. If your signing people up to something, allow them todo it without human interaction.

Know the script - your team needs to be up to speed and slick. You want to speak to as many people as possible.

Automate it where possible - if there are thousands of people attending you can't possibly speak to everyone, and you will miss people. Allow them to sign up with out you, this could mean you have a video on loop selling your product/service.

Make it easy for people - signing up, chatting, whatever. It goes without saying people are busy at these events and want things quickly and easily. Accommodate for that.

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An exciting weekend away

We were very lucky in finding a very wealthy Investor who has an awesome hands on approach. 

The hands on approach is awesome because it we means we can pick his brains at any time and learn from all of his mistakes a. It also means we get to travel with around the world to spend time with him and discus what we are doing.

And as we quickly found out very wealthy individuals travel in style. 

On a weekend in November we  went to Lake Garda in Italy! We flew in style in a private jet, something the two of us had only ever dreamed of. We turned up at the airport and got our own personal lounge with a fridge full of everything you could ever want, you then got taken out to the plane by the pilot and made yourself comfortable in the little six seater plane!

It was smaller than I expected, I couldn't stand up and you can reach from one side to the other. I was sat less than 2 meters from the pilots and only 3 meters from the back of the plane. Im not going to lie, I tried to keep it cool, but I was like a kid at christmas! The views are awesome, the food is fantastic and watching out of the cockpit window as you land is sooooo cool (and slightly unnerving as ti wobbles onto the runway)! On arrival we went through our own personal passport check and got our bags immediately!

The whole process was so easy and I can see why you would choose to fly this way. Its quick, it doesn't matter if you're late, you get nice food and you don't have to stick to stupid rules such as turning your phones off and listening to safety notices.

It gave us something to look forward to in the future as we hopefully make millions of our own!

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Moving Offices

One of the exciting, some would say annoying, things about running a high growth start-up is the need to find more and more space for the ever growing team and the multitude of things that come with it.

We have been in 4 offices since starting less than 6 months ago only just realising that its going to keep growing and we will continually need the space for more team members! 

There have been pros and cons to all of our stops on the way so here's a quick history:

Office number 1: Not really an office, more of a corner. We had two snazzy desks in the corner of our investors office. It was cool, we got to chat to the investors everyday and pick their brains for knowledge beyond our capabilities at the time. Only negative here was the distractions, we are a nosey pair and quite often found ourselves getting distracted listening to talk of the next big investment. 

Office number 2: this was a short lived experience. In a room no bigger than a range rover we made ourself comfortable for less than two weeks. With space for our first employee it was nice and personal but didn't give us much flexibility as we hired, hired and hired. Still one to remember, Witlr's first office of its own!

Office number 3: This was bigger, in a long thin shape! With this and the new staff brought on the realisation of needing more desks, computers chairs etc etc! It's not cheap work growing and moving! Don't get me wrong we are in the very lucky position of having the investors helping us out. We had good intentions of making it spacious and comfy with beanbags, we felt it important for the Witlr culture, however once again we took on more people and the room was quickly full! We had a nice atmosphere with us all sat within chatting distance! There was 11 of us in total.

Office number 4: Now we have a proper office! With loads of space, a kitchen two meeting rooms we have the perfect environment! We learnt our lesson and have lots of space to grow into which we plan to do so soon! We have bean bags to relax and learn on, trees because we read something saying it increases productivity (I think it's true, I stole the seat closest to them) and our Logo on the wall! It feels like home and somewhere nice to work! 

An office is important for company culture and productivity so we were very careful in how we set it all up. Everyone is in one room, this is to encourage free flow of information and the team to help and challenge each other. We also make a big effort to make sure everyone has the same space and equipment. As soon as you start giving some people nicer equipment or more space the rest of them want it, but even worse it can encourage the development of egos which will only detriment the company.

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The importance of the mission and culture

Hi its David. It's midnight and I'm writing this as I'm sitting in the empty lobby of my hotel in Spain. I've flown over here with my investors, Horatio Investments, for a few days to discuss witlr, our strategy and the funding we need so we can meet our goals. I am here with Adam Norris and Martin Bowles - the two big dogs of Horatio. As I work they spend a lot of time refining their mission (for Horatio) and it made me realise the importance of the mission and the culture you set for your company. Nick and I have spent a long time refining witlr's mission and how we want to act getting there (our culture). We believe these two are some of the most fundamental keys for success. The reason is that every decision you and your team makes comes from the culture the leader creates and the mission they set. The hardest thing, however, is to embed the culture you want, so the others in your company fit it. My best advice for instilling your culture is to lead by example. If you want people to work hard, work the hardest. If you want a passion for excellence, pick up on all of the details, no matter how small. And if you want 100% honesty and integrity, make sure you are truthful at all times. Do these things and others will follow. Another great way to keep your own values 'rubbing off' on others is to talk to them about them. Nick and I realise our team is very powerful and the most important asset we have. We spend most of every Monday with as many team members as we can, reciting the vision, the culture and making sure everyone is working on solving the most important problems. The culture we are forming at witlr is based on some of the following points: - Respect - Integrity - Take a long term view - Egoless - A passion for excellence - Have courage to take risks - A great place to work

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Welcome

Hello. Welcome to Nick and David’s journey as young entrepreneurs. We are the co-founders of Witlr, a startup that hopes to change the graduate recruitment industry forever. We aim to do this through putting all of the students & graduates in database and make it super easy to search by employers of all sizes. If your hiring, or just generally interested, please go and check it out - www.witlr.com.

We’re writing this blog as we hope to make Witlr a global success and will hopefully have some great stories and learnings along the way.

Our background

David and Nick met at Bournemouth Uni. We were both on the rowing team, racing in the same boat, so for a few years we saw each other far to much. Nick studied Sport (what a mistake), and David studied Business.

Growing up Nick lived in a little village just outside Southampton after moving from Chester at 8. He played rugby for his college, captained his  football, loved sailing and went surfing in Woolacome Bay, Devon.

David was into Karting from the age of 10. He competed nationally until he went to university and ended up setting up his first business, KartDavid (see www.kartdavid.com) at 17. KartDavid re-brands karting teams from around the world. David grew up just south of Bristol in the Chew Valley.

We hope you enjoy the read. We will do our best to entertain you, bring you our honest opinion and and fill you with knowledge. Send us a question if you have any and we will do our best to help.

Until next time,

N & D.

p.s. Sorry for the dreadful picture. Its the only one we had available that seemed appropriate. In most of them we look drunk, out of focus or even more tired.

p.p.s Nick is dyslexic and David is most probably dyslexic too, so we apologise for the continual change of tenses and spelling mistakes.